Faculty of Medicine

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    Item type:Publication,
    Cognitive decline related to chronic kidney disease as an exclusion factor from kidney transplantation: results from an international survey
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2024-04-13)
    Farisco, Michele
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    Blumblyte, Inga A
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    Franssen, Casper
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    Nitsch, Dorothea
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    Zecchino, Irene
    <jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Background and hypothesis</jats:title> <jats:p>There seems to be a lack of consensus on the necessity and the modality of psychological and specifically cognitive assessment of candidates for kidney transplantation. Both points are often delegated to individual hospitals/centres, whereas international guidelines are inconsistent. We think it is essential to investigate professionals' opinions to advance towards a consistent clinical practice.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>This paper presents the results of an international survey among clinical professionals, mainly nephrologists from the CONNECT (Cognitive decline in Nephro-Neurology: European Cooperative Target) network and beyond (i.e. from personal contacts of CONNECT members). The survey investigated their opinions about the question of whether cognitive decline in patients with chronic kidney disease may affect their eligibility for kidney transplantation.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Our results show that most clinicians working with patients affected by chronic kidney disease think that cognitive decline may challenge their eligibility for transplantation despite data that suggest that, in some patients, cognitive problems improve after kidney transplantation.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title> <jats:p>We conclude that three needs emerge as particularly pressing: defining agreed-on standards for a multifaceted and multifactorial assessment (i.e. including both clinical/medical and psychosocial factors) of candidates with chronic kidney disease to kidney transplantation; further investigating empirically the causal connection between chronic kidney disease and cognition; and further investigating empirically the possible partial reversibility of cognitive decline after kidney transplantation.</jats:p> </jats:sec>
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    Item type:Publication,
    Factors influencing kidney transplantation rates: a study from the ERA Registry
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2023-01-10)
    Boenink, Rianne
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    Kramer, Anneke
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    Vanholder, Raymond C
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    Mahillo, Beatriz
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    Massy, Ziad A
    Background Large international differences exist in kidney transplantation (KT) rates. We aimed to investigate which factors may explain the total, deceased donor and living donor KT rates over the last decade. Methods KT experts from 39 European countries completed the Kidney Transplantation Rate Survey on measures and barriers and their potential effect on the KT rate in their country. In the analyses, countries were divided into low, middle and high KT rate countries based on the KT rate at the start of study period in 2010. Results Experts from low KT rate countries reported more frequently that they had taken measures regarding staff, equipment and facilities to increase the total KT rate compared with middle and high KT rate countries. For donor type–specific KT, the largest international differences in measures taken were reported for deceased donor KT, with middle and high KT rate countries taking more measures, such as the use of expanded criteria donor kidneys, the presence of transplantation coordinators and (inter)national exchange of donor kidneys. Once a measure was taken, experts’ opinion on its success was similar across the low, middle and high KT rate countries. Experts from low KT rate countries more often reported potential barriers, such as patients’ lack of knowledge and distrust in the healthcare system. Conclusions Particularly in low KT rate countries, the KT rate might be stimulated by optimizing staff, equipment and facilities. In addition, all countries may benefit from measures specific to deceased and living donors.
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    Comparison of HAS-BLED and ORBIT bleeding risk scores in atrial fibrillation patients treated with non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants: a report from the ESC-EHRA EORP-AF General Long-Term Registry
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021-09-23)
    Proietti, Marco
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    Romiti, Giulio Francesco
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    Vitolo, Marco
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    Potpara, Tatjana S
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    Boriani, Giuseppe
    Aims Bleeding risk assessment is recommended in guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation (AF). The HAS-BLED score was proposed prior to non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) and it has been suggested that the ORBIT score may be superior in predicting bleeds in NOAC users. We aimed to compare the HAS-BLED and ORBIT scores in contemporary AF patients treated with NOACs. Methods and results We analysed patients enrolled in the ESC-EHRA EORP-AF (EURObservational Research Programme in AF) General Long-Term Registry. HAS-BLED and ORBIT scores were computed based on original schemes. The primary outcome was the occurrence of major bleeding (MB). A total of 3018 patients (median age 70; 39.6% females) were included: median [interquartile range (IQR)] HAS-BLED and ORBIT scores were 1 [1–2] and 1 [0–2], respectively; 356 (11.8%) patients were at high risk for MB using HAS-BLED (≥3) and 123 (4.1%) using ORBIT (≥4). Overall, 60 (2.0%) MB events were recorded, with an incidence of 1.1 per 100 patient-years. Both HAS-BLED and ORBIT were associated with outcome, modestly predicting MB [area under the curve (AUC) 0.653, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.593–0.714 and AUC 0.601, 95% CI 0.526–0.677, respectively]. Calibration plots showed that both scores were poorly calibrated, particularly the ORBIT score, which showed consistent poorer calibration. Time-dependent reclassification analysis showed a trend towards incorrect lower risk reclassification using ORBIT compared with HAS-BLED. Conclusion In this real-life contemporary cohort of AF patients treated with NOACs, the ORBIT score did not provide reclassification improvement, showing even poorer calibration compared with HAS-BLED. Our findings do not support the preferential use of ORBIT in NOAC-treated AF patients.
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    Outcomes of digoxin vs. beta blocker in atrial fibrillation: report from ESC–EHRA EORP AF Long-Term General Registry
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021-10-19)
    Ding, Wern Yew
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    Boriani, Giuseppe
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    Marin, Francisco
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    Blomström-Lundqvist, Carina
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    Potpara, Tatjana S
    Aims The safety of digoxin therapy in atrial fibrillation (AF) remains ill-defined. We aimed to evaluate the effects of digoxin over beta-blocker therapy in AF. Methods and results Patients with AF who were treated with either digoxin or a beta blocker from the ESC–EHRA EORP AF (European Society of Cardiology–European Heart Rhythm Association EURObservational Research Programme Atrial Fibrillation) General Long-Term Registry were included. Outcomes of interest were all-cause mortality, cardiovascular (CV) mortality, non-CV mortality, quality of life, and number of patients with unplanned hospitalizations. Of 6377 patients, 549 (8.6%) were treated with digoxin. Over 24 months, there were 550 (8.6%) all-cause mortality events and 1304 (23.6%) patients with unplanned emergency hospitalizations. Compared to beta blocker, digoxin therapy was associated with increased all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1.90 (95% confidence interval, CI, 1.48–2.44)], CV mortality [HR 2.18 (95% CI 1.47–3.21)], and non-CV mortality [HR 1.68 (95% CI 1.02–2.75)] with reduced quality of life [health utility score 0.555 (±0.406) vs. 0.705 (±0.346), P < 0.001] but no differences in emergency hospitalizations [HR 1.00 (95% CI 0.56–1.80)] or AF-related hospitalizations [HR 0.95 (95% CI 0.60–1.52)]. On multivariable analysis, there were no differences in any of the outcomes between both groups, after accounting for potential confounders. Similar results were obtained in the subgroups of patients with permanent AF and coexisting heart failure. There were no differences in outcomes between AF patients receiving digoxin with and without chronic kidney disease. Conclusion Poor outcomes related to the use of digoxin over beta-blocker therapy in terms of excess mortality and reduced quality of life are associated with the presence of other risk factors rather than digoxin per se. The choice of digoxin or beta-blocker therapy had no influence on the incidence of unplanned hospitalizations.
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    Impact of clinical phenotypes on management and outcomes in European atrial fibrillation patients: a report from the ESC-EHRA EURObservational Research Programme in AF (EORP-AF) General Long-Term Registry
    (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021-10-20)
    Proietti, Marco
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    Vitolo, Marco
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    Harrison, Stephanie L.
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    Lane, Deirdre A.
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    Fauchier, Laurent
    Background Epidemiological studies in atrial fibrillation (AF) illustrate that clinical complexity increase the risk of major adverse outcomes. We aimed to describe European AF patients’ clinical phenotypes and analyse the differential clinical course. Methods We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis based on Ward’s Method and Squared Euclidean Distance using 22 clinical binary variables, identifying the optimal number of clusters. We investigated differences in clinical management, use of healthcare resources and outcomes in a cohort of European AF patients from a Europe-wide observational registry. Results A total of 9363 were available for this analysis. We identified three clusters: Cluster 1 (n = 3634; 38.8%) characterized by older patients and prevalent non-cardiac comorbidities; Cluster 2 (n = 2774; 29.6%) characterized by younger patients with low prevalence of comorbidities; Cluster 3 (n = 2955;31.6%) characterized by patients’ prevalent cardiovascular risk factors/comorbidities. Over a mean follow-up of 22.5 months, Cluster 3 had the highest rate of cardiovascular events, all-cause death, and the composite outcome (combining the previous two) compared to Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 (all P < .001). An adjusted Cox regression showed that compared to Cluster 2, Cluster 3 (hazard ratio (HR) 2.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.27–3.62; HR 3.42, 95%CI 2.72–4.31; HR 2.79, 95%CI 2.32–3.35), and Cluster 1 (HR 1.88, 95%CI 1.48–2.38; HR 2.50, 95%CI 1.98–3.15; HR 2.09, 95%CI 1.74–2.51) reported a higher risk for the three outcomes respectively. Conclusions In European AF patients, three main clusters were identified, differentiated by differential presence of comorbidities. Both non-cardiac and cardiac comorbidities clusters were found to be associated with an increased risk of major adverse outcomes.
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    Impact of anthropometric factors on outcomes in atrial fibrillation patients: analysis on 10 220 patients from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)-European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) EurObservational Research Programme on Atrial Fibrillation (EORP-AF) general long-term registry
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2022-06-07)
    Boriani, Giuseppe
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    Vitolo, Marco
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    Malavasi, Vincenzo L
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    Proietti, Marco
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    Fantecchi, Elisa
    Abstract Aim To investigate the association of anthropometric parameters [height, weight, body mass index (BMI), body surface area (BSA), and lean body mass (LBM)] with outcomes in atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods and results Ten-thousand two-hundred twenty patients were enrolled [40.3% females, median age 70 (62–77) years, followed for 728 (interquartile range 653–745) days]. Sex-specific tertiles were considered for the five anthropometric variables. At the end of follow-up, survival free from all-cause death was worse in the lowest tertiles for all the anthropometric variables analyzed. On multivariable Cox regression analysis, an independent association with all-cause death was found for the lowest vs. middle tertile when body weight (hazard ratio [HR] 1.66, 95%CI 1.23–2.23), BMI (HR 1.65, 95%CI 1.23–2.21), and BSA (HR 1.49, 95%CI 1.11–2.01) were analysed in female sex, as well as for body weight in male patients (HR 1.61, 95%CI 1.25–2.07). Conversely, the risk of MACE was lower for the highest tertile (vs. middle tertile) of BSA and LBM in males and for the highest tertile of weight and BSA in female patients. A higher occurrence of haemorrhagic events was found for female patients in the lowest tertile of height [odds ratio (OR) 1.90, 95%CI 1.23–2.94] and LBM (OR 2.13, 95%CI 1.40–3.26). Conclusions In AF patients height, weight, BMI, BSA, and LBM were associated with clinical outcomes, with all-cause death being higher for patients presenting lower values of these variables, i.e. in the lowest tertiles of distribution. The anthropometric variables independently associated with other outcomes were also different between male and female subjects.
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    Epidemiology and impact of frailty in patients with atrial fibrillation in Europe
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2022-08)
    Proietti, Marco
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    Romiti, Giulio Francesco
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    Vitolo, Marco
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    Harrison, Stephanie L
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    Lane, Deirdre A
    Background: Frailty is a medical syndrome characterised by reduced physiological reserve and increased vulnerability to stressors. Data regarding the relationship between frailty and atrial fibrillation (AF) are still inconsistent. Methods A 40-item frailty index (FI) was built according to the accumulation of deficits model in the AF patients enrolled in the ESC-EHRA EORP-AF General Long-Term Registry. Association of baseline characteristics, clinical management, quality of life, healthcare resources use and risk of outcomes with frailty was examined. Results Among 10,177 patients [mean age (standard deviation) 69.0 (11.4) years, 4,103 (40.3%) females], 6,066 (59.6%) were pre-frail and 2,172 (21.3%) were frail, whereas only 1,939 (19.1%) were considered robust. Baseline thromboembolic and bleeding risks were independently associated with increasing FI. Frail patients with AF were less likely to be treated with oral anticoagulants (OACs) (odds ratio 0.70, 95% confidence interval 0.55–0.89), especially with non-vitamin K antagonist OACs and managed with a rhythm control strategy, compared with robust patients. Increasing frailty was associated with a higher risk for all outcomes examined, with a non-linear exponential relationship. The use of OAC was associated with a lower risk of outcomes, except in patients with very/extremely high frailty. Conclusions In this large cohort of AF patients, there was a high burden of frailty, influencing clinical management and risk of adverse outcomes. The clinical benefit of OAC is maintained in patients with high frailty, but not in very high/extremely frail ones.
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    2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS)
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2024-08-30)
    Van Gelder, Isabelle C
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    Rienstra, Michiel
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    Bunting, Karina V
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    Casado-Arroyo, Ruben
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    Caso, Valeria
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    Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study
    (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020-10-09)
    Labeau, Sonia O.
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    Afonso, Elsa
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    Benbenishty, Julie
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    Blackwood, Bronagh
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    Boulanger, Carole
    Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score < 19, ICU stay > 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat.
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    Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development
    (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023-03-29)
    null, null
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    Mishra, Anu
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    Zhou, Bin
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    Rodriguez-Martinez, Andrea
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    Bixby, Honor
    <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being<jats:sup>1–6</jats:sup>. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m<jats:sup>–2</jats:sup> in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.</jats:p>