Apical or Septal Right Ventricular Location in Patients Receiving Defibrillation Leads: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

This study reviews the published data comparing the efficacy and safety of apical and septal right ventricle defibrillator lead positioning at 1-year follow-up. Systemic research on Medline (PubMed), ClinicalTrials.gov , and Embase was performed using the keywords "septal defibrillation," "apical defibrillation," "site defibrillation," and "defibrillation lead placement," including implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices.

activity of essential oils against adult and immature stages of .

Essential oils (EOs) are considered a new class of ecological products aimed at the control of insects for industrial and domestic use; however, there still is a lack of studies involving the control of fleas. Ctenocephalides felis felis, the most observed parasite in dogs and cats, is associated with several diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro activity, the establishment of LC50 and toxicity of EOs from Alpinia zerumbet (Pers.

Long-term follow-up of adult patients with congenital heart disease and an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

Objective: Sudden cardiac death is common in the adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) population. Knowledge and experience about the use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) in ACHD patients is very limited. We aimed to characterize a cohort of patients with ACHD and ICDs.

Impact on long-term cardiovascular outcomes of different cardiac resynchronization therapy response criteria.

Introduction: There is a lack of consensus on the definition of response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), and it is not clear which response criteria have most influence on cardiac event-free survival.

Objectives: To assess the predictive value of various response criteria in patients undergoing CRT and the agreement between them.

Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of the BETTER-HF trial.

Real-time PCR-based quantification of Toxoplasma gondii in tissue samples of serologically positive outdoor chickens.

This study aimed to quantify Toxoplasma gondii in tissue samples of serologically positive chickens using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Of 65 chickens evaluated, 28 were positive for T. gondii antibodies.

15 STR loci frequencies in the population from Paraná, Southern Brazil.

Allele frequencies for 15 short tandem repeats (STR) loci were obtained from a sample of 4076 unrelated individuals undergoing paternity testing. The population is from Paraná, Southern Brazil. The loci are the most commonly used in forensic and paternity testing, being analyzed by the AmpFlSTR((R)) Identifiler (Applied Biosystems) commercial kit.

Functional phosphodiesterase 11A mutations may modify the risk of familial and bilateral testicular germ cell tumors.

Inactivating germline mutations in phosphodiesterase 11A (PDE11A) have been implicated in adrenal tumor susceptibility. PDE11A is highly expressed in endocrine steroidogenic tissues, especially the testis, and mice with inactivated Pde11a exhibit male infertility, a known testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) risk factor. We sequenced the PDE11A gene-coding region in 95 patients with TGCT from 64 unrelated kindreds.

A cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase (PDE8B) that is mutated in adrenal hyperplasia is expressed widely in human and mouse tissues: a novel PDE8B isoform in human adrenal cortex.

Bilateral adrenocortical hyperplasia (BAH) is the second most common cause of corticotropin-independent Cushing syndrome (CS). Genetic forms of BAH have been associated with complex syndromes such as Carney Complex and McCune-Albright syndrome or may present as isolated micronodular adrenocortical disease (iMAD) usually in children and young adults with CS. A genome-wide association study identified inactivating phosphodiesterase (PDE) 11A (PDE11A)-sequencing defects as low-penetrance predisposing factors for iMAD and related abnormalities; we also described a mutation (c.

Short head-up tilt test potentiated with oral nitroglycerine: comparison with a conventional test using isoproterenol.

Conventional tilt test protocols are time consuming and there is no consensus regarding the optimal duration of the test and the provocative drug to be used. This study evaluated the diagnostic power of a short nitroglycerine test against a conventional isoproterenol protocol. A cohort of 128 patients with unexplained syncope was studied.

Coronary spasm in acute myocardial infarction.

The authors present a clinical case of coronary spasm in acute myocardial infarction in a 22-year-old patient, admitted to the emergency department with chest pain. Angiography revealed normal coronary arteries and during the procedure a coronary spasm occurred.

[Predictors of lack of clinical improvement at mid-term follow-up with cardiac resynchronization therapy].

Introduction: About 30% of all patients do not respond to cardiac resynchronization therapy for heart failure. The objective of the study was to analyze the variables that may predict the lack of response.

Patients And Method: We analyzed the results in a series of 63 patients who received cardiac resynchronization with a biventricular device.

Congenital absence of left pericardium.

The authors present a clinical case of right chamber dilatation in a 34-year-old patient with no symptoms, investigation of which led to a diagnosis of congenital absence of left pericardium, established by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). They also present a review on absence of the pericardium, and discuss associated congenital abnormalities, the clinical presentations and findings in diagnostic tests, with particular emphasis on MRI.

Do patients with intraventricular gradients during dobutamine stress echocardiography have intraventricular gradients with exercise testing?

Unlabelled: The development of intraventricular gradients during dobutamine stress echocardiography has been widely reported and this finding is commonly associated with symptoms during stress testing. In a previous study, we investigated the incidence of intraventricular gradients during dobutamine stress echocardiography in 46 patients and concluded that they occur frequently (43%). In another study we looked for the same phenomenon in 50 other consecutive patients during exercise stress echocardiography and only found a small gradient in one patient (2%).