Hepatic Steatosis and Fibrosis, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Metabolic Mediators in the Community.

Background And Aims: Individuals with steatotic liver disease (SLD) are at high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, but approaches to characterise and mitigate this risk are limited. By investigating relations, and shared metabolic pathways, of hepatic steatosis/fibrosis and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), we sought to identify new avenues for CVD risk reduction in SLD.

Methods: In Framingham Heart Study (FHS) participants (N = 2722, age 54 ± 9 years, 53% women), vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) was performed between 2016-2019 to assess hepatic steatosis (continuous attenuation parameter [CAP]) and fibrosis (liver fibrosis measure [LSM]).

Abundance of fecal indicator bacteria and diversity of Escherichia coli associated with poultry farms and pasture land cover in streams of northwestern South Carolina.

Livestock can contribute fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) to waterbodies. However, few studies have examined the relationship between watershed land use or land cover involving livestock production and the genetic diversity of Escherichia coli in freshwater ecosystems. Our major goal was to determine if FIB abundance and E.

Prognostic relevance of Exercise Pulmonary Hypertension: Results of the multi-center PEX-NET Clinical Research Collaboration.

Background: Exercise pulmonary hypertension (exercise PH) was defined by a mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP)/cardiac output (CO) slope >3 mmHg·L·min between rest and exercise in the 2022 ESC/ERS PH guidelines. However, large, multi-center studies on the prognostic relevance of exercise hemodynamics and its added value to resting hemodynamics are missing.

Patients And Methods: The PEX-NET (Pulmonary Hemodynamics during Exercise Network) registry enrolled patients who underwent clinically indicated right heart catheterizations both at rest and ergometer exercise from 23 PH-centers worldwide.

The association of rotator cuff muscle morphology and glenoid morphology in primary glenohumeral osteoarthritis.

Background: This retrospective study investigated associations of rotator cuff muscle atrophy (MA) and fatty infiltration (FI) with glenoid morphology.

Methods: Patients with primary glenohumeral osteoarthritis who presented to Penn State Bone and Joint Institute's orthopaedic clinic from September 2002 to December 2019 as total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) candidates were evaluated. MA was determined by the cross-sectional area of each rotator cuff muscle on pre-operative MR and CT scans.

Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in Advanced Heart Failure Management.

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) permits the assessment of gas exchange, electrocardiogram, and hemodynamic patterns throughout exercise, providing a window into multi-organ physiologic reserve during exercise. CPET provides risk stratification and informs management of advanced heart failure (HF). Increasingly, CPET is combined with echocardiography, or invasive right heart catheterization, which enables high-resolution assessment of cardiac and extracardiac limitations to exercise.

Early Renal Outcomes Following Heart Transplantation Using Organs Procured After Circulatory Death.

Background: Transplantation using hearts obtained through donation after circulatory death (DCD) is increasing, but data on recipient renal outcomes are limited.

Methods And Results: Patients at a single institution who underwent heart transplantation using organs procured through DCD or donation after brain death (DBD) from April 2016 to August 2022 were included in this retrospective cohort study. Hemodynamic measures were collected via right heart catheterization performed 1 week after transplantation.

Impact of Aficamten on Disease and Symptom Burden in Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Results From SEQUOIA-HCM.

Background: Aficamten is a cardiac myosin inhibitor that mitigates left ventricular outflow gradients in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM). The clinical efficacy of aficamten across multiple outcome domains in oHCM has not been fully defined.

Objectives: This responder analysis from the SEQUOIA-HCM (Phase 3 Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Aficamten Compared to Placebo in Adults With Symptomatic oHCM) trial characterizes the clinical impact of aficamten.

Bicortical Compression and Construct Stability With Variable Pitch Locking Screws in Cadaveric Specimens.

Objectives: A variable pitch locking screw is intended to provide interfragmentary compression combined with fixed angle stability of locking plate constructs. The objective of this study was to compare variable pitch locking screws (3.5-mm KreuLock Ti locking compression screws, Arthrex Inc.

Mechanically compliant locking plates for diaphyseal fracture fixation: A biomechanical study.

Axial micromotion between bone fragments can stimulate callus formation and fracture healing. In this study, we propose a novel mechanically compliant locking plate which achieves up to 0.6 mm of interfragmentary motion as flexures machined into the plate elastically deflect under physiological load.

Effect of Aficamten on Health Status Outcomes in Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Results From SEQUOIA-HCM.

Background: A primary goal in treating obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM) is to improve patients' health status: their symptoms, function, and quality of life. The health status benefits of aficamten, a novel cardiac myosin inhibitor, have not been comprehensively described.

Objectives: This study sought to determine the effect of aficamten on patient-reported health status, including symptoms of fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, physical and social limitations, and quality of life.

Newton-Krylov continuation of amplitude-modulated rotating waves in sheared annular electroconvection.

We present an approach for studying the primary, secondary, and tertiary flow transitions in sheared annular electroconvection. In particular, we describe a Newton-Krylov method based on time integration for the computation of rotating waves and amplitude-modulated rotating waves, and for the continuation of these flows as a parameter of the system is varied. The method exploits the rotational nature of the flows and requires only a time-stepping code of the model differential equations, i.

Verinurad Plus Allopurinol for Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction: The AMETHYST Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Elevated serum uric acid (SUA) level may contribute to endothelial dysfunction; therefore, SUA is an attractive target for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, to the authors' knowledge, no prior randomized clinical trials have evaluated SUA lowering in HFpEF.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of the novel urate transporter-1 inhibitor, verinurad, in patients with HFpEF and elevated SUA level.

Percent Predicted Peak Exercise Oxygen Pulse Provides Insights Into Ventricular-Vascular Response and Prognosticates HFpEF.

Background: Peak oxygen consumption and oxygen pulse along with their respective percent predicted measures are gold standards of exercise capacity. To date, no studies have investigated the relationship between percent predicted peak oxygen pulse (%PredOP) and ventricular-vascular response (VVR) and the association of %PredOP with all-cause mortality in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) patients.

Objectives: The authors investigated the association between: 1) CPET measures of %PredOP and VVR; and 2) %PredOP and all-cause mortality in HFpEF patients.

Clusters of multidimensional exercise response patterns and estimated heart failure risk in the Framingham Heart Study.

Aims: New tools are needed to identify heart failure (HF) risk earlier in its course. We evaluated the association of multidimensional cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) phenotypes with subclinical risk markers and predicted long-term HF risk in a large community-based cohort.

Methods And Results: We studied 2532 Framingham Heart Study participants [age 53 ± 9 years, 52% women, body mass index (BMI) 28.

A novel controlled metabolic accelerator for the treatment of obesity-related heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: Rationale and design of the Phase 2a HuMAIN trial.

Aims: Compared with those without obesity, patients with obesity-related heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) have worse symptoms, haemodynamics, and outcomes. Current weight loss strategies (diet, drug, and surgical) work through decreased energy intake rather than increased expenditure and cause significant loss of skeletal muscle mass in addition to adipose tissue. This may have adverse implications for patients with HFpEF, who already have reduced skeletal muscle mass and function and high rates of physical frailty.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness Is Associated with Decreased Platelet Reactivity.

Purpose: Platelets are key mediators in cardiovascular disease (CVD). Low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is a risk factor for CVD. The purpose of our study was to assess if CRF associates with platelet function.