Left ventricular sphericity independently predicts appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy.

Background: Whether echocardiographic markers of remodeling are associated with ventricular tachyarrhythmias is unknown.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) marker of spherical left ventricular (LV) remodeling is associated with appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy in patients with primary prevention ICDs.

Methods: From TTE images, we calculated sphericity index (SI), the ratio of biplane LV end-diastolic volume to the volume of a hypothetical sphere with a diameter of the LV end-diastolic length, and examined the relation between SI and therapy for ventricular tachyarrhythmias in 278 patients with primary prevention ICDs and in 50 controls without structural heart disease or ventricular arrhythmias.

Strained Dating Relationships, A Sense of Mattering and Emerging Adults' Depressive Symptoms.

Dating relationships become increasingly important as individuals transition into young adulthood. Such relationships often involve positive and negative interactions, which may have implications for psychological well-being. We analyzed data from the fourth interview of the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), when respondents were ages 18-24, to assess the influence of relationship dynamics on depressive symptoms.

Left Ventricular Structure and Risk of Cardiovascular Events: A Framingham Heart Study Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Study.

Background: Elevated left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and concentric left ventricular (LV) remodeling are related to adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. The predictive utility of LV concentric remodeling and LV mass in the prediction of CVD events is not well characterized.

Methods And Results: Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort members without prevalent CVD (n=1715, 50% men, aged 65±9 years) underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance for LVMI and geometry (2002-2006) and were prospectively followed for incident CVD (myocardial infarction, coronary insufficiency, heart failure, stroke) or CVD death.

Effects of long-term ambient ozone exposure on biomass and wood traits in poplar treated with ethylenediurea (EDU).

This is the longest continuous experiment where ethylenediurea (EDU) was used to protect plants from ozone (O3). Effects of long-term ambient O3 exposure (23 ppm h AOT40) on biomass of an O3 sensitive poplar clone (Oxford) were examined after six years from in-ground planting. Trees were irrigated with either water or 450 ppm EDU.

Influence of increasing construct constraint in the presence of posterolateral deficiency at knee replacement: A biomechanical study.

When faced with posterolateral corner (PLC) deficiency, surgeons must choose a total knee replacement (TKR) construct that provides the appropriate level of constraint. This should match the internal constraint of the device to the soft tissue host laxity pattern. Little guidance is available peroperatively, with factors influencing final component choice remaining ill defined.

Unpacking the "Black Box" of Race-Ethnic Variation in Fertility.

Race-ethnic differences in a range of childbearing behaviors are long-standing and well-documented, and these differences are attenuated, but not eliminated, when accounting for socioeconomic disparities. The residual differences are often attributed to vague and untested variation across race-ethnic groups in knowledge, attitudes, psychological attributes, normative beliefs, and social context. We use the longitudinal Toledo Adolescent Relationship Study (TARS), which contains a rich set of such factors measured in early adolescence, to assess whether they contribute to race-ethnic differences in having a birth among men and women ages 17-24 (n=1,042).

Intimate partner violence in neighborhood context: The roles of structural disadvantage, subjective disorder, and emotional distress.

Most theoretical treatments of intimate partner violence (IPV) focus on individual-level processes. Some researchers have attempted to situate IPV within the larger neighborhood context, but few studies have sought to link structural- and individual-level factors. The current analyses fill a research gap by examining the role of anger and depression in the association between neighborhood disadvantage and IPV.

Stay-or-Leave Decision Making in Nonviolent and Violent Dating Relationships.

Data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study were used to address how specific relationship dynamics, perceived alternatives, social support, and intimate partner violence (IPV) itself influenced breakups among respondents in nonviolent and violent dating relationships (n = 700). Both positive and negative relationship dynamics, perceived alternatives, and messages from significant others predicted whether individuals ended their relationships. In addition, these analyses indicated that violence was not associated with the odds of relationship termination.

Prognostic value of pulmonary vein size in prediction of atrial fibrillation recurrence after pulmonary vein isolation: a cardiovascular magnetic resonance study.

Background: The relationship between pulmonary vein (PV) anatomy and successful catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is poorly understood

Methods: First-pass contrast enhanced PV magnetic resonance angiography was performed in 71 consecutive patients prior to PV isolation. PV diameter and cross-sectional area (CSA) were measured prior to PV isolation. Any symptomatic or asymptomatic AF >10s was considered a recurrence.

Assessing the effects of ambient ozone in China on snap bean genotypes by using ethylenediurea (EDU).

Four genotypes of snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were selected to study the effects of ambient ozone concentration at a cropland area around Beijing by using 450 ppm of ethylenediurea (EDU) as a chemical protectant. During the growing season, the 8h (9:00-17:00) average ozone concentration was very high, approximately 71.

How Do Noninvasive Imaging Facilities Perceive the Accreditation Process? Results of an Intersocietal Accreditation Commission Survey.

The Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) accredits vascular, echocardiography, nuclear medicine, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging laboratories. How facilities involved in the accreditation process view accreditation is unknown. The objective of this study was to examine the perception of laboratory accreditation from those who had undergone the process.

Impact of motion correction on reproducibility and spatial variability of quantitative myocardial T2 mapping.

Background: To evaluate and quantify the impact of a novel image-based motion correction technique in myocardial T2 mapping in terms of measurement reproducibility and spatial variability.

Methods: Twelve healthy adult subjects were imaged using breath-hold (BH), free breathing (FB), and free breathing with respiratory navigator gating (FB + NAV) myocardial T2 mapping sequences. Fifty patients referred for clinical CMR were imaged using the FB + NAV sequence.

Significance of Late Gadolinium Enhancement at Right Ventricular Attachment to Ventricular Septum in Patients With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) with extensive late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) is a novel marker for increased risk for sudden death (SD) in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC). Small focal areas of LGE confined to the region of right ventricular (RV) insertion to ventricular septum (VS) have emerged as a frequent and highly visible CMR imaging pattern of uncertain significance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of LGE confined to the RV insertion area in patients with HC.

Origin and Pawn scaling for adults who do and do not stutter: A preliminary comparison.

Purpose: In order to determine whether adults who stutter (AWS) would show changes in locus of causality during stuttering treatment and approximate those of adults who do not stutter (AWNS) this preliminary study compared the locus of causality as indicated by Origin and Pawn scaling procedures from two groups of young adults who do and do not stutter.

Method: A total of 20 age- and gender-matched undergraduate and graduate students who did (n = 10) and did not (n = 10) stutter participated. The AWS took part in a three week intensive stuttering treatment provided by the American Institute for Stuttering (AIS).

Teenage Cohabitation, Marriage, and Childbearing.

Cohabitation is an integral part of family research; however, little work examines cohabitation among teenagers or links between cohabitation and teenage childbearing. Drawing on the National Survey of Family Growth (2006-10), we examine family formation activities (i.e.

Guideline Adherence for Echocardiographic Follow-Up in Outpatients with at Least Moderate Valvular Disease.

Background: Attention to resource utilization has led to increased scrutiny of the appropriateness of initial diagnostic imaging studies on the basis of current guidelines. Far less attention has been paid to examining the lack of appropriate follow-up studies.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis was performed of 3,781 consecutive outpatients referred for transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) from July to December 2008.

Chronic drought stress reduced but not protected Shantung maple (Acer truncatum Bunge) from adverse effects of ozone (O3) on growth and physiology in the suburb of Beijing, China.

A two-year experiment exposing Acer truncatum Bunge seedlings to elevated ozone (O3) concentrations above ambient air (AO) and drought stress (DS) was carried out using open-top chambers (OTCs) in a suburb of Beijing in north China in 2012-2013. The results suggested that AO and DS had both significantly reduced leaf mass area (LMA), stomatal conductance (Gs), light saturated photosynthetic rate (Asat) as well as above and below ground biomass at the end of the experiment. It appeared that while drought stress mitigated the expression of foliar injury, LMA, leaf photosynthetic pigments, height growth and basal diameter, due to limited carbon fixation, the O3 - induced reductions in Asat, Gs and total biomass were enhanced 23.

The causal effects of home care use on institutional long-term care utilization and expenditures.

Limited evidence exists on whether expanding home care saves money overall or how much institutional long-term care can be reduced. This paper estimates the causal effect of Medicaid-financed home care services on the costs and utilization of institutional long-term care using Medicaid claims data. A unique instrumental variable was applied to address the potential bias caused by omitted variables or reverse effect of institutional care use.

Optimal health insurance for multiple goods and time periods.

We examine the efficiency-based arguments for second-best optimal health insurance with multiple treatment goods and multiple time periods. Correlated shocks across health care goods and over time interact with complementarity and substitutability to affect optimal cost sharing. Health care goods that are substitutes or have positively correlated demand shocks should have lower optimal patient cost sharing.

Low cardiac index is associated with incident dementia and Alzheimer disease: the Framingham Heart Study.

Background: Cross-sectional epidemiological and clinical research suggests that lower cardiac index is associated with abnormal brain aging, including smaller brain volumes, increased white matter hyperintensities, and worse cognitive performances. Lower systemic blood flow may have implications for dementia among older adults.

Methods And Results: A total of 1039 Framingham Offspring Cohort participants free of clinical stroke, transient ischemic attack, and dementia formed our sample (age, 69±6 years; 53% women).

Family Structure and Child Well-Being: Integrating Family Complexity.

Although children's family lives are diverse, the measurement of children's living arrangements has lagged, focusing on the relationships of children to parents while largely ignoring sibling composition. Using data from the 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation ( = 23,985) the authors documented patterns of family complexity among a nationally representative sample of children ages 0-17 living in a range of family structures. They also examined the independent and joint associations of family structure and family complexity on child economic well-being.