A new score system for predicting response to cardiac resynchronization therapy

Background: The aim of this study was to establish a score system derived from clinical, echocardiographic and electrocardiographic indexes and evaluate its clinical value for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) patient selection. Methods: Ninety-three patients receiving CRT were enrolled. A patient selection score system was generated by the clinical, echocardiographic and electrocardiographic parameters achieving a significant level by univariate and multivariate Cox regression model. The positive response to CRT was a left ventricular end systolic volume decrease of ≥ 15% and not reaching primary clinical endpoint (death or re-hospitalization for heart failure) at the end of follow-up. Results: Thirty-nine patients were CRT non-responders (41.94%) and 54 were responders (58.06%). A 4-point score system was generated based on tricuspid annular plane systolic ex­cursion (TAPSE), longitudinal strain (LS), and complete left bundle branch block (CLBBB) combined with a wide QRS duration (QRSd). The sensitivity and specificity for prediction of a positive response to CRT at a score > 2 were 0.823 and 0.850, respectively (AUC: 0.92295% CI 0.691–0.916, p< 0.001). Conclusions: A patient selection score system based on the integration of TAPSE, LS and CLBBB combined with a wide QRSd can help to predict positive response to CRT effectively and reliably

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Induced Primary Hyperparathyroidism in a Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patient: A Case Report

Immunotherapy is increasingly being used in the treatment of tumors. Adverse effects, however, are not uncommon, with the most common immune-related adverse events (IrAEs) including rash, fatigue, anemia, diarrhea, constipation, and elevated transaminase, among others. Rare IrAEs, which may include thrombocytopenia, hypoparathyroidism, pancreatitis glomerulonephritis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and celiac disease, may also present. Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-induced primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) has not yet been reported on, and no research currently exists regarding its pathogenesis. We describe how a 50-year-old man diagnosed with advanced small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) developed severe PHPT after receiving the programmed cell death (PD)-1 inhibitor camrelizumab. The patient eventually died of respiratory failure and a progressive malignancy. We speculate that the hypercalcemia and hypophosphatemia observed in this case were secondary to ICI-induced PHPT. Although fatal PHPT is rare, early intervention may reduce the risk of future complications. Therefore, further exploration of the underlying mechanisms is needed to guide solutions

Intermediate view synthesis based on edge detecting

Intermediate view synthesis is a key technique for free-viewpoint video applications. Various methods have been proposed in this filed. However, most of those methods are so complex that they can't be realized for realtime. In addition, a perfect depth image is hard to acquire for the mixtures of foreground pixels and background pixels at the object boundary. The errors in depth map would involve many holes in intermediate views when it is synthesized between the leftmost view and right-most view based on depth map. How to handle the artifacts around object boundaries in intermediate view is another challenge. In this paper, we propose a simple but effective method to enhance the synthesized intermediate views based on edge detecting(SIVBE). Experiment results on typical test sequences show that the quality of intermediate view can be improved by 1.3 dB and the proposed algorithm achieves a reduction of 50% computational complexity on average.http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000351597603053&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Imaging Science & Photographic TechnologyEICPCI-S(ISTP)

Application of Geophysical Technology in Engineering Investigation

With the development of science and technology and the progress of society, various high and new technologies have increasingly shown their respective advantages. Among them, geophysical prospecting technology is a typical representative. Because it can greatly improve the speed and efficiency of engineering, and at the same time, it also plays an important role in engineering safety and prevention. Therefore, it is widely promoted and applied, especially in engineering survey work. This article studies the importance of geophysical prospecting in engineering exploration, the methods of geophysical prospecting technology, the application of geophysical prospecting technology, and the development trend of geophysical prospecting technology. How to better understand the application of geophysical prospecting technology and rationally choose working methods and methods, so as to serve the geological exploration work to the utmost extent, is an important topic that needs to be solved and studied urgently

The ongoing role of serum uric acid in blood pressure

Positive association between blood pressure (BP) and uric acid is evident, but specific effect size of serum uric acid (SUA) at different levels on BP is unclear, and interaction effect of SUA with other metabolic factors on BP was rarely reported. A cross-sectional study was conducted by making use of data from an epidemic investigation. A total of 3658 subjects were enrolled in our data analysis. In male subjects, for each 1 mg/dL increase in the SUA level, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) increased by 1.339 mmHg [95% CI: 0.552–2.126] and 0.515 mmHg [95% CI: 0.013–1.016], respectively, after adjusting for age, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), estimated-glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), body mass index (BMI), drinking, smoking, and waist–hip ratio (WHR). And in female subjects, for each 1 mg/dL increase in the SUA level, SBP and DBP increased by 1.180 mmHg [95% CI: 0.401–1.959] and 0.549 mmHg [95% CI: 0.086–1.011], respectively, after adjusting the same factors. In males, in subjects with SUA < 6 mg/dL, SBP increased by 0.585 mmHg [95% CI: −0.976 to 2.146] for each 1 mg/dL increase in the SUA level, while in subjects with SUA ≥ 6 mg/dL, SBP increased by 3.271 mmHg [95% CI: 1.244–5.297] (p interaction = 0.0369), after adjusting age, BMI, smoking, drinking, TG, TC, FPG, eGFR, and WHR. This difference was not observed in DBP and females. Interaction effects between SUA and BMI, TG, FPG on BP were discovered. In conclusion, higher level of SUA has a stronger effect on BP and other metabolic factors: FPG, TG, and BMI could strengthen the effect of SUA on BP

Therapeutic effects of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy on survival in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A meta-analysis

<div><p>Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is a method widely used for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); nevertheless, its effect on survival remains unclear. The purpose of this meta-analysis study was to determine the effects of PEG on survival in ALS patients. Relevant studies were retrieved from PubMed, EmBase, and the Cochrane Library databases, from inception to June 2017. Studies comparing PEG with other procedures in ALS patients were included. Odds ratios (ORs) in a random-effects model were used to assess the survival at different follow-up periods. Briefly, ten studies involving a total of 996 ALS patients were included. Summary ORs indicated that PEG administration was not associated with 30-day (OR = 1.59; 95%CI 0.93–2.71; P = 0.092), 10-month (OR = 1.25; 95%CI 0.72–2.17; P = 0.436), and 30-month (OR = 1.28; 95% CI 0.77–2.11; P = 0.338) survival rates, while they showed a beneficial effect in 20-month survival rate (OR = 1.97; 95%CI 1.21–3.21; P = 0.007). The survival rate was significantly prominent in reports published before 2005, and in studies with a retrospective design, sample size <100, mean age <60.0 years, and percentage male ≥50.0%. To sum up, these findings suggested that ALS patients administered with PEG had an increased 20-month survival rates, while there was no significant effect in 30-day, 10-month, and 30-month survival rates.</p></div