Stakeholder-led understanding of the implementation of digital technologies within heart disease diagnosis: a qualitative study protocol.

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are highly prevalent among the UK population, and the quality of care is being reduced due to accessibility and resource issues. Increased implementation of digital technologies into the cardiovascular care pathway has enormous potential to lighten the load on the National Health Service (NHS), however, it is not possible to adopt this shift without embedding the perspectives of service users and clinicians.

Methods And Analysis: A series of qualitative studies will be carried out with the aim of developing a stakeholder-led perspective on the implementation of digital technologies to improve holistic diagnosis of heart disease.

JAG1-NOTCH4 mechanosensing drives atherosclerosis.

Endothelial cell (EC) sensing of disturbed blood flow triggers atherosclerosis, a disease of arteries that causes heart attack and stroke, through poorly defined mechanisms. The Notch pathway plays a central role in blood vessel growth and homeostasis, but its potential role in sensing of disturbed flow has not been previously studied. Here, we show using porcine and murine arteries and cultured human coronary artery EC that disturbed flow activates the JAG1-NOTCH4 signaling pathway.

Quantifying endothelial cell proliferation in the zebrafish embryo.

: Endothelial cell (EC) proliferation is a fundamental determinant of vascular development and homeostasis, and contributes to cardiovascular disease by increasing vascular permeability to blood-borne lipoproteins. Rodents have been traditionally used to analyse EC proliferation mechanisms in vascular health and disease; however, alternative models such as the zebrafish embryo allow researchers to conduct small scale screening studies in a physiologically relevant vasculature whilst reducing the use of mammals in biomedical research. models of EC proliferation are valuable but do not fully recapitulate the complexity of the situation.

Cerebrovascular endothelial cells form transient Notch-dependent cystic structures in zebrafish.

We identify a novel endothelial membrane behaviour in transgenic zebrafish. Cerebral blood vessels extrude large transient spherical structures that persist for an average of 23 min before regressing into the parent vessel. We term these structures "kugeln", after the German for sphere.

Adenosine versus intravenous calcium channel antagonists for supraventricular tachycardia.

Background: People with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) frequently are symptomatic and present to the emergency department for treatment. Although vagal manoeuvres may terminate SVT, they often fail, and subsequently adenosine or calcium channel antagonists (CCAs) are administered. Both are known to be effective, but both have a significant side effect profile.

Zebrafish xenograft models of cancer and metastasis for drug discovery.

Patients with metastatic cancer suffer the highest rate of cancer-related death, but existing animal models of metastasis have disadvantages that limit our ability to understand this process. The zebrafish is increasingly used for cancer modelling, particularly xenografting of human cancer cell lines, and drug discovery, and may provide novel scientific and therapeutic insights. However, this model system remains underexploited.