Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Many patients find polyethylene glycol-based preparations (PEG) difficult to take because of the large volume of fluid they are required to consume. One hundred and sixteen predominantly elderly patients were randomized to receive either sodium phosphate (n = 61) or PEG (n = 55) bowel preparations before colonoscopy. Patients with a history of symptomatic ischaemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disease in the preceding 6 months, severe liver disease or heart failure, or serum creatinine above 200 micrograms/L were excluded from the study. Each patient filled in a questionnaire about the bowel preparation prior to the procedure. The colonoscopists, who were not aware which preparation had been used, were asked to complete a questionnaire about the quality of the bowel preparation after the procedure. The patients found the sodium phosphate preparation slightly more tolerable than PEG. Side effects were slightly more common with sodium phosphate. Neither difference was statistically significant. However, 91% of patients who had previously had PEG found sodium phosphate easier to take. Approximately 25% of patients in each group experienced at least one episode of incontinence. The colonoscopists found no difference in the overall quality of the bowel preparation. The amount of fluid in the colon was greater in patients prepared with PEG. As expected, patients taking sodium phosphate developed hyperphosphataemia (mean phosphate level before colonoscopy 1.56 mmol/L, normal 0.8 -1.3). They also had a lower mean serum potassium level (3.8 mmol/L) than the PEG group (4.2 mmol/L). However, there were no clinically significant consequences. Sodium phosphate was a safe and effective bowel preparation for colonoscopy in this carefully selected group of patients. It was preferred by patients who had previously had PEG. Many elderly patients were found to develop faecal incontinence, irrespective of the type of bowel preparation used.
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PMID:Bowel preparation for colonoscopy: a randomized prospective trail comparing sodium phosphate and polyethylene glycol in a predominantly elderly population. 867 52

Dynamic myoplasty combines muscle transfer with electrical stimulation to provide contractile function that augments or replaces impaired organ function. Dynamic cardiomyoplasty was the first clinical application in which a skeletal muscle, latissimus dorsi, was transferred and stimulated to provide cardiac assistance, a function different from its original one. The problem of early muscle fatigue that was encountered in the initial implementation of the method was solved by training the muscle with electrical stimulation and thus changing its fiber composition. With intramuscular electrodes, the conditioned latissimus dorsi is stimulated in synchrony with the heart muscle. Safeguards are built into the two-channel implanted stimulator to avoid excessively high pulse rates. Clinicians report that 80% of patients with moderate to severe heart failure prior to operation showed a clinical improvement of 1.6 New York Heart Association classes. Alternative methods of providing cardiac assistance that are also being investigated include wrapping the muscle around the aorta, creating a skeletal muscle ventricle, and using the muscle to power an implantable pump. These latter techniques are still under preclinical investigation. Compared with heart transplant, cardiomyoplasty has the great advantage of not being subject to tissue rejection. The second principal application of dynamic myoplasty is treatment of fecal incontinence through creation of an electrically stimulated skeletal muscle neosphincter (ESMNS). The gracilis muscle of the leg is mobilized, wrapped around the anal canal, and conditioned with electrical stimulation to become more fatigue resistant. To achieve continence, the muscle is continuously stimulated except when the patient wishes to defecate. Overall success rates in achieving continence are 60-65%. Both cardiomyoplasty and the ESMNS technique, and their associated devices, are being refined through ongoing clinical trials.
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PMID:Dynamic myoplasty: surgical transfer and stimulation of skeletal muscle for functional substitution or enhancement. 872 69

Severe heart failure and cerebral stroke are broadly associated with the impairment of muscular function that conventional treatments struggle to restore. New technologies enable the construction of "smart" materials that could be of great help in treating diseases where the main problem is muscle weakness. These materials "behave" similarly to biological systems, because the material directly converts energy, for example electrical energy into movement. The extension and contraction occur silently like in natural muscles. The real challenge is to transfer this amazing technology into devices that restore or replace the mechanical function of failing muscle. Cardiac assist devices based on artificial muscle technology could envelope a weak heart and temporarily improve its systolic function, or, if placed on top of the atrium, restore the atrial kick in chronic atrial fibrillation. Artificial sphincters could be used to treat urinary incontinence after prostatectomy or faecal incontinence associated with stomas. Artificial muscles can restore the ability of patients with facial paralysis due to stroke or nerve injury to blink. Smart materials could be used to construct an artificial oesophagus including peristaltic movement and lower oesophageal sphincter function to replace the diseased oesophagus thereby avoiding the need for laparotomy to mobilise stomach or intestine. In conclusion, in the near future, smart devices will integrate with the human body to fill functional gaps due to organ failure, and so create a human chimera.
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PMID:Artificial muscle: the human chimera is the future. 2218 15

Background. Previous evidence on factors and causes of readmissions associated with high-impact users of stroke is scanty. The aim of the study was to investigate common causes and pattern of short- and long-term readmissions stroke patients by conducting a systematic review of studies using hospital administrative data. Common risk factors associated with the change of readmission rate were also examined. Methods. The literature search was conducted from 15 February to 15 March 2016 using various databases, such as Medline, Embase, and Web of Science. Results. There were a total of 24 studies (n = 2,126,617) included in the review. Only 4 studies assessed causes of readmissions in stroke patients with the follow-up duration from 30 days to 5 years. Common causes of readmissions in majority of the studies were recurrent stroke, infections, and cardiac conditions. Common patient-related risk factors associated with increased readmission rate were age and history of coronary heart disease, heart failure, renal disease, respiratory disease, peripheral arterial disease, and diabetes. Among stroke-related factors, length of stay of index stroke admission was associated with increased readmission rate, followed by bowel incontinence, feeding tube, and urinary catheter. Conclusion. Although risk factors and common causes of readmission were identified, none of the previous studies investigated causes and their sequence of readmissions among high-impact stroke users.
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PMID:Systematic Review of Hospital Readmissions in Stroke Patients. 2766 20

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is characterized by a high delayed and unrelated mortality. Predicting delayed mortality in CDI patients could allow the implementation of interventions that could reduce these events. A prospective multicentric study was carried out to investigate prognostic factors associated with mortality. It was based on a cohort (July 2015 to February 2016) of 295 patients presenting with CDI. Logistic regression was used and the model was calibrated using the Hosmer-Lemeshow test. The mortality rate at 75 days in our series was 18%. Age (>65 years), comorbidity (defined by heart failure, diabetes mellitus with any organ lesion, renal failure, active neoplasia or immunosuppression) and fecal incontinence at clinical presentation were associated with delayed (75-day) mortality. When present, each of the aforementioned variables added one point to the score. Mortalities with 0, 1, 2 and 3 points were 0%, 9.4%, 18.5% and 38.2%, respectively. The area under the ROC curve was 0.743, and the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test p value was 0.875. Therefore, the prediction of high delayed mortality in CDI patients by our scoring system could promote measures for increasing survival in suitable cases.
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PMID:High delayed mortality after the first episode of Clostridium difficile infection. 3095 65