Atrioventricular and interventricular delay optimization in cardiac resynchronization therapy: physiological principles and overview of available methods

In this review, the physiological rationale for atrioventricular and interventricular delay optimization of cardiac resynchronization therapy is discussed including the influence of exercise and long-term cardiac resynchronization therapy. The broad spectrum of both invasive and non-invasive optimization methods is reviewed with critical appraisal of the literature. Although the spectrum of both invasive and non-invasive optimization methods is broad, no single method can be recommend for standard practice as large-scale studies using hard endpoints are lacking. Current efforts mainly investigate optimization during resting conditions; however, there is a need to develop automated algorithms to implement dynamic optimization in order to adapt to physiological alterations during exercise and after anatomical remodeling

An initial assessment of spatial relationships between respiratory cases, soil metal content, air quality and deprivation indicators in Glasgow, Scotland, UK: relevance to the environmental justice agenda

There is growing interest in links between poor health and socio-environmental inequalities (e.g. inferior housing, crime and industrial emissions) under the environmental justice agenda. The current project assessed associations between soil metal content; air pollution (NO2/PM10) and deprivation and health (respiratory case incidence) across Glasgow. This is the first time that both chemical land quality and air pollution have been assessed city-wide in the context of deprivation and health for a major UK conurbation. Based on dataset ‘averages’ for intermediate geography areas, generalised linear modelling of respiratory cases showed significant associations with overall soil metal concentration (p=0.0367) and with deprivation (p<0.0448). Of the individual soil metals, only nickel showed a significant relationship with respiratory cases (p=0.0056). Whilst these associations could simply represent concordant lower soil metal concentrations and fewer respiratory cases in the rural versus the urban environment; they are interesting given (i) possible contributions from soil to air particulate loading and (ii) known associations between airborne metals like nickel and health. This study also demonstrated a statistically significant correlation (-0.213; p<0.05) between soil metal concentration and deprivation across Glasgow. This highlights the fact that despite numerous regeneration programmes, the legacy of environmental pollution remains in post-industrial areas of Glasgow many decades after heavy industry has declined. Further epidemiological investigations would be required to determine whether there are any causal links between soil quality and population health/well-being. However, the results of this study suggest that poor soil quality warrants greater consideration in future health and socio-environmental inequality assessments

Food meets brain.

Food intake is essential for the survival of a living organism. The brain controls this complex behavior by integrating information of several systems to achieve a stable body weight of the individual. Over the last decades, however, the number of overweight people has been steadily increasing. These individuals are often characterized by increased food consumption and, thus, have been associated with alterations in their control of food intake. In this chapter, we will review knowledge about the systems involved in the control of eating behavior and introduce how MEG can be used to learn more about the cognitive aspects of this behavior