A Robot-Assisted Framework for Rehabilitation Practices: Implementation and Experimental Results.

One of the most interesting characteristics of collaborative robots is their ability to be used in close cooperation scenarios. In industry, this facilitates the implementation of human-in-loop workflows. However, this feature can also be exploited in different fields, such as healthcare.

An online method to monitor hand muscle tone during robot-assisted rehabilitation.

Robot-assisted neurorehabilitation is becoming an established method to complement conventional therapy after stroke and provide intensive therapy regimes in unsupervised settings (e.g., home rehabilitation).

Relevance of coronary microvascular flow impairment to long-term remodeling and systolic dysfunction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate whether the entity of microvascular dysfunction, assessed by positron emission tomography (PET), predicts the long-term development of left ventricular (LV) remodeling and systolic dysfunction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

Background: A subgroup of patients with HCM developed LV dilation and systolic impairment. A causal role of coronary microvascular dysfunction has been suggested as the underlying pathophysiological mechanism.

Coronary microvascular dysfunction and prognosis in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Background: Microvascular dysfunction, reflected by an inadequate increase in myocardial blood flow in response to dipyridamole infusion, is a recognized feature of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Its long-term effect on the prognosis is unknown. We prospectively evaluated a cohort of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy after they had undergone quantitative assessment of myocardial blood flow by positron-emission tomography (PET).

Coronary vasodilator reserve is impaired in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and left ventricular dysfunction.

Background: We tested the hypothesis that a reduced delivery of blood to the myocardium is involved in the development of systolic dysfunction of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

Methods And Results: Eighty-four patients with HCM (62 men, age 43 +/- 12 years) were studied. Left ventricular dimensions and function (fractional shortening) were evaluated by 2-dimensional echocardiography.

[Clinical course of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in a non selected population. The Experience of the Italian Multicenter Cardiomyopathy Study].

Background: Most of the information available on the clinical course and prognosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is based on data generated from international referral centres and as a result, it constitutes a potentially biased perspective of the disease process in this complex and diverse condition. A multicentric study was therefore set up with the aim of providing information on unselected patient populations with HCM.

Methods: The study group comprised 330 patients from 5 non-referral hospitals (mean age 42 +/- 16 years, M/F 226/104, 74-22%-obstructive, 299-91%-in NYHA class I-II) who were followed up regularly for 9.

Syncope and ventricular arrhythmias in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are not related to the derangement of coronary microvascular function.

Unlabelled: Non-sustained ventricular tachycardia on Holter and syncope have been considered risk factors for sudden death in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Aims: In these patients the coronary vasodilator reserve is impaired despite normal coronaries, so we evaluated the correlation between the severity of coronary vasodilator reserve impairment and the occurrence of syncope and non-sustained ventricular tachycardia.

Methods And Results: Eighty-four patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (62 males, age 43 +/- 12 years) had a two-dimensional echocardiographic study and a 48-h Holter.

Dipyridamole echocardiography for diagnosis of coexistent coronary artery disease in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Echo-Persantine International Cooperative (EPIC) Study Group--Subproject Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

The recognition of coexistent coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy may be difficult by noninvasive testing based upon electrocardiographic changes or perfusion defects. Dipyridamole-stress echocardiography has proved a sensitive and highly specific test for noninvasive diagnosis of CAD in various patient subsets. To establish the feasibility, safety, and diagnostic accuracy of dipyridamole-stress echocardiography in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, we performed high-dose dipyridamole testing (up to 0.

Evidence for a systemic defect of resistance-sized arterioles in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Background: To investigate whether the abnormalities of coronary arterioles observed in association with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy represent a generalized phenomenon, both forearm and coronary vasodilator reserve were measured in 12 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Methods: Forearm vasodilator reserve was evaluated by measuring minimal forearm vascular resistance (Rmin, the ratio of mean intra-arterial pressure to peak forearm blood flow measured by venous plethysmography) under conditions of maximal postocclusive reactive hyperemia.

Results: In a subgroup (n = 5) of patients, the intra-arterial infusion of sodium nitroprusside combined with arterial occlusion did not produce additional vasodilation, indicating that the ischemic stimulus was indeed maximal.

Safety of intravenous high-dose dipyridamole echocardiography. The Echo-Persantine International Cooperative Study Group.

Clinical data on 10,451 high-dose (up to 0.84 mg/kg over 10 minutes) dipyridamole-echocardiography tests (DET) performed in 9,122 patients were prospectively collected from 33 echocardiographic laboratories, each contributing greater than 100 tests. All patients were studied for documented or suspected coronary artery disease (1,117 early [less than 18 days] after acute myocardial infarction and 293 had unstable angina).

Coronary vasodilation is impaired in both hypertrophied and nonhypertrophied myocardium of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a study with nitrogen-13 ammonia and positron emission tomography.

To assess regional coronary reserve in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, regional myocardial blood flow was measured in 23 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 12 control subjects by means of nitrogen-13 ammonia and dynamic positron emission tomography. In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at baseline study, regional myocardial blood flow was 1.14 +/- 0.

Reliability of cerebral radioisotopic angiography and of directional Doppler C.W. in the diagnosis of cerebrovascular insufficiency.

The diagnostic value of radioisotopic cerebral angioscintigraphy (R.A.) and of Doppler CW (D.