Prognostic Interplay Between COVID-19 and Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 may negatively impact the prognosis of patients with chronic HFrEF and vice versa. METHODS: This study included 2 parallel analyses of patients in the United States who were in the TriNetX health database and who underwent polymerase chain reaction testing for SARS-CoV-2 as an inpatient or outpatient between January and September of 2020. Analysis A included patients with positive tests for COVID-19 and compared patients with histories of worsening heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) (hospitalization due to heart failure (HF) or IV diuretic use during the prior 12 months), HFrEF without worsening, and no prior HF. Analysis B included patients with histories of HFrEF and compared patients with positive vs negative COVID-19 tests. Outcomes included mortality and worsening HF. In both analyses, prespecified subgroup analyses were stratified by inpatient vs outpatient settings of the COVID-19 tests. RESULTS: In Analysis A, of 99,052 patients with positive COVID-19 tests, 514 (0.5%) and 524 (0.5%) patients had histories of worsening HFrEF and HFrEF without worsening, respectively. After adjustment, compared to patients without HF, worsening HFrEF (risk ratio [RR] 1.42, 95% CI 1.10-1.83; P< 0.001) and HFrEF without worsening (RR 1.33, 95% CI 0.96-1.84; P= 0.06) were associated with higher 30-day mortality rates. Excess risk of mortality tended to be pronounced in patients initially diagnosed with COVID-19 as outpatients (P for interaction, 0.12 and 0.006, respectively). In Analysis B, of 14,838 patients with HFrEF tested for COVID-19, 1038 (7.0%) had positive tests. After adjustment, testing positive was associated with excess 30-day mortality risk (RR 1.67, 95% CI 1.38-2.02; P< 0.001) and worsening HF (RR 1.33, 95% CI 1.17-1.51; P< 0.001). Mortality risk was nominally more pronounced among patients presenting as outpatients (P for interaction 0.07). CONCLUSION: In this large cohort of patients tested for COVID-19, among patients testing positive, a history of HFrEF with or without worsening was associated with excess mortality rates, particularly among patients diagnosed with COVID-19 as outpatients. Among patients with established HFrEF, compared with testing negative, testing positive for COVID-19 was independently associated with higher risk of death and worsening HF.

INHIBITORY MECHANISM AGAINST OXIDATIVE STRESS AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF CANOLOL.

Canolol is a decarboxylated derivative of sinapic acid. Due to lipophilic nature, canolol is an excellent orally bioavailable phenol. It mainly occurs in roasted rapeseeds. It is documented in the literature as a potent antioxidant and safe for human health. The mode of antioxidant activity of canolol involves the suppression of various free radicals such as 02, ONOO and 'OOH. As evident from the literature, few studies have been carried out to explore the free radical scavenging activity of canolol. Thus, the objective of this review article is to summarize the available literature about free radical scavenging potential of this promising phenol to pave the path for further investigations about biological activities of canolol.

Deep Filtered Back Projection for CT Reconstruction.

Filtered back projection (FBP) is a classic analytical algorithm for computed tomography (CT) reconstruction, with high computational efficiency. However, images reconstructed by FBP often suffer from excessive noise and artifacts. The original FBP algorithm uses a window function to smooth signals and a linear interpolation to estimate projection values at un-sampled locations. In this study, we propose a novel framework named DeepFBP in which an optimized filter and an optimized nonlinear interpolation operator are learned with neural networks. Specifically, the learned filter can be considered as the product of an optimized window function and the ramp filter, and the learned interpolation can be considered as an optimized way to utilize projection information of nearby locations through nonlinear combination. The proposed method remains the high computational efficiency of the original FBP and achieves much better reconstruction quality at different noise levels. It also outperforms the TV-based statistical iterative algorithm, with computational time being reduced in an order of two, and state-of-the-art post-processing deep learning methods that have deeper and more complicated network structures.

Increased Healthcare Utilization and Expenditures Associated With Chronic Opioid Therapy.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the association of the transition from incident opioid use to incident chronic opioid therapy (COT) with the trajectories of healthcare utilization and expenditures. STUDY DESIGN: We used a longitudinal, retrospective cohort design, including seven 120-day time periods covering preindex (t1, t2, and t3), index (t4), and postindex (t5, t6, and t7) periods with data from adults aged 28 to 63 years at the index date, without cancer, and continuously enrolled in a primary commercial insurance plan (N = 20,201). METHODS: Multivariable analyses were performed on utilization (population-averaged [PA] logistic regression), expenditures (PA generalized estimating equations), and expenditure estimates (counterfactual prediction). The data used were from a commercial claims database (10% random sample from the IQVIA Real-World Data Adjudicated Claims - US database) from 2006-2015. RESULTS: Patients on COT were more likely to use inpatient services (adjusted odds ratio, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.01-1.21) compared with those who did not. Although expenditures peaked during the index period (t4) for all users, differences in unadjusted average 120-day expenditures between COT and non-COT users were highest in t4 for total ($4607) and inpatient ($2453) expenditures. COT users had significantly higher total (ß = 0.183; P <.01) and inpatient (ß = 0.448; P <.001) expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: The period after incident opioid prescription but before transition to COT is an important time for payers to intervene.