CHRONIC HEART FAILURE OF ISCHEMIC GENESIS AND CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE: POSSIBILITIES OF COMBINATION THERAPY INCLUDING NEBIVOLOL

Objective: to reveal the features of chronic heart failure (CHF) of ischemic genesis concurrent with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to investigate the effect of the cardioselective β1-adrenoblocker (β1-AB) nebivolol on the course of COPD and the parameters of the bronchopulmonary system in patients with CHF of ischemic genesis during treatment.Subjects and methods.The investigation enrolled 63 patients aged 40–70 years, including 43 patients with functional class (FC) II–IV CHF with a Simpson left ventricular ejection fraction of 45 % concurrent with COPD (a study group) and 20 patients with CHF and no bronchopulmonary pathology (a control group). The study group patients were randomly divided into 2 subgroups: 1) 23 patients who received nebivolol in addition to background therapy; 2) 20 patients in whom the therapy ruled out the use of β1-AB. The control patients were switched to nebivolol therapy. During 6-month follow-up, the authors made clinical examination, recorded the rate, duration, and severity of COPD exacerbations, performed a 6-minute walking test (6MWT), and used a clinical status scale modified by R. Cody, a dyspnea 0–10 category ratio (Borg scale), and a Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale (MRS scale). Besides, quality of life in patients was assessed using the specific Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire. All the patients underwent echocardiography, bronchodilatation-induced external respiratory function test, peak flowmetry, and blood brain natriuretic peptide quantification. These studies were conducted at baseline and at 1 and 6 months of therapy.Results. During the investigation, the patients with CHF concurrent with COPD were found to have a high rate of hypertensive disease, prior myocardial infarctions, atrial fibrillations, and higher FC exertional angina. These patients also showed a delayed optimal result achievement during the combination therapy involving the use of β1-AB. The group of patients without concomitant COPD was observedto have lower FV CHF and significantly reduced dyspnea during exercise (Borg scale) immediately following 1-month therapy whereas these were seen only after 6 months. Nebivolol (mean dose 5 mg) included in the treatment regimen for patients with CHF concurrent with COPD failed to have a significant effect on spirometric and peak flowmetric readings, but had a clear-cut positive effect on the health indicators of CHF patients, such as FC of the disease, heart rate, 6MWT distance, degree of dyspnea degree, and quality of life.Conclusion. Combination cardiopulmonary therapy including β1-AB leads to more effective control of comorbidity symptoms and to improvementof patient functional status.</p

CHRONIC HEART FAILURE OF ISCHEMIC GENESIS AND CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE: POSSIBILITIES OF COMBINATION THERAPY INCLUDING NEBIVOLOL

Objective: to reveal the features of chronic heart failure (CHF) of ischemic genesis concurrent with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to investigate the effect of the cardioselective β1-adrenoblocker (β1-AB) nebivolol on the course of COPD and the parameters of the bronchopulmonary system in patients with CHF of ischemic genesis during treatment.Subjects and methods.The investigation enrolled 63 patients aged 40–70 years, including 43 patients with functional class (FC) II–IV CHF with a Simpson left ventricular ejection fraction of 45 % concurrent with COPD (a study group) and 20 patients with CHF and no bronchopulmonary pathology (a control group). The study group patients were randomly divided into 2 subgroups: 1) 23 patients who received nebivolol in addition to background therapy; 2) 20 patients in whom the therapy ruled out the use of β1-AB. The control patients were switched to nebivolol therapy. During 6-month follow-up, the authors made clinical examination, recorded the rate, duration, and severity of COPD exacerbations, performed a 6-minute walking test (6MWT), and used a clinical status scale modified by R. Cody, a dyspnea 0–10 category ratio (Borg scale), and a Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale (MRS scale). Besides, quality of life in patients was assessed using the specific Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire. All the patients underwent echocardiography, bronchodilatation-induced external respiratory function test, peak flowmetry, and blood brain natriuretic peptide quantification. These studies were conducted at baseline and at 1 and 6 months of therapy.Results. During the investigation, the patients with CHF concurrent with COPD were found to have a high rate of hypertensive disease, prior myocardial infarctions, atrial fibrillations, and higher FC exertional angina. These patients also showed a delayed optimal result achievement during the combination therapy involving the use of β1-AB. The group of patients without concomitant COPD was observedto have lower FV CHF and significantly reduced dyspnea during exercise (Borg scale) immediately following 1-month therapy whereas these were seen only after 6 months. Nebivolol (mean dose 5 mg) included in the treatment regimen for patients with CHF concurrent with COPD failed to have a significant effect on spirometric and peak flowmetric readings, but had a clear-cut positive effect on the health indicators of CHF patients, such as FC of the disease, heart rate, 6MWT distance, degree of dyspnea degree, and quality of life.Conclusion. Combination cardiopulmonary therapy including β1-AB leads to more effective control of comorbidity symptoms and to improvementof patient functional status.</p

Frontal cephalometric landmarking: humans vs artificial neural networks

Frontal cephalometric radiography (frontal ceph) is one of the important diagnostic methods in orthodontics and maxillofacial surgery. It allows one to determine occlusion anomalies in the transverse and vertical planes and to evaluate the symmetry of the facial skeleton relative to the median plane, including analysis of the position of the jawbone. Aim: The aim of this study was to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) for placing cephalometric points (CPs) on frontal cephs and to compare the accuracy of its performance against humans. Materials and methods: The study included 330 depersonalized frontal cephs: 300 cephs for training ANNs and 30 for research. Each image was imported into the ViSurgery software (Skolkovo, Russia) and the 45 CPs were arranged. The CPs were divided into three groups: 1) precise anatomical landmarks; 2) complex anatomical landmarks; and 3) indistinct anatomical landmarks. Two ANNs were used to improve the accuracy of CP placement. The first ANN solved the problem of multiclass image segmentation, and the second regression ANN was used to correct the predictions of the first ANN. The accuracy of CP placement was compared between the ANN and three groups of doctors: expert, regular, and inexperienced. Then, using the Wilcoxon t test, the hypothesis that an ANN makes fewer or as many errors as doctors in the three groups of points was tested. Results: The deviation was estimated by the mean absolute error (MAE). The MAE for the points placed by the ANN, as compared with the control, was close to the average result for the regular doctor group: 2.87 mm (ANN) and 2.85 mm (regular group); 2.47 mm (expert group), and 3.61 mm (inexperienced group). The results for individual groups of points are presented. On average, the ANN places CPs no less accurately than the regular doctor group in each group of points. However, calculating all points in total, this hypothesis was rejected because the P value was 0.0056. A different result was observed among the inexperienced doctor group. Points from groups 2 and 3, as well as all points in total, were placed more accurately by the ANN (P = 0.9998, 0.2628, and 0.9982, respectively). The exception was group 1, where the points were more accurately placed by the inexperienced doctors (P = 0.0006). Conclusion: The results of the present study show that ANNs can achieve accuracy comparable to humans in placing CPs, and in some cases surpass the accuracy of inexperienced doctors (students, residents, graduate students)

Rivaroxaban with or without aspirin in stable cardiovascular disease

BACKGROUND: We evaluated whether rivaroxaban alone or in combination with aspirin would be more effective than aspirin alone for secondary cardiovascular prevention. METHODS: In this double-blind trial, we randomly assigned 27,395 participants with stable atherosclerotic vascular disease to receive rivaroxaban (2.5 mg twice daily) plus aspirin (100 mg once daily), rivaroxaban (5 mg twice daily), or aspirin (100 mg once daily). The primary outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, stroke, or myocardial infarction. The study was stopped for superiority of the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group after a mean follow-up of 23 months. RESULTS: The primary outcome occurred in fewer patients in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group than in the aspirin-alone group (379 patients [4.1%] vs. 496 patients [5.4%]; hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66 to 0.86; P<0.001; z=−4.126), but major bleeding events occurred in more patients in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group (288 patients [3.1%] vs. 170 patients [1.9%]; hazard ratio, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.40 to 2.05; P<0.001). There was no significant difference in intracranial or fatal bleeding between these two groups. There were 313 deaths (3.4%) in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group as compared with 378 (4.1%) in the aspirin-alone group (hazard ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.71 to 0.96; P=0.01; threshold P value for significance, 0.0025). The primary outcome did not occur in significantly fewer patients in the rivaroxaban-alone group than in the aspirin-alone group, but major bleeding events occurred in more patients in the rivaroxaban-alone group. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with stable atherosclerotic vascular disease, those assigned to rivaroxaban (2.5 mg twice daily) plus aspirin had better cardiovascular outcomes and more major bleeding events than those assigned to aspirin alone. Rivaroxaban (5 mg twice daily) alone did not result in better cardiovascular outcomes than aspirin alone and resulted in more major bleeding events