Role of age and comorbidities in mortality of patients with infective endocarditis

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of patients with IE in three groups of age and to assess the ability of age and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to predict mortality. Methods: Prospective cohort study of all patients with IE included in the GAMES Spanish database between 2008 and 2015. Patients were stratified into three age groups:<65 years, 65 to 80 years, and = 80 years.The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was calculated to quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the CCI to predict mortality risk. Results: A total of 3120 patients with IE (1327 < 65 years;1291 65-80 years;502 = 80 years) were enrolled.Fever and heart failure were the most common presentations of IE, with no differences among age groups.Patients =80 years who underwent surgery were significantly lower compared with other age groups (14.3%, 65 years; 20.5%, 65-79 years; 31.3%, =80 years). In-hospital mortality was lower in the <65-year group (20.3%, <65 years;30.1%, 65-79 years;34.7%, =80 years;p < 0.001) as well as 1-year mortality (3.2%, <65 years; 5.5%, 65-80 years;7.6%, =80 years; p = 0.003).Independent predictors of mortality were age = 80 years (hazard ratio [HR]:2.78;95% confidence interval [CI]:2.32–3.34), CCI = 3 (HR:1.62; 95% CI:1.39–1.88), and non-performed surgery (HR:1.64;95% CI:11.16–1.58).When the three age groups were compared, the AUROC curve for CCI was significantly larger for patients aged <65 years(p < 0.001) for both in-hospital and 1-year mortality. Conclusion: There were no differences in the clinical presentation of IE between the groups. Age = 80 years, high comorbidity (measured by CCI), and non-performance of surgery were independent predictors of mortality in patients with IE.CCI could help to identify those patients with IE and surgical indication who present a lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality after surgery, especially in the <65-year group

Elliptic flow of charged particles at midrapidity relative to the spectator plane in Pb–Pb and Xe–Xe collisions

Measurements of the elliptic flow coefficient relative to the collision plane defined by the spectator neutrons v2{ SP} in collisions of Pb ions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon pair √ 2.76 TeV and Xe ions at √ sNN = sNN =5.44 TeV are reported. The results are presented for charged particles produced at midrapidity as a function of centrality and transverse momentum for the 5–70% and 0.2–6 GeV/c ranges, respectively. The ratio between v2{ SP} and the elliptic flow coefficient relative to the participant plane v2{4}, estimated using four-particle correlations, deviates by up to 20% from unity depending on centrality. This observation differs strongly from the magnitude of the corresponding eccentricity ratios predicted by the TRENTo and the elliptic power models of initial state fluctuations that are tuned to describe the participant plane anisotropies. The differences can be interpreted as a decorrelation of the neutron spectator plane and the reaction plane because of fragmentation of the remnants from the colliding nuclei, which points to an incompleteness of current models describing the initial state fluctuations. A significant transverse momentum dependence of the ratio v2{ SP}/v2{4} is observed in all but the most central collisions, which may help to understand whether momentum anisotropies at low and intermediate transverse momentum have a common origin in initial state f luctuations. The ratios of v2{ SP} and v2{4} to the corresponding initial state eccentricities for Xe–Xe and Pb–Pb collisions at similar initial entropy density show a difference of (7.0 ±0.9)%with an additional variation of +1.8% when including RHIC data in the TRENTo parameter extraction. These observations provide new experimental constraints for viscous effects in the hydrodynamic modeling of the expanding quark–gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC

First measurement of Ωc0 production in pp collisions at s=13 TeV

The inclusive production of the charm–strange baryon 0 c is measured for the first time via its hadronic √ decay into −π+ at midrapidity (|y| &lt;0.5) in proton–proton (pp) collisions at the centre-of-mass energy s =13 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The transverse momentum (pT) differential cross section multiplied by the branching ratio is presented in the interval 2 &lt; pT &lt; 12 GeV/c. The pT dependence of the 0 c-baryon production relative to the prompt D0-meson and to the prompt 0 c-baryon production is compared to various models that take different hadronisation mechanisms into consideration. In the measured pT interval, the ratio of the pT-integrated cross sections of 0 c and prompt + c baryons multiplied by the −π+ branching ratio is found to be larger by a factor of about 20 with a significance of about 4σ when compared to e+e− collisions

Measurement of ψ\psi(2S) production as a function of charged-particle pseudorapidity density in pp collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV and p-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 8.16 TeV with ALICE at the LHC

International audienceProduction of inclusive charmonia in pp collisions at center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV and p–Pb collisions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}$ = 8.16 TeV is studied as a function of charged-particle pseudorapidity density with ALICE. Ground and excited charmonium states (J/ψ, ψ(2S)) are measured from their dimuon decays in the interval of rapidity in the center-of-mass frame 2.5 < y$_{cms}$< 4.0 for pp collisions, and 2.03 < y$_{cms}$< 3.53 and −4.46 < y$_{cms}$< −2.96 for p–Pb collisions. The charged-particle pseudorapidity density is measured around midrapidity (|η| < 1.0). In pp collisions, the measured charged-particle multiplicity extends to about six times the average value, while in p-Pb collisions at forward (backward) rapidity a multiplicity corresponding to about three (four) times the average is reached. The ψ(2S) yield increases with the charged-particle pseudorapidity density. The ratio of ψ(2S) over J/ψ yield does not show a significant multiplicity dependence in either colliding system, suggesting a similar behavior of J/ψ and ψ(2S) yields with respect to charged-particle pseudorapidity density. Results for the ψ(2S) yield and its ratio with respect to J/ψ agree with available model calculations.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Anisotropic flow and flow fluctuations of identified hadrons in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN \sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} = 5.02 TeV

International audienceThe first measurements of elliptic flow of π$^{±}$, K$^{±}$, $\textrm{p}+\overline{\textrm{p}}$, ${\textrm{K}}_{\textrm{S}}^0$, $\Lambda +\overline{\Lambda}$, ϕ, ${\Xi}^{-}+{\overline{\Xi}}^{+}$, and ${\varOmega}^{-}+{\overline{\varOmega}}^{+}$ using multiparticle cumulants in Pb–Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV are resented. Results obtained with two- (v$_{2}${2}) and four-particle cumulants (v$_{2}${4}) are shown as a function of transverse momentum, p$_{T}$, for various collision centrality intervals. Combining the data for both v$_{2}${2} and v$_{2}${4} also allows us to report the first measurements of the mean elliptic flow, elliptic flow fluctuations, and relative elliptic flow fluctuations for various hadron species. These observables probe the event-by-event eccentricity fluctuations in the initial state and the contributions from the dynamic evolution of the expanding quark–gluon plasma. The characteristic features observed in previous p$_{T}$-differential anisotropic flow measurements for identified hadrons with two-particle correlations, namely the mass ordering at low p$_{T}$ and the approximate scaling with the number of constituent quarks at intermediate p$_{T}$, are similarly present in the four-particle correlations and the combinations of v$_{2}${2} and v$_{2}${4}. In addition, a particle species dependence of flow fluctuations is observed that could indicate a significant contribution from final state hadronic interactions. The comparison between experimental measurements and CoLBT model calculations, which combine the various physics processes of hydrodynamics, quark coalescence, and jet fragmentation, illustrates their importance over a wide p$_{T}$ range.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Measurements of the groomed jet radius and momentum splitting fraction with the soft drop and dynamical grooming algorithms in pp collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 5.02 TeV

International audienceThis article presents measurements of the groomed jet radius and momentum splitting fraction in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Inclusive charged-particle jets are reconstructed at midrapidity using the anti-k$_{T}$ algorithm for transverse momentum $60<{p}_{\textrm{T}}^{\textrm{ch}\;\textrm{jet}}<80$ GeV/c. We report results using two different grooming algorithms: soft drop and, for the first time, dynamical grooming. For each grooming algorithm, a variety of grooming settings are used in order to explore the impact of collinear radiation on these jet substructure observables. These results are compared to perturbative calculations that include resummation of large logarithms at all orders in the strong coupling constant. We find good agreement of the theoretical predictions with the data for all grooming settings considered.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Σ(1385)±\Sigma (1385)^{\pm } resonance production in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 5.02\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}~=~5.02 TeV

International audienceHadronic resonances are used to probe the hadron gas produced in the late stage of heavy-ion collisions since they decay on the same timescale, of the order of 1–10 fm/c, as the decoupling time of the system. In the hadron gas, (pseudo)elastic scatterings among the products of resonances that decayed before the kinetic freeze-out and regeneration processes counteract each other, the net effect depending on the resonance lifetime, the duration of the hadronic phase, and the hadronic cross sections at play. In this context, the $\Sigma (1385)^{\pm }$ particle is of particular interest as models predict that regeneration dominates over rescattering despite its relatively short lifetime of about 5.5 fm/c. The first measurement of the $\Sigma (1385)^{\pm }$ resonance production at midrapidity in Pb–Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}= 5.02$ TeV with the ALICE detector is presented in this Letter. The resonances are reconstructed via their hadronic decay channel, $\Lambda \pi$, as a function of the transverse momentum ($p_\textrm{T}$) and the collision centrality. The results are discussed in comparison with the measured yield of pions and with expectations from the statistical hadronization model as well as commonly employed event generators, including PYTHIA8/Angantyr and EPOS3 coupled to the UrQMD hadronic cascade afterburner. None of the models can describe the data. For $\Sigma (1385)^{\pm }$, a similar behaviour as $\textrm{K}^{*} (892)^{0}$ is observed in data unlike the predictions of EPOS3 with afterburner

Measurement of inclusive and leading subjet fragmentation in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at sNN \sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} = 5.02 TeV

International audienceThis article presents new measurements of the fragmentation properties of jets in both proton–proton (pp) and heavy-ion collisions with the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We report distributions of the fraction z$_{r}$ of transverse momentum carried by subjets of radius r within jets of radius R. Charged-particle jets are reconstructed at midrapidity using the anti-k$_{T}$ algorithm with jet radius R = 0.4, and subjets are reconstructed by reclustering the jet constituents using the anti-k$_{T}$ algorithm with radii r = 0.1 and r = 0.2. In proton–proton collisions, we measure both the inclusive and leading subjet distributions. We compare these measurements to perturbative calculations at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, which suggest a large impact of threshold resummation and hadronization effects on the z$_{r}$ distribution. In heavy-ion collisions, we measure the leading subjet distributions, which allow access to a region of harder jet frag- mentation than has been probed by previous measurements of jet quenching via hadron fragmentation distributions. The z$_{r}$ distributions enable extraction of the parton-to-subjet fragmentation function and allow for tests of the universality of jet fragmentation functions in the quark–gluon plasma (QGP). We find no significant modification of z$_{r}$ distributions in Pb–Pb compared to pp collisions. However, the distributions are also consistent with a hardening trend for z$_{r}$< 0.95, as predicted by several jet quenching models. As z$_{r}$ → 1 our results indicate that any such hardening effects cease, exposing qualitatively new possibilities to disentangle competing jet quenching mechanisms. By comparing our results to theoretical calculations based on an independent extraction of the parton-to-jet fragmentation function, we find consistency with the universality of jet fragmentation and no indication of factorization breaking in the QGP.[graphic not available: see fulltext