Determinants of ejection fraction improvement in heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction.

Aims: This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of dynamic changes in left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) for cardiovascular (CV) outcomes in an all-comer heart failure (HF) population with reduced EF (HFrEF, EF < 40%). We sought to identify independent factors related to improvement in EF and to identify risk factors for increased risk of CV events in the subgroups of improved EF (iEF) and non-improved EF (niEF), respecively.

Methods And Results: This is a retrospective sub-analysis from the REDEAL HF trial, which included consecutive patients with chronic HF who were hospitalized from July 2009 to December 2017.

Methodological assessment of systematic reviews of in-vitro dental studies.

Background: Systematic reviews of in-vitro studies, like any other study, can be of heterogeneous quality. The present study aimed to evaluate the methodological quality of systematic reviews of in-vitro dental studies.

Methods: We searched for systematic reviews of in-vitro dental studies in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases published up to January 2022.

Impact of diastolic dysfunction on outcome in heart failure patients with mid-range or reduced ejection fraction.

Aims: The role of diastolic dysfunction (DD) in prognostic evaluation in heart failure (HF) patients with impaired systolic function remains unclear. We investigated the impact of echocardiography-defined DD on survival in HF patients with mid-range (HFmrEF, EF 41-49%) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF, EF < 40%).

Methods And Results: A total of 2018 consecutive hospitalized HF patients were retrospectively included and divided in two groups based on baseline EF: HFmrEF group (n = 951, aged 69 ± 13 years, 74.

A Novel Small-Specimen Planar Biaxial Testing System With Full In-Plane Deformation Control.

Simulations of soft tissues require accurate and robust constitutive models, whose form is derived from carefully designed experimental studies. For such investigations of membranes or thin specimens, planar biaxial systems have been used extensively. Yet, all such systems remain limited in their ability to: (1) fully prescribe in-plane deformation gradient tensor F2D, (2) ensure homogeneity of the applied deformation, and (3) be able to accommodate sufficiently small specimens to ensure a reasonable degree of material homogeneity.