Corrigendum to: 2014 ESC Guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of aortic diseases [Eur Heart Journal (2014) 35, 2873–2926,doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehu281]. In Table 3, the radiation for MRI is “0” and not “-“. The corrected table is shown below.

Objectives: To develop and test a new concept of the degradation kinetics of newly developed coronary stents consisting of magnesium alloys. Methods: Design of a coronary stent prototype consisting of the non-commercial magnesium based alloy AE21 (containing 2% aluminium and 1% rare earths) with an expected 50% loss of mass within six months. Eleven domestic pigs underwent coronary implantation of 20 stents (overstretch injury). Results: No stent caused major problems during implantation or showed signs of initial breakage in the histological evaluation. There were no thromboembolic events. Quantitative angiography at follow up showed a significant (p < 0.01) 40% loss of perfused lumen diameter between days 10 and 35, corresponding to neointima formation seen on histological analysis, and a 25% re-enlargement (p < 0.05) between days 35 and 56 caused by vascular remodelling (based on intravascular ultrasound) resulting from the loss of mechanical integrity of the stent. Inflammation (p < 0.001) and neointimal plaque area (p < 0.05) depended significantly on injury score. Planimetric degradation correlated with time (r = 0.67, p < 0.01). Conclusion: Vascular implants consisting of magnesium alloy degradable by biocorrosion seem to be a realistic alternative to permanent implants. P ermanent metallic implants are key treatment options in cardiovascular interventions. However, specific drawbacks limit their more widespread use. These limitations include thrombogenicity, permanent physical irritation, mismatches in mechanical behaviour between stented and non-stented vessel areas, long term endothelial dysfunction, inability to adapt to growth, non-permissive or disadvantageous characteristics for later surgical revascularisation, and chronic inflammatory local reactions. Degradable implants offer more physiological repair, reconstitution of local vascular compliance, and a temporary, limited, longitudinal, and radial straightening effect, including the possibility for growth. These implants are "fulfilling the mission and stepping away" 1 and may act as a new biomedical tool satisfying the requirements of compatibility and integration.2 However, most biodegradable synthetic polymer stents must have greater bulk to approximate the mechanical performance required in arteries. Many also induce exaggerated acute and chronic inflammatory responses during degradation. 3To address this issue, we developed and tested a new concept of degradation after endovascular implantation of tailored magnesium alloys. We anticipated a more useful combination of mechanical stability over a limited time and complete degradation of the implants. METHODS AlloysMagnesium alloys containing small amounts of aluminium, manganese, zinc, lithium, and rare earth elements were preselected for their mechanical aspects and tested in vitro for degradation kinetics (synthetic seawater, Ringer lactate, and porcine and human serum; calculated stent half lives for different magnesium alloys were between minutes and about half a year) and the potential in...

ECMO support in patients who are awake and nonintubated represents a promising bridging strategy, which should be further evaluated to determine its role in patients with end-stage lung disease awaiting LuTx.

Los comentarios-anotaciones ( * ) incluidos en esta traducción de las Guías han sido realizados por la Dra. Eulalia Roig (Barcelona, España).

Background— Chronic heart failure is characterized by left ventricular remodeling and reactivation of a fetal gene program; the underlying mechanisms are only partly understood. Here we provide evidence that cardiac microRNAs, recently discovered key regulators of gene expression, contribute to the transcriptional changes observed in heart failure. Methods and Results— Cardiac transcriptome analyses revealed striking similarities between fetal and failing human heart tissue. Using microRNA arrays, we discovered profound alterations of microRNA expression in failing hearts. These changes closely mimicked the microRNA expression pattern observed in fetal cardiac tissue. Bioinformatic analysis demonstrated a striking concordance between regulated messenger RNA expression in heart failure and the presence of microRNA binding sites in the respective 3′ untranslated regions. Messenger RNAs upregulated in the failing heart contained preferentially binding sites for downregulated microRNAs and vice versa. Mechanistically, transfection of cardiomyocytes with a set of fetal microRNAs induced cellular hypertrophy as well as changes in gene expression comparable to the failing heart. Conclusions— Our data support a novel mode of regulation for the transcriptional changes in cardiac failure. Reactivation of a fetal microRNA program substantially contributes to alterations of gene expression in the failing human heart.