Percutaneous Treatment for Native Mitral Regurgitation.

Severe mitral regurgitation (MR) confers an adverse prognosis, frequently with debilitating symptoms of heart failure. While open surgical correction has been the standard of care for decades, novel catheter-based technologies have emerged that are highly effective in the treatment of MR. These percutaneous technologies, which include methods for both repair as well as valve replacement, have the potential to address unmet clinical needs in patients with MR, and serve as a viable alternative to surgery.

Implications of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy transmitted by sperm donation.

Context: Sperm donation is an increasingly common practice for achieving pregnancy in the absence of a male partner or when fertility is problematic. The unintended consequence in which genetic diseases are unwittingly transmitted to offspring is an underrecognized public health issue not previously prioritized by US Food and Drug Administration guidelines.

Objective: To report the clinical circumstances and implication of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) transmitted by sperm donation to recipients.

Sudden deaths in young competitive athletes: analysis of 1866 deaths in the United States, 1980-2006.

Background: Sudden deaths in young competitive athletes are highly visible events with substantial impact on the physician and lay communities. However, the magnitude of this public health issue has become a source of controversy.

Methods And Results: To estimate the absolute number of sudden deaths in US competitive athletes, we have assembled a large registry over a 27-year period using systematic identification and tracking strategies.