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Background Quality of life (QoL) is a multifactorial concept that assesses physical and mental health. We prospectively studied the quality of life of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery using the Short-Form 36-item questionnaire (SF-36) up to 10 years after surgery. Methods Between January 2000 and December 2002, all patients undergoing elective isolated CABG in the cardiac & thoracic surgery department of a large university hospital in Eastern France underwent initial QoL evaluation with the SF-36. The same questionnaire was mailed to every patient annually (± 2 weeks around the date of surgery) up to 10 years after their operation. We recorded socio-demographic and clinical variables at inclusion. Predictors of impaired QoL at 10 years were identified by logistic regression. Results A total of 272 patients (213 men, 59 women) were enrolled; mean age at inclusion was 65 ± 10 years. At 10 years post-surgery, 81 patients had died (29.7%). The physical component summary (PCS) score was significantly higher at 5 years after surgery than at baseline ( p  < 0.01), and significantly lower at 10 years than at 5 years (p < 0.01), although there remained a significant difference between 10-year PCS and baseline score ( p  = 0.004). The mental component summary (MCS) score was significantly higher at 5 years than at the time of surgery ( p  < 0.001), and remained significantly higher compared to baseline at 10 years after surgery ( p  = 0.010). By multivariate analysis, diabetes and dypsnea were both associated with worse PCS at 10 years, while lower age was associated with better 10-year PCS. Only diabetes was associated with impaired MCS at 10 years. Conclusions Cardiac surgery appears to durably and positively affect both physical and mental components of quality of life.

Background Early postoperative glycemic variability is associated with worse outcome after cardiac surgery, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. This study aimed to describe the relationship between postoperative glycemic variability and endothelial function, as assessed by serum endocan level in cardiac surgery patients. Methods We performed a post hoc analysis of patients included in the single-center observational ENDOLUNG study. Adult patients who underwent planned isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery were eligible. Postoperative glycemic variability was assessed by calculating the coefficient of variability (CV) of blood glucose measured within 24 (CV 24 ) and 48 (CV 48 ) hours after surgery. Serum endocan level was measured at 24 (Endocan 24 ) and 48 (Endocan 48 ) hours after surgery. Pearson’s correlation coefficient with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was calculated between CV 24 and Endocan 24 , and between CV 48 and Endocan 48 . Results Data from 177 patients were analyzed. Median CV 24 and CV 48 were 18% (range 7 to 39%) and 20% (range 7 to 35%) respectively. Neither CV 48 nor CV 24 were significantly correlated to Endocan 48 and Endocan 24 respectively (r (95% CI) = 0.150 (0.001 to 0.290; and r (95% CI) = 0.080 (-0.070 to 0.220), respectively). Conclusions Early postoperative glycemic variability within 48 h after planned cardiac surgery does not appear to be correlated with postoperative serum endocan level. Clinical trial registration number NCT02542423.

Symptomatic neurological complications (NC) are a major cause of mortality in infective endocarditis (IE) but the impact of asymptomatic complications is unknown. We aimed to assess the impact of asymptomatic NC (AsNC) on the management and prognosis of IE. From the database of cases collected for a population-based study on IE, we selected 283 patients with definite left-sided IE who had undergone at least one neuroimaging procedure (cerebral CT scan and/or MRI) performed as part of initial evaluation. Among those 283 patients, 100 had symptomatic neurological complications (SNC) prior to the investigation, 35 had an asymptomatic neurological complications (AsNC), and 148 had a normal cerebral imaging (NoNC). The rate of valve surgery was 43% in the 100 patients with SNC, 77% in the 35 with AsNC, and 54% in the 148 with NoNC (p<0.001). In-hospital mortality was 42% in patients with SNC, 8.6% in patients with AsNC, and 16.9% in patients with NoNC (p<0.001). Among the 135 patients with NC, 95 had an indication for valve surgery (71%), which was performed in 70 of them (mortality 20%) and not performed in 25 (mortality 68%). In a multivariate adjusted analysis of the 135 patients with NC, age, renal failure, septic shock, and IE caused by S. aureus were independently associated with in-hospital and 1-year mortality. In addition SNC was an independent predictor of 1-year mortality. The presence of NC was associated with a poorer prognosis when symptomatic. Patients with AsNC had the highest rate of valve surgery and the lowest mortality rate, which suggests a protective role of surgery guided by systematic neuroimaging results.

Background Glycemic variability is associated with worse outcomes after cardiac surgery, but the prognosis value of early glycemic variability after transcatheter aortic valve implantation is not known. This study was therefore designed to analyze the prognosis significance of post-procedural glycemic variability within 30 days after transcatheter aortic valve implantation. Methods A post hoc analysis of patients from our center included in the FRANCE and FRANCE-2 registries was conducted. Post-procedural glycemic variability was assessed by calculating the mean daily δ blood glucose during the first 2 days after transcatheter aortic valve implantation. Major complications within 30 days were death, stroke, myocardial infarction, acute heart failure, and life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. Results We analyzed 160 patients (age (median [interquartile] = 84 [80–88] years; diabetes mellitus (n) = 41 (26%) patients; logistic Euroscore = 20 [12–32]). The median value of mean daily δ blood glucose was 4.3 mmol l −1 . The rate of major complications within 30 days after procedure among patients with the lowest quartile of glycemic variability was 12%, increasing from 12 to 26%, and 39% in the second, third, and fourth quartiles, respectively. In multivariate analysis, glycemic variability was independently associated with an increased risk of major complications within 30 days after the procedure (odds ratio [95% CI] = 1.83 [1.19–2.83]; p = 0.006). Conclusions This study showed that post-procedural glycemic variability was associated with an increased risk of major complications within 30 days after transcatheter aortic valve implantation. Trial registration Clinical trial registration number https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ ; identifier: NCT02726958; date: April 4th, 2016

Background The aim of the study was to investigate whether intravenous (iv) infusion of exenatide, a synthetic GLP-1 receptor agonist, could provide a protective effect against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Methods A sub study analysis of patients > 18 years admitted for elective CABG and included in the ExSTRESS trial was conducted. Patients were randomized to receive either iv exenatide (1-h bolus of 0.05 µg min −1 followed by a constant infusion of 0.025 µg min −1 ) (exenatide group) or iv insulin therapy (control group) for blood glucose control (target range 100–139 mg dl −1 ) during the first 48 h after surgical incision. All serum levels of troponin I measured during routine care in the Cardiac Surgery ICU were recorded. The primary outcome was the highest value of plasma concentration of troponin I measured between 12 and 24 h after ICU admission. The proportion of patients presenting an echocardiographic left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) > 50% at the follow-up consultation was compared between the two groups. Results Finally, 43 and 49 patients were analyzed in the control and exenatide groups, respectively {age: 69 [61–76] versus 71 [63–75] years; baseline LVEF < 50%: 6 (14%) versus 16 (32%) patients; on-pump surgery: 29 (67%) versus 33 (67%) patients}. The primary outcome did not significantly differ between the two groups (3.34 [1.06–6.19] µg l −1 versus 2.64 [1.29–3.85] µg l −1 in the control and exenatide groups, respectively; mean difference (MD) [95% confidence interval (95% CI)] 0.16 [− 0.25; 0.57], p = 0.54). The highest troponin value measured during the first 72 h in the ICU was 6.34 [1.36–10.90] versus 5.04 [2.39–7.18] µg l −1 , in the control and exenatide groups respectively (MD [95% CI] 0.20 [− 0.22; 0.61], p = 0.39). At the follow-up consultation, 5 (12%) versus 8 (16%) patients presented a LVEF < 50% in the control and in the exenatide groups respectively (relative risk [95% CI] 0.68 [0.16; 2.59], p = 0.56). Conclusions Postoperative iv exenatide did not provide any additional cardioprotective effect compared to iv insulin in low-risk patients undergoing scheduled CABG surgery. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01969149, date of registration: January 7th, 2015; EudraCT No. 2009-009254-25 A, date of registration: January 6th, 2009

Background Clinical evidence in coronary surgery is usually derived from retrospective, single institutional series. This may introduce significant biases in the analysis of critical issues in the treatment of these patients. In order to avoid such methodological limitations, we planned a European multicenter, prospective study on coronary artery bypass grafting, the E-CABG registry. Design The E-CABG registry is a multicenter study and its data are prospectively collected from 13 centers of cardiac surgery in university and community hospitals located in six European countries (England, Italy, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden). Data on major and minor immediate postoperative adverse events will be collected. Data on late all-cause mortality, stroke, myocardial infarction and repeat revascularization will be collected during a 10-year follow-up period. These investigators provided a score from 0 to 10 for any major postoperative adverse events and their rounded medians were used to stratify the severity of these complications in four grades. The sum of these scores for each complication/intervention occurring after coronary artery bypass grafting will be used as an additive score for further stratification of the prognostic importance of these events. Discussion The E-CABG registry is expected to provide valuable data for identification of risk factors and treatment strategies associated with suboptimal outcome. These information may improve the safety and durability of coronary artery bypass grafting. The proposed classification of postoperative complications may become a valuable research tool to stratify the impact of such complications on the outcome of these patients and evaluate the burden of resources needed for their treatment. Clinical Trials number NCT02319083

The present work aims at presenting consistent data both from laboratory characterization and from blast tests to see how a computer model performs when only data from mechanical tests are being fed to the constitutive model. A sand (Ottawa 20-30) that meets ASTM C778 requirements, i.e., well characterized microscopically, was tested in triaxial compression under confinement pressures ranging from 50 to 300 MPa and moisture contents of 0 to 15% as well as high strain-rates. These tests provided both the experimental equation of state (pressure vs. volume) and compaction curves as well as the strength vs. pressure properties to build a constitutive model both in LS-DYNA and CTH. Blast tests were subsequently performed by burying explosive at three different depths inside a sand pot with a rigid steel plate on top. During flight, the height of the steel plate was tracked with Phantom high-speed cameras to determine the impulse transmitted to the plate as well as the maximum jump height. Simulations were performed with both an Eulerian code (CTH) and a Lagrangian/ALE code (LS-DYNA) using the constitutive model determined during the material characterization. The predictions of both codes are as close as 7% and as far as 22%, depending on the test configuration.

The purposes of the present study were to determine the impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on Valve Academic Research Consortium–defined outcomes in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). A total of 3,933 consecutive patients underwent TAVI from January 2010 to December 2011 in 34 centers and were included in the French national TAVI registry “FRANCE 2”; 895 (22.7%) had concomitant COPD, 3,038 (77.3%) did not. There were no significant differences in procedural characteristics or 30-day Valve Academic Research Consortium–defined outcomes between those with and without COPD. Multivariate regression analysis showed COPD to be an independent predictor of 1-year mortality and combined efficacy end point after adjustment for concomitant co-morbidities (hazard ratio 1.19, 95% confidence interval 1.005 to 1.41, p = 0.03 and hazard ratio 1.52, 95% confidence interval 1.29 to 1.79, p <0.001, respectively). The higher mortality rate at 1 year in patients with COPD was related to cardiovascular deaths (COPD 10.0% vs non-COPD 6.2%, p = 0.008). Subgroup analysis found that the effect of COPD on 1-year mortality rate was constant across different subgroups, especially the type of approach and the type of anesthesia subgroups. In conclusion, concomitant COPD in patients referred for TAVI characterizes a high-risk population. The excess in mortality is largely determined by a higher rate of cardiovascular deaths and exists regardless of the type of procedure performed and its results.

Two-dimensional (unidirectional) and 3-D woven carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) panels were produced by Albany Engineered Composites. Coupons were machined from the laminates for various mechanical tests in tension, torsion, and delamination. A batch of neat resin was also produced and the mechanical properties of the resin were determined. Some of the mechanical tests were performed at medium and high strain rates. The panels were tested under ballistic impact while recording the back face deflection with a stereo pair of high-speed cameras to perform digital image correlation. Additionally, an ultra-high-speed camera provided a better resolution of the initial (50 ms) pyramid that forms after impact. The mechanical tests were used to determine the material properties of the constituents as well as the strength of the interface between matrix and fibers. The properties were incorporated in material models in LS-DYNA to perform simulations of the mechanical tests as well as the ballistic experiments. The ballistic limits, residual velocities, and deflection histories served as a validation of the model and were predicted with good accuracy for two thicknesses of the two-dimensional composite and one of the 3-D composite.

Ballistic impact on composites has been a challenging problem as seen in the abundant literature about the subject. Continuum models usually cannot properly predict deflection history on the back of the target while at the same time giving reasonable ballistic limits. According to the authors the main reason is that, while continuum models are very good at reproducing the elastic characteristics of the laminate, the models do not capture the behaviour of the “failed” material. A “failed” composite can still be very effective in stopping a projectile, because it can behave very similar to a dry woven fabric. The failure aspect is much easier to capture realistically with a mesoscale model. These models explicitly contain yarns and matrix allowing the matrix to fail while the yarns stay intact and continue to offer resistance to the projectile. This paper summarizes the work performed by the authors on the computationally expensive mesoscale models and, using them as benchmark computations, describes the first steps towards obtaining more computationally effective models that still keep the right physics of the impact.