Publications

The aim of this study was to determine six months restenosis rate measured by off-line quantitative coronary angiography, and to assess the efficacy and safety of newly developed six cells Tsunami stent system for the treatment of symptomatic, de novo, native coronary artery lesions.Between January and August 2001, 100 patients with 120 lesions were included at four clinical sites in this prospective, non-randomized, single arm study. In 35% of the patients two or more stents were implanted, 15% of the lesions were stented with more than one stent and 46% of the lesions were in small vessels (<or= 2.75 mm). The Tsunami stent was available in 10, 15, 20 and 30 mm, length, and 3, 3.5 and 4 mm diameter. Angiographic success rate for stented lesions was 100% (residual diameter stenosis <or= 30%) and procedural success rate was 98%. Mean reference vessel diameter by QCA was 2.83 +/- 0.52, and post-procedural minimal lumen diameter was 2.59+/-0.4. Six months angiographic follow-up was available for 81% of the patients and revealed an in-stent restenosis rate of 13.8% for all lesions and 7.4% for single stented lesions. At 30 days 98% and at 6 months 88% of the patients remained free of major adverse cardiac events.Based on the clinical and angiographic results of the present study we can conclude that the Tsunami stent provides safe and effective percutaneous treatment of obstructive coronary artery disease.

Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a recently discovered class of noncoding genes that regulate the translation of target mRNA. More than 300 miRNAs have now been discovered in humans, although the function of most is still unknown. A highly sensitive, semiquantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction method was used to reveal the differential expression of several miRNAs during the development of both mouse and human lung. Of note was the up‐regulation in neonatal mouse and fetal human lung of a maternally imprinted miRNA cluster located at human chromosome 14q32.31 (mouse chromosome 12F2), which includes the miR‐154 and miR‐335 families and is situated within the Gtl2‐Dio3 domain. Conversely, several miRNAs were up‐regulated in adult compared with neonatal/fetal lung, including miR‐29a and miR‐29b. Differences in the spatial expression patterns of miR‐154, miR‐29a, and miR‐26a was demonstrated using in situ hybridization of mouse neonatal and adult tissue using miRNA‐specific locked nucleic acid (LNA) probes. Of interest, miR‐154 appeared to be localized to the stroma of fetal but not adult lungs. The overall expression profile was similar for mouse and human tissue, suggesting evolutionary conservation of miRNA expression during lung development and demonstrating the importance of maternally imprinted miRNAs in the developmental process. Developmental Dynamics 236:572–580, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), a method of directed energy deposition (DED) for metal 3D printing, is capable of producing intricate parts at a relatively high rate and low cost. Despite the great potential of WAAM for applications in construction, knowledge of the performance of WAAM structural elements is still lacking, and the geometric freedom is yet to be fully harnessed. This study is therefore aimed at investigating the local buckling behaviour of carbon steel WAAM elements and exploring the opportunity for improved structural efficiency through optimisation. An optimisation study was initially conducted to derive optimal stiffener layouts for square hollow sections (SHS) under compression. A total of six plain SHS with a broad range of width-to-thickness ratios, along with two SHS strengthened with optimised stiffeners, were manufactured via WAAM and tested. The six benchmark WAAM SHS profiles were examined to allow direct comparisons with conventionally-produced SHS. 3D laser-scanning was carried out to capture the geometric features of the WAAM specimens, and digital image correlation (DIC) was adopted for the full-field measurement of their structural responses during testing. The WAAM SHS stub columns were shown to have comparable load-carrying capacities to conventionally-produced SHS in the stocky range, but exhibited inferior local buckling behaviour in the slender range. Comparisons with the Eurocode 3 (EC3) resistance predictions showed that the existing Class 3 slenderness limit and effective width method specified in EC3 for plated structures may be overly optimistic for WAAM steel elements owing to their typically larger geometric imperfections. Finally, the SHS strengthened with optimised stiffeners were shown to exhibit significantly improved structural efficiency over both the WAAM and conventionally-manufactured plain SHS, bringing disproportionate increases in load-carrying and deformation capacity relative to the increases in mass.

No abstract is provided for this article.

Background This study examines differences in clinical outcome between trial-participants and non-participants after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods and results This study compromised of 11,931 consecutive patients who underwent PCI in a high volume center, during the period 2000 – 2009. Of these patients, 1787 (15%) participated in an interventional clinical trial with a follow-up period of at least six months. The maximum follow-up duration was 11.8years, with a median of 3.8years (IQR: 2.6 – 6.5). Baseline and procedural characteristics differed between trial-participants and non-participants. Trial-participants were more often male, were younger, had more cardiovascular risk factors and were treated more often for stable angina pectoris and single vessel disease. Overall mortality at maximum follow-up was lower for trial-participants compared to non-participants (8.1% versus 17.6%, p <0.001, adjusted HR, 0.62, 95% CI: 0.52–0.74). There was no difference in the incidence of non-fatal MI and CABG. Repeat PCI was seen more often in trial-participants (18.1% versus 30.7%, p <0.001, adjusted HR 1.91, 95%CI 1.73–2.10). Consequently, a higher incidence of the composite of mortality, repeat revascularization, and non-fatal MI was seen in the trail-participants (adjusted HR.1.36 95% CI 1.25 – 1.47), but this association was primarily driven by the occurrence of repeat PCI. Conclusion Participants in clinical trials in the field of interventional cardiology with a follow-up of at least six months differed considerably from non-participants in baseline and procedural characteristics. Trial-participants had better survival than non-participants. In contrast, a two-fold higher incidence of repeat PCI was observed in trial-participants.