Multicentric Atrial Strain COmparison between Two Different Modalities: MASCOT HIT Study

Two methods are currently available for left atrial (LA) strain measurement by speckle tracking echocardiography, with two different reference timings for starting the analysis: QRS (QRS-LASr) and P wave (P-LASr). The aim of MASCOT HIT study was to define which of the two was more reproducible, more feasible, and less time consuming. In 26 expert centers, LA strain was analyzed by two different echocardiographers (young vs senior) in a blinded fashion. The study population included: healthy subjects, patients with arterial hypertension or aortic stenosis (LA pressure overload, group 2) and patients with mitral regurgitation or heart failure (LA volume–pressure overload, group 3). Difference between the inter-correlation coefficient (ICC) by the two echocardiographers using the two techniques, feasibility and analysis time of both methods were analyzed. A total of 938 subjects were included: 309 controls, 333 patients in group 2, and 296 patients in group 3. The ICC was comparable between QRS-LASr (0.93) and P-LASr (0.90). The young echocardiographers calculated QRS-LASr in 90% of cases, the expert ones in 95%. The feasibility of P-LASr was 85% by young echocardiographers and 88% by senior ones. QRS-LASr young median time was 110 s (interquartile range, IR, 78-149) vs senior 110 s (IR 78-155); for P-LASr, 120 s (IR 80-165) and 120 s (IR 90-161), respectively. LA strain was feasible in the majority of patients with similar reproducibility for both methods. QRS complex guaranteed a slightly higher feasibility and a lower time wasting compared to the use of P wave as the reference

Pulse-Cancellation Echocardiography for Clinical Evaluation of Myocardial Scar Burden

Purpose of Review: Echocardiography has been completely abandoned as far as myocardial tissue characterization is concerned, but recently, the possibility to detect scarred myocardial tissue has been revived. We review the most recent studies aiming to assess the presence of myocardial fibrosis or scar using echocardiography. Recent Findings: The use of a simple and clinically available ultrasound, such as method pulse-cancellation, is a promising add-on to standard echocardiography for the detection of scarred myocardial tissue, mostly, but not only, in the setting of post-myocardial infarction patients. Summary: Pulse-cancellation technique, available since at least 20 years ago on commercial ultrasound machines, is reasonably accurate to detect myocardial scar tissue caused by recent or prior myocardial infarction, the accuracy varying depending on the spatial distribution of myocardial scars in the left ventricle. Severe myocardial fibers disarray, as found in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, can also be detected by this ultrasound method

Effect of PDGF, IGF-1 and PRP on the implant osseointegration. An histological and immunohistochemical study in rabbits.

The ability of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to increase the rate of osseointegration of endosseous implants and to improve the quality of bone remodeling on the surface of titanium, has been investigated in an experimental intraosseous defect model by an histological and immunohistochemical evaluation. The results from this study demonstrate that rabbits treated with the combination PDGF/IGF-1 showed a higher positive effect on bone regeneration than PRP-treated or controls

Role of nuclear cardiology in clinical practice: state of art

Nuclear imaging plays a pivotal role not only in in the evaluation of myocardial ischemia, but also in the evaluation of cardiac infectious, inflammatory, infiltrative and innervation disorders. Myocardial ischemia and viability, cardiac amyloidosis, sarcoidosis, large vessel vasculitis, infective endocarditis, infected cardiac implantable electronic devices, vascular graft infection, and myocardial innervation dysfunction are the main indications for the use of nuclear medicine procedures in both diagnosis and response assessment. With this summarized paper we share a comprehensive review of the role and the use of nuclear cardiology in different cardiac diseases

Studies on the antinociceptive effect of [Nphe(1)]nociceptin(1-13)NH2 in mice

Nociceptin/orphanin FQ (NC) and its receptor (OP(4)) have been implicated in the regulation of various functions including nociception. [Nphe(1)]NC(1-13)NH(2) (Nphe) is a selective OP(4) antagonist which prevents the pronociceptive effects of supraspinal NC and causes per se a naloxone-insensitive antinociceptive effect. In the present study, we tested Nphe in wild type (WT) and OP(4) receptor knock out mice and found that a clear antinociceptive effect of the antagonist was evident only in WT mice. Moreover, we evaluated, over 5 days of treatment, the antinociceptive effects of Nphe in comparison with those of DAMGO and found that tolerance develops to the effects of the opioid receptor agonist but not to Nphe. These data demonstrate that the antinociceptive action of Nphe is due to the block of OP(4) receptors and that no tolerance develops to this kind of antinociception

Pain and child: a translational hypothesis on the pathophysiology of a mild type-2 diabetes model.

Pediatric pain management underwent many changes since the undertreatment of pain in children was reported in the literature in the years '80. Increasing data also suggest that long-term behavioral effects can be observed in children, following pain episodes as early as in the neonatal period. Therefore, the knowledge about safe and effective management of pain in children should be applied with greater effectiveness into clinical practice. Other advances in the field include the findings of long-term residual behavioral and metabolic effects induced by pain experienced during the critical periods of development in laboratory animals. Recent data in laboratory animals and clinical data in children suggest that early repeated and/or severe pain and other stressful procedures applied in the perinatal periods may produce not only behavioral, but also important hormonal, immune and metabolic long-term effects. In this paper we shall report data on some metabolic conditions described in adult humans following disruption of hormonal-metabolic programming produced in the peri-natal period. Quite similar signs can be found between animal models and human conditions, most of them are connected with hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal hormones (HPA) dysfunction. In addition, some signs in animal models, such as overweight and abdominal overweight are prevented by treatment with the \ub5- and \u3b4-opioid receptor antagonist naloxone during the lactating period. This indicates that some long-term consequences following stress received during the early phases of life in mammals may be bound to the HPA system dysregulation, whereas others are bound to different (e,g., opioid) endogenous brain receptors and/or neuromediators upset