Asundexian versus Apixaban in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.

Background: Stroke prevention with direct-acting oral anticoagulant agents in patients with atrial fibrillation confers a risk of bleeding and limits their use. Asundexian, an activated factor XI (XIa) inhibitor, is an oral anticoagulant that may prevent strokes with less bleeding.

Methods: In a phase 3, international, double-blind trial, we randomly assigned high-risk patients with atrial fibrillation in a 1:1 ratio to receive asundexian at a dose of 50 mg once daily or standard-dose apixaban.

Anticoagulant Medication in Endoprosthetically Treated Proximal Femur Fracture - Complications and Mortality Considering the Time of Treatment as a Quality Criterion.

There is an international debate on the optimal time to surgery following hip fracture in older patients. Pre-existing anticoagulation seems to be a major concern when it comes to a delay in operative fracture treatment. The aim of this study was to examine complication and mortality rates for elderly anticoagulated hip fracture patients considering early (< 24 h) vs.

[Long-term anticoagulation treatment in proximal femoral fractures as obstacle to surgery in the 24h time window? : Results of an analysis of Quality Assurance data on 32,252 treatment courses with osteosynthesis].

Background: Both in Germany and internationally there is a vehement controversy about the appropriate time for care of proximal femoral fractures in older patients. The effort to achieve high quality and uniform standards of care culminated in the German healthcare system in the strict requirement of delay-free surgery within 24 h. Until now, in view of their high vulnerability patients who were severely injured were too often operated on late with the reference to a general medical condition that could be improved preoperatively.

Factor XIa inhibition with asundexian after acute non-cardioembolic ischaemic stroke (PACIFIC-Stroke): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2b trial.

Background: Asundexian (Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany), an oral small molecule factor XIa (FXIa) inhibitor, might prevent thrombosis without increasing bleeding. Asundexian's effect for secondary prevention of recurrent stroke is unknown.

Methods: In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2b dose-finding trial (PACIFIC-Stroke), patients with acute (within 48 h) non-cardioembolic ischaemic stroke were recruited from 196 hospitals in 23 countries.

Safety of the oral factor XIa inhibitor asundexian compared with apixaban in patients with atrial fibrillation (PACIFIC-AF): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, dose-finding phase 2 study.

Background: Direct-acting oral anticoagulant use for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation is limited by bleeding concerns. Asundexian, a novel, oral small molecule activated coagulation factor XIa (FXIa) inhibitor, might reduce thrombosis with minimal effect on haemostasis. We aimed to determine the optimal dose of asundexian and to compare the incidence of bleeding with that of apixaban in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Long-Term Treatment with the Combination of Rivaroxaban and Aspirin in Patients with Chronic Coronary or Peripheral Artery Disease: Outcomes During the Open Label Extension of the COMPASS trial.

Aims: To describe outcomes of patients with chronic coronary artery disease (CAD) and/or peripheral artery disease (PAD) enrolled in the Cardiovascular Outcomes for People Using Anticoagulation Strategies (COMPASS) randomized trial who were treated with the combination of rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily and aspirin 100 mg once daily during long-term open-label extension (LTOLE).

Methods And Results: Of the 27 395 patients enrolled in COMPASS, 12 964 (mean age at baseline 67.

Letter to the editor regarding the article "The global distribution of acute unintentional pesticide poisoning: estimations based on a systematic review".

We read with interest the article entitled "The global distribution of acute unintentional pesticide poisoning: estimations based on a systematic review". We wholeheartedly agree that it is important to evaluate the extent of this issue. We would like to understand the numbers provided in this article, which appear to overestimate the global burden of pesticide poisonings.

Rivaroxaban Plus Aspirin Versus Aspirin in Relation to Vascular Risk in the COMPASS Trial.

Background: The COMPASS (Cardiovascular Outcomes for People Using Anticoagulation Strategies) trial showed that the combination of low-dose rivaroxaban and aspirin reduced major vascular events in patients with stable vascular disease.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify subsets of patients at higher risk of recurrent vascular events, which may help focus the use of rivaroxaban and aspirin therapy.

Methods: COMPASS patients with vascular disease were risk stratified using 2 methods: the REACH (REduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health) atherothrombosis risk score and CART (Classification and Regression Tree) analysis.

How to report incidental findings from population whole-body MRI: view of participants of the German National Cohort.

Objectives: In the German National Cohort (GNC), 30,000 individuals are examined with whole-body MRI (wbMRI), of which about 3000 participants are expected to receive an incidental finding (IF) disclosure. In order to get feedback from participants and to evaluate the IF-management procedure of the wbMRI substudy, a follow-up questionnaire was developed. This single-center pilot trial was aimed to get a first impression on feasibility reproducibility and validity of such a survey in order to take necessary adjustments before initiating the survey among several thousand participants.

Tailoring Mechanically Tunable Strain Fields in Graphene.

There are a number of theoretical proposals based on strain engineering of graphene and other two-dimensional materials, however purely mechanical control of strain fields in these systems has remained a major challenge. The two approaches mostly used so far either couple the electrical and mechanical properties of the system simultaneously or introduce some unwanted disturbances due to the substrate. Here, we report on silicon micromachined comb-drive actuators to controllably and reproducibly induce strain in a suspended graphene sheet in an entirely mechanical way.

Spatial Control of Laser-Induced Doping Profiles in Graphene on Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

We present a method to create and erase spatially resolved doping profiles in graphene-hexagonal boron nitride heterostructures. The technique is based on photoinduced doping by a focused laser beam and does neither require masks nor photoresists. This makes our technique interesting for rapid prototyping of unconventional electronic device schemes, where the spatial resolution of the rewritable, long-term stable doping profiles is limited by only the laser spot size (≈600 nm) and the accuracy of sample positioning.

Low B field magneto-phonon resonances in single-layer and bilayer graphene.

Many-body effects resulting from strong electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions play a significant role in graphene physics. We report on their manifestation in low B field magneto-phonon resonances in high-quality exfoliated single-layer and bilayer graphene encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride. These resonances allow us to extract characteristic effective Fermi velocities, as high as 1.

Engineering of Pseudomonas taiwanensis VLB120 for constitutive solvent tolerance and increased specific styrene epoxidation activity.

The application of whole cells as biocatalysts is often limited by the toxicity of organic solvents, which constitute interesting substrates/products or can be used as a second phase for in situ product removal and as tools to control multistep biocatalysis. Solvent-tolerant bacteria, especially Pseudomonas strains, are proposed as promising hosts to overcome such limitations due to their inherent solvent tolerance mechanisms. However, potential industrial applications suffer from tedious, unproductive adaptation processes, phenotypic variability, and instable solvent-tolerant phenotypes.

Analytic power and sample size calculation for the genotypic transmission/disequilibrium test in case-parent trio studies.

Case-parent trio studies considering genotype data from children affected by a disease and their parents are frequently used to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with disease. The most popular statistical tests for this study design are transmission/disequilibrium tests (TDTs). Several types of these tests have been developed, for example, procedures based on alleles or genotypes.

Detecting disease variants in case-parent trio studies using the bioconductor software package trio.

Case-parent trio studies are commonly employed in genetics to detect variants underlying common complex disease risk. Both commercial and freely available software suites for genetic data analysis usually contain methods for case-parent trio designs. A user might, however, experience limitations with these packages, which can include missing functionality to extend the software if a desired analysis has not been implemented, and the inability to programmatically capture all the software versions used for low-level processing and high-level inference of genomic data, a critical consideration in particular for high-throughput experiments.

Probing relaxation times in graphene quantum dots.

Graphene quantum dots are attractive candidates for solid-state quantum bits. In fact, the predicted weak spin-orbit and hyperfine interaction promise spin qubits with long coherence times. Graphene quantum dots have been extensively investigated with respect to their excitation spectrum, spin-filling sequence and electron-hole crossover.

Impaired hyperglycemia-induced delay in gastric emptying in patients with type 1 diabetes deficient for islet amyloid polypeptide.

Objective: Slowing of gastric emptying by hyperglycemia, a physiological response to minimize postprandial hyperglycemia, may be impaired in patients with type 1 diabetes. The causes and consequences on glucose homeostasis are unknown.

Research Design And Methods: Consequences of euglycemia- and hyperglycemia-induced changes in gastric emptying on postprandial glucose fluxes and excursions were studied in 10 healthy subjects and 15 type 1 diabetic subjects after ingestion of a mixed meal using the double isotope approach ([6,6-(2)H(2)] and [1-(13)C]glucose) and scintigraphic measurements of gastric emptying.

Impact of fasting and postprandial glycemia on overall glycemic control in type 2 diabetes Importance of postprandial glycemia to achieve target HbA1c levels.

Objective: HbA1c values reflect overall glycemic exposure over the past 2-3 months and are determined by both fasting (FPG) and postprandial plasma glucose (PPG) levels. Cross-sectional studies suggest that attainment of HbA1c goals requires specific targeting of postprandial hyperglycemia.

Research Design And Methods: We undertook a prospective intervention trial to assess the relative contribution of controlling FPG and PPG for achieving recommended HbA1c goals.