Transplantation of skeletal myoblast in ischemic heart disease

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Open triple-branched stent graft applied to patient of acute type a aortic dissection with Aberrant Right Subclavian Artery

A 57-year-old Chinese male patient presented with Standford type A aortic dissection with an aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA). At operation, the ascending aorta was replaced by a mono–branch vascular prosthesis with the branch bypassing to the ARSA; the triple-branched stent graft was inserted into the true lumen of the arch and proximal descending aorta (covering the origin of the ARSA) with each sidearm graft being positioned into the aortic branches; and then its proximal end was sutured to mono–branched vascular prosthesis. Follow-up computed tomography angiography showed false lumen of the dissection disappeared with satisfactory position of the triple-branched stent graft

Preparation of UV-resistant PET fibres by direct melt spinning with on-line addition

In order to solve the uniform dispersion of inorganic particles and dispersion characterization, a batch of UV-resistant fibres has been manufactured by direct melt spinning with on-line addition. By combining image analysis software with OM images, the dispersion of TiO2 has been quantitatively analyzed. The formula of mass fraction of inorganic particles in fibre is deduced on the basis of crystallinity, and the calculated value is found consistent with theoretical value. Additionally, the comparative study of direct spinning and chip spinning shows that the former presents better dispersion of inorganic particles and superior performance. The tenacity of fibres from melt-direct spinning increases by 13.87%， the CV value decreases by 75.19% and Heywood diameter of TiO2 particles decreases by 13.97%. According to national standard (GB/T 18830-2009), UPF values of the fabric are found much greater than the standard [UPF>40, T(UVA)<5%]

The impact of tracheotomy on levels of procalcitonin in patients without sepsis: a prospective study

OBJECTIVE:Procalcitonin is a reliable biomarker of infection and sepsis. We aimed to determine whether tracheotomy influences the procalcitonin concentrations in patients without sepsis and assess whether operative duration and procedure affect the peak procalcitonin level.METHODS:A total of 38 non-septic patients who required a tracheotomy underwent either a percutaneous dilatational tracheotomy (n=19) or a surgical tracheotomy (n=19). Procalcitonin levels were measured at the beginning of the tracheotomy and at 2 h, 4 h, 8 h, 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after the procedure.RESULTS:The baseline procalcitonin concentration before the tracheotomy was 0.24±0.13 ng/mL. The postoperative levels increased rapidly, with a 4-fold elevation after 2 h, reaching a peak 4 h later with a 5-fold increase over baseline. Thereafter, the levels gradually returned to 2-fold greater than the baseline level within 72 h. The peak levels of procalcitonin showed a significant positive correlation with operative durations (r=0.710,

2.5D cascaded context-based network for liver and tumor segmentation from CT images

The existing 2D/3D strategies still have limitations in human liver and tumor segmentation efficiency. Therefore, this paper proposes a 2.5D network combing cascaded context module (CCM) and Ladder Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling (L-ASPP), named CCLNet, for automatic liver and tumor segmentation from CT. First, we utilize the 2.5D mode to improve the training efficiency; Second, we employ the ResNet-34 as the encoder to enhance the segmentation accuracy. Third, the L-ASPP module is used to enlarge the receptive field. Finally, the CCM captures more local and global feature information. We experimented on the LiTS17 and 3DIRCADb datasets. Experimental results prove that the method skillfully balances accuracy and cost, thus having good prospects in liver and liver segmentation in clinical assistance

S-diclofenac Protects against Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiomyopathy in Mice via Ameliorating Cardiac Gap Junction Remodeling

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), as a novel gaseous mediator, plays important roles in mammalian cardiovascular tissues. In the present study, we investigated the cardioprotective effect of S-diclofenac (2-[(2,6-dichlorophenyl)amino] benzeneacetic acid 4-(3H-1,2,dithiol-3-thione-5-yl)phenyl ester), a novel H2S-releasing derivative of diclofenac, in a murine model of doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. After a single dose injection of doxorubicin (15 mg/kg, i.p.), male C57BL/6J mice were given daily treatment of S-diclofenac (25 and 50 µmol/kg, i.p.), diclofenac (25 and 50 µmol/kg, i.p.), NaHS (50 µmol/kg, i.p.), or same volume of vehicle. The cardioprotective effect of S-diclofenac was observed after 14 days. It showed that S-diclofenac, but not diclofenac, dose-dependently inhibited the doxorubicin-induced downregulation of cardiac gap junction proteins (connexin 43 and connexin 45) and thus reversed the remodeling of gap junctions in hearts. It also dose-dependently suppressed doxorubicin-induced activation of JNK in hearts. Furthermore, S-diclofenac produced a dose-dependent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effect in this model. As a result, S-diclofenac significantly attenuated doxorubicin-related cardiac injury and cardiac dysfunction, and improved the survival rate of mice with doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. These effects of S-diclofenac were mimicked in large part by NaHS. Therefore, we propose that H2S released from S-diclofenac in vivo contributes to the protective effect in doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. These data also provide evidence for a critical role of H2S in the pathogenesis of doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy

Successful treatment for acute aortic dissection in pregnancy---bentall procedure concomitant with cesarean section

Acute aortic type A dissection is a life-threatening disease that requires immediate surgical intervention. When dissection occurs during pregnancy, it is of high risk for both the mother and the fetus. In this study, we reported two cases of acute aortic dissection in late pregnancy at 28 weeks and 32 weeks of gestation respectively. After the two patients underwent a cesarean section and delivered a baby, we performed composite graft replacement of the aortic valve, aortic root and ascending aorta, with re-implantation of the coronary arteries into the graft (Bentall procedure) instead of repairing the arch with deep hypothermia and circulation arrest. Both mothers and children survived and recovered well

Multiple targets related to mitochondrial function unveiled by metabolomics and proteomics profiles of hearts from atrial fibrillation patients

Background: The prominent mitochondrial metabolic changes of the atrium reportedly have significant impact on electrical signals and structural remodeling which play important roles in the occurrence and development of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the mechanism is not completely known.Objective: This study was aimed to explore the mitochondrial metabolism reprogrammed in AF patients by integrating metabolomics as well as proteomics of human atrium tissues.Methods and Results: Left atrial tissue samples were harvested from 10 non-valvular AF patients and 10 matched samples from healthy donors for transplantation. In metabolomics analysis, 113 metabolites were upregulated and 10 metabolites were downregulated in AF, where multiple pathways related to mitochondrial energy metabolism were enriched. Correlation analysis between the differentially expressed proteins and metabolites identified several hub proteins related to mitochondrial function including Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 2 (GPD2), Synemin (SYNM), Plectin (PLEC), with MCC score of 27, 17, 16, respectively, which have the most interactions with the dysregulated metabolites and ranked at the top in network string interactions scored by MCC method. All 330 differentially expressed proteins including 225 upregulated and 105 downregulated molecules were revealed and analyzed, which identified the downregulation of GPD2 (p = 0.02 and FC = 0.77), PLEC (p < 0.001 and FC = 0.71) and SYNM (p = 0.04 and FC = 0.76) in AF patients. Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSEA) showed mitochondrial metabolism-associated pathways including oxidative phosphorylation (NES: −1.73) and ATP biosynthetic process (NES: −2.29), were dramatically diversified in human AF. In GSVA, the expression levels of GPD2, PLEC, and SYNM were demonstrated to be associated with multiple metabolic pathways related to mitochondrial function (e.g., lipid metabolism and AMP activated protein kinase signaling) and cardiac structural and electrical remodeling (e.g., contractile fiber, ion homeostasis), which were proven vital in the development and maintenance of AF.Conclusion: In all, this study provides new insights into understanding the mechanisms of AF progression, especially the reprogramming mitochondrial metabolism, and identifies several genes related to mitochondrial function as novel targets for AF, which may be involved in the occurrence and development of AF