Uric acid (UA) is associated with hypertension in children, after body weight adjustment. Whether the whole spectrum of variables, such as visceral adiposity, insulin resistance, puberty, and renal function, influence the relationship between UA and blood pressure is unknown.

In a cohort of children at relatively high cardiovascular risk, the association between UA and blood pressure levels is independent of several well-known factors implicated in the development of hypertension, such as insulin resistance, pubertal status, and renal function. (Read the full article)

Obesity is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes. However, a proportion of overweight and obese youth remain free from cardiometabolic risk factors and are considered metabolically healthy.

This study provides insight into the determinants of cardiometabolic risk factors and the concept in health promotion of "fitness versus fatness." Hepatic lipid accumulation and not fitness level appears to drive cardiometabolic risk factor clustering among overweight and obese youth. (Read the full article)

Studies have shown dysfunction in the baroreflex mechanism and the autonomic nervous system, particularly in the sympathetic nervous system, in the pathophysiology of chronic fatigue syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, and syncope.

Vitamin B₁₂ deficiency is associated with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome in adolescence. (Read the full article)

Kawasaki disease (KD) results in coronary aneurysm formation and an increased risk of cardiovascular complications. Modern treatment of acute KD with intravenous immunoglobulin substantially reduces the rate of acute aneurysm formation.

This study reveals that long-term cardiovascular outcomes for KD patients in the current era are not significantly different than matched controls without KD. Late cardiovascular complications are almost exclusively seen in patients with persistent coronary aneurysms. (Read the full article)

Initial studies in children and young adults have identified higher levels of anxiety and lower quality of life scores in patients with implantable cardioverter–defibrillators. Few studies are available looking at the same questions in young patients with pacemakers.

Anxiety is highly prevalent in young patients with ICDs, but the higher rates can be attributed to medical disease severity and age at implantation rather than type of device. Patients with pacemakers have depression and anxiety but at lower rates. (Read the full article)

Resistance exercise is known to have a robust effect on glycemic control and cardiometabolic health among children and adolescents, even in the absence of weight loss.

Normalized strength capacity is associated with lower cardiometabolic risk clustering in boys and girls, even after adjustment for cardiorespiratory fitness, level of physical activity, and BMI. (Read the full article)

Left heart defects, such as bicuspid aortic valve, are heritable. Echocardiography screening has been recommended for first-degree relatives of patients with left heart defects. Such screening may allow timely recognition of complications such as progressive aortic dilation.

This study examines the utility and cost of echocardiography screening of siblings of patients with bicuspid aortic valve in clinical practice. Screening has high yield, and the cost compares favorably with those of other screening methods used in pediatrics. (Read the full article)

Caffeine has predictable effects on cardiovascular function in both adults and children. Our previous work has shown that there are gender differences in this cardiovascular response, with boys having a greater change in heart rate and blood pressure than girls.

This study shows that the gender differences in cardiovascular response to caffeine emerge after puberty and there are some differences in postpubertal girls across the menstrual cycle. (Read the full article)

Cardiovascular risk begins in childhood. New clinical guidelines established a care strategy for lowering risks. Incorporation of guidelines into routine practice lags due to barriers related to knowledge and attitudes about guidelines, as well as behaviors of practitioners, patients, and clinical systems.

This study demonstrated that a multifaceted approach including tools, education, and support for changes in practice systems can accelerate the adoption of guidelines during routine pediatric well-child visits, compared with dissemination of the guidelines alone. (Read the full article)

Adolescents and adults born early preterm have higher blood pressure and altered glucose metabolism compared with their term born peers. Evidence of an atherogenic lipid profile is inconsistent. Whether these risks apply to those born less preterm is not known.

In adolescence, girls have higher blood pressure and boys a more atherogenic lipid profile than their term born peers. Overall, our results are consistent with a dose-response relationship between shorter length of gestation and increasing levels of cardiovascular risk factors. (Read the full article)

Administration of repeat doses of antenatal glucocorticoids to women at risk for preterm birth after an initial course reduces neonatal morbidity, without affecting rates of neurologic disability in early childhood. However, data on long-term effects on cardiometabolic health are limited.

Exposure to repeat doses of antenatal betamethasone did not increase cardiovascular risk factors at early school age. Clinicians wishing to use repeat antenatal glucocorticoids can be reassured that the risk of future cardiometabolic disease from this therapy is low. (Read the full article)

Microvasculature alterations are associated with increased risk of hypertension in adults. Not much is known about the association of retinal vessel caliber with cardiovascular risk factors among children.

Narrower retinal arteriolar caliber is associated with higher blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, and pulse pressure in school-age children, whereas wider retinal venular caliber is associated with higher carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity. Microvascular adaptations might influence cardiovascular health from childhood onward. (Read the full article)

Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in up to 50% of children after cardiopulmonary bypass and is associated with adverse outcomes. Renal biomarkers have been shown to predict postoperative AKI, but few studies have examined cardiac biomarkers for risk classification.

Preoperative levels of creatine kinase-MB and heart-type fatty acid binding protein are strongly associated with the development of postoperative AKI after pediatric cardiac surgery and can be used to improve preoperative clinical risk prediction. (Read the full article)

Handheld echocardiography is a more portable and lower-cost alternative to standard echocardiography for rheumatic heart disease screening. Direct comparison of handheld echocardiography and auscultation for the detection of rheumatic heart disease has not been done previously.

Handheld echocardiography significantly improves detection of rheumatic heart disease compared with auscultation alone and may be a cost-effective screening strategy in developing countries. (Read the full article)

Neurodevelopmental disabilities are the most common, and potentially the most damaging, sequelae of congenital heart defects. Children with congenital heart defects undergoing surgery in infancy have problems with reasoning, learning, executive function, inattention and impulsive behavior, language skills, and social skills.

Early neurodevelopmental outcomes for survivors of cardiac surgery in infancy have improved modestly over time, but only after adjustment for innate patient risk factors. As more high-risk infants with congenital heart defects survive cardiac surgery, a growing population will require significant societal resources. (Read the full article)

Evidence on the cardiometabolic consequences of sedentary behavior in youth is inconsistent and mostly relies on cross-sectional studies. Studies with objective measures of sedentary time have found limited evidence of cross-sectional associations with adiposity markers but no other outcomes.

Objectively assessed daily sedentary time was not prospectively associated with cardiometabolic outcomes. Moderate to vigorous physical activity was beneficially associated with body fat mass, insulin, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and clustered cardiometabolic score. (Read the full article)

Neurodevelopmental outcomes after cardiac surgery in early life provide critical information for understanding and improving care. Studies show these children are at risk for arterial ischemic stroke and acquired brain injury; further characterization of motor impairment is needed.

This study focuses on the presence of chronic neuromotor disabilities including cerebral palsy and motor impairments after acquired brain injury in children surviving early complex cardiac surgery, providing information on the frequency, characteristics, and predictors that may assist in prevention. (Read the full article)

The frequency of cardiac arrest is significantly lower in children than in adults, rendering the delivery of high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation more difficult. Metronome-based studies in adults showed improvement in adequate compression rate, with a detrimental effect on the depth of chest compressions.

This is the first pediatric study to confirm that the use of a metronome during cardiopulmonary resuscitation significantly improves the delivery of adequate rate without affecting the compression depth. This effect was more prominent among medical students and pediatric residents and fellows than nurses. (Read the full article)

This interactive map offers a quick way to examine state-by-state grades and summary data.

Some educators and advocates fear the rule will dissuade immigrants from seeking certain government benefits, and that further burdens will fall on schools.

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine has shown excellent efficacy and tolerability in malaria treatment. However, concerns have been raised of potentially harmful cardiotoxic effects associated with piperaquine. The population pharmacokinetics and cardiac effects of piperaquine were evaluated in 1,000 patients, mostly children enrolled in a multicentre trial from 10 sites in Africa. A linear relationship described the QTc-prolonging effect of piperaquine, estimating a 5.90ms mean QTc-prolongation per 100ng/mL increase in piperaquine concentration. The effect of piperaquine on absolute QTc-interval estimated a mean maximum QTc-interval of 456ms (EC₅₀=209ng/mL). Simulations from the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic models predicted 1.98-2.46% risk of having QTc-prolongation > 60ms in all treatment settings. Although piperaquine administration resulted in QTc-prolongation, no cardiovascular adverse events were found in these patients. Thus, the use of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine should not be limited by this concern.

Background: MRSA pose significant therapeutic challenges, related to their: frequency in clinical infections; innate virulence properties; and propensity for multi-antibiotic resistance. MRSA are among the most common causes of endovascular infections, including infective endocarditis (IE).

Objective: To employ transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) to evaluate the effect of exebacase, a novel direct lytic agent, in experimental aortic valve MRSA IE.

Study Design: TTE was utilized to evaluate the in vivo effect of exebacase on MRSA-infected vegetation progression when combined with daptomycin (vs daptomycin alone). Primary intravegetation outcomes were: maximum size; weights at sacrifice; and MRSA counts at infection baseline vs after 4 days of daptomycin treatment (alone or in addition to exebacase administered once on treatment Day 1).

Results: A single dose of exebacase in addition to daptomycin cleared significantly more intravegetation MRSA than daptomycin alone. This was associated with a statistical trend toward reduced maximum vegetation size in the exebacase + daptomycin vs the daptomycin-alone therapy groups (p = 0.07). Also, mean vegetation weights in the exebacase-treated group were significantly lower vs daptomycin-alone (p < 0.0001). Maximum vegetation size by TTE correlated with vegetation weight (p = 0.005). In addition, intravegetation MRSA counts in the combination group were significantly lower vs untreated controls (p<0.0001) and the daptomycin-alone group (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: This study suggests that exebacase has a salutary impact on MRSA-infected vegetation progression when combined with daptomycin, especially in terms of vegetation MRSA burden, size and weight. Moreover, TTE appears to be an efficient non-invasive tool to assess therapeutic efficacies in experimental MRSA IE.

Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is one of the main causes of death due to cardiomyopathy and heart failure in Latin American countries. The treatment of Chagas disease is directed at eliminating the parasite, decreasing the probability of cardiomyopathy, and disrupting the disease transmission cycle. Benznidazole (BZ) and nifurtimox (NFX) are recognized as effective drugs for the treatment of Chagas disease by the World Health Organization, but both have high toxicity and limited efficacy, especially in the chronic disease phase. At low doses, aspirin (ASA) has been reported to protect against T. cruzi infection. We evaluated the effectiveness of BZ in combination with ASA at low doses during the acute disease phase and evaluated cardiovascular aspects and cardiac lesions in the chronic phase. ASA treatment prevented the cardiovascular dysfunction (hypertension and tachycardia) and typical cardiac lesions. Moreover, BZ+ASA-treated mice had a smaller cardiac fibrotic area than that in BZ-treated mice. These results were associated with an increase in the number of eosinophils and reticulocytes and level of nitric oxide in the plasma and cardiac tissue of ASA-treated mice relative to respective controls. These effects of ASA and BZ+ASA in chronically infected mice were inhibited by pretreatment with the LXA₄ receptor antagonist, Boc-2, indicating that the protective effects of ASA are mediated by ASA-triggered lipoxin. These results emphasize the importance of exploring new drug combinations for treatments of acute phase of Chagas disease that are beneficial for chronic patients.

Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are the hot spots for card fraud in South Africa, according to a report on global fraud activity.

Credit card fraud increased to 19.47% as at the end of March 2019, compared to 12.2% reported at the beginning of January 2019.

With credit card fraud rising at an alarming rate in the first quarter of the year, the Ombudsman for Banking Services has provided 10 tips to avoid becoming a victim of scammers.

Automated EFT payments enabled by technology from fintech company Ozow may be a secure alternative method to transact than card payments.

Seven goals in Ljubljana made Portugal winger Ricardinho the all-time top UEFA Futsal EURO finals top scorer: we look at the numbers and the skills behind the man that lifted the trophy, 'O Mágico',

Ricardinho has been named the first-ever official UEFA Futsal EURO Player of the Tournament after captaining Portugal to the title and finishing seven-goal top scorer.

Portugal are UEFA Futsal EURO winners for the first time while Ricardinho dominated the individual honours in a record-breaking personal tournament: the full story.

You don't have to fork over a bunch of cash to get a bunch of storage. PNY flash drives, SD cards, and portable drives are on sale at Amazon, with prices starting as low as $5.84.

David S. Freedman
Jun 1, 1999; 103:1175-1182
ARTICLES

CNA Staff, Apr 29, 2020 / 04:30 pm (CNA).- Venezuela’s prolonged social, political and economic crisis has only been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, the archbishop emeritus of Caracas, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, charged Tuesday.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval under the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro, with severe shortages of food and medicine, high unemployment, power outages, and hyperinflation. Some 4.5 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015.

In response to the threat of the virus, the government imposed a nationwide stay at home order March 17. According to government statistics, to date there have been 329 cases of COVID-19 with ten deaths. The country is ill prepared to handle the crisis, with chronic shortages of medical supplies, and many doctors have left the country.

“The national reality is terrible,” and the government has no answers, Urosa said in an April 28 statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

While the cardinal acknowledged the lockdown has prevented the spread of the virus, he pointed out that “the quarantine has hurt a great many people because the economic, social and logistical conditions in the country weren’t taken into account,” including “the extremely serious problem of the gasoline shortage for transport, especially for food.”

In some cases, crops are rotting in farmers’ fields due to lack of fuel to transport them to market.

Especially hard hit, the cardinal said, are “informal” workers who are paid off the books,  and who are now  “barely surviving,” and only with “the help of family members, social organizations and the Church.”

On April 25, Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez announced state intervention and oversight of several food supply companies in order to control the prices of 27 products for 180 days.

Urosa criticized the intervention, calling it “an extremely serious mistake, since it will probably result in greater shortages. Price controls are acceptable, but intervening in efficient businesses is not. The government can’t even manage to supply gasoline.” “The state-run petroleum industry has collapsed, and now Venezuelans’ food is in danger!” 

 “The current government doesn’t have any answers for such elementary things such as the extremely serious problem of the gasoline shortage” and runaway inflation. “In the last 40 days, the dollar has doubled in value, which is undoubtedly the fundamental cause of the spike in prices,” the cardinal said.

Urosa decried political persecution, which “has gotten worse since March because amid the quarantine, the government has ramped up the repression. During these weeks the government has jailed, even without due process, many political activists, especially from the inner circle of Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly and leader of the Venezuelan opposition.”

Guaidó declared himself the nation's interim leader Jan. 23 last year following Maduro’s inauguration for a second term. Maduro won a May 2018 presidential election, which was boycotted by the opposition and has been rejected by much of the international community. The United States was swift to recognize Guaidó as interim president, eventually followed by over 60 countries. Both the National Assembly and the Venezuelan bishops' conference declared Maduro's reelection to be invalid.

With the military firmly in support of Maduro, however, opposition protests calling for his resignation have failed to oust the leader.

On March 30, Guaidó charged that the Maduro regime had unleashed a new wave of harassment against his close collaborators. Andrea Bianchi, the wife of close associate Rafael Rico, was kidnapped, beaten and then left naked on a highway. Two others, Rómulo García and Víctor Silio were also picked up and later charged with possession of marijuana and a handgun.

The NGO Venezuelan Program for Education-Action in Human Rights reported that during the state of emergency, 34 people have been arbitrarily arrested and attacks against politicians, journalists and healthcare workers have increased.

“The bishops have always strongly criticized the political repression by the government and once again I call for the release of all political prisoners. They are even in greater physical danger because of the pandemic situation we’re going through,” Urosa stressed.

On March 26, “the Trump administration unsealed sweeping indictments against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and members of his inner circle on narcoterrorism charges, a dramatic escalation in the U.S. campaign to force the authoritarian socialist from power,” even offering “a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture or conviction,” the Washington Post reported.

In response, the Maduro regime activated a plan against the Venezuelan opposition called “Operation Bolivarian Fury.”

The archbishop emeritus denounced these recent “threats of violence by the government against Venezuelans. Maduro himself has spoken of a supposed ‘Bolivarian fury’ as a threat against members of the Venezuelan opposition in case of international problems. That’s illegal, unconstitutional and unacceptable from every point of view. That threat of violence is intolerable.” 

The cardinal said the government has used the quarantine simply as an opportunity to strengthen its social and political control.

On April 25, the Maduro regime placed shipping containers on the Caracas-La Guaira highway to prevent demonstrators from other cities who have been protesting the shortages of food, water and electricity in other cities from getting to the capital.

“Why restrict the right to free transit?” the cardinal asked.

The Maduro regime also blocked the highway in February 2019 to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the country from Colombia.

Guaidó charged April 24 on Twitter that “a dictatorship of corrupt and incapable people has brought us to a crisis where farmers are losing their crops while families are starving to death in the barrios. They turned the richest country in the region into a hell. They’ll leave here, the sacrifice has been enough already.”

As signs of hope, Urosa pointed to ongoing work of Caritas Venezuela and the creative ways the clergy has reached out to the faithful through social media. “Our message is one of encouragement, trust in God, solidarity and hope in this dark hour,” he said.

 Catholics “have an unshakeable faith in God who is love,” who had died and risen and “has shown us the merciful face of God.” “We’ll come out of this,” the archbishop said, “the suffering we are experiencing has united us closer to God and opens to us the gates of heaven.”

The archbishop encouraged Venezuelans to always stand in solidarity with each other and “to be the face of God to those in need. God is love and is with us. Let us join ourselves to him and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy in this painful hour.”

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.

The arts, geography, economics, and foreign languages will lose their place in the testing line-up as the National Assessment of Educational Progress is being streamlined to cut costs.

Vatican City, Mar 31, 2020 / 10:28 am (CNA).- Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso has tested positive for the coronavirus, his archdiocese announced Tuesday. He is the second cardinal known to have tested positive for the virus, which is now a global pandemic.

Ouédraogo, 75, has been admitted to a medical clinic in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.  He is “in good condition and his close collaborators are reported to be self-isolating,” a spokesman for Burkina Faso’s bishops’ conference, Fr. Paul Dah, told ACI Africa on March 31.

The cardinal is president of the African continental bishops’ conference, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). He was elected to the post in July 2019. He has been Archbishop of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso for ten years, and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2014.

Ouédraogo is the second bishop from Burkina Faso known to have contracted COVID-19, as countries across Africa implement lockdowns and restrictions to slow the spread of the virus across the continent.

Another Burkina Faso bishop, Archbishop Emeritus Séraphin François Rouamba of Koupela, tested positive for COVID-19 after being admitted to Our Lady of Peace clinic for urgent treatment on March 19.

The 78-year-old archbishop has since been transferred to another hospital and is reportedly in stable condition, according to a March 25 statement from Bishop Laurent Birfuore Dabire of Dori, Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso has the largest documented coronavirus outbreak in West Africa, with 249 documented cases as of March 31, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The coronavirus has spread throughout the African continent to 47 countries, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control. In North Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco each have more than 500 documented cases, and the South African government has reported more than 1,300.

Three Nigerian states began two-week mandatory lockdown this week to combat the spread of the virus, including Lagos, Africa’s most populous city with more than 20 million people.

Zimbabwe and Mauritius have also implemented national shut-downs, and the bishops in South Sudan and Zimbabwe have suspended public Masses.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, tested positive for coronavirus on March 30.

Other bishops in Italy, France, China, and the United States have also tested positive for COVID-19, and Bishop Angelo Moreschi, 67, died in the Italian city of Brescia on March 25 after contracting the coronavirus.

 

 

When you meet someone in a professional setting, a well-designed business card helps make a lasting good impression. Here are the best business card printing services for making polished cards, even on a budget.

The high-end discrete graphics cards will reportedly target the PC gaming market and data centers, putting pressure on AMD and Nvidia. Intel hired a former AMD exec to lead the effort.

Standard Bank says microlenders such as African Bank or Capitec Bank Holdings will not challenge its dominance in the credit market.

Street evangelism - that’s how Nicolas ended up carrying a 2 meter high cardboard coffin on a bus across Santiago, Chile.

It’s never too early to read or be read to. And to help build the reading, learning, and library habit, Delaware’s First Lady, Tracey Quillen Carney, announced the My First Delaware Library Card and the kids Super Library Card this summer. These new library cards target babies, toddlers, and preschoolers (birth to 5 years old) […]

SBI Cards and Payment Services on Friday posted a 66 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 84 crore for the quarter ended March 31

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NEW CASTLE (July 25, 2018) – With back-to-school shopping already well underway for many Delaware families, the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) asks you to consider helping students in need get off to a good start this school year by participating in the annual Adopt-A-Student program. DHSS, in partnership with the Human Services Council, Inc., […]

Delaware’s Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) began accepting payments by credit and debit cards through iPayOnline on Dec. 1, 2018. The iPayOnline service allows employers and individuals to schedule and make child support payments securely over the internet using their bank account, credit card or debit card. Users will be able to schedule one-time […]

NEW CASTLE (Jan. 27, 2020) – Across Delaware, about 18,000 child support recipients receive their child support payments electronically loaded to a prepaid debit card. In January 2019, the Delaware Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) teamed up with U.S. Bank to issue a new prepaid debit card, the U.S. Bank ReliaCard®, for child support […]

NEW CASTLE (Feb. 14, 2020) – On Monday, Feb. 10, the Delaware Division of Child Support Services successfully began sending payments to the new prepaid debit card, issued by U.S. Bank ReliaCard, for child support recipients. New applicants of the ReliaCard will have payments sent to their card on Feb. 17, 2020. The Division of […]

After the elimination of the country quotas from Green Cards, the present discrimination in the labour market will be over. As per a Congressional report, this will allow for the domination of India and China to gain American citizenship.Green Card is…

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