A Multimodal Cardioprotection Strategy During Cardiac Surgery: The ProCCard Study.

Objective: The ProCCard study tested whether combining several cardioprotective interventions would reduce the myocardial and other biological and clinical damage in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Design: Prospective, randomized, controlled trial.

Setting: Multicenter tertiary care hospitals.

Multimodal cardioprotective strategy in cardiac surgery (the ProCCard trial): Study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Background: Myocardial damage in patients undergoing cardiac surgery increases both morbidity and mortality. Different protective strategies dealing with either preconditioning or postconditioning or assessing a single aspect of cardioprotection have shown conflicting results. We tested the hypothesis that a multimodal approach would improve cardioprotection and limit myocardial damage following cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Percutaneous repair or medical treatment for secondary mitral regurgitation: outcomes at 2 years.

Aims: The MITRA-FR trial showed that among symptomatic patients with severe secondary mitral regurgitation, percutaneous repair did not reduce the risk of death or hospitalization for heart failure at 12 months compared with guideline-directed medical treatment alone. We report the 24-month outcome from this trial.

Methods And Results: At 37 centres, we randomly assigned 304 symptomatic heart failure patients with severe secondary mitral regurgitation (effective regurgitant orifice area >20 mm or regurgitant volume >30 mL), and left ventricular ejection fraction between 15% and 40% to undergo percutaneous valve repair plus medical treatment (intervention group, n = 152) or medical treatment alone (control group, n = 152).

Percutaneous Repair or Medical Treatment for Secondary Mitral Regurgitation.

Background: In patients who have chronic heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, severe secondary mitral-valve regurgitation is associated with a poor prognosis. Whether percutaneous mitral-valve repair improves clinical outcomes in this patient population is unknown.

Methods: We randomly assigned patients who had severe secondary mitral regurgitation (defined as an effective regurgitant orifice area of >20 mm or a regurgitant volume of >30 ml per beat), a left ventricular ejection fraction between 15 and 40%, and symptomatic heart failure, in a 1:1 ratio, to undergo percutaneous mitral-valve repair in addition to receiving medical therapy (intervention group; 152 patients) or to receive medical therapy alone (control group; 152 patients).

ELLIPSE Study: a Phase 1 study evaluating the tolerance of bevacizumab nasal spray in the treatment of epistaxis in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia.

Background: Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a dominantly inherited genetic vascular disorder in which epistaxis is the most frequent manifestation, responsible for high morbidity. Management of this symptom has no standard, and local treatments are often aggressive. Their efficacy is variable and has not been proven.

Visibility of retractions: a cross-sectional one-year study.

Background: Retraction in Medline medical literature experienced a tenfold increase between 1999 and 2009, however retraction remains a rare event since it represents 0.02% of publications. Retractions used to be handled following informal practices until they were formalized in 2009 by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

[Retractions due to errors and frauds].

Scientific papers disseminate information but they cannot reflect the reality as they sometimes contain errors or fraud. Retractions and errata are the means allowing to correct the literature. The annual retraction rate increased 10 times between 1999 and 2009.

Ex vivo study of bevacizumab transport through porcine nasal mucosa.

Introduction: Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a genetic disorder associated with abnormal angiogenesis and disabling epistaxis, for which bevacizumab is reported to be a new therapeutic option. In the present study, bevacizumab transport in porcine nasal mucosa was investigated to determine antibody bioavailability.

Material And Methods: Transmucosal absorption of bevacizumab was examined by using nasal mucosa specimens mounted onto static vertical diffusion cells then treated with bevacizumab solution (25 mg mL(-1), 500 μg) for 2.