Feasibility and Safety of Using External Counterpulsation to Augment Cerebral Blood Flow in Acute Ischemic Stroke-The Counterpulsation to Upgrade Forward Flow in Stroke (CUFFS) Trial.

BACKGROUND: External counterpulsation (ECP) increases perfusion to a variety of organs and may be helpful for acute stroke. METHODS: We conducted a single-blinded, prospective, randomized controlled feasibility and safety trial of ECP for acute middle cerebral artery (MCA) ischemic stroke. Twenty-three patients presenting within 48 hours of symptom onset were randomized into one of two groups. One group was treated with ECP for 1 hour at a pressure of up to 300 mmHg ("full pressure"). During the procedure, we also determined the highest possible pressure that would augment MCA mean flow velocity (MFV) by 15%. The other group was treated with ECP at 75 mmHg ("sham pressure"). Transcranial Doppler MCA flow velocities and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores of both groups were checked before, during, and after ECP. Outcomes were assessed at 30 days after randomization. RESULTS: Although the procedures were feasible to implement, there was a frequent inability to augment MFV by 15% despite maximal pressures in full-pressure patients. In sham-pressure patients, however, MFV frequently increased as shown by increases in peak systolic velocity and end diastolic velocity. In both groups, starting ECP was often associated with contemporaneous improvements in NIHSS stroke scores. There were no between-group differences in NIHSS, modified Rankin Scale Scores, and Barthel Indices, and no device or treatment-related serious adverse events, deaths, intracerebral hemorrhages, or episodes of acute neuro-worsening. CONCLUSIONS: ECP was safe and feasible to use in patients with acute ischemic stroke. It was associated with unexpected effects on flow velocity, and contemporaneous improvements in NIHSS score regardless of pressure used, with a possibility that even very low ECP pressures had an effect. Further study is warranted.

Tolerability and efficacy of PI versus NNRTI-based regimens in subjects receiving HAART during acute or early HIV infection.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about modifications to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) initiated during acute or early HIV infection. METHODS: Reasons for first modifications of HAART regimens were recorded using the AIDS Clinical Trials Group form among 363 subjects who initiated HAART within 1 year of seroconversion from 2005 in the Acute Infection and Early Disease Research Program. Modifications recorded as due to "patient choice" or "physician choice" were clarified by query to the recording site. Times to events were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier methods; significance of differences was assessed by the log-rank test. RESULTS: Two hundred five of 363 (56%) subjects modified therapy, at a median of 425 days after initiation, by changing drugs, discontinuing treatment, or removing or adding drugs. Most modifications were attributed to toxicity (n = 105, 51%), most of which was low grade; regimen simplification (n = 18, 5%); and achievement of viral suppression (n = 15, 7%). Time to first modification was shorter for those with shorter time from infection to initiation (P = 0.005) and those having higher CD4 lymphocyte count at initiation (P = 0.06). Modifications occurred sooner in subjects receiving regimens taken more than once daily (P < 0.001) or with more than 2 pills daily (P < 0.001). Most regimens were nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor based or protease inhibitor based, and these did not differ significantly in rate and timing of modification. CONCLUSIONS: HAART initiated early in HIV infection was modified in the majority of cases, usually due to minor toxicities whose incidence was similar for protease inhibitor-based and nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based regimens. Convenience of regimens (lower pill burden and dosing frequency) was associated with a lower rate of modification.

The effect of disc size and severity of disease on the diagnostic accuracy of the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph Glaucoma Probability Score.

PURPOSE: To compare the effect of disc size and disease severity on the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT) Glaucoma Probability Score (GPS) and the Moorfields Regression Analysis (MRA) for discriminating between glaucomatous and healthy eyes. METHODS: Ninety-nine eyes with repeatable standard automated perimetry results showing glaucomatous damage and 62 normal eyes were included from the longitudinal Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study (DIGS). The severity of glaucomatous visual field defects ranged from early to severe (average [95% CI] pattern standard deviation [PSD] was 5.7 [5.0-6.5] dB). The GPS (HRTII ver. 3.0; Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) utilizes two measures of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer shape (horizontal and vertical retinal nerve fiber layer curvature) and three measures of optic nerve head shape (cup depth, rim steepness, and cup size) as input into a relevance vector machine learning classifier that estimates a probability of having glaucoma. The MRA compares measured rim area with predicted rim area adjusted for disc size to categorize eyes as outside normal limits, borderline, or within normal limits. The effect of disc size and severity of disease on the diagnostic accuracy of both GPS and MRA was evaluated using the generalized estimating equation marginal logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Using the manufacturers' suggested cutoffs for GPS global classification (>64% as outside normal limits), the sensitivity and specificity (95% CI) were 71.7% (62.2%-79.7%) and 82.3% (71.0%-89.8%), respectively. The sensitivity and specificity (95% CI) of the MRA result were 66.7% (58.0%-76.1%) and 88.7% (78.5%-94.34%), respectively. Likelihood ratios for regional GPS and MRA results outside normal limits ranged from 4.0 to 10.0, and 6.0 to infinity, respectively. Disc size and severity of disease were significantly associated with the sensitivity of both GPS and MRA. CONCLUSIONS: GPS tended to have higher sensitivities and somewhat lower specificities and lower likelihood ratios than MRA. These results suggest that in this population, GPS and MRA differentiate between glaucomatous and healthy eyes with good sensitivity and specificity. In addition, the likelihood ratios suggest that GPS may be most useful for confirming a normal disc, whereas MRA may be most helpful in confirming a suspicion of glaucoma. Larger disc size and more severe field loss were associated with improved diagnostic accuracy for both GPS and MRA.