Right ventricular strain impairment due to hypoxia in patients with COPD: a post hoc analysis of two randomised controlled trials.

Background: Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction leads to an increase in pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and potentially right heart failure in healthy individuals and patients with respiratory diseases. Previous studies in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exposed to hypobaric hypoxia have shown an increase in PAP, while traditional echocardiographic parameters revealed only minimal changes at high altitude. Speckle-tracking-derived analysis is potentially more sensitive to assess right ventricular (RV) function and we used this method to investigate the impact on RV function of patients with COPD ascending to high altitude and compared the results with the traditional echocardiographic parameters.

Pre-interventional renal artery calcification and survival after transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

The prognostic significance of renal artery calcification (RAC) is unknown in patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) eligible for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). RAC can be assessed by computed tomography (CT) performed during pre-interventional planning for TAVI. This study aimed at investigating the utility of RAC for predicting survival after TAVI.

Experimental assessment of the performance of artificial intelligence in solving multiple-choice board exams in cardiology.

Aims: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of various artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots (commercially available in Switzerland up to June 2023) in solving a theoretical cardiology board exam and to compare their accuracy with that of human cardiology fellows.

Methods: For the study, a set of 88 multiple-choice cardiology exam questions was used. The participating cardiology fellows and selected chatbots were presented with these questions.

Role of imaging in third aortic valve implantation: TAV-in-TAV-in-SAV.

Coronary obstruction remains a primary concern for redo transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) due to supra-annular leaflets. Hereby, we present two valve-in-valve-in-valve cases, initially incorporating a surgical valve implanted to clarify our concept that the surgical valve serves to safeguard against the coronary ostium obstruction.