N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, eGFR, and progression of kidney disease in chronic kidney disease patients without heart failure.

Background: Cardiorenal syndrome highlights the bidirectional relationship between kidney and heart dysfunction. N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), which is the gold standard biomarker in heart failure (HF), may be an important biomarker for chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression. However, NT-proBNP is negatively related with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).

Investigating the clinical utility of global and regional myocardial work parameters in predicting response to cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.

Background: Previous studies have indicated that despite adhering to current patient selection guidelines, there remains a 30% to 40% subset of patients who do not experience improvement in heart failure (HF) after receiving cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). We aim to utilize echocardiographic myocardial work parameters to serve as predictors of responsiveness to CRT in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Methods: We prospectively recruited patients who underwent CRT at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital from June 2019 to September 2022.

Left bundle branch pacing on mechanical synchrony and myocardial work in bradycardia patients.

Left bundle branch pacing (LBBP) has emerged as a novel physiological pacing method to produce narrower QRS duration, but whether it could restore mechanical synchrony and improve myocardial work still lacks sufficient evidence. Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate mechanical synchrony and myocardial work in LBBP. We collected 20 patients with LBBP due to symptomatic bradycardia and another 29 age-matched patients with right ventricular pacing (RVP).

Changes in echocardiographic parameters of the donor's heart before and after heart transplantation and their relationship with post-transplant survival.

Background: Heart transplantation is now widely performed in China, but the current entry criteria for heart transplantation donors are simple and lack reliable standards; there are still no studies on the effect of preoperative echocardiographic parameters of heart transplantation donors on the prognosis of the recipient. Therefore, the aim of this study is twofold: (I) to observe the characteristics of changes in echocardiographic parameters of the donor's heart before and after heart transplantation and (II) to study the relationship between the changes in echocardiographic parameters of the donor's heart pre- and post-transplant and transplant recipient survival.

Methods: A total of 29 patients who underwent orthotopic heart transplant in our hospital from October 2016 to October 2019 were enrolled in this study.

Association of latent class analysis-derived subphenotypes of acute kidney injury with mortality in critically ill patients with cardiovascular disease: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: To explore the potential heterogeneity of acute kidney injury (AKI) and evaluate the prognostic differences among AKI subphenotypes in critically ill patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Methods: Data were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-III database. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to explore the potential subphenotypes of AKI in critically ill patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Assessment of atrial septal defect using 2D or real-time 3D transesophageal echocardiography and outcomes following transcatheter closure.

Background: The assessment of interatrial septum (IAS) requires a standardized, systematic approach, including two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (2D TTE), 2D transesophageal echocardiography (2D TEE), and three-dimensional (3D) TEE. Although 2D TEE has been widely used for the preoperative assessment of atrial septal defect (ASD), its ability to provide reliable information is often limited due to the structural characteristics of IAS. The introduction of 3D TEE provides a unique "en face" view of IAS, which allows the visualization and accurate measurements of diameters, area, and rims of ASD.

Mechanical Synchrony and Myocardial Work in Heart Failure Patients With Left Bundle Branch Area Pacing and Comparison With Biventricular Pacing.

Little is known about the efficacy of permanent left bundle branch area pacing (LBBAP) in delivering cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). This study aimed to evaluate the effect of LBBAP on mechanical synchronization and myocardial work (MW) in heart failure (HF) patients and to compare LBBAP with biventricular pacing (BVP). This is a multicenter, prospective cohort study.

Mental health is correlated with lipoprotein(a) levels in male patients with premature coronary heart disease.

Background: High levels of lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) is an independent risk factor for premature coronary heart disease (PCHD). It is also considered a residual risk for controlled low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Dietary control, exercise, and drugs have limited effects on the levels of Lp(a).

3D transesophageal echocardiography assists in evaluating the morphology, function, and presence of thrombi of left atrial appendage in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Background: Left atrial appendage (LAA) is significantly more likely to form thrombi in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib). Two-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (2D TEE) is considered the gold standard for assessing and studying LAA morphology and anatomy. However, 2D TEE can only visualize one plane at any given time.

Association of renal cyst and type A acute aortic dissection with hypertension.

Background: Type A acute aortic dissection (TA-AAD) has high mortality, with 50% of patients dying before hospital admission. Hypertension is the most common comorbidity for acute aortic dissection, and effective antihypertensive therapy is still unable to predict the risk of aortic rupture at the medium- and long-term stages. While the presence of renal cyst has been found to increases the risk of thoracic aortic disease, the correlation between renal cyst and TA-AAD with hypertension remains poorly understood.

Klotho gene improves oxidative stress injury after myocardial infarction.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects and mechanisms of the Klotho gene in oxidative stress injury after myocardial infarction. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into five groups (sham, model, pDC316, LY294002, and pDC316-Klotho). Subsequently, the superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations were measured in myocardial tissues.

Assessment of Cardiac Lead Perforation: Comparison Among Chest Radiography, Transthoracic Echocardiography and Electrocardiography-gated Contrast-enhanced Cardiac CT.

Objectives: Cardiac lead perforation is a rare but potentially life-threatening event. The purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic performances of chest radiography, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and electrocardiography (ECG)-gated contrast-enhanced cardiac CT in the assessment of cardiac lead perforation.

Methods: This retrospective study was approved by the ethics review board of Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital at Sun Yat-Sen University (Guangzhou, China), and the need to obtain informed consent was waived.

Stretch-activated channel Piezo1 is up-regulated in failure heart and cardiomyocyte stimulated by AngII.

Mechanotransduction is the conversion of extracellular mechanical stimuli into intracellular biochemical signals, and plays an important role in heart responses to its own mechanical environment. Piezo1 as a distinct stretch-activated channel (SAC) in mammal involves in not only vascular remodeling during embryonic development but also arterial remodeling upon to hypertension at adult stage. In the present study, the expression of Piezo1 was up-regulated in failure heart induced by myocardial infarction (MI) by real-time PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis.

Apelin promotes mesenchymal stem cells survival and vascularization under hypoxic-ischemic condition in vitro involving the upregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor.

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation has been regarded as an optimal therapeutic approach for cardiovascular disease. However, the inferior survival and low vascularization potential of these cells in the local infarct site reduce the therapeutic efficacy. In this study, we investigated the influence of apelin on MSCs survival and vascularization under hypoxic-ischemic condition in vitro and explored the relevant mechanism.

Long noncoding RNA Braveheart promotes cardiogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro.

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have limited potential of cardiogenic differentiation. In this study, we investigated the influence of long noncoding RNA Braveheart (lncRNA-Bvht) on cardiogenic differentiation of MSCs in vitro.

Methods: MSCs were obtained from C57BL/6 mice and cultured in vitro.

Long noncoding RNAs: Novel molecules in cardiovascular biology, disease and regeneration.

Remarkable breakthroughs made in genomic technologies have facilitated the discovery of thousands of novel transcripts that do not template protein synthesis. Numerous RNAs termed as long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) generated from this pervasive transcription function vividly in gene regulatory networks and a variety of biological and cellular processes. Here, we make a brief description of the known and putative functions of lncRNAs in cardiovascular biology and disease.

Cardiac stem cells transplantation enhances the expression of connexin 43 via the ANG II/AT1R/TGF-beta1 signaling pathway in a rat model of myocardial infarction.

Background: In this study, we hypothesized that CSCs mediated the expression of Cx43 after transplantation post MI via the ANG II/AT1R/TGF-beta1 signaling pathway.

Methods: Myocardial infarction (MI) was induced in twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats were randomized into two groups and were then received the injection of 5 × 10(6) CSCs labeled with PKH26 in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) or equal PBS alone into the infarct anterior ventricular free wall two weeks after MI.

Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Promotes Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Express Connexin43 via the Inhibition of TGF-β1/Smads Signaling in a Rat Model of Myocardial Infarction.

Background: In this study, we hypothesized that activation of PPAR-γ enhanced MSCs survival and their therapeutic efficacy via upregulating the expression of Cx43.

Methods: MI was induced in 50 male Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats were randomized into five groups: MI group and four intervention groups, including the MSCs group, combined therapy group (MSCs+ pioglitazone), pioglitazone group and PBS group.

microRNA-378 promotes mesenchymal stem cell survival and vascularization under hypoxic-ischemic conditions in vitro.

Introduction: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. However, the low survival rate of MSCs at local diseased tissue reduces the therapeutic efficacy. We therefore investigated the influence of MicroRNA-378 (miR-378) transfection on MSCs survival and vascularization under hypoxic-ischemic condition in vitro.

Effects of different ventricular pacing modes on ventricular repolarisation in patients undergoing cardiac resynchronisation therapy: a single-centre study.

Aims: The aims of this study were to compare ventricular repolarisation parameters in patients who underwent cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) at Sun Yat-sen University Memorial Hospital under different ventricular pacing modes and to understand effects of epicardial pacing on ventricular repolarisation.

Methods: The study included 55 patients who underwent CRT. During follow-up outpatient visits three months after CRT implantation, the CRT devices were programmed to deliver no pacing (with the exception of patients with third-degree atrioventricular block), biventricular pacing (BivP), right ventricular endocardial pacing (RV-EndoP), and left ventricular epicardial pacing (LV-EpiP).

Mesenchymal stem cells enhanced cardiac nerve sprouting via nerve growth factor in a rat model of myocardial infarction.

Background: Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) alters the ventricular electrophysiologic properties after myocardial infarction (MI) in rats. However, it is unclear whether MSCs transplantation enhances the secretion of nerve growth factor (NGF) and affects cardiac sympathetic remodeling.

Methods: MI was induced in 35 male Sprague-Dawley rats.

Cardiac stem cells and their roles in myocardial infarction.

Myocardial infarction leads to loss of cardiomyocytes, scar formation, ventricular remodeling and eventually deterioration of heart function. Over the past decade, stem cell therapy has emerged as a novel strategy for patients with ischemic heart disease and its beneficial effects have been demonstrated by substantial preclinical and clinical studies. Efficacy of several types of stem cells in the therapy of cardiovascular diseases has already been evaluated.