The incremental significance of heart rate recovery as a predictor during exercise-stress myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging in individuals with suspected coronary artery disease.

Background: Major adverse cardiac events (MACE) are more likely to occur when abnormal heart rate recovery (HRR). This study aimed to assess the incremental predictive significance of HRR over exercise stress myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (MPS) results for MACE in individuals with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods: Between January 2014 and December 2017, we continually gathered data on 595 patients with suspected CAD who received cycling exercise stress MPS. HRR at 1, 2, 3, and 4 min were used as study variables to obtain the optimal cut-off values of HRR for MACE. The difference between the peak heart rate achieved during exercise and the heart rate at 1, 2, 3, and 4 min was used to calculate the HRR, as shown in HRR3. Heart rate variations between two locations in time, such as HRR2 min-1 min, were used to establish the slope of HRR. All patients were followed for a minimum of 4 years, with MACE as the follow-up goal. The associations between HRR and MACE were assessed using Cox proportional hazards analyses. Results: Patients with MACE were older (P = 0.001), and they also had higher rates of hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, abnormal MPS findings (SSS ≥ 5%), medication history (all P < 0.001), and lower HRR values (all P < 0.01). Patients with and without MACE did not significantly vary in their HRR4 min-3 min. The optimal cut-off of HRR1, 2, and 3 combined with SSS can stratify the risk of MACE in people with suspected CAD (all P < 0.001). HRR 1, 2, and 3 and its slope were linked to MACE in multivariate analysis, where HRR3 was the most significant risk predictor. With a global X2 increase from 101 to 126 (P < 0.0001), HRR3 demonstrated the greatest improvement in the model's predictive capacity, incorporating clinical data and MPS outcomes. Conclusions: HRR at 3 min has a more excellent incremental prognostic value for predicting MACE in patients with suspected CAD following cycling exercise stress MPS. Therefore, incorporating HRR at 3 min into known predictive models may further improve the risk stratification of the patients.

An alarm device for mechanical compression device displacement at femoral artery puncture sites.

OBJECTIVE: To develop an alarm device for the mechanical compression device displacement (MCD), and further evaluate its effectiveness in clinical use. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The alarm device is mainly composed of buzzer, indicator light, magnetic sheet. This is a prospective randomized and controlled study. Four hundred patients who met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were included and randomly assigned to two groups (MCD group vs alarm + MCD group). The primary outcome measures were the sensitivity and specificity of the alarm device to detect MCD displacement, time to hemostasis (TTH), time to ambulation (TTA), time to hospital discharge (TTHD), hospital costs (HC), complication rates, and patient satisfaction. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of the alarm device in detecting MCD displacement were 94.44% and 88.46%, respectively. The study group achieved shorter TTH (p = .034), shorter TTA (p = .021), lower complication rates (p = .025), and better patients' satisfaction (p < .001) compared to the control group. However, no significant difference was observed in TTHD (p = .361) and HC (p = .583). CONCLUSION: The alarm device is highly sensitive in detecting MCD displacement, while achieving better clinical outcomes compared with artificial monitoring.

Performance of Chouioia cunea reared from a coleopteran alternative host as a biocontrol agent against the invasive lepidopteran pest, Hyphantria cunea.

BACKGROUND: Chouioia cunea is a generalist pupal endoparasitoid. Native to Eurasia, the parasitoid has been mass-reared on an alternative lepidopteran host (Antheraea pernyi) to successfully control the exotic invasive lepidopteran pest Hyphantria cunea in China. To solicit more accessible hosts, this study evaluated the potential of an easily cultured coleopteran beetle (Tenebrio molitor) as a substitute for rearing C. cunea through comparing the relative performance of the parasitoids reared from both alternative hosts on H. cunea. RESULTS: Compared with those reared from A. pernyi, the parasitoids reared from T. molitor (i.e., T. molitor vs. A. pernyi groups) performed equally well in terms of parasitism rate (94.4 vs. 88.9%), number of offspring produced per parasitized host (278 vs. 286), and female body length (1.334 vs. 1.351 mm), hind-tibia length (0.322 vs. 0.324 mm) and number of mature oocytes in the ovarioles (171 vs. 187), or even better based on offspring pre-emergence time (16.0 vs 16.9 days) and percentages of emerged offspring (99.8 vs. 99.1%) and female offspring (97.1 vs. 91.3%). Flight performance testing indicated that young C. cunea adults emerged from T. molitor had a similar percentage of actively flying wasps (76.9 vs. 72.9%) and a lower percentage of inactive wasps (2.3 vs. 10.6%) when compared to those reared from A. pernyi. CONCLUSION: Given the remarkable adaptability of C. cunea and the vast availability of T. molitor as a common resource insect worldwide, this indigenous parasitoid could be mass-reared on T. molitor to improve the prospect of biological control of H. cunea in its invaded regions. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Optimized pupal age of Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) enhanced mass rearing efficiency of Chouioia cunea Yang (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae).

Chouioia cunea Yang (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) has been widely used for biological control of the fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea (Drury) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae), in China. The yellow mealworm, Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), an important resource insect species distributed worldwide, is considered to be a potential alternative host for mass rearing of C. cunea to the Chinese oak silkworm, Antheraea pernyi (Guerin-Meneville) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), which is currently used. In this study, we investigated the effects of host age on C. cunea mass rearing by measuring parasitism, development and adult fertility of C. cunea on T. molitor pupae of different ages. The results showed no significant differences in the percentage of parasitized hosts and developmental time of C. cunea in pupae of different ages. However, the number of C. cunea adults (137.2-154.7 adults per host) that emerged from 0, 1, and 2-day-old pupae was significantly higher than that from 4-day-old pupae. The lowest percentages of unemerged adults were found in 2-day-old (1.2%) and 3-day-old (1.4%) pupae, which were significantly lower than that of 4-day-old pupae (10.3%). The emergence of adult females from 0 to 2-day-old pupae (120.2-142.3 per pupa) was significantly higher than that from 4-day-old hosts (64.6). Adult females emerging from 2-day-old pupae carried significantly more eggs (258.2 eggs/female) than those from 0 and 1-day-old pupae (178.4-178.9 eggs/female). Our findings indicated that 2-day-old pupae of T. molitor were most suitable to rear C. cunea. Overall, this research provided valuable information to optimize pupae for the mass rearing of C. cunea on host T. molitor.

Parasitism and Suitability of Different Egg Ages of the Leguminivora glycinivorella (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) for Three Indigenous Trichogramma Species.

Pod borers are economically important soybean pests in temperate and tropical regions. However, the biological control of these pests using their natural insect enemies has been poorly studied to date. Indigenous natural populations of three Trichogramma (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) species, Trichogramma chilonis Ishii, Trichogramma ostriniae Pang & Chen, and Trichogramma leucaniae Pang & Chen, were collected from Leguminivora glycinivorella (Matsumura) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) eggs in soybean fields in China. In this study, we compare the parasitic capacities and suitabilities of three indigenous Trichogramma species on L. glycinivorella eggs at various ages. Host eggs of all ages were accepted by T. chilonis, T. ostriniae, and T. leucaniae. T. chilonis tended to parasitize 0-2-d-old eggs more than 3-4-d-old eggs. There were no significant differences in parasitism between the 0-2-d-old eggs and the 1-4-d-old eggs for T. ostriniae and T. leucaniae. For eggs at various ages, T. chilonis parasitized the smallest number of eggs, while T. leucaniae and T. ostriniae exhibited similar parasitic capacities. With 0-d-old host eggs, T. ostriniae developed over the longest time period (8.7 d), and T. leucaniae produced the most female progeny (87.9%). Both T. leucaniae and T. ostriniae had similar developmental times, survival rates and percentages of female progeny with 1-3-d-old eggs. These results show that T. leucaniae can parasitize host eggs at varying ages with the best development and suggest that it may be a valuable biological control agent for soybean pod borers.

Effects of in vitro cultivated Calculus Bovis compound on pulmonary lesions in rabbits with schistosomiasis.

AIM: To explore the interventional effects and mechanism of in vitro cultivated Calculus Bovis compound preparation (ICCBco) on pulmonary lesions in portal hypertensive rabbits with schistosomiasis. METHODS: The experimental group included 20 portal hypertensive rabbits with schistosomiasis treated by ICCBco. The control group included 20 portal hypertensive rabbits with schistosomiasis treated by praziquantel. The morphological changes of the pulmonary tissues were observed under light and electron microscopy. The expression of fibronectin (FN) and laminin (LN) in the lung tissues was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Under light microscope, the alveolar exudation in the lung tissue was more frequently observed in the control group, while the alveolar space was fairly dry in the lung tissue of ICCBco group. Under electron microscope, more alveolar exudation in the lung tissue, and more macrophages, alveolar angiotelectasis and the blurred three-tier structure of alveolar-capillary barrier could be seen in the control group. In ICCBco group, fibers within the alveolar interspace slightly increased in some lung regions, and the structure of type I epithelium, basement membrane and endodermis was complete, and no obvious exudation from the alveolar space, and novascular congestion could be observed. There was a positive or strong positive expression of FN and LN in the lung tissue of the control group, while there was a negative or weak positive expression of FN and LN in ICCBco group. CONCLUSION: ICCBco can effectively prevent pulmonary complications in portal hypertensive rabbits with schistosomiasis by means of improving lung microcirculation and lowering the content of extracellular matrix.

[Screening the differential expression of adriamycin-resistance related genes of breast cancer by cDNA microarray].

OBJECTIVE: To study the differential gene expression of adriamycin-resistance of breast cancer cell line MCF-7/ADR as compared with its parent cell MCF-7 and screen the related genes. METHODS: The in vitro inhibitory rate of MCF-7/ADR and MCF-7 cell lines to ADM (adriamycin) was examined by MIT assay. Then a cDNA microarray representing 14,755 genes was used to analyze the expression profiles of these two breast cancer cell lines. RESULTS: The inhibitory rate of MCF-7/ ADR to ADM was lower than that of MCF-7(P <0.05)and the drug resistance to ADR of MCF-7/ADR was stronger than that of MCF-7. There were 2374 differential expression genes in MCF-7/adr and MCF-7 cell lines, of which 1099 genes upregulated with 99 genes 10-fold upregulated and 1275 genes downregulated with 71 genes 10-fold downregulated. The important upregulated genes were Bcl-2, GSTP1, c-myc, MMP-1 and NNMT while those downregulated ones p53, p21, p27 and CYPIA1. CONCLUSION: Drug resistance of breast cancer is a complicated process involving the expression of many upregulated or downregulated genes. The application of gene chip in screening drug-resistant genes may be a new approach for selecting the optimal chemotherapeutic regimens. [Key words]