BACKGROUND: Quantitative assessment of right ventricular (RV) function is important for the management of patients with congenital heart disease. Tissue Doppler (TDI)-derived myocardial acceleration during isovolumic contraction (IVA) is an echocardiographic measure of contractility that is independent of loading conditions. The aim of this study was to establish normative data for IVA at the late

Based on their review of abstracts submitted to the German Cardiac Society, Boehm et al. (2014) report better success of female vs male cardiologists publishing in journals with an impact factor ≥5. However, only 25% of conference abstracts were submitted by women, perhaps suggesting a paucity of women in academic cardiology. In this 'letter to the editor' we review gender statistics in the medica

BACKGROUND: The Pediatric Heart Network designed a clinical trial to compare aortic root growth and other short-term cardiovascular outcomes in children and young adults with Marfan syndrome randomized to receive atenolol or losartan. We report here the characteristics of the screened population and enrolled subjects.METHODS AND RESULTS: Between 2007 and 2011, 21 clinical sites randomized 608 subj

OBJECTIVES: Early extubation in adults undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease has not been described. The authors report their experience with extubation in the operating room (OR), including factors associated with the decision to defer extubation to a later time.DESIGN: A retrospective chart review.SETTING: A tertiary-care teaching hospital.PARTICIPANTS: This study included adults under

BACKGROUND: Fast-tracking and early endotracheal extubation have been described in patients undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease (CHD); however, criteria for patient selection have not been validated in a prospective manner. Our goal in this study was to prospectively identify factors associated with the decision to defer endotracheal extubation in the operating room (OR).METHODS: We pe

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: As our understanding of the molecular regulation of cardiac development has progressed, an increasing number of genes that cause congenital heart disease when mutated are being identified. This review focuses on the progress made during the past year.RECENT FINDINGS: After PTPN11 was identified as a Noonan syndrome disease gene, additional discoveries have made clear that mutati

PTPN11 missense mutations cause approximately 50% of Noonan syndrome, an autosomal dominant disorder presenting with various congenital heart defects, most commonly valvar pulmonary stenosis, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Atrioventricular septal defects and coarctation of the aorta occur in 15% and 9%, respectively. The aim of this study was to determine if PTPN11 mutations exist in non-syndrom

To elucidate further the role, in normal development and in disease pathogenesis, of TFAP2B, a transcription factor expressed in neuroectoderm, we studied eight patients with Char syndrome and their families. Four novel mutations were identified, three residing in the basic domain, which is responsible for DNA binding, and a fourth affecting a conserved PY motif in the transactivation domain. Func

Aortic stiffness and diastolic function are abnormal in adults with repaired coarctation of the aorta (CoA). The goal of this study was to determine the relation between aortic stiffness and left ventricular (LV) diastolic impairment in children who had undergone CoA repair very early in life. This is a retrospective review of echocardiograms in children with isolated repaired CoA (group CoA; n =

In the process of compiling a new corpus of contemporary spoken British English, the London-Lund Corpus 2, we hit upon a construction used in the conversations recorded that had not previously been dealt with in the literature, namely the reactive what-x construction. Prompted by this discovery, we carried out a detailed analysis of its properties and constraints within the broad framework of Cogn

The fact that machines play an increasingly more important role in our daily life is hardly new to anyone. Robots help us with a wide range of things in our daily lives, the smartphone perhaps being the best illustration of this state of affairs. The debate among experts in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is divided: is the rapid development good for humanity, or is it bad (Müller and Bo

Religion is particularly important in times of crises and difficulties. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami Buddhist monks became of great significance for the survivors in Thailand. They performed cremations, helped the survivors to understand and accept what has happened, provided leadership, conducted important rituals and organized aid. The Buddhist temples became the main venues for people se