BACKGROUND Our purpose was to describe a 13-year experience with patients undergoing transcatheter device closure of unrepaired congenital or postoperative residual ventricular septal defects (VSDs). METHODS AND RESULTS Since 1989, 170 patients (median age, 3.9 years) have undergone catheterization for closure of 1 or more congenital (n=92) or postoperative (n=78) residual VSDs using successi...

In this paper we report on the design, modeling, experimental testing and scaling analysis of a novel MAgnetic Variable stiffnEess spRIng-Clutch (MAVERIC) device, which may be used as the elastic element of Variable Stiffness Actuators (VSAs). The device, comprising two co-axial diametrically magnetized hollow cylinders, has two degrees of freedom: a rotation of the two cylinders around the com...

BACKGROUND A hybrid approach to minimally invasive perventricular closure of VSD in infants is safe and effective, and has been performed under guidance of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). We applied transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) guidance to this hybrid approach, and compare results guided by TTE with those by TEE. METHODS From January 2011 to January 2012, 71 infants with VSD ...

Surgical intervention for post-infarct ventricular septal defect (VSD) is a challenging procedure due to patients’ complex preoperative conditions. While percutaneous VSD closure can be considered as an alternative surgical repair, complete of the remains difficult and associated with various procedural complications. We report rare case patient postoperative residual shunts who experienced rec...

AIMS To assess the immediate and long-term outcomes of transcatheter closure of ventricular septal defect (VSD) in combination with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with VSD complicating acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS AND RESULTS Data were prospectively collected from 35 AMI patients who underwent attempted transcatheter VSD closure and PCI therapy in five high...

BACKGROUND Our purpose was to investigate the feasibility of transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) guidance for minimally invasive periventricular device closure of perimembranous ventricular septal defects (VSDs). METHODS From June 2011 to September 2011, we enrolled 18 young children with perimembranous VSDs to receive minimally invasive device closure in our hospital. All of the patients w...

Novel low-power or semiactive devices are developed for vibration suppression applications. By manipulating the structural stiffness, the resisting forces generated by the devices are quite large and independent of velocity. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the devices and to justify the main assumptions used. The critical design issue of device placement is ...

fect (VSD) is a rare result of blunt cardiac trauma. There are about 58 cases reported in the English literature since 1970. Traumatic VSD is variable in its presentation, temporal course and severity. It may require emergent repair or be repaired electively. The case report we present demonstrates key features of a smaller traumatic VSD and a relatively novel interpretation of the injury mecha...

We consider the problem of estimating on line the nonlinear stiffness of flexible transmissions in robots with variable stiffness actuation in agonistic-antagonistic configuration. Stiffness estimation is obtained using a dynamic residual that provides a filtered version of the unmeasured flexibility torques, combining it with a recursive least squares algorithm that fits a polynomial model to ...