BACKGROUND During cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), cardiac performance is dependent on an optimized atrioventricular delay (AVD). However, the optimal AVD at different heart rates has not been defined yet during CRT. METHOD The effects of an increase in heart rate by pacing or physical exercise on optimal AVD were studied in 36 patients with biventricular pacemakers/defibrillators. Th...

The aim of this study was to analyze the changes of the middle hepatic vein (MHV) spectra in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) caused by congenital heart disease (CHD) and determine the proper parameters of MHV to predict PH. Eighty patients with CHD were included, whose pulmonary artery pressure was measured via right heart catheterization, and the MHV spectra were detected via echocar...

BACKGROUND The patient's head can be slightly rotated sagitally vertically or transversely within the head holding device. Because of such improper positions due to the head rotation, an error can occur in cephalometric measurements. The purpose of this study was to identify the potential projection errors of lateral cephalometric radiograph due to head rotation toward X-ray film in the vertica...

The results of Biswas (2000) are extended to the situation of transversely projective foliations. In particular, it is shown that a transversely holomorphic foliation defined using everywhere locally nondegenerate maps to a projective space CPn, and whose transition functions are given by automorphisms of the projective space, has a canonical transversely projective structure. Such a foliation ...

State-of-the-art airborne lidar data of passive scalars have shown that the spatial stratification of the atmosphere is scaling: the vertical extent (Δz) of structures is typically ≈ z H x ! where Δx is the horizontal extent and Hz is a stratification exponent. Assuming horizontal isotropy, the volumes of the structures therefore vary as !x!x!x H z = !x D s where the “elliptical dimension” Ds c...

BACKGROUND The extent of acute aortic dissection (AAD) was correlated with inflammation positively. On the other side, inflammation was negatively correlated with mean platelet volume (MPV), which can reflect platelet (PLT) activation. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between the extent of dissection and PLT activation. METHODS Between February 2010 and October 2013, 147 ...

Abstract Background Detection of haemodynamically significant shunting from atrial septal defect (ASD) can be identified by using the pulmonary-systemic flow ratio (Qp/Qs). However, calculation Qp/Qs echocardiography relies on geometric assumptions that outflow tracts are circular, suffers squared linear measures, and accurate measurement right ventricular tract (RVOT) diameter is challenging. ...