The Clinical Utility of Forced Oscillation Technique (FOT) during Hospitalisation in patients with exacerbation of COPD

BackgroundForced Oscillation Technique (FOT) is an innovative tool to measure within-breath reactance at 5 Hz (ΔXrs5Hz) but its feasibility and utility in acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) is understudied.MethodsA prospective observational study was conducted in 82 COPD patients admitted due to AECOPD. FOT indices were measured and the association between these indices and spirometry, peak inspiratory flow rate, blood inflammatory biomarkers and patient-reported outcomes including assessment of dyspnoea, quality of life; anxiety and depression and frailty at admission and discharge were explored.ResultsAll patients were able to perform FOT in both sitting and supine position. The prevalence of expiratory flow limitation (EFL) in the upright position was 39% (32/82) and increased to 50% (41/82) in the supine position. EFL (measured by ΔXrs5Hz) and resistance at 5 Hz (Rrs5Hz) negatively correlated with FEV1; those with EFL had lower FEV1 (0.74±0.30 versus 0.94±0.36 L, p=0.01) and FVC (1.7 ±0.55 versus 2.1 ±0.63 L, p= 0.009) and higher BMI [27 (21–36) versus 23 (19–26) kg/m2, p=0.03] compared to those without EFL. During recovery from AECOPD, changes in EFL was observed in association with improvement in breathlessness.ConclusionFOT was easily used to detect EFL during hospitalisation due to AECOPD. The prevalence of EFL increased when patients moved from a seated to a supine position and EFL was negatively correlated with airflow limitation. Improvements in EFL were associated with a reduction in breathlessness. FOT is of potential clinical value by providing a non-invasive, objective, and effort-independent technique to measure lung function parameters during AECOPD requiring hospital admission.

Intrastromal keratoplasty with intracorneal ring segments implantation as an independent method of visual rehabilitation in patients with keratoconus

Purpose. To assess the possibility of using intrastromal keratoplasty with intracorneal ring segments implantation as an independent technique to achieve visual rehabilitation in patients with keratoconus of the stages I and II. Material and methods. There were examined and operated 14 eyes (10 patients) with keratoconus of the stages I and II (classification by Izmailova SB, 2014). Patients were divided into two groups depending on the keratoconus stage. All patients underwent intrastromal keratoplasty with intracorneal ring segments implantation using the femtosecond technology. The on average follow-up was 5.7 months. Results. In the first group: the average UCVA value increased with from 0.31±0.21 to 0.81±0.31 (p<0.05); the BCVA increased from 0.89±0.08 to 0.94±0.10 (p>0.05); the spherical component of refraction decreased from 0.96±1.25 to 0.08±0.20 (p<0.05); the cylindrical component of refraction decreased from 4.25±1.73 to 0.50±1.22 (p<0.05). In the second group: UCVA increased from 0.51±0.40 to 0.61±0.28 (p<0.05); the BCVA increased from 0.70±0.17 to 0.81±0.26 (p>0.05); the spherical component of refraction decreased from 4.88±2,61±0.53±0.63 (p<0.05); the cylindrical component of refraction decreased from 2.69±1.65 to 1.41±1.02 (p<0.05). Conclusion. 1. After implantation of intracorneal ring segments, both in patients with I and in patients with the II stage of keratoconus, there was an increase in the UCVA and BCVA, as well as a significant reduction in maximal keratometry and coma, which provides the improving of the quality of vision. 2. In all cases the UCVA and BCVA that were obtained after the treatment reached a sufficiently high level to ensure the possibility of performing their professional functions, without resorting to additional surgical treatment techniques. That characterizes this method as an independent and sufficient to achieve high visual acuity in patients with I and II stages of keratoconus. Key words: keratoconus, corneal intrastromal segments, femtosecond laser, visual rehabilitation.

A new comparison between holographic dark energy and standard $$\varLambda $$-cosmology in the context of cosmography method

The cosmography method is a model-independent technique used to reconstruct the Hubble expansion of the Universe at low redshifts. In this method, using the Hubble diagrams from Type Ia Supernovae (SNIa) in Pantheon catalog, quasars and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB), we put observational constraints on the cosmographic parameters in holographic dark energy (HDE) and concordance $$\varLambda $$ Λ CDM models by minimizing the error function $$\chi ^2$$ χ 2 based on the statistical Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. Then, we compare the results of the models with the results of the model-independent cosmography method. Except for the Pantheon sample, we observe that there is a big tension between standard cosmology and Hubble diagram observations, while the HDE model remains consistent in all cases. Then we use different combinations of Hubble diagram data to reconstruct the Hubble parameter of the model and compare it with the observed Hubble data. We observe that the Hubble parameter reconstructed from the model-independent cosmography method has the smallest deviation from the Hubble data and the $$\varLambda $$ Λ CDM (HDE) model has the largest (middle) deviation, especially when we keep the observational data point $$226^{+8.0}_{-0.8}$$ 226 - 0.8 + 8.0 at redshift $$z=2.36$$ z = 2.36 in the analysis. On the contrary, in the redshift $$z <1$$ z < 1 , we see that the compatibility of $$\varLambda $$ Λ CDM cosmology and observation is even better than the model independent cosmography method.

Study of Arterial Function and Remodelling by Using Radiofrequency and a New Multidirectional Doppler Technology

Introduction: Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of a cardiovascular disease epidemic worldwide. The understanding of normal artery structure and function and the initial disarrangements conducting to atherosclerosis is of key relevance to develop preventive interventions based on a rational study of arterial structural and functional parameters, their pathologic behaviour and response to therapeutic interventions. New US approaches enable a precise evaluation of the forces and stimuli acting on the arterial wall and measure its responses precisely in different clinical stages of the arterial atherosclerotic disease and a better assessment of the efficacy or not of different therapeutic interventions. The ability to analyse WSS hemodynamically and to measure it accurately is an essential basis for the assessment of the atherosclerotic risk in the general population. A new angle-independent technique, measuring and visualizing blood flow velocities in all directions, called Vector Flow Imaging (VFI), has been proposed. Systems are equipped with VFI based on a multi-angle transmission plane waves method, which allows a very high frame rate and a detailed visualization of complex flow.

Improving sampling and calibration of GRBs as distance indicators

We present a sample of 74 Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) from the Fermi-GBM catalogue for which we compute the distance moduli and use them to constrain effective dark energy models. To overcome the circularity problem affecting GRBs as distance indicators, we calibrate the Amati relation of our sample with a cosmology-independent technique. Specifically, we use the latest observational Hubble parameter data, including associated systematics, to approximate the cosmic expansion through a Bezier parametric curve. We subsequently obtain the distance moduli of the GRBs and include the data in a suite of recent cosmological observations of the expansion history (Planck Compressed 2018, 2012 BOSS release of BAO data and Pantheon SNIa), to compute Bayesian posterior constraints for the standard cosmological model ΛCDM, as well as ωCDM, and the CPL parametrization. Throughout the analysis we strive to keep under control the error propagation and limit our GRBs sample to avoid observational bias. As a result, we find no evidence in favour of the alternatives to ΛCDM model. The latter agrees very well with our calibrated sample of GRBs and presently available luminosity distance probes.

‘Butterfly’: a residual bone independent technique for one-stage sinus lift

A 29-year-old woman with an extreme pneumatisation of the maxillary sinus and a missing molar was treated with one-stage sinus lifting and implant placement in a novel surgical approach.

Search for CP violation in $${{{\varXi }} ^+_{c}} \rightarrow {p} {{K} ^-} {{\pi } ^+} $$ decays using model-independent techniques

A first search for $$CP$$ CP violation in the Cabibbo-suppressed $${{{\varXi }} ^+_{c}} \rightarrow {p} {{K} ^-} {{\pi } ^+} $$ Ξ c + → p K - π + decay is performed using both a binned and an unbinned model-independent technique in the Dalitz plot. The studies are based on a sample of proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $$3.0\,\text {fb} ^{-1} $$ 3.0 fb - 1 , and collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and $$8\,\text {TeV} $$ 8 TeV . The data are consistent with the hypothesis of no $$CP$$ CP violation.