Functionalization of microbubbles in a microfluidic chip for biosensing application.

Microbubbles are widely used for biomedical applications, ranging from imagery to therapy. In these applications, microbubbles can be functionalized to allow targeted drug delivery or imaging of the human body. However, functionalization of the microbubbles is quite difficult, due to the unstable nature of the gas/liquid interface.

A time-adjusted control chart for monitoring surgical outcome variations.

Background: Statistical Process Control (SPC) tools providing feedback to surgical teams can improve patient outcomes over time. However, the quality of routinely available hospital data used to build these tools does not permit full capture of the influence of patient case-mix. We aimed to demonstrate the value of considering time-related variables in addition to patient case-mix for detection of special cause variations when monitoring surgical outcomes with control charts.

Economic analysis of surgical outcome monitoring using control charts: the SHEWHART cluster randomised trial.

Importance: Surgical complications represent a considerable proportion of hospital expenses. Therefore, interventions that improve surgical outcomes could reduce healthcare costs.

Objective: Evaluate the effects of implementing surgical outcome monitoring using control charts to reduce hospital bed-days within 30 days following surgery, and hospital costs reimbursed for this care by the insurer.

[Neurological forms of long COVID in adults: Critical approach].

Now recognized by health authorities, long COVID is identified as a frequent condition complicating the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Its polymorphic and sometimes disconcerting clinical expression raises questions about its mechanism. Patterns of clinical expression suggest extensive involvement of the nervous system through an almost ubiquitous cognitive complaint.

Functional Imaging for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Diagnosis and monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases has changed profoundly over the past twenty years. Biomarkers are now included in most diagnostic procedures as well as in clinical trials. Neuroimaging biomarkers provide access to brain structure and function over the course of neurodegenerative diseases.

Prevalence and characterization of cerebral small vessel disease in young adults with intracerebral hemorrhage.

Background And Aims: Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is the main cause of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in older individuals but has not been systematically studied in younger people. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of CSVD in young adults with symptomatic ICH.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study of consecutive adults aged 18-50 years with non-traumatic ICH.

Implementation of an in situ simulation-based training adapted from Morbidity and Mortality conference cases: effect on the occurrence of adverse events-study protocol of a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: Morbidity and Mortality conference provides the necessary improvement measures for patient safety. However, they are an underused resource mainly because the conclusions to be drawn from the discussion and their implications for practice are not always well integrated by inpatient care teams. We therefore propose in this study two interventions to optimise their effectiveness: a passive feedback with wide dissemination by e-mail and/or on paper of the results of the Morbidity and Mortality conference to inpatient care teams and an active feedback with in situ inter-professional simulation-training programme in which scenarios will be based on cases studied in Morbidity and Mortality conference.

Recovery after stroke: the severely impaired are a distinct group.

Introduction: Stroke causes different levels of impairment and the degree of recovery varies greatly between patients. The majority of recovery studies are biased towards patients with mild-to-moderate impairments, challenging a unified recovery process framework. Our aim was to develop a statistical framework to analyse recovery patterns in patients with severe and non-severe initial impairment and concurrently investigate whether they recovered differently.

Effect of monitoring surgical outcomes using control charts to reduce major adverse events in patients: cluster randomised trial.

Objective: To determine the effect of introducing prospective monitoring of outcomes using control charts and regular feedback on indicators to surgical teams on major adverse events in patients.

Design: National, parallel, cluster randomised trial embedding a difference-in-differences analysis.

Setting: 40 surgical departments of hospitals across France.

Topology Challenge for the Assessment of Living Cell Deposits with Shear Bulk Acoustic Biosensor.

Shear bulk acoustic type of resonant biosensors, such as the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), give access to label-free in-liquid analysis of surface interactions. The general understanding of the sensing principles was inherited from past developments in biofilms measurements and applied to cells while keeping the same basic assumptions. Thus, the biosensor readouts are still quite often described using 'mass' related terminology.

Assessment of Shear-Dependent Kinetics of Primary Haemostasis With a Microfluidic Acoustic Biosensor.

Primary haemostasis is a complex dynamic process, which involves in-flow interactions between platelets and sub-endothelial matrix at the area of the damaged vessel wall. It results in a first haemostatic plug, which stops bleeding, before coagulation ensues and consolidates it. The diagnosis of primary haemostasis defect would benefit from evaluation of the whole sequence of mechanisms involved in platelet plug formation in flow.

Post-stroke remodeling processes in animal models and humans.

After cerebral ischemia, events like neural plasticity and tissue reorganization intervene in lesioned and non-lesioned areas of the brain. These processes are tightly related to functional improvement and successful rehabilitation in patients. Plastic remodeling in the brain is associated with limited spontaneous functional recovery in patients.

Analyte capture in an array of functionalized droplets for a regenerable biosensor.

We describe in this work an advanced microfluidic chip for the capture of bioanalyte on the surface of droplets arranged in a dense array. We show the procedure for generating, functionalizing, and arranging the droplets inside the device for capturing a specific bioanalyte. Then, we demonstrate the capacity of the array to capture analyte from a cross-flowing liquid, using a biotin/streptavidin model.

Enlarged perivascular spaces and florbetapir uptake in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage.

Purpose: Enlarged perivascular spaces in the centrum semiovale (CSO-EPVS) have been linked to cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). To get insight into the underlying mechanisms of this association, we investigated the relationship between amyloid-β deposition assessed by 18F-florbetapir PET and CSO-EPVS in patients with acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH).

Methods: We prospectively enrolled 18 patients with lobar ICH (suggesting CAA) and 20 with deep ICH (suggesting hypertensive angiopathy), who underwent brain MRI and 18F-florbetapir PET.

Subarachnoid and Subdural Hemorrhages in Lobar Intracerebral Hemorrhage Associated With Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy.

Background and Purpose- Identifying underlying cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) has important clinical implication. Convexity subarachnoid hemorrhage (cSAH) and subdural hemorrhage (SDH) are computed tomography features of CAA-related ICH. We explored whether cSAH and SDH could be additional magnetic resonance imaging markers of CAA in lobar ICH survivors.

Hospital Length of Stay Reduction Over Time and Patient Readmission for Severe Adverse Events Following Surgery.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate whether patients who undergo surgery in hospitals experiencing significant length of stay (LOS) reductions over time are exposed to a higher risk of severe adverse events in the postoperative period.

Summary Background Data: Surgical care innovation has encouraged hospitals to shorten LOS under financial pressures with uncertain impact on patient outcomes.

Methods: We selected all patients who underwent elective colectomy or urgent hip fracture repair in French hospitals between 2013 and 2016.

ED Referral Dramatically Reduces Delays of Initial Evaluation in a French TIA Clinic.

The risk of recurrent brain infarction (BI) is high within the first hours after a transient ischemic attack (TIA). Emergent, specialized, and tailored patient management in a TIA program reduces the risk of recurrent BI after TIA by 80%. New antithrombotic strategies have been successfully tested within 12 h after TIA onset.

A Fluidic Interface with High Flow Uniformity for Reusable Large Area Resonant Biosensors.

Resonant biosensors are known for their high accuracy and high level of miniaturization. However, their fabrication costs prevent them from being used as disposable sensors and their effective commercial success will depend on their ability to be reused repeatedly. Accordingly, all the parts of the sensor in contact with the fluid need to tolerate the regenerative process which uses different chemicals (H₃PO₄, H₂SO₄ based baths) without degrading the characteristics of the sensor.

Effect of data validation audit on hospital mortality ranking and pay for performance.

Background: Quality improvement and epidemiology studies often rely on database codes to measure performance or impact of adjusted risk factors, but how validity issues can bias those estimates is seldom quantified.

Objectives: To evaluate whether and how much interhospital administrative coding variations influence a typical performance measure (adjusted mortality) and potential incentives based on it.

Design: National cross-sectional study comparing hospital mortality ranking and simulated pay-for-performance incentives before/after recoding discharge abstracts using medical records.

Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and Stroke.

Purpose Of Review: The interest in SSRIs after stroke has increased in the past few years, with better knowledge of post-stroke depression and with the demonstrated capacity of some SSRIs to act on the functional recovery of non-depressed subjects.

Recent Findings: Arguments for the action of SSRIs in favour of post-stroke neurological function recovery have improved through new elements: basic science and preclinical data, positive clinical trials and repeated series of stroke patient meta-analysis, and confirmation of favourable safety conditions in post-stroke patients. Global coherence is appearing, showing that SSRIs improve stroke recovery in non-depressed patients when given for 3 months after the stroke, with highly favourable safety conditions and a favourable benefit/risk ratio.

Cortical superficial siderosis and acute convexity subarachnoid hemorrhage in cerebral amyloid angiopathy.

Background And Purpose: Acute convexity subarachnoid hemorrhage (cSAH) and cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) are neuroimaging markers of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) that may arise through similar mechanisms. The prevalence of cSS in patients with CAA presenting with acute cSAH versus lobar intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) was compared and the physiopathology of cSS was explored by examining neuroimaging associations.

Methods: Data from 116 consecutive patients with probable CAA (mean age, 77.

Florbetapir imaging in cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related hemorrhages.

Objective: To assess whether F-florbetapir, a PET amyloid tracer, could bind vascular amyloid in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) by comparing cortical florbetapir retention during the acute phase between patients with CAA-related lobar intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and patients with hypertension-related deep ICH.

Methods: Patients with acute CAA-related lobar ICH were prospectively enrolled and compared with patients with deep ICH. F-florbetapir PET, brain MRI, and genotype were obtained for all participants.