Impact of Diabetic Foot Multidisciplinary Unit on Incidence of Lower-Extremity Amputations by Diabetic Foot.

BACKGROUND: One of the most devastating complications of diabetes is diabetes-related foot disease (DFD), which is a priority for public health systems. The 2016-2020 Catalonia Health Plan aimed to reduce the incidence of total and major lower-extremity amputations (LEAs) due to DFD by 10% in the population aged 45-74 years. The aim of the present study was to compare the incidence of LEA-DFD 5 years before and after the creation of the Diabetic Foot Multidisciplinary Unit at our Hospital. METHODS: We prospectively collected all cases of LEA-DFD performed at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020. Cases of LEA-DFD performed from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. The incidence of LEA-DFD between these periods was compared. RESULTS: A total of 457 LEAs due to DFD were performed in 316 patients. We observed a reduction of 27.9% [CI: 23.7-32.1%] in the incidence of total LEA in the 2016-2020 period in comparison with the period 2011-2016 (0.8 ± 0.1 vs. 1.1 ± 0.3 per 10.000 inhabitants/year, p < 0.001), as well as a reduction of 49.3% [CI: 44.6-53.9%] in the incidence of major LEA-DFD (0.15 ± 0.1 vs. 0.30 ± 0.1 per 10.000 inhabitants/year, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of a Diabetic Foot Multidisciplinary Unit resulted in a significant reduction in the rate of amputations due to DFD in the population with diabetes in North Barcelona.

Neuropsychological Outcome One Year after Carotid Revascularization: A before-and-after Study.

PURPOSE: The aim of our study was to determine the clinical profile of patients considered cognitive 'responders' to surgery in order to establish clinical variables associated with a favorable cognitive performance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 70 patients were included in the study. A well-validated, comprehensive standardized neurocognitive battery of tests of about 2 hours was administered. Patients were examined twice, 1-week before surgery and 1-year postoperatively. The criterion to be included in the 'responder' group was the following: to obtain a positive difference between post-revascularization and pre-revascularization neuropsychological assessment ≥1 standard deviation in ≥2 tests. RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients (38.6%) were cognitive responders to treatment. In bivariate analysis between responders and non-responders, presence of atrophy (P=0.003), small vessels (P=0.577), symptoms (P=0.046), and age (P=0.030) were the factors statistically significant. When comparing cognitive performance before and after carotid revascularization, significant differences were observed in semantic fluency with a lower performance after 12 months (P=0.004, d=0.29), and in the Language index (Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status) (P=0.005, d=0.34). CONCLUSION: Patients without neurological symptoms, of a younger age and without atrophy and white matter small vessel lesions are better cognitive responders 1-year after carotid revascularization.

HIV-infection, atherosclerosis and the inflammatory pathway: candidate gene study in a Spanish HIV-infected population.

BACKGROUND: Higher prevalence of atherosclerosis and higher cardiovascular risk is observed in HIV-infected individuals. The biological mechanisms underlying these processes are unclear. Several studies have implicated genetic variants in the inflammatory genes in cardiovascular disease and in HIV natural course infection. METHODS & FINDINGS: In this study we have tested the possible association between genetic variants in several inflammatory genes and asymptomatic cardiovascular disease measured by carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and atherosclerotic plaque presence as dependent variables in 213 HIV-infected individuals. A total of 101 genetic variants in 25 candidate genes have been genotyped. Results were analyzed using Plink and SPSS statistical packages. We have found several polymorphisms in the genes ALOX5 (rs2115819 p = 0.009), ALOX5AP (rs9578196 p = 0.007; rs4769873 p = 0.004 and rs9315051 p = 0.0004), CX3CL1 (rs4151117 p = 0.040 and rs614230 p = 0.015) and CCL5 (rs3817655 p = 0.018 and rs2107538 p = 0.018) associated with atherosclerotic plaque. cIMT mean has been associated with CRP (1130864 p = 0.0003 and rs1800947 p = 0.008), IL1RN (rs380092 p = 0.002) and ALOX5AP (rs3885907 p = 0.02) genetic variants. CONCLUSIONS: In this study we have found modest associations between genetic variants in several inflammatory genes and atherosclerotic plaque or cIMT. Nevertheless, our study adds evidence to the association between inflammatory pathway genetic variants and the atherosclerotic disease in HIV-infected individuals.

The effect of carotid occlusion in cognition before endarterectomy.

The role of carotid stenosis on cognition remains to be determined. To study whether people with stenosis of the carotid artery have increased cognitive impairments, we studied 53 patients with moderate or severe carotid stenosis (with no symptoms of stroke or dementia) and 53 controls. We describe which cognitive functions were impaired in the patients and whether there were differences based on the side, the severity of the stenosis or the presence of neurological symptoms. Using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, we found that the patients with carotid stenosis had lower cognitive performances in attention, verbal memory, visuospatial capacity and verbal fluency. Patients with lesser degrees of stenosis than healthy control patients had better scores in learning and memory. The results from this study suggest that patients with severe carotid stenosis have a lower cognitive status than healthy control patients, which is associated with the degree of total carotid stenosis.