Association of socioeconomic status with 30-day survival following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Scotland, 2011-2020

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate the crude and adjusted association of socioeconomic status with 30-day survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Scotland and to assess whether the effect of this association differs by sex or age.METHODS: This is a population-based, retrospective cohort study, including non-traumatic, non-Emergency Medical Services witnessed patients with OHCA where resuscitation was attempted by the Scottish Ambulance Service, between April 1, 2011 and March 1, 2020. Socioeconomic status was defined using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). The primary outcome was 30-day survival after OHCA. Crude and adjusted associations of SIMD quintile with 30-day survival after OHCA were estimated using logistic regression. Effect modification by age and sex was assessed by stratification.RESULTS: Crude analysis showed lower odds of 30-day survival in the most deprived quintile relative to least deprived (OR 0.74, 95%CI 0.63-0.88). Adjustment for age, sex and urban/rural residency decreased the relative odds of survival further (OR 0.56, 95%CI 0.47-0.67). The strongest association was observed in males &lt; 45 years old. Across quintiles of increasing deprivation, evidence of decreasing trends in the proportion of those presenting with shockable initial cardiac rhythm, those receiving bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation and 30-day survival after OHCA were found.CONCLUSIONS: Socioeconomic status is associated with 30-day survival after OHCA in Scotland, favouring people living in the least deprived areas. This was not explained by confounding due to age, sex or urban/rural residency. The strongest association was observed in males &lt; 45 years old.</p

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Association between sex and survival after out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract The current literature on sex differences in 30‐day survival following out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is conflicting, with 3 recent systematic reviews reporting opposing results. To address these contradictions, this systematic literature review and meta‐analysis aimed to synthesize the literature on sex differences in survival after OHCA by including only population‐based studies and through separate meta‐analyses of crude and adjusted effect estimates. MEDLINE and Embase databases were systematically searched from inception to March 23, 2022 to identify observational studies reporting sex‐specific 30‐day survival or survival until hospital discharge after OHCA. Two meta‐analyses were conducted. The first included unadjusted effect estimates of the association between sex and survival (comparing males vs females), whereas the second included effect estimates adjusted for possible mediating and/or confounding variables. The PROSPERO registration number was CRD42021237887, and the search identified 6712 articles. After the screening, 164 potentially relevant articles were identified, of which 26 were included. The pooled estimate for crude effect estimates (odds ratio [OR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.22–1.66) indicated that males have a higher chance of survival after OHCA than females. However, the pooled estimate for adjusted effect estimates shows no difference in survival after OHCA between males and females (OR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.84–1.03). Both meta‐analyses involved high statistical heterogeneity between studies: crude pooled estimate I2 = 95.7%, adjusted pooled estimate I2 = 91.3%. There does not appear to be a difference in survival between males and females when effect estimates are adjusted for possible confounding and/or mediating variables in non‐selected populations

Chemosensitization of cancer cells by siRNA using targeted nanogel delivery

© 2010 Dickerson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/10/10DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-10-10Background. Chemoresistance is a major obstacle in cancer treatment. Targeted therapies that enhance cancer cell sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents have the potential to increase drug efficacy while reducing toxic effects on untargeted cells. Targeted cancer therapy by RNA interference (RNAi) is a relatively new approach that can be used to reversibly silence genes in vivo by selectively targeting genes such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which has been shown to increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to taxane chemotherapy. However, delivery represents the main hurdle for the broad development of RNAi therapeutics. Methods. We report here the use of core/shell hydrogel nanoparticles (nanogels) functionalized with peptides that specially target the EphA2 receptor to deliver small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting EGFR. Expression of EGFR was determined by immunoblotting, and the effect of decreased EGFR expression on chemosensitization of ovarian cancer cells after siRNA delivery was investigated. Results. Treatment of EphA2 positive Hey cells with siRNA-loaded, peptide-targeted nanogels decreased EGFR expression levels and significantly increased the sensitivity of this cell line to docetaxel (P 0.05)