Eukaryotic genomes are packaged into chromatin, which is composed of condensed filaments of regularly spaced nucleosomes, resembling beads on a string. The nucleosome contains ~147 bp of DNA wrapped almost twice around a central core histone octamer. The packaging of DNA into chromatin represents a challenge to transcription factors and other proteins requiring access to their binding sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) have an increased risk of developing acquired cardiovascular diseases. However, the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with CHD is unknown. We aimed to investigate the incidence and risk of VTE in patients with CHD compared with matched controls without CHD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at an increased risk for cancer. As cancer survival rates improve, the prevalence of late side effects, such as heart failure (HF), is becoming more evident. This study aims to evaluate the risk of developing HF following a cancer diagnosis in patients with CHD, compared with those without CHD and with CHD patients who do not have cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Reg Health Eur
May 2024
Background: Coarctation of the aorta (CoA), a congenital narrowing of the proximal descending thoracic aorta, is a relatively common form of congenital heart disease. Untreated significant CoA has a major impact on morbidity and mortality. In the past 3 decades, transcatheter intervention (TCI) for CoA has evolved as an alternative to surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Our objective was to assess changes in the birth prevalence of CHD over a half-century in a high-resource, nationwide setting, as well as changes in the prevalence of cardiac interventions in this population.
Methods And Results: The Swedish National Patient and Cause of Death registers were linked to estimate the annual rates of CHD and cardiac interventions among live-born infants from 1970 to 2017. Additionally, separate estimates were obtained by lesion complexity, from mild to the most complex forms of CHD.
Background Little is known about the cause of death (CoD) in patients with transposition of the great arteries palliated with a Mustard or Senning procedure. The aim was to describe the CoD for patients with the Mustard and Senning procedure during short- (<10 years), mid- (10-20 years), and long-term (>20 years) follow-up after the operation. Methods and Results This is a retrospective, descriptive multicenter cohort study including all Nordic patients (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) who underwent a Mustard or Senning procedure between 1967 and 2003.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital defect, and reports suggest an increased risk of subsequent epilepsy. We used Swedish comprehensive population-based registers to investigate the risk of epilepsy in patients with CHD compared to matched controls and identify underlying factors of epilepsy.
Methods: All patients with CHD born between 1970 and 2017 and 10 age- and sex-matched controls were included.
Gadolinium chelates are employed worldwide today as clinical contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. Until now, the commonly used linear contrast agents based on the rare-earth element gadolinium have been considered safe and well-tolerated. Recently, concerns regarding this type of contrast agent have been reported, which is why there is an urgent need to develop the next generation of stable contrast agents with enhanced spin-lattice relaxation, as measured by improved relaxivity at lower doses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Increasing survival of patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) will result in an increased risk of age-dependent acquired diseases later in life. We aimed to investigate the risk of cancer in young and older patients with CHD and to evaluate the excess risk of cancer by syndromes, organ transplantation and cardiac surgery.
Methods: Patients with CHD born between 1930 and 2017 were identified using Swedish Health Registers.
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect today. The adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) population is constantly growing and becoming older and more patients require cardiac surgery. The objective of this study was to review the surgical outcome of the open heart procedures performed on ACHD patients in the last 10 years at Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SUH) through a retrospective descriptive cohort study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetal oxide nanoparticles are widely used in both consumer products and medical applications, but the knowledge regarding exposure-related health effects is limited. However, it is challenging to investigate nanoparticle interaction processes with biological systems. The overall aim of this project was to improve the possibility to predict exposure-related health effects of metal oxide nanoparticles through interdisciplinary collaboration by combining workflows from the pharmaceutical industry, nanomaterial sciences, and occupational medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at increased risk of developing ischemic stroke (IS) compared with controls without CHD. However, the long-term outcomes after IS, including IS recurrence and mortality risk, remain unclear. Methods and Results We identified all patients with CHD in Sweden who were born between 1930 and 2017 using the Swedish National Patient Register and the Cause of Death Register.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCerium oxide nanoparticles with integrated gadolinium have been proved to be useful as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging. Of question is their performance in dual-energy computed tomography. The aims of this work are to determine (1) the relation between the computed tomography number and the concentration of the I, Gd or Ce contrast agent and (2) under what conditions it is possible to resolve the type of contrast agent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Interatrial communication is associated with an increased risk of decompression sickness (DCS) in scuba diving. It has been proposed that there would be a decreased risk of DCS after closure of the interatrial communication, i.e.
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