Multivariable Predictive Model of Postoperative Delirium in Cardiac Surgery Patients: Proteomic and Demographic Contributions.

Background: Delirium after cardiac surgery is common, morbid, and costly, but may be prevented with risk stratification and targeted intervention. In this study, we aimed to identify protein biomarkers and develop a predictive model for postoperative delirium in older patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Methods: SomaScan analysis of 1305 proteins in the plasma from 57 older adults undergoing cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass was conducted to define delirium-specific protein signatures at baseline (preoperative baseline timepoint [PREOP]) and postoperative day 2 (POD2).

Epitope-focused immunogens targeting the hepatitis C virus glycoproteins induce broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes ~290,000 annual human deaths despite the highly effective antiviral treatment available. Several viral immune evasion mechanisms have hampered the development of an effective vaccine against HCV, among them the remarkable conformational flexibility within neutralization epitopes in the HCV antigens. Here, we report the design of epitope-focused immunogens displaying two distinct HCV cross-neutralization epitopes.

Daily Pain Severity but Not Vertebral Fractures Is Associated With Lower Physical Activity in Postmenopausal Women With Back Pain.

Back pain lifetime incidence is 60%-70%, while 12%-20% of older women have vertebral fractures (VFs), often with back pain. We aimed to provide objective evidence, currently lacking, regarding whether back pain and VFs affect physical activity (PA). We recruited 69 women with recent back pain (age 74.

Blood pressure fragmentation as a new measure of blood pressure variability: association with predictors of cardiac surgery outcomes.

Fluctuations in beat-to-beat blood pressure variability (BPV) encode untapped information of clinical utility. A need exists for developing new methods to quantify the dynamical properties of these fluctuations beyond their mean and variance. Introduction of a new beat-to-beat BPV measure, termed blood pressure fragmentation (BPF), and testing of whether increased preoperative BPF is associated with (i) older age; (ii) higher cardiac surgical risk, assessed using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' (STS) Risk of Morbidity and Mortality index and the European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation Score (EuroSCORE II); and (iii) longer ICU length of stay (LOS) following cardiac surgery.