Expression of Surface-associated 82 kDa proMMP-9 in Lymphatic Leukemia Blast Cells Differentially Correlates With Prognosis.

Background/aim: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) degrade extracellular matrix and process regulatory proteins. Recently, a membrane-bound 82kDa variant of proMMP-9 identified on myeloid blasts was shown to be associated with prognosis.

Patients And Methods: To investigate the role of 82kDa proMMP-9 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and chronic lymphoid leukemia (CLL), we performed flow-cytometry analysis of expression on ALL blasts (n=18) and CLL lymphocytes (n=21) from blood and correlated data with clinical parameters.

Fluoroscopy integrated 3D mapping significantly reduces radiation exposure during ablation for a wide spectrum of cardiac arrhythmias.

Aims: Despite the use of established 3D-mapping systems, invasive electrophysiological studies and catheter ablation require high radiation exposure of patients and medical staff. This study investigated whether electroanatomic catheter tracking in prerecorded X-ray images on top of an existing 3D-mapping system has any impact on radiation exposure.

Methods And Results: Two hundred and ninety-five consecutive patients were either ablated with the guidance of the traditional CARTO-3 system (c3) or with help of the CARTO-UNIVU system (cU): [typical atrial flutter (AFL) n = 58, drug refractory atrial fibrillation (AF) n = 81, ectopic atrial tachycardia (EAT) n = 37, accessory pathways (APs) n = 22, symptomatic, idiopathic premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) n = 56, ventricular tachycardias (VTs) n = 41].