The Relationship between Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene Polymorphism (G894T) and Isole Coronary Artery Ectasia

29th Turkish Cardiology Congress of the Turkish-Society-of-Cardiology (TSC) with International Participation -- OCT 26-29, 2013 -- Antalya, TURKEYWOS: 000329858400493…Turkish Soc Cardio

Airfield aggregation and route selection methods for strategic airlift

Due the remarkable growth in the size and complexity of airlift operations, there is an increased need for planning tools to assist decision makers with issues ranging from selecting the number and types of aircraft for an airlift fleet to making informed decisions with respect to investing or divesting in overseas air bases. In Fiscal Year (FY) 94 research was initiated in the Operations Research Department of the Naval Postgraduate School in response to a request from the United States Air Force Studies and Analyses Agency and resulted in the development of a high fidelity strategic airlift optimization model called Throughput II. The model is formulated as a multi-period, multi-commodity linear programming model for determining the maximum on-time throughput of cargo and passengers that can be transported with a given fleet or given network, subject to appropriate physical and policy constraints. Troop and equipment movement requirements are specified by the Time Phase Force Deployment Data (TPFDD). An optimization model that utilizes the full level of detail available in a TPFDD would be of intractable size. Moreover, it is not necessary to build a model with such a fine level of detail in order to obtain the important insights required to assist decision makers. Therefore Throughput II replaces the potentially large set of airfields with a smaller set of centroids and schedules aircraft through these aggregated airfields. Currently route selection is performed manually, by an expert, who incorporates a variety of factors based on his/her experience. In this thesis we develop techniques for selecting a set of candidate routes for any deployment scenario without requiring historical data or extensive interaction with an expert. An analyst should be concerned about two potentially detrimental effects of these preprocessing procedures.http://archive.org/details/airfieldggregati109457486Turkish Navy author

The utility of inferior vena cava diameter and the degree of inspiratory collapse in patients with systolic heart failure

Introduction: Both inferior vena cava (IVC) diameter and the degree of inspiratory collapse are used in the estimation of right atrial pressure. Aim: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of IVC diameter, using echocardiography as a marker of volume overload and the relationship between these parameters and N-terminal pro-B natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in patients with systolic heart failure (HF). Methods: We included 136 consecutive patients with systolic HF (left ventricular ejection fraction, = 50%, <50%, and no change [absence] groups); NT-proBNP levels were measured, and these data were compared between the 2 groups. Results: Inferior vena cava diameter and NT-proBNP were significantly higher among the patients with HF than among the control subjects (21.7 +/- 2.6 vs 14.5 +/- 1.6 mm, P < .001 and 4789 [330-35000] vs 171 [21-476], P < .001). The mean IVC diameter was higher among the patients with decompensated HF than among the patients with compensated HF (23.2 +/- 2.1 vs 19.7 +/- 1.9 mm, P < .001). The values of NT-proBNP were associated with different collapsibility of IVC subgroups among HF patients. The NT-proBNP levels were 2760 (330-27336), 5400 (665-27210), and 16806 (1786-35000), regarding the collapsibility of the IVC subgroups: greater than or equal to 50%, less than 50%, and absence groups, P < .001, respectively, among HF patients. There was a significant positive correlation between IVC diameter and NT-proBNP (r = 0.884, P < .001). A cut off value of an IVC diameter greater than or equal to 20.5 mm predicted a diagnosis of compensated HF with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 73%. Conclusions: Inferior vena cava diameter correlated significantly with NT-proBNP in patients with HF. Inferior vena cava diameter may be a useful variable in determining a patient's volume status in the setting of HF and may also enable clinicians to distinguish patients with decompensated HF from those with compensated HF

Mechanical prosthetic valve disease is related with an increase in depression and anxiety disorder

Aim Patients with organic disease can present with psychiatric symptoms. We hypothesized that since patients with prosthetic heart valve require frequent hospital followup and are at higher risk for complications, the incidence of depression and anxiety is higher in these patients. Methods This cross-sectional study prospectively studied 98 consecutive patients with mechanical prosthetic heart valve. All patients fulfilled prosthetic heart valve evaluation form, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAS). Complete blood count, basic metabolic panel and echocardiogram results were collected for all the patients. Results Using the BDI, there were 26 patients (27%) with no depression, 20 (20%) with mild depression, 38 (39%) with moderate, 4 (4%) with severe and 10 (10%) patients with very severe depression. Avarege score was 18.3±11.4 on BDI and 19.1±11.1 on HAS. The depression level was positively associated with prothrombin time (p<0.001) and international normalized ratio (INR) level (p<0.001). Hamilton Anxiety Scale was significantly correlated with comorbidities (r: 0.344; p=0.002), blood transfusion (r: 0.370; p<0.001), obesity (r: 0.319; p=0.007) and Beck Depression Scale was correlated with comorbidities (r: 0.328; p=0.002), in patients with prosthetic heart valve disease. Conlusion Patients with prosthetic heart valve have higher prevalence of depression and higher scores of anxiety and depression. Early recognition and appropriate treatment of depression and anxiety may decrease the morbidity in prosthetic heart valve disease. Besides, use of new oral anticoagulant agents that do not need INR check, could decrease anxiety and depression in the future

Effect of prior beta-blocker use on in-hospital atrial fibrillation development in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction

Background and Aim There are conflicting results about the early administration of beta-blockers (bb) on in-hospital mortality and arrhythmias. Here, we wanted to investigate the effects of chronic bb use on in-hospital Atrial Fibrillation (AF) development in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) patients. Materials and Methods A total of 814 consecutive patients with STEMI were included in the study. They were divided into two groups according to whether they are using bb on admission or not. They were followed for AF development in-hospital and predictors of AF were determined by multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results Of the 814 patients, 103 (12.67%) patients were already using bb, while 711 (87.3%) were not. There were no significant differences in the frequency of AF development [3 (%2.9) vs 30 (%4.2), p = .788] between the groups. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that left atrial (LA) diameter is the only independent predictor of in-hospital AF development. Conclusions Our study showed that chronic bb use does not have an effect on in-hospital AF development in STEMI patients. Nevertheless, LA diameter was found to be an independent predictor of AF

Application and Extension of the Thruput II Optimization Model for Airlift Mobility

THRUPUT II is a linear programming model developed at the Naval Postgraduate School for the U.S. Air Force Studies and Analyses Agency (AFSAA) to help improve the efficiency of the airlift mobility system. It determines the maximum on-time throughput of cargo and passengers that can be transported with a given aircraft fleet over a given network, subject to appropriate physical and policy constraints. THRUPUT II was used in the analysis provided by AFSAA to the C-17 Defense Acquisition Board in November, 1995. This paper reviews the model's formulation, describes its use in the C-17 analysis, and reports extensions that have been developed since the model's first appearance

Ocena wskaźnika wydolności mięśnia sercowego u chorych na nadciśnienie tętnicze z hiperurykemią i prawidłowym stężeniem kwasu moczowego

Background: Myocardial performance index (MPI) is impaired in patients with hypertension. Uric acid is biologically active and can stimulate oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, and vasoconstriction. Hyperuricaemia may provide a negative contribution to impaired MPI in hypertension. Aim: The study was designed to assess the MPI in hypertensive patients with or without hyperuricaemia. Methods: A total of 96 consecutive hypertensive patients were divided into two groups according to levels of serum uric acid (SUA); 49 normouricaemic patients (defined as SUA &lt; 7.0 mg/dL in men and &lt; 6.0 mg/dL in women) and 47 hyperuricaemic patients. SUA levels and other biochemistry parameters were determined by a standard analytical technique. All patients were evaluated by two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiography. Results: The two groups were similar according to age, body mass index, and smoking status. Mean MPI value (0.498 ± 0.06 vs. 0.410 ± 0.05, p &lt; 0.001) was significantly higher in the hyperuricaemic group than the normouricaemic individuals and positively correlated with the mean value of SUA levels (r = 0.51, p &lt; 0.001). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that high SUA levels were significantly associated with impaired MPI in hypertensive patients. SUA may suggest a valuable laboratory finding in assessing the risk of developing subclinical impaired left ventricular global function.  Wstęp: U chorych na nadciśnienie tętnicze wartości wskaźnika wydolności mięśnia sercowego (MPI) są nieprawidłowe. Kwas moczowy jest biologicznie czynną substancją, która może powodować rozwój stresu oksydacyjnego, dysfunkcji śródbłonka, zapalenia i skurczu naczyń. Hiperurykemia może wywierać szkodliwy wpływ, przyczyniając się do pogorszenia MPI u chorych na nadciśnienie tętnicze. Cel: Badanie zaprojektowano w celu oceny MPI u chorych na nadciśnienie tętnicze z hiperurykemią i prawidłowym stężeniem kwasu moczowego. Metody: Kolejnych 96 chorych na nadciśnienie podzielono na dwie grupy w zależności od stężenia kwasu moczowego w surowicy (SUA): 49 osób z normourykemią (definiowaną jako SUA &lt; 7,0 mg/dl u mężczyzn i SUA &lt; 6,0 mg/dl u kobiet) oraz 47 pacjentów z hiperurykemią. Wartości SUA i inne parametry biochemiczne określono za pomocą standardowych metod analitycznych. U wszystkich chorych wykonano echokardiografię dwuwymiarową i doplerowską.  Wyniki: Grupy nie różniły się pod względem wieku chorych, wskaźnika masy ciała i palenia tytoniu. Średnie wartości MPI (0,498 ± 0,06 vs. 0,410 ± 0,05; p &lt; 0,001) były istotnie wyższe w grupie pacjentów z hiperurykemią niż u osób z prawidłowym stężeniem kwasu moczowego i korelowały dodatnio ze średnimi wartościami SUA (r = 0,51; p &lt; 0,001). Wnioski: W badaniu wykazano, że wysokie wartości SUA były istotnie związane z gorszym MPI u chorych na nadciśnienie. SUA może być cennym parametrem laboratoryjnym w ocenie ryzyka rozwoju subklinicznych zaburzeń globalnej wydolności lewej komory.

Investigation of relationship of visceral body fat and inflammatory markers with metabolic syndrome and its components among apparently healthy individuals

Ankarali, Handan Camdeviren/0000-0002-3613-0523WOS: 000365271900131PubMed: 26550229Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of disorders and great risk for cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to investigate association between severity of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and anthropometric measurements, and to evaluate correlation of MetS and its components with metabolic deterioration and inflammatory indexes. The cross-sectional study enrolled 1474 patients with obesity and overweight. The patients were grouped as MetS and Non-MetS, and were sub-grouped as group 1 (three criteria), 2 (four criteria) and 3 (>= five criteria) according to NCEP ATP III. Mean age was 38.7 +/- 11.9 years and BMI was 35.1 +/- 6.3 kg/m(2). Lipid profile, anthropometric and blood pressure measurements, liver function tests, bioelectric impedance body fat compositions, insulin resistance and HbA1c, and spot urinary albumin-creatinine ratio were significantly different between groups of MetS and Non-MetS. Age, lipid profile, bioelectric impedance fat analyses, BMI, blood pressure values, glucose, insulin resistance, uric acid and hs-CRP levels were significantly different between groups of MetS component groups. ROC analysis revealed that hs-CRP was found to be more predictive for severity of metabolic syndrome components 3 and 4 (P=0.030); uric acid and visceral fat were more actual to predict severity of metabolic syndrome between 3 and 5 MetS components, (P=0.006) and uric acid was detected as more actual to predict severity of MetS between 4 and 5 components (P=0.023). In conclusion, uric acid, hs-CRP and visceral body fat composition were useful to predict to severity of MetS in primary care