Outcome and Risk of Poststroke Pneumonia in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke After Endovascular Thrombectomy: A Post Hoc Analysis of the DIRECT-MT Trial.

BACKGROUND: In this study, we aimed to investigate the risk factors and impact of poststroke pneumonia (PSP) on mortality and functional outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) after endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). METHODS: This was a post hoc analysis of a prospective randomized trial (Direct intraarterial thrombectomy in order to revascularize AIS patients with large-vessel occlusion efficiently in Chinese tertiary hospitals: a multicenter randomized clinical trial). Patients with AIS who completed EVT were evaluated for the occurrence of PSP during the hospitalization period and their modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores at 90 days after AIS. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the independent predictors of PSP. Propensity score matching was conducted for the PSP and non-PSP groups by using the covariates resulting from the logistic regression analysis. The associations between PSP and outcomes were analyzed. The outcomes included 90-day poor functional outcome (mRS scores > 2), 90-day mortality, and early 2-week mortality. RESULTS: A total of 639 patients were enrolled, of whom 29.58% (189) developed PSP. Logistic regression analysis revealed that history of chronic heart failure (unadjusted odds ratio [OR] 2.011, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.026-3.941; P = 0.042), prethrombectomy reperfusion on initial digital subtraction angiography (OR 0.394, 95% CI 0.161-0.964; P = 0.041), creatinine levels at admission (OR 1.008, 95% CI 1.000-1.016; P = 0.049), and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale at 24 h (OR 1.023, 95% CI 1.007-1.039; P = 0.004) were independent risk factors for PSP. With propensity scoring matching, poor functional outcome (mRS > 2) was more common in patients with PSP than in patients without PSP (81.03% vs. 71.83%, P = 0.043) at 90 days after EVT. The early 2-week mortality of patients with PSP was lower (5.74% vs. 12.07%, P = 0.038). But there was no statistically significant difference in 90-day mortality between the PSP group and non-PSP group (22.41% vs. 14.94%, P = 0.074). The survivorship curve also shows no statistical significance (P = 0.088) between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly one third of patients with AIS and EVT developed PSP. Heart failure, higher creatinine levels, prethrombectomy reperfusion, and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale at 24 h were associated with PSP in these patients. PSP was associated with poor 90-day functional outcomes in patients with AIS treated with EVT.

Risk factors of delirium in a paediatric intensive care unit: A prospective case series study.

BACKGROUND: Delirium is one of the most common complications in critically ill children. Once delirium occurs, it will cause physical and psychological distress in children and increase the length of their ICU stay and hospitalization costs. Understanding the risk factors for delirium in critically ill children can help develop targeted nursing interventions to reduce the incidence of delirium. AIMS: To investigate the incidence and the risk factors of delirium in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). STUDY DESIGN: We performed a prospective observational study in critically ill patients in the PICU between February and July 2020. Delirium was diagnosed by the Cornell Assessment of Paediatric Delirium (CAPD) and the Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale and analysed via univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression to determine the independent risk factors of delirium in critically ill children. RESULTS: The study enrolled 315 patients ranging in age from 1-202 (65.3-54.3) months, with 56.2% (n = 177) being male. The incidence of delirium was 29.2% (n = 92) according to CAPD criteria. Among them, 33 cases (35.9%) were of hyperactive delirium, 16 cases (17.4%) were of hypoactive delirium, and 43 cases (46.7%) were of mixed delirium. By using stepwise logistic regression, the independent risk factors of delirium included mechanical ventilation (odds ratio [OR], 11.470; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.283-30.721), nervous system disease (OR, 5.596; 95%CI, 2.445 to 12.809), developmental delay (OR, 5.157; 95% CI, 1.990-13.363), benzodiazepine (OR, 3.359; 95% CI 1.278-8.832), number of catheters (OR, 1.918; 95% CI, 1.425 to 2.582), and age (OR, 0.985; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.976-0.993). CONCLUSIONS: Delirium is a common complication in the PICU. The independent risk factors include mechanical ventilation, nervous system disease, developmental delay, benzodiazepines, higher number of catheters, and younger age. This study may help develop intervention strategies to reduce the incidence of delirium in critically ill children by targeting modifiable risk factors. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Recommendations for practice include paying attention to high-risk children in the ICU who are prone to delirium, removing influencing factors as soon as possible, and providing targeted nursing interventions.

[Application of brain functional connectivity and nonlinear dynamic analysis in brain function assessment for infants with controlled infantile spasm]. / 脑功能连接及非线性动力学分析在发作控制的婴儿痉挛症患儿脑功能评估中的应用.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role of brain functional connectivity and nonlinear dynamic analysis in brain function assessment for infants with controlled infantile spasm (IS). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 14 children with controlled IS (IS group) who were admitted to the Department of Neurology, Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital, from January 2019 to January 2023. Twelve healthy children, matched for sex and age, were enrolled as the control group. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were analyzed for both groups to compare the features of brain network, and nonlinear dynamic indicators were calculated, including approximate entropy, sample entropy, permutation entropy, and permutation Lempel-Ziv complexity. RESULTS: Brain functional connectivity showed that compared with the control group, the IS group had an increase in the strength of functional connectivity, and there was a significant difference between the two groups in the connection strength between the Fp2 and F8 channels (P<0.05). The network stability analysis showed that the IS group had a significantly higher network stability than the control group at different time windows (P<0.05). The nonlinear dynamic analysis showed that compared with the control group, the IS group had a significantly lower sample entropy of Fz electrode (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Abnormalities in brain network and sample entropy may be observed in some children with controlled IS, and it is suggested that quantitative EEG analysis parameters can serve as neurological biomarkers for evaluating brain function in children with IS.

Effect of baseline infarct size on endovascular thrombectomy with or without intravenous alteplase in stroke patients: A subgroup analysis of a randomized trial (DIRECT-MT).

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: DIRECT-MT showed that endovascular thrombectomy was noninferior to thrombectomy preceded by intravenous alteplase with regard to functional outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke. In this post hoc analysis, we examined whether infarct size modified the effect of alteplase. METHODS: All patients with baseline Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomography Score (ASPECTS) grades were included. The primary outcome was the 90-day modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the adjusted common odds ratio (OR) for better functional outcome based on the mRS for thrombectomy alone versus combination therapy. An interaction term was entered to test for an interaction with baseline ASPECTS subgroups: 0-4 versus 5-7 versus 8-10. RESULTS: Of 649 patients, 323 (49.8%) were in the thrombectomy-alone group and 326 (50.2%) in the combination-therapy group. There was no significant treatment-by-trichotomized ASPECTS interaction with alteplase prior to endovascular treatment for the primary endpoint of ordinal mRS (p-value interaction term relative to ASPECTS 8-10: ASPECTS 0-4, p = 0.386; ASPECTS 5-7, p = 0.936). Adjusted common ORs for improvement in the 90-day mRS with thrombectomy alone compared with combination therapy were 1.99 (95% confidence interval = 0.72-5.46) for ASPECTS 0-4, 1.07 (0.62-1.86) for ASPECTS 5-7, and 1.03 (0.74-1.45) for ASPECTS 8-10. There was no significant difference in the safety outcomes between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Baseline infarct size may not modify the effect of alteplase prior to endovascular thrombectomy with regard to favorable functional outcomes and adverse events.

Alcohol consumption in relation to cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality in an elderly male Chinese population.

BACKGROUND: We investigated the association of alcohol consumption with cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality in elderly Chinese men. METHODS: Our participants were recruited from residents living in a suburban town of Shanghai (≥60 years of age, n = 1702). Alcohol intake was classified as non-drinkers, past drinkers (stopped drinking for ≥12 months), and current light-to-moderate (1 to 299 g/week) and heavy drinkers (≥300 g/week). Alcoholic beverages were classified as beer/wine, rice aperitif and liquor/mix drinking. RESULTS: During 5.9 years (median) of follow-up, all-cause, cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular deaths occurred in 211, 98 and 113 participants, respectively. The corresponding incidence rates were 23.6/1000, 10.9/1000 and 12.6/1000 person-years, respectively. Both before and after adjustment for confounding factors, compared with non-drinkers (n = 843), past drinkers (n = 241), but not the current light-to-moderate (n = 241) or heavy drinkers (n = 377), had a higher risk of all-cause (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.35-2.68, P = 0.0003) and non-cardiovascular mortality (HR 2.46, 95% CI 1.55-3.91, P = 0.0001). Similar trends were observed for cardiovascular mortality (HR 1.44, 95% CI 0.85-2.44, P = 0.18). In similar unadjusted and adjusted analyses, compared with the current beer/wine drinkers (n = 203), liquor/mix drinkers (n = 142), but not aperitif drinkers (n = 273), had a significantly higher risk of all-cause (HR 3.07, 95% CI 1.39-6.79, P = 0.006), and cardiovascular mortality (HR 10.49, 95% CI 2.00-55.22, P = 0.006). Similar trends were observed for non-cardiovascular mortality (HR 1.94, 95% CI 0.73-5.16, P = 0.18). CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed risks of mortality associated with past drinking and liquor drinking in the elderly Chinese men.

Exploration of statistical shrinkage parameters of disproportionality methods in spontaneous reporting system of China.

PURPOSE: Statistical shrinkage is a potential statistical method to improve the accuracy of signal detection results and avoid spurious associations detected by disproportionality analyses. In this study, we introduced statistical shrinkage influence on disproportionality methods in spontaneous reporting system in China. METHODS: We added the shrinkage parameters in the numerator and denominator, denoted as in the formula of disproportionality analysis. The shrinkage parameters were subjectively set to between 0 and 5, with an interval of 0.1. Adverse drug reaction product label database was deemed as a proxy of golden standard to evaluate the effect of statistical shrinkage. Reports in the years of 2010-2011 were extracted from the national spontaneous reporting system database as the data source for analysis in this study. RESULTS: When α was around 0.5, the Youden index reached the maximum for each disproportionality methods in this study. The value of 0.6 was suggested as the most appropriate statistical shrinkage parameter for reporting odds ratio and proportional reporting ratio and 0.2 for information component based on the spontaneous reporting system of China.

The Association Between Sleep Problems and Attentional Network Functions in Patients with Self-Limited Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes.

Purpose: To investigate sleep problems in children with self-limited epilepsy with central temporal spiking (SeLECTS) and to assess the relationship between sleep problems and attention network dysfunction. Patients and methods: 107 children 6-14 years of age with SeLECTS and 90 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited for this study. The sleep status of these participants was evaluated using the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), while attentional network function was assessed with the attention network function test (ANT). Results: Together, these analyses revealed that children with SeLECTS exhibited higher total CSHQ scores and sleep disorder incidence relative to healthy controls (P< 0.001). Children with SeLECTS had higher scores in delayed sleep onset, sleep duration, night awakenings, parasomnias, daytime sleepiness and sleep anxiety (P<0.01). Total CSHQ scores were negatively correlated with average ANT correct rates (ρ= -0.253, P<0.01), while they were positively correlated with total reaction time (ρ=0.367, P<0.01) and negatively correlated with the efficiency of the alerting and executive control networks (ρ=-0.344 P<0.01; ρ=-0.418 P<0.01). Conclusion: Children with SeLECTS face a higher risk of experiencing sleep disorders relative to age-matched healthy children, while also demonstrating that the magnitude of the impairment of attentional network function in these children is positively correlated with sleep disorder severity. Thus, the prognosis and quality of life of children with SeLECTS can be improved by interventions addressing sleep disorders.

Alcohol Consumption and Antihypertensive Treatment Effect in Male Patients With Hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption is a proven risk factor of hypertension. In the present analysis, we investigated the use of antihypertensive medications and blood pressure control in male alcohol drinkers and non-drinkers with hypertension (systolic/diastolic blood pressure 160-199/100-119 mm Hg). METHODS: The study participants were patients enrolled in a 12-week therapeutic study and treated with the irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide combination 150/12.5 mg once daily, with the possible up-titration to 300/12.5 mg/day and 300/25 mg/day at 4 and 8 weeks of follow-up, respectively, for blood pressure control of <140/90 mm Hg or <130/80 mm Hg in patients with diabetes mellitus. Alcohol consumption was classified as non-drinkers and drinkers. RESULTS: The 68 alcohol drinkers and 168 non-drinkers had similar systolic/diastolic blood pressure at baseline (160.8 ±â€…12.1/99.8 ±â€…8.6 vs. 161.8 ±â€…11.0/99.2 ±â€…8.6, P ≥ 0.55) and other characteristics except for current smoking (80.9% vs. 47.6%, P < 0.0001). In patients who completed the 12-week follow-up (n = 215), the use of higher dosages of antihypertensive drugs was similar at 4 weeks of follow-up in drinkers and non-drinkers (10.6% vs. 12.4%, P = 0.70), but increased to a significantly higher proportion in drinkers than non-drinkers at 12 weeks of follow-up (54.7% vs. 36.6%, P = 0.01). The control rate of hypertension tended to be lower in alcohol drinkers, compared with non-drinkers, at 4 weeks of follow-up (45.6% vs. 58.9%, P = 0.06), but became similar at 12 weeks of follow-up (51.5% vs. 54.8%, P = 0.65). CONCLUSION: Alcohol drinkers compared with non-drinkers required a higher dosage of antihypertensive drug treatment to achieve similar blood pressure control. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRY NUMBER: NCT00670566 at www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Dietary cooking oils and cardiometabolic measurements in an elderly Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate three features of dietary cooking oil intake, namely, the consumption, cooking style, and composition of fatty acids in relation to several cardiometabolic measurements in an elderly Chinese population. METHODS: The elderly (≥ 65 years) participants for this study were recruited from two community health centers in the urban area of Shanghai. A questionnaire was administered to collect information on dietary oil consumption (low, medium and high) and cooking styles (fry or stir-fry vs. others) and the composition of fatty acids (poly-unsaturated vs. mono-unsaturated). The cardiometabolic measurements included anthropometry, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose and serum lipids. RESULTS: The 1186 study participants had a mean age of 70.9 ± 5.4 years. The mean dietary oil consumption was 35.0 g/d, being low (< 25 g/d), medium (25-49 g/d) and high (≥ 50 g/d) in 485,467 and 234 participants, respectively. The proportion of the fry or stir-fry cooking style and oils rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids was 30.4% and 27.4%, respectively. Both before and after adjustment for sex, age, current smoking and alcohol intake, dietary oil consumption was significantly (P ≤ 0.02) and positively associated with the prevalence of treated hypertension and fasting plasma glucose concentration. With similar adjustments as above and additional adjustment for dietary oil consumption, the fry or stir-fry cooking style was significantly (P ≤ 0.048) and positively associated with body mass index, but inversely with systolic and diastolic blood pressure and serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and the dietary intake of oils rich in mono-unsaturated fat acids was significantly (P ≤ 0.02) and positively associated with diastolic blood pressure, serum triglycerides, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and the prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that both the consumption and composition of fatty acids of the dietary oils mattered with regard to several cardiometabolic measurements in an elderly Chinese population.

Seasonal variation in ambulatory blood pressure control in patients on clinic blood pressure-guided antihypertensive treatment.

BACKGROUND: We investigated seasonal variation in ambulatory blood pressure control in hypertensive patients on clinic blood pressure-guided antihypertensive treatment. METHODS: The study participants were hypertensive patients enrolled in an 8-week therapeutic study. Antihypertensive treatment was initiated with long-acting dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers amlodipine 5 mg/day or the gastrointestinal therapeutic system (GITS) formulation of nifedipine 30 mg/day, with the possible up-titration to amlodipine 10 mg/day or nifedipine-GITS 60 mg/day at 4 weeks of follow-up. RESULTS: The proportion of up-titration to higher dosages of antihypertensive drugs at 4 weeks of follow-up was higher in patients who commenced treatment in autumn/winter ( n  = 302) than those who commenced treatment in spring/summer ( n  = 199, 24.5 vs. 12.0%, P  < 0.001). The control rate of clinic blood pressure, however, was lower in autumn/winter than in spring/summer at 4 (56.7 vs. 70.7%, P  = 0.003) and 8 weeks of follow-up (52.5 vs. 74.9%, P  < 0.001). At 8 weeks, patients who commenced treatment in autumn/winter, compared with those who commenced treatment in spring/summer, had a significantly ( P ≤0.03) smaller daytime (mean between-season difference -3.2/-2.8 mmHg) but greater nighttime SBP/DBP reduction (3.6/1.6 mmHg). Accordingly, at 8 weeks, the prevalence of nondippers was significantly ( P  < 0.001) higher in spring/summer than in autumn/winter for both SBP (54.8 vs. 30.0%) and DBP (53.4 vs. 28.8%). CONCLUSION: Clinic blood pressure-guided antihypertensive treatment requires a higher dosage of medication in cold than warm seasons, which may have led to over- and under-treatment of nighttime blood pressure, respectively.

New-onset hypertension as a contributing factor to the incidence of atrial fibrillation in the elderly.

Hypertension and atrial fibrillation are closely related. However, hypertension is already prevalent in young adults, but atrial fibrillation usually occurs in the elderly. In the present analysis, we investigated incident atrial fibrillation in relation to new-onset hypertension in an elderly Chinese population. Our study participants were elderly (≥65 years) hypertensive residents, recruited from community health centers in the urban Shanghai (n = 4161). Previous and new-onset hypertension were defined as the use of antihypertensive medication or elevated systolic/diastolic blood pressure (≥140/90 mmHg), respectively, at entry and during follow-up on ≥ 2 consecutive clinic visits. Atrial fibrillation was detected by a 30-s single-lead electrocardiography (ECG, AliveCor® Heart Monitor) and further evaluated with a regular 12-lead ECG. During a median of 2.1 years follow-up, the incidence rate of atrial fibrillation was 7.60 per 1000 person-years in all study participants; it was significantly higher in patients with new-onset hypertension (n = 368) than those with previous hypertension (n = 3793, 15.76 vs. 6.77 per 1000 person-years, P = 0.02). After adjustment for confounding factors, the hazard ratio for the incidence of atrial fibrillation was 2.21 (95% confidence interval 1.15-4.23, P = 0.02) in patients with new-onset hypertension versus those with previous hypertension. The association was even stronger in those aged ≥ 75 years (hazard ratio 2.70, 95% confidence interval 1.11-6.56, P = 0.03). In patients with previous hypertension, curvilinear association (P for non-linear trend = 0.04) was observed between duration of hypertension and the risk of incident atrial fibrillation, with a higher risk in short- and long-term than mid-term duration of hypertension. Our study showed a significant association between new-onset hypertension and the incidence of atrial fibrillation in elderly Chinese. In an elderly Chinese population with previous and new-onset hypertension, we found that the new-onset hypertension during follow-up, compared with previous hypertension, was associated with a significantly higher risk of incident atrial fibrillation. In patients with previous hypertension, curvilinear association was observed between duration of hypertension and the risk of incident atrial fibrillation, with a higher risk in short- and long-term than mid-term duration of hypertension.

Classifying G-protein-coupled receptors to the finest subtype level.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) constitute a remarkable protein family of receptors that are involved in a broad range of biological processes. A large number of clinically used drugs elicit their biological effect via a GPCR. Thus, developing a reliable computational method for predicting the functional roles of GPCRs would be very useful in the pharmaceutical industry. Nowadays, researchers are more interested in functional roles of GPCRs at the finest subtype level. However, with the accumulation of many new protein sequences, none of the existing methods can completely classify these GPCRs to their finest subtype level. In this paper, a pioneer work was performed trying to resolve this problem by using a hierarchical classification method. The first level determines whether a query protein is a GPCR or a non-GPCR. If it is considered as a GPCR, it will be finally classified to its finest subtype level. GPCRs are characterized by 170 sequence-derived features encapsulating both amino acid composition and physicochemical features of proteins, and support vector machines are used as the classification engine. To test the performance of the present method, a non-redundant dataset was built which are organized at seven levels and covers more functional classes of GPCRs than existing datasets. The number of protein sequences in each level is 5956, 2978, 8079, 8680, 6477, 1580 and 214, respectively. By 5-fold cross-validation test, the overall accuracy of 99.56%, 93.96%, 82.81%, 85.93%, 94.1%, 95.38% and 92.06% were observed at each level. When compared with some previous methods, the present method achieved a consistently higher overall accuracy. The results demonstrate the power and effectiveness of the proposed method to accomplish the classification of GPCRs to the finest subtype level.

Lipid management in the prevention of stroke: a meta-analysis of fibrates for stroke prevention.

BACKGROUND: Fibrates has been extensively used to improve plasma lipid levels and prevent adverse cardiovascular outcomes. However, the effect of fibrates on stroke is unclear at the present time. We therefore carried out a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effects of fibrates on stroke. METHODS: We systematically searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, reference lists of articles, and proceedings of major meetings to identify studies for our analysis. We included randomized placebo controlled trials which reported the effects of fibrates on stroke. Relative risk (RR) was used to measure the effect of fibrates on the risk of stroke under random effect model. The analysis was further stratified by factors that could affect the treatment effects. RESULTS: Overall, fibrate therapy was not associated with a significant reduction on the risk of stroke (RR, 1.02, 95% CI, 0.90 to 1.16, P = 0.78). In the subgroup analyses, we observed that gemfibrozil therapy showed a beneficial effect on stroke (RR, 0.72, 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.98, P = 0.04). Similarly, fibrate therapy comparing to placebo had no effect on the incidence of fatal stroke. Subgroup analysis suggested that fibrate therapy showed an effect on fatal stroke when the Jadad score more than 3 (RR, 0.41, 95% CI, 0.17 to 1.00, P = 0.049). Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis indicated that fibrate therapy may play a role in fatal stroke (RR, 0.49, 95% CI, 0.26 to 0.93, P = 0.03) for patients with previous diabetes, cardiovascular disease or stroke. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated that fibrate therapy might play an important role in reducing the risk of fatal stroke in patients with previous diabetes, cardiovascular disease or stroke. However, it did not have an effect on the incidence of stroke.

Cervical arthroplasty with Discover prosthesis: clinical outcomes and analysis of factors that may influence postoperative range of motion.

PURPOSE: The aim of this current study was to analyze the clinical outcomes after Discover cervical disc replacement and its effects on maintaining cervical lordosis and range of motion (ROM). The possible factors influencing postoperative ROM were analyzed. METHOD: 27 men and 28 women with a mean age of 46.4 ± 8.7 years were prospectively followed up for 2 years. Clinical outcomes were assessed using Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA), Neck Disability Index (NDI), visual analog scale (VAS) and Odom's criteria. Radiographic information including segment and overall alignment, functional spinal unit (FSU) and overall ROM, and disc heights were prospectively collected during the follow-up. The correlations between the postoperative FSU ROM at last follow-up and influencing factors were analyzed. RESULTS: Mean NDI, JOA and VAS scores showed statistical improvements at last follow-up. Anterior migration of the prosthesis was detected in six cases. Heterotopic ossification was observed in ten patients. Mean FSU angle, endplate angle of the treated level and mean overall cervical alignment were all improved significantly at last follow-up (P < 0.001). However, mean FSU ROM of the treated segment significantly decreased postoperatively (P = 0.008), while mean overall ROM showed no significant differences. A significant correlation was found between preoperative FSU ROM and postoperative FSU ROM by the Pearson correlation coefficient (r = 0.325, P = 0.034). Multiple linear regression analysis confirmed that preoperative FSU ROM contributed independently to a model with a coefficient of determination of 0.37 (P = 0.034). CONCLUSIONS: In the 2 years follow-up, the Discover cervical disc arthroplasty has provided satisfactory clinical outcomes. It was able to substantially restore segment and overall cervical alignment while partially maintaining segment and overall cervical ROM. Additionally, we found that postoperative FSU ROM positively correlated with preoperative FSU ROM.

Seasonal variation in the effect of antihypertensive treatment with the irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide combination.

There is increasing awareness of seasonal variation in blood pressure (BP). In the present analysis, we investigated seasonal variation in the antihypertensive treatment effect of the irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide combination in patients with stage 2 and 3 hypertension. The study participants were hypertensive patients enrolled in a 12-week therapeutic study. Antihypertensive treatment was initiated with irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide 150/12.5 mg/day, with possible uptitration to 300/12.5 mg/day and 300/25 mg/day at 4 and 8 weeks of follow-up, respectively. The month of treatment commencement was classified as spring/summer (May to August) and autumn/winter (September to December). Of the 501 enrolled patients, 313 and 188 commenced antihypertensive treatment in spring/summer and autumn/winter, respectively. The mean changes in systolic/diastolic BP at 8 and 12 weeks of follow-up were greater in patients who commenced treatment in autumn/winter (-32.3/-16.5 and -34.2/-16.7 mmHg, respectively) than those who commenced treatment in spring/summer (-28.4/-13.9 and -27.1/-12.8 mmHg, respectively), with a between-season difference of 3.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-6.4, P = 0.002)/2.6 (95% CI, 0.9-4.2, P = 0.002) mmHg and 7.0 (95% CI, 4.7-9.3, P < 0.0001)/3.9 (95% CI, 2.4-5.4, P < 0.0001) mmHg, respectively. Further subgroup analyses according to several baseline characteristics showed a greater between-season difference in the changes in systolic BP in patients aged ≥55 years than in those <55 years (n = 255, 12.6 mmHg vs. n = 246, 6.9 mmHg, P = 0.02), especially in patients who did not use antihypertensive medication at baseline (n = 94, 15.4 mmHg vs. n = 132, 5.4 mmHg, P = 0.006). In conclusion, there is indeed seasonality in the antihypertensive treatment effect, with a greater BP reduction in patients who commenced treatment in cold than warm seasons.

Alcohol intake and dyslipidemia in male patients with hypertension and diabetes enrolled in a China multicenter registry.

Alcohol consumption is a proven risk factor of dyslipidemia. In the present analysis, we investigated the association of alcohol intake with dyslipidemia, an emerging epidemic in China, in male patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Our study participants were from a nationwide registry (n = 1181). A questionnaire was administered to collect information on alcohol intake. Dyslipidemia was defined as an elevated concentration of serum triglycerides (≥2.3 mmol/L), total (≥6.2 mmol/L) or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (≥4.1 mmol/L), or a reduced high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (< 1.0 mmol/L). Serum concentrations of triglycerides (1.60 mmol/L) and total (4.93 mmol/L) and LDL cholesterol (2.95 mmol/L) were highest with current usual drinking, with a significant P value for trend from never (n = 679) to ever (n = 107) and to rare (n = 187) and usual drinkers (n = 208, P ≤ .002). Serum HDL cholesterol (1.13 mmol/L) was lowest in ever drinkers, with a nonsignificant P value for trend (P = .22). The prevalence was highest in usual drinkers for hypertriglyceridemia (27.4%) and total (12.5%) and LDL hypercholesterolemia (8.7%), and in ever drinkers for low HDL cholesterol (34.6%). The P value for trend was significant for hypertriglyceridemia and total hypercholesterolemia (P ≤ .01), but not for LDL hypercholesterolemia or low HDL cholesterol (P ≥ .26). The between-province ecological analysis showed that the proportion of usual drinking was significantly associated with the prevalence of any dyslipidemia across 10 China provinces (r = .42, P < .0001). In conclusion, alcohol drinkers showed a worse lipid profile in patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Usual drinking ecologically explained the between-province variation in the prevalence of dyslipidemia.

Current and recent cigarette smoking in relation to cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality in an elderly male Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between current and former smoking and the risk of mortality in elderly Chinese men. METHODS: Our study participants were elderly (≥ 60 years) men recruited in a suburban town of Shanghai. Cigarette smoking status was categorized as never smoking, remote (cessation > 5 years) and recent former smoking (cessation ≤ 5 years), and light-to-moderate (≤ 20 cigarettes/day) and heavy current smoking (> 20 cigarettes/day). Cox proportional hazards models and restricted cubic splines were used to examine the associations of interest. RESULTS: The 1568 participants had a mean age of 68.6 ± 7.1 years. Of all participants, 311 were never smokers, 201 were remote former smokers, 133 were recent former smokers, 783 were light-to-moderate current smokers and 140 were heavy current smokers. During a median follow-up of 7.9 years, all-cause, cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular deaths occurred in 267, 106 and 161 participants, respectively. Heavy current smokers had the highest risk of all-cause and non-cardiovascular mortality, with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 2.30 (95% CI: 1.34-4.07) and 3.98 (95% CI: 2.03-7.83) versus never smokers, respectively. Recent former smokers also had a higher risk of all-cause (HR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.04-2.52) and non-cardiovascular mortality (HR = 2.40, 95% CI: 1.32-4.37) than never smokers. Cox regression restricted cubic spline models showed the highest risk of all-cause and non-cardiovascular mortality within 5 years of smoking cessation and decline thereafter. Further subgroup analyses showed interaction between smoking status and pulse rate (≥ 70 beats/min vs. < 70 beats/min) in relation to the risk of all-cause and non-cardiovascular mortality, with a higher risk in current versus never smokers in those participants with a pulse rate below 70 beats/min. CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette smoking in elderly Chinese confers significant risks of mortality, especially when recent former smoking is considered together with current smoking.

Serum triglycerides concentration in relation to total and cardiovascular mortality in an elderly Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate serum triglycerides in relation to all-cause, cardiovascular, and non-cardiovascular mortality in an elderly Chinese population. METHODS: The study participants (n = 3565) were elderly (≥ 60 years) community dwellers living in a suburban town of Shanghai. Hypertriglyceridemia was defined as a serum triglycerides concentration ≥ 2.30 mmol/L (definite) and ≥ 1.70 mmol/L (borderline), respectively. RESULTS: The prevalence of definite and borderline hypertriglyceridemia at baseline was 7.5% and 29.5%, respectively. It was higher in women (n = 1982, 9.0% and 33.8%, respectively) than men (n = 1583, 6.2% and 27.9%, respectively), in obese and overweight participants (n = 1566, 10.5% and 36.4%, respectively) than normal weight participants (n = 1999, 5.6% and 27.1%, respectively), and in diabetic participants (n = 177, 11.9% and 39.0%, respectively) than non-diabetic participants (n = 3388, 7.5% and 30.8%, respectively). During a median of 7.9 years follow-up, all-cause, cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular deaths occurred in 529, 216 and 313 participants, respectively. In analyses according to the quintile distributions of serum triglycerides concentration, the sex- and age-standardized mortality rate was lowest in the middle quintile for all-cause, cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality (18.6, 7.8 and 11.9 per 1000 person-years, respectively, versus 21.5, 10.5 and 12.7 per 1000 person-years, respectively, in the two lower quintiles and 21.7, 9.5 and 14.0 per 1000 person-years, respectively, in the two higher quintiles). The fully adjusted hazard ratios (95% CI) for the middle quintile versus the combined two lower with two higher quintiles were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.67-1.07, P = 0.17), 0.81 (95% CI: 0.54-1.19, P = 0.28) and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.64-1.17, P = 0.35) for all-cause, cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed high prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia, especially when defined as borderline and in obese and overweight participants, and mildly but non-significantly elevated risks of cardiovascular mortality relative to the middle level of serum triglycerides.

Changes in the CHA2DS2-VASC score as a predictor of incident atrial fibrillation in older Chinese individuals: the AF-CATCH study.

Aims: Incidence of atrial fibrillation is highly associated with age and cardiovascular co-morbidities. Given this relationship, we hypothesized that the dynamic changes resulting in an increase in the CHA2DS2-VASC score over time would improve the efficiency of predicting incident atrial fibrillation on repeated screening after a negative test. Methods and results: We investigated in an analysis of the AF-CATCH trial [quarterly vs. annual electrocardiogram (ECG) screening for atrial fibrillation in older Chinese individuals] data, the association between the changes in the CHA2DS2-VASC score from baseline to end-of-study visit and the risk of incident atrial fibrillation. Participants without a history of atrial fibrillation and with a sinus rhythm at baseline were randomized to the annual (usual) or quarterly 30 s (intensive) single-lead ECG screening groups. During a median follow-up of 2.1 years in 6806 participants, the incidence rate of atrial fibrillation increased from 4.2 per 1000 person-years in participants with a change in the CHA2DS2-VASC score of 0 to 6.4 and 25.8 per 1000 person-years in participants with a change in the CHA2DS2-VASC score of 1 and ≥2, respectively. A change in the CHA2DS2-VASC score of ≥2 was associated with a significantly elevated risk of incident atrial fibrillation. Conclusions: Patients with substantial changes in the CHA2DS2-VASC score were more likely to develop incident atrial fibrillation, and regular re-assessments of cardiovascular risk factors in the elderly are probably worthwhile to improve the detection of atrial fibrillation. Registration: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT02990741.