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Background: Data on cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) are limited to studies from tertiary care centers. There is a paucity of information about CVS on a national scale.Aim: To study the clinical characteristics, comorbidities, and hospital outcomes in patients hospitalized with CVS using a nationwide database.Methods: We identified all hospitalizations associated with a primary diagnosis of CVS in 2010 and 2011 using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample with an age category of 18-55 years. A 1:2 random sample of non-CVS hospitalizations with the same age category was obtained, and comparisons between groups were made. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine comorbidities independently associated with CVS.Results: Our study included 20,952 CVS and 44,262 non-CVS patients. CVS patients tended to be younger, male, and white compared to non-CVS patients. On multivariate analysis, CVS was significantly associated with comorbidities including dysautonomia, migraine, anxiety, marijuana use, irritable bowel syndrome, gastroparesis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, asthma, cigarette smoking, and hypertension. CVS patients underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy, colonoscopy, and gastric emptying tests more frequently. They had more favorable hospital outcomes like more routine discharges (discharge to home/self-care), lower mortality, and shorter length of stay but tended to leave against medical advice more frequently. CVS patients incurred total hospital charges of about $400 million over the 2 years.Conclusions: Our study showed that CVS is associated with several comorbidities and incurred substantial health care costs despite benign outcomes. Efforts to optimize therapy of CVS, manage comorbid conditions and reduce healthcare utilization are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: We sought to compare the prognostic utility of growth hormone (GH) with NT-proBNP) and the ADHERE score in a large cohort of acute heart failure (HF) patients, subcategorized into HF with reduced EF <50% (HFrEF) and preserved EF ≥50% (HFpEF).Methods and Results: GH and NTproBNP levels were measured in 537 patients (HFrEF n = 415; HFpEF n = 122) with acute HF recruited into this prospective cohort study. The main outcome measure was death or HF readmission at 1 year. GH levels were higher in both HFrEF [1.26 (0.54-2.62) vs. 0.8 (0.26-1.94) ng/mL, P < 0.001] and HFpEF [1.04 (0.48-2.92) vs. 0.53 (0.18-1.94) ng/mL, P = 0.020] patients with the outcome compared with event-free survivors. GH levels were independently predictive for the outcome at 1 year in the entire cohort [HR 1.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.16-1.86, P = 0.001] and those with HFrEF (HR 1.54, 95% CI 1.19-1.99, P = 0.001) in multivariate Cox hazard analysis. GH improved risk classification as measured by continuous net reclassification improvement (NRI) when added to the ADHERE multivariate logistic model of age, sex, urea, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure, for all patients [NRI 29.6 (12.1-47.1), P = 0.001] and HFrEF NRI 21.7 (1.9-41.6), P = 0.034] patients, as well as in addition to the ADHERE model combined with NT-proBNP for all patients [NRI 25.4 (7.8-43.1), P = 0.005].Conclusions: GH offers incremental prognostic information over the ADHERE score clinical predictors and NT-proBNP for risk stratification of acute HF patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]