Publications by authors named "Niklas Beyhoff"

Article Synopsis
  • Anthracyclines, like Doxorubicin, are powerful anti-cancer drugs but can cause serious heart damage known as anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity (AIC).
  • A study using mice showed that AIC leads to systolic dysfunction and changes in the structure of the heart's left ventricle, with specific alterations in diffusion properties detectable by magnetic resonance imaging.
  • The findings suggest that diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) could help in diagnosing and understanding the heart issues caused by AIC, calling for more research in clinical settings.
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Background: Transcatheter annuloplasty is meant to target annular dilatation and is therefore mainly applied in functional tricuspid regurgitation (TR). Due to recent recognition of varying disease pathophysiology and differentiation of ventricular and atrial functional TR (VFTR and AFTR), comparative data regarding procedural success for both disease entities are required.

Methods: In this consecutively enrolled observational cohort study, 65 patients undergoing transcatheter annuloplasty with a Cardioband® device were divided into VFTR ( = 35, 53.

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Background: Obesity exerts multiple deleterious effects on the heart that may ultimately lead to cardiac failure. This study sought to characterize myocardial microstructure and function in an experimental model of obesity-related cardiac dysfunction.

Methods: Male C57BL/6N mice were fed either a high-fat diet (HFD; 60 kcal% fat, = 12) or standard control diet (9 kcal% fat, = 10) for 15 weeks.

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Background Proctoring represents a cornerstone in the acquisition of state-of-the-art cardiovascular interventions. Yet, travel restrictions and containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic limited on-site proctoring for training and expert support in interventional cardiology. Methods and Results We established a teleproctoring setup for training in a novel patent foramen ovale closure device system (NobleStitch EL, HeartStitch Inc, Fountain Valley, CA) at our institution using web-based real-time bidirectional audiovisual communication.

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Palmitoleic acid (C16:1n7) has been identified as a regulator of physiological cardiac hypertrophy. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the molecular pathways involved in C16:1n7 responses in primary murine cardiomyocytes (PCM) and a mouse model of isoproterenol (ISO)-induced cardiac damage. PCMs were stimulated with C16:1n7 or a vehicle.

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Background: Tricuspid regurgitation is gaining importance due to its high morbidity and mortality. Especially in the elderly, novel technologies in percutaneous therapies have become valuable options due to the commonly present high surgical risk.

Case Presentation: We report a case of a 78-year-old female suffering from massive tricuspid regurgitation with repetitive right-sided heart failure hospitalizations.

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Background It is known that dietary intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids may improve cardiac function. However, relatively high daily doses are required to achieve sufficient cardiac concentrations of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. The liver X receptor (LXR) is a nuclear hormone receptor and a crucial regulator of lipid homeostasis in mammals.

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Aims: Heart failure (HF) is characterized by an overactivation of β-adrenergic signalling that directly contributes to impairment of myocardial function. Moreover, β-adrenergic overactivation induces adipose tissue lipolysis, which may further worsen the development of HF. Recently, we demonstrated that adipose tissue-specific deletion of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) prevents pressure-mediated HF in mice.

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Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and prognostic implications of elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) according to body mass index (BMI).

Background: Whereas elevated hsCRP predicts adverse clinical outcome after PCI in the general population, the impact of BMI on its prognostic utility remains unclear.

Methods: Data from 14,140 patients who underwent PCI between January 2009 and June 2017 at a large tertiary care center were analyzed.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study investigates heart failure after a heart attack (myocardial infarction) in mice treated with isoproterenol, providing insights into the underlying microstructural and functional changes.
  • - Advanced imaging techniques, including ultrahigh-frequency echocardiography and diffusion tensor MRI, were employed to document cardiac function decline and analyze myocardial microstructure.
  • - The findings revealed significant heart damage, including an apical aneurysm and reduced heart function, highlighting the importance of these technologies in understanding heart failure mechanisms post-MI.
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Article Synopsis
  • High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels can predict health outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), with the study aiming to explore its prevalence and impact based on age and gender.
  • The research included over 14,700 patients from 2010 to 2017, revealing that 25.7% of men and 37.0% of women had elevated hsCRP levels, with significant age-related variations observed only in women.
  • Elevated hsCRP was linked to a higher risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) across all age groups in men, while for women, this association appeared only in older age categories, indicating a gender difference in the significance of hsCRP in
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Traditionally, the lung has been excluded from the ultrasound organ repertoire and, hence, the application of lung ultrasound (LUS) was largely limited to a few enthusiastic clinicians. Yet, in the last decades, the recognition of the previously untapped diagnostic potential of LUS in intensive care medicine has fueled its widespread use as a rapid, non-invasive and radiation-free bedside approach with excellent diagnostic accuracy for many of the most common causes of acute respiratory failure, e.g.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates how subendocardial damage due to hypertension impacts the structure and function of the heart, highlighting early signs of cardiac problems even in asymptomatic individuals.
  • - Mice induced with subendocardial scarring showed diastolic dysfunction, changes in myocardial deformation, and increased expression of specific biomarkers, while systolic function remained normal.
  • - Advanced imaging techniques indicated that alterations in myocardial microstructure, particularly in subepicardial myofibers, can serve as early indicators for subendocardial fibrosis, with high sensitivity and specificity for predicting cardiac damage.
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Article Synopsis
  • - Echocardiography is a key non-invasive method for assessing heart function in small animals, but manual border tracing can be slow and varies based on the operator's skill level.
  • - The study evaluated a new automated software called Auto2DE compared to traditional manual 2D-echocardiographic assessment, finding that Auto2DE provided faster and reliable results, particularly in high-quality imaging.
  • - While Auto2DE showed strong performance in identifying cardiac issues in healthy models, it struggled with certain conditions, like diabetes, suggesting it's best for studies with good image quality but has limitations for specific cardiac pathologies.
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Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) reduce morbidity and mortality in chronic heart failure. Novel nonsteroidal MRAs are currently developed and need to be pharmacologically characterized in comparison to classical steroidal MRAs. A mouse model of cardiac fibrosis induced by short-term isoproterenol injection was used to compare the nonsteroidal MRA finerenone and the steroidal MRA eplerenone in equi-efficient systemic MR blocking dosages.

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Article Synopsis
  • Adipose tissue lipolysis increases during heart failure due to chronic adrenergic stimulation, yet its effects on heart function, particularly through adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), are not well understood.
  • Researchers used mice with a specific deletion of ATGL (atATGL-KO) and subjected them to an experiment simulating heart failure to examine differences in cardiac performance and lipid composition.
  • Results showed that atATGL-KO mice had less heart mass and were protected from systolic heart failure compared to normal mice, with notable preservation of lipid profiles, which suggests that inhibiting lipolysis via ATGL could mitigate heart failure-related lipid changes.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the vulnerability of the subendocardium to damage in cardiac disease and explores the use of myocardial strain parameters for early detection of such damage.
  • Male mice were injected with isoproterenol to induce subendocardial fibrosis, and various echocardiography techniques were employed to assess heart function and collagen content in heart tissues.
  • Results showed significant changes in strain parameters correlated with subendocardial collagen levels, indicating that global longitudinal peak strain is a reliable predictor for detecting subendocardial fibrosis.
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