Prevalence and prognosis of asymptomatic left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in ambulatory patients with coronary heart disease.

The association of asymptomatic left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction with cardiovascular outcomes in ambulatory patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and no history of heart failure (HF) was examined. LV diastolic HF predicts adverse cardiovascular outcomes. However, the prevalence and prognosis of asymptomatic LV diastolic dysfunction in patients with established CHD in the absence of clinical HF is unknown.

The masked onset priming effect in picture naming.

Reading aloud is faster when targets (e.g., PAIR) are preceded by visually masked primes sharing just the onset (e.

Acute myocardial infarction in patients with versus without aortic valve sclerosis and effect of statin therapy (from the Heart and Soul Study).

Aortic sclerosis is associated with cardiovascular events in patients without coronary heart disease (CHD), but it is unclear whether this association exists in patients with established CHD or is independent of baseline cardiac disease severity. It is also unclear whether statins modify this association. In a prospective cohort study of 814 outpatients with established CHD and no evidence of aortic stenosis, the association of aortic sclerosis with subsequent cardiovascular events was examined using a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model.

Bilingual language control: an event-related brain potential study.

This study addressed how bilingual speakers switch between their first and second language when speaking. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and naming latencies were measured while unbalanced German (L1)-Dutch (L2) speakers performed a picture-naming task. Participants named pictures either in their L1 or in their L2 (blocked language conditions), or participants switched between their first and second language unpredictably (mixed language condition).

N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide as a diagnostic test for ventricular dysfunction in patients with coronary disease: data from the heart and soul study.

Background: N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) testing is useful for diagnosing acute decompensated heart failure. Whether NT-proBNP can be used to detect ventricular dysfunction in patients with stable coronary heart disease (CHD) and no history of heart failure is unknown.

Methods: We measured NT-proBNP levels and performed transthoracic echocardiography in 815 participants from the Heart and Soul Study, who had stable CHD and no history of heart failure.

Neural correlates of verbal feedback processing: an fMRI study employing overt speech.

Speakers use external auditory feedback to monitor their own speech. Feedback distortion has been found to increase activity in the superior temporal areas. Using fMRI, the present study investigates the neural correlates of processing verbal feedback without distortion.

Segmental atrial contraction in patients restored to sinus rhythm after cardioversion for chronic atrial fibrillation: a colour Doppler tissue imaging study.

Aims: There is little known about segmental atrial function in patients with atrial arrhythmias. We evaluated segmental atrial contractility using colour Doppler tissue imaging (CDTI) in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation (CAF) who were successfully restored and maintained in sinus rhythm (SR).

Methods And Results: We compared the segmental atrial contractility in 39 CAF patients who were successfully cardioverted and maintained in SR for 6 months.

N-terminal fragment of the prohormone brain-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), cardiovascular events, and mortality in patients with stable coronary heart disease.

Context: Identification of individuals at high risk for cardiovascular events is important for the optimal use of primary and secondary prevention measures.

Objective: To determine whether plasma levels of amino terminal fragment of the prohormone brain-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) predict cardiovascular events or death independent of other available prognostic tests.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Prospective cohort study (2000-2002) of 987 individuals in California with stable coronary heart disease in the Heart and Soul Study, who were followed up for a mean of 3.

Elevated pulmonary artery pressure by Doppler echocardiography predicts hospitalization for heart failure and mortality in ambulatory stable coronary artery disease: the Heart and Soul Study.

Objectives: We compared the predictive ability of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) and end-diastolic pulmonary regurgitation (EDPR) gradients in outpatients with coronary artery disease.

Background: The TR and EDPR gradients, in conjunction with right atrial pressure, provide Doppler estimates of pulmonary artery systolic and diastolic pressures. We hypothesized that increases in TR or EDPR gradients in stable coronary artery disease would predict heart failure (HF) hospitalization or cardiovascular (CV) death.

Effects of time pressure on verbal self-monitoring: an ERP study.

The Error-Related Negativity (ERN) is a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) that is associated with action monitoring and error detection. The present study addressed the question whether or not an ERN occurs after verbal error detection, e.g.

Cystatin C, left ventricular hypertrophy, and diastolic dysfunction: data from the Heart and Soul Study.

Background: Impaired kidney function, as measured by serum cystatin C, is associated with risk of incident heart failure. Whether cystatin C is associated with preclinical cardiac structural abnormalities is unknown. We evaluate whether cystatin C is associated with left ventricular hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction, and systolic dysfunction among 818 outpatients with coronary artery disease who were free of clinical heart failure.

Resistance mechanisms in an in vitro-selected amoxicillin-resistant strain of Helicobacter pylori.

We investigated the beta-lactam resistance mechanism(s) of an in vitro-selected amoxicillin-resistant Helicobacter pylori strain (AmoxR). Our results demonstrated that resistance is due to a combination of amino acid substitutions in penicillin binding protein 1 (PBP1), HopB, and HopC identified in AmoxR, resulting in decreased affinity of PBP1 for amoxicillin and decreased accumulation of penicillin.

Different selection principles of freestanding and bound morphemes in language production.

Freestanding and bound morphemes differ in many (psycho)linguistic aspects. Some theorists have claimed that the representation and retrieval of freestanding and bound morphemes in the course of language production are governed by similar processing mechanisms. Alternatively, it has been proposed that both types of morphemes may be selected for production in different ways.

Lexical stress encoding in single word production estimated by event-related brain potentials.

An event-related brain potentials (ERPs) experiment was carried out to investigate the time course of lexical stress encoding in language production. Native speakers of Dutch viewed a series of pictures corresponding to bisyllabic names which were either stressed on the first or on the second syllable and made go/no-go decisions on the lexical stress location of those picture names. Behavioral results replicated a pattern that was observed earlier, i.

Pulmonary hemodynamic effects of dipyridamole infusion in patients with normal and elevated pulmonary artery systolic pressure receiving PB127.

Background: Intravenous administration of microspheres used as ultrasound contrast agents may potentially alter pulmonary hemodynamics. PB127 (POINT Biomedical Corp., San Carlos, CA) is an investigational ultrasound perfusion-imaging agent used in conjunction with dipyridamole to diagnose coronary artery disease.

Regulation of RhoGEF activity by intramolecular and intermolecular SH3 domain interactions.

RhoGEFs are central controllers of small G-proteins in cells and are regulated by several mechanisms. There are at least 22 human RhoGEFs that contain SH3 domains, raising the possibility that, like several other enzymes, SH3 domains control the enzymatic activity of guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) domains through intra- and/or intermolecular interactions. The structure of the N-terminal SH3 domain of Kalirin was solved using NMR spectroscopy, and it folds much like other SH3 domains.

Alginate lyase enhances antibiotic killing of mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa in biofilms.

Once mucoid (alginate-producing) strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa have become established in the respiratory tracts of cystic fibrosis patients they can rarely be eliminated by antibiotic treatment alone; we have investigated, in an in vitro biofilm system, the putative role of co-administration of alginate lyase with antibiotic. Biofilms were maintained in continuous flow culture in a medium resembling sputum from CF patients. Antibiotics and/or alginate lyase were added to some of the cultures.

The influence of semantic category membership on syntactic decisions: a study using event-related brain potentials.

An event-related brain potentials (ERP) experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of semantic category membership on syntactic decision-making. Native speakers of German viewed a series of words that were semantically marked or unmarked for gender and made go/no-go decisions about the grammatical gender of those words. The electrophysiological results indicated that participants could make a gender decision earlier when words were semantically gender-marked than when they were semantically gender-unmarked.

Left atrial size is a poor predictor of pathology in the older patient: preliminary observations.

Objective: The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between left atrial (LA) size and pathology in humans.

Methods: We evaluated 14 patients (age 60 +/- 14 years, range 25-77, 9 males) who had died at our hospital. Eight patients were in sinus rhythm, 3 had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF), and 3 were in established atrial fibrillation (AF).

Pulmonary regurgitation end-diastolic gradient is a Doppler marker of cardiac status: data from the Heart and Soul Study.

Background: Echocardiograms routinely sample pulmonary regurgitation signals from which it is possible to measure end diastolic gradients; these correlate with pulmonary artery diastolic pressures.

Methods: We performed echocardiograms in 741 ambulatory adults with coronary artery disease who were recruited for the Heart and Soul Study. We compared indicators of cardiac status among individuals with normal (0-5.

Effects of syllable frequency in speech production.

In the speech production model proposed by [Levelt, W. J. M.

Critical role for Kalirin in nerve growth factor signaling through TrkA.

Kalirin is a multidomain guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) that activates Rho proteins, inducing cytoskeletal rearrangement in neurons. Although much is known about the effects of Kalirin on Rho GTPases and neuronal morphology, little is known about the association of Kalirin with the receptor/signaling systems that affect neuronal morphology. Our experiments demonstrate that Kalirin binds to and colocalizes with the TrkA neurotrophin receptor in neurons.

Graphemic complexity and multiple print-to-sound associations in visual word recognition.

It has recently been reported that words containing a multiletter grapheme are processed slower than are words composed of single-letter graphemes (Rastle & Coltheart, 1998; Rey, Jacobs, Schmidt-Weigand, & Ziegler, 1998). In the present study, using a perceptual identification task, we found in Experiment 1 that this graphemic complexity effect can be observed while controlling for multiple print-to-sound associations, indexed by regularity or consistency. In Experiment 2, we obtained cumulative effects of graphemic complexity and regularity.

Alginate lyase (AlgL) activity is required for alginate biosynthesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

To determine whether AlgL's lyase activity is required for alginate production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an algLdelta::Gm(r) mutant (FRD-MA7) was created. algL complementation of FRD-MA7 restored alginate production, but algL constructs containing mutations inactivating lyase activity did not, demonstrating that the enzymatic activity of AlgL is required for alginate production.