Sleep deprivation alters neutrophil functions and levels of Th1-related chemokines and CD4+ T cells in the blood

Sleep and Breathing - The state of knowledge about the effect of sleep deprivation on the immune system is scarce and conflicting. It would therefore be useful to investigate the consequences of...     

Urgent transcatheter aortic valve replacement for severe acute aortic regurgitation following open mitral valve surgery

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is not currently approved for pure native valve aortic incompetence, and is typically performed on a compassionate basis in selected patients who are at high risk for conventional surgery. We describe the first use of TAVR to treat iatrogenic severe acute pure aortic incompetence following mitral valve surgery. A 71‐year‐old gentleman developed life‐threatening acute aortic regurgitation (AR) within hours of a very challenging fifth open heart mitral valve replacement. Careful inspection of echocardiographic and computed tomographic imaging identified the cause as a disrupted left coronary cusp at the commissure caused by the surgical mitral annular reconstruction. Medical management with afterload reduction failed with recurrent pulmonary edema, and a sixth open heart surgery was deemed prohibitively high risk. The lack of aortic annular calcium onto which anchors a transcatheter valve was a concern for TAVR. However, we postulated that the struts of the mitral valve bioprosthesis would offer some support to the TAVR valve. We opted for a self‐expanding system because of concerns about potential unfavorable interaction between the balloon onto which balloon‐expandable bioprosthesis is mounted and the struts of the mitral bioprosthesis, and because the Evolut R system has additional anchoring points at the crown which might enhance transcatheter valve stability in the non‐calcified annulus, compared with the Edwards Sapien system. Transfemoral TAVR, performed with a Medtronic Evolut R 34 mm system under general anesthesia and using moderately rapid ventricular pacing, was successful with minimal residual AR. On follow‐up 1 month later the patient was asymptomatic, and the aortic and mitral bioprostheses were functioning normally on echocardiogram.     

Prediction of incident hypertension and arterial stiffness using the non–insulin‐based metabolic score for insulin resistance (METS‐IR) index

Hypertension is associated with insulin resistance (IR), metabolic syndrome (MS), and arterial stiffness. Non–insulin‐based IR indexes were developed as tools for metabolic screening. Here, we aimed to evaluate the novel non–insulin‐based Metabolic Score for IR (METS‐IR) index for the prediction of incident hypertension and arterial stiffness evaluated using pulse wave velocity (PWV) analysis, compared with other non–insulin‐based IR indexes. We evaluated two populations, a cross‐sectional evaluation of high‐risk individuals (n = 305) with a wide range of metabolic comorbidities and dyslipidemia in whom PWV measurement was performed and a 3‐year prospective cohort of normotensive individuals (N = 6850). We observed a positive correlation between METS‐IR and PWV in the cross‐sectional cohort, which was higher compared with other non–insulin‐based fasting IR indexes; furthermore, PWV values >75th percentile were associated with the upper tercile of METS‐IR values. In the prospective cohort, we observed an increased risk for incident hypertension for the upper METS‐IR tercile (METS‐IR ≥ 46.42; HR: 1.81, 95% CI: 1.41‐2.34), adjusted for known cardiovascular risk factors, and observed that METS‐IR had greater increases in the predictive capacity for hypertension along with SBP and the Framingham Hypertension Risk Prediction Model compared with other non–insulin‐based IR indexes. Therefore, METS‐IR is a novel non–insulin‐based IR index which correlates with arterial stiffness and is a predictor of incident hypertension, complementary to previously validated risk prediction models.     

Imaging of carcinoid tumors: spectrum of findings with pathologic and clinical correlation

Carcinoid tumors are primary malignant neoplasms that arise from neuroendocrine cells. These cells are located throughout the body, resulting in many possible locations for the development of carcinoid tumor. The most common primary location is the gastrointestinal tract, followed by respiratory and thymic carcinoids. The presentations of these tumors are variable depending on their location, aggressiveness, production of functional peptides, and tendency to invade or metastasize. Carcinoid tumors can be imaged by various modalities including gastrointestinal studies, ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging as well as nuclear medicine studies (radioactive octreotide). In this review, we illustrate the spectrum of imaging features of carcinoid tumors in various locations of the human body.