Differentiation of atrial fibrillation progression phenotypes using Troponin T.

BACKGROUND: Electro-anatomical remodeling in atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with disease initiation and progression. Troponin T (TropT) - a specific biomarker for myocardial damage - is associated with AF incidence. However, its association with AF progression is understudied. The aim of the current analysis was to investigate the association between TropT and AF progression phenotypes: persistent AF and left atrial low voltage areas (LVAs). METHODS: Patients undergoing first AF ablation were included into analyses. LVAs were determined using high-density maps and defined as <0.5 mV. Blood samples from femoral vein were collected before catheter ablation. The analysis of TropT serum concentrations was performed using a high-sensitive assay from Roche Diagnostics. Biomarkers, clinical, anthropometric and echocardiographic data were compared with healthy individuals from the epidemiological cohort. RESULTS: The study included 824 healthy individuals without overt cardiovascular disease (54 ±â€¯10 years, 40% males) from epidemiological cohort and 241 AF patients (64 ±â€¯11 years, 59% males, 59% persistent AF, 27% LVAs). Patients with AF had higher TropT levels and larger left atrium (LA), while healthy individuals had better renal function and ejection fraction (all p < 0.001). In clinical cohort, there were significant differences between TropT levels according to AF progression groups: paroxysmal AF without/with LVAs (n = 86/12), persistent AF without/with LVAs (n = 90/53): means 7.3, 12.9, 8.4, 11.3 pg/ml, p < 0.001, respectively. Similar findings were observed for LA and renal function (all p < 0.001). On ROC analysis, TropT significantly predicted LVAs (AUC 0.675, 95%CI 0.598-0.752, p < 0.001) in AF patients. CONCLUSIONS: TropT may be useful to differentiate AF progression phenotypes.

Thermal runaway of large automotive Li-ion batteries.

Damaged or heavily over-heated Li-ion batteries in electric vehicles can transit into a thermal runaway reaction with further heat and gas release. The heat may cause a battery fire and fast gas release may damage the battery-pack casing. To characterise heat and gas release of large automotive Li-ion cells, a heavy duty test bench was developed and a test series was performed.

High resolution neutron Larmor diffraction using superconducting magnetic Wollaston prisms.

The neutron Larmor diffraction technique has been implemented using superconducting magnetic Wollaston prisms in both single-arm and double-arm configurations. Successful measurements of the coefficient of thermal expansion of a single-crystal copper sample demonstrates that the method works as expected. The experiment involves a new method of tuning by varying the magnetic field configurations in the device and the tuning results agree well with previous measurements. The difference between single-arm and double-arm configurations has been investigated experimentally. We conclude that this measurement benchmarks the applications of magnetic Wollaston prisms in Larmor diffraction and shows in principle that the setup can be used for inelastic phonon line-width measurements. The achievable resolution for Larmor diffraction is comparable to that using Neutron Resonance Spin Echo (NRSE) coils. The use of superconducting materials in the prisms allows high neutron polarization and transmission efficiency to be achieved.