Articles: disease.
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Case Reports
A novel wire-guided prefenestration technique for patients with type B aortic dissection: A case report.
Acute type B aortic dissection (ABAD) is a fatal and severe cardiovascular disease. There are various strategies for dissection involving the left subclavian artery, but limited by the variety and cost of stents, the treatment brings certain obstacles. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the wire-guided prefenestration technique for treating left subclavian artery involvement in patients with arterial dissection. ⋯ This innovative approach offers a secure and efficient treatment option for aortic dissection in individuals who have undergone left subclavian artery reconstruction.
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Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used in China for a long time and is gradually gaining more and more recognition worldwide. Gualou Guizhi Decoction (GGD) has long been used as a folk medicine for the treatment of rheumatic diseases, but its bioactive components and therapeutic mechanisms are still unclear. ⋯ The therapeutic effect of GGD for RA is achieved by affecting the core targets such as VEGFA, IL-1β, IL6, CXCL8, CCL2, and JUN, which together interfere with the tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway and RA pathway to treat RA. The above study provides new ideas for further exploration of this classic formula in the future.
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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a very common occurrence in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and that was the main cause of mortality in these patients. The aims of the present study were to examine the effects of inflammation, malnutrition, and an oxidative stress in patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis or/and kidney transplant patients or patients with late-stage CKD, with its coherent consequences during a 38-month follow-up period. The present study included 137 patients with renal insufficiencies (48 patients had CKD, 29 patients had kidney transplants, and 60 CKD patients underwent hemodialysis [HD] and 39 normal individuals [controls]; aged 49 ± 20 years, 96 males and 80 females). ⋯ As the disease progressed, the survival function decreased to 30% due to the malnutrition in patients with CKD. Lipid oxidation and malnutrition/inflammation are associated with in various stages of CKD patients. With progressing CKD patients' biomarkers of lipid oxidation and malnutrition/inflammation show an increasing trend.
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Few studies examined several anticoagulation (AC) dosage strategy therapies for various outcomes among coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients. However, this AC dosage strategy therapy has not been investigated to assess the length of stay (LOS) and all-cause mortality among critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), especially in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Thus, this study aimed to examine the association of AC dosage strategy therapy with the LOS and all-cause mortality among critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU. ⋯ Patients (n = 114) who received a therapeutic dose but not a prophylaxis dose were categorized as receiving a "therapeutic dose." The 30-day ICU LOS was the main outcome, while all-cause mortality was the secondary outcome. The covariate-adjusted logistic regression analysis revealed that the therapeutic dose was significantly associated with a 1.74-fold longer ICU LOS and 6.60-fold greater mortality risk than the prophylaxis dose. Critically ill COVID-19 patients who received the therapeutic dose had a longer ICU LOS and higher mortality than those who received the prophylaxis dose.
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Observational Study
Predictive factors of the presence of pulmonary embolism in patients with interstitial lung disease: Observational study.
In patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD), the risk of pulmonary embolism (PE) is increased; however, distinguishing between PE and ILD exacerbation can be difficult. Therefore, this study investigated the usefulness of the Wells criteria and revised Geneva score and predictive factors for diagnosing PE in ILD patients with worsening respiratory symptoms. We retrospectively collected the data of 65 patients with ILD who underwent computed tomography pulmonary angiography at Fukujuji Hospital and Kyorin University Faculty of Medicine from January 2018 to March 2023, including 18 patients in the PE group and 47 patients in the non-PE group, and the data were compared between the 2 groups. ⋯ Patients in the PE group showed higher D-dimer, total protein (TP), and globulin levels than those in the non-PE group (D-dimer median 24.5 µg/mL [range 3.0-79.3] vs 9.3 µg/mL [range 0.5-80.8], P = .016; TP median 7.2 g/dL [range 5.1-8.7] vs 6.4 g/dL [range 5.0-8.2], P = .002; globulin median 3.8 g/dL [range 2.6-5.5] vs 3.2 g/dL [range 3.0-5.3], P = .041). Using cutoff values of TP ≥ 7.0 g/dL and D-dimer ≥ 11.8 µg/mL, the odds ratios for predicting PE were 10.5 and 4.90, respectively. This study demonstrates that high TP and D-dimer levels are useful indicators for predicting PE in ILD patients with worsening respiratory symptoms, while the Wells score and revised Geneva score are not reliable in diagnosing PE.