ObjectiveTo investigate the technique and efficacy of left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCABG) in elderly patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and atrial fibrillation (AF).MethodsFrom 2013 to 2018, 84 elderly patients with CAD and AF with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF< 50%) underwent OPCABG in our department. There were 54 males and 30 females at age of 70-82 years. They were divided into a left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion group (n=56) and a non-LAA occlusion group (n=28). Postoperative antithrombotic therapy: the LAA occlusion group was given warfarin + aspirin + clopidogrel “triple antithrombotic therapy” for 3 months after operation, then was changed to aspirin + clopidogrel “dual antiplatelet” for long-term antithrombotic; the non-LAA occlusion group was given warfarin + aspirin + clopidogrel “triple antithrombotic” for long-term antithrombotic after operation. The clinical effectiveness of the two groups was compared.ResultsAll patients underwent the surgery successfully. There were 56 patients in the LAA occlusion group, including 44 patients of LAA exclusion and 12 patients of LAA clip. The time of LAA occlusion was 3 to 8 minutes. There was no injury of graft vessels and anastomotic stoma. Early postoperative death occurred in 2 patients (2.4%). There was no statistical difference between the two groups in postoperative hospital stay (P=0.115). Postoperative LVEF of the two groups significantly improved compared with that before operation (P<0.05). There was no stroke or bleeding in important organs during hospitalization. During follow-up of 1 year, no cerebral infarction occurred in both groups, but the incidence of bleeding related complications in the LAA occlusion group was significantly lower than that in the non-LAA occlusion group (3.6% vs. 18.5%, P=0.036).ConclusionFor elderly patients with CAD and AF with reduced LVEF, LAA occlusion during OPCABG can effectively reduce the risk of stroke and bleeding related complications, and without increasing the risk of surgery.
Objective To explore the association between C-reactive protein (CRP) change and the prognosis of patients with stroke. Methods Individuals who were diagnosed with stroke from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) registry were included. The baseline characteristics in 2011, blood tests in 2011 and 2015, and follow-up data in 2018 were collected. The patients were divided into three groups according to their CPR change from 2011 to 2015, and the cut-off values of CRP change were 0 and 5 mg/L. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association between CRP change and the risk of death after stroke. Results A total of 1065 participants diagnosed in 2011 were enrolled. There were 383 participants in the CRP decreased group (CRP change ranging from –74.30 to –0.01 mg/L), 584 participants in the CRP stable group (CRP change ranging from 0 to 4.98 mg/L), and 98 participants in the CRP increased group (CRP change ranging from 5.00 to 79.27 mg/L). By 2018, the numbers (rates) of deaths in CRP decreased group, CRP stable group, and CRP increased group were 25 (6.53%), 33 (5.65%), and 13 (13.27%), respectively, and the difference in the mortality among the three groups was statistically significant (P=0.020). Logistic regression analysis showed that the CRP change≥5 mg/L was associated with a higher risk of death after stroke [odds ratio=2.332, 95% confidence interval (1.099, 4.946), P=0.027]. Conclusions Increasing CRP levels over time may indicate an increased risk of death in stroke patients. A 4-year increase in CRP greater than 5 mg/L may be an independent predictor of the risk of long-term death in stroke patients.
Objective To systematically evaluate the effect of arm sling on shoulder subluxation in stroke patients with hemiplegia. METHODS CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, OVID, EBM Reviews, Best Practice, ACP Journal Club, and Practice Guidline were searched from establishment to March 2023. The literature on randomized controlled trials of arm sling on gait or balance in post-stroke patients with hemiplegia were included. RevMan 5.4.1 software was used for meta-analysis. Results A total of 13 articles were included, including 691 subjects, 343 in the experimental group, and 348 in the control group. The meta-analysis results showed that patients wearing the boom arm were effective in improving the recovery of upper extremity function [mean difference (MD)=8.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) (2.39, 11.60), P＜0.000 01], relieving pain due to shoulder subluxation [MD=−1.13, 95%CI (−1.70, −0.56), P=0.000 1], and enhancement of patients’ quality of life in daily activities [MD=15.07, 95%CI (3.24, 26.90), P=0.01], all of which were superior to the control group. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of Apnea-Hypopnea Index [MD=−1.86, 95%CI (−3.79, 0.06), P=0.06], 6 min walking test [MD=−0.51, 95%CI (−18.52, 17.49), P=0.96], 10 meter walk time [MD=0.00, 95%CI (−0.06, 0.06), P=0.91], heart rate [MD=−0.22, 95%CI (−5.10, 4.27), P=0.93], and Berg balance scale [MD=−2.53, 95%CI (−8.17, 3.10), P=0.38]. Conclusion The use of arm sling can effectively improve patients’ quality of life, functional recovery of the upper limbs and reduce pain, providing an evidence-based basis for healthcare professionals to treat patients with proven treatment modalities.
Enteral nutrition can improve patient’s nutritional status, reduce the incidence of complications, and promote the patient’s rehabilitation. For patients with stroke, enteral nutrition is the first choice for nutritional support. Nurses not only participate but also play important roles in the whole process of nutrition management in stroke. Therefore, standardizing the nursing practice in enteral nutrition and developing nursing guideline in line with Chinese clinical practice is of great significance. In the guideline, 18 key clinical questions had been established via the Delphi method, and for each question, detailed recommendations had been constructed. It is expected to provide clinical standards for enteral nutrition in patients with stroke, and to improve the nutritional management and disease prognosis of stroke patients.
Objective To assess systematically the safety and ef fects of stem cell transplantation in stroke patients.Methods CENTRAL (April 2007), MEDLINE (1966 to April 2007), EMBASE (1980 to April 2007), and other databases were searched for RCT of the use of stem cell transplantation for patients with stroke. We critically appraised the quality of included studies according to Juny 2001. We assessed the effects of stem cell therapy on mortal ity, functional outcomes, cognitive functions, image changes, quality of life, and adverse effects by doing meta-analysis with The Cochrane Collaboration’ s Review Manager. Dichotomous outcomes were reported as relative risk and continuous outcome measures as weighted mean differences, with 95% confidence intervals.Results Three RCTs and one historical controlled trial were included involving a total of 69 participants. Only one trial reported the effect on mortality, but because of the small number of death it was not possible to detect any significant differences between stem cell transplantation and routine treatment (RR 0.11, 95%CI 0.01 to 2.31, P = 0.16). Three studies indicated a statistically significant improvement of some functional outcomes in patients treated by stem cell transplantation. Improvements of cognitive function were reported in another trial. One trial showed that the stem cell transplantation significantly improved qual ity of life compared with the control group. Conclusion The current evidence is insufficient to determine whether or not stem cell transplantation is a safe and effective therapy for stroke patients. High-quality, large-scale randomized trials are needed to assess the role of stem cell transplantation for stroke.
ObjectiveTo review the recent research progress of different types of stem cells in the treatment of ischemic stroke.MethodsBy searching the PubMed database, a systematic review had been carried out for the results of applying different types of stem cells in the treatment of ischemic stroke between 2000 and 2020.ResultsStem cells can be transplanted via intracranial, intravascular, cerebrospinal fluid, and intranasal route in the treatment of ischemic stroke. Paracrine and cell replacement are the two major mechanisms of the therapy. The researches have mainly focused on utilization of neural stem cells, embryonic stem cells, and mesenchymal stem cells. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of capability of migration, survival rate, and safety. Certain stem cell therapies have completed phase one clinical trial.ConclusionStem cells transplantation is feasible and has a great potential for the treatment of ischemic stroke, albeit that certain obstacles, including the selection of stem cells, transplantation strategy, migration ability, survival rate, still wait to be solved.
ObjectiveTo analyze the pathogenic bacteria distribution, structure and characteristics of drug resistance in patients with acute stroke complicated with pulmonary infection, in order to provide reference for the prevention of hospital infection and rational use of antimicrobial agents. MethodsA total of 864 clinical specimens of acute stroke complicated with pulmonary infection were chosen for study between January 2012 and December 2014. Separation and cultivation were done in accordance with the operation procedures regulated by the Ministry of Health. Drug sensitivity examination was done by Kirby-Bauer (k-b). Super-extensive spectrum β lactamase (ESBL) and methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were detected to analyze the bacterial species and resistance transition. ResultsA total of 864 samples were cultivated, in which G-bacteria accounted for 61.2%. The main pathogenic bacteria was Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumanmii and Staphylococcus aureus. Imipenem had high antimicrobial activity to G-bacilli, especially to Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria. Linezolid, vancomycin and teicoplanin had high antibacterial activity to staphylococcus aureus. Vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus was not found. Ciprofloxacin had high antibacterial activity to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while imipenem had low antibacterial activity to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Amikacin had high antibacterial activity to acinetobacter. ConclusionG-bacilli are predominant in acute stroke complicated with pulmonary infection. ESBLs and MRSA detection rate is high, and we should pay attention to the rational use of antibiotics to reduce drug resistance.
Objective To integrate the falling experience and coping styles of stroke home patients with falls through Meta synthesis, summarize existing problems based on the integration results, and propose suggestions. Methods We searched databases including PubMed, Medline, Embase, Web of Science, etc., from database establishment to January 2023, to collect qualitative studies on stroke patients’ falling experience at home. The quality of included studies was evaluated by “JBI Australian Evidence-based Health Care Centre (2008) Qualitative Research Quality Assessment Criteria”. The results were integrated by integrating methods. Results A total of 6 references were included, and 18 clear research results were extracted. Similar results were summarized and combined to form 6 new categories, and integrated into 3 main themes. The integration results showed that stroke patients with falls had severe psychological problems, poor coping styles, and unmet needs for fall prevention, resulting in reduced social participation and exercise. Conclusions It is necessary to improve the content of fall assessment and provide corresponding fall prevention health education based on the assessment results. It helps stroke patients and caregivers at home to establish correct coping strategies, thereby avoiding the occurrence of falls.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy of different stimulation modalities of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) combined with SSRI in improving depressed mood after stroke using network meta-analysis. MethodsThe PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, CBM and WanFang Data databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to the objectives from inception to October 1, 2022. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of the included studies. Network meta-analysis was then performed by using R 4.2.1software. ResultsA total of 25 RCTs involving 2 152 patients were included. Four types of rTMS stimulation combined with SSRIs were included: high-frequency stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal (l-DLPFC), low-frequency stimulation of l-DLPFC, low-frequency stimulation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal (r-DLPFC), and low-frequency stimulation of the bilateral DLPFC. The results of the network meta-analysis showed that the effect of combining four stimulation methods with SSRI in treating depression was better than that of SSRI alone (P<0.05). Probability sorting results showed that low-frequency stimulated bilateral DLPFC (88.9%) > low-frequency stimulated l-DLPFC (63.1%) > high-frequency stimulation l-DLPFC (57.1%) > low-frequency stimulation r-DLPFC (40.4%). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the four stimulation methods combined with SSRI and the use of SSRI alone (P>0.05). Conclusion rTMS combined with SSRIs is better than SSRIs alone in improving depressed mood after stroke. Low-frequency rTMS stimulation of bilateral DLPFC may be the best. Meanwhile, the safety of different stimulation methods is good.
Objective To evaluate the predictive effect of three machine learning methods, namely support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and decision tree, on the daily number of new patients with ischemic stroke in Chengdu. Methods The numbers of daily new ischemic stroke patients from January 1st, 2019 to March 28th, 2021 were extracted from the Third People’s Hospital of Chengdu. The weather and meteorological data and air quality data of Chengdu came from China Weather Network in the same period. Correlation analyses, multinominal logistic regression, and principal component analysis were used to explore the influencing factors for the level of daily number of new ischemic stroke patients in this hospital. Then, using R 4.1.2 software, the data were randomly divided in a ratio of 7∶3 (70% into train set and 30% into validation set), and were respectively used to train and certify the three machine learning methods, SVM, KNN and decision tree, and logistic regression model was used as the benchmark model. F1 score, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and accuracy of each model were calculated. The data dividing, training and validation were repeated for three times, and the average F1 scores, AUCs and accuracies of the three times were used to compare the prediction effects of the four models. Results According to the accuracies from high to low, the prediction effects of the four models were ranked as SVM (88.9%), logistic regression model (87.5%), decision tree (85.9%), and KNN (85.1%); according to the F1 scores, the models were ranked as SVM (66.9%), KNN (62.7%), decision tree (59.1%), and logistic regression model (57.7%); according to the AUCs, the order from high to low was SVM (88.5%), logistic regression model (87.7%), KNN (84.7%), and decision tree (71.5%). Conclusion The prediction result of SVM is better than the traditional logistic regression model and the other two machine learning models.