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Journal of Clinical Medicine May 2021Mesothelioma is an aggressive disease arising from parietal pleura. Surgery is a valuable option in the frame of a multimodality treatment. Several surgical approaches... (Review)
Review
Mesothelioma is an aggressive disease arising from parietal pleura. Surgery is a valuable option in the frame of a multimodality treatment. Several surgical approaches have been standardized with the aim of a macroscopic complete resection; these often require homolateral diaphragm and pericardial resection and reconstruction. Extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) and extended pleurectomy decortication (EPD) have been recognized as radical surgical procedures. Nevertheless, both operations are technically challenging and associated with a significant rate of peri-operative morbidity and non-negligible mortality. The diaphragmatic and pericardial reconstruction technique is mandatory to avoid respiratory impairment and to reduce post-operative complications like gastric and cardiac herniation. Moreover, in the case of localized chest wall recurrence, surgery might be considered a valuable therapeutical option for highly selected and fit patients. All the technical aspects of the resection and reconstruction of the diaphragm, pericardium, and chest wall are described as well as the possible use of new minimally invasive techniques. In addition, the choice of different prosthetic materials, considering the most recent innovations in the field, are discussed.
PubMed: 34073544
DOI: 10.3390/jcm10112330 -
International Journal of Cardiology Mar 2019Obesity is a heterogeneous disease with different degrees of cardiovascular (CV) and metabolic manifestations. Certain ectopic fat depots may contribute to... (Review)
Review
Obesity is a heterogeneous disease with different degrees of cardiovascular (CV) and metabolic manifestations. Certain ectopic fat depots may contribute to obesity-related CV risk and may explain part of the risk differential observed in metabolically healthy obese and the so called "obesity paradox". The growing interest towards the potential impact of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) in cardiovascular (CV) risk has led to deepen its biological function. Genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors may drive the shift towards a dysfunctional EAT characterized by a pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic phenotype. Due to the close anatomic proximity to coronary arteries, a thicker and dysfunctional EAT actively contribute to development and progression of coronary atherosclerosis. Beside classical paracrine transmission, EAT may directly release mediators into the vasa vasorum of the coronary arterial wall, a mechanism referred to as "vasocrine". Similarly, the pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic secretome characterizing dysfunctional EAT may impair cardiac structure and function, thus being implicated in the pathogenesis of diastolic heart failure and atrial fibrillation. The development of 3D imaging techniques have paved the way for clarifying the causative role of EAT in CV pathophysiology, the use of EAT volume/thickness in CV risk stratification and potential cardio-protective effects of EAT reduction. The aim of this narrative review is to update current knowledge on the pathophysiological functions of EAT, focusing on basic mechanisms and potential clinical implications.
Topics: Adipose Tissue; Animals; Cardiovascular Diseases; Coronary Artery Disease; Humans; Inflammation Mediators; Obesity; Pericardium
PubMed: 30297191
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2018.09.089 -
MEDICC Review Oct 2022Polyserositis is described as inflammation with effusion of more than one serous membrane. There is very little published literature linking it to COVID-19 as a late...
INTRODUCTION
Polyserositis is described as inflammation with effusion of more than one serous membrane. There is very little published literature linking it to COVID-19 as a late complication.
OBJECTIVE
Present and describe a case of post-COVID-19 polyserositis.
METHODS
Data were collected from the medical record of a female patient admitted for fainting spells and marked weakness. The patient underwent a clinical evaluation, additional hematology, imaging and histopathology tests, and a surgical procedure. The new index, called the abdominal adipose deposit index, was obtained by multiplying the subcutaneous fat thickness by visceral fat thickness, both measured by ultrasound. A cutoff point was established that facilitated discernment of an unhealthy phenotype: normal weight but metabolically obese, a cardiometabolic risk factor.
RESULTS
We present the case of a 57-year-old female patient admitted to hospital for fainting spells and marked weakness, four months after COVID-19 infection. She also had a history of obesity, asthma, type 2 diabetes mellitus and a cholecystectomy in December 1992 for gallstones. Clinical assessment revealed pericardial effusion and bilateral pleural effusion, in addition to a tumor-like lesion outside the pericardium, proximal to the right ventricular wall. A surgical procedure and findings from additional tests led to diagnoses of thymic remnants and polyserositis.
CONCLUSIONS
This is a case of polyserositis in a post-COVID-19 patient. After other causes of polyserositis were ruled out, and since there is a likely physiological and pathogenic mechanism operating between the two diseases, the polyserositis was determined to be a late complication of COVID-19. To date, it is the second case reported in the world and the first reported in Cuba.
Topics: Female; Humans; COVID-19; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Cuba; Inflammation; Obesity; Chronic Disease; Syncope
PubMed: 36417336
DOI: 10.37757/mr2022.v24.n3-4.9 -
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology... Nov 2021Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients with Cushing syndrome. Cortisol excess and adverse metabolic profile could increase cardiac fat, which...
CONTEXT
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients with Cushing syndrome. Cortisol excess and adverse metabolic profile could increase cardiac fat, which can subsequently impair cardiac structure and function.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to evaluate cardiac fat mass and distribution in patients with Cushing syndrome.
METHODS
In this prospective, cross-sectional study, 23 patients with Cushing syndrome and 27 control individuals of comparable age, sex, and body mass index were investigated by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and proton spectroscopy. Patients were explored before and after biochemical disease remission. Myocardial fat measured by the Dixon method was the main outcome measure. The intramyocardial triglyceride/water ratio measured by spectroscopy and epicardial and pericardial fat volumes were secondary outcome measures.
RESULTS
No difference was found between patients and controls in intramyocardial lipid content. Epicardial fat mass was increased in patients compared to controls (30.8 g/m2 [20.4-34.8] vs 17.2 g/m2 [13.1-23.5], P < .001). Similarly, pericardial fat mass was increased in patients compared to controls (28.3 g/m2 [17.9-38.0] vs 11.4 g/m2 [7.5-19.4], P = .003). Sex, glycated hemoglobin A1c, and the presence of hypercortisolism were independent determinants of epicardial fat. Pericardial fat was associated with sex, impaired glucose homeostasis and left ventricular wall thickness. Disease remission decreased epicardial fat mass without affecting pericardial fat.
CONCLUSION
Intramyocardial fat stores are not increased in patients with Cushing syndrome, despite highly prevalent metabolic syndrome, suggesting increased cortisol-mediated lipid consumption. Cushing syndrome is associated with marked accumulation of epicardial and pericardial fat. Epicardial adiposity may exert paracrine proinflammatory effects promoting cardiomyopathy.
Topics: Adiposity; Adult; Biomarkers; Blood Glucose; Body Mass Index; Cardiomyopathies; Case-Control Studies; Cross-Sectional Studies; Cushing Syndrome; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Glycated Hemoglobin; Humans; Intra-Abdominal Fat; Male; Middle Aged; Myocardium; Pericardium; Prognosis; Prospective Studies
PubMed: 34333603
DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgab556 -
BMJ Case Reports Mar 2024A woman in her 30s with a medical history of metastatic rectal adenocarcinoma, currently on pembrolizumab, which started a few weeks ago, was admitted for abdominal...
A woman in her 30s with a medical history of metastatic rectal adenocarcinoma, currently on pembrolizumab, which started a few weeks ago, was admitted for abdominal pain. During the hospital stay, she experienced sharp chest pain. Troponin was 1885 ng/mL which peaked at 7338 ng/mL. ECG was unremarkable. The echocardiogram showed an Ejection fraction (EF) of 55%-60% and basal-inferior wall hypokinesis. Left heart catheterisation showed no coronary abnormalities. Cardiac MRI showed a non-coronary area of focal T1 and T2 hyperintense signal and transmural delayed gadolinium enhancement in the mid-basal inferior/inferoseptal wall consistent with myocardial damage. Pericardium showed increased thickness and adhesions at the right ventricular outflow tract consistent with pericarditis. Steroid therapy was initiated, and a marked clinical response was achieved. Immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced myocarditis and pericarditis is a rare complication associated with a high mortality rate, if untreated. Diagnosis requires a multidisciplinary approach, and early detection is critical to preventing a fatal outcome.
Topics: Female; Humans; Myocarditis; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; Contrast Media; Gadolinium; Pericarditis
PubMed: 38514163
DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2023-259497 -
Journal of the American College of... Oct 2022Studies with short-term follow-up have demonstrated favorable effects of weight loss (WL) on the heart, but little information is available regarding long-term effects... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
BACKGROUND
Studies with short-term follow-up have demonstrated favorable effects of weight loss (WL) on the heart, but little information is available regarding long-term effects or effects of visceral fat reduction.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of long-term WL following bariatric surgery on cardiac structure, function, ventricular interaction, and body composition, including epicardial adipose thickness and abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT).
METHODS
A total of 213 obese patients underwent echocardiography before and >180 days following bariatric surgery. Abdominal VAT area was measured by computed tomography in 52 of these patients.
RESULTS
After 5.3 years (IQR: 2.9-7.9 years), body mass index (BMI) decreased by 22%, with favorable reductions in blood pressure, fasting glucose, and left ventricular (LV) remodeling in the full sample. In the subgroup of patients with abdominal computed tomography, VAT area decreased by 30%. In all subjects, epicardial adipose thickness was reduced by 14% (both P < 0.0001) in tandem with reductions in ventricular interdependence. LV and right ventricular longitudinal strain improved following WL, but left atrial (LA) strain deteriorated, while LA volume and estimated LA pressures increased. In subgroup analysis, LV wall thickness and strain correlated more strongly with VAT than BMI at baseline, and reductions in LV mass following surgery were correlated with decreases in VAT, but not BMI.
CONCLUSIONS
In this observational study, weight loss following bariatric surgery was associated with epicardial fat reduction, reduced ventricular interaction, LV reverse remodeling, and improved longitudinal biventricular mechanics, but LA myopathy and hemodynamic congestion still progressed. Reduction in visceral fat was associated with favorable cardiac effects, suggesting this might be a key target of WL interventions.
Topics: Bariatric Surgery; Glucose; Heart Ventricles; Humans; Pericardium; Ventricular Function, Left; Ventricular Remodeling; Weight Loss
PubMed: 36229085
DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2022.08.738 -
Medical Physics Aug 2021Epicardial fat is the adipose tissue between the serosal pericardial wall layer and the visceral layer. It is distributed mainly around the atrioventricular groove,...
PURPOSE
Epicardial fat is the adipose tissue between the serosal pericardial wall layer and the visceral layer. It is distributed mainly around the atrioventricular groove, atrial septum, ventricular septum and coronary arteries. Studies have shown that the density, thickness, volume and other characteristics of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) are independently correlated with a variety of cardiovascular diseases. Given this association, the accurate determination of EAT volume is an essential aim of future research. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish a framework for fully automatic EAT segmentation and quantification in coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) scans.
METHODS
A set of 103 scans are randomly selected from our medical center. An automatic pipeline has been developed to segment and quantify the volume of EAT. First, a multi-slice deep neural network is used to simultaneously segment the pericardium in multiple adjacent slices. Then a deformable model is employed to reduce false positive and negative regions in the segmented binary pericardial images. Finally, the pericardium mask is used to define the region of interest (ROI) and the threshold method is utilized to extract the pixels ranging from -175 Hounsfield units (HU) to -15 HU for the segmentation of EAT.
RESULTS
The Dice indices of the pericardial segmentation using the proposed method with respect to the manual delineation results of two radiology experts were 97.1% 0.7% and 96.9% 0.6%, respectively. The inter-observer variability was also assessed, resulting in a Dice index of 97.0% 0.7%. For the EAT segmentation results, the Dice indices between the proposed method and the two radiology experts were 93.4% 1.5% and 93.3% 1.3%, respectively, and the same measurement between the experts themselves was 93.6% 1.9%. The Pearson's correlation coefficients between the EAT volumes computed from the results of the proposed method and the manual delineation by the two experts were 1.00 and 0.99 and the same coefficients between the experts was 0.99.
CONCLUSIONS
This work describes the development of a fully automatic EAT segmentation and quantification method from CCTA scans and the results compare favorably with the assessments of two independent experts. The proposed method is also packaged with a graphical user interface which can be found at https://github.com/MountainAndMorning/EATSeg.
Topics: Adipose Tissue; Computed Tomography Angiography; Coronary Artery Disease; Humans; Observer Variation; Pericardium; Tomography, X-Ray Computed
PubMed: 34062000
DOI: 10.1002/mp.15012 -
Advances in Anatomic Pathology Jul 2023Malignant mesothelioma is a rare tumor arising from the mesothelial cells that line the pleura, pericardium, peritoneum, and tunica vaginalis. Imaging plays a primary...
Malignant mesothelioma is a rare tumor arising from the mesothelial cells that line the pleura, pericardium, peritoneum, and tunica vaginalis. Imaging plays a primary role in the diagnosis, staging, and management of malignant mesothelioma. Multimodality imaging, including radiography, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT), is used in a variety of scenarios, including diagnosis, guidance for tissue sampling, staging, and reassessment of disease after therapy. CT is the primary imaging modality used in staging. MRI has superior contrast resolution compared with CT and can add value in terms of determining surgical resectability in equivocal cases. MRI can further assess the degree of local invasion, particularly into the mediastinum, chest wall, and diaphragm, for malignant pleural and pericardial mesotheliomas. FDG PET/CT plays a role in the diagnosis and staging of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) and has been shown to be more accurate than CT, MRI, and PET alone in the staging of malignant pleural mesothelioma. PET/CT can also be used to target lesions for biopsy and to assess prognosis, treatment response, and tumor recurrence.
Topics: Humans; Mesothelioma, Malignant; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; Pleura; Pleural Neoplasms; Neoplasm Staging; Mesothelioma; Pericardium
PubMed: 36395181
DOI: 10.1097/PAP.0000000000000386 -
The British Journal of Radiology Sep 2020Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is a metabolically activated beige adipose tissue, non-homogeneously surrounding the myocardium. Physiologically, EAT regulates toxic... (Review)
Review
Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is a metabolically activated beige adipose tissue, non-homogeneously surrounding the myocardium. Physiologically, EAT regulates toxic fatty acids, protects the coronary arteries against mechanical strain, regulates proinflammatory cytokines, stimulates the production of nitric oxide, reduces oxidative stress, and works as a thermogenic source against hypothermia. Conversely, EAT has pathologic paracrine interactions with the surrounded vessels, and might favour the onset of atrial fibrillation. In addition, initial atherosclerotic lesions can promote inflammation and trigger the EAT production of cytokines increasing vascular inflammation, which, in turn, may help the development of collateral vessels but also of self-stimulating, dysregulated inflammatory process, increasing coronary artery disease severity. Variations in EAT were also linked to metabolic syndrome. Echocardiography first estimated EAT measuring its thickness on the free wall of the right ventricle but does not allow accurate volumetric EAT estimates. Cardiac CT (CCT) and cardiac MR (CMR) allow for three-dimensional EAT estimates, the former showing higher spatial resolution and reproducibility but being limited by radiation exposure and long segmentation times, the latter being radiation-free but limited by lower spatial resolution and reproducibility, higher cost, and difficulties for obese patients. EAT radiodensity at CCT could to be related to underlying metabolic processes. The correlation between EAT and response to certain pharmacological therapies has also been investigated, showing promising results. In the future, semi-automatic or fully automatic techniques, machine/deep-learning methods, if validated, will facilitate research for various EAT measures and may find a place in CCT/CMR reporting.
Topics: Adipose Tissue, Beige; Biomarkers; Coronary Artery Disease; Coronary Vessels; Cytokines; Echocardiography; Heart; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Myocardium; Pericardium; Reproducibility of Results; Tomography, X-Ray Computed
PubMed: 31782934
DOI: 10.1259/bjr.20190770 -
The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon Dec 2023Chest wall and/or diaphragm reconstruction aims to preserve, restore, or improve respiratory function; conserve anatomical cavities; and upkeep postural and upper...
INTRODUCTION
Chest wall and/or diaphragm reconstruction aims to preserve, restore, or improve respiratory function; conserve anatomical cavities; and upkeep postural and upper extremity support. This can be achieved by utilizing a wide range of different grafts made of synthetic, biological, autologous, or bioartificial materials. We aim to review our experience with decellularized bovine pericardium as graft in the past decade.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients who underwent surgical chest wall and/or diaphragm repair with decellularized bovine pericardium between January 1, 2012 and January 13, 2022 at our institution. All records were screened for patient characteristics, intra-/postoperative complications, chest tube and analgesic therapy duration, length of hospital stay, presence or absence of redo procedures, as well as morbidity and 30-day mortality. We then looked for correlations between implanted graft size and postoperative complications and gathered further follow-up information at least 2 months after surgery.
RESULTS
A total of 71 patients either underwent isolated chest wall ( = 51), diaphragm ( = 12), or pericardial ( = 4) resection and reconstruction or a combination thereof. No mortality was recorded within the first 30 days. Major morbidity occurred in 12 patients, comprising secondary respiratory failure requiring bronchoscopy and invasive ventilation in 8 patients and secondary infections and delayed wound healing requiring patch removal in 4 patients. There was no correlation between the extensiveness of the procedure and extubation timing (chi-squared test, = 0.44) or onset of respiratory failure ( = 0.27).
CONCLUSION
A previously demonstrated general viability of biological materials for various reconstructive procedures appears to be supported by our long-term results.
PubMed: 37914155
DOI: 10.1055/a-2202-4154