Prevalence and Impact of Concomitant Atrial Fibrillation in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Background: Concomitant atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with an adverse prognosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI). However, it remains unclear whether this is due to a causal effect of AF or whether AF acts as a surrogate marker for comorbidities in this population. Furthermore, there are limited data on whether coronary artery disease distribution impacts the risk of developing AF. Methods: Consecutive patients admitted with acute MI and treated using percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at a single centre were retrospectively identified. Associations between AF and major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs) over a median of five years of follow-up were assessed using Cox regression, with adjustment for confounding factors performed using both multivariable modelling and a propensity-score-matched analysis. Results: AF was identified in N = 65/1000 (6.5%) of cases; these patients were significantly older (mean: 73 vs. 65 years, p < 0.001), with lower creatinine clearance (p < 0.001), and were more likely to have a history of cerebrovascular disease (p = 0.011) than those without AF. In addition, patients with AF had a greater propensity for left main stem (p = 0.001) or left circumflex artery (p = 0.004) involvement. Long-term MACCE rates were significantly higher in the AF group than in the non-AF group (50.8% vs. 34.2% at five years), yielding an unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.86 (95% CI: 1.32-2.64, p < 0.001). However, after adjustment for confounding factors, AF was no longer independently associated with MACCEs, either on multivariable (adjusted HR: 1.25, 95% CI: 0.81-1.92, p = 0.319) or propensity-score-matched (HR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.59-1.82, p = 0.886) analyses. Conclusions: AF is observed in 6.5% of patients admitted with acute MI, and those with AF are more likely to have significant diseases involving left main or circumflex arteries. Although unadjusted MACCE rates were significantly higher in patients with AF, this effect was not found to remain significant after adjustment for comorbidities. As such, this study provided no evidence to suggest that AF is independently associated with MACCEs.

Importance of Electric-Field-Independent Mobilities in Thick-Film Organic Solar Cells.

In organic solar cells (OSCs), a thick active layer usually yields a higher photocurrent with broader optical absorption than a thin active layer. In fact, a ∼300 nm thick active layer is more compatible with large-area processing methods and theoretically should be a better spot for efficiency optimization. However, the bottleneck of developing high-efficiency thick-film OSCs is the loss in fill factor (FF). The origin of the FF loss is not clearly understood, and there a direct method to identify photoactive materials for high-efficiency thick-film OSCs is lacking. Here, we demonstrate that the mobility field-dependent coefficient is an important parameter directly determining the FF loss in thick-film OSCs. Simulation results based on the drift-diffusion model reveal that a mobility field-dependent coefficient smaller than 10-3 (V/cm)-1/2 is required to maintain a good FF in thick-film devices. To confirm our simulation results, we studied the performance of two ternary bulk heterojunction (BHJ) blends, PTQ10:N3:PC71BM and PM6:N3:PC71BM. We found that the PTQ10 blend film has weaker field-dependent mobilities, giving rise to a more balanced electron-hole transport at low fields. While both the PM6 blend and PTQ10 blend yield good performance in thin-film devices (∼100 nm), only the PTQ10 blend can retain a FF = 74% with an active layer thickness of up to 300 nm. Combining the benefits of a higher JSC in thick-film devices, we achieved a PCE of 16.8% in a 300 nm thick PTQ10:N3:PC71BM OSC. Such a high FF in the thick-film PTQ10 blend is also consistent with the observation of lower charge recombination from light-intensity-dependent measurements and lower energetic disorder observed in photothermal deflection spectroscopy.

Organic single crystals of charge-transfer complexes: model systems for the study of donor/acceptor interactions.

The charge-transfer (CT) state arising as a hybrid electronic state at the interface between charge donor and charge acceptor molecular units is important to a wide variety of physical processes in organic semiconductor devices. The exact nature of this state depends heavily on the nature and co-facial overlap between the donor and acceptor; however, altering this overlap is usually accompanied by extensive confounding variations in properties due to extrinsic factors, such as microstructure. As a consequence, establishing reliable relationships between donor/acceptor molecular structures, their molecular overlap, degree of charge transfer and physical properties, is challenging. Herein, we examine the electronic structure of a polymorphic system based on the donor dibenzotetrathiafulvalene (DBTTF) and the acceptor 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) in the form of high-quality single crystals varying in the donor-acceptor overlap. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we resolve the highest occupied molecular orbital states of the CT crystals. Analysis based on field-effect transistors allows us to probe the sub-gap states impacting hole and electron transport. Our results expand the understanding on the impact of donor and acceptor interactions on electronic structure and charge transport.

Suppressing bias stress degradation in high performance solution processed organic transistors operating in air.

Solution processed organic field effect transistors can become ubiquitous in flexible optoelectronics. While progress in material and device design has been astonishing, low environmental and operational stabilities remain longstanding problems obstructing their immediate deployment in real world applications. Here, we introduce a strategy to identify the most probable and severe degradation pathways in organic transistors and then implement a method to eliminate the main sources of instabilities. Real time monitoring of the energetic distribution and transformation of electronic trap states during device operation, in conjunction with simulations, revealed the nature of traps responsible for performance degradation. With this information, we designed the most efficient encapsulation strategy for each device type, which resulted in fabrication of high performance, environmentally and operationally stable small molecule and polymeric transistors with consistent mobility and unparalleled threshold voltage shifts as low as 0.1 V under the application of high bias stress in air.

Organic Field-Effect Transistors as Flexible, Tissue-Equivalent Radiation Dosimeters in Medical Applications.

Radiation therapy is one of the most prevalent procedures for cancer treatment, but the risks of malignancies induced by peripheral beam in healthy tissues surrounding the target is high. Therefore, being able to accurately measure the exposure dose is a critical aspect of patient care. Here a radiation detector based on an organic field-effect transistor (RAD-OFET) is introduced, an in vivo dosimeter that can be placed directly on a patient's skin to validate in real time the dose being delivered and ensure that for nearby regions an acceptable level of low dose is being received. This device reduces the errors faced by current technologies in approximating the dose profile in a patient's body, is sensitive for doses relevant to radiation treatment procedures, and robust when incorporated into conformal large-area electronics. A model is proposed to describe the operation of RAD-OFETs, based on the interplay between charge photogeneration and trapping.

Rapid virological&End treatment response of patients treated with Sofosbuvir in Chronic Hepatitis C.

OBJECTIVE: To determineRapid & End treatment response of patients treated with Sofosbuvir in Chronic Hepatitis C at tertiary care hospital. METHODS: It was an observational study conducted at Memon Medical Institute from January 2016 to July 2017. The inclusion criteria for patients was 18 years of age or older, having chronic infection with HCV. Total=201 received sofosbuvir with or without interferon in our OPDs. Patients were categorized into Treatment naïve, treatment experienced and decompensated chronic liver disease. Pregnant patients and those not willing to participate were excluded. Initially genotyping and Quantitative HCV RNA test was done. RESULTS: A total of 201 subjects were included in the study with mean age of the patients was 46.22± 14.41 years. Of 201 patients, n= 131 (65.2%) chronic hepatitis C, compensated cirrhosis n= 47(23.4%), and with decompensated cirrhosis n=23(11.4%). Most commonly genotype 3 n= 180 (89.6%) was present followed by genotype 1 n=9(4.5%), genotype 2 n=1(0.5%), genotype 4 n=1(0.5%). Of patients with genotype 3, 123 received dual therapy and 57 were given triple therapy. After one month of therapy HCV RNA by PCR, 200(99.5%) achieved RVR, 199(99%) achieved ETR and SVR achieved in 178(88.5%) while remaining 1 patient did not achieved RVR, 2 ETR and 12 patients did not achieved SVR and remaining 11 SVR lost follow up. CONCLUSION: Sofosbuvir has shown to be very effective andsuccessfulwith achievement of virological response with little or no resistance in all genotypes mainly genotype 3 treated in our study population. The promising results of our study will aid in better outcomes and therefore help in eradication of the virus.