[Diagnosis and surgical treatment of high-risk anomalous aortic origin of coronary artery].

Objective: To analyze the diagnosis and surgical treatment of high-risk anomalous aortic origin of coronary artery (AAOCA). Methods: This is a retrospective case series study. From January 2016 to July 2023, 24 cases of high-risk AAOCA underwent surgical treatment in Department of Cardiac Surgery, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital. There were 18 males and 6 females, operatively aged (M (IQR)) 13 (26) years (range: 0.3 to 57.0 years). They were confirmed by cardiac ultrasound and cardiac CT, all of which had anomalous coronary running between the aorta and the pulmonary artery. There were 15 cases of the right coronary artery from the left aortic sinus of Valsalva, 6 cases of left coronary artery from the right aortic sinus of Valsalva, 3 cases of the sigle coronary artery. Only 3 patients had no obvious related symptoms (2 cases were complicated with a positive exercise stress test and 1 case with other intracardiac malformations), 21 cases had a history of chest tightness, chest pain, or syncope after exercise. Three patients suffered syncope after exercise and underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (2 cases were treated with an extracorporeal membrane oxygenerator (ECMO)). The gap from the first symptom to the diagnosis was 4.0 (11.5) months (range: 0.2 to 84.0 months). The detection rate of coronary artery abnormalities suggested by the first cardiac ultrasound was only 37.5% (9/24). Seven patients were complicated with other cardiac diseases (4 cases with congenital heart defects, 2 cases with coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, 1 case with mitral valve disease). Results: All 24 patients underwent surgical treatment (23 cases underwent abnormal coronary artery unroofing, 1 case underwent coronary artery bypass grafting), and 5 patients underwent other intracardiac malformation correction at the same time. There were no death or surgery related complications in the hospital for 30 days after the operation. A patient with preoperative extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation was continuously assisted by ECMO after emergency AAOCA correction and had complications such as limb ischemia necrosis and renal dysfunction after the operation. During the follow-up of 2.2 (3.3) years (range: 1 month to 7.2 years), one patient who previously underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty with a stent implant experienced significant postoperative symptomatic relief, and the other discharged patients had no related symptoms. Conclusions: The accurate rate of initial diagnosis for high-risk AAOCA is still low, but the risk of cardiovascular accidents is high. For sports-related chest pain and other symptoms, more attention should be paid to the detection of AAOCA, especially for adolescents. Exercise stress testing can be helpful in evaluating the cardiovascular risk of asymptomatic AAOCA. Instant surgical treatment can achieve satisfactory curative effects.

[Short and midterm results of surgical treatment of interrupted aortic arch].

Objective: To analyze the early and midterm results of surgical treatment of interrupted aortic arch (IAA) with double-ventricular procedure. Methods: The data of the 68 cases with the main diagnosis of IAA with biventricular structure from June 2009 to June 2017 at Department of Cardiac Surgery, Guangdong General Hospital was collected, including 46 cases of type A, 22 cases of type B. There was no type C case. Except for 5 cases without patent ductus arteriosus or other intracardiac malformations, the remaining 63 cases were combined with intracardiac deformity. The age of operation was 8 days to 18 years, including 28 cases(41.2%) of newborns, 32 cases(47.1%) within 1 year old, 6 cases(8.8%) from 1 to 15 years old, and 2 cases(2.9%) above 15 years old. Of the 5 patients with no intracardiac malformations, 4 patients were treated with a left-posterior thoracic lateral incision for primary surgical correction with end-to-side anastomosis, and 1 adult patient was treated with a median sternotomy incision to complete the anastomosis with the assist of extracorporeal circulation. Of the 63 patients with intracardiac malformation, 2 underwent reconstruction of the aortic arch via posterolateral left thoracic incision merely; 2 patients underwent staged surgery to correction the IAA and intracardiac malformation; the remaining 59 patients underwent the one-stage procedure of IAA and intracardiac malformation correction with deep hypothermic circulatory arrest and 43 cases of selective cerebral perfusion. A total of 55 cases of end-to-end or end-to-side anastomosis were performed in all aortic arch reconstruction. There were 6 cases of connection the arch to descending aorta with autogenous pulmonary artery conduit, and 1 case with homemade bovine pericardial conduit. And there were 5 cases of anastomosis enlargement with autogenous pulmonary artery patch, and 1 case with left subclavian artery flap patch. There were 1 case performed with D. K.S. operation for the severe hypogenetic aortic valve and ascending aorta, and 1 case with left ventricular double outlet channel operation for the severe subvalvular aortic stenosis. Results: Follow-up to 9 years, 4 deaths (5.9%) related to circulatory system diseases: 3 cases died within 30 days after surgery (1 case was neonatal, 2 cases were 1 to 12 months old); one died 8 months after surgery for low cardiac output syndrome. In the early postoperative period, 11 cases (16.2%) of residual aortic arch obstruction (pressure gradient >30 mmHg) were observed, of which 3 cases were moderate (4.4%); follow-up to 5 years after operation was residual obstruction in 3 cases and moderate in 2 cases. There were 3 cases with aortic valve and subvalvular obstruction (differential pressure >30 mmHg), 3 cases were followed up to 5 years after aortic valve and subvalvular obstruction, and 2 cases were moderate or above. To date, 5 patients have undergone 6 reoperations of the cardiovascular system: 3 cases because of pulmonary artery stenosis, 2 cases because of severe aortic arch stenosis, and 1 case because of aortic subvalvular obstruction. Conclusions: One-stage surgical repair of IAA is safe and clinically effective in the neonatal and infant. But some patients still requires reoperation for re-obstruction from subvalvular or aorta arch. For some patients, the choice of aortic arch reconstruction depends on the specific situation.

[The reasonable use of right ventricular protection strategy in right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction].

As a result of right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction, which is the important and basic step of complex cardiac surgery, the blood flow of right ventricular outflow tract is unobstructed, while pulmonary valve regurgitation and right heart dysfunction could be happened. These problems are often ignored in early days, more and more cases of right heart dysfunction need clinical intervention, which is quite difficult and less effective. How to protect effectively the right ventricular function is the focus. At present main methods to protect the right ventricular function include trying to avoid or reduce length of right ventricular incision, reserving or rebuilding the function of the pulmonary valve, using growth potential material for surgery. The protection of the right ventricular function is a systemic project, it involves many aspects, single measures is difficult to provide complete protection, only the comprehensive use of various protection strategy, can help to improve the long-term prognosis.

[Surgical treatment and early-mid follow-up results of complete atrioventricular septal].

Objective: To discuss the surgical treatment and early-mid follow-up results of complete atrioventricular septal defect (CAVSD). Methods: The clinic data of 235 cases of CAVSD underwent surgical treatment at Department of Cardiac Surgery, Guangdong General Hospital from June 2009 to June 2016 was analyzed retrospectively (104 male and 131 female patients). The patients were aged 18 days to 58 years (mid age 8.9 months) at surgery, and 2 cases of newborns (0.9%), 24 cases of 1 to 3 months (10.2%), 56 cases of 4 to 6 months (23.8%), 66 cases of 7 to 12 months (28.1%), 36 cases of 1 to 3 years (15.3%), 37 cases of 4 to 18 years (15.7%), and 14 cases above 18 years (6.0%). There were 129 cases of Rastelli type A (54.89%), 16 cases of type B (6.8%), 25 cases of type C (10.6%) and 65 cases of transitional type (27.7%). The patients were combined with 7 cases of unroofed coronary sinus syndrome, 5 cases of coarctation of aorta, 4 cases of tetralogy of Fallot, 3 cases of double outlet right ventricle, 1 case of transposition of the great arteries, 1 case of multiple ventricular septal defect, 1 case of pulmonary artery sling. The CAVSD correction operations were performed in 199 cases with modified single patch technique (84.7%), 26 cases with two patch technique (11.1%), 10 cases with conventional single patch technique (4.3%), and the corrective surgeries of other anomalies were performed in the meantime. Generalized Estimated Equation was used to statistical analysis of postoperative regurgitation level of mitral valve and tricuspid valve. Results: Followed-up for 1 to 7 years, 18 cases (7.7%) died overall and 15 cases (6.4%) died within 30 days post-operation.The mortality of little infant (operation age ≤3 months) was much highest(26.9%). The mortality of different operation age had significant difference(P=0.007). There was no difference among the mortality with three techniques. Seven cases (3.0%) suffered from the re-operation for severe mitral regurgitation. A total of 217 patients survived more than 1 year after initial surgery, and there were 11 cases (5.1%) with severe mitral regurgitation and 7 cases (3.2%) with severe tricuspid valve regurgitation at 1 year post-operation.The degree of mitral regurgitation after operation decreased at 1 week to 6 months, and slightly higher after 1 year postoperatively.The ratios of severe mitral regurgitation in different operative age group was statistically significant difference(P=0.017), mainly from 3 months group and 1 to 3 years group.The degree of tricuspid regurgitation decreased significantly after operation, and decreased gradually in the follow-up period. The ratio of postoperative residual severe tricuspid regurgitation was the highest in surgical aged >18 years old, less in 3 years group, the lowest in 3 to 18 years group. Conclusions: The mortality and the ratio of patients with serious mitral regurgitation were higher in infants less 3 months than elder patients. The infants need more frequently follow-up and medicine treatment after operation. The modified one patch technique is effective for all age groups.

Genetic analysis of maize kernel thickness by quantitative trait locus identification.

Kernel thickness is one of the most important traits in kernel structure, and is related to yield. To ascertain its genetic information more clearly, an immortal recombinant inbred line segregation population was used to map the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for kernel thickness. As a result, two QTLs were identified on chromosome 9; both of them had negative additive effects, and could decrease kernel thickness to some extent. The QTLs explained 25.8% of the total phenotypic variation. These results advance our understanding of the genetic basis of kernel thickness in maize-breeding programs.

Cloning and sequence analysis of an actin gene in aloe.

Aloe (Aloe spp), containing abundant polysaccharides and numerous bioactive ingredients, has remarkable medical, ornamental, calleidic, and edible values. In the present study, the total RNA was extracted from aloe leaf tissue. The isolated high-quality RNA was further used to clone actin gene by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The result of sequence analysis for the amplified fragment revealed that the cloned actin gene was 1012 bp in length (GenBank accession No. KC751541.1) and contained a 924-bp coding region and encoded a protein consisting of 307 amino acids. Homologous alignment showed that it shared over 80 and 96% identity with the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of actin from other plants, respectively. In addition, the cloned gene was used for phylogenetic analyses based on the deduced amino acid sequences, and the results suggested that the actin gene is highly conserved in evolution. The findings of this study will be useful for investigating the expression patterns of other genes in Aloe.

Extraction of total DNA and optimization of the RAPD reaction system in Dioscorea opposita Thunb.

Dioscorea opposita Thunb. has been used as health food and herbal medicinal ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine. In this study, the total DNA of D. opposita Thunb. was extracted using an improved cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method, and the extracted DNA was further used for random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) reaction system by design of the L16 (4(4)) orthogonal diagram. The results showed that the improved CTAB method can be used to isolate high-quality and high-concentration DNA, and the optimized protocol can overcome the instability of RAPD reaction system. The knowledge stated here can be used to study the genetic diversity of D. opposita Thunb.

Personal concerns and manifest anxiety in black students.

The areas and magnitude of personal problems and their relationships with manifest anxiety were investigated in 154 male and 202 female black undergraduate students in a predominantly black state university in the South. Both males and females were highly concerned over problems in college work, finance, living conditions, and employment, social and recreational activities, and curriculum and teaching procedure. A significant sex difference at the .05 level was evidenced by the Mann-Whitney U test. Significant positive correlations were found between the number of problems and anxiety scores in 9 areas for males and in all 11 areas for females. Two problem areas that did not correlate significantly with anxiety scores for males were social and recreational activities and home and family.