Research Priorities for Atrial Fibrillation in Australia: A Statement From the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance Clinical Arrhythmia Theme.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is highly prevalent in the Australian community, ranking amongst the highest globally. The consequences of AF are significant. Stroke, dementia and heart failure risk are increased substantially, hospitalisations are amongst the highest for all cardiovascular causes, and Australians living with AF suffer from substantial symptoms that impact quality of life. Australian research has made a significant impact at the global level in advancing the care of patients living with AF. However, new strategies are required to reduce the growing incidence of AF and its associated healthcare demand. The Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA) has led the development of an arrhythmia clinical theme with the objective of tackling major research priorities to achieve a reduction in AF burden across Australia. In this summary, we highlight these research priorities with particular focus on the strengths of Australian research and the strategies needed to move forward in reducing incident AF and improving outcomes for those who live with this chronic condition.

Cardiovascular Disease Implementation and Policy Priorities for Australia: Recommendations From an Australian Stakeholder Roundtable.

The Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA), the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ) and the National Heart Foundation of Australia (NHFA) recently joined forces to bring the cardiovascular and stroke community together to convene and document a national discussion and propose a national CVD Implementation and Policy agenda and action plan. This includes prevention and screening, acute care and secondary prevention.

A Versatile Big Data Health System for Australia: Driving Improvements in Cardiovascular Health.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are leading causes of death and morbidity in Australia and worldwide. Despite improvements in treatment, there remain large gaps in our understanding to prevent, treat and manage CVD events and associated morbidities. This article lays out a vision for enhancing CVD research in Australia through the development of a Big Data system, bringing together the multitude of rich administrative and health datasets available. The article describes the different types of Big Data available for CVD research in Australia and presents an overview of the potential benefits of a Big Data system for CVD research and some of the major challenges in establishing the system for Australia. The steps for progressing this vision are outlined.

[Improve the Integrity Rate of Response and Teaching for Tube Care Administered by the Primary Caregiver].

BACKGROUND & PROBLEM: The need to use an indwelling nasogastric tube, urinary catheter, or tracheostomy tube (the so-called "three tubes") because of illness or prolonged bedrest is increasing. The functions and effectiveness of these tubes may be maintained only with correct care. Improper care, slippage, obstruction, or infection may in severe cases cause septic shock or even death. PURPOSE: To increase the completeness of the reverse demonstration of three tubes care instructions by primary caregivers to further improve related care quality. RESOLUTION: Between February 10th and March 31st, 2019, the completeness rates of reverse demonstration of nasogastric tube, urinary catheter, and tracheostomy tube care instructions among the primary caregivers participating in this study were shown to be low, at 42.5%, 38%, and 58.3%, respectively. The plausible causes were: 1. Human: Poor communication, forgetting the care steps, having no time for learning, and fear of performing nasogastric tube rotation; 2. Instrument: Lack of graphic demonstrations in health education materials; 3. Policy: Lack of standards and auditing. The implemented intervention involved creating innovative health-education instruments, videos and flash cards about three tubes care in multiple languages, and straps for holding the urinary catheter and developing standards and an auditing system for the reverse demonstration of three tube care instructions by primary caregivers. RESULTS: The completeness rates for the reverse demonstration of nasogastric tube, urinary catheter, and tracheostomy tube care instructions among the primary caregivers improved to 97.3%, 96.3%, and 95%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Using the innovative health-education aids and improvements introduced in this study, the ability of primary caregivers to correctly perform the care steps should improve significantly.

Analysis of IL-6/gp130 family receptor expression reveals that in contrast to astroglia, microglia lack the oncostatin M receptor and functional responses to oncostatin M.

The interleukin (IL)-6/gp130 family of cytokines (e.g., IL-6, IL-11, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and oncostatin M (OSM)) play important roles in the central nervous system (CNS) during neuroinflammation and neurodevelopment. However, little is known regarding the responses by astroglia and microglia to this family of cytokines. Here the expression of the IL-6/gp130 cytokine receptors and subsequent signal pathway activation was examined in murine astrocytes and microglia in vitro. Astrocytes had high levels of OSMR mRNA while lower levels of IL-6R, LIFR and IL-11R mRNAs were also present. In comparison, in microglia there was no detectable OSMR mRNA, higher levels of IL-6R mRNA and lower levels of the LIFR and IL-11R mRNAs. The OSMR protein was present in astrocytes but was undetectable in microglia. Conversely, the IL-6R protein was present in microglia but not detectable in astrocytes. In astrocytes but not microglia, phosphorylation of STAT1 and STAT3 occurred in response to OSM, whereas both microglia and astrocytes responded to hyper-IL-6 (IL-6 linked to the soluble IL-6 receptor). Finally, in both microglia and astrocytes, OSM failed to activate NFκB or induce iNOS and nitrite production. We conclude: (1) notable differences exist in the expression of receptors utilized by the IL-6/gp130 family of cytokines in astrocytes and microglia, and (2) the findings provide a molecular basis for the differential response to OSM by astrocytes versus microglia and demonstrate a fundamental means for achieving cellular specificity in the response of these glial cells to this cytokine.