Our MR-based attenuation correction method offers similar correction accuracy as offered by segmented CT. According to the specialists involved in the blind study, these differences do not affect the diagnostic value of the PET images.

Balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) is an emerging treatment for patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).We report on a prospective series of 56 consecutive patients who underwent 266 BPA interventions (median, five per patient) at two German institutions. All patients underwent a comprehensive diagnostic work-up including right heart catheterisation at baseline and 24 weeks after their last intervention.BPA resulted in improvements in WHO functional class, 6 min walk distance (mean change, +33 m), right ventricular function and haemodynamics, including a decline in mean pulmonary artery pressure by 18% and in pulmonary vascular resistance by 26%. Procedure-related adverse events occurred in 9.4% of the interventions. The most common complications were related to pulmonary vascular injury and consecutive pulmonary bleeding. Most of these events were asymptomatic and self-limiting, but one patient died from pulmonary bleeding, resulting in a mortality rate of 1.8%.BPA resulted in haemodynamic and clinical improvements but was also associated with a considerable number of complications, including one fatal pulmonary bleeding. As the effects of BPA on survival are unknown, randomised controlled outcome trials comparing BPA with approved medical therapies in patients with inoperable CTEPH are required to allow for appropriate risk-benefit assessments.

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Non-transmural infarction results in greater functional impairment of the endocardial than of the epicardial myocardial layer. In transmural infarction both layers are affected similarly compared with controls. A layer-specific analysis of myocardial deformation allows accurate discrimination between different transmurality categories of myocardial infarction.

Therapeutic lymphography is an effective method in the treatment of lymphatic leakage when conservative therapy fails. The volume of lymphatic drainage per day is a significant predictor of the therapeutical success rate.

ce-CMR is comparable with a PET/SPECT imaging protocol for the prediction of regional and global functional improvement after revascularization. However, ce-CMR may be superior to nuclear imaging for the identification of segments that are unlikely to recover function at follow-up.

The combination of surgical PEA and interventional BPA is a new treatment option for highly selected high-risk CTEPH patients. A multidisciplinary CTEPH expert team is a basic pre-requisite for this complex concept.

Dyspnea is a frequent, devastating, and poorly understood symptom of advanced lung cancer. In our cohort, among 519 patients who underwent a computed tomography scan for the diagnosis of lung cancer, 250 had a mean pulmonary artery diameter of >28 mm, indicating pulmonary hypertension (PH). In human lung cancer tissue, we consistently observed increased vascular remodeling and perivascular inflammatory cell accumulation (macrophages/lymphocytes). Vascular remodeling, PH, and perivascular inflammatory cell accumulation were mimicked in three mouse models of lung cancer (LLC1, , and). In contrast, immunodeficient xenograft and dominant-negative IKK2 mutant triple transgenic () mice did not develop PH. Coculturing human lung cancer cells with macrophages and lymphocytes strongly up-regulated cytokine release, provoking enhanced migration, apoptosis resistance, and phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5)-mediated up-regulation of human lung vascular cells, which are typical features of PH. The PDE5 inhibitor sildenafil largely suppressed PH in the LLC1 model. We conclude that lung cancer-associated PH represents a distinct PH category; targeting inflammation in the microenvironment and PDE5 offers a potential therapeutic option.