Combination of the best pacing configuration and atrioventricular and interventricular delays optimization in cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Background: Cardiac resynchronization therapy optimization can be pursued by left ventricular pacing vector selection and atrioventricular (AV) and interventricular (VV) delays optimization. The combination of these methods and its comparison with multipoint pacing (MPP) is scarcely studied.

Methods: Using noninvasive cardiac output (CO) measurement, the best of five left ventricular pacing vectors was determined, then AV and VV delays optimization was applied on top of the best vector.

Long-term outcome of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation in secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death.

Background: Little is known about the long-term outcomes of patients who receive an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) for purely secondary prevention indications.

Aims: To assess the rates and predictors of appropriate therapies over a very long-term follow-up period in this population.

Methods: Between June 2003 and August 2006, 239 consecutive patients with structural left ventricular disease and a secondary prophylaxis indication for ICD therapy (survivors of life-threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmias) were prospectively enrolled.

Quantitative assessment of primary mitral regurgitation using left ventricular volumes: a three-dimensional transthoracic echocardiographic pilot study.

Aims: To investigate the value of assessment of mitral regurgitant fraction (RF) using left ventricular (LV) volumes obtained by three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) to quantify primary mitral regurgitation (MR).

Methods And Results: Sixty patients with primary MR in sinus rhythm were prospectively enrolled. RF was calculated using either 2DE or 3DE LV volumes obtained as follows: (LV total stroke volume - LV forward stroke volume by Doppler)/LV total stroke volume.

Relationship between two-dimensional speckle-tracking septal strain and response to cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with left ventricular dysfunction and left bundle branch block: a prospective pilot study.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated variable patterns of longitudinal septal deformation in patients with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and left bundle branch block. This prospective single center study was designed to assess the relationship between septal deformation patterns obtained by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography and response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).

Methods: One hundred one patients with New York Heart Association class II to IV heart failure, LV ejection fractions ≤ 35%, and left bundle branch block underwent echocardiography before CRT.

FOXO1 regulates L-Selectin and a network of human T cell homing molecules downstream of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase.

In T cells, the PI3K pathway promotes proliferation and survival induced by Ag or growth factors, in part by inactivating the FOXO transcription factor 1. We now report that FOXO1 controls the expression of L-selectin, an essential homing molecule, in human T lymphocytes. This control is already operational in unprimed T cells and involves a transcriptional regulation process that requires the FOXO1 DNA-binding domain.