Arrhythmic mitral valve prolapse: a practical approach for asymptomatic patients.

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is usually regarded as a benign condition though the proportion of patients with a life-threatening arrhythmic MVP form remains undefined. Recently, an experts' consensus statement on arrhythmic MVP has proposed approaches for risk stratification across the spectrum of clinical manifestation. However, sudden cardiac death may be the first presentation, making clinicians focused to early unmasking this subset of asymptomatic patients.

Three-Dimensional Automated, Machine-Learning-Based Left Heart Chamber Metrics: Associations with Prevalent Vascular Risk Factors and Cardiovascular Diseases.

Background. Three-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (3DE) powered by artificial intelligence provides accurate left chamber quantification in good accordance with cardiac magnetic resonance and has the potential to revolutionize our clinical practice. Aims.

Ventricular and Atrial Remodeling after Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair: A Pilot Study.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the impact of transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) on left and right ventricular (LV, RV) and left and right atrial (LA, RA) remodeling according to the mechanism of mitral regurgitation (MR) and history of atrial fibrillation (AF).

Methods: Twenty-four patients (mean age 78.54 years ± 7.

Atrial Fibrillation in the Setting of Acute Pneumonia: Not a Secondary Arrhythmia.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in the setting of critically ill patients. Pneumonia, and in particular community-acquired pneumonia, is one of the most common causes of illness and hospital admission worldwide. This article aims to review the association between AF and acute diseases, with specific attention to pneumonia, from the pathophysiology to its clinical significance.

Clinical Profile, Arrhythmias, and Adverse Cardiac Outcomes in Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophies: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

Cardiolaminopathies are a heterogeneous group of disorders which are due to mutations in the genes encoding for nuclear lamins or their binding proteins. The whole spectrum of cardiac manifestations encompasses atrial arrhythmias, conduction disturbances, progressive systolic dysfunction, and malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Despite the prognostic significance of cardiac involvement in this setting, the current recommendations lack strong evidence.

An Atlas for the Inkjet Printing of Large-Area Tactile Sensors.

This review aims to discuss the inkjet printing technique as a fabrication method for the development of large-area tactile sensors. The paper focuses on the manufacturing techniques and various system-level sensor design aspects related to the inkjet manufacturing processes. The goal is to assess how printed electronics simplify the fabrication process of tactile sensors with respect to conventional fabrication methods and how these contribute to overcoming the difficulties arising in the development of tactile sensors for real robot applications.

Fabric Classification Using a Finger-Shaped Tactile Sensor Robotic Sliding.

Tactile sensing endows the robots to perceive certain physical properties of the object in contact. Robots with tactile perception can classify textures by touching. Interestingly, textures of fine micro-geometry beyond the nominal resolution of the tactile sensors can also be identified through exploratory robotic movements like sliding.

Digital literacy as a potential barrier to implementation of cardiology tele-visits after COVID-19 pandemic: the INFO-COVID survey.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of telemedicine has represented a new potential option for outpatient care. The aim of our study was to evaluate digital literacy among cardiology outpatients.

Methods: From March to June 2020, a survey on telehealth among cardiology outpatients was performed.

The Common Combination of Aortic Stenosis with Mitral Regurgitation: Diagnostic Insight and Therapeutic Implications in the Modern Era of Advanced Echocardiography and Percutaneous Intervention.

The combination of aortic stenosis (AS) and mitral regurgitation (MR) is common in patients with degenerative valvular disease. It is characterized by having complex pathophysiology, leading to potential diagnostic pitfalls. Evidence is scarce in the literature to direct the diagnostic framework and treatment of patients with this particular combination of multiple valvular diseases.

How did COVID-19 affect medical and cardiology journals? A pandemic in literature.

Background And Aims: The spreading speed of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the medical community to produce efforts in updating and sharing the evidence about this new disease, trying to preserve the accuracy of the data but at the same time avoiding the potentially harmful delay from discovery to implementation. The aim of our analysis was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical literature in terms of proportion of COVID-19-related published papers and temporal patterns of publications within a sample of general/internal medicine and cardiology journals.

Methods: We searched through PubMed scientific papers published from 1 January 2020 to 31 January 2021 about COVID-19 in ten major medical journals, of which five were in general/internal medicine and five in the cardiology field.

Contributions of the Simplified Competency Management Model to a Municipal Health Secretariat.

Objective: to present the contributions of the Simplified Competency Management Model in a municipal health secretariat.

Method: research of integrated mixed methods of exploratory-descriptive type. The model was applied in a southern Brazilian city, in the following stages: documentary, questionnaire, mapping of gaps and educational proposal.

Device-detected atrial high rate episodes and the risk of stroke/thrombo-embolism and atrial fibrillation incidence: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Atrial High Rate Episodes (AHRE) are asymptomatic atrial tachy-arrhythmias detected through continuous monitoring with a cardiac implantable electronic device. The risks of stroke/Thromboembolic (TE) events and incident clinical Atrial Fibrillation (AF) associated with AHRE varies markedly.

Objectives: To assess the relationship between AHRE and TE events, and between AHRE and incident clinical AF.

Clinical Value of Complex Echocardiographic Left Ventricular Hypertrophy Classification Based on Concentricity, Mass, and Volume Quantification.

Echocardiography is the most validated, non-invasive and used approach to assess left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Alternative methods, specifically magnetic resonance imaging, provide high cost and practical challenges in large scale clinical application. To include a wide range of physiological and pathological conditions, LVH should be considered in conjunction with the LV remodeling assessment.

Echocardiographic Left Ventricular Mass Assessment: Correlation between 2D-Derived Linear Dimensions and 3-Dimensional Automated, Machine Learning-Based Methods in Unselected Patients.

A recently developed algorithm for 3D analysis based on machine learning (ML) principles detects left ventricular (LV) mass without any human interaction. We retrospectively studied the correlation between 2D-derived linear dimensions using the ASE/EACVI-recommended formula and 3D automated, ML-based methods (Philips HeartModel) regarding LV mass quantification in unselected patients undergoing echocardiography. We included 130 patients (mean age 60 ± 18 years; 45% women).

Imaging a unicuspid aortic valve with transillumination.

Unicuspid aortic valve (UAV) is a rare congenital malformation which portends an augmented risk of early valve degeneration. Timely detection of this cardiac valvular anomaly is crucial because a strict follow-up is warranted. Currently, the best morphological information is provided by two-dimensional echocardiography; however, its diagnostic performance has been found to be suboptimal by some anatomical features, making it tough to distinguish between UAV and bicuspid aortic valve.

Long-term outcomes of postoperative atrial fibrillation following non cardiac surgery: A systematic review and metanalysis.

Background: New-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) in non-cardiac postoperative setting is common and is associated with a high risk of in-hospital mortality and morbidity. The long-term risks of stroke, mortality and AF recurrence rate in patients with postoperative AF (POAF) are unclear.

Methods: We performed a systematic literature review in electronic databases from inception to March 5th, 2020 of studies reporting the incidence of stroke, mortality and AF recurrence in patients with POAF.

Echocardiographic Strain Imaging in Coronary Artery Disease: The Added Value of a Quantitative Approach.

For more than 30 years, echocardiography, through the measurement of ejection fraction and wall motion assessment, has played a crucial role in the diagnosis and management of patients with acute and chronic ischemic heart disease. The introduction of myocardial strain, measured by speckle tracking echocardiography, is shifting this paradigm. Strain imaging catches something pathophysiologically deeper into myocardial function, facing a wide range of clinical applications.

Cardioversion of recent-onset atrial fibrillation: current evidence, practical considerations, and controversies in a complex clinical scenario.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) represents the most common arrhythmia and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality generating high social costs. Due to its high prevalence, AF is usually managed not only by cardiologists but also by general practitioners or clinicians in emergency departments. The conventional classification of AF includes "recent‑onset AF" defined as an arrhythmia episode shorter than 48 hours.

[Atrial high-rate episodes: clinical significance, prognostic impact and clinical management].

The rapid increase in cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) implants and their ability to monitor atrial activity significantly contributed to a parallel increase in the occasional detection of atrial tachyarrhythmias, termed as atrial high-rate episodes (AHREs). These episodes of atrial tachyarrhythmia are usually asymptomatic and they are often diagnosed incidentally during the regular follow-up of patients with CIEDs or during the diagnostic work-up for patients affected by cryptogenic stroke. Over the past 20 years, numerous studies attempted to demonstrate the clinical significance and prognostic impact of these episodes, but their clinical management remains unclear.

Contact Modelling and Tactile Data Processing for Robot Skins.

Tactile sensing is a key enabling technology to develop complex behaviours for robots interacting with humans or the environment. This paper discusses computational aspects playing a significant role when extracting information about contact events. Considering a large-scale, capacitance-based robot skin technology we developed in the past few years, we analyse the classical Boussinesq⁻Cerruti's solution and the Love's approach for solving a distributed inverse contact problem, both from a qualitative and a computational perspective.