Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Univ., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. Ronneby : Tekn. högsk., 2002.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2002. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

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

Thesis (M.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2009. / M.D. thesis submitted to the Division of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, 2009. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2006 Aug 15.

abstract: Phase contrast magnetic resonance angiography (PCMRA) is a non-invasive imaging modality that is capable of producing quantitative vascular flow velocity information. The encoding of velocity information can significantly increase the imaging acquisition and reconstruction durations associated with this technique. The purpose of this work is to provide mechanisms for reducing the scan time of a 3D phase contrast exam, so that hemodynamic velocity data may be acquired robustly and with a high sensitivity. The methods developed in this work focus on the reduction of scan duration and reconstruction computation of a neurovascular PCMRA exam. The reductions in scan duration are made through a combination of advances in imaging and velocity encoding methods. The imaging improvements are explored using rapid 3D imaging techniques such as spiral projection imaging (SPI), Fermat looped orthogonally encoded trajectories (FLORET), stack of spirals and stack of cones trajectories. Scan durations are also shortened through the use and development of a novel parallel imaging technique called Pretty Easy Parallel Imaging (PEPI). Improvements in the computational efficiency of PEPI and in general MRI reconstruction are made in the area of sample density estimation and correction of 3D trajectories. A new method of velocity encoding is demonstrated to provide more efficient signal to noise ratio (SNR) gains than current state of the art methods. The proposed velocity encoding achieves improved SNR through the use of high gradient moments and by resolving phase aliasing through the use measurement geometry and non-linear constraints. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Bioengineering 2011

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease, principally manifest as myocardial infarction or stroke, is the dominant cause of death worldwide and despite therapeutic advances, the global burden of these conditions continues to increase. In order to address this ongoing disease burden, there is a clear need to more effectively target the use of existing and novel diagnostic investigations and medical therapies. Emerging cardiovascular biomarkers include the biochemical, such as high-sensitivity cardiac troponin, and the radiological, such as computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) and 18Ffluoride positron emission tomography (PET). Cardiac troponins can now be reliably quantified in clinically stable or asymptomatic populations and provide information about myocardial pathophysiology, whilst CTCA can non-invasively quantify atherosclerotic burden and 18F-fluoride PET imaging offers insight into plaque vulnerability. Improved targeting of diagnostic investigations requires more reliable estimation of pre-test probability of coronary disease whilst optimizing the use of pharmacological or interventional treatments requires more accurate prognostic stratification. Achieving both objectives in an equitable manner across all population groups will depend upon updated clinical guidelines containing improved risk models and enhanced management pathways. The objective of this thesis was to investigate the potential clinical benefit of novel approaches to the diagnostic and prognostic assessment of coronary heart disease. EVALUATION OF THE 2016 NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND CARE EXCELLENCE (NICE) GUIDANCE ON THE ASSESSMENT OF SUSPECTED STABLE ANGINA. A post-hoc analysis was undertaken of the Scottish COmputed Tomography of the HEART (SCOT-HEART) trial of 4,146 participants with suspected angina randomised to assessment with computed tomography coronary angiography or standard care. Patients were dichotomised according to guideline definitions into groups representing possible angina and non-anginal presentations. The primary (diagnostic) endpoint was diagnostic certainty of angina at 6 weeks and the prognostic endpoint comprised fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction. In 3,770 eligible participants, CTCA increased diagnostic certainty more in those with possible angina (relative risk [RR] 2.22 (95% CI 1.91-2.60), p < 0.001) than those with non-anginal symptoms (RR 1.30 (1.11-1.53), p=0.002; pinteraction < 0.001). In the possible angina cohort, CTCA did not change rates of invasive angiography (p=0.481) but markedly reduced rates of normal coronary angiography (hazard ratio [HR] 0.32 (0.19-0.52), p < 0.001). In the non-anginal cohort, rates of invasive angiography increased (HR 1.82 (1.13-2.92), p=0.014) without reducing rates of normal coronary angiography (HR 0.78 (0.30-2.05), p=0.622). At 3.2 years of follow-up, fatal or nonfatal MI was reduced in patients with possible angina (3.2% to 1.9%; HR 0.58 (0.34- 0.99), p=0.045) but not in those with non-anginal symptoms (HR 0.65 (0.25-1.69), p=0.379). Overall the updated NICE guidance on patient assessment maximises the benefits of CTCA with respect to diagnostic certainty, the use of invasive coronary angiography, and reductions in fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction. Patients with non-anginal chest pain derive minimal benefit from CTCA, which instead increases rates of invasive investigation. EXTERNAL VALIDATION OF THE PROSPECTIVE MULTICENTER IMAGING STUDY FOR EVALUATION OF CHEST PAIN (PROMISE) TOOL FOR DETERMINING MINIMAL-RISK OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE. The PROspective Multicenter Imaging Study for Evaluation of chest pain (PROMISE) minimal-risk tool was recently developed to identify patients with suspected stable angina at very low risk of coronary artery disease and clinical events. The external validity of this tool was investigated within the context of the Scottish Computed Tomography of the HEART multicenter randomised controlled trial of patients with suspected stable angina due to coronary artery disease. Model discrimination and calibration was determined amongst 1,764 patients in whom complete CCTA data were available and compared with the European Society of Cardiology guideline-endorsed Coronary Artery Disease Consortium (CADC) risk score. The PROMISE minimal-risk tool improved discrimination compared with the CADC model (c-statistic 0.785 vs 0.730, p < 0.001) and was improved further following re-estimation of covariate coefficients (c-statistic 0.805, p < 0.001). Model calibration was initially poor (c2 197.6, Hosmer-Lemeshow [HL] p < 0.001), with significant overestimation of probability of minimal risk, but improved significantly following revision of the PROMISE minimal-risk intercept and covariate coefficients (c2 5.6, HL p=0.692). HIGH-SENSITIVITY CARDIAC TROPONIN I IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF STABLE CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE In a pre-specified sub-study of the Scottish COmputed Tomography of the Heart trial, plasma cardiac troponin was measured using a high-sensitivity single molecule counting assay in 943 adults with suspected stable angina who had undergone coronary computed tomography angiography. Rates of obstructive coronary artery disease were compared with the pre-test probability determined by the European Society of Cardiology Coronary Artery Disease Consortium risk model with and without cardiac troponin concentrations. External validation was undertaken in an independent study population from Denmark comprising 487 patients with suspected stable angina. Higher cardiac troponin concentrations were associated with obstructive coronary artery disease with a 5-fold increase across quintiles (9 to 48%, p < 0.001) independent of known cardiovascular risk factors (odds ratio [OR] 1.35 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-1.46] per doubling of troponin). Cardiac troponin concentrations improved the discrimination of the ESC model for identifying obstructive coronary artery disease (c-statistic 0.785 to 0.800, p=0.003) and improved classification into ESCrecommended categories of clinical risk (net reclassification improvement 0.143 [95% CI, 0.093-0.193]). The revised model achieved similar improvements in discrimination and net reclassification when applied in the external validation cohort. HIGH-SENSITIVITY CARDIAC TROPONIN I IN CARDIOVASCULAR RISK STRATIFICATION OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE AND HEIGHTENED CARDIOVASCULAR RISK. The association between plasma high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I concentration and cardiovascular events in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heightened cardiovascular risk was examined within the context of a double-blind randomised controlled trial of inhaled corticosteroids and bronchodilators (1 placebo arm and 3 different treatment arms). Plasma cardiac troponin I concentrations were measured with a high-sensitivity assay in a subgroup of 1,599 patients. The cardiovascular endpoint was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke, unstable angina and transient ischaemic attack during follow-up of 1.5 years. Baseline plasma cardiac troponin I concentrations were above the lower limit of detection (1.0 ng/L) in 1,559 (97.5%) patients and were unaffected by inhaled therapies at 3 months (p > 0.05 for all). Compared with the lowest tertile (cardiac troponin I ≤3.0 ng/L), patients in the highest tertile (≥ 5.5 ng/L) were at greater risk of cardiovascular events (hazard ratio 3.0, 95% confidence interval 1.5 to 6.2, p=0.002) and cardiovascular death (hazard ratio 9.6, 95% confidence interval 2.6 to 35.6, p < 0.001) after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors. There were no differences in COPD exacerbations between tertiles even after adjustment (p > 0.05). / REPRODUCIBILITY OF CORONARY 18F-FLUORIDE PET-CT IMAGING The inter-observer and scan-rescan reproducibility of coronary 18F-fluoride PET-CT imaging was investigated in 20 patients with clinically stable but high risk multi-vessel coronary artery disease who underwent repeated 18F-fluoride PET-CT scans 11.5±4.5 days apart. Scan analysis using the currently accepted approach of normalisation to a referent coronary segment (TBRREFERENT) identified 10 (50%) patients with evidence of focal coronary 18F-fluoride uptake and demonstrated moderate agreement across observers on a per-patient level (k = 0.56). This was similar to the level of agreement achieved with visual assessment alone (k = 0.64). Reproducibility was improved by semi-quantitative reporting combining visual assessment with a threshold uptake value for determining the presence of tracer uptake (k = 0.84). Using the optimised approach achieved excellent agreement on overall segmental uptake counts (intra-class correlation = 0.97). CONCLUSION: Cardiovascular diagnostic and prognostic assessments represent a complex endeavour and established tools for risk prediction can demonstrate suboptimal predictive accuracy when evaluated in patient cohorts that are independent of the population used for model derivation.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Coronary artery calcification (CAC) indicates presence of CAD. Absence of CAC is associated with very low risk of having CAD but not equal to zero. In this study, we aim at developing a clinical prediction tool to predict presence of obstructive CAD among patients with zero calcium score. We developed two models. A full prespecified model with 7 variables based on input from clinical experts, and a reduced model with 4 variables based on univariate screening. Both models showed an acceptable performance (c-statistics of 0.68 for both). Both models performed well when validated, externally for the full model and internally for the reduced one. We derived a clinical risk score of 20 points from the full model. We found that a score threshold of ≥ 14 is associated with presence of obstructive CAD with positive likelihood ratio of 5.5.

Fundamento: Os níveis plasmáticos da mieloperoxidase (MPO) estão elevados em pacientes com síndrome coronariana aguda (SCA) como conseqüência de intensa ativação neutrofílica. A capacidade da MPO em predizer a gravidade da doença arterial coronariana (DAC) nos pacientes com SCA é alvo de controvérsia. Objetivo: Avaliar a associação entre os níveis plasmáticos da MPO e a gravidade das lesões ateroscleróticas coronarianas em pacientes com SCA sem elevação de ST. Métodos: Pacientes com SCA de alto risco que foram submetidos à angiografia coronariana durante as primeiras 72 horas do início dos sintomas, realizaram uma única dosagem plasmática de MPO. O escore de Gensini foi utilizado para avaliar a gravidade angiográfica da DAC. Resultados: Entre os 48 pacientes estudados, 85,4% tinham níveis elevados de troponina. As medianas dos níveis da MPO e do escore de Gensini foram 6,9 ng/mL (mínima= 4,4; máxima= 73,5), e 10 (mínima= 0; máxima= 87,5), respectivamente. O coeficiente de Spearman não mostrou correlação significativa entre os níveis de MPO e o escore de Gensini (rs= 0,2; P= 0,177). Os pacientes com níveis de MPO ≤ 6,9 ng/mL apresentaram um escore de Gensini de 8,3, enquanto que aqueles com a MPO > 6,9 ng/mL apresentaram um escore de 13,8, (P= 0,386). Os pacientes com escore de Gensini ≤ 10 apresentaram níveis de MPO de 6,6 ng/mL, enquanto aqueles com escore > 10 apresentaram níveis de MPO de 8,5 ng/mL (P= 0,126). Não houve associação entre os níveis de MPO e a extensão da lesão coronariana (rs= 0,047; P= 0,756). Na análise multivariada a MPO não mostrou correlação com nenhuma outra variável. Conclusões: Não houve associação entre os níveis plasmáticos de MPO e a gravidade angiográfica da DAC em pacientes com SCA com indicação de estratificação invasiva. Esse achado sugere que a expressão da MPO como um biomarcador inflamatório está dissociada da gravidade anatômica das lesões coronarianas. / Background: Myeloperoxidase (MPO) plasma levels are elevated in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) as a consequence of intense neutrophilic activity. MPO capacity to predict the severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) in ACS patients is controversial. Objective: To evaluate the association between MPO plasma levels and severity of coronary atherosclerotic lesions in non-ST elevation ACS patients. Methods: High-risk ACS patients who were submitted to coronary angiography within the first 72 hours after onset of symptoms had one single MPO plasma measurement. Gensini score was used to evaluate angiographic CAD severity. Results: Among the 48 patients studied, 85.4% had elevated troponin levels. MPO plasma levels and Gensini median values were 6.9 ng/mL (range 4.4 to 73.5), and 10 (range 0 to 87.5), respectively. Spearman’s coefficient did not show a significant correlation between MPO levels and Gensini score (rs = 0.2; P = 0.177). Patients with MPO levels ≤ 6.9 ng/mL had a Gensini score of 8.3, whereas the patients with MPO levels > 6.9 ng/mL had a Gensini score of 13.8 (P = 0.386). Patients who presented a Gensini score ≤ 10 had MPO levels of 6.6 ng/mL, while the patients with Gensini score > 10 presented MPO levels of 8.5 ng/mL (P = 0.126). There was no significant association between MPO plasma levels and coronary lesion length (rs= 0.047; P= 0.756). On multivariate analysis there was not association between MPO and any other variable. Conclusion: There was no association between plasma MPO levels and CAD angiographic severity in ACS patients with indication of invasive stratification. This finding suggests that MPO expression as an inflammatory biomarker is dissociated from the anatomical severity of the coronary lesions.