Health status outcomes after spontaneous coronary artery dissection and comparison with other acute myocardial infarction: The VIRGO experience.

Data on health status outcomes after spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) are limited. Using the Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender on Outcomes of Young AMI Patients (VIRGO) study we compared patients with SCAD and other acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at presentation (baseline), 1-month, and-12 months using standardized health status instruments. Among 3572 AMI patients ≤ 55 years, 67 had SCAD. SCAD patients were younger (median age (IQR) 45 (40.5-51) years vs. 48 (44-52) in other AMI, p = 0.003), more often female (92.5% vs. 66.6%), have college education (73.1% vs. 51.7%) and household income >$100,000 (43.3% vs. 17.7% (All p<0.001). SCAD patients at baseline had higher mean ± SD Short Form-12 [SF-12] physical component scores [PCS] (48.7±10.2 vs. 43.8±12.1, p<0.001) and mental component scores [MCS] (49.6±12.4 vs. 45.4±12.5, p = 0.008), and at 12-months [PCS (50.1±9.0 vs. 44.3±12.3, p<0.001) and MCS (53±10.1 vs 50.2±11.0, p = 0.045)]. The Euro-Quality of Life Scale [EQ-5D] VAS and EQ-5D index scores were similar at baseline, but higher at 12-months for SCAD (EQ-5D VAS: 82.2±10.2 vs. 72.3±21.0, p<0.001; EQ-5D index scores; 90.2±15.3 vs. 83.7±19.8, p = 0.012). SCAD patients had better baseline Seattle Angina Questionnaire [SAQ] physical limitation (88.8±20.1 vs. 81.2±25.4, p = 0.017). At 12-months SCAD patients had better physical limitation (98.0±8.5 vs. 91.4±18.8, p = 0.007), angina frequency (96.4±8.8 vs. 91.3±16.8, p = 0.018) and quality of life scores (80.7±14.7 vs 72.2±23.2, p = 0.005). Magnitude of change in health status from baseline to 12-months was not statistically different between the groups. After adjustment for time and comorbidities there remained no difference in most health status outcomes. SCAD patients fare marginally better than other AMI patients on most health status instruments and have similar 12-month health status recovery. Better pre-event health status suggests a need to modify exercise prescriptions and cardiac rehabilitation protocols to better assist this physically active population to recover.The VIRGO study was supported by a 4-year National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant [number 5R01HL081153). IMJOVEN was supported in Spain by grant PI 081614 from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias del Instituto Carlos III, Ministry of Science and Technology, and additional funds from the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC).S

Synchrotron Studies of the First-Order Melting Transitions of Hexatic Monolayers and Multilayers in Freely Suspended Liquid-Crystal Films

Synchrotron x-ray diffraction has been used to study the surface and the interior hexatic-to-liquid (smectic-I to smectic-C) melting transitions of freely suspended liquid-crystal films of N-[4'-(n-heptyl)benzylidene]-4-(n-heptyl)aniline (7O.7) five molecular layers thick. Both the surface hexatic monolayers and the interior hexatic layers melt via hysteretic first-order transitions. After the two surface layers undergo a first-order transition to the smectic-I phase, the surface hexatic correlation length $\xi$ evolves smoothly from $\sim 100 to \sim 300 \mathring{A}$ with a roughly square-root form, $\xi \sim \mid T-T_c \mid ^{1/2}$.Engineering and Applied Science

Diffusion enhanced carbon loss from SiGeC layers due to oxidation

The effect of annealing 25-nm-thick pseudomorphic Si0.7865Ge0.21C0.0035 layers on silicon substrates in nitrogen or oxygen at 850 \ub0C was examined for different silicon cap thicknesses and annealing times by x-ray diffraction and secondary-ion mass spectrometry. Carbon is found to diffuse rapidly out of the SiGeC layer and even out of the sample entirely, an effect that is enhanced by oxidation and thin cap layers. All substitutional carbon can be removed from the sample in some cases, implying negligible formation of silicon-carbon complexes. Furthermore, it is found that each injected silicon interstitial atom due to oxidation causes the removal of one additional carbon atom for the SiGeC layer

Silicon interstitial driven loss of substitutional carbon from SiGeC structures

In: Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc