Objective To investigate the correlation between plasma aminoterminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) level and severity of coronary artery lesions in patients with non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). Methods NSTEMI patients presenting to the Emergency Department and Department of Cardiology from January 2013 to March 2017 were divided into four groups: thrombosis without stenosis, single vessel disease, double vessel diseases, and three vessel diseases. The general situation of the patients, the plasma NT-proBNP, troponin T, echocardiogram and coronary angiography results were analyzed. Results A total of 88 patients were included including 6 in thrombosis without stenosis group, 20 in single vessel disease group, 31 in double vessel diseases group, and 31 in three vessel diseases group. The NT-proBNP level, left ventricular ejection fraction, left ventricular end diastolic diameter, and coronary Gensini score in three vessel diseases group differed much from those in the other groups (P<0.05). The correlation of NT-proBNP with coronary Gensini score in all the patients was positve (t=0.663, P<0.05). Conclusion The level of plasma NT-proBNP in patients with NSTEMI is related to the severity of coronary artery disease.
The Medical Administration and Hospital Administration of the National Health Commission released the "2021 China Chest Pain Center Quality Control Report" in January 2022. This report analyzes the construction ratio of chest pain centers in the second-level and above medical institutions nationwide in 2021 and the construction of standard and basic chest pain centers, mainly from the way of coming to the hospital, symptom onset to first medical contact time, door to wire time, reperfusion therapy ratio, in-hospital mortality, proportion of discharges with medication recommended by the guidelines and average length and cost of hospital stay of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients to comprehensively describe the current status of the construction of the national chest pain centers. This article interprets the report in detail by reviewing relevant literature.
The national policy on high-quality development of hospitals proposes to strengthen information technology support and actively promote the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) model. How to use the “Internet Plus” technology and operation mode to promote MDT communication and improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment in the digital and intelligent information age is a direction worthy of attention and research. This paper systematically reviews the current development status of MDT informatization construction at home and abroad. Based on the current challenges and opportunities, it makes prospects for the future development of MDT informatization construction from the aspects of strengthening the digital and intelligent support of MDT operation, connecting MDT “information silos”, and deepening the construction of MDT supervision and effect evaluation system, etc.
ObjectiveTo investigate the effectiveness of establishment of chest pain center and optimized process in the diagnostic and treatment progress and short-term prognostic value of acute non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) patients. MethodsThis was a retrospective study. We included NSTEMI patients admitted in the Emergency Department in our hospital, 41 patients admitted before the establishment of the chest pain center (April 2015) were included as group A (30 males and 11 females at age of 64.7±11.8 years), 42 patients after the establishment of the chest pain center (April 2016) as group B (31 males and 11 females at age of 64.6±11.8 years), and 38 patients after the establishment of the chest pain center (April 2017) as group C (30 males and 8 females at age of 62.6±10.0 years). The clinical outcomes of the three groups were compared.ResultsThe time from admission to electrocardiogram was 20.0 (17.0, 25.5) min in the group A, 4.0 (2.8, 5.0) min in the group B, and 3.0 (2.0, 4.0) min in the group C (P<0.001). The first doctor's non-electrocardiogram advice time was 13.0 (10.0, 18.0) min, 9.5 (6.8, 15.3) min, and 9.0 (7.0, 12.0) min (P=0.001) in the three groups, respectively. The diagnostic confirmed time was 139.4±48.5 min, 71.1±51.5 min, 63.9±41.9 min (P<0.001). The proportion of patients receiving emergency dual anti-platelet load dose treatment was 53.1%, 70.0%, 100.0% (P=0.001), respectively. The time of receiving emergency dual anti-platelet load dose treatment was 208.0 (72.0, 529.0) min, 259.0 (91.0, 340.0) min, and 125.0 (86.0, 170.0) min (P=0.044) in the three groups, respectively. Emergency percutaneous coronary artery intervention (PCI) start time was 60.9 (42.1, 95.8) hours, 61.3 (43.3, 92.2) hours, 30.5 (2.8, 44.1) hours (P<0.001) in the three groups, respectively. Among them, the moderate risk patients’ PCI starting time was 63.0 (48.1, 94.2) hours, 62.3 (42.1, 116.2) hours, and 40.1 (17.2, 60.4) hours (P>0.05), respectively. The high risk patients’ PCI starting time was 47.9 (23.7, 102.4) hours, 55.2 (44.0, 89.6) hours, 23.2 (1.7, 41.8) hours in the three groups, respectively (P<0.001). The hospitalization time of the patients was 7.0 (5.4, 9.4) days, 5.9 (4.9, 8.7) days, 4.7 (3.1, 6.2) days in the three groups (P<0.001), respectively. The hospitalization time of the moderate risk patients was 6.9 (4.9, 8.8) days, 6.4 (4.9, 8.0) days, 4.8 (3.2, 6.5) days in the three groups (P>0.05), respectively. The hospitalization time of the high risk patients was 7.1 (5.5, 9.9) days, 5.9 (4.6, 9.8) days, and 4.4 (3.0, 6.1) days, respectively (P<0.001). The fatality rate of inpatients was 4.9%, 0.0%, and 0.0%, respectively (P>0.05). The correlation coefficient of hospitalization time, diagnosis confirmed time and PCI starting time was 0.219 and 0.456 (P<0.05), respectively.ConclusionThe establishment and optimized process of chest pain center can accelerate the time of early diagnosis of NSTEMI, which is helpful to obtain stratified and graded standardized treatment for patients according to their conditions, to accelerate the specific treatment process of high risk NSTEMI patients, and shorten the hospitalization time.
Epigenetics refers to heritable changes in gene expression independent of DNA nucleotide sequence itself, and the main mechanisms include DNA methylation, histone modifications, noncoding RNAs, and so on. Vascular disease is a chronic disease regulated by the interaction between environmental and genetic factors. In recent years, more and more studies have confirmed that epigenetic regulation plays an important role in the occurrence and development of vascular diseases. This article reviews recent advances in epigenetics in vascular disease.
Objective To verify the reliability and validity of a self-developed satisfaction evaluation questionnaire for outpatient department employees in public hospitals, and to provide suitable tools for conducting such surveys. Methods Two anonymous surveys were conducted on all employees of the Outpatient Department of West China Hospital of Sichuan University in July 2019 and November 2021, respectively. Questionnaire items were screened using methods such as item distribution, coefficient of variation, and decision value, and the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were evaluated using Spearman-Brown coefficient and Cronbach’s α coefficient, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. Results The final questionnaire retained 14 items, which could be divided into two dimensions: work conditions and interpersonal environment, and the overall fit index of structural equation model were as follows: χ2/ν=6.957, the standardized root mean square residual was 0.061, the root mean square error of approximation was 0.147, the goodness-of-fit index was 0.796, the adjusted goodness-of-fit index was 0.719, the normed fit index was 0.849, the relative fit index was 0.819, the incremental fit index was 0.868, the Tucker-Lewis Index was 0.841, and the comparative fit index was 0.867. The combined reliability of the two factors in the questionnaire was 0.94 and 0.91, respectively. The average variance extraction was 0.67 and 0.76, respectively, and the square root of the average variance extraction was 0.82 and 0.87, respectively, both of which were greater than the correlation coefficient of 0.71 between the two factors. The Spearman-Brown coefficient of the final questionnaire was 0.913, and the Cronbach’s α coefficients for the overall and two dimensions were 0.953, 0.937, and 0.910, respectively. Conclusion The reliability and validity of the satisfaction evaluation questionnaire for outpatient department employees in public hospitals are good and the questionnaire can be applied to practical surveys.
ObjectivesTo explore the predictive value of platelet count at admission for long-term prognosis in patients with type B acute aortic dissection (AAD) undergoing endovascular therapy (EVT). MethodsWe investigated 131 consecutive patients with type B AAD after EVT in West China Hospital of Sichuan University from January to December 2012. The patients’ basic clinical data, blood test results, major adverse cardiovascular events, and in-hospital and out-hospital survival status were collected. According to the tri-sectional quantiles of platelet counts, the patients were divided into three groups. Chi-square test was used to analyze the correlation between platelet count and hospital complications. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were used to analyze the relationship between platelet count and survival in patients with type B AAD. The primary endpoint was all-cause death. ResultsThe overall in-hospital mortality of the 131 patients was 9.9%, and the mortality was 16.0% by the end of the follow-up, the median length of which was 2.1 years. There were 44 cases in T1 group (platelet count >200×10 9/L), 44 cases in T2 group [platelet count (155–200)×109/L], and 43 cases in T3 group [platelet count ≤155×109/L]. The mortality in T3 group (30.2%) was higher than that in T1 group (4.5%) and T2 group (13.6%) (P=0.004). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the cumulative survival rate of T3 group was significantly lower than that of T1 group and T2 group (69.8% vs. 95.5%, χ2=10.165, P=0.001; 69.8% vs. 86.4%, χ2=5.174, P=0.037). Cox multivariate analysis showed that age [hazard ratio (HR)=1.043, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.009, 1.079), P=0.013], heart rate [HR=1.030, 95%CI (1.004, 1.058), P=0.024], and platelet count [HR=6.011, 95%CI (1.319, 27.391), P=0.020] were independent risk factors for mortality. Older age, rapid heart rate, and lower platelet count would increase the risk of death. ConclusionPlatelet count may be an independent factor that affects the prognosis of patients with type B AAD after EVT, and a low platelet count at admission increases the risk of death.
ObjectiveTo explore the predictive value of a simple prediction model for patients with acute myocardial infarction.MethodsClinical data of 280 patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in the Department of Emergence Medicine, West China Hospital of Sichuan University from January 2019 to January 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into a death group (n=34) and a survival group (n=246).ResultsAge, heart rate, body mass index (BMI), global registry of acute coronary events (GRACE), thrombolysis in myocardial infarction trial (TIMI) score, blood urea nitrogen, serum cystatin C and D-dimer in the survival group were less or lower than those in the death group (P<0.05). Left ventricle ejection fraction and the level of albumin, triglyceride, total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol were higher and the incidence of Killip class≥Ⅲ was lower in the survival group compared to the death group (P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, BMI, heart rate, diastolic blood pressure, and systolic blood pressure were independent risk factors for all-cause death in STEMI patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the area under the curve of simple prediction model for predicting death was 0.802, and similar to that of GRACE (0.816). The H-L test showed that the simple model had high accuracy in predicting death (χ2=3.77, P=0.877). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the simple prediction model was significantly correlated with the GRACE (r=0.651, P<0.001) and coronary artery stenosis score (r=0.210, P=0.001).ConclusionThe simple prediction model may be used to predict the hospitalization and long-term outcomes of STEMI patients, which is helpful to stratify high risk patients and to guide treatment.
Rare diseases have problems with low number of cases, low social awareness, and long time of diagnosis. “Targeted doctor” is the first step to help rare disease patients start the correct path of diagnosis and treatment. This article introduces the design of a decision-making engine for patients with rare diseases by constructing a knowledge graph of rare diseases and experts, using an intelligent question-and-answer system, and combining big data and artificial intelligence methods. This engine can perform rare disease pre-screening based on patient portraits and other information, and recommend the best visiting route to patients, thereby improving the efficiency of rare disease patients’ medical service system and enhancing the decision-making ability of rare diseases.
In 2021, West China Hospital of Sichuan University established a rare disease diagnosis and treatment and research center. The center adopts the rare disease management model of “one cohesion + four integration”, condenses the core of management, integrates clinical resources, regional alliance resources, training resources and research resources, and explores solutions for all-round services for patients with rare diseases. This article aims to explore the rare disease management model of regional central hospitals and introduces the above-mentioned rare disease management model. The purpose of this article is to promote this model, focus on the advantages of clinical departments and research institutes (offices), increase regional integration, give play to the synergy of regional alliances in clinical diagnosis and treatment and personnel training, and use international cooperation as an opportunity to promote breakthroughs in new drugs and technologies for rare diseases to benefit patients with rare diseases in China.