OBJECTIVES To assess, in a population-based study, whether secular trends in cardiovascular disease mortality in seven European countries were correlated with past trends in infant mortality rate (IMR) in these countries. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING Data on ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke mortality in 1950-1999 in the Netherlands, England & Wales, France, and four Nordic countries were a...

In this work, an iterative approach using the finite difference frequency domain method is presented to solve the problem of scattering from large-scale electromagnetic structures. The idea of the proposed iterative approach is to divide one computational domain into smaller subregions and solve each subregion separately. Then the subregion solutions are combined iteratively to obtain a solutio...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES It was demonstrated that the fractional flow reserve (FFR) with partial balloon obstruction may have implications for assessing viable myocardium. In a different way, the index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) was introduced as a useful indicator for assessing microvascular function. We evaluated the relationship between the FFR0.8 and the IMR. SUBJECTS AND METHO...

We investigated the cytotoxicity of eight vitamin K3 (VK3) analogs against neuroblastoma cell lines (IMR-32, LA-N-1, NB-39, and SK-N-SH) and normal cell lines (human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and human dermal fibroblasts (HDF)) using a 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. 2-[(2-Methoxy)ethylthio]-3-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (VK3-OCH(3)) showed...

BACKGROUND Residual or recurrent mitral regurgitation frequently occurs after mitral ring annuloplasty repair for ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR), because annuloplasty primarily addresses annular dilatation. We describe a subvalvular repair technique addressing posterior papillary muscle (PPM) displacement. METHODS AND RESULTS Ten sheep had radiopaque markers placed on the left ventricle ...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this investigation was to study mitral valve 3D geometry and dynamics by using a coordinate-free system in normal and ischemic hearts to gain mechanistic insight into normal valve function, valve dysfunction during ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR), and the treatment effects of ring annuloplasty. METHODS AND RESULTS Radiopaque markers were implanted in sheep: 9 in ...

Objective: Annuloplasty rings are used to treat ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR), but their exact effects on 3-D geometry of the overall mitral valve complex during acute left ventricular (LV) ischemia remain unknown. Methods: Radiopaque markers were sutured to the mitral leaflet edges, annulus, papillary muscle tips, and ventricle in three groups of sheep. One group served as control (n 1⁄4...

AIM To assess the changes of mitral valve (MV) in ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) using Mitral Valve Quantification (MVQ) program. METHODS We examined 46 patients (18 women) with IMR aged 45-86 and a control group of 33 healthy individuals (14 women) aged 18-88. Following parameters were assessed: Area of minimal surface spanning annulus (A3), annulus height (h), tenting height (Th), expo...

More than one third of patients with ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) present a valve prolapse whose mechanism is subtended by a papillary injury. The recent literature is pointing at a regional ventricular injury or wall motion abnormality rather than a global LV dysfunction as responsible for IMR and the presence of localized valve prolapse related to papillary dysfunction is additionally ...

OBJECTIVES Intraoperative three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has been suggested to be a valuable technique for the evaluation of the mechanisms of ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR). Studies comparing multiplane two-dimensional (2D) with 3D TEE reconstruction of the mitral valve using the new mitral valve quantification (MVQ) software are lacking. We undertook a pros...