Hospital discharges (MBDS) for Takotsubo syndrome in Spain. Regional differences (2008-2021).

Background And Objectives: Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is an infrequent cause of acute coronary syndrome much better diagnosed in recent years. This study sought to assess the clinical profile of patients admitted with TTS in Spain and to elucidate potential regional differences in admissions and in-hospital mortality between the years 2008 and 2021.

Methods: Retrospective observational study of patients admitted to acute general hospitals of the Spanish National Health System with a main or secondary diagnosis of STT, using the minimum basic data set.

Intraventricular thrombus in Takotsubo syndrome: Incidence, predictors, management, and prognosis. Insights from the RETAKO registry.

Background: Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is characterized by transient left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and wall motion abnormalities without culprit coronary artery disease. LV thrombus (LVT) formation during the acute phase is a fearsome complication.

Objectives: To identify factors associated with LVT and its prognostic impact in TTS patients.

[HEARTS in the Americas: targeting health system change to improve population hypertension controlHEARTS nas Américas: impulsionar mudanças no sistema de saúde para melhorar o controle da hipertensão arterial na população].

Purpose Of Review: HEARTS in the Americas is the regional adaptation of Global Hearts, the World Health Organization initiative for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and control. Its overarching goal is to drive health services to change managerial and clinical practice in primary care settings to improve hypertension control and CVD risk management. This review describes the HEARTS in the Americas initiative.

HEARTS in the Americas: Targeting Health System Change to Improve Population Hypertension Control.

Purpose Of Review: HEARTS in the Americas is the regional adaptation of Global Hearts, the World Health Organization initiative for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and control. Its overarching goal is to drive health services to change managerial and clinical practice in primary care settings to improve hypertension control and CVD risk management. This review describes the HEARTS in the Americas initiative.

Non-atherosclerotic acute cardiac syndromes: spontaneous coronary artery dissection and Takotsubo syndrome. Comparison of long-term clinical outcomes.

Background: Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) and Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) constitute two common causes of nonatherosclerotic acute cardiac syndrome particularly frequent in women. Currently, there is no information comparing long-term clinical outcomes in unselected patients with these conditions.

Methods: We compared the baseline characteristics, in-hospital outcomes, and the 12-month and long-term clinical outcomes of two large prospective registries on SCAD and TTS.

[Monitoring and evaluation platform for HEARTS in the Americas: improving population-based hypertension control programs in primary health carePlataforma de monitoramento e avaliação do programa HEARTS nas Américas: melhoria dos programas de controle da hipertensão de base populacional na atenção primária à saúde].

HEARTS in the Americas is the Pan American Health Organization flagship program to accelerate the reduction of the cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden by improving hypertension control and CVD secondary prevention in primary health care. A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) platform is needed for program implementation, benchmarking, and informing policy-makers. This paper describes the conceptual bases of the HEARTS M&E platform including software design principles, contextualization of data collection modules, data structure, reporting, and visualization.

A comparison and methodological proposal for hybrid approaches to quantify environmental impacts: A case study for renewable energies.

The transition towards a more sustainable and decarbonised energy system is mandatory for achieving global climate objectives, and counting on proper tools to evaluate sustainability is essential. Among sustainability assessment methodologies, hybrid approaches integrating Input-Output analysis (IOA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are often proposed to overcome limitations and take advantage of strengths of both methodologies. In this paper we propose a new hybrid tiered approach, named Identification and Subtraction Method (ISM).

[HEARTS in the Americas: innovations for improving hypertension and cardiovascular disease risk management in primary careHEARTS nas Américas: inovações para melhorar a gestão do risco de hipertensão e de doenças cardiovasculares na atenção primária].

Global Hearts is the flagship initiative of the World Health Organization to reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. HEARTS in the Americas Initiative is the regional adaptation that envisions HEARTS as the model for cardiovascular disease risk management, including hypertension and diabetes, in primary health care in the Americas by 2025. This initiative is entering its sixth year of implementation and now includes 22 countries and 1 380 primary health care centers.

Monitoring and evaluation platform for HEARTS in the Americas: improving population-based hypertension control programs in primary health care.

HEARTS in the Americas is the Pan American Health Organization flagship program to accelerate the reduction of the cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden by improving hypertension control and CVD secondary prevention in primary health care. A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) platform is needed for program implementation, benchmarking, and informing policy-makers. This paper describes the conceptual bases of the HEARTS M&E platform including software design principles, contextualization of data collection modules, data structure, reporting, and visualization.

HEARTS in the Americas: innovations for improving hypertension and cardiovascular disease risk management in primary care.

Global Hearts is the flagship initiative of the World Health Organization to reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. HEARTS in the Americas Initiative is the regional adaptation that envisions HEARTS as the model for cardiovascular disease risk management, including hypertension and diabetes, in primary health care in the Americas by 2025. This initiative is entering its sixth year of implementation and now includes 22 countries and 1 380 primary health care centers.

Drivers and scorecards to improve hypertension control in primary care practice: Recommendations from the HEARTS in the Americas Innovation Group.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Americas, and hypertension is the most significant modifiable risk factor. However, hypertension control rates remain low, and CVD mortality is stagnant or rising after decades of continuing reduction. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the HEARTS technical package to improve hypertension control.

[Drivers and scorecards to improve hypertension control in primary care practice: Recommendations from the HEARTS in the Americas Innovation GroupFatores impulsionadores e scorecards para melhorar o controle da hipertensão arterial na atenção primária: recomendações do Grupo de Inovação da Iniciativa HEARTS nas Américas].

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Americas, and hypertension is the most significant modifiable risk factor. However, hypertension control rates remain low, and CVD mortality is stagnant or rising after decades of continuing reduction. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the HEARTS technical package to improve hypertension control.

[Drivers and scorecards to improve hypertension control in primary care practice: Recommendations from the HEARTS in the Americas Innovation GroupFactores impulsores y métodos de puntuación para mejorar el control de la hipertensión en la práctica clínica de la atención primaria: recomendaciones del grupo de innovación de HEARTS en las Américas].

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Americas, and hypertension is the most significant modifiable risk factor. However, hypertension control rates remain low, and CVD mortality is stagnant or rising after decades of continuing reduction. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the HEARTS technical package to improve hypertension control.

Estimates of population exposure to atmospheric pollution and health-related externalities in a real city: The impact of spatial resolution on the accuracy of results.

Health impacts of atmospheric pollution is an important issue in urban environments. Its magnitude depends on population exposure which have been frequently estimated by considering different approaches relating pollutant concentration and population exposed to it. However, the uncertainties due to the spatial resolution of the model used to estimate the pollutant concentration or due to the lack of representativeness of urban air quality monitoring station (AQMS) have not been evaluated in detail.

Pediatric Functional Constipation Questionnaire-Parent Report (PedFCQuest-PR): development and validation.

Objective: Developing and validating a disease-specific instrument in the Brazilian Portuguese language to assess the Health-Related Quality of Life of children with functional constipation, applied to parents/caregivers.

Methods: The process of developing the questionnaire was carried out in the following steps: items generation concerning functional constipation; elaboration of the preliminary questionnaire; assessment by health professionals; identifying problems or inconsistencies by the researchers; improvement of the questions; obtaining a final questionnaire named Pediatric Functional Constipation Questionnaire-Parent Form (PedFCQuest-PR) with 26 questions divided into four domains. Responses options use a Likert scale based on the events of the last four weeks.

A methodology to empower citizens towards a low-carbon economy. The potential of schools and sustainability indicators.

Environmental empowering to control resource consumption and environmental impacts is critical to engage citizens to adopt more sustainable habits. This study demonstrates the potential benefits of innovative approaches based on sustainability indicators towards a low-carbon economy. A methodology to measure and promote sustainability in schools has been proposed and evaluated, aiming at showing the environmental performance and informing of potential environmental savings.

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection and Takotsubo syndrome: comparison of baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics and in-hospital outcomes.

Background: Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) and Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) constitute two relatively common nonatherosclerotic causes of acute coronary syndrome particularly frequent in women.

Methods: This study sought to compare the baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of patients from two large prospective registries on SCAD and TTS (the prospective nation-wide Spanish SCAD Registry and a prospective single-center TTS registry).

Results: A total of 318 SCAD and 106 TTS consecutive patients were included.

Assessing sustainability performance in the educational sector. A high school case study.

This paper provides a detailed assessment of the environmental performance of a High school student in the city of Madrid, as well as the associated external costs. Life Cycle Assessment was used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts. Environmental external costs were also estimated using a simplified application of the impact pathway approach.

Comblike Ionic Complexes of Hyaluronic Acid and Alkanoylcholine Surfactants as a Platform for Drug Delivery Systems.

Nontoxic alkanoylcholine soaps ( nACh) were synthesized from choline and fatty acids with numbers of carbons n equal to 12, 14, 16, and 18, the latter including both saturated and 9- cis unsaturated alkanoyl chains. Coupling of nACh with hyaluronic acid (HyA) rendered comblike ionic complexes nACh·HyA that were non-water-soluble. The complexes were thermally stable up to temperatures above 200 °C but readily degraded by water, in particular when hyaluronidases were present in the aqueous medium.

Amphiphilic ionic complexes of hyaluronic acid with organophosphonium compounds and their antimicrobial activity.

Amphiphilic ionic complexes of hyaluronic acid and alkyltrimethylphosphonium soaps with alkyl chains containing even numbers of carbons from 12 to 22 have been produced. The complexes have a nearly stoichiometric composition, are non-water soluble, and are stable to heat up to temperatures above 200 °C. These complexes are amphiphilic and able to adopt a biphasic structure with the paraffinic and polysaccharide phases ordered arranged with a periodicity ranging between 3 and 5 nm depending on n.

Ionic coupling of hyaluronic acid with ethyl N-lauroyl l-arginate (LAE): Structure, properties and biocide activity of complexes.

Ethyl N-lauroyl l-arginate hydrochloride (LAE) was coupled with hyaluronic acid (HyA) to form ionic complexes with LAE to HyA ratios of 1:1 and 1:2. The complexes were extensively characterized by FTIR and NMR spectroscopies and their thermal properties evaluated by thermogravimetry and calorimetry. Thin films prepared from these complexes by casting displayed a smectic-like structure based on an ordered arrangement of LAE and HyA layers with a nanometric periodicity of 3.