Spanish multicenter real – life registry of retrievable vena cava filters (REFiVeC)

Background The treatment of venous thromboembolic disease the treatment of choice is systemic anticoagulation. However, the interruption of the inferior vena cava with filters has been recommended when anticoagulation fails or there is a contraindication. Due to the rising inferior vena cava filter (IVCF) complications, physicians are encouraged to retrieve them when there is no longer recommended. In daily practice, it may be a difficult close follow-up of these patients. In this study, the primary objective was to evaluate the IVCF retrieval rate of all implanted filters in a Spanish registry. Secondary objectives were to analyze the causes of failed retrieval, procedure-related complications, and outcomes at a 12-month follow-up. Results Three hundred fifty-six vena cava filters were implanted in 355 patients. The types of filter were: Gunther Tulip (Cook Medical) 160 (44.9%), Optease (Cordis) 77 (21.6%), Celect (Cook Medical) 49 (13, 7%), Aegisy (Lifetech Scientific) 33 (9.2%), Option ELITE (Argon Medical devices) 16 (4.4%), Denali filter (BD Bard) 11 (3.08%), ALN filter (ALN) 10 (2.8%). Removal was achieved in 274/356 (76,9%). eighty-two (23,1%) IVCF were not retrieved due to the following: 41 (11,5%) patients required ongoing filtration, 24 IVCF (6,7%) patients died before retrieval, and 17 (4,7%) impossibility of retrieval because of a tilted and embedded filter apex. There were no major complications observed. Conclusions The global retrieval rate of IVCF was achieved in 76.9%, and the adjusted retrieval rate was of 94.15% with no major complications. IVCF tilting was associated with failure of filter removal in less than 5% of cases. This study demonstrates that the retrieval procedure of IVCF is controlled by the clinician and not by the interventional radiologist

withdrawn 2017 hrs ehra ecas aphrs solaece expert consensus statement on catheter and surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation

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Distinguishing Rhetorics of Fear: Conceptual and Practical Implications in Distinguishing Fear Appeals from Medical vs. Militaristic COVID-19 Rhetorics in the Philippines

In health and risk communication, fear appeals are defined as messages that arouse fear by depicting a relevant and significant threat to influence audiences in adopting recommended behaviors that deter such threat. However, such definition conflates coercive fear appeals like “get vaccinated or get imprisoned” with rational fear appeals like “get vaccinated to avoid severe COVID-19 symptoms.” As a result, this conflation obscures different fear appeal strategies unique to specific rhetorical contexts, namely in medical and militaristic COVID-19 rhetorics in the Philippines, thus creating a methodological gap in systematically categorizing which messages use fear appeals for promoting rational health behavior or for intimidating audiences to comply with authorities. In this paper, I argue that we need to distinguish the nuances that shape different fear appeal strategies in Filipino COVID-19 rhetorics. First, I offer a rhetorical conceptualization of fear appeals as ethically and politically situated utterances through close-reading Aristotle’s philosophical works on fear appeals. Second, I collect rhetorical artifacts of fear appeals from Filipino COVID-19 discourses by triangulating official sources (n=6), journalistic sources (n=14), and scholarly sources (n=5) and then analyze how fear appeal strategies emerge from medical and militaristic rhetorical situations. Third, I generically distinguish rational and coercive fear appeal strategies in terms of the rhetor-audience relationship, the threat used to arouse fear, the logic of argumentation, and the forms used. This paper ends with a discussion on conceptual and practical implications in distinguishing between rational and coercive fear appeals

Comparative Nutritional Assessment and Metabolomics of a WRKY Rice Mutant with Enhanced Germination Rates

Rice is the primary staple food for half the world’s population. Climate change challenges and food insecurity supports the need for rice with agronomically advantageous traits. We report on a transposon insertional rice mutant with enhanced germination rates. This trait is advantageous for rice growth in limited water regions and to reduce yield constraints caused by weed and bird competition. Evaluations of vital nutritional components, compositional analysis, and comparative metabolomics on threshed grain samples are performed, as these assays are those used to assess the safety of foods from genetically modified crops. Compared with the wild type (cv. Nipponbare), oswrky71 mutant grains have a similar size, shape, amount of crude fiber, crude fat, and ash content but higher crude protein. Mineral analyses reveal higher contents of phosphorus and zinc but lower calcium, potassium, sodium, and manganese in the mutant. Analysis of B vitamins reveals significantly higher riboflavin concentrations but lower choline chloride, calcium pantothenate, and thiamine. In addition, untargeted metabolomics analyses identify approximately 50 metabolites whose levels differed between the mutant and its wild type. Physical traits and compositional parameters analyzed are mostly similar and within the range or very close to being considered safe for consumption by the International Life Sciences Institute Crop Composition Database. Further agronomic evaluation and cooked rice sensory properties assessment are needed before positioning this mutant for human consumption

Quantification of anaesthetic effects on atrial fibrillation rate by partial least-squares

The mechanism underlying atrial fibrillation (AF) remains poorly understood. Multiple wandering propagation wavelets drifting through both atria under hierarchical models are not understood. Some pharmacological drugs, known as antiarrhythmics, modify the cardiac ionic currents supporting the fibrillation process within the atria and may modify the AF propagation dynamics terminating the fibrillation process. Other medications, theoretically non-antiarrhythmic, may slightly affect the fibrillation process in non-defined mechanisms. We evaluated whether the most commonly used anaesthetic agent, propofol, affects AF patterns. Partial least-squares (PLS) analysis was performed to reduce significant noise into the main latent variables to find the differences between groups. 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Ocean climate of the South East Atlantic observed from satellite data and wind models

The near-coastal South East Atlantic Ocean off Africa is a unique and highly dynamic environment, comprising the cool Benguela Current, warm Angola Current and warm Agulhas Current. Strong coastal upwelling and the Congo River strongly influence primary production. Much of the present knowledge of the South East Atlantic has been derived from ship-borne measurements and in situ sensors, which cannot generally provide extensive spatial and temporal coverage. Similarly, previous satellite studies of the region have often focused on small spatial areas and limited time periods. This paper provides an improved understanding of seasonal and interannual variability in ocean dynamics along the South East Atlantic coast of Africa using time series of satellite and model derived data products. Eighteen years of satellite sea surface temperature data are complimented by 7 years of sea level data. Three years of chlorophyll a data illustrate the seasonal biological response, but the time series is not of sufficient length for investigating interannual variability in chlorophyll biomass. Modelled wind fields are used to describe atmospheric forcing of the surface ocean. This is the first synoptic-scale description of the South East Atlantic from a suite of large spatial coverage, long time series products. Previous studies of seasonal and interannual variability in the region are reviewed and used to interpret key oceanographic features and processes identified in the satellite data. Key findings of this study are: 1. Descriptions of seasonal and interannual variability from these data show climate forcing of the South East Atlantic coast of Africa from both the northern and southern boundaries. Bimodal seasonal signals of equatorial origin propagate poleward along the Angolan coast, while the trade winds and events in the Agulhas region dominate the Agulhas Bank and Southern Benguela. The Northern Benguela is a mixed regime, under the influence of forcing from both directions. 2. The Benguela Nino years of 1984 and 1995 are clearly observed in sea surface temperature and sea level anomalies and correspond to anomalously weak southerly winds at the equator. These conditions were also observed in 1999, suggesting this too may have been a Benguela Nino year. 3. Consideration of putative Nino-type events in the equatorial Atlantic from this and other studies suggests that the frequency of these events is much higher than previously estimated and may be similar to the frequency of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events in the Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, years of anomalously strong southerly winds at the equator occur during Pacific ENSO years. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved