Heart Failure after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: Application of the Most Impactful Strain Imaging Techniques.

• LBBB is the most common TAVI-induced conduction abnormality. • Strain imaging can assist with determining the etiology of heart failure after TAVI. • Strain imaging can help predict response to CRT.

Speckle tracking strain and ECG heterogeneity correlate in transcatheter aortic valve replacement-induced left bundle branch blocks and right ventricular paced rhythms.

Objective: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) complications include left bundle branch block (LBBB) and right ventricular paced rhythm (RVP). We hypothesised that changes in electrocardiographic heterogeneity would correlate better with speckle tracking strain measures than with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) on transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) among patients with TAVR-induced conduction abnormalities.

Methods: We reviewed medical records of 446 consecutive patients who underwent TAVR at our institution.

The Impact of Basal Septal Hypertrophy on Outcomes after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

Background: The role of basal septal hypertrophy (BSH) on preprocedural transthoracic echocardiography in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is unknown.

Methods: Medical charts and preprocedural transthoracic echocardiograms of 378 patients who underwent TAVR were examined. The association between BSH and the primary composite outcome of valve pop-out, recapture, embolization, aborted procedure, conversion to open procedure, new conduction disturbance, or need for permanent pacemaker ≤30 days after TAVR was evaluated.

Temporal Associations Between Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease, 1971 to 2006 (from the Framingham Heart Study).

Smoking has consistently been related to cardiovascular risk. Public health efforts have yielded reduced smoking prevalence and gains in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. We hypothesized that the contribution of tobacco to CVD risk would be attenuated over prospective decades (1971 to 2006) in a community-based cohort.

Assessment of reproducibility--automated and digital caliper ECG measurement in the Framingham Heart Study.

Background: Digitized electrocardiography permits the rapid, automated quantification of electrocardiograms (ECGs) for analysis. Community- and population-based studies have increasingly integrated such data. Assessing the reproducibility of automated ECG measures with manual measures is a critical step in preparation for using automated measures for research purposes.

Renal sympathetic denervation for the treatment of systemic hypertension.

Systemic hypertension is a common cardiovascular problem that often cannot be fully treated with existing nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic measures. A catheter-based strategy which denervates the renal afferent and efferent autonomic nervous system has been developed for the treatment of drug-resistant hypertension. In early clinical trials, this procedure was shown to be both feasible and safe in reducing blood pressure in patients with uncontrolled hypertension receiving treatment with a minimum of 3 antihypertensive drugs.

Moyamoya disease: a summary.

Moyamoya, meaning a "hazy puff of smoke" in Japanese, is a chronic, occlusive cerebrovascular disease involving bilateral stenosis or occlusion of the terminal portion of the internal carotid arteries (ICAs) and/or the proximal portions of the anterior cerebral arteries and middle cerebral arteries (MCAs). The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan has defined 4 types of moyamoya disease (MMD): ischemic, hemorrhagic, epileptic, and "other." The ischemic type has been shown to predominate in childhood, while the hemorrhagic type is more often observed in the adult population.

BMPR1a signaling determines numbers of oligodendrocytes and calbindin-expressing interneurons in the cortex.

Progenitor cells that express the transcription factor olig1 generate several neural cell types including oligodendrocytes and GABAergic interneurons in the dorsal cortex. The fate of these progenitor cells is regulated by a number of signals including bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) secreted in the dorsal forebrain. BMPs signal by binding to heteromeric serine-threonine kinase receptors formed by type I (BMPR1a, BMPR1b, Alk2) and type II (BMPRII) subunits.