POBS-Card, a new score of severe bleeding after cardiac surgery: Construction and external validation.

Objective: Bleeding after cardiac surgery leads to poor outcomes. The objective of the study was to build the PeriOperative Bleeding Score in Cardiac surgery (POBS-Card) to predict bleeding after cardiac surgery.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study in 2 academic hospitals (2016-2019).

Effect of short- and long-term treatment with valproate on carnitine homeostasis in humans.

Aims: The aim of this study was to identify the mechanisms of hypocarnitinemia in patients treated with valproate.

Methods: Plasma concentrations and urinary excretion of carnitine, acetylcarnitine, propionylcarnitine, valproylcarnitine, and butyrobetaine were determined in a patient starting valproate treatment and in 10 patients on long-term valproate treatment. Transport of carnitine and valproylcarnitine by the proximal tubular carnitine transporter OCTN2 was assessed in vitro.

The plasma carnitine concentration regulates renal OCTN2 expression and carnitine transport in rats.

Previous findings in rats and in human vegetarians suggest that the plasma carnitine concentration and/or carnitine ingestion may influence the renal reabsorption of carnitine. We tested this hypothesis in rats with secondary carnitine deficiency following treatment with N-trimethyl-hydrazine-3-propionate (THP) for 2 weeks and rats treated with excess L-carnitine for 2 weeks. Compared to untreated control rats, treatment with THP was associated with an approximately 70% decrease in plasma carnitine and with a 74% decrease in the skeletal muscle carnitine content.

Urinary excretion of carnitine as a marker of proximal tubular damage associated with platin-based antineoplastic drugs.

Background: Patients treated with cisplatin or carboplatin show increased renal excretion of carnitine. It is currently unclear whether this is also the case for oxaliplatin and which are the responsible mechanisms.

Methods: We investigated 22 patients treated either with a single dose of cisplatin, carboplatin or oxaliplatin.

Interaction between pivaloylcarnitine and L-carnitine transport into L6 cells overexpressing hOCTN2.

Patients ingesting pivalic acid containing prodrugs develop hypocarnitinemia. Pivalic acid is cleaved from such drugs and excreted renally as pivaloylcarnitine. Plasma concentrations (reflecting the concentration in the glomerular filtrate entering the proximal tubule) in patients treated with cefditoren pivoxil are approximately 5 microM for pivaloylcarnitine and 10 microM for carnitine.