Rosuvastatin alters the genetic composition of the human gut microbiome.

The gut microbiome contributes to the variation of blood lipid levels, and secondary bile acids are associated with the effect of statins. Yet, our knowledge of how statins, one of our most common drug groups, affect the human microbiome is scarce. We aimed to characterize the effect of rosuvastatin on gut microbiome composition and inferred genetic content in stool samples from a randomized controlled trial (n = 66).

Intra-aortic balloon pump in acute chest pain and cardiogenic shock - a long-term follow-up.

Coronary revascularisation and intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) has been considered the gold standard treatment of acute coronary syndrome with cardiogenic shock, recently challenged by the SHOCK II study. The aim of this non-randomised study was to investigate the long term prognosis after immediate IABP supported angiography, in patients with acute chest pain and cardiogenic shock, treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), cardiac surgery or optimal medical treatment. We assessed data from 281 consecutive patients admitted to our department from 2004 to 2010.

Index of microvascular resistance to assess the effect of rosuvastatin on microvascular function in women with chest pain and no obstructive coronary artery disease: A double-blind randomized study.

Introduction: Many women undergoing coronary angiography for chest pain have no or only minimal coronary artery disease (CAD). However, despite the lack of obstructive CAD, they still have an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events. Pleiotropic effects of statins may influence microvascular function, but if statins improve microvascular function in unselected chest pain patients is not well studied.

Coronary computed tomography in heart transplant patients: detection of significant stenosis and cardiac allograft vasculopathy, image quality, and radiation dose.

Background Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is an accelerated form of atherosclerosis unique to heart transplant (HTX) patients. Purpose To investigate the detection of significant coronary artery stenosis and CAV, determinants of image quality, and the radiation dose in coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) of HTX patients with 64-slice multidetector CT (64-MDCT). Material and Methods Fifty-two HTX recipients scheduled for invasive coronary angiography (ICA) were prospectively enrolled and underwent CCTA before ICA with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).

Index of microvascular resistance after early conversion from calcineurin inhibitor to everolimus in heart transplantation: A sub-study to a 1-year randomized trial.

Background: Microvascular function in transplanted hearts can be evaluated by methods used in routine left heart catheterization follow-up after heart transplantation (HTx). This sub-study of a randomized study compared the effects of everolimus (EVR) and calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) treatment on microvascular function as expressed by the index of microvascular resistance (IMR) at 1 year after HTx. A secondary objective was to compare the change in IMR from 7-11 weeks to 1 year after HTx between randomized groups.

Comparison of simplified and comprehensive methods for assessing the index of microvascular resistance in heart transplant recipients.

Objectives: The objectives of the present study were to compare a simplified and a comprehensive method of estimating the index of microvascular resistance (IMR) and assess the changes from 7-11 weeks to 1 year after heart transplant (HTx).

Background: he IMR is specific to the microvasculature and reflects the status of the microcirculation in cardiac patients and can be estimated via a simplified method (IMR(s)) or a comprehensive method (IMR(c)). The calculation for the latter includes coronary wedge pressure and central venous pressure.

Echocardiographic evidence of right ventricular functional improvement after balloon pulmonary angioplasty in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

Background: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) induces right ventricular (RV) adaptive changes but often results in RV failure and death. Balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) is a treatment option in patients in whom pulmonary endarterectomy is contraindicated and in patients with residual pulmonary hypertension after pulmonary endarterectomy. We hypothesized that RV reverse remodeling and improved RV function would occur after BPA in patients with CTEPH.

Reference interval for the index of coronary microvascular resistance.

Aims: The index of microvascular resistance (IMR) is a relatively new tool that is used to assess microvascular function during routinely performed left heart catheterisations. In order to establish a reference interval for IMR, we investigated a subset of arrhythmia patients with structurally normal hearts and no or minimal coronary artery disease.

Methods And Results: Physiological variables, including IMR, were measured in 20 otherwise healthy patients aged 40-60 years (10 males and 10 females) who had been referred for electrophysiological evaluation of suspected atrioventricular nodal re-entry tachycardia.

Balloon pulmonary angioplasty in patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

Objective: To examine the effect of balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) on chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) in patients with inoperable disease or persistent pulmonary hypertension after pulmonary endarterectomy.

Design: Observational cohort study.

Setting: Referred patients with inoperable or persistent CTEPH.

Virtual histology assessment of cardiac allograft vasculopathy following introduction of everolimus--results of a multicenter trial.

In this 12-month multicenter Scandinavian study, 78 maintenance heart transplant (HTx) recipients randomized to everolimus with reduced calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) exposure or continued standard CNI-therapy underwent matched virtual histology (VH) examination to evaluate morphological progression of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV). Parallel measurement of a range of inflammatory markers was also performed. A similar rate of quantitative CAV progression was observed in the everolimus (n = 30) and standard CNI group (n = 48) (plaque index 1.

Sexual risk taking among patients on antiretroviral therapy in an urban informal settlement in Kenya: a cross-sectional survey.

Background: Our intention was to analyze demographic and contextual factors associated with sexual risk taking among HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Africa's largest informal urban settlement, Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya.

Methods: We used a cross-sectional survey in a resource-poor, urban informal settlement in Nairobi; 515 consecutive adult patients on ART attending the African Medical and Research Foundation clinic in Kibera in Nairobi were included in the study. Interviewers used structured questionnaires covering socio-demographic characteristics, time on ART, number of sexual partners during the previous six months and consistency of condom use.

The influence of traditional medicine and religion on discontinuation of ART in an urban informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya.

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the influence of traditional medicine and religion on discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in one of Africa's largest informal urban settlement, Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Methods: Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 20 patients discontinuing the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) ART program in Kibera due to issues related to traditional medicine and religion.

Results: Traditional medicine and religion remain important in many people's lives after ART initiation, but these issues are rarely addressed in a positive way during ART counseling.

Sexual risk-reduction strategies among HIV-infected men receiving ART in Kibera, Nairobi.

This paper explores motivational factors and barriers to sexual behaviour change among men receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART). Twenty in-depth interviews were undertaken with male patients enrolled at the African Medical and Research Foundation clinic in Africa's largest urban informal settlement, Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. All participants experienced prolonged and severe illness prior to the initiation of ART.

"Taking care of business": alcohol as currency in transactional sexual relationships among players in Cape Town, South Africa.

In this article we examine the dynamics of social relationships in which alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors cooccur. As part of a larger biological and behavioral HIV surveillance survey, 20 men who lived in an urban, informal settlement on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa participated in in-depth interviews. Interview transcripts were analyzed according to a latent content analysis.

The construction of an idealised urban masculinity among men with concurrent sexual partners in a South African township.

Background: The perspectives of heterosexual males who have large sexual networks comprising concurrent sexual partners and who engage in high-risk sexual behaviours are scarcely documented. Yet these perspectives are crucial to understanding the high HIV prevalence in South Africa where domestic violence, sexual assault and rape are alarmingly high, suggesting problematic gender dynamics.

Objective: To explore the construction of masculinities and men's perceptions of women and their sexual relationships, among men with large sexual networks and concurrent partners.

Social networks and concurrent sexual relationships--a qualitative study among men in an urban South African community.

The aim was to explore and describe characteristics of males' social and sexual networks in a South African peri-urban community. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with men participating in a larger quantitative study where the median age of the men was 28.7 years and almost 56% had some high-school education, 17.

The tumour necrosis factor superfamily ligand APRIL (TNFSF13) is released upon platelet activation and expressed in atherosclerosis.

Activated platelets release a wide range of inflammatory mediators, including members of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily (e.g. CD40 ligand [CD40L] and LIGHT).

Young people's understanding of HIV: a qualitative study among school students in Mankweng, South Africa.

Aims: This article describes young people's interpretation of HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted illness in a rural South African community in Mankweng, Limpopo Province.

Method: The study was based on 19 focus group discussions with adolescents aged 12-14 years.

Results: Our participants had limited knowledge about HIV from a biomedical perspective.

Challenges for scaling up ART in a resource-limited setting: a retrospective study in Kibera, Kenya.

Objective: To determine levels of dropout and adherence in an antiretroviral treatment (ART) program in sub-Saharan Africa's largest urban informal settlement, Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Method: Retrospective cohort study.

Results: : Of 830 patients that started ART between January 2005 and September 2007, 29% dropped out of the program for more than 90 days at least once after the last prescribed dose.

Mechanisms of preejection and postejection velocity spikes in left ventricular myocardium: interaction between wall deformation and valve events.

Background: Normal left ventricular myocardium demonstrates distinct spikes in the velocity trace before and after left ventricular ejection. We tested the hypothesis that the preejection and postejection velocity spikes reflect early systolic shortening and late systolic lengthening that are interrupted by mitral and aortic valve closure, respectively.

Methods And Results: In 11 anesthetized dogs, timing of valve closure was determined by pressure variables; left ventricular dimensions were determined by sonomicrometry.

Young males' gendered sexuality in the era of HIV and AIDS in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

This article is focused on young males' sexual identity and behaviors in rural South Africa. The study comprised 19 focus group discussions with adolescents aged 12 to 14 years. The informants depict male sexuality as biologically predetermined, where physical needs and practices such as circumcision legitimize early sexual debut.