Background and Purpose— Several stroke prognostic scores have been developed to predict clinical outcomes after stroke. This study aimed to develop and validate novel data-driven predictive models for clinical outcomes by referring to previous prognostic scores in patients with acute ischemic stroke in a real-world setting. Methods— We used retrospective data of 4237 patients with acute ischemic stroke who were hospitalized in a single stroke center in Japan between January 2012 and August 2017. We first validated point-based stroke prognostic scores (preadmission comorbidities, level of consciousness, age, and neurological deficit [PLAN] score, ischemic stroke predictive risk score [IScore], and acute stroke registry and analysis of Lausanne [ASTRAL] score in all patients; Houston intraarterial recanalization therapy [HIAT] score, totaled health risks in vascular events [THRIVE] score, and stroke prognostication using age and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale-100 [SPAN-100] in patients who received reperfusion therapy) in our cohort. We then developed predictive models using all available data by linear regression or decision tree ensembles (random forest and gradient boosting decision tree) and evaluated their area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for clinical outcomes after repeated random splits. Results— The mean (SD) age of the patients was 74.7 (12.9) years and 58.3% were men. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (95% CIs) of prognostic scores in our cohort were 0.92 PLAN score (0.90–0.93), 0.86 for IScore (0.85–0.87), 0.85 for ASTRAL score (0.83–0.86), 0.69 for HIAT score (0.62–0.75), 0.70 for THRIVE score (0.64–0.76), and 0.70 for SPAN-100 (0.63–0.76) for poor functional outcomes, and 0.87 for PLAN score (0.85–0.90), 0.88 for IScore (0.86–0.91), and 0.88 ASTRAL score (0.85–0.91) for in-hospital mortality. Internal validation of data-driven prediction models showed that their area under the receiver operating characteristic curves ranged between 0.88 and 0.94 for poor functional outcomes and between 0.84 and 0.88 for in-hospital mortality. Ensemble models of a decision tree tended to outperform linear regression models in predicting poor functional outcomes but not in predicting in-hospital mortality. Conclusions— Stroke prognostic scores perform well in predicting clinical outcomes after stroke. Data-driven models may be an alternative tool for predicting poststroke clinical outcomes in a real-world setting.

To investigate the role of renal prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) in renovascular hypertension, urinary PGE₂ was measured in rabbits with hypertension produced by left renal artery constriction. In the acute phase of renovascular hypetension (1 week after the constriction), urinary excretions of PGE₂ and sodium were significantly increased without correlations with changes in the systemic blood pressure (ΔBP). In this phase, ΔBP was directly proportional to plasma renin activity and plasma aldosterone concentration (p < 0.001). In the intermediate phase (5 weeks), ΔBP lost significant correlations with plasma renin activity and plasma aldosterone concentration and had a inverse correlation with urinary sodium excretion (p < 0.01). In the maintenance phase (10 weeks), ΔBP showed inverse correlations (p < 0.01) with both PGE₂ and sodium excretions, although their excretions decreased to normal levels. In the clipped kidney, only urinary PGE₂ excretion in the acute phase was significantly elevated (p < 0.02), and both sodium and PGE₂ excretions were significantly decreased (p < 0.01) in the maintenance phase. In the nonclipped kidney, urinary PGE₂ and sodium excretions were elevated in the acute and intermediate phases, but decreased to the control levels in the maintenance phase. In this phase, ΔBP showed inverse correlation (p < 0.01) with both PGE₂ and sodium excretions from the nonclipped kidney. The infusion of saralasin, an angiotensin II analogue, dose dependently reduced the blood pressure in the acute phase, but showed no effect in the intermediate and maintenance phases. The present data suggest that the renin-angiotensin system chiefly contributes to the development of hypertension in the acute phase. However, elevated renal PGE₂ may also partially act as a defensive factor by promoting urinary sodium excretion. In the maintenance phase, the reduced level of urinary sodium excretion in the nonclipped kidney, which has significant correlation with the reduced level of PGE₂, may play an important role to maintain hypertension instead of the renin-angiotensin system.

The cost-effectiveness according to primary disease or dialysis duration has never been analyzed with respect to maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Study candidates were > 20 years of age and had received hemodialysis for at least 6 months. Hemodialysis patients were prospectively observed for 36 months, and patient utility was assessed based on the Euro-QOL 5-dimensions (EQ-5D), from which the quality adjusted life years (QALYs) were estimated. Medical costs were calculated based on medical service fees. The cost-effectiveness defined as the incremental cost utility ratio (ICUR) was analyzed from a social perspective. A total of 29 patients (mean age; 59.9 ± 13.1 years) undergoing 437 dialysis sessions were analyzed. Utility based upon the EQ-5D score was 0.75 ± 0.21, and the estimated total medical cost for one year of MHD treatment was 4.52 ± 0.88 US$10 000. ICUR was 6.88 ± 4.47 US$10 000/QALY on average, and when comparing ICUR based on the causes of kidney failure, the value for diabetic nephropathy was found to be higher than that for glomerulonephritis (8.17 ± 6.28 vs. 6.82 ± 4.07). ICUR after 36 months observation increased mainly in the patients below 65 years of age (All; P < 0.05, <65; P < 0.01, 65≤; not significant). MHD is a treatment that could improve the socioeconomic state of elderly patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), but the ICUR for diabetic nephropathy was higher than that for glomerulonephritis.

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There was great variety in the perioperative management of radical prostatectomy among hospitals. We need to obtain consensus on 1) the timing of drain removal, 2) duration of antibiotics, and 3) the timing of catheter removal, in order to uniformly provide medical care of good quality in Japan.