Myocarditis evolving in cardiomyopathy: When genetics and offending causes work together

Myocarditis is an infectious-inflammatory disease often superimposed to individual genetic background which could favour or inhibit its progression into a chronic heart muscle disorder (most often dilated cardiomyopathy, rarely arrhythmogenic, or right-sided cardiomyopathy). Post-myocarditis cardiomyopathy is likely caused by a complex interaction between the viral infection and an individual predisposition. Some viruses are able to highlight a clinical phenotype replicating a model similar to the genetically determined conditions, while other can affect the resolution or the progressive remodelling of the left ventricle after the infectious process. The identification of specific individual genetic backgrounds, or genes favouring the progression of the disease, are important future research goals for precision medicine aiming at a specific and individualized treatment for patients affected with myocarditis

Landmark Detection in Cardiac MRI Using a Convolutional Neural Network

Purpose: To develop a convolutional neural network (CNN) solution for landmark detection in cardiac MRI. / Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included cine, late-gadolinium enhancement (LGE), and T1 mapping scans from two hospitals. The training set included 2329 patients (34019 images; mean age 54.1 years; 1471 men; December 2017-March 2020). A hold-out test set included 531 patients (7723 images; mean age 51.5 years, 323 men; May 2020-July 2020). CNN models were developed to detect two mitral valve plane and apical points on long-axis images. On short-axis images, anterior and posterior right ventricular insertion points and left ventricle center were detected. Model outputs were compared with manual labels by two readers. The trained model was deployed to MR scanners. / Results: For the long-axis images, successful detection of cardiac landmarks ranged from 99.7% to 100% for cine images and from 99.2% to 99.5% for LGE images. For the short-axis, detection rates was 96.6% for cine, 97.6% for LGE, and 98.9% for T1-mapping. The Euclidean distances between model and manual labels ranged from 2 to 3.5 mm for different landmarks, indicating close agreement between model landmarks to manual labels. No differences were found for the anterior right ventricular insertion angle and left ventricle length by the models and readers for all views and imaging sequences. Model inference on MR scanner took 610 msec on the graphics processing unit and 5.6 sec on central processing unit, respectively, for a typical cardiac cine series. / Conclusion: A CNN was developed for landmark detection in both long and short-axis cardiac MR images for cine, LGE and T1 mapping sequences, with the accuracy comparable to the interreader variation

Avaliação da diferenciação dentro e entre genótipos de trevo-branco.

Objetivou-se avaliar plantas de trevo-branco de quatro genótipos elites (CPPSul, Entrevero, Sintético 1 e Sintético 2) selecionadas por suas características de persistência, produção de forragem e sementes.Claudia Cristina Gulias Gomes, editora técnica

Caracterização de Bromus auleticus por meio de caracteres morfológicos quantitativos.

Bromus auleticus Trin. ex Nees, cevadilha-vacariana, possui produção de forragem com qualidade e quantidade durante períodos críticos de pastagens, mantendo estabilidade de produção durante todo ano, desenvolvimento em períodos quentes e resistindo a geadas. Nesse contexto, o objetivo do trabalho foi caracterizar morfologicamente 11 acessos de cevadilha do Banco Ativo de Germoplasma de Forrageiras do Sul e dentre estes, selecionar o(s) genótipo(s) mais divergente(s) obtido(s) por meio de caracteres quantitativos.Editora técnica Claudia Cristina Gulias Gomes

Caracterização de acessos de Cevadilha vacariana pela integração de descritores morfoagronômicos qualitativos e quantitativos.

A espécie Bromus auleticus, conhecida popularmente como cevadilha vacariana tem despertado interesse em profissionais de plantas forrageiras há algum tempo. Uma série de atributos, como boa qualidade de forragem, adaptação local e oferta de forragem na época de outono-inverno (período de maior carência alimentar dos rebanhos), são fatores decisórios na escolha desta planta visando o melhoramento e sua disseminação. Neste contexto, o objetivo do trabalho foi a caracterização morfoagronômica de onze acessos de B. auleticus utilizando descritores qualitativos (cor da folha, pilosidade e hábito de crescimento) e os descritores quantitativos (comprimento e largura da folha bandeira, altura natural no florescimento, comprimentos do entrenó superior e da inflorescência).Editores técnicos: Rodrigo Cezar Franzon, Caroline Marques Castro, Alexandre Floriani Ramos, Sueli Correa Marques de Mello. SIRGEALC

New generalized fuzzy metrics and fixed point theorem in fuzzy metric space

In this paper, in fuzzy metric spaces (in the sense of Kramosil and Michalek (Kibernetika 11:336-344, 1957)) we introduce the concept of a generalized fuzzy metric which is the extension of a fuzzy metric. First, inspired by the ideas of Grabiec (Fuzzy Sets Syst. 125:385-389, 1989), we define a new G-contraction of Banach type with respect to this generalized fuzzy metric, which is a generalization of the contraction of Banach type (introduced by M Grabiec). Next, inspired by the ideas of Gregori and Sapena (Fuzzy Sets Syst. 125:245-252, 2002), we define a new GV-contraction of Banach type with respect to this generalized fuzzy metric, which is a generalization of the contraction of Banach type (introduced by V Gregori and A Sapena). Moreover, we provide the condition guaranteeing the existence of a fixed point for these single-valued contractions. Next, we show that the generalized pseudodistance J:X×X→[0,∞) (introduced by Włodarczyk and Plebaniak (Appl. Math. Lett. 24:325-328, 2011)) may generate some generalized fuzzy metric NJ on X. The paper includes also the comparison of our results with those existing in the literature

Germinação e desenvolvimento de plântulas de Bromus auleticus para manutenção da variabilidade genética de acessos do Banco Ativo de Germoplasma de Forrageiras Nativas da Embrapa Pecuária Sul.

O gênero Bromus, pertencente a família Poaceae, encontra-se na porção cone sul da América onde é representado por espécies com importante valor forrageiro.JAI

Dilated Cardiomyopathy With Mid-Range Ejection Fraction at Diagnosis: Characterization and Natural History

Background Limited data are available on mid-range ejection fraction (mrEF) patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. We sought to define the characteristics, evolution, and long-term prognosis of dilated cardiomyopathy patients with mrEF at diagnosis. Methods and Results We analyzed all dilated cardiomyopathy patients consecutively evaluated in the Trieste Heart Muscle Disease Registry from 1988 to 2013. mrEF and reduced ejection fraction (rEF) were defined as baseline left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction values between 40% and 49% and <40%, respectively. All-cause mortality or heart transplantation, sudden cardiac death, or major ventricular arrhythmias were considered as outcome measures. Worsening LV ejection fraction (reduction to <40%) during follow-up was also considered to identify possible predictors of adverse remodeling. Among 812 enrolled patients, 175 (22%) presented with mrEF at presentation. At baseline, as compared with the rEF group, mrEF patients had lower rates of moderate-severe mitral regurgitation and restrictive LV filling pattern. During a median follow-up period of 120 (60-204) months, the mrEF group presented a lower rate of death/heart transplantation (9% versus 36%, P<0.001) and sudden cardiac death or major ventricular arrhythmias (4.5% versus 15%, P<0.001) than rEF patients. Moreover, 29 out of 175 mrEF patients (17%) evolved to rEF. Restrictive LV filling pattern emerged as the strongest predictor of rEF development following multivariable analysis. Conclusions mrEF identified a consistent subgroup of dilated cardiomyopathy patients diagnosed in an earlier stage with subsequent apparent better long-term evolution. However, 17% of these patients evolved into rEF despite the use of medical therapy. A baseline restrictive LV filling pattern was independently associated with subsequent evolution to rEF