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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2006.05.004 Byline: Stefan Stork (a), Valerie Boivin (b), Rudiger Horf (a), Lutz Hein (b), Martin J. Lohse (b), Christiane E. Angermann (a), Roland Jahns (a)(b) Abstract: The aim of this study was to estimate the independent and incremental prognostic value of the presence of stimulating autoantibodies directed against the human [beta].sub.1-adrenergic receptor (anti-[beta].sub.1-AR) in patients with chronic heart failure. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Internal Medicine I / Center of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Wurzburg, Wurzburg, Germany (b) Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Wurzburg, Wurzburg, Germany Article History: Received 12 January 2006; Accepted 2 May 2006 Article Note: (footnote) Funding source: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Grant Ja 706/2-4; Ernst und Berta Grimmke Stiftung, Dusseldorf, Germany.

Data Warehouses (DW) are useful tools to support clinical studies as they can provide exports of routine care data for scientific reuse. Exported DW data is usually post-processed and integrated into study databases by study staff that is reasonably trained in specific tools like SPSS and Excel but which are no programmers or computer scientists. DW systems should therefore be configurable to satisfy export format desiderata as much as possible so that exports contain no unnecessary post-processing obstacles. In the presented work the authors analyze various existing DW systems in respect to a list of potential export formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the study which examined the noninvasive echocardiographic differentiation between old and fresh left ventricular thrombi following myocardial infarction. It claims that the differentiation is clinically important for the estimation of the risk for embolization and the necessity of anticoagulation. It cites the use of tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in assessing myocardial deformation.