538 research outputs found
Heart, lung and vessels... but brain and hands too! The case for a novel journal in the cardiovascular scholarly arena
When enough is more than enough. The hidden side of the cardiac effects of intense physical exercise
How to be young at heart? miR-22 as a potential therapeutic target to boost autophagy and protect the old myocardium
Boosting autophagy in the diabetic heart: a translational perspective
Diabetes, obesity, and dyslipidemia are main risk factors that promote the development of cardiovascular diseases. These metabolic abnormalities are frequently found to be associated together in a highly morbid clinical condition called metabolic syndrome. Metabolic derangements promote endothelial dysfunction, atherosclerotic plaque formation and rupture, cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. This evidence strongly encourages the elucidation of the mechanisms through which obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome induce cellular abnormalities and dysfunction in order to discover new therapeutic targets and strategies for their prevention and treatment. Numerous studies employing both dietary and genetic animal models of obesity and diabetes have demonstrated that autophagy, an intracellular system for protein degradation, is impaired in the heart under these conditions. This suggests that autophagy reactivation may represent a future potential therapeutic intervention to reduce cardiac maladaptive alterations in patients with metabolic derangements. In fact, autophagy is a critical mechanism to preserve cellular homeostasis and survival. In addition, the physiological activation of autophagy protects the heart during stress, such as acute ischemia, starvation, chronic myocardial infarction, pressure overload, and proteotoxic stress. All these aspects will be discussed in our review article together with the potential ways to reactivate autophagy in the context of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes
Diagnostic accuracy of myocardial perfusion imaging with czt technology. Systemic review and meta-analysis of comparison with invasive coronary angiography
OBJECTIVES:
This study sought to summarize the evidence on stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) using cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) technology for the diagnosis of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). The CZT cameras are newly introduced, and comparative data with the conventional Anger technology (Anger-MPI) are lacking.
BACKGROUND:
The diagnostic accuracy of Anger-MPI for detection of angiographically significant CAD is well established; however, less evidence is available on the diagnostic accuracy of CZT-MPI.
METHODS:
Clinical studies comparing CZT-MPI and invasive coronary angiography were systematically searched and abstracted. Calculations of diagnostic accuracy, including sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and diagnostic odds ratio, were obtained with fixed and random effects, reporting point estimates and 95% confidence intervals.
RESULTS:
Based on our search, a total of 16 studies (N = 2,092) were included. The sensitivity of CZT-MPI was 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.78 to 0.89), whereas the specificity of 0.69 (95% CI: 0.62 to 0.76) was significantly reduced. The positive likelihood ratio was 2.73 (95% CI: 2.21 to 3.39), the negative likelihood ratio was 0.24 (95% CI: 0.17 to 0.31), and the diagnostic odds ratio was 11.93 (95% CI: 7.84 to 17.42). At subgroup and meta-regression analyses, the diagnostic accuracy between D-SPECT and Discovery cameras was similar (p = 0.711) and not impacted upon by smaller sample size studies (p = 0.573).
CONCLUSIONS:
CZT-MPI has satisfactory sensitivity for angiographically significant CAD, but its suboptimal specificity warrants further development and research
Left atrial anomalous muscular band as incidental finding during video-assisted mitral surgery
Congenital fibromuscular bands have been described inleft ventricle or right atrium and have been diagnosed by echocardiography and CT scan. The first report of anomalous band in the left atrium was described in 1897 by Rollestone (1). We hereby present a case of a patient with an incidental finding of left atrial band during a minimally invasive mitral surgery procedure
Impact of electronic alternatives to tobacco cigarettes on indoor air particular matter levels
An aerosol study was carried out in a test room measuring particulate matter (PM) with
an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10, 4, 2.5 and 1 m (PM10, PM4, PM2.5, PM1) before and
during the use of electronic alternatives to tobacco cigarettes (EATC) IQOS®, GLO®, JUUL®, with
dierent kinds of sticks/pods, as well as during the smoking of a conventional tobacco cigarette.
The aerosol was mainly in the PM1 size range (>95%). All studied EATCs caused lower indoor PM1
concentrations than conventional tobacco cigarettes. Nevertheless, they determined a worsening of
indoor-PM1 concentration that ranged from very mild for JUUL®—depending on the pod used—to
considerably severe for IQOS® and GLO®. Median values ranged from 11.00 (Iqos3 and Juul2) to
337.5 g m3 (Iqos4). The high variability of particle loadings was attributed both to the type of
stick/pod used and to the dierent way of smoking of volunteers who smoked/vaped during the
experiments. Moreover, during vaping IQOS® and GLO® indoor PM1 concentrations reach levels
by far higher than outdoor concentrations that range from 14 to 21 g m3, especially during the
exhalation of the smoke. From these results emerge an urgent need of a legislative regulation limiting
the use of such devices in public places
Simultaneous Embeddings with Few Bends and Crossings
A simultaneous embedding with fixed edges (SEFE) of two planar graphs and
is a pair of plane drawings of and that coincide when restricted to
the common vertices and edges of and . We show that whenever and
admit a SEFE, they also admit a SEFE in which every edge is a polygonal curve
with few bends and every pair of edges has few crossings. Specifically: (1) if
and are trees then one bend per edge and four crossings per edge pair
suffice (and one bend per edge is sometimes necessary), (2) if is a planar
graph and is a tree then six bends per edge and eight crossings per edge
pair suffice, and (3) if and are planar graphs then six bends per edge
and sixteen crossings per edge pair suffice. Our results improve on a paper by
Grilli et al. (GD'14), which proves that nine bends per edge suffice, and on a
paper by Chan et al. (GD'14), which proves that twenty-four crossings per edge
pair suffice.Comment: Full version of the paper "Simultaneous Embeddings with Few Bends and
Crossings" accepted at GD '1
Different ways to repair the mitral valve with artificial chordae: a systematic review
Myxomatous mitral regurgitation (type II Carpentier's functional classification) affects about 1-2% of the population. This represents a very common indication for valve surgery resulting in a low percentage of repairs compared to replacement which is actually performed. In the last decades, several methods for mitral valve repair have been developed, to make the surgical feasibility easier, improve the long-term follow-up thus avoiding the need for reoperations. A very interesting method is represented by the combination of various valve repair techniques, depending on the involvement of the anterior, posterior, or both leaflets, and the use of PTFE artificial chordae tendineae when excessive chordal elongation or rupture due to myxomatous degeneration co-exists. The aim of this review is to summarize the evolution of these techniques from the beginning till now
Management of chronic stable angina. Modern microbiomedical research provides insights into Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments
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