Background: Patients with heart failure is a patient group growing in numbers, the most common treatment focuses on reliving symptoms and the only cure is heart transplantation. Objective: Aim of the study was to illuminate patients' experiences of living with heart failure at his home. Method: Qualitative design, with a manifest content analysis. The results are based on 12 scientific articles.  Results: Patients with heart failure find that the disease is limited to their daily lives through mental illness and physical symptoms. The short comings of given information to the Patients are a necessary element to include in the planning for Patients future life. The Patients are experiencing that their lives are hanging on a thread as their life is running out, giving anxiety and worries. The need for palliative care is great, but is experienced by patients as containing large gaps. Discussion: Heart failure is a hidden disease, where patients with heart failure often feel like a burden on the environment. Dependence on other people gives a feeling of hope and hopelessness. Conclusion: information plays a large role in how patients with heart failure are able to live with their everyday lives.

No description available.

Purpose: The aim was to determine the echocardiographic features of patients with infective endocarditis, and to compare the findings in HIV positive versus HIV negative patients. Methods: This was a prospective study, conducted over three years using the modified Duke criteria in diagnoses. A control group of age-matched patients with clinical and echocardiographic evidence of valvular regurgitation, who did not satisfy the criteria and who underwent surgery was used in comparison. Results: During this period 91 patients were screened for infective endocarditis. 77 satisfied the criteria for a definite diagnosis of IE. Blood cultures were positive in 46% cases. The commonest organism was S. aureus. Most patients had advanced valve disruption with heart failure and a high peri-operative mortality. The clinical features in the two groups of patients was similar. The incidence of echocardiographic complications was 50.6% in the whole group. Except for leaflet aneurysms in four HIV positive cases, complications were not more frequent in this group. Conclusion: There was a high rate of culture negative cases in this study, probably related to prior antibiotic usage; in this setting the modified Duke criteria have diagnostic limitations. There was no difference in the clinical presentation of infective endocarditis between HIV positive and HIV negative patients. Leaflet aneurysms were more common in the HIV positive patients. / Thesis (M.Med.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008.

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No description available.

This dissertation consists of four different topics in the areas of proteomics, genomics, and cardiology. First, a data-based method was developed to assign the subcellular localization of proteins. We applied the method to data on the bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 and compared the results to PSORTb v.3.0. We found that the method compares well to PSORTb and a simulation study revealed that the method is sound and produces accurate results. Next, we investigated genomic features involved in the lethality of the knockout mouse using the random forest technique. We achieved an accuracy rate of 0.725 and found that among other features, the evolutionary age of the gene was a good predictor of lethality. Third, we analyzed DNA breakpoints across eight different cancer types to determine if common hotspots or cancer-type specific hotspots can be well-predicted by various genomic features and investigated which of the genomic features best predict the number of breakpoints. Using the random forest technique, we found that cancer- type specific hotspots are poorly predicted by genomic features but common hotspots can be predicted using the relevant genomic features. Additionally, we found that among the genomic features analyzed, indel rate and substitution rate were consistently chosen as the top predictors of breakpoint frequency. Lastly, we developed a method to predict the hypothetical heart age of a subject based on the subject’s electrocardiogram (ECG). The heart age predictions are consistent with current ECG science and knowledge of cardiac health.

This thesis details the measurement and simulation of patient skin doses arising from X-ray exposure during interventional cardiology procedures. Interventional cardiology procedures can be long and complex resulting in high skin doses, to the extent that radiation burns may be produced. Twenty patients were used in the study consisting of 10 coronary angiogram and 10 coronary angioplasty procedures. Radiochromic films were used to measure skin dose directly. The Gafchromic® XR-RV2 film was chosen for its suitability for this project. The key characteristics of this film were experimentally determined including: dose response, energy dependence, polarisation and post-exposure growth. The dose range was found to be ideally suited for the doses encountered in this study. Energy dependence was found to be ~14% between 60 and 125 kVp at 1 Gy and introduced an unavoidable uncertainty into dose calculations from unknown beam energies. Document scanner characteristics were also been investigated and a scanning protocol is determined. A mathematical model was created to use the geometry and exposure information encoded into acquisition files to reconstruct dose and dose distributions. The model requires a set of study files encoded according to the DICOM format, as well as user input for fluoroscopic estimations. The output is a dose map and dose summary. Simulation parameters were varied and results compared with film measurements to provide the most accurate model. From the data collected the relation between dose area product, maximum skin dose and fluoroscopic time were also investigated. The results demonstrated that a model based on acquisition information can accurately predict maximum skin dose and provide useful geometrical information. The model is currently being developed into a standalone program for use by the Medical Physics and Bioengineering department.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 200-6. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-112). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-95). Also available on the Internet.