Characterization of the electrophysiological substrate in patients with Barlow's disease.

Background: Myxomatous mitral valve prolapse (MVP) and mitral-annular disjunction (Barlow disease) are at-risk for ventricular arrhythmias (VA). Fibrosis involving the papillary muscles and/or the infero-basal left ventricular (LV) wall was reported at autopsy in sudden cardiac death (SCD) patients with MVP.

Objectives: We investigated the electrophysiological substrate subtending VA in MVP patients with Barlow disease phenotype.

Dynamic changes of mitral valve annulus geometry at preprocedural CT: relationship with functional classes of regurgitation.

Background: We investigated mitral valve annular geometry changes during the cardiac cycle in patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR) who underwent cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) prior to percutaneous mitral valve replacement or annuloplasty.

Methods: Fifty-one patients with severe MR and high surgical risk (Carpentier classification: 3 type I, 16 type II, 16 type IIIa, 16 type IIIb) underwent multiphase electrocardiographically gated (0-90%) CCTA, using a second generation dual-source CT scanner, as pre-procedural planning. Twenty-one patients without MR served as controls.

Validation of an Accurate and Noninvasive Tool to Exclude Female Precocious Puberty: Pelvic Ultrasound With Uterine Artery Pulsatility Index.

The purpose of this study is to validate the accuracy of pelvic ultrasound (US) with the evaluation of uterine artery pulsatility index (PI) to exclude female precocious puberty. Tanner breast development score, luteinizing hormone (LH) peak after gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulation, and uterine and ovarian volumes and diameters were assessed with pelvic US in 495 girls at a single institution. The study population was divided as follows: prepubertal ( = 207), pubertal with physiologic activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis ( = 176), and central precocious puberty (CPP; = 112).

Assessment of Remote Myocardium Heterogeneity in Patients with Ventricular Tachycardia Using Texture Analysis of Late Iodine Enhancement (LIE) Cardiac Computed Tomography (cCT) Images.

Purpose: Diffuse remodeling of myocardial extra-cellular matrix is largely responsible for left ventricle (LV) dysfunction and arrhythmias. Our hypothesis is that the texture analysis of late iodine enhancement (LIE) cardiac computed tomography (cCT) images may improve characterization of the diffuse extra-cellular matrix changes. Our aim was to extract volumetric extracellular volume (ECV) and LIE texture features of non-scarred (remote) myocardium from cCT of patients with recurrent ventricular tachycardia (rVT), and to compare these radiomic features with LV-function, LV-remodeling, and underlying cardiac disease.

Single-centre experience of extending indications for percutaneous intraportal islet autotransplantation (PIPIAT) after pancreatic surgery to prevent diabetes: feasibility, radiological aspects, complications and clinical outcome.

Objective: Islet allotransplantation is a less invasive alternative to surgical pancreas transplantation for Type 1 diabetes, while percutaneous intraportal islet autotransplantation (PIPIAT) is usually performed after pancreatic surgery to prevent diabetes. Our aim was to assess the feasibility, radiological aspects, complications and clinical outcome of PIPIAT following pancreatic surgery for not only chronic pancreatitis but also benign and malignant nodules.

Methods: From 2008 to 2012, 41 patients were enrolled for PIPIAT 12-48 h after pancreatic surgery (extended pancreatic surgery for chronic pancreatitis and benign/malignant neoplasms).

Cardiac CT With Delayed Enhancement in the Characterization of Ventricular Tachycardia Structural Substrate: Relationship Between CT-Segmented Scar and Electro-Anatomic Mapping.

Objectives: This study sought to compare myocardial scars depicted by computed tomography (CT) with electrical features from electro-anatomic mapping (EAM), assessing the potential role of CT integration in ventricular tachycardia (VT) and radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) procedures.

Background: Imaging-based characterization of VT myocardial substrate is required to plan EAM and, potentially, to guide RFCA.

Methods: Forty-two consecutive patients, 35 of whom had implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, all referred for VT RFCA, underwent pre-procedural CT including an angiographic and a 10-min delayed-enhancement scan.

Cardiac Multi-detector CT Segmentation Based on Multiscale Directional Edge Detector and 3D Level Set.

Extraction of the cardiac surfaces of interest from multi-detector computed tomographic (MDCT) data is a pre-requisite step for cardiac analysis, as well as for image guidance procedures. Most of the existing methods need manual corrections, which is time-consuming. We present a fully automatic segmentation technique for the extraction of the right ventricle, left ventricular endocardium and epicardium from MDCT images.

Preliminary results of contrast-enhanced sonography in the evaluation of the response of uveal melanoma to gamma-knife radiosurgery.

Purpose: Our aim was to prospectively analyze the use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the quantitative assessment of the response of uveal melanoma (UM) to gamma-knife radiosurgery (GKR), investigating whether changes in tumor vascularization precede thickness reduction, which on average occurs at 12 months after GKR.

Methods: Ten patients with UM treated with GKR underwent sonography (US) and CEUS at baseline and at 3, 6, and 12 months after GKR. The transverse diameter, thickness, and quantitative parameters of the UM (ie, area under the curve in the wash-in phase, wash-in perfusion index, peak enhancement, and wash-in rate) were calculated by using dedicated software and compared by using Wilcoxon's signed-rank test.

Imaging and epicardial substrate ablation of ventricular tachycardia in patients late after myocarditis.

Aims: We present clinical, electroanatomical mapping (EAM), imaging, and catheter ablation (CA) strategies in patients with myocarditis-related ventricular tachycardia (VT).

Methods And Results: Between January 2010 and July 2012, 26 consecutive patients underwent imaging-guided CA of myocarditis-related ventricular arrhythmias, 23 of 26 using a combined endo-epicardial approach. Segment per segment correspondence of late enhanced (LE) scar localization with EAM scar was assessed in all patients with available uni/bipolar maps (n = 19).

Multidetector computed tomography for coronary stents imaging: high-voltage (140-kVp) prospective ECG-triggered versus standard-voltage (120-kVp) retrospective ECG-gated helical scanning.

Objective: To compare prospective electrocardiogram (ECG)-triggered high-voltage coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography (CTA; 140-kVp P-cCTA) with retrospective ECG-gated standard-voltage cCTA (120-kVp R-cCTA), in patients with coronary stents.

Methods: Fifty-two patients with coronary stents were studied with 64-slice multidetector scanner. Ninety-three stents were analyzed: 55 with 140-kVp P-cCTA and 38 with 120-kVp R-cCTA.

Magnetic resonance imaging at 7T reveals common events in age-related sarcopenia and in the homeostatic response to muscle sterile injury.

Skeletal muscle remodeling in response to various noxae physiologically includes structural changes and inflammatory events. The possibility to study those phenomena in-vivo has been hampered by the lack of validated imaging tools. In our study, we have relied on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging for quantitative monitoring of muscle changes in mice experiencing age-related sarcopenia or active regeneration after sterile acute injury of tibialis anterior muscle induced by cardiotoxin (CTX) injection.

Gender influence on dose saving allowed by prospective-triggered 64-slice multidetector computed tomography coronary angiography as compared with retrospective-gated mode.

Background/objectives: To assess the gender influence on radiation dose saving allowed by prospective ECG-triggered MDCT coronary angiography (P-MDCT-CA) in comparison with retrospective ECG-gated MDCT-CA (R-MDCT-CA). The influence of kilovoltage and body mass index on radiation dose and the impact of different parameters on image quality (IQ) and diagnostic confidence (DC), were also determined.

Methods: 64-slice MDCT-CA was performed in 176 patients: 66 R-MDCT-CA and 110 P-MDCT-CA.

Totally synthetic peptide-based immunocontraceptive vaccines show activity in dogs of different breeds.

In this study we examine the immunogenicity of totally synthetic peptide-based immunocontraceptive vaccines in dogs. Seven individual epitope-based vaccines were assembled in which a different T helper (T(H)) cell epitope derived from the sequence of F protein of canine distemper virus was synthesized in tandem with a peptide representing luteinising hormone releasing hormone (LHRH). Each of the individual T(H)-LHRH peptide vaccines was inoculated subcutaneously into dogs.