Jia-Wang Xiao, Qi-Guang Wang, Duan-Zhen Zhang, Chun-Sheng Cui, Xiumin Han, Po Zhang, Chuangju Hou, Xian-Yang Zhu

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.2, pp. 305-310, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12572

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy, safety, and long-term outcomes of percutaneous closure (PC) and surgical repair of ruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysm (RSVA).
Methods: Eighty-five consecutive patients with RSVA were included in this study. Patients were considered candidates for PC if they met the criterion, surgical repair was performed on patients who were unsuitable or failed PC. Of them, 30 patients underwent PC, while the other 55 patients had surgical repair.
Results: RSVA was successfully occluded in 29 of 30 patients who were treated by PC. The mean narrowest diameter at the ruptured site was 6.45 ± 1.60 mm… More >

Varun Aggarwal^1,2, Kristen Sexson-Tejtal¹, Wilson Lam¹, Santiago O. Valdes¹, Caridad M. de la Uz¹, Jeffrey J. Kim¹, Christina Y. Miyake¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.6, pp. 1032-1036, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12864

Abstract Objective: Based on 2017 guidelines, participation in competitive sports with prior history of Kawasaki Disease (KD) requires those with coronary artery aneurysms (CAA) z score ≥ 5 to undergo evaluation for evidence of inducible ischemia or arrhythmias. The use of exercise stress testing (EST) to evaluate arrhythmias among KD patients has never been reported. This retrospective single-center case series study sought to describe the presence of inducible arrhythmias during EST in KD patients with or without CAA.
Methods: Single-center retrospective review of medical records of patients diagnosed with KD between 1989-2015 at Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas who underwent EST… More >

Aura A. Sanchez^1,2, Sara K. Sexson Tejtel¹, Myriam E. Almeida‐Jones^1,3, Douglas K. Feagin¹, Carolyn A. Altman¹, Ricardo H. Pignatelli¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.6, pp. 1024-1031, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12787

Abstract Objective: Children with Kawasaki disease (KD) with persistent coronary artery aneurysms (CAAs) can develop chronic vasculopathy and subsequent myocardial ischemia. Early detection of this process is challenging. Myocardial deformation anal‐ ysis can detect early alterations in myocardial performance. We aim to determine whether there are differences in myocardial deformation between KD patients with and without CAAs.
Design: This is a cross‐sectional study of 123 echocardiograms performed on 103 children with KD. Myocardial deformation was measured with two‐dimensional speckle tracking (2DSTE). The echocardiograms were divided into groups according to the KD phase in which they were performed: acute, subacute, and convalescent/… More >

Kristina K. Rauser‐Foltz¹, Lois J. Starr², Anji T. Yetman¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.5, pp. 864-867, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12824

Abstract Objectives: This study assessed the frequency and utility of echocardiographic examination in patients with all forms of Ehlers‐Danlos syndrome and sought to iden‐ tify clinical variables associated with an abnormal echocardiogram.
Design/setting: This was a retrospective study of all patients carrying a diagnosis of Ehlers‐Danlos syndrome of any type who were evaluated by a pediatrician or pediatric subspecialist at a single tertiary medical center with an affiliated children’s hospital during the period January 2013 to December 2018.
Patients: Chart review was performed on all patients carrying a diagnosis of Ehlers‐ Danlos syndrome in the electronic medical record.
Outcome Measures: Data… More >

Ersin Çagrı Şimşek¹, Selcen Yakar Tülüce², Kamil Tülüce³, Sadık Volkan Emren², Serap Çuhadar⁴, Cem Nazlı²

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.2, pp. 256-263, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12718

Abstract Objective: The bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common congenital heart dis‐ ease. The process of aortic dilatation is not completely clear in patients with the BAV. Apelin is a peptide found at high levels in vascular endothelial cells which has a role in vascular regulation and cardiovascular function. The aim of this study was to de‐ termine the relationship between serum apelin levels and ascending aortic dilatation in adult patients with BAV.
Design: This cross‐sectional study included 62 patients with isolated BAV and to an age, gender, and body mass index‐matched control group of 58 healthy volunteers with… More >

Shicheng He¹, Juhui Qiu¹, Wanling Liu¹, Tieying Yin¹, Dechuan Zhang^2,*, Donghua Liao^3,4, Haijun Zhang⁵, Yuxia Yin⁵, Guixue Wang^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 63-74, 2020, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2020.08750

Abstract Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been widely used for studying intracranial aneurysm hemodynamics, while its use for guiding clinical strategy is still in development. In this study, CFD simulations helped inform treatment decision for a middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysm case was investigated. A patient with a 10.4 × 9.8 mm aneurysm attached with a small aneurysm at the edge of the trifurcation in the left MCA was included in this study. For removing the MCA aneurysm, two scenarios were considered: Plan-A involved clipping the small aneurysm and Plan-B involved clipping the whole aneurysm. A suitable treatment plan was decided… More >

Xuehuan He¹, Stephane Avril², Jia Lu^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 50-52, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07390

Abstract A Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network model [1] is developed to predict the strength of ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA) tissues using tension-strain data and assess local rupture risk. The data were collected through in vitro inflation tests on ATAA samples from 12 patients who underwent surgical intervention [2]. An inverse stress analysis was performed to compute the wall tension at Gauss points. Some of these Gauss points are at or near sites where the samples eventually ruptured, while others are at locations where the tissue remained intact. A total of 27,648 tension- strain curves, including 26,676 2223 nonrupture and… More >

Guangyu Zhu¹, Yuan Wei¹, Qi Yuan^1,*, Ge Yan², Jian Yang²

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 55-56, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05730

Abstract This article has no abstract. More >

Stéphane Avril^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 17-18, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05705

Abstract The fluid mechanics community has been interested for many years in hemodynamics. More recently, significant endeavours of the solid mechanics community have permitted to establish constitutive equations and to achieve stress analyses in arterial lesions (atheromatous plaque in coronary or carotid arteries, aneurysms of the aorta). The mechanical properties of blood vessels have often been characterized ex vivo, but medical imaging, including MRI, now allows non-intrusive identifications in vivo. The spatial heterogeneity of these mechanical properties, even at the macroscopic scale, remains poorly explored despite its undeniable interest in understanding the mechanisms of remodeling and degeneration of the tissue. We… More >

Lizhong Mu^{1, *}, Qingzhuo Chi¹, Changjin Ji², Ying He¹, Ge Gao³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.116, No.2, pp. 175-197, 2018, DOI:10.31614/cmes.2018.04191

Abstract To improve aneurysm treatment, this study examined the influence of clip locations on hemodynamic factors in patient-specific anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysms with different aneurysmal angle. We proposed a simplified classification of ACoA aneurysms using aneurysmal angle, defined by the angle of pivot of the aneurysmal dome and the virtual two-dimensional plane created by both proximal A2 segments of anterior cerebral artery (ACA). ACoA aneurysms with three different aneurysmal angles, which are 15°, 80° and 120°, were analyzed in our study. In this work, we obtained hemodynamics before and after clipping surgery with three clip locations based on clinical clipping… More >