A clinical comparison of glycol and water-based heater-cooler systems for cardiopulmonary bypass.

Introduction: While newer heater-cooler technologies using ethylene glycol-based (GB) solutions during cardiothoracic surgery have become commercially available, there is a paucity of clinical data describing their effectiveness during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) support. This analysis aimed to compare clinical characteristics and procedural outcomes using water-based (WB) and GB heater-cooler systems.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on consecutive adult patients undergoing CPB from June to October 2022 comparing WB or GB groups.

Animal models for partial heart transplantation.

Background: Partial heart transplantation delivers growing heart valve implants by transplanting the part of the heart containing the necessary heart valve only. In contrast to heart transplantation, partial heart transplantation spares the native ventricles. This has important implications for partial heart transplant biology, including the allowable ischemia time, optimal graft preservation, primary graft dysfunction, immune rejection, and optimal immunosuppression.

Exploring trainee perspectives on barriers and facilitators in serious mental illness doctoral training.

Although there have been momentous and critical advancements in serious mental illness (SMI) psychology doctoral training models and competencies, there is still much systemic change needed to increase access to evidence-based SMI training for psychologists. In the last decade, there has been little to no growth or expansion of SMI training opportunities in clinical psychology doctoral programs in the United States, and psychologists are underrepresented in serving clients with SMI. As trainees and trainers committed to careers in SMI, the contributors aimed to identify barriers and facilitators throughout each stage of the SMI doctoral training pathway, including pregraduate school, graduate school, and internship to reflect critically on systemic issues that have impeded trainees from accessing the appropriate tools for SMI training.

Title IX's Unintended Consequences: The Female Athlete Triad and the Need for Special Treatment.

This Note examines the effects of Title IX's equal treatment framework on female collegiate athletes in the context of the female athlete triad. It describes the shortcomings of Title IX's equal treatment approach and its deleterious effects on the health of female student athletes. It argues for the adoption of the special treatment approach as a remedy.

Characterization of Green Fluorescent Protein in Heart Valves of a Transgenic Swine Model for Partial Heart Transplant Research.

A transgenic strain of pigs was created to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) ubiquitously using a pCAGG promoter. Here, we characterize GFP expression in the semilunar valves and great arteries of GFP-transgenic (GFP-Tg) pigs. Immunofluorescence was performed to visualize and quantify GFP expression and colocalization with nuclear staining.

Morbidity and Mortality of Heterotopic Partial Heart Transplantation in Rodent Models.

Unrepairable congenital heart valve disease is an unsolved problem in pediatric cardiac surgery because there are no growing heart valve implants. Partial heart transplantation is a new type of transplant that aims to solve this problem. In order to study the unique transplant biology of partial heart transplantation, animal models are necessary.

Cannabidiol Reduces Nicotine Withdrawal Severity and State Anxiety During an Acute E-cigarette Abstinence Period: A Novel, Open-Label Study.

Despite efforts to curb nicotine use, 8.1 million adults in the United States use e-cigarettes. Notably, the majority of nicotine-containing e-cigarette users report wanting to quit in the near future, yet there is a dearth of research surrounding intervention efforts.

Ontological Analysis of Coronavirus Associated Human Genes at the COVID-19 Disease Portal.

The COVID-19 pandemic stemmed a parallel upsurge in the scientific literature about SARS-CoV-2 infection and its health burden. The Rat Genome Database (RGD) created a COVID-19 Disease Portal to leverage information from the scientific literature. In the COVID-19 Portal, gene-disease associations are established by manual curation of PubMed literature.

Learning with digital recording and video review of delivery room resuscitation.

Digital recording and video review of delivery room resuscitations is a proven useful tool to evaluate neonatal resuscitation program (NRP) technical and non-technical skills. It is also valuable for research, quality improvement, and individual and group learning. Digital recording and video review programs are growing in number, and planning and implementation of digital recording requires careful thought.

Waitlist and transplant outcomes for patients bridged to heart transplantation with Impella 5.0 and 5.5 devices.

Background: Impella devices are increasingly utilized as a bridge to heart transplantation (BTT) and are now prioritized as Status 2 under the current heart allocation policy. This study evaluated waitlist and post-transplant outcomes of patients supported with Impella 5.0/5.

Outcomes of Over 1000 Heart Transplants Using Hepatitis C-Positive Donors in the Modern Era.

Background: Advances in hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment and the ongoing opioid epidemic have made HCV-positive donors increasingly available for heart transplantation (HT). This analysis reports outcomes of over 1000 HCV-positive HTs in the United States in the modern era.

Methods: The United Network of Organ Sharing registry was used to identify HTs between 2015 and 2021.

A review of animal models for post-operative pericardial adhesions.

Post-operative pericardial adhesions remain a serious complication after cardiac surgery that can lead to increased morbidity and mortality. Fibrous adhesions can destroy tissue planes leading to injury of surrounding vasculature, lengthening of operation time, and increased healthcare costs. While animal models are necessary for studying the formation and prevention of post-operative pericardial adhesions, a standardized animal model for inducing post-operative pericardial adhesions has not yet been established.

Reading to the Preterm Infant: Parent Perspectives on Barriers and Facilitators.

Objective: To describe parent-reported barriers and facilitators to reading to preterm-born infants, both in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and at home. We hypothesized that families of preterm infants face unique barriers previously not described in the literature, and that understanding barriers from the parent perspective will uncover strategies for improving the NICU environment and cognitive home environment and allow refinement of current reading programs.

Methods: We performed a qualitative study of parents of 0 to 12 month corrected age infants presenting to neonatal follow-up clinic.

Palliative Repair of a Mycotic Aortic Arch Pseudoaneurysm With a Physician-Modified Endograft and In-Situ Laser Fenestration.

Purpose: Open aortic arch repair is the gold standard in the treatment of diseases involving the ascending aorta and aortic arch. However, due to the invasive nature of open repair, high-risk patients with multiple comorbidities are often not suitable candidates for open surgical repair. While endovascular aortic repair is far less invasive, endovascular arch repair remains a difficult challenge due to the aortic arch diameter and angulation, origin of the supra-aortic arteries, and the lack of commercially available thoracic branched devices in the United States.

MOET: a web-based gene set enrichment tool at the Rat Genome Database for multiontology and multispecies analyses.

Biological interpretation of a large amount of gene or protein data is complex. Ontology analysis tools are imperative in finding functional similarities through overrepresentation or enrichment of terms associated with the input gene or protein lists. However, most tools are limited by their ability to do ontology-specific and species-limited analyses.

Surgical techniques for aortic valve xenotransplantation.

Background: Heart valve replacement in neonates and infants is one of the remaining unsolved problems in cardiac surgery because conventional valve prostheses do not grow with the children. Similarly, heart valve replacement in children and young adults with contraindications to anticoagulation remains an unsolved problem because mechanical valves are thrombogenic and bioprosthetic valves are prone to early degeneration. Therefore, there is an urgent clinical need for growing heart valve replacements that are durable without the need for anticoagulation.

Adhesion barriers in cardiac surgery: A systematic review of efficacy.

Background: Postoperative pericardial adhesions have been associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and surgical difficulty. Barriers exist to limit adhesion formation, yet little is known about their use in cardiac surgery. The study presented here provides the first major systematic review of adhesion barriers in cardiac surgery.

A Simplified Model for Heterotopic Heart Valve Transplantation in Rodents.

There is an urgent clinical need for heart valve replacements that can grow in children. Heart valve transplantation is proposed as a new type of transplant with the potential to deliver durable heart valves capable of somatic growth with no requirement for anticoagulation. However, the immunobiology of heart valve transplants remains unexplored, highlighting the need for animal models to study this new type of transplant.

Pentalogy of Cantrell With a Left Ventricular Diverticulum and Muscular VSD.

Pentalogy of Cantrell (POC) is a rare congenital disorder characterized by defects of the anterior diaphragm, midline supraumbilical abdominal wall, diaphragmatic pericardium, lower sternum, and heart. The low incidence and significant heterogeneity of POC make it difficult for most surgeons to gain consistent experience in treating these congenital heart defects. Here, we describe the treatment of a patient with POC, tetralogy of Fallot, left ventricular diverticulum, and a muscular ventricular septal defect.

Immune Privilege of Heart Valves.

Immune privilege is an evolutionary adaptation that protects vital tissues with limited regenerative capacity from collateral damage by the immune response. Classical examples include the anterior chamber of the eye and the brain. More recently, the placenta, testes and articular cartilage were found to have similar immune privilege.