Non-Destructive Identification of Fibre Orientation in Multi-Ply Biaxial Laminates Using Contact Temperature Sensors.

Fibre orientation within composite structures dictates the material properties of the laminate once cured. The ability to accurately and automatically assess fibre orientation of composite parts is a significant enabler in the goal to optimise the established processes within aftermarket aerospace industries. Incorrect ply lay-up results in a structure with undesirable material properties and as such, has the potential to fail under safe working loads. Since it is necessary to assure structural integrity during re-manufacture and repair assessment, the paper demonstrates a novel method of readily and non-destructively determining fibre orientation throughout multi-ply Biaxial woven composite laminates using point temperature contact sensors and data analysis techniques. Once cured, only the outermost laminates are visible to assess orientation. The inspection method is conducted visually, with reference guides to allow for rapid adoption with minimum training, as well as harnessing established temperature sensors within the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) environment. The system is amenable to integration within existing repair/re-manufacture processes without significant impact to process flow. The method is able to identify noisy samples with an accuracy, precision and recall of 0.9, and for synthetically created samples of double the cure ply thickness, a precision of 0.75, a recall of 0.7 and an accuracy of 0.87.

Endocarditis in a large district general hospital: A study of the microbiological spectrum between 2000 and 2011.

Infective endocarditis is one of three common cardiac infections in the United Kingdom, in addition to myocarditis and pericarditis, with a reported incidence of 1.7 to 6.2 cases per 100,000 patient years. Infective endocarditis can often have serious consequences and a wide variety of organisms may be the causative pathogen. There are little published data regarding the exact spectrum of organisms that cause endocarditis in the United Kingdom and whether organisms such as streptococci still dominate. In the present study, all cases of endocarditis at the authors' institution, representing a typical nontertiary centre, were retrospectively examined and audited to provide a snapshot of the organism spectrum in these patients. The cases of more than 120 patients who were coded as having endocarditis by the institution's clinical coding department during the period between December 2000 and January 2011 were examined. Microbiological tests and clinical case notes of all patients were reviewed. Of the 101 patients diagnosed with and treated for endocarditis, 64 were male, with a mean age of 60.57 years. The most common organisms identified were Streptococcus species (31%), Staphylococcus aureus (27%) and Enterococcus faecalis (21%). The organisms with the highest associated mortality rate were S aureus and the 'other organism' group, which included non-HACEK group (Haemophilus species, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Cardiobacterium hominis, Eikenella corrodens and Kingella species) pathogens such as Candida albicans. Streptococcus species and S aureus remain the main cause of endocarditis in a typical hospital setting in the United Kingdom, although in a smaller proportion of cases than historical data suggests. Overall, mortality remains high, and the clinician should remain vigilant to endocarditis in any patient with a positive blood culture because the number of cases of endocarditis caused by less typical organisms are increasing.

Clinical characteristics and survival in cardiogenic shock admissions to a UK heart transplant unit.

AIM: We describe the characteristics and outcomes of cardiogenic shock (CS) admissions to a UK transplant unit, which is previously unreported. PATIENTS & METHODS: Fifty-nine unselected, consecutive patients over a 38-month period in CS (INTERMACS ≤2) and potentially eligible for transplant were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Patients were predominantly male (76.3%), young (mean age 42.2 years) and with severe end-organ dysfunction (acute liver/kidney injury 83%, mean lactate 3.5 mmol/l). 57.6% required mechanical support and 28.8% cardiac transplant. 30 days, discharge and 1-year survival were 78, 68 and 63%, respectively. Predictors of death included no transplant, increasing age and increasing creatinine. CONCLUSION: Patients with CS and potential for transplant require significant resource input but demonstrate favorable outcomes in our experience.

Long Term Outcomes in Stress Echocardiography: Ten Year Follow up of a Cohort in a Single Centre.

BACKGROUD: The high service burden for acute admissions and referrals via rapid access chest pain clinics for evaluation of possible coronary artery disease means that many patients are now undergoing an investigation such as stress echocardiography as part of their evaluation. We aimed to see if the reassurance provided by negative stress echocardiography correlates with long-term event free survival. METHODS: A cohort of all patients who were referred at a single centre for stress echocardiography for diagnosis of coronary artery disease between January 1st 1999 and December 31st 2000 were followed up at least 10 years following theirs stress echocardiogram for further major cardiovascular events and mortality. RESULTS: A total of 64 patients were identified where records could be obtained for analysis. There were 16 positive scans, 37 negative scans and 11 inconclusive scans. The indeterminacy rate of scans was 17%, the sensitivity rate for detecting significant disease as indexed to invasive angiography was 88 % and the specificity rate compared with angiography was 75%. There were no myocardial infarctions or new diagnoses of heart failure in the negative echocardiogram group. There were seven deaths in the total population and only one death from cardiovascular causes in the negative echocardiogram group. CONCLUSION: Stress echocardiography even in this small group predicts long-term outcomes as well as invasive coronary angiography.

Aneurysmal 'pepper-pot' atrial septal defect in an older gentleman with multiple cerebrovascular attacks.

Our patient presented to a large university teaching hospital with a history of light-headedness, falls and multiple cerebrovascular ischaemic events. This caused a right sided hemiplegia and the patient experienced significant functional limitation. Extensive investigations were carried out to exclude any causative factors such as carotid artery disease and the patient had all identifiable cardiovascular risk factors identified and modified. No significant pathology was found and a referral was made to the cardiology service. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a complex type 3 perforate 'pepper pot' atrial septal aneurysm with associated thrombus. The patient was commenced on warfarin and appropriate rate limiting medication. After discussion of all interventional modalities, the patient opted for conservative management.

Aggressive cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus: a case report and a comprehensive literature review.

Background. We present the case of a 35-year-old gentleman who presented with an aggressive cardiomyopathy with normal coronary arteries. He was later diagnosed with systemic lupus-related cardiomyopathy. Methods. We undertook an extensive review of the literature regarding cardiac manifestations of lupus and used over 100 journals to identify the key points in pathology, diagnosis, and treatment. Results. We have shown that cardiac lupus can be rapidly progressive and, unless treated early, can have severe consequences. The predominant pathologies are immune complex and accelerated atherosclerosis drive. Treatment comprised of high-level immunosuppression.

Late outcomes after drug-eluting stent implantation in "real-world" clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: We report the late outcomes in 411 consecutive patients undergoing drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation by a single operator between 2003-2006. METHODS: Prospective registry with continuous follow up. Patients with stable angina (SA) or acute coronary syndrome (ACS) received DES for long lesions, small vessels, chronic total occlusion, bifurcation, aorto-ostial, left main, post atherectomy or saphenous vein graft lesions, multivessel/multilesion single-vessel (V) disease, in-stent restenosis (ISR) or diabetes. RESULTS: Age range: 34-86 years. One hundred sixty-six (40.3%) had ACS, 98.3% hypercholesterolemia and 14.6% diabetes. Two hundred sixty-one (63.5%) had percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to 1V and 150 (36.5%) to >1V. Six hundred seven V were treated. Two hundred fifty-nine patients (63%) had multilesion PCI, and 109 (26.5%) 1V multilesion PCI. Two hundred ninety-three (71.3%) patients had long lesions and 224 had Vs < 2.75 mm diameter. 75.5% of lesions were Type B2/C. 1-8 stents were implanted/patient. Eight hundred twenty-two of 883 stents were DES. One hundred eight patients received > or = 1 stent of < or = 2.5 mm diameter and 246 patients received stents greater than or equal to 20 mm long. Twenty-five patients developed late complications. ISR occurred in 23, 3.5-38 months after DES implantation. Three had sudden late DES thrombosis (LST). One-third also had ISR. Twenty of twenty-five required PCI, 1 CABG and 4 medical treatment. Subsequently, 3 of the 20 required further PCI for recurrent ISR and 1 CABG. 9 patients died during 1-5-year follow up. CONCLUSIONS: In "real-world" patients at increased risk of ISR after bare-metal stenting (BMS), "off-label" DES implantation has a low incidence of late complications. The most common is ISR which presents later than after BMS. Acute LST is serious but unusual and may be accompanied by ISR.