Congenital heart defects in patients with isolated microtia: evaluation using colour Doppler echocardiographic image.

Background: The objective of this study was to delineate the characteristics and incidence of congenital heart disease (CHD) in patients with isolated microtia and to determine whether the prevalence of CHD among patients with isolated microtia increases with the severity of microtia.

Methods: A total of 804 consecutive patients had a pre-operative colour Doppler echocardiographic examination. A retrospective study was performed with the clinical and imaging data from November, 2017 to January, 2019.

Classification of the concha-type microtia and their new suitable treatment strategies without autogenous costal cartilage grafting.

Objective: Numerous corrective methods have been successfully applied in concha-type microtia reconstruction over the past several decades, and autogenous rib cartilage grafting has become a routine technique in a two or three-stage operation. However, it still remains a challenge due to the effective use of the large volume of the remnant cartilage and skin involved. The objective of this study was to clarify how this remnant cartilage and skin could be manipulated for new suitable treatment strategies without autogenous costal cartilage grafting.

Differential expression of long noncoding RNAs in congenital microtia.

Objective: To analyse lncRNA expression profiles in microtia using bioinformatics analysis.

Methods: We examined lncRNA expression profiles in residual ear cartilage and normal ear cartilage from individual congenital microtia patients.

Results: The gene chips used in this study included 30586 lncRNAs and 26109 mRNA probes.

[Experimental research on DNA methylation profile in congenital microtia].

Objective: To screen for abnormal methylation in CpG islands and CpG sites through whole genome of congenital microtia to identify their associated genes. To discuss the relationship between abnormal methylation level of genes and the etiology of congenital microtia.

Methods: Residual ear cartilage of 50 patients with microtia was collected with ear cartilage of 34 patients without ear malformations as control.

The significance of the biomechanical properties of costal cartilage in the timing of ear reconstruction surgery.

Background: We aimed to investigate the biomechanical changes of costal cartilage in a broad age range in order to provide a theoretical reference as to the optimal age to use costal cartilage in ear reconstruction surgery.

Method: Ninety patients (age 5-25 years) were categorised into three groups according to age: children, adolescent and adult. We investigated the biomechanical properties of rib cartilage including stress-strain relation, stress-induced relaxation, creep and maximum resistance to stretch.