Publications by authors named "John MacArthur"

A 50-year-old man with an acute type B aortic dissection underwent thoracic endovascular aortic repair in 2019. The patient presented again with chest pain and left arm numbness. Computed tomography scan revealed aneurysm expansion and extensive thrombus within a floating stent graft.

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Purpose: Advancements in minimally invasive technologies to decrease postoperative morbidity and recovery times represent a large opportunity for mitral valve repair operations. However, current technologies are unable to replicate gold standard surgical neochord implantation.

Methods: We developed a novel neochordal repair device, Minimally Invasive Ventricular Anchoring Neochordoplasty (MIVAN), which operates via transcatheter, trans-septal anchoring to the posterior ventricular wall.

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Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has emerged as a crucial tool in the care of patients with multiorgan failure and is increasingly utilized as a bridge to transplantation. While data on ECMO as a bridge to isolated heart and lung transplantation have been described, our emerging experience with ECMO as a bridge to thoracic multiorgan transplantation is not yet well understood.

Methods: The United Network for Organ Sharing database was used to identify adult patients undergoing thoracic multiorgan transplantation between 1987 and 2022.

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Background: Combined heart-liver transplantation (CHLT) is a definitive therapy reserved for patients with concomitant heart failure and advanced liver disease. A limited number of centers perform CHLT, and even fewer use the en bloc implantation technique. Here we review clinical outcomes and immunoprotective effects following CHLT and describe our institution's more than two decades of experience in performing the en bloc technique.

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Article Synopsis
  • Doctors are using a new method called "beating heart implantation" for heart transplants, which makes it easier to use donated hearts.
  • In a study with 24 patients, most received hearts from donors who had died after their hearts stopped beating, and 95.8% were still alive after about 192 days.
  • This method showed great results with low rejection rates of the new hearts, making it a promising option for future heart transplants.
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  • Acute undifferentiated febrile illness (AUFI) often goes undiagnosed in Thailand, leading to delays in treatment; a study was conducted with 1,263 patients across 12 hospitals to analyze infection types.
  • Bacterial infections were more prevalent in Nakhon Phanom compared to Tak, with key risk factors including age over 50, contact with farm animals, recent antibiotic use, and existing health issues.
  • The study highlights that understanding patient characteristics can improve laboratory testing and diagnosis, promoting better treatment strategies and antibiotic use in resource-limited areas.
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Background: Pathogenic concepts of right ventricular (RV) failure in pulmonary arterial hypertension focus on a critical loss of microvasculature. However, the methods underpinning prior studies did not take into account the 3-dimensional (3D) aspects of cardiac tissue, making accurate quantification difficult. We applied deep-tissue imaging to the pressure-overloaded RV to uncover the 3D properties of the microvascular network and determine whether deficient microvascular adaptation contributes to RV failure.

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Background: In response to the 2015-2016 Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak and the causal relationship established between maternal ZIKV infection and adverse infant outcomes, we conducted a cohort study to estimate the incidence of ZIKV infection in pregnancy and assess its impacts in women and infants.

Methodology/principal Findings: From May 2018-January 2020, we prospectively followed pregnant women recruited from 134 participating hospitals in two non-adjacent provinces in northeastern Thailand. We collected demographic, clinical, and epidemiologic data and blood and urine at routine antenatal care visits until delivery.

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Introduction: As the adult Fontan population with Fontan associated liver disease continues to increase, more patients are being referred for transplantation, including combined heart and liver transplantation.

Methods: We report updated mortality and morbidity outcomes after combined heart and liver transplant in a retrospective cohort series of 40 patients (age 14 to 49 years) with Fontan circulation across two centers from 2006-2022.

Results: The 30-day, 1-year, 5-year and 10-year survival rate was 90%, 80%, 73% and 73% respectively.

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Importance: The use of ex vivo normothermic organ perfusion has enabled the use of deceased after circulatory death (DCD) donors for heart transplants. However, compared with conventional brain death donation, DCD heart transplantation performed with ex vivo organ perfusion involves an additional period of warm and cold ischemia, exposing the allograft to multiple bouts of ischemia reperfusion injury and may contribute to the high rates of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation usage after DCD heart transplantation.

Objective: To assess whether the beating heart method of DCD heart transplantation is safe and whether it has an acceptable rate of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use postoperatively.

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Paediatric sepsis prevalence data from low-income and middle-income countries are lacking. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed clinician recognition and documentation of non-neonatal community-acquired paediatric sepsis in two rural border provinces in Thailand among children admitted between October and December 2017. Of the 152 children meeting sepsis criteria (26.

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  • Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), specifically Mycoplasma genitalium (MG), pose a significant risk to U.S. Armed Forces personnel, potentially affecting their readiness and performance.
  • A study at two military bases analyzed data from 432 participants, finding a 10% prevalence of MG, with higher rates among females and non-Hispanic Black individuals.
  • The research indicates that single relationship status and multiple recent sexual partners are linked to increased MG prevalence, emphasizing the need for further investigation into this emerging pathogen in military settings.
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  • Heart transplantation from deceased after circulatory death (DCD) donors has increased thanks to ex vivo normothermic perfusion techniques.
  • The typical DCD process involves extra warm and cold ischemia periods compared to brain death donations.
  • A new beating heart implantation method has been created to avoid a second cardioplegic arrest and potential injury, which could enhance both short-term and long-term outcomes.
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  • The study looked at patients who had surgery to replace part of their heart called the aortic root, with some also getting surgery on a nearby area called the aortic arch.
  • Out of 1,196 patients, 471 had both aortic root and arch surgery, with most surgeries being a smaller replacement called hemiarch.
  • The results showed that both types of surgery had a low death rate during and after the procedures, and they did not significantly increase the chances of severe complications like stroke.
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  • The study looked at patients who had heart surgery called aortic root replacement and how receiving blood transfusions affected their recovery.
  • Out of 760 patients, 442 received blood transfusions during their surgery, and researchers compared their results to similar patients who didn't get transfusions.
  • The results showed that those who got blood transfusions had more complications after surgery, like needing longer breathing support and extra hospital time, and they had a lower chance of survival over five years compared to those who didn't get transfusions.
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A complex 15-year treatment history of a 75-year-old man with New York Heart Association class III symptoms is presented via images and video. His treatment history was noteworthy of bicuspid aortic valve (AV) and a ventricular septal defect (VSD), for which he had an AV replacement and VSD closure in 2005. In 2015, he underwent redo AV replacement and root reconstruction.

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Article Synopsis
  • * This study reviewed the outcomes of patients who underwent full aortic root replacement after a prior type A dissection repair from 2004-2020 at a leading medical center.
  • * Results indicated that reoperative root replacements, even with additional procedures like aortic arch replacements or coronary reconstruction, had acceptable mid-term outcomes and comparable survival rates.
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Public Health Emergency Operations Centers (PHEOCs) are the critical units to lead communications, information sharing, and resource mobilisation during national and international health emergencies, and are key components for maintaining global health security. This assessment sought to examine the coordination mechanisms between national and sub-national PHEOCs in Thailand, Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Malaysia (TCLM countries) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information was collected on PHEOC structures, functions, and cross-border communications in three stages: a literature review of national PHEOC and emergency preparedness capacities; questionnaire responses from stakeholders to describe PHEOC activity at the national level; and meetings with emergency response staff in five border provinces of Thailand to assess communications between sub-national PHEOCs across country borders.

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Background: Surgical management of severe mitral annular calcification (MAC) presents a challenging problem for even the most experienced surgeons. Preoperative planning is the most effective strategy to mitigate risk in these scenarios. MAC alone should not disqualify a patient from consideration for mitral valve repair, although the presence of concurrent greater than moderate stenosis warrants consideration of mitral valve replacement.

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