Cardiovascular Institute of the South

Epigenome-Wide Association Study of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Identifies Central Role for Inflammatory Pathways

BACKGROUND: Epigenetic mechanisms underlying susceptibility to abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) remain poorly understood. Identifying causal DNA methylation markers for AAA can elucidate the regulatory processes that drive aneurysm formation and accelerate translational applicatio...

Ultrahigh flow strength in shocked nanopolycrystalline diamond

Extreme pressures and temperatures create conditions that allow even hard and brittle materials to flow plastically. Despite extensive research, the limits of flow strength under such conditions remain uncertain, and the mechanisms driving deformation at the relevant stresses are...

Magnitude of Serum β-Hydroxybutyrate Elevations and Myocardial Glucose Suppression in 18F-FDG PET-CT for Cardiac Sarcoidosis

Abstract This retrospective cohort study evaluated the relationship between serum β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) levels and myocardial glucose suppression in 74 patients undergoing 18F-FDG PET/CT for suspected cardiac sarcoidosis. The average BHB concentration prior to FDG administratio...

Modeling the Exposome in Murine Cardiovascular Disease

Our exposome, encompassing our environmental and lifestyle exposures across the life span, is a critical determinant of cardiovascular health. Clinical and epidemiological data demonstrate that sleep, stress, exercise, smoking, viral respiratory infections, and environmental poll...

Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure Hospital Participation and Its Association With Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy and Outcomes

Abstract Purpose Despite strong evidence, real-world adoption of guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) remains suboptimal. The Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure (GWTG-HF) program was designed to close gaps in care....

Enhanced Osteoinduction, Rheological and Mechanical Performance of 3D-Printed Methylcellulose-Gelatin-Hydroxyapatite Scaffolds

Complex patient-specific bone defects remain difficult to reconstruct because the regenerative capacity of bone is limited and prefabricated implants cannot readily match defect geometry. In this work, methylcellulose-gelatin-hydroxyapatite (MC/GEL/HA) inks were formulated with v...

The Molecular Footprint of Thrombosis: What Does Myocardial Platelet Imaging After STEMI Tell Us?

Heerajnarain Bulluck, MBBS PhD, Derek J Hausenloy, MBChB PhD; The Molecular Footprint of Thrombosis: What Does Myocardial Platelet Imaging After STEMI Tell

Effect of Aficamten on Cardiac Structure and Function in Patients with Symptomatic Nonobstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND: Aficamten significantly improved both functional capacity and patient-reported health status in patients with symptomatic nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the phase 3 randomized, placebo-controlled ACACIA-HCM trial (Assessment Comparing Aficamten to Place...

Functional Stability Measured by Changes in the 6-min Walk Test in Patients Treated with Tafamidis Versus Placebo: Post hoc Analysis from ATTR-ACT

Tafamidis, a transthyretin stabilizer for the treatment of transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), significantly reduced the decline in 6-min walk test (6MWT) distance, a marker of functional stability, compared with placebo in the pivotal study ATTR-ACT. In this post hoc...

SGLT2 inhibitors activate pantothenate kinase in the human heart

Abstract Inhibitors of sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2i) demonstrate strong symptomatic and mortality benefits in the treatment of heart failure but appear to do so independently of SGLT2. The relevant pharmacologic target of SGLT2i remains unclear. We show here that SGLT2i...

Multi-resolution enhancement for full-spectrum neural representations

Scientific data acquisition continues to outpace storage and analysis capabilities, making voxel-based representations increasingly intractable. Implicit neural representations (INRs) offer a promising solution by encoding signals through coordinate-based neural networks, serving...

Adaptive model-guided protein evolution with sparse data optimizes compact eukaryotic genome editors

Efficient protein engineering is constrained by vast sequence space and limited experimental throughput, particularly for protein families that lack large mutational datasets. Here we combine Fanzor2 (Fz2) ortholog discovery, ωRNA scaffold engineering and EvoMax, a model-guided p...

The gut microbiome and allograft outcomes: implications for heart transplantation

Heart transplantation remains the gold standard therapy for patients with end-stage heart failure. However, post-transplant complications are considerable. Emerging evidence implicates the gut microbiome as a modifiable determinant of post-heart transplant outcomes through its in...

COPI Coatomer Regulates Several Steps of HDL Metabolism

Abstract Background Reverse cholesterol transport by high density lipoproteins (HDL) is considered as an anti-atherogenic metabolic pathway. Hepatocytes determine the efficacy of this pathway by the production of apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and its lipidation by ATP binding casse...

Self‐Growing Conductive Hydrogels Establish Volumetric Biointerfaces for Cardiac Conduction Restoration

ABSTRACT Restoring three‐dimensional electrical conduction in infarcted myocardium remains a critical challenge, as conventional conductive hydrogel patches largely remain surface‐confined and prevent electrical coupling of residual cardiomyocytes within fibrotic scars. Here, we...

Genetic Predisposition and Pharmacological Effects Shape the Divergent Effects of Type 2 Diabetes on Atherosclerosis

Abstract Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) increases the risk of atherosclerotic diseases, including coronary artery disease (CAD), but decreases that for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), forming an intriguing diabetes-atherosclerosis paradox. We investigate how genetic underpinning...