Comparison of European ICU patients in 2012 (ICON) versus 2002 (SOAP)

Purpose: To evaluate differences in the characteristics and outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU) patients over time. Methods: We reviewed all epidemiological data, including comorbidities, types and severity of organ failure, interventions, lengths of stay and outcome, for patients from the Sepsis Occurrence in Acutely ill Patients (SOAP) study, an observational study conducted in European intensive care units in 2002, and the Intensive Care Over Nations (ICON) audit, a survey of intensive care unit patients conducted in 2012. Results: We compared the 3147 patients from the SOAP study with the 4852 patients from the ICON audit admitted to intensive care units in the same countries as those in the SOAP study. The ICON patients were older (62.5 ± 17.0 vs. 60.6 ± 17.4 years) and had higher severity scores than the SOAP patients. The proportion of patients with sepsis at any time during the intensive care unit stay was slightly higher in the ICON study (31.9 vs. 29.6%, p = 0.03). In multilevel analysis, the adjusted odds of ICU mortality were significantly lower for ICON patients than for SOAP patients, particularly in patients with sepsis [OR 0.45 (0.35–0.59), p < 0.001]. Conclusions: Over the 10-year period between 2002 and 2012, the proportion of patients with sepsis admitted to European ICUs remained relatively stable, but the severity of disease increased. In multilevel analysis, the odds of ICU mortality were lower in our 2012 cohort compared to our 2002 cohort, particularly in patients with sepsis. © 2018, The Author(s)

Expression of Interest for a Phase-II LHCb Upgrade: Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

https://cds.cern.ch/record/224431

Ticagrelor in patients with diabetes and stable coronary artery disease with a history of previous percutaneous coronary intervention (THEMIS-PCI) : a phase 3, placebo-controlled, randomised trial

Background: Patients with stable coronary artery disease and diabetes with previous percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), particularly those with previous stenting, are at high risk of ischaemic events. These patients are generally treated with aspirin. In this trial, we aimed to investigate if these patients would benefit from treatment with aspirin plus ticagrelor. Methods: The Effect of Ticagrelor on Health Outcomes in diabEtes Mellitus patients Intervention Study (THEMIS) was a phase 3 randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, done in 1315 sites in 42 countries. Patients were eligible if 50 years or older, with type 2 diabetes, receiving anti-hyperglycaemic drugs for at least 6 months, with stable coronary artery disease, and one of three other mutually non-exclusive criteria: a history of previous PCI or of coronary artery bypass grafting, or documentation of angiographic stenosis of 50% or more in at least one coronary artery. Eligible patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to either ticagrelor or placebo, by use of an interactive voice-response or web-response system. The THEMIS-PCI trial comprised a prespecified subgroup of patients with previous PCI. The primary efficacy outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (measured in the intention-to-treat population). Findings: Between Feb 17, 2014, and May 24, 2016, 11 154 patients (58% of the overall THEMIS trial) with a history of previous PCI were enrolled in the THEMIS-PCI trial. Median follow-up was 3·3 years (IQR 2·8–3·8). In the previous PCI group, fewer patients receiving ticagrelor had a primary efficacy outcome event than in the placebo group (404 [7·3%] of 5558 vs 480 [8·6%] of 5596; HR 0·85 [95% CI 0·74–0·97], p=0·013). The same effect was not observed in patients without PCI (p=0·76, p interaction=0·16). The proportion of patients with cardiovascular death was similar in both treatment groups (174 [3·1%] with ticagrelor vs 183 (3·3%) with placebo; HR 0·96 [95% CI 0·78–1·18], p=0·68), as well as all-cause death (282 [5·1%] vs 323 [5·8%]; 0·88 [0·75–1·03], p=0·11). TIMI major bleeding occurred in 111 (2·0%) of 5536 patients receiving ticagrelor and 62 (1·1%) of 5564 patients receiving placebo (HR 2·03 [95% CI 1·48–2·76], p<0·0001), and fatal bleeding in 6 (0·1%) of 5536 patients with ticagrelor and 6 (0·1%) of 5564 with placebo (1·13 [0·36–3·50], p=0·83). Intracranial haemorrhage occurred in 33 (0·6%) and 31 (0·6%) patients (1·21 [0·74–1·97], p=0·45). Ticagrelor improved net clinical benefit: 519/5558 (9·3%) versus 617/5596 (11·0%), HR=0·85, 95% CI 0·75–0·95, p=0·005, in contrast to patients without PCI where it did not, p interaction=0·012. Benefit was present irrespective of time from most recent PCI. Interpretation: In patients with diabetes, stable coronary artery disease, and previous PCI, ticagrelor added to aspirin reduced cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke, although with increased major bleeding. In that large, easily identified population, ticagrelor provided a favourable net clinical benefit (more than in patients without history of PCI). This effect shows that long-term therapy with ticagrelor in addition to aspirin should be considered in patients with diabetes and a history of PCI who have tolerated antiplatelet therapy, have high ischaemic risk, and low bleeding risk

Expression of Interest for a Phase-II LHCb Upgrade: Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

A Phase-II Upgrade is proposed for the LHCb experiment in order to take full advantage of the flavour-physics opportunities at the HL-LHC, and other topics that can be studied with a forward spectrometer. This Upgrade, which will be installed in Long Shutdown 4 of the LHC (2030), will build on the strengths of the current experiment and the Phase-I Upgrade, but will consist of re-designed sub-systems that can operate at a luminosity of 2×1034cm−2s−1, ten times that of the Phase-I Upgrade detector. New and improved detector components will increase the intrinsic performance of the experiment in certain key areas. In particular the installation of a tungsten sampling electromagnetic calorimeter will widen LHCb's capabilities for decays involving π0 and η mesons, electrons, and photons from loop-level penguin processes. The physics motivation is presented, and the prospects for operating the LHCb Interaction Point at high luminosity are assessed. The challenges for the detector are described and possible solutions are discussed. Finally, the key R\&amp;D areas are summarised, together with a set of initial modifications suitable for implementation during Long Shutdown 3 (2024--2026)

Search for the doubly heavy baryons Ωbc0\Omega^0_{bc} and Ξbc0\Xi^0_{bc} decaying to Λc+π−\Lambda^+_c \pi^- and Ξc+π−\Xi^+_c \pi^-

The first search for the doubly heavy baryon and a search for the baryon are performed using collision data collected via the experiment from 2016 to 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of , corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.2 . The baryons are reconstructed via their decays to and . No significant excess is found for invariant masses between 6700 and 7300 , in a rapidity range from 2.0 to 4.5 and a transverse momentum range from 2 to 20 . Upper limits are set on the ratio of the and production cross-section times the branching fraction to ( ) relative to that of the ( ) baryon, for different lifetime hypotheses, at 95% confidence level. The upper limits range from to for the ( ) decay, and from to for the ( ) decay, depending on the considered mass and lifetime of the ( ) baryon

Search for the radiative Ξb−→Ξ−γ\Xi_b^-\to\Xi^-\gamma decay

International audienceThe first search for the rare radiative decay ${\Xi}_b^{-}$ → Ξ$^{−}$γ is performed using data collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb$^{−1}$. The ${\Xi}_b^{-}$ → Ξ$^{−}$J/ψ channel is used as normalization. No ${\Xi}_b^{-}$ → Ξ$^{−}$γ signal is found and an upper limit of $\mathcal{B}$(${\Xi}_b^{-}$ → Ξ$^{−}$γ) < 1.3 × 10$^{−4}$ at 95% confidence level is obtained.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Observation of an exotic narrow doubly charmed tetraquark

International audienceConventional, hadronic matter consists of baryons and mesons made of three quarks and a quark–antiquark pair, respectively$^{1,2}$. Here, we report the observation of a hadronic state containing four quarks in the Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment. This so-called tetraquark contains two charm quarks, a $\overline{{{{{u}}}}}$ and a $\overline{{{{{d}}}}}$ quark. This exotic state has a mass of approximately 3,875 MeV and manifests as a narrow peak in the mass spectrum of D$^{0}$D$^{0}$π$^{+}$ mesons just below the D$^{*+}$D$^{0}$ mass threshold. The near-threshold mass together with the narrow width reveals the resonance nature of the state

Search for CP violation in D(s)+→h+π0 {D}_{(s)}^{+}\to {h}^{+}{\pi}^0 and D(s)+→h+η {D}_{(s)}^{+}\to {h}^{+}\eta decays

International audienceSearches for CP violation in the two-body decays ${D}_{(s)}^{+}\to {h}^{+}{\pi}^0$ and ${D}_{(s)}^{+}\to {h}^{+}\eta$ (where h$^{+}$ denotes a π$^{+}$ or K$^{+}$ meson) are performed using pp collision data collected by the LHCb experiment corresponding to either 9 fb$^{−1}$ or 6 fb$^{−1}$ of integrated luminosity. The π$^{0}$ and η mesons are reconstructed using the e$^{+}$e$^{−}$γ final state, which can proceed as three-body decays π$^{0}$→ e$^{+}$e$^{−}$γ and η → e$^{+}$e$^{−}$γ, or via the two-body decays π$^{0}$→ γγ and η → γγ followed by a photon conversion. The measurements are made relative to the control modes ${D}_{(s)}^{+}\to {K}_{\mathrm{S}}^0{h}^{+}$ to cancel the production and detection asymmetries. The CP asymmetries are measured to be${\displaystyle \begin{array}{c}{\mathcal{A}}_{CP}\left({D}^{+}\to {\pi}^{+}{\pi}^0\right)=\left(-1.3\pm 0.9\pm 0.6\right)\%,\\ {}{\mathcal{A}}_{CP}\left({D}^{+}\to {K}^{+}{\pi}^0\right)=\left(-3.2\pm 4.7\pm 2.1\right)\%,\\ {}\begin{array}{c}{\mathcal{A}}_{CP}\left({D}^{+}\to {\pi}^{+}\eta \right)=\left(-0.2\pm 0.8\pm 0.4\right)\%,\\ {}{\mathcal{A}}_{CP}\left({D}^{+}\to {K}^{+}\eta \right)=\left(-6\pm 10\pm 4\right)\%,\\ {}\begin{array}{c}{\mathcal{A}}_{CP}\left({D}_s^{+}\to {K}^{+}{\pi}^0\right)=\left(-0.8\pm 3.9\pm 1.2\right)\%,\\ {}\begin{array}{c}{\mathcal{A}}_{CP}\left({D}_s^{+}\to {\pi}^{+}\eta \right)=\left(0.8\pm 0.7\pm 0.5\right)\%,\\ {}{\mathcal{A}}_{CP}\left({D}_s^{+}\to {K}^{+}\eta \right)=\left(0.9\pm 3.7\pm 1.1\right)\%,\end{array}\end{array}\end{array}\end{array}}$where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. These results are consistent with no CP violation and mostly constitute the most precise measurements of ${\mathcal{A}}_{CP}$ in these decay modes to date.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Branching Fraction Measurements of the Rare Bs0→ϕμ+μ−B^0_s\rightarrow\phi\mu^+\mu^- and Bs0→f2′(1525)μ+μ−B^0_s\rightarrow f_2^\prime(1525)\mu^+\mu^-- Decays

International audienceThe branching fraction of the rare Bs0→ϕμ+μ- decay is measured using data collected by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1, 2, and 6  fb-1, respectively. The branching fraction is reported in intervals of q2, the square of the dimuon invariant mass. In the q2 region between 1.1 and 6.0  GeV2/c4, the measurement is found to lie 3.6 standard deviations below a standard model prediction based on a combination of light cone sum rule and lattice QCD calculations. In addition, the first observation of the rare Bs0→f2′(1525)μ+μ- decay is reported with a statistical significance of 9 standard deviations and its branching fraction is determined