Comparison of semi-quantitative and visual assessment of early MRI signal evolution in acute ischaemic stroke.

Background: The evaluation of DWI/FLAIR mismatch in ischaemic stroke patients with unknown, time from onset can determine the treatment strategy. This approach is based on, visual assessment and may be subject to insufficient inter-rater agreement. Objective: To compare the inter-rater agreement of visual evaluation of FLAIR MRI and proposed region of interest (ROI) semiquantitative method in large vessel occlusion (LVO) strokes. Methods: Five readers have analysed MRIs of 104 patients obtained within six hours of the onset of stroke symptoms resulting from LVO visually and semi-quantitatively. For the semiquantitative analysis, a ROI method was used to obtain relative signal intensity compared to the unaffected side. Cut-off values of 1.15 and 1.10 were tested. The analysis yielded FLAIR-positive (abnormal) and negative (normal) findings. Percentage agreement and Fleiss kappa coefficients were calculated. Results: The visual agreement of 5/5 readers and ≥ 4/5 readers occurred in 31% and 59% of cases respectively. Semi-quantitative evaluation using a cut-off value of 1.15 increased the agreements to 67% and 88% respectively. The agreement of visual evaluation was fair. The semi-quantitative method utilising the cut-off of 1.15 had moderate agreement although it increased the number of FLAIR-negative results compared to the visual evaluation. A low cut-off value of 1.10 didn't improve the agreement significantly. Conclusion: The inter-rater agreement of visual evaluation of FLAIR in patients with short-duration large vessel occlusion stroke was fair. The high cut-off value of semiquantitative evaluation increased the agreement although it changed the proportion of FLAIR positive and negative results.

[Trauma Analysis in Patients Examined by Whole-Body CT]. / Analýza traumat pacientu vysetrovaných CT polytraumatickým protokolem.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study was to assess the available information on patients with a whole-body CT and to ascertain whether the number of examinations could be reduced. MATERIAL AND METHODS This retrospective study included all patients who underwent a whole-body CT in the University Hospital Olomouc during a period of one year. Epidemiologic data of patients and information about the trauma and injuries suffered were collected. The injuries were assessed using the Abbreviated Injury Scale and the Injury Severity Score and classified as high- and low-energy injuries. These two groups were subsequently compared. RESULTS A total of 338 patients were examined, of whom 75% were male and the median age of all patients was 48 years. The most frequent causes of trauma were road accidents in 53% and falls from height in 25%. Ninety-one percent of examined patients were admitted to hospital, 42% underwent a surgery and 3% died. The average ISS was 10.7 and the severity of injury increased with age (p = 0.01). The patients after an attempted suicide and those after motorbike and bike accidents had the highest ISS observed. A higher ISS was detected more often in high-energy traumas than in low-energy traumas (p = 0.002). A completely negative polytrauma CT scan finding was observed in 5 patients with low-energy trauma and in 9 patients with high-energy trauma. CONCLUSIONS High-energy injuries were shown to be associated with higher severity as well as more negative CT scans than lowenergy ones. Bearing in mind that a whole-body CT scan is an extensive examination in which relatively high doses of radiation are used, it should always be considered whether a selective CT of fewer body parts would not be sufficient for the diagnosis. Key words: abbreviated injury scale, injury severity score, multiple trauma.

Early complications in surgery of umbilical and epigastric hernias.

INTRODUCTION: Repairs of umbilical and epigastric hernias are common surgical procedures; the choice of the surgical method generally depends on the size of the hernial sac and fascial defect. METHODS: Data of patients operated on for umbilical or epigastric hernias in our hospital during two years were assessed retrospectively. The study group included 264 patients; 212 had an umbilical hernia and 52 had an epigastric hernia. We assessed epidemiologic and clinical parameters and their correlation with the occurrence of early postoperative complications. We also looked for the recurrence rate, although during only a short follow-up period. RESULTS: In the case of umbilical hernias, early complications occurred in 6.7% (11/165) after surgery with a simple suture and in 4.3% (2/47) with mesh repair, and the recurrence rates were 3% (5/165) and 21.3% (10/47), respectively. The risk of early complications was significantly higher in larger hernias. The recurrence rate increased with older age, an increased size of the hernial sac and fascial defect, and in patients with type 2 diabetes. In epigastric hernias, early complications occurred in 5.3% (1/19) after surgery with a simple suture and in 6.1% (2/33) with mesh repair. Recurrences only occurred in operations with mesh repair, in 9% (3/33). The risk of early complications was significantly higher in type 2 diabetes patients. CONCLUSION: Early complications were slightly more frequent in epigastric hernia repairs with mesh implantation, but this was not the case of umbilical hernias. We recommend mesh implantation in larger and borderline sized hernias to reduce the risk of recurrence.

Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm: First retrospective study in the Czech Republic.

Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) is a rare hematologic malignancy with aggressive behavior and poor prognosis. We present the first retrospective analysis mapping its incidence and therapeutic outcomes in patients diagnosed and treated from 2000 to 2017 in the Czech Republic. The cohort comprised 14 patients (10 males, 4 females) with a median age at diagnosis of 39 years (range, 5-68 years). Initially, skin involvement was noted in 10 (71%) patients and bone marrow infiltration was present in 9 (64%). The first complete remission was achieved in 6/14 (43%) patients after acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma induction therapy and in 3/14 (21%) patients after acute myeloid leukemia regimen. Nine patients underwent allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, with two patients achieving the first complete remission only after allogeneic transplantation. Patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation had longer overall survival than those treated without transplantation (the median survival over the period 16.4 vs. 8.1 months). Relapse of the disease was a significant predictor of mortality (p=0.05). Over the study period, patients' survival ranged from 3.3 to 44.2 months, with a median overall survival of 13 months. Our results revealed an effectivity of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation on complete remission achievement in refractory/relapsed disease. The study aimed to present the actual data from the Czech Republic and thus contribute to a global understanding of BPDCN.

Individualized dosing of vancomycin in geriatric patients.

AIMS: Pharmacotherapy in geriatric patients is challenging due to frequent multimorbidity, polypharmacy, increased risk of adverse drug effects, and altered pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics associated with aging. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is a dosing individualisation strategy that helps to minimise toxicity whilst maximising the efficacy of the agent. Routine TDM of vancomycin is recommended in clinical practice in order to optimise drug exposure. Guidelines by Rybak et al. from 2009 on vancomycin TDM promote monitoring of trough concentrations only, with higher target ranges for dosage adjustment. The aim of the study was to evaluate the practice of vancomycin TDM in geriatric (aged 65 ys) and non-geriatric patients, compare two methods of dosing adjustment (trough-based vs. AUC-based approach), and finally determine covariates enabling to choose an appropriate initial vancomycin maintenance dosing regimen in geriatric patients.   Methods: A retrospective analysis of all vancomycin plasma concentrations determined during a five year period in patients treated with IV vancomycin in the University Hospital Olomouc was performed. Haemodialysis patients were excluded. Each trough value was compared with the guidelines by Rybak et al. and subsequently, pharmacokinetic modelling was performed to assess individual AUC24 values. RESULTS: A total of 1,458 vancomycin concentrations were included, which represented 799 individual monitoring events in 380 patients. Vancomycin was most commonly prescribed for sepsis (41.6% of all patients). Pathogens with MIC > 1 mg/L were responsible for 16.7% of all infections. Initial dosing led to optimum vancomycin exposure in 37.8% of patients. Vancomycin dosage based on the guidelines by Rybak et al. from 2009 would agree with the AUC-based dosing adjustments in 65% of all monitoring events. Approximately 19.1% of trough concentrations were below the minimum target suggested by the guidelines despite the fact that their corresponding AUC24/MIC ratios were high enough ( 400), and in further 6.1% of monitoring events, the trough-only approach would fail to accurately identify supratherapeutic concentrations. Initial dosing of 1 g twice daily was prescribed to 62.9% of patients, although it would be considered as optimal only in 32.1% of all patients. For 48 % of patients in the non-geriatric cohort, higher dosing (3 to 4 g daily) would be necessary to achieve optimum vancomycin exposure, whereas for 56% of geriatric patients, lower dosage regimens (up to 1.5 g daily) would be considered optimal. The estimated glomerular filtration rate was the most significant covariate in the pharmacokinetic model enabling the construction of a dosing nomogram. CONCLUSION: AUC-based vancomycin monitoring is superior to trough-based approach as the latter can lead to unnecessarily aggressive dosing in over a quarter of patients. A simple nomogram using the estimated glomerular filtration rate may increase the percentage of patients receiving an optimal initial vancomycin dose.

Optimization of cardiac resynchronization therapy based on speckle tracking.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the change in heart strains and the success rate of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) optimization. We further explored the benefit of speckle tracking for CRT. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, CRT-Ds were implanted to 60 patients. 3 months later, the response was evaluated. In the non-responders, optimization based on speckle tracking was performed. The AV interval was optimized with respect to the quality of left ventricle filling and the VV interval was optimized with respect to heart strains. After a further three months, the optimization success was evaluated. RESULTS: Thirty-nine patients responded well to the initial CRT. The response was independent of etiology; the subsequent optimization was however more successful in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) (8 out of 9) than in ischemic heart disease (IHD) patients (3 out of 10 responded). The ejection fraction increase and area strain were the best predictors of NYHA improvement. CONCLUSION: AV and VV optimization in patients who do not respond well to initial CRT seems to have better results in patients suffering from DCM. Speckle tracking (specifically A-strain) may be used to guide CRT optimization (Tab. 2, Fig. 3, Ref. 22).

Immunoglobulin binding properties of the Prosorba immunadsorption column in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Studies of the humoral effects of the Prosorba column were conducted in conjunction with the Phase 3 trial of Prosorba versus sham therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). When perfused with normal human plasma in vitro, Prosorba bound predominantly IgG with a maximal capacity of approximately 462 g of Ig per Prosorba column, equal to about 1.5% of circulating IgG. Prosorba treatment did not alter the concentrations of albumin, IgG, IgM, and IgA in 3 RA patients, except for a small dilutional effect. Kinetic studies demonstrated that Prosorba removed IgG > IgM, IgA, and IgM rheumatoid factor (RF) during the initial moments of apheresis and almost exclusively IgM RF after 15 min. No net protein removal occurred at > or = 60 min. Mean values of circulating immune complexes (CICs) were not significantly decreased by 12 weekly treatments. Complement was activated by the apheresis system upstream of the Prosorba column without changing C3 or C4 levels. We conclude that the Prosorba mechanism of action in RA is not bulk removal of Ig, but might involve modification of the CIC repertoire and could include, but not be limited to, effects related to complement activation.

Food choice: a conceptual model of the process.

Interviews examining the food choice process were conducted with 29 adults, primarily individuals making grocery store food choice decisions, who were sampled for their diversity. These people were asked about how they chose foods when shopping and in other settings, and what influenced their choices. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were analysed using qualitative methods that included constant comparison, concept mapping, and case summaries, and a conceptual food choice process model was developed. Data from the interviews are presented to illustrate the structure of this conceptual model. People's life course experiences affected major influences on food choice that included ideals, personal factors, resources, social contexts and the food context. These influences informed the development of personal systems for making food choices that incorporated value negotiations and behavioral strategies. Value negotiations weighed sensory perceptions, monetary considerations, health and nutrition beliefs and concerns, convenience, social relationships and quality of food choice decisions. Strategies employed to simplify the food choice process developed over time. The conceptual food choice process model represents the rich and complex bases of food practices, and provides a theoretical framework for research and practice in nutrition.