Acute aortic occlusion: A point-of-care ultrasound case report.

Introduction: Acute aortic occlusion (AAO) is a rare vascular emergency with significant associated morbidity and mortality.

Methods: This case report discusses a 39-year-old gentleman with methamphetamine-associated cardiomyopathy (MACM) who presented with bilateral lower limb ischaemia. A POCUS was performed to rapidly evaluate the patient on arrival, which demonstrated AAO.

Exercise and cardiac rehabilitation after LVAD implantation.

Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) have improved mortality and quality of life for patients with end-stage heart failure by providing an alternative to cardiac transplant or as a bridge to transplantation. The improvement in functional capacity however is minimal to modest depending on the right ventricular function, optimal hemodynamics on LVAD therapy, and comorbidities. There is improvement in submaximal exercise capacity but improvement in peak aerobic capacity is limited.

Spermidine alleviates depression via control of the stress response.

Depression is a stress-associated disorder, and it represents a major global health issue. Its pathophysiology is complex and remains insufficiently understood, with current medications often showing limited efficacy and undesirable side effects. Here, we identify imbalanced polyamine levels and dysregulated autophagy as key components of the acute stress response in humans, and as hallmarks of chronic stress and depressive disorders.

HIV, the gut microbiome and clinical outcomes, a systematic review.

Background: Effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) has improved the life expectancy of people with HIV (PWH). However, this population is now experiencing accelerated age-related comorbidities, contributed to by chronic immune activation and inflammation, with dysbiosis of the gut microbiome also implicated.

Method: We conducted a systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane reviews and international conference abstracts for articles that examined for the following non-communicable diseases (NCDs); cardiovascular disease, cancer, frailty, metabolic, bone, renal and neurocognitive disease, in PWH aged >18 years.

Dynamical theory of complex systems with two-way micro-macro causation.

In many complex systems encountered in the natural and social sciences, mechanisms governing system dynamics at a microscale depend upon the values of state variables characterizing the system at coarse-grained, macroscale (Goldenfeld and Woese, 2011, Noble et al., 2019, and Chater and Loewenstein, 2023). State variables, in turn, are averages over relevant probability distributions of the microscale variables.