Validation of 5 prediction models for acute kidney injury and its outcome after cardiac surgery procedures in Chinese patients

ObjectiveTo assess the clinical usefulness and value of the 5 models for the prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI), severe AKI which renal replacement treatment was needed (RRT-AKI) and death after cardiac surgery procedures in Chinese patients. Methods One thousand and sixty - seven patients who underwent cardiac surgery procedures in the department of cardiac surgery in the Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University between May 2010 and January 2011 were involved in this research. The predicting value for AKI (AKICS), RRT-AKI (Cleveland, SRI and Mehta score) and death (EURO score) after cardiac surgery procedures was evaluated by Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test for the calibration and area under receiver operation characteristic curve (AUROC) for the discrimination. ResultsThe incidence of AKI was 20.34%(217/1067), and 63.13% of their renal function recovered completely. The incidence of RRT-AKI was 3.56%(38/1067) and the mortality of AKI and RRT - AKI was 9.68%(21/217) and 44.73%(17/38) respectively. The total mortality was 3.28%（35/1067）. The discrimination and calibration for the prediction of AKI of AKICS were low. For the prediction of RRT-AKI, the discrimination and calibration of Cleveland score were high enough, but the predicated value was lower than the real value (1.70% vs 3.86%). The discrimination of Mehta score and the calibration of SRI were low. The discrimination and calibration for the prediction of death of EURO score was low. ConclusionAccording to the 2012 KDIGO AKI definition, none of the 5 models above is good at predicting AKI after cardiac surgery procedures. Cleveland score has been validated to have a proper impact on predicting RRT-AKI after cardiac surgery procedures, but the predicting value is still in doubt. EURO score has been validated to have an inaccurate predicting value for death after cardiac surgery procedures.     

18F-FDG PET/CT in the diagnosis of prosthetic valve endocarditis

Prosthetic valve endocarditis is a major diagnostic challenge in clinical practice, due to the lower sensitivity of the modified Duke criteria and a higher percentage of cases with negative or inconclusive echocardiography results. The delay in establishing medical and surgical treatment increases the morbidity/mortality rate. New imaging techniques and 18F-FDG PET/CT in particular have meant a significant advance in cases of high clinical suspicion and negative or inconclusive echocardiography, increasing the overall sensitivity of the modified Duke criteria.We report the case of a male patient with prosthetic valve endocarditis, where 18F-FDG PET/CT provided the diagnostic key, determining the origin of the endocarditis and avoiding treatment delay.     

Association between brain natriuretic peptide,markers of inflammation and the objective and subjective response to cardiac resynchronization therapy

Introduction: Studies suggest that cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) can induce a decrease in brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and systemic inflammation, which may be associated with CRT-response. However, the evidence is inconclusive. We examined levels of BNP and inflammatory markers from pre-CRT implantation to 14 months follow-up in CRT-responders and nonresponders, defined by two response criteria. Methods: We studied 105 heart failure patients implanted with a CRT-defibrillator (68% men; age = 65.4 ± 10.1 years). The objective CRT-response was defined as a reduction of ⩾15% in left ventricular end systolic volume; subjective CRT-response was defined as an improvement of ⩾10 points in patient-reported health status assessed with the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire. Plasma BNP and markers of inflammation (CRP, IL-6, TNFα, sTNFr1 and sTNFr2) were measured at three time points. Results: Pre-implantation concentrations of TNFα were significantly lower for subjective responders compared to nonresponders (p = .05), but there was no difference in BNP and the other inflammatory markers at baseline. Objective CRT-response was significantly associated with lower BNP levels over time (F = 27.31, p < .001), and subjective CRT-response with lower TNFα levels (F = 5.67, p = .019). Conclusion: Objective and subjective response to CRT was associated with lower levels of BNP and TNFα, respectively, but not with other markers of inflammation. This indicates that response to CRT is not automatically related to a stronger overall decrease in inflammation. Large-scale studies are warranted that further examine the relation between the clinical effects of CRT on inflammatory markers, as the latter have been associated with poor prognosis in heart failure.     

Exploring the efficacy of behavioral skills training to teach basic behavior analytic techniques to oral care providers

Performing oral care procedures with children with autism who exhibit noncompliance can be challenging for oral care professionals. Previous research has elucidated a number of effective behavior analytic procedures for increasing compliance, but some procedures are likely to be too time consuming and expensive for community-based oral care providers to adopt. The purpose of this study was to use Behavioral Skills Training to teach dental hygiene students and staff to implement basic function-based behavior analytic strategies to reduce noncompliance and increase their success in performing oral care exams and cleanings in vivo. All participants rapidly acquired the techniques and used them effectively during exams and cleanings following BST, and skills generalized to their completion of an X-ray procedure with several children with autism. The number of steps attempted in all procedures increased relative to baseline for all participants.     

Trypanosoma cruzi infection in a non-endemic country: epidemiological and clinical profile

Chagas disease has been increasingly diagnosed in non-endemic countries. This is a prospective observational study performed at the Tropical Medicine Units of the International Health Program of the Catalan Health Institute, Barcelona (PROgrama de Salud Internacional del Instituto Catalán de la Salud, PROSICS Barcelona, Spain), that includes all patients with Chagas disease who attended from June 2007 to May 2012. Clinical and epidemiological data were collected. Overall, 1274 patients were included, the mean age of the patients was 37.7 years, 67.5% were women and 97% came from Bolivia. Thirteen patients had immunosuppressive conditions. The prevalence of cardiac involvement was 16.9%, lower than in previous studies performed in endemic areas (20–60%). Cardiac alterations were found in 33.8% of symptomatic and 14.1% of asymptomatic patients. The prevalence of digestive involvement was 14.8%. The rate of digestive involvement is very different among previous studies because of different diagnostic tools and strategies used. Barium enema alterations were found in 21.4% of symptomatic and 10.3% of asymptomatic patients, and oesophageal alterations were found in 3.7% of symptomatic and in 2.3% of asymptomatic patients. As shown in previous studies, Chagas disease in non-endemic countries affects younger patients and has lower morbidity.     

Overexpression of myeloid differentiation protein 88 in mice induces mild cardiac dysfunction,but no deficit in heart morphology

Cardiac remodeling involves changes in heart shape, size, structure, and function after injury to the myocardium. The proinflammatory adaptor protein myeloid differentiation protein 88 (MyD88) contributes to cardiac remodeling. To investigate whether excessive MyD88 levels initiate spontaneous cardiac remodeling at the whole-organism level, we generated a transgenic MyD88 mouse model with a cardiac-specific promoter. MyD88 mice (male, 20-30 g, n=∼80) were born at the expected Mendelian ratio and demonstrated similar morphology of the heart and cardiomyocytes with that of wild-type controls. Although heart weight was unaffected, cardiac contractility of MyD88 hearts was mildly reduced, as shown by echocardiographic examination, compared with wild-type controls. Moreover, the cardiac dysfunction phenotype was associated with elevation of ANF and BNP expression. Collectively, our data provide novel evidence of the critical role of balanced MyD88 signaling in maintaining physiological function in the adult heart.     

Cardiac tamponade due to advanced gastric cancer: case report and review

Introduction and importancePericardial involvement due to gastric cancer is uncommon, especially when it is secondary to direct tumor infiltration. Its manifestation as cardiac tamponade is an exceptional situation that represents a challenge for the treating medical team.Case presentationa case of a patient with advanced gastric cancer with cardiopericardial infiltration, complicated with cardiac tamponade is reported. A narrative review of the diagnostic and therapeutic management was performed.Clinical discussionThere are no well-established diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms.ConclusionsIt is such an exceptional entity that most of the available bibliography is based on case reports or expert opinions. It is a situation with a very bad prognosis.