Pregnancy Considerations in the Multidisciplinary Care of Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a vasoconstrictive disease of the distal pulmonary vasculature resulting in adverse right heart remodeling. Pregnancy in PAH patients is associated with high maternal morbidity and mortality as well as neonatal and fetal complications. Pregnancy-associated changes in the cardiovascular, pulmonary, hormonal, and thrombotic systems challenge the complex PAH physiology.

Cardiovascular Emergencies in Pregnancy.

Heart disease in pregnancy may manifest as acute coronary syndromes, decompensated valvular disease, and acute heart failure. These disease processes may represent progression of preexisting disease versus newly developed disease resulting from the physiologic changes of pregnancy. Early recognition of clinical presentations, judicious use of diagnostic studies, and multidisciplinary management of patient and fetal considerations can lead to optimal outcomes in this unique patient subset.

Consil bioactive glass particles enhance osteoblast proliferation and maintain extracellular matrix production in vitro.

Bioactive glasses are used clinically as bone implant materials as they are able to bond directly with bone. Studies in dogs have demonstrated the utility of Consil Bioglass synthetic bone graft particulate, a commercially available bioactive glass formulation, as a bone substitute for repair of bony defects. We evaluated the effect of Consil particles (500 microg/mL) on osteoblast proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM) production at the cellular level in vitro.