The FRANCE TAVI registry provided reassuring data regarding trends in TAVR performance in an all-comers population on a national scale. Nonetheless, given that TAVR indications are likely to expand to patients at lower surgical risk, concerns remain regarding potentially life-threatening complications and pacemaker implantation. (Registry of Aortic Valve Bioprostheses Established by Catheter [FRANCE TAVI]; NCT01777828).

A positive response to CRT was observed in 73% of patients at 6 months and predicted only by DeltaQRS.

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Background: To provide a cross-cultural French adaptation of the Achille's Tendon Total Rupture Score (ATRS) and to assess its psychometric performances. Method: The ATRS questionnaire was first translated and inter-culturally adapted into French according to international guidelines. Then, 95 subjects were recruited to complete the French version of the ATRS twice (2 weeks of interval). The SF-36 and VISA-A were used as comparative questionnaires. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated (test-retest reliability, internal consistency, construct validity, floor/ceiling effects). Results: Thetest-retest reliability was excellent (ICC of 0,966 (95% CI:0.644-0.879)) and the internal consistency very high (Cronbach's alpha of 0,98). The convergent and divergent construct validity were also confirmed. Finally, none of the subjects obtained the lowest score (0) or the maximal score (100) to the questionnaire. Conclusion: A valid and reliable French version of the ATRS is now available.

Purpose:To estimate the effect of the inflow effect on the arterial input function in vivo in cardiac and renal MR perfusion imaging using fast gradient echo (GRE) sequences and contrast media. Materials and Methods:The MR exam protocol was designed to acquire images at different phases of the cardiac cycle. The arterial input was thus influenced by various blood flow velocities.Results: It was found that the inflow effect was negligible in the left ventricle of the heart, while it was significantly higher in the aorta for the kidney perfusion measurement. This was principally due to the higher through-the-plane component of the blood flow velocity in the aorta than in the left ventricle. Conclusion:The inflow effect can be neglected in the heart cavity, but should be taken into account in renal perfusion. MAGNETIC RESONANCE FIRST PASS IMAGING TECHNIQUE and contrast media injection have been largely used for tissue perfusion quantification (1-8). Several models for tissue perfusion quantification have been proposed: the one compartment analysis (2), absolute blood flow quantification based on the up-slope method (4), and semiquantitative index (myocardium up-slope/blood up-slope) (9). All these models require the determination of the arterial input function. The tissue signal response depends on the shape of the bolus, which depends on the injection dose and rate and is subject to dispersion. Herein lies the importance of an accurate arterial input function determination. The inflow, or time-of-flight (TOF) effect is a source of imprecision in its determination. This effect is well known (10) and results in flow-related enhancement (FRE). Therefore signal to concentration conversion done with external calibrations on static phantoms is expected to lead to an overestimation of the arterial input function, and hence to the underestimation of the perfusion values. Generally, the inflow effect is not corrected in tissue perfusion measurements. Initially, when single-slice imaging was used, the inflow effect was avoided by acquiring the slice during diastole. Currently, with the increased performance of MR systems and the reduced imaging time that allow multislice acquisition with a high time sampling rate, part of the data is acquired during systole. Therefore it is important to address the inflow effect issue.In a previous assessment of the inflow effect on fast T1-weighted gradient echo (GRE) MR sequence in a flow phantom (11), it was found that the inflow effect resulted in an important signal intensity (SI) enhancement and contrast saturation for the RF-spoiled GRE sequence, at high flow rates and using a large acquisition matrix. This effect was reduced by using a GRE sequence with no RF-spoiler and reduced matrix size. Our aim here is to estimate the extent of the inflow effect in vivo, for the arterial input signal in the left ventricle (LV) for cardiac perfusion, and in the aorta for renal perfusion imaging. This can be done either by blood sampling (1,(12)(13)(14) or, as proposed here, by acquiring images a...