FoCUS cardiac ultrasound training for undergraduates based on current national guidelines: a prospective, controlled, single-center study on transferability.

Introduction: In emergency and critical-care medicine, focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) is indispensable for assessing a patient's cardiac status. The aim of this study was to establish and validate a peer-to-peer-supported ultrasound course for learning FoCUS-specific skills during undergraduate studies at a German university.

Methods: A 1-day, 12 teaching units training course was developed for students in the clinical section of medical college, with content based on the current national guidelines.

Diagnostic value of cardiovascular magnetic resonance in comparison to endomyocardial biopsy in cardiac amyloidosis: a multi-centre study.

Background: Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is an infiltrative disease characterised by accumulation of amyloid deposits in the extracellular space of the myocardium-comprising transthyretin (ATTR) and light chain (AL) amyloidosis as the most frequent subtypes. Histopathological proof of amyloid deposits by endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is the gold standard for diagnosis of CA. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) allows non-invasive workup of suspected CA.

COVID-19 among heart transplant recipients in Germany: a multicenter survey.

Aims: Heart transplantation may represent a particular risk factor for severe coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to chronic immunosuppression and frequent comorbidities. We conducted a nation-wide survey of all heart transplant centers in Germany presenting the clinical characteristics of heart transplant recipients with COVID-19 during the first months of the pandemic in Germany.

Methods And Results: A multicenter survey of all heart transplant centers in Germany evaluating the current status of COVID-19 among adult heart transplant recipients was performed.

Native T1 and T2 provide distinctive signatures in hypertrophic cardiac conditions - Comparison of uremic, hypertensive and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Aims: Profound left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy with diastolic dysfunction and heart failure is the cardinal manifestation of heart remodelling in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Previous studies related increased T1 mapping values in CKD with diffuse fibrosis. Native T1 is a non-specific readout that may also relate to increased intramyocardial fluid.

Rituximab in routine care of severe active rheumatoid arthritis : A prospective, non-interventional study in Germany.

Objective: To assess safety, effectiveness and onset of effect of rituximab (RTX) in routine clinical treatment of severe, active rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Prospective, multi-centre, non-interventional study in rheumatological outpatient clinics or private practices in Germany. RTX-naïve adult patients were to receive RTX according to marketing authorisation and at their physician's discretion.

Targeted therapy of pulmonary arterial hypertension: Updated recommendations from the Cologne Consensus Conference 2018.

In the summer of 2016, delegates from the German Respiratory Society, the German Society of Cardiology and the German Society of Pediatric Cardiology met in Cologne, Germany, to define consensus-based practice recommendations for the management of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). These recommendations were built on the 2015 European Pulmonary Hypertension guidelines and included new evidence, where available. The treatment algorithm for PAH was modified based on the observation that there are now many patients diagnosed with IPAH who are at an advanced age and have significant cardiopulmonary comorbidities.

Native T1 and ECV of Noninfarcted Myocardium and Outcome in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease.

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains the major cause of cardiac morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite the advances in treatment with coronary revascularization and modern antiremodeling therapy. Risk stratification in CAD patients is primarily based on left ventricular volumes, ejection fraction (LVEF), risk scores, and the presence and extent of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). The prognostic role of T1 mapping in noninfarcted myocardium in CAD patients has not yet been determined.

Pulmonary Hypertension.

Background: About 1% of adults suffer from pulmonary hypertension (PH). The various types of PH differ widely with respect to their incidence, clinical significance, and treatment.

Methods: Selective review of the literature in association with a consensus conference.

Continuous electroencephalography in a mixed non-neurological intensive care population, an observational study.

Purpose: Continuous electroencephalography (cEEG) improves monitoring of the brain in unconscious patients, but implementation at ICU is difficult. The present investigation shows a way to introduce cEEG at an anesthesiological ICU and discusses the first experiences.

Materials And Methods: The study analyzed the feasibility of cEEG, assessed the interpretable cEEG time, importance of automatic seizure detection, the incidence of seizures, the predominant background EEG activity, incidence of delirium and mortality.

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) - potential role of multidetector-row CT (MD-CT) and MR imaging in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of the disease.

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) can be defined as pulmonary hypertension (resting mean pulmonary arterial pressure of 25 mm Hg or more determined at right heart catheterization) with persistent pulmonary perfusion defects. It is a rare, but underdiagnosed disease with estimated incidences ranging from 0.5% to 3.

Cardiac MRI: diagnostic gain of an additional axial SSFP chest sequence for the detection of potentially significant extracardiac findings in the cardiac MRI examination setting.

Purpose: Cardiac MRI (CMRI) is an effective method for imaging of the heart. The aim of our study was to assess whether an axial chest sequence in addition to the standard CMR examination setting has advantages in the detection of potentially significant extracardiac findings (PSEF).

Materials And Methods: 400 consecutive patients were imaged at 1.

Expression of Brachyury in mesenchymal progenitor cells leads to cartilage-like tissue that is resistant to the destructive effect of rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts.

Our objectives were to determine the chondrogenic potential of a murine Brachyury-transformed mesenchymal progenitor cell line in the presence of rheumatoid arthritis-activated synovial fibroblasts (RASFs). Brachyury-transformed mesenchymal progenitor cells were implanted alone or combined with RASFs isolated from diseased human joints in each of six immunodeficient SCID mice. De novo tissue formation was analysed by histology and immunohistochemistry after 60 days.

Animal models for arthritis.

Animal models for rheumatic diseases complement human investigations to study in detail pathogenic hypotheses and therapeutic strategies. An overview of animal studies in the last years shows examples for ideas taken from bench to bedside and from bedside to bench. Depending on the disease studied, progress includes a refinement of physiological and pathogenic thinking and a better definition of promising cellular and molecular therapeutic targets.

Increased titres of anti-nuclear antibodies do not predict the development of associated disease in the absence of initial suggestive signs and symptoms.

Objective: To determine whether patients with elevated anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), absent extractable nuclear antigen (ENA) reactivity, and no definite associated disease develop an ANA-associated disease (AAD).

Methods: Patients with ANA titres of at least 1:320 and no ENA reactivity were identified by searching the database of our laboratory serving a tertiary care university hospital between 1998 and 2002. Medical records of this index time point were reviewed to exclude patients with active AAD at screening.

Expression of PSACH-associated mutant COMP in tendon fibroblasts leads to increased apoptotic cell death irrespective of the secretory characteristics of mutant COMP.

Objective: Pseudoachondroplasia (PSACH) is a dominantly inherited chondrodysplasia associated with mutations of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), characterized clinically by disproportionate dwarfism and laxity of joints and ligaments. Studies in chondrocytes and cartilage biopsies suggest that the cartilage disease is caused by retention of mutant COMP in the endoplasmic reticulum of chondrocytes and by disruption of the collagen network of the extracellular matrix. The pathogenesis of the tendon disease remains unclear in the absence of a cell culture model, with available tendon biopsies leading to conflicting results with respect to the intracellular retention of mutant COMP.