Echocardiography Core Laboratory Reproducibility of Cardiac Safety Assessments in Cardio-Oncology.

Background: As the potential for cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction is increasingly recognized, there is a need for the standardization of echocardiographic measurements and cut points to guide treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the reproducibility of cardiac safety assessments across two academic echocardiography core laboratories (ECLs) at the University of Pennsylvania and the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Methods: To harmonize the application of guideline-recommended measurement conventions, the ECLs conducted multiple training sessions to align measurement practices for traditional and emerging assessments of left ventricular (LV) function.

Assessment of Device-Related Thrombus and Associated Clinical Outcomes With the WATCHMAN Left Atrial Appendage Closure Device for Embolic Protection in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation (from the PROTECT-AF Trial).

Left atrial appendage closure with the WATCHMAN device is an alternative to anticoagulation for stroke prevention in selected patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). LA device-related thrombus (DRT) is poorly defined and understood. We aimed to (1) develop consensus echocardiographic diagnostic criteria for DRT; (2) estimate the incidence of DRT; and (3) determine clinical event rates in patients with DRT.

ECG myocardial scar quantification predicts reverse left ventricular remodeling and survival after cardiac resynchronization therapy implantation: A retrospective pilot study.

Introduction: Electrocardiographic (ECG) LV scar quantification may improve prediction of CRT response.

Methods And Results: Data were abstracted in 76 patients who underwent a first CRT implantation at 2 US centers. Selvester QRS scar quantification was performed using the LBBB modified QRS scoring method.

Quality Improvement Implementation: Improving Reproducibility in the Echocardiography Laboratory.

Background: Interpretative variability can adversely affect echocardiographic reliability, but there is no widely accepted method to minimize variability and improve reproducibility.

Methods: A continuous quality improvement process was devised that involves testing reproducibility by assessment of measurement differences followed by robust review, retraining, and retesting. Reproducibility was deemed acceptable if ≥80% of all interreader comparisons were within a prespecified acceptable difference.

Choice of agreement indices for assessing and improving measurement reproducibility in a core laboratory setting.

Clinical core laboratories, such as Echocardiography core laboratories, are increasingly used in clinical studies with imaging outcomes as primary, secondary, or surrogate endpoints. While many factors contribute to the quality of measurements of imaging variables, an essential step in ensuring the value of imaging data includes formal assessment and control of reproducibility via intra-observer and inter-observer reliability. There are many different agreement/reliability indices in the literature.

[First steps towards a comparative evaluation of the French medical schools].

Context: AERES has achieved the first comparative study of the French medical schools based on the analysis of both teaching performance and research activity.

Methods: The human resources considered in the evaluation are full-time, tenured, university hospital teaching staff (TUHT), professors or lecturers, and are meaningful only if the number of students is considered. The estimated number of students is based on the Numerus Clausus (NC), number of students allowed each year to enter in the second year of medical studies.

Pregnancy outcome following prenatal diagnosis of an isodicentric X chromosome: first case report.

An isodicentric X chromosome, idic (X)(q27) was found in a female fetus during cytogenetic studies performed on amniotic cells due to advanced maternal age. No mosaicism was observed. Although segmental inversion duplications have been described for several other chromosomes, isodicentric chromosomes are reported only for gonosomes.

Familial reciprocal translocation t(7;16) associated with maternal uniparental disomy 7 in a Silver-Russell patient.

We present the case of a maternal heterodisomy for chromosome 7 in the daughter of a t(7;16)(q21;q24) reciprocal translocation carrier. The proband was referred to the hospital for growth retardation and minor facial dysmorphism without mental retardation. A diagnosis of Silver-Russell syndrome was suspected.

Polymerase Chain reaction generated probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization.

The extended use of Fish with centromeric probes in many cytogenetic laboratories is often impaired by the cost of this technique. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) constitutes a simple way to generate and label such centromeric probes at low cost. Two types of human DNA source can be used: 1--Somatic hybrid cell lines containing a unique human chromosome.

Heteromorphism 18ph+ : with or without reproductive consequences?

Heteromorphism or chromosomal variants are usually attributed to structural variations in constitutive heterochromatin. In the case of chromosome 18, 25 cases of 18ph+ have been reported to date. Using the Primed In Situ Labelling technique (PRINS) to study 2 new cases of 18ph+, we have been able to confirm their molecular nature and assuming a mechanism of formation.

[Turner syndrome and nodular regenerative hyperplasia of the liver].

Turner's syndrome is an ovarian dysgenesis (karyotype 45 X0) characterized by sexual infantilism and multiple malformations. Liver enzyme anomalies are often observed, but the underlying pathogenic mechanism remains unknown. Nodular regenerative hyperplasia of the liver is associated with another disease in about 80% of cases.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization on methylcellulose cultured hematopoietic stem cells from myelodysplastic syndromes.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal malignancies characterized by peripheral blood pancytopenia and signs of maturation disturbances of one or several cell lineages in bone marrow. MDS present as chimeras associating normal polyclonal and malignant monoclonal progenitors cells in various proportions. Numerous cytogenetic abnormalities have been reported in MDS and can be detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on interphase cells.

Mosaic isochromosome 20q and normal outcome: a new case ascertained by fluorescence in situ hybridization and a review of the literature.

We describe a new case of mosaic isochromosome 20q revealed by amniocentesis. A 46,XX/46,XX,i(20q) chromosomic complement was indirectly confirmed by fluorescent in situ hybridization. Since control chromosome analysis performed on cord blood showed a normal karyotype, pregnancy was continued and resulted in the birth of a normal female infant.

[Trisomy 20 mosaicism in amniotic cell culture. Genetic counselling during the prenatal diagnosis].

The author presents a new case of trisomy 20 mosaicism in an amniotic fluid culture and emphasizes the special aspects of this chromosomal abnormality. The prenatal diagnosis of "pseudo-mosaicism" is easier when in situ culture techniques are used. Controls of the results on a new sample of amniotic fluid and/or on foetal blood are useful to reinforce the diagnosis and to allow pregnancy to be continued.

[Congenital malaria: clinical, parasitological and histological considerations. Apropos of 200 observations collected at the Lomé University Teaching Hospital and Kpalimé Hospital].

An evaluation was conducted of the usefulness of clinical, parasitological and histological parameters for the diagnosis of neonatal pathology due to congenital malaria. Haematozoa detected were invariably Plasmodium falciparum. Their presence in the placenta was considered essential to confirm congenital infection, but needed always to be accompanied by a positive diagnose of the same species in the mother, villous vessels, umbilical cord and peripheral blood of the newborn child.

Evolution of the granular cells of the juxtaglomerular apparatus during postnatal development in the albino rat. Effect of age, body weight, renal weight and sex.

The postnatal development of the juxtaglomerular apparatus was studied by fluorescent microscopy in a series of 275 albino Wistar rats aged from 2 to 90 days. After treatment of kidney sections with thioflavine T, the appearance and evolution of secretory function in the terminal segment of the afferent glomerular arteriole were assessed in terms of the granular cell index (GCI) and the juxtaglomerular cell granulation index (JGI). Variations in these indices were analyzed in function of age, body weight, renal weight and sex of the animals.

[Effects of castration on the development of the juxtaglomerular apparatus in the albino rat during growth].

With the purpose to show a possible sexual difference in the evolution of the juxtaglomerular granular cells during the albino rat post-natal development, the authors have compared groups of male and female animals of crescent ages from 2 to 90 days old. During the first 30 days, the granulation indexes, which express the secretory activity of the Ruyter cells, are regularly increasing as the body and renal weights. On and after the 30th day, the growth becomes more important for males than for females but, in spite of these weight differences, the granulation indexes are not significantly different in terms of sex, at the same age.

[Histochemical studies of mucopolysaccharides in the urethral glands of newborns (glands of Littre) (author's transl)].

Histochemical study of urethral glands (Littre's glands) at birth shows, from that time, a notable secretion of mucopolysaccharides. It appears that the properties of the prosecretion are, in part, different from those described in the adult. In fact, in addition to the acid mucins which loose their affinity for Alcian dyes after digestion by neuraminidase and acid hydrolysis, there is an important elaboration of neutral mucosubstances which reacts positively with PAS even if the latter is combined with Alican Blue staining.

[Detection and histochemical identification of lipoid enclaves in rat trophoblast between 15th and 20th day of gestation (author's transl)].

Histochemical study of lipids in the allanto placenta of albino rats from the 10th to the 20th day of gestation permits the identification of lipoids enclaves in the trophoblastic cells. Their nature and topography show variations during the placenta evolution. Following a lipoid load, essentially acidic and evenly distributed both in the syncytium and in the giant cells (10th to 15th day), pigmented lipids appear.