Structural heart

AIMS: Recent years, several studies have suggested that abnormal baseline left ventricular (LV) function and structure are associated with left ventricular thrombus (LVT) formation. Despite this, most studies have given less attention to the potential role of left ventricular reverse remodelling (LVRR), that is, the improvement of LV function and structure, in resolving LVT. In this study, we aim to investigate the clinical characteristics, prognosis, and LVT resolution in patients with LVRR...

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates various craniospinal irradiation (CSI) techniques used in Turkish centers to understand their advantages, disadvantages and overall effectiveness, with a focus on enhancing dose distribution. METHODS: Anonymized CT scans of adult and pediatric patients, alongside target volumes and organ-at-risk (OAR) structures, were shared with 25 local radiotherapy centers. They were tasked to develop optimal treatment plans delivering 36 Gy in 20 fractions with 95% PTV coverage, while minimizing OAR exposure...

The fighter pilots exposed to high gravitational (G) acceleration must perform anti-G maneuvers similar to the Valsalva maneuver. However, the effects of high-G acceleration and anti-G maneuvers on cardiac function have rarely been studied. This study aimed to investigate the effects of high-G forces on cardiac function of fighter pilots. Fighter pilots who underwent regular health check-ups and echocardiography were included (n = 29; 100% men, 41 ± 10 years old; mean flight time, 1821 ± 1186 h)...

Cardiac remodeling is the primary pathological feature of chronic heart failure (HF). Exploring the characteristics of cardiac remodeling in the very early stages of HF and identifying targets for intervention are essential for discovering novel mechanisms and therapeutic strategies. Silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog 3 (SIRT3), as a major mitochondrial nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)-dependent deacetylase, is required for mitochondrial metabolism. However, whether SIRT3 plays a role in cardiac remodeling by regulating the biosynthesis of mitochondrial cardiolipin (CL) is unknown...

Despite the salient experience of encoding threatening events, these memories are prone to distortions and often non-veridical from encoding to recall. Further, threat has been shown to preferentially disrupt the binding of event details and enhance goal-relevant information. While extensive work has characterised distinctive features of emotional memory, research has not fully explored the influence threat has on temporal memory, a process putatively supported by the binding of event details into a temporal context...

Despite the extensive clinical and scientific advances in prevention, diagnostics and treatment, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide for people aged 65 and over. Of all ageing-related diseases, CVD are responsible for almost one-third of deaths in the elderly, being above all cancers combined. Age is an independent and unavoidable risk factor contributing to the impairment of heart and blood vessels. As the average age of the population in industrialized countries has doubled in the last century, and almost a fifth of the world's population is predicted to be over 65 in the next decade, we can assume that the burden of CVD will fall primarily on the elderly...

Birth-associated structural issues with the heart are known as congenital heart disorders or defects. They might alter the heart's regular blood flow. A 10-month-old female child presented to a tertiary care hospital with symptoms of recurrent cyanotic spells with episodes of desaturation a few months after birth. ECG findings depicted a normal sinus rhythm with a right axis deviation along the right ventricular forces. Two-dimensional echocardiography showed a tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia with a patent ductus arteriosus from the undersurface of the arch with confluent small pulmonary arteries...

BACKGROUND: The study of psychological well-being and related resilient outcomes is of increasing focus in cardiovascular research. Despite the critical importance of psychological well-being and related resilient outcomes in promoting optimal cardiac health, there have been very few psychological interventions directed towards children with heart disease. This paper describes the development and theoretical framework of the WE BEAT Wellbeing Education Program, a group-based psychoeducation and coping skills training intervention designed to improve psychological well-being and resilience in adolescents with paediatric heart disease...

BACKGROUND: The Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) is a widely used instrument used to measure self-care in both research and clinical settings. The lack of a psychometric evaluation of the traditional Chinese version of the SCHFI (SCHFI-C) might limit its utilization in non-Mainland Chinese populations such as Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the SCHFI-C v.7.2. METHODS: Participants included 365 adults with heart failure...

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a large class of endogenous single-stranded covalently closed RNA molecules. High-throughput RNA sequencing and bioinformatic algorithms have identified thousands of eukaryotic circRNAs characterized by high stability and tissue-specific expression pattern. Recent studies have shown that circRNAs play an important role in the regulation of physiological processes in the norm and in various diseases, including cardiovascular disorders. The review presents current concepts of circRNA biogenesis, structural features, and biological functions, describes the methods of circRNA analysis, and summarizes the results of studies on the role of circRNAs in the pathogenesis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common inherited heart disease...

OBJECTIVES: To observe the efficacy of acupuncture for reducing the south to reinforce the north on executive function, sleep structure and sleep quality in patients with chronic insomnia disorder of heart-kidney disharmony. METHODS: A total of 100 patients with chronic insomnia disorder of heart-kidney disharmony were randomized into an acupuncture group (50 cases, 1 case dropped out) and a western medication group (50 cases, 2 cases dropped out). Acupuncture for reducing the south to reinforce the north was applied at Baihui (GV 20) and bilateral Shenmen (HT 7), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Shenmai (BL 62), Zhaohai (KI 6), Xinshu (BL 15), Shenshu (BL 23) in the acupuncture group, once a day, 5 days a week...

Polymeric heart valves (PHVs) present a promising alternative for treating valvular heart diseases with satisfactory hydrodynamics and durability against structural degeneration. However, the cascaded coagulation, inflammatory responses, and calcification in the dynamic blood environment pose significant challenges to the surface design of current PHVs. In this study, we employed a surface-initiated polymerization method to modify polystyrene- block -isobutylene- block -styrene (SIBS) by creating three hydrogel coatings: poly(2-methacryloyloxy ethyl phosphorylcholine) (pMPC), poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid) (pAMPS), and poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA)...

Regulation of chromatin states is essential for proper temporal and spatial gene expression. Chromatin states are modulated by remodeling complexes composed of components that have enzymatic activities. CHD4 is the catalytic core of the Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylase (NuRD) complex that represses gene transcription. However, it remains to be determined how CHD4, a ubiquitous enzyme that remodels chromatin structure, functions in cardiomyocytes to maintain heart development. Particularly, there exists controversy as to whether other proteins besides the NuRD components interact with CHD4 in the heart...

Light-sheet microscopy (LSM) plays a pivotal role in comprehending the intricate three-dimensional (3D) structure of the heart, providing crucial insights into fundamental cardiac physiology and pathologic responses. We hereby delve into the development and implementation of the LSM technique to elucidate the micro-architecture of the heart in mouse models. The methodology integrates a customized LSM system with tissue clearing techniques, mitigating light scattering within cardiac tissues for volumetric imaging...

Long-term athletic training can result in structural and conduction changes within the heart, leading to Athlete's heart syndrome (AHS). This syndrome is characterized by increased left ventricle (LV) dimensions, thickness, and mass. Dynamic exercise significantly contributes to these alterations, with sinus bradycardia being a common conduction abnormality, often accompanied by first-degree atrioventricular (AV) block. However, higher degrees of AV conduction abnormalities, such as second- and third-degree blocks, though rare, might occur due to parasympathetic hypertonia...

A comprehensive evaluation of cardiac function includes information in relation to cardiac output and systemic venous return. The heart is composed of four chambers: two atria and two ventricles, each with its own unique mechanical function. These four cardiac chambers, their valves, and the pulmonary circulation system are inter-related as they preload or afterload on each other. Cardiac dysfunction is a failure of global cardiac function, resulting in typical clinical manifestations. To investigate the underlying cause of cardiac dysfunction, a step-by-step evaluation of cardiac blood flow tracks is necessary...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is widely recognized as a highly sensitive technology for chemical detection and biological sensing. In SERS-based biomedical applications, developing highly efficient sensing platforms based on SERS plays a pivotal role in monitoring disease biomarker levels and facilitating the early detection of cancer biomarkers. Hyperuricemia, characterized by abnormally high concentrations of uric acid (UA) in the blood, was associated with a range of diseases, such as gouty arthritis, heart disease, and acute kidney injury...

UNLABELLED: Principal component analysis (PCA) is widely used to control for population structure in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Top principal components (PCs) typically reflect population structure, but challenges arise in deciding how many PCs are needed and ensuring that PCs do not capture other artifacts such as regions with atypical linkage disequilibrium (LD). In response to the latter, many groups suggest performing LD pruning or excluding known high LD regions prior to PCA...

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. Rates of cardiovascular disease vary both across the lifespan and between sexes. While multiple factors, including adverse life experiences, impact the development and progression of cardiovascular disease, the potential interactions of biological sex and stress history on the aged heart are unknown. To this end, we examined sex- and stress-specific impacts on left ventricular hypertrophy (VH) after aging. We hypothesized that early life chronic stress exposure impacts behavioral and physiologic responses that predict cardiac remodeling in a sex-specific manner...

Structured RNA lies at the heart of many central biological processes, from gene expression to catalysis. While advances in deep learning enable the prediction of accurate protein structural models, RNA structure prediction is not possible at present due to a lack of abundant high-quality reference data. Furthermore, available sequence data are generally not associated with organismal phenotypes that could inform RNA function. We created GARNET (Gtdb Acquired RNa with Environmental Temperatures), a new database for RNA structural and functional analysis anchored to the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB)...