Impact of diabetes mellitus on acute outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention in chronic total occlusions: insights from a US multicentre registry.

AIM: To examine the impact of diabetes mellitus on procedural outcomes of patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion. METHODS: We assessed the impact of diabetes mellitus on the outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion among 1308 people who underwent such procedures at 11 US centres between 2012 and 2015. RESULTS: The participants' mean ± sd age was 66 ± 10 years, 84% of the participants were men and 44.6% had diabetes. As compared with participants without diabetes, participants with diabetes were more likely to have undergone coronary artery bypass graft surgery (38 vs 31%; P = 0.006), and to have had previous heart failure (35 vs 22%; P = 0.0001) and peripheral arterial disease (19 vs 13%; P = 0.002). They also had a higher BMI (31 ± 6 kg/m2 vs 29 ± 6 kg/m2 ; P = 0.001), similar Japanese chronic total occlusion scores (2.6 ± 1.2 vs 2.5 ± 1.2; P = 0.82) and similar final successful crossing technique: antegrade wire escalation (46 vs 47%; P = 0.66), retrograde (30 vs 28%; P = 0.66) and antegrade dissection re-entry (24 vs 25%; P = 0.66). Technical (91 vs 90%; P = 0.80) and procedural (89 vs 89%; P = 0.93) success was similar in the two groups, as was the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (2.2 vs 2.5%; P = 0.61). CONCLUSIONS: In a contemporary cohort of people undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion, nearly one in two (45%) had diabetes mellitus. Procedural success and complication rates were similar in people with and without diabetes.

Efficacy of esomeprazole in controlling reflux symptoms, intraesophageal, and intragastric pH in patients with Barrett's esophagus.

Barrett's esophagus is a metaplastic condition associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease and an increased risk for adenocarcinoma. Acid plays a significant role in the development and progression of Barrett's esophagus and high dose proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy is often needed. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of esomeprazole, a new potent PPI, on symptom relief and intraesophageal and intragastric acid suppression in patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE). Patients were evaluated by standardized questionnaires and dual sensor 24-h pH monitoring while receiving esomeprazole at a dose (40-80 mg/day) needed for control of symptoms. Analyses of intraesophageal and intragastric pH profiles were then made. Thirteen patients, mostly men, were studied. All tolerated esomeprazole (40-80 mg/day) with good symptom control. Sixty-two percent of patients with BE had abnormal intraesophageal pH profiles despite adequate symptom control on esomeprazole which was associated with significant breakthrough of intraesophageal acid control, particularly at night. Low nocturnal intragastric pH correlated highly with nocturnal intraesophageal acid reflux (P = 0.004) and there was a relative failure of nocturnal intragastric acid control with esomeprazole. A high percentage of patients with BE continue to exhibit pathologic GERD and low intragastric pH despite esomeprazole for reflux symptom control. For an antisecretory treatment aimed at chemoprevention of esophageal adenocarcinoma to be effective, higher PPI dosing confirmed by pH monitoring may be necessary.

Simultaneous infection with two strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis identified by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.

Simultaneous infection with two different strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been demonstrated using phage typing. We report here the first case of mixed infection identified using IS6110-based genotyping of M. tuberculosis. The patient was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in February, 1991. The initial isolate of M. tuberculosis had two different genotype patterns (dark 7-band and light 14-band patterns). However, in a repeat isolate obtained several months later, only the 14-band pattern was visible. Exogenous reinfection and laboratory cross-contamination were unlikely because both genotype patterns were unique in the San Francisco database which includes over 1300 isolates of M. tuberculosis. This case demonstrates the importance of identifying mixed infections in the study of the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis. Mixed infections could be confused with exogenous reinfection or laboratory cross-contamination, and important epidemiologic connections could be missed.

Stability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA genotypes.

To assess genotype stability in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, DNA genotypes were compared in sequential isolates from 49 patients who had sputum cultures separated by at least 90 days that grew M. tuberculosis. By use of IS6110 and the polymorphic GC-rich sequence (PGRS) as markers, it was found that paired isolates from 14 (29%) of 49 patients showed changes in their DNA genotypes between isolates (12 in IS6110 genotypes and 2 in PGRS genotypes). Changed IS6110 genotypes were confined to strains with 8-14 bands and were not related to the bacterial drug susceptibility, the patients' human immunodeficiency virus serostatus, or adherence to therapy. Although this rate of change complicates the interpretation of molecular epidemiologic studies, it can be exploited to gain additional insight into disease transmission. Furthermore, IS6110-related mutations may be a major source of genetic plasticity in M. tuberculosis and provide insights into the organism's evolution and virulence.

Collisionally induced fragmentation of protonated oligoalanines and oligoglycines.

In a hybrid instrument under minimal multiple-collision conditions, the collision-induced fragmentation of the [M + H]+ ions of tetraalanine and tetraglycine are dominated by the gamma 2 fragment, in distinction to the fragmentation of the [M + H]+ ions of hexa- and octaalanine and -glycine; these latter fragmentations are instead a distribution of b and y ions, and to a lesser extent a ions. This difference may be rationalized on the basis of control of the fragmentation by the most basic site in the peptide, which may be identified by taking internal hydrogen bonding into account. On increasing the collision energy from 10 to 150 eV, a, b and y ions of lower mass appear; and in several cases a peak due to a smaller b ion becomes the base peak. The ion distribution in the spectra of these protonated peptides serves as a baseline from which the effects of conformation on side-group rearrangements and other fragmentations may be explored.