Nevin Manimala

Hypertension. 2023 Sep 18. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.123.21350. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Rates of poor sleep and hypertension are alarming worldwide. In this study, we investigate the association between sleeping difficulties and sleep duration with hypertension risk in women.

METHODS: Sixty-six thousand one hundred twenty-two participants of the NHS2 (Nurses’ Health Study 2), who were free of hypertension at baseline (2001), were followed prospectively for 16 years and incident hypertension assessed every 2 years. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for hypertension incidence associated with sleeping difficulties and sleep duration.

RESULTS: During follow-up, we documented 25 987 incident cases of hypertension. After controlling for demographic and lifestyle risk factors, compared with women who slept 7 to 8 hours, women with shorter sleep duration had a significantly higher risk of hypertension (≤5 hours: HR, 1.10 [95% CI, 1.05-1.16]; 6 hours: HR, 1.07 [95% CI, 1.03-1.10]), whereas the risk for women with longer sleep duration was not statistically significant (9 hours: HR, 1.03 [95% CI, 0.97-1.10]; >9 hours: HR, 1.08 [95% CI, 0.94-1.23]). Compared with women rarely having difficulty falling or staying asleep, women sometimes or usually having these sleep difficulties had significantly higher risk of developing hypertension (HR, 1.14 [95% CI, 1.11-1.17] and 1.28 [95% CI, 1.22-1.35]; P_trend<0.001). Early morning awakening was not associated with hypertension risk (P_trend=0.722). There was no effect modification by night work or chronotype.

CONCLUSIONS: Difficulty falling or staying asleep and short sleep duration were associated with higher risk of hypertension among women in our study. Screening for poor sleep could be useful in identifying people at higher risk for hypertension.

PMID:37721046 | DOI:10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.123.21350

Pediatr Pulmonol. 2023 Sep 18. doi: 10.1002/ppul.26688. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Offspring born via cesarean delivery (CD) may be more prone to develope long-term respiratory diseases, compared to those delivered vaginally (VD). In this study, we compared the rates of respiratory diseases between first twins VD and second twins delivered via CD.

METHODS: This was a retrospective database study. All twin deliveries encompassed at the Soroka University Medical Center, a large tertiary hospital in southern Israel, between 1991 and 2020, in which the first twin was VD and the second via CD were included. Respiratory diseases included respiratory tract diseases such as bronchiolitis and bronchial asthma. The cumulative incidence of respiratory diseases was compared between the twins using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and multivariable Cox models to adjust for confounding variables.

RESULTS: A total of 395,408 deliveries occurred during the study period, with 13,402 (3.4%) of all deliveries being twins. Of these, 184 (1.4%) were first twins VD and second twins delivered via CD. The second CD twin was more likely to have a non-reassuring fetal heart rate pattern and an Apgar score less than 7 at 5 min. No other differences were found between the siblings. The incidence of long-term respiratory diseases was not statistically different between the CD and VD siblings (7.6% vs. 9.4%, respectively; OR = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.23-1.26). Similarly, the cumulative incidence of respiratory diseases was not statistically different (Kaplan-Meier, log-rank, p = .59), and in the multivariable analysis which adjusted for birthweight and fetal distress during delivery (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.06; 95% CI: 0.43-26.25).

CONCLUSIONS: While the immediate outcomes for the CD twin were slightly worse compared to the VD twin, there was no difference in long-term respiratory diseases between the siblings.

PMID:37721028 | DOI:10.1002/ppul.26688

Gut Liver. 2023 Sep 18. doi: 10.5009/gnl220464. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND/AIMS: : A latex agglutination turbidity (LA) assay to test for serum antibodies has been approved in Japan and Korea for mass screening of Helicobacter pylori infection. In this study, we evaluated the LA assay for diagnosing H. pylori infection and predicting gastric mucosal changes in a Mongolian population.

METHODS: : In total, 484 individuals were classified into H. pylori-positive (n=356) and H. pylori-negative (n=128) groups, as determined by histology and H. pylori culture.

RESULTS: : The best cutoff, sensitivity, and specificity values for the LA assay were 18.35 U/mL, 74.2%, and 65.6%, respectively. The LA values in the atrophic gastritis group were statistically higher than those in the other groups (healthy, chronic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric cancer, p<0.0001). The cutoff value to distinguish the atrophic gastritis group from the other four groups was 32.0 U/mL, and its area under the curve was 0.673, which was the highest among the E-plate, pepsinogen (PG) I, PG II, and PG I/II ratio tests in our data. The odds ratios for atrophic gastritis determined by the LA assay and PG I test in multiple logistic regression were 2.5 and 1.9, respectively, which were significantly higher than for the other tests.

CONCLUSIONS: : The LA assay can determine the risk of atrophic gastritis, which in turn is a considerable risk factor for gastric cancer. We propose using this assay in combination with the PG I/II ratio to avoid missing gastric cancer patients who have a low LA value (less than 32.0 U/mL).

PMID:37720994 | DOI:10.5009/gnl220464

Stat Med. 2023 Oct 15;42(23):4057-4081. doi: 10.1002/sim.9858. Epub 2023 Aug 1.

ABSTRACT

Ignoring the presence of dependent censoring in data analysis can lead to biased estimates, for example, not considering the effect of abandonment of the tuberculosis treatment may influence inferences about the cure probability. In order to assess the relationship between cure and abandonment outcomes, we propose a copula Bayesian approach. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to introduce a Bayesian survival regression model, capable of taking into account the dependent censoring in the adjustment. So, this proposed approach is based on Clayton’s copula, to provide the relation between survival and dependent censoring times. In addition, the Weibull and the piecewise exponential marginal distributions are considered in order to fit the times. A simulation study is carried out to perform comparisons between different scenarios of dependence, different specifications of prior distributions, and comparisons with the maximum likelihood inference. Finally, we apply the proposed approach to a tuberculosis treatment adherence dataset of an HIV cohort from Alvorada-RS, Brazil. Results show that cure and abandonment outcomes are negatively correlated, that is, as long as the chance of abandoning the treatment increases, the chance of tuberculosis cure decreases.

PMID:37720988 | DOI:10.1002/sim.9858

Stat Med. 2023 Oct 15;42(23):4082-4110. doi: 10.1002/sim.9848. Epub 2023 Jul 14.

ABSTRACT

Evaluating the prognostic performance of candidate markers for future disease onset or progression is one of the major goals in medical research. A marker’s prognostic performance refers to how well it separates patients at the high or low risk of a future disease state. Often the discriminative performance of a marker is affected by the patient characteristics (covariates). Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves that ignore the informativeness of the covariates will lead to biased estimates of the accuracy parameters. We propose a time-dependent ROC curve that accounts for the informativeness of the covariates in the case of censored data. We propose inverse probability weighted (IPW) estimators for estimating the proposed accuracy parameters. We investigate the performance of the IPW estimators through simulation studies and real-life data analysis.

PMID:37720987 | DOI:10.1002/sim.9848

Int J Surg. 2023 Sep 14. doi: 10.1097/JS9.0000000000000733. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Several large-scale studies have assessed endovascular and surgical treatment methods for nonocclusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI); however, the prognostic factors for NOMI remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate risk factors for in-hospital mortality among patients with NOMI who underwent laparotomy and to examine therapeutic strategies that may improve the prognosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this multicenter retrospective study, we reviewed the electronic medical records retrieved from the inpatient database of patients with NOMI at eight district general hospitals between January 2011 and January 2021. A total of 88 patients who underwent laparotomies were divided into survivor and non-survivor groups, and statistical analysis was performed to determine clinical physiological factors.

RESULTS: Exploratory laparotomy based on second-look surgery was the first treatment choice. The overall mortality rate was 48.8%, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.1:1. The median Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score was 8 [interquartile range: 3.75-14.2], and the median SOFA scores were 5 [3-7] in the survivor group and 13 [9-17.5] in the non-survivor group. Univariate analysis revealed a significant difference in body mass index (P<0.001), hypoglycemia (P=0.0012), previous cardiovascular surgery (P=0.0019), catecholamine use (P<0.001), SOFA score (P<0.001), platelet count (P=0.0023), and lactate level (P<0.001). Logistic regression analysis using the factors with significant differences revealed that SOFA score ≥10 (odds ratio 23.3; 95% confidence interval 1.94-280.00; P=0.013) was an independent prognostic factor. In addition, catecholamine use was suggested as a factor with a SOFA score ≥10.

CONCLUSION: This study confirmed that a SOFA score of ≥10 may be associated with increased mortality. While closely monitoring low blood pressure and renal dysfunction, survival rates may be improved if surgical intervention is performed before the SOFA score reaches ≥10.

PMID:37720948 | DOI:10.1097/JS9.0000000000000733

Int J Surg. 2023 Sep 15. doi: 10.1097/JS9.0000000000000714. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Hyperglycemia is a risk factor for postoperative complications but its impact on outcome after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) is scarcely studied. This prospective cohort study aimed to assess the effect of continuous insulin infusion on postoperative complications and blood glucose, as well as to evaluate the impact of hyperglycemia on complications, after PD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred patients planned for PD were prospectively included for perioperative continuous insulin infusion and a historic cohort of 100 patients was included retrospectively. Median blood glucose levels were calculated and data on complications were analyzed and compared between the historic cohort and the intervention group as well as between normo- and hyperglycemic patients.

RESULTS: Median glucose levels were significantly lower in the intervention group compared to the historic cohort up to 30 days postoperatively (median glucose 8.5 mmol/l (IQR 6.4 – 11) vs. 9.1 mmol/l (IQR 6.8 – 17) (P=0.007)). No significant differences in complication rates were recorded between these two groups. The incidence of complications classified as Clavien ≥3 was higher in hyperglycemic patients (100% vs. 27%, P=0.024). Among hyperglycemic patients the prevalence of preoperative diabetes was higher compared to normoglycemic patients (52% vs.12%, P<0.001). In patients with a known diagnosis of diabetes, a trend, although not statistically significant, towards a lower incidence of postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) grade B and C, as well as postpancreatectomy hemorrhage (PPH) grade B and C, was seen compared to those without preoperative diabetes (6.8% vs. 14%, P=0.231 and 2.3% vs. 7.0%, P=0.238 respectively).

CONCLUSION: Insulin infusion in the early postoperative phase after PD is feasible in a non-ICU setting and significantly decreased blood glucose levels. The influence on complications was limited. Preoperative diabetes was a significant predictor of postoperative hyperglycemia and was associated with a lower incidence of clinically significant POPF.

PMID:37720940 | DOI:10.1097/JS9.0000000000000714

Int J Surg. 2023 Sep 15. doi: 10.1097/JS9.0000000000000728. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The conventional laparoscopic approach for the surgical management of deep endometriosis (DE) infiltrating the rectum appears to ensure improved digestive functional outcomes. The natural orifice specimen extraction (NOSE) technique for the treatment of colorectal DE can significantly accelerate postoperative recovery; however, data on gastrointestinal function following conventional laparoscopic segmental bowel resection (CLR) compared with NOSE-colectomy (NC) for DE are sparse.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between September 30, 2019, and December 31, 2020, a randomized, open-label, two-arm, parallel-group controlled trial with women aged 18-45 years was conducted at University Hospital.91 patients were randomized to CLR or NC, with DE infiltrating at least the muscular layer, at least 50% of the circumference of the bowel, up to 15 cm from the anal verge, exhibiting pain and bowel symptoms and/or infertility. The primary endpoint was bowel function, represented by Low Anterior Resection Syndrome (LARS). Secondary parameters included the Endometriosis Health Profile 30 (EHP30), Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index (GIQLI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores preoperatively and at set times (one and six months, one year) following surgery.

RESULTS: No significant differences were observed in the postoperative LARS scores, VAS, EHP30, and GIQLI between the NC and CLR groups. LARS scores did not reveal significant differences 12 months postoperatively compared to the preoperative values in both groups (CLR-group P=0.93 versus NC-group, P=0.87). GIQLI scores were significantly improved 12 months after the operation compared with baseline values in the CLR-group (P=0.002) and NC-group (P=0.001). Pain symptoms and quality of life scores significantly improved 12 months postoperatively in both groups.

CONCLUSIONS: NC is a feasible surgical approach for treating patients with rectal DE. Our study did not show a statistically significant difference between CLR and NC techniques in mid-term digestive and pain outcomes.

PMID:37720929 | DOI:10.1097/JS9.0000000000000728

Proc Symp Appl Comput. 2023 Mar;2023:518-527. doi: 10.1145/3555776.3577685. Epub 2023 Jun 7.

ABSTRACT

Patients with cancer or other chronic diseases often experience different symptoms before or after treatments. The symptoms could be physical, gastrointestinal, psychological, or cognitive (memory loss), or other types. Previous research focuses on understanding the individual symptoms or symptom correlations by collecting data through symptom surveys and using traditional statistical methods to analyze the symptoms, such as principal component analysis or factor analysis. This research proposes a computational system, SymptomGraph, to identify the symptom clusters in the narrative text of written clinical notes in electronic health records (EHR). SymptomGraph is developed to use a set of natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods to first extract the clinician-documented symptoms from clinical notes. Then, a semantic symptom expression clustering method is used to discover a set of typical symptoms. A symptom graph is built based on the co-occurrences of the symptoms. Finally, a graph clustering algorithm is developed to discover the symptom clusters. Although SymptomGraph is applied to the narrative clinical notes, it can be adapted to analyze symptom survey data. We applied Symptom-Graph on a colorectal cancer patient with and without diabetes (Type 2) data set to detect the patient symptom clusters one year after the chemotherapy. Our results show that SymptomGraph can identify the typical symptom clusters of colorectal cancer patients’ post-chemotherapy. The results also show that colorectal cancer patients with diabetes often show more symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, younger patients have mental dysfunctions of alcohol or tobacco abuse, and patients at later cancer stages show more memory loss symptoms. Our system can be generalized to extract and analyze symptom clusters of other chronic diseases or acute diseases like COVID-19.

PMID:37720922 | PMC:PMC10504685 | DOI:10.1145/3555776.3577685

J Orthop. 2023 Sep 3;44:77-85. doi: 10.1016/j.jor.2023.08.009. eCollection 2023 Oct.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Post-operative physiotherapy is a major component of the effectiveness of knee replacement. Adequate rehabilitation protocols are required for better functional outcomes. With the advent of smartphones and smartwatches, the use of telerehabilitation has increased recently. This study aims to compare tele rehabilitation using various mobile-based applications to conventional rehabilitation protocols.

METHODS: From Jan 2000 to Jun 2022, all the RCTs from SCOPUS, EMBASE and PUBMED comparing patient-related outcome measures between the smartphone-based app and conventional rehabilitation protocols were scanned and seven studies meeting the eligibility criteria were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. The quantitative analysis compared outcomes using the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS), the knee society function score (KSFS), the active range of motion (AROM), Euro-Qol-5D-5L, and MUA. The qualitative analysis compared VAS, NRS, and Time up and go (TUG).

RESULTS: The study shows statistically significant improvement in traditional rehabilitation over app based on KSFS score (M.D.: 6.05, p = 0.05) and AROM on long-term follow-up (12 months) (M.D.: 2.46, p = 0.02). AROM was insignificant on 3 months or less follow-up. NRS and VAS were found to be statistically better in app-based groups. No statistically significant results were seen on KOOS, Euro-Qol-5D-5L, MUA and TUG. 90 days of readmission and a number of physiotherapy visits were more in conventional groups. No difference was seen in single-leg stance and satisfaction rates.

CONCLUSIONS: The present review highlights improved early pain scores and comparable patient-reported outcome analysis at a short-term follow-up period among patients receiving mobile app-based rehabilitation. However, knee range of motion and KSFS score achieved after surgery is analysed to be better with traditional rehabilitation at the one-year end follow-up period.

PMID:37720916 | PMC:PMC10500420 | DOI:10.1016/j.jor.2023.08.009