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Selected AbstractsAn appreciation of Ronnie Mac Keith (1978)DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2008Martin Bax DM It is 100 years since Ronnie Mac Keith's birth and 50 years since he started the Journal Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (DMCN; initially called The Cerebral Palsy Bulletin), the first number being a reprint of William Little's original article. Scope, then The Spastics Society, had just begun to raise significant sums of money and Ronnie persuaded them not only to put some money into medical research, which they did, funding the research laboratories at Guy's, but also, uniquely, to spend some money on educating and informing doctors. This led to financial backing, happily still continuing, to the publishers of DMCN, now the Mac Keith Press. Initially, it was published under the title Spastics International Medical Publications but this was a clumsy and difficult title because of the unfortunate use of the word 'spastics'and soon after Ronnie's death, who was then senior editor, the Mac Keith Press Board were delighted that his family agreed that the Press would be named after him. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ronnie was collecting a team around him to develop the Journal and the books, and contacted me because he knew I had literary interests. I didn't really want to edit a medical journal but I was interested in paediatrics so in the end I got involved! I worked very closely with Ronnie, both clinically and at the Mac Keith Press, and also with the Medical Education Information Unit of the Spastics Society on the meetings he ran. When he died, I tried to pull together something of Ronnie's nature in this personal memoir below, which supplemented the more formal statements about his life and career which can be found in the relevant number of the Journal.1 One hopes that Ronnie would be pleased with what we have done and I know that he would be hoping that we would continue for another 50 years developing ideas and approaches which were essentially developed by Ronnie Mac Keith. [source] Catheter Ablation of Recurrent Scar-Related Ventricular Tachycardia Using Electroanatomical Mapping and Irrigated Ablation Technology: Results of the Prospective Multicenter Euro-VT-StudyJOURNAL OF CARDIOVASCULAR ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 1 2010HILDEGARD TANNER M.D. Catheter Ablation of Ventricular Tachycardia.,Introduction: Ventricular tachycardia (VT) late after myocardial infarction is an important contributor to morbidity and mortality. This prospective multicenter study assessed the efficacy and safety of electroanatomical mapping in combination with open-saline irrigated ablation technology for ablation of chronic recurrent mappable and unmappable VT in remote myocardial infarction. Methods and Results: In 8 European institutions, 63 patients (89% males) were enrolled in the study. All patients had remote myocardial infarction and presented with a median number of 17 (range 1,380) VTs in the preceding 6 months. Incessant VT was present in 14 patients (22%). Left ventricular ejection fraction measured 30 ± 13%. A mean of 3 VTs were targeted per patient and 22% of all patients had only unmappable VT. The mean follow-up period was 12 ± 3 months. A total of 164 VTs were targeted during catheter ablation. Ablation was acutely successful in 51 patients (81%). One patient (1.5%) experienced a major complication with degeneration of VT into ventricular fibrillation necessitating cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers. However, no death occurred acutely or within the first 30 days after catheter ablation. During the follow-up, 19 of the initially successful ablated patients (37%) and 31 of all ablated patients (49%) developed some type of VT recurrence. Conclusions: The results of this multicenter study demonstrate the high acute success rate and a low complication rate of irrigated tip catheter ablation of all clinical relevant VTs in remote myocardial infarction. However, during the follow-up a relevant number of recurrences occurred. (J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, Vol. 21, pp. 47,53, January 2010) [source] Application of novel dual wave meal bolus and its impact on glycated hemoglobin A1c level in children with type 1 diabetesPEDIATRIC DIABETES, Issue 5 2009Ewa Pa, kowska Background: An insulin pump is an advanced technology offering new options of bolus , normal (N), dual wave (D-W) or square wave (S-W) bolus to deliver mealtime insulin. Objectives: To assess the impact of D-W/S-W boluses on metabolic control (glycated haemoglobin A1c, HbA1c) and to estimate the paediatric patients compliance with implementation of this system in daily practice. Methods: The cross-sectional study included 499 records of patients aged 0,18 yr. Data from the insulin pump memory provided information on the number of D-W/S-W boluses during a 2-wk period, the insulin requirement (U/kg/d) and the percentage of basal insulin. The HbA1c value (%) and the patient's weight were determined during medical examinations. Mealtime dose of insulin in D-W/S-W bolus was calculated based on the amount of carbohydrate and fat/protein products. Results: The number of applied D-W/S-W boluses was 16.6 ± 0.77/14 d (ranged 0,95), while 18.8% of patients did not program D-W/S-W boluses. The lowest HbA1c value was found in the group using two and/or more D-W/S-W boluses per day (p = 0.001) compared with the group administrating less than one D-W/S-W bolus/d. Patients with HbA1c level <7.5% had a statistically higher relevant number of D-W/S-W boluses, 19.55 (95% CI: 17.44,21.65) vs. 12.42 (95% CI: 10.22,14.61) (p < 0.001), while there was no correlation between the number of boluses and HbA1c in patients in the remission phase (<0.5 IU/kg/d) (r = 0.012, p = 0.930). Conclusions: Patients using at least one D-W/S-W bolus per day achieved a recommended level of HbA1c. Paediatric patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus were found to be able to apply D-W/S-W boluses in daily self-treatment process based on food counting. [source] Generation of human embryonic stem cell-derived mesoderm and cardiac cells using size-specified aggregates in an oxygen-controlled bioreactorBIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING, Issue 2 2009Sylvia Niebruegge Abstract The ability to generate human pluripotent stem cell-derived cell types at sufficiently high numbers and in a reproducible manner is fundamental for clinical and biopharmaceutical applications. Current experimental methods for the differentiation of pluripotent cells such as human embryonic stem cells (hESC) rely on the generation of heterogeneous aggregates of cells, also called "embryoid bodies" (EBs), in small scale static culture. These protocols are typically (1) not scalable, (2) result in a wide range of EB sizes and (3) expose cells to fluctuations in physicochemical parameters. With the goal of establishing a robust bioprocess we first screened different scalable suspension systems for their ability to support the growth and differentiation of hESCs. Next homogeneity of initial cell aggregates was improved by employing a micro-printing strategy to generate large numbers of size-specified hESC aggregates. Finally, these technologies were integrated into a fully controlled bioreactor system and the impact of oxygen concentration was investigated. Our results demonstrate the beneficial effects of stirred bioreactor culture, aggregate size-control and hypoxia (4% oxygen tension) on both cell growth and cell differentiation towards cardiomyocytes. QRT-PCR data for markers such as Brachyury, LIM domain homeobox gene Isl-1, Troponin T and Myosin Light Chain 2v, as well as immunohistochemistry and functional analysis by response to chronotropic agents, documented the impact of these parameters on cardiac differentiation. This study provides an important foundation towards the robust generation of clinically relevant numbers of hESC derived cells. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;102: 493,507. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] |