The additional value of patient-reported health status in predicting 1-year mortality after invasive coronary procedures: A report from the Euro Heart Survey on Coronary Revascularisation

Objective: Self-perceived health status may be helpful in identifying patients at high risk for adverse outcomes. The Euro Heart Survey on Coronary Revascularization (EHS-CR) provided an opportunity to explore whether impaired health status was a predictor of 1-year mortality in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing angiographic procedures. Methods: Data from the EHS-CR that included 5619 patients from 31 member countries of the European Society of Cardiology were used. Inclusion criteria for the current study were completion of a self-report measure of health status, the EuroQol Questionnaire (EQ-5D) at discharge and information on 1-year follow-up, resulting in a study population of 3786 patients. Results: The 1-year mortality was 3.2% (n = 120). Survivors reported fewer problems on the five dimensions of the EQ-5D as compared with non-survivors. A broad range of potential confounders were adjusted for, which reached a p<0.10 in the unadjusted analyses. In the adjusted analyses, problems with self-care (OR 3.45; 95% CI 2.14 to 5.59) and a low rating (≤ 60) on health status (OR 2.41; 95% CI 1.47 to 3.94) were the most powerful independent predictors of mortality, among the 22 clinical variables included in the analysis. Furthermore, patients who reported no problems on all five dimensions had significantly lower 1-year mortality rates (OR 0.47; 95% CI 0.28 to 0.81). Conclusions: This analysis shows that impaired health status is associated with a 2-3-fold increased risk of all-cause mortality in patients with CAD, independent of other conventional risk factors. These results highlight the importance of including patients' subjective experience of their own health status in the evaluation strategy to optimise risk stratification and management in clinical practice

Design and fabrication of a SiGe double quantum well structure for g-factor tuning

We propose a double quantum well device structure that allows for g-factor tuning by moving a two-dimensional electron gas between layers with different g-factors by applying a gate voltage. We present self-consistent model calculations showing that the electron wavefunction can be shifted almost completely in between the layers. We produced and characterized the double quantum well structure according the parameters from the optimum model calculations. First results are presented indicating that g-factor tuning really is possible within the envisioned device structur

g-Factor tuning of 2D electrons in double-gated Si/SiGe quantum wells

We report on the design and first experiments of Si/SiGe heterostructures that allow gate-operated shifting of a 2D electron gas between two channels with different Landé g-factors. This allows gate-operated moving of electrons in and out of resonance in an electron spin resonance (ESR) experiment, which can act as a building block of a proposed solid-state quantum computer. We use MBE-grown modulation-doped quantum-wells (QWs) on SiGe pseudosubstrates with up to 30% Ge and low-temperature electron mobilities up to View the MathML source. A double QW structure with two different Ge contents separated by a thin barrier was optimized for this purpose with self-consistent simulations. The band structure simulations show that by applying gate voltages one can completely shift the wave function from one well to the other. First experiments on pure Si channels show the working of the gate setup. Both carrier density and mobility can be increased by using the back gate which corresponds to shifting the wave function in the channel

Adjuvant interferon alfa-2a treatment in resected primary stage II cutaneous melanoma

Purpose: Patients with primary cutaneous melanoma with a Breslow thickness greater than or equal to 1.5 mm have only a 30% to 70% probability of survival after surgery, and no adjuvant therapy has so far improved this outcome, Since interferon alfa-2a (IFN alpha 2a) exhibits antitumor activity in metastatic melanoma, we investigated whether adjuvant IFN alpha 2a diminishes the occurrence of metastases and thus prolongs disease-free survival in melanoma patients after excision of the primary tumor