24 Hour ST Segment Analysis in Transient Left Ventricular Apical Ballooning

Objective

The etiologic basis of transient left ventricular apical ballooning, a novel cardiac syndrome, is not clear. Among the proposed pathomechanisms is coronary vasospasm. Long-term ST segment analysis may detect vasospastic episodes but has not been reported.

Methods

30 consecutive patients with transient left ventricular apical ballooning, left ventricular dysfunction and normal or near-normal coronary arteries were investigated. A 24-hour Holter ECG was obtained after emergency admission. ST segment analysis was performed automatically in 2 leads and confirmed by visual inspection. Criteria for an ischemic event were: 1. ST elevation or 2. horizontal or down-sloping ST segments ≥1 min duration and ≥100 µV J+80 point deviation corrected for baseline ST-deviation.

Results

Patients presented with ST segment elevation (n = 19) and/or T wave inversion (n = 20) on admission ECG. Ejection fraction was 50±12%. No transient ST elevations were observed during Holter ECG analysis. In 3 patients, 8 transient episodes of ST depression were recorded. Durations of episodes varied between 75s and 790s (mean 229s). Maximal ST deviation averaged −191±71 µV. Ischemic burden was −1 to −22 mVs (mean −8 mVs). 27 patients showed no ischemic events.

Conclusions

ST segment analysis of 24 h Holter recordings revealed minor ischemic events in only 10% of patients with transient left ventricular apical ballooning. Overall, ST segment changes were not indicative of recurrent coronary spasm playing a major role in the genesis of transient left ventricular apical ballooning.     

Association of cytokines with endothelium dependent flow mediated vasodilation (FMD) of systemic arteries in patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy

Background

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is an acute cardiac syndrome characterized by transient LV regional wall motion abnormalities (with peculiar apical ballooning appearance), chest pain or dyspnea, ST-segment elevation and minor elevations of cardiac enzyme levels

Case presentation

A 68-year-old woman was admitted to the Emergency Department because of sudden onset chest pain occurred while transferring her daughter, who had earlier suffered a major seizure, to the hospital. The EKG showed sinus tachycardia with ST-segment elevation in leads V2–V3 and ST-segment depression in leads V5–V6, she was, thus, referred for emergency coronary angiography. A pre-procedural transthoracic echocardiogram revealed regional systolic dysfunction of the LV walls with hypokinesis of the mid-apical segments and hyperkinesis of the basal segments. Coronary angiography showed patent epicardial coronary arteries; LV angiography demonstrated the characteristic morphology of apical ballooning with hyperkinesis of the basal segments and hypokinesis of the mid-apical segments. The post-procedural course was uneventful; on day 5 after admission the echocardiogram revealed full recovery of apical and mid-ventricular regional wall-motion abnormalities.

Conclusion

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a relatively rare, unique entity that has only recently been widely appreciated. Acute stress has been indicated as a common trigger for the transient LV apical ballooning syndrome, especially in postmenopausal women. The present report is a typical example of stress-induced takotsubo cardiomyopathy in a Caucasian Italian postmenopausal woman.     

Ballooning dispersal using silk: world fauna, phylogenies, genetics and models

Aerial dispersal using silk ('ballooning') has evolved in spiders (Araneae), spider mites (Acari) and in the larvae of moths (Lepidoptera). Since the 17th century, over 500 observations of ballooning behaviours have been published, yet there is an absence of any evolutionary synthesis of these data. In this paper the literature is reviewed, extensively documenting the known world fauna that balloon and the principal behaviours involved. This knowledge is then incorporated into the current evolutionary phylogenies to examine how ballooning might have arisen. Whilst it is possible that ballooning co-evolved with silk and emerged as early as the Devonian (410-355 mya), it is arguably more likely that ballooning evolved in parallel with deciduous trees, herbaceous annuals and grasses in the Cretaceous (135-65 mya). During this period, temporal (e.g. bud burst, chlorophyll thresholds) and spatial (e.g. herbivory, trampling) heterogeneities in habitat structuring predominated and intensified into the Cenozoic (65 mya to the present). It is hypothesized that from the ancestral launch mechanism known as 'suspended ballooning', widely used by individuals in plant canopies, 'tip-toe' and 'rearing' take-off behaviours were strongly selected for as habitats changed. It is contended that ballooning behaviour in all three orders can be described as a mixed Evolutionary Stable Strategy. This comprises individual bet-hedging due to habitat unpredictability, giving an underlying randomness to individual ballooning, with adjustments to the individual ballooning probability being conferred by more predictable habitat changes or colonization strategies. Finally, current methods used to study ballooning, including modelling and genetic research, are illustrated and an indication of future prospects given.     

Fluid mechanic constraints on spider ballooning

Summary Early investigations point to ballooning as an important mechanism for the dispersal of spiders. Most studies, however, have focused on collecting and interpreting observations with the aim of establishing the statistical characteristics of the dispersed population and their relation to biotic factors. With few exceptions, important physical factors that mechanically constrain the ballooning activity have been neglected or simply ignored. Especially important are various fluid mechanics phenomena that affect the initiation and maintenance of the ballooning activity. By reference to a simple mechanical model that simulates the essential drag characteristics of the ballooning spider-filament system, a region is defined, in terms of the relevant physical parameters, within which the ballooning activity can be initiated. Extension of the model allows a numerical investigation of the influence of vertical wind oscillations on the velocities and trajectories of ballooning spider-filament systems. Results are presented and discussed to illustrate the relative importance to ballooning of drag on the spider's body and on the silk filament to which it is attached.     

Formation and evolution of flapping and ballooning waves in magnetospheric plasma sheet

By adopting Lembége & Pellat’s 2D plasma-sheet model, we investigate the flankward flapping motion and Sunward ballooning propagation driven by an external source (e.g., magnetic reconnection) produced initially at the sheet center. Within the ideal MHD framework, we adopt the WKB approximation to obtain the Taylor–Goldstein equation of magnetic perturbations. Fourier spectral method and Runge–Kutta method are employed in numerical simulations, respectively, under the flapping and ballooning conditions. Studies expose that the magnetic shears in the sheet are responsible for the flapping waves, while the magnetic curvature and the plasma gradient are responsible for the ballooning waves. In addition, the flapping motion has three phases in its temporal development: fast damping phase, slow recovery phase, and quasi-stabilized phase; it is also characterized by two patterns in space: propagating wave pattern and standing wave pattern. Moreover, the ballooning modes are gradually damped toward the Earth, with a wavelength in a scale size of magnetic curvature or plasma inhomogeneity, only 1–7% of the flapping one; the envelops of the ballooning waves are similar to that of the observed bursty bulk flows moving toward the Earth.     

蜘蛛飞航研究进展

种群扩散能够避免生物类群在同一栖息地中的资源竞争和同类相残, 促进基因流动, 具有重要的进化和生态意义。相比于昆虫的迁飞行为, 某些不具翅的节肢动物也能够借助细丝的作用而实现远距离扩散, 即飞航。蜘蛛为肉食性动物, 是陆地生态系统的重要组成部分, 在生态系统中防控害虫方面作用显著。飞航是蜘蛛的一种重要扩散方式, 在其物种形成、生态位分化及害虫防控等方面具有重要意义, 但有关其飞航扩散的报道较少。本文回顾了蜘蛛飞航的研究历程, 大致可分为三个阶段; 总结了其研究现状, 包括飞航蜘蛛的优势类群及特征、飞航过程中的三个环节(即起飞、空中航行和降落)及影响因子、两种飞航机制及四种相关模型、飞航蜘蛛采集和研究方法。同时基于过往研究, 指出了未来蜘蛛飞航研究的重点领域: 加强飞航蜘蛛类群鉴定工作, 继续深度挖掘飞航数据与环境因子间的关系, 探索蜘蛛飞航的全过程(包括起飞、空中航行和降落), 更加明确蜘蛛飞航作为一种扩散方式的意义。本综述将为蜘蛛飞航的知识普及、资源保护和利用等方面提供重要参考。     

Ballooning propensity of canopy and understorey spiders in a mature temperate hardwood forest

1. Spiders frequently disperse and colonise habitats through ballooning, a passive aerial dispersal process. Ballooning is pre‐eminent in open habitat spider communities and its propensity can be modulated by habitat conditions and availability, and by life‐history traits such as body size, degree of specialisation, and feeding behaviour. 2. Using spiders from the canopy and understorey of a north‐temperate hardwood forest as a model system, our main objectives were to detect if foliage spiders of a mature forest disperse through ballooning, and identify life‐history traits that influence ballooning propensity. 3. Our results demonstrate that foliage spiders living in the canopy and understorey of a mature forest do balloon, and in some cases have very high ballooning propensities similarly to open field spiders. Species level models showed that small body size had a strong positive effect on ballooning for juveniles of species with large‐bodied adults, while individuals of small‐bodied species initiated ballooning regardless of size, habitat or development stage. A generalised linear mixed model indicated that small size web‐building spiders from the Retro Tibial Apophysis (RTA) and Orbicularia clades had the highest propensity for foliage spiders of this north‐temperate hardwood forest. 4. In conclusion, we provide the first demonstration that forest spiders can have high ballooning propensities and that ballooning propensity is negatively affected by body size and positively affected by the prominent use of silk to catch prey. However, spiders originating from the canopy and understorey of a north‐temperate hardwood forest did not differ in their ballooning propensities.     

Environmental and genetic background of tiptoe-initiating behaviour in the dwarfspider Erigone atra

Ballooning is a widespread behavioural trait in invertebrates, which enhances passive aerial dispersal. We investigated the influence of common lineage (family effect) and postnatal environmental conditions on latency to initiate preballooning tiptoe behaviour (ballooning latency) in the dwarfspider Erigone atra (Blackwall, 1841). The ballooning latency of individual spiders was tested in a specially designed test chamber. In a 3-week experiment, in which the spiders were fed only during the first day of each week, ballooning latency had low repeatability at weekly intervals. Ballooning latency declined with increasing food deprivation during the first week but not during the second and the third weeks. At intervals of less than 1 h, however, ballooning latency showed high repeatability. We also investigated whether maternal and postnatal environmental conditions (i.e. during juvenile development) influence phenotypic variation in ballooning latency. We reared offspring of several families under two feeding and two temperature conditions. Environmental conditions explained more variation in ballooning latency than family. Ballooning latency was lower in spiders reared at 20°C than in those reared at 15°C. In addition, spiderlings fed four prey per 3 days were faster ballooners than those fed only four prey per week. An interaction between factors was present, indicating the existence of different reaction norms between the two environmental conditions. The expression of ballooning latency behaviour thus strongly depends on current nutrition, feeding history and the feeding and temperature conditions during juvenile development. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.      

辽宁东部地区飞航蜘蛛的群落组成及特征

为了解辽宁东部地区飞航蜘蛛的群落组成及特点,于2009年5-9月,采用吸虫塔对辽宁岫岩地区的飞航蜘蛛进行了调查.共采集蜘蛛标本549头,隶属于14科.对飞航蜘蛛的群落组成、时间动态、体型大小、发育阶段及性别比例等进行了分析.结果表明:辽宁东部地区飞航蜘蛛多样性丰富,皿蛛科(58.29%)和园蛛科(11.84%)是该地区...     

ACS,myocardial bridging,Tako-tsubo syndrome and mitral regurgitation

Isolated systolic compression of the mid portion of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) by a bridge of overlying cardiac muscle is an infrequent but well-recognised angiographic anomaly that is often considered harmless. The long-term prognosis appears to be excellent, but occasional reports of patients with angina pectoris, myocardial infarction and sudden death indicate that this is not always true. The prevalence of the anomaly in the normal population is unknown, but the incidence is low and ischaemic events are rare.Tako-tsubo-like left ventricular dysfunction syndrome (TTS) is characterised by ischaemia, anterior ST-segment elevation, no significant coronary artery disease and reversible ampulla-like left ventricular ballooning in postmenopausal females after emotional or physical stress. Dynamic left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction is a rare but potentially fatal complication of acute anterior wall infarction.We present a patient with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) with ST-segment elevation in the anterior leads, transient TTS and transient LVOT obstruction with systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the mitral valve and severe mitral regurgitation. This is the first report of myocardial bridging associated with TTS, and the first report of TTS associated with dynamic LVOT obstruction with SAM and mitral regurgitation.     

Ballooning dispersal in arthropod taxa: conditions at take-off

We have solved a long-standing and seemingly paradoxical set of questions that relate to the conditions which govern spider ballooning. We show that observations of spider ballooning excursions are best explained by meteorological conditions which maximize dispersal. Dispersal is predicted to be most effective in terms of distance when the stability of the atmosphere is non-ideally convective and is less effective during purely convective or neutrally stable conditions. Ballooners are most likely to travel a few hundred metres, but dispersal distances of several hundred kilometres are possible.     

Loal three-dimensional MHD stability in equilibrium optimized coordinates

The linear equation for ideal magnetohydrodynamic ballooning modes in three-dimensional configurations is derived in the coordinate system that is optimal for the representation of the equilibrium state. The magnetic field lines in this coordinate system, however, are not straight. The form of the Mercier criterion that is currently in use is recovered from the asymptotic analysis of the ballooning equation. To determine the parallel-current density, a magnetic differential equation expressed in the optimal coordinates must be inverted.     

Basal wall hypercontraction of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in a patient who had been diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy: a case report

Background

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is characterized by the basal hypercontractility and apical ballooning of the left ventriculum and T-wave inversion in the electrocardiogram. It has been suggested that Takotsubo cardiomyopathy might underlie the pathogenesis of persistent cardiac dysfunction; however, few reports are present demonstrating the advent of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in patients with idiopathic cardiomyopathy.

Case presentation

A 64-year-old women was admitted due to dyspnea on effort and lower extremity edema. She had been diagnosed with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy 2.5 years before owing to the reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (24%), normal coronary artery, and interstitial fibrosis of the myocardial samples. On admission, her electrocardiogram showed giant negative T wave in II, III, aVF, and precordial leads. Echocardiography showed dyskinesis of the left ventricular apex and hypercontraction of the basal wall, which had not been observed in the previous examinations. Coronary angiography showed normal coronary arteries, and apical ballooning and basal hypercontractility was confirmed by left ventriculography. On day 15 of admission, contraction of apical wall was recovered, and basal hypercontraction was disappeared.

Conclusion

The present case is the first report demonstrating appearance the transient basal wall hypercontraction along with the advent of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in a patient diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. Whether such findings are indicative of fair prognosis and have the utility of understanding the pathogenesis of dilated cardiomyopathy needs further investigation.

     

Low propensity for aerial dispersal in specialist spiders from fragmented landscapes

Aerial dispersal by ballooning is a passive flight, by which wind drag generates an upward lift on a silk thread. It is likely to reflect an aerial lottery, in which the absence of flight direction control is a serious cost for long-distance dispersal in a fragmented landscape. For species occurring in one patchily distributed habitat type, dispersal should evolve in a different way from morphological traits, directly linked to active dispersal. Therefore, we expect that if the risk of landing in an unsuitable habitat is lower than the probability of reaching a suitable habitat, selection should benefit a well-developed ballooning behaviour. We investigated interspecific variation in the ballooning-initiating tiptoe behaviour as it is linked to spider dispersal performance. Our results indeed indicate that ballooning performance is negatively related to habitat specialization in spiders from patchy grey dunes, so habitat specialists are characterized by poorly developed dispersal behaviour. These findings are concordant with recent insights that dispersal is selected as risk spreading in generalists, while it is selected against in specialist species.     

Patch quality and connectivity influence spatial dynamics in a dune wolfspider

The spatial population dynamics of the wolfspider Pardosa monticola, inhabiting patchily distributed grasslands in the Flemish coastal dunes of Belgium and Northern France were investigated with incidence function models using field survey data from 1998 and 2000. Vegetation height and patch size were related to habitat quality. Mark-recapture experiments revealed maximum cursorial dispersal distances of 280 m for moss dunes and 185 m for higher dune grassland. Higher shrub vegetation appeared to be dispersal barriers. These habitat-dependant cursorial distances and the theoretically estimated ballooning distance were included with patch distances into a connectivity index for both dispersal modes. Forward multiple regression indicated that patch occurrence was influenced by habitat quality and ballooning connectivity. Habitat quality and cursorial connectivity explained patterns in short-term colonisation. Extinction appeared to be stochastic and not related to habitat quality and connectivity. Genetic differentiation and variability was low. The discrepancy between the estimated low dispersal capacity and the indirect estimate of gene flow ( F(ST)) indicates that historical population dynamics and/or historical ballooning dispersal influence the genetic structure in this species.     

Dispersal by bagworm larvae, Metisa plana: effects of population density, larval sex, and host plant attributes

Abstract 1. The work reported here investigated the incidence of dispersal by bagworm larvae Metisa plana (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), a species with apterous females and winged males.
2. A mark–recapture study conducted in a plantation of oil palm revealed that a significant proportion of larvae undertakes multiple episodes of ballooning, and suggested that ballooning represents a strategy for foraging both within and between hosts.
3. Experiments conducted in a controlled cage environment indicated that increasing population density and defoliation of oil palm both promote dispersal by larvae.
4. Neonatal larvae typically remained on the host where they emerged, indicating that pupation site of late-instar females influences the distribution of their progeny, and suggesting a high level of genetic relatedness in localised bagworm populations.
5. Density-dependent dispersal may generate relatively uniform distributions of M. plana in plantations of oil palm, by simultaneously stabilising populations on heavily infested palms and redistributing larvae on lightly infested palms.
6. The rate of ballooning was greater for female than for male larvae, possibly resulting from the sex-specific impact of population density on reproductive success or from late-instar females seeking suitable oviposition sites for their future progeny.     

Serum Fucosylated Haptoglobin as a Novel Diagnostic Biomarker for Predicting Hepatocyte Ballooning and Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing medical problem around the world. NAFLD patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) can develop cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The ability to distinguish NASH from simple steatosis would be of great clinical significance. Ballooning hepatocytes are characteristic of typical pathological NASH; here, the polarized secretion of proteins is disrupted due to destruction of the cytoskeleton. We previously reported that fucosylated glycoproteins are secreted into bile, but not into sera in normal liver. Therefore, we hypothesized that the fucosylation-based sorting machinery would be disrupted in ballooning hepatocytes, and serum fucosylated glycoproteins would increase in NASH patients. To confirm our hypothesis, we evaluated serum fucosylated haptoglobin (Fuc-Hpt) levels in biopsy-proven NAFLD patients (n = 126) using a lectin-antibody ELISA kit. Fuc-Hpt levels were significantly increased in NASH patients compared with non-NASH (NAFLD patients without NASH) patients. Interestingly, Fuc-Hpt levels showed a significant stepwise increase with increasing hepatocyte ballooning scores. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that Fuc-Hpt levels were independent and significant determinants of the presence of ballooning hepatocytes. Moreover, Fuc-Hpt levels were useful in monitoring liver fibrosis staging. Next, to investigate the significance of serum Fuc-Hpt in a larger population, we measured Fuc-Hpt levels in ultrasound-diagnosed NAFLD subjects (n = 870) who received a medical health checkup. To evaluate NAFLD disease severity, we used the FIB-4 index (based on age, serum AST and ALT levels, and platelet counts). Fuc-Hpt levels increased stepwise with increasing FIB-4 index.

Conclusion

Measurement of serum Fuc-Hpt levels can distinguish NASH from non-NASH patients, and predict the presence of ballooning hepatocytes in NAFLD patients with sufficient accuracy. These results support the potential usefulness of measuring Fuc-Hpt levels in clinical practice.     

The effect of food supply on the colonisation of barley by aerially dispersing spiders (Araneae)

A field experiment was carried out to determine whether different levels of food availability affected the retention rate of ballooning spiders landing in trays of seedling barley plants, half of which were infested with aphids from laboratory cultures. The trays were placed within bases in the field, then collected sequentially and spider numbers assessed in each tray. Deposition trays, containing trapping fluid only, were used to measure ballooning activity throughout the experimental period. The experiment was repeated four times. Overall, ballooning spiders were more likely to be retained in trays where aphid prey were present, with a total of 340 spiders found in the infested trays and 251 in the aphid-free trays, over the four experiments. Most of the spiders found were of the family Linyphiidae. In the second and fourth experiments the increased retention of spiders in the aphid-infested trays was statistically significant. Immature linyphiids alone also showed significantly higher retention in the infested trays in those two experiments and in the fourth experiment were largely responsible for the higher numbers found in the infested trays. There was also a statistically significant trend for a higher retention rate of female spiders, compared to males, in the barley trays than would have been expected from the ratios of females to males caught in the deposition trapping trays alone.     

Alfvén eigenmode evolution computed with the VENUS and KINX codes for the ITER baseline scenario

A new application of the VENUS code is described, which computes alpha particle orbits in the perturbed electromagnetic fields and its resonant interaction with the toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) for the ITER device. The ITER baseline scenario with Q = 10 and the plasma toroidal current of 15 МА is considered as the most important and relevant for the International Tokamak Physics Activity group on energetic particles (ITPA-EP). For this scenario, typical unstable ТАЕ-modes with the toroidal index n = 20 have been predicted that are localized in the plasma core near the surface with safety factor q = 1. The spatial structure of ballooning and antiballooning modes has been computed with the ideal MHD code KINX. The linear growth rates and the saturation levels taking into account the damping effects and the different mode frequencies have been calculated with the VENUS code for both ballooning and antiballooning TAE-modes.     

Surface Changes on Fresh Carnation Shoot Apices During Scanning Electron Microscopy

The general morphology of fresh intact shoot apices of carnation,Dianthus caryophyllus L. cv. Improved White Sim was studiedwith a scanning microscope. The changes in the surface withtime under the electron beam were: (1) individual cells beingvisible, (2) a smooth apex and (3) wrinkling until the specimenbecame unsatisfactory for study. As indicated by time coursestudies, the initial individual cell observations representthe true features of the intact apex. The observation of a smoothapex was related to a ballooning of the surface layer resultingfrom water vaporization. Incisions in the apex to prevent pressurebuild-up under the surface layer revealed the smooth characteristicof the apex surface was due to lifting of the cuticle from underlyingcells. Areas adjacent to a micropuncture in the apical domedid not exhibit ballooning.