Absolute-Magnitude Distributions and Light Curves of Stripped-Envelope Supernovae

The absolute visual magnitudes of three Type IIb, 11 Type Ib and 13 Type Ic supernovae (collectively known as stripped-envelope supernovae) are studied by collecting data on the apparent magnitude, distance, and interstellar extinction of each event. Weighted and unweighted mean absolute magnitudes of the combined sample as well as various subsets of the sample are reported. The limited sample size and the considerable uncertainties, especially those associated with extinction in the host galaxies, prevent firm conclusions regarding differences between the absolute magnitudes of supernovae of Type Ib and Ic, and regarding the existence of separate groups of overluminous and normal-luminosity stripped-envelope supernovae. The spectroscopic characteristics of the events of the sample are considered. Three of the four overluminous events are known to have had unusual spectra. Most but not all of the normal luminosity events had typical spectra. Light curves of stripped-envelope supernovae are collected and compared. Because SN 1994I in M51 was very well observed it often is regarded as the prototypical Type Ic supernova, but it has the fastest light curve in the sample. Light curves are modeled by means of a simple analytical technique that, combined with a constraint on E/M from spectroscopy, yields internally consistent values of ejected mass, kinetic energy, and nickel mass.Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures, 7 tables; Accepted to A

The Age, Extinction and Distance of the Old, Metal-Rich Open Cluster NGC 6791

An extensive grid of metal-rich isochrones utilizing the latest available input physics has been calculated for comparison with the old, metal-rich open cluster NGC 6791. The isochrones have been simultaneously fit to BV and VI color magnitude diagrams, with the same composition, reddening and distance modulus required for both colors. Our best fitting isochrone assumes [Fe/H] = +0.4, scaled solar abundance ratios, and dY/dZ = 2 (Y = 0.31), yielding an excellent fit to the data at all points along the major sequences. The resulting age is 8 Gyr, with E(B-V) = 0.10 and (m-M)_v = 13.42. The derived cluster parameters are fairly robust to variations in the isochrone [Fe/H] and helium abundances. All of the acceptable fits indicate that 0.07 < E(B-V) < 0.14$, 13.29 < (m-M)_v < 13.46, and that NGC 6791 has an age of 8.0+/- 0.5 Gyr. The fits also suggest that dY/dZ lies between 1 and 3. A metallicity as low as solar is clearly ruled out, as is dY/dZ = 0. Comparison with previous isochrone studies indicates that the derived reddening is primarily due to our use of the most recent color transformations, whereas the age depends upon both the colors and the input physics. Our isochrones provide an excellent fit to the Hyades zero-age main sequence as determined by Hipparcos, providing evidence that our derived reddening and distance modulus are reliable.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures, to appear in A

Cardiopulmonary assessment of patients with systemic sclerosis for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: recommendations from the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Autoimmune Diseases Working Party and collaborating partners.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare disabling autoimmune disease with a similar mortality to many cancers. Two randomized controlled trials of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) for SSc have shown significant improvement in organ function, quality of life and long-term survival compared to standard therapy. However, transplant-related mortality (TRM) ranged from 3-10% in patients undergoing HSCT. In SSc, the main cause of non-transplant and TRM is cardiac related. We therefore updated the previously published guidelines for cardiac evaluation, which should be performed in dedicated centers with expertize in HSCT for SSc. The current recommendations are based on pre-transplant cardiopulmonary evaluations combining pulmonary function tests, echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and invasive hemodynamic testing, initiated at Northwestern University (Chicago) and subsequently discussed and endorsed within the EBMT ADWP in 2016

Follow-up of atheroma burden with sequential whole body contrast enhanced MR angiography:a feasibility study

Assess the feasibility of whole body magnetic resonance angiography (WB-MRA) for monitoring global atheroma burden in a population with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). 50 consecutive patients with symptomatic PAD referred for clinically indicated MRA were recruited. Whole body MRA (WB-MRA) was performed at baseline, 6 months and 3 years. The vasculature was split into 31 anatomical arterial segments. Each segment was scored according to degree of luminal narrowing: 0 = normal, 1 = <50 %, 2 = 50–70 %, 3 = 71–99 %, 4 = vessel occlusion. The score from all assessable segments was summed, and then normalised to the number of assessable vessels. This normalised score was divided by four (the maximum vessel score) and multiplied by 100 to give a final standardised atheroma score (SAS) with a score of 0–100. Progression was assessed with repeat measure ANOVA. 36 patients were scanned at 0 and 6 months, with 26 patients scanned at the 3 years follow up. Only those who completed all three visits were included in the final analysis. Baseline atherosclerotic burden was high with a mean SAS of 15.7 ± 10.3. No significant progression was present at 6 months (mean SAS 16.4 ± 10.5, p = 0.67), however there was significant disease progression at 3 years (mean SAS 17.7 ± 11.5, p = 0.01). Those with atheroma progression at follow-up were less likely to be on statin therapy (79 vs 100 %, p = 0.04), and had significantly higher baseline SAS (17.6 ± 11.2 vs 10.7 ± 5.1, p = 0.043). Follow up of atheroma burden is possible with WB-MRA, which can successfully quantify and monitor atherosclerosis progression at 3 years follow-up

Automatic segmentation of right ventricle in cardiac cine MR images using a saliency analysis

PURPOSE: Accurate measurement of the right ventricle (RV) volume is important for the assessment of the ventricular function and a biomarker of the progression of any cardiovascular disease. However, the high RV variability makes difficult a proper delineation of the myocardium wall. This paper introduces a new automatic method for segmenting the RV volume from short axis cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images by a salient analysis of temporal and spatial observations. METHODS: The RV volume estimation starts by localizing the heart as the region with the most coherent motion during the cardiac cycle. Afterward, the ventricular chambers are identified at the basal level using the isodata algorithm, the right ventricle extracted, and its centroid computed. A series of radial intensity profiles, traced from this centroid, is used to search a salient intensity pattern that models the inner-outer myocardium boundary. This process is iteratively applied toward the apex, using the segmentation of the previous slice as a regularizer. The consecutive 2D segmentations are added together to obtain the final RV endocardium volume that serves to estimate also the epicardium. RESULTS: Experiments performed with a public dataset, provided by the RV segmentation challenge in cardiac MRI, demonstrated that this method is highly competitive with respect to the state of the art, obtaining a Dice score of 0.87, and a Hausdorff distance of 7.26 mm while a whole volume was segmented in about 3 s. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method provides an useful delineation of the RV shape using only the spatial and temporal information of the cine MR images. This methodology may be used by the expert to achieve cardiac indicators of the right ventricle function

Body surface area and baseline blood pressure predict subclinical anthracycline cardiotoxicity in women treated for early breast cancer.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Anthracyclines are highly effective chemotherapeutic agents which may cause long-term cardiac damage (chronic anthracycline cardiotoxicity) and heart failure. The pathogenesis of anthracycline cardiotoxicity remains incompletely understood and individual susceptibility difficult to predict. We sought clinical features which might contribute to improved risk assessment. METHODS: Subjects were women with early breast cancer, free of pre-existing cardiac disease. Left ventricular ejection fraction was measured using cardiovascular magnetic resonance before and >12 months after anthracycline-based chemotherapy (>3 months post-Trastuzumab). Variables associated with subclinical cardiotoxicity (defined as a fall in left ventricular ejection fraction of ≥5%) were identified by logistic regression. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-five women (mean age 48.3 years at enrollment) completed the study 21.7 months [IQR 18.0-26.8] after starting chemotherapy. All received anthracyclines (98.8% epirubicin, cumulative dose 400 [300-450] mg/m2); 18% Trastuzumab. Baseline blood pressure was elevated (≥140/90mmHg, mean 147.3/86.1mmHg) in 18 subjects. Thirty-four subjects (20.7%) were identified with subclinical cardiotoxicity, independent predictors of which were the number of anthracycline cycles (odds ratio, OR 1.64 [1.17-2.30] per cycle), blood pressure ≥140/90mmHg (OR 5.36 [1.73-17.61]), body surface area (OR 2.08 [1.36-3.20] per standard deviation (0.16m2) increase), and Trastuzumab therapy (OR 3.35 [1.18-9.51]). The resultant predictive-model had an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.78 [0.70-0.86]. CONCLUSIONS: We found subclinical cardiotoxicity to be common even within this low risk cohort. Risk of cardiotoxicity was associated with modestly elevated baseline blood pressure-indicating that close attention should be paid to blood pressure in patients considered for anthracycline based chemotherapy. The association with higher body surface area suggests that indexing of anthracycline doses to surface area may not be appropriate for all, and points to the need for additional research in this area

Research into the effect Of SGLT2 inhibition on left ventricular remodelling in patients with heart failure and diabetes mellitus (REFORM) trial rationale and design

Background Heart failure (HF) and diabetes (DM) are a lethal combination. The current armamentarium of anti-diabetic agents has been shown to be less efficacious and sometimes even harmful in diabetic patients with concomitant cardiovascular disease, especially HF. Sodium glucose linked co-transporter type 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are a new class of anti-diabetic agent that has shown potentially beneficial cardiovascular effects such as pre-load and after load reduction through osmotic diuresis, blood pressure reduction, reduced arterial stiffness and weight loss. This has been supported by the recently published EMPA-REG trial which showed a striking 38 and 35 % reduction in cardiovascular death and HF hospitalisation respectively. Methods The REFORM trial is a novel, phase IV randomised, double blind, placebo controlled clinical trial that has been ongoing since March 2015. It is designed specifically to test the safety and efficacy of the SLGT2 inhibitor, dapagliflozin, on diabetic patients with known HF. We utilise cardiac-MRI, cardio-pulmonary exercise testing, body composition analysis and other tests to quantify the cardiovascular and systemic effects of dapagliflozin 10 mg once daily against standard of care over a 1 year observation period. The primary outcome is to detect the change in left ventricular (LV) end systolic and LV end diastolic volumes. The secondary outcome measures include LV ejection fraction, LV mass index, exercise tolerance, fluid status, quality of life measures and others. Conclusions This trial will be able to determine if SGLT2 inhibitor therapy produces potentially beneficial effects in patients with DM and HF, thereby replacing current medications as the drug of choice when treating patients with both DM and HF

A Highly Interactive System for Processing Large Volumes of Ultrasonic Testing Data

Automated ultrasonic testing (UT) of big structures poses particular problems related directly to economics and productivity. Generally, UT examinations on these large structures are performed with multiple channels to reduce scan time and collect data from various orientations. The amount of resulting data also is quite large. Traditional approaches have relied on up-front gating and signal thresholding to reduce the amount of data recorded. This has been a practical approach, as the capability of data processing and recording devices has also been limited. Even with the incorporation of computer technology, most systems performing UT of large structures still operate on this same data acquisition principle. General purpose computer configurations lack the performance to provide any substantial improvement in data analysis. Computer resources have been focused on number crunching, data summary, and data comparison using general criteria such as signal amplitude and sound path location. In practice, examiners use this type of system to identify areas of concern and then perform “re-looks” while observing the instrument A-scan display. Years of experience are then applied in interactive analysis of the A-scans for final resolution. For the particular area of concern, as much additional information as possible is collected (e.g., different angles and orientations) to provide information crucial to the final disposition. If the system collected the proper data and was capable of presenting these data in a meaningful format, this manual “re-look” procedure would not be necessary

Super selective percutaneous transhepatic coil embolization of intrahepatic pseudoaneurysm after pediatric liver transplantation: a case report

Background Intrahepatic arterial pseudoaneurysms are a rare, life-threatening complication after pediatric liver transplantation. Treatment of choice represents interventional radiological management with endovascular embolization of the segmental artery proximal and distal to the aneurysm. However, this technique results in loss of arterial perfusion distal to the aneurysm with subsegment arterial ischemia. Case presentation We report a case of a 1-year-old girl with a pseudoaneurysm in the split-liver graft. Direct percutaneous, transhepatic access to the pseudoaneurysm was performed followed by super selective coil application into the aneurysm. Conclusion Super selective percutaneous, transhepatic coil application is feasible even in pediatric patients after liver transplantation and results in preservation of the entire course of the liver artery

Effects of steady state free precession parameters on cardiac mass, function, and volumes

G0400444/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom Wellcome Trust/United Kingdo