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  • Desai Franklin posted an update 14 hours, 59 minutes ago

    The same trend occurred in hypertension, diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol, triglyceride, C-reactive protein and serum homocysteine. Adjusting for various confounding factors, postmenopausal time was not a risk factor for newly discovered AICAS. Multifactor analysis and stratifying analysis showed no correlation between newly discovered AICAS and postmenopausal time. CONCLUSIONS Postmenopausal time is not an independent risk factor of AICAS. No relationship was detected between postmenopausal time and newly discovered AICAS, while vigorous control of body weight, blood pressure/glucose/lipids and smoke cessation are vital for preventing the occurrence of AICAS. Despite significant medical advances, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains a formidable therapeutic challenge. Advent of targeted capture sequencing and patients-derived organoid cultures may hold the key to scientifically sound individualized treatment approaches. We report on our initial experience of using the combination of these two technologies to create a tailored approach of systemic therapies for a patient with GBM, which challenges the conventional treatment paradigm, as well as specifically highlighting the complexities of such an approach and the potential for a more favorable treatment outcome. Stagnant blood flow and organizing thrombus are intralesional components of patients with cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM). Stasis and inflammation are mechanisms of growth, lesional instability and acute hemorrhages with or w/o symptoms. We evaluate the association of pre-diagnostic aspirin and/or statin use with acute hemorrhages at diagnosis. Patients with a CCM diagnosis were identified and categorized according to their medications on admission into four groups (no therapy, statin, aspirin, combined). The primary outcome was an acute hemorrhage (with or w/o symptoms) at diagnosis reported in a standardized manner from the T2 weighted magnetic resonance image. A multivariate generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) was utilized to conduct per-lesion analysis. We identified 446 patients with 635 lesions. An acute hemorrhage at diagnosis was observed in 31% of the patients. There were 328 patients without statin or aspirin therapy, 34% of whom presented with acute hemorrhage. Of patients on aspirin therapy at diagnosis, 25% presented with hemorrhage. Of patients on statin therapy, 26% had a hemorrhage at diagnosis. Combined therapy in 44 patients demonstrated a lower proportion of patients with acute hemorrhages (7 patients, 16% incidence). A GLMM showed that patients in the combined therapy group to have significantly lower odds of having an acute hemorrhage at diagnosis compared to the reference group of no therapy (OR 0.24; 95% CI 0.09-0.59; P = 0.002). Patients with a CCM receiving therapy with both aspirin and statins were less likely to present at diagnosis with acute hemorrhage. AIMS Sodium glucose transport inhibitors (SGLT2i) can reduce risk of heart failure (HF) and cardiovascular death in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and existing cardiovascular disease. Our aim was to examine the effect of the SGLT2i dapagliflozin on cardiac function in people with T2D and albuminuria. METHODS A secondary analysis of a double-blind, randomized, cross-over study of 12 weeks treatment with dapagliflozin 10 mg versus placebo. Myocardial function was assessed by echocardiography and biomarkers of cardiac risk were measured. An exploratory diastolic composite of echocardiographic variables was computed. RESULTS Of the 36 participants completing the study 89% were male, mean age 64 ± 8 years, diabetes duration 16.4 ± 4.7 years and HbA1c 73 ± 15 mmol/mol (8.9 ± 1.4%), 30.6% had former cardiovascular events and 32% had macroalbuminuria. Mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was 55.4% after placebo and 54.3% after dapagliflozin (p = 0.15), global longitudinal strain -16.1 vs. -15.9, (p = 0.64), E/e’ 7.6 vs. MK-0991 7.6 (p = 0.082), and tissue Doppler velocity e’ 10.0 vs. 10.6 (p = 0.05). The composite score showed diastolic function improvement of 19.8% (p = 0.021). No other significant changes were observed. CONCLUSIONS Dapagliflozin may have minor effects on diastolic function in people with T2D, albuminuria and preserved LVEF. Techniques of minimally invasive bunion surgery have become increasingly popular in recent years. However, the learning curve involved in mastering these innovative techniques has not been described. To address this issue, a trained foot and ankle surgeon in a university hospital operated on 50 patients using the minimally invasive Chevron and Akin procedure over the course of 3 years, from January 2016 through December 2018. Surgery duration and x-ray exposure were documented. Results showed that surgery duration decreased from >2 hours in the first cases to a mean of ∼45 minutes in the third year. This learning curve plateaued by the 21st patient. The number of intraoperative fluoroscopy studies used decreased substantially over the first 27 surgeries, at which point the learning curve plateaued. In summary, it took about 27 procedures for an inexperienced surgeon to acquire the skill of performing minimally invasive Chevron and Akin osteotomy. Running is one of the most popular sports worldwide, with many health benefits. Injuries are also common, with running-related injuries reported in up to 79% of runners annually. Extracorporeal shockwave treatment can be used to treat soft tissue conditions, with the strongest level of evidence for management of plantar fasciitis. However, most studies have focused on nonathletes or studied a single condition, and few investigations have reported outcomes for extracorporeal pulse-activated therapy. In this case series, we evaluated the outcomes of 94 runners receiving extracorporeal pulse-activated therapy for lower-extremity running-related injuries, including plantar fasciitis and lower-extremity tendinopathy (Achilles, posterior tibialis, patellar, hamstring). We hypothesized that most runners with foot and ankle injuries would respond favorably to treatment and that success rates would be similar across conditions. Overall, 74 runners (79%) met their respective minimal clinically important difference for functional outcome measures, with no differences in response by age, sex, body mass index, or chronicity of condition.