History of diabetes mellitus is associated with elevated cardiac troponin I levels in patients with chest pain but no coronary heart disease

Background: The factors and the mechanism contributing to an increase in cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in patients with chest pain, at least one cardiovascular risk factor, and no evidence of coronary heart disease remains elusive. Methods: Excluding patients with acute coronary syndrome and chronic myocardial isch­emia, we selected 362 consecutive patients with normal coronary angiography or computed tomography coronary angiography results or lesions causing < 50% stenosis in any of the coronary arteries from January 2012 to June 2015. Using a cut-off value of 0.01 ng/mL, patients with cTnI levels ≥ 0.01 ng/mL (164 patients) were compared with those with cTnI levels < 0.01 ng/mL. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate associations between elevated cTnI and patient characteristics. Results: Other than history of diabetes mellitus (DM) (18.90% vs. 8.08%, p = 0.002), the characteristics of the patients with and without elevated cTnI levels were similar. History of DM predicted elevation of cTnI level (OR 3.34, 95% CI 1.55–7.20, p = 0.002) in logistic regression analysis. Conclusions: In total, 45.30% of patients with chest pain had elevated cTnI levels with a mean level of 0.07 ± 0.10 ng/mL. History of DM rather than blood glucose level itself was associated with elevated cTnI levels, whereas female gender was protective against increases in cTnI levels.

Bergenin suppresses the growth of colorectal cancer cells by inhibiting PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway

Purpose: To investigate anticancer effects of bergenin on human colorectal cancer cell lines.Methods: Human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line HCT116 was treated with various concentrations of bergenin for 24 and 48 h. Cell viability, apoptosis, cell cycle arrest and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level were analyzed by MTT, flow cytometry and fluorescent dye assays, respectively. DNA damage-associated protein expressions were analyzed by Western blotting.Results: Bergenin significantly suppressed the viability of HCT116 cells. Moreover, bergenin induced cells to accumulate in G1 phase and resulted in DNA breaks in HCT116 cells. It also led to marked accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), a breaker of DNA strand in HCT116 cells. Interestingly, bergenin inhibited PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.Conclusion: Bergenin effectively suppresses the growth of colorectal  adenocarcinoma by inducing generation of intracellular ROS, DNA damage and consequent G1 phase arrest via inhibition of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.Keywords: Bergenin, Colorectal cancer, DNA damage, Cell cycle arrest,  PI3K/AKT/mTO

Quantitative Estimation of Urban PM2.5 Pollution Baseline and Meteorological Resource Endowment Using Machine Learning in Chinese Yangtze River Economic Belt

Considering the influence of baseline values, meteorological conditions, and human activities on PM2.5, quantifying them will facilitate the classification, control, and management of pollution. The machine learning model explained the PM2.5-meteorological nonlinear relationship between PM2.5 and meteorological factors in each city across the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China. Meteorological resource endowments (MRE) are used to quantify the variation on PM2.5 concentration caused by meteorological conditions. Contamination baseline (CB) is used to characterize the lowest limit of anthropogenic impact in PM2.5 contamination without meteorological interference. According to the values of MRE and CB, cities in the Yangtze River economic belt can be divided into four categories (Q1-4). The average value of MRE is −0.41 μg/m3. The average value of CB is 34.05 μg/m3, which is lower than the Chinese Grade II standard (GB 3095-2012). The additional emissions by humans resulted in an increase of 7 μg/m3 in concentration, while the meteorological factors led to a decrease of −0.41 μg/m3. In terms of city classification, Q1 is concentrated in the midstream, and PM2.5 is the most challenging pollutant to control. Q2 is concentrated downstream, with relatively high PM2.5 emissions but favorable meteorological conditions. Q3 is concentrated upstream, and there is surplus environmental capacity even with limited meteorological conditions. Cites in Q4 have the most suitable development potential and exhibit a discrete spatial distribution. The research distinguished various categories of pollution and provided insights into the different characteristics of pollution around the Yangtze River Economic Belt. This information has helped the government classify cities and implement specific policies based on their individual situations

Analysis of age-related differences in hypoxia-related factors in yak brain tissue

The brain is an important part of the mammalian nervous system, is highly sensitive to hypoxia, and plays an important role in the adaptation of the body to hypoxic environments. This study was conducted to study the distribution and expression of hypoxia-related factors (hypoxia-inducible factor 1α, HIF-1α; erythropoietin, EPO; vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF; vascular cell adhesion molecule, VCAM) in the cerebellum, cerebrum, medulla oblongata, and corpora quadrigemina in yaks of different ages (4d, 6-months-old and adult). Paraffin sections were obtained from the cerebellum, cerebrum, medulla oblongata, and corpora quadrigemina of healthy yak for 4-day-old, 6-months-old and adult yaks. Histological characteristics were assessed by haematoxylin staining. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect the distribution and expression of HIF-1α, EPO, VEGF and VCAM proteins. Immunohistochemical results showed that HIF-1α, EPO, VEGF, and VCAM were expressed in the pyramidal cell layer of the yak cerebrum, and distributed in the cerebellum granulose cell layer, Purkinje cell layer and medulla layer, and were mainly positive in Purkinje cells and medulla. It is expressed in the cell bodies of the medulla oblongata and the quadrimatous neurons. The expression level in the medulla oblongata was higher, indicating may play a crucial role in functional cohesion. The expression of HIF-1α in 4 d cerebellar tissues was higher than that in other age groups, and the expression of HIF-1α in the medulla oblongata increased with age. In addition, the expression levels of EPO and VEGF in the 6-month-old group were slightly higher than those in the other age groups. It is speculated that EPO and VEGF have obvious protective effects on brain tissue in the 6-month-old age group; VCAM showed no significant differences in the cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, or corpora quadrigemina of the yaks. This study provides basic data for further exploration of the adaptive mechanism of plateau yak brain tissue

Expression of Mipu1 in Response to Myocardial Infarction in Rats

Myocardial ischemic preconditioning up-regulated protein 1 (Mipu1) was cloned in our laboratory. Male Wistar rats were subjected to left anterior coronary artery ligation and sham-operation and sacrificed at 1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, 3 d or 5 d after ligation. Expression of Mipu1 mRNA and protein were assessed by Northern blotting, real-time quantitative RT-PCR, In Situ hybridization and Western blotting. Expression of Mipu1 was up-regulated at 3 h and lasted to 12 h with a peak at 6 h. Mipu1 mRNA and protein signals express in the endothelium and myocardium in normal and infarcted heart, mainly in infarcted zone. Fluorescent immunocytochemistry showed that Mipu1 protein was localized to the nuclei of H9c2 myogenic cells and was upregulated after the cells being exposed to H2O2. These observations indicates that Mipu1 may play a role in maintaining vascular homeostasis and protecting the myogenic cells from being injured by ischemia-reperfusion or oxidation stress

Qishen Yiqi dripping pills for chronic ischaemic heart failure:results of the CACT-IHF randomized clinical trial

10.1002/ehf2.12980ESC Heart Failure763881-389

Coronary angiography enhancement for visualization

High quality visualization on X-ray angiograms is of great significance both for the diagnosis of vessel abnormalities and for coronary interventions. Algorithms for improving the visualization of detailed vascular structures without significantly increasing image noise are currently demanded in the market. A new algorithm called stick-guided lateral inhibition (SGLI) is presented for increasing the visibility of coronary vascular structures. A validation study was set up to compare the SGLI algorithm with the conventional unsharp masking (UM) algorithm on 20 still frames of coronary angiographic images. Ten experienced QCA analysts and nine cardiologists from various centers participated in the validation. Sample scoring value (SSV) and observer agreement value (OAV) were defined to evaluate the validation result, in terms of enhancing performance and observer agreement, respectively. The mean of SSV was concluded to be 77.1 ± 11.9%, indicating that the SGLI algorithm performed significantly better than the UM algorithm (P-value < 0.001). The mean of the OAV was concluded to be 70.3%, indicating that the average agreement with respect to a senior cardiologist was 70.3%. In conclusion, this validation study clearly demonstrates the superiority of the SGLI algorithm in the visualization of coronary arteries from X-ray angiograms

A Non-Isokinetic Approach for Modeling Solid-State Transformations: Application to Crystallization of a Fe-B Amorphous Alloy

Solid-state phase transformations like crystallization of amorphous alloys can be described by an analytical model incorporating a nucleation index a. However, this model cannot be used to examine isochronal transformations with abrupt changing of enthalpy differences performed with differential scanning calorimetry. Based on the model, a non-isokinetic approach is proposed and applied to analyze the isochronal crystallization kinetics of Fe85B15 amorphous alloy. The approach enabled us to obtain the kinetic parameters and activation energies for nucleation and growth

Measuring shape complexity of breast lesions on ultrasound images

ABSTRACT The shapes of malignant breast tumors are more complex than the benign lesions due to their nature of infiltration into surrounding tissues. We investigated the efficacy of shape features and presented a method using polygon shape complexity to improve the discrimination of benign and malignant breast lesions on ultrasound. First, 63 lesions (32 benign and 31 malignant) were segmented by K-way normalized cut with the priori rules on the ultrasound images. Then, the shape measures were computed from the automatically extracted lesion contours. A polygon shape complexity measure (SCM) was introduced to characterize the complexity of breast lesion contour, which was calculated from the polygonal model of lesion contour. Three new statistical parameters were derived from the local integral invariant signatures to quantify the local property of the lesion contour. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was carried on to evaluate the performance of each individual shape feature. SCM outperformed the other shape measures, the area under ROC curve (AUC) of SCM was 0.91, and the sensitivity of SCM could reach 0.97 with the specificity 0.66. The measures of shape feature and margin feature were combined in a linear discriminant classifier. The resubstitution and leave-one-out AUC of the linear discriminant classifier were 0.94 and 0.92, respectively. The distinguishing ability of SCM showed that it could be a useful index for the clinical diagnosis and computer-aided diagnosis to reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies

Laboratory Experimental Setup and Research on Heat Transfer Characteristics during Secondary Cooling in Continuous Casting

Spray cooling is a key technology in the continuous casting process and has a marked influence on the product quality. In order to obtain the heat transfer characteristics, which are closer to the actual continuous casting to serve the design, prediction and simulation, we created an experimental laboratory setup to investigate heat transfer characteristics of air mist spray cooling during the continuous casting secondary cooling process. A 200-mm thick sample of carbon steel was heated above 1000 &deg;C, and then cooled in a water flux range of 0.84 to 3.0 L/(m2∙s). Determination of the boundary conditions involved experimental work comprising an evaluation of the thermal history and the heat flux and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) at the casting surface using inverse heat conduction numerical schemes. The results show that the heat fluxes were characterized via boiling curves that were functions of the slab surface temperatures. The heat flux was determined to be 2.9 &times; 105 W/m2 in the range of 1100 to 800 &deg;C with a water flux of 2.1 L/(m2∙s). The critical heat flux increased with the increase of water flux. The HTC was close to a linear function of water flux. We also obtained the relation between the HTC and the water flux in the transition boiling region for surface temperatures of 850 to 950 &deg;C