Medicine
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Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. Anticoagulation therapy effectively reduces systemic embolization in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation, but intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is a major possible complication. This study assessed the real-time rate of rivaroxaban-associated ICH in Saudi patients. ⋯ Three out of four patients were discharged after ICH, and 1 patient died. The incidence of rivaroxaban-related ICH was similar to that previously reported, and the risk of hematoma expansion was low. Further studies are required to validate our results.
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Sarcoidosis is a multi-systemic granulomatous disease. Affected individuals can show spontaneous healing, develop remission with drug treatment within 2 years, or become chronically ill. Our main goal was to identify features that are related to prognosis. ⋯ We built a score-based model where the absence of rheumatological markers (1 point), normal pulmonary functions (2 points), and the presence of early respiratory symptoms manifestations (2 points) were associated with a favorable prognosis. We predicted that a patient with a score of 5 had an 86% (95% confidence interval [CI] 74%-98%) probability of having a favorable prognosis, while those with scores of 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 had probabilities of 72% (95% CI 59-85%), 52% (95% CI 40-63%), 31% (95% CI 17-44%), 15% (95% CI 2-28%), and 7% (95% CI 0-16%) of having a favorable prognosis, respectively. Thus, our easy-to-compute algorithm can help to predict prognosis of sarcoidosis patients, facilitating their management.
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We aimed to investigate the correlation of graft flow measurements between transit-time flow measurement (TTFM) during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery and dynamic cardiac CT after the surgery. Fourteen patients underwent CABG with TTFM and postoperative dynamic cardiac CT; 11 internal thoracic artery (ITA) grafts and 15 saphenous venous grafts (SVGs) were included for analysis. ⋯ TTFM was not significantly correlated with the CT flow of the ITA grafts (r = -0.23, P = .49), but it had a very strong correlation with the CT flow of the SVGs (r = 0.83, P < .01). In patients who underwent CABG surgery, dynamic cardiac CT enabled quantitative evaluation of SVG flow, with good correlation with TTFM.
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Talaromyces marneffei (T marneffei), known as a significant pathogen in patients with AIDS in Southeast Asia, is a dimorphic fungus, which can cause deadly systematic infection in immunocompromised hosts. What is more, the dimorphic phase transition has been reported as a conspicuous process linked with virulence. Interestingly, the yeast form was found in infected individuals, representing the pathogenic phase. However, few researches were found to study the mechanism of dimorphic transition. Thus, a diverse insight into the dimorphic switch mechanism, is urgently needed and we are the first one to research the mechanism of dimorphism. ⋯ The dimorphic transition of T. marneffei was viewed as a pathogenic factor and DEGs were observed. In-depth study of the function and pathway of DEGs revealed that PMAA_012920, PMAA_028730, PMAA_068140, PMAA_092900, PMAA_032350 were most likely acting as the hub-genes and were likely taking effect through regulating energy metabolism.
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Observational Study
Coagulation parameters predictive of repeated implantation failure in Chinese women: A retrospective study.
Repeated implantation failure (RIF) greatly influences pregnancy rate after assisted reproductive technologies (ART) with elusive causes. Our study aimed to explore coagulation parameters in association with RIF and establish a model to predict the risk of RIF in Chinese women. Coagulation parameters, including prothrombin time (PT), thrombin time (TT), activated partial prothrombin time (APTT), D-dimer (DD), fibrin degradation products (FDP), fibrinogen (FG), and platelet aggregation induced by arachidonic acid (AA) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) were measured in RIF patients and controls. ⋯ ROC curve analysis indicated that the area under ROC curve (AUC) of the model was 0.85 with an optimal cut-off point of the predicted probability being P = .65, leading to a sensitivity of 0.83 and a specificity 0.75. We found that coagulation parameters including PT, APTT, TT and platelet aggregation induced by AA are predictive of RIF in Chinese women. Our results highlight the potential of anti-coagulation therapies to lower the risk of RIF.