Is it possible to predict the success of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation in acute respiratory failure due to COPD?

AbstractThere is now sufficient evidence that non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) in selected patients with severe hypercapnic acute respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is more effective than pharmacological therapy alone. The aim of this study was to identify prognostic factors to predict the success of this technique. Fifty-nine consecutive patients with COPD admitted to a respiratory ward for 75 episodes of acute respiratory failure treated with NIPPV were analysed: success (77%) or failure (23%) were evaluated by survival and the need for endotracheal intubation. There were no significant differences in age, sex, cause of relapse and lung function tests between the two groups. Patients in whom NIPPV was unsuccessful were significantly underweight, had an higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, and a lower serum level of albumin in comparison with those in whom NIPPV was successful. They demonstrated significantly greater abnormalities in pH and P a CO2at baseline and after 2 h of NIPPV. The logistic regression analysis demonstrated that, when all the variables were tested together, a high APACHE II score and a low albumin level continued to have a significant predictive effect. This analysis could predict the outcome in 82% of patients. In conclusion, our study suggests that low albumin serum levels and a high APACHE II score may be important indices in predicting the success of NIPPV

Virological and Immunological Monitoring of Human Cytomegalovirus Infection in Heart and Small Bowel/Multivisceral Transplantation

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Estimation of buffalo cheese yield by using the chemical-physical parameters of the milk

The aim of this study was to estimate cheese yield by using the chemical- physical parameters of the milk. Analysis were performed on 325 milk samples with 80-219 days in milk interval. Furthermore, buffaloes which showed a ratio between theoretical cheese yield (calculated by Altiero formula) and real cheese yield at 28 hours higher (Group A) or lower (Group B) than 0.983, were compared taking into account 5 hypothetical analytical potentialities of laboratories: 1) Fat percentage; 2) Protein and fat percentages; 3) Protein and fat percentages, pH and SH; 4) Protein and fat percentages, pH, SH, urea, protein percentage corrected per urea, lactose, solids-not-fat (SNF) and SCC; 5) Protein and fat percentages, pH, SH, urea, protein percentage corrected per urea, lactose, SNF, SCC, TAMF, milk DM percentage, ash percentage and casein percentage. Correlation and regression analyses with stepwise method were performed for curd quantity in relation to the physic-chemical ad microbiological milk composition by using SPSS 15.0. As expected, R2 value was such high as the number of variables included in the calculation. A higher R2 value was observed in those samples characterized by a ThCY/28CY ratio < 0.983. ThCY calculated according to Altiero et al (1989), underestimated 28CY of +1.8 g/litre in all samples, whereas a difference between –2.2 (Laboratory 2) and +1.0 (Laboratory 3) g/litre was registered if the actual formula is utilized. According to Altiero formula, 28CY was overestimated of 9.6 g/litre in Group A, whereas it was underestimated of 1.8 g/litre in Group B. According to our study, the estimation of 28CY showed a difference between –9.3 (Laboratory 2) and 9 (Laboratory 1) g/litre in Group A and – 3.5 (Laboratory 1) e 0.0 (Laboratory 5) g/litre

Cytomegalovirus Management in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: A Pre-COVID-19 Survey From the Working Group of the European Society for Organ Transplantation

Infections are leading causes of morbidity/mortality following solid organ transplantation (SOT) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) is among the most frequent pathogens, causing a considerable threat to SOT recipients. A survey was conducted 19 July–31 October 2019 to capture clinical practices about CMV in SOT recipients (e.g., how practices aligned with guidelines, how adequately treatments met patients’ needs, and respondents’ expectations for future developments). Transplant professionals completed a ∼30-minute online questionnaire: 224 responses were included, representing 160 hospitals and 197 SOT programs (41 countries; 167[83%] European programs). Findings revealed a heterogenous approach to CMV diagnosis and management and, sometimes, significant divergence from international guidelines. Valganciclovir prophylaxis (of variable duration) was administered by 201/224 (90%) respondents in D+/R− SOT and by 40% in R+ cases, with pre-emptive strategies generally reserved for R+ cases: DNA thresholds to initiate treatment ranged across 10–10,000 copies/ml. Ganciclovir-resistant CMV strains were still perceived as major challenges, and tailored treatment was one of the most important unmet needs for CMV management. These findings may help to design studies to evaluate safety and efficacy of new strategies to prevent CMV disease in SOT recipients, and target specific educational activities to harmonize CMV management in this challenging population

The XIIIth Banff Conference on Allograft Pathology: The Banff 2015 Heart Meeting Report: Improving Antibody-Mediated Rejection Diagnostics: Strengths, Unmet Needs, and Future Directions.

The 13th Banff Conference on Allograft Pathology was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October 5 to 10, 2015. The cardiac session was devoted to current diagnostic issues in heart transplantation with a focus on antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) and small vessel arteriopathy. Specific topics included the strengths and limitations of the current rejection grading system, the central role of microvascular injury in AMR and approaches to semiquantitative assessment of histopathologic and immunophenotypic indicators, the role of AMR in the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy, the important role of serologic antibody detection in the management of transplant recipients, and the potential application of new molecular approaches to the elucidation of the pathophysiology of AMR and potential for improving the current diagnostic system. Herein we summarize the key points from the presentations, the comprehensive, open and wide-ranging multidisciplinary discussion that was generated, and considerations for future endeavors

Towards process instances building for spaghetti processes

Abstract. Process Mining techniques aim at building a process model starting from an event log generated during the execution of the process. Classical process mining approaches have problems when dealing with Spaghetti Processes, i.e. processes with little or no structure, since they obtain very chaotic models. As a remedy, in previous works we proposed a methodology aimed at supporting the analysis of a spaghetti process by means of its most relevant subprocesses. Such approach exploits graph-mining techniques, thus requiring to reconstruct the set of process instances starting from the sequential traces stored in the event log. In the present work, we discuss the main problems related to process instances building in spaghetti contexts, and introduce a proposal for extending a process instance building technique to address such issues

Histopathological comparison of intramural coronary artery remodeling and myocardial fibrosis in obstructive versus end-stage hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background: Although imaging techniques have demonstrated the existence of microvascular abnormalities in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a detailed histopathological assessment is lacking as well as a comparison between different phases of the disease. We aimed to compare microvasculopathy and myocardial fibrosis in hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) versus end-stage (ES) HCM. Methods: 27 myectomy specimens of HOCM patients and 30 ES-HCM explanted hearts were analyzed. Myocardial fibrosis was quantitatively determined with dedicated software and qualitatively classified as scar-like or interstitial. Intramural coronary arteries were evaluated separately according to lumen diameter: 100–500 μ versus &lt;100 μ. Microvasculopathy assessment included the description of medial and intimal abnormalities and stenosis grading. The two subgroups were compared considering only the anterobasal septum of ES explanted hearts. Results: Median value of fibrosis in the anterobasal septum of explanted hearts was 34.6% as opposed to 10.3% of myectomy specimens (p &lt; 0.001). Scar-like fibrosis was widely found in ES hearts while interstitial fibrosis was distinctive of HOCM (p &lt; 0.001). All slides showed 100–500 μ microvasculopathy without any differences between subgroups in terms of lumen narrowing, extent of the disease and type of parietal involvement. Among ES hearts these lesions were associated with scar-like fibrosis (p = 0.034). &lt;100-μ microvasculopathy was also frequent with no differences between subgroups. Conclusions: Microvasculopathy is an intrinsic feature of HCM with similar characteristics across the natural phases of the disease. Conversely, myocardial fibrosis changes over time with ES hearts showing a three-fold greater amount, mainly scar-like. ES showed a closer association between microvasculopathy and replacement fibrosis

Differences in cardiac phenotype and natural history of laminopathies with and without neuromuscular onset

Objective: To investigate differences in cardiac manifestations of patients affected by laminopathy, according to the presence or absence of neuromuscular involvement at presentation. Methods: We prospectively analyzed 40 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of laminopathy followed at a single centre between 1998 and 2017. Additionally, reports of clinical evaluations and tests prior to referral at our centre were retrospectively evaluated. Results: Clinical onset was cardiac in 26 cases and neuromuscular in 14. Patients with neuromuscular presentation experienced first symptoms earlier in life (11 vs 39 years; p &lt; 0.0001) and developed atrial fibrillation/flutter (AF) and required pacemaker implantation at a younger age (28 vs 41 years [p = 0.013] and 30 vs 44 years [p = 0.086] respectively), despite a similar overall prevalence of AF (57% vs 65%; p = 0.735) and atrio-ventricular (A-V) block (50% vs 65%; p = 0.500). Those with a neuromuscular presentation developed a cardiomyopathy less frequently (43% vs 73%; p = 0.089) and had a lower rate of sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmias (7% vs 23%; p = 0.387). In patients with neuromuscular onset rhythm disturbances occurred usually before evidence of cardiomyopathy. Despite these differences, the need for heart transplantation and median age at intervention were similar in the two groups (29% vs 23% [p = 0.717] and 43 vs 46 years [p = 0.593] respectively). Conclusions: In patients with laminopathy, the type of disease onset was a marker for a different natural history. Specifically, patients with neuromuscular presentation had an earlier cardiac involvement, characterized by a linear and progressive evolution from rhythm disorders (AF and/or A-V block) to cardiomyopathy