Shear-wave elastography for the assessment of liver fibrosis in liver transplant recipients treated for hepatitis C virus recurrence.

Objectives: Direct-acting antiviral agents have revolutionized hepatitis C therapy, and are also found to be effective in the liver transplant setting. The extent of liver fibrosis influences patient management and is used to monitor therapeutic effects. Shear-wave elastography (SWE) is a relatively new imaging-based method that has not yet been studied extensively in liver transplant patients.

Uterine leiomyomas: MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound surgery--imaging predictors of success.

Purpose: To retrospectively assess the magnetic resonance (MR) imaging predictors of success at reducing uterine leiomyoma volume and achieving patient symptom relief 12 months after MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound surgery.

Materials And Methods: This single-center retrospective analysis of 71 symptomatic fibroids in 66 women was approved by the institutional review board and was HIPAA-compliant. Patients were treated with MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound surgery.

Use of generalized transfer function-derived central blood pressure for the calculation of baroreflex gain.

Background: Peripheral blood pressure measurement underestimates pressure changes during baroreflex testing, resulting in an overestimation of baroreflex gain. This error might be reduced by measuring central blood pressure; the invasive measurement, however, may represent ethical and practical problems. The solution may be the derivation of central blood pressure from the peripheral pulse using a generalized transfer function.

Echocardiographic parameters in athlete and nonathlete offspring of hypertensive parents.

Background: According to several reports, some cardiovascular signs of hypertension (left ventricular [LV] hypertrophy, impaired diastolic filling) can be found in the normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents. It is also well known that regular physical exercise decreases the risk of hypertension.

Aim: The aim of the present study is to determine whether or not regular physical training influences these early hypertensive traits in the offspring of hypertensive parents.

Transposition of great arteries is associated with increased carotid artery stiffness.

Transposition of great arteries is the consequence of abnormal aorticopulmonary septation. Animal embryonic data indicate that septation and elastogenesis are related events, but human and clinical data are not available. We tested the hypothesis that large artery elastic function was impaired in patients with transposition of great arteries.

[Investigation of cerebral autoregulation in Parkinson's disease--a transcranial Doppler study].

Background And Purpose: The frequent orthostatic intolerance in Parkinson's disease could be the consequence of cardiovascular autonomic failure and/or a damaged cerebral autoregulation (AR). To clarify this question the regulation of cerebral circulation was investigated by polygraphic method.

Methods: On a tilt table simultaneous and continuous registrations were made of MCA velocity (V(MCA)) by transcranial Doppler, arterial blood pressure by non-invasive method, and end-tidal CO2, in supine and in tilted positions of 10 degrees, 30 degrees, 70 degrees grades.

Cardiovagal autonomic function in sedentary and trained offspring of hypertensive parents.

In young normotensive subjects, parental hypertension is associated with stiffening of the carotid artery and reduction in cardiovagal outflow and baroreflex gain. In subjects without parental hypertension regular exercise training was found to attenuate age-related reduction in carotid compliance and baroreflex gain. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that regular physical activity is associated with better parameters of carotid artery elasticity, increased cardiovagal outflow and higher baroreflex gain in normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents.

Opposite changes in carotid versus aortic stiffness during healthy human pregnancy.

Systemic arterial compliance has been known to increase during healthy pregnancy, whereas, recently, the carotid artery has been reported to stiffen. To clarify this controversy, we simultaneously measured aortic PWV (pulse wave velocity) and carotid artery elastic parameters in a cohort of pregnant women. Twelve normotensive pregnant women were studied longitudinally during the three trimesters of pregnancy (T1, T2 and T3 respectively) and 12 weeks PP (postpartum).

Maturation of cardiovagal autonomic function from childhood to young adult age.

Background: Cardiovagal autonomic control declines with age in adult subjects, which is related in part to increasing stiffness of the barosensory vessel wall. It is not known, however, whether autonomic function changes with age in children.

Methods And Results: We studied 137 healthy subjects divided into 4 age groups: group 1, 7 to 14 years; group 2, 11 to 14 years; group 3, 15 to 18 years; and group 4, 19 to 22 years.

Effect of vitamin E on carotid artery elasticity and baroreflex gain in young, healthy adults.

In this study we tested the hypothesis that dietary vitamin E supplementation can improve carotid artery elasticity and cardio-vagal baroreflex gain in young, healthy individuals. A total of 20 subjects were studied in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study. Subjects in the active treatment group received 700 IU/day vitamin E for 1 month.

Carotid artery stiffening does not explain baroreflex impairment in pre-eclampsia.

Stiffening of the barosensory vessel wall in hypertension has been suggested to play a role in the associated baroreflex impairment. The carotid distensibility-BRS (baroreflex sensitivity) relationship, however, has not been studied in pre-eclampsia, a condition where hypertension is spontaneously reversible. Twelve normotensive pregnant women and 12 patients with pre-eclampsia matched for maternal age and week of gestation were studied in the third trimester and 3 months postpartum.

Static and dynamic changes in carotid artery diameter in humans during and after strenuous exercise.

Arterial baroreflex function is altered by dynamic exercise, but it is not clear to what extent baroreflex changes are due to altered transduction of pressure into deformation of the barosensory vessel wall. In this study we measured changes in mean common carotid artery diameter and the pulsatile pressure : diameter ratio (PDR) during and after dynamic exercise. Ten young, healthy subjects performed a graded exercise protocol to exhaustion on a bicycle ergometer.