258 research outputs found
Myocardial fibrosis in Eisenmenger syndrome: a descriptive cohort study exploring associations of late gadolinium enhancement with clinical status and survival
BACKGROUND: A relationship between myocardial fibrosis and ventricular dysfunction has been demonstrated using late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) in the pressure-loaded right ventricle from congenital heart defects. In patients with Eisenmenger syndrome (ES), the presence of LGE has not been investigated. The aims of this study were to detect any myocardial fibrosis in ES and describe major clinical variables associated with the finding. METHODS: From 45 subjects screened, 30 subjects (age 43 ± 13 years, 20 female) underwent prospective cardiovascular magnetic resonance with LGE to quantify biventricular volume and function as well as maximal and submaximal exercise during a single visit. Standard cine acquisitions were obtained for ventricular volume and function. Further imaging was performed after administration of 0.1 mmol/kg gadolinium contrast. Regions of LGE were evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively by manual contouring of identified areas, with total area expressed as a percentage of mass. Patients were followed prospectively (mean follow up 7.4 ± 0.4 years) and any deaths recorded. Patients with LGE findings were compared to those without. RESULTS: LGE was present in 22/30 (73%) patients, specifically in RV myocardium (70%), RV trabeculae (60%), LV myocardium (33%) or LV papillary muscles (30%), though in small amounts (mean 1.4% of total ventricular mass, range 0.16 – 6.0%). Those with any LGE were not different in age, history of arrhythmia, desaturation, nor hemoglobin, nor ventricular size, mass, or function. Exercise capacity was low, but also not different between those with and without LGE. Similarly no significant associations were found with amount of fibrosis. There were five deaths among patients with LGE, versus two in patients without, but no difference in survival (log rank =0.03, P = 0.85). CONCLUSIONS: Myocardial fibrosis by LGE is common in ES, though not extensive. The presence and quantity of LGE did not correlate with ventricular size, function, degree of cyanosis, exercise capacity, or survival in this pilot study. More data are clearly required before recommendations for routine use of LGE in these patients can be made
New Experimental Limits on Macroscopic Forces Below 100 Microns
Results of an experimental search for new macroscopic forces with Yukawa
range between 5 and 500 microns are presented. The experiment uses 1 kHz
mechanical oscillators as test masses with a stiff conducting shield between
them to suppress backgrounds. No signal is observed above the instrumental
thermal noise after 22 hours of integration time. These results provide the
strongest limits to date between 10 and 100 microns, improve on previous limits
by as much as three orders of magnitude, and rule out half of the remaining
parameter space for predictions of string-inspired models with low-energy
supersymmetry breaking. New forces of four times gravitational strength or
greater are excluded at the 95% confidence level for interaction ranges between
200 and 500 microns.Comment: 25 Pages, 7 Figures: Minor Correction
Constraints on Non-Newtonian Gravity from Recent Casimir Force Measurements
Corrections to Newton's gravitational law inspired by extra dimensional
physics and by the exchange of light and massless elementary particles between
the atoms of two macrobodies are considered. These corrections can be described
by the potentials of Yukawa-type and by the power-type potentials with
different powers. The strongest up to date constraints on the corrections to
Newton's gravitational law are reviewed following from the E\"{o}tvos- and
Cavendish-type experiments and from the measurements of the Casimir and van der
Waals force. We show that the recent measurements of the Casimir force gave the
possibility to strengthen the previously known constraints on the constants of
hypothetical interactions up to several thousand times in a wide interaction
range. Further strengthening is expected in near future that makes Casimir
force measurements a prospective test for the predictions of fundamental
physical theories.Comment: 20 pages, crckbked.cls is used, to be published in: Proceedings of
the 18th Course of the School on Cosmology and Gravitation: The Gravitational
Constant. Generalized Gravitational Theories and Experiments (30 April- 10
May 2003, Erice). Ed. by G. T. Gillies, V. N. Melnikov and V. de Sabbata,
20pp. (Kluwer, in print, 2003
Impact of lenalidomide dose on progression-free survival in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma
This analysis assessed the effect of lenalidomide on progression-free survival (PFS). Patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) who received lenalidomide plus dexamethasone in the MM-009 and MM-010 trials were pooled and those who had not progressed and were still receiving lenalidomide at 12 months were included. The median follow-up of surviving patients was 48 months. Of 353 patients who received lenalidomide plus dexamethasone, 116 (33%) had not progressed. Overall, 52 patients (45%) had no dose reductions, 25 (22%) had dose reductions ⩾12 months and 39 (34%) had dose reductions before 12 months. Patients who had dose reductions ⩾12 months had a significantly longer median PFS than those who had reductions before 12 months (P=0.007) or no dose reductions (P=0.039) (not reached vs 28.0 vs 36.8 months, respectively). In a multivariate Cox regression model, dose reduction ⩾12 months was an independent predictor of improved PFS (hazard ratio, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.23–0.98) after adjusting for patient characteristics. The data suggest that to achieve maximum PFS benefit, patients with RRMM should be treated for ⩾12 months with full-dose lenalidomide plus dexamethasone. Thereafter, patients may benefit from lower-dose continued therapy; prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings
Phenomenological Implications of Deflected Mirage Mediation: Comparison with Mirage Mediation
We compare the collider phenomenology of mirage mediation and deflected
mirage mediation, which are two recently proposed "mixed" supersymmetry
breaking scenarios motivated from string compactifications. The scenarios
differ in that deflected mirage mediation includes contributions from gauge
mediation in addition to the contributions from gravity mediation and anomaly
mediation also present in mirage mediation. The threshold effects from gauge
mediation can drastically alter the low energy spectrum from that of pure
mirage mediation models, resulting in some cases in a squeezed gaugino spectrum
and a gluino that is much lighter than other colored superpartners. We provide
several benchmark deflected mirage mediation models and construct model lines
as a function of the gauge mediation contributions, and discuss their discovery
potential at the LHC.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figure
Twenty Years of SUGRA
A brief review is given of the developments of mSUGRA and its extensions
since the formulation of these models in 1982. Future directions and prospects
are also discussed.Comment: Invited talk at the International Conference BEYOND-2003, Schloss
Ringberg, Germany, June 10-14, 2003; 21 pages, Late
Polymorphisms in the multiple drug resistance protein 1 and in P-glycoprotein 1 are associated with time to event outcomes in patients with advanced multiple myeloma treated with bortezomib and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the multiple drug resistance protein 1 (MRP1) and P-glycoprotein 1 (MDR1) genes modulate their ability to mediate drug resistance. We therefore sought to retrospectively evaluate their influence on outcomes in relapsed and/or refractory myeloma patients treated with bortezomib or bortezomib with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD). The MRP1/R723Q polymorphism was found in five subjects among the 279 patient study population, all of whom received PLD + bortezomib. Its presence was associated with a longer time to progression (TTP; median 330 vs. 129 days; p = 0.0008), progression-free survival (PFS; median 338 vs. 129 days; p = 0.0006), and overall survival (p = 0.0045). MDR1/3435(C > T), which was in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, showed a trend of association with PFS (p = 0.0578), response rate (p = 0.0782) and TTP (p = 0.0923) in PLD + bortezomib patients, though no correlation was found in the bortezomib arm. In a recessive genetic model, MDR1/3435 T was significantly associated with a better TTP (p = 0.0405) and PFS (p = 0.0186) in PLD + bortezomib patients. These findings suggest a potential role for MRP1 and MDR1 SNPs in modulating the long-term outcome of relapsed and/or refractory myeloma patients treated with PLD + bortezomib. Moreover, they support prospective studies to determine if such data could be used to tailor therapy to the genetic makeup of individual patients
CP violation Beyond the MSSM: Baryogenesis and Electric Dipole Moments
We study electroweak baryogenesis and electric dipole moments in the presence
of the two leading-order, non-renormalizable operators in the Higgs sector of
the MSSM. Significant qualitative and quantitative differences from MSSM
baryogenesis arise due to the presence of new CP-violating phases and to the
relaxation of constraints on the supersymmetric spectrum (in particular, both
stops can be light). We find: (1) spontaneous baryogenesis, driven by a change
in the phase of the Higgs vevs across the bubble wall, becomes possible; (2)
the top and stop CP-violating sources can become effective; (3) baryogenesis is
viable in larger parts of parameter space, alleviating the well-known
fine-tuning associated with MSSM baryogenesis. Nevertheless, electric dipole
moments should be measured if experimental sensitivities are improved by about
one order of magnitude.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figure
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