Prevalence, management, health-care burden, and 90-day outcomes of prolonged mechanical ventilation in the paediatric intensive care unit (LongVentKids): an international, prospective, cross-sectional cohort study.

Background: The number of children requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) has increased with the advancement of medical care. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of PMV worldwide, document demographic and clinical characteristics of children requiring PMV in paediatric intensive care units (PICUs), and to understand variation in clinical practice and health-care burden.

Methods: This international, multicentre, cross-sectional cohort study screened participating PICUs in 28 countries for children aged >37 postgestational weeks to 17 years who had been receiving mechanical ventilation (MV; invasive or non-invasive) for at least 14 consecutive days.

Transcriptome Analysis of Fibroblasts in Hypoxia-Induced Vascular Remodeling: Functional Roles of CD26/DPP4.

In hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (PH), pulmonary vascular remodeling is characterized by the emergence of activated adventitial fibroblasts, leading to medial smooth muscle hyperplasia. Previous studies have suggested that CD26/dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) plays a crucial role in the pathobiological processes in lung diseases. However, its role in pulmonary fibroblasts in hypoxic PH remains unknown.

Supraspinal Plasticity of Axonal Projections From the Motor Cortex After Spinal Cord Injury in Macaques.

During recovery following spinal cord injury in the macaque, the sensorimotor cortex on the same side as the injury (ipsilesional, unaffected) becomes activated and plays a role in guiding movements of the affected hand. Effective regulation of these movements by the ipsilesional sensorimotor cortex would depend not only on its ability to send motor commands directly to target muscles but also on coordinated functioning with higher-level motor planning systems such as the cortico-basal ganglia and cortico-cerebellar loops. In this study, using anterograde viral tracers, we analyzed the axonal trajectories of corticofugal fibers from the contralesional (affected) primary motor cortex (M1) at the brainstem level in two macaque monkeys with sub-hemisection spinal cord injury at the mid-cervical level.

Maintenance mechanism of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation from the activation occurring within the pulmonary vein: analysis using non-contact mapping.

It is unclear how pulmonary veins (PVs) maintain paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). To clarify the PV's arrhythmogenic role, we examined PV activation sequences during paroxysmal AF. Left superior PV (LSPV) endocardial non-contact mapping was performed after a right PV isolation in 13 paroxysmal AF patients.

Importance of Arrhythmic Origin in the Diagnosis of Isolated Cardiac Sarcoidosis: A Case Report.

Sarcoidosis has a heterogeneous clinical presentation and remains difficult to diagnose, especially in isolated cardiac sarcoidosis (CS). We report a case of life-threatening arrhythmia that led to the diagnosis of isolated CS. A 63-year-old man presented with sustained ventricular tachycardia that was thought to originate from the anterolateral free wall of the right ventricle.