Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a therapy used in severe cardiopulmonary failure. Blood is pumped through an artificial circuit exposing it to nonphysiologic conditions, which promote platelet activation and coagulation. Centrifugal pumps used at lower flow rates than their design point may lose pump efficiency and increase the risk of hemolysis. In this study, thrombogenic properties of two ECMO pumps designed for adult and neonatal use were evaluated using simulations in different flow scenarios. Three scenarios, adult pump in adult mode (4 L/min), adult pump in baby mode (300 ml/min), and neonatal pump used in its design point (300 ml/min), were simulated using computational fluid dynamics. The flow was numerically seeded with platelets, whose activation state was computed considering the stress history that acted along their respective path lines. Statistical distributions of activation state and residence time were drawn. The results showed that using the adult pump in baby mode increased the fraction of platelets with higher activation state confirming that low-pump flow rate impacts thrombogenicity. The neonatal pump showed a backflow at the inlet, which carried platelets in a retrograde motion contributing to an increased thrombogenic potential compared with the adult mode scenario.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional gastrointestinal disease worldwide. Current guidelines of IBS are mostly based on the western populations and expected to vary in different communities. China has a large population and a vast literature is available on IBS. Due to linguistic variations in the literature, the studies are not widely known and their conclusions thus remain largely obscured to the western medical literature. In this article, we reviewed the published literatures on the investigations of IBS epidemiology, diagnosis, and management in the Chinese population and emphasized the different findings gleaned from the western publications. The detailed literature review will benefit understanding of and promote future study on IBS.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional gastrointestinal disease worldwide. Current guidelines of IBS are mostly based on the western populations and expected to vary in different communities. China has a large population and a vast literature is available on IBS. Due to linguistic variations in the literature, the studies are not widely known and their conclusions thus remain largely obscured to the western medical literature. In this article, we reviewed the published literatures on the investigations of IBS epidemiology, diagnosis, and management in the Chinese population and emphasized the different findings gleaned from the western publications. The detailed literature review will benefit understanding of and promote future study on IBS.

Taxanes are an essential class of antineoplastic agents used to treat various cancers and are a fundamental cause of hypersensitivity reactions. In addition, other adverse events, such as bone marrow toxicity and peripheral neuropathy, can lead to chemotherapy discontinuation. This study aimed to evaluate the safety of taxanes in the real world.

Taxane-associated adverse events were identified by the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities Preferred Terms and analyzed and compared by mining the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System pharmacovigilance database from January 2004 to December 2019. Reported adverse events, such as hypersensitivity reaction, bone marrow toxicity, and peripheral neuropathy, were analyzed with the following signal detection algorithms reporting odds ratio (ROR), proportional reporting ratio (PRR), multi-item gamma Poisson shrinker (MGPS), Bayesian confidence propagation neural network (BCPNN), and logistic regression methods. Adverse outcome events as induced by taxanes. Nab-paclitaxel exhibited the highest potential for taxane-associated adverse events. Further research in the future is warranted to explain taxane-associated adverse effects in real-world circumstances.

The results showed that bone marrow toxicity and peripheral neuropathy were the major adverse events induced by taxanes. Nab-paclitaxel exhibited the highest potential for taxane-associated adverse events. Further research in the future is warranted to explain taxane-associated adverse effects in real-world circumstances.

Psyllium and prunes are proven treatments for chronic constipation (CC). Asian studies suggest that kiwifruit may also benefit CC symptoms. Fezolinetant manufacturer We report a partially randomized, comparative effectiveness trial evaluating kiwifruit, psyllium, and prunes in US patients with CC.

Adults with CC at a US medical center were randomized to 3 natural treatments. Eligible patients had ≤3 complete spontaneous bowel movements (CSBMs) per week and were partially randomized to green kiwifruit (2/d), prunes (100 g/d), or psyllium (12 g/d) for 4 weeks. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients in each group reporting an increase of ≥1 CSBM per week compared with baseline for at least 2 of 4 treatment weeks. Key secondary outcomes included stool frequency, stool consistency, and straining assessed daily. Treatment satisfaction and adverse events (AEs) were also measured. Standard statistical methods were used, and a P < 0.05 was considered significant.

Seventy-nine patients with CC (mean age = 42.7 years, 87% fst rate of AEs and dissatisfaction with therapy.

Kiwifruit, prunes, and psyllium improve constipation symptoms in patients with CC. Kiwifruit was associated with the lowest rate of AEs and dissatisfaction with therapy.

Entecavir (ETV) and tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) are both first-line hepatitis B virus (HBV) therapies, but ETV-to-TAF switch outcome data are limited. We aimed to assess outcomes up to 96 weeks after ETV-to-TAF switch.

ETV-treated (≥12 months) chronic hepatitis B patients switched to TAF in routine practice at 15 centers (United States, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan) were included. Primary outcome was complete viral suppression (CVS) rate (HBV DNA <20 IU/mL).

We analyzed 425 eligible patients (mean age 60.7 ± 13.2 years, 60% men, 90.8% Asian, 20.7% with diabetes, 27% with hypertension, 14.8% with cirrhosis, 8.3% with hepatocellular carcinoma, and mean ETV duration before switch 6.16 ± 3.17 years). The mean baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was 89 ± 19 (chronic kidney disease [CKD] stages 55.6% stage 1, 35.7% stage 2, and 8.8% stages 3-5). CVS rate increased from 91.90% at switch (from 90.46% 24 weeks before switch) to 95.57% and 97.21% at 48 and 96 weeks after (P = 0.03 and 0.02, respectively).