Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of a novel Anatomical classification and dUal anchoRing theory to Optimize the tavR strategy for pure severe Aortic regurgitation (AURORA): a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Success rate of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in aortic regurgitation (AR) patients is relatively low on account of the absence of calcified anchoring structures. Morphological classification and corresponding TAVR strategies for AR are lacking yet. METHODS: The AURORA study is a prospective, multicenter, single-arm cohort study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of transfemoral TAVR for severe AR in patients with high or prohibitive risk for surgery. Patients who are ≥ 65 years and diagnosed with severe pure AR as defined by the Echocardiographic Core Laboratory will be consecutively enrolled for further multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) scanning and multiplanar analyses. Based on a new anatomical classification and dual anchoring theory, patients will be classified into 4 types according to the level of the anchoring area. Types 1, 2 and 3 (at least 2 anchoring areas) will undergo the TAVR procedure with a domestic Chinese self-expanding valve (VitaFlow Valve, MicroPort, Shanghai, China), whereas type 4 (0 or 1 anchoring area) patients will be considered unsuitable for TAVR and will receive medical treatment. Our goal is to recruit 100 patients to account for 10% missing data or loss of patients to follow-up. Procedural, 30-day, 6-month and 12-month outcomes will be assessed according to Valve Academic Research Consortium-3 criteria. DISCUSSION: The AURORA study will establish a new AR anatomical classification based on dual anchoring theory through MDCT multiplanar measurement and assess the safety and efficacy of TAVR guided by this new classification and strategy in AR patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This Study was registered at Chinses Clinical Trial Registry. The registration number: ChiCTR2200055415; The date of registration: 9, January 2022; The URL of the registration: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=141209 .

Transmit BeampattarnOptimization for Automotive MIMO Radar Coexistedwith Communication in V2V Networks.

Due to the flourishing development of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications and autonomous driving, interference between radar sensing and communication signals becomes a challenging issue. We propose a transmit beamforming based spectrum sharing scheme to achieve peaceful coexistence between automotive multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) radar and communication systems. Our objective is to maximize the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the automotive radar receiver subject to the communication capacity and the transmitted power budget constraints to optimize both the communication covariance matrix and the radar transmit precoder. The formulated optimization problem is non-convex, which is converted to convex by introducing a new slack variable and then solving it using the block coordinate descent, also called alternation optimization, approach. Additionally, the ellipsoid sub-gradient method is then employed to reduce the computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed scheme outperforms the conventional schemes.

MicroRNA-133a improves the cardiac function and fibrosis through inhibiting Akt in heart failure rats.

OBJECTIVE: MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a group of small non-coding RNAs that fine tune translation of multiple target mRNAs, have been implicated in the development and progression of heart failure. METHODS: The present study was undertaken to determine the roles of miR-133a on the anatomical, hemodynamic and fibrosis of heart in the chronic heart failure rats, and the downstream signaling pathway. RESULTS: The expression of miR-133a in the heart of chronic heart failure from patients or rats was decreased. The miR-133a mimic and miR-133a overexpression caused a decrease in the heart weight/body weight (HW/BW) and LVEDP, and an increase in the LVSP and +LV dP/dt(max) in the chronic heart failure rats. However, the miR-133a inhibitor promoted the HW/BW and LVEDP, and caused a decrease in the LVSP and LV dP/dt(max) in the chronic heart failure rats. The miR-133a mimic and miR-133a overexpression significantly caused a decrease in the fibrosis of heart in chronic heart failure rats. The Akt inhibitor TCN abolished the effects of miR-133a on the HW/BW and LVEDP decrease, LVSP and LV dP/dt(max) increase in the chronic heart failure rats. The miR-133a increased the expression of phosphorylated Akt in the heart of chronic heart failure rats. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrated that miR-133a improves the cardiac function and fibrosis through inhibiting Akt in heart failure rats.

The evaluation of clinical therapy effects of oral western medicine combined with magnetic pulse acupoint stimulation in treating elderly patients with coronary heart disease.

OBJECTIVE: Treat the patients suffered from coronary heart disease with oral western medicine, combining with magnetic pulse acupoint stimulation, and observe the therapeutic effects of such combination therapy method. METHODS: 56 old people with coronary heart disease are randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group. Both groups of patients are treated by the routine drugs, in addition, the patients of the treatment group are treated by magnetic pulse therapy additionally. Compare clinical symptoms, blood lipid and blood rheological indexes of the patients in the two groups when they are selected and after 30 days' treatment. RESULTS: after 30 days' treatment, it is found that clinical symptoms, blood lipid and blood rheological indexes of the patients in the treatment group are significantly improved compared with those when they are selected and those of the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: patients with coronary heart disease, treated by pulsed magnetic therapy and the conventional drug intervention, had relieved synptom, improve blood lipid and heart blood supply function.

Acupoint massage nursing conducive to improve curative effect of the obesity patients who are complicated with hypertension and are treated by oral drugs.

OBJECTIVE: observe the curative effect of the simple obesity patients who are complicated with hypertension and are treated by oral drugs under the adjuvant treatment of acupoint massage nursing. METHODS: a total of 42 patients, who suffer from simple obesity but are complicated with mild to moderate hypertension, are selected and then randomly divided into an observation group and a control group by the digital table method. Each group consists of 21 patients. The patients in the control group are treated by the normal oral drugs, while those in the observation group are intervened by acupoint massage except the normal oral drug treatment provided for the control group. Respectively test the body fat percentage content, blood fat and blood pressure indicators of the selected patients in the two groups before treatment and after 12 weeks' treatment. RESULTS: after 12 weeks' treatment, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and blood fat indicators of the patients in the control group are improved significantly compared with those before treatment, P < 0.05, but their percentage of body fat does not change significantly, P > 0.05; systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, blood fat and body fat percentage of the patients in the observation group are significantly improved compared with those before treatment and their improvement effect is better than that of the control group, P < 0.05. Moreover, the relapse rate of the patients in the observation group, who have been cured, is also obviously lower than that of the control group. CONCLUSION: as for the simple obesity patients who are complicated with hypertension, if they accept acupoint massage stimulation therapy, assisted with oral drugs for treatment, their curative effect is obviously superior to that of the single drug treatment.

[A study on relationship of purple tongue and its regional blood flow].

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship of purple tongue and its regional blood flow. METHODS: Laser-Doppler flow meter was employed to test the volume and velocity of blood flow at different sites of purple tongue (56 cases) and normal tongue (54 cases), and the test results were analyzed. RESULTS: The volume of blood flow of purple tongue was significantly lower than that of the normal tongue (P<0.01), while the velocity was significantly higher (P<0.01). The volume and velocity of blood flow at different sites of the tongue were similar without significant difference. CONCLUSION: The volume of blood flow of purple tongue is decreased and the velocity increased. Purple tongue may be caused by dysfunction of the microcirculation of the tongue.

An miR-143 promoter variant associated with essential hypertension.

MicroRNAs like miR-143 are increasingly linked to disease pathogenesis. miR-143 is enriched in vascular smooth muscle, and several single nucleotide polymorphisms have been identified in this miRNA. The aim of the current study was to explore a potential correlation between a polymorphism in the miR-143 promoter region, rs4705342, and essential hypertension (EH). Genotyping for miR-143 rs4705342 was performed from blood samples of 156 EH patients (case group) and 187 healthy individuals (control group) using a TaqMan assay. Participant demographic and clinical characteristics were also collected. Logistic regression was used to identify an association between genotype and EH, and odds ratios of EH risk were also determined. Frequencies of the CC, CT, and TT genotypes differed significantly between case (7.7%, 40.4%, 51.9%) and control (15.0%, 48.1%, 36.9%) groups (χ(2) = 9.400, P = 0.009). Further, the frequency of the C allele was lower in the case group than in the control group (27.9% vs. 39.0%, P = 0.002). Compared with those having the TT genotype, patients carrying the CC and CT genotypes had a significantly reduced risk for EH (OR = 0.541, 95% CI = 0.351-0.834, P = 0.005), particularly for females, nonsmokers, and those not consuming alcohol (P < 0.05). Thus, the rs4705342 polymorphism in the miR-143 appears to be associated with essential hypertension, and further study is needed to understand the molecular mechanism producing this effect.

[Surface organic modification of acid vermiculite and its adsorption of hydrophobic micro pollutants in aqueous solutions].

To solve the problems of intercalated organoclay such as low surface area and inhomogeneous organic loading, natural vermiculite was activated by acid leaching and then modified by trimethylchlorosilane (CTMS) and triethylchlorosilane (CTES). The modified materials were characterized by FTIR, BET, SEM and TG. Experimental results indicated that the surface area of the modified acid vermiculite (361.0 m2 x g(-1)) was much larger than that of the intercalated organovermiculite (6.0 m2 x g(-1)), moreover, the organic groups were grafted onto the surface covalently. Diethyl phthalate (DEP), a typical hydrophobic micro-organic pollutant, was used to test the adsorption capacity of different adsorbents. The adsorption amounts of DEP were 63.7, 51.2 and 15.7 mg x g(-1) for CTES, CTMS and intercalated organovermiculite in this study, respectively. The high organic affinity of modified acid vermiculite was due to both the bigger surface area and the homogeneous organic loading. The adsorption kinetics was found to follow the pseudosecond-order model. The isotherms exhibited linear characteristics and could be described by Henry and Freundlich equations, indicating that the partition process is the main control mechanism of the removal of DEP.