IMPACT OF CORONARY ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN JAPANESE WOMEN WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE

How do our brains transform the "blooming buzzing confusion" of daily experience into a coherent sense of self that can learn and selectively attend to important information? How do local signals at multiple processing stages, none of which has a global view of brain dynamics or behavioral outcomes, trigger learning at multiple synaptic sites when appropriate, and prevent learning when inappropriate, to achieve useful behavioral goals in a continually changing world? How does the brain allow synaptic plasticity at a remarkably rapid rate, as anyone who has gone to an exciting movie is readily aware, yet also protect useful memories from catastrophic forgetting? A neural model provides a unified answer by explaining and quantitatively simulating data about single cell biophysics and neurophysiology, laminar neuroanatomy, aggregate cell recordings (current-source densities, local field potentials), large-scale oscillations (beta, gamma), and spike-timing dependent plasticity, and functionally linking them all to cognitive information processing requirements.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-0397); National Science Foundation (SBE-0354378); Office of Naval Research (N00014-01-1-0624

Geriatric nutritional risk index as readmission predictor in older adults with heart failure irrespective of ejection fraction

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How accurate is atherosclerosis imaging by coronary computed tomography angiography?

Invasive coronary plaque imaging such as intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography has been widely used to observe culprit or non-culprit coronary atherosclerosis, as well as optimize stent sizing, apposition and deployment. Coronary computed tomographic angiography (CTA) is non-invasively available to assess coronary artery disease (CAD) and has become an appropriate strategy to evaluate patients with suspected CAD. Given recent technologies, semi-automated plaque software is available to identify coronary plaque stenosis, volume and characteristics and potentially allows to be used for the assessment of more details of plaque information, progression and future risk as a surrogate tool of the invasive imaging modalities. This review article aims to focus on various evidence in coronary plaque imaging by coronary CTA and describes how accurate coronary CTA can classify coronary atherosclerosis

How accurate is atherosclerosis imaging by coronary computed tomography angiography?

Invasive coronary plaque imaging such as intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography has been widely used to observe culprit or non-culprit coronary atherosclerosis, as well as optimize stent sizing, apposition and deployment. Coronary computed tomographic angiography (CTA) is non-invasively available to assess coronary artery disease (CAD) and has become an appropriate strategy to evaluate patients with suspected CAD. Given recent technologies, semi-automated plaque software is available to identify coronary plaque stenosis, volume and characteristics and potentially allows to be used for the assessment of more details of plaque information, progression and future risk as a surrogate tool of the invasive imaging modalities. This review article aims to focus on various evidence in coronary plaque imaging by coronary CTA and describes how accurate coronary CTA can classify coronary atherosclerosis

99mTc-MIBI Washout Rate to Evaluate the Effects of Steroid Therapy in Cardiac Sarcoidosis

Objective: We sought to determine the usefulness of the 99mTc-MIBI (MIBI) washout rate for the evaluation of steroid therapy in cardiac sarcoidosis (CS). Methods: Eleven CS patients underwent MIBI myocardial SPECT both before and 6 months after initiating steroid therapy. The washout rate (WOR) of MIBI was calculated using early and delayed polar map images. The washout score (WOS) of MIBI was derived from the difference between the early and delayed total defect scores (TDS). Results: Serum ACE and BNP exhibited significant improvement after the therapy (p = 0.004, p = 0.045). In the LV function, EDV and E/A ratio exhibited significant improvement after the therapy (p = 0.041, p = 0.007), while there were no significant differences between before and after therapy in EF or ESV. Early and delayed TDS showed no significant differences between before and after the therapy. In contrast, WOR differed significantly (p < .0001), while WOS did not differ significantly between before and after the therapy.Conclusion: The washout rate of MIBI is suitable for assessment of cardiac function in CS with steroid therapy, being especially better than the washout score of MIBI for assessment of disease activity of mild myocardial damage in CS with steroid therapy