Assessment of Mycotoxin Exposure and Associated Risk in Pregnant Dutch Women: The Human Biomonitoring Approach.

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by various fungi that can contaminate food crops, which, in turn, may lead to human exposure. Chronic exposure to mycotoxins can cause adverse health effects including reproductive and developmental toxicity. Pregnant women and their foetuses present a vulnerable group for exposure to mycotoxins that can cross the placenta.

Does Centralization of Radical Prostatectomy Reduce the Incidence of Postoperative Urinary Incontinence?

Background: On the basis of previous analyses of the incidence of urinary incontinence (UI) after radical prostatectomy (RP), the hospital RP volume threshold in the Netherlands was gradually increased from 20 per year in 2017, to 50 in 2018 and 100 from 2019 onwards.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of hospital RP volumes on the incidence and risk of UI after RP (RP-UI).

Design Setting And Participants: Patients who underwent RP during 2016-2020 were identified in the claims database of the largest health insurance company in the Netherlands.

Using Existing Clinical Information Models for Dutch Quality Registries to Reuse Data and Follow COUMT Paradigm.

Background: Reuse of health care data for various purposes, such as the care process, for quality measurement, research, and finance, will become increasingly important in the future; therefore, "Collect Once Use Many Times" (COUMT). Clinical information models (CIMs) can be used for content standardization. Data collection for national quality registries (NQRs) often requires manual data entry or batch processing.

Cumulative dietary risk assessment of chronic acetylcholinesterase inhibition by residues of pesticides.

A retrospective cumulative risk assessment of dietary exposure to pesticide residues was conducted for chronic inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. The pesticides considered in this assessment were identified and characterised in a previous scientific report on the establishment of cumulative assessment groups of pesticides for their effects on the nervous system. The exposure assessments used monitoring data collected by Member States under their official pesticide monitoring programmes in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and individual food consumption data from 10 populations of consumers from different countries and from different age groups.

Outcomes After Lumbar Disk Herniation Surgery in the Dutch Population.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Objective: There is only limited data on the outcome of primary surgery of lumbar disk herniation (LDH) in Dutch patients. The objective of this study is to describe undesirable outcomes after primary LDH.

Use of Palliative Chemotherapy and ICU Admissions in Gastric and Esophageal Cancer Patients in the Last Phase of Life: A Nationwide Observational Study.

Since intensive care unit (ICU) admission and chemotherapy use near death impair the quality of life, we studied the prevalence of both and their correlation with hospital volume in incurable gastroesophageal cancer patients as both impair the quality of life. We analyzed all Dutch patients with incurable gastroesophageal cancer who died in 2017-2018. National insurance claims data were used to determine the prevalence of ICU admission and chemotherapy use (stratified on previous chemotherapy treatment) at three and one month(s) before death.

[Increase in opioid prescribing in extramural care in the Netherlands: assessment of use and prescription behaviour, based on claims data].

Objective: Describe the trends in extramural prescription of opioids in the Netherlands.

Design: Descriptive, retrospective research based on claims data of Dutch health insurers.

Method: For each healthcare-insured Dutch resident we selected claims data for all opioids, except codeine and buprenorphine, for the period 2010-2017.

Aortic valve replacement using the Freedom SOLO stentless bioprosthesis: clinical and haemodynamic performance in 625 patients at medium-term follow-up.

Objectives: Our goal was to analyse the haemodynamic and clinical results after implantation of the Freedom SOLO stentless aortic valve replacement by assessing the immediate postoperative results regarding mortality, discharge echocardiographic gradients and reoperation rates and by evaluating these results in the medium term.

Methods: This study was designed as a single-centre retrospective observational trial. Clinical and echocardiographic data were collected retrospectively from 625 patients undergoing an aortic valve replacement using the Freedom Solo stentless valve (LivaNova, London, UK) at the Sint-Jan Hospital, Bruges, between May 2009 and May 2017.

Type B aortic dissection: new perspectives.

Background: Stanford type B aortic dissection is one of the aortic catastrophes with a high mortality and morbidity that needs immediate or delayed treatment, either surgically or endovascularly. This comprehensive review article addresses the current status of open, endovascular and hybrid treatment options for type B aortic dissections with the focus on new therapeutic perspectives.

Methods: Evaluation of currently available evidence based on randomized and registry data and personal experience.

[Incidence of incontinence after radical prostatectomy using claims-based data].

Objective: To determine the effect of radical prostatectomy (RP) hospital volume on the probability of post-RP incontinence.

Design: Retrospective research based on claims-based data of health insurers.

Method: For every patient with RP the probability of incontinence was determined, based on the definition of claims of one or more incontinence pads per day.

State-of the-art review on the renal and visceral protection during open thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

During open thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair (OTAAAR), there is an inevitable organ ischemic period that occurs when the abdominal arteries are being reattached to the aortic graft. Despite various protective techniques, the incidence of renal and visceral complications remains substantial. This state-of-the-art review gives an overview of the current and most evidence-based organ protection methods during OTAAAR, based on the most recent publications and personal experience.

Open surgical repair of post-dissection thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysms: early and late outcomes of a single-centre study involving over 200 patients.

Objectives: Chronic, post-dissection thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs) are increasingly being treated by (hybrid) endovascular means. Although it is less invasive, thoracic endovascular aortic repair is technically complex with the risk of incomplete aneurysm exclusion, necessitating frequent reinterventions with potentially reduced long-term outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate contemporary early and late outcomes after open surgical repair of post-dissection TAAA.

How should we manage type B aortic dissections?

Dissection of the descending aorta is a serious and potentially lethal event. Treatment options consist of medical therapy, open surgical replacement of the affected aorta and thoracic endovascular repair. In acute cases, medical treatment is started initially.

Left heart bypass for thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair: technical aspects.

There are different surgical techniques for providing circulatory support during the repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. They all aim at reducing the afterload of the heart and the preservation of distal organ perfusion. Partial or total extracorporeal circulation with or without cooling and left heart bypass (LHB) are actually the most used surgical approaches.

Reliability and Validity of the International Dementia Alliance Schedule for the Assessment and Staging of Care in Ireland.

Objective: To independently assess the inter-rater reliability of the International Dementia Alliance (IDEAL) schedule in Ireland and to examine criterion validity for cognitive functioning and caregiver distress.

Methods: Two raters independently completed the IDEAL schedule based on an interview with persons diagnosed with dementia and their informal caregivers. The Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale and the Zarit Burden Interview were used as reference standards for criterion validity.

Experimental evolution reveals high insecticide tolerance in Daphnia inhabiting farmland ponds.

Exposure of nontarget populations to agricultural chemicals is an important aspect of global change. We quantified the capacity of natural Daphnia magna populations to locally adapt to insecticide exposure through a selection experiment involving carbaryl exposure and a control. Carbaryl tolerance after selection under carbaryl exposure did not increase significantly compared to the tolerance of the original field populations.

Contemporary spinal cord protection during thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic surgery and endovascular aortic repair: a position paper of the vascular domain of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery†.

Ischaemic spinal cord injury (SCI) remains the Achilles heel of open and endovascular descending thoracic and thoracoabdominal repair. Neurological outcomes have improved coincidentially with the introduction of neuroprotective measures. However, SCI (paraplegia and paraparesis) remains the most devastating complication.