Angeles Fuertes-Moure¹, Michael Meyer^2,3, Anna-Luisa Häcker^2,3, Barbara Reiner^2,3, Leon Brudy³, Sonia Pértega-Diaz⁴, Renate Oberhoffer^2,3, Peter Ewert², Jan Müller^2,3,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.15, No.4, pp. 217-227, 2020, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2020.011771 - 07 September 2020

Abstract Objective: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has become an important outcome measure for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the natural course of HRQoL from longitudinal assessment in children with CHD. Patients and Methods: From July 2014 to February 2020 this longitudinal study recruited 317 children with CHD (113 girls, 35.6%) aged 6 to 18 years (11.6 ± 2.9 years). HRQoL was assessed with the generic, self-reported and age-adapted KINDL^® questionnaire. During a mean follow-up period of 2.2 ± 1.3 years, 195 patients had one HRQoL reassessment, 70 two,… More >

Andrew S. Kim¹, Colleen M. Witzenburg², Mark Conaway³, Jeffrey E. Vergales¹, Jeffrey W. Holmes^2,4, Thomas J. L’Ecuyer¹, Peter N. Dean¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.6, pp. 1185-1192, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12834

Abstract Background: Children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) have risk for mortality and/or transplantation. Previous studies have associated right ventricular (RV) indices in a single echocardiogram with survival, but none have related serial measurements to outcomes. This study sought to determine whether the trajectory of RV indices in the first year of life was associated with transplant‐free survival to stage 3 palliation (S3P).
Methods: HLHS patients at a single center who underwent stage 1 palliation (S1P) between 2000 and 2015 were reviewed. Echocardiographic indices of RV size and function were obtained before and following S1P and stage… More >

Vidhya Annavajjhala¹, Rajesh Punn¹, Theresa A. Tacy¹, Frank L. Hanley², Doff B. McElhinney²

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.5, pp. 691-699, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12772

Abstract Background: Little is known about the early time course of biventricular function and mechanics after tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair. We sought to evaluate and describe the evolution of the right ventricle (RV) after TOF repair in young infants and children using conventional echocardiographic parameters and global longitudinal strain (GLS).
Methods: A retrospective review was performed of all patients with TOF and pulmo‐ nary stenosis who underwent repair from January 2002 to September 2015 and had at least 3 serial postsurgical echocardiograms spanning from infancy to early child‐ hood (<8 years). Student’s t test was performed to… More >

Biyue Liu^1,*, Dalin Tang²

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 25-26, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.06825

Abstract The blood flow and mass transport pattern of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in a right coronary artery with two stenoses are studied. Computations were carried out under physiological conditions. Our results show a strong correlation between wall shear stress (WSS) and distribution patterns of LDL. More >

Yinghua Zhang^1,2, Yanfang Dong², Lei Wang¹, Jian Liu^1,*, Yunfeng Peng¹, Jim Feng³

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.60, No.1, pp. 379-393, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2019.05790

Abstract In this paper, we propose a downlink cognitive non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network, where the secondary users (SUs) operate in underlay mode. In the network, secondary transmitter employs NOMA signaling for downlink transmission, and the primary user (PU) is interfered by the transmission from SU. The expressions for the outage probabilities are derived in closed-form for both primary and secondary users in the presence of channel estimation error. Numerical simulation results show that the channel estimation error and the inter-network interference cause degradation of the downlink outage performance. Also the power allocation and the location More >

Tao Shang^1,*, Zhuang Pei², Ranyiliu Chen³, Jianwei Liu¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.59, No.1, pp. 149-165, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2019.05360

Abstract In January 2015, the first quantum homomorphic signature scheme was proposed creatively. However, only one verifier is allowed to verify a signature once in this scheme. In order to support repeatable verification for general scenario, we propose a new quantum homomorphic signature scheme with repeatable verification by introducing serial verification model and parallel verification model. Serial verification model solves the problem of signature verification by combining key distribution and Bell measurement. Parallel verification model solves the problem of signature duplication by logically treating one particle of an EPR pair as a quantum signature and physically More >

Matthew J. Lewis¹, Elizabeth Hecht², Jonathan Ginns¹, Joshua Benton², Martin Prince², Marlon S. Rosenbaum¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.12, No.2, pp. 153-158, 2017, DOI:10.1111/chd.12422

Abstract Background: The progression of hepatic disease in adult Fontan patients is not well understood. They reviewed the experience with serial cardiac MRIs (CMR) in adult Fontan patients to determine if hepatic anatomic markers of prolonged Fontan exposure were present and if clinical predictors of progressive hepatic congestion could be identified.
Methods and Results: A retrospective cohort study of all adult Fontan patients who had undergone at least two CMRs was performed. Hepatic dimensions, inferior vena cava (IVC) size, right hepatic vein (RHV) size and spleen diameter were determined from images acquired at the time of clinically guided… More >

C.M.T. Tien¹, N. Pham-Sy¹, N. Mai-Duy¹, C.-D. Tran¹, T. Tran-Cong¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.104, No.4, pp. 251-304, 2015, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2015.104.251

Abstract This paper presents a high-order coupled compact integrated RBF (CC IRBF) approximation based domain decomposition (DD) algorithm for the discretisation of second-order differential problems. Several Schwarz DD algorithms, including one-level additive/ multiplicative and two-level additive/ multiplicative/ hybrid, are employed. The CCIRBF based DD algorithms are analysed with different mesh sizes, numbers of subdomains and overlap sizes for Poisson problems. Our convergence analysis shows that the CCIRBF two-level multiplicative version is the most effective algorithm among various schemes employed here. Especially, the present CCIRBF two-level method converges quite rapidly even when the domain is divided into… More >

Chun Yang^1,2, Dalin Tang², Satya Atluri³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.72, No.1, pp. 53-78, 2011, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2011.072.053

Abstract Previously, we introduced a computational procedure based on three-dimensional meshless generalized finite difference (MGFD) method and serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to quantify patient-specific carotid atherosclerotic plaque growth functions and simulate plaque progression. Structure-only models were used in our previous report. In this paper, fluid-stricture interaction (FSI) was added to improve on prediction accuracy. One participating patient was scanned three times (T1, T2, and T3, at intervals of about 18 months) to obtain plaque progression data. Blood flow was assumed to laminar, Newtonian, viscous and incompressible. The Navier-Stokes equations with arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation… More >