Mechanical loading reveals an intrinsic cardiomyocyte stiffness contribution to diastolic dysfunction in murine cardiometabolic disease.

Cardiometabolic syndromes including diabetes and obesity are associated with occurrence of heart failure with diastolic dysfunction. There are no specific treatments for diastolic dysfunction, and therapies to manage symptoms have limited efficacy. Understanding of the cardiomyocyte origins of diastolic dysfunction is an important priority to identify new therapeutics.

Perinatal risk factors of renal outcome in former extremely low birth weight neonates.

Unlabelled: Former Extremely Low Birthweight (ELBW) neonates suffer from adverse renal and cardiovascular outcomes later in life. Less is known about additional perinatal risk factors for these adverse outcomes which we have investigated in this study. We compared renal outcome between ELBW children and controls, to find perinatal risk factors for poorer renal outcome and to unveil associations between kidney function and blood pressure.

An improved method to measure transfer functions using MRI.

Purpose: A previously published method for MRI-based transfer function assessment makes use of the so-called transceive phase assumption (TPA). This limits its applicability to shorter leads and/or lower field strengths. A new method is presented where the background electric field is determined from both - and -field distributions, avoiding the TPA and making it more generally applicable.

Mechanical loading reveals an intrinsic cardiomyocyte stiffness contribution to diastolic dysfunction in murine cardiometabolic disease.

Cardiometabolic syndromes including diabetes and obesity are associated with occurrence of heart failure with diastolic dysfunction. There are no specific treatments for diastolic dysfunction, and therapies to manage symptoms have limited efficacy. Understanding of the cardiomyocyte origins of diastolic dysfunction is an important priority to identify new therapeutics.

Vitamin D Status in Belgian Children: A Regional Study.

Vitamin D deficiency is the most frequent cause of impaired skeletal growth, and can lead to the development of nutritional rickets. The aim of this study was to evaluate the vitamin D status in a large group of children aged 0-18 years. We collected laboratory data on vitamin D levels from children who underwent blood sampling between 2014 and 2021.

Introduction of ultra-high-field MR brain imaging in infants: vital parameters, temperature and comfort.

Background: Brain MRI in infants at ultra-high-field scanners might improve diagnostic quality, but safety should be evaluated first. In our previous study, we reported simulated specific absorption rates and acoustic noise data at 7 Tesla.

Methods: In this study, we included twenty infants between term-equivalent age and three months of age.

The cardiomyocyte origins of diastolic dysfunction: cellular components of myocardial "stiffness".

The impaired ability of the heart to relax and stretch to accommodate venous return is generally understood to represent a state of "diastolic dysfunction" and often described using the all-purpose noun "stiffness." Despite the now common qualitative usage of this term in fields of cardiac patho/physiology, the specific quantitative concept of stiffness as a molecular and biophysical entity with real practical interpretation in healthy and diseased hearts is sometimes obscure. The focus of this review is to characterize the concept of cardiomyocyte stiffness and to develop interpretation of "stiffness" attributes at the cellular and molecular levels.

Self-reported prescribing behaviour of vitamin D prophylaxis in healthy children by Belgian paediatricians.

There is currently no consensus on the guidelines for vitamin D prophylaxis in healthy children. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prescribing behaviour of vitamin D prophylaxis among Belgian paediatricians. Between June and September 2022, a questionnaire was distributed by email to all Belgian paediatricians who are a member of at least one of three scientific or professional organisations, as well as to the heads of every Belgian paediatric or neonatal hospital ward.

A gene therapy targeting medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD) did not protect against diabetes-induced cardiac pathology.

Diabetic cardiomyopathy describes heart disease in patients with diabetes who have no other cardiac conditions but have a higher risk of developing heart failure. Specific therapies to treat the diabetic heart are limited. A key mechanism involved in the progression of diabetic cardiomyopathy is dysregulation of cardiac energy metabolism.

Localized cardiomyocyte lipid accumulation is associated with slowed epicardial conduction in rats.

Transmural action potential duration differences and transmural conduction gradients aid the synchronization of left ventricular repolarization, reducing vulnerability to transmural reentry and arrhythmias. A high-fat diet and the associated accumulation of pericardial adipose tissue are linked with conduction slowing and greater arrhythmia vulnerability. It is predicted that cardiac adiposity may more readily influence epicardial conduction (versus endocardial) and disrupt normal transmural activation/repolarization gradients.

Deep learning based correction of RF field induced inhomogeneities for T2w prostate imaging at 7 T.

At ultrahigh field strengths images of the body are hampered by B -field inhomogeneities. These present themselves as inhomogeneous signal intensity and contrast, which is regarded as a "bias field" to the ideal image. Current bias field correction methods, such as the N4 algorithm, assume a low frequency bias field, which is not sufficiently valid for T2w images at 7 T.

Myocardial deformation imaging by 2D speckle tracking echocardiography for assessment of diastolic dysfunction in murine cardiopathology.

Diastolic dysfunction is increasingly identified as a key, early onset subclinical condition characterizing cardiopathologies of rising prevalence, including diabetic heart disease and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Diastolic dysfunction characterization has important prognostic value in management of disease outcomes. Validated tools for in vivo monitoring of diastolic function in rodent models of diabetes are required for progress in pre-clinical cardiology studies.

Blood pressure and cardiovascular risk in relation to birth weight and urinary sodium: an individual-participant meta-analysis of European family-based population studies.

Background: Although the relation of salt intake with blood pressure (BP) is linear, it is U-shaped for mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This individual-participant meta-analysis explored whether the relation of hypertension, death or CVD with 24-h urinary sodium excretion (UVNA) or sodium-to-potassium (UNAK) ratio was modified by birth weight.

Methods: Families were randomly enrolled in the Flemish Study on Genes, Environment and Health Outcomes (1985-2004) and the European Project on Genes in Hypertension (1999-2001).

Simulation-based evaluation of SAR and flip angle homogeneity for five transmit head arrays at 14 T.

Introduction: Various research sites are pursuing 14 T MRI systems. However, both local SAR and RF transmit field inhomogeneity will increase. The aim of this simulation study is to investigate the trade-offs between peak local SAR and flip angle uniformity for five transmit coil array designs at 14 T in comparison to 7 T.

An RF coil design to enable quintuple nuclear whole-brain MRI.

Purpose: To bring metabolic imaging based on multi-NMR toward practical use from the RF hardware perspective.

Methods: A highly integrated RF coil is designed for whole-brain MRI and MRS targeted to five nuclear species: H, F, P, Na, and C. Dipole antennas and closely loaded local receiver loops are combined in this setup.

Multi-echo MR thermometry in the upper leg at 7 T using near-harmonic 2D reconstruction for initialization.

Purpose: The aim of this work is the development of a thermometry method to measure temperature increases in vivo, with a precision and accuracy sufficient for validation against thermal simulations. Such an MR thermometry model would be a valuable tool to get an indication on one of the major safety concerns in MR imaging: the tissue heating occurring due to radiofrequency (RF) exposure. To prevent excessive temperature rise, RF power deposition, expressed as specific absorption rate, cannot exceed predefined thresholds.

Tier-based formalism for safety assessment of custom-built radio-frequency transmit coils.

The purpose of this work is to propose a tier-based formalism for safety assessment of custom-built radio-frequency (RF) coils that balances validation effort with the effort put in determinating the safety factor. The formalism has three tier levels. Higher tiers require increased effort when validating electromagnetic simulation results but allow for less conservative safety factors.

Perfused boundary region as biomarker for endothelial integrity in former preterms in adolescence.

Introduction: Extremely low birth weight (ELBW) survivors have microvascular structural differences already described in kidney and retina, suggesting changes in endothelial integrity. A biomarker of endothelial integrity is perfused boundary region (PBR), which measures glycocalycal thickness. The endothelial glycocalyx is a complex, highly versatile structure with essential roles in vascular integrity and function.

A perturbation approach for ultrafast calculation of RF field enhancements near medical implants in MRI.

Patients with medical implants often are deprived of magnetic resonance imaging examination because of safety risks. One specific risk is the enhancement of the radiofrequency fields around the medical implant potentially resulting in significant tissue heating and damage. The assessment of this enhancement is a computationally demanding task, with simulations taking hours or days to converge.

QTc intervals are not prolonged in former ELBW infants at pre-adolescent age.

Background: Whether preterm birth is associated with cardiac conduction or repolarization abnormalities in later life is still poorly explored, with conflicting data on QTc prolongation in former extreme low birth weight (ELBW, <1000 g) infants.

Methods: Twelve lead electrocardiograms (ECG) at rest, collected in the PREMATurity as predictor of children's Cardiovascular-renal Health (PREMATCH) study in former ELBW cases and term controls during pre-adolescence (8-14 years) were analyzed on corrected QT time (QTc, Bazett) and QT dispersion (QTd). ECG findings were compared between groups (Mann-Whitney), and associations with clinical and biochemical findings were explored (Spearman).

Potential added value of combined DPYD/DPD genotyping and phenotyping to prevent severe toxicity in patients with a variant and decreased dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase enzyme activity.

Objective: To investigate if dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase phenotyping has added value when combined with genotyping in predicting fluoropyrimidine-related toxicity.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study in which treatment and toxicity data were collected of 228 patients genotyped for four variants and phenotyped using an peripheral blood mononuclear cell assay.

Results: Severe toxicity occurred in 25% of patients with a variant and normal dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase activity, in 21% of patients without a variant and with decreased dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase activity, and in 29% of patients without a variant and with normal dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase activity (controls).