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Aims The medical need for screening of aortic valve stenosis (AS), which leads to timely and appropriate medical intervention, is rapidly increasing because of the high prevalence of AS in elderly population. This study aimed to establish a screening method using understandable artificial intelligence (AI) to detect severe AS based on heart sounds and to package the built AI into a smartphone application. Methods and results In this diagnostic accuracy study, we developed multiple convolutional neural networks (CNNs) using a modified stratified five-fold cross-validation to detect severe AS in electronic heart sound data recorded at three auscultation locations. Clinical validation was performed with the developed smartphone application in an independent cohort (model establishment: n = 556, clinical validation: n = 132). Our ensemble technique integrating the heart sounds from multiple auscultation locations increased the detection accuracy of CNN model by compensating detection errors. The established smartphone application achieved a sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and F1 value of 97.6% (41/42), 94.4% (85/90), 95.7% (126/132), and 0.93, respectively, which were higher compared with the consensus of cardiologists (81.0%, 93.3%, 89.4%, and 0.829, respectively), implying a good utility for severe AS screening. The Gradient-based Class Activation Map demonstrated that the built AIs could focus on specific heart sounds to differentiate the severity of AS. Conclusions Our CNN model combining multiple auscultation locations and exported on smartphone application could efficiently identify severe AS based on heart sounds. The visual explanation of AI decisions for heart sounds was interpretable. These technologies may support medical training and remote consultations.

Esophageal thermal lesions following pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) for atrial fibrillation (AF) potentially harbor lethal complications. Radiofrequency (RF)-PVI using contact force-technology can reduce collateral damage. We evaluated the incidence of endoscopically detected esophageal lesions (EDEL) and the contribution of contact force to esophageal lesion formation without esophageal temperature monitoring. One hundred and thirty-one AF patients underwent contact force-guided RF-PVI. Contact force, energy, force-time-integral, and force-power-time-integral were adopted. During PVI at the posterior segment of the wide antral circumferential line, limits were set for energy (30 W), duration (30 s) and contact force (40 g). Ablations were analyzed postero-superior and -inferior around PVs. Endoscopy within 120 h identified EDEL in six patients (4.6%). In EDEL(+), obesity was less frequent (17% vs. 68%, p = 0.018), creatinine was higher (1.55 ± 1.18 vs. 1.07 ± 0.42 mg/dL, p = 0.016), and exclusively at the left postero-inferior site, force-time-integral and force-power-time-integral were greater (2973 ± 3267 vs. 1757 ± 1262 g·s, p = 0.042 and 83,547 ± 105,940 vs. 43,556 ± 35,255 g·J, p = 0.022, respectively) as compared to EDEL(−) patients. No major complications occurred. At 12 months, arrhythmia-free survival was 74%. The incidence of EDEL was low after contact force-guided RF-PVI. Implementing combined contact force-indices on the postero-inferior site of left-sided PVs may reduce EDEL.

Introduction: Periprocedural oral anticoagulation (OAC) strategies for atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation procedures are changing rapidly. Objective: To assess the management and course of periprocedural OAC for AF ablation procedures in experienced electrophysiology (EP) centers in Germany over the last 12 months. Methods: The data are based on an electronic questionnaire, which was sent to 35 experienced EP centers in September 2018 and then exactly 1 year later. Participants provided information on their periprocedural OAC management, the handling with dual therapy (OAC plus single antiplatelet therapy), the availability of specific antidotes, the transseptal puncture approach, and noteworthy complications. Results: Responses were received from all 35 centers and represent 10,010 AF ablation procedures annually. In 2018, the administration of vitamin K antagonist (VKA) was continued throughout the procedure at all centers (100%). In contrast, the majority of centers used minimally interrupted periprocedural non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOAC) (54.3%), 13 centers (37.2%) completely interrupted NOAC, and only 3 centers (8.5%) continued NOAC throughout the procedure. At the 1-year follow-up survey, 32 centers were found to have continued their previous strategy of periprocedural OAC and 3 changed from a minimally interrupted to a continued NOAC strategy. Of note, 30 centers (85.7%) performed transseptal puncture fluoroscopically without additional cardiac imaging. In the setting of uninterrupted periprocedural OAC management, no relevant complications were noted. Conclusion: Our survey shows marked heterogeneous periprocedural OAC management at experienced EP centers in Germany. Whereas continuation of VKA has already been integrated into clinical practice, the majority of centers still use a minimally interrupted NOAC strategy.

The aim of the present study was to determine whether free thyroxine (FT4) and calculated thyroid parameters predict the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias in euthyroid heart failure patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD). In this open-label prospective cohort study, 115 consecutive euthyroid patients (mean age 62.9 ± 1.3 years; 87% male; ischemic cardiomyopathy 63%) scheduled for primary prevention ICD implantation or exchange were enrolled. Serum concentrations of thyrotropin (thyroid-stimulating hormone) and FT4 were measured 1 day before device operation. Primary and secondary end points were defined as occurrence of appropriate ICD therapy (AIT) and cardiovascular death, respectively. During a mean follow-up of 1,191 ± 35 days, 24 patients (21%) experienced AIT, and cardiovascular death was observed in 10 patients (9%). Patients with AIT had higher FT4 concentrations compared with those without AIT (18.9 ± 0.48 vs 16.2 ± 0.22 pmol/L, p0.001). FT4 was an independent predictor of AIT in an adjusted Cox regression (hazard ratio = 1.47, p0.001). Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that Jostel's thyroid-stimulating hormone index, reflecting the central component of the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid loop, and SPINA-GT as surrogate markers for thyroid's secretory capacity predicted AIT incidences. None of the indices predicted cardiovascular death. In conclusion, FT4 concentration predicts an increased incidence of ventricular arrhythmias in euthyroid patients receiving ICDs for primary prevention. Our data suggest that both impending primary hyperthyroidism and an increased thyroid homeostasis set point may increase the rate of AIT in this patient population.

Objective For risk stratification of sudden cardiac death in patients with structural heart disease, more precise predictors in addition to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) are clinically needed. The present study assessed the utility of galectin-3 as an independent indicator for the prognosis of heart failure patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD). Methods The study population consisted of 91 consecutive patients who underwent a routine ICD checkup in our ICD outpatient clinic. Circulating galectin-3 was assessed using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The enrolled patients were prospectively followed. The primary endpoint was defined as the occurrence of appropriate ICD therapy (AIT), and the secondary endpoint was defined as the occurrence of unplanned overnight hospitalization due to decompensated heart failure (dHF). Results During a mean follow-up of 472±107 days, AIT occurred in 18 patients (20%). Unplanned hospitalizations due to dHF were noted in 12 patients (13%). A receiver-operative characteristics analysis demonstrated a sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 68% for AIT occurrences with a galectin-3 cut-off value of 13.1 ng/mL (area under the curve =0.82). A Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that patients with galectin-313.1 ng/mL had significantly higher incidences of AIT as compared to those with lower galectin-3 (log-rank, p0.001). This significance was also observed in both subgroup analyses with ischemic and non-ischemic etiology. Cox regression demonstrated that higher galectin-3 was an independent predictor of AIT and dHF, even after adjusting for previous arrhythmic events. Conclusion The circulating galectin-3 level can be used as a clinical indicator of subsequent occurrence of ventricular arrhythmic events and decompensated heart failure, regardless of a history of ventricular arrhythmias.

Background Aortic stenosis is still one of the major causes of sudden cardiac death in the elderly. Noninvasive screening for severe aortic valve stenosis (AS) may result in early cardiac diagnostic leading to an appropriate and timely medical intervention. Purpose The aims of this study were 1) to develop an artificial intelligence to detect severe AS based on heart sounds and 2) to build an application to screen patients using electronic stethoscope and smartphones, which will provide an efficient diagnostic workflow for screening as a complementary tool in daily clinical practice. Methods We enrolled 100 patients diagnosed with severe AS and 200 patients without severe AS (no echocardiographic sign of AS [n=100], mild AS [n=50], moderate AS [n=50]). The heart sounds were recorded in 4000 Hz waveform audio format at the following 3 sites of each patient; the 2nd intercostal right sternal border, the Erb's area and the apex. Each record was divided into multiple data of 4 seconds duration, which built 10800 sound records in total. We developed multiple convolutional neural networks (CNN) designed to recognize severe AS in heart sounds according to the recorded 3 sites. We adopted a stratified 4-fold cross-validation method by which the CNN was trained with 60% of the whole data, validated with 20% data and tested with the remaining 20% data not used during training and validation. As performance metrics we adopted the accuracy, F1 value and the area under the curve (AUC) calculated as the average of all cross-validation folds. For the smartphone application, we combined the best CNN-models from each recorded site for the best performance. Further 40 patients were newly enrolled for its clinical validation (no AS [n=10], mild AS [n=10], moderate AS [n=10], severe AS [n=10]). Results The accuracy, F1 value and AUC of each model were 88.9±5.7%, 0.888±0.006 and 0.953±0.008, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity were 87.9±2.2% and 89.9±2.4%. The recognition accuracy of moderate AS was significantly lower as compared to the other AS grades (moderate AS 74.1±6.1% vs no AS 98.0±1.4%, mild AS 97.6±1.2%, severe AS 87.9±2.2%, respectively, P Our smartphone application showed a sensitivity of 100% (10/10), a specificity of 73.3% (22/30), and an accuracy of 80.0% (32/40), which implicated a good utility for screening. In the detailed analysis of 8 mistaken decisions, these were highly affected by the presence of severe mitral or tricuspid valve regurgitation despite of non-severe AS (7/8 [87.5%]). Conclusions This study demonstrated the promising possibility of an end-to-end screening for severe aortic valve stenosis using an electronic stethoscope and a smartphone application. This technology may improve the efficacy of daily medicine particularly where the human resource is limited or support a remote medical consultation. Further investigations are necessary to increase accuracy. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Background Uninterrupted anticoagulation during catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (CAAF) became standard of care after positive results of trials investigating vitamin K antagonists (VKA). Previous studies and meta-analyses of uninterrupted direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) vs. VKA have given controversial results. We thus aimed to elucidate the risks and benefits of uninterrupted DOAC vs. VKA during CAAF in an updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods Online databases were searched for RCTs comparing uninterrupted DOAC to VKA in patients undergoing CAAF until September 2019. Data from retrieved studies were analysed in a comprehensive meta-analysis. Primary safety outcome was major bleeding; primary efficacy outcome was stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). Secondary outcomes included a composite of major bleeding and stroke or TIA, minor bleeding, acute cerebral lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (ACL) and mortality. Results Six eligible RCTs comprising 2,369 patients were included. Pooled meta-analysis showed no significant differences in DOAC vs. VKA concerning the rates of major bleeding (2.2% vs. 3.8%; odds ratio (OR) 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.30–1.56; p=0.37) and stroke or TIA (0.2% vs. 0.2%; OR 0.97, CI 0.20–4.72; p=0.97). There were no significant differences found in secondary outcomes (OR 0.73, p=0.49 for composite of major bleeding and stroke or TIA; OR 1.08, p=0.52 for minor bleeding; OR 1.12, p=0.59 for ACL; and OR=0.60, p=0.64 for all-cause mortality). Conclusion Our meta-analysis suggests that uninterrupted periprocedural anticoagulation with DOAC or VKA is characterized by a similar risk/benefit ratio in patients undergoing CAAF with comparable rates of major bleeding and stroke. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: Public Institution(s). Main funding source(s): Medical faculty of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany

Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing rapidly in the medical technology field, particularly in image analysis. ECG-diagnosis is an image analysis in the sense that cardiologists assess the waveforms presented in a 2-dimensional image. We hypothesized that an AI using a convolutional neural network (CNN) may also recognize ECG images and patterns accurately. We used the PTB ECG database consisting of 289 ECGs including 148 myocardial infarction (MI) cases to develop a CNN to recognize MI in ECG. Our CNN model, equipped with 6-layer architecture, was trained with training-set ECGs. After that, our CNN and 10 physicians are tested with test-set ECGs and compared their MI recognition capability in metrics F1 (harmonic mean of precision and recall) and accuracy. The F1 and accuracy by our CNN were significantly higher (83 ± 4%, 81 ± 4%) as compared to physicians (70 ± 7%, 67 ± 7%, P

Background The prognostic implications of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) and their significance as therapeutic targets in patients without prior sustained ventricular arrhythmias remain undetermined. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of asymptomatic NSVT in patients who had primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation due to ischemic or non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM, NICM). Methods We enrolled 157 consecutive primary prevention ICD patients without previous appropriate ICD therapy (AIT). Patients were allocated to two groups depending on the presence or absence of NSVT in a 6-month period prior to enrollment. The incidence of AIT and unplanned hospitalization due to decompensated heart failure (HF) were assessed during follow-up. Results In 51 patients (32%), precedent NSVT was documented. During a median follow-up of 1011 days, AIT occurred in 36 patients (23%) and unplanned HF hospitalization was observed in 32 patients (20%). In precedent NSVT patients, the incidence of AIT and unplanned HF hospitalization was significantly higher as compared to patients without precedent NSVT (AIT: 29/51 [57%] vs. 7/106 [7%], P P = 0.043, log-rank). Cox-regression demonstrated that precedent NSVT independently predicted AIT (P P P = 0.020), but predicted HF hospitalization only in patients with ICM (P = 0.0030). Conclusions Precedent non-sustained VT in patients with primary prevention ICDs is associated with subsequent appropriate ICD therapies, and is an independent predictor of unplanned heart failure hospitalizations in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy.

Introduction The single-chamber implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) can be associated with more frequent inappropriate therapies compared with dual-chamber ICDs, when they are accompanied by a simpler implantation procedure. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of a single-lead ICD system with atrial-sensing electrodes results in a reduction of inappropriate ICD therapy. Methods and results The study population consisted of 212 consecutive patients, who underwent primary prophylactic single-lead ICD implantation at our institute. A ventricular lead with atrial-sensing electrodes was implanted in 77 patients (36%; Group-VDD) and a ventricular lead without atrial-sensing electrodes was implanted in 135 patients (64%; Group-VVI). Procedural and follow-up data were collected in a prospective registry. A higher prevalence of atrial fibrillation was present in Group-VDD. There were no other significant differences in patient baseline characteristics (age, sex, and other comorbidities) or follow-up period between the two groups. The operative parameters including fluoroscopic burden showed no significant differences between Group-VDD and Group-VVI. During a mean follow-up period of 697 ± 392 days, 26 patients (12%) experienced appropriate ICD therapies and 13 patients (6%) suffered inappropriate ICD therapies. The incidence of inappropriate ICD therapies in Group-VDD was significantly lower as compared to that of Group-VVI (1/77 [1%] vs 12/135 [9%]; log-rank, P = 0.028). The incidence of appropriate ICD therapies and the occurrence of device-related complications showed no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion Single-lead ICD with atrial-sensing electrodes shows a lower incidence of inappropriate ICD therapy compared with the absence of atrial-sensing electrodes, without additional operative burden or increased complications.

In the present paper I attempt an interpretation of Martin Heidegger’s analysis of animality, developed in winter semester 1929/1930. My general purpose is to examine Heidegger’s analysis in the wider context of formal-indicative phenomenology as such. Thus I show that in order to develop a phenomenology of animality, Heidegger must tacitly renounce the re-enactment of animal experience in which the formal-indicative concepts of his analysis could gain concreteness, and he resorts instead to scientific concepts and concrete experiments in biology or zoology. This is due to the fact that what I call the a-logical bursts into the field of the phenomenological regard when it is oriented toward animality. I therefore argue that the phenomenology of animality presents us with a paradigmatic case of a tension that is at work in any phenomenon, one between logos and a-logos, between hiddenness and unhiddenness—constituting a basic problem of future research in phenomenology and its approach to intersubjectivity and alterity.

Background: Periprocedural uninterrupted anticoagulation for catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) became standard after positive results of vitamin K antagonist (VKA) trials. Previous studies of uninterrupted direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) vs. VKA have given controversial results. We thus aimed to elucidate the risk/benefit ratio of uninterrupted DOAC vs. VKA during catheter ablation of AF in an updated meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: Online databases were searched for RCTs comparing uninterrupted DOAC to VKA in patients undergoing catheter ablation of AF. Data from retrieved studies were analysed in a comprehensive meta-analysis. Primary safety outcome was major bleeding; primary efficacy outcome was stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). Secondary outcomes included a composite of major bleeding and stroke or TIA, minor bleeding, acute cerebral lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and mortality. Results: Six eligible RCTs comprising 2,369 patients were included. There were no significant differences in DOAC vs. VKA concerning the rates of major bleeding (2.2% vs. 3.8%; odds ratio (OR) 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.30–1.56; p = .37) and stroke or TIA (0.2% vs. 0.2%; OR 0.97, CI 0.20–4.72; p = .97). Pooled meta-analysis of secondary outcomes revealed no significant differences (OR 0.73, p = .49 for composite of major bleeding and stroke or TIA; OR 1.08, p = .52 for minor bleeding; OR 1.12, p = .59 for acute cerebral lesions on MRI; and OR 0.60, p = .64 for all-cause mortality). Conclusion: Our meta-analysis suggests that uninterrupted DOAC is not superior to VKA in patients undergoing catheter ablation of AF with comparable rates of major bleeding and stroke.

In this paper I attempt a reading of Heidegger's interpretations of St. Paul's Epistles in light of the distinction between Eastern and Western thought. To this end, I suggest that Heidegger's recourse to the Paulinic texts represents his endeavor to gain access to the original structures of life by circumventing the metaphysical framework of Greek (Plato's and Aristotle's) thought. Thus, I argue that by doing this, Heidegger actually approaches the Eastern way of thinking, i.e. a non-metaphysical alternative. In order to better understand what defines Eastern thought, I discuss in some detail Zizioulas's interpretations of temporality in Eastern Christianity. Along the lines of this different understanding of temporality, the proximity of Heideggerian thought can be seen. Finally, I show that the importance of my argument lies in that it can open a possible research path for what Heidegger in his latter works calls "the other beginning."

Item does not contain fulltext I examine Brentano’s strategic positioning between German Idealism and British Empiricism, exemplified by Kant and Mill, focusing on the idea of mathematics as foundational science. For Brentano mathematics is both logically and chronologically prior to all other sciences. However, the 1874 Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte does not give a complete enough picture of Brentano’s philosophy of mathematics, discussion of which must be based on textual evidence from his lecture notes and manuscripts, particularly Megethologie. Here Brentano clarifies that mathematics is not inductive, but a purely deductive and a priori science. Against Mill, Brentano argues that induction in the sciences is justified by the calculus of probability, which is founded on a priori mathematical deduction. Through the analysis of Brentano’s mathematical foundations of science and comparative analysis of his critique of Kant and Mill, we can better understand Brentano’s project of philosophy as science.