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Introduction: There is currently no validated score capable of classifying cancer-associated pulmonary embolism (PE) in its full spectrum of severity. This study has validated the EPIPHANY Index, a new tool to predict serious complications in cancer patients with suspected or unsuspected PE., Method: The PERSEO Study prospectively recruited individuals with PE and active cancer or receiving antineoplastic therapy from 22 Spanish hospitals. The estimation of the relative frequency θ of complications based on the EPIPHANY Index categories was made using the Bayesian alternative for the binomial test., Results: A total of 900 patients, who were diagnosed with PE between October 2017 and January 2020, were enrolled. The rate of serious complications at 15 days was 11.8%, 95% highest density interval [HDI], 9.8-14.1%. Of the EPIPHANY low-risk patients, 2.4% (95% HDI, 0.8-4.6%) had serious complications, as did 5.5% (95% HDI, 2.9-8.7%) of the moderate-risk participants and 21.0% (95% HDI, 17.0-24.0%) of those with high-risk episodes. The EPIPHANY Index was associated with overall survival (OS) in patients with different risk levels: median OS was 16.5, 14.4, and 4.4 months for those at low, intermediate, and high risk, respectively. Both the EPIPHANY Index and the Hestia criteria exhibited greater negative predictive value and a lower negative likelihood ratio than the remaining models. The incidence of bleeding at 6 months was 6.2% (95% HDI, 2.9-9.5%) in low/moderate-risk vs 12.7% (95% HDI, 10.1-15.4%) in high-risk (p-value = 0.037) episodes. Of the outpatients, serious complications at 15 days were recorded in 2.1% (95% HDI, 0.7-4.0%) of the cases with EPIPHANY low/intermediate-risk vs 5.3% (95% HDI, 1.7-11.8%) in high-risk cases., Conclusion: We have validated the EPIPHANY Index in patients with incidental or symptomatic cancer-related PE. This model can contribute to standardize decision-making in a scenario lacking quality evidence., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Sánchez-Cánovas et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Isothermal titration calorimetry is frequently employed to determine the critical micelle concentration and the micellization enthalpy of surfactants in terms of geometrical characteristics of the titration curves. Previously we have shown theoretically that even for an infinitesimal injection, the heat per titrant mol depends on the stock solution concentration. In this work, we explore experimentally the influence of the stock solution concentration on the geometrical characteristics of the titration curve and its effect in determining the critical micelle concentration and the micellization enthalpy of surfactants. The systematic study of this phenomenology involves a great number of measurements at different temperatures with several repetitions carried out using a robotic calorimeter. As surfactant hexadecyltrimethylamonium bromide was used. The magnitude and shape of the heat titration depend on the stock solution concentration. As a consequence, the inflexion-point, break-point, and step-height decrease until a limiting value. A qualitative analysis suggests that the limiting value depends only on substance. This work shows that graphical methods could not be suitable for the calculation of the critical micelle concentration and micellization enthalpy because the magnitude and shape of the titration curve depend on the stock solution concentration. Micellar properties should be calculated by the application of theoretical models as in the ligand-binding studies.

A series of samples of Mg/Zn/Al LDHs (layered double hydroxides) materials was prepared by the co-precipitation and urea hydrolysis methods. They were modified with organic surfactants (acrylate and oleate anions) and characterized by X-ray diffraction, which corroborated the intercalation of anionic species into the interlayer space. The hydrophobized materials were incorporated at low contents (10 and 15 wt.%) to polystyrene, which was synthesized by emulsion polymerization techniques. The polymeric composites were analyzed by thermogravimetry to determine the decomposition temperature. The results demonstrated that the materials with Zn presented the greatest increment in the degradation temperature (7 °C < T < 54 °C). Moreover, the Friedman, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, and Coats-Redfern models were compared to obtain the kinetic parameters of degradation process. The obtained order of decomposition of the Coats-Redfern model showed that the decomposition process occurs in at least two stages. Finally, the addition of environmentally friendly modified Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) nanomaterials to the polystyrene (PS) matrix allowed for obtaining polymeric composites with higher thermal stability, retarding the decomposition process of PS.

Purpose: To describe the results of the off-label use of eltrombopag in patients with solid tumors and thrombocytopenia that limits chemotherapy., Methods: Retrospective observational study including all patients with solid tumors who were treated with eltrombopag for thrombocytopenia during the chemotherapy treatment between January 2012 and December 2014., Results: Six patients, with solid tumors and thrombocytopenia that limits chemotherapy treatment, received eltrombopag during the study and it was observed a decrease in the delay of chemotherapy cycles (4.83 ± 4.79 delayed cycles before starting eltrombopag vs 2.50 ± 4.32 delayed cycles during the treatment with eltrombopag, p=0.492) and an increase in the percentage of administrated dosage (89.29 ± 13.36% vs 91.43 ± 10.69%, p=0.682). Also, there was an increase in platelet nadir (55.29 ± 16.45x10⁹/L vs 76.14 ± 36.38x10⁹/L, p=0.248) without platelet transfusion support in any patient during treatment with eltrombopag., Conclusions: eltrombopag has resulted to be an alternative in the treatment of patients with thrombocytopenia that limits chemotherapy, clinical trials with more number or patients are needed to confirm these results., (Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.)