BACKGROUND Vascular calcification is associated with poor cardiovascular outcome. Histochemical analysis of calcification and the expression of proteins involved in mineralization are usually based on whole section analysis, thereby often ignoring regional differences in atherosclerotic lesions. At present, limited information is available about factors involved in the initiation and progressio...

OBJECTIVE Chronic renal failure (CRF) is associated with a 10- to 20-fold increase in cardiovascular risk. Vascular calcification is a prominent feature of cardiovascular disease in patients with end-stage renal failure and contributes to the excess mortality in this population. In this study, we explored in vivo X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) as a tool to detect and follow-up vascular calcif...

OBJECTIVE To study in a rabbit model the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in association with the development of calcification of the aortic valve, and to assess the effects of atorvastatin on eNOS expression, nitrite concentration, and aortic valve calcification. METHODS Rabbits (n = 48) were treated for three months: 16, forming a control group, were fed a normal diet;...

PURPOSE To analyze the incidence and patterns of calcification of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) on neck ultrasonography (NUS) and assess the clinical implications of calcification, especially for neck node metastasis. METHODS The clinical data of 379 patients with PTMC who underwent thyroidectomy between January and December 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. PTMC lesions were clas...

Recently; medical image mining has become one of the well-recognized research area(s) of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques have been vastly used in various computer added diagnostic systems. Specifically; breast cancer classification problem is considered as one of the most significant problems. For instance, complex, diverse and heterogamous malignant features of micro-ca...

Ocean acidification (OA) impacts the physiology of diverse marine taxa; among them corals that create complex reef framework structures. Biological processes operating on coral reef frameworks remain largely unknown from naturally high-carbon-dioxide (CO2) ecosystems. For the first time, we independently quantified the response of multiple functional groups instrumental in the construction and ...

BACKGROUND Calcific aortic stenosis is the third most common cardiovascular disease in the United States. We hypothesized that the mechanism for aortic valve calcification is similar to skeletal bone formation and that this process is mediated by an osteoblast-like phenotype. METHODS AND RESULTS To test this hypothesis, we examined calcified human aortic valves replaced at surgery (n=22) and ...

Calcification is a marked pathological component in carotid artery plaque. Studies have suggested that calcification may induce regions of high stress concentrations therefore increasing the potential for rupture. However, the mechanical behaviour of the plaque under the influence of calcification is not fully understood. A method of accurately characterising the calcification coupled with the ...

Background Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) is used to treat symptomatic severe aortic stenosis in a non-surgical high risk population. The incidence of stroke and micro-infarction is higher in the TAVI population compared to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) at 30 days, which may be due to various factors such as valve calcification and aortic atheroma. However, the natura...