Simplified risk-prediction for benchmarking and quality improvement in emergency general surgery. Prospective, multicenter, observational cohort study.

Background And Aims: Emergency General Surgery (EGS) conditions account for millions of deaths worldwide, yet it is practiced without benchmarking-based quality improvement programs. The aim of this observational, prospective, multicenter, nationwide study was to determine the best benchmark cutoff points in EGS, as a reference to guide improvement measures.

Methods: Over a 6-month period, 38 centers (5% of all public hospitals) attending EGS patients on a 24-h, 7-days a week basis, enrolled consecutive patients requiring an emergent/urgent surgical procedure.

Incidence of vasoplegic syndrome after cardiac transplantation in patients treated with sacubitril/valsartan.

Vasoplegic syndrome (VS) is associated with poor outcomes after heart transplantation (HT). Our aim was to determine whether SAC/VALS is associated with VS after HT. We retrospectively analyzed all consecutive HT performed in three centers between January 2017 and August 2018.

Relevance of dynamic studies with magnetic resonance enterography in Crohn's disease.

Introduction: A proper quantification of the inflammatory activity in Crohn's disease (CD) lesions is needed to establish the appropriate management for each patient. The aim of this study is to evaluate the inflammatory activity of affected segments in small bowel lesions using dynamic studies of magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) in patients undergoing surgery, and their correlation with the level of inflammation and histological fibrosis of the surgical piece.

Methods: A prospective, consecutive, observational, clinical study was conducted that included all the patients with small bowel CD that underwent surgery in this center between March 2011 and September 2013.

Clinical characteristics of patients with sustained ventricular arrhythmias after sacubitril/valsartan initiation.

Our aim was to describe the clinical profile of patients presenting sustained ventricular arrhythmias after sacubitril/valsartan (SV) initiation. All cases of sustained ventricular arrhythmias in patients receiving SV were consecutively recorded in two centers. Nineteen patients had sustained ventricular arrhythmias after SV.

A Nomogram Combining Fecal Calprotectin Levels and Plasma Cytokine Profiles for Individual Prediction of Postoperative Crohn's Disease Recurrence.

Background: The aims of this study were to characterize the immune response profile in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and early postoperative recurrence (POR), to identify predictive biomarkers, and to develop a noninvasive predictive tool for individual estimation of POR risk.

Methods: Sixty-one patients who had undergone ileocolonic resection for CD were prospectively included and followed up for 24 months. Fecal calprotectin (FC), analytical parameters, and plasma cytokines were obtained before surgery and at various time points during postoperative follow-up.

How to reduce the superior mesenteric vein bleeding risk during laparoscopic right hemicolectomy.

Purpose: The superior right colic vein (SRCV) has been proposed as the main cause of superior mesenteric vein bleeding by avulsion during laparoscopic right hemicolectomy. Our objective is to identify the main vessel causing transverse mesocolic tension during the extraction of the surgical specimen or extracorporeal anastomosis and to perform an anatomical description of the SRCV.

Methods: In this cadaveric study, we performed a simulation of right hemicolectomy and anatomical description of the surgical area of the gastrocolic trunk of Henle (SAGCTH), the gastrocolic trunk of Henle (GCTH), and SRCV.

Preoperative progressive pneumoperitoneum and botulinum toxin type A in patients with large incisional hernia.

Purpose: Combination of preoperative progressive pneumoperitoneum (PPP) and botulinum toxin type A (BT) has not been previously reported in the management of large incisional hernia (LIH).

Methods: Observational study of 45 consecutive patients with LIH between June 2010 and July 2014. The diameters of the hernia sac, the volumes of the incisional hernia (VIH) and the abdominal cavity (VAC), and the VIH/VAC ratio were measured before and after PPP and BT using abdominal CT scan data.

Fecal Calprotectin in Ileal Crohn's Disease: Relationship with Magnetic Resonance Enterography and a Pathology Score.

Background: Magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) is an effective method of assessing small bowel Crohn's disease (CD). Fecal calprotectin (FC) correlates well with endoscopic disease activity. We aimed to evaluate the correlation between FC and disease activity according to MRE and surgical pathology in small bowel CD.

Reshaping elastic nanotubes via self-assembly of surface-adhesive nanoparticles.

Elastic sheets with macroscopic dimensions are easy to deform by bending and stretching. Yet shaping nanometric sheets by mechanical manipulation is hard. Here we show that nanoparticle self-assembly could be used to this end.

Effective elasticity of a flexible filament bound to a deformable cylindrical surface.

We use numerical simulations to show how a fully flexible filament binding to a deformable cylindrical surface may acquire a macroscopic persistence length and a helical conformation. This is a result of the nontrivial elastic response to deformations of elastic sheets. We find that the filament's helical pitch is completely determined by the mechanical properties of the surface, and can be easily tuned by varying the surface stretching rigidity.

Phase behavior of repulsive polymer-tethered colloids.

We report molecular dynamics simulations of a system of repulsive, polymer-tethered colloidal particles. We use an explicit polymer model to explore how the length and the behavior of the polymer (ideal or self-avoiding) affect the ability of the particles to organize into ordered structures when the system is compressed to moderate volume fractions. We find a variety of different phases whose origin can be explained in terms of the configurational entropy of polymers and colloids.

Phase diagram of Hertzian spheres.

We report the phase diagram of interpenetrating Hertzian spheres. The Hertz potential is purely repulsive, bounded at zero separation, and decreases monotonically as a power law with exponent 5/2, vanishing at the overlapping threshold. This simple functional describes the elastic interaction of weakly deformable bodies and, therefore, it is a reliable physical model of soft macromolecules, like star polymers and globular micelles.

Protein shape and crowding drive domain formation and curvature in biological membranes.

Folding, curvature, and domain formation are characteristics of many biological membranes. Yet the mechanisms that drive both curvature and the formation of specialized domains enriched in particular protein complexes are unknown. For this reason, studies in membranes whose shape and organization are known under physiological conditions are of great value.

Application of the optimized Baxter model to the hard-core attractive Yukawa system.

We perform Monte Carlo simulations on the hard-core attractive Yukawa system to test the optimized Baxter model that was introduced by Prinsen and Odijk [J. Chem. Phys.

Phase and interface behaviors in type-I and type-V Lennard-Jones mixtures: theory and simulations.

Density gradient theory (DGT) and molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations have been used to predict subcritical phase and interface behaviors in type-I and type-V equal-size Lennard-Jones mixtures. Type-I mixtures exhibit a continuum critical line connecting their pure critical components, which implies that their subcritical phase equilibria are gas liquid. Type-V mixtures are characterized by two critical lines and a heteroazeotropic line.

Interfacial properties of Lennard-Jones chains by direct simulation and density gradient theory.

We perform a series of molecular dynamics simulations of Lennard-Jones chains systems, up to tetramers, in order to investigate the influence of temperature and chain length on their phase separation and interfacial properties. Simulation results serve as a test to check the accuracy of a statistical associated fluid theory (soft-SAFT) coupled with the density gradient theory. We focus on surface tension and density profiles.

Thermodynamic properties of Lennard-Jones chain molecules: renormalization-group corrections to a modified statistical associating fluid theory.

A modified version of the statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT), the so-called soft-SAFT equation of state (EOS), has been extended by a crossover treatment to take into account the long density fluctuations encountered when the critical region is approached. The procedure, based on White's work from the renormalization group theory [Fluid Phase Equilibria 75, 53 (1992); L. W.

Thermodynamic properties and aggregate formation of surfactant-like molecules from theory and simulation.

The goal of this work is twofold: to predict the phase equilibria behavior of simplified surfactant models and to predict the population of aggregates as a function of pressure. We compare Monte Carlo simulation results of these systems with predictions from a modified version of the statistical associating fluid theory (soft-SAFT). Surfactant-like molecules are modeled as Lennard-Jones chains of tangent segments with one or two association sites.

Influence of electromagnetic fields on bone mass and growth in developing rats: a morphometric, densitometric, and histomorphometric study.

The effect of electromagnetic fields on bone is debated. In an experimental study of this effect, we compared two lots of growing female rates (both lots n = 15, age 3 weeks, average weight 23.2 +/- 3.

[Chemoembolization in the treatment of hepatocarcinoma].

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization with lipiodol and adriamycin was performed in 46 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In 27, this procedure was followed by selective arterial embolization using gelatin sponge particles. Surgical resection was carried out in 5 cases and 13 patients were transplanted (OLT).