During left heart catheterization, cerebral microemboli, especially those which are solid, may damage the brain. Cardiac catheterization may therefore pose a greater risk for the brain than previously acknowledged.

Patients with NSTEMI due to acute coronary occlusions develop larger infarcts and more impaired left ventricular function than patients with NSTEMI without occlusions, regardless of infarct-related territory. Territorial circumferential strain by echocardiography enables very early identification of acute coronary occlusions in patients with NSTE-ACS and may be used for detection of patients requiring urgent revascularisation.

Measurement of electrical impedance can discriminate between tissues of different electrical properties. A measurement system with adequate spatial resolution focused on a volume around the tip of a needle or other invasive clinical equipment can be used to determine in which type of tissue the tip is positioned. We have measured the sensitivity zone of a needle electrode with an active electrode area of 0.3 mm 2 , and measured impedance spectra in porcine tissue in vivo. Small electrode impedance data will be influenced by electrode polarization impedance (EPI) at low frequencies. To refine existing methods for needle guidance with higher spatial resolution, we have used multivariate analysis and new interpretations of EPI, and tissue data gathered with selected needle electrodes. The focus of this study is on discrimination between muscle and fat/subdermis for drug administration, but our results also indicate that these refinements will facilitate new clinical applications for impedance-based needle guidance in general.

Methods: Seventy patients with a verified ABI and executive dysfunction were randomly allocated to GMT (n = 33) or a psycho-educative active control condition, Brain Health Workshop (BHW) (n = 37). In addition, all participants received external cueing by text messages. Neuropsychological tests and self-reported questionnaires of executive functioning were administered pre-intervention, immediately after intervention, and at 6 months followup. Assessors were blinded to group allocation.Results: Questionnaire measures indicated significant improvement of everyday executive functioning in the GMT group, with effects lasting at least 6 months post-treatment. Both groups improved on the majority of the applied neuropsychological tests. However, improved performance on tests demanding executive attention was most prominent in the GMT group. Conclusions:The results indicate that GMT combined with external cueing is an effective metacognitive strategy training method, ameliorating executive dysfunction in daily life for patients with chronic ABI. The strongest effects were seen on self-report measures of executive functions 6 months post-treatment, suggesting that strategies learned in GMT were applied and consolidated in everyday life after the end of training. Furthermore, these findingsshow that executive dysfunction can be improved years after the ABI. INTRODUCTIONExecutive functions (EF) are required for independent, purposive, self-directed behavior and include processes of initiation, planning, purposive action, volition, inhibition, flexibility, as well as self-monitoring and self-regulation (Lezak, 1995;Stuss, 2011). A division between "cold" and "hot" components of EF has been suggested, with "cold" EF corresponding closely to cognitive and logical processes, and the "hot" aspects of EF involving regulation of emotion and motivation (Chan, Shum, Toulopoulou & Chen, 2008).Thus, EF is an umbrella term for a set of interrelated capacities resulting from activity in anatomically and functionally independent, but interconnected networks subserved by widespread brain regions, the prefrontal cortex playing a central role (Stuss & Alexander, 2007).Executive dysfunction (ED) is common following acquired brain injury (ABI) (Stuss & Levine, 2002;Novakovic-Agopian et al, 2011), and may disrupt the ability to effectively use intact functions or compensatory strategies, undermine efficient self-management (Lewis, Babbage & Leathem, 2011), hamper the rehabilitation process (Robertson & Murre, 1999), and is also associated with long-term negative psychosocial and vocational outcome (Draper & Ponsford, 2008; Ylvisaker & Feeney, 2000). Thus, techniques for reducing ED might significantly impact functional outcome (Manly & Murphy, 2012).Most theories describe EF as top-down controlled processes involved in the control and direction of self-regulatory cognition, emotion and behavior (Cicerone et al., 2006;Stuss, 2011). Current theories of cognitive EF bear close resemblance to dominant models of attention (Norman & Shalli...

These results indicate that BD-II is associated with thinning of prefrontal and temporal cortices implicated in the expression and regulation of negative and positive affect. Longitudinal studies are needed to clarify whether cortical thinning is a stable trait of BD-II, an illness effect that might progress during the course of the disease, or a combination of the two.

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The use of robots in health care has increased dramatically over the last decade. One area of research has been to use robots to conduct ultrasound examinations, either controlled by a physician or autonomously. This paper examines the possibility of using the commercial robot UR5 from Universal Robots to make a tele-operated robotic ultrasound system. Physicians diagnosing patients using ultrasound probes are prone to repetitive strain injuries, as they are required to hold the probe in uncomfortable positions and exert significant static force. The main application for the system is to relieve the physician of this strain by letting the them control a robot that holds the probe. A set of requirements for the system is derived from the state-of-the-art systems found in the research literature. The system is developed through a low-level interface for the robot, effectively building a new software framework for controlling it. Compliance force control and forward flow haptic control of the robot was implemented. Experiments are conducted to quantify the performance of the two control schemes. The force control is estimated to have a bandwidth of 16.6 Hz, while the haptic control is estimated to have a bandwidth of 65.4 Hz for the position control of the slave and 13.4 Hz for the force control of the master. Overall, the system meets the derived requirements and the main conclusion is that it is feasible to use the UR5 robot for robotic ultrasound applications.

Background-Infarct size is a strong predictor of mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events after myocardial infarction. Acute reperfusion therapy limits infarct size and improves survival, but its use has been confined to patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between echocardiographic parameters of left ventricular (LV) systolic function obtained before revascularization and final infarct size in patients with non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction, as well as the ability of these parameters to identify patients with substantial infarction. Methods and Results-Sixty-one patients with non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction were examined by echocardiography immediately before revascularization, 2.1Ϯ0.6 days after hospitalization. LV systolic function was assessed by ejection fraction, wall motion score index, and circumferential, longitudinal, and radial strain in a 16-segment LV model. Global strain represents average segmental strain values. Infarct size was assessed after 9Ϯ3 months by late-enhancement MRI, as a percentage of total LV myocardial volume. A good correlation was found between infarct size and wall motion score index (rϭ0.74, PϽ0.001) and global longitudinal strain (rϭ0.68, PϽ0.001).Global longitudinal strain ϾϪ13.8% and wall motion score index Ͼ1.30 accurately identified patients with substantial infarction (Ն12% of myocardium, nϭ13; area under the receiver operator curve, 0.95 and 0.92, respectively). Conclusions-Echocardiographic