Fsp1 cardiac embryonic expression delineates atrioventricular endocardial cushion, coronary venous and lymphatic valve development.

Fsp1 (a.k.a S100A4 or Metastatin) is an intracellular and secreted protein widely regarded as a fibroblast marker. Recent studies have nonetheless shown that Fsp1 is also expressed by other cell types, including small subsets of endothelial cells. Since no detailed and systematic description of Fsp1 spatio-temporal expression pattern in cardiac vascular cells is available in the literature, we have used a transgenic murine line (Fsp1-GFP) to study Fsp1 expression in the developing and postnatal cardiac vasculature and endocardium. Our work shows that Fsp1 is expressed in the endocardium and mesenchyme of atrioventricular valve primordia, as well as in some coronary venous and lymphatic endothelial cells. Fsp1 expression in cardiac venous and lymphatic endothelium is progressively restricted to the leaflets of cardiac venous and lymphatic valves. Our results suggest that Fsp1 could play a role in the development of atrioventricular valves and participate in the patterning and morphogenesis of cardiac venous and lymphatic vessel valves.

[CLINICAL CASES-TREATED WITH TECHNOLOGY LIPID COLLOIDAL (TLC)]. / Casos clinicos tratados con La tecnologia lipido coloidal (TLC).

INTRODUCTION: This study presents clinical cases collecting etiologies that are more frequent in the field of complex wounds. All require a specific approach, as well as the interdisciplinary participation of different members of the team. But in general, established local cure plans may be quite similar. Applies them technology lipid colloidal (TLC) which consists of the combination of particles of hydrocolloid (carboxymethylcellulose) with lipid components. Products with a technology designed for every moment of healing. OBJECTIVE: Show our experience in the use of products with TLC in patients with ulcers of different etiologies. METHOD: The following products depending on the case have been used to treat: UrgoTul Absorb Border, Urgoclean (rope or plate), UrgoStart, UrgoK2 and UrgoK2 LITE. These products were applied in patients presenting four different etiologies of ulcer: hypertensive, traumatic, venous and ischemic ulcer. The use of Urgoclean rope favored cleaning the bed ulceral and applied Urgoclean plate with reinforced alginate to control the abundant exudates, with coverage of UrgoTul ABsorb Border. Once clean beds pass UrgoStart and at all times UrgoK2 bandage, cases that required compressive therapy. Intolerance to that kind of compression applied to patients presenting bandage UrgoK2 LITE (which tolerated without problem) which significantly reduced edema, favoring the control of exudate. Patients with ulcer of long evolution, at the start were reluctant to the application of new technologies, but after the first cures and sensing a good evolution, we get their confidence and commitment to the resolution. RESULTS: Are displayed clinical cases of different etiologic and personal contexts that an integral and interdisciplinary approach together with the application of products with TLC, managed to solve the problem. CONCLUSION: The materials used have been satisfactory in all cases, with a direct involvement in the resolution of lesions which carries a long unresolved, and in any of them, even with a diagnosis of poor prognosis. In the clinical practice of the wound care knowledge and research of new materials that improve the quality of life of patients, reducing the time evolution of the lesions is very important. Not to mention that education for the prevention of their health should be one of the objectives to prevent recurrences.

Humic-Like Substances as Auxiliaries to Enhance Advanced Oxidation Processes.

The application of humic-like substances (HLSs) in advanced oxidation processes for wastewater treatment is summarized in this work. HLSs share important characteristics with humic substances, and they can be isolated from different wastes using procedures that are related with their pH-dependent solubility. They are able to generate, upon irradiation, reactive species such as hydroxyl radicals and singlet oxygen or triplet excited states. Although photochemical removal of pollutants can be reached by HLSs, in general, irradiation times are very long. HLSs are good metal-complexing agents, and the Fe-HLS complex is able to participate in (photo)-Fenton-like processes at mild pH, preventing iron deactivation. Finally, novel hybrid materials with environmental applications have been synthesized using HLSs; in some cases, they also contain iron oxides, which allow a better separation but also the ability to drive heterogeneous (photo)-Fenton processes.

Monitoring photolysis and (solar photo)-Fenton of enrofloxacin by a methodology involving EEM-PARAFAC and bioassays: Role of pH and water matrix.

The degradation of enrofloxacin (ENR) by direct photolysis, Fenton and solar photo-Fenton processes has been studied in different water matrices, such as ultra-pure water (MQ), tap water (TW) and highly saline water (SW). Reactions have been conducted at initial pH 2.8 and 5.0. At pH = 2.8, HPLC analyses showed a fast removal of ENR by (solar photo)-Fenton treatments in all studied water matrices, whereas a 40% removal was observed after 120 min of photolysis. However, TOC measurements showed that only solar photo-Fenton was able to produce significant mineralization (80% after 120 min of treatment); differences between ENR removal and mineralization can be attributed to the release of important amounts of reaction by-products. Excitation-emission matrices (EEMs) combined with parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) were employed to gain further insight into the nature of these by-products and their time-course profile, obtaining a 5-component model. EEM-PARAFAC results indicated that photolysis is not able to produce important changes in the fluoroquinolone structure, in sharp contrast with (solar photo)-Fenton, where decrease of the components associated with fluoroquinolone core was observed. Agar diffusion tests employing E. coli and S, aureus showed that the antibiotic activity decreased in parallel with the destruction of the fluoroquinolone core.

Sustainable Magnetic Materials (from Chitosan and Municipal Biowaste) for the Removal of Diclofenac from Water.

The photodegradation of an aqueous solution of diclofenac (DCF) has been attempted in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and organic/inorganic hybrid magnetic materials under simulated and real solar light. The hybrid magnetic materials have been prepared via coprecipitation synthesis starting from iron(II) and iron(III) inorganic salts in the presence of bioderived organic products (i.e., chitosan or bio-based substances isolated from commercially available composted urban biowastes) acting as stabilizers of the iron-containing phase. In addition to the as prepared hybrid materials, the corresponding materials obtained after a pyrolytic step at low temperature (550 °C) have been tested. The obtained results evidenced the capability of the materials to activate hydrogen peroxide at mild pH promoting DCF (photo) degradation. All the materials feature also as adsorbents since a decrease of DCF is observed also when working in the dark and in the absence of hydrogen peroxide.

Unveiling the Dependence between Hydroxyl Radical Generation and Performance of Fenton Systems with Complexed Iron.

Humiclike substances (HLS) have been demonstrated to be useful auxiliaries to drive the (photo)-Fenton process at mild pH, by avoiding iron inactivation via formation of active complexes. However, the actual performance of the process is affected by a manifold of opposite processes. In this work, the generation of hydroxyl radical-like reactive species in the Fentonlike process has been investigated using electron paramagnetic resonance, employing 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide as a probe molecule. The signal obtained with the Fe(II)-HLS-H2O2 system at pH = 5 was very intense but decreased with time, in line with the difficult reduction of the formed Fe(III) to Fe(II). On the contrary, the signal of the Fe(III)-HLS-H2O2 system was weak but stable. The most intense signal was observed at HLS concentration of ca. 30 mg/L. Interestingly, the performance of the Fenton system at pH = 5 to degrade caffeine followed the same trends, although caffeine removal was very low after 1 h of irradiation. The results were more evident in a solar simulated photo-Fenton process, where an increase in the abatement of caffeine was observed until an HLS concentration of 30 mg/L, where 98% removal was reached after 1 h.

Humic like substances for the treatment of scarcely soluble pollutants by mild photo-Fenton process.

Humic-like substances (HLS) extracted from urban wastes have been tested as auxiliaries for the photo-Fenton removal of thiabendazole (TBZ) under simulated sunlight. Experimental design methodology based on Doehlert matrices was employed to check the effects of hydrogen peroxide concentration, HLS amount as well as TBZ loading; this last parameter was studied in the range 25-100 mg/L, to include values below and above the limit of solubility at pH = 5. Very satisfactory results were reached when TBZ was above solubility if HLS and H2O2 amounts were high. This could be attributed to an interaction of HLS-TBZ that enhances the solubility of the pollutant. Additional evidence supporting the latter interaction was obtained by fluorescence measurements (excitation emission matrices) and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC).

New Route for Valorization of Oil Mill Wastes: Isolation of Humic-Like Substances to be Employed in Solar-Driven Processes for Pollutants Removal.

The valorization of olive oil mill solid wastes (OMW) has been addressed by considering it as a possible source of humic-like substances (HLSs), to be used as auxiliary substances for photo-Fenton, employing caffeine as a target pollutant to test the efficiency of this approach. The OMW-HLS isolation encompassed the OMW basic hydrolysis, followed by ultrafiltration and drying. OMW-HLS structural features have been investigated by means of laser light scattering, fluorescence, size exclusion chromatography, and thermogravimetric analysis; moreover, the capability of OMW-HLS to generate reactive species under irradiation has been investigated using spin-trap electronic paramagnetic resonance. The caffeine degradation by means of photo-Fenton process driven at pH = 5 was significantly increased by the addition of 10 mg/L of OMW-HLS. Under the mechanistic point of view, it could be hypothesized that singlet oxygen is not playing a relevant role, whereas other oxidants (mainly OH• radicals) can be considered as the key species in promoting caffeine degradation.

Sirolimus-eluting stents compared with standard stents in the treatment of patients with primary angioplasty.

BACKGROUND: Sirolimus-eluting stents have been shown to decrease restenosis and reintervention as compared with standard stents. We evaluated the use of sirolimus-eluting stents in primary percutaneous coronary intervention for acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation. METHODS: We randomly assigned 120 patients to compare sirolimus-eluting stents with uncoated stents in primary percutaneous coronary intervention for acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation. The primary end point was composite: death from cardiac causes, recurrent myocardial infarction, or target-lesion revascularization after 360 days. RESULTS: The rate of the primary end point was 6.7% in the sirolimus-eluting stent and 11% in the bare-metal stent group (relative risk 1.75, 95% CI 0.47-6.57, P = .402). The survival free from target-vessel failure showed a higher trend in the sirolimus-eluting stent group than in the bare-metal stent group (0.0% vs 5.7%, P = .064). There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in the rate of death (5% and 3.6%, respectively; P = .736), reinfarction (1.7% and 1.8%, respectively; P = .940), or stent thrombosis (3.4% and 1.8%, respectively; P = .621). CONCLUSIONS: Among selected patients with acute myocardial infarction and ST-segment elevation, the use of sirolimus-eluting stents shows a trend to reduce the rate of target-vessel revascularization in comparison with bare-metal stent.

Reference genes for gene expression studies in the mouse heart.

To be accurate, quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) studies require a set of stable reference genes for normalization. This is especially critical in cardiac research because of the diversity of the clinical and experimental conditions in the field. We analyzed the stability of previously described as potential reference genes in different subsets of cardiac tissues, each representing a different field in cardiac research. The qPCR dataset was based on 119 different tissue samples derived from cardiac development to pathology in mouse adult hearts. These samples were grouped into 47 tissue types. The stability of 9 candidate genes was analyzed in each of 12 experimental conditions comprising different groupings of these tissue types. Expression stability was determined with the geNorm module of qbase+. This analysis showed that different sets of two or three reference genes are required for analysis of qPCR data in different experimental conditions in murine cardiac research.

[Percutaneous treatment of bifurcation lesions by crush T stenting: immediate and medium-term outcomes]. / Tratamiento de las lesiones bifurcadas mediante técnica de crush T stenting: resultados inmediatos y a medio plazo.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Percutaneous coronary intervention for coronary bifurcations is usually associated with a low success rate, a high rate of complications, and a more frequent need for target lesion revascularization. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate immediate and medium-term clinical and angiographic outcomes after the application of crush T stenting. METHODS: This approach to bifurcation stenting follows the same steps as modified T stenting. The only difference is that the side branch stent protrudes 3-4 mm into the main vessel from the carina. The aim is to ensure that the circumference of the side branch ostium is covered by the stent strut. RESULTS: Between December 2003 and February 2005, 82 patients were included in the study. The lesion involved the left main coronary artery in 53% of patients, the left anterior descending or diagonal coronary artery in 29%, the circumflex or marginal branch in 11%, and the right coronary artery or the posterior or posterolateral descending branch in 7%. Angiographic and clinical success was obtained in 100% and 96.4% of cases, respectively. Final dilatation was performed using a kissing balloon in 87%. Overall, 100% of patients were followed up clinically for 12 months and 77% were followed up angiographically for a mean of 8.7 (3.3) months. Target lesion revascularization was performed in 9 patients (10.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions using the crush T stenting technique is safe and effective. It reduces both the restenosis rate and the major adverse cardiac event rate at one year.

Long-term prognosis of patients having acute myocardial infarction when

Data on the long-term prognosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in young patients are limited. This study investigated long-term survival and risk predictors in a series of 108 consecutive patients

Value of NT-ProBNP level and echocardiographic parameters in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction treated by primary angioplasty: relationships between these variables and their usefulness as predictors of ventricular remodeling.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To assess the value of N-terminal fragment of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) measurement and echocardiography for predicting ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction and to investigate relationships between the NT-proBNP level and echocardiographic parameters at discharge and in the medium term. METHODS: The study involved 159 patients with myocardial infarction treated by primary coronary angioplasty. The NT-proBNP level was measured on admission, at discharge and after 6 months. Echocardiography was performed at discharge and after 6 months. RESULTS: Overall, 31 patients (19.5%) demonstrated remodeling. At discharge, the variables associated with remodeling were: mitral inflow E-wave-to-A-wave velocity ratio (E/A), systolic mitral annulus velocity (Sm), early diastolic mitral annulus velocity (Em), the mitral inflow E wave to early diastolic mitral annulus velocity ratio (E/ Em), left atrial volume (LAV), left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV), left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), and discharge NT-proBNP level. Only E/Em was an independent predictor of ventricular remodeling (odds ratio [OR]=1.143; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.039-1.258; P=.006). At discharge, correlations were observed between the NT-proBNP level and LVEDV, LVESV, ejection fraction (EF) and E/Em. At 6 months, correlations with ventricular volumes and EF were unchanged, the correlation with E/Em was better (r=0.47 vs. r=0.69), and a modest correlation with LAV developed (r=0.43; P=.001). CONCLUSIONS: The E/Em ratio was the best echocardiographic predictor of left ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction. The NT-proBNP level had no additional predictive value over echocardiography. Correlations between the NT-proBNP level and ventricular volumes and EF at discharge and 6 months were similar, while correlations with E/Em and LAV were better at 6 months.

Experiencia en un hospital de Chiloé con el uso de prostaglandina E1 sintética en la inducción del trabajo de parto en embarazos de término / Experience at a hospital in Chiloé with the prostaglandine E1 use in the labor induction in term pregnancies

Trabajo descriptivo de una serie prospectiva en la inducción de trabajo de parto, utilizando un análogo sintético de prostaglandina E1 de formulación oral y administrándolo por vía vaginal, usado en pacientes hospitalizadas como ambulatorias. Se realiza inducción a 95 embarazadas de término con buena proporción céfalo pélvica e índice de Bishop menor de 6. El 65,3 por ciento de las pacientes eran portadoras de patología de alto riesgo obstétrico perinatal. Se logra inicio de dinámica uterina con resultado de parto en el 92,6 por ciento de los casos estudiados, de los cuales en un 84,1 por ciento fue parto vaginal espontáneo, en 12,5 por ciento, cesárea y un 3 por ciento, forceps. Se presentó sufrimiento fetal agudo en un 4,5 por ciento de los casos. La duración del trabajo de parto fue menor de 13 hr en el 82 por ciento de las pacientes. No hubo asfixia neonatal en el estudio. Se postula que este método es útil y seguro para la inducción de trabajo de parto, pero mayores y randomizados estudios son necesarios para comprobar su valor comparativo con otros métodos y diferentes dosificaciones

Uso de misoprostol intravaginal como inductor de trabajo de parto en embarazadas de término, con antecedente de una cesárea anterior / Intravaginal use of misoprostol as labor inductor in term pregnancies with 1 cesarean section antecedent

Este es un trabajo descriptivo, de una serie prospectiva de inducciones de trabajo de parto en embarazadas de término con antecedente de un solo parto anterior y éste por cesárea, utilizando misoprostol de presentación oral pero administrado intravaginal. Se realizó inducción a 31 embarazadas de término con antecedente de cesárea previa, sin antecedentes de patología obstétrica, con buena proporción céfalo pélvica e índice de Bishop menor de 5. Se logró inicio de dinámica uterina en el 100 porciento de las pacientes, obteniéndose parto vaginal espontáneo en un 80,6 porciento, forceps en 9,7 porciento y cesárea en 9,7 porciento. No hubo complicaciones maternas ni fetales. En el 45,2 porciento de las pacientes la duración del trabajo de parto fue menor de 9 horas y en el 96,8 porciento se logró parto en un límite de 16 horas. Destaca presencia de hiperdinamia en el 32,3 porciento de los casos sin alteración de la unidad feto placentaria. No hubo asfixia neonatal en el estudio. Se concluye que el uso de misoprostol administrado intravaginalmente, para inducción de trabajo de parto en embarazos de término con antecedente de cicatriz de cesárea previa, es una alternativa eficaz, segura y fácil de usar, teniendo como condición la adecuada porporción céfalo pélvica y un estricto control del trabajo de parto

Inducción del trabajo de partos con misoprostol intravaginal: experiencia de 5 años / Labor induction with intravaginal misoprostol: experience of 5 years

Los comprimidos para empleo oral de misoprostol se están usando en nuestro país como en otros para la inducción del trabajo de parto en que la experiencia acumulada ha mostrado ser una alternativa segura y eficiente. Es necesario precisar las exactas indicaciones del medicamento y se presenta la experiencia del Hospital de Castro. Se destaca que los malos resultados perinatales ocurren en el grupo en que fracasa la inducción con misoprostol como en aquellos en que se sospecha una insuficiencia placentaria (síndrome hipertensivo, oligoamnios y retardo del crecimiento intrauterino)