Endothelial cell is the first cell affected in the process of atherosclerosis, and endothelium is one of the structures intensively studied in the frame of this project. This enables a critical evaluation of the literature, and knowledge was used in the preparation of the charpter "Aterosclerosis" in the textbook "Selected topics in Pathophysiology" that has been published in 2011. This makes the book a reliable and useful tool to study Pathophysiology at the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana.
D.10 Educational activities
COBISS.SI-ID: 28609241Contemporary ventricular assist device therapy results in a high rate of successful heart transplantation but is associated with bleeding, infections, and other complications. Further reductions in pump size, centrifugal design, and intrapericardial positioning may reduce complications and improve outcomes. We studied a small, intra-pericardially positioned, continuous-flow centrifugal pump in patients requiring an implanted ventricular assist device as a bridge to heart transplantation. The course of investigational pump recipients was compared with that of patients implanted contemporaneously with commercially available devices. The primary outcome, success, was defined as survival on the originally implanted device, transplantation, or explantation for ventricular recovery at 180 days and was evaluated for both noninferiority and superiority. Secondary outcomes included a comparison of survival between groups and functional and quality-of-life outcomes and adverse events in the investigational device group. A total of 140 patients received the investigational pump, and 499 patients received a commercially available pump implanted contemporaneously. Success occurred in 90.7% of investigational pump patients and 90.1% of controls, establishing the noninferiority of the investigational pump (P0.001; 15% noninferiority margin). At 6 months, median 6-minute walk distance improved by 128.5 m, and both disease-specific and global quality-of-life scores improved significantly. Conclusions—A small, intrapericardially positioned, continuous-flow, centrifugal pump was noninferior to contemporaneously implanted, commercially available ventricular assist devices. Functional capacity and quality of life improved markedly, and the adverse event profile was favorable.
F.21 Development of new health/diagnostic methods/procedures
COBISS.SI-ID: 30523353