ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation

Solaris a new class of low energy and high brightness light source

Solaris is a third generation light source built and commissioned at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. It is a replica of the MAX IV 1.5 GeV storage ring and part of its injector. The commissioning of the storage ring started in May 2015. First light at the bending magnet beamline front end was observed after two weeks of optimisation. After one year of commissioning excellent performance of the Solaris synchrotron has been achieved. Injection into the storage ring occurs at the designed electron energy of 525 MeV, next the beam is ramped to the final energy of 1.5 GeV. Beam optics has been adjusted to be close to the design one. Solaris is operating at a working point of (11.22, 3.15) and with a corrected chromaticity of (+0.93, +0.91). Recently over 600 mA of beam current was stored for injection energy. The vacuum system of the storage ring is still being conditioned. After about 90 A.h of beam cleaning dose the total beam lifetime at 100 mA is approaching 11 h at 1.5 GeV. So far two beamlines have been constructed. The UV angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (UARPES) beamline with a photon energy range from 8 eV to 100 eV, is in commissioning since April 2016 and the soft X-ray spectroscopy dedicated PEEM/XAS beamline from a bending magnet source, which is at the end of its installation phase. This paper reports on the current status of the Solaris facility and the commissioning results