Objective To analyze the influence of COPD on the structure and function of left ventricular. Methods Sixty-nine COPD patients ( mean age: 69. 0 ±7. 8 yrs) and forty healthy controls ( mean age: 67. 8 ±7. 6 yrs) were enrolled in this study. Both groups underwent Doppler echocardiography.Heart rate ( HR) were recorded. Left ventricular end-diastolic volume ( LVEDV) , left ventricular enddiastolic diameter ( LVEDD) , interventricular septum( IVS) , stroke volume ( SV) , and cardiac output ( CO)were measured. The changes of left ventricular were compared between the COPD patients and the healthy controls, and also between the COPD patients with or without chronic cor pulmonale. Results Compared with the healthy controls, movement range of IVS, LVEDD, LVEDV, and SV reduced significantly ( P lt;0. 05) , and HR raised significantly in the COPD patients ( P lt; 0. 05) . CO had no significant difference between two groups ( P gt;0. 05) . Sub-group analysis indicated that the thickness and movement range of IVSwere greater in the patients with cor pulmonale secondary to COPD than those without cor pulmonale ( P lt;0. 05) . Conclusions In COPD patients, left ventricular chamber size decreases, and left ventricular systolic function is impaired. Left ventricular function is impaired more severe in cor pulmonale secondary to COPD than COPD without cor pulmonale.
A stroke unit means organized inpatient stroke care. The available evidence shows that stroke unit is the most effective treatmeat in stroke care. The definition, classification and the essential components of stroke unit have been explained in this article to help better understanding on it.
Objective To systematically review the rehabilitation effect of isokinetic muscle training on knee muscle strength, functional walking ability and dynamic balance in post-stroke patients. Methods PubMed, Ovid Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chongqing VIP, and Wanfang databases were searched online for randomized controlled trials on isokinetic muscle training of lower limbs in post-stroke patients. The retrieval time was from inception to October, 2022. Endnote X9 software was used to manage the literature. Cochrane Manual 5.1.0 was used for quality assessment, and RevMan 5.4 software was used for meta-analysis. Results A total of 20 randomized controlled trials were included in the study, with the intervention group using isokinetic muscle training of the lower extremities or combined with conventional rehabilitation training and the control group using conventional rehabilitation training and/or other intervention, with a total of 1448 study subjects. Meta-analysis results showed that the differences in knee flexion peak torque [mean difference (MD)=5.85 N·m, 95% confidence interval (CI) (4.84, 6.85) N·m, P<0.00001], knee extension peak torque [MD=9.09 N·m, 95%CI (4.83, 13.36) N·m, P<0.0001], Time Up Go test [MD=–4.70 s, 95%CI (–6.68, –2.72) s, P<0.00001], 10-meter walking test [MD=–4.71 s, 95%CI (–9.12, –0.31) s, P=0.04], Fugl-Meyer Lower Extremity Motor Function Assessment score [MD=6.61, 95%CI (3.52, 9.70), P<0.0001], and Berg Balance Scale score [MD=5.61, 95%CI (0.91, 10.31), P=0.02] were statistically significant. Conclusion Isokinetic training may improve knee strength and functional walking ability in post-stroke patients, but there is still no strong evidence of improvement in motor function and balance.
Objective To provide references to control the cost of stroke inpatients by analysing pertinent factors of stroke inpatients. Methods According to the models of Anderson and Newnan, univariable analysis and multivariable statistical analysis were applied to a number of factors including predisposing factors, enabling factors, and needs factors in 1 969 stroke inpatients of two third level first-class hospitals in Chongqing. Results Among the 1 969 stroke inpatients, 64% had a history of hypertension, and 50% exhibited hypertension during their stay in hospital. Expenditure on medication consumed the highest costs (51%). Length of stay was the most important factor affecting inpatient expense, additional factors were number of surgical operation, nurse type, Rankin score, number of complications etc. Conclusions Complex measures focusing on hypertension to prevent and control of stroke are recommended. Reducing unnecessary stay in hospital and appropriate prescribing are important methods to reduce cost of stroke inpatients.
In China, there are more than 2 million new strokes annually, and the disability-adjusted life-years due to stroke were higher than any other disease. With aging of the population, inadequate control of vascular risk factors such as hypertension, and uneven distribution of specialized stroke care, the burden of stroke will continue to increase. Despite improved health care quality in China, the availability of specialized stroke care varies across the country, especially in rural areas. Stroke prevention, management and research face unique and severe challenges due to rough terrain and economic underdevelopment in Southwest China. In the future, efforts should be made to provide more balanced availability of specialized stroke care services across China, promote generalization of evidence-based practice, and carry out more high-quality research to improve outcomes of stroke patients, with special attention to the rural population and Southwest China.
Objective To assess the clinical efficacy of statins for preventing stroke recurrence. Methods We searched The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, CBM, CSJD, and CJFD for randomized controlled trials on the use of statin drugs to prevent stroke recurrence (up to May 10, 2008), and manually searched key Chinese magazines in the related fields. Two reviewers extracted data independently using a designed extraction form. The quality of included trials was evaluated according to the Cochrane handbook 4.12. RevMan 5.0 software was used for data analysis. Results Six randomized controlled trials involving 9,675 patients were identified. The results of meta-analysis showed that there was no statistical difference in stroke recurrence rate (RR=0.94, 95%CI 0.84 to 1.04, P=0.21) and fatal stroke occurrence (RR=0.77, 95%CI 0.48 to 1.25, P=0.30) between statins and placebo groups, but a significant difference was found between the two groups in transient ischemic attack occurrence (RR=0.80, 95%CI 0.69 to 0.92, P=0.002). Conclusion Current evidence indicates that statin drugs have no superiority to prevent stroke recurrence and fatal stroke occurrence, but can prevent transient ischemic attack.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a crucial role in the diagnosis of ischemic stroke. Accurate segmentation of the infarct is of great significance for selecting intervention treatment methods and evaluating the prognosis of patients. To address the issue of poor segmentation accuracy of existing methods for multiscale stroke lesions, a novel encoder-decoder architecture network based on depthwise separable convolution is proposed. Firstly, this network replaces the convolutional layer modules of the U-Net with redesigned depthwise separable convolution modules. Secondly, an modified Atrous spatial pyramid pooling (MASPP) is introduced to enlarge the receptive field and enhance the extraction of multiscale features. Thirdly, an attention gate (AG) structure is incorporated at the skip connections of the network to further enhance the segmentation accuracy of multiscale targets. Finally, Experimental evaluations are conducted using the ischemic stroke lesion segmentation 2022 challenge (ISLES2022) dataset. The proposed algorithm in this paper achieves Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), Hausdorff distance (HD), sensitivity (SEN), and precision (PRE) scores of 0.816 5, 3.668 1, 0.889 2, and 0.894 6, respectively, outperforming other mainstream segmentation algorithms. The experimental results demonstrate that the method in this paper effectively improves the segmentation of infarct lesions, and is expected to provide a reliable support for clinical diagnosis and treatment.
Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of facial palsy after stroke (FPS) in order to enhance the understanding of FPS. Methods Patients with stroke and admitted to hospital from March to June 2015 were selected in this study. They were evaluated by Modified House-Braekmann (MHBN), Barthel Index (BI), National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), Standardized Swallowing Assessment and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) within 48 hours after admitting. According to the MHBN scores, the patients were divided into FPS group and non-FPS group, and the incidences of dysphagia and depression, and the scores of BI, NIHSS, and PHQ-9 were compared between the two group. Six months later, the patients’ prognosis of stroke was assessed by the Modified Rankin Scale. Results A total of 129 patients were enrolled in this study, including 81 (62.8%) with FPS, and 48 (37.2%) without FPS. The incidences of dysphagia and depression in the FPS group (64.2%, 59.3%) were higher than those in the non-FPS group (22.9%, 18.8%), and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). The BI, NIHSS, PHQ-9 scores in the FPS group were 41.79±14.19, 11.23±4.62, 11.54±3.43, respectively, while the scores in the non-FPS group were 66.39±19.96, 7.54±3.69, 7.67±2.89, respectively; the differences in the scores between the two groups were statistically significant (P<0.05). Six months later, the patients’ prognosis in the non-FPS group was better than that in the FPS group (67.4%vs. 32.9%, P<0.001). Conclusions There is a high incidence of FPS, and there are high incidences of dysphagia and depression in the FPS patients with stroke. FPS influences the patients’ prognosis, so the understanding and treatment of FPS should be enhanced.