Background: Exercise can induce physiological myocardial hypertrophy (PMH), and former athletes can live 5 to 6 years longer than nonathletic controls, suggesting a benefit after regression of PMH. We previously reported that regression of pathological myocardial hypertrophy has antihypertrophic effects. Accordingly, we hypothesized that antihypertrophic memory exists even after PMH has regressed, increasing myocardial resistance to subsequent pathological hypertrophic stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aim: Appropriate sedation is important to the success of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA). Dexmedetomidine is a sedative agent that operates the α2 adrenergic agonist, which provides sleep-like sedation with little respiratory suppression. This study compared the efficacy and safety of dexmedetomidine sedation with propofol in cases of EBUS-TBNA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel, also called bb2121), a B-cell maturation antigen-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, has shown clinical activity with expected CAR T-cell toxic effects in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.
Methods: In this phase 2 study, we sought to confirm the efficacy and safety of ide-cel in patients with relapsed and refractory myeloma. Patients with disease after at least three previous regimens including a proteasome inhibitor, an immunomodulatory agent, and an anti-CD38 antibody were enrolled.
Background: Population-based estimates of the risk of breast cancer associated with germline pathogenic variants in cancer-predisposition genes are critically needed for risk assessment and management in women with inherited pathogenic variants.
Methods: In a population-based case-control study, we performed sequencing using a custom multigene amplicon-based panel to identify germline pathogenic variants in 28 cancer-predisposition genes among 32,247 women with breast cancer (case patients) and 32,544 unaffected women (controls) from population-based studies in the Cancer Risk Estimates Related to Susceptibility (CARRIERS) consortium. Associations between pathogenic variants in each gene and the risk of breast cancer were assessed.
The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are an option for drug development for treating COVID-19. Here, we report the identification and characterization of two groups of mouse neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) targeting the receptor-binding domain (RBD) on the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Conventional gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy reports written by physicians are time consuming and might have obvious heterogeneity or omissions, impairing the efficiency and multicenter consultation potential. We aimed to develop and validate an image recognition-based structured report generation system (ISRGS) through a multicenter database and to assess its diagnostic performance.
Methods: First, we developed and evaluated an ISRGS combining real-time video capture, site identification, lesion detection, subcharacteristics analysis, and structured report generation.
This review portrays how ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring was established and recommended as the method of choice for the assessment of BP and for the rational use of antihypertensive drugs. To establish much-needed diagnostic ambulatory BP thresholds, initial statistical approaches evolved into longitudinal studies of patients and populations, which demonstrated that cardiovascular complications are more closely associated with 24-hour and nighttime BP than with office BP. Studies cross-classifying individuals based on ambulatory and office BP thresholds identified white-coat hypertension, an elevated office BP in the presence of ambulatory normotension as a low-risk condition, whereas its counterpart, masked hypertension, carries a hazard almost as high as ambulatory combined with office hypertension.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: vMIP-II (viral macrophage inflammatory protein 2)/vCCL2 (viral chemotactic cytokine ligand 2) binds to multiple chemokine receptors, and vMIP-II-based positron emission tomography tracer (Cu-DOTA-vMIP-II: vMIP-II tracer) accumulates at atherosclerotic lesions in mice. Given that it would be expected to react with multiple chemokine receptors on monocytes and macrophages, we wondered if its accumulation in atherosclerosis lesion-bearing mice might correlate with overall macrophage burden or, alternatively, the pace of monocyte recruitment. Approach and Results: We employed a mouse model of atherosclerosis regression involving adenoassociated virus 8 vector encoding murine Apoe (AAV-mApoE) treatment of mice where the pace of monocyte recruitment slows before macrophage burden subsequently declines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMajor adverse cardiovascular events are closely associated with 24-hour blood pressure (BP). We determined outcome-driven thresholds for 24-hour mean arterial pressure (MAP), a BP index estimated by oscillometric devices. We assessed the association of major adverse cardiovascular events with 24-hour MAP, systolic BP (SBP), and diastolic BP (DBP) in a population-based cohort (n=11 596).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The understanding of viral positivity and seroconversion during the course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is limited.
Objective: To describe patterns of viral polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positivity and evaluate their correlations with seroconversion and disease severity.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
J Biochem Mol Toxicol
February 2021
Toxin A (TcdA) and toxin B (TcdB), the two exotoxins of Clostridium difficile, are main causal agents for the colonic epithelium damage in Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). The Hippo pathway is crucial for the control of tissue homeostasis and regeneration of intestines. However, the dysregulation of Hippo pathway in CDI is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is characterized by repeated airflow partial reduction or complete cessation due to upper airway collapse during sleep. OSAHS can induce frequent awake and intermittent hypoxia that is associated with hypertension and cardiovascular events. Full-channel Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing OSAHS; however, this PSG evaluation process is unsuitable for home screening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Tissue stiffness information may help in the diagnosis of lung lesions. This study aimed to investigate and validate the application of transthoracic two-dimensional shear-wave ultrasound elastography in differentiating malignant from benign subpleural lung lesions.
Methods: This study involved one retrospective observational derivation cohort from January 2016 to December 2017 and one prospective observational validation cohort from December 2017 to December 2019.
Background: Masked hypertension is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Nonetheless, no randomized controlled trials exist in the treatment of masked hypertension. The aim of this randomized, placebo-controlled trial was to investigate the efficacy and safety of blood pressure (BP)-lowering treatment with a Chinese herbal formula, gastrodia-uncaria granules, in patients with masked hypertension.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Automated interpretation of echocardiography by deep neural networks could support clinical reporting and improve efficiency. Whereas previous studies have evaluated spatial relationships using still frame images, we aimed to train and test a deep neural network for video analysis by combining spatial and temporal information, to automate the recognition of left ventricular regional wall motion abnormalities.
Methods: We collected a series of transthoracic echocardiography examinations performed between July 2017 and April 2018 in 2 tertiary care hospitals.
Background The 2019 Bosniak classification (version 2019) of cystic renal masses (CRMs) provides a systematic update to the currently used 2005 Bosniak classification (version 2005). Further validation is required before widespread application. Purpose To evaluate the interobserver agreement of MRI criteria, the impact of readers' experience, and the diagnostic performance between version 2019 and version 2005.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Platinum-based chemotherapy is standard-of-care first-line treatment for advanced urothelial carcinoma. However, progression-free survival and overall survival are limited by chemotherapy resistance.
Methods: In a phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who did not have disease progression with first-line chemotherapy (four to six cycles of gemcitabine plus cisplatin or carboplatin) to receive best supportive care with or without maintenance avelumab.
Background And Purpose: Long-term dietary patterns can influence the intensity of systemic inflammation and, therefore, the development of atherosclerosis. This study aimed to evaluate the association between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and vulnerability characteristics of carotid atherosclerotic plaques in patients with ischemic stroke.
Methods: Patients with ischemic stroke within 7 days of onset were enrolled.
Strophidon McClelland is a muraenid genus with characteristic appearance of a very elongated body, a large mouth cleft and anteriorly placed eyes. The nomenclature and taxonomic history of species within Strophidon are contentious and its members are easily misidentified. In the present study, species of the genus Strophidon are revised based on morphological and molecular data, and five species are considered valid, including S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as a potential therapeutic agent for pulmonary hypertension (PH). However, the full realization of MSCs-derived EVs therapy has been hampered by the absence of standardization in MSCs culture and the challenges of industrial scale-up. The study was to exploit an alternative replacement for MSCs using currently commercialized stem cell lines for effective targeted PH therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince this article has been suspected of research misconduct and the corresponding authors did not respond to our request to prove originality of data and figures, "Long noncoding RNA DARS-AS1 acts as an oncogene by targeting miR-532-3p in ovarian cancer, by K. Huang, W.-S.
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