1,720,984 research outputs found
Trends in the likelihood of receiving percutaneous coronary intervention in a low-volume hospital and disparities by sociodemographic communities
INTRODUCTION: Over the past two decades, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) capacity has increased while coronary artery disease has decreased, potentially lowering per-hospital PCI volumes, which is associated with less favorable patient outcomes. Trends in the likelihood of receiving PCI in a low-volume center have not been well-documented, and it is unknown whether certain socioeconomic factors are associated with a greater risk of PCI in a low-volume facility. Our study aims to determine the likelihood of being treated in a low-volume PCI center over time and if this likelihood differs by sociodemographic factors. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 374,066 hospitalized patients in California receiving PCI from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2018. Our primary outcome was the likelihood of PCI discharges at a low-volume hospital (<150 PCI/year), and secondary outcomes included whether this likelihood varied across different sociodemographic groups and across low-volume hospitals stratified by high or low ZIP code median income. RESULTS: The proportion of PCI discharges from low-volume hospitals increased from 5.4% to 11.0% over the study period. Patients of all sociodemographic groups considered were more likely to visit low-volume hospitals over time (P<0.001). Latinx patients were more likely to receive PCI at a low-volume hospital compared with non-Latinx White in 2010 with a 166% higher gap in 2018 (unadjusted proportions). The gaps in relative risk (RR) between Black, Latinx and Asian patients versus non-Latinx white increased over time, whereas the gap between private versus public/no insurance, and high versus low income decreased (interaction P<0.001). In low-income ZIP codes, patients with Medicaid were less likely to visit low-volume hospitals than patients with private insurance in 2010; however, this gap reversed and increased by 500% in 2018. Patients with low income were more likely to receive PCI at low-volume hospitals relative to patients with high income in all study years. CONCLUSIONS: The likelihood of receiving PCI at low-volume hospitals has increased across all race/ethnicity, insurance, and income groups over time; however, this increase has not occurred evenly across all sociodemographic groups
Patiromer for the management of hyperkalaemia in patients receiving renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitors for heart failure: design and rationale of the DIAMOND trial
Patiromer for the management of hyperkalemia in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: the DIAMOND trial
Abstract
Aims
To investigate the impact of patiromer on the serum potassium level and its ability to enable specified target doses of renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitor (RAASi) use in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
Methods and results
A total of 1642 patients with HFrEF and current or a history of RAASi-related hyperkalemia were screened and 1195 were enrolled in the run-in phase with patiromer and optimization of the RAASi therapy [≥50% recommended dose of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker/angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor, and 50 mg of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) spironolactone or eplerenone]. Specified target doses of the RAASi therapy were achieved in 878 (84.6%) patients; 439 were randomized to patiromer and 439 to placebo. All patients, physicians, and outcome assessors were blinded to treatment assignment. The primary endpoint was between-group difference in the adjusted mean change in serum potassium. Five hierarchical secondary endpoints were assessed. At the end of treatment, the median (interquartile range) duration of follow-up was 27 (13–43) weeks, the adjusted mean change in potassium was +0.03 mmol/l in the patiromer group and +0.13 mmol/l in the placebo group [difference in the adjusted mean change between patiromer and placebo: −0.10 mmol/l (95% confidence interval, CI −0.13, 0.07); P < 0.001]. Risk of hyperkalemia >5.5 mmol/l [hazard ratio (HR) 0.63; 95% CI 0.45, 0.87; P = 0.006), reduction of MRA dose (HR 0.62; 95% CI 0.45, 0.87; P = 0.006), and total adjusted hyperkalemia events/100 person-years (77.7 vs. 118.2; HR 0.66; 95% CI 0.53, 0.81; P < 0.001) were lower with patiromer. Hyperkalemia-related morbidity-adjusted events (win ratio 1.53, P < 0.001) and total RAASi use score (win ratio 1.25, P = 0.048) favored the patiromer arm. Adverse events were similar between groups.
Conclusion
Concurrent use of patiromer and high-dose MRAs reduces the risk of recurrent hyperkalemia (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03888066)
Functional outcomes with Carillon device over 1 year in patients with functional mitral regurgitation of Grades 2+ to 4+: results from the REDUCE‐FMR trial
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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