Relation of Use of Red Blood Cell Transfusion After Acute Coronary Syndrome to Long-Term Mortality

Registry studies have associated red blood cell (RBC) transfusion with increased in hospital mortality in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The impact on long-term mortality after 1-year follow-up remains unknown. Consecutive patients with ACS (n = 2,009) of a prospective Genetic Predisposition of Coronary Artery Disease cohort were followed for a median of 8.6 years (95% confidence interval [CI] 8.59 to 8.69). After discharge, 1,937 (96%) patients survived for over 30 days. Of those survivors, a subgroup of previously transfusion-nave patients 85/1,937 (4.4%) who had received at least 1 RBC transfusion during hospitalization were compared with 1,278/1,937 patients (66.0%) who had not received any transfusion either during the hospitalization or the entire follow-up. Unadjusted long-term mortality was significantly higher in the patients transfused with RBC compared with their counterparts not transfused with RBC (58.8% vs 20.3%, pPeer reviewe

Effect of statins on venous thromboembolic events: a meta-analysis of published and unpublished evidence from randomised controlled trials

Background - It has been suggested that statins substantially reduce the risk of venous thromboembolic events. We sought to test this hypothesis by performing a meta-analysis of both published and unpublished results from randomised trials of statins. Methods and Findings - We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL up to March 2012 for randomised controlled trials comparing statin with no statin, or comparing high dose versus standard dose statin, with 100 or more randomised participants and at least 6 months' follow-up. Investigators were contacted for unpublished information about venous thromboembolic events during follow-up. Twenty-two trials of statin versus control (105,759 participants) and seven trials of an intensive versus a standard dose statin regimen (40,594 participants) were included. In trials of statin versus control, allocation to statin therapy did not significantly reduce the risk of venous thromboembolic events (465 [0.9%] statin versus 521 [1.0%] control, odds ratio [OR] = 0.89, 95% CI 0.78–1.01, p = 0.08) with no evidence of heterogeneity between effects on deep vein thrombosis (266 versus 311, OR 0.85, 95% CI 0.72–1.01) and effects on pulmonary embolism (205 versus 222, OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.76–1.12). Exclusion of the trial result that provided the motivation for our meta-analysis (JUPITER) had little impact on the findings for venous thromboembolic events (431 [0.9%] versus 461 [1.0%], OR = 0.93 [95% CI 0.82–1.07], p = 0.32 among the other 21 trials). There was no evidence that higher dose statin therapy reduced the risk of venous thromboembolic events compared with standard dose statin therapy (198 [1.0%] versus 202 [1.0%], OR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.80–1.20, p = 0.87). Risk of bias overall was small but a certain degree of effect underestimation due to random error cannot be ruled out. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary. Conclusions - The findings from this meta-analysis do not support the previous suggestion of a large protective effect of statins (or higher dose statins) on venous thromboembolic events. However, a more moderate reduction in risk up to about one-fifth cannot be ruled out

BopA does not have a major role in the adhesion of bifidobacterium bifidum to intestinal epithelial cells, extracellular matrix proteins, and mucus

he ability of bifidobacteria to adhere to the intestine of the human host is considered to be important for efficient colonization and achieving probiotic effects. Bifidobacterium bifidum strains DSM20456 and MIMBb75 adhere well to the human intestinal cell lines Caco-2 and HT-29. The surface lipoprotein BopA was previously described to be involved in mediating adherence of B. bifidum to epithelial cells, but thioacylated, purified BopA inhibited the adhesion of B. bifidum to epithelial cells in competitive adhesion assays only at very high concentrations, indicating an unspecific effect. In this study, the role of BopA in the adhesion of B. bifidum was readdressed. The gene encoding BopA was cloned and expressed without its lipobox and hydrophobic signal peptide in Escherichia coli, and an antiserum against the recombinant BopA was produced. The antiserum was used to demonstrate the abundant localization of BopA on the cell surface of B. bifidum. However, blocking of B. bifidum BopA with specific antiserum did not reduce adhesion of bacteria to epithelial cell lines, arguing that BopA is not an adhesin. Also, adhesion of B. bifidum to human colonic mucin and fibronectin was found to be BopA independent. The recombinant BopA bound only moderately to human epithelial cells and colonic mucus, and it failed to bind to fibronectin. Thus, our results contrast the earlier findings on the major role of BopA in adhesion, indicating that the strong adhesion of B. bifidum to epithelial cell lines is BopA independent

Vampires in the village Žrnovo on the island of Korčula: following an archival document from the 18th century

Središnja tema rada usmjerena je na raščlambu spisa pohranjenog u Državnom arhivu u Mlecima (fond: Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci: Lettere di Rettori e di altre cariche) koji se odnosi na događaj iz 1748. godine u korčulanskom selu Žrnovo, kada su mještani – vjerujući da su se pojavili vampiri – oskvrnuli nekoliko mjesnih grobova. U radu se podrobno iznose osnovni podaci iz spisa te rečeni događaj analizira u širem društvenom kontekstu i prate se lokalna vjerovanja.The main interest of this essay is the analysis of the document from the State Archive in Venice (file: Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci: Lettere di Rettori e di altre cariche) which is connected with the episode from 1748 when the inhabitants of the village Žrnove on the island of Korčula in Croatia opened tombs on the local cemetery in the fear of the vampires treating. This essay try to show some social circumstances connected with this event as well as a local vernacular tradition concerning superstitions