Evaluation of Synthetic Conditions for H3PO4 Chemically Activated Rice Husk and Preparation of Honeycomb Monoliths

Activated carbons in this work were prepared from rice husk by phosphoric acid activation followed by alkaline desilication. Pseudo-random selection of 16 rice husk samples was subjected to carbonization at the following conditions: 0.5 to 2 h of activation time, 300-600 ºС and Н3РО4/precursor (wt/wt) impregnation ratio of 0.5 to 2. Concentration of NaOH desilication solution varied from 0.5 to 2M. It was found that out of the four factors impregnation ratio is clearly the strongest and at the impregnation ratio of 2 for 1 h at 500 °C N2 BET-surface area reaches 1690 m2/g (SBET (Ar)=2492 m2/g) while pore volume becomes 1.95 cm3/g. Elemental analysis showed highest carbon content for this sample (87.96%). All samples have insignificant amount of Si and traces of metals, but considerable amount of phosphorus. Blocks of honeycomb structure prepared from Ca-montmorillonite and desilicated carbonized rice husk (impregnation ratio is 1.5, 1 h at 600 ºC) have BET-surface area obtained by thermal desorption of argon up to 856 m2/g

Global survey of the frequency of atrial fibrillation-associated stroke: embolic stroke of undetermined source global registry

Background and Purpose—Atrial fibrillation (AF) is increasingly recognized as the single most important cause of disabling ischemic stroke in the elderly. We undertook an international survey to characterize the frequency of AF-associated stroke, methods of AF detection, and patient features. Methods—Consecutive patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke in 2013 to 2014 were surveyed from 19 stroke research centers in 19 different countries. Data were analyzed by global regions and World Bank income levels. Results—Of 2144 patients with ischemic stroke, 590 (28%; 95% confidence interval, 25.6–29.5) had AF-associated stroke, with highest frequencies in North America (35%) and Europe (33%) and lowest in Latin America (17%). Most had a history of AF before stroke (15%) or newly detected AF on electrocardiography (10%); only 2% of patients with ischemic stroke had unsuspected AF detected by poststroke cardiac rhythm monitoring. The mean age and 30-day mortality rate of patients with AF-associated stroke (75 years; SD, 11.5 years; 10%; 95% confidence interval, 7.6–12.6, respectively) were substantially higher than those of patients without AF (64 years; SD, 15.58 years; 4%; 95% confidence interval, 3.3–5.4; P<0.001 for both comparisons). There was a strong positive correlation between the mean age and the frequency of AF (r=0.76; P=0.0002). Conclusions—This cross-sectional global sample of patients with recent ischemic stroke shows a substantial frequency of AF-associated stroke throughout the world in proportion to the mean age of the stroke population. Most AF is identified by history or electrocardiography; the yield of conventional short-duration cardiac rhythm monitoring is relatively low. Patients with AF-associated stroke were typically elderly (>75 years old) and more often women

Unsolved Issues of Atherosclerosis Prevention and of Adequate Lipid-lowering Therapy in Patients with Acute Ischemic Cerebrovascular Accident

The existing system of medical care for patients with acute cerebrovascular accident of atherothrombotic genesis, namely lipid metabolism disorders, the modern evidence base for lipid-lowering therapy in this category of patients and the feasibility of interdisciplinary interaction of cardiologists and neurologists were discussed at a meeting of the expert council of cardiologists and neurologists in Moscow on 2021 July 7

Anamnestic, clinical and laboratory features of the acute period of ischemic stroke in young patients

Objective: to study the anamnestic, clinical and laboratory features of the acute period of ischemic stroke (IS) and to determine the risk factors for its development in young patients. Patients and methods. Clinical and statistical processing of data of 256 patients aged 18 to 44 years included, who had IS, confirmed by computed and/or magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in the acute period, was carried out. Furthermore, in 154 patients and in 117 healthy participants, who made up the control group, eight polymorphisms of the thrombophilic spectrum genes were determined – FGB: -455G>A, F2: 20210G>A, F5: 1691G>A, F7: 10976G>A, F13: 103 G>T, ITGA2: 807C>T, ITGB3: 1565 T>C, PAI-1: -675 5G>4G. Results and discussion. 154 (60.15%) patients demonstrated good recovery (achievement of a level of ≤2 points on the Rankin scale by the patient). None of the patients died during their hospitalization. In the evaluated group of patients, we identified allelic variants of the thrombophilic spectrum genes and gene-gene combinations, the carriage of which increased the likelihood of IS development at the young age by 1.74 and 2.19 times, respectively. Taking into consideration additional examination methods, the pathogenetic variant of IS according to the TOAST classification was verified in 226 (88%) patients. Conclusion. In IS at a young age a detailed assessment of risk factors is required, including an analysis of carrier variants and combinations of procoagulant and prothrombotic spectrum gene polymorphisms. © 2022 Ima-Press Publishing House. All rights reserved

Characterization of patients with embolic strokes of undetermined source in the NAVIGATE ESUS randomized trial

Background: The New Approach Rivaroxaban Inhibition of Factor Xa in a Global Trial vs. ASA to Prevent Embolism in Embolic Stroke of Undetermined Source (NAVIGATE-ESUS) trial is a randomized phase-III trial comparing rivaroxaban versus aspirin in patients with recent ESUS. Aims: We aimed to describe the baseline characteristics of this large ESUS cohort to explore relationships among key subgroups. Methods: We enrolled 7213 patients at 459 sites in 31 countries. Prespecified subgroups for primary safety and efficacy analyses included age, sex, race, global region, stroke or transient ischemic attack prior to qualifying event, time to randomization, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. Results: Mean age was 66.9 ± 9.8 years; 24% were under 60 years. Older patients had more hypertension, coronary disease, and cancer. Strokes in older subjects were more frequently cortical and accompanied by radiographic evidence of prior infarction. Women comprised 38% of participants and were older than men. Patients from East Asia were oldest whereas those from Latin America were youngest. Patients in the Americas more frequently were on aspirin prior to the qualifying stroke. Acute cortical infarction was more common in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, whereas prior radiographic infarctions were most common in East Asia. Approximately forty-five percent of subjects were enrolled within 30 days of the qualifying stroke, with earliest enrollments in Asia and Eastern Europe. Conclusions: NAVIGATE-ESUS is the largest randomized trial comparing antithrombotic strategies for secondary stroke prevention in patients with ESUS. The study population encompasses a broad array of patients across multiple continents and these subgroups provide ample opportunities for future research

Хронические нарушения сознания: клинические рекомендации Общероссийской общественной организации «Федерация анестезиологов и реаниматологов»

Хронические нарушения сознания (ХНС) представляют собой синдромы тяжелого поражения центральной нервной системы, приводящие к длительной грубой инвалидизации и требующие значительных усилий по лечению и реабилитации, которые ложатся на медицинские учреждения и на плечи близких пациентов. ХНС развиваются у пациентов после комы и характеризуются наличием бодрствования при полном или практически полном отсутствии признаков осознанного поведения. К ХНС относятся вегетативное состояние (ВС) и состояние минимального сознания (СМС). Также для описания начальных стадий этих состояний используется термин «продленное нарушение сознания» (ПНС). Отдельно выделяют выход из СМС — состояние, которое формируется по мере восстановления когнитивных функций. Диагностика ХНС основывается на многократном структурированном клиническом осмотре с применением специализированных шкал при условии исключения обратимых причин нарушения сознания. Лечение пациентов с ХНС включает в себя поддержание жизненно важных функций, обеспечение оптимального питания и борьбу с типичными осложнениями и сопутствующими состояниями (пролежни, спастичность, боль, пароксизмальная симпатическая гиперактивность и др.). У пациентов с ХНС должна проводиться реабилитация с участием мультидисциплинарной реабилитационной команды в объеме, который определяется проблемами и возможностями конкретного пациента. Наиболее эффективной реабилитация является при условии ее раннего начала. На данный момент однозначных доказательств эффективности каких-либо специфических методов, направленных на восстановление сознания, не получено; изучается ряд соответствующих фармакологических и нефармакологических вмешательств, обязательным условием применения которых является максимально возможная коррекция соматических проблем пациента. Важную роль в ведении пациентов с ХНС играет вовлечение близких пациента, которые, в свою очередь, нуждаются в получении объективной практической информации о состоянии своего родственника и о направлениях реабилитации, а также в психологической помощи

A systematic review of clinical trials of pharmacological interventions for acute ischaemic stroke (1955-2008) that were completed, but not published in full

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We assessed the prevalence, and potential impact of, trials of pharmacological agents for acute stroke that were completed but not published in full. Failure to publish trial data is to be deprecated as it sets aside the altruism of participants' consent to be exposed to the risks of experimental interventions, potentially biases the assessment of the effects of therapies, and may lead to premature discontinuation of research into promising treatments.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group's Specialised Register of Trials in June 2008 for completed trials of pharmacological interventions for acute ischaemic stroke, and searched MEDLINE and EMBASE (January 2007 - March 2009) for references to recent full publications. We assessed trial completion status from trial reports, online trials registers and correspondence with experts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified 940 trials. Of these, 125 (19.6%, 95% confidence interval 16.5-22.6) were completed but not published in full by the point prevalence date. They included 16,058 participants (16 trials had over 300 participants each) and tested 89 different interventions. Twenty-two trials with a total of 4,251 participants reported the number of deaths. In these trials, 636/4251 (15.0%) died.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data suggest that, at the point prevalence date, a substantial body of evidence that was of relevance both to clinical practice in acute stroke and future research in the field was not published in full. Over 16,000 patients had given informed consent and were exposed to the risks of therapy. Responsibility for non-publication lies with investigators, but pharmaceutical companies, research ethics committees, journals and governments can all encourage the timely publication of trial data.</p

ПИЛОТНЫЙ ПРОЕКТ «РАЗВИТИЕ СИСТЕМЫ МЕДИЦИНСКОЙ РЕАБИЛИТАЦИИ В РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ». ПРОТОКОЛ ВТОРОЙ ФАЗЫ

The Pilot project «Development of medical rehabilitation system in Russian Federation» is the large Russian project which is intended to transform system of rehabilitation care for patients with stroke, heart attack, and after total hip arthroplasty. The present article is the second one in the series of publications of the Project’s protocol. The publication shows the criteria of translation from 1 to 2 stages of rehabilitation and from 2 to 3 stages for all three profiles of the project. Working peculiarities of the second phase of the project are prescribed which realizes the new model of rehabilitation with assessment according to the ICF, determination of rehabilitation diagnosis, work in multidistsiplinary team and the introduction of a new speciality – ergotherapy. Пилотный проект «Развитие системы медицинской реабилитации в Российской федерации» – большой всероссийский проект, призванный преобразовать систему оказания реабилитационной помощи больным с инсультом, инфарктом и после эндопротезирования тазобедренного сустава. Данная статья является второй в серии публикаций протокола Проекта. В данной публикации приведены критерии перевода с 1-го на 2-й этапы реабилитации и со 2-го на 3-й по всем трем профилям проекта. Прописаны особенности работы во 2-й фазе проекта, где реализована новая модель реабилитации с оценкой по МКФ, установкой реабилитационного диагноза, работой в мультидисциплинарной команде и введением новой специальности – эрготерапии

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival