Comparing the effects of pulsed and radiofrequency catheter ablation on quality of life, anxiety, and depression of patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia: a single-center, randomized, single-blind, standard-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) may lead to decreased quality of life (QOL) and increased anxiety and depression in patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT), possibly due to the lack of selectivity of the ablation tissue and the long ablation time. In recent years, pulsed field ablation (PFA) has been used for the first time in China to treat PSVT patients because of its ability to ablate abnormal tissue sites in a precise and transient manner. This study was conducted to compare the effects of PFA and RFCA on QOL and psychological symptoms of PSVT patients. METHODS: We have designed a single-center, randomized, single-blind, standard-controlled trial. A total of 50 participants who met the eligibility criteria would be randomly allocated into the PFA group or RFCA group in a 1:1 ratio. All participants were assessed using the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at pre-procedure (T0), post-procedure (T1), and 3 months post-procedure (T2). The SPSS 21.0 software was used to analyze the data through Wilcoxon and Fisher's exact tests and repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: Twenty-five in the PFA group and 24 in the RFCA group completed the trial. SF-36: (1) Between-group comparison: At T1, PFA group had significantly higher SF-36 scores on physiological function (PF) and general health (GH) than RFCA group, with a treatment difference of 5.61 points and 18.51 points(P < 0.05). (2) Within-group comparison: We found that in the PFA and RFCA groups, T2 showed significant improvement in the remaining 6 subscales of the SF-36 scale compared to T1 and T0 (P < 0.05), except for body pain (BP) and social function (SF) scores. HADS: (1) Between-group comparison: no significant difference (P > 0.05). (2) Within-group comparison: The HADS scores of the PFA and RFCA groups were statistically significant at T2 compared to T0 and T1 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our study provided new and meaningful evidence that PFA was effective in significantly improving QOL and decreasing anxiety and depression in PFA patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2200060272.

Factors affecting patient activation among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

There are limited published studies on patient activation among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in China. Disease activity can significantly influence a patient's perception of their condition, subsequently impacting patient activation. However, the mechanisms through which disease activity influences patient activation remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate patient activation among patients with SLE in China and explore the influencing factors. We conducted a cross-sectional study from June to December 2021 at a rheumatology and immunology department of a tertiary hospital in Chengdu, China. Data were collected by questionnaire, including general information, disease activity, quality of chronic illness care, health literacy, self-efficacy, motivation, social support, and patient activation. A patient activation model was constructed based on the conceptual framework derived from the individual and family self-management theory. To evaluate the moderating effect of disease activity on patient activation model, participants were divided into two subgroups (low disease activity group and high disease activity group). 426 SLE patients were included. The mean score of patient activation among SLE patients was 63.28 ± 11.82, indicating that most SLE patients lacked skills and confidence to stick with health-promoting behaviors. Health literacy, social support, and self-efficacy had the greatest effect on patient activation. In the multi-group analysis, social support and health literacy contributed more to patient activation in SLE patients with high and low disease activity, respectively. Patient activation among SLE patients in China was at the third level. Healthcare professionals should help them adhere to health-promoting behaviors. Health literacy, social support, and self-efficacy are vital factors for patient activation. These factors should be prioritized based on disease activity when developing individually tailored interventions for patient activation.

Cohort Profile: The China Severe Trauma Cohort (CSTC).

PurposeTo establish a prospective hospital-based cohort, featured by detailed multidimensional data of trauma patients with active follow-ups, which can be a reliable data source for all studies focusing on the effects or underlying mechanistic pathways of environmental and biological factors on multiple interested trauma-related outcomes, particularly the incidence and trajectory of trauma-related psychopathology, in Chinese population.MethodsThe China Severe Trauma Cohort (CSTC) enrolled all traumatized individuals aged 12 to 80 years admitted to the Trauma Center of West China Hospital between 1st March 2020 and 8th July 2022. The bio-sample and detailed questionnaire data were collected at recruitment, and phone/internet follow-ups were scheduled at 1-, 3-, 6-, 12-months after the baseline. Long-term health outcomes are planned to be obtained from administrative databases through data linkage.ResultsA total of 2,500 trauma patients were enrolled (response rate=87.1%) with an average age of 46.01 years, and most of the participants were males(62.6%). The proportions of participants with blood and fecal sample collected at baseline were 93.8% and 66.3%, respectively. Upon 31st August 2022, the follow-up rate was 90.0%, 77.0%, 76.5%, and 89.0% for 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-months follow-up, respectively. Fall/wrench (47.6%) and traffic accident (26.2%) were the top causes of current trauma. The most common psychopathology at recruitment was sleep disturbance(39.4%), followed by depression(22.6%), anxiety(18.2%), and acute stress reaction(7.8%), all of which showed recovering trajectories during the follow-up period, particularly the first 3 months after baseline.ConclusionsCSTC provides a platform with multidimensional data to study both short-term and long-term trauma-related health consequences, prompting early identification and intervention for individuals with high risk of health decline after trauma exposures.

Quality evaluation of clinical practice guidelines for thromboprophylaxis in orthopaedic trauma based on AGREE II and AGREE-REX: a systematic review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Orthopaedic trauma patients are at high risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). As VTE prophylaxis has gradually raised public concerns, guidelines related to this topic have increased over time. However, the existing recommendations of thromboprophylaxis guidelines in orthopaedic trauma patients are still inconsistent, and the quality of the guidelines and recommendations for the topic still lacks comprehensive assessments. This review aims to critically appraise clinical practice guidelines for thromboprophylaxis in orthopaedic trauma patients. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will conduct a comprehensive literature search up to 31 October 2022 in databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, etc), academic websites and guideline repositories. The quality of the guidelines and recommendations will be assessed by five reviewers independently using the Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation II instrument (AGREE-II) and the AGREE - Recommendation EXcellence (AGREE-REX). We will summarise the characteristics of the guidelines and compare the differences between these recommendations. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study will follow the Declaration of Helsinki and has received approval from the Ethics Committee on Biomedical Research, West China Hospital, Sichuan University (ethics approval no. 2021-989). The results will be summarised as a paper, disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, and will help guide further research in the future. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42021273405.

The Neural Mechanism of Long-Term Motor Training Affecting Athletes' Decision-Making Function: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis.

Decision-making is an advanced cognitive function that promotes information processes in complex motor situations. In recent years, many neuroimaging studies have assessed the effects of long-term motor training on athletes' brain activity while performing decision-making tasks, but the findings have been inconsistent and a large amount of data has not been quantitatively summarized until now. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the neural mechanism of long-term motor training affecting the decision-making function of athletes by using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis. Altogether, 10 studies were included and comprised a total of 350 people (168 motor experts and 182 novices, 411 activation foci). The ALE meta-analysis showed that more brain regions were activated for novices including the bilateral occipital lobe, left posterior cerebellar lobe, and left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) in decision-making tasks compared to motor experts. Our results possibly suggested the association between long-term motor training and neural efficiency in athletes, which provided a reference for further understanding the neural mechanisms of motor decision-making.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of nutritional support on the clinical outcome of patients with traumatic brain injury.

BACKGROUND: It remains unclear whether nutritional support can reduce the mortality and infection rate of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), improve their gastrointestinal function, and shorten the length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of nutritional support on the clinical outcome of TBI patients. METHODS: A computer search was conducted of the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases for randomized controlled trials investigating the impact of nutritional support on the clinical outcomes of patients with TBI. The search included the period from the establishment of the database to July 2021. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted the data, and evaluated the risk of bias in the included studies. RevMan 5.3 statistical software (Cochrane Collaboration) was used to analyze the effect size, and a funnel plot was used to detect publication bias. RESULTS: Seven articles reporting on 260 patients receiving nutritional support therapy compared with 252 standard nutrition control patients were included in the study. Meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference in mortality between the nutritional support and standard nutrition treatments (RR =0.74; 95% CI: 0.34-1.60; P=0.44). However, there were significant differences in total serum protein levels (MD =2.23; 95% CI: 1.38-3.07; P<0.00001), total infection rates (RR =0.54; 95% CI: 0.41-0.71; P<0.0001), lung infection rates (RR =0.60; 95% CI: 0.45-0.81; P=0.0006), length of stay in ICU (MD =-5.65; 95% CI: -6.18 to -5.13; P<0.00001) and Glasgow Coma Scale scores (MD =2.77; 95% CI: 1.75-3.78; P<0.00001). DISCUSSION: Nutritional support effectively shortens the hospital stay of patients, reduces the infection rate of patients, and has a positive effect on promoting rehabilitation for patients with TBI. However, high-quality, large-sample, multi-center randomized controlled trials are needed to further study the specific implementation standards of nutritional support.

Predicting venous thromboembolism in hospitalized trauma patients: a combination of the Caprini score and data-driven machine learning model.

BACKGROUND: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common complication of hospitalized trauma patients and has an adverse impact on patient outcomes. However, there is still a lack of appropriate tools for effectively predicting VTE for trauma patients. We try to verify the accuracy of the Caprini score for predicting VTE in trauma patients, and further improve the prediction through machine learning algorithms. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed emergency trauma patients who were admitted to a trauma center in a tertiary hospital from September 2019 to March 2020. The data in the patient's electronic health record (EHR) and the Caprini score were extracted, combined with multiple feature screening methods and the random forest (RF) algorithm to constructs the VTE prediction model, and compares the prediction performance of (1) using only Caprini score; (2) using EHR data to build a machine learning model; (3) using EHR data and Caprini score to build a machine learning model. True Positive Rate (TPR), False Positive Rate (FPR), Area Under Curve (AUC), accuracy, and precision were reported. RESULTS: The Caprini score shows a good VTE prediction effect on the trauma hospitalized population when the cut-off point is 11 (TPR = 0.667, FPR = 0.227, AUC = 0.773), The best prediction model is LASSO+RF model combined with Caprini Score and other five features extracted from EHR data (TPR = 0.757, FPR = 0.290, AUC = 0.799). CONCLUSION: The Caprini score has good VTE prediction performance in trauma patients, and the use of machine learning methods can further improve the prediction performance.

[Effect of different use time of intermittent pneumatic compression on the incidence of deep vein thrombosis of lower extremities after arthroplasty].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of different use time of intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) on the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of lower extremities after arthroplasty. METHODS: Between October 2018 and February 2019, 94 patients who planned to undergo unilateral total hip or knee arthroplsty and met the selection criteria were randomly divided into a control group (47 cases) and a trial group (47 cases). There was no significant difference in gender, age, surgical site, and surgical reason between the two groups ( P>0.05). After returning to the ward, all patients were treated with IPC. And the IPC was used until 9:00 pm on the day after operation in the trial group and until 8:00 am the next day after operation in the control group. The levels of hemoglobin, platelet count, D-dimer, hospital stay, treatment costs, patients' satisfaction with IPC, the parameters of thromboelastrography [kinetics (K value), freezing angle (α angle), reaction time (R value), maximum amplitude (MA value)], visual analogue scale (VAS) score, circumference difference of calf before and after operation, Pittsburgh sleep assessment score, and the incidence of DVT of lower limbs were recorded and compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The K value and D-dimer before operation were significant different between the two groups ( P<0.05). There was no significant difference in pre- and post-operative hemoglobin, platelet count, and the other parameters of thromboelastography between the two groups ( P>0.05). There was no significant difference in pre- and post-operative VAS scores and post-operative circumference difference of calf between the two groups ( P>0.05). The sleep assessment score of the trial group at 1 day after operation was significant lower than that of the control group ( t=2.107, P=0.038). There was no significant difference in the hospital stay and treatment costs between the two groups ( P>0.05). There was 1 case (2.1%) of DVT, 3 cases (6.4%) of intermuscular venous thrombosis, and 1 case (2.1%) of infection in the trial group, and 2 cases (4.3%), 4 cases (8.5%), and 0 (0) in the control group. The differences were not significant ( P>0.05). After the completion of postoperative IPC treatment, the satisfaction rates of using IPC were 89.4%(42/47) in the trial group and 70.2% (33/47) in the control group, and the difference was not significant ( χ 2=0.097, P=0.104). CONCLUSION: IPC using for a short period of time after arthroplasty do not increase the degrees of the pain and the swelling of calf; it can effectively prevent DVT of the lower extremity, improve the quality of sleep in patients, and is good for the limbs rehabilitation.

[RISK FACTOR ANALYSIS OF ACUTE WOUND INFECTION IN ORTHOPEDIC PATIENTS].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the risk factors of acute wound infection in orthopedic patients. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was made on the clinical data of 576 orthopedic patients in accordance with the inclusion criteria between July and October 2012. There were 345 males and 231 females, aged 18-95 years (mean, 44 years). Single factor analysis was used for related factors, and logistic regression analysis of multi-factors for risk factors of acute wound infection. RESULTS: Wound infection occurred in 73 of 576 patients (12.7%). Single factor analysis showed that the influence factors were gender, education, smoking history, nutritional status (hemoglobin, red blood cell count, serum albumin, and total serum protein), blood glucose level, shock history, wound situation (characteristics, multiple injuries, and cleaning), type of injuries, the time of trauma handling, antibiotic use, whether to stay in ICU, wound pain score, drug analgesia, patient controlled analgesia, and dressings and cleaning solution choice. The logistic regression analysis showed that the gender, time of trauma handling, blood glucose level, wound pain score, dressing choice, and wound characteristics were the risk factors of acute wound infection (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: To achieve the best results in clinical prevention of infection, these risk factors (gender, the time of trauma handling, blood glucose level, wound pain score, dressing choice, and wound characteristics) should be considered well.

[Vacuum sealing drainage for infection wound in earthquake].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) technology on prevention and treatment of infection wound and to repair the infectious fracture wound in earthquake. METHODS: Twenty-two patients with limb fractures and open infection wound received VSD from May 12, 2008 to June 19, 2008 in West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Before the VSD, we debrided all wounds and gave effective systemic antibiotics. A -18 ~ -14 kPa pressure was exerted to the wound, and the VSD was used for 8-10 days. We took a germiculture regularly. The capacity, color, and nature of negative pressure drainage, the regression of limb swelling, and systemic inflammatory responses were observed. RESULTS: There was no active bleeding wound or transparent film off in all patients. Three patients had drainage clogging, and were kept flowing freely using the sterile saline pipe to remove the blockage of necrotic tissues. During the VSD, granulation tissues grew well in the 13 patients with bone exposure of the wounded. Two patients whose symptom of inflammatory was not obviously eased had another debridement to completely remove the necrosis, and the symptom was relieved. After 3-5 days of VSD, swelling and fever in the other 20 patients significantly subsided. CONCLUSION: VSD can alleviate the wound inflammation, facilitate the growth of the fresh granulation tissue from the surrounding to the center, and reduce the flap transfer area for the Stage II coverage of the exposed bone.

[Mental status of surgical medical staff who treated or did not treat the victims in Wenchuan earthquake].

OBJECTIVE: To compare and analyze the mental status of medical staff between Orthopedics Department who treated the victims in the earthquake and other surgical departments who did not treat the victims in the earthquake, and to provide evidence for psychological prevention and intervention in the earthquake aids. METHODS: Cross-sectional study was used to choose staff in the Orthopedics Department who treated the victims and other surgical departments who did not treat victims in the earthquake as eligible subject with convenient sampling. The research tool is Symptom Checklist-90. The questionnaire was done by participants with the same psychological instruction. Data were analyzed by SPSS16.0. RESULTS: The scores in somatization, depression,anxiety and opposition, phobic anxiety in the orthopedic staff were significantly higher than those of the other surgical staff (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: There is disorder in mental health of medical staff in Orthopedics Department and mental intervention is needed.