1,721,057 research outputs found
Prognostic Impact of Atrial Rhythm and Dimensions in Patients with Structural Heart Disease Undergoing Cardiac Sympathetic Denervation for Ventricular Arrhythmias
Full text linkBackground: Cardiac sympathetic denervation (CSD) is a promising treatment for patients with structural heart disease (SHD) and refractory ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VT). The prognostic impact of atrial arrhythmias (AAs) and left atrial volume index (LAVI) on CSD outcome is unknown, as is the effect of CSD on atrial rhythm.
Objective: Assess the impact of AAs and LAVI on CSD outcome, as well as changes in atrial rhythm after CSD.
Methods: Patients with SHD undergoing CSD for VTs were analyzed. Hazard models were built to assess predictors of sustained VT/ICD shocks and death/orthotopic heart transplant (OHT). Changes before versus after CSD were assessed on ICD, clinical and echocardiographic data. A drug index was devised to correct for medication use.
Results: Between 2009 and 2018, 91 patients (56 ± 13 years, LVEF 34 ±14%, 47% with a history of AAs) underwent left (16%) or bilateral CSD: the median FU was 14 months (IQR 4-37). Using multivariable analysis, neither LAVI nor AAs were associated with ICD shock recurrences. LAVI was an independent predictor of death/OHT. AAs burden did not change after CSD, while the percentage of atrial pacing increased from a median of 28% to 72% (p <0.01). LV end-diastolic diameter mildly increased; however, sustained VT/ICD shocks were reduced.
Conclusions: In patients with SHD undergoing CSD a history of AAs did not impact outcome, LAVI is associated with death/OHT occurrence. In the absence of changes in the drug index, AAs burden, already low at baseline, was unchanged after CSD, despite a mild progression of cardiomyopathy, while atrial pacing increased
[Vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of heart failure]
No full textIn the last two decades, the autonomic imbalance characterized by vagal withdrawal and sympathetic increase has been shown to play a major role in the progression and prognosis of heart failure. Therefore, modulation of the autonomic nervous system (neuromodulation) with the aim to restore autonomic balance is gaining increasing interest as a potential therapy for patients with heart failure. Recently, different non-pharmacological approaches to neuromodulation have been evaluated in phase II and III clinical trials. Electrical vagus nerve stimulation is the most studied. This technique showed excellent results in preclinical studies, but at present the clinical experience is limited to a few studies, the results of which are apparently conflicting.This review discusses the preclinical and clinical experience of vagal stimulation in heart failure, in order to help understand the complexity of the methodology and our still limited knowledge of the dose-response relationship, which make difficult to interpret and compare the results of studies conducted with different designs and evaluating different devices and stimulation protocols
Editorial: The wide spectrum of ventricular arrhythmias: from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to advanced in-hospital treatment
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Capecitabine-induced cardiotoxicity: More evidence or clinical approaches to protect the patients' heart?
Full text linkFluoropyrimidines, such as capecitabine and 5-fluorouracil, may cause cardiac toxicity. In recent years, the incidence of this side effect has increased and it is expected to further rise due to the population aging and the disproportionate incidence of breast and gastrointestinal cancers in older individuals. The spectrum of cardiac manifestations includes different signs and symptoms and the diagnosis may be difficult. Here, we report the case of a 43-year-old woman with advanced breast cancer who was rechallenged with a capecitabine-based regimen after experiencing a cardiac adverse event during the first fluoropyrimidine exposure. This real-practice case serves as a springboard for discussion about the current evidence on differential diagnosis of capecitabine-related cardiac toxicity, its risk factors, and the underpinning mechanisms of early onset. Moreover, we discussed whether a rechallenge with fluoropyrimidines could be safe in patients who had experienced a previous cardiac adverse even
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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