Effect of COVID-19 medications on corrected QT interval and induction of torsade de pointes: Results of a multicenter national survey

Background: There are some data showing that repurposed drugs used for the Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) have potential to increase the risk of QTc prolongation and torsade de pointes (TdP), and these arrhythmic side effects have not been adequately addressed in COVID-19 patients treated with these repurposed medications. Methods: This is the prospective study of 2403 patients hospitalised at 13 hospitals within the COVID-19 epicentres of the Iran. These patients were treated with chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, atazanavir/ritonavir, oseltamivir, favipiravir and remdesivir alone or in combination with azithromycin. The primary outcome of the study was incidence of critical QTc prolongation, and secondary outcomes were incidences of TdP and death. Results: Of the 2403 patients, 2365 met inclusion criteria. The primary outcome of QTc � 500 ms and �QTc � 60 ms was observed in 11.2 and 17.6 of the patients, respectively. The secondary outcomes of TdP and death were reported in 0.38 and 9.8 of the patients, respectively. The risk of critical QT prolongation increased in the presence of female gender, history of heart failure, treatment with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin combination therapy, simultaneous furosemide or beta-blocker therapy and acute renal or hepatic dysfunction. However, the risk of TdP was predicted by treatment with lopinavir-ritonavir, simultaneous amiodarone or furosemide administration and hypokalaemia during treatment. Conclusion: This cohort showed significant QTc prolongation with all COVID-19 medications studied, however, life-threatening arrhythmia of TdP occurred rarely. Among the repurposed drugs studied, hydroxychloroquine or lopinavir-ritonavir alone or in combination with azithromycin clearly demonstrated to increase the risk of critical QT prolongation and/or TdP. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

ESS Beam Position and Phase Monitor System

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a neutron facility under construction in Lund, Sweden, and established as a European collaboration between different member countries. The machine is a 2 GeV proton LINAC with a nominal beam current of 62.5 mA, 2.86 ms of pulselength and a bunch repetition rate of 352 MHz. The Beam Position and Phase Monitors (BPM) at ESS were designed to satisfy the specifications for the different beam modes,which span from 5 μs pulse length and 6.3 mA beam untilthe nominal beam condition. The system is designed for standard beam position measurements for beam trajectory correction and for beam phase measurements for cavity phase tuning, imposing restrictions on the sensor design and electronics architecture. Approximately a hundred BPM's were manufactured and are being installed by partners in collaboration with ESS. The BPM system comprises a MicroTCA.4 electronics based in COTS AMCand RTM modules with custom FPGA firmware implementation and a custom Front-End electronics. In this work, the system architecture, implementation, and test results are presented and discussed

Adjustable ECR Ion Source Control System: Ion Source Hydrogen Positive Project

ISHP (Ion Source Hydrogen Positive) project consists of a highly versatile ECR type ion source. It has been built for several purposes, on the one hand, to serve as a workbench to test accelerator related technologies and validate in-house made developments, at the first stages. On the other hand, to design an ion source valid as the first step in an actual LINAC. Since this paper is focused on the control system of ISHP, besides the ion source, all the hardware and its control architecture is presented. Nowadays the ion source is able to generate a pulse of positive ions of Hydrogen from 2 mu s to a few range with a repetition rate ranging from 1 Hz to 50 Hz with a maximum of 45 mA of current. Furthermore, the first experiments with White Rabbit (WR) synchronization system are presented

Adjustable ECR Ion Source Control System Ion Source Hydrogen Positive Project

ISHP (Ion Source Hydrogen Positive) project consists of a highly versatile ECR type ion source. It has been built for several purposes, on the one hand, to serve as a workbench to test accelerator related technologies and validate in-house made developments, at the first stages. On the other hand, to design an ion source valid as the first step in an actual LINAC. Since this paper is focused on the control system of ISHP, besides the ion source, all the hardware and its control architecture is presented. Nowadays the ion source is able to generate a pulse of positive ions of Hydrogen from 2 mu s to a few range with a repetition rate ranging from 1 Hz to 50 Hz with a maximum of 45 mA of current. Furthermore, the first experiments with White Rabbit (WR) synchronization system are presented

An innovative Superconducting Recoil Separator for HIE-ISOLDE

International audienceThe ISOLDE Scientific Infrastructure at CERN offers a unique range of post-accelerated radioactive beams. The scientific program can be improved with the “Isolde Superconducting Recoil Separator” (ISRS), an innovative spectrometer able to deliver unprecedented (A, Z) resolution. In this paper we present an overview of the physics and ongoing technical developments