Tag: statistics

Child Care Health Dev. 2021 Oct 13. doi: 10.1111/cch.12918. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the published literature on the use of antioxidants in improving developmental outcomes in children with DS.

METHODS: The systematic review included interventional studies (randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs (q-RCTs)) of children aged 0 to 18 years diagnosed with DS who received antioxidants to improve developmental outcomes. Studies were excluded if they were interventional studies with non-random allocation or lack of control group, or non-interventional studies including observational studies, systematic and narrative review articles, editorials, and commentaries. Studies were also excluded if data from participants with DS was included as part of a larger group of participants (e.g. children with intellectual disability) and the data could not be separated for subgroup analysis, or if outcomes did not assess developmental domains (e.g. reported biochemical markers only). The review included children with other conditions associated with developmental disability, only when data for children with DS were separately reported.

RESULTS: Eleven RCTs and q-RCTs fulfilled the eligibility criteria with 683 participants with Down syndrome ranging in age from newborns to 17 years. Nine studies did not show any statistically significant clinical benefit of using antioxidants. Three studies were included in a meta-analysis comparing changes in the effect sizes (post and pre-intervention) in Global Developmental Quotient (GDQ) between the intervention and control groups.

CONCLUSION: This review concludes that it is likely that the results are valid and suggest that the use of Antioxidant has no improvement in GDQ for children with DS. It is also unclear if any benefit exists for other developmental domains.

PMID:34644809 | DOI:10.1111/cch.12918

Arq Bras Cardiol. 2021 Oct 8:S0066-782X2021005018202. doi: 10.36660/abc.20200672. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Ischemic heart disease has attracted much attention due to its high mortality rates, treatment costs and the increasing morbidity in the young population. Strategies for reperfusion have reduced mortality. However, reperfusion can lead to cardiomyocyte death and subsequent irreversible myocardial damage. At present, the timely and targeted treatment of ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is often lacking.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate if dexmedetomidine (DEX) has a protective effect in myocardiual I/R and explore the possible mechanism behind it.

METHODS: Rat hearts were perfused with a Langendorff perfusion system, and randomly assigned to five groups: control group, perfused with Krebs-Henseleit (K-H) solution for 205 minutes without ischemia; and four test groups that underwent 40 minutes of global ischemia and 120 min of reperfusion. The DEX group, the yohimbine (YOH) group and the DEX + YOH group were perfused with DEX (10 nM), YOH (1 μM) or the combination of DEX and YOH prior to reperfusion, respectively. Cardiac hemodynamics, myocardial infarct size, and myocardial histology were evaluated. The expression of glucose-related protein 78 (GRP78), protein kinase R-like ER kinase (PERK), phosphorylated PERK, eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α), phosphorylated eIF2α, activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4), and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP) were assessed. P<0.05 was considered to indicate a statistically significant difference.

RESULTS: DEX preconditioning improved the cardiac function of I/R hearts, reduced myocardial infarction, myocardial apoptosis, and the expression of GRP78, p-PERK, eIF2α, p-eIF2α, ATF4 and CHOP.

CONCLUSIONS: DEX pretreatment reduced myocardial I/R injury by suppressing apoptosis, which was induced by the PERK pathway.

PMID:34644786 | DOI:10.36660/abc.20200672

Arq Bras Cardiol. 2021 Oct 8:S0066-782X2021005018203. doi: 10.36660/abc.20200752. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Doxorubicin (DOX) is frequently used to treat many types of cancers, despite its dose-dependent cardiotoxicity. Alternatively, resveratrol is a polyphenol that has shown useful cardioprotective effects in many heart dysfunction models.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated whether resveratrol treatment in pregnant rats protects against doxorubicin-induced toxicity in offspring cardiomyocytes.

METHODS: Wistar rats (n=8) were supplemented with dietary resveratrol during pregnancy. Upon the offspring’s birth, hearts (9-11) were used to obtain the primary culture of cardiomyocytes. DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and the effects of resveratrol supplementation were evaluated by oxidative stress markers, such as dichlorofluorescein diacetate oxidation, decrease in the activity of antioxidant enzymes, and oxidation of total sulfhydryl content, in addition to cell viability evaluation, DNA damage generation, and DNA damage repair response. A value of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: Neonatal cardiomyocytes from resveratrol supplemented rats exhibiting an increase (p<0.01) in cell viability and lower (p<0.0001) apoptotic/necrotic cells after DOX treatment, which correlates with the activities of antioxidant enzymes and dichlorofluorescein production. Moreover, resveratrol protected cardiomyocytes from DOX-induced DNA damage, showing a decrease (p<0.05) in DNA breaks induced by oxidative stress, evaluated by the activity of DNA-repair enzymes endonuclease III and formamidopyrimidine glycosylase. Supplementation with resveratrol increased (p<0.05) the expression of the repair protein Sirt6 in the cardiomyocytes of the pups.

CONCLUSION: This research indicates that supplementation with resveratrol during the gestational period has a notable cardioprotective effect on the offspring’s heart against DOX-induced toxicity, which may well be due to its antioxidant function, and the increase in the DNA damage repair response.

PMID:34644787 | DOI:10.36660/abc.20200752

Arq Bras Cardiol. 2021 Oct 8:S0066-782X2021005017202. doi: 10.36660/abc.20200475. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In 2007, the United States Food and Drug Administration mandated safety reviews of commercially available echocardiographic contrast agents (ECA), following reports of death. During the past years, different studies have proven the safety of ECA, but there have been few studies on SonoVue®.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the safety of SonoVue® during pharmacological stress echocardiography (PSE), by analyzing the incidence of allergic reactions and comparing groups regarding the appearance of arrhythmia, minor side effects and adverse events.

METHODS: In this observational, prospective study, 2346 patients underwent PSE, and they were divided into the following 2 groups: group 1 with ECA (n = 1099) and group 2 without ECA (n = 1247). Patients were evaluated during PSE, at 24 hours, and at 30 days. Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05.

RESULTS: Group 1 had fewer minor side effects, such as headache (5/0.5% versus 19/1.5%, p = 0.012) and less reactive hypertension (3/0.3% versus 19/1.5%, p = 0.002); fewer arrhythmias, such as ventricular extrasystoles (180/16.4% versus 247/19.8%, p = 0.032) and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (2/0.2% versus 15/1.2%, p = 0.003); and no adverse events, such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or death. In group 2, 1 patient had AMI in < 24 hours (1/01%), and there were 2 deaths in < 30 days (2/0.1%). SonoVue®-related urticaria was seen in 3 (0.3%) patients, without anaphylactic reaction.

CONCLUSION: SonoVue® demonstrated safety during PSE. No cases of death, AMI, or anaphylactic reaction were observed. There was a lower incidence of minor side effects and arrhythmias in the group that received ECA, as well as a low incidence of mild allergic reactions.

PMID:34644784 | DOI:10.36660/abc.20200475

Arq Bras Cardiol. 2021 Oct 8:S0066-782X2021005017201. doi: 10.36660/abc.20200399. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Long-term prognosis post-acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in secondary care is not well-known. The severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) as a predictor of long-term mortality was evaluated in a community hospital in Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare short and long-term prognosis after an ACS event according to severity of obstructive disease in patients attended in a secondary community hospital from prospective CAD cohort in Brazil (the Strategy of Registry of Acute Coronary Syndrome, ERICO study).

METHODS: Survival analyses were performed by Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard models (hazard ratios (HR) with respective 95% confidence interval (CI) to evaluate cumulative all-cause, CVD and CAD mortality according the coronary artery obstruction: no-obstruction (reference group), 1-vessel-disease, 2-vessel-disease, multivessel-disease) among 800 adults from an ERICO study during a 4-year-follow-up. HR are presented as crude and further adjusted for potential confounders from 180 days to 4-year follow-up after ACS. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: Poorer survival rates were detected among individuals with multivessel-disease (all-cause, CVD and CAD, p-log rank< 0.0001). After multivariate adjustments, multivessel-disease |(HR; 2.33 (CI 95%; 1.10-4.95)) and 1-vessel-disease obstructed (HR; 2.44 (CI 95%; 1.11-5.34)) had the highest risk for all-cause mortality compared to those with no obstruction at 4-year follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS: Not only multivessel-disease, but also 1-vessel-disease patients showed a high long-term mortality risk post-ACS. These findings highlight the importance of having a better approach in the treatment and control of cardiovascular risk even in apparently low-risk individuals attended to in secondary care.

PMID:34644783 | DOI:10.36660/abc.20200399

Epidemiol Serv Saude. 2021 Oct 8;30(4):e2021167. doi: 10.1590/S1679-49742021000400013. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the completeness and concordance of infant deaths from congenital syphilis in the Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 2010 and 2017.

METHODS: This was a descriptive study based on linkage between the Mortality Information System (SIM) and the Live Birth Information System (SINASC). Deaths with mention of congenital syphilis in multiple causes of death were analyzed. The completeness of 11 SIM variables was analyzed and SINASC was adopted as the reference. The Kappa statistic was used to analyze concordance.

RESULTS: There were 134 recorded congenital syphilis deaths, 132 of which were linked. 67 had congenital syphilis as the underlying cause, while 65 involved multiple causes of death, indicating underestimated congenital syphilis mortality. After linkage, the number of variables with excellent completeness increased from two to ten.

CONCLUSION: Linking SIM with SINASC data improved completeness. The magnitude of congenital syphilis mortality was found to be underestimated, and the use of multiple causes improved its measurement.

PMID:34644778 | DOI:10.1590/S1679-49742021000400013

Cad Saude Publica. 2021 Oct 8;37(10):e00084819. doi: 10.1590/0102-311X00084819. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

Health literacy (HL) assumes individuals’ knowledge, motivation, and competencies to access, understand, evaluate, and apply health information to make judgments and decisions in daily life, related to healthcare, prevention of diseases, and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life. The study aimed to measure the level of HL and associated factors: sex, age, schooling, income, skin color, self-rated health status, type of diabetes, and presence of comorbidities. The authors assessed 107 adults with diabetes followed at a public outpatient clinic in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The sample did not include first-time patients, patients without a diagnosis of diabetes, or with visual or hearing impairment. HL was assessed with the Brazilian version of the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU-BR). Simple and multiple ordinal logistic regression models were constructed, considering four levels of HL as the dependent variables. The associations were expressed as odds ratios (OR). Approximately 95% of the sample showed poor or limited HL (94.8%; 95%CI: 90.3-99.3). Female gender, older age, and lower schooling were associated with lower odds of excellent HL. In the adjusted model, only schooling remained statistically significant in its effect on HL (adjusted OR = 0.41; 95%CI: 0.17-0.98; p < 0.05). Schooling was the characteristic most strongly related to level of HL.

PMID:34644752 | DOI:10.1590/0102-311X00084819

Acta Cir Bras. 2021 Oct 8;36(8):e360803. doi: 10.1590/ACB360803. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To compare the blood flow in the internal thoracic artery when dissected endoscopically in a conventional manner, in addition to develop a reliable experimental training model for the surgical team.

METHODS: Paired experimental study. Ten pigs were operated and had both internal thoracic arteries dissected, the right with a conventional technique and the left by video endoscopy. The main outcomes to be studied were flow, length, and time of dissection of each vessel.

RESULTS: Blood flow measurements were performed with mean heart rate of 100 ± 16 bpm and mean arterial pressure of 89.7 ± 13 mm Hg. The mean blood flow of endoscopic dissection of the internal thoracic artery was 170.2 ± 66.3 mL/min and by direct view was 180.8 ± 70.5 (p = 0.26). Thus, there was no statistically significant difference between the flows, showing no inferiority between the methods.

CONCLUSIONS: The minimally invasive dissection of the internal thoracic artery was shown to be not inferior to the dissection by open technique in relation to the blood flow in the present experimental model. In addition, the model that we replicated was shown to be adequate for the development of the learning curve and improvement of the endoscopic abilities.

PMID:34644771 | DOI:10.1590/ACB360803

Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2021 Oct 11;19:eAO6283. doi: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2021AO6283. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To explore an artificial intelligence approach based on gradient-boosted decision trees for prediction of all-cause mortality at an intensive care unit, comparing its performance to a recent logistic regression system in the literature, and a logistic regression model built on the same platform.

METHODS: A gradient-boosted decision trees model and a logistic regression model were trained and tested with the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care database. The 1-hour resolution physiological measurements of adult patients, collected during 5 hours in the intensive care unit, consisted of eight routine clinical parameters. The study addressed how the models learn to categorize patients to predict intensive care unit mortality or survival within 12 hours. The performance was evaluated with accuracy statistics and the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve.

RESULTS: The gradient-boosted trees yielded an area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve of 0.89, compared to 0.806 for the logistic regression. The accuracy was 0.814 for the gradient-boosted trees, compared to 0.782 for the logistic regression. The diagnostic odds ratio was 17.823 for the gradient-boosted trees, compared to 9.254 for the logistic regression. The Cohen’s kappa, F-measure, Matthews correlation coefficient, and markedness were higher for the gradient-boosted trees.

CONCLUSION: The discriminatory power of the gradient-boosted trees was excellent. The gradient-boosted trees outperformed the logistic regression regarding intensive care unit mortality prediction. The high diagnostic odds ratio and markedness values for the gradient-boosted trees are important in the context of the studied unbalanced dataset.

PMID:34644744 | DOI:10.31744/einstein_journal/2021AO6283

Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2021 Oct 11;19:eAO6290. doi: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2021AO6290. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To answer the question if the freeze-all strategy and subsequent frozen embryo transfer is preferable to fresh embryo transfer for patients with normal response to ovarian stimulation (4 to 15 oocytes recovered) during in vitro fertilization treatments.

METHODS: A retrospective cohort from two human reproduction centers between 2013 and 2017. A total of 471 frozen embryo transfers from freeze-all cycles, and 3,208 fresh transfers were included.

RESULTS: After propensity score matching adjustment for age and number of eggs, 467 freeze-all cycles and 934 fresh cycles were analyzed, revealing no statistically significant difference between groups in relation to clinical pregnancy rate (32.5% in the Freeze-all Group and 32.3% in the Fresh Group, p=0.936). For women aged 40 years and older, we observed a statistically significant higher clinical pregnancy rate when freeze-all strategy was used (29.3% in the Freeze-all Group and 19.8% in the Fresh Group, p=0.04).

CONCLUSION: Freeze-all strategy was not superior to fresh transfer for all patients with normal response to ovarian stimulation. However, women aged 40 years and older could benefit from this strategy. This deserves further investigation in future research, preferable in a prospective randomized study.

PMID:34644745 | DOI:10.31744/einstein_journal/2021AO6290