Bypass Surgery or Stenting for Left Main Coronary Artery Disease in Patients With Diabetes

Background

The randomized EXCEL (Evaluation of XIENCE versus Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery for Effectiveness of Left Main Revascularization) trial reported a similar rate of the 3-year composite primary endpoint of death, myocardial infarction (MI), or stroke in patients with left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD) and site-assessed low or intermediate SYNTAX scores treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Whether these results are consistent in high-risk patients with diabetes, who have fared relatively better with CABG in most prior trials, is unknown.

Gambling and Problem Gambling in Canada in 2018: Prevalence and Changes Since 2002

Objective:The purpose of this study was to provide an updated profile of gambling and problem gambling in Canada and to examine how the rates and pattern of participation compare to 2002.Method:An assessment of gambling and problem gambling was included in the 2018 Canadian Community Health Survey and administered to 24,982 individuals aged 15 and older. The present analyses selected for adults (18+).Results:A total of 66.2% of people reported engaging in some type of gambling in 2018, primarily lottery and/or raffle tickets, the only type in which the majority of Canadians participate. There are some significant interprovincial differences, with perhaps the most important one being the higher rate of electronic gambling machine (EGM) participation in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The overall pattern of gambling in 2018 is very similar to 2002, although participation is generally much lower in 2018, particularly for EGMs and bingo. Only 0.6% of the population were identified as problem gamblers in 2018, with an additional 2.7% being at-risk gamblers. There is no significant interprovincial variation in problem gambling rates. The interprovincial pattern of problem gambling in 2018 is also very similar to what was found in 2002 with the main difference being a 45% decrease in the overall prevalence of problem gambling.Conclusions:Gambling and problem gambling have both decreased in Canada from 2002 to 2018 although the provincial patterns are quite similar between the 2 time periods. Several mechanisms have likely collectively contributed to these declines. Decreases have also been reported in several other Western countries in recent years and have occurred despite the expansion of legal gambling opportunities, suggesting a degree of inoculation or adaptation in large parts of the population.     

病例引导的PBL教学模式在烧伤外科临床见习中的应用探讨

以问题为导向的(Problem based learning,PBL)教学法在国内外高等医学教育中应用广泛并进行了不断改良。我们通过建立典型病例的资料库,逐步将病例引导的PBL教学模式应用于烧伤外科的临床见习教学中,强调以学生为中心,充分调动学生的主观能动性,着眼于学生形成正确的临床思维方法和最终分析解决问题的能力,以此来提高烧伤外科见习教学的质量。     

基于体质与证候辨析的气郁体质主药主方筛选

针对目前临床上对气郁体质与气郁证候关系的内涵界定不清、二者选药用方不分甚至等同等误区，先从气郁体质与气郁证的辨识内容、调治目的、主药配伍进行解析，继而从辨体用方用药角度，介绍气郁体质调体主药主方。通过探讨，对于提高气郁体质调体选药用方的精准性及防控相关疾病的有效性具有较高的临床指导价值。     

On Psychological Continuity and Dementia

This letter responds to the article “On the Authority of Advance Euthanasia Directives for People with Severe Dementia: Reflections on a Dutch Case,” by Henri Wijsbek and Thomas Nys, in the September-October 2022 issue of the Hastings Center Report.     

浅论强直性脊柱炎归于肝

强直性脊柱炎是一种起病较缓慢而隐匿的风湿免疫系统疾病,具有病程长、难治愈和临床误诊率高等特点,可影响患者正常生活和工作,严重者可致骨质疏松及骨折,甚至可致残。本文主要从肝藏血主筋、肝肾同源理论辨证论治强直性脊柱炎,通过运用肝藏血主筋、肝肾同源理论对其病因病机的演变及临床治疗进一步研究,为临床中强直性脊柱炎的治疗提供理论依据。     

Effective Two-Level Domain Decomposition Preconditioners for Elastic Crack Problems Modeled by Extended Finite Element Method

In this paper, we propose some effective one- and two-level domain decomposition preconditioners for elastic crack problems modeled by extended finite element method. To construct the preconditioners, the physical domain is decomposed into the "crack tip" subdomain, which contains all the degrees of freedom (dofs) of the branch enrichment functions, and the "regular" subdomains, which contain the standard dofs and the dofs of the Heaviside enrichment function. In the one-level additive Schwarz and restricted additive Schwarz preconditioners, the "crack tip" subproblem is solved directly and the "regular" subproblems are solved by some inexact solvers, such as ILU. In the two-level domain decomposition preconditioners, traditional interpolations between the coarse and the fine meshes destroy the good convergence property. Therefore, we propose an unconventional approach in which the coarse mesh is exactly the same as the fine mesh along the crack line, and adopt the technique of a non-matching grid interpolation between the fine and the coarse meshes. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the two-level domain decomposition preconditioners applied to elastic crack problems.