BACKGROUND exercise treadmill testing (ETT) is the most widely used method for evaluating patients with coronary artery disease. Predicting the left main coronary artery (LMCA) disease before invasive procedures is very important in risk assessment because of its severe clinical outcome. AIM To examine whether ST elevation in lead aVR during ETT may suggest LMCA disease since the lead aVR is ...

As the population ages, the number of patients who have undergone previous coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) requiring subsequent aortic valve replacement (AVR) will be increased. AVR is the current standard of therapy in patients with severe aortic valve disease, but is more complex in the context of prior CABG, and redo AVR after prior CABG is associated with a higher mortality than AVR ...

Genetic mapping showed that the rice blast avirulence gene AVR-Pita is tightly linked to a telomere on chromosome 3 in the plant pathogenic fungus Magnaporthe grisea. AVR-Pita corresponds in gene-for-gene fashion to the disease resistance (R) gene Pi-ta. Analysis of spontaneous avr-pita(-) mutants indicated that the gene is located in a telomeric 6.5-kb BglII restriction fragment. Cloning and D...

OBJECTIVES We sought to determine the electrocardiographic (ECG) features associated with acute left main coronary artery (LMCA) obstruction. BACKGROUND Prediction of LMCA obstruction is important with regard to selecting the appropriate treatment strategy, because acute LMCA obstruction usually causes severe hemodynamic deterioration, resulting in a less favorable prognosis. METHODS We stu...

Bacterial pathogens of plants and animals utilize conserved type III delivery systems to traffic effector proteins into host cells. Plant innate immune systems evolved disease resistance (R) genes to recognize some type III effectors, termed avirulence (Avr) proteins. On disease-susceptible (r) plants, Avr proteins can contribute to pathogen virulence. We demonstrate that several type III effec...

Plants have evolved intracellular immune receptors to detect pathogen proteins known as effectors. How these immune receptors detect effectors remains poorly understood. Here we describe the structural basis for direct recognition of AVR-Pik, an effector from the rice blast pathogen, by the rice intracellular NLR immune receptor Pik. AVR-PikD binds a dimer of the Pikp-1 HMA integrated domain wi...

PARTNER (Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valve Trial) remains the only randomized-controlled trial to compare transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) for patients with severe aortic stenosis (1–3). The survival, symptomatic, and cost benefits of TAVI compared to medical therapy in inoperable patients has been previously demonstrated (2,4). H...

BACKGROUND Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as an acceptable treatment modality for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are deemed inoperable by conventional surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR). However, the role of TAVI in patients who are potential surgical candidates remains controversial. METHODS A systematic review was conducted using five electronic da...

Thrombosis is a prominent feature of acute vascular rejection (AVR), the current barrier to survival of pig-to-primate xenografts. Fibrinogen-like protein 2 (fgl2/fibroleukin) is an inducible prothrombinase that plays an important role in the pathogenesis of fibrin deposition during viral hepatitis and cytokine-induced fetal loss. We hypothesized that induction of fgl2 on the vascular endotheli...

BACKGROUND Current guidelines generally recommend watchful waiting until symptoms emerge for aortic valve replacement (AVR) in asymptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). OBJECTIVES The study sought to compare the long-term outcomes of initial AVR versus conservative strategies following the diagnosis of asymptomatic severe AS. METHODS We used data from a large multicenter regis...