ASSESSMENT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND PREVALENCE OF POSSIBLE OSTEOPOROTIC CHANGES IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN IN YEREVAN BASED ON DATA OF THE ECOS-16 QUESTIONNAIRE.

The aim of the study was to conduct approximate assessment of the prevalence of osteoporotic changes and evaluate quality of life (QoL) in postmenopausal women using ECOS-16 questionnaire in Yerevan city. The cross-sectional survey was conducted for data collection among 196 postmenopausal women. The research material about QoL was collected using ECOS-16 questionnaire.

Antibiotics in mastoid and epitympanic obliteration with S53P4 bioactive glass: A retrospective study.

Objective: The role of antibiotics in ear surgery is still controversial. The aim of this study was to assess their need in cholesteatoma surgery when performing obliteration with S53P4 bioactive glass, a biocompatible material with antibacterial properties.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in a tertiary referral center between January 2017 and May 2019.

Aortic diameter assessment by cardiovascular magnetic resonance: do we really need contrast enhanced images?

Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is widely used for aortic diameter assessment but there is no consensus on the sequence or cardiac cycle phase in which the measures should be taken. The most used sequence is contrast-enhanced-magnetic-resonance-angiography (angiography), usually non-ECG-triggered. An alternative is a navigated 3D-whole-heart-steady-state-free-precession sequence which is contrast-free and breath- and ECG-gated (mostly diastolic gating), producing very sharp anatomical rendering.

Real-time CMR guidance for intracardiac and great vessel pressure mapping in patients with congenital heart disease using an MR conditional guidewire-results of 25 patients.

Background: The aim of this study was to test a CE-certified MR-conditional guidewire to facilitate blood pressure measurement in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) using fluid-filled catheters in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). The main purpose was to determine procedural success in a post market clinical follow-up (PMCF) for routine procedure in a diagnostic and interventional workflow. Real-time CMR provides high quality imaging without the risk of exposing the patient to X-rays, especially for patients with irregular heart anatomy and patients who are susceptible to radiation and iodinated contrast media.

Hearing recovery after surgical resection of non-vestibular schwannoma cerebellopontine angle tumors.

Purpose: Post-operative outcomes for hearing after resection surgery to remove cerebellopontine angle (CPA) tumors other than vestibular schwannomas (VS) are not well understood. This study presents a series of patients with significant post-operative hearing recovery, trying to define the incidence among all patients operated on for removal of non-VS CPA tumors.

Methods: This is a retrospective observational case series of 8 patients among 69 operated on for removal of non-VS CPA tumors between 2012 and 2020.

Transmigration of Neutrophils From Patients With Familial Mediterranean Fever Causes Increased Cell Activation.

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is caused by pyrin-encoding gene mutations and characterized by the self-limiting periods of intense inflammation, which are mainly mediated by a massive influx of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) into the inflamed sites. Perturbation of actin polymerization by different pathogens was shown to activate the pyrin inflammasome. Our aim was to test whether cytoskeletal dynamics in the absence of pathogens may cause abnormal activation of PMNs from FMF patients.

Different CMR Imaging Modalities for Native and Patch-Repaired Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Sizing: Impact on Percutaneous Pulmonary Valve Replacement Planning.

Percutaneous pulmonary valve replacement (PPVI) in native or patched right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) has proven to be feasible. The procedure is highly dependent on the size of the RVOT. Several methods exist to evaluate the size of the RVOT by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR).

Long-term outcomes of childhood onset Noonan compared to sarcomere hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Background: To compare outcome and cardiac pathology between patients with Noonan syndrome (N-HCM) and sarcomere protein-associated (S-HCM) childhood onset hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

Methods: Clinical data were recorded from medical charts. Primary endpoint was survival.

[Clinical Course and Predictors of Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation in Patients with Myocardial Infarctions of Different Localizations].

Purpose: to assess the clinical course of ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) in patients with myocardial infarction of different localizations and reveal its mechanisms and predictors.

Materials And Methods: We enrolled in this study patients with first inferoposterior myocardial infarction (IPMI) (n=77), and anteroseptal MI (ASMI) (n=79) revascularized within 12 hours after symptoms onset, as well as age, sex and weight matched healthy control subjects (n=50). Parameters of mitral structures and mitral annulus areas (MAA), left ventricular (LV) volumes (LVV) and sphericity index (SI), global (G) and segmental (S) longitudinal LV strain (GLS, SLS), papillary muscles (PM) LS (PMLS) and PM systolic dyssynchrony (PMSD) were measured by echocardiography on the 7th and 180th days of follow up.

Elevated diastolic wall shear stress in regurgitant semilunar valvular lesions.

Background: Alterations in wall shear stress (WSS) assessed using 4D flow MRI have been shown to play a role in various vascular pathologies, such as bicuspid aortic valve aortopathy. Most studies have focused on systolic WSS, whereas altered diastolic hemodynamics in regurgitant semilunar valvular lesions have not so far been well characterized.

Purpose: To investigate diastolic WSS in aortic and pulmonary regurgitation.

Diffuse fibrosis is common in the left, but not in the right ventricle in patients with transposition of the great arteries late after atrial switch operation.

In adult patients with transposition of the great arteries (TGA) late after atrial switch operation (AtSO), each of the ventricles is faced with a profoundly different pressure regimen from the one they are meant to support in normal conditions. The extent of diffuse fibrosis of the right ventricle (RV) and left ventricle (LV) in these patients remains incompletely investigated. Aim of this study was to quantify the degree of fibrosis of the unloaded LV and of the overloaded RV by determining the myocardial extracellular volume (ECV) with non-invasive techniques as T1 mapping.

Efficacy and safety of curcumin and its combination with boswellic acid in osteoarthritis: a comparative, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Background: The aim of this clinical trial was to assess the efficacy and safety of curcuminoid complex extract from turmeric rhizome with turmeric volatile oil (CuraMed®) and its combination with boswellic acid extract from Indian frankincense root (Curamin®) vs placebo for the treatment of 40- to 70-year-old patients with osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: The effects of CuraMed® 500-mg capsules (333 mg curcuminoids) and Curamin® 500-mg capsules (350 mg curcuminoids and 150 mg boswellic acid) taken orally three times a day for 12 weeks in 201 patients was investigated in a three-arm, parallel-group, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Primary outcome efficacy measures included OA physical function performance-based tests, the WOMAC recommended index of joint pain, morning stiffness, limitations of physical function, and the patients' global assessment of disease severity.

Aortopulmonary collateral flow quantification by MR at rest and during continuous submaximal exercise in patients with total cavopulmonary connection.

Background: Aortopulmonary collateral flow is considered to have significant impact on the outcome of patients with single ventricle circulation and total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC). There is little information on collateral flow during exercise.

Purpose: To quantify aortopulmonary collateral flow at rest and during continuous submaximal exercise in clinical patients doing well with TCPC.

Clinical long-term outcome of septal myectomy for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in infants.

Objectives: Surgical septal myectomy is performed to relieve left ventricular outflow tract narrowing in severe drug-refractory obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The objective of this study was to assess the perioperative and long-term clinical outcome of this procedure performed during infancy.

Methods: Clinical, transthoracic echocardiographic, electrocardiographic, 24-h Holter, cardiopulmonary exercise test and genetic data were extracted by medical record review.

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance is successfully feasible in many patients aged 3 to 8years without general anesthesia or sedation.

Objectives: Patients younger than 8 years are usually examined by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) under general anesthesia (GA) or sedation without intubation. Therefore, we sought to study the feasibility of CMR in patients aged 3 to 8years without GA or sedation.

Patients: Data sets of 71 consecutive patients aged 3 to 8years were studied retrospectively.

Impaired endotoxin tolerance induction in patients with familial Mediterranean fever.

Objective: To investigate periodic disturbances in proinflammatory activation of neutrophils and monocytes in patients with familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) both during an attack and in remission.

Methods: 20 FMF patients, who were naive to colchicine treatment and did not have amyloidosis, and 10 patients with Behçet's disease (BD) were enrolled in this study. Phagocytosis, respiratory burst, CD11a/CD18 expression and intracellular cytokine synthesis were determined by flow cytometry.

Dexamethasone, colchicine and iodine-lithium-alpha-dextrin act differentially on the oxidative burst and endotoxin tolerance induction in vitro in patients with Behçet's disease.

Pro-inflammatory activation of innate immune cells, such as macrophages, and neutrophils in patients with Behçet's disease (BD) results in increased production of reactive oxygen species and enhanced adhesion to endothelial cells due to increased expression of adhesion receptors. We investigated the influence of dexamethasone (DEX), colchicine (Col), and iodine-lithium-alpha-dextrin (ILalphaD), during BD, on the respiratory burst of whole blood neutrophils and monocytes, CD11a/CD18 surface expression, monocyte endotoxin tolerance and cytokine synthesis in vitro. In BD patients we observed an increase of the spontaneous, N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe- and LPS-induced respiratory burst of monocytes and neutrophils as well as up-regulation of neutrophil CD11a/CD18 surface expression.

Hypothalamic proline-rich polypeptide is a regulator of oxidative burst in human neutrophils and monocytes.

Objective: The effects of proline-rich polypeptide (PRP) isolated from neurosecretory granules of bovine neurohypophysis produced by nuclei supraopticus and paraventricularis on phagocytosis, bacterial intracellular killing and oxidative burst induction in normal human cells and inflammatory cells from patients with Behçet's disease (BD), i.e. peripheral blood neutrophils and monocytes, were investigated.

Hypothalamic proline-rich polypeptide is an oxidative burst regulator.

The AGAPEPAEPAQPGVY proline-rich polypeptide (PRP) was isolated from neurosecretory granules of the bovine neurohypophysis; it is produced by N. supraopticus and N. paraventricularis.