Comparison of Elicitation Approaches in Early Stage HTA Applied on Artificial Thymus for Patients with DiGeorge Syndrome.

This paper focuses on research in expert elicitation as a part of the early stage health technology assessment (eHTA). The current state of affairs is analysed and two elicitation approaches are compared-the four fixed intervals method and the histogram method-as applied to an example of early assessment of clinical effectiveness of artificial thymus for patients with DiGeorge syndrome. A survey was carried out consisting of four questions concerning the topic, with the aim to apply the elicitation methods.

Vascular Remodeling of Clinically Used Patches and Decellularized Pericardial Matrices Recellularized with Autologous or Allogeneic Cells in a Porcine Carotid Artery Model.

Background: Cardiovascular surgery is confronted by a lack of suitable materials for patch repair. Acellular animal tissues serve as an abundant source of promising biomaterials. The aim of our study was to explore the bio-integration of decellularized or recellularized pericardial matrices in vivo.

Multi-lead vs single-lead T -T interval measurements for prediction of reperfusion ventricular tachyarrhythmias.

Introduction: Electrocardiographic T -T interval (Tp-Te) is a promising marker for the prediction of ventricular tachycardia and/or ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF). The study was aimed to compare single-lead vs multilead Tp-Te variables as VT/VF predictors in experimental ischemia/reperfusion model.

Methods And Results: Computer simulations were done using the ECGSIM model with an ischemic region set in anterior left ventricular apex.

Mechanism of electrocardiographic T-wave flattening in diabetes mellitus: experimental and simulation study.

In the present study we investigated the contribution of ventricular repolarization time (RT) dispersion (the maximal difference in RT) and RT gradients (the differences in RT in apicobasal, anteroposterior and interventricular directions) to T-wave flattening in a setting of experimental diabetes mellitus. In 9 healthy and 11 diabetic (alloxan model) open-chest rabbits, we measured RT in ventricular epicardial electrograms. To specify the contributions of apicobasal, interventricular and anteroposterior RT gradients and RT dispersion to the body surface potentials we determined T-wave voltage differences between modified upper- and lower-chest precordial leads (T-wave amplitude dispersions, TWAD).

Nanofibrous polycaprolactone scaffolds with adhered platelets stimulate proliferation of skin cells.

Objectives: Faulty wound healing is a global healthcare problem. Chronic wounds are generally characterized by a reduction in availability of growth factors. New strategies are being developed to deliver growth factors more effectively.

Ventricular electrical heterogeneity in experimental diabetes mellitus: effect of myocardial ischemia.

Aims of the study were to compare the development of electrocardiographic responses of the ischemia-induced heterogeneities of activation and repolarization in the ventricular myocardium of normal and diabetic animals. Body surface ECGs and unipolar electrograms in 64 epicardial leads were recorded before and during 20 min after the ligation of the left anterior descending artery in diabetic (alloxan model, 4 weeks, n=8) and control (n=8) rabbits. Activation times (ATs), end of repolarization times (RTs) and repolarization durations (activation-recovery intervals, ARIs) were determined in ischemic and periischemic zones.

Electrocardiographic diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy on the basis of dipole electrocardiotopography method.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to verify a new criterion of hypertension-related left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) on the basis of the dipole electrocardiotopographic technique, which provides intelligible pictorial patterns and efficient quantitative parameters for recognition of pathologic states of the heart.

Methods: Standard 12-lead and vectorcardiographic measurements with the McFee-Parungao lead system were carried out for 289 echocardiographically accessed healthy subjects and hypertensive patients with LVH. The proposed parameter index of left ventricular hypertrophy for recognition of LVH is a product of the following 3 characteristics: maximum magnitude of depolarization vector, total duration of ventricular depolarization, and local spatial integral of activation duration.

Noninvasive assessment of local myocardium repolarization changes using high resolution surface ECG mapping.

A method using body surface potential maps for assessment of myocardium lesions with changed repolarization is presented and suitable mapping system is introduced. Differences between normal and altered QRST integral maps together with torso volume conductor model were used to determine the equivalent dipole representing the lesion. Performance of the method was studied on simulated data.

Methodics of IR Imaging in SCI Individuals Rehabilitation.

Temperature is one of the parameters which gives information about some physiological changes in the human body, especially in spinal cord injured (SCI) individuals and their rehabilitation. Exercise induces muscle contraction, and in interactivity with cardiovascular and respiratory system produces heat, which dilates by conduction through the tissue to body surface. In individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) autonomic disruption, immobility and inactivity play critical roles in affecting peripheral vascular circulation.

Modular measuring system for assessment of the thyroid gland functional state.

Distributed modular system BioLab for biophysical examinations enabling assessment of the thyroid gland functional state is presented. Two smart sensors modules measuring 4 different biosignals are connected to an Ethernet based network and enable to obtain peripheral indicators of human cardiovascular and neuromuscular functions. Personal notebook or desktop computer with a network interface controls the sensors and performs processing and evaluation of measured biosignals.

A model study of the sensitivity of body surface potential distribution to variations of electrode placement.

The effect of electrode displacement as one of the sources of reproducibility errors in body surface potential maps was studied using a realistic computer model of the cardiac electric field. A uniform dipole layer model of the cardiac generator and a realistic geometry of the torso, heart, and lungs was adopted for the simulation of surface potentials during ventricular activation. The effect of systematic electrode displacement in terms of longitudinal shifts and variations of longitudinal size (height) of the mapped area was studied.

Body surface isochrone maps of peak R in normal adolescent girls.

The aim of our study was to evaluate the adequacy of a new mapping device for obtaining a reliable set of normal maps characteristic for this approach. We studied body surface isochrone maps of peak R in four healthy adolescent girls using the mapping system CARDIAG 128.1 with 80 unipolar leads placed in a regular grid.

Topographic concepts in computerized electrocardiology.

Modern approaches to automatized electrocardiological diagnostics are mostly based on topographic conception. Thus, initially measured data and the results of data processing are represented by parameters distributed over a surface instead of by the separate time-dependent curves of usual electrocardiograms. Examples of the topographic approach are found in measuring and analyzing body-surface (including precordial) potential distributions, epicardial and endocardial potential distributions, heart surface distributions of the intensity of an equivalent bioelectric generator, significant electrophysiological characteristics of the bioelectrical processes in myocardium, etc.

[Measurement of volume-rate parameters of pulmonary ventilation in infants using the SAV pneumotachograph].

The paper deals with methods and equipment for measuring pulmonary ventilation parameters in children of the lowest age category. Description and substantiation of the given method of the measurement itself on the Pneumotachograph SAV. Evaluation of the obtained results in the records and of the time courses of volume and air flow rate on a single-pen recorder is presented further the relations necessary for quantitative description of analogue signal processing from the pneumotachograph are given as well as the series of parameters obtained on examining 21 infants and their clinical evaluation.

[Integral characteristics of the eletrical generator of the human heart].

Integral characteristics of the cardiac electrical generator, namely the dipole moment vector, position of the moving electrical center and the complexity parameter (relative quadrupolar potential), are presented for a group of healthy middle-aged men. The characteristics are determined as a result of mathematical processing of electrical potential distribution on the torso surface and geometrical parameters of this surface in a digital computer. The values of the surface potentials and coordinates were obtained by means of experimental measurements using a special automatized measuring system for investigating the cardiac electrical field.