Cardiovascular magnetic resonance in systemic hypertension

Systemic hypertension is a highly prevalent potentially modifiable cardiovascular risk factor. Imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis of underlying causes for hypertension, in assessing cardiovascular complications of hypertension, and in understanding the pathophysiology of the disease process. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) provides accurate and reproducible measures of ventricular volumes, mass, function and haemodynamics as well as uniquely allowing tissue characterization of diffuse and focal fibrosis. In addition, CMR is well suited for exclusion of common secondary causes for hypertension. We review the current and emerging clinical and research applications of CMR in hypertension

Adapting and Importing Astronomical Tables in Byzantium (14th-15th centuries)

Greek manuscripts of the late 14th century and the 15th century present various collections of astronomical tables. This brilliant period of the Byzantine astronomy is characterized by a renewed interest in the study and the practical application of Ptolemy’s works. Along with this scientific trend, the Byzantines import a lot of astronomical texts and tables with a foreign background. In addition to Ptolemy’s tables – the "Handy Tables" especially –, that have been widely copied and sometimes modified by Byzantine scholars, manuscripts offer numerous Greek adaptations of Persian, Latin and Jewish tables. In this extensive matter, my purpose is to focus on some rich topics: the "New Tables" of the Byzantine scholar Isaac Argyrus (who flourished in the last third of the 14th century), the Greek adaptation of Jewish astronomical treatises ("Hexapterygon" of Michael Chrysoccoces, about 1435) and the adaptation of Alphonsine tables ("Treatise on Latin Tables" of Demetrius Chrysoloras, 1380)