Currently, as the key raw material of artificial biological heart valve, bovine pericardium is mainly depend on import and has become a “bottleneck” challenge, greatly limiting the development of domestic biological heart valve. Therefore, the localization of bovine pericardium is extremely urgent. In this study, the pericardium of Sichuan yak was compared with that of Australian cattle in terms of fundamental properties and anti-calcification performance. The results demonstrated that the appearance and thickness of yak pericardium were more advantageous than the Australian one. Sichuan yak pericardium and Australian cattle pericardium had comparable performance in shrinkage temperature, mechanical test and anti-calcification test. This study preliminarily verifies the feasibility of substitution of Australian cattle pericardium by Sichuan yak pericardium and promotes the progression of bovine pericardium localization with data support.
Serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) has long been used as a biomarker for the liver, kidney, and bone. Currently, increasing evidence suggests a correlation between serum ALP and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Research has shown that serum ALP affects endothelial cell function and induces changes in pyrophosphate through various mechanisms to accelerate vascular calcification and promote cardiac fibrosis. Therefore, this article reviews the potential value of serum ALP in CVD through relevant research, revealing the specific relationship between serum ALP and CVD, in order to provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment of CVD.
Ultrasound is the best way to diagnose thyroid nodules. To discriminate benign and malignant nodules, calcification is an important characteristic. However, calcification in ultrasonic images cannot be extracted accurately because of capsule wall and other internal tissue. In this paper, deep learning was first proposed to extract calcification, and two improved methods were proposed on the basis of Alexnet convolutional neural network. First, adding the corresponding anti-pooling (unpooling) and deconvolution layers (deconv2D) made the network to be trained for the required features and finally extract the calcification feature. Second, modifying the number of convolution templates and full connection layer nodes made feature extraction more refined. The final network was the combination of two improved methods above. To verify the method presented in this article, we got 8 416 images with calcification, and 10 844 without calcification. The result showed that the accuracy of the calcification extraction was 86% by using the improved Alexnet convolutional neural network. Compared with traditional methods, it has been improved greatly, which provides effective means for the identification of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.
Vascular calcification is an active, adjustable and complex biological process. It is an independent hazard factor for cardiovascular events and there is a lack of effective treatment. As a newly discovered regulated cell death, ferroptosis is closely related to iron metabolism, lipid metabolism, glutathione metabolism and so on. In recent years, studies have shown that ferroptosis may be implicated in the occurrence and progression of vascular calcification. Based on the introduction of ferroptosis, this review will discuss the close relationship between ferroptosis and vascular calcification from intimal calcification, medial calcification and heart valve calcification, in order to provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment of vascular calcification.
This paper reported a 75-year-old female patient. She was admitted to our hospital for “repeated chest pain, shortness of breath for more than 5 years, and syncope 3 times”. The CT scan of the patient showed severe aortic valve stenosis, bicuspid valve, and severe calcification; then she underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement in our hospital. After the prosthesis was implanted, there was a significant paravalvular leak. Considering the triangular area formed between the calcified clumps, the valve was not fully dilated. Paravalvular leak closure was performed during the operation, attempted through the valve stent mesh to closuring. A rare incarceration of the transmitter occurred. An attempt was made to pull out the incarcerated transmitter through a pull-up technique, which resulted in the prosthesis prolapse. The patient was eventually transferred to surgery aortic valve replacement.
Abstract: Objective To evaluate a new type of treatment that reduces calcification of glutaraldehydetreated bovine jugular venous conduit (BJVC). Methods Fresh bovine jugular veins were treated with glutaraldehyde, followed by Triton X-100 and epoxy chloropropane (EC+Tr group). We compared the group’s appearance, histology, shrinkage temperature, tensile strength, and elongation at break with those of a fresh group, and with a group treated with glutaraldehyde only (GA group). We then implanted the EC+Tr and GA group BJVCs subcutaneously into the backs of SD rats and left them for eight weeks (n=8). The morphologic properties and inflammatory response of the test specimens were evaluated by HE staining. The tissue calcium content was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results The shrinkage temperature, tensile strength, and elongation at break of the EC+Tr group were significantly higher than those of the fresh group (86.15±0.92 ℃ vs. 69.94±0.92 ℃,t=35.239, P=0.000; 5.31±0.14 mPa vs.3.15±0.95 mPa,t=6.362, P=0.000; 265.11%±27.80% vs. 16521%±25.06%,t=7.550, P=0.000) and of the GA group (86.15±0.92 ℃ vs. 82.73±1.28 ℃, t=6.137, P=0.000; 5.31±0.14 mPa vs. 4.52±0.56 mPa,t=3.871, P=0.002; 265.11%±27.80% vs.237.85%±17.41%,t=2.351,P=0.034). The tissue structure of the subcutaneously implanted EC+Tr veins remained intact;degradation was slight and they contained few inflammatory cells. The calcium content of the EC+Tr group was lower than that of the GA group (51.22±2.69 μg/mg vs. 73.24±3.82 μg/mg, t=11.545，P=0.000). Conclusion Treatment with Triton X-100 and epoxy chloropropane modification with glutaraldehydetreated bovine jugular venous conduit was an effective way to prepare BJVC that avoided calcification.
ObjectiveTo analyze the assessment and maintenance of 125 donor hearts from brain death donation and explore the use of marginal donor hearts.MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted on the evaluation, maintenance, operation and follow-up results of 125 donor hearts from April 2016 to August 2019. There were 98 males and 27 females at age of 6-50 (36.0±2.4) years.ResultsTwelve donor hearts were discarded due to unqualified evaluation after heart harvest. 113 patients of heart transplantation were performed with a double lumen venous anastomosis manner. The mean time of cold ischemia was 220.1±6.7 min. Four patients died within 30 days after operation. Postoperative right ventricular assist circulation was performed in 4 patients, intra-aortic balloon counterattack (IABP) in 12 patients and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in 12 patients. Marginal donors included 15 hepatitis B antigen positive donor hearts, 2 tricuspid regurgitation, 1 mitral regurgitation, 5 coronary calcification, 4 myocardial stunning and 2 severe weight mismatch. The results of follow-up (2 years) after marginal donor heart transplantation were satisfactory.ConclusionImproving the assessment and maintenance of donor hearts can improve the utilization rate of the heart, and the marginal donor heart transplantation needs long-term follow-up.
Soft tissue opacities are often found by chance during radiographic examinations, especially in panoramic radiography. Because of the diversity of locations and causes, it is easily overlooked by dentists and even radiologists. Even if abnormal calcification is detected, it is difficult to identify its category and clinical relevance. For some soft tissue opacities associated with high-risk diseases, misdiagnosis is likely to delay treatment. Through reviewing the literature and screening the panoramic images from the disease database of West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, this review summarizes and classifies the soft tissue opacities appearing in panoramic images, and discusses the clinical correlation to provide the reference for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of related diseases.
ObjectiveTo estimate the prognosis of duodenum-preserving resection of pancreatic head (DPRPH) in the treatment of space occupying with extensive calcification of pancreatic head, and to summarize the key points of surgery.MethodsThe clinical data of a middle-aged woman with rare space occupying with extensive calcification of pancreatic head who underwent surgery in Department of Pancreatic Surgery of West China Hospital in May. 2016 was collected and analyzed.ResultsThe DPRPH operation was successfully completed, with the operative time was 207 min, the intraoperative blood loss was 130 mL, and the hospital stay was 12 d. Removing time of the gastric tube and off-bed activity were on the 3rd day after operation, and the volume of peritoneal drainage per day was decreasing from 30 mL to 10 mL until 7th day after operation. We made examination of serum amylase and fluid amylase for the patient every 2 days, and the examination indexes were within normal level. After removing the peritoneal drainage tube, the pain was obviously relieved on the 12th day after operation, then the patient made hospital discharge. There was no observable pancreatic fistula, duodenal fistula, biliary fistula, delay gastric emptying, peritoneal effusion, pleural effusion, abdominal infection, and abdominal bleeding, neither nor any special discomfort. During the follow-up period of 18 months, we got a good prognosis without any symptom of relapse or discomfort according to the result of CT scans and other examinations.ConclusionDPRPH can make a satisfied prognosis in the treatment of rare space occupying with extensive calcification of pancreatic head.
This case was an elderly male patient with symptomatic aortic valve calcification and severe aortic valve stenosis. Before the operation, the heart valve team had fully evaluated the patient’s suitability for transcatheter aortic valve replacement and approach. This patient had severe stenosis and plaques in the iliac artery, femoral artery, descending aorta, so the carotid artery approach transcatheter aortic valve replacement was chosen. After the operation, the patient’s symptoms improved significantly. So far, the patient was generally in good condition, without chest tightness, shortness of breath and other symptoms in daily activities. The current clinical application of the transcarotid approach is relatively small, but it is believed that with the publication of more clinical research results, the application of the transcarotid approach in transcatheter aortic valve replacement will become more and more common.