Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia

About: Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia is a healthcare organization based out in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Heart failure & Vitamin D and neurology. The organization has 288 authors who have published 357 publications receiving 9276 citations.

Sleep-disordered Breathing in Heart Failure - Current State of the Art.

Abstract: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), either obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) or central sleep apnoea (CSA)/Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR) and often a combination of the two, is highly prevalent in patients with heart failure (HF), is associated with reduced functional capacity and quality of life, and has a negative prognostic impact. European HF guidelines identify that sleep apnoea is of concern in patients with HF. Continuous positive airway pressure is the treatment of choice for OSA, and adaptive servoventilation (ASV) appears to be the most consistently effective therapy for CSA/CSR while also being able to treat concomitant obstructive events. There is a growing body of evidence that treating SDB in patients with HF, particularly using ASV for CSA/CSR, improves functional outcomes such as HF symptoms, cardiac function, cardiac disease markers, exercise tolerance and quality of life. However, conflicting results have been reported on 'hard' outcomes such as mortality and healthcare utilisation, and the influence of effectively treating SDB, including CSA/CSR, remains to be determined in randomised clinical trials. Two such trials (SERVE-HF and ADVENT-HF) in chronic stable HF and another in post-acute decompensated HF (CAT-HF) are currently underway.

Fetal brain development in diabetic pregnancies and normal controls.

Abstract: Abstract Objective: To compare the fetal brain structures assessed in routine sonographic scans during the second and third trimesters in diabetic and normal pregnancies. Methods: In this retrospective study, we measured the head circumference (HC), the transversal diameter of the cerebellum (TCD) and the sizes of the cisterna magna (CM), the cavum septi pellucidi (CSP) and the lateral ventricles (LV) in stored sonographic scans between 20 and 41 weeks of gestation. We compared 231 fetuses of diabetic mothers (diabetic group) to 231 fetuses of normal pregnancies (control group) matched by gestational age. The diabetic group was divided into three subgroups: pre-existing maternal diabetes, diet-controlled gestational diabetes and insulin-dependent gestational diabetes. Results: The mean widths of the CSP and LV were larger in fetuses of diabetic mothers in comparison with the controls (P<0.001, P<0.001; respectively). The sizes of HC, CM and TCD were similar in both groups. These results were consistent across the three subgroups. Conclusions: Diabetes is associated with altered fetal brain development. We would like to introduce the increased widths of CSP and LV as potential markers for gestational diabetes.

A sensitive noninvasive method for monitoring successful liver-directed gene transfer of the low-density lipoprotein receptor in Watanabe hyperlipidemic rabbits in vivo

Abstract: Noninvasive tools to quantitate transgene expression directly are a prerequisite for clinical gene therapy. We established a method to determine location, magnitude, and duration of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (LDLR) transgene expression after adenoviral gene transfer into LDLR-deficient Watanabe hypercholesterolemic rabbits by following tissue uptake of intravenously injected (111)In-labeled LDL using a scintillation camera. Liver-specific tracer uptake was calculated by normalizing the counts measured over the liver to counts measured over the heart that represent the circulating blood pool of the tracer (liver/heart (L/H) ratio). Our results indicate that the optimal time point for transgene imaging is 4 h after the tracer injection. Compared with control virus-injected rabbits, animals treated with the LDLR-expressing adenovirus showed seven-fold higher L/H ratios on day 6 after gene transfer, and had still 4.5-fold higher L/H ratios on day 30. This imaging method might be a useful strategy to obtain reliable data on functional transgene expression in clinical gene therapy trials of familial hypercholesterolemia.

Rapid visualization of PTSMA target area by real time 3D myocardial contrast echocardiography.

Abstract: Figure 1. Documentation of the preinterventional systolic anterior movement (SAM) B and C of the mitral valve (MV). The SAM demonstrated close contact to the septum compared to the SAM 3 months after intervention D.; the SAM ended far away from the septum. Preinterventional LV-obstruction A. demonstrated a peak pressure gradient of LV-PPG = 149 mmHg during Valsalva maneuver E. Immediately after intervention (PTSMA) the LV-PPG was reduced close to zero F. Several days postinterventionally LV-PPG increases to 44 mmHg during Valsalva maneuver G. After 3 months H. a mild LV-PPG was left (22 mmHg during Valsalva maneuver).

Nowhere vanishing primitive of a symplectic form

Abstract: Let $M$ be a manifold with an exact symplectic form $\omega$. Then there is a nowhere vanishing primitive $\beta$ for $\omega$, i.e. $\omega=\mathrm{d}\beta$.