Impact of clinical phenotypes on management and outcomes in European atrial fibrillation patients: a report from the ESC-EHRA EURObservational Research Programme in AF (EORP-AF) General Long-Term Registry

Background: Epidemiological studies in atrial fibrillation (AF) illustrate that clinical complexity increase the risk of major adverse outcomes. We aimed to describe European AF patients\u2019 clinical phenotypes and analyse the differential clinical course. Methods: We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis based on Ward\u2019s Method and Squared Euclidean Distance using 22 clinical binary variables, identifying the optimal number of clusters. We investigated differences in clinical management, use of healthcare resources and outcomes in a cohort of European AF patients from a Europe-wide observational registry. Results: A total of 9363 were available for this analysis. We identified three clusters: Cluster 1 (n = 3634; 38.8%) characterized by older patients and prevalent non-cardiac comorbidities; Cluster 2 (n = 2774; 29.6%) characterized by younger patients with low prevalence of comorbidities; Cluster 3 (n = 2955;31.6%) characterized by patients\u2019 prevalent cardiovascular risk factors/comorbidities. Over a mean follow-up of 22.5 months, Cluster 3 had the highest rate of cardiovascular events, all-cause death, and the composite outcome (combining the previous two) compared to Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 (all P <.001). An adjusted Cox regression showed that compared to Cluster 2, Cluster 3 (hazard ratio (HR) 2.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.27\u20133.62; HR 3.42, 95%CI 2.72\u20134.31; HR 2.79, 95%CI 2.32\u20133.35), and Cluster 1 (HR 1.88, 95%CI 1.48\u20132.38; HR 2.50, 95%CI 1.98\u20133.15; HR 2.09, 95%CI 1.74\u20132.51) reported a higher risk for the three outcomes respectively. Conclusions: In European AF patients, three main clusters were identified, differentiated by differential presence of comorbidities. Both non-cardiac and cardiac comorbidities clusters were found to be associated with an increased risk of major adverse outcomes

Supplementary data: Assessing the Validity of a Calcifying Oral Biofilm Model as a Suitable Proxy For Dental Calculus

FTIR analysis data on a calcifying oral biofilm model. Includes metadata, raw data and images of spectra. README.md file included in ftir_raw-data.zip.FTIR analysis: A few ug of each sample were repeatedly ground together with KBr and pressed in a 7 mm die under two tons of pressure using a Specac mini-pellet press. Samples were analysed at the Laboratory for Sedimentary Archaeology, Haifa University. The analysis was conducted with a Thermo Nicolet is5 spectrometer intransmission, at 4 cm&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt; resolution, with an average of 32 scans between wavenumbers 4000 and 400 cm&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;.</p

Supplementary data: Assessing the Validity of a Calcifying Oral Biofilm Model as a Suitable Proxy For Dental Calculus

FTIR analysis data on a calcifying oral biofilm model. Includes metadata, raw data and images of spectra. README.md file included in ftir_raw-data.zip.FTIR analysis: A few ug of each sample were repeatedly ground together with KBr and pressed in a 7 mm die under two tons of pressure using a Specac mini-pellet press. Samples were analysed at the Laboratory for Sedimentary Archaeology, Haifa University. The analysis was conducted with a Thermo Nicolet is5 spectrometer intransmission, at 4 cm&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt; resolution, with an average of 32 scans between wavenumbers 4000 and 400 cm&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;.</p

Heartbeat OCT: in vivo intravascular megahertz-optical coherence tomography

Cardiac motion artifacts, non-uniform rotational distortion and undersampling affect the image quality and the diagnostic impact of intravascular optical coherence tomography (IV-OCT). In this study we demonstrate how these limitations of IV-OCT can be addressed by using an imaging system that we called “Heartbeat OCT”, combining a fast Fourier Domain Mode Locked laser, fast pullback, and a micromotor actuated catheter, designed to examine a coronary vessel in less than one cardiac cycle. We acquired in vivo data sets of two coronary arteries in a porcine heart with both Heartbeat OCT, working at 2.88 MHz A-line rate, 4000 frames/s and 100 mm/s pullback speed, and with a commercial system. The in vivo results show that Heartbeat OCT provides faithfully rendered, motion-artifact free, fully sampled vessel wall architecture, unlike the conventional IV-OCT data. We present the Heartbeat OCT system in full technical detail and discuss the steps needed for clinical translation of the technology

Granulocytes Impose a Tight Bottleneck upon the Gut Luminal Pathogen Population during Salmonella Typhimurium Colitis

10.1371/journal.ppat.1004557PLoS Pathogens1012Jan-1