INTRODUCTION Although studies have shown that childhood obesity overall is on the decline among New York City (NYC) public school children, the prevalence of severe childhood obesity has not been studied. METHODS We used height and weight measurements of 947,765 NYC public school students aged 5 to 14 years in kindergarten through 8th grade (K-8), from school years 2006-07 through 2010-11. We...

Background/Aims: It has previously been shown that permanent right ventricular (RV) apical pacing may lead to worsening of cardiac function due to associated electrical and mechanical dyssynchrony. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) or high septal RV pacing could be beneficial to prevent patients from these negative effects. Methods/Results: In this single center clinical study 164 patient...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to determine the incidence of ineffective capture using 12-lead Holter monitoring and to assess whether this affects response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). BACKGROUND Cardiac resynchronization therapy is used in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), prolonged QRS duration, and heart failure in the setting of ventricular dysfunction. The percentage ...

Abstract Background In cardiomyopathies (CMPs), the diverse genetic background often leads to phenotypic heterogeneity. Currently, genotype-phenotype studies are founded on clinical phenotype-based classification of CMPs, contributing possible biases due exclusion specific and unascertained expressions CMP genes. Purpose We sought define differences in outcome when stratifying patients based ph...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147112.].

BACKGROUND QRS duration is commonly used to select heart failure patients for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). However, not all patients respond to CRT, and recent data suggest that direct assessments of mechanical dyssynchrony may better predict chronic response. Echo-Doppler methods are being used increasingly, but these principally rely on longitudinal motion (epsilonll). It is unkno...

BACKGROUND Giardia duodenalis is an important intestinal protozoan in humans worldwide with high infection rates occurring in densely populated and low resource settings. The parasite has been recorded to cause diarrhea in children. This study was carried out to identify G. duodenalis assemblages and sub-assemblages in children presenting with diarrhea in Kenya. METHODS A total of 2112 faecal...