Balloon mitral valvuloplasty: a re-emerging technique enhanced with real-time, three-dimensional transoesophageal cardiac ultrasound/echocardiography (3D-TOE).

We describe the case of a woman in her 60s with mitral stenosis, rate-controlled atrial fibrillation and a history of childhood rheumatic fever. She successfully underwent elective percutaneous transvenous mitral commissurotomy (PTMC), also described as balloon mitral valvuloplasty, for severe, symptomatic mitral stenosis. This was completed via right femoral vein access, trans-septal puncture and commissural separation guided by real-time three-dimensional (3D) transoesophageal echocardiography under general anaesthesia.

Location of organ procurement and distribution organisation decisions and their impact on kidney allocations: a developing country perspective.

Managing organ transplant networks is a complex task. It intertwines between locating the organ procurement and distribution organization (OPDO) (long-term decision) and allocating organs to the suitable destination (short-term decision). The literature lacks deliberation on the effect of those long-term decisions on short-term ones under the influence of clinical and non-clinical factors.

Dynamic collaborative optimization for disaster relief supply chains under information ambiguity.

Large-scale disasters occur worldwide, with a continuing surge in the frequency and severity of disruptive events. Researchers have developed several optimization models to address the critical challenges of disaster relief supply chains (e.g.

Aetiology of acute respiratory infection in preschool children requiring hospitalisation in Europe-results from the PED-MERMAIDS multicentre case-control study.

Background: Both pathogenic bacteria and viruses are frequently detected in the nasopharynx (NP) of children in the absence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms. The aim of this study was to estimate the aetiological fractions for ARI hospitalisation in children for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza virus and to determine whether detection of specific respiratory pathogens on NP samples was associated with ARI hospitalisation.

Methods: 349 children up to 5 years of age hospitalised for ARI (following a symptom-based case definition) and 306 hospital controls were prospectively enrolled in 16 centres across seven European Union countries between 2016 and 2019.