Accuracy of Established Prognostic Staging Systems for Cardiac Transthyretin Amyloidosis in the Tafamidis Era.

Background: Biomarker-based prognostic staging systems, including the National Amyloidosis Centre (NAC) and the Mayo staging systems, are widely-used but have only been validated for treatment-naive patients with cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR-CA).

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy of the NAC and Mayo staging systems in patients with ATTR-CA treated with tafamidis.

Methods: A retrospective observational study following patients with ATTR-CA from initiation of tafamidis (baseline) to time of all-cause death was conducted.

Ultra-fast single-crystal CVD diamonds in the particle time-of-flight (PTOF) detector for low yield burn-history measurements on the NIF (invited).

The Particle Time of Flight (PTOF) diagnostic is a chemical vapor deposition diamond-based detector and is the only diagnostic for measuring nuclear bang times of low yield (<1013) shots on the National Ignition Facility. Recently, a comprehensive study of detector impulse responses revealed certain detectors with very fast and consistent impulse responses with a rise time of <50 ps, enabling low yield burn history measurements. At the current standoff of 50 cm, this measurement is possible with fast 14 MeV neutrons from deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion plasmas.

Cardiac Elastography With External Vibration for Quantification of Diastolic Myocardial Stiffness.

Objectives: Heart failure is an increasing global health problem. Approximately 50% of patients with heart failure have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and concomitant diastolic dysfunction (DD), in part caused by increased myocardial stiffness not detectable by standard echocardiography. While elastography can map tissue stiffness, cardiac applications are currently limited, especially in patients with a higher body mass index.