Ultrasound IMT measurement on a multi-ethnic and multi-institutional database: Our review and experience using four fully automated and one semi-automated methods

Automated and high performance carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) measurement is gaining increasing importance in clinical practice to assess the cardiovascular risk of patients. In this paper, we compare four fully automated IMT measurement techniques (CALEX, CAMES, CARES and CAUDLES) and one semi-automated technique (FOAM). We present our experience using these algorithms, whose lumen-intima and media-adventitia border estimation use different methods that can be: (a) edge-based; (b) training-based; (c) feature-based; or (d) directional Edge-Flow based. Our database (DB) consisted of 665 images that represented a multi-ethnic group and was acquired using four OEM scanners. The performance evaluation protocol adopted error measures, reproducibility measures, and Figure of Merit (FoM). FOAM showed the best performance, with an IMT bias equal to 0.025 ± 0.225 mm, and a FoM equal to 96.6%. Among the four automated methods, CARES showed the best results with a bias of 0.032 ± 0.279 mm, and a FoM to 95.6%, which was statistically comparable to that of FOAM performance in terms of accuracy and reproducibility. This is the first time that completely automated and user-driven techniques have been compared on a multi-ethnic dataset, acquired using multiple original equipment manufacturer (OEM) machines with different gain settings, representing normal and pathologic case

Znaczenie objętości przepływu w tętnicach dogłowowych dla postępowania klinicznego – wpływ rozwoju krążenia obocznego

Aim: An assessment of increased compensatory blood flow in the brain-supplying arteries in patients with significant carotid artery stenosis. Materials and methods: Doppler ultrasound was performed in 218 patients over 60 years of age to evaluate both the degree of brain-supplying artery stenosis as well as the blood flow volume balance in all vessels supplying the brain: the internal carotid artery, the external carotid artery and the vertebral artery. The control group included 94 patients with no stenosis in the extracranial segments and no neurological manifestations, in whom blood flow values were calculated (the internal carotid artery – 290 mL/min, the external carotid artery – 125 mL/min, the vertebral artery – 80 mL/min); the total mean blood flow in the brain-supplying arteries was 985 mL/min. A 33% increase in blood flow was considered compensatory. In addition to the control group, 30 patients with asymptomatic stenosis of less than 50% and 12 patients after endarterectomy with mean blood flow of 920 mL/min and 960 mL/min, as well as two groups of particular interest to us, i.e. 38 patients with no compensatory blood flow increase despite significant stenosis (>50%) with mean blood flow of 844 mL/ min and 44 patients with similar stenosis and with compensatory blood flow increase up to 1174 mL/min were included in the analysis. Results: Comparison of the two groups showed several significant differences: increased blood flow (118% vs. 86% of the norm) in patients with compensated stenosis, an increased number of asymptomatic patients (70% vs. 37%) and a threefold increase in the number of patients with occlusions (15 : 5) in the group of patients with increased blood supply to the brain. Conclusions: All potential blood-supplying vessels, including the external carotid artery, are involved in brain tissue perfusion in some of the patients with significant stenosis. Determining the degree of compensation may have an important impact on the indications for surgical treatment, which will make a valuable contribution to the current criteria (asymptomatic/ symptomatic patients).Cel pracy: Ocena wpływu kompensacyjnego wzrostu przepływu w naczyniach dogłowowych u chorych z istotnymi zwężeniami tętnic szyjnych. Materiał i metoda: U 218 chorych powyżej 60. roku życia wykonano rozszerzone badanie ultrasonograficzne z opcją dopplera w celu oceny zarówno stopnia zwężenia naczyń dogłowowych, jak i bilansu objętości przepływu we wszystkich głównych naczyniach doprowadzających krew do mózgu: tętnicy szyjnej wewnętrznej, tętnicy szyjnej zewnętrznej i tętnicy kręgowej. Grupę kontrolną stanowiło 94 pacjentów bez zwężeń naczyń w odcinkach przedczaszkowych oraz bez objawów neurologicznych, u których obliczono normy przepływu w naczyniach (tętnica szyjna wewnętrzna – 290 ml/min, tętnica szyjna zewnętrzna – 125 ml/min, tętnica kręgowa – 80 ml/min); całkowity przepływ w naczyniach dogłowowych wynosił u nich średnio 985 ml/min. Za kompensacyjny wzrost uznano zwiększenie przepływu o 33%. Poza grupą kontrolną analizie poddano 30 pacjentów z bezobjawowymi zwężeniami poniżej 50% i 12 osób po endarterektomii ze średnimi przepływami 920 ml/min i 960 ml/min, a także dwie szczególnie interesujące nas grupy: 38 pacjentów bez kompensacyjnego wzrostu przepływu pomimo istotnych (>50%) zwężeń ze średnim przepływem 844 ml/min oraz 44 chorych z kompensacyjnym wzrostem przepływu do 1174 ml/min przy podobnych zwężeniach. Wyniki: Porównanie dwóch grup wykazało kilka istotnych różnic: większy przepływ (118% vs 86% normy) u chorych ze skompensowanymi zwężeniami, większą liczbę chorych bezobjawowych (70% vs 37%) oraz trzykrotnie więcej chorych z niedrożnościami (15 : 5) w grupie pacjentów ze zwiększonymi przepływami domózgowymi. Wnioski: Wszystkie naczynia mogące doprowadzić krew do mózgu, w tym tętnica szyjna zewnętrzna, u części chorych z istotnymi zwężeniami biorą udział w zapewnieniu perfuzji tkanki mózgowej. Określenie stopnia kompensacji może w istotny sposób wpłynąć na wskazania do leczenia zabiegowego, co stanowi cenne uzupełnienie dotychczasowych kryteriów (pacjenci bezobjawowi/objawowi)

Differential associations of traditional and non-traditional risk factors with carotid intima-media thickening and plaque in peritoneal dialysis patients

Background: This study sought to examine the associations of traditional and non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors with carotid intima-media thickening and plaque in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in 147 PD patients with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and plaque assessed by B-mode ultrasonography and fasting blood collected for biochemical measurements. Results: On univariate analysis, age, smoking history, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein (CRP), adiponectin, fetuin-A, lipoprotein(a) and diastolic blood pressure were associated with carotid IMT while age, smoking history, diabetes, CRP and diastolic blood pressure were associated with carotid plaque. Using multivariate analysis, elevated CRP (p = 0.015) and serum calcium (p = 0.022) were associated with carotid plaque but not with IMT. CRP and serum calcium were synergistically associated with carotid plaque in that those with CRP > median and serum calcium > median showed the highest prevalence of carotid plaque than either factor alone (p = 0.003). Conclusions: An elevated CRP appeared to be a better biomarker of presence of carotid plaque than intima-media thickening. Furthermore, CRP and serum calcium showed synergistic association with presence of carotid plaque. However, our study was limited by the cross-sectional design and baseline laboratory abnormalities were inevitably confounded by the treatment already given, resulting in difficulty to distinguish cause and effect relationship. Nevertheless, these observations warrant further investigation as it may potentially have important implications on differentiating therapeutic strategies for reducing carotid IMT and plaque progression in PD patients. Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Characteristics and outcomes of an international cohort of 600 000 hospitalized patients with COVID-19

Background: We describe demographic features, treatments and clinical outcomes in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) COVID-19 cohort, one of the world's largest international, standardized data sets concerning hospitalized patients. Methods: The data set analysed includes COVID-19 patients hospitalized between January 2020 and January 2022 in 52 countries. We investigated how symptoms on admission, co-morbidities, risk factors and treatments varied by age, sex and other characteristics. We used Cox regression models to investigate associations between demographics, symptoms, co-morbidities and other factors with risk of death, admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). Results: Data were available for 689 572 patients with laboratory-confirmed (91.1%) or clinically diagnosed (8.9%) SARS-CoV-2 infection from 52 countries. Age [adjusted hazard ratio per 10 years 1.49 (95% CI 1.48, 1.49)] and male sex [1.23 (1.21, 1.24)] were associated with a higher risk of death. Rates of admission to an ICU and use of IMV increased with age up to age 60 years then dropped. Symptoms, co-morbidities and treatments varied by age and had varied associations with clinical outcomes. The case-fatality ratio varied by country partly due to differences in the clinical characteristics of recruited patients and was on average 21.5%. Conclusions: Age was the strongest determinant of risk of death, with a ∼30-fold difference between the oldest and youngest groups; each of the co-morbidities included was associated with up to an almost 2-fold increase in risk. Smoking and obesity were also associated with a higher risk of death. The size of our international database and the standardized data collection method make this study a comprehensive international description of COVID-19 clinical features. Our findings may inform strategies that involve prioritization of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who have a higher risk of death

The risk of COVID-19 death is much greater and age dependent with type I IFN autoantibodies

International audienceSignificance There is growing evidence that preexisting autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) are strong determinants of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia. It is important to estimate their quantitative impact on COVID-19 mortality upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, by age and sex, as both the prevalence of these autoantibodies and the risk of COVID-19 death increase with age and are higher in men. Using an unvaccinated sample of 1,261 deceased patients and 34,159 individuals from the general population, we found that autoantibodies against type I IFNs strongly increased the SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality rate at all ages, in both men and women. Autoantibodies against type I IFNs are strong and common predictors of life-threatening COVID-19. Testing for these autoantibodies should be considered in the general population

Association of Country Income Level With the Characteristics and Outcomes of Critically Ill Patients Hospitalized With Acute Kidney Injury and COVID-19

Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) has been identified as one of the most common and significant problems in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. However, studies examining the relationship between COVID-19 and AKI in low- and low-middle income countries (LLMIC) are lacking. Given that AKI is known to carry a higher mortality rate in these countries, it is important to understand differences in this population. Methods: This prospective, observational study examines the AKI incidence and characteristics of 32,210 patients with COVID-19 from 49 countries across all income levels who were admitted to an intensive care unit during their hospital stay. Results: Among patients with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit, AKI incidence was highest in patients in LLMIC, followed by patients in upper-middle income countries (UMIC) and high-income countries (HIC) (53%, 38%, and 30%, respectively), whereas dialysis rates were lowest among patients with AKI from LLMIC and highest among those from HIC (27% vs. 45%). Patients with AKI in LLMIC had the largest proportion of community-acquired AKI (CA-AKI) and highest rate of in-hospital death (79% vs. 54% in HIC and 66% in UMIC). The association between AKI, being from LLMIC and in-hospital death persisted even after adjusting for disease severity. Conclusions: AKI is a particularly devastating complication of COVID-19 among patients from poorer nations where the gaps in accessibility and quality of healthcare delivery have a major impact on patient outcomes