Background: Heart failure (HF) is one of the most common causes of hospital readmission in the United States. These hospitalizations are often driven by insufficient self-care. Commercial mobile health (mHealth) technologies, such as consumer-grade apps and wearable devices, offer opportunities for improving HF self-care, but their efficacy remains largely underexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging
January 2025
Structural, architectural, contractile or electrophysiological alterations may occur in the left atrium (LA). The concept of LA cardiopathy is supported by accumulating scientific evidence demonstrating that LA remodeling has become a cornerstone diagnostic and prognostic marker. The structure and the function of LA and left atrial appendage (LAA) which is an integral part of the LA, are key elements for a better understanding of multiple clinical conditions, most notably atrial fibrillation (AF), cardioembolism, heart failure and mitral valve diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ancillary breast cancer (BC) radiation therapy (RT), particularly associated with chemotherapy, increases the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, it remains unclear whether this risk also applies to isolated contemporary radiotherapy without chemotherapy.
Methods: Seventy-five BC patients (35 left-sided and 40 right-sided) treated with RT and available dosimetry, prospectively underwent Agatston calcium score (CAC) and coronary CT angiography (CTCA) a median of 11 ± 1 years later and were compared to 75 age- and cardiovascular (CV) risk factor-matched female controls without a history of cancer.
Global physical fitness (PF) levels have declined over the past 50 years, contributing to early health risks in children although it is still unclear how age, gender and socioeconomic status (SES) impact PF risk. This study aimed to identify unique health risks related to age, SES and gender that might influence muscular fitness (MF) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) levels of primary school children in South Africa. Children ( = 349, boys = 165; girls = 184) of low ( = 201) and high SES ( = 148) underwent three time point measurements at 6, 9 and 12 years spanning seven primary school years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor a proper representation of the causal structure of the world, it is adaptive to consider both evidence for and evidence against causality. To take punishment as an example, the causality of a stimulus is unlikely if there is a temporal gap before punishment is received, but causality is credible if the stimulus immediately precedes punishment. In contrast, causality can be ruled out if the punishment occurred first.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF