The Importance of Mitral Valve Prolapse Doming Volume in the Assessment of Left Ventricular Stroke Volume with Cardiac MRI.

There remains a debate whether the ventricular volume within prolapsing mitral valve (MV) leaflets should be included in the left ventricular (LV) end-systolic volume, and therefore factored in LV stroke volume (SV), in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) assessments. This study aims to compare LV volumes during end-systolic phases, with and without the inclusion of the volume of blood on the left atrial aspect of the atrioventricular groove but still within the MV prolapsing leaflets, against the reference LV SV by four-dimensional flow (4DF). A total of 15 patients with MV prolapse (MVP) were retrospectively enrolled in this study.

An updated systematic review on heart failure treatments for patients with renal impairment: the tide is not turning.

Advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) frequently aggravates heart failure (HF). However, these patients have inherently been excluded from most HF trials. We aim to provide updated estimates of the representation of patients with advanced CKD and the provision of baseline renal function indices in HF trials with a focused interest on the landmark trials.

Time trends in sudden cardiac death risk in heart failure patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy: a systematic review.

Aims: While data from randomized trials suggest a declining incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) among heart failure patients, the extent to which such a trend is present among patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has not been evaluated. We therefore assessed changes in SCD incidence, and associated factors, in CRT recipients over the last 20 years.

Methods And Results: Literature search from inception to 30 April 2018 for observational and randomized studies involving CRT patients, with or without defibrillator, providing specific cause-of-death data.

Very long-term survival and late sudden cardiac death in cardiac resynchronization therapy patients.

Aims: The very long-term outcome of patients who survive the first few years after receiving cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has not been well described thus far. We aimed to provide long-term outcomes, especially with regard to the occurrence of sudden cardiac death (SCD), in CRT patients without (CRT-P) and with defibrillator (CRT-D).

Methods And Results: A total of 1775 patients, with ischaemic or non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy, who were alive 5 years after CRT implantation, were enrolled in this multicentre European observational cohort study.

Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome causing ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries.

A 51-year-old woman with known primary antiphospholipid syndrome presented with a 4-day history of chest and abdominal pain, inferior ST-segment elevation on a 12-lead ECG and a subtherapeutic international normalised ratio. In view of a significantly raised high-sensitivity troponin I assay, inferior wall hypokinesis on transthoracic echocardiography and despite unobstructed epicardial vessels on emergency coronary angiography, a diagnosis of myocardial infarction was made. Furthermore, the patient also developed both bilateral adrenal haemorrhages leading to acute adrenal insufficiency and microvascular thrombotic renal disease concurrently.

Usefulness of a clinical risk score to predict the response to cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Background: Almost 1/3 of heart failure patients fail to respond to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). A simple clinical score to predict who these patients are at the moment of referral or at time of implant may be of importance for early optimization of their management.

Methods: Observational study.

Device complications with addition of defibrillation to cardiac resynchronisation therapy for primary prevention.

Objective: In patients indicated for cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT), the choice between a CRT-pacemaker (CRT-P) versus defibrillator (CRT-D) remains controversial and indications in this setting have not been well delineated. Apart from inappropriate therapies, which are inherent to the presence of a defibrillator, whether adding defibrillator to CRT in the primary prevention setting impacts risk of other acute and late device-related complications has not been well studied and may bear relevance for device selection.

Methods: Observational multicentre European cohort study of 3008 consecutive patients with ischaemic or non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy and no history of sustained ventricular arrhythmias, undergoing CRT implantation with (CRT-D, n=1785) or without (CRT-P, n=1223) defibrillator.

Cause-of-death analysis in patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy with or without a defibrillator: a systematic review and proportional meta-analysis.

Aims: The additional benefit of a defibrillator in cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) patients is a matter of debate. Cause-of-death analysis in a CRT population has been recently proposed as a useful approach to gain insight into this problem. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis looking at cause of death in studies involving CRT subjects with (CRT-D) or without (CRT-P) a defibrillator.

Tramadol for neuropathic pain in adults.

Background: This review is an update of a review of tramadol for neuropathic pain, published in 2006; updating was to bring the review in line with current standards. Neuropathic pain, which is caused by a lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory system, may be central or peripheral in origin. Peripheral neuropathic pain often includes symptoms such as burning or shooting sensations, abnormal sensitivity to normally painless stimuli, or an increased sensitivity to normally painful stimuli.

Adding Defibrillation Therapy to Cardiac Resynchronization on the Basis of the Myocardial Substrate.

Background: Patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) may be at lower risk for ventricular arrhythmias compared with those with ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM). In addition, DCM has been identified as a predictor of positive response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of an additional implantable cardioverter-defibrillator over CRT, according to underlying heart disease, in a large study group of primary prevention patients with heart failure.

Sex-specific outcomes with addition of defibrillation to resynchronisation therapy in patients with heart failure.

Objective: Among primary prevention patients with heart failure receiving cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT), the impact of additional implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) treatment on outcomes and its interaction with sex remains uncertain. We aim to assess whether the addition of the ICD functionality to CRT devices offers a more pronounced survival benefit in men compared with women, as previous research has suggested.

Methods: Observational multicentre cohort study of 5307 consecutive patients with ischaemic or non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy and no history of sustained ventricular arrhythmias having CRT implantation with (cardiac resynchronisation therapy defibrillator (CRT-D), n=4037) or without (cardiac resynchronisation therapy pacemaker (CRT-P), n=1270) defibrillator functionality.

Patients upgraded to cardiac resynchronization therapy due to pacing-induced cardiomyopathy are at low risk of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias: a long-term cause-of-death analysis.

Aims: Upgrade to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) should be offered to patients who have developed pacing-induced cardiomyopathy with conventional right ventricular pacing. The extent to which these patients would also benefit from defibrillator back-up at the time of CRT upgrade is, however, unknown.

Methods And Results: Retrospective observational cohort study of 199 patients with pacing-induced cardiomyopathy and no history of sustained ventricular arrhythmia, including 104 upgraded to CRT-Pacemaker (CRT-P) and 95 upgraded to CRT-Defibrillator (CRT-D).

Determination of cable parameters in skeletal muscle fibres during repetitive firing of action potentials.

Recent studies in rat muscle fibres show that repetitive firing of action potentials causes changes in fibre resting membrane conductance (Gm) that reflect regulation of ClC-1 Cl(-) and KATP K(+) ion channels. Methodologically, these findings were obtained by inserting two microelectrodes at close proximity in the same fibres enabling measurements of fibre input resistance (Rin) in between action potential trains. Since the fibre length constant (λ) could not be determined, however, the calculation of Gm relied on the assumptions that the specific cytosolic resistivity (Ri) and muscle fibre volume remained constant during the repeated action potential firing.

Sleeping with the fishes: electromagnetic interference causing an inappropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator shock.

A 60-year-old man with a cardiac defibrillator implanted due to previous ventricular fibrillation arrest and ischaemic cardiomyopathy received a shock while cleaning his fish pond. At the time, his immersed arm was close to a submersed water pump, but the patient was asymptomatic. As a result of the shock he lost consciousness, but collapsed backwards, away from the pond.

The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study.

Objective: To quantify the consumption of chocolates in a hospital ward environment.

Design: Multicentre, prospective, covert observational study.

Setting: Four wards at three hospitals (where the authors worked) within the United Kingdom.

Altered re-excitation thresholds and conduction of extrasystolic action potentials contribute to arrhythmogenicity in murine models of long QT syndrome.

Aim: QT interval prolongation reflecting delayed action potential (AP) repolarization is associated with polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and early after depolarizations potentially initiating extrasystolic APs if of sufficient amplitude. The current experiments explored contributions of altered re-excitation thresholds for, and conduction of, such extrasystolic APs to arrhythmogenesis in Langendorff-perfused, normokalaemic, control wild-type hearts and two experimental groups modelling long QT (LQT). The two LQT groups consisted of genetically modified, Scn5a(+/ΔKPQ) and hypokalaemic wild-type murine hearts.

The age-dependence of atrial arrhythmogenicity in Scn5a+/- murine hearts reflects alterations in action potential propagation and recovery.

1. In the present study, we investigated the effect of age on atrial electrophysiological properties in Scn5a(+/-) hearts used to model corresponding increases in atrial arrhythmic tendency in human Brugada syndrome. 2.

The impact of the right ventricular lead position on response to cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Introduction: Left ventricular (LV) lead placement to the latest contracting area (concordant LV lead) is associated with better response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) compared to a discordant LV lead. However, the effect of the right ventricular (RV) lead site on CRT response is unclear. We investigated the relationship of the RV and LV lead positions on CRT response.

Delayed conduction and its implications in murine Scn5a(+/-) hearts: independent and interacting effects of genotype, age, and sex.

We explored for relationships between SCN5A haploinsufficiency, implicated in clinical arrhythmogenicity, and right ventricular (RV) conduction disorders in Langendorff-perfused, male and female, and young (3 months) and old (>12 month old) Scn5a ( +/-) and wild type (WT) hearts. The investigated conditions of genotype, age, and sex affected latencies but not repolarization time courses of RV monophasic action potentials. This prompted examination of the patterns of RV epicardial activation, its dispersion, and their interrelationships as possible arrhythmic mechanisms using a 64-channel, multi-electrode array.

Atrial arrhythmogenicity in aged Scn5a+/DeltaKPQ mice modeling long QT type 3 syndrome and its relationship to Na+ channel expression and cardiac conduction.

Recent studies have reported that human mutations in Nav1.5 predispose to early age onset atrial arrhythmia. The present experiments accordingly assess atrial arrhythmogenicity in aging Scn5a+/KPQ mice modeling long QT3 syndrome in relationship to cardiac Na(+) channel, Nav1.

Differences in sino-atrial and atrio-ventricular function with age and sex attributable to the Scn5a+/- mutation in a murine cardiac model.

Aim: To investigate the interacting effects of age and sex on electrocardiographic (ECG) features of Scn5a(+/-) mice modelling Brugada syndrome.

Methods: Recordings were performed on anaesthetized wild-type (WT) and Scn5a(+/-) mice and differences attributable to these risk factors statistically stratified.

Results: Scn5a(+/-) exerted sex-dependent effects upon sino-atrial function that only became apparent with age.