Prognostic impact of muscle and fat mass in patients with heart failure.

Background: Cachexia, characterized by loss of muscle with or without loss of fat mass, is a poor prognostic factor in patients with heart failure (HF). However, there is limited investigation on the prognostic impact of muscle and fat mass separately in HF. We hypothesized that muscle and fat mass have different effects on the prognosis of HF.

Greater arterial wall viscosity in endurance-trained men.

Purpose: The age-associated increase in arterial wall viscosity (AWV) is attenuated by high cardiorespiratory fitness level. However, AWV in endurance-trained athletes have not been determined. We designed a cross sectional study to compare central AWV and compliance between endurance-trained young athletes and age-matched control men.

Impact of previous history of choledochojejunostomy on the incidence of organ/space surgical site infection after hepatectomy.

Purpose: Impact of previous history of choledochojejunostomy (PCJ) on the incidence of organ/space surgical site infection (SSI) after hepatectomy remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and causes of SSI after hepatectomy.

Methods: Patients who underwent hepatectomy of ≤1 Couinaud's sector between January 2011 and September 2019 were retrospectively analyzed.

Multidomain Frailty in Heart Failure: Current Status and Future Perspectives.

Purpose Of Review: With a worldwide aging population, frailty and heart failure (HF) have become issues that need to be addressed urgently in cardiovascular clinical practice. In this review, we outline the clinical implications of frailty in HF patients and the potential therapeutic strategies to improve the clinical outcomes of frail patients with HF.

Recent Findings: Frailty has physical, psychological, and social domains, each of which is a prognostic determinant for patients with HF, and each domain overlaps with the other, although there are no standardized criteria for diagnosing frailty.

Association Between Adherence to Healthy Lifestyles and Depressive Symptoms Among Japanese Hospital Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between adherence to healthy lifestyles (as measured by the healthy lifestyle index [HLI]) and depressive symptoms among staff members at a large national medical institution in Tokyo, Japan, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The study sample consisted of 1228 staff members aged between 21 and 73 years who participated in a cross-sectional survey conducted in July 2020. We constructed the HLI by assigning one point to each healthy lifestyle factor: normal body mass index, sufficient physical activity, non-smoking status, non-to-moderate alcohol consumption, and sufficient sleep duration.

Association of Hemoglobin and Hematocrit Levels during Pregnancy and Maternal Dietary Iron Intake with Allergic Diseases in Children: The Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS).

Few epidemiologic studies have examined the role of maternal iron status in allergic diseases in offspring and findings have been inconsistent. We used a large birth cohort in Japan to explore the association of the markers for maternal iron status (maternal hemoglobin, hematocrit and dietary iron intake during pregnancy) with allergy development in offspring during early childhood. We analyzed information on children age 0-3 years from the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS).

Association between engagement in COVID-19-related work and depressive symptoms among hospital workers in a designated COVID-19 hospital in Japan: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To examine whether engagement in COVID-19-related work was associated with an increased prevalence of depressive symptoms among the staff members working in a designated medical institution for COVID-19 in Tokyo, Japan.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: Data were obtained from a health survey conducted in July 2020 among the staff members of a designated medical institution for COVID-19 in Tokyo, Japan.

Validity and Utility of the Questionnaire-based FRAIL Scale in Older Patients with Heart Failure: Findings from the FRAGILE-HF.

Objectives: We investigated whether the FRAIL scale questionnaire is consistent with the Fried criteria, predicts all-cause mortality, and reflects physical dysfunction in patients with heart failure (HF).

Design: Secondary analysis of FRAGILE-HF, a cohort study that enrolled participants from 2016 to 2018 and followed-up for 1-year of discharge.

Setting And Participants: A prospective multicenter cohort study in which 15 hospitals in Japan (8 university hospitals and 7 nonuniversity teaching hospitals) participated.

Characteristics and Prognosis of Patients with Vasospastic Angina Diagnosed by a Provocation Test with Secondary Prevention Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator.

This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics and prognosis of patients with vasospastic angina (VSA) diagnosed by a provocation test with a secondary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), compared with patients with organic coronary stenosis. We retrospectively evaluated 309 consecutive patients who received an ICD implantation between January 2010 and March 2018 in our institutions. Of these patients, 206 were implanted with an ICD for secondary prevention.

Infrequent use of nighttime dialysis for emergency admission due to worsening heart failure in patients on maintenance hemodialysis.

In the emergency admission due to worsening heart failure (HF) in patients on maintenance hemodialysis, emergent dialysis may be indicated, which increases personnel expenses. To clarify the characteristics and in-hospital management of the patients, we conducted a multicenter retrospective study including 142 patients on maintenance hemodialysis emergently admitted for worsening HF (71.6 ± 9.

The neural correlates of ongoing conscious thought.

A core goal in cognitive neuroscience is identifying the physical substrates of the patterns of thought that occupy our daily lives. Contemporary views suggest that the landscape of ongoing experience is heterogeneous and can be influenced by features of both the person and the context. This perspective piece considers recent work that explicitly accounts for both the heterogeneity of the experience and context dependence of patterns of ongoing thought.

Sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma is distinct from ordinary hepatocellular carcinoma: Clinicopathologic, transcriptomic and immunologic analyses.

Sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma (SHCC), which was a rare histological subtype of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is currently subclassified as poorly differentiated HCC because of insufficient evidence to define SHCC as a subtype of HCC. We aimed to assess the feasibility of classifying SHCC as a histological subtype of HCC by comprehensively identifying novel and distinct characteristics of SHCC compared to ordinary HCC (OHCC). Fifteen SHCCs (1.

Impact of sarcopenia on prognosis in patients with heart failure with reduced and preserved ejection fraction.

Aims: Sarcopenia, one of the extracardiac factors for reduced functional capacity and poor outcome in heart failure (HF), may act differently between HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). We sought to investigate the impact of sarcopenia on mortality in HFpEF and HFrEF.

Methods And Results: We performed a post hoc analysis of a multicentre prospective cohort study, including 942 consecutive older (age ≥65 years) hospitalized patients: 475 with HFpEF (ejection fraction ≥45%, age 81 ± 7 years, 48.

Colorectal Cancer-Derived CAT1-Positive Extracellular Vesicles Alter Nitric Oxide Metabolism in Endothelial Cells and Promote Angiogenesis.

Accumulating scientific evidences strongly support the importance of cancer-derived extracellular vesicles (EV) in organization of tumor microenvironment and metastatic niches, which are also considered as ideal tools for cancer liquid biopsy. To uncover the full scope of proteomic information packaged within EVs secreted directly from human colorectal cancer, we cultured surgically resected viable tissues and obtained tissue-exudative EVs (Te-EV). Our quantitative profiling of 6,307 Te-EV proteins and 8,565 tissue proteins from primary colorectal cancer and adjacent normal mucosa ( = 17) allowed identification of a specific cargo in colorectal cancer-derived Te-EVs, high-affinity cationic amino acid transporter 1 (CAT1, = 5.

A Novel Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma with STRN Exon 2 and ALK Exon 20: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Recently, several malignant peritoneal mesotheliomas (MPMs), occurring in young women without asbestos exposure and with fusion genes such as anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1, have been reported. In the present case, we encountered MPM with STRN-ALK fusion in a 17-year-old female adolescent. The case did not respond to chemotherapy and is currently in a clinical trial of alectinib.

Prevalence and prognostic implications of malnutrition as defined by GLIM criteria in elderly patients with heart failure.

Background & Aims: Although the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) proposed a consensus scheme for diagnosing malnutrition in adults in clinical settings globally, the prevalence and prognostic value of malnutrition defined by GLIM criteria have yet to be evaluated in elderly patients with heart failure. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and prognostic implication of malnutrition as defined by GLIM criteria in comparison to those for a pre-existing definition of malnutrition, the geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI), in elderly patients with heart failure METHODS: We evaluated malnutrition by two metrics, the GLIM criteria and geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI), in 890 hospitalized patients with decompensation of heart failure aged ≥65 years, able to ambulate at discharge. The primary outcome was all-cause death within 1 year of discharge.

Skeletal muscle mass is associated with glycemic variability in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

Skeletal muscle function has been studied to determine its effect on glucose metabolism; however, its effect on glycemic variability (GV), which is a significant glycemic marker in patients with coronary artery disease, is unknown. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the association between skeletal muscle mass and GV. Two hundred and eight consecutive ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients who underwent continuous glucose monitoring to evaluate mean amplitude of glycemic excursion (MAGE) as GV and a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) to evaluate skeletal muscle mass were enrolled.

Early Initiation of Feeding and In-Hospital Outcomes in Patients Hospitalized for Acute Heart Failure.

Extensive data on early nutrition support for patients requiring critical care are available. However, whether early initiation of feeding could be beneficial for patients hospitalized for acute heart failure (HF) remains unclear. We sought to compare outcomes of early and delayed initiation of feeding for hospitalized patients with acute HF using a nationwide inpatient database.