Predictors of neurological outcome in the emergency department for elderly patients following out-of-hospital restoration of spontaneous circulation

Aims. Survival rates for cardiac arrest in acute medicine are higher following out-of-hospital restoration of spontaneous circulation (OH-ROSC). However, data pertaining to OH-ROSC is limited in the elderly population. We aimed to assess the predictors of neurological outcome among elderly patients with OH-ROSC. Methods. We retrospectively analyzed the data of patients 65 years and older who achieved OH-ROSC and who presented to the emergency department (ED) between 2009 and 2013. The following parameters were considered: age, sex, medical history, vital signs, blood values, initial electrical rhythm, witnessed cardiac arrest, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, resuscitation duration, attempted defibrillation, and neurological outcome. Neurological outcomes were evaluated 3 months after cardiac arrest, using the cerebral performance category (CPC) score, and were classified into two groups: favorable outcome (CPC = 1–2) and unfavorable outcome (CPC = 3–5). Results. Fifty-five patients were studied, of which 21 and 34 patients were classified as having favorable and unfavorable outcomes, respectively. The following values were associated with favorable outcomes: resuscitation duration, initial cardiac rhythm, base excess, pH, lactate levels, the motor response on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), and the number of patients with GCS ≤8 (p < 0.01). Logistic regression analysis confirmed that motor response scores and lactate levels were independent predictors of neurological outcomes. Conclusions. Lactate levels and GCS motor response measured immediately at ED arrival are likely to be useful to assess the neurological outcomes among elderly patients with OH-ROSC

Power Spectrum Density of long-term MAXI data

Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) on the International Space Station has been observing the X-ray sky since 2009 August 15. It has accumulated the X-ray data for about four years, so far. X-ray objects are usually variable and their variability can be studied by the power spectrum density (PSD) of the X-ray light curves.We applied our method to calculate PSDs of several kinds of objects observed with MAXI. We obtained significant PSDs from 16 Seyfert galaxies.For blackhole binary Cygnus X-1 there was a difference in the shape of PSD between the hard state and the soft state. For high mass X-ray binaries, Cen X-3, SMC X-1, and LMC X-4, there were several peaks in the PSD corresponding to the orbital period and the superorbital period.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for proceedings of The 12th Asia Pacific Physics Conference of AAPP

Hard X-ray Luminosities of Multinuclei Infrared Luminous Galaxies Showing a Radio/Far-Infrared Excess

We report the results of hard X-ray observations of four multinuclei merging infrared luminous galaxies (IRLGs). We selected these four sources for their excess of radio to far-infrared luminosity ratio compared with starburst galaxies. This excess suggests that activity associated with a supermassive black hole (SMBH) contributes strongly to the IRLGs' bolometric luminosities. Although we expect strong hard X-ray emission from the SMBH-driven activity, the radio-excess multinuclei merging IRLGs show considerably smaller hard X-ray luminosities relative to far-infrared (40$-$500 $\mu$m) and infrared (8$-$1000 $\mu$m) luminosities than active galactic nuclei (AGNs) showing a similar radio-excess. This result may demonstrate that emission in the hard X-ray region from SMBH-driven activity in the multinuclei merging IRLGs is severely suppressed compared to a typical spectral energy distribution of SMBH-driven activity in AGNs. If this is a common property of merging IRLGs, without its correction, hard X-ray observations underestimate the contribution of SMBH-driven activity to the bolometric luminosities of merging IRLGs.Comment: 25 pages of text, 4 figures, aaspp4.sty, Astrophysical Journal, in press (1999, Volume 527