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The article presents an abstract on a paper titled "Incremental Value of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in the Characterization of Patients Referred for Left Ventricular Non Compaction Evaluation," presented at the 2011 Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR)/Euro CMR Joint Scientific Sessions held in France.

Background: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is widely used to confirm the diagnosis of acute myocarditis (AM) in the acute setting. CMR is often repeated after 6 months to assess the evolution of myocardial involvement. However, the clinical and prognostic role of 6-month CMR is unknown.Objectives: This multicenter study aimed to evaluate the clinical and prognostic role of 6-month repetition of CMR in patients with AM.Methods: In a subgroup of 187 patients from the ITAMY (ITAlian study in MYocarditis) registry, CMR was performed within the first week after symptom onset (CMR-I) and repeated after 6 months (CMR-II).Results: Myocardial edema was detected in all the patients at CMR-I and persisted in 31 (16%) at CMR-II. LGE was detected in 182 (96%) patients at CMR-I and in 164 (86%) at CMR-II. At CMR-II, 20 (11%) patients presented a complete recovery from edema and LGE, 30 (16%) patients had edema with LGE, and 137 (73%) presented LGE without edema. LGE disappeared completely in 18 (10%) patients, the number of LGE segments decreased in 87 (46%), unchanged in 58 (31%), and increased in 26 (14%). During a median clinical follow-up of 7 years (25th to 75th percentile: 6 to 8 years) cardiac events occurred in 22 patients. At Kaplan-Meier curves, patients with LGE and without edema had worse prognosis than others (p < 0.0001). Patients with increased extent of LGE (p = 0.02) had a worse prognosis than those with decreased/unchanged LGE. At multivariate Cox regression analysis, the midwall septal pattern of LGE and the presence of LGE without edema at CMR-II were independent predictors of a cardiac event.Conclusions: In the acute setting, LGE does not mean definite fibrosis, and it may disappear at 6 months. The presence of LGE without edema at 6-month CMR is associated with worse prognosis, particularly when distributed with a midwall septal pattern. LGE without edema could represent definite fibrosis whereas the presence of edema suggests a residual chance of recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prognostic role of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) has not been clarified in acute myocarditis (AM) with preserved left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF).Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the role of CMR and LGE in the prognosis of AM with preserved LVEF.Methods: This study analyzed data from ITAMY (ITalian multicenter study on Acute MYocarditis) and evaluated CMR results from 386 patients (299 male; mean age 35 ± 15 years) with AM and preserved LVEF. Clinical follow-up was performed for a median of 1,572 days. A clinical combined endpoint of cardiac death, appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator firing, resuscitated cardiac arrest, and hospitalization for heart failure was used.Results: Among the 374 patients with suitable images, LGE involved the subepicardial layer inferior and lateral wall in 154 patients (41%; IL group), the midwall layer of the anteroseptal wall in 135 patients (36%; AS [anteroseptal] group), and other segments in 59 patients (16%; other-LGE group), and it was absent in 26 patients (no-LGE group). The AS group had a greater extent of LGE and a higher LV end-diastolic volume index than other groups, but levels of inflammatory markers were lower than in the other groups. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis indicated that the AS group had a worse prognosis than the other groups (p < 0.0001). Finally, in multivariable analysis, AS LGE was the best independent CMR predictor of the combined endpoint (odds ratio: 2.73; 95% confidence interval: 1.2 to 5.9; p = 0.01).Conclusions: In patients with AM and preserved LVEF, LGE in the midwall layer of the AS myocardial segment is associated with a worse prognosis than other patterns of presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Institute of Radioastronomy (IRA-Bologna) of the National Institute for Astrophysics of Italy (INAF – Rome) joined the European group for the Square Kilometer Array Design Study (SKA-DS) in the frame of the FP6 program. One of the goals of the Design Study was the construction and test of a state of the art very small SKA prototype. A segment (1/8) of the N/S arm of the large Northern Cross array (408 MHz+/−8 MHz) was exploited to obtain a prototype array, made up by 8 cylindrical concentrators (23.5 mt×7.5 mt) equipped with 4 receivers each. In this way a 32 receivers array with a total collecting area of about 1400 m 2 was obtained. Signals are directly carried from the receivers, located on the focal lines, down to the back end, located in the processing room, via a very cost effective analog optical links. Here a fast back end, presently based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Berkeley-Roach boards, takes care of running the required complex algorithms to perform (non-adaptive) multi-beamforming with a 2D FFT. The main advantage of such an already working array is to produce 21 independent 31’×104’ beams located inside a 38 deg 2 Field Of View (FoV). Our plan is to search for funds to refit the remaining 56 cylinders of the N/S arm, to dramatically increase both the sensitivity and number of beams (pixels) placed in the same FoV. In this way, it could be possible to perform a deep SETI survey in the UHF band by an about 11.200 m 2 antenna (equivalent to a 119 m dish), a 37.6 deg 2 FOV and 189 independent beams. The system could be further expanded by installing more receivers on each N/S focal line, increasing the FOV and the number of pixels with the same sensitivity. Assuming that adequate funds could be found for refitting the giant E/W arm as well, an equivalent 180 m dish could be obtained to perform a very deep SETI sky survey with a 120 deg 2 FOV at high sensitivity. This would allow a very fast and deep sky survey in the UHF band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]