Deep learning from multiple experts improves identification of amyloid neuropathologies.

Pathologists can label pathologies differently, making it challenging to yield consistent assessments in the absence of one ground truth. To address this problem, we present a deep learning (DL) approach that draws on a cohort of experts, weighs each contribution, and is robust to noisy labels. We collected 100,495 annotations on 20,099 candidate amyloid beta neuropathologies (cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), and cored and diffuse plaques) from three institutions, independently annotated by five experts.

Cardiac surgeons' concerns, perceptions, and responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on health care and cardiac surgery. We report cardiac surgeons' concerns, perceptions, and responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A detailed survey was sent to recruit participating adult cardiac surgery centers in North America.

Robust Sequence Determinants of α-Synuclein Toxicity in Yeast Implicate Membrane Binding.

Protein conformations are shaped by cellular environments, but how environmental changes alter the conformational landscapes of specific proteins remains largely uncharacterized, in part due to the challenge of probing protein structures in living cells. Here, we use deep mutational scanning to investigate how a toxic conformation of α-synuclein, a dynamic protein linked to Parkinson's disease, responds to perturbations of cellular proteostasis. In the context of a course for graduate students in the UCSF Integrative Program in Quantitative Biology, we screened a comprehensive library of α-synuclein missense mutants in yeast cells treated with a variety of small molecules that perturb cellular processes linked to α-synuclein biology and pathobiology.

Prototype of running clinical trials in an untrustworthy environment using blockchain.

Monitoring and ensuring the integrity of data within the clinical trial process is currently not always feasible with the current research system. We propose a blockchain-based system to make data collected in the clinical trial process immutable, traceable, and potentially more trustworthy. We use raw data from a real completed clinical trial, simulate the trial onto a proof of concept web portal service, and test its resilience to data tampering.

Long-term Outcomes of Multiple Arterial Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: A Population-Based Study of Patients in British Columbia, Canada.

Importance: Although the long-term survival advantage of multiple arterial grafting (MAG) vs the standard use of left internal thoracic artery (LITA) supplemented by saphenous vein grafts (LITA+SVG) has been demonstrated in several observational studies, to our knowledge its safety and other long-term clinical benefits in a large, population-based cohort are unknown.

Objective: To compare the safety and long-term outcomes of MAG vs LITA+SVG among overall and selected subgroups of patients.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In this population-based observational study, we included 20 076 adult patients with triple-vessel or left-main disease who underwent primary isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (MAG, n = 5580; LITA+SVG, n = 14 496) in the province of British Columbia, Canada, from January 2000 to December 2014, with follow-up to December 2015.

Open repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm in the modern surgical era: contemporary outcomes in 509 patients.

Background: Recent technologic advances in endovascular devices have led to alternative approaches to thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair; these innovative approaches must be compared with the "gold standard" of conventional open TAAA repair. To facilitate such comparisons, we evaluated contemporary outcomes of open TAAA repair.

Study Design: We retrospectively reviewed and analyzed data collected prospectively between May 2006 and October 2010 regarding 509 consecutive patients who underwent TAAA repair.

Clopidogrel loading dose and bleeding outcomes in patients undergoing urgent coronary artery bypass grafting.

Background: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) performed within 5 days of clopidogrel administration is associated with increased bleeding. The impact of clopidogrel loading dose is unknown. We examined the effect of clopidogrel loading dose on bleeding outcomes in patients undergoing urgent CABG.

Axillary artery cannulation in surgery for acute or subacute ascending aortic dissections.

Background: Perfusion through the right axillary artery is an alternative to aortic or femoral artery cannulation during surgery for ascending aortic dissections. The results of this strategy, particularly beyond the immediate postoperative period, are not well described.

Methods: Eighty-three patients (median age, 58 years) with acute or subacute ascending aortic dissection underwent surgical repair with right axillary artery perfusion through an interposition Dacron graft.

Technical considerations to avoid pitfalls during transapical aortic valve implantation.

Objective: Transapical aortic valve implantation is a recent therapeutic advance for aortic valvular disease. We sought to identify complications--and the relevant technical and management considerations--from our learning curve with this procedure.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed perioperative complications during the first 60 transapical aortic valve implantations at a single institution, performed under compassionate release for patients who were candidates neither for conventional aortic valve replacement nor for transfemoral aortic valve implantation.

Transapical transcatheter mitral valve-in-valve implantation in a human.

We describe a human transcatheter transapical mitral valve implant within a mitral bioprosthesis (valve-in-valve). A high-risk, 80-year-old man with symptomatic bioprosthetic mitral stenosis was positioned for anterior minithoracotomy. Left ventricular apical access was obtained.

Learning in a new cardiac surgical center: an analysis of precursor events.

Background: Few studies of learning in the health care sector have analyzed measures of process, as opposed to outcomes. We assessed the learning curve for a new cardiac surgical center using precursor events (incidents or circumstances required for the occurrence of adverse outcomes).

Methods: Intraoperative precursor events were recorded prospectively during major adult cardiac operations, categorized by blinded adjudicators, and counted for each case (overall and according to these categories).

Transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation: 1-year outcome in 26 patients.

Background: We reported the first case of successful transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation in a human subject in 2005 and have now completed a 12-month follow-up on our first 26 patients. This is, to date, the longest follow-up of patients undergoing transapical aortic valve implantation.

Methods: Between October 2005 and January 2007, 26 patients (13 female) underwent transcatheter transapical aortic valve implantation with either 23- or 26-mm Edwards Lifesciences transcatheter bioprostheses.

Ten-year follow-up of a province-wide cohort of surgical lung cancer patients in Nova Scotia.

Background: After a diagnosis of lung carcinoma, survival is poor for all patients. We sought to assess 10-year survival and predictors of outcome after surgery for lung cancer in Nova Scotia.

Methods: We identified all patients n = 130) undergoing resection for lung cancer in Nova Scotia in 1994 from the Nova Scotia Cancer Registry and hospital charts and followed them prospectively for 10 years.

Managing dissections of the thoracic aorta.

Thoracic aortic dissection is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, and it requires timely and accurate diagnosis and treatment. Long-term antihypertensive therapy remains critical for the treatment of this disease. Surgical intervention, although still a formidable undertaking, has evolved to better address both acute and chronic dissection, and the results have improved.

Impact of cardiac intraoperative precursor events on adverse outcomes.

Background: Although extensive study has been directed at the influence of patient factors and comorbidities on cardiac surgical outcomes, less attention has been focused on process. We sought to examine the relationship between intraoperative precursor events (those events that precede and are requisite for the occurrence of an adverse event) and adverse outcomes themselves.

Methods: Anonymous, prospectively collected intraoperative data was merged with database outcomes for 450 patients undergoing major adult cardiac operations.

Delayed spinal cord deficits after thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

Background: Limited information is available about the treatment and outcomes of delayed paraplegia after thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair. The objective of this study was to assess factors that precipitate and favorably affect delayed-onset neurologic deficits.

Methods: Over a 19-year period, 2,368 TAAA repairs were performed.

Smoking, hypertension, alcohol consumption, and risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm in men.

Despite the known protective association between moderate alcohol consumption and ischemic heart disease, little is known about the effects of alcohol consumption on abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). The authors analyzed prospective, biennially updated data for a cohort of 39,352 US men from 1986 to 2002. The association of incident AAA diagnosis with alcohol consumption in grams per day was assessed at baseline and by using alcohol consumption data updated every 4 years, controlling for previously reported cardiovascular risk factors.