Orientation of Hydrogenic Levels by Stark Effect and sp Coherence Resulting from Direct Excitation or Molecular Dissociation

International audienceWe have measured the predicted orientation induced by first-order Stark effect on sp coherent levels of He+ and H excited by a 100-keV Na+ beam impinging on a cell filled with He or H2. We discuss the mechanism of production of sp coherence by dissociative excitation of H2

Coherently excited atoms in external electric fields

International audienceVarious manifestations of coherent mixtures of even- and odd-parity eigenstates of collision-excited atomic hydrogen in external electric fields are discussed on general grounds. We show that when even-and odd-parity states are coherently excited, application of an electric field perpendicular to the velocity axis induces orientation in the originally unoriented atoms. Circular polarization of the decay radiation is an observable consequence of the orientation

Infarctus cérébral et plasticité (focus sur le BDNF)

La récupération fonctionnelle des patients victimes d un accident vasculaire cérébral (AVC) ischémique est largement sous-tendue par les propriétés plastiques du cerveau et plus précisément par sa capacité à remodeler les réseaux de neurones épargnés par l infarctus. Les études réalisées sur différents modèles animaux d infarctus cérébral s accordent à montrer que ces changements plastiques sont induits par le BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). Aussi, augmenter les taux cérébraux de BDNF est considéré comme une stratégie thérapeutique prometteuse de réduction des déficiences post-AVC. Dans ce contexte, notre travail avait 2 objectifs : 1) chez le rat, identifier les cellules impliquées dans la surproduction de BDNF et évaluer la pertinence de la mesure des taux circulants de BDNF pour estimer les taux de BDNF présents dans le cerveau, 2) chez le patient victime d un infarctus cérébral, étudier l efficacité de la fluoxétine sur la récupération motrice à 3 mois, la fluoxétine étant un inhibiteur spécifique de la recapture de la sérotonine commercialisé comme antidépresseur et capable non seulement d augmenter la production cérébrale de BDNF mais aussi de stimuler la plasticité post-lésionnelle.Les études précliniques ont été réalisées chez le rat soumis à l embolisation unilatérale du cerveau par un nombre variable de microsphères (en carbone et calibrées à 50 m) afin de reproduire le large panel de souffrance cérébrale rencontré en clinique. Le BDNF a été mesuré dans le cerveau et dans le sang (plasma et sérum par technique ELISA) avant et après (4, 24h et 8j) embolisation. Nos résultats montrent :- que la production de BDNF est plus intense et plus durable dans l hémisphère embolisé que dans l hémisphère non embolisé et que cette production est indépendante du degré d embolisation, marqueur indirect de la souffrance cérébrale. - que les cellules non-neuronales deviennent une source non négligeable de BDNF en cas d ischémie, notamment les cellules endothéliales et microgliales avant 24h et les astrocytes au temps 8j.- que les taux circulants et cérébraux de BDNF ne sont pas corrélés mais qu il existe une corrélation entre le BDNF plasmatique mesuré au temps 4h et le degré d embolisation.L étude clinique correspond à un essai randomisé contrôlé en double aveugle comparant la fluoxétine (20mg/j, voie orale, pendant 3 mois et débutée entre 5 et 10j après les premiers symptômes) au placebo chez des patients présentant un déficit moteur modéré à sévère sur l échelle motrice de Fugl-Meyer (n=59 dans chaque groupe). Nos résultats montrent que l amélioration de la fonction motrice est meilleure sous fluoxétine que placebo. En conclusion, notre travail montre l intérêt des médicaments capables d augmenter le BDNF et la plasticité post-lésionnelle pour améliorer le pronostic clinique de l AVC et identifie pour la première fois les cellules endothéliales cérébrales comme une cible potentielle de ces médicaments. Il remet également en cause l idée largement répandue selon laquelle les taux circulants de BDNF varient dans le même sens que les taux cérébraux.Functional recovery after ischemic stroke largely involves brain plasticity and more accurately its ability to reorganize the neuronal networks spared by the infarct. Studies conducted on animals using different ischemic stroke models have demonstrated that plastic changes are induced by BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). Hence, increasing levels of BDNF in the brain is considered a promising therapeutic strategy to reduce post-stroke impairments. In this context, our work had 2 aims: 1) In a rat model, to identify cells involved in the over-production of BDNF and to evaluate the pertinence of the measurement of circulating BDNF levels to estimate brain BDNF levels; 2) In ischemic stroke patients, to study the effectiveness of fluoxetin on 3-month motor recovery. This drug is a selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor commercialized as an antidepressant treatment that is not only able to increase brain production of BDNF, but also to stimulate post-lesion plasticity. Animal studies were performed on rats that underwent unilateral embolization of the brain with various amounts of carbonized calibrated (50 m) micropsheres in order to mimick the large panel of brain injury observed in humans. BDNF levels were measured in the brain and the blood (plasma and serum, ELISA method) before and after (4, 24h, and 8d) embolization. Our results show that:- The production of BDNF was more intense and longer lasting in the embolized than in the non-embolized hemisphere, and this production was independent of the degree of embolization, an indirect marker of brain injury.- Several non-neuronal cells become a non-negligible source of BDNF after ischemia, particularly endothelial cells and microglia before 24h, and astrocytes at 8d.- Brain and circulating levels of BDNF did not correlate, but a correlation between plasma BDNF at 4h and the degree of embolization was noted.Our clinical study was a randomized placebo-controlled trial that evaluated the efficacy of fluoxetine (20mg/d, oral route, over 3 months, and starting between 5 and 10d after stroke onset) in patients with moderate to severe motor impairment measured by the Fugl-Meyer motor scale (n=59 in each group). Our results showed a greater improvement in motor recovery under fluoxetin than placebo.To conclude, our work underlines the fact that treatments able to increase BDNF levels and post-lesion brain plasticity are of interest to improve the prognosis after stroke. We have shown, for the first time, that endothelial cells are a potential target for these treatments. Our study also calls into question the widespread idea according to which circulating levels of BDNF vary in the same way as levels of BDNF in the brain.DIJON-BU Doc.électronique (212319901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Early cardiovascular events in women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus

International audienceBackground: The effect of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is not assessed within the first 10 years postpartum, regardless of subsequent diabetes. The aim of this study was to determine the risk of CVD events related to GDM within 7 years of postpartum.Methods: This nationwide population-based study of deliveries in 2007 and 2008 with a follow-up of 7 years was based on data from the French medico-administrative database. Two groups were formed: women with a history of GDM and women without GDM or previous diabetes. CVD included angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, stroke, heart bypass surgery, coronary angioplasty, carotid endarterectomy and fibrinolysis. Hypertensive disease was assessed separately. Determinants studied included age, obesity, subsequent diabetes mellitus and hypertensive diseases during pregnancy. Adjusted odds ratios for outcomes were calculated using multiple logistic regressions.Results: The hospital database recorded 1,518,990 deliveries in 2007 and 2008. Among these, 62,958 women had a history of GDM. After adjusting for age, DM, obesity and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, GDM was significantly associated with a higher risk of CVD (adjusted Odds Ratio aOR = 1.25 [1.09-1.43]). Considering each variable in a separate model, GDM was associated with angina pectoris (aOR = 1.68 [1.29-2.20]), myocardial infarction (aOR = 1.92 [1.36-2.71]) and hypertension (aOR = 2.72 [2.58-2.88]) but not with stroke.Conclusions: A history of GDM was identified as a risk factor of CVD, especially coronary vascular diseases, within the 7 years postpartum. A lifestyle changes from postpartum onwards can be recommended and supported

Risk of emergency hospital admission in children associated with mental disorders and alcohol misuse in the household: an electronic birth cohort study

Background: Mental disorders and alcohol misuse are common in families but their effects on the physical health of children are not known. We investigated the risk of emergency hospital admissions during childhood associated with living with an adult who has a mental health disorder, or who had an alcohol-related hospital admission. Methods: We did this cohort study in a total population electronic child cohort in Wales, UK, which includes all children who live in Wales or with a mother who is resident in Wales. We used Cox regression to model time to first emergency hospital admission during the first 14 years of life associated with living with an adult who has a mental health disorder, or who had an alcohol-related hospital admission. We adjusted our results for social deprivation and perinatal risk factors.Findings: We included data for 253 717 children with 1 015 614 child-years of follow-up. Living with an adult with a mental disorder was associated with an increased risk of emergency admission for all causes (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1·17, 95% CI 1·16–1·19), for injuries and external causes (1·14, 1·11–1·18), and childhood victimisation (1·55, 1·44–1·67). Children living with a household member who had an alcohol-related hospital admission had a significantly higher risk of emergency admissions for injuries and external causes (aHR 1·13, 95% CI 1·01–1 ·26) and victimisation (1·39, 1·00–1·94), but not for all-cause emergency admissions (1·01, 0·93–1·09).Interpretation: The increased risk of emergency admissions in children associated with mental disorders and alcohol misuse in the household supports the need for policy measures to provide support to families that are affected.Funding: Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, Alcohol Research UK, Public Health Wales

Measuring performance on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index for 195 countries and territories and selected subnational locations: A systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

Background: A key component of achieving universal health coverage is ensuring that all populations have access to quality health care. Examining where gains have occurred or progress has faltered across and within countries is crucial to guiding decisions and strategies for future improvement. We used the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) to assess personal health-care access and quality with the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index for 195 countries and territories, as well as subnational locations in seven countries, from 1990 to 2016. Methods Drawing from established methods and updated estimates from GBD 2016, we used 32 causes from which death should not occur in the presence of effective care to approximate personal health-care access and quality by location and over time. To better isolate potential effects of personal health-care access and quality from underlying risk factor patterns, we risk-standardised cause-specific deaths due to non-cancers by location-year, replacing the local joint exposure of environmental and behavioural risks with the global level of exposure. Supported by the expansion of cancer registry data in GBD 2016, we used mortality-to-incidence ratios for cancers instead of risk-standardised death rates to provide a stronger signal of the effects of personal health care and access on cancer survival. We transformed each cause to a scale of 0-100, with 0 as the first percentile (worst) observed between 1990 and 2016, and 100 as the 99th percentile (best); we set these thresholds at the country level, and then applied them to subnational locations. We applied a principal components analysis to construct the HAQ Index using all scaled cause values, providing an overall score of 0-100 of personal health-care access and quality by location over time. We then compared HAQ Index levels and trends by quintiles on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary measure of overall development. As derived from the broader GBD study and other data sources, we examined relationships between national HAQ Index scores and potential correlates of performance, such as total health spending per capita. Findings In 2016, HAQ Index performance spanned from a high of 97\ub71 (95% UI 95\ub78-98\ub71) in Iceland, followed by 96\ub76 (94\ub79-97\ub79) in Norway and 96\ub71 (94\ub75-97\ub73) in the Netherlands, to values as low as 18\ub76 (13\ub71-24\ub74) in the Central African Republic, 19\ub70 (14\ub73-23\ub77) in Somalia, and 23\ub74 (20\ub72-26\ub78) in Guinea-Bissau. The pace of progress achieved between 1990 and 2016 varied, with markedly faster improvements occurring between 2000 and 2016 for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, whereas several countries in Latin America and elsewhere saw progress stagnate after experiencing considerable advances in the HAQ Index between 1990 and 2000. Striking subnational disparities emerged in personal health-care access and quality, with China and India having particularly large gaps between locations with the highest and lowest scores in 2016. In China, performance ranged from 91\ub75 (89\ub71-93\ub76) in Beijing to 48\ub70 (43\ub74-53\ub72) in Tibet (a 43\ub75-point difference), while India saw a 30\ub78-point disparity, from 64\ub78 (59\ub76-68\ub78) in Goa to 34\ub70 (30\ub73-38\ub71) in Assam. Japan recorded the smallest range in subnational HAQ performance in 2016 (a 4\ub78-point difference), whereas differences between subnational locations with the highest and lowest HAQ Index values were more than two times as high for the USA and three times as high for England. State-level gaps in the HAQ Index in Mexico somewhat narrowed from 1990 to 2016 (from a 20\ub79-point to 17\ub70-point difference), whereas in Brazil, disparities slightly increased across states during this time (a 17\ub72-point to 20\ub74-point difference). Performance on the HAQ Index showed strong linkages to overall development, with high and high-middle SDI countries generally having higher scores and faster gains for non-communicable diseases. Nonetheless, countries across the development spectrum saw substantial gains in some key health service areas from 2000 to 2016, most notably vaccine-preventable diseases. Overall, national performance on the HAQ Index was positively associated with higher levels of total health spending per capita, as well as health systems inputs, but these relationships were quite heterogeneous, particularly among low-to-middle SDI countries. Interpretation GBD 2016 provides a more detailed understanding of past success and current challenges in improving personal health-care access and quality worldwide. Despite substantial gains since 2000, many low-SDI and middle- SDI countries face considerable challenges unless heightened policy action and investments focus on advancing access to and quality of health care across key health services, especially non-communicable diseases. Stagnating or minimal improvements experienced by several low-middle to high-middle SDI countries could reflect the complexities of re-orienting both primary and secondary health-care services beyond the more limited foci of the Millennium Development Goals. Alongside initiatives to strengthen public health programmes, the pursuit of universal health coverage hinges upon improving both access and quality worldwide, and thus requires adopting a more comprehensive view-and subsequent provision-of quality health care for all populations

Measuring performance on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index for 195 countries and territories and selected subnational locations: A systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. Background A key component of achieving universal health coverage is ensuring that all populations have access to quality health care. Examining where gains have occurred or progress has faltered across and within countries is crucial to guiding decisions and strategies for future improvement. We used the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) to assess personal health-care access and quality with the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index for 195 countries and territories, as well as subnational locations in seven countries, from 1990 to 2016. Methods Drawing from established methods and updated estimates from GBD 2016, we used 32 causes from which death should not occur in the presence of effective care to approximate personal health-care access and quality by location and over time. To better isolate potential effects of personal health-care access and quality from underlying risk factor patterns, we risk-standardised cause-specific deaths due to non-cancers by location-year, replacing the local joint exposure of environmental and behavioural risks with the global level of exposure. Supported by the expansion of cancer registry data in GBD 2016, we used mortality-to-incidence ratios for cancers instead of risk-standardised death rates to provide a stronger signal of the effects of personal health care and access on cancer survival. We transformed each cause to a scale of 0-100, with 0 as the first percentile (worst) observed between 1990 and 2016, and 100 as the 99th percentile (best); we set these thresholds at the country level, and then applied them to subnational locations. We applied a principal components analysis to construct the HAQ Index using all scaled cause values, providing an overall score of 0-100 of personal health-care access and quality by location over time. We then compared HAQ Index levels and trends by quintiles on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary measure of overall development. As derived from the broader GBD study and other data sources, we examined relationships between national HAQ Index scores and potential correlates of performance, such as total health spending per capita. Findings In 2016, HAQ Index performance spanned from a high of 97·1 (95% UI 95·8-98·1) in Iceland, followed by 96·6 (94·9-97·9) in Norway and 96·1 (94·5-97·3) in the Netherlands, to values as low as 18·6 (13·1-24·4) in the Central African Republic, 19·0 (14·3-23·7) in Somalia, and 23·4 (20·2-26·8) in Guinea-Bissau. The pace of progress achieved between 1990 and 2016 varied, with markedly faster improvements occurring between 2000 and 2016 for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, whereas several countries in Latin America and elsewhere saw progress stagnate after experiencing considerable advances in the HAQ Index between 1990 and 2000. Striking subnational disparities emerged in personal health-care access and quality, with China and India having particularly large gaps between locations with the highest and lowest scores in 2016. In China, performance ranged from 91·5 (89·1-93·6) in Beijing to 48·0 (43·4-53·2) in Tibet (a 43·5-point difference), while India saw a 30·8-point disparity, from 64·8 (59·6-68·8) in Goa to 34·0 (30·3-38·1) in Assam. Japan recorded the smallest range in subnational HAQ performance in 2016 (a 4·8-point difference), whereas differences between subnational locations with the highest and lowest HAQ Index values were more than two times as high for the USA and three times as high for England. State-level gaps in the HAQ Index in Mexico somewhat narrowed from 1990 to 2016 (from a 20·9-point to 17·0-point difference), whereas in Brazil, disparities slightly increased across states during this time (a 17·2-point to 20·4-point difference). Performance on the HAQ Index showed strong linkages to overall development, with high and high-middle SDI countries generally having higher scores and faster gains for non-communicable diseases. Nonetheless, countries across the development spectrum saw substantial gains in some key health service areas from 2000 to 2016, most notably vaccine-preventable diseases. Overall, national performance on the HAQ Index was positively associated with higher levels of total health spending per capita, as well as health systems inputs, but these relationships were quite heterogeneous, particularly among low-to-middle SDI countries. Interpretation GBD 2016 provides a more detailed understanding of past success and current challenges in improving personal health-care access and quality worldwide. Despite substantial gains since 2000, many low-SDI and middle- SDI countries face considerable challenges unless heightened policy action and investments focus on advancing access to and quality of health care across key health services, especially non-communicable diseases. Stagnating or minimal improvements experienced by several low-middle to high-middle SDI countries could reflect the complexities of re-orienting both primary and secondary health-care services beyond the more limited foci of the Millennium Development Goals. Alongside initiatives to strengthen public health programmes, the pursuit of universal health coverage hinges upon improving both access and quality worldwide, and thus requires adopting a more comprehensive view - and subsequent provision - of quality health care for all populations