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OBJECTIVES:. Older adults may be under-represented in critical care research, and results may not apply to this specific population. Our primary objective was to evaluate the prevalence of inclusion of older adults across critical care trials focused on common ICU conditions or interventions. Our secondary objective was to evaluate whether older age was used as a stratification variable for randomization or outcome analysis. DESIGN, SETTING AND SUBJECTS:. We performed a systematic review of previously published systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in critical care. We searched PubMed, Ovid, CENTRAL, and Cochrane from 2009 to 2022. Systematic reviews of any interventions across five topics: acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis/shock, nutrition, sedation, and mobilization were eligible. MAIN RESULTS:. We identified 216 systematic reviews and included a total of 253 RCTs and 113,090 patients. We extracted baseline characteristics and the reported proportion of older adults. We assessed whether any upper age limit was an exclusion criterion for trials, whether age was used for stratification during randomization or data analysis, and if age-specific subgroup analysis was present. The most prevalent topic was sepsis (78 trials, 31%), followed by nutrition (62 trials, 25%), ARDS (39 trials, 15%), mobilization (38 trials, 15%), and sedation (36 trials, 14%). Eighteen trials (7%) had exclusion criteria based on older age. Age distribution with information on older adults prevalence was given in six trials (2%). Age was considered in the analysis of ten trials (5%) using analytic methods to evaluate the outcome stratified by age. Conclusions:. In this systematic review, the proportion of older critically ill patients is undetermined, and it is unclear how age is or is not an effect modifier or to what extent the results are valid for older adult groups. Reporting age is important to guide clinicians in personalizing care. These results highlight the importance of incorporating older critically ill patients in future trials to ensure the results are generalizable to this growing population.

Summary: Climate change is reshaping agriculture and insect biodiversity worldwide. With rising temperatures, many insect species are expected to be pushed beyond their current thermal limits, and losses related to herbivory and diseases transmitted by them will be experienced in new regions. Here, we propose that climate change’s impact on agriculture can be forecast by studying migratory leafhoppers. From 2021 to 2022, we measured leafhopper numbers in eastern Canada's strawberry fields to test our hypothesis, observing that leafhopper species and phytoplasma disease-affected strawberry plants both doubled, trends influenced by temperature changes. A further post-insecticide application study reveals that insecticides used by strawberry growers could be ineffective in controlling leafhopper populations, possibly due to changes observed in their microbiome. Our research provides evidence that leafhoppers are sensitive to the effects of climate change, making them ideal markers to research the effect of climate change on agriculture. Science for society: We have reached a critical tipping point in the climate crisis, requiring us to fully use our resources to stop the progression of global warming and its devastating effects. Agriculture, a top contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounts for 8%–10% of total emissions in Canada and the United States. The escalation of pest invasions, a consequence of global warming, threatens food security in the typically cold northern hemisphere and exacerbates agriculture's impact on climate change by increasing pesticide usage. This study examines the effects of climate change on agriculture using leafhoppers—an insect pest group and disease vectors. We found that leafhopper abundance, migration, and microbiome are sensitive to the effects of climate change and that their control will be increasingly challenging. Our findings indicate that leafhoppers can serve as sentinels of climate change, presenting an opportunity to reduce insecticide usage and promote sustainable agriculture practices.

ObjectiveTo assess the perception of Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANP) by physicians and nurses in vascular medicine. As the status of ANP in France was recently enacted by law in 2018, we aimed to investigate physicians and nurses working with patients suffering from Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) to gather their opinions and draw the cooperation outlines these practitioners could have with an ANP.MethodsA qualitative study based on in-depth interviews was conducted among healthcare practitioners taking care of patients with PAD: 10 physicians working either in a private practice settings or hospital settings or both, and eight nurses working within a hospital inpatients vascular unit. Verbatim responses were extracted and coded according to a continuous thematization method.ResultsThree main features emerged from participants’ responses. Vascular medicine has a specific organization with a significant lack of time and staff to fulfill the mission regarding patients’ severity of illness. Second, the ANP is wanted to fill part of this gap. The expected benefits include a smoother care pathway and increased capacity for cardiovascular education and prevention, especially during consultations. Lastly, some clarification is required to integrate such new practitioners within vascular teams already in place.ConclusionAdvanced nurse practitioners could be the missing link in a “Vascular team” by creating a continuum in the care of patients with PAD, ensuring clinical assessment, nursing supervision, adverse event screening, and renewing drug prescriptions with the required adaptations while ensuring essential part of therapeutic education adapted to each patient.

Objective: Coronavirus disease 19 is a well-established cause of rare arterial thrombosis. Nevertheless, the exact mechanism of arterial thrombosis remains to be elucidated. We herein report the case of a large floating thrombus of the aortic arch, its surgical management and histological analysis.Case: A 65-year-old patient presented to the emergency department with a suspected stroke. He was non-smoker, but presented cardiovascular risk factors, namely hypertension, type 2 diabetes and hyperlipidaemia. A computed tomography of the aorta revealed a large floating thrombus of the aortic arch, at the base of the brachiocephalic trunk, suspected to be the etiology of stroke. Therapeutic anticoagulation was immediately started. The decision was made to perform an open aortic replacement surgery because of the symptomatic thromboembolic event with recent cerebral infarction and the potential harmfulness of the thrombus due to its size. A mobile thrombus was observed at the base of the brachiocephalic trunk by echocardiography. It was attached to a small area of the upper aortic wall and had an irregular surface. Histology revealed a platelet-rich thrombus lying on an aortic atherosclerotic plaque without pronounced inflammation. No plaque ulceration was present but endothelial cell desquamation was observed consistent with plaque erosion.Conclusion: In our case, there was a thrombus lying on an atherosclerotic plaque with intact thick fibrous cap, but associated with a plaque erosion mechanism. The thrombus formation appeared more likely to relate to a very localized endothelial injury.

Extra-hepatic portal vein thrombosis (EHPVO) represents the obstruction of the portal vein outside the liver and is not related to chronic liver disease or neoplasia. In chronic EHPVO, collateral veins and portal hypertension develop, resulting in splenomegaly and variceal formation. Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) are the most frequent acquired etiology of EHPVO. These conditions put pregnant women at increased risk of vascular complications, including venous thrombosis, occlusion of the placental circulation, and variceal bleeding. In this report, we present a 36-year-old pregnant woman with chronic, anticoagulated EHPVO secondary to latent MPN who developed severe intrauterine growth restriction and had cesarean section at 32+1 weeks for increased umbilical doppler resistance and breech presentation. The article will emphasize outcome and management of pregnancies complicated by chronic EHPVO, portal hypertension, and MPN.