Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in patients with peripheral arterial disease does not affect circulating monocyte subpopulations

Monocytes are mononuclear cells characterized by distinct morphology and expression of CD14 and CD16 surface receptors. Classical, quiescent monocytes are positive for CD14 (lipopolysaccharide receptor) but do not express Fc gamma receptor III (CD16). Intermediate monocytes coexpress CD16 and CD14. Nonclassical monocytes with low expression of CD14 represent mature macrophage-like monocytes. Monocyte behavior in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and during vessel wall directed treatment is not well defined. This observation study aimed at monitoring of acute changes in monocyte subpopulations during percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in PAD patients. Patients with Rutherford 3 and 4 PAD with no signs of inflammatory process underwent PTA of iliac, femoral, or popliteal segments. Flow cytometry for CD14, CD16, HLA-DR, CD11b, CD11c, and CD45RA antigens allowed characterization of monocyte subpopulations in blood sampled before and after PTA (direct angioplasty catheter sampling). Patients were clinically followed up for 12 months. All 61 enrolled patients completed 12-month follow-up. Target vessel failure occurred in 12 patients. While absolute counts of monocyte were significantly lower after PTA, only subtle monocyte activation after PTA (CD45RA and β-integrins) occurred. None of the monocyte parameters correlated with long-term adverse clinical outcome. Changes in absolute monocyte counts and subtle changes towards an activation phenotype after PTA may reflect local cell adhesion phenomenon in patients with Rutherford 3 or 4 peripheral arterial disease

How large dimension guarantees a given angle?

We study the following two problems: (1) Given $n\ge 2$ and \al, how large Hausdorff dimension can a compact set A\su\Rn have if $A$ does not contain three points that form an angle \al? (2) Given \al and \de, how large Hausdorff dimension can a %compact subset $A$ of a Euclidean space have if $A$ does not contain three points that form an angle in the \de-neighborhood of \al? An interesting phenomenon is that different angles show different behaviour in the above problems. Apart from the clearly special extreme angles 0 and $180^\circ$, the angles $60^\circ,90^\circ$ and $120^\circ$ also play special role in problem (2): the maximal dimension is smaller for these special angles than for the other angles. In problem (1) the angle $90^\circ$ seems to behave differently from other angles

Extra- and intracerebral course of the recurrent artery of Heubner

Background: The aim of the current study was to analyse the extra- and intracerebral course of the recurrent artery of Heubner (RAH) to provide detailed information for neurosurgeons operating in this area.Materials and methods: The material for this study was obtained from cadavers (ages 31–75 years) during routine autopsies. A total of 70 human brains (39 male and 31 female) were examined. The material was collected not later than 48 h post-mortem. People who died due to neurological disorders were not includedinto the study. Right after dissection the arteries were perfused with either acrylicpaint emulsion, polyvinyl chloride or Mercox CL-2R resin, through the Circle ofWillis or electively through the RAH. The obtained material was analysed usinga stereoscopic light microscope, magnification 2–40´.Results: The RAH was present in 138 hemispheres with a mean of 1.99 RAH per hemisphere (275 RAH in total). The mean RAH length was 25.2 mm and the mean RAH diameter, in its place of origin, was 1 mm. In 168 (61%) cases the RAH ran superiorly, in 88 (32%) cases anteriorly, in 11 (4%) cases inferiorly and in 8 (3%) cases posteriorlyto the A1 segment. In 70.2% of the cases the course of the RAH was parallel to theanterior communicating artery A1 segment, and in 29.8% of the cases the RAH archedtowards the olfactory tract. As the extracerebral course of the RAH was always tortuous,its length was 1 to 5 times the distance between its place of origin and the most lateralpoint of anterior perforated substance (APS) penetration. The intracerebral course ofthe RAH was almost always univectorial — towards the head of the caudate nucleus.The course of RAH branches depended on their number. When the number of RAH sand their branches was low, they separated immediately after penetrating the APS andformed multiple small branches. When the number of RAHs and branches was high,post-APS branching was less frequent and occurred in distal segments.Conclusions: The origin and course of the RAH is highly variable. The RAH, in itsextra- and intracerebral course, may join with the middle group of the lenticulostriatearteries or directly with the middle cerebral artery. This artery should beroutinely identified during anterior communicating artery aneurysm clipping toprevent postoperative neurological deficits

Occupational Safety and Health Program: Foundation of Technology Management in SUCs

Ergonomics and other technology to reduce risk or prevent accidents must be effectively used and managed for SUC to become competitive locally and in the region. The research evaluated the association of Occupational Safety, Health and Social Environment to the health condition of teachers of State Colleges and Universities (SUCs) in the Philippines as the basis for crafting the Occupation Safety and Health Program for SUCs. The descriptive-quantitative- correlational method was used in this study using survey questionnaires that were administered to 84 teachers across the three identified SUCs. Findings revealed a relationship between Occupational safety, level of occupational health, and social environment to the teachers' health status. Health and safety conditions included work environment, housekeeping, and health and medical services provided by the concerned institutions to their faculty. On the other hand, productivity consisted of outputs in instructions, research, community and extension services, and creative productions. The different occupational and non-occupational illnesses were taken into consideration. Afterward, provisions on occupational safety and health for faculty productivity were proposed by the researchers to help school administrators maintain a safe and healthful atmosphere in the academe, thereby increasing the productivity of the faculty

Data-driven generation of 4D velocity profiles in the aneurysmal ascending aorta

Background and Objective: Numerical simulations of blood flow are a valuable tool to investigate the pathophysiology of ascending thoratic aortic aneurysms (ATAA). To accurately reproduce in vivo hemodynamics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models must employ realistic inflow boundary conditions (BCs). However, the limited availability of in vivo velocity measurements, still makes researchers resort to idealized BCs. The aim of this study was to generate and thoroughly characterize a large dataset of synthetic 4D aortic velocity profiles sampled on a 2D cross-section along the ascending aorta with features similar to clinical cohorts of patients with ATAA. Methods: Time-resolved 3D phase contrast magnetic resonance (4D flow MRI) scans of 30 subjects with ATAA were processed through in-house code to extract anatomically consistent cross-sectional planes along the ascending aorta, ensuring spatial alignment among all planes and interpolating all velocity fields to a reference configuration. Velocity profiles of the clinical cohort were extensively characterized by computing flow morphology descriptors of both spatial and temporal features. By exploiting principal component analysis (PCA), a statistical shape model (SSM) of 4D aortic velocity profiles was built and a dataset of 437 synthetic cases with realistic properties was generated. Results: Comparison between clinical and synthetic datasets showed that the synthetic data presented similar characteristics as the clinical population in terms of key morphological parameters. The average velocity profile qualitatively resembled a parabolic-shaped profile, but was quantitatively characterized by more complex flow patterns which an idealized profile would not replicate. Statistically significant correlations were found between PCA principal modes of variation and flow descriptors. Conclusions: We built a data-driven generative model of 4D aortic inlet velocity profiles, suitable to be used in computational studies of blood flow. The proposed software system also allows to map any of the generated velocity profiles to the inlet plane of any virtual subject given its coordinate set

How large dimension guarantees a given angle

Abstract We study the following two problems: (1) Given n ≥ 2 and α, how large Hausdorff dimension can a compact set A ⊂ R n have if A does not contain three points that form an angle α? (2) Given α and δ, how large Hausdorff dimension can a compact subset A of a Euclidean space have if A does not contain three points that form an angle in the δ-neighborhood of α? Some angles (0, 60 • ) turn out to behave differently than other α ∈ [0, 180 • ]

Data-driven generation of 4D velocity profiles in the aneurysmal ascending aorta

Numerical simulations of blood flow are a valuable tool to investigate the pathophysiology of ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms (ATAA). To accurately reproduce hemodynamics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models must employ realistic inflow boundary conditions (BCs). However, the limited availability of in vivo velocity measurements still makes researchers resort to idealized BCs. In this study we generated and thoroughly characterized a large dataset of synthetic 4D aortic velocity profiles suitable to be used as BCs for CFD simulations. 4D flow MRI scans of 30 subjects with ATAA were processed to extract cross-sectional planes along the ascending aorta, ensuring spatial alignment among all planes and interpolating all velocity fields to a reference configuration. Velocity profiles of the clinical cohort were extensively characterized by computing flow morphology descriptors of both spatial and temporal features. By exploiting principal component analysis (PCA), a statistical shape model (SSM) of 4D aortic velocity profiles was built and a dataset of 437 synthetic cases with realistic properties was generated. Comparison between clinical and synthetic datasets showed that the synthetic data presented similar characteristics as the clinical population in terms of key morphological parameters. The average velocity profile qualitatively resembled a parabolic-shaped profile, but was quantitatively characterized by more complex flow patterns which an idealized profile would not replicate. Statistically significant correlations were found between PCA principal modes of variation and flow descriptors. We built a data-driven generative model of 4D aortic velocity profiles, suitable to be used in computational studies of blood flow. The proposed software system also allows to map any of the generated velocity profiles to the inlet plane of any virtual subject given its coordinate set.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables To be submitted to "Computer methods and programs in biomedicine" Scripts: https://github.com/saitta-s/flow4D Synthetic velocity profiles: //doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.725198