Prospective multicentre study on barbed reposition pharyngoplasty standing alone or as a part of multilevel surgery for sleep apnoea.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to demonstrate in a prospective multicentre study that Barbed Reposition Pharyngoplasty (BRP) procedure is safe and effective in management of obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) patients. DESIGN: Prospective study. SETTING: Multicentre study. PARTICIPANTS: Patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnoea. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: Values of postoperative apnoea-hypopnea index (AHI), oxygen desaturation index (ODI), epworth sleepiness scale (ESS). RESULTS: 111 Barbed Reposition Pharyngoplasty procedures standing alone or as a part of multilevel surgery for OSAHS, performed between January and September 2016, were analysed in 15 different centres. The average hospitalisation period was 2.5 ± 0.5 days. The mean patient age was 46.3 ± 10.5 years. The average body mass index at the time of the procedure was 27.9 ± 3.2, and the majority of the patients were men (83%). The mean preoperative and postoperative apnoea/hypopnea index was 33.4 ± 19.5 and 13.5 ± 10.3, respectively (P < .001). The mean preoperative and postoperative ESS score was 10.2 ± 4.5 and 6.1 ± 3.6, respectively (P < .001). The mean preoperative and postoperative ODI were 29.6 ± 20.7 and 12.7 ± 10.8, respectively (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing BRP standing alone or as part of a multilevel approach for the treatment of OSAHS have a reasonable expectation for success with minimal morbidity.

Barbed reposition pharyngoplasty in multilevel robotic surgery for obstructive sleep apnoea.

The surgical treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea in patients who are non-compliant with continuous positive airway pressure therapy still represents a valid alternative. In recent years, the multilevel approach is becoming more diffuse in routine surgical practice, especially since the introduction of transoral robotic surgery. Barbed reposition pharyngoplasty in multilevel robotic surgery for OSA may represent a valid option to surgically approach the soft palate. Herein, we describe the technique and preliminary results of our experience.

Effect of pregnancy-lactation overlap on the current pregnancy outcome in women with substandard nutrition: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy during lactation is common in Egypt and is often unplanned. Overlap between pregnancy and lactation could be associated with an increased risk for the pregnant mother, her fetus as well as her nursing child. AIM OF THE STUDY: The current study aims to compare the maternal and perinatal outcome of pregnancies occurred during lactation with those occurred after weaning in women with substandard nutrition. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective-cohort study was carried out in six Maternal and Child Health Centers in Assiut-Egypt. Estimated sample size was 540 women divided equally into two groups; the first included women who got pregnant during breastfeeding (PDBF), while the second included women who got pregnant after weaning (PAW). Tools were consisted of structured interview questionnaire including personal history, obstetrical data, breastfeeding, family planning histories and dietary intake during pregnancy. Pregnant women had been followed up to delivery to assess different maternal and fetal outcomes. RESULTS: Miscarriage rate was not statistically significant between both groups (2.2% in PDBF and 0.4% in PAW, p = 0.284). Women in PDBF group had higher prevalence of maternal anemia (54.1% versus 30.7%), intrauterine growth restriction (16.7% versus 4.8%), cesarean delivery (43.7% versus 31.5%), prolonged labor (13.3% versus 11.1%) and low birth weight infants (15.7% versus 8.8%) compared to women in PAW group. CONCLUSION: Pregnancy during breastfeeding is associated with an increase in the overall complications of pregnancy as compared to PAW. Although it does not increase the miscarriage rate, it increases the prevalence of maternal anemia, delayed fetal growth, prolonged labor, cesarean section delivery and the prevalence of low birth weight infants.

Endomyocardial fibrosis in Egypt: an illustrated review.

The detailed features of right sided endomyocardial fibrosis are described in 15 out of 10,000 consecutive patients who all had infection with Schistosoma mansoni and came from rural Egypt. Laboratory investigations, 12 lead electrocardiography, chest radiography, and Doppler echocardiography were performed in all patients. Cardiac catheterisation and angiography were performed in eight. Endomyocardial biopsy specimens were obtained from the right ventricles of two patients and pericardial biopsy specimens from two. Pericardiocentesis was performed in all patients. All patients were infected with S mansoni and had schistosomal hepatic fibrosis and ascites. Eleven had splenomegaly. All patients had raised cervical venous pressure with prominent Y descent and atrial fibrillation. Eosinophilia was notably absent. Echocardiography showed apical fibrosis in the right ventricle, obliteration of the ventricle, and moderate to massive exudative pericardial effusion in all patients. Calcification and fibrosis extended into the right ventricular outflow tracts in two patients. Huge right atrial thrombi occurred in five patients. Tricuspid regurgitation (grades I-II) was detected in 11 patients by Doppler ultrasonography. Haemodynamic and angiographic data confirmed the pure right sided restrictive pathophysiology. Pericardial biopsy specimens showed perivascular inflammatory infiltrates in two patients and a schistosomal granuloma in one. Endocardial biopsy specimens showed dense fibrosis with many fibroblasts. Endomyocardial fibrosis in Egypt is unique in several aspects. It always affected only the right side of the heart. Calcification and fibrosis extended to the right ventricular outflow tract. Pericardial inflammatory reaction was present. The relation to schistosomiasis and the link to periportal hepatic fibrosis in these patients is intriguing.

Detection and quantitation of ischemic left ventricular dysfunction using a new video intensity technique for regional wall motion evaluation.

Eighty patients with ischemic heart disease and 17 normal subjects were evaluated for left ventricular regional wall motion by means of a new method. The wall motion analysis is based on video intensity. This technique uses a temporally sliding analysis to evaluate the cardiac cycle in 100 msec intervals. Presence of coronary artery disease was defined as more than 50% measured diameter stenosis. Wall motion abnormalities in regions perfused by stenotic vessels were most common in early diastole (76%). Sensitivity of this method at rest in patients with coronary artery disease was 79.7% (p less than 0.0001) and overall accuracy was 84.2% (p less than 0.0001). Abnormalities in both systole and diastole were more common in regions perfused by severe lesions (greater than 75%) than in those perfused by moderately stenotic (less than 75%) vessels (p less than 0.05). A comparison of the new method with phase and amplitude analysis was performed in 15 patients and with two-frame analysis in 40 patients. This new method yielded a higher sensitivity than either of the other two methods.

Instantaneous transmitral flow using Doppler and M-mode echocardiography: comparison with radionuclide ventriculography.

To improve the accuracy of Doppler echocardiographic indices of left ventricular filling, we derived two indices of instantaneous transmitral flow with the use of Doppler velocities and M-mode echocardiography. These indices were calculated from the product of pulsed Doppler mitral velocities and either the excursion of the anterior mitral leaflet or the separation of both mitral leaflets as measures of the changing mitral orifice area. The derived flow indices and the mitral velocities alone were compared to left ventricular filling as determined by radionuclide ventriculography in 24 patients. When compared as areas under the matched decile divisions of the derived filling sequences by linear regression analysis, the relationship for combined Doppler and M-mode versus radionuclide left ventricular filling was closer to the line of identity (slope = 0.98 and 0.94 using the anterior mitral leaflet and both mitral leaflets, respectively, both p = NS versus the line of identity) than was the relationship for mitral velocities alone versus radionuclide left ventricular filling (slope = 0.74, p less than 0.05 versus the line of identity). The instantaneous mitral volume flow indices more closely resemble the time course and shape of radionuclide left ventricular filling curves than do mitral velocities alone, and the application of these indices should assist the quantitative description by Doppler echocardiography of left ventricular filling.

Calculating cardiac output from transmitral volume flow using Doppler and M-mode echocardiography.

To simplify transmitral volume flow determination by Doppler echocardiography, a formula for calculating mean mitral valve orifice area using M-mode echocardiography without any 2-dimensional measurements was developed and evaluated in this study. The maximal mitral orifice area was assumed to be circular and its diameter was calculated from the maximal M-mode mitral leaflet separation. The maximal area was multiplied by the mean to maximal anterior mitral leaflet excursion ratio to correct for phasic changes in flow orifice area during ventricular filling. This measurement had a high correlation (r = 0.97, standard error of the estimate + 0.26 cm2) with mean mitral valve orifice area calculated from frame-by-frame analysis of short-axis 2-dimensional echoes in a select group of 10 normal volunteers and 10 patients with cardiomyopathy who had very high quality images of the mitral valve leaflet tips. Cardiac output calculated using the new method for orifice area estimation combined with apex view mitral valve Doppler velocities was then validated in 48 consecutive patients undergoing thermodilution cardiac output determinations with a close correlation between Doppler and thermodilution cardiac output (2.3 to 6.1 liter/min, r = 0.93, standard error of the estimate = 362 ml). The correlation improved when 12 patients with mild mitral insufficiency were excluded (r = 0.95). The M-mode echocardiogram-derived mitral valve orifice method combined with Doppler mitral valve velocities is accurate, easy to perform, has a high success rate and should increase the applicability of Doppler echocardiography for estimation of cardiac output.