Intergenerational transfer of blood pressure knowledge and screening: a school-based hypertension awareness program in Singapore.

Objective: This study aims to examine the efficacy of a hypertension awareness education program in Singapore in reaching out to a wider population of diverse racial and intergenerational cohorts by dispatching grade five children as information intermediaries to their immediate and extended family members.

Method: After receiving structured instruction and training on blood pressure screening, students were requested to share knowledge gained in school with their family members at home and practice blood pressure measurement on family volunteers. We assessed pre- and post-program blood pressure knowledge change, attitude toward screening, and the diffusion of blood pressure information.

A novel coronary artery bypass graft design of sequential anastomoses.

In this paper, the hemodynamics in a three-dimensional out-of-plane sequential bypass graft model is first investigated. Based on the advantageous flow characteristics observed within the side-to-side (STS) anastomosis in the sequential bypass graft simulation, a new CABG coupled-sequential anastomosis configuration is designed, entailing coupled STS and end-to-side (ETS) anastomotic components. In this new CABG design, the flow fields and distributions of various wall shear stress parameters within the STS and ETS anastomotic regions are studied, and compared to those of the conventional distal anastomosis, by means of computational fluid dynamics simulation of pulsatile Newtonian blood flow.

Numerical investigation and identification of susceptible sites of atherosclerotic lesion formation in a complete coronary artery bypass model.

As hemodynamics is widely believed to correlate with anastomotic stenosis in coronary bypass surgery, this paper investigates the flow characteristics and distributions of the hemodynamic parameters (HPs) in a coronary bypass model (which includes both proximal and distal anastomoses), under physiological flow conditions. Disturbed flows (flow separation/reattachment, vertical and secondary flows) as well as regions of high oscillatory shear index (OSI) with low wall shear stress (WSS), i.e.

Factors influencing radial artery size.

Size matching of radial artery conduits to coronary arteries is important as it affects the long-term patency. However, factors affecting radial artery size have not been adequately investigated. We retrospectively reviewed 327 consecutive patients who had duplex ultrasonography of their radial arteries over a 2-year period.

Validation of numerical simulation with PIV measurements for two anastomosis models.

Hemodynamics is widely believed to influence coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) stenosis. Although distal anastomosis has been extensively investigated, further studies on proximal anastomosis are still necessary, as the extent and initiation of the stenosis process may be influenced by the flow of the proximal anastomosis per se. Therefore, in this study, two models (i.

Influence of aorto-left coronary bypass graft geometry on wall shear stress distribution.

Idealized geometries of bypass grafts have been constructed to analyze the blood flow in an aorto-coronary bypass graft system. In this paper we discuss the influence of the realistic bypass graft geometry for the in-plane and out-of-plane aorto-left bypass graft models on the wall shear stress distribution. In the in-plane aorto-left coronary bypass graft model we have the centerlines of the aorta, the left coronary vessel and the bypass graft to lie in the same plane (planar geometry) where as in the out-of-plane model the centerlines of the vessels no longer lie in a constant plane (non-planar geometry).

In-vitro Experimental Validation Of Hemodynamics Study For Proximal Anastomosis Models.

Hemodynamics is widely believed to correlate with the stenosis of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). Although some researchers had investigated distal anastomosis, further studies upon the proximal anastomosis are still necessary as the initiation and growth of the stenosis process may be influenced by the nature of the flow at the proximal anastomosis. Therefore in this project, flow characteristics of proximal anastomosis models were studied numerically in order to enhance the understanding of the stenosis pathophysiological process and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were also carried out to validate the numerical simulation results.

Determination of the left ventricular myofiber angle analytically and its significance.

It is known that the tremendous internal pressure build-up in the left ventricle (LV) cavity during isovolumic contraction is due to the contraction of the spirally woven myocardial fibers. In this paper, a biomathematical model is developed to investigate the fiber angle using the theory of elasticity. Simultaneously, another simplified model in order to reduce the mathematical complexity was also developed to determine the fiber angle.

Computational model of blood flow in the aorto-coronary bypass graft.

Background: Coronary artery bypass grafting surgery is an effective treatment modality for patients with severe coronary artery disease. The conduits used during the surgery include both the arterial and venous conduits. Long- term graft patency rate for the internal mammary arterial graft is superior, but the same is not true for the saphenous vein grafts.

Ex vivo differentiation of human adult bone marrow stem cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells have been shown to transdifferentiate into cardiomyocytes after 5-azacytidine treatment or co-culturing with rodent cardiomyocytes. We investigate if adult human bone marrow stem cells can be differentiated ex vivo into cardiomyocyte-like cells (CLCs) independent of cytotoxic agents or co-culturing technique. Sternal bone marrow was collected from 16 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery.

ABCA1 gene polymorphisms and their associations with coronary artery disease and plasma lipids in males from three ethnic populations in Singapore.

Mutations in the ATP-binding cassette transporter ABCA1 underlie Tangier disease and familial hypoalphaliproteinemia (FHA), disorders that are characterised by reduced high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentration and cholesterol efflux, and increased coronary artery disease (CAD). We explored if polymorphisms in the ABCA1 gene are associated with CAD and variations in plasma lipid levels, especially HDL-C, and whether the associations may depend on ethnicity. Male cases and controls from the Singapore Chinese, Malay and Indian populations were genotyped for five ABCA1 single nucleotide polymorphisms.

A limited sampling strategy for the estimation of 12-hour Neoral systemic drug exposure in heart transplant recipients.

Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring of cyclosporine in heart transplant patients is used to monitor therapy and prevent rejection. Of the various methods available for performing therapeutic drug monitoring of cyclosporine, the method of limited sampling strategy for area under the concentration-time curve profiling has been used most widely recently. The process of identifying sparse data points to predict area under the concentration-time curve is essentially a variable selection problem, with the variables being the drug concentrations at the various timepoints.