Evaluating the Impact of Biological Augmentation on Failure Rates and Complications in Acute Patellar Tendon Rupture Surgery Compared With Isolated Repair.

Background: Patellar tendon ruptures are infrequent but disabling injuries. Surgical treatment is the gold standard to obtain good outcomes, and numerous techniques have been described. Biomechanical studies report better results when augmented techniques are used.

Fractional-order modeling of myocardium structure effects on atrial fibrillation electrograms.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia with mechanisms of initiation and sustaining that are not fully understood. The clinical procedure for AF contemplates the analysis of the atrial electrograms, whose morphology has been correlated with the underlying structure of the atrial myocardium. This study employs a mathematical model incorporating fractional calculus to simulate cardiac electrical conduction, accounting for tissue structural inhomogeneities using complex-valued orders.

Patients aged 55 or older undergoing around the knee osteotomy have a higher rate of deep vein thrombosis but not overall early post-operative complications.

Purpose: Osteotomies around the knee have been established as an effective method for treating varus or valgus malalignment associated with other knee pathologies in young and middle-aged patients. There is limited literature regarding the risks and complications based on patient age. The purpose of this study is to determine whether age influences as a risk factor for developing intraoperative and early post-operative complications in patients undergoing osteotomies around the knee.

The Effects of Fibrotic Cell Type and Its Density on Atrial Fibrillation Dynamics: An In Silico Study.

Remodeling in atrial fibrillation (AF) underlines the electrical and structural changes in the atria, where fibrosis is a hallmark of arrhythmogenic structural alterations. Fibrosis is an important feature of the AF substrate and can lead to abnormal conduction and, consequently, mechanical dysfunction. The fibrotic process comprises the presence of fibrotic cells, including fibroblasts, myofibroblasts and fibrocytes, which play an important role during fibrillatory dynamics.

Atrial proarrhythmic effect of lead as one of the PM10 metal components of air pollution. An in-silico study.

Particulate matter (PM) is considered the most severe environmental pollution problem due to its serious effects on human health associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In this work, a physicochemical characterization of PM10 from the city of Medellin was developed. The results evince that lead (Pb) is one of the most abundant elements since it is present in all analyzed samples.

Linguistic Validation and Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Post-COVID-19 Functional Status Scale for the Chilean Population.

Background: Patients with COVID-19 can present functional status and disability alterations in the medium- and long-term. On the international level, a multicentered study is being carried out to validate the Post-COVID-19 Functional Status scale for different nations, thus allowing visualizing the needs for a multidisciplinary approach and planning intervention plans. The objective of this study was to perform a linguistic validation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Post-COVID-19 Functional Status scale for people infected with COVID-19 for the Chilean population.

Effect of Genetic Polymorphisms on Hemoglobin Concentration in Andean Highlanders.

The physiological characteristics of Andean natives living at high altitudes have been investigated extensively, with many studies reporting that Andean highlanders have a higher hemoglobin (Hb) concentration than other highlander populations. It has previously been reported that positive natural selection has acted independently on the egl-9 family hypoxia inducible factor 1 () gene in Tibetan and Andean highlanders and is related to Hb concentration in Tibetans. However, no study has yet revealed the genetic determinants of Hb concentration in Andeans even though several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in have previously been examined.

Individual variations and sex differences in hemodynamics with percutaneous arterial oxygen saturation (SpO) in young Andean highlanders in Bolivia.

Background: Many studies have reported specific adaptations to high altitude, but few studies have focused on physiological variations in high-altitude adaptation in Andean highlanders. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between SpO and related factors, including individual variations and sex differences, in Andean highlanders.

Methods: The participants were community-dwelling people in La Paz, Bolivia, aged 20 years and over (age range 20-34 years).

Entropy Mapping Approach for Functional Reentry Detection in Atrial Fibrillation: An In-Silico Study.

Catheter ablation of critical electrical propagation sites is a promising tool for reducing the recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF). The spatial identification of the arrhythmogenic mechanisms sustaining AF requires the evaluation of electrograms (EGMs) recorded over the atrial surface. This work aims to characterize functional reentries using measures of entropy to track and detect a reentry core.

Fractal characterization of retinal microvascular network morphology during diabetic retinopathy progression.

Objective: The study aimed to characterize morphological changes of the retinal microvascular network during the progression of diabetic retinopathy.

Methods: Publicly available retinal images captured by a digital fundus camera from DIARETDB1 and STARE databases were used. The retinal microvessels were segmented using the automatic method, and vascular network morphology was analyzed by fractal parametrization such as box-counting dimension, lacunarity, and multifractals.

Atrial Rotor Dynamics Under Complex Fractional Order Diffusion.

The mechanisms of atrial fibrillation (AF) are a challenging research topic. The rotor hypothesis states that the AF is sustained by a reentrant wave that propagates around an unexcited core. Cardiac tissue heterogeneities, both structural and cellular, play an important role during fibrillatory dynamics, so that the ionic characteristics of the currents, their spatial distribution and their structural heterogeneity determine the meandering of the rotor.

Effect of the electrograms density in detecting and ablating the tip of the rotor during chronic atrial fibrillation: an in silico study.

Aims: Identification in situ of arrhythmogenic mechanisms could improve the rate of ablation success in atrial fibrillation (AF). Our research group reported that rotors could be located through dynamic approximate entropy (DApEn) maps. However, it is unknown how much the spatial resolution of catheter electrodes could affect substrates localization.

Does pelvic floor muscle training improve female sexual function? A systematic review.

Introduction And Hypothesis: We performed a review of the literature reporting on the effects of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) on female sexual function (SF).

Methods: Pubmed (from 1946 to December 2014), Ovid Medline (from 1946 to December 2014), CINAHL (from 1937 to December 2014), PsycINFO (from 1805 to December 2014), Scopus and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched by two independent reviewers. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the impact of PFMT on women's SF published in English were included.

Fractionated electrograms and rotors detection in chronic atrial fibrillation using model-based clustering.

The identification of atrial fibrillation (AF) substrates is needed to improve ablation therapy guided by electrograms, although mechanisms that sustain AF are not fully understood. Detection of complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAE) is used for this purpose. Nonetheless, efficacy of this method is inadequate in the case of chronic AF.

Dynamic approximate entropy electroanatomic maps detect rotors in a simulated atrial fibrillation model.

There is evidence that rotors could be drivers that maintain atrial fibrillation. Complex fractionated atrial electrograms have been located in rotor tip areas. However, the concept of electrogram fractionation, defined using time intervals, is still controversial as a tool for locating target sites for ablation.

Characteristics of patients with survival longer than 20 years following heart transplantation.

Introduction And Objectives: The number of heart-transplant recipients exceeding 20 years of follow-up is steadily increasing. However, little is known about their functional status, comorbidities, and mortality. Identifying the predictors of prolonged survival could guide the selection of candidates for the low number of available donors.

Predictors of hemorrhagic complications from endovascular treatment of cerebral arteriovenous malformations.

Post-embolization hemorrhage is the most severe, dramatic and morbidity-mortality-related complication in the treatment of endovascular arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). The objective of this study was to determine predictive factors of post-embolization hemorrhage. This is a retrospective study in 71 patients with cerebral AVMs having undergone 147 embolization sessions with n-butyl cyanoacrylate (n-BCA), carried out between 2006 and 2011.

RADIAL: a novel primary graft failure risk score in heart transplantation.

Background: Primary graft failure (PGF) is the leading cause of early mortality after heart transplantation (HT). Our aim is to propose a working definition of PGF and to develop a predictive risk score.

Methods: PGF was defined by four criteria reflecting significant myocardial dysfunction, severe hemodynamic impairment, early onset after HT, and absence of secondary causes of graft dysfunction.

Failure of percutaneous closure of prosthetic, aortic paravalvular leak.

We report the progression of aortic insufficiency after percutaneous closure of an aortic prosthesis paravalvular leak with the Amplatzer vascular plug (AGA Inc, Golden Valley, MN). Removal of the device and replacement of the aortic prosthesis was successfully performed. Based on operative findings, we hypothesize that shape mismatch between the occluder system and the leak might promote tearing at the end of slanted defects further enhancing the regurgitant area.