Background The prevalence of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has been increasing rapidly worldwide. However, guidelines or clinical studies do not provide sufficient data on ECPR practice. The aim of this study was to provide real-world data on ECPR for patients with OHCA, including details of complications. Methods We did a retrospective database analysis of observational multicenter cohort study in Japan. Adult patients with OHCA of presumed cardiac etiology who received ECPR between 2013 and 2018 were included. The primary outcome was favorable neurological outcome at hospital discharge, defined as a cerebral performance category of 1 or 2. Results A total of 1644 patients with OHCA were included in this study. The patient age was 18–93 years (median: 60 years). Shockable rhythm in the initial cardiac rhythm at the scene was 69.4%. The median estimated low flow time was 55 min (interquartile range: 45–66 min). Favorable neurological outcome at hospital discharge was observed in 14.1% of patients, and the rate of survival to hospital discharge was 27.2%. The proportions of favorable neurological outcome at hospital discharge in terms of shockable rhythm, pulseless electrical activity, and asystole were 16.7%, 9.2%, and 3.9%, respectively. Complications were observed during ECPR in 32.7% of patients, and the most common complication was bleeding, with the rates of cannulation site bleeding and other types of hemorrhage at 16.4% and 8.5%, respectively. Conclusions In this large cohort, data on the ECPR of 1644 patients with OHCA show that the proportion of favorable neurological outcomes at hospital discharge was 14.1%, survival rate at hospital discharge was 27.2%, and complications were observed during ECPR in 32.7%.

Older age, akinetic-rigid motor subtype, and preexisting hypertension are independent risk factors for supine hypertension. Supine hypertension alone may be associated with milder peripheral sympathetic nervous denervation than orthostatic hypotension alone. As for global cognitive decline, supine hypertension is a far riskier comorbidity of early-stage PD than is orthostatic hypotension.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most frequent cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Although many molecular-targeted drugs for NSCLC have been developed in recent years, the 5-year survival rate of patients with NSCLC remains low. Therefore, an improved understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the biology of NSCLC is essential for developing novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of NSCLC. In this study, we examined the role of miR-130b in NSCLC. Our results showed that high expression of miR-130b in clinical specimens was significantly associated with poor overall survival in patients with NSCLC. Moreover, miR-130b expression was significantly increased in NSCLC clinical specimens from patients with vascular and lymphatic invasion. Consistent with this, overexpression of miR-130b promoted invasion and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) activity in A549 cells. Argonaute2 immunoprecipitation and gene array analysis identified tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP-2) as a target of miR-130b . Invasion activity promoted by miR-130b was attenuated by TIMP-2 overexpression in A549 cells. Furthermore, TIMP-2 concentrations in serum were inversely correlated with relative miR-130b expression in tumor tissues from the same patients with NSCLC. Overall, miR-130b was found to act as an oncomiR, promoting metastasis by downregulating TIMP-2 and invasion activities in NSCLC cells.

Objectives Minor hallucinations (MHs), including sense of presence, passage hallucinations, and visual illusions, have been reported in Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we investigated the prevalence and associated risk factors for MHs according to appearance time. Methods Data on the clinical characteristics and the appearance time of MHs for 100 PD patients were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed. MHs were classified into two groups according to the time when MHs appeared: MHs appearing while awake during the daytime (dMHs) and MHs appearing at arousal from sleep during the night or early morning (aMHs). Results Thirty‐eight patients (38%) experienced MHs. dMHs and aMHs were present in 21 (21%) and 28 patients (28%), respectively. Compared to patients without MHs, patients with dMHs had more severe motor symptoms, longer disease duration, higher levodopa equivalent daily dose (LEDD), and higher rates of cognitive impairment and visual hallucinations during the daytime, whereas patients with aMHs had a higher rate of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD), longer disease duration, higher LEDD, and higher dopamine agonist dosage. Logistic regression analysis showed that cognitive impairment was significantly associated with dMHs (odds ratio (OR) 7.292, p = .001), and that RBD (OR 8.306, p < .001) and LEDD (OR 1.002, p = .049) were significantly associated with aMHs. Conclusions Patients with MHs have different clinical characteristics according to the time when MHs appear. These findings have important clinical and prognostic implications and suggest appropriate therapeutic options for psychotic symptoms.

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Sympathetic denervation has been observed not only in the myocardium but also in the thyroid of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We investigated whether sympathetic denervation as indicated by decreased cardiac (123)I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine uptake is associated with the levels of thyroid hormones and whether the levels of thyroid hormones affect clinical manifestations in patients with PD. The subjects were 75 patients with de novo PD and 20 age-matched healthy controls. We examined the levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone, free triiodothyronine, and free thyroxine, and evaluated the associations of these levels with cardiac (123)I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine uptake and motor symptoms. The results showed that the free triiodothyronine level was below the normal range in 29 patients (approximately 40 %) and was significantly lower in the patients with PD than in the controls. The decreased free triiodothyronine level was associated with akinetic-rigid motor subtype and washout ratio of cardiac (123)I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy. The free triiodothyronine level negatively correlated with disease severity. Thyroid-stimulating hormone level was within normal range. However, its level was lower in patients with tremor-dominant type or mixed type than in those with akinetic-rigid type. All correlations of these variables with the levels of thyroid hormones remained statistically significant on multiple regression analysis. Our results suggest that the thyroid hormone level, especially the free triiodothyronine level, is closely related to motor symptoms in patients with de novo PD. Further studies are needed to clarify whether the decreased hormone levels have functional roles in motor and non-motor symptoms.

Background: Pulmonary vein (PV) stump thrombus, a known source of cerebral infarction, develops almost exclusively after left upper lobectomy; however, the mechanism remains unclear. We therefore evaluated the hemodynamics in the left atrium with four-dimensional flow magnetic resonance imaging (4D-flow MRI), which enables the simultaneous depiction of blood flow at three locations and the evaluation of hemodynamics. Methods: 4D-flow MRI was basically performed 7 days after lobectomy for cancer arising in the right upper lobe (n=11), right lower lobe (n=8), left upper lobe (n=13), or left lower lobe (n=8). We evaluated dynamic blood movement from the ipsilateral remaining PV, the resected PV stump, and the contralateral PVs into the left atrium using 4D-flow MRI.Results: There were some characteristic blood flow patterns that seemed to either promote or prevent PV stump thrombus. Promotive flow patterns were significantly more frequent and preventive flow patterns were significantly less frequent in patients who had undergone left upper lobectomy than in those who had undergone other lobectomy. Accordingly, the degree of blood turbulence near the vein stump, as measured by the extent of change in the blood movement, was significantly higher in patients who had undergone left upper lobectomy than in patients who had undergone other lobectomy. Conclusions: Our study revealed that left upper lobectomy likely causes blood turbulence near the vein stump through complicated blood streams in the left atrium, which can play a part in the development of vein stump thrombus. Further study to identify patients at high risk of vein stump thrombus is warranted.