Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Does Not Affect Post-Discharge Survival in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients complicated by out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) show poor in-hospital outcomes. However, the post-discharge outcomes of survivors of OHCA have not been well studied.

Methods and Results: Data for patients admitted to The Jikei University Kashiwa Hospital with AMI between April 2012 and March 2020 were examined retrospectively. The Jikei University Kashiwa Hospital is a tertiary emergency medical facility, so the frequency of OHCA in this hospital is higher than in an ordinary AMI population. Of 803 patients, 92 (11.5%) were complicated by OHCA. Of the 92 OHCA patients, 37 died in hospital, compared with 45 of 711 non-OHCA patients who died in hospital (P<0.001). OHCA was more frequent in men than in women. The estimated glomerular filtration rate was lower in those with than without OHCA. Long-term mortality was evaluated in patients discharged alive and followed-up at an outpatient clinic (n=635; median follow-up period 607 days). The long-term post-discharge mortality was comparable between AMI patients with and without OHCA.

Conclusions: The post-discharge mortality of AMI patients with OHCA was comparable that of patients without OHCA.

123I-BMIPP/201Tl dual myocardial SPECT proves the efficacy of surgical treatment for an adult with Bland-White-Garland syndrome

Bland-White-Garland (BWG) syndrome is a rare congenital heart disease in which the left coronary artery originates from the pulmonary artery (PA). Surgical treatment to rebuild a dual coronary system is recommended at the time of the diagnosis. However, no effective operative procedure has been established for adult-type BWG patients because of the paucity of such cases. We herein report a case of adult-type BWG that was successfully treated by patch closure of the orifice of the left main tract from the main PA and coronary artery bypass grafting. ¹²³I-15-(p-iodophenyl)-3-(R,S)-methylpentadecanoic acid (BMIPP) and ²⁰¹thallium (Tl) dual myocardial single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) were performed before surgery, early after surgery, and at three months after surgery. Before surgery, dual SPECT showed myocardial perfusion defects in the anterior and septal wall, which corresponded to the cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging findings. Early after surgery, only ²⁰¹Tl images demonstrated an improvement in the defect area. At three months after surgery, both the ²⁰¹Tl and ¹²³I-BMIPP imaging findings demonstrated an improvement in the defect area, which was correlated with the recovery of the left ventricular function. These results showed the effectiveness of this surgical approach for BWG syndrome. <Learning objective: Adult-type Bland-White-Garland syndrome is a rare congenital disease and no effective operative procedure has been established because of the paucity of such cases. The patient in this report underwent patch closure of the orifice of the left main tract from the main pulmonary artery and coronary artery bypass grafting. Myocardial dual single-photon emission computed tomography was considered to be effective for evaluating the results of revascularization surgery, and an improved uptake on ¹²³I-15-(p-iodophenyl)-3-(R,S)-methylpentadecanoic acid images was closely related to an improvement in the left ventricular function.>.

Survival outcomes of neoadjuvant hormone therapy plus external-beam radiotherapy with relatively early initiation of salvage hormone therapy to patients with T3-4N0M0 prostate cancer

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Background: Survival benefits of adding long-term adjuvant hormonal therapy (A-HT) on external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) had reported in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer. However, adverse effects of long-term hormonal therapy are also not negligible. If early initiation of salvage hormonal therapy (S-HT) to patents developed PSA failure after EBRT can realize comparable survival as to giving A-HT across the board, patients who maintain biochemical failure-free status after EBRT will receive hormonal-free benefit. We analyzed outcomes of EBRT combine with neoadjuvant hormonal therapy (NA-HT) to patients with T3-4N0M0 prostate cancer.

Methods: Between April 1998 and Mar 2006, consecutive 173 Japanese patients with T3-4N0M0 adenocarcinoma of the prostate were definitively treated by 3D-CRT / IMRT. The median age was 72 years old (range 48-80). Pre-treatment PSA values ranged between 3.7 and 430 ng/ml (mean: 45.3). T-stage was distributed as follows: T3a: 122, T3b: 50 and T4: 1 case. NA-HT (3–17 months, median: 5 months) was given to all cases. Mean delivered dose was 74 Gy in 2 Gy per fraction to the prostate and seminal vesicles (range: 60-78). A-HT was not given to any patients and PSA values were monitored with one to 6 months interval after the treatment. S-HT was essentially started when PSA value exceeded 4 ng/ml.

Results: Median follow-up period was 74 months (range: 8–152). So far, S-HT was initiated to 58 patients, and PSA values at the initiation of S-HT ranged 0.1 to 32.2 with a median value of 6.0 ng/ml. Biochemical relapse-free survival by the Phoenix definition and salvage hormonal therapy-free survival rates at 8 years were 60% (95% CI = 51-68) and 63% (95% CI = 56-71), respectively. Prostate cancer-specific and overall survival rates were 94% (95% CI = 89-99) and 85% (95% CI = 78-92), respectively.

Conclusions: Survival rates of this cohort of patients treated by EBRT combined with NA-HT were excellent despite no A-HT was given, and more than two thirds of patients maintained hormone-free status at 8 years. This approach may be an alternative to giving long-term A-HT.

No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Mechanisms of adverse effects of anti-VEGF therapy for cancer

Advances in understanding the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in normal physiology are giving insight into the basis of adverse effects attributed to the use of VEGF inhibitors in clinical oncology. These effects are typically downstream consequences of suppression of cellular signalling pathways important in the regulation and maintenance of the microvasculature. Downregulation of these pathways in normal organs can lead to vascular disturbances and even regression of blood vessels, which could be intensified by concurrent pathological conditions. These changes are generally manageable and pose less risk than the tumours being treated, but they highlight the properties shared by tumour vessels and the vasculature of normal organs.

Health-related quality-of-life after external beam radiation therapy for localized prostate cancer: intensity-modulated radiation therapy versus conformal radiation therapy

We compared health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) after intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with statuses obtained after old and new protocols of three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) for localized prostate cancer. We measured the general and disease specific HRQL using the MOS 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36), and the University of California, Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index (UCLA PCI), respectively. IMRT resulted in similar profiles of general and disease-specific HRQL to two other methods within the first year after treatment. Moreover, IMRT gave rise to comparable urinary, intestinal and sexual side effects despite the high dose of radiation applied.

Failure of ureteric bud invasion: a new model of renal agenesis in mice

FUBI (failure of ureteric bud invasion) is a highly inbred strain of mouse with a high spontaneous incidence of uni- or bilateral renal agenesis (60%). Bilateral renal agenesis is lethal within 2 days after birth. The primary defect of FUBI is failure of the ureteric bud to penetrate into the metanephric mesenchyme at around embryonic day 11, resulting in apoptosis of metanephric cells and leading to renal agenesis on the affected side. The metanephros seemed to be normal because co-culturing of the FUBI metanephros with homologous spinal cord induced differentiation of the rudiment, but co-culturing with the homologous ureteric bud frequently did not. Genetic analysis revealed that more than two genes were involved in this malformation and we mapped one of the modifier loci, fubi1, on chromosome 2, at approximately 65 cM from the centromere. In this region, there are two possible candidate genes, Wilms' tumor 1 and formin, that play important roles in kidney development. Some of formin mutants shared a similar phenotype with FUBI; however, there was no difference in the expression of formin in embryonic kidneys between FUBI and control NFS/N mice. Studies of fubi1 congenic mice indicated that interaction of two or more loci is essential for the FUBI phenotype.

[Neoadjuvant CYVADIC (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, adriamycin and dacarbazine) therapy for retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma: a case report]

Retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma is often too large to be completely removed. We report a 67-year-old woman successfully treated with neoadjuvant CYVADIC (cyclosphosphamide, vincristine, adriamycin and dacarbazine). The tumor was removed with the right kidney and ureter and a part of the vena cava after 2 courses of CYVADIC. The tumor recurred at the duodenum 7 years later and was completely removed following neoadjuvant CYVADIC. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy could be helpful for the complete resection of advanced leiomyosarcoma.