Midterm Results of Drug-Coated Balloon Alone or Combined with Rotarex Thrombectomy Device for Treatment of Subacute Femoropopliteal Artery Thrombotic Occlusion.

BACKGROUND: This retrospective multicenter study aimed to compare the midterm results of the Rotarex rotational thrombectomy device combined with drug-coated balloon (DCB) and DCB-alone for the treatment of subacute femoropopliteal artery thrombotic occlusion. METHODS: All patients (74, aged 70.1 ± 9.3 years) were nonrandomized and divided into 2 groups based on treatment strategy between 2018 and 2020. Intraoperative technical success (defined as <30% residual stenosis), dissection types and bailout-stenting rates were assessed. Ankle-brachial index (ABI), primary patency (PP, restenosis <50%) and freedom from clinically driven target lesion reintervention (CD-TLR) were documented at follow-up. RESULTS: Among them, 35 patients were treated with the Rotarex catheter combined with DCB while 39 patients underwent DCB-alone. The-overall technical success rate was 100%. Patients in the Rotarex + DCB group showed lower rate of bailout stenting than those in the DCB alone group (22.9% vs. 59.0%; P = 0.01). ABI at discharge was significantly higher in both groups. Mean follow-up time was 18.5 ± 3.4 months; 62 patients completed Doppler ultrasound investigation while 12 patients were censored. According to Kaplan-Meier analysis, the estimated PP was 82.0 ± 6.7% in the Rotarex + DCB group, whereas a significantly lower rate in the DCB alone group (60.9 ± 8.3%, P = 0.04). In addition, the freedom from CD-TLR rate was 82.9 ± 6.4% in the Rotarex + DCB group and 61.5 ± 7.8% in the DCB-alone group (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: These initial data indicate that the Rotarex thrombectomy device combined with DCB is an effective choice for the treatment of subacute femoropopliteal artery thrombotic occlusion compared to DCB-alone. The combined procedure had superior midterm results.

Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Conjugated Polyelectrolyte-Based Memristors for Transient Electronics.

The key to protect sensitive information stored in electronic memory devices from disclosure is to develop transient electronic devices that are capable of being destroyed quickly in an emergency. By using a highly water-soluble polythiophene-conjugated polyelectrolyte PTT-NMI+Br- as an active material, which was synthesized by the reaction of poly[thiophene-alt-4,4-bis(6-bromohexyl)-4H-cyclopenta(1,2-b:5,4-b')dithiophene] with N-methylimidazole, a flexible electronic device, Al/PTT-NMI+Br-/ITO-coated PET (ITO: indium tin oxide; PET: polyethylene terephthalate), is successfully fabricated. This device shows a typical nonvolatile rewritable resistive random access memory (RRAM) effect at a sweep voltage range of ±3 V and a history-dependent memristive switching performance at a small sweep voltage range of ±1 V. Both the learning/memorizing functions and the synaptic potentiation/depression of biological systems have been emulated. The switching mechanism for the PTT-NMI+Br--based electronic device may be highly associated with ion migration under bias. Once water is added to this device, it will be destructed rapidly within 20 s due to the dissolution of the active layer. This device is not only a typical transient device but can also be used for constructing conventional memristors with long-term stability after electronic packaging. Furthermore, the soluble active layer in the device can be easily recycled from its aqueous solution and reused for fabricating new transient memristors. This work offers a train of new thoughts for designing and constructing a neuromorphic computing system that can be quickly destroyed with water in the near future.