Premature ventricular complexes: Assessing burden density in a large national cohort to better define optimal ECG monitoring duration.

Background: Premature ventricular contraction (PVC) burden is a risk factor for heart failure and cardiovascular death in patients with structural heart disease. Long-term electrocardiographic monitoring can have a significant impact on PVC burden evaluation by further defining PVC distribution patterns.

Objective: This study aimed to ascertain the optimal duration of electrocardiographic monitoring to characterize PVC burden and to understand clinical characteristics associated with frequent PVCs and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in a large US cohort.

Chondrogenic derivatives of embryonic stem cells seeded into 3D polycaprolactone scaffolds generated cartilage tissue in vivo.

In spite of recent scientific advances, treatment and repair of cartilage using tissue engineering techniques remains challenging. The major constraint is the limited proliferative capacity of mature autologous chondrocytes used in the tissue engineering approach. This problem can be addressed by using stem cells, which can self-renew with greater proliferative potential.