Common Heart Disease Research Articles

Conjunctival congestion: a novel clinical sign in older children with Tetralogy of Fallot.

Tetralogy of Fallot is the most common cyanotic heart disease in children. While doing echocardiographic examination of children with Tetralogy of Fallot, we observed that many older children with this condition had congestion in their bulbar conjunctiva, easily recognizable even from some distance. This observation led us to design and perform a research study in order to find out the presence of conjunctival congestion in children with Tetralogy of Fallot. 85% of children in the ≥ 5-years of age group had conjunctival congestion without any ocular symptom. This novel clinical finding can act as an adjunct clinical sign for recognizing Tetralogy of Fallot in older children.

Acute myocardial infarction therapy using calycosin and tanshinone co-loaded mitochondria targeted lipid-polymer hybrid nano-system: Preparation, characterization, and anti myocardial infarction activity assessment

BackgroundAcute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most common ischemic heart diseases. However, lack of sufficient drug concentrations in the ischemic heart may led to treatment failure. It is urgent for researchers to engineer novel drug delivery systems to enhance the targeted delivery of cardioprotective agents. ObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-AMI ability of calycosin (CAL) and tanshinone (TAN) co-loaded mitochondria targeted lipid-polymer hybrid nano-system. MethodsCAL and TAN combined lipid-polymer hybrid nano-systems were prepared and MTP-131 was conjugated with PEG and modified onto the nanoparticles to achieve MTP-CAL/TAN NS. The physicochemical properties of nano-systems were characterized, the AMI therapy ability of the systems was investigated in AMI rats’ model. ResultsThe size of MTP-CAL/TAN NS was 168.7 ± 5.1 nm, with a surface charge of − 21.3 ± 2.3 mV. The area under the curve (AUC) and blood circulation half-life (T1/2) of MTP-CAL/TAN NS was 178.86 ± 6.62 μg·min/mL and 0.47 h, respectively. MTP-CAL/TAN NS exhibited the most significant infarct size reduction effect of 23.9 %. ConclusionMTP-CAL/TAN NS exhibited the highest heart accumulation and best infarct size reduction effect, which could be used as a promising system for efficient treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

A Retrospective Study to Evaluate the Maternal and Fetal Outcome in Patients of Heart Disease in Pregnancy at a Tertiary Rural Hospital

Background: Heart disease(HD) in pregnancy remains an important cause of maternal, fetal morbidity and mortality especially in a developing country like India, where incidence of cardiac disease that complicates pregnancy is between 1% to 4% & Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) still remains the most common type of heart disease complicating pregnancy due to Poor socioeconomic condition. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study carried out in Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at S.M.B.T. Institute of medical sciences, Dhamangaon during the period of 24 months to assess the maternal and fetal outcome on patients of heart disease with pregnancy. Result: Among the 3182 patients delivered in the study 35 had cardiac disease with prevalence of 1.1%, all patients were booked and diagnosed with heart disease during ANC checkup. Rheumatic Heart disease (70%) was the commonest form of heart disease with MS with MR predominating (22%). NYHA grade 2 patients (41%) were maximum with Anemia as the associated complicating factor.4 patients with severe MS required balloon mitral valvotomy (BMV) of them 1 patient went into pulmonary edema. There was no maternal mortality. 2 patients underwent medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) for cardiac reason and there was 1 neonatal mortality. Conclusion: RHD is still the commonest heart disease in pregnancy; BMV can be performed in third trimester on patients with severe MS reducing intra and postpartum complications. Giving good and timely antenatal, Intranatal and postnatal care at a tertiary care hospital with good cardiac, obstetric & Neonatal care setup reduces maternal and fetal morbidity in patients of heart disease with pregnancy. Keywords: Rheumatic heart disease in pregnancy, Congenital heart disease in pregnancy, Balloon Mitral Valvotomy in pregnancy

P2X7R-NEK7-NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation: A Novel Therapeutic Pathway of Qishen Granule in the Treatment of Acute Myocardial Ischemia.

BackgroundAcute myocardial ischemia (AMI) is a common heart disease with increasing morbidity and mortality year by year. Persistent and sterile inflammatory infiltration of myocardial tissue is an important factor triggering of acute myocardial ischemia secondary to acute myocardial infarction, and NLRP3 inflammasome activation is an important part of sterile inflammatory response after acute myocardial ischemia. Previous studies have shown that Qishen granule (QSG) can significantly inhibit the inflammatory injury of myocardial tissue caused by ischemia, but its effect and specific mechanism of inhibiting the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome have not been reported. This study was to investigate the specific mechanism of QSG inhibiting inflammation after AMI, and to validate the possible targets.MethodsThe myocardial ischemia model in mice was established by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Echocardiography was used to evaluate the cardiac function of the mice. Plasma CK-MB and cTnl were detected by ELISA to evaluate the degree of myocardial injury. The extent of myocardial tissue inflammation in mice was assessed by HE staining and immunohistochemistry of IL-18, IL-1β. The expressions of NLRP3, ASC, Caspase-1, and CD86 were detected by immunofluorescence; detection of key pathway proteins P2X7R, NEK7, NLRP3, ASC, Caspase-1, and effector proteins IL-18, IL-1β by Western blot. In vitro experiments, ATP+LPS was used to construct a RAW264.7 macrophage NLRP3 inflammasome activation model. Immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis were performed to detect the expression of NLRP3 pathway activator and effector proteins. Plasmid-transfected P2X7R overexpression and immunoprecipitation assays were used to evaluate the QSG-regulated NLRP3 inflammasome activation pathway.ResultsQSG rescued cardiac function and further reduced inflammatory effects in mice by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation. In vitro, QSG inhibited LPS combined with ATP-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation in RAW264.7 macrophages by downregulating the expression of NLRP3 inflammasome key pathway proteins. In addition, inhibition or overexpression of P2X7R in RAW264.7 macrophages and immunoprecipitated protein interactions further confirmed that QSG reduces macrophages inflammasome activation via the P2X7R-NEK7-NLRP3 pathway.ConclusionP2X7R-NEK7-NLRP3 inflammasome activation is a novel therapeutic mechanism of QSG in the treatment of acute myocardial ischemia.

Acute myocardial infarction therapy using calycosin and tanshinone co-loaded; mitochondrion-targeted tetrapeptide and cyclic arginyl-glycyl-aspartic acid peptide co-modified lipid-polymer hybrid nano-system: preparation, characterization, and anti myocardial infarction activity assessment

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most common ischemic heart diseases. However, lack of sufficient drug concentration (in the ischemic heart) is the major factor of treatment failure. It is urgent for researchers to engineer novel drug delivery systems to enhance the targeted delivery of cardioprotective agents. The aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-AMI ability of calycosin (CAL) and tanshinone (TAN) co-loaded; mitochondrion-targeted tetrapeptide (MTP) and cyclic arginyl-glycyl-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide co-modified nano-system.: We prepared CAL and TAN combined lipid-polymer hybrid nano-system, and RGD was modified to the system to achieve RGD-CAL/TAN NS. MTP-131 was conjugated with PEG and modified onto the nanoparticles to achieve dual ligands co-modified MTP/RGD-CAL/TAN NS. The physicochemical properties of nano-systems were characterized. The AMI therapy ability of the systems was investigated in AMI rats’ model. The size of MTP/RGD-CAL/TAN NS was 170.2 ± 5.6 nm, with a surface charge of −18.9 ± 1.9 mV. The area under the curve (AUC) and blood circulation half-life (T1/2) of MTP/RGD-CAL/TAN NS was 178.86 ± 6.62 μg·min/mL and 0.47 h, respectively. MTP/RGD-CAL/TAN NS exhibited the most significant infarct size reduction effect of 22.9%. MTP/RGD-CAL/TAN NS exhibited the highest heart accumulation and best infarct size reduction effect, which could be used as a promising system for efficient treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Analysis of Therapeutic Effect of Elderly Patients with Severe Heart Failure Based on LSTM Neural Model.

In recent years, cardiovascular-related diseases have become the “number one killer” threatening human life and health and have received much attention. The timely and accurate detection and diagnosis of arrhythmias and heart failure are relatively common heart diseases, which are of great social value and research significance in improving people's quality of life by providing early treatment or intervention for those who are at risk. Based on this, this paper proposes a deep learning network architecture based on the combination of long- and short-term memory networks and deep residual neural networks for the automatic detection of heart failure. A total of 60 elderly patients with severe heart failure treated in the emergency department of our hospital from August 2019 to August 2021 were selected as the sample subjects of this study. The treatment outcomes and prognostic quality of life of the two groups of patients were compared and analyzed. Based on the unbiased test method, the accuracy of the proposed method on the authoritative open continuous heart rate database PhysioNet was 99.67% (data length 500), 98.84% (data length 1000), and 96.63% (data length 2000). This indicates that the network model can well extract the high-dimensional features of continuous heart rate and improve the accuracy of the classification model. The LSTM neural model proposed in this paper may be able to provide richer information on heart health status for portable ECG detection systems, which have very important clinical value and social significance.

Clinical significance of genetic variation in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: comparison of computational tools to prioritize missense variants.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common heart disease associated with sudden cardiac death. Early diagnosis is critical to identify patients who may benefit from implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy. Although genetic testing is an integral part of the clinical evaluation and management of patients with HCM and their families, in many cases the genetic analysis fails to identify a disease-causing mutation. This is in part due to difficulties in classifying newly detected rare genetic variants as well as variants-of-unknown-significance (VUS). Multiple computational algorithms have been developed to predict the potential pathogenicity of genetic variants, but their relative performance in HCM has not been comprehensively assessed. Here, we compared the performance of 39 currently available prediction tools in distinguishing between high-confidence HCM-causing missense variants and benign variants, and we developed an easy-to-use-tool to perform variant prediction benchmarks based on annotated VCF files (VETA). Our results show that tool performance increases after HCM-specific calibration of thresholds. After excluding potential biases due to circularity type I issues, we identified ClinPred, MISTIC, FATHMM, MPC and MetaLR as the five best performer tools in discriminating HCM-associated variants. We propose combining these tools in order to prioritize unknown HCM missense variants that should be closely followed-up in the clinic.

Automatic prediction of coronary artery disease using differential evolution-based support vector machine

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common heart disease that causes the blockage of coronary arteries. To reduce fatality, an accurate diagnosis of this disease is very important. Angiography is one of the most trustworthy and conventional methods for CAD diagnosis however, it is risky, expensive, and time-consuming. Therefore in this study, we proposed a differential evolution-based support vector machine (SVM) for early and accurate detection of CAD. To improve the accuracy, different data preprocessing techniques such as one-hot encoding and normalization are also used with differential evolution for feature selection before performing classification. The proposed approach is benchmarked with the Z-Alizadeh Sani and Cleveland datasets against four state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, and a highly cited genetic algorithm-based SVM (N2GC-nuSVM). The experimental results show that our proposed differential evolution-based SVM outperforms all the compared algorithms. The proposed method provides accuracies of 95±1% and 86.22% for predicting CAD on the benchmark datasets.

GCN-GENE: A novel method for prediction of coronary heart disease-related genes

Coronary heart disease is the most common heart disease, it can induce myocardial infarction, and the cause of the disease has a lot to do with life and eating habits. The results of a large number of epidemiological studies at home and abroad show that the incidence of coronary heart disease has an obvious familial tendency. However, little is known about the genetic factors of coronary heart disease. Although genome-wide association analysis and gene knockout experiments have found some genes related to coronary heart disease, there are still a large number of genes potentially related to coronary heart disease that have not been discovered. If it is confirmed by biological experimental means, the time and money cost is too high. Therefore, it is urgent to identify genes related to coronary heart disease on a large scale by computational means, so as to conduct targeted biological experimental verification. This paper proposes a deep learning method based on biological networks for the identification of coronary heart disease-related genes. We constructed gene interaction networks and extracted gene expression levels in different tissues as features. Through the association information and expression characteristics between genes, we constructed a model of coronary heart disease-related genes. Through cross-validation, we found that our proposed GCN-GENE that has AUC as 0.75 and AUPR as 0.78, which is more accurate than other methods and is a reliable method for predicting coronary heart disease-related genes.

Abstract P1121: Transposition Of Great Arteries - Genetics And Beyond

Background: Transposition of great arteries (TGA) is one of the most common severe congenital heart defects and neonatal cyanotic heart diseases. Given contribution of several molecular pathways involved in cardiac differentiation (Fig.1), the etiology governing morphogenesis of TGA remains largely unknown. There is greater insight into interactions and molecular variations culminating in aortic-pulmonary transposition. Clinical evidence and genetic sequencing has led to several polymorphic mutations demonstrating phylogenetic conservation of regulatory domains. Defects in transcription factors involved in nodal signaling, in addition to ZIC3 & PROSIT 240, are strongly implicated in arterial transposition. We reviewed current literature on the genetics determining TGA development and associated lateral syndromes Methods: We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar to identify listed keywords Body: TGA is now postulated as part of a spectrum of genetic disorders with familial recurrence, rather than sporadic defect. Evidence exists for TGA's correlation with genes involving lateralization defects, heterotaxy and asplenia. Evidence, albeit scarce, has surfaced depicting association of TGA with genetic syndromes like Trisomy 8, 18, VACTERL and CHARGE syndrome, Tuberous sclerosis, Deletion 11q, 18p, and other genetic syndromes like Digeorge, Turner’s, Noonan’s, Williams, and Marfan. Additional gene mutations causing TGA might include CFC-1, TRAP2, FOXH1, LEFTY2, PITX2, GDF1. The interrelation between mutations in ciliary genes contributing to both TGA and neurodevelopment disorder, prompts consideration of common ciliopathic pathogenies explaining association between TGA and neurodevelopmental disorders. Conclusion: The occurrence of mutations in a single gene, though a cause for TGA, does not correlate with 5-7% occurrence rate for TGA. Major research has focused on a single gene approach, neglecting the simultaneous screening for other susceptible targets. The multiple-hit model suggested by De Luca et al. (2010) is a promising approach for further understanding the contribution of multi-gene sequences. Minor genetic variations in several genes may have a cumulative effect that increases disease susceptibility in TGA and other congenital heart defects

Risk Factors for Heart Disease in Pet Dogs Attended At a Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Malaysia

The distribution and risk factors of canine heart disease in Malaysia are still not widely studied. This retrospective study examined the distribution of common canine heart diseases and the role of gender, age group, and breed size as risk factors of the dogs in a teaching hospital in Malaysia. Medical records of all dogs presented between 2013 and 2020 with a heart disease diagnosed were reviewed and analyzed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was carried out to identify the risk factors for canine heart diseases in general and based on specific disease. In a duration of 7 years, a total of 9255 dog cases were presented and 7.9% (n=734, 95% CI: 0.07-0.09) of the dogs were diagnosed with heart disease. Majority of heart disease cases were valvular disease (n=528, 95% CI: 0.05-0.06), followed by heartworm disease (n=113. 95% CI: 0.01-0.01), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) (n=90, 95% CI: 0.01-0.01). Senior (OR 3.54, 95% CI: 2.32-5.37) and small breed (OR 6.74, 95% CI: 4.51-10.1) dogs had higher risk for valvular disease, while large breed (OR 7.18, 95% CI: 4.00-13.01) dogs were at risk for heartworm disease. Male (OR 1.83, 95% CI:1.11-3.04) and large breed dogs (OR 3.12, 95% CI: 1.80-5.39) had greater risk for DCM, respectively. Gender, age group and breed size play important role in predicting the likelihood of heart diseases in dogs and are best to be applied in the context of specific heart diseases. Information obtained would assist clinicians with their clinical diagnosis of the heart disease.

Evaluation of endothelial cell-specific molecule-1 as a biomarker of glycocalyx damage in canine myxomatous mitral valve disease

BackgroundEndothelial cell-specific molecule-1 (ESM-1) has emerged as a potential biomarker for cardiovascular disease in humans. Myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) is the most common heart disease in dogs, and we hypothesized that MMVD causes chronic inflammation that increases susceptibility to endothelial glycocalyx (eGCX) damage. In this study, we measured the concentration of ESM-1 in a group of dogs with MMVD and evaluated factors affecting eGCX damage.ResultsSixty-four dogs (control, n = 6; MMVD, n = 58) were enrolled in this study. There was no significant difference in serum ESM-1 concentrations among the MMVD stages. The serum ESM-1 concentration was significantly higher in the death group than in the alive group in MMVD dogs. (p = 0.006). In five dogs with MMVD, serum ESM-1 concentrations tended to decrease when the cardiac drug (pimobendan, furosemide, and digoxin) dose was increased.ConclusionsIn cases where MMVD progressed to decompensated heart failure with clinical symptoms and resulted in death, the concentration of serum ESM-1 increased significantly. Therefore, ESM-1 could be utilized as a new potential negative prognostic factor in patients with MMVD.

Association study between polymorphisms in MIA3, SELE, SMAD3 and CETP genes and coronary artery disease in an Iranian population

BackgroundCoronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common heart disease. Several studies have shown association between some polymorphism in different genes with CAD. Finding this association can be used in order to early diagnosis and prevention of CAD.Method101 CAD patients with ≥ 50% luminal stenosis of any coronary vessel as case group and 111 healthy individuals as control group were selected. the polymorphisms were evaluated by ARMS-PCR and RFLP-PCR methods.ResultThe results of this study show that there is no significant association between rs17228212, rs17465637, and rs708272 and risk of CAD. But there is significant association between risk of CAD and rs5355 (p-value = 0.022) and rs3917406 (p-value = 0.006) in total cases, and rs5882 (p-value = 0.001) in male cases.ConclusionsOur findings revealed a significant interaction between CETP SNPs and CETP activity for affecting HDL-C levels. The SELE gene is a known cell adhesion molecule with a significant role in inflammation. Studies about possible linkage between SELE gene polymorphisms and the development of CAD are conflicting. We have found a significant association between polymorphisms of SELE gene and risk of CAD.

Evaluation of extracranial carotid flow velocities in patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke: A clinical study conducted in Turkey

Objective. The mechanism underlying the relationship between carotid flow velocities and stroke events remains unclear. This study aimed to reveal the relationship of flow velocity measurements with risk factors in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Material and methods. A group of patients between the ages of 41-90 who applied to Mengücek Training and Research Hospital in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey between 2014-2015 due to acute ischemic stroke were included. Groups with large artery atherosclerosis and small-vessel occlusion according to the Toast classification were included in the study. Brain tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, echocardiography, high-resolution color Doppler Ultrasonography examinations were performed. Internal carotid artery peak-systolic and end-diastolic flow velocity, common carotid artery peak-systolic and end-diastolic flow velocity, internal carotid artery peak systolic-common carotid artery peak-systolic velocity ratio and common carotid artery intima-media thickness were measured with Doppler Ultrasonography. The relationship between carotid flow velocities and brain infarction volume, comorbid factors, biochemical variables, left ventricular systolic-diastolic dysfunction was defined by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0. Outcomes. In acute ischemic stroke groups, a significant negative correlation between common carotid artery end-diastolic flow velocity and brain infarction volume, a significant positive relationship between common carotid artery peak-systolic velocity and smoking, a significant positive correlation between common carotid artery intima-media thickness and blood glucose and hba1c, a significant negative correlation between common carotid artery end-diastolic flow velocity and hypertension, a significant relationship between common carotid artery end-diastolic flow velocity and ischemic heart disease, an increase in cerebral infarction in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction and a decrease in Internal carotid artery peak-systolic flow velocity in patients with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction were detected. Conclusions. In clinical practice, Doppler ultrasound is currently the main diagnostic tool for evaluating the diagnosis of carotid stenosis. In stenosis in the carotid artery system, it should be known as a basic rule that the flow velocity in the stenosis area increases, except for in severe stenosis and four basic measurements should be made to determine the degree of stenosis clearly. These measurements are peak systolic flow velocity (PSV), end-diastolic flow velocity (EDV), peak-systolic flow velocity ratio (ICA/CCA PSV). The purpose of sonographic evaluation of the extracranial cerebral arteries is to prevent bad sequelae and permanent deficits together with cerebral infarction.

Reference Values of M-mode Echocardiographic Parameter in Adult Toy Breed Dogs.

Introduction:Myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) is one of the most common heart diseases in dogs, and there is a dearth of reports that have investigated reference values for left ventricular end-diastolic internal diameter corrected for body weight (LVIDDN) exclusively in toy breeds.AnimalsEighty-six client-owned healthy dogs weighing <5 kg, including Toy Poodles, Chihuahuas, Yorkshire Terriers, Papillon, and other small breeds or small mixed breeds (mixed breed, Pomeranian, dachshund, Shih Tzu, and Maltese). In this retrospective single-center study, data were collected from dogs attending clinic for annual checkup between April 2014 and March 2021.Materials and MethodsExperienced echocardiographers performed transthoracic echocardiography, with reference ranges established using healthy dogs. Measurements of body weight (BW), heart rate, and several echocardiographic variables were obtained. The association between BW and echocardiographic parameters was assessed by linear regression analyses. M-mode measurements were obtained and normalized using equations developed from the regression analyses.ResultsThe LVIDDN value for 95% of dogs weighing <5 kg was achieved by dividing the M-mode measurement by BW raised to the power 0.332. The upper limit of the prediction interval for breeds weighing <5 kg was much lower than the value currently applied.ConclusionsWe propose a reference LVIDDN value of ≥1.6 for the diagnosis of stage B2 MMVD in toy breed dogs. The results of our study will guide clinicians in deciding when to start treatment for MMVD in small breed dogs.

Effect of PEGylation on the Drug Release Performance and Hemocompatibility of Photoresponsive Drug-Loading Platform.

Coronary stenosis has been one of the most common heart diseases that drastically increases the risk of fatal disorders such as heart attack. Angioplasty using drug coated balloons (DCB) has been one of the most safe and promising treatments. To minimize the risk of thrombosis of such DCBs during intervention, a different approach that can secure high hemocompatibility under blood flow is necessary. Here we report a method of improving the photoresponsive platform’s hemocompatibility by conjugating polyethylene glycol (PEG), onto the functional groups located at the balloon surface. In this study, latex microbeads were used as models for balloons to enable precise observation of its surface under microscopy. These beads were decorated with PEG polymers of a variety of lengths and grafting densities, along with the Cy5-Photoclevable (PC) linker conjugate to mimic drugs to be loaded onto the platform. Results showed that PEG length and grafting density are both critical factors that alter not only its hemocompatibility, but also the drug load and release efficiency of such platform. Thus, although further investigation is necessary to optimize the tradeoff between hemocompatibility, drug load, and release efficiency, it is safe to conclude that PEGylation of DCB surface is an effective method of enhancing and maintaining high hemocompatibility to minimize the risk of thrombosis during angioplasty.

Prevalence of Reticulocytosis in the Absence of Anemia in Dogs with Cardiogenic Pulmonary Edema Due to Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease: A Retrospective Study.

Myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) is the most common heart disease in small breed dogs. Dogs with MMVD commonly show clinical signs of dyspnea due to cardiogenic pulmonary edema (CPE). Reticulocytosis in the absence of anemia (RAA) is a hematological finding in hypoxic conditions. We aimed to assess the prevalence of RAA in dogs with CPE due to MMVD, and evaluate whether RAA is reversible with amelioration of dyspnea. Twenty-nine client-owned dogs with CPE due to MMVD were included. Dogs who died within 6 weeks of the onset of CPE were included in the non-survival group, while the others comprised the survival group. Of the 21 dogs, RAA was observed in 17 dogs (80.9%). In the RAA group, the absolute reticulocyte count significantly decreased as CPE resolved (p < 0.001). The mean absolute reticulocyte count in the RAA group was 163.90 ± 50.77 on the first measurement and 78.84 ± 25.64 after resolution of CPE. In the RAA group, no significant differences in mean absolute reticulocyte count were observed between the survival and non-survival groups at either the first or second measurement. Our results indicate that RAA occurs in dogs with MMVD-related CPE and can resolve after resolution of CPE.

MicroRNA-223–3p promotes pyroptosis of cardiomyocyte and release of inflammasome factors via downregulating the expression level of SPI1 (PU.1)

Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common heart disease in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), and is sometimes its main cause of death. Among all the causes of DCM, myocardial cell death is considered to be the most basic pathological change. Furthermore, studies have shown that pyroptosis, the pro-inflammatory programmed cell death, contributes to the progress of DCM. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) also have been proved to take part in the formation of DCM. However, it is not clear whether and how miRNAs regulate myocardial cell pyroptosis in DCM development. In our study, the results showed that the expression of miR-223–3p was significantly increased in cardiomyocytes induced by high glucose, whereas the down-regulation of miR-223–3p weakened it. To understand the signal transduction mechanism of miR-223–3p leading to pyroptosis, we found inhibition of miR-223–3p expression down-regulated caspase-1, pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and other pyroptosis-associated poteins. Moreover, miR-223–3p repressed SPI1 expression. Furthermore, we silenced SPI1 with siRNA to mimic the effect of miR-223–3p, up-regulating the expression of caspase-1 and resulting to pyroptosis. The above findings inspired us to propose a new signaling pathway to regulate scoria of cardiomyocytes under hyperglycemia: miR-223–3p↑→ SPI1↓→ caspase-1↑ → IL-1β and other pyroptosis-associated poteins↑→ pyroptosis↑. In summary, miR-223–3p could be a potential therapeutic target for DCM.

F-box and WD repeat-containing protein 7 ameliorates angiotensin II-induced myocardial hypertrophic injury via the mTOR-mediated autophagy pathway.

Myocardial hypertrophy is a common heart disease that is closely associated with heart failure. The expression of F-box and WD repeat-containing protein 7 (FBW7) is significantly downregulated in angiotensin (Ang) II-induced cardiac fibroblasts, suggesting that it may possess an important function in cardiac development. The present study attempted to explore the role of FBW7 in Ang II-induced myocardial hypertrophic injury and its associated mechanism of action. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting were used to determine the expression levels of FBW7 in Ang II-induced H9C2 cells. The expression levels of autophagy-related and mTOR signaling pathway-related proteins were detected using western blotting. Cell viability was assessed using the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. The apoptosis rate of H9C2 cells was detected using TUNEL assay and western blotting. Cellular hypertrophy and fibrosis were assessed using phalloidin staining and western blotting. Levels of inflammatory factors were examined using ELISA and western blotting, whereas levels of oxidative stress-related markers were detected by corresponding kits. The results indicated that FBW7 expression was downregulated in Ang II-induced H9C2 cells. FBW7 upregulation enhanced the expression levels of autophagy-related proteins and activated mTOR-mediated cellular autophagy. FBW7 overexpression promoted the cell viability, inhibited Ang II-induced apoptosis, cellular hypertrophy and fibrosis in H9C2 cells via the autophagic pathway, as well as inflammation and oxidative stress. Overall, the data indicated that FBW7 overexpression ameliorated Ang II-induced hypertrophic myocardial injury via the mTOR-mediated autophagic pathway.

Three-dimensional echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular volume in different heart diseases using a fully automated quantification software.

BACKGROUNDHeartModel (HM) is a fully automated adaptive quantification software that can quickly quantify left heart volume and left ventricular function. This study used HM to quantify the left ventricular end-diastolic (LVEDV) and end-systolic volumes (LVESV) of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), coronary artery heart disease with segmental wall motion abnormality, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) to determine whether there were differences in the feasibility, accuracy, and repeatability of measuring the LVEDV, LVESV, LV ejection fraction (LVEF) and left atrial end-systolic volume (LAESV) and to compare these measurements with those obtained with traditional two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) methods.AIMTo evaluate the application value of HM in quantifying left heart chamber volume and LVEF in clinical patients.METHODSA total of 150 subjects who underwent 2D and 3D echocardiography were divided into 4 groups: (1) 42 patients with normal heart shape and function (control group, Group A); (2) 35 patients with DCM (Group B); (3) 41 patients with LV remodeling after acute myocardial infarction (Group C); and (4) 32 patients with HCM (Group D). The LVEDV, LVESV, LVEF and LAESV obtained by HM with (HM-RE) and without regional endocardial border editing (HM-NE) were compared with those measured by traditional 2D/3D echocardiographic methods to assess the correlation, consistency, and repeatability of all methods.RESULTS(1) The parameters measured by HM were significantly different among the groups (P < 0.05 for all). Compared with Groups A, C, and D, Group B had higher LVEDV and LVESV (P < 0.05 for all) and lower LVEF (P < 0.05 for all); (2) HM-NE overestimated LVEDV, LVESV, and LAESV with wide biases and underestimated LVEF with a small bias; contour adjustment reduced the biases and limits of agreement (bias: LVEDV, 28.17 mL, LVESV, 14.92 mL, LAESV, 8.18 mL, LVEF, -0.04%). The correlations between HM-RE and advanced cardiac 3D quantification (3DQA) (rs = 0.91-0.95, P < 0.05 for all) were higher than those between HM-NE (rs = 0.85-0.93, P < 0.05 for all) and the traditional 2D methods. The correlations between HM-RE and 3DQA were good for Groups A, B, and C but remained weak for Group D (LVEDV and LVESV, rs = 0.48-0.54, P < 0.05 for all); and (3) The intraobserver and interobserver variability for the HM-RE measurements were low.CONCLUSIONHM can be used to quantify the LV volume and LVEF in patients with common heart diseases and sufficient image quality. HM with contour editing is highly reproducible and accurate and may be recommended for clinical practice.