Adverse drug reactions: physicians' opinions versus a causality assessment method

Since spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions depends on the physician's opinion of the relationship between the drug and the adverse event, we compared physicians' opinions with the scores obtained by the causality assessment method used in France. During a 2 month period, all physicians who reported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to our pharmacovigilance centre expressed their opinions on the causal link by means of visual analogue scales. ADR reports were then assessed with the French causality assessment method by a clinical pharmacologist who was blind to physicians' opinions.The assessment by both physicians and the standardized method was performed for 75 ADR cases involving 120 drugs. Physicians used a wide range of assessments, with a preponderance of extreme scores, resulting in a U-shaped distribution, while the standardized method gave generally low scores. Scores given by physicians were very high (causality considered very likely or likely) in 60% of cases and very low (causality considered unlikely or dubious/possible) in 32% of cases. Scores obtained using the causality assessment method were low (causality dubious/possible) in 89% of cases and causality considered likely in only 11 cases, essentially in cases with positive rechallenge. Complete agreement occurred in only 6% of cases. Adding complete agreement and minor discrepancies raised the percentage to 49%.     

Causality Between the Amplitude and Frequency of Cardiac Oscillations

Using an information-theoretic approach, causality between the systolic amplitude in blood pressure and the frequency of the heart beat was analyzed. Blood pressure and ECG were noninvasively recorded in young, healthy subjects. Three successive measurements were performed: during spontaneous breathing and during paced respiration—at frequencies both higher and lower than that of spontaneous respiration. We demonstrate that the amplitude and frequency of the cardiac rhythm are synchronized for most of the time. The synchronization is stronger during paced respiration at a frequency lower than that of spontaneous breathing. Episodes where the cardiac frequency was driven by the systolic pressure were also detected during slow, paced respiration.     

Basic Science in Medical Reasoning: An Artificial Intelligence Approach

A new generation of intelligent systems is growing up in the community of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. The main goal of these systems is the representation and use of real theory of diseases, as they are represented in medical textbooks or in scientific articles, rather than the heuristic shortcuts of human experts. In this paper, we will argue that the difficulties in the integration of basic science and clinical knowledge in intelligent systems arise from ontological differences between these kinds of knowledge and that the solution can be found in their dynamic integration during the reasoning process. In order to illustrate this point, we will first describe an epistemological analysis of the interplay between basic science knowledge and clinical knowledge, and then we will provide the example of a computational architecture implementing this view. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Relationship between predisposing and facilitating factors: Does it influence the risk of developing peri‐operative pressure injuries?

This study examined the relationship between the personal predisposing factors of patients and the severity of pressure injuries (PIs) developed during surgery. This retrospective cohort study collected 439 cases of peri‐operative PIs. Using binary logistic regression to identify the variables associated with PI severity, the effects of interactions between associated variables were then tested. The results of this study revealed that among the personal predisposing factors, only higher patient age (P = .001) and higher body mass index (P < .001) posed a greater risk of stage 2 PIs or higher. Among the surgery‐related facilitating factors, only patients who were placed in the prone position during surgery and patients who lost ≥1000 mL of blood during surgery were at greater risk of stage 2 PIs or higher, compared, respectively, to those placed in the supine position and those who lost ≤100 mL of blood. Furthermore, the amount of blood lost during surgery moderated the influence of age on PI severity. For elderly patients who are expected to lose a large blood volume during surgery or lose an immeasurable amount of blood due to the use of cardiopulmonary bypass, taking more precautionary measures to prevent PIs is recommended.     

Attenuated brain white matter functional network interactions in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson''s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by extensive structural abnormalities in cortical and subcortical brain areas. However, an association between changes in the functional networks in brain white matter (BWM) and Parkinson''s symptoms remains unclear. With confirming evidence that resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) of BWM signals can effectively describe neuronal activity, this study investigated the interactions among BWM functional networks in PD relative to healthy controls (HC). Sixty‐eight patients with PD and sixty‐three HC underwent rs‐fMRI. Twelve BWM functional networks were identified by K‐means clustering algorithm, which were further classified as deep, middle, and superficial layers. Network‐level interactions were examined via coefficient Granger causality analysis. Compared with the HC, the patients with PD displayed significantly weaker functional interaction strength within the BWM networks, particularly excitatory influences from the superficial to deep networks. The patients also showed significantly weaker inhibitory influences from the deep to superficial networks. Additionally, the sum of the absolutely positive/negative regression coefficients of the tri‐layered networks in the patients was lower relative to HC (p < .05, corrected for false discovery rate). Moreover, we found the functional interactions involving the deep BWM networks negatively correlated with part III of the Unified Parkinson''s Disease Rating Scales and Hamilton Depression Scales. Taken together, we demonstrated attenuated BWM interactions in PD and these abnormalities were associated with clinical motor and nonmotor symptoms. These findings may aid understanding of the neuropathology of PD and its progression throughout the nervous system from the perspective of BWM function.     

我国中药材产地市场整合研究——以金银花、枸杞子、板蓝根和太子参为例

中药材专业市场交易量逐渐下降,产地市场交易成为趋势。研究产地市场整合程度有利于了解中药材市场的运行情况,对于合理规划中药材生产和提高市场效率具有重要意义。选取大宗中药材金银花、枸杞子、板蓝根和太子参研究中药材市场整合程度,利用2013—2019年价格指数,运用协整检验、误差修正模型和格兰杰因果检验进行实证分析。结果表明,我国中药材产地市场长期整合程度较高;中药材产地市场的短期整合程度远不及长期整合程度。为此提出4点政策建议:完善中药材价格信息平台、打造非道地产区中药材优质品牌、加快建成中药材质量追溯体系和建设中药材现代物流体系。     

38例药物性肝损伤患者肝组织病理学特征分析

目的 探讨中西药和膳食补充剂相关的药物性肝损伤(DILI)患者肝组织病理学特点。方法 2017年1月1日～2020年12月31日上海中医药大学附属曙光医院诊治的DILI患者38例,均接受肝活检和结构化专家观点评估法(SEPO)评估,并验证药物性肝损伤组织病理学评分(DILI-PSS)的诊断价值。结果 38例DILI患者应用化学药品和生物制品14例(36.8%)、中草药12例(31.6%)、化学药品和生物制品合用中草药9例(23.7%)、膳食补充剂3例(7.9%);肝组织脂肪变性20例(52.6%),胆汁淤积22例(57.9%),胆管损伤15例(39.4%),嗜酸性粒细胞浸润11例(28.9%),肝细胞花环9例(23.7%),肉芽肿6例(15.8);少量坏死11例(28.9%),较多25例(65.8%),大量2例(5.3%);应用DILI-PSS诊断的AUROC为0.775 (95%CI:0.669～0.880,P<0.05),其灵敏度为81.6%,特异度为65.8%。结论 DILI患者肝组织有一定的病理学特征表现,应用DILI-PSS可能有助于诊断DILI,需要进一步研究。