[Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair( TEVAR) Deployed into the False Lumen:Report of a Case].

A 73-year-old man had Stanford type B acute aortic dissection 11 years before. He had underwent thoracoabdominal aortic replacement due to thoracoabdominal aneurysm nine years before and hemiarch aortic replacement due to Stanford type A acute aortic dissection four years before. We performed surgery because the dissecting aortic aneurysm in the distal arch has enlarged. We selected thoracic endovascular aortic repair( TEVAR) because of reoperation, but the true lumen of the descending aorta was highly narrowed, we had to deploy stent-grafts into the false lumen. Since the proximal and distal parts of endovascular thoracic stent-grafts were deployed into the previously implanted Dacron grafts, we could deploy them without vascular injury. If both proximal and distal parts of stent-grafts can be deployed into vascular prosthesis, deploying the stent-grafts into the false lumen may be a feasible option.

[Cardiac Tamponade due to a Ruptured Giant Coronary Artery Aneurysm].

We report a case of a ruptured coronary artery aneurysm. An 87-year-old woman suffered from cardiac tamponade due to a ruptured coronary artery aneurysm. Coronary angiography showed a giant coronary aneurysm without coronary artery fistula. Emergency surgery was performed through median sternotomy. We performed aneurysmectomy and ligation of the perfusion arteries under cardiopulmonary bypass. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful. We also reviewed nine cases of ruptured coronary artery aneurysm without coronary artery fistula in Japan. The disease is a rare clinical state and considered to be an indication for emergency surgery.

Utility of postural change in differentiating sludge from thrombus in the left atrial appendage: A case report.

We detected symptomatic atrial fibrillation in a 64-year-old man who had undergone mitral valvuloplasty. While performing transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in the left lateral decubitus position, we detected an isoechoic mass lesion at the bottom of the left atrial appendage (LAA). After changing the patient's position from left to right, the mass lesion dropped down from the bottom of the LAA, spread out into the left atrium, and appeared as a spontaneous echocardiographic contrast with mobility. We therefore diagnosed the mass lesion as not a thrombus but sludge. Changing the patient's position during TEE is useful for distinguishing sludge from thrombi.

[Surgical Treatment for Anomalous Aortic Origin of Coronary Arteries].

Anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries is rare. We report 3 cases of surgical treatment for anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries. Case 1 was a 38-year-old man who was saved by the use of an automated external defibrillator from cardiopulmonary arrest while exercising. The coronary angiogram showed the right coronary artery arising from the left coronary sinus of Valsalva and being located between the aorta and the pulmonary trunk. He underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) using the right internal thoracic artery with ligation of proximal part of right coronary artery to prevent sudden death. Case 2 was a 76-year-old woman with the left coronary artery arising from the right coronary sinus of Valsalva and proximal left anterior descending coronary artery stenosis. She underwent CABG. Case 3 was a 58-year-old man with severe aortic valve regurgitation. He underwent aortic valve replacement. During weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass, the electrocardiogram revealed ST-segment elevation. Transesophageal echocardiography showed intramural segment of the left coronary artery and obstruction of the left coronary blood flow. Repair was accomplished by unroofing the intramural segment. All the cases were successfully treated by surgical treatment.

[Giant Left Atrium with Mitral Regurgitation in Williams Syndrome: Report of a Case].

A 43-year-old woman with a history of mitral regurgitation and Williams syndrome was admitted for the treatment of congestive heart failure. A computed tomography scan showed a giant left atrium. No other cardiac abnormalities were observed. She received mitral valve replacement with a mechanical valve prosthesis and underwent left atrium volume reduction with a suture technique and modified Maze procedure. After the operation, the cardiac rhythm returned to sinus rhythm and chest radiography showed normal cardiothoracic ratio. Congestive heart failure did not recur.

Effect of doping on the magnetostructural ordered phase of iron arsenides: a comparative study of the resistivity anisotropy in doped BaFe2As2 with doping into three different sites.

To unravel the role of doping in iron-based superconductors, we investigated the in-plane resistivity of BaFe(2)As(2) doped at one of the three different lattice sites, Ba(Fe(1-x)Co(x))(2)As(2), BaFe(2)(As(1-x)P(x))(2), and Ba(1-x)K(x)Fe(2)As(2), focusing on the doping effect in the low-temperature antiferromagnetic/orthorhombic (AFO) phase. A major role of doping in the high-temperature paramagnetic/tetragonal (PT) phase is known to change the Fermi surface by supplying charge carriers or exerting chemical pressure. In the AFO phase, we found a clear correlation between the magnitude of the residual resistivity and the resistivity anisotropy. This indicates that the resistivity anisotropy originates from anisotropic impurity scattering due to dopant atoms. The magnitude of the residual resistivity was also found to be a parameter controlling the suppression rate of the AFO ordering temperature. Therefore, the dominant role of doping in the AFO phase is to introduce disorder to the system, distinct from that in the PT phase.

Complete Fermi surface in BaFe2As2 observed via Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation measurements on detwinned single crystals.

We show that the Fermi surface (FS) in the antiferromagnetic phase of BaFe(2)As(2) is composed of one hole and two electron pockets, all of which are three dimensional and closed, in sharp contrast to the FS observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Considerations on the carrier compensation and Sommerfeld coefficient rule out existence of unobserved FS pockets of significant sizes. A standard band structure calculation reasonably accounts for the observed FS, despite the overestimated ordered moment. The mass enhancement, the ratio of the effective mass to the band mass, is 2-3.

Superconducting-Gap Anisotropy of Iron Pnictides Investigated via Combinatorial Microwave Measurements.

One of the most significant issues for superconductivity is clarifying the momentum-dependent superconducting gap Δ([Formula: see text]), which is closely related to the pairing mechanism. To elucidate the gap structure, it is essential to investigate Δ([Formula: see text]) in as many different physical quantities as possible and to crosscheck the results obtained in different methods with each other. In this paper, we report a combinatorial investigation of the superfluid density and the flux-flow resistivity of iron-pnictide superconductors; LiFeAs and BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 (x = 0.3, 0.45). We evaluated Δ([Formula: see text]) by fitting these two-independent quantities with a two-band model simultaneously. The obtained Δ([Formula: see text]) are consistent with the results observed in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and scanning-tunneling spectroscopy (STS) studies. We believe our approach is a powerful method for investigating Δ([Formula: see text]) because it does not require a sample with clean surface unlike ARPES and STS experiments, or a rotational magnetic-field system for direct measurements of the angular dependence of thermodynamic quantities.

Efficacy of Direct Oral Anticoagulant into the Care of Venous Thromboembolism Related to Kumamoto Earthquake.

Kumamoto was hit by a series of strong earthquakes beginning on April 14, 2016. We treated many deep vein thrombosis (DVT) patients and pulmonary thrombosis (PTE) patients. We came up with a strategy for diagnosis and therapy of venous thromboembolism (VTE). For VTE patients, we prescribed anticoagulant drugs, mainly direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC). To evaluate the validity and safety of the medical strategy for VTE in disasters, we investigated the prognosis of VTE patients at 4 months after the initial quake. In the two months following the initial quake we attended to 43 VTE patients, 11 PTE patients (including 9 patients with both DVT and PTE) and 32 DVT patients. We prescribed DOAC to 34 patients and Warfarin to 4 patients. Based on the survey at 4 months after the first tremblor, the period of anticoagulation therapy was 95.0±17.2 days for PTE and 57.1±36.5 days for DVT and 12 patients were continuing to take anticoagulant drugs. There were no recurrent VTE or bleeding events. DOAC therapy of VTE is therefore considered effective and safe in the event of a natural disaster. (This is a translation of J Jpn Coll Angiol 2017; 57: 33-40.).

Antiferroic electronic structure in the nonmagnetic superconducting state of the iron-based superconductors.

A major problem in the field of high-transition temperature (Tc) superconductivity is the identification of the electronic instabilities near superconductivity. It is known that the iron-based superconductors exhibit antiferromagnetic order, which competes with the superconductivity. However, in the nonmagnetic state, there are many aspects of the electronic instabilities that remain unclarified, as represented by the orbital instability and several in-plane anisotropic physical properties. We report a new aspect of the electronic state of the optimally doped iron-based superconductors by using high-energy resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We find spectral evidence for the folded electronic structure suggestive of an antiferroic electronic instability, coexisting with the superconductivity in the nonmagnetic state of Ba1-x K x Fe2As2. We further establish a phase diagram showing that the antiferroic electronic structure persists in a large portion of the nonmagnetic phase covering the superconducting dome. These results motivate consideration of a key unknown electronic instability, which is necessary for the achievement of high-Tc superconductivity in the iron-based superconductors.

Distinct doping dependence of critical temperature and critical current density in Ba1-xKxFe2As2 superconductor.

Since the high transition temperature (High-Tc) superconductivity was discovered in the series of materials containing iron (Fe), their potential for the applications has been extensively scrutinized. In particular, a lot of effort has been made in achieving the high current-carrying ability by revealing the vortex pinning behavior. Here, we report on the critical current density (Jc) for the pristine Ba1-xKxFe2As2 single crystals with various K concentrations (0.25 ≤ x ≤ 0.52) determined by the magnetization hysteresis loop measurements. The x-dependence of Jc is characterized by a spike-like peak at x ~ 0.30, which corresponds to the under-doped region. This behavior is distinct from a moderate Tc dome with a broad maximum spanning from x ~ 0.3 to 0.5. For the under-doped samples, with increasing magnetic field (H), a second magnetization peak in Jc is observed, whereas for the optimally- and over-doped samples, Jc monotonically decreases with H. This result emphasizes that fine tuning of doping composition is important to obtain strong flux pinning. The origin of the characteristic doping dependence of Jc is discussed in connection with the orthorhombic phase domain boundary, as well as the chemical inhomogeneity introduced by the dopant substitutions.

Linkage mapping of AFLP and microsatellite DNA markers with the body color- and sex-determining loci in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata).

The guppy is an ornamental fish species that exhibits various phenotypic characteristics, such as body color and fin-shape. Although linkage relationships of a limited number of phenotypic traits have already been investigated, the association between phenotypic and molecular markers is still unknown. We constructed a total of 35 linkage groups for the guppy using 186 polymorphic loci of AFLP and microsatellite DNA. The locus related to the yellow body color was linked with ten markers and the sex-determination locus was linked with five markers.

The Sox gene family and its expression during embryogenesis in the teleost fish, medaka (Oryzias latipes).

SRY, the Y chromosomal gene, which determines testis formation during mammalian embryogenesis, encodes a potential transcription factor with a DNA binding motif known as a high mobility group I (HMG) box. We isolated HMG regions of the Sry-related Sox gene from a medaka (Japanese killifish, Oryzias latipes) genomic library and determined their nucleotide sequences. The medaka Sox HMG box regions could be divided into four regions based on the degree of synonymous substitution and amino acid homology, and form the Sox sequence family consisting of five subgroups (Sox-1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2 and 2-3). The deduced amino acid sequences were similar to human and mouse Sox-1,2,3 and 14 group, one of which, SOX-3, is located on the human X chromosome. Interestingly, we found that two marsupial Sry-like sequences on the Y chromosome are more closely related to the medaka Sox sequences than to other mammalian Srys in the HMG box region. Genomic Southern hybridization revealed that medaka Sox sequences were present on both male and female genomes, but there was no male-specific Sox sequence. Northern blot hybridization using medaka Sox-1 and -2 PCR probes demonstrated two kinds of transcripts (2.5kb and 1.7kb). The 2.5kb transcripts were found in mature oocytes while the 1.7 kb transcripts first appeared at the gastrulation stage. The 2.5 kb and 1.7kb transcripts were both decreased 3 days after hatching.

Genetic diversity between Japanese and Chinese threeline grunt (Parapristipoma trilineatum) examined by microsatellite DNA markers.

Threeline grunt (Parapristipoma trilineatum) distributes around the southwestern coast of Japan and the east coast of China. The Chinese P. trilineatum was imported by Japan as an aquacultural seed because of its rapid growth compared with that of the Japanese P. trilineatum. The Japanese P. trilineatum differs from the Chinese P. trilineatum in some quantitative traits, and it has been suggested that these two P. trilineatum populations are genetically different. In order to identify the population structures around Japan and China, 5 local populations of the Japanese P. trilineatum and 2 local populations of the Chinese P. trilineatum were analyzed using 4 microsatellite DNA markers. Significant differences were detected between Japanese and Chinese P. trilineatum and among samples of Chinese P. trilineatum; however, among the samples of Japanese P. trilineatum, no significant differences were detected. These results suggest that care must be taken to prevent the escape of the Chinese P. trilineatum from culture cages around the Japanese coast, in order to preserve the genetically different population structures of Japanese and Chinese P. trilineatum.

Usefulness of multidetector computed tomography for diagnosis and surgical treatment of large coronary artery fistula.

BACKGROUND: Coronary angiography (CAG) has been the mainstay of diagnostic image analysis for coronary artery fistula (CAF). However, it is difficult to fully delineate this complex vessel structure including coronary trees, particularly in cases with large CAF, by this method. CASE REPORTS: In the present 3 cases with large CAF, contrast-enhanced multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) was performed to examine the whole coronary vessel structure including CAF. Selective CAG was also undertaken. In all 3 cases, based on the echocardiographic findings and the characteristic heart murmur, presence of CAF was suspected. However, transthoracic echocardiography as well as CAG alone could not define the whole abnormal vessel structure precisely. Moreover, CAG could not obtain clear images of the coronary artery with large CAF, because of contrast-steal. In contrast, MDCT could not only define CAF in detail but also depict coronary artery adjacent to CAF. On the basis of the MDCT findings, in cases 1 and 3, surgical exclusions were undertaken without and with coronary artery bypass grafting, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Contrast-enhanced MDCT might be useful for the diagnosis of large CAF and for the estimation of the coronary artery adjacent to CAF, which is absolutely indispensable for surgical treatment.