Intravenous erythropoietin in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction - REVEAL: A randomized controlled trial

Context: Acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. In experimental models of MI, erythropoietin reduces infarct size and improves left ventricular (LV) function. Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a single intravenous bolus of epoetin alfa in patients with STEMI. Design, Setting, and Patients: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with a dose-escalation safety phase and a single dose (60 000 U of epoetin alfa) efficacy phase; the Reduction of Infarct Expansion and Ventricular Remodeling With Erythropoietin After Large Myocardial Infarction (REVEAL) trial was conducted at 28 US sites between October 2006 and February 2010, and included 222 patients with STEMI who underwent successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) as a primary or rescue reperfusion strategy. Intervention: Participants were randomly assigned to treatment with intravenous epoetin alfa or matching saline placebo administered within 4 hours of reperfusion. Main Outcome Measure: Infarct size, expressed as percentage of LV mass, assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging performed 2 to 6 days after study medication administration (first CMR) and again 12±2 weeks later (second CMR). Results: In the efficacy cohort, the infarct size did not differ between groups on either the first CMR scan (n=136; 15.8% LV mass [95% confidence interval {CI}, 13.3-18.2% LV mass] for the epoetin alfa group vs 15.0% LV mass [95% CI, 12.6-17.3% LV mass] for the placebo group; P=.67) or on the second CMR scan (n=124; 10.6% LV mass [95% CI, 8.4-12.8% LV mass] vs 10.4% LV mass [95% CI, 8.5-12.3% LV mass], respectively; P=.89). In a prespecified analysis of patients aged 70 years or older (n=21), the mean infarct size within the first week (first CMR) was larger in the epoetin alfa group (19.9% LV mass; 95% CI, 14.0-25.7% LV mass) than in the placebo group (11.7% LV mass; 95% CI, 7.2-16.1% LV mass) (P=.03). In the safety cohort, of the 125 patients who received epoetin alfa, the composite outcome of death, MI, stroke, or stent thrombosis occurred in 5 (4.0%; 95% CI, 1.31%-9.09%) but in none of the 97 who received placebo (P=.04). Conclusions: In patients with STEMI who had successful reperfusion with primary or rescue PCI, a single intravenous bolus of epoetin alfa within 4 hours of PCI did not reduce infarct size and was associated with higher rates of adverse cardiovascular events. Subgroup analyses raised concerns about an increase in infarct size among older patients. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00378352. ©2011 American Medical Association. All rights reserved

At the bottom of the differential diagnosis list: unusual causes of pediatric hypertension

Hypertension affects 1–5% of children and adolescents, and the incidence has been increasing in association with obesity. However, secondary causes of hypertension such as renal parenchymal diseases, congenital abnormalities and renovascular disorders still remain the leading cause of pediatric hypertension, particularly in children under 12 years old. Other less common causes of hypertension in children and adolescents, including immobilization, burns, illicit and prescription drugs, dietary supplements, genetic disorders, and tumors will be addressed in this review

Family physicians\u27 professional identity formation: a study protocol to explore impression management processes in institutional academic contexts.

BACKGROUND: Despite significant differences in terms of medical training and health care context, the phenomenon of medical students\u27 declining interest in family medicine has been well documented in North America and in many other developed countries as well. As part of a research program on family physicians\u27 professional identity formation initiated in 2007, the purpose of the present investigation is to examine in-depth how family physicians construct their professional image in academic contexts; in other words, this study will allow us to identify and understand the processes whereby family physicians with an academic appointment seek to control the ideas others form about them as a professional group, i.e. impression management. METHODS/DESIGN: The methodology consists of a multiple case study embedded in the perspective of institutional theory. Four international cases from Canada, France, Ireland and Spain will be conducted; the \u22case\u22 is the medical school. Four levels of analysis will be considered: individual family physicians, interpersonal relationships, family physician professional group, and organization (medical school). Individual interviews and focus groups with academic family physicians will constitute the main technique for data generation, which will be complemented with a variety of documentary sources. Discourse techniques, more particularly rhetorical analysis, will be used to analyze the data gathered. Within- and cross-case analysis will then be performed. DISCUSSION: This empirical study is strongly grounded in theory and will contribute to the scant body of literature on family physicians\u27 professional identity formation processes in medical schools. Findings will potentially have important implications for the practice of family medicine, medical education and health and educational policies

Human malarial disease: a consequence of inflammatory cytokine release

Malaria causes an acute systemic human disease that bears many similarities, both clinically and mechanistically, to those caused by bacteria, rickettsia, and viruses. Over the past few decades, a literature has emerged that argues for most of the pathology seen in all of these infectious diseases being explained by activation of the inflammatory system, with the balance between the pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines being tipped towards the onset of systemic inflammation. Although not often expressed in energy terms, there is, when reduced to biochemical essentials, wide agreement that infection with falciparum malaria is often fatal because mitochondria are unable to generate enough ATP to maintain normal cellular function. Most, however, would contend that this largely occurs because sequestered parasitized red cells prevent sufficient oxygen getting to where it is needed. This review considers the evidence that an equally or more important way ATP deficency arises in malaria, as well as these other infectious diseases, is an inability of mitochondria, through the effects of inflammatory cytokines on their function, to utilise available oxygen. This activity of these cytokines, plus their capacity to control the pathways through which oxygen supply to mitochondria are restricted (particularly through directing sequestration and driving anaemia), combine to make falciparum malaria primarily an inflammatory cytokine-driven disease

Predicting 1-Year Mortality on Admission Using the Mayo Cardiac Intensive Care Unit Admission Risk Score.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the Mayo Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) Admission Risk Score (M-CARS) accurately predicts 1-year mortality. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed adult CICU patients admitted from January 1, 2007, through April 30, 2018, and calculated M-CARS using admission data. We examined the association between admission M-CARS, as continuous and categorical variables, and 1-year mortality. RESULTS: This study included 12,428 unique patients with a mean age of 67.6±15.2 years (4686 [37.7%] female). A total of 2839 patients (22.8%) died within 1 year of admission, including 1149 (9.2%) hospital deaths and 1690 (15.0%) of the 11,279 hospital survivors. The 1-year survival decreased incrementally as a function of increasing M-CARS (P CONCLUSION: M-CARS predicted 1-year mortality among CICU admissions, with a plateau effect at high M-CARS of 3 or more for hospital survivors. Significant added predictors of 1-year mortality among hospital survivors included markers of frailty and chronic illness

Braden Skin Score Subdomains Predict Mortality Among Cardiac Intensive Care Patients.

BACKGROUND: The Braden Skin Score (BSS) is a bedside nursing assessment that may be a measure of frailty and predicts mortality among patients in the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU). We examined the association between each of the 6 individual BSS subscores with hospital mortality in patients in the CICU. We hypothesized that BSS subscores reflecting patient frailty would have a stronger association with outcomes. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of unique adult patients admitted to the Mayo Clinic CICU from 2007 to 2018 with BSS documented on admission. Primary outcome was all-cause hospital mortality. Odds ratios (ORs) were determined using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: The 11,954 included patients had a mean age of 67.4 ± 15.2 years (37.8% women). Each individual BSS subscore was lower among patients who died in the hospital (all P \u3c .001). The total BSS was inversely associated with in-hospital mortality across admission diagnoses and among patients with coma or mechanical ventilation; each individual subscore was inversely associated with in-hospital mortality. On multivariable regression, all subscores were inversely associated with hospital mortality after full adjustment. Shear had the strongest association (adjusted OR 0.59), followed by nutrition (adjusted OR 0.67), skin moisture (adjusted OR 0.76), mobility (adjusted OR 0.76), sensory perception (adjusted OR 0.82), and activity level (adjusted OR 0.85). CONCLUSION: BSS can serve as a rapid noninvasive screening tool for identifying poor outcomes in patients in the CICU. BSS subdomains that are more strongly associated with mortality appear to reflect physical frailty. Insofar as the BSS and its subscores measure frailty, a low BSS may identify frail patients

Comparison of Mortality Risk Prediction Among Patients ≥70 Versus \u3c70 Years of Age in a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

Older adults account for an increasing number of cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) admissions. This study sought to determine the predictive value of illness severity scores for mortality in CICU patients ≥70 years of age. Adult patients admitted to the CICU from 2007 to 2015 at one tertiary care hospital were reviewed. Severity of illness scores were calculated on the first CICU day. Area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve (AUROC) values were used to assess discrimination for hospital mortality in patients ≥70 versus10,004 patients with a mean age of 67.4 ± 15.2 years (37.4% female); 4,771 patients (47.7%) were ≥70 years of age. Patients ≥70 years of age had greater illness severity and more extensive co-morbidities compared with patients≥70 years of age had higher hospital mortality (11.6% vs 6.8%, odds ratio 1.80, 95% confidence interval 1.57 to 2.07,