The significance of lipid profile and positive troponin-I in predicting cardiac event

Background: Diagnosis of acute cardiac event in the early stage of its onset is important in the treatment process. The development of highly sensitive and specific immunoassays for myocardial proteins such as cardiac troponin-I had made it possible. However troponin indicates cardiac events only after its onset or after cardiac tissue necrosis. Traditionally such high risk subjects were identified using lipid profiles. The identification of subjects with high risk of developing cardiac event in the future is more significant as it will provide time to prevent such incidents.Methods: In this retrospective study data of the 250 patients presented to the emergency department with symptoms of cardiac ischemia who underwent both troponin-I and lipid profiles tests were compared with the lipid profiles of 100 normal healthy subjects (controls). The troponin-I was detected quantitatively when a specimen contains troponin-I above the 99th percentile (TnI >0.3 ng/ml). The total cholesterol, high density lipoproteins cholesterol, very low density lipoproteins cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels were also analyzed and low density lipoprotein cholesterol level was calculated using Friedewald’s formula.Results: Patients with chest pain and positive troponin-I test (with confirmed cardiac event) were found to have significantly elevated levels of total cholesterol, triacylglycerols, low density lipoprotein cholesterol level and significantly reduced high density lipoproteins cholesterol levels when compared to the patients who experienced only chest pain with (negative troponin-I) and healthy controls.Conclusions: An acute cardiac event is best diagnosed by highly sensitive and specific positive troponin-I test (by quantitative method). However, traditional lipid profile levels still can be used in screening the populations to identify those subjects with high risk of developing cardiac event, in those centres where troponin-I test facility is unavailable.

Synthesis, characterization and in vitro biological evaluation of some new diarylsulfonylurea-chalcone hybrids as potential 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors

A series of some new diarylsulfonylurea-chalcone hybrids (4a-4y) have been synthesized via Claisen-Schmidt condensation reaction by treating 1-(3-acetylphenyl)-3-tosylurea with various aromatic/heteroaromatic aldehydes in the presence of alkali and characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and LC mass spectral analysis. All the synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro 5-Lipoxygenase inhibitory activity using potato 5-lipoxygenase enzyme. Among the tested compounds 4r and 4o exhibited significant inhibitory activity at IC50 values 7.88±0.14 and 11.77±0.21 µg/mL, respectively. This level of activity was found comparable to that of the reference drug Abietic acid (LI01020) with IC50 value 4.34±0.37 µg/mL and it could be a remarkable starting point to develop new lead molecules

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

The International Planetary Data Alliance: Progress and vision for the next decade

International audienceIn the mid-1980s, as NASA planetary exploration expanded, it became apparent that a national archive that could handle digitized data was needed. NASA launched the Planetary Data System (PDS) in 1989 after considerable planning and development. Because most of the early planetary data originated from NASA missions, the international scientific community became familiar with PDS standards. Thus, when the European Space Agency (ESA) began producing planetary science data they adopted components of the PDS standards and developed the Planetary Science Archive (PSA). This occurred under version 3 (PDS3) of the PDS Standards.The PDS and PSA worked closely together to develop standards and share data. As additional agencies began developing unique missions of interest to the international community, two needs were identified: increased cooperation and collaboration to facilitate access to the individual archives, and modernization and implementation of standards. A group of individuals involved in mission archiving within the international planetary community met in 2006 to develop a mechanism for enhancing international access and collaboration [1]. The goal of this meeting was to develop an approach that would: 1) Give scientific communities world-wide access to data archives built upon similar standards; 2) Reduce cost of archiving and distributing science data by collaborating and sharing standards; 3) Ensure reusability of science data across agency/mission/instrument boundaries; 4) Coordinate archiving processes and plans; and 5) Improve and increase access to tools and services offered.As a result of these interactions, the International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA) was founded. Over the past decade, the IPDA has grown significantly, with shared projects focused on achieving the goals. Over twelve agencies have joined the IPDA and participate in the Steering Committee. These agencies have supported a major upgrade of the Planetary Data System standards called "PDS4". NASA and ESA are now operationally using PDS4 and all future planetary missions are adopting or planning to adopt it for archiving their data. Over the next decade, this will lay a foundation by which improved and increased access, tools, and services can be realized at a global scale. This talk will provide an overview of the IPDA and discuss opportunities to increase use, access, and interoperability as an international data science platform for planetary science research. [1] "Developing a Core Set of Data Standards for the IPDA", Concept White Paper, January 2007

The International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA): Overview of the Activities

International audienceAn overview of activities of the IPDA is presented in the frame of the recently growing number of successful space experiments dedicated to planetary observation, with a significantly growing number of people involved in such activity and with significantly growing numbers of web services willing to share data and services in our research domain, but also, in close by domains such as astronomy, heliophysics and atmospheric sciences for the Earth. An overview of a number of space agencies and organizations is given. In total, IPDA consists of 13 national organizations: NASA (USA), CNES (France), ESA (Europe), STFC (UK), JAXA (Japan), ASI (Italy), ISRO (India), DLR (Germany), RKA (Russia), RCSA (China), FMI (Finland), ArSA (Armenia) and United Arab Emirates. Some projects of 2015 in frame of the IPDA activities are described