Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Simplified Post Processing Of Cine Dense Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance For Quantification Of Cardiac Mechanics, Jonathan D. Suever, Gregory J. Wehner, Christopher M. Haggerty, Linyuan Jing, Sean M. Hamlet, Cassi M. Binkley, Sage P. Kramer, Andrea C. Mattingly, David K. Powell, Kenneth C. Bilchick, Frederick H. Epstein, Brandon K. Fornwalt

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance using displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) is capable of assessing advanced measures of cardiac mechanics such as strain and torsion. A potential hurdle to widespread clinical adoption of DENSE is the time required to manually segment the myocardium during post-processing of the images. To overcome this hurdle, we proposed a radical approach in which only three contours per image slice are required for post-processing (instead of the typical 30-40 contours per image slice). We hypothesized that peak left ventricular circumferential, longitudinal and radial strains and torsion could be accurately quantified using this simplified analysis.

METHODS …

Bisphenol A Increases Atherosclerosis In Pregnane X Receptor-Humanized Apoe Deficient Mice, Yipeng Sui, Se-Hyung Park, Robert N. Helsley, Manjula Sunkara, Frank J. Gonzalez, Andrew J. Morris, Changcheng Zhou

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Bisphenol A (BPA) is a base chemical used extensively in many consumer products. BPA has recently been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in multiple large-scale human population studies, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. We previously reported that BPA activates the pregnane X receptor (PXR), which acts as a xenobiotic sensor to regulate xenobiotic metabolism and has pro-atherogenic effects in animal models upon activation. Interestingly, BPA is a potent agonist of human PXR but does not activate mouse or rat PXR signaling, which confounds the use of rodent models to evaluate mechanisms of BPA-mediated CVD risk. …

Aortic Aneurysms In Loeys-Dietz Syndrome - A Tale Of Two Pathways?, Frank Davis, Debra L. Rateri, Alan Daugherty

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) is a connective tissue disorder that is characterized by skeletal abnormalities, craniofacial malformations, and a high predisposition for aortic aneurysm. In this issue of the JCI, Gallo et al. developed transgenic mouse strains harboring missense mutations in the genes encoding type I or II TGF-β receptors. These mice exhibited several LDS-associated phenotypes. Despite being functionally defective, the mutated receptors enhanced TGF-β signaling in vivo, inferred by detection of increased levels of phosphorylated Smad2. Aortic aneurysms in these LDS mice were ablated by treatment with the Ang II type 1 (AT1) receptor antagonist losartan. The results from this …