Citations

Background: Plasma NfL (pNfL) levels are elevated in many neurological disorders. However, the utility of pNfL in a clinical setting has not been established. Objective: In a cohort of diverse older participants, we examined: 1) the association of pNfL to age, sex, Hispanic ethnicity, diagnosis, and structural and amyloid imaging biomarkers; and 2) its association to baseline and longitudinal cognitive and functional performance. Methods: 309 subjects were classified at baseline as cognitively normal (CN) or with cognitive impairment. Most subjects had structural MRI and amyloid PET scans. The most frequent etiological diagnosis was Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but other neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders were also represented. We assessed the relationship of pNfL to cognitive and functional status, primary etiology, imaging biomarkers, and to cognitive and functional decline. Results: pNfL increased with age, degree of hippocampal atrophy, and amyloid load, and was higher in females among CN subjects, but was not associated with Hispanic ethnicity. Compared to CN subjects, pNfL was elevated among those with AD or FTLD, but not those with neuropsychiatric or other disorders. Hippocampal atrophy, amyloid positivity and higher pNfL levels each added unique variance in predicting greater functional impairment on the CDR-SB at baseline. Higher baseline pNfL levels also predicted greater cognitive and functional decline after accounting for hippocampal atrophy and memory scores at baseline. Conclusion: pNfL may have a complementary and supportive role to brain imaging and cognitive testing in a memory disorder evaluation, although its diagnostic sensitivity and specificity as a stand-alone measure is modest. In the absence of expensive neuroimaging tests, pNfL could be used for differentiating neurodegenerative disease from neuropsychiatric disorders.

Background To review long-term outcomes and saphenous vein (SV) occlusion rate after endovenous ablation (EVA) for symptomatic varicose veins. Methods A review of our EVA database (1998–2018) with at least 3-years of clinical and sonographic follow-up. The primary end point was SV closure rate. Results 542 limbs were evaluated. 358 limbs had radiofrequency and 323 limbs had laser ablations; 542 great saphenous veins (GSV), 106 small saphenous veins (SSV) and 33 anterior accessory saphenous veins (AASV) were treated. Follow-up was 5.6 ± 2.3 years; 508 (74.6%) veins were occluded, 53 (7.8%) partially occluded and 120 (17.6%) were patent. On multivariable Cox regression analysis, male sex (HR 1.6, 95% CI [0.46–018], p = 0.012) and use anticoagulation (HR 2.0, 95% CI [0.69–0.34], p = 0.044) were predictors of long-term failure. On Kaplan-Meier curve, we had an 86.3% occlusion rate. Conclusion Our experience revealed a 5-year closure rate of 86.3%. Ablations have satisfactory occlusion rate.

Introduction: Racial disparities in outcomes of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and cardiac arrest (CA) exist. This study assessed the racial differences in the management and outcomes of CA complicating AMI to better inform clinical care. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that racial minorities would have worse outcomes with AMI-CA as compared to white patients. Methods: During 2012-2017, AMI admissions with a concomitant diagnosis of CA were identified from the National Inpatient Sample. Race was classified as white, black and others (Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, Native American, Others). The primary outcome was racial disparities in in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes included racial disparities in invasive procedures and hospitalization characteristics. Results: We identified 3,504,225 admissions for AMI in the study period, of which 182,750 (5.2%) were complicated by CA. 74.8% were white, 10.7% were black and 14.5% belonged to other races. Black and other race AMI-CA admissions received less frequent early coronary angiography (41.4% vs 50.2% vs 52.8%), coronary angiography (61.9% vs 70.2% vs. 73.1% %), PCI (44.6% vs 53.0% vs 58.1%), CABG and mechanical circulatory support compared to white and other races. The mean time to coronary angiography was highest among blacks (3.4 ± 4.2 days) and lowest among whites (3.0 ± 3.7 days). Black and other races had significantly higher unadjusted mortality, however in a multivariable logistic regression analysis with white race as referent, black race was associated with lower in-hospital mortality (OR 0.95 [95% CI 0.91-0.99]; p =0.007) whereas other races had higher in-hospital mortality (OR 1.11 [95% CI 1.08-1.15]; p <0.001) compared to white race. AMI-CA admissions of black race had longer length of hospital stay, higher rates of palliative care consultation, less frequent DNR status use, and fewer discharges to home. Admissions of other races had higher use of DNR status and higher hospitalization costs compared to whites and blacks. Conclusions: Significant racial disparities exist in in-hospital mortality among AMI admissions complicated with CA. Further quantitative and qualitative research into the equitable care of racial minorities with AMI-CA is needed to address this disparity.

Introduction: The incidence of acute myocardial injury (AMI) among Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19)-infected patients remain unclear. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to further explore the incidence AMI in these patients. Methods: We comprehensively searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases from their inception to August 2020. The included studies were prospective or retrospective cohort studies that reported the event rate of AMI in COVID-19 patients. Data from each study were combined using random-effects to calculate the pooled incidence with 95% confidence intervals. Results: We identified twenty-seven studies consisting of 8971 hospitalized COVID-19-infected patients. The study demonstrated that 20.0% (95% CI 16.1–23.8% with substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 94.9%)) of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had AMI. In addition, our meta-regression suggested that older age, male and comorbidities were associated with a higher risk of AMI. Conclusion: The incidence of COVID-19-related myocardial injury ranges from 16.1–23.8%. Further larger studies are anticipated, as the pandemic is still ongoing.

Abstract Aims This study aims to explore long-term clinical outcomes of cardiopoiesis-guided stem cell therapy for ischaemic heart failure assessed in the Congestive Heart Failure Cardiopoietic Regenerative Therapy (CHART-1) trial. Methods and results CHART-1 is a multinational, randomized, and double-blind trial conducted in 39 centres in heart failure patients (n = 315) on standard-of-care therapy. The ‘active’ group received cardiopoietic stem cells delivered intramyocardially using a retention-enhanced catheter. The ‘control’ group underwent patient-level sham procedure. Patients were followed up to 104 weeks. In the entire study population, results of the primary hierarchical composite outcome were maintained neutral at Week 52 [Mann–Whitney estimator 0.52, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45–0.59, P = 0.51]. Landmark analyses suggested late clinical benefit in patients with significant left ventricular enlargement receiving adequate dosing. Specifically, beyond 100 days of follow-up, patients with left ventricular end-diastolic volume of 200–370 mL treated with ≤19 injections of cardiopoietic stem cells showed reduced risk of death or cardiovascular hospitalization (hazard ratio 0.38, 95% CI 0.16–0.91, P = 0.031) and cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization (hazard ratio 0.28, 95% CI 0.09–0.94, P = 0.040). Cardiopoietic stem cell therapy was well tolerated long term with no difference in safety readouts compared with sham at 2 years. Conclusions Longitudinal follow-up documents that cardiopoietic stem cell therapy is overall safe, and post hoc analyses suggest benefit in an ischaemic heart failure subpopulation defined by advanced left ventricular enlargement on tolerable stem cell dosing. The long-term clinical follow-up thus offers guidance for future targeted trials.

Abstract The purpose of this scoping review by the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) Nutrition Task Force was to examine nutrition research applicable to the COVID‐19 pandemic. The rapid pace of emerging scientific information has prompted this activity to discover research/knowledge gaps. This methodology adhered with recommendations from the Joanna Briggs Institute. There were 2301 citations imported. Of these, there were 439 articles fully abstracted, with 23 main topic areas identified across 24 article types and sourced across 61 countries and 51 specialties in 8 settings and among 14 populations. Epidemiological/mechanistic relationships between nutrition and COVID‐19 were reviewed and results mapped to the Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome, and Time (PICO‐T) questions. The aggregated data were analyzed by clinical stage: pre–COVID‐19, acute COVID‐19, and chronic/post–COVID‐19. Research gaps were discovered for all PICO‐T questions. Nutrition topics meriting urgent research included food insecurity/societal infrastructure and transcultural factors (pre–COVID‐19); cardiometabolic‐based chronic disease, pediatrics, nutrition support, and hospital infrastructure (acute COVID‐19); registered dietitian nutritionist counseling (chronic/post–COVID‐19); and malnutrition and management (all stages). The paucity of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was particularly glaring. Knowledge gaps were discovered for PICO‐T questions on pediatrics, micronutrients, bariatric surgery, and transcultural factors (pre–COVID‐19); enteral nutrition, protein‐energy requirements, and glycemic control with nutrition (acute COVID‐19); and home enteral and parenteral nutrition support (chronic/post–COVID‐19). In conclusion, multiple critical areas for urgent nutrition research were identified, particularly using RCT design, to improve nutrition care for patients before, during, and after COVID‐19.

AbstractBackgroundWe aimed to report the incidence of hospital-acquired hypophosphataemia and hyperphosphataemia along with their associated in-hospital mortality.MethodsWe included 15 869 adult patients hospitalised at a tertiary medical referral centre from January 2009 to December 2013, who had normal serum phosphate levels at admission and at least two serum phosphate measurements during their hospitalisation. The normal range of serum phosphate was defined as 2.5–4.2 mg/dL. In-hospital serum phosphate levels were categorised based on the occurrence of hospital-acquired hypophosphataemia and hyperphosphataemia. We analysed the association of hospital-acquired hypophosphataemia and hyperphosphataemia with in-hospital mortality using multivariable logistic regression.ResultsFifty-three per cent (n=8464) of the patients developed new serum phosphate derangements during their hospitalisation. The incidence of hospital-acquired hypophosphataemia and hyperphosphataemia was 35% and 27%, respectively. Hospital-acquired hypophosphataemia and hyperphosphataemia were associated with odds ratio (OR) of 1.56 and 2.60 for in-hospital mortality, respectively (p value&lt;0.001 for both). Compared with patients with persistently normal in-hospital phosphate levels, patients with hospital-acquired hypophosphataemia only (OR 1.64), hospital-acquired hyperphosphataemia only (OR 2.74) and both hospital-acquired hypophosphataemia and hyperphosphataemia (ie, phosphate fluctuations; OR 4.00) were significantly associated with increased in-hospital mortality (all p values &lt;0.001).ConclusionHospital-acquired serum phosphate derangements affect approximately half of the hospitalised patients and are associated with increased in-hospital mortality rate.

AbstractInfection is a rare occurrence after revision anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (rACLR). Because of the low rates of infection, it has been difficult to identify risk factors for infection in this patient population. The purpose of this study was to report the rate of infection following rACLR and assess whether infection is associated with patient‐ and surgeon‐dependent risk factors. We reviewed two large prospective cohorts to identify patients with postoperative infections following rACLR. Age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, history of diabetes, and graft choice were recorded for each patient. The association of these factors with postoperative infection following rACLR was assessed. There were 1423 rACLR cases in the combined cohort, with 9 (0.6%) reporting postoperative infections. Allografts had a higher risk of infection than autografts (odds ratio, 6.8; 95% CI, 0.9–54.5; p = .045). Diabetes (odds ratio, 28.6; 95% CI, 5.5–149.9; p = .004) was a risk factor for infection. Patient age, sex, BMI, and smoking status were not associated with risk of infection after rACLR.