The importance of multimodal CT examination in stroke mimics diagnosis: design of prospective observational multicentre study.

Introduction: Non-contrast computed tomography (CT) and CT angiography are the gold standard in neuroimaging diagnostics in the case of suspected stroke. CT perfusion (CTP) may play an important role in the diagnosis of stroke mimics (SM), but currently, it is not a standard part of the stroke diagnostic procedure. The project is a multicentre prospective observational clinical research focused on refining the diagnostics of stroke and stroke mimics (SM) in hospital care.

Satisfaction with nursing care of hospitalized patients: A descriptive, cross-sectional, multicenter study.

Background: In the assessment of healthcare processes focusing on the quality of care provided, patient satisfaction is an important indicator that healthcare providers may use for future setting of healthcare and preventing adverse events. The study aimed to determine satisfaction with nursing care among hospital inpatients.

Material And Methods: The sample comprised 14 023 patients staying in medical and surgical wards of 14 acute care hospitals in the Czech Republic in 2019-2020.

Personalised progression prediction in patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance or smouldering multiple myeloma (PANGEA): a retrospective, multicohort study.

Background: Patients with precursors to multiple myeloma are dichotomised as having monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance or smouldering multiple myeloma on the basis of monoclonal protein concentrations or bone marrow plasma cell percentage. Current risk stratifications use laboratory measurements at diagnosis and do not incorporate time-varying biomarkers. Our goal was to develop a monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smouldering multiple myeloma stratification algorithm that utilised accessible, time-varying biomarkers to model risk of progression to multiple myeloma.

Nationwide screening of Fabry disease in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in Czech Republic.

Aims: Fabry disease (FD) is a rare X-linked genetic disorder caused by α-galactosidase A (AGALA) deficiency. Whereas 'classic' variant has multisystemic manifestation, the more recently described 'later-onset' variant is characterized by predominant cardiac involvement that often mimics hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

Methods And Results: Consecutive unrelated patients with HCM were screened for FD in 16 (out of 17) cardiac centres in the Czech Republic covering specialized cardiology care from June 2017 to December 2018.

Indeterminacy of the Diagnosis of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Leading to Problems with the Validity of Data.

The validity of infant mortality data is essential in assessing health care quality and in the setting of preventive measures. This study explores different diagnostic procedures used to determine the cause of death across forensic settings and thus the issue of the reduced validity of data. All records from three forensic medical departments that conducted autopsies on children aged 12 months or younger (n = 204) who died during the years 2007-2016 in Moravia were included.

Treatment of Large Cartilage Defects in the Knee by Hydrogel-Based Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation: Two-Year Results of a Prospective, Multicenter, Single-Arm Phase III Trial.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical outcome of a hydrogel-based autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) for large articular cartilage defects in the knee joint.

Design: Prospective, multicenter, single-arm, phase III clinical trial. ACI was performed in 100 patients with focal full-thickness cartilage defects ranging from 4 to 12 cm in size.

Rationale and study design of a trial to assess TMS addon alue for the amelioration of negative symptoms of schizophrenia (RADOVAN).

Background: Schizophrenia is a severe and often difficult to treat psychiatric illness. In many patients, negative symptoms dominate the clinical picture. Meta-analysis has suggested moderate, but significant effects of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) on these symptoms.

rs2076295 variants influence nintedanib and pirfenidone outcomes in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a pilot study.

Background: The antifibrotic drugs nintedanib and pirfenidone are used for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We analysed the association of common profibrotic polymorphisms in (mucin 5B, rs35705950) and (desmoplakin, rs2076295) on antifibrotic treatment outcomes in IPF.

Methods: rs35705950 and rs2076295 were assessed in IPF patients ( = 210, 139 men/71 women) from the Czech EMPIRE registry and age- or sex-matched healthy individuals ( = 205, 125 men/80 women).

Cardiac device-related infective endocarditis in the Czech Republic: Prospective data from the ESC EORP EURO-ENDO registry.

Aim: Understanding cardiac electronic device infective endocarditis epidemiology is essential for the management of this serious complication. Only monocentric and limited data have been published regarding patients in the Czech republic so far. The aim of this study was to describe the current profile, microbiology and clinical characteristics of this population.

Cardiac Strains As a Tool for Optimization of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in Non-responders: a Pilot Study.

Background: Approximately 30% of patients do not respond to implantation of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy - Defibrillators (CRT-D). The aim of this study was to investigate the potential for cardiac strain speckle tracking to optimize the performance of CRT-D in non-responding patients.

Methods: 30 patients not responding to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy-Defibrillators after 3 months were randomly divided into control and intervention groups.

Design and Development of a Novel Invasive Blood Pressure Simulator for Patient's Monitor Testing.

This paper presents a newly-designed and realized Invasive Blood Pressure (IBP) device for the simulation on patient's monitors. This device shows improvements and presents extended features with respect to a first prototype presented by the authors and similar systems available in the state-of-the-art. A peculiarity of the presented device is that all implemented features can be customized from the developer and from the point of view of the end user.

Intensity-Based Nonoverlapping Area Registration Supporting "Drop-Outs" in Terms of Model-Based Radiostereometric Analysis.

A model-based radiostereometric analysis (MBRSA) is a method for precise measurement of prosthesis migration, which does not require marking the implant with tantalum beads. Instead, the prosthesis pose is typically recovered using a feature-based 2D-3D registration of its virtual model into a stereo pair of radiographs. In this study, we evaluate a novel intensity-based formulation of previously published nonoverlapping area (NOA) approach.

Liver regeneration during the associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy procedure in is positively modulated by stem cells.

This present study investigated the impact of the application of stem cells to liver regeneration following the first stage of associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS). The experiment was conducted on a pig model (n=6, 3 that did not receive application of stem cells, 3 that received application stem cells). Collected samples of liver (day 0 and 9 following surgery) were subjected to complete transcriptome sequencing.

The Effects of Diuresis, Duration of Dialysis and Age on Lower Urinary Tract Function in Urologically Healthy Male Patients on the Waiting List for Kidney Transplant.

Purpose: This work investigated the effects of diuresis, duration of dialysis and age on lower urinary tract function in urologically healthy males on the waiting list for kidney transplant.

Materials And Methods: The study included all men who had kidney transplants at our centre between January 2009 and December 2014 who had normal urological findings prior to inclusion on the list. Diuresis, the duration of haemodialysis, age, and parameters of function of the lower urinary tract as determined by filling and voiding cystometry were evaluated.

EMPIRE Registry, Czech Part: Impact of demographics, pulmonary function and HRCT on survival and clinical course in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Introduction: Prognostic factors of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) currently recognized include changes in vital capacity and radiologic findings. However, most of the prognostic studies in IPF are based on clinical studies with preselected IPF populations. Therefore, we decided to analyze the factors influencing IPF prognosis based on the real-practice data from our IPF registry.

Mortality in Miners with Coal-Workers' Pneumoconiosis in the Czech Republic in the Period 1992-2013.

While working underground, miners are exposed to a number of risk factors that have a negative impact on their health and may be a cause of an increased mortality in miners. The aim of the study was to compare total and specific mortality in black coal miners with acknowledged coal-workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) and without CWP, and the mortality of the general male population in the Czech Republic in the period 1992-2013. The sample consisted of 3476 coal miners with CWP and 6687 ex-coal miners without CWP, who were removed after achieving the maximum permissible exposure (MPE).

A Comparative Study of Tower of London Scoring Systems and Normative Data.

Objective: Tower of London (ToL) is a planning ability task that includes multiple versions. The original ToL was developed by Shallice together with two scoring systems (ToL-SS). Another two ToL-SS were proposed by Anderson et al.

Persistence in the treatment of overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) with mirabegron in a multicenter clinical study.

Objective: The objective of this project was to evaluate treatment persistence in patients being treated for overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) with mirabegron, employing clinical follow-up in a prospective, multicenter study.

Study Design: This is an analysis of patients who started treatment with mirabegron between May and September 2014 and were evaluated 1year after treatment commenced. During this evaluation we determined how many patients stopped treatment and established their reasons for discontinuation.

Vaginal fluid interleukin-6 concentrations as a point-of-care test is of value in women with preterm prelabor rupture of membranes.

Background: Preterm prelabor rupture of membranes is frequently complicated/accompanied by infection and inflammation in the amniotic cavity. A point-of-care determination of amniotic fluid interleukin-6 has been shown to be a potentially clinically useful approach to assess inflammatory status of the amniotic cavity. Amniocentesis in preterm prelabor rupture of membranes is not broadly used in clinical practice, and therefore, a shift toward a noninvasive amniotic fluid sampling method is needed.

WITHDRAWN: Vaginal fluid IL-6 concentrations as a point-of-care test is of value in women with preterm PROM.

The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an article that has already been published, http://dx.doi.org/10.

Speech prosody impairment predicts cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Impairment of speech prosody is characteristic for Parkinson's disease (PD) and does not respond well to dopaminergic treatment.

Objectives: We assessed whether baseline acoustic parameters, alone or in combination with other predominantly non-dopaminergic symptoms may predict global cognitive decline as measured by the Addenbrooke's cognitive examination (ACE-R) and/or worsening of cognitive status as assessed by a detailed neuropsychological examination.

Methods: Forty-four consecutive non-depressed PD patients underwent clinical and cognitive testing, and acoustic voice analysis at baseline and at the two-year follow-up.

Massively Parallel Sequencing Detected a Mutation in the MFN2 Gene Missed by Sanger Sequencing Due to a Primer Mismatch on an SNP Site.

We describe a patient with early onset severe axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT2) with dominant inheritance, in whom Sanger sequencing failed to detect a mutation in the mitofusin 2 (MFN2) gene because of a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs2236057) under the PCR primer sequence. The severe early onset phenotype and the family history with severely affected mother (died after delivery) was very suggestive of CMT2A and this suspicion was finally confirmed by a MFN2 mutation. The mutation p.