Unlocking Tomorrow's Health Care: Expanding the Clinical Scope of Wearables by Applying Artificial Intelligence.

As an integral aspect of health care, digital technology has enabled modelling of complex relationships to detect, screen, diagnose, and predict patient outcomes. With massive data sets, artificial intelligence (AI) can have marked effects on 3 levels: for patients, clinicians, and health systems. In this review, we discuss contemporary AI-enabled wearable devices undergoing research in the field of cardiovascular medicine.

Cellular senescence contributes to age-dependent changes in circulating extracellular vesicle cargo and function.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as important regulators of inter-cellular and inter-organ communication, in part via the transfer of their cargo to recipient cells. Although circulating EVs have been previously studied as biomarkers of aging, how circulating EVs change with age and the underlying mechanisms that contribute to these changes are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that aging has a profound effect on the circulating EV pool, as evidenced by changes in concentration, size, and cargo.

CD34 Stem Cells: Promising Roles in Cardiac Repair and Regeneration.

Cell therapy has received significant attention as a novel therapeutic approach to restore cardiac function after injury. CD34-positive (CD34) stem cells have been investigated for their ability to promote angiogenesis and contribute to the prevention of remodelling after infarct. However, there are significant differences between murine and human CD34 cells; understanding these differences might benefit the therapeutic use of these cells.

Haptoglobin 2-2 genotype is associated with presence and progression of MRI depicted atherosclerotic intraplaque hemorrhage.

Background: Atherosclerotic intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) is a source of free hemoglobin that binds the haptoglobin protein and forms a complex cleared by CD163 macrophages. Compared to the other common haptoglobin genotypes, hemoglobin-haptoglobin2-2 complex has the lowest affinity for tissue macrophages resulting in lower rate of hemoglobin uptake and increased oxidative burden. We hypothesized that haptoglobin2-2 patients' failure to clear hemoglobin results in a greater prevalence and progression of IPH.

Validity of establishing pediatric reference intervals based on hospital patient data: a comparison of the modified Hoffmann approach to CALIPER reference intervals obtained in healthy children.

Objectives: To compare pediatric reference intervals calculated using hospital-based patient data with those calculated using samples collected from healthy children in the community as part of the CALIPER study.

Methods: Hospital-based data for 13 analytes (calcium, phosphate, iron, ALP, cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine, direct bilirubin, total bilirubin, ALT, AST, albumin and magnesium), measured on the Vitros 5600, collected between 2007 and 2011 were obtained. The data for each analyte were partitioned by age and gender as previously defined by the CALIPER study.

Pediatric reference intervals: challenges and recent initiatives.

The clinical laboratory plays a critical role in healthcare delivery by providing objective data on specific biomarkers that directly aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of a wide range of clinical disorders. Reliable and accurate reference intervals for laboratory analyses are integral for correct interpretation of clinical laboratory test results and, therefore, for appropriate clinical decision-making. Ideally, reference intervals should be established based on a healthy population and stratified for key covariates including age, gender and ethnicity.

Personalized medicine in the care of the child with congenital heart disease: discovery to application.

On October 27-28, 2012, the SickKids Labatt Family Heart Centre and the Heart Centre Biobank Registry hosted the second international GenomeHeart symposium in Toronto, Ontario. The symposium featured experts in cardiology, developmental biology, pharmacology, genomics, bioinformatics, stem cell biology, biobanking, and ethics. The theme of this year's symposium was the application of emerging technologies in genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics to diagnostics and therapeutics of the child with heart disease.

CLSI-based transference of the CALIPER database of pediatric reference intervals from Abbott to Beckman, Ortho, Roche and Siemens Clinical Chemistry Assays: direct validation using reference samples from the CALIPER cohort.

Objectives: The CALIPER program recently established a comprehensive database of age- and sex-stratified pediatric reference intervals for 40 biochemical markers. However, this database was only directly applicable for Abbott ARCHITECT assays. We therefore sought to expand the scope of this database to biochemical assays from other major manufacturers, allowing for a much wider application of the CALIPER database.