Impact of Obstructive Sleep Apnea on the Levels of Placental Growth Factor (PlGF) and Their Value for Predicting Short-Term Adverse Outcomes in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Placental growth factor (PlGF) induces angiogenesis and promotes tissue repair, and plasma PlGF levels change markedly during acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Currently, the impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with AMI is a subject of debate. Our objective was to evaluate the relationships between PlGF levels and both the severity of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and short-term outcomes after ACS in patients with and without OSA. METHODS: A total of 538 consecutive patients (312 OSA patients and 226 controls) admitted for ACS were included in this study. All patients underwent polygraphy in the first 72 hours after hospital admission. The severity of disease and short-term prognoses were evaluated during the hospitalization period. Plasma PlGF levels were measured using an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. RESULTS: Patients with OSA were significantly older and more frequently hypertensive and had higher BMIs than those without OSA. After adjusting for age, smoking status, BMI and hypertension, PlGF levels were significantly elevated in patients with OSA compared with patients without OSA (19.9 pg/mL, interquartile range: 16.6-24.5 pg/mL; 18.5 pg/mL, interquartile range: 14.7-22.7 pg/mL; p1, even after adjustment.CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that in patients with ACS, elevated plasma levels of PlGF are associated with the presence of OSA and with adverse outcomes during short-term follow-up. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01335087

Advances in diagnostic tools for respiratory tract infections : from tuberculosis to COVID-19 - changing paradigms?

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are one of the most common reasons for seeking healthcare, but are amongst the most challenging diseases in terms of clinical decision-making. Proper and timely diagnosis is critical in order to optimise management and prevent further emergence of antimicrobial resistance by misuse or overuse of antibiotics. Diagnostic tools for RTIs include those involving syndromic and aetiological diagnosis: from clinical and radiological features to laboratory methods targeting both pathogen detection and host biomarkers, as well as their combinations in terms of clinical algorithms. They also include tools for predicting severity and monitoring treatment response. Unprecedented milestones have been achieved in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, involving the most recent applications of diagnostic technologies both at genotypic and phenotypic level, which have changed paradigms in infectious respiratory diseases in terms of why, how and where diagnostics are performed. The aim of this review is to discuss advances in diagnostic tools that impact clinical decision-making, surveillance and follow-up of RTIs and tuberculosis. If properly harnessed, recent advances in diagnostic technologies, including omics and digital transformation, emerge as an unprecedented opportunity to tackle ongoing and future epidemics while handling antimicrobial resistance from a One Health perspective. Unprecedented advances have been achieved by improving and applying the latest technologies to key aspects such as epidemiology, contact tracing and diagnostics of respiratory tract infections that need to be properly addressed for global improvement

Respiratory Polygraphy Patterns and Risk of Recurrent Cardiovascular Events in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity is based on the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). The AHI is a simplistic measure that is inadequate for capturing disease severity and its consequences in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Deleterious effects of OSA have been suggested to influence the prognosis of specific endotypes of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). We aim to identify respiratory polygraphy (RP) patterns that contribute to identifying the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events in patients with ACS. Methods: Post hoc analysis of the ISAACC study, including 723 patients admitted for a first ACS (NCT01335087) in which RP was performed. To identify specific RP patterns, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed using six RP parameters: AHI, oxygen desaturation index, mean and minimum oxygen saturation (SaO2), average duration of events and percentage of time with SaO2 < 90%. An independent HypnoLaus population-based cohort was used to validate the RP components. Results: From the ISAACC study, PCA showed that two RP components accounted for 70% of the variance in the RP data. These components were validated in the HypnoLaus cohort, with two similar RP components that explained 71.3% of the variance in the RP data. The first component (component 1) was mainly characterized by low mean SaO2 and obstructive respiratory events with severe desaturation, and the second component (component 2) was characterized by high mean SaO2 and long-duration obstructive respiratory events without severe desaturation. In the ISAACC cohort, component 2 was associated with an increased risk of recurrent cardiovascular events in the third tertile with an adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI) of 2.44 (1.07 to 5.56; p-value = 0.03) compared to first tertile. For component 1, no significant association was found for the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events. Conclusion: A RP component, mainly characterized by intermittent hypoxemia, is associated with a high risk of recurrent cardiovascular events in patients without previous CVD who have suffered a first ACS.Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII; PI10/02763, PI10/02745, PI18/00449, and PI19/00907), co-funded by FEDER, “Una manera de hacer europa,” IRBLleida – Fundació Pifarré, CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya, SEPAR, ResMed Ltd. (Australia), Esteve-Teijin (Spain), Oxigen Salud (Spain), Associació Lleidatana de Respiratori (ALLER), and Sociedad Española de Sueño (SES). AZ is the recipient of a predoctoral fellowship “Ajuts 2021 de Promoció de la Recerca en Salut-9a edició” from IRBLleida/Diputació de Lleida. JD acknowledges receiving financial support from ISCIII (Miguel Servet 2019: CP19/00108), co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), “Investing in your future.” MS-d-l-T has received financial support from a “Ramón y Cajal” grant (RYC2019-027831-I) from the “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación – Agencia Estatal de Investigación” co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF)/“Investing in your future.” FB received funding from from ResMed (an Australian company that develops products related to sleep apnea), the Health Research Fund, the Spanish Ministry of Health, the Spanish Respiratory Society, the Catalonian Cardiology Society, Esteve-Teijin (Spain), Oxigen Salud (Spain), and ALLER. The funders were not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article, or the decision to submit it for publication

Intermittent hypoxia is associated with high hypoxia inducible factor-1α but not high vascular endothelial growth factor cell expression in tumors of cutaneous melanoma patients

Epidemiological associations linking between obstructive sleep apnea and poorer solid malignant tumor outcomes have recently emerged. Putative pathways proposed to explain that these associations have included enhanced hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) cell expression in the tumor and altered immune functions via intermittent hypoxia (IH). Here, we examined relationships between HIF-1α and VEGF expression and nocturnal IH in cutaneous melanoma (CM) tumor samples. Prospectively recruited patients with CM tumor samples were included and underwent overnight polygraphy. General clinical features, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), desaturation index (DI4%), and CM characteristics were recorded. Histochemical assessments of VEGF and HIF-1α were performed, and the percentage of positive cells (0, 75%) was blindly tabulated for VEGF expression, and as 0, 0-5.9, 6.0-10.0, >10.0% for HIF-1α expression, respectively. Cases with HIF-1α expression >6% (high expression) were compared with those 75% of cells was compared with those with <75%. 376 patients were included. High expression of VEGF and HIF-1α were seen in 88.8 and 4.2% of samples, respectively. High expression of VEGF was only associated with increasing age. However, high expression of HIF-1α was significantly associated with age, Breslow index, AHI, and DI4%. Logistic regression showed that DI4% [OR 1.03 (95% CI: 1.01-1.06)] and Breslow index [OR 1.28 (95% CI: 1.18-1.46)], but not AHI, remained independently associated with the presence of high HIF-1α expression. Thus, IH emerges as an independent risk factor for higher HIF-1α expression in CM tumors and is inferentially linked to worse clinical CM prognostic indicators

Autoantibodies against type I IFNs in patients with life-threatening COVID-19

Interindividual clinical variability in the course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is vast. We report that at least 101 of 987 patients with life-threatening coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia had neutralizing immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies (auto-Abs) against interferon-w (IFN-w) (13 patients), against the 13 types of IFN-a (36), or against both (52) at the onset of critical disease; a few also had auto-Abs against the other three type I IFNs. The auto-Abs neutralize the ability of the corresponding type I IFNs to block SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. These auto-Abs were not found in 663 individuals with asymptomatic or mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and were present in only 4 of 1227 healthy individuals. Patients with auto-Abs were aged 25 to 87 years and 95 of the 101 were men. A B cell autoimmune phenocopy of inborn errors of type I IFN immunity accounts for life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in at least 2.6% of women and 12.5% of men

Diagnosticar sense tocar

Diagnosticar sense tocar; Diagnosticar per vídeo; SleepwiseDiagnose without touching; Diagnose by video; SleepwiseDiagnosticar sin tocar; Diagnosticar por vídeo; SleepwiseComunicació que presenta la tècnica Sleepwise, que permet diagnosticar les síndromes de l'apnea del son sense tocar el pacient

Advances in diagnostic tools for respiratory tract infections: from tuberculosis to COVID-19 – changing paradigms?

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are one of the most common reasons for seeking healthcare, but are amongst the most challenging diseases in terms of clinical decision-making. Proper and timely diagnosis is critical in order to optimise management and prevent further emergence of antimicrobial resistance by misuse or overuse of antibiotics. Diagnostic tools for RTIs include those involving syndromic and aetiological diagnosis: from clinical and radiological features to laboratory methods targeting both pathogen detection and host biomarkers, as well as their combinations in terms of clinical algorithms. They also include tools for predicting severity and monitoring treatment response. Unprecedented milestones have been achieved in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, involving the most recent applications of diagnostic technologies both at genotypic and phenotypic level, which have changed paradigms in infectious respiratory diseases in terms of why, how and where diagnostics are performed. The aim of this review is to discuss advances in diagnostic tools that impact clinical decision-making, surveillance and follow-up of RTIs and tuberculosis. If properly harnessed, recent advances in diagnostic technologies, including omics and digital transformation, emerge as an unprecedented opportunity to tackle ongoing and future epidemics while handling antimicrobial resistance from a One Health perspective

Rapid effect of benralizumab in exacerbation of severe eosinophilic asthma associated with eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis

Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is a disease that is associated with severe uncontrolled eosinophilic asthma. Eosinophils play an important pathogenic role in the development of both diseases. Benralizumab is an antieosinophilic monoclonal antibody that binds to the α subunit of the human interleukin 5 receptor that is expressed on the surface of the eosinophil and basophil. We present the first case of rapid improvement in symptoms and lung function during admission for exacerbation of a severe eosinophilic asthma associated with EGPA. A 57-year-old man diagnosed with severe eosinophilic asthma associated to EGPA was admitted to the Pulmonology Department due to severe bronchospasm. At admission he presented 2300 eosinophils/µl. Despite intensive bronchodilator treatment, intravenous methylprednisolone at a dose of 80 mg/d, oxygen therapy, and budesonide nebulization, the patient continued to present daily episodes of bronchospasm. Ten days after admission, with blood eosinophil levels of 1700 cells/µl, benralizumab 30 mg sc was administered. That day, the Forced Expiratory Volume in the first second (FEV1) was 28% of the theoretical value (1150 ml). AT three days, FEV1 increased to 110 ml (31%). On the 9th day FEV1 was 51% (2100 ml). The blood eosinophil level on the 9th day was 0 cells/µl. The rapid improvement of FEV1 is in line with studies based on clinical trials that found improvement after two days in peak flow and one phase II study that showed rapid response in exacerbation of asthma in the emergency room. The antieosinophilic effect at 24 h and the effect in different tissues determine the rapid improvement and the potential advantage of benralizumab in the treatment of EGPA. This case suggests the usefulness of benralizumab in patients with EGPA and eosinophilic severe asthma who show bronchospasm refractory to conventional treatment during a hospitalization due to asthma exacerbation