Safety and Diagnostic Image Quality of Ultravist^®in an Unselected Sub-Set of Chinese Patients: Data Analyses from a Previous Post Marketing Surveillance

Background: Iopromide (Ultravist&reg) has been shown to be a very safe CM agent in previous post-marketing surveillance studies on Western and Asian populations. Our study aimed to analyse data pertaining to the safety, tolerability and diagnostic image quality of Iopromide in an unselected sub-set of the Chinese population. Methods: we analysed data for Chinese ambulatory and in-patients who received Iopromide for an imaging procedure (in accordance with the local package insert and routine clinical practice), as part of an international post-marketing surveillance study. Use of premedication was at the discretion of the attending physician. Patient demographics, clinical history, type of examination, contrast quality and tolerability, including pre-specified adverse drug reactions, were recorded. All statistical analyses were descriptive. Results: case report forms for 20,000 Chinese patients (61.3% men) were analysed, of whom 153 patients (0.77%) had risk factors for idiosyncratic contrast media reactions (at-risk group). Use of premedication, most commonly corticosteroids, was recorded for 5658 patients (28.3%) and 86 at-risk patients (56.2% of the at-risk group), respectively. The mean (±standard deviation) dose of iodine administered was 29 ± 5.5 g. During the physician’s evaluation of image parameters, contrast quality was considered to be “good” (64.7%) or “excellent” (29.3%) in the majority of patients. 571 patients (2.9%) experienced at least one adverse drug reaction [most frequently nausea (0.70%) and dysgeusia (0.62%)], which were typically transient and of mild intensity. Two serious adverse drug reactions were reported [edema (n = 1), decreased blood pressure and dyspnea (n = 1)]. The incidence of adverse drug reactions was increased in the at-risk group versus the overall patient population, and tended to reduce with premedication (mainly corticosteroids). Conclusions: Iopromide was well tolerated and proved to be an efficient contrast agent in a large, non-selected sub-set of Chinese patients undergoing different types of diagnostic imaging procedures.

酰胺连接的共价有机骨架的制备及其在水中高效光催化性能

光催化是将太阳能转换为化学能的绿色可持续发展途径,有望解决日益严重的能源危机和环境污染问题.在光催化过程中,半导体材料作为光催化剂,负责可见光的捕获、光生载流子的生成和传输以及氧化还原反应,在整个光催化系统中起着决定性的作用.共价有机骨架材料(COFs)是一类新兴的半导体光催化剂,已被证明在可见光诱导的水分解、二氧化碳还原、有机转化反应和水中污染物降解方面具有应用前景.然而,大部分COFs是通过可逆反应构筑的,在水中及苛刻条件下的稳定性差.因此,提升基于COFs的光催化剂在水相中的光催化活性和循环稳定性仍然面临巨大挑战.本文提出了一种新策略,即通过实现多重协同效应,设计和开发2D-COFs作为在水中的高效非均相光催化剂.通过后合成策略将亚胺键连接的2D-COFs氧化,制备了两种具有丰富三嗪结构单元的以酰胺键连接的2D-COFs(命名为COF-JLU18和COF-JLU19).结果表明,COF-JLU18和COF-JLU19具有高比表面积和孔体积,其比表面积分别为1156和541 m^(2)/g;COF-JLU19具有比相似拓扑结构的亚胺COF-JLU17更好的水蒸气吸附性能.此外,COF-JLU19表现出了极高的化学稳定性,在水中、盐酸和氢氧化钠溶液中浸泡两天,其结构和结晶性均没有发生明显变化.由此可见,酰胺键不仅可以增加材料骨架的亲水性,还能够提高COFs对水的稳定性.本文制备的酰胺键连接的COF-JLU19材料,在光降解罗丹明B水溶液(RhB)反应中可以获得高达0.69 min^(−1)的光降解速率常数,活性明显优于其他光催化剂,如C3N4等.COF-JLU19具有较好的催化活性主要归因于以下两方面:一方面,良好的亲水性和固有孔隙率之间的协同效应可以增强COFs在水中对染料的吸附能力,使其光催化活性得到有效提升;另一方面,高的结晶度和优秀的稳定性使酰胺键连接的COFs在多相光催化中实现稳定循环利用.为了扩展COFs的应用前景,本文还制备了一种基于酰胺键连接COFs的静电纺丝膜,在以太阳光为光源的光降解罗丹明B水溶液实验中表现出较高的光催化活性和重复使用性.综上,本文提出的多重协同效应为基于COFs的高效光催化剂的设计提供了一种有效策略.

Mini-laparoscopy in the endoscopy unit:Safety and outcomes in over one thousand patients

AIM:To investigate the safety of consecutive mini-lapar oscopy guided liver biopsies for the diagnosis and staging of liver diseases. METHODS: In this study we retrospectively analyzed the safety of mini-laparoscopic liver biopsy performed in an endoscopy unit in 1071 patients. We measured the incidence of bleeding and evaluated the management and outcome of bleeding interventions.were viral hepatitis and autoimmune liver disease. 250 patients had macroscopically and histologically proven cirrhosis. 13 patients had no pathological f indings. 33% of all patients had bleeding that required argon plasma coagulation of the puncture site during laparoscopy. Signif icant bleeding occurred more often in patients with liver cirrhosis compared to non-cirrhotic liver dise ases but was effectively treated with laparoscopic coag ulation. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, mini-laparoscopy liver biopsy can be performed safely and effectively in high risk patients with advanced liver disease; mini-lapar osc opy with liver biopsy can be done safely in an endos copy unit.

Antithrombotic therapy and bleeding risk in the era of aggressive lipid-lowering:current evidence,clinical implications,and future perspectives

The clinical efficacy of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitors(PCSK9i)in reducing major cardiovascular adverse events related to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease(ASCVD)has been well established in recent large randomized outcome trials.Although the cardiovascular and all-cause mortality benefit of PCSK9i remains inconclusive,current cholesterol management guidelines have been modified toward more aggressive goals for lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C).Consequently,the emerging concept of"the lower the better"has become the paradigm of ASCVD prevention.However,there is evidence from observational studies of a U-shaped association between baseline LDL-C levels and all-cause mortality in population-based cohorts.Among East Asian populations,low LDL-C was associated with an increased risk for hemorrhagic stroke in patients not on antithrombotic therapy.Accumulating evidence showed that low LDL-C was associated with an enhanced bleeding risk in patients on dual antiplatelet therapy following percutaneous coronary intervention.Additionally,low LDL-C was associated with a higher risk for incident atrial fibrillation and thereby,a possible increase in the risk for intracranial hemorrhage after initiation of anticoagulation therapy.The mechanism of low-LDL-C-related bleeding risk has not been fully elucidated.This review summarizes recent evidence of low-LDL-C-related bleeding risk in patients on antithrombotic therapy and discusses potential measures for reducing this risk,underscoring the importance of carefully weighing the pros and cons of aggressive LDL-C lowering in patients on antithrombotic therapy.

Highly sensitive piezoresistive and thermally responsive fibrous networks from the in situ growth of PEDOT on MWCNT-decorated electrospun PU fibers for pressure and temperature sensing

Flexible electronics have demonstrated various strategies to enhance the sensory ability for tactile perception and wearable physiological monitoring.Fibrous microstructures have attracted much interest because of their excellent mechanical properties and fabricability.Herein,a structurally robust fibrous mat was first fabricated by electrospinning,followed by a sequential process of functionalization utilizing ultrasonication treatment and in situ polymerization growth.Electrospun polyurethane(PU)microfibers were anchored with multi-walled carbon nanotubes(MWCNTs)to form conductive paths along each fiber by a scalable ultrasonic cavitation treatment in an MWCNT suspension.After,a layer of poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene)(PEDOT)was grown on the surface of PU fibers decorated with MWCNTs to enhance the conductive conjunctions of MWCNTs.Due to the superior electromechanical behaviors and mechanical reinforcement of PEDOT,the PEDOT/MWCNT@PU mat-based device exhibits a wide working range(0–70 kPa),high sensitivity(1.6 kPa−1),and good mechanical robustness(over 18,000 cycles).The PEDOT/MWCNT@PU mat-based sensor also demonstrates a good linear response to different temperature variations because of the thermoelectricity of the PEDOT/MWCNT composite.This novel strategy for the fabrication of multifunctional fibrous mats provides a promising opportunity for future applications for high-performance wearable devices.

Terahertz metalens of hyper-dispersion

Chromatic optical lenses have promising applications in three-dimensional imaging, which allows fast spectral tomography without mechanical moving parts. The scanning range of current chromatic optical lenses is limited by their dispersion ability. The recent development in metasurfaces provides ideal blocks for optical wavefront manipulation and dispersion engineering of artificial materials at sub-wavelength scales. Hyper-dispersive metalenses can be realized by utilizing dispersive meta-atoms, which have enhanced dispersion compared to regular diffractive lenses. This is critical for increasing the imaging depth of fast spectral tomography. In this work, a hyper-dispersive metalens is realized with a chromatic dispersion 1.76 times greater than that of a regular diffractive metalens in the THz frequency range of 2.40–2.61 THz by simultaneously controlling the frequencydependent phase, group delay(GD), and GD dispersion of the metalens. This approach can also be extended to other optical spectra and improve the performance of spectral tomography.

双炔连接完全π共轭的多聚金属卟啉纳米片及其杰出的非均相催化性能

由于独特的光电特性和大量暴露的活性位点,二维超薄的、坚固的、完全π共轭的有机纳米材料在多个领域有着广泛的应用前景.然而,具有这样优异稳定性、完全π共轭性和可调节性的物质非常稀少,已成为制约其实际应用的瓶颈.本文报道了一类新颖的双炔连接多聚金属卟啉纳米片,它们具有永久的孔隙率和完全π共轭性,而且表现出高的宽高比,杰出的稳定性和电子结构的可裁剪性.值得注意的是,具有单分散镍原子的新型纳米片被发现是一种杰出的非均相催化剂,其在温和条件下对4-硝基苯酚还原为4-氨基苯酚的反应表现出空前的催化活性和选择性.结果表明,双炔连接聚金属卟啉纳米片有望为未来的光电和能量转换提供新的平台.

Terahertz quantum cascade lasers with sampled lateral gratings for single mode operation

In this paper,we presented single mode terahertz quantum cascade lasers(THz QCLs)with sampled lateral grating emitting approximately 3.4 THz.Due to strong mode selection,the implementation of sampled lateral grating on THz QCL ridges can result in stable single longitudinal mode emission with a side-mode suppression ratio larger than 20 dB.The measured peak power of the grating laser is improved by about 11.8%compared to the power of devices with uniform distributed feedback gratings.Furthermore,the far-field pattern of the presented device is uninfluenced by grating structures.

Si-based InGaAs photodetectors on heterogeneous integrated substrate

In this paper,InGaAs p-i-n photodetectors(PDs)on an InP/SiO2/Si(InPOI)substrate fabricated by ion-slicing technology are demonstrated and compared with the identical device on a commercial InP substrate.The quality of epitaxial layers on the InPOI substrate is similar to that on the InP substrate.The photo responsivities of both devices measured at 1.55μm are comparable,which are about 0.808-0.828 A W^(-1).Although the dark current of PD on the InPOI substrate is twice as high as that of PD on the InP substrate at 300 K,the peak detectivities of both PDs are comparable.In general,the overall performance of the InPOI-based PD is comparable to the InP-based PD,demonstrating that the ion-slicing technology is a promising route to enable the highquality Si-based InP platform for the full photonic integration on a Si substrate.