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Br J Cardiol 2021 2;28(2):27. Epub 2021 Jun 2.

Consultant Cardiologist Musgrove Park Hospital, Parkfield Drive, Taunton, TA1 5DA.

Cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED)-related complications and infections typically lead to prolonged hospital stays and, very occasionally, death. A new CIED insertion protocol was implemented in a district general hospital. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether a significant reduction in complication and infection rates occurred after implementation of the new protocol. Read More

Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ) 2022 Jan 25;20(1):55-63. Epub 2022 Jan 25.

Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School, Boston.

In deep brain stimulation (DBS), a neurostimulation device is implanted to generate electrical fields in targeted deep brain regions in order to affect circuits associated with neuropsychiatric illness for potential therapeutic benefit. The development of DBS has followed a decades-long history of psychiatric neurosurgery, with advances in pacemakers and spinal neurostimulation devices allowing for the use of DBS in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. Currently, deep brain stimulation for psychiatric illness has been approved by the U. Read More

Medicina (Kaunas) 2022 Jun 2;58(6). Epub 2022 Jun 2.

Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Ave JJN3-01, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA.

: Patients with pre-existing cardiac disease have a higher prevalence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA has been associated with an increased risk of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmia. We screened subjects with implanted pacemakers and automated implantable cardioverter defibrillators (AICD) for OSA with the Berlin Questionnaire and compared the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias and automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) firing between high and low OSA risk groups. Read More

J Clin Med 2022 Jun 14;11(12). Epub 2022 Jun 14.

Department of Cardiac Thoracic Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padova, 35121 Padova, Italy.

(1) Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the prolonged use of continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) on heart transplant (HTx) candidates. (2) Methods: Between January 2012 and December 2019, we included all consecutive patients diagnosed with end-stage heart failure considered for HTx at our institution, who were also eligible for LVAD therapy as a bridge to transplant (BTT). Patients were divided into two groups: those who received an LVAD as BTT (LVAD group) and those who were listed without durable support (No-LVAD group). Read More

Biosensors (Basel) 2022 Jun 15;12(6). Epub 2022 Jun 15.

Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla (IMSE-CSIC), Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Sevilla, Spain.

Coronary artery disease is one of the most common diseases in developed countries and affects a large part of the population of developing countries. Preventing restenosis in patients with implanted stents is an important current medical problem. The purpose of this work is to analyse the viability of bioimpedance sensing to detect the formation of atheromatous plaque in an implantable stent. Read More

Bioengineered 2022 Jun;13(6):14270-14281

Department of Orthopaedics, People's Liberation Army Joint Logistic Support Force 920th Hospital, Kunming, Yunnan, China.

The current research on seed cells and scaffold materials of bone tissue engineering has achieved milestones. Nevertheless, necrosis of seed cells in center of bone scaffold is a bottleneck in tissue engineering. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the inosculation mechanism of recipient microvasculature and prevascularized outgrowth endothelial progenitor cells (OECs)-demineralized bone matrix (DBM) complex. Read More

Small 2022 Jun 22:e2202596. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China.

Islet transplantation is a promising strategy for type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) treatment, whereas implanted-associated foreign body reaction (FBR) usually induces the necrosis of transplanted islets and leads to the failure of glycemic control. Benefiting from the excellent anti-biofouling property of zwitterionic materials and their successful application in macroscopic implanted devices, microcapsules with zwitterionic coatings may be promising candidates for islet encapsulation. Herein, a series of zwitterion-coated core-shell microcapsules is fabricated (including carboxybetaine methacrylate [CBMA]-coated gelatin methacrylate [GelMA] [CBMA-GelMA], sulfobetaine methacrylate [SBMA]-coated GelMA [SBMA-GelMA], and phosphorylcholine methacrylate [MPC]-coated GelMA [MPC-GelMA]) by one-step photopolymerization of inner GelMA and outer zwitterionic monomers via a handmade two-fluid microfluidic device and it is demonstrated that they can effectively prevent protein adsorption, cell adhesion, and inflammation in vitro. Read More

N Z Med J 2021 12 17;134(1547):16-25. Epub 2021 Dec 17.

Department of Cardiology, Middlemore Hospital, Otahuhu, Auckland, New Zealand; Section of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand; Department of Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Aims: Ethnic variation in implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implant rates have been reported internationally but have not previously been examined in New Zealand. This study examined trends in new ICD implants by ethnicity over an extended period.

Methods: All patients who received a new ICD implant between 2005 and 2019 were identified using the National Minimum Dataset, which collects information on all public hospital admissions in New Zealand. Read More

J Biomed Opt 2022 Jun;27(6)

University of Birmingham, School of Computer Science, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences,, United Kingdom.

Significance: Bioluminescence imaging and tomography (BLT) are used to study biologically relevant activity, typically within a mouse model. A major limitation is that the underlying optical properties of the volume are unknown, leading to the use of a "best" estimate approach often compromising quantitative accuracy.

Aim: An optimization algorithm is presented that localizes the spatial distribution of bioluminescence by simultaneously recovering the optical properties and location of bioluminescence source from the same set of surface measurements. Read More

Nat Commun 2022 Jun 20;13(1):3521. Epub 2022 Jun 20.

Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA.

Modern clinical practice benefits significantly from imaging technologies and much effort is directed toward making this imaging more informative through the addition of contrast agents or reporters. Here, we report the design of a battery-less integrated circuit mote acting as an electronic reporter during medical ultrasound imaging. When implanted within the field-of-view of a brightness-mode (B-mode) ultrasound imager, this mote transmits information from its location through backscattered acoustic energy which is captured within the ultrasound image itself. Read More

J Orthop Surg Res 2022 Jun 20;17(1):320. Epub 2022 Jun 20.

Nervous System Stem Cells Research Center, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran.

In this paper, the in-vivo healing of critical-sized bony defects by cell-free and stem cell-seeded 3D-printed PLA scaffolds was studied in rat calvaria bone. The scaffolds were implanted in the provided defect sites and histological analysis was conducted after 8 and 12 weeks. The results showed that both cell-free and stem cell-seeded scaffolds exhibited superb healing compared with the empty defect controls, and new bone and connective tissues were formed in the healing site after 8 and 12 weeks, postoperatively. Read More

Neurocirugia (Astur : Engl Ed) 2022 Jul-Aug;33(4):182-189. Epub 2021 Apr 28.

Escuela de Medicina, Universidad de Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) consists of the electrical stimulation of the subcortical structures by implanting electrodes connected to a pulse generator. The thalamus, being a structure that has multiple connections with various parts of the central nervous system, is a suitable target for DBS. The anterior thalamic nucleus (ANT) serves as an important relay site for the limbic system by receiving input from the hippocampus and mammillary bodies, and sending input to the cingulate gyrus; thus forming the Papez circuit. Read More

Acta Biomater 2022 Jun 17. Epub 2022 Jun 17.

Laboratory of Nano- and Translational Medicine, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Carolina Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, Carolina Institute of Nanomedicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA. Electronic address:

Brachytherapy, which is the placement of radioactive seeds directly into tissue such as the prostate, is an important curative treatment for prostate cancer. By delivering a high dose of radiation from within the prostate gland, brachytherapy is an effective method of killing prostate cancer cells while limiting radiation dose to normal tissue. The main shortcomings of this treatment are: less effecacy against high grade tumor cells, acute urinary retention, and sub-acute urinary frequency and urgency. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 Jun 17;12(1):10218. Epub 2022 Jun 17.

Center for Bionics and Pain Research, Mölndal, Sweden.

Robotic prostheses controlled by myoelectric signals can restore limited but important hand function in individuals with upper limb amputation. The lack of individual finger control highlights the yet insurmountable gap to fully replacing a biological hand. Implanted electrodes around severed nerves have been used to elicit sensations perceived as arising from the missing limb, but using such extra-neural electrodes to record motor signals that allow for the decoding of phantom movements has remained elusive. Read More

Am J Case Rep 2022 Jun 14;23:e935710. Epub 2022 Jun 14.

Department of Invasive Cardiology, Medical University of Białystok, Białystok, Poland.

BACKGROUND Ventricular electrical storm (VES) is a treatment-resistant ventricular arrhythmia associated with high mortality. This report is of a 39-year-old woman with VES treated with emergency cardiac defibrillation followed by multidisciplinary management. CASE REPORT A 39-year-old woman, previously diagnosed with eosinophilia of unknown origin and recurrent non-sustained ventricular tachycardias, was admitted to the Department of Invasive Cardiology with VES after an initial antiarrhythmic approach, analgesia, and defibrillation in the Emergency Department. Read More

J Cardiothorac Surg 2022 Jun 13;17(1):152. Epub 2022 Jun 13.

University of Basel, 4051, Basel, Switzerland.

Background: In isolated mitral valve regurgitation general consensus on surgery is to favor repair over replacement excluding rheumatic etiology or endocarditis. If concomitant aortic valve replacement is performed however, clinical evidence is more ambiguous and no explicit guidelines exist on the choice of mitral valve treatment. Both, double valve replacement (DVR) and aortic valve replacement in combination with concomitant mitral valve repair (AVR + MVP) have been proven to be feasible procedures. Read More

J Card Fail 2022 Jun 8. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut; Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Department of Health Policy and Management, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut. Electronic address:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, inpatient services for acute cardiac conditions including heart failure markedly declined, while telemedicine services increased. Little information is available on the extent to which cardiac status changed among patients with heart failure in this period. Using remote monitoring data of 4,555 patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-D) living in New York City and Minneapolis/Saint Paul, we assessed changes in markers of cardiac status among these patients in 2019 and 2020. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 Jun 10;12(1):9601. Epub 2022 Jun 10.

Department of Physiology, Pathophysiology and Clinical Immunology, Collegium Medicum of Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland.

Adults with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) implanted at an early age constitute a specific group of patients undergoing transvenous lead extraction (TLE). The aim of this study is to assess safety and effectiveness of TLE in young adults. A comparative analysis of two groups of patients undergoing transvenous lead extraction was performed: 126 adults who were 19-29 years old at their first CIED implantation (early adulthood) and 2659 adults who were > 40 years of age at first CIED implantation and < 80 years of age at the time of TLE (middle-age/older adulthood). Read More

J Neural Eng 2022 Jun 23;19(3). Epub 2022 Jun 23.

Department of Physiology and Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia.

Intracortical visual prostheses are being developed to restore sight in people who are blind. The resolution of artificial vision is dictated by the location, proximity and number of electrodes implanted in the brain. However, increasing electrode count and proximity is traded off against tissue damage. Read More

BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2022 Jun 9;23(1):557. Epub 2022 Jun 9.

Department of Orthopaedics, Second affiliated hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, 710038, Shaanxi, China.

Background: The choice of bone substitutes for the treatment of infected bone defects (IBDs) has attracted the attention of surgeons for years. However, single-stage bioabsorbable materials that are used as carriers for antibiotic release, as well as scaffolds for BMSC sheets, need further exploration. Our study was designed to investigate the effect of vancomycin-loaded calcium sulfate hemihydrate/nanohydroxyapatite/carboxymethyl chitosan (CSH/n-HA/CMCS) hydrogels combined with BMSC sheets as bone substitutes for the treatment of IBDs. Read More

Zhongguo Yi Liao Qi Xie Za Zhi 2022 May;46(3):332-335

Shenzhen Institute for Drug Control (Shenzhen Testing Center of Medical Devices), Shenzhen, 518057.

Lung volume reduction loop uses bronchoscopic lung volume reduction(BLVR) technology to compress and collapse the necrotic emphysema tissue and exhaust the internal gas to achieve the purpose of lung volume reduction to treat emphysema. After the lung volume reduction loop is implanted into the human body, the compressed part of the lung tissue tends to expand with breathing, which makes the lung volume reduction loop expand into a linear trend periodically. Fatigue resistance is one of the most important performance indexes of the lung volume reduction loop. Read More

Spine J 2022 Jun 5. Epub 2022 Jun 5.

Division of Materials and Manufacturing Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1, Yamada-Oka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan; Anisotropic Design and Additive Manufacturing Research Center, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamada-Oka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan. Electronic address:

Background Context: Therapeutic devices for spinal disorders, such as spinal fusion cages, must be able to facilitate the maintenance and rapid recovery of spinal function. Therefore, it would be advantageous that future spinal fusion cages facilitate rapid recovery of spinal function without secondary surgery to harvest autologous bone.

Purpose: This study investigated a novel spinal cage configuration that achieves in vivo mechanical integrity as a devise/bone complex by inducing bone that mimicked the sound trabecular bone, hierarchically and anisotropically structured trabeculae strengthened with a preferentially oriented extracellular matrix. Read More

Theranostics 2022 13;12(9):4051-4066. Epub 2022 May 13.

Department of Biomechatronic Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), 16419, Suwon, Republic of Korea.

Bioengineering scaffolds have been improved to achieve efficient regeneration of various damaged tissues. In this study, we attempted to fabricate mechanically and biologically activated 3D printed scaffold in which porous gelatin/hydroxyapatite (G/H) as a matrix material provided outstanding mechanical properties with recoverable behavior, and human placental extracts (hPE) embedded in the scaffold were used as bioactive components. Various cell types (human adipose-derived stem cells; hASCs, pre-osteoblast; MC3T3-E1, human endothelial cell line; EA. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 Jun 7;12(1):9376. Epub 2022 Jun 7.

Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, KU Leuven, O&N2, Herestraat 49, box 721, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.

Individuals with single-sided deafness (SSD) have no access to binaural hearing, which limits their ability to localize sounds and understand speech in noisy environments. In addition, children with prelingual SSD are at risk for neurocognitive and academic difficulties. Early cochlear implantation may lead to improved hearing outcomes by restoring bilateral hearing. Read More

Neurologia (Engl Ed) 2022 Jun 25;37(5):334-345. Epub 2021 May 25.

Programa de Epilepsia, Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Ruber Internacional, Madrid, Spain.

Objective: Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) is a technique for preoperative evaluation of patients with difficult-to-localise refractory focal epilepsy (DLRFE), enabling the study of deep cortical structures. The procedure, which is increasingly used in international epilepsy centres, has not been fully developed in Spain. We describe our experience with SEEG in the preoperative evaluation of DLRFE. Read More

Acta Biomater 2022 Jun 6. Epub 2022 Jun 6.

Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Magee-Womens Research Institute, 204 Craft Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States; Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery, Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.

Polypropylene meshes used in pelvic organ prolapse (POP) repair are hampered by complications. Most POP meshes are highly unstable after tensioning ex vivo, as evidenced by marked deformations (pore collapse and wrinkling) that result in altered structural properties and material burden. By intentionally introducing collapsed pores and wrinkles into a mesh that normally has open pores and remains relatively flat after implantation, we reproduce mesh complications in vivo. Read More

J Vis Exp 2022 05 19(183). Epub 2022 May 19.

Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology;

Engineering implantable, functional, thick tissues requires designing a hierarchical vascular network. 3D bioprinting is a technology used to create tissues by adding layer upon layer of printable biomaterials, termed bioinks, and cells in an orderly and automatic manner, which allows for creating highly intricate structures that traditional tissue engineering techniques cannot achieve. Thus, 3D bioprinting is an appealing in vitro approach to mimic the native vasculature complex structure, ranging from millimetric vessels to microvascular networks. Read More

J Arthroplasty 2022 Jul 18;37(7S):S556-S559. Epub 2022 Feb 18.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Institute for Orthopaedics and Neurosciences, Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, VA.

Introduction: There is growing evidence that cemented femoral stems have lower complication rates in the elderly due to lower rates of periprosthetic fracture. The main objective of this study was to analyze the survival rate of a hybrid total hip arthroplasty (THA) construct utilizing a taper-slip femoral stem implanted through the anterior approach (AA). Secondary outcome measures were the complication rate, the rate of aseptic loosening, coronal plane alignment of the stem, and the grade of the cement mantle. Read More

J Neuroeng Rehabil 2022 Jun 3;19(1):53. Epub 2022 Jun 3.

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, 1251 Memorial Dr, MEA 204, Coral Gables, Miami, FL, 33146, USA.

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop a portable and modular brain-computer interface (BCI) software platform independent of input and output devices. We implemented this platform in a case study of a subject with cervical spinal cord injury (C5 ASIA A).

Background: BCIs can restore independence for individuals with paralysis by using brain signals to control prosthetics or trigger functional electrical stimulation. Read More

Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci 2022 Jul 6;380(2228):20210020. Epub 2022 Jun 6.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering National University of Singapore, Queenstown, Singapore.

Wireless interfaces enable brain-implanted devices to remotely interact with the external world. They are critical components in modern research and clinical neurotechnologies and play a central role in determining their overall size, lifetime and functionality. Wireless interfaces use a wide range of modalities-including radio-frequency fields, acoustic waves and light-to transfer energy and data to and from an implanted device. Read More