Associations between fine particulate matter and in-home blood pressure during the 2022 wildfire season in Western Montana, USA.

Wildfires continue to increase in size, intensity, and duration. There is growing evidence that wildfire smoke adversely impacts clinical outcomes; however, few studies have assessed the impact of wildfires on household air quality and subclinical cardiovascular health indicators. We measured continuous indoor and outdoor fine particulate matter (PM) concentrations from July-October 2022 at 20 residences in the rural, mountainous state of Montana in the United States.

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Outcomes During the Public Health Emergency Flexibility Period.

Objective: To compare transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) outcomes during the period when public health emergency (PHE) flexibilities were in place with outcomes during a period before they were introduced.

Methods: Patients who received a native TAVR with either a SAPIEN 3 or SAPIEN 3 Ultra valve from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons/American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry between June 22, 2019, and August 30, 2022, were placed into one of two cohorts: (1) pre-PHE cohort, and (2) peri-PHE cohort. Outcomes included in-hospital events and events occurring 30 days post-TAVR.

Vasculogenic properties of adventitial Sca-1CD45 progenitor cells in mice: a potential source of vasa vasorum in atherosclerosis.

The cellular origins of vasa vasorum are ill-defined and may involve circulating or local progenitor cells. We previously discovered that murine aortic adventitia contains Sca-1CD45 progenitors that produce macrophages. Here we investigated whether they are also vasculogenic.

Effect of Preprocedural Thrombocytopenia on Prognosis After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

Objective: To assess early and late outcomes, including bleeding, in patients with thrombocytopenia undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Patients And Methods: We performed a retrospective single-center study of patients with preprocedural thrombocytopenia (platelet count ≤100,000/μL; n=204) undergoing PCI between 2003 and 2015. Inhospital and late outcomes were compared with those of a matched control group without thrombocytopenia (n=1281).

Low-Dose Gamma Irradiation of Decellularized Heart Valves Results in Tissue Injury In Vitro and In Vivo.

Background: Decellularized heart valves are emerging as a potential alternative to current bioprostheses for valve replacement. Whereas techniques of decellularization have been thoroughly examined, terminal sterilization techniques have not received the same scrutiny.

Methods: This study evaluated low-dose gamma irradiation as a sterilization method for decellularized heart valves.

Prediction of Cardiac and Noncardiac Mortality After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

Background: Current risk models for predicting long-term mortality after percutaneous coronary intervention are restricted to all-cause mortality. We sought to develop novel risk models for the prediction of cardiac and noncardiac mortality after percutaneous coronary intervention.

Methods And Results: We retrospectively evaluated patients who underwent index percutaneous coronary intervention at Mayo Clinic from 2003 to 2008.

Osteogenic monocytes within the coronary circulation and their association with plaque vulnerability in patients with early atherosclerosis.

Objectives: This study tests the hypothesis that circulating mononuclear cells expressing osteocalcin (OCN) and bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP) are associated with distinct plaque tissue components in patients with early coronary atherosclerosis.

Background: Plaque characteristics implying vulnerability develop at the earliest stage of coronary atherosclerosis. Increasing evidence indicates that cells from the myeloid lineage might serve as important mediators of destabilization.

Drug delivery in aortic valve tissue engineering.

Over the last 50 years medicine and technology have progressed to the point where it has become commonplace to safely replace damaged or diseased heart valves with mechanical and biological prostheses. Despite the advancements in technology current valve substitutes continue to have significant limitations with regards to thrombogenicity, durability, and inability to grow or remodel. In an attempt to overcome the limitations of currently available valve prosthesis, heart valve tissue engineering has emerged as a promising technique to produce biological valve substitutes.

Incidence of symptomatic venous thromboembolism in patients with hemophilia undergoing joint replacement surgery: a retrospective study.

Introduction: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a recognized complication after joint replacement surgery, and prophylaxis is routinely used in patients without bleeding disorders. However, for patients with hemophilia, pharmacologic prophylaxis is highly variable and controversial because of the inherent bleeding risk.

Aim: To review our institutional experience with outcomes of total knee or hip arthroplasty with regard to symptomatic VTE and use of VTE prophylaxis in patients with hemophilia and without inhibitors.

An update on stem cell therapies for acute coronary syndrome.

Well into the second decade since its conception, cell transplantation continues to undergo intensive evaluation for the treatment of myocardial infarction. At a mechanistic level, its objectives remain to replace lost cardiac cell mass with new functioning cardiomyocytes and vascular cells, thereby minimizing infarct size and scar formation, and improving clinical outcomes by preventing adverse left ventricular remodeling and recurrent ischemic events. Many different cell types, including pluripotent stem cells and various adult-derived progenitor cells, have been shown to have therapeutic potential in preclinical studies, while early phase human trial experience has provided divergent outcomes and fundamental lessons, emphasizing that there remain key issues to address and challenges to overcome before cell therapy can be applied to wider clinical practice.

Characterization of a resident population of adventitial macrophage progenitor cells in postnatal vasculature.

Rationale: Macrophages regulate blood vessel structure and function in health and disease. The origins of tissue macrophages are diverse, with evidence for local production and circulatory renewal.

Objective: We identified a vascular adventitial population containing macrophage progenitor cells and investigated their origins and fate.

Bone marrow mononuclear cell therapy for acute myocardial infarction: a perspective from the cardiovascular cell therapy research network.

To understand the role of bone marrow mononuclear cells in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction, this overview offers a retrospective examination of strengths and limitations of 3 contemporaneous trials with attention to critical design features and provides an analysis of the combined data set and implications for future directions in cell therapy for acute myocardial infarction.

Trends in cause of death after percutaneous coronary intervention.

Background: The impact of changing demographics on causes of long-term death after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains incompletely defined.

Methods And Results: We evaluated trends in cause-specific long-term mortality after index PCI performed at a single center from 1991 to 2008. Deaths were ascertained by scheduled prospective surveillance.

Outcome of repair of myocardial bridging at the time of septal myectomy.

Background: Myocardial bridging describes systolic compression of the muscular investment of a portion of an epicardial coronary artery. We evaluated the outcome of muscular bridge unroofing of the left anterior descending artery at the time of septal myectomy in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Methods: We conducted a case-controlled study of 36 patients (23 men; median age, 42 years) with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and myocardial bridging.

Comparison between three-dimensional angiographic reconstruction and intravascular ultrasound: imaging of the left main coronary artery.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the left main (LM) coronary artery anatomy using three-dimensional (3D) quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) software as compared to intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).

Background: Percutaneous intervention of the LM coronary artery is becoming more common in selected patients with LM coronary artery disease (CAD). Quantification of LM CAD by conventional angiography can be difficult.

Effect of the use and timing of bone marrow mononuclear cell delivery on left ventricular function after acute myocardial infarction: the TIME randomized trial.

Context: While the delivery of cell therapy after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has been evaluated in previous clinical trials, the influence of the timing of cell delivery on the effect on left ventricular function has not been analyzed.

Objectives: To determine the effect of intracoronary autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell (BMC) delivery after STEMI on recovery of global and regional left ventricular function and whether timing of BMC delivery (3 days vs 7 days after reperfusion) influences this effect.

Design, Setting, And Patients: A randomized, 2 × 2 factorial, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, Timing In Myocardial infarction Evaluation (TIME) enrolled 120 patients with left ventricular dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] ≤ 45%) after successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of anterior STEMI between July 17, 2008, and November 15, 2011, as part of the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

An in vivo method to quantify lymphangiogenesis in zebrafish.

Background: Lymphangiogenesis is a highly regulated process involved in the pathogenesis of disease. Current in vivo models to assess lymphangiogenesis are largely unphysiologic. The zebrafish is a powerful model system for studying development, due to its rapid growth and transparency during early stages of life.

Risk of aortic valve replacement in patients with aortic stenosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Patients with aortic stenosis (AS) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been considered at high risk for aortic valve replacement (AVR), which results in some patients being denied this life-saving operation. Hence, the study aim was to assess the operative, 30-day, and long-term mortality in individuals with COPD undergoing AVR for AS in the modern surgical era.

Methods: This retrospective cohort of patients had documented COPD (FEV1/FVC < 70%), and underwent isolated AVR for severe AS between 1993 and 2007 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.