Baseline demographics of the patients supported with a pulsatile flow LVAD (pf-LVAD) and continuous flow LVAD (cf-LVAD) (validation).

<p>HF, heart failure; CVA, cerebrovascular accident; TIA, transient ischemic attack; NYHA, New York Heart Association; DCM, dilated cardiomyopathy; CRTD, cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator; ICD, implantable cardioverter defibrillator.</p><p>^aCategorical data are presented as number (%), continuous data as mean±SEM or median (IQR), respectively.</p><p>^bFamilial DCM is defined if the patient has one or more family members diagnosed with idiopathic DCM or has a first-degree relative with an unexplained sudden death under the age of 35 years.</p><p>^cDays of LVAD support are based on patients who already underwent HTx.</p><p>Baseline demographics of the patients supported with a pulsatile flow LVAD (pf-LVAD) and continuous flow LVAD (cf-LVAD) (validation).</p

Changes in plasma miR expression after continuous flow LVAD (cf-LVAD) implantation.

<p>Expression of circulating miR-21 (<i>a</i>), miR-146a (<i>b</i>), miR-221 (<i>c</i>) en miR-222 (<i>d</i>) during cf-LVAD support prior to and 1,3, and 6 months after implantation and before HTx (n = 18 patients) and controls (n = 10). In miR-222, no reliable duplicates on controls could be measured (<i>d</i>). The asterisk (*) represents p<0.05.</p

Similar changes in miR expression in pulsatile flow (pf-LVAD) and continuous flow LVAD (cf-LVAD).

<p>The alteration in miR-expression in myocardial tissue of both pf-LVAD (n = 17) and cf-LVAD (n = 17) patients. miR-129* (<i>a</i>) and miR-146a (<i>b</i>) are up-regulated in post-LVAD in comparison to pre-LVAD, whereas miR- 155 (<i>c</i>), miR-221 (<i>d</i>) and miR-222 (<i>e</i>) are down-regulated in both devices. The asterisk (*) represents p<0.05.</p

Schematic overview of fibrosis and adipose tissue in heart slices of control hearts.

<p>The results of the digital quantification in percentage of fibrosis or adipose tissue are shown using a color scale. The epicardial region has been excluded from the analysis. LV, left ventricle; RV, right ventricle; Ant., anterior; Post., posterior</p

Patient characteristics of the <i>PLN</i> p.Arg14del mutation carriers.

<p>SD, standard deviation; ICD, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator; CRT-D, cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator.</p

Schematic heart slice overview of patients with a clinical phenotype of dilated cardiomyopathy.

<p>The results of the digital quantification in heart slices in percentage of fibrosis or adipose tissue are shown using a color scale. The epicardial region has been excluded from this overview. LV, left ventricle; RV, right ventricle; Ant., anterior; Post., posterior</p

Overview of methodology.

<p>LV, left ventricle; RV, right ventricle; Ant., anterior; Post., posterior. <b>A,</b> gross showing a transverse heart slice of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. <b>B,</b> transverse slice dissection scheme. <b>C</b>–<b>F,</b> examples of digital slide processing. Regions of interest are shown in orange lines (defining the epicardium, compact myocardium divided by an equidistant midline and trabeculated part). <b>C,</b> slide from the left ventricle posterior wall. <b>D,</b> slide C after digital processing. Red: cardiomyocytes. Blue: connective tissue. Pseudo green: adipose tissue. <b>E,</b> slide from the right ventricle lateral wall. <b>F,</b> slide E after digital processing. Red: cardiomyocytes. Blue: connective tissue. Pseudo green: adipose tissue.</p

Boxplots of mean fibrosis and mean adipose tissue in the different regions.

<p>Boxplots of mean percentage of fibrosis (A) and adipose tissue (B) per condition in 8 regions (C) corrected for surface area. Outliers are represented by small circles or stars. AC, arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy; DCM, dilated cardiomyopathy; LV, left ventricle; RV, right ventricle; Ant., anterior; Post., posterior; 1 =  LV posterolateral wall; 2  =  LV posterior wall; 3  =  interventricular septum; 4  =  LV anterior wall; 5  =  LV anterolateral wall; 6  =  LV lateral wall; 7  =  RV posterior wall; 8  =  RV anterior wall.</p

Schematic heart slice overview of patients with a clinical phenotype of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.

<p>The results of the digital quantification in heart slices in percentage of fibrosis or adipose tissue are shown using a color scale. The epicardial region has been excluded from this overview. LV, left ventricle; RV, right ventricle; Ant., anterior; Post., posterior</p

Validation of Next Generation Sequencing.

<p>A) The absolute number of samples with a mutation in various genes as denoted on the x-axis that were used for the validation of NGS by means of the Ion Torrent platform. All samples are colour coded: dark blue are the concordant samples with the same mutation in standard versus NGS, the intermediate blue are the concordant samples showing no mutation, the light blue bar represents the discordant samples B) The same data as depicted in Fig 5A, however represented as percentages of all tested samples for a given gene.</p