The interventional care for patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement: Establishing indicators for optimal interventional care.

Objective: We evaluate the quality of interventional care for patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) using a set of quality indicators.

Methods: We developed an initial list of quality indicators by incorporating current guidelines, observing practice discrepancies, and basing it on the Donabedian "structure, process, and outcome" three-dimensional quality evaluation model as the framework. The Delphi method was utilized in two rounds of consultation involving 31 experts to evaluate and revise indicators at all levels.

Factors affecting ozone sensitivity of tobacco Bel-W3 seedlings.

Background: Since 1962, the tobacco variety Nicotiana tabacum cv. Bel-W3 has been used worldwide as an ozone (O3) bio-indicator. The use of indicator plants to monitor O3 pollution has proven problematic when trying to correlate the severity of injury to ambient O3 concentration.

[Study of severe hepatitis treated with a hybrid artificial liver support system].

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a hybrid artificial liver support system in the treatment of chronic severe hepatitis.

Methods: The hybrid artificial liver support system (HALSS) consisted of a bioreactor containing more than 5 x 10(9) porcine hepatocytes and plasma exchange device. 15 patients with chronic severe viral hepatitis were treated with the hybrid system.