Quality control of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging segmentation, feature tracking, aortic flow, and native T1 analysis using automated batch processing in the UK Biobank study.

Aims: Automated algorithms are regularly used to analyse cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images. Validating data output reliability from this method is crucial for enabling widespread adoption. We outline a visual quality control (VQC) process for image analysis using automated batch processing.

Assessment of Antitachycardia Pacing in Primary Prevention Patients: The APPRAISE ATP Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: The emergence of novel programming guidelines that reduce premature and inappropriate therapies along with the availability of new implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) technologies lacking traditional endocardial antitachycardia pacing (ATP) capabilities requires the reevaluation of ATP as a first strategy in terminating fast ventricular tachycardias (VTs) in primary prevention ICD recipients.

Objective: To assess the role of ATP in terminating fast VTs in primary prevention ICD recipients with contemporary programming.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This global, prospective, double-blind, randomized clinical trial had an equivalence design with a relative margin of 35%.

The Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire in Relation to New York Heart Association Class.

Background: In order to identify candidacy and treatment response for patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM), clinicians need an accurate means of assessing symptoms, function, and quality of life. While the New York Heart Association (NYHA) Classification is most often used for this purpose, the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ-23) is more accurate and sensitive to change, although less familiar to practicing clinicians. To support interpreting the KCCQ-23, we describe cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in KCCQ scores in the context of the NYHA.

Adopting prospective antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) practice in high-risk immunosuppressed groups: an urgent call to action in the era of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Life-saving immunosuppressive treatments including intensive chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation expose patients to a considerable risk of death from infection globally. With evolving AMR and transmission, this could spell disaster for patients across the world and society at large. Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) and prompt appropriate management of potentially fatal, emergent infections are essential.

Post-COVID changes and disparities in cardiovascular mortality rates in the United States.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare delivery and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This study assesses whether cardiovascular mortality rates in the US have recovered post-pandemic and examines the equity of this recovery across different populations.

Methods: We analyzed data from the CDC WONDER database, covering US residents' mortality from 2018-2023.

An overview of immune checkpoint inhibitor toxicities in bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer is the tenth most prevalent malignancy worldwide, with a significant mortality burden. Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is the most common histological subtype, and treatment options are guided by whether the disease is muscle-invasive (MIBC) or non-muscle-invasive (NMIBC), with subsequent risk group stratification. The growing popularity of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) to treat MIBC and NMIBC as either monotherapy or combined with intravesical agents, may radically change the treatment paradigm of UC.

Imaging for the diagnosis of acute myocarditis: can artificial intelligence improve diagnostic performance?

Myocarditis is a cardiovascular disease characterised by inflammation of the heart muscle which can lead to heart failure. There is heterogeneity in the mode of presentation, underlying aetiologies, and clinical outcome with impact on a wide range of age groups which lead to diagnostic challenges. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is the preferred imaging modality in the diagnostic work-up of those with acute myocarditis.

Long-term antibiotic prophylaxis for prevention of rheumatic fever recurrence and progression to rheumatic heart disease.

Background: Rheumatic fever is a non-suppurative, inflammatory sequela of group A Streptococcus pharyngitis that can occur at two to four weeks after infection. Following an episode of rheumatic fever, there is a risk of developing rheumatic heart disease (RHD) later in life that carries significant risk of morbidity and mortality. RHD remains the largest global cause of cardiovascular disease in the young (age < 25 years).

Improving Hospital Palliative Care Between COVID-19 Waves: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Context: A specialist palliative care service in an acute hospital characterized care patterns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were delayed referrals for minoritized ethnic groups. COVID-19 treatments (dexamethasone, anticoagulation, remdesivir) alongside service changes were introduced in the second wave.

2024 updated European Heart Rhythm Association core curriculum for physicians and allied professionals: a statement of the European Heart Rhythm Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

Heart rhythm management is a continuously evolving sub-speciality of cardiology. Every year, many physicians and allied professionals (APs) start and complete their training in cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) or electrophysiology (EP) across the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) member countries. While this training ideally ends with an EHRA certification, the description of the learning pathway (what, how, when, and where) through an EHRA core curriculum is also a prerequisite for a successful training.

British Cardiovascular Society survey of the provision and structure of cardiology multidisciplinary meetings in England.

Multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs) are central to clinical decision-making in many areas of cardiology. This study assessed current provision and structure of cardiology MDMs in England in comparison with national guidelines. British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) members were surveyed regarding frequency, core attendees, and organisational aspects of cardiology MDMs for myocardial revascularisation, endocarditis, heart failure, aortic valve, mitral and tricuspid valve MDMs, whether local, regional or outside of the region.

Tissue-resident memory T cells in epicardial adipose tissue comprise transcriptionally distinct subsets that are modulated in atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia and carries an increased risk of stroke and heart failure. Here we investigated how the immune infiltrate of human epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), which directly overlies the myocardium, contributes to AF. Flow cytometry analysis revealed an enrichment of tissue-resident memory T (T) cells in patients with AF.

Radical Prostatectomy Versus Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Clinically Localised Prostate Cancer: Results of the PACE-A Randomised Trial.

Background And Objective: Randomised data on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and prostatectomy in localised prostate cancer are lacking. PACE-A compared patient-reported health-related quality of life after SBRT with that after prostatectomy.

Methods: PACE is a phase 3 open-label, randomised controlled trial.

Outcomes with single-agent gilteritinib for relapsed or refractory FLT3-mutant AML after contemporary induction therapy.

Gilteritinib is the current standard of care for relapsed or refractory fms related receptor tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3)-mutated acute myeloid leukemia in many countries, however outcomes for patients relapsing after contemporary first-line therapies (intensive chemotherapy with midostaurin, or nonintensive chemotherapy with venetoclax) are uncertain. Moreover, reported data on toxicity and health care resource use is limited. Here, we describe a large real-world cohort of 152 patients receiving single-agent gilteritinib in 38 UK hospitals.

Short-term vital parameter forecasting in the intensive care unit: A benchmark study leveraging data from patients after cardiothoracic surgery.

Patients in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are closely and continuously monitored, and many machine learning (ML) solutions have been proposed to predict specific outcomes like death, bleeding, or organ failure. Forecasting of vital parameters is a more general approach to ML-based patient monitoring, but the literature on its feasibility and robust benchmarks of achievable accuracy are scarce. We implemented five univariate statistical models (the naïve model, the Theta method, exponential smoothing, the autoregressive integrated moving average model, and an autoregressive single-layer neural network), two univariate neural networks (N-BEATS and N-HiTS), and two multivariate neural networks designed for sequential data (a recurrent neural network with gated recurrent unit, GRU, and a Transformer network) to produce forecasts for six vital parameters recorded at five-minute intervals during intensive care monitoring.