Post market surveillance registry (PIONEER) of the Yukon Choice PC-Elite Coronary Stent System for percutaneous coronary intervention in Indian acute coronary syndrome population

AIM

The aim of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy profile of a newer generation biodegradable DES, the Yukon Choice PC Elite with a temperature controlling mechanism, in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

METHODS

This prospective multi-center study (PIONEER Registry) was conducted in an Indian ACS population, therefore providing data in real world clinical practice. Patients with ACS underwent DES implantation in de novo native-vessel coronary lesions with the Yukon Choice PC Elite biodegradable polymer DES and were followed up for a year.

RESULTS

A total 999 patients were evaluated. The majority of patients were male (79.2%). A total of 6.7% of the patients had a history of prior myocardial infarction (MI) and 2.7% of patients had a history of previous coronary artery bypass graft. The clinical presentations of the patients included: unstable angina pectoris (UA) (46.4%), ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI) (38.1%), and Non-ST-segment elevation MI (NSTEMI) (15.4%). Implantation of the device was successful in 99.9% of cases. The median stent length and stent size were 21.0 mm (Range: 8.0-40.0 mm) and 2.8 mm (Range 2.0-4.0 mm), respectively. Through to one-year clinical follow-up after percutaneous coronary intervention, all-cause death occurred in 4 of 999 patients (Crude Percentage: 0.4%). Cardiac death, MI, TLR, and stent thrombosis were occurred in 1 (0.1%), 8 (0.8%), 12 (1.2%) and 1 (0.1%) patients, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The results of this post marketing surveillance registry suggest favorable safety and efficacy outcomes associated with the Yukon Choice PC Elite biodegradable DES in a real world Indian ACS population.

Predictive factors for fever and sepsis following percutaneous nephrolithotomy: A review of 580 patients

AIMS

There has been much speculation and discussion about the infective complications of percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). While fever is common after PCNL, the incidence of it progressing to urosepsis is fortunately less. Which patient undergoing PCNL is at risk of developing urosepsis and in whom aggressive treatment of fever postoperatively may prevent the progression to severe sepsis becomes a very important question. This study aims to answer these vital questions.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

This is a single institutional, retrospective study over a period of 3 years.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Retrospective analysis of medical records of the patients undergoing PCNL from August 2012 to July 2015 was done. A total of 580 patients were included in the study, and the study variables recorded were analyzed statistically.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED

Statistical analysis was performed by Chi-square test.

RESULTS

Three factors significantly correlated with postoperative severe sepsis, namely, stone size >25 mm, prolonged operative time >120 min, and significant bleeding requiring transfusion. Factors associated with fever after PCNL which did not progress to sepsis were the presence of staghorn calculi and multiple access tracts in addition to the factors listed above for sepsis.

CONCLUSIONS

Fever after PCNL is not uncommon but it has a low incidence of progressing to life-threatening severe sepsis and multiorgan dysfunction syndrome. Special precautions and monitoring should be taken in patients with bigger stone (>25 mm) and patients with severe intraoperative hemorrhage requiring blood transfusion. It is better to stage the procedure rather than prolong the operative time (120 min). Identifying these factors and minimizing them may decrease the incidence of this life-threatening complication.

Performance of the revised Atlanta and determinant-based classifications for severity in acute pancreatitis

BACKGROUND

Severity classification systems aim to stratify patients with acute pancreatitis reliably into coherent risk groups. Recently, the Atlanta 1992 classification has been revised (Atlanta 2012) and a novel determinant-based classification (DBC) system developed. This study assessed the ability of the three systems to stratify disease severity among patients with acute pancreatitis.

METHODS

This was an observational cohort study of patients with acute pancreatitis identified from an institutional database. Cohort characteristics, investigations, interventions and outcomes were identified. Systems were compared using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and Spearman's correlation coefficients.

RESULTS

The in-hospital mortality rate was 6·6 per cent (15 of 228 patients). All of the outcomes considered correlated significantly with the three systems, with the exception of the need for surgery in Atlanta 1992. Atlanta 2012 and the DBC had higher area under the curve (AUC) values than Atlanta 1992 for all outcomes. The revised Atlanta and DBC systems both performed similarly with regard to ICU admission (AUC 0·927 and 0·917 respectively; both P < 0·001), need for percutaneous drainage (AUC 0·879 and 0·891; both P < 0·001), need for surgery (AUC 0·827 and 0·845; P = 0·006 and P = 0·004 respectively) and in-hospital mortality (0·955 and 0·931; both P < 0·001). However, the critical category in the DBC system identified patients with the most severe disease; seven of eight patients in this group died in hospital, compared with 15 of 34 with severe pancreatitis according to Atlanta 2012.

CONCLUSION

The Atlanta 2012 and DBC perform equally well for classification of disease severity in acute pancreatitis. The addition of a critical category in the DBC identifies patients with the most severe disease.

Acute appendicitis presenting as chest pain

INTRODUCTION

Abdominal pain is the primary presenting complaint of patients with acute appendicitis. Acute appendicitis presenting as chest pain is extremely rare and according to our search such presentation due to herniation of appendix into thorax through congenital diaphragmatic defect has not yet been reported.

PRESENTATION OF CASE

We present a case of a 12year old male child who presented with acute chest pain. ECG was suggestive of ischemic changes. Echocardiogram and cardiac enzymes were within normal limits. Chest X-ray and gastrograffin contrast study confirmed the diagnosis of congenital diaphragmatic hernia. On exploration inflamed appendix was found herniated through the diaphragm along with caecum, ascending colon and transverse colon. Histology confirmed the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

DISCUSSION

Acute appendicitis may sometimes have very varied and rare presentation. In late presenting CDH, the most important factor responsible for acute or chronic presentation seems to be the type of herniated viscera.

CONCLUSION

This report presents a rare case of late-presenting CDH with herniated appendix along with caecum, ascending colon and transverse colon. Unusual presentation of chest pain was due to an attack of acute appendicitis. Late-presenting CDH is a very intriguing defect with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. It should be suspected in cases of unexplained acute or chronic respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms, and abnormal chest radiographic findings. The prognosis is favorable with correct diagnosis and prompt surgical repair.

Co-relationship of physical stability of amorphous dispersions with enthalpy relaxation

Physical stability studies of valdecoxib (VLB) and its solid dispersions with PVP (1, 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20% w/w) were carried out by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Change in specific heat with time was measured to determine the degree of crystallinity of amorphous drug and its binary dispersions after storage at 40 degrees C and 75% RH. The rate of crystallization was found to decrease with increasing PVP concentration and time for 10% crystallization (t90%) was found to increase significantly for the amorphous drug when formulated as PVP dispersions. Enthalpy relaxation was found to be inversely correlated with t90% (min) values and was found to be a good predictor of devitrification tendency and hence stability of amorphous VLB.

Solid phase synthesis of [18F]labelled peptides for positron emission tomography

A strategy for the solid phase synthesis of [18F]labelled peptides has been developed. The peptides were prepared on solid support and acylated with 4-[18F]fluorobenzoic acid using HATU within 3 min and the labelled peptide was released from the solid support within 7 min. The [18F]labelled peptides were produced in good purity with a specific activity of 20-25 GBq/micromol.

Use of alveolar cell monolayers of varying electrical resistance to measure pulmonary peptide transport

The apparent permeability coefficient (P(app)) of two fluorescently tagged model hydrophilic peptides, acXASNH(2) and acXAS(GAS)(7)NH(2), and (14)C-mannitol across monolayers of cultured rat alveolar epithelial cells of varying transepithelial electrical resistance (TER) has been examined. In line with their design features, the peptides were not degraded under the conditions of the test. Furthermore, no concentration dependence of transport of the tripeptide acXASNH(2) was observed over the concentration range studied, nor was any directional transport seen for either of the model peptides, indicating that under the conditions of the test they were not substrates for any transporters or efflux pumps. From the hydrophilic nature of the peptides (as assessed by their log P), and their inverse dependence of transport with molecular weight and TER, it was assumed that the peptides were transported across the cell monolayer passively via the paracellular route. The observed P(app) for the transport of (14)C-mannitol and the peptides across rat alveolar epithelial cell monolayers were found to be inversely (though not linearly) related to the measured TER and could be well-modeled assuming the presence of two populations of "pores" in the cell monolayer, namely, cylindrical pores of diameter 1.5 nm and large pores of diameter 20 nm. The relative populations of the two types of pores varied with the TER of the monolayer, with the number of large pores decreasing with an increase in TER (and the number of small pores taken as fixed). These results suggest that if the cell monolayer is well characterized with respect to the passage of a range of probe molecules across monolayers of varying electrical resistance, it should be possible to predict the P(app) of any hydrophilic peptide or drug crossing the membrane by the paracellular route at any desired TER using a monolayer of any electrical resistance, above a minimum value.

Synthesis and properties of (6,7-dimethoxy-4-coumaryl)alanine: a fluorescent peptide label

The synthesis of racemic and l-(6,7-dimethoxy-4-coumaryl)alanine (Dmca) is described and some spectral and physicochemical properties are reported. The utility of Dmca as a highly sensitive and specific label for the quantitative detection of synthetic peptides in HPLC and in minimal essential media (MEM) is also described.