Use of serology in a systematic screening programme for strongyloidiasis in an immigrant population

Objectives: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe the results of a systematic serological screening programme for strongyloidiasis. Methods: Aprospective serological screeningprogramme for strongyloidiasis wasperformedbetween2009 and2014 for allimmigrantpatients attending theTropicalMedicineUnit. Three formalin-etherconcentrated stool samples and an ELISA for anti-Strongyloides stercoralis antibodies were used as screening tools. Results: Of 659 patients screened, 79 (12%) were positive for S. stercoralis regardless of the diagnostic method used. The prevalence of infection was 42.9% in East African patients, 16.3% in Central African patients,10.9% in those fromSouthAmerica, and 10% in the case ofWestAfrica. Univariate analysis showed thatinfection by S. stercoralis was significantly more frequentinpatients from CentralAfrica (p = 0.026; OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.03–2.85) and East Africa (p<0.001; OR 5.88, 95% CI 1.75–19.32). Taking West Africa as the reference (as the area of lowest prevalence among the positive prevalence areas), the statistical analysis showed that the risk of infection was higher in East Africa (p = 0.001; OR 6.750, 95% CI 2.127–21.423) and Central Africa (p = 0.065; OR 1.747, 95% CI 0.965–3.163). Conclusions: Due to the potential complications of strongyloidiasis infection, we recommend that immigrantpatients fromdevelopingcountriesbe routinelyscreenedfor S. stercoralis, especiallythose from East Africa. A serological test is a highly appropriate screening tool

Cancer Survival in Adults in Spain: A Population-Based Study of the Spanish Network of Cancer Registries (REDECAN)

© 2022.This document is made available under the CC-BY 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by /4.0/ This document is the published version of a published work that appeared in final form in CancersThe assessment of cancer survival at the population level is essential for monitoring progress in cancer control. We aimed to assess cancer survival and its trends in adults in Spain. Individual records of 601,250 adults with primary cancer diagnosed during 2002-2013 and followed up to 2015 were included from 13 population-based cancer registries. We estimated net survival up to five years after diagnosis and analyzed absolute changes between 2002-2007 and 2008-2013. Estimates were age-standardized. Analyses were performed for 29 cancer groups, by age and sex. Overall, age-standardized five-year net survival was higher in women (61.7%, 95% CI 61.4-62.1%) than in men (55.3%, 95% CI 55.0-55.6%), and ranged by cancer from 7.2% (pancreas) to 89.6% (prostate) in men, and from 10.0% (pancreas) to 93.1% (thyroid) in women in the last period. Survival declined with age, showing different patterns by cancer. Between both periods, age-standardized five-year net survival increased overall by 3.3% (95% CI 3.0-3.7%) in men and 2.5% (95% CI 2.0-3.0%) in women, and for most cancer groups. Improvements were greater in patients younger than 75 years than in older patients. Chronic myeloid leukemia and myeloma showed the largest increases. Among the most common malignancies, the greatest absolute increases in survival were observed for colon (5.0%, 95% CI 4.0-6.0%) and rectal cancers (4.5%, 95% CI 3.2-5.9%). Survival improved even for some cancers with poor prognosis (pancreas, esophagus, lung, liver, and brain cancer). Further investigation of possible sociodemographic inequalities is warranted. This study contributes to the evaluation of cancer control and health services' effectiveness

Predicting non-invasive ventilation failure in children from the SpO₂/FiO₂ (SF) ratio

PURPOSE: Our objective was to assess whether SpO₂/FiO₂ (SF) ratio could be a useful NIV outcome predictor in children with acute respiratory failure (ARF) and tried to develop a predictive model of NIV failure. METHODS: Prospective, observational, multicenter study. Episodes of ARF-fulfilling inclusion criteria from 15 January 2010 to 14 January 2011 were treated with NIV according to a pre-established protocol. Clinical variables were collected at baseline and at 1, 2, 6, 12 and 24 h. Failure criterion was the need for endotracheal intubation. Failures were considered as "early" if occurring ≤6 h after NIV initiation, "intermediate" if occurring between 6 and 24 h, and "late" if occurring after 24 h. Variables with a p < 0.1 in univariate analysis corrected by age were included in multivariate analysis. Models were calculated based on multivariate analysis. RESULTS: During the study period, 390 episodes were included. NIV success rate was 81.3 %. Among ARF causes, failure occurred most frequently in ARDS episodes. The failure predictive model for the whole sample included SF ratio at 1 h, age and PRISM III-24 (area under the curve AUC of 0.755). For early NIV failures, SF ratio at 1 h was the only variable within model (AUC 0.748). The analysis of intermediate NIV failures identified 3 variables independently linked to NIV outcome: PRISM III-24, RR decrease at 6 h, and SF ratio at 6 h (AUC 0.895). No model was identified for late NIV failure. CONCLUSIONS: SF ratio is a reliable predictor of early NIV failure in children

A new microporous zeolitic silicoborate (ITQ-52) with interconnected small and medium pores

A new zeolite (named as ITQ-52) having large cavities and small and medium channels has been synthesized. This was achieved by using a new family of amino-phosphonium cations as organic structure directing agents (OSDA). These cations contain P&#8722;C and P&#8722;N bonds, and therefore they lie between previously reported P-containing OSDA, such as tetraalkylphosphonium and phosphazenes. In this study, it has been found that 1,4- butanediylbis[tris(dimethylamino)]phosphonium dication is a very efficient OSDA for crystallization of several zeolites, and in some particular conditions, the new zeolite ITQ-52 was synthesized as a pure phase. The structure of ITQ-52 has been solved using high-resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data of the calcined solid. This new zeolite crystallizes in the space group I2/m, with cell parameters a = 17.511 Å, b = 17.907 Å, c = 12.367 Å, and &#946; = 90.22°. The topology of ITQ-52 can be described as a replication of a composite building unit with ring notation [435461] that gives rise to the formation of an interconnected 8R and 10R channel system.We thank financial support by the Spanish Government (MAT2012-38567-C02-01, MAT2012-38567-C02-02, Consolider Ingenio 2010-Multicat CSD-2009-00050 and Severo Ochoa SEV-2012-0267). R.S. acknowledges to UPV for a FPI predoctoral fellowship. Authors thank ALBA Light Source for beam allocation at beamline MSPD. We thank G. Sastre and J. A. Vidal for computational calculations and MAS NMR experiments, respectively.Simancas Coloma, R.; Jorda Moret, JL.; Rey Garcia, F.; Corma Canós, A.; Cantin Sanz, A.; Peral, I.; Popescu, C. (2014). A new microporous zeolitic silicoborate (ITQ-52) with interconnected small and medium pores. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 136(9):3342-3345. doi:10.1021/ja411915cS33423345136

Sex differences between women and men with COPD: A new analysis of the 3CIA study

Background: There is partial evidence that COPD is expressed differently in women than in men, namely on symptoms, pulmonary function, exacerbations, comorbidities or prognosis. There is a need to improve the characterization of COPD in females. Methods: We obtained and pooled data of 17 139 patients from 22 COPD cohorts and analysed the clinical differences by sex, establishing the relationship between these characteristics in women and the prognosis and severity of the disease. Comparisons were established with standard statistics and survival analysis, including crude and multivariate Cox-regression analysis. Results: Overall, 5355 (31.2%) women were compared with men with COPD. Women were younger, had lower pack-years, greater FEV1%, lower BMI and a greater number of exacerbations (all p &lt; 0.05). On symptoms, women reported more dyspnea, equal cough but less expectoration (p &lt; 0.001). There were no differences in the BODE index score in women (2.4) versus men (2.4) (p = 0.5), but the distribution of all BODE components was highly variable by sex within different thresholds of BODE. On prognosis, 5-year survival was higher in COPD females (86.9%) than in males (76.3%), p &lt; 0.001, in all patients and within each of the specific comorbidities that we assessed. The crude and adjusted RR and 95% C.I. for death in males was 1.82 (1.69–1.96) and 1.73 (1.50–2.00), respectively. Conclusions: COPD in women has some characteristic traits expressed differently than compared to men, mainly with more dyspnea and COPD exacerbations and less phlegm, among others, although long-term survival appears better in female COPD patients

Mortality prediction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease comparing the GOLD 2015 and GOLD 2019 staging: a pooled analysis of individual patient data

In 2019, The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) modified the grading system for patients with COPD, creating 16 subgroups (1A–4D). As part of the COPD Cohorts Collaborative International Assessment (3CIA) initiative, we aim to compare the mortality prediction of the 2015 and 2019 COPD GOLD staging systems. We studied 17 139 COPD patients from the 3CIA study, selecting those with complete data. Patients were classified by the 2015 and 2019 GOLD ABCD systems, and we compared the predictive ability for 5-year mortality of both classifications. In total, 17 139 patients with COPD were enrolled in 22 cohorts from 11 countries between 2003 and 2017; 8823 of them had complete data and were analysed. Mean±sd age was 63.9±9.8 years and 62.9% were male. GOLD 2019 classified the patients in milder degrees of COPD. For both classifications, group D had higher mortality. 5-year mortality did not differ between groups B and C in GOLD 2015; in GOLD 2019, mortality was greater for group B than C. Patients classified as group A and B had better sensitivity and positive predictive value with the GOLD 2019 classification than GOLD 2015. GOLD 2015 had better sensitivity for group C and D than GOLD 2019. The area under the curve values for 5-year mortality were only 0.67 (95% CI 0.66–0.68) for GOLD 2015 and 0.65 (95% CI 0.63–0.66) for GOLD 2019

The ERA Registry Annual Report 2019 : summary and age comparisons

Background Data on renal replacement therapy (RRT) for end-stage renal disease were collected by the European Renal Association (ERA) Registry via national and regional renal registries in Europe and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. This article provides a summary of the 2019 ERA Registry Annual Report, including data from 34 countries and additional age comparisons. Methods Individual patient data for 2019 were provided by 35 registries and aggregated data by 17 registries. Using these data, the incidence and prevalence of RRT, the kidney transplantation activity and the survival probabilities were calculated. Results In 2019, a general population of 680.8 million people was covered by the ERA Registry. Overall, the incidence of RRT was 132 per million population (p.m.p.). Of these patients, 62% were men, 54% were >= 65 years of age and 21% had diabetes mellitus as primary renal disease (PRD), and 84% had haemodialysis (HD), 11% had peritoneal dialysis (PD) and 5% had pre-emptive kidney transplantation as an initial treatment modality. The overall prevalence of RRT on 31 December 2019 was 893 p.m.p., with 58% of patients on HD, 5% on PD and 37% living with a kidney transplant. The overall kidney transplant rate was 35 p.m.p. and 29% of the kidney grafts were from a living donor. The unadjusted 5-year survival probability was 42.3% for patients commencing dialysis, 86.6% for recipients of deceased donor grafts and 94.4% for recipients of living donor grafts in the period 2010-14. When comparing age categories, there were substantial differences in the distribution of PRD, treatment modality and kidney donor type, and in the survival probabilities.Peer reviewe

A comparison of the epidemiology of kidney replacement therapy between Europe and the United States: 2021 data of the ERA Registry and the USRDS.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: This paper compares the most recent data on the incidence and prevalence of kidney replacement therapy (KRT), kidney transplantation rates, and mortality on KRT from Europe to those from the United States (US), including comparisons of treatment modalities (haemodialysis (HD), peritoneal dialysis (PD), and kidney transplantation (KTx)). METHODS: Data were derived from the annual reports of the European Renal Association (ERA) Registry and the United States Renal Data System (USRDS). The European data include information from national and regional renal registries providing the ERA Registry with individual patient data. Additional analyses were performed to present results for all participating European countries together. RESULTS: In 2021, the KRT incidence in the US (409.7 per million population (pmp)) was almost 3-fold higher than in Europe (144.4 pmp). Despite the substantial difference in KRT incidence, approximately the same proportion of patients initiated HD (Europe: 82%, US: 84%), PD (14%; 13% respectively), or underwent pre-emptive KTx (4%; 3% respectively). The KRT prevalence in the US (2436.1 pmp) was 2-fold higher than in Europe (1187.8 pmp). Within Europe, approximately half of all prevalent patients were living with a functioning graft (47%), while in the US, this was one third (32%). The number of kidney transplantations performed was almost twice as high in the US (77.0 pmp) compared to Europe (41.6 pmp). The mortality of patients receiving KRT was 1.6-fold higher in the US (157.3 per 1000 patient years) compared to Europe (98.7 per 1000 patient years). CONCLUSIONS: The US had a much higher KRT incidence, prevalence, and mortality compared to Europe, and despite a higher kidney transplantation rate, a lower proportion of prevalent patients with a functioning graft

External validation and recalculation of the CODEX index in COPD patients::A 3CIAplus cohort study

The CODEX index was developed and validated in patients hospitalized for COPD exacerbation to predict the risk of death and readmission within one year after discharge. Our study aimed to validate the CODEX index in a large external population of COPD patients with variable durations of follow-up. Additionally, we aimed to recalculate the thresholds of the CODEX index using the cutoffs of variables previously suggested in the 3CIA study (mCODEX). Individual data on 2,755 patients included in the COPD Cohorts Collaborative International Assessment Plus (3CIA+) were explored. A further two cohorts (ESMI AND EGARPOC-2) were added. To validate the CODEX index, the relationship between mortality and the CODEX index was assessed using cumulative/dynamic ROC curves at different follow-up periods, ranging from 3 months up to 10 years. Calibration was performed using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models and Hosmer-Lemeshow test. A total of 3,321 (87.8% males) patients were included with a mean ± SD age of 66.9 ± 10.5 years, and a median follow-up of 1,064 days (IQR 25–75% 426–1643), totaling 11,190 person-years. The CODEX index was statistically associated with mortality in the short- (≤3 months), medium- (≤1 year) and long-term (10 years), with an area under the curve of 0.72, 0.70 and 0.76, respectively. The mCODEX index performed better in the medium-term (<1 year) than the original CODEX, and similarly in the long-term. In conclusion, CODEX and mCODEX index are good predictors of mortality in patients with COPD, regardless of disease severity or duration of follow-up

Síntesis de zeolita LTA sobre soportes de corindón: Evaluación preliminar para la eliminación de metales pesados de efluentes acuosos

The effectiveness of materials based on LTA Zeolite as active phase, for their incorporation into systems aimed at the removal of heavy metals on waste water is evaluated in a preliminary way. This type of Zeolite with the main channel of a minimum free diameter of 0,41 nm and a low SiO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;/Al&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; ratio is an interesting molecular sieve, which in turn display a high ion exchange capacity. From this point of view, LTA Zeolite crystals were obtained “in situ” by hydrothermal synthesis and characterized by x ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We have studied the effect of hydrothermal synthesis time at 378 K. Likewise, the removal capacity of heavy metal from the active phase was evaluated in as a first step on diluted solutions of cooper salts at slightly acidic pH (~ 4,7).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;En este trabajo se evalúa de forma preliminar la efectividad del empleo de materiales basados en zeolita LTA, como fase activa para su incorporación en sistemas orientados a la eliminación de metales pesados presentes en aguas residuales. Este tipo de zeolitas con el canal principal de un diámetro mínimo libre de 0,41 nm y una baja relación SiO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;/Al&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; se presenta como un tamiz molecular interesante, que a su vez manifiesta una gran capacidad de intercambio iónico. Partiendo de este punto de vista, cristales de zeolita LTA fueron obtenidos “in situ” por síntesis hidrotermal y caracterizados por difracción de rayos X (DRX), y microscopia electrónica de barrido (MEB). Se ha estudiado el efecto del tiempo de tratamiento hidrotermal a 378 K. Asimismo, la capacidad de eliminación de metales pesados de la fase activa de los sistemas obtenidos fue evaluada en una primera etapa en soluciones diluidas de sales de cobre a pH ácido (~ 4,7)