Quick Assessment of the Lower Limit of Cerebral Autoregulation Using Transcranial Doppler during Cardiopulmonary Bypass in Cardiac Surgery: A Feasibility Study.

Background: During cardiac surgery, maintaining a mean arterial pressure (MAP) within the range of cerebral autoregulation (CA) may prevent postoperative morbidity. The lower limit of cerebral autoregulation (LLA) can be determined using the mean velocity index (Mx). The standard Mx is averaged over a ten second period ( ) while using a two second averaging period ( ) is faster and may record more rapid variations in LLA.

Survival after biventricular mechanical circulatory support: does the type of device matter?

Background: Biventricular support can be achieved using paracorporeal biventricular assist devices (BiVADs), the total artificial heart (TAH), and implantable VADs. This study evaluated the influence of the device on patient survival.

Methods: Data from 383 patients (321 men [84%]) undergoing primary, planned biventricular support using durable devices between 2000 and 2010 were extracted from the French multicentric Groupe de Réflexion sur l'Assistance Mécanique (GRAM) registry.

Telomere length in vascular tissues from patients with atherosclerotic disease.

Objectives: The present study was aimed at evaluating telomere length in blood and in different vascular tissues with or without atheroma, in 3 groups of subjects: a group of atherosclerotic subjects who underwent surgery (Atherosclerosis-Surgery), a second group of subjects with asymptomatic atherosclerotic carotid plaques but who did not undergo cardiovascular surgery (Atherosclerosis-No surgery), and a third group of subjects without atherosclerotic disease (Controls). The main objective was to determine if there is in vivo regulation of telomere length in situ by atherosclerotic lesions.

Methods: A total of 84 subjects (mean age 69 ± 8 years) were studied.

Anatomic variation: absence of portal vein bifurcation.

Purpose: To describe in CT scan the absence of a portal vein bifurcation.

Methods: We described the contrast-enhanced CT scan appearance of an absence of portal vein bifurcation in an "asymptomatic" 39 year old woman.

Results: It was a single intrahepatic portal vein which crossed the entire liver parenchyma from the right to the left and with a gradually decreasing diameter.

Long-term outcome after annular mechanical mitral valve replacement in children aged less than five years.

Background: When mitral valve repair in children is not possible, mitral valve replacement (MVR) is an alternative, which could result in better outcomes. We report the long-term outcome after replacement of systemic atrioventricular valve with bileaflet mechanical valves in annular position in patients less than 5 years of age.

Methods: Between 1983 and 2008, 29 MVRs were performed in children aged 1.

Choice of echocardiography method for postoperative evaluation of mitral valve replacement with a mechanical prosthesis.

Object: The French Cardiology Society (SFC) systematically recommends (Class I) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) after any mitral valve replacement with a mechanical prosthesis (MMVR). Taking into account the increasing workload of echocardiography laboratories, our attitude was to propose that only post-operative transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is performed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible risks of this simplified procedure.

[Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia and endocarditis].

The prevalence of Stapylococcus bacteriaemia is increasing worldwide, because of the increasing use of invasive procedures leading to nosocomial infections, but also of a changing way of life (increasing fashion for tattoos or piercing, use of intravenous drugs). Infective endocarditis develops in 10-30% of the cases of staphylococcus bacteriaemia. Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis must be suspected when it develops in the year following heart surgery or implantation of permanent devices.

[Evaluation of the benefit of early valve surgery in the treatment of infective endocarditis. Contribution of propensity analyses].

Early valve surgery for infective endocarditis, that is surgery performed during the course of antibiotic therapy, is widely used. However, this intervention has never been proven effective in any clinical trial. Five recently published observational studies, using propensity analysis, analyzed the relationship between surgery and mortality.

Intramyocardial Implantation of bone marrow-derived stem cells enhances perfusion in chronic myocardial infarction: dependency on initial perfusion depth and follow-up assessed by gated pinhole SPECT.

Unlabelled: Cell therapy-induced changes in the perfusion of areas of myocardial infarction (MI) remain unclear. This study investigated whether an original pinhole SPECT technique could be applied to a rat MI model to analyze local improvement in myocardial perfusion relating to engraftment sites of bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs).

Methods: Four-month-old MI rats were either untreated (n = 8) or treated (n = 10) by intramyocardial injection of (111)In-labeled BMSCs.

Autologous cell based therapy for treating chronic infarct myocardium.

Recent experimental and clinical studies have shown that autologous cell based therapy using skeletal myoblasts or bone marrow-derived stem cells might have beneficial effects in chronic ischemic heart disease. The underlying concept is based on the repopulation of necrotic tissue by either readily contractile myoblasts or by bone marrow-derived stem cells. However, there is a need to resolve a number of issues for determining the better way to perform these treatments and, moreover, for assessing the real beneficial functional effect of each of these cell therapies.