Long-term prognosis of patients with heart failure: Follow-up results of journey HF-TR study population

Background: Despite advances in therapeutic management of patients with heart failure, there is still an increasing morbidity and mortality all over the world. In this study, we aimed to present the 3-year follow-up outcomes of patients included in the Journey HF-TR study in 2016 that has evaluated the clinical characteristics and management of patients with acute heart failure admitted to the hospital and present a national registry data. Methods: The study was designed retrospectively between November 2016 and December 2019. Patient data included in the previously published Journey HF-TR study were used. Among 1606 patients, 1484 patients were included due to dropout of 122 patients due to inhospital death and due to exclusion of 173 due to incomplete data. The study included 1311 patients. Age, gender, concomitant chronic conditions, precipitating factors, New York Heart Association, and left ventricular ejection fraction factors were adjusted in the Cox regression analysis. Results: During the 3-year follow-up period, the ratio of hospitalization and mortality was 70.5% and 52.1%, respectively. Common causes of mortality were acute decompensation of heart failure and acute coronary syndrome. Angiotensin receptor blockers, beta-blockers, statin, and sacubitril/valsartan were found to reduce mortality. Hospitalization due to acute decompensated heart failure, acute coronary syndrome, lung diseases, oncological diseases, and cerebrovascular diseases was associated with the increased risk of mortality. Implantation of cardiac devices also reduced the mortality. Conclusions: Despite advances in therapeutic management of patients with heart failure, our study demonstrated that the long-term mortality still is high. Much more efforts are needed to improve the inhospital and long-term survival of patients with chronic heart failure

LDA topic modeling on twitter data concerning immigrants and refugees

In this study, the attitudes and opinions of Twitter users in Turkey towards immigrants have been examined to see how people express their thoughts and opinions about immigrants in Turkey and whether there are any dominant and interpretable topics that emerge. After a comprehensive pre-preprocessing, latent themes in the tweets are discovered using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling methodology. As the result of this analysis, 14 topics have emerged as meaningful and interpretable. The study is done over a small dataset and is somewhat limited; however, the results can shed light on the perspectives of Twitter users towards immigrants and refugees

Relationship between elastic properties of the aorta and uric acid levels in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients

Amaç: Hipertansiyon tanısı yeni konan hastalarda aortun elastik özellikleriyle ürik asit düzeyleri arasındaki ilişki araştırıldı. Çalışma planı: Çalışmaya hipertansiyon tanısı yeni konan 109 hasta (68 kadın, 41 erkek; ort. yaş 51.6±6.9) alındı. Tüm olgularda ekokardiyografik inceleme yapıldı. M-mod ekokardiyografiyle aortun sistolik ve diyastolik çapları ölçüldü, aortun elastik özelliklerinden gerilimi ve esnekliği hesaplandı. Nabız basıncı sfigmomanometreyle ölçüldü. Alınan kan örneklerinde ürik asit düzeyi ve diğer biyokimyasal parametreler ölçüldü. Sonuçlar, yaş ve cinsiyeti hasta grubuyla eşleştirilmiş 21 sağlıklı gönüllüden oluşan kontrol grubuyla karşılaştırıldı. Bulgular: Kontrol grubuyla karşılaştırıldığında, aort gerilimi ve esnekliği hipertansif hastalarda daha düşük (p0.05). Sonuç: Bu bulgular, ürik asidin, özellikle hipertansiyonlu kadın hastalarda aortun bozulan elastik özellikleriyle ilişkili patofizyolojide rol oynayabileceği görüşünü desteklemektedir.Objectives: The association between elastic properties of the aorta and uric acid levels was investigated in patients with newly diagnosed hypertension. Study design: The study included 109 patients (68 females, 41 males; mean age 51.6±6.9 years) with newly diagnosed hypertension. Echocardiographic examination was performed. Systolic and diastolic diameters were measured by M-mode echocardiography, and elastic indices (aortic strain and distensibility) were calculated. Pulse pressure was obtained by a sphygmomanometer. Blood samples were obtained to determine serum uric acid levels and other biochemical parameters. The results were compared with those of a control group consisting of 21 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Results: Compared to the control group, aortic strain and distensibility were significantly lower (p<0.001) and uric acid levels were significantly higher (p=0.044) in hypertensive patients. In multivariate regression analysis, aortic strain and distensibility showed independent relationships with uric acid levels (p=0.010 and p=0.009, respectively), age (p=0.001 and p<0.001), and left ventricular mass index (p=0.002 and p<0.001) in the patient group. Multivariate analysis according to gender showed that aortic strain and distensibility were in independent relationship with uric acid levels, age, and left ventricular mass index only in female patients. Conclusion: These data support the view that increased uric acid levels may have a role in the pathogenesis of impaired elastic properties of the aorta especially in hypertensive women

Determination of interleukin-6, interleukin-10, and interleukin-18 levels in patients with chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma secondary to HBV infection

Giriş ve Amaç: Viral hepatit B enfeksiyonunun kronikleşmesine yol açan mekanizmalar tam olarak anlaşılamamıştır. Sitokin profilindeki değişimin, enfeksiyonun iyileşmesi veya kronikleşmesi şeklinde sonuçlanabileceği bilinmektedir. Bu çalışma, bazı sitokinler ile hepatit B virüsü enfeksiyonu sonrası oluşan farklı klinik formları arasındaki ilişkiyi ortaya koymak amacıyla yapılmıştır. Gereç ve Yöntem: Çalışmada, hepatit B virüsü enfeksiyonuna ikincil kronik hepatit, karaciğer sirozu ile hepa- tosellüler karsinoma gelişmiş hastalarda interlökin-6, interlökin-10, interlökin-18 düzeyleri ve hastalık progresyonu arasındaki ilişki araştırıldı. Kronik hepatitli 29, karaciğer sirozlu 19, hepatosellüler karsinomalı 19, toplam 67 hepatit B hastası ile 15 sağlıklı kontrol çalışmaya alındı. Bulgular: Hepatit B virüsü hasta grupları arasında hepatit B virüsü DNA düzeyleri açısından anlamlı fark yoktu. İnterlökin-6, interlökin-10 ve inter- lökin-18 düzeyleri hasta olan gruplarda, hastalık progresyonu ile daha belirgin şekilde olmak üzere kontrol grubundan anlamlı şekilde yüksek bulundu. İnterlökin-6 düzeyi hepatosellüler karsinoma grubunda, kontrol grubu, kronik hepatit B ve karaciğer sirozu gruplarına göre anlamlı yüksek olup diğer gruplar arasında ise benzerdi. İnterlökin-10 düzeyinde ise sadece hepatosellüler karsinoma ile kontrol grubu arasında anlamlı fark mevcuttu. İnterlökin-18 düzeyleri ise hepatit B virüsü gruplarında (kronik hepatit B, karaciğer sirozu ve hepatosellüler karsinoma) benzer olmakla beraber her üç grupta da kontrol grubundan anlamlı olarak yüksekti. İnterlökin-6, interlökin-10, interlökin-18 ve alfa fetoprotein düzeyleri arasında istatiksel açıdan anlamlı korelasyon saptandı. Ek olarak hepatosellüler karsinoma grubunda yer alan ve alfa fetoprotein düzeyleri normal sınırlarda olan 3 hastadan ikisinde interlökin-18 düzeylerinin ortalama değerin üzerinde olduğu ve bunlardan birinde interlökin-10 düzeyinin de ortalama değerin üzerinde olduğu saptandı. Sonuç: So- nuç olarak, interlökin-6, 10 ve 18 düzeylerinin hepatit B virüsü enfeksiyonunun farklı evrelerinde artmış olduğu saptandı. İnterlökin-6 ve 10 hepatosellüler karsinomada artarken, interlökin-18, tüm hepatit B virüsü formlarında artmış olarak bulundu.Background and Aims: The mechanisms of chronicity in viral hepatitis B are not yet been fully understood. It has been postulated that the changes in balance of cytokine profiles may result in either healing or chronicity. This study was conducted to reveal the relationship among different clinical forms of hepatitis B virus infection with cytokines. Materials nad Methods: This study aims to reveal the relationship among interleukin-6, interleukin-10 and interleukin-18 levels and disease pro- gression in patients with chronic hepatitis B, liver cirrhosis and hepato- cellular carcinoma secondary to hepatitis B virus infection. A total of 67 hepatitis B virus patients with chronic hepatitis B (n=29), liver cirrhosis (n=19), hepatocellular carcinoma (n=19) and 15 healthy controls were included in the study. Results: Hepatitis B virus DNA levels were not significantly different among the groups. Interleukin-6, interleukin-10 and interleukin-18 levels in patients with hepatitis B virus infection were significantly higher than the control group in association with disease progression. The level of interleukin-6 in hepatocellular carcino- ma group was significantly higher than the control, chronic hepatitis B and liver cirrhosis groups. Interleukin-6 levels were similar among the other groups. At the level of interleukin-10, there was only a significant difference between the control and hepatocellular carcinoma groups. interleukin-18 levels were similar among the groups of hepatitis B virus (chronic hepatitis B, liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma), and in all three groups these were significantly higher than in the control group. There was statistically significant correlation between interleukin and al- pha fetoprotein levels. In addition, interleukin-18 levels in two of three patients with alpha fetoprotein levels within the normal range in the hepatocellular carcinoma group were found to be on mean values. In one of them the level of interleukin-10 was found to be on mean val- ues. Conclusions: In conclusion, levels of interleukin-6, 10 and 18 were found to be increased at different stages of hepatitis B virus infection. Interleukin-6 and 10 levels increased in the hepatocellular carcinoma group. Interleukin-18 was increased in all forms of hepatitis B virus

Comparison of SYNTAX score II efficacy with SYNTAX score and TIMI risk score for predicting in-hospital and long-term mortality in patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction

WOS: 000439342900001PubMed ID: 29541904SYNTAX score II (SS-II) has a powerful prognostic accuracy in patients with stable complex coronary artery disease who have undergone revascularization; however, there is limited data regarding the prognosis of patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The aim of this study is to examine both the predictive performance of SS-II in determining in-hospital and long term mortality of STEMI patients and to compare SYNTAX score (SS) and TIMI risk score (TRS). Consecutive 1912 STEMI patients treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (p-PCI) retrospectively reviewed, and the remaining 1708 patients constituted the study population after exclusion. The patients were divided into three groups according to increased SS-II value: low (n:562; SS-II = 34.4). In-hospital and long term mortality rate from all causes (0 vs. 0.5 vs. 10.6% and 1.8 vs. 3.2 vs. 18.1% respectively, p <= 0.001) were significantly increased with SS-II tertiles and SS-II was found to be independent predictor of in-hospital and long term mortality (HR: 1.076 95% CI 1.060-1.092, p <0.001) and (HR: 1.070 95% CI 1.050-1.090, p <0.0001). The predictive power of SS-II, SS, and TRS were compared by ROC curve and decision curve analysis. SS-II surpassed SS and TRS in long-term and in-hospital mortality prediction. SS-II is a powerful tool to predict in-hospital and long-term mortality from all causes in STEMI patients treated with p-PCI

Association between BNP levels and new-onset atrial fibrillation: A propensity score approach

WOS: 000444701600011PubMed ID: 28707026New-onset atrial fibrillation (NOAF), a common complication of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), is associated with a poor prognosis. Several clinical and laboratory parameters are reported to be associated with NOAF in patients with STEMI. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the predictive value of plasma BaEurotype natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels for NOAF development and long-term prognosis in STEMI patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI). We retrospectively enrolled 1,928 patients with STEMI who underwent pPCI. After applying exclusion criteria, 1,057 patients were retained in the final study population. Patients with NOAF were compared with patients without NOAF in the entire study population and in a matched group. Patients with NOAF had a significantly higher average plasma BNP level (161 pg/ml, range: 72.3-432) than patients without NOAF in the study population (70.7 pg/ml, range: 70-129; p <0.001) and in the matched group (104.6 pg/ml, range: 47.2-234.5; p = 0.014). Furthermore, the plasma BNP level was found to be an independent predictor of NOAF development (odds ratio [OR]: 1.003; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.000-1.005; p = 0.034) and mortality in the long-term follow-up (OR: 1.004; 95% CI: 1.002-1.006; p <0.001). The present study found that a high plasma BNP level was significantly associated with NOAF development in STEMI patients, and was an independent predictor of NOAF development and all-cause mortality during long-term follow-up, regardless of other NOAF risk factors