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Introduction: Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic approved for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Although effective, possible side effects make its underutilization still a current problem. The type of titration and dosages used differ worldwide. Objectives: To asses doses of clozapine and concomitant medications used in schizophrenia during 2012-2013 versus 2022-2023. Methods: A retrospective observational study analysing clozapine doses and concomitant treatment used in schizophrenia from 2012-2013 compared to 2022-2023. Data were collected from the medical charts of patients admitted to the Clinical Hospital of Psychiatry and Neurology Brasov, Romania, during 2012-2013 and 2022-2023. Results: In the total of 570 patients who were admitted in 2012-2013 with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, 69 (12,10%) of them were treated with clozapine.Of the 69 cases, 53,62% patients were females, mean age was 40,95 years (SD = ±10,32), with an average of onset age 23,17 (SD=±6,21). The average length of stay for hospitalization was 24,97 days (SD= ±12,65). The mean clozapine dose was 393,47 ((SD= ±183,69), with a minimum dose of 100mg/day and a maximum dose of 800mg/day. 37,68% of patients received concomitant treatment with benzodiazepines, mood stabilisers or sedative-hypnotic drugs. None of the patients received concomitant treatment with another antipsychotic.Among the total of 356 patients admitted with the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia during the 2022-2023 period, 72 (20,22%) of the patients were treated with clozapine. 72,22% patients were females, mean age was 49,12 years (SD = ±11,16), with an average of onset age 25,04 (SD=±6,40). The average length of stay for hospitalization was 18,58 days (SD= ±13,78). The mean clozapine dose was 275,34 (SD= ±146,7), with a minimum dose of 25mg/day and a maximum dose of 600mg/day. 72,22% of patients received concomitant treatment with benzodiazepines, mood stabilisers, sedative-hypnotic drugs or with another antipsychotic. Antipsychotics used in combination with clozapine were both oral (risperidone, amisulpride, quetiapine, aripiprazole) and long-acting injectable (aripiprazole, risperidone, paliperidone, flupentixol decanoate). Conclusions: Clozapine remains the drug of choice in treatment-resistant schizophrenia even after 10 years, but its mode of administration has changed over time. While the doses of clozapine used have decreased, the percentage of patients receiving concomitant treatment has doubled.Although some side effects of clozapine are dose-dependent, lowering doses and combining with other adjuvant treatment is not always a better option, as polypragmacy and possible adverse effects combined can lead to reduced adherence.The decision to increase the dose of clozapine or to use concomitant (combination) treatment depends on individual factors, including the patient's clinical condition, response to treatment, and the assessment of potential risks and benefits. Disclosure of Interest: None Declared [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has radically changed the way people comprehend the concept of „fundamental right". Without previously planning on this, we have been witnesses to an apparent „violation" of some rights we do not only consider to be natural, but also mandatory for any democratic society. Being worried about the effects it might have on health, state institutions have taken the decision to restrict certain liberties, be it totally, or partially. Moreover, people have had their right to circulate limited, while others could not benefit from medical services, due to the overload that has affected sanitary institutions. Given this point of view, it is mandatory to analyze the legal boundaries that have to be taken into consideration, when talking about these decisions, so that legal matters be respected, even though, there have been some limitations put in place at the moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenological model [van der Schoot et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 112, 4512 (2008)] for predicting the alignment of carbon nanotube (CNT) dispersions in thermotropic liquid crystals is extended to include the attractive interactions between CNTs. The influence of the attractive forces (described by a spatially uniform mean field) on the phase behavior and orientational properties of the mixture are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Left ventricular (LV) aneurysm following acute myocardial infarction (MI) represents a less common complication, but with worse clinical outcomes. Ventricular surgical reconstruction is not always the intervention of choice due to high surgical risk. There were proposed less invasive LV aneurysm exclusion techniques such as the less invasive ventricular enhancement (LIVE) procedure. Our paper represents the first systematic approach to investigate the efficacy and safety of LIVE procedure using Revivent TCTM anchor system for LV aneurysm exclusion. Studies were considered if they reported original data regarding LIVE procedure's efficacy and/or safety using the Revivent TCTM system in patients with LV aneurysms. Five studies met the inclusion criteria. The procedure is associated with a reduction in LV volumes and an improvement in LV ejection fraction (LVEF). The means of preoperative LVEF varied between 22.8% and 35.6%, while postoperative LVEF means ranged between 34% and 45.9% (P < 0.005) across studies. All included papers reported a significant difference between preoperative and postoperative LV end-systolic volume index (P ≤ 0.001) and LV end-diastolic volume index (P ≤ 0.001). Three out of four studies achieved statistical significance (P ≤ 0.001) when comparing preoperative (means range: 2.6-3.4) and postoperative (means range: 1.4-1.9) New York Heart Association (NYHA) class. One study reported a survival rate of 90.6 (95% CI, 84.6-97.0) at 12 months following the procedure. LIVE appears to be a promising and appropriate treatment strategy for a complex condition, which could extend the indication of LV aneurysm exclusion in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenological model to describe the liquid crystal-carbon nanotubes mixture presented in a previous paper [P. van der Schoot, V. Popa-Nita, and S. Kralj, J. Phys. Chem. B 112, 4512 (2008)] has been extended to include the isotropic carbon nanotubes-nematic thermotropic liquid crystal interaction. It is assumed that the carbon nanotubes in the isotropic phase act as an external random field on liquid crystal component. The influence of the randomly orientational disorder on the phase diagram of the mixture and orientational order parameters profiles of both components is theoretically analyzed for different values of temperature, volume fraction of carbon nanotubes, nematic carbon nanotubes-nematic liquid crystal coupling strength and the random field strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The management of patients with coexisting severe aortic stenosis (AS) and coronary artery disease (CAD) is still facing a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to choosing between the entire surgical versus the complete percutaneous approaches, after accurately balancing risks versus outcomes.Aim: To evaluate clinical outcomes and mortality of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) plus percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared with surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) plus coronary arteries bypass grafting (CABG) procedures in patients with concomitant AS and CAD.Methods: Electronic databases of PubMed, EMBASE, and SCOPUS were searched for relevant articles assessing outcome parameters of interest. The study endpoints were the rate of overall myocardial infarction and stroke within 30 days and the rate of 30-day mortality and 2-year mortality between patients with TAVR/PCI and those with SAVR/CABG.Results: Random-effect meta-analysis did not reveal any significant difference between 30-day safety outcomes: myocardial infarction (TAVR/PCI vs SAVR/CABG: odds ratio [OR]: 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.20-1.33; I2  = 0%), stroke (TAVR/PCI vs SAVR/CABG: OR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.45-1.73; I2  = 0%). No significant difference in 30-day mortality (OR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.43-1.21; I2  = 0%) and 2-year mortality (OR: 1.50; 95% CI: 0.77-2.94; I2  = 81%) rate was noted between patients with TAVR/PCI and those with SAVR/CABG.Conclusions: When comparing the total percutaneous and total surgical treatment, no significant difference in short-term safety outcomes or early and late mortality was observed. More evidence is needed to guide the clinical decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]