In this young patient, the endovascular treatment of a thoracoabdominal aneurysm with an uncovered stent made it possible to stabilize the aneurysm process without exposing the patient to the high morbidity and mortality of open surgery.

The present work presents a numerical study of two axial ventricular assist devices (VADs) with two different designs. The geometry of the first design was inspired by DeBakey's rotary blood pump and the geometry of the second design is based on BioCirc’s pediatric VAD. The goal is to see which of the two designs has promising capabilities in terms of pressure differential, flow rate, and thrombosis before proceeding to deeper investigations. In this study a computational fluid dynamics tool was used to simulate and calculate the hemodynamics in the two investigated models. Both models were investigated for a flow rate of 5 L/min at rotational speeds between 10 000 and 15 000 rpm.

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BackgroundThe diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis continues to be a clinical challenge. Magnetic resonance imaging provides excellent visualization of the pericardium. The aim of our study is to clarify the contribution of this non invasive exploration in the diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis in our center.Methodswe conducted a prospective study over a period of two years, since 2008, covering a series of patients (n = 11), mean age 44 ± 15 years, in whom constrictive pericarditis was suspected clinically and on transthoracic echocardiography. We studied its characteristics on magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsMagnetic resonance imaging confirmed the diagnosis showing pericardial thickening in all cases, measuring 8.2 +/- 2.6 mm on average, circumferential in 64%, and localized in 36%. The imaging data, particularly pericardial thickening and its topography, were confirmed by surgical exploration, and results were concordant in all cases.ConclusionMagnetic resonance imaging is a powerful tool to establish constrictive pericarditis diagnosis.