Donor supply for partial heart transplantation in the United States.

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common cause of birth defects worldwide. Valvular defects are a common form of CHDs, and, at this time, treatment options for children with unrepairable valve disease are limited. Issues with anticoagulation, sizing, and lack of growth in valve replacement options can lead to high mortality rates and incidence of reoperations.

Physiological Ventricular Simulator for Valve Surgery Training.

Surgical simulation is becoming increasingly important in training cardiac surgeons. However, there are currently no training simulators capable of testing the quality of simulated heart valve procedures under dynamic physiologic conditions. Here we describe a dynamic ventricular simulator, consisting of a 3D printed valve suspension chamber and a model 1423 Harvard apparatus pulsatile pump, which can provide close to physiologic hemodynamic perfusion of porcine aortic roots attached to the valve chamber for education and training in cardiac surgery.

High rate of muscle injury despite no changes in physical, physiological and psychophysiological parameters in a professional football team during a long-congested fixture period.

This study aimed to analyse match availability, participation, and muscle injury incidence and to compare the effect of time intervals between matches (3-4 versus 6-7 days) on physical, physiological, and psychophysiological parameters in a professional football team during a prolonged congested fixture period. Thirteen professional male football players (29.2 ± 4.

Eccentric Strength Assessment of Hamstring Muscles with New Technologies: a Systematic Review of Current Methods and Clinical Implications.

Background: Given the severe economic and performance implications of hamstring injuries, there are different attempts to identify their risk factors for subsequently developing injury prevention strategies to reduce the risk of these injuries. One of the strategies reported in the scientific literature is the application of interventions with eccentric exercises. To verify the effectiveness of these interventions, different eccentric strength measurements have been used with low-cost devices as alternatives to the widespread used isokinetic dynamometers and the technically limited handheld dynamometers.