Investigating polychlorinated alkanes in technical chlorinated paraffin mixtures and polymer products available in Vietnam.

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are chemical additives mostly composed of polychlorinated alkanes (PCAs) which may impact on the environment and human health; however, little is known about their presence in Southeast Asia. To fill this knowledge gap, we assessed 74 PCA homolog groups commonly referred to as short-chain (SCCPs: PCAs-C), medium-chain (MCCPs: PCAs-C), and long-chain CPs (LCCPs: PCAs-C) in technical CP mixtures (n = 4) and polymer samples (n = 49), including recycled plastics, collected in Vietnam in 2023. The contents of measured PCA homolog groups in technical CP mixtures were 86,000-930,000 mg/kg for PCAs-C; 85,000-990,000 mg/kg for PCAs-C; and 23,000-180,000 mg/kg for PCAs-C.

Circulating tumor cell plasticity determines breast cancer therapy resistance via neuregulin 1-HER3 signaling.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) drive metastasis, the leading cause of death in individuals with breast cancer. Due to their low abundance in the circulation, robust CTC expansion protocols are urgently needed to effectively study disease progression and therapy responses. Here we present the establishment of long-term CTC-derived organoids from female individuals with metastatic breast cancer.

Immunological characterization of pleural effusions in pediatric patients.

Background: The pleural cavity represents a unique immunological compartment that can mount inflammatory reactions during infections, after surgery and in chronic immunological diseases. The connection between systemic immune reactions in the blood and local immune reactions in pleural effusions remains unclear. This study provides the first comprehensive immunological characterization of paired blood and pleural effusion samples, utilizing combined cell and cytokine analyses in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

High volume-rate echocardiography for simultaneous imaging of electromechanical activation and cardiac strain of the whole heart in a single heartbeat in humans.

Background: Imaging both electrical and mechanical cardiac function can better characterize cardiac disease and improve patient care. Currently, there is no noninvasive technique that can simultaneously image both electrical and mechanical function of the whole heart at the point of care. Here, our aim is to demonstrate that high volume-rate echocardiography can simultaneously map cardiac electromechanical activation and end-systolic cardiac strain of the whole heart in a single heartbeat.

Association of aortic root diameter and vascular function with an exaggerated blood pressure response to exercise among elite athletes.

Background: The systolic blood pressure/workload (SBP/MET) slope was recently reported to reliably identify an exaggerated blood pressure response (eBPR) in the normal population and in athletes. We investigated whether the aortic root diameter (AoD) also correlates with an eBPR and vascular function in elite athletes.

Methods: We examined 652 healthy male elite athletes (age 25.