1,720,991 research outputs found
Clinical Outcomes With Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair in Atrial Functional MR From the EXPAND Study
No full textBACKGROUND Although transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) has been shown to improve clinical outcomes and improve quality of life in patients with symptomatic secondary mitral regurgitation (SMR) and left ventricular dysfunction, its effect in patients with atrial SMR (aSMR) has not been well described.OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the safety, echocardiographic outcomes, and clinical effectiveness of TEER for aSMR.METHODS Patients with aSMR in the prospective, observational, multicenter EXPAND (A Contemporary, Prospective, Multi-Center Study Evaluating Real-World Experience of Performance and Safety for the Next Generation of MitraClip Devices) study were identified by an echocardiography core laboratory. Follow-up occurred at discharge, 30 days, and 1 year. Key endpoints included mitral regurgitation (MR) severity, functional class, heart failure hospitalizations, mortality, and 30-day major adverse events.RESULTS Among 1,041 patients enrolled in EXPAND, 835 patients had evaluable echocardiograms at baseline. Of these, 53 patients had aSMR and 360 had ventricular SMR (vSMR). In the aSMR cohort, TEER resulted in a significant reduction in MR through 1 year (MR grade <= 2 in 100.0%), significantly increased 1-year Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire score (+26.6 +/- 30.5 points; P < 0.0001), and improved functional class from baseline, similar to the effects among patients with vSMR (MR grade <= 2 in 99.5% at 1 year, 1-year increase in Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire score 21.23 +/- 24.92 points). Major adverse events at 30 days and leaflet adverse events at 1 year were infrequent in both groups.CONCLUSIONS In a prospective, real-world, global registry, TEER for aSMR was associated with significant MR reduction and improvement in quality of life and functional class, similar to patients with vSMR. This suggests that TEER may provide clinical benefit in patients with atrial fibrillation with SMR in the setting of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. (The MitraClip (R) EXPAND Study of the Next Generation of MitraClip (R) Devices; NCT03502811) (c) 2022 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation
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
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Ultrasound shear wave elastography for detection of myocardial fibrosis
No full textAims Diffuse interstitial or replacement fibrosis is a common feature of a large variety of cardiomyopathies. These alterations contribute to increased myocardial stiffness (MS). Echocardiographic shear wave (SW) elastography is an emerging approach for measuring MS in vivo. SWs occur after mechanical excitation of the myocardium, e.g. after mitral valve closure, and their propagation velocity is directly related to MS. The objective of this study was to investigate whether SW velocities (SWVs) can distinguish between interstitial and replacement fibrosis. Methods and results Fifty-two patients [30 heart transplanted patients (52.6 +/- 16.0 years, 80% male) and 22 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients (54.4 +/- 15.6 years, 85% male)] and 37 healthy volunteers (47.2 +/- 16.6 years, 76% male) were included. SW elastography was performed using an experimental scanner at 1172 +/- 302 frames per second. Patients were classified according to T-1 mapping, extracellular volume (ECV) mapping, and late gadolinium enhancement measured by cardiac magnetic resonance into three groups: no fibrosis, interstitial fibrosis (MIF), and replacement fibrosis (MRF). SWVs differed among groups (P < 0.001), with a significant post hoc test between MIF and MRF and subjects without fibrosis (6.5 +/- 1.1 m/s and 8.7 +/- 1.2 m/s, respectively). Significant correlations were noted between SWVs and ECV values (r = 0.70, P < 0.0001) and native T-1 values (r = 0.48, P = 0.0004). SWVs below 6.0 m/s showed the highest accuracy to identify patients without fibrosis [sensitivity 90%, specificity 90%, area under the curve (AUC) = 0.95]. A cut-off of 8.1 m/s could distinguish MRF from MIF (sensitivity 69%, specificity 100%, AUC = 0.92). Conclusion Natural SWVs can distinguish between normal and pathological myocardium and depend on the fibrosis burden of the myocardium.European Research Council [ERC/281748]; Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) [G002617N, G092318N]; German Society of Cardiology Research grant; European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Research grant; Egyptian Ministry of Research and High Education scholarship; Belgian Fund for Cardiac Surgery; FWO [12ZZN22N, 1832922N
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