Impact of intravascular ultrasound on limb events in endovascular therapy for patients with peripheral arterial disease: insights from the TOMA-CODE registry.

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has become a standard procedure for performing coronary intervention, but its impact on peripheral endovascular therapy (EVT) remains unclear. To assess the usefulness of IVUS during EVT, this study analyzed over 2000 consecutive patients from the TOkyo-taMA peripheral vascular intervention research COmraDE (TOMA-CODE) registry with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in Japan. The primary outcome was chronic limb events (a composite of clinically driven target lesion revascularization (cTLR) and major amputation) during a two-year follow-up period.

Minocycline prevents monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension through the attenuation of endothelial dysfunction and vascular wall thickening.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive disease with a poor prognosis in which high pulmonary artery pressure leads to right heart failure, therefore, there is an urgent need to elucidate pathological mechanisms and to develop new treatment for PH. Minocycline has not only antibacterial effects but also anti-inflammatory effects in various tissues. We hypothesize that minocycline could prevent PH development in rats.

Investigation of predictors of latent visual impairment in patients with sellar lesions.

Objective: Patients with sellar lesions compressing the optic nerve sometimes perceive visual improvement after lesion resection, despite the absence of visual impairment on preoperative ophthalmological examination. This study investigated the indicators of latent visual impairment in patients with sellar lesions.

Methods: Forty-five patients who underwent surgery for sellar lesions compressing the optic nerve with no preoperative visual abnormalities and no change in visual assessment between pre- and postoperative ophthalmological examinations were divided into two groups: 1) patients who perceived recovery of visual function after lesion resection (the improved group), and 2) patients who did not (the unaffected group).

Plasma and serum concentrations of VEGF-A121, but not of VEGF-A165, increase post-bevacizumab administration.

Background: VEGF-A concentrations were measured in the blood of bevacizumab-treated cancer patients in previous studies, but a consensus has not formed that would develop VEGF-A into a clinical biomarker. Recently, methods to strictly distinguish between the VEGF-A isoforms have been developed but have not yet been applied to cancer patients undergoing bevacizumab treatment.

Methods: An ELISA that strictly distinguishes between VEGF-A121 and VEGF-A165-the major isoforms of VEGF-A-and a commercially available ELISA for VEGF-A are used to determine the concentration of VEGF-A121, VEGF-A165, and VEGF-A in the blood of 12 patients with advanced colorectal cancer receiving bevacizumab therapy.

Helical Supramolecular Polymers Formed via Head-to-Tail Host-Guest Complexation of Chiral Bisporphyrin Monomers with Trinitrofluorenone.

The intermolecular host-guest complexation of head-to-tail monomers consisting of cleft-shaped bisporphyrin and trinitrofluorenone units connected by a chiral binaphthyl linker was employed to construct helically twisted supramolecular polymers. Results from 1H NMR, diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy, and viscometry experiments revealed that the supramolecular polymerization of these monomers follows a ring-chain competition mechanism. The introduction of bulky substituents at the linker significantly suppressed the formation of macrocyclic oligomers, whereas smaller alkyl chains facilitated the formation of the cyclic form.