Reproductive Experiences of Physicians in Medical and Surgical Subspecialties.

To evaluate the reproductive experiences of physicians across gender and specialty. Between November and December 2021, we surveyed nontrainee physicians of all genders at a single quaternary institution using a modified version of an existing survey instrument. Experiences with family planning, fertility, pregnancy, and parental leave were assessed.

Early Intervention in Asymptomatic Aortic Stenosis: What Are We Waiting For?

Aortic stenosis (AS) contributes to significant cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide, and the natural history from symptoms to ventricular decompensation, heart failure, and death has been well documented. For more than 2 decades, technologies including imaging and biomarkers have shown a promising ability to detect myocardial damage associated with AS before symptoms arise. Current treatment guidelines rely heavily on symptoms or ventricular decompensation as triggers for aortic valve intervention.

Risk factors and early outcomes of repeat sternotomy in 1960 adults with congenital heart disease: A 30-year, single-center study.

Objective: Patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) increasingly live into adulthood, often requiring cardiac reoperation. We aimed to assess the outcomes of adults with CHD (ACHD) undergoing repeat sternotomy at our institution.

Methods: Review of our institution's cardiac surgery database identified 1960 ACHD patients undergoing repeat median sternotomy from 1993 to 2023.

Autologous Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Mononuclear Cell Therapy Promotes Cardiac Proliferation and Adaptation in a Porcine Model of Right Ventricle Pressure Overload.

Congenital heart diseases, including single ventricle circulations, are clinically challenging due to chronic pressure overload and the inability of the myocardium to compensate for lifelong physiological demands. To determine the clinical relevance of autologous umbilical cord blood-derived mononuclear cells (UCB-MNCs) as a therapy to augment cardiac adaptation following surgical management of congenital heart disease, a validated model system of right ventricular pressure overload due to pulmonary artery banding (PAB) in juvenile pigs has been employed. PAB in a juvenile porcine model and intramyocardial delivery of UCB-MNCs was evaluated in three distinct 12-week studies utilizing serial cardiac imaging and end-of-study pathology evaluations.

Impact of Hospital Volume on Outcomes of Septal Myectomy for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Background: Left ventricular outflow tract obstruction is common among symptomatic patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, yet septal reduction by surgical myectomy (septal myectomy [SM]) is performed infrequently in many centers. This study examined the possible relationship between institutional case volume and early outcomes of SM.

Methods: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database was queried for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who underwent SM from January 2012 to December 2019.

Cone Reconstruction for Ebstein Anomaly: Ventricular Remodeling and Preliminary Impact of Stem Cell Therapy.

Objective: To define the impact of tricuspid valve cone reconstruction (CR) on ventricular performance in Ebstein anomaly, both independently and after stem cell therapy.

Patients And Methods: The control group included 257 patients who had CR between June 2007 and December 2019. Ten subjects of a phase I stem cell therapy trial (May 2017 - March 2019) were compared with the controls to assess the echocardiographic impact on ventricular remodeling.

From Safety to Benefit in Cell Delivery During Surgical Repair of Ebstein Anomaly: Initial Results.

Background: The objective of this study is to assess the safety and early impact of intramyocardial delivery of autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) at time of surgical Ebstein repair.

Methods: Patients with Ebstein anomaly (ages 6 months to 30 years) scheduled to undergo repair of the tricuspid valve were eligible to participate in this open-label, non-randomized phase I clinical trial. BM-MNC target dose was 1-3 million cells/kg.

Bargain Hunting for Buffered Lidocaine: A Collaborative Discovery of Cost-saving Strategies That Can Improve Patient Care.

Buffered lidocaine is a local anesthetic option during percutaneous needle-directed procedures in the breast. At our institution, sodium bicarbonate (the buffer) is dispensed in volumes that frequently lead to medical waste and shortages. In this study, we describe how moving the buffering of lidocaine from the procedure room to our clinical hospital pharmacy results in a reduction in costs and improves satisfaction across the breast radiology department.

Dysregulated ribonucleoprotein granules promote cardiomyopathy in RBM20 gene-edited pigs.

Ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules are biomolecular condensates-liquid-liquid phase-separated droplets that organize and manage messenger RNA metabolism, cell signaling, biopolymer assembly, biochemical reactions and stress granule responses to cellular adversity. Dysregulated RNP granules drive neuromuscular degenerative disease but have not previously been linked to heart failure. By exploring the molecular basis of congenital dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in genome-edited pigs homozygous for an RBM20 allele encoding the pathogenic R636S variant of human RNA-binding motif protein-20 (RBM20), we discovered that RNP granules accumulated abnormally in the sarcoplasm, and we confirmed this finding in myocardium and reprogrammed cardiomyocytes from patients with DCM carrying the R636S allele.

Generalization of three-dimensional golden-angle radial acquisition to reduce eddy current artifacts in bSSFP CMR imaging.

Purpose: We propose a novel generalization of the three-dimensional double-golden-angle profile ordering, which allows for whole-heart volumetric imaging with retrospective binning and reduced eddy current artifacts.

Methods: A novel theory bridging the gap between the three-dimensional double golden-angle trajectory, and the two-dimensional tiny-golden-angle trajectory is presented. This enables a class of double golden-angle profile orderings with a smaller angular distance between successive k-space readouts.