Publications by authors named "Seungpyo Lee"
Article Synopsis
- Researchers examined how genetic risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) interacts with air pollution exposure to influence CVD outcomes.
- Using data from the UK Biobank involving over 249,000 participants, they found that individuals with high genetic risk who were also exposed to high levels of particulate matter (PM) faced significantly increased risks of cardiovascular death.
- The study suggests that reducing PM exposure and tailoring preventive strategies for those at high genetic risk could improve cardiovascular health outcomes.
Article Synopsis
- Optimal medical treatment using angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitors (ARNI) can improve left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with heart failure with reduced EF (HFrEF), with a significant portion (46.4%) experiencing improvement after one year.
- The study identified several factors affecting outcomes: older age, male sex, and larger heart size predicted persistent HFrEF, while atrial fibrillation and high blood pressure were inversely linked.
- Patients with improved ejection fraction (HFimpEF) had lower rates of all-cause and cardiac mortality compared to those with persistent HFrEF (perHFrEF), suggesting that ARNI therapy leads to better overall outcomes in HFrEF
Introduction: Large language models such as Gemini, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4 have demonstrated significant potential in the medical field. Their performance in medical licensing examinations globally has highlighted their capabilities in understanding and processing specialized medical knowledge.
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- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a condition with different forms and varying risks for sudden cardiac death (SCD), and this study aimed to categorize these forms based on their SCD-related features and outcomes.
- Researchers analyzed data from 1,231 HCM patients and identified three distinct groups: young patients with low SCD risk (Group 1), young patients with high SCD risk (Group 2), and older patients (Group 3) who faced different rates of SCD and other complications.
- The findings suggest that using these clear phenotypes can help better assess risks and manage patients with HCM more effectively.
Article Synopsis
- * This study used cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging to evaluate myocardial health and found that increased interstitial fibrosis (measured by extracellular volume fraction, ECV%) correlates with worse health outcomes in these patients.
- * Over a median follow-up of 5.7 years, higher ECV% was linked to increased mortality and heart failure admissions, indicating that ECV% could be a valuable tool for identifying patients needing closer monitoring.
Chronic hypertension leads to injury and fibrosis in major organs. Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is one of key molecules in tissue fibrosis, and Ga-labeled FAP inhibitor-46 (FAPI46) PET is a recently developed method for evaluating FAP. The aim of this study was to evaluate FAP expression and fibrosis in a hypertension model and to test the feasibility of Ga-FAPI46 PET in hypertension.
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- This study investigates the impact of personality traits on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using data from over 8,000 individuals followed for up to 13.6 years.
- Key findings indicate that the personality trait of diligence is associated with a lower risk of several types of CVD, suggesting that more conscientious individuals may have better health outcomes.
- Additionally, adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors, such as managing obesity and staying active, can further reduce CVD risk, regardless of one's level of diligence.
Article Synopsis
- Conductive hydrogels traditionally have low electrical conductivity due to their high water content, which hampers carrier transport between conductive fillers.
- This study introduces a highly conductive and stretchable hydrogel nanocomposite using whiskered gold nanosheets that maintain a strong connection even when stretched, resulting in impressive conductivity levels (≈520 S/cm) and stretchability (≈300%) without needing dehydration.
- The new gold-adhesive hydrogel nanocomposite demonstrates superior performance in bioelectronics applications, such as epicardial electrogram recording and nerve stimulation, outperforming existing elastomer-based electrodes.
Background: Aortic stenosis (AS) is characterized by calcification and fibrosis. The ability to quantify these processes simultaneously has been limited with previous imaging methods.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the aortic valve fibrocalcific volume by computed tomography (CT) angiography in patients with AS, in particular, to assess its reproducibility, association with histology and disease severity, and ability to predict/track progression.
Article Synopsis
- Right ventricular (RV) systolic dysfunction is a key prognostic factor in patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR), yet traditional echocardiography struggles to assess RV function accurately.
- This study examined the effectiveness of speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) in measuring RV function by comparing RV free wall longitudinal strain (RVFWLS) and global longitudinal strain (RVGLS) to RV ejection fraction (RVEF) obtained from cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR).
- Results showed that RVFWLS was the most reliable indicator of RV systolic dysfunction, outperforming RV fractional area change in its ability to discriminate between normal and reduced RV function, indicating STE's potential for better assessment
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the role of early diastolic mitral annular tissue velocity (e') as a prognostic marker for patients with mitral regurgitation (MR).
- It analyzed 1,536 patients under 65 years old with moderate to severe chronic primary MR, focusing on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality over a median follow-up of 6 years.
- Findings indicate that an abnormal e' velocity (≤7 cm/s) is a significant independent predictor for both all-cause and cardiovascular death, enhancing mortality risk assessment in these patients.
Implantable bioelectronics has attracted significant attention in electroceuticals and clinical medicine for precise diagnosis and efficient treatment of target diseases. However, conventional rigid implantable devices face challenges such as poor tissue-device interface and unavoidable tissue damage during surgical implantation. Despite continuous efforts to utilize various soft materials to address such issues, their practical applications remain limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCardiac interfacing devices are essential components for the management of cardiovascular diseases, particularly in terms of electrophysiological monitoring and implementation of therapies. However, conventional cardiac devices are typically composed of rigid and bulky materials and thus pose significant challenges for effective long-term interfacing with the curvilinear surface of a dynamically beating heart. In this regard, the recent development of intrinsically soft bioelectronic devices using nanocomposites, which are fabricated by blending conductive nanofillers in polymeric and elastomeric matrices, has shown great promise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFValvular heart disease (VHD) is becoming more prevalent in an ageing population, leading to challenges in diagnosis and management. This two-part Series offers a comprehensive review of changing concepts in VHD, covering diagnosis, intervention timing, novel management strategies, and the current state of research. The first paper highlights the remarkable progress made in imaging and transcatheter techniques, effectively addressing the treatment paradox wherein populations at the highest risk of VHD often receive the least treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The 2020 American Heart Association (AHA)/American College of Cardiology (ACC) guidelines for sudden cardiac death (SCD) risk stratification in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) need further international validation.
Objectives: Performance of the guidelines and the incremental value of myocardial strain for predicting SCD in HCM were investigated.
Methods: In 1,416 HCM patients, SCD risk was stratified according to the 2020 AHA/ACC and 2014 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines.
Objectives: To compare cardiac computed tomography (CCT) and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) for the quantitative assessment of the left ventricular (LV) trabeculated layer in patients with suspected noncompaction cardiomyopathy (NCCM).
Materials And Methods: Subjects with LV excessive trabeculation who underwent both CMR and CCT imaging as part of the prospective international multicenter NONCOMPACT clinical study were included. For each subject, short-axis CCT and CMR slices were matched.
Adherence to medication plays a crucial role in the effective management of chronic diseases. However, patients often miss their scheduled drug administrations, resulting in suboptimal disease control. Therefore, we propose an implantable device enabled with automated and precisely timed drug administration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite the established benefits of angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) across various etiologies, there are controversies regarding the effects of ARNI in patients with irreversible myocardial injury. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of irreversible myocardial injury on the benefits of ARNI treatment in patients with HFrEF, consisted of both ischemic and non-ischemic etiologies.
Methods And Results: We conducted a retrospective single-center study including 409 consecutive patients with HFrEF treated with ARNI between March 2017 and May 2020.
Background: The success of cephalometric analysis depends on the accurate detection of cephalometric landmarks on scanned lateral cephalograms. However, manual cephalometric analysis is time-consuming and can cause inter- and intra-observer variability. The purpose of this study was to automatically detect cephalometric landmarks on scanned lateral cephalograms with low contrast and resolution using an attention-based stacked regression network (Ceph-Net).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Myocarditis is a potentially fatal disease, but curative treatments have not yet been established. Myocardial inflammation is an important pathogenesis of this disease, and immunosuppressants such as methylprednisolone and immunoglobulin have been used for treatment; however, the effectiveness needs to be improved. Thalidomide and dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) 4 inhibitors were recently investigated regarding their immunomodulatory properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The new version of EchoPAC platform was recently developed by General Electronics (GE) to provide 'vendor-independent' full-myocardial-layer left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (LV-GLS). The agreement of the LV-GLS by two vendor-independent software platforms was investigated under diverse clinical situations.
Methods: Two-dimensional speckle-tracking LV-GLS was separately measured by two software platforms.
Background And Objectives: The prognostic or safety implication of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors (RASi) in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are not well established, mainly due to concerns regarding left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction aggravation. We investigated the implications of RASi in a sizable number of HCM patients.
Methods: We enrolled 2,104 consecutive patients diagnosed with HCM in 2 tertiary university hospitals and followed up for five years.
Article Synopsis
- The study examined how changes in smoking behavior affect cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks and mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes.
- Data from 349,137 T2DM patients were analyzed, categorizing their smoking changes into five groups: quitters, reducers, sustainers, and increasers.
- Results showed that quitting smoking significantly reduced the risk of heart attacks and strokes, as well as overall and CVD-related mortality, while simply cutting back on smoking did not offer significant benefits.