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Design and style, simulation, and also production associated with an ingestible capsule together with stomach device for being overweight treatment method.
431, moderate agreement) compared to SD-CT (k = 0.209, fair agreement). Almost all VS-CT series had false positive findings (97-99 out of 100). Average reading time was significantly shorter in the VS-CT compared to the SD-CT (154 ± 134vs. 194 ± 126; 21%, p less then 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Vessel suppression increases nodule detection rate, improves interreader agreement, and reduces reading time in chest CT of oncologic patients. Due to false positive results a consensus reading with the SD-CT is essential. BACKGROUND Lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] has been reported to be a residual risk factor in patients who have achieved target lipid levels. The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations of Lp(a) with plaque progression and major cardiovascular events in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). METHODS The Yokohama-ACS study included 102 patients with ACS who underwent intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) at baseline and at 10-month follow-up after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The patients were randomly assigned to receive either moderate- or low-intensity statin therapy. IVUS was performed to measure the plaque volume at non-culprit lesions. We enrolled 76 patients for whom Lp(a) levels at 10-month follow-up were available. RESULTS The patients were divided into 2 groups according whether their Lp(a) levels were ≤20 mg/dl [low Lp(a) group; n = 49] or >20 mg/dl [high Lp(a) group; n = 27]. Baseline characteristics and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels at 10-month follow-up were similar in the low Lp(a) group and high Lp(a) group (87 ± 29 mg/dl vs. 93 ± 27 mg/dl, p = 0.42). The low Lp(a) group had significant plaque regression, whereas the high Lp(a) group showed slight plaque progression (-6.8% vs. 2.5%, p = 0.02). Ninety-five percent of the prognostic data were obtained 5 years after PCI. The cumulative event-free survival rate was significantly lower in the high Lp(a) group (p = 0.02; log-rank test). CONCLUSIONS Lp(a) levels may be an alternative predictor of further plaque regression and the likelihood of major adverse cardiovascular events in statin-treated ACS patients. BACKGROUND It has been shown that most paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) can be terminated by pulmonary vein (PV) isolation alone, suggesting that rapid discharges from PV drive AF. To define the driving mechanism of AF, we compared the activation sequence in the body of left atrium (LA) to that within PV. METHODS Endocardial noncontact mapping of LA body (LA group; n = 16) and selective endocardial mapping of left superior PV (LSPV) (PV group; n = 13) were performed in 29 paroxysmal AF patients. The frequency of pivoting activation, wave breakup, and wave fusion observed in LA were compared to those in LSPV to define the driving mechanism of AF. Circumferential ablation lesion around left PV was performed after right PV isolation to examine the effect of linear lesion around PV on AF termination both in LA and PV groups. RESULTS The frequency of pivoting activation, wave breakup, and wave fusion in PV group were significantly higher than those in LA group (36.5 ± 17.7 vs 5.0 ± 2.2 times/seconds, p  less then  0.001, 10.1 ± 4.3 vs 5.0 ± 2.2 times/seconds, p = 0.004, 18.1 ± 5.7 vs 11.0 ± 5.2, p = 0.002). Especially in the PV group, the frequency of pivoting activation was significantly higher than that of wave breakup and wave fusion (36.5 ± 17.7 vs 10.1 ± 4.3 times/seconds, p  less then  0.001, 36.5 ± 17.7 vs 18.1 ± 5.7 times/seconds, p  less then  0.001). These disorganized activations in LSPV were eliminated by the circumferential ablation lesion around left PV (pivoting activation; 36.5 ± 17.7 vs 9.3 ± 2.3 times/seconds, p  less then  0.001, wave breakup; 10.1±1.3 times/seconds, p = 0.003, wave fusion; 18.1 ± 5.7 vs 5.7 ± 1.8, p  less then  0.001), resulted in AF termination in all patients in both LA and PV groups. CONCLUSIONS Activation sequence within PV was more disorganized than that in LA body. Frequent episodes of pivoting activation rather than wave breakup and fusion observed within PV acted as the driving sources of paroxysmal AF. BACKGROUND We investigated the effect of inter-arm blood pressure differences (IABPD) on the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) outcomes of patients with coronary artery diseases. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the data of blood pressures measured simultaneously in the bilateral arms of 855 patients (560 males) who underwent PCI with drug-eluting stents for coronary artery diseases. IABPD was defined as the difference of blood pressure in both arms. The primary outcome was the presence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) consisting of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke, and ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization. RESULTS The mean age of the included patients was 66.2 ± 11.6 years, with a mean follow-up period of 44.5 ± 26.4 months. MACE occurred in 15.2% of patients, showing a higher rate in the higher IABPD group (≥10 mmHg) than in the lower IABPD group ( less then 10 mmHg) (22.5% vs 14.5%, p = 0.081). The difference was induced by a higher rate of ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization (17.5% vs 8.3%, p = 0.011). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed a greater incidence of MACE in patients with a higher IABPD (log rank p = 0.054). The Cox proportional hazard analysis showed that IABPD was an independent predictor of long-term MACE (hazard ratio, 1.028; 95% confidence interval, 1.002-1.055; p = 0.037), along with age, diabetes mellitus, and number of implanted stents. CONCLUSION Among patients treated with PCI, the incidence of MACE was significantly higher in those with a higher IABPD (≥10 mmHg) than in those with a lower IABPD ( less then 10 mmHg), which was mainly driven by ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization. BACKGROUND The incidence of cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) infection is increasing worldwide. However, data regarding this phenomenon in Japan and information on factors associated with developing CIED infection are limited. Our aim was to compare the incidence of CIED infection between pre-current (past 10-20 years) and current (past 10 years) clinical settings and to investigate risk factors for CIED infection in current clinical settings in a Japanese population. METHODS This observational study included 1749 patients (age 77 ± 12 years, 824 males) who underwent a CIED-related procedure between August 1999 and July 2019 at our institution. We defined the pre-current and current clinical setting periods as August 1999-July 2009 (period I) and August 2009-July 2019 (period II), respectively. We compared the incidence rate of CIED infection between periods and evaluated the risk factors for CIED infection in period II by multivariate analysis. APX-115 NADPH-oxidase inhibitor RESULTS A CIED infection was identified in 0.7% (5/709 patients) and 1.
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