Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death, suggesting that new therapies are needed to treat the progression of heart failure post-myocardial infarction. As cardiac tissue has a limited ability to regenerate itself, experimental biomaterial therapies have focused on the replacement of necrotic cardiomyocytes and repair of the damaged extracellular matrix. While acellular...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This review aims to highlight the general and specific strengths and limitations of intraoperative 3D echocardiography. This article explains the value of real-time three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (RT 3D TEE) during cardiac surgery and cardiac interventions. RECENT FINDINGS Recently published recommendations and guidelines include the use of RT 3D TEE. RT ...

Cardiac failure is a critical condition that results in life-threatening consequences. Due to a limited number of organ donors, tissue engineering has emerged to generate functional tissue constructs and provide an alternative mean to repair and regenerate damaged heart tissues. In this paper, we review the emerging directions associated with cardiac tissue engineering approaches. In particular...

Metabolic adaptation to limited supplies of oxygen and nutrients plays a pivotal role in health and disease. Heart attack results from insufficient delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the heart, where cardiomyocytes die and cardiac fibroblasts proliferate--the latter causing scar formation, which impedes regeneration and impairs contractility of the heart. We postulated that cardiac fibroblasts...

The prognosis of patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and resultant chronic heart failure remains extremely poor despite advances in optimal medical therapy and interventional procedures. Animal experiments and clinical trials using adult stem cell therapy following MI have shown a global improvement of myocardial function. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) hold promise for ...

Edge-to-edge repair using the MitraClip system is indicated in patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR) who are at high risk for open-heart surgery due to comorbidity or reduced cardiac function. However, less known about pre-procedural factors mortality and morbidity following implantation. Consecutive 25 MR underwent therapy (mean age, 77 years old, 14 males) were included. Right heart ...

22 23 24 We recently demonstrated a cardiac therapeutic regimen based on injection of bone 25 marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into the skeletal muscle. Although the injected MSCs 26 were trapped in the local musculature, the extracardiac cell delivery approach repaired the 27 failing hamster heart. This finding uncovers a tissue repair mechanism mediated by trophic 28 factors derived from ...

Cardiac failure is associated with increased levels of oxidized DNA, especially mitochondrial (mtDNA). It is not known if oxidized mtDNA contributes to cardiac dysfunction. To test if protection of mtDNA can reduce cardiac injury, we produced transgenic mice with cardiomyocyte-specific overexpression of the DNA repair enzyme 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase 1 (OGG1) isoform 2a. In one line of mice,...

We report a 66-yr-old male patient who developed tricuspid regurgitation secondary to internal cardiac massage. After uneventful off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery, the subject experienced cardiac arrest in the intensive care unit. External cardiac massage was initiated and internal cardiac massage was performed eventually. A transesophageal echocardiography revealed avulsion of the anteri...

abstract   background: different methods of surgical treatment for acromioclavicular(ac) joint injury were considered in the literature. the purpose of the study was to compare intra- articular ac repair technique with the extra-articular coracoclavicular repair technique for the patients with rockwood type iii and vac joint injury when indicated.   methods: nineteen consecutive patients with r...