Background: To resolve the current shortage of donor hearts, we established the Adonhers protocol. An upward shift of the donor age cut-off limit (from the present 55 to 65 years) is acceptable if a stress echo screening on the candidate donor heart is normal. This study aimed to verify feasibility of a "second opinion" of digitally transferred images of stress echo results to minimize technical variability in selection of aged donor hearts for heart transplant.
Methods: The informatics infrastructure was created for a core lab reading with a second opinion from the Pisa stress echo lab. To test the system, simulation standard stress echo cineloops were sent digitally from 5 peripheral labs to the central core lab.Starting January 2009, real marginal donor stress echos were sent via internet to the central core echo lab, Pisa, for a second opinion before heart transplant.
Results: In the simulation protocol, 30 dipyridamole stress echocardiograms were sent from the five peripheral echo labs to the central core lab in Pisa. Both the echo images and reports were correctly uploaded in the web system and sent to the core echo lab; the second opinion evaluation was obtained in all cases (100% feasibility). In the transplant protocol, eight donor cases were sent to the Pisa core lab for the second opinion protocol, and six of them were transplanted in marginal recipients.
Conclusions: Second-Opinion Stress Tele-Echocardiography can effectively be performed in a network aimed to safely expand the heart donor pool for heart transplant.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-7120-8-20 | DOI Listing |
Cardiovasc Revasc Med
December 2024
Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, affiliated with the School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Background: Angina with non-obstructive coronary artery disease (ANOCA) is commonly observed in patients with stable angina undergoing coronary angiography. Current guidelines recommend non-invasive stress testing as the first step in diagnosing coronary microvascular disease (CMD). This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic value of non-invasive stress testing in patients invasively diagnosed with CMD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA.
Background: Elevated iron in brain is a source of free radicals that causes oxidative stress which has been linked to neuropathologies and cognitive impairment among older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of iron levels with transverse relaxation rate, R, and white matter hyperintensities (WMH), independent of the effects of other metals and age-related neuropathologies.
Method: Cerebral hemispheres from 437 older adults participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project study (Table 1) were imaged ex-vivo using 3T MRI scanners.
Pulmonary artery (PA) flow analysis is crucial for understanding the progression of pulmonary hypertension (PH). We hypothesized that PA flow characteristics vary according to PH etiology. In this study, we used 4D flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) to compare PA flow velocity and wall shear stress (WSS) between patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and those with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and pulmonary hypertension (PH-HFpEF).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam, Iran.
There are numerous reasons for concrete buildings cracks, like stress loads, material flaws, and environmental impacts. It is important to find and investigate the concrete cracks during analyzing the safety and structural soundness of buildings, bridges, and other infrastructure. However, there are many models available for concrete crack detection, an efficient approach is needed because the existing methods often have flaws like overfitting, high computational complexity, and noise sensitivity, which can lead to accurate crack detection and classification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
November 2024
Anesthesia and Critical Care, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Tangier, MAR.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC), also known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy, is a rare condition in children that causes acute, severe, but often reversible systolic dysfunction of the left ventricle. Physical trauma is a recognized trigger, although distinguishing TTC from myocardial contusion in pediatric trauma cases can be challenging due to overlapping clinical features. We present the case of a six-year-old boy involved in a high-impact motor vehicle collision.
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