A Case of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation in a Centenarian Patient.

Calcified aortic stenosis has become the most common form of acquired valvular heart disease in very old patients. Despite this fact, a majority of these patients were turned down by surgery owing to a risk of mortality > 10% in patients older than 90 years. In recent years, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as a therapeutic option for severe aortic stenosis.

Evaluation of anticoagulation use and subsequent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation after empiric surgical left atrial appendage closure: A retrospective case-control study.

Background: Surgical exclusion of the left atrial appendage (LAA) can be performed at the time of cardiac operation as a potential modality to decrease cardioembolic risk attributable to atrial fibrillation (AF), but it remains unclear if this decreases stroke incidence. Furthermore, it is not known whether LAA exclusion impacts the decision to discontinue anticoagulation impacting subsequent stroke risk.

Hypothesis: LAA exclusion does not significantly alter subsequent anticoagulation use or stroke incidence.

Association of Surgical Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion With Subsequent Stroke and Mortality Among Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery.

Importance: Surgical occlusion of the left atrial appendage (LAAO) may be performed during concurrent cardiac surgery. However, few data exist on the association of LAAO with long-term risk of stroke, and some evidence suggests that this procedure may be associated with subsequent development of atrial fibrillation (AF).

Objective: To evaluate the association of surgical LAAO performed during cardiac surgery with risk of stroke, mortality, and development of subsequent AF.

Myosin MyTH4-FERM structures highlight important principles of convergent evolution.

Myosins containing MyTH4-FERM (myosin tail homology 4-band 4.1, ezrin, radixin, moesin, or MF) domains in their tails are found in a wide range of phylogenetically divergent organisms, such as humans and the social amoeba Dictyostelium (Dd). Interestingly, evolutionarily distant MF myosins have similar roles in the extension of actin-filled membrane protrusions such as filopodia and bind to microtubules (MT), suggesting that the core functions of these MF myosins have been highly conserved over evolution.

Direct real-time detection of the structural and biochemical events in the myosin power stroke.

A principal goal of molecular biophysics is to show how protein structural transitions explain physiology. We have developed a strategic tool, transient time-resolved FRET [(TR)(2)FRET], for this purpose and use it here to measure directly, with millisecond resolution, the structural and biochemical kinetics of muscle myosin and to determine directly how myosin's power stroke is coupled to the thermodynamic drive for force generation, actin-activated phosphate release, and the weak-to-strong actin-binding transition. We find that actin initiates the power stroke before phosphate dissociation and not after, as many models propose.

Characterization of a myosin VII MyTH/FERM domain.

A group of closely related myosins is characterized by the presence of at least one MyTH/FERM (myosin tail homology; band 4.1, ezrin, radixin, moesin) domain in their C-terminal tails. This domain interacts with a variety of binding partners, and mutations in either the MyTH4 or the FERM domain of myosin VII and myosin XV result in deafness, highlighting the functional importance of each domain.