Clinical features and possible founder mutation of the 8bp duplication mutation in the SLC4A11 gene causing corneal dystrophy and perceptive deafness in three South American families

Background: Corneal Dystrophy and Perceptive Deafness (CDPD) or Harboyan syndrome is an autosomal recessive rare disorder, characterized by congenital corneal opacities and progressive sensorineural hearing loss, which usually begins after the second decades of life. This study reports the ophthalmic, audiological and genetic features, in five CDPD affected patients from three Chilean families.

Materials and Methods: Five individuals affected with CDPD from three unrelated Chilean families were clinically and genetically examined. To evaluate a putative founder mutation 7 SNPs were analyzed in the three families, an Argentinian patient (carrier of the same mutation previously reported) and 87 Chilean controls.

Results: The ophthalmic symptoms in the five patients were bilateral and symmetric, starting before one year of age, and visual acuity varied from 0.1 to 0.3. In all cases, hearing loss began over 8 years old. The sequence of the 19 exons of SLC4A11 gene of all the affected patients exhibited homozygous eight nucleotide sequence duplication (c.2233_2240dup TATGACAC, p.(Ile748Metfs*5)) at the end of exon 16. All the affected patients of the three families were homozygous for a haplotype composed of five SNPs and covering 4,1 Mb. The same haplotype was present in one allele of the heterozygous Argentinean patient and has a frequency of 2.76% in Chilean population.

Conclusions: The five CDPD patients were homozygous for the same mutation in the SLC4A11 gene. Haplotype analysis of all the affected, including the case reported from Argentina was in accordance with a founder mutation.     

Late outcomes of strategic arch resection in acute type A aortic dissection

Objective

To compare perioperative and long-term outcomes in patients undergoing hemiarch and aggressive arch replacement for acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD).

Automatizing a nonscripting TPS for optimizing clinical workflow and reoptimizing IMRT/VMAT plans

The purpose of this study was to design a toolkit that interacts with the Monaco (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) treatment planning system (TPS) for optimization of intensity-modulated radiation therapy and volumetric-modulated arc therapy without the need for a dedicated application programming interface. Successful inverse planning of radiotherapeutic treatment depends on the tweaking of many parameters; a tool was thus needed to explore these parameters more exhaustively without significantly increasing planning time. The software that we used was based on an open-source library that mimics human interaction with Microsoft Windows applications. We developed a simple Autoflow software routine that analyzes and optimizes calculated plans by considering the relative impact of different cost functions and modifying constraints accordingly. It was also designed to change segmentation parameters to fit more complex treatments. The toolkit is publicly available for download at https://bitbucket.org/hgugmradiofisica/pymonaco/src/master/. A study of prostate cancer cases was conducted to compare automatically created plans with previously treated cases. The toolkit fully automated the radiotherapy planning procedure, allowing the TPS to calculate or optimize plans during nonworking hours. In the prostate study, the use of this tool reduced the dose to organs at risk with a negligible decrease in target coverage. This tool enables the efficient use of the TPS, allowing research and clinical applications to coexist without conflict. It provides consistency and efficiency throughout the treatment planning process, which may be of great value to clinics with few resources. The impact of this tool on clinical workflow is important, as it not only provides better efficiency, but also increases treatment quality.     

脂蛋白相关磷脂酶A2与脑梗死患者颈部动脉粥样硬化斑块的关系

目的 探讨脑梗死患者血清脂蛋白相关磷脂酶A2（lipoprotein-related phospholipase A2，Lp-PLA2）及 超敏C反应蛋白（hi gh-sensitivity C-reactive protein，hs-CRP）水平与颈部动脉粥样硬化性斑块的关系。 方法 选择2017年1月-2018年3月郑州市第三人民医院诊断为脑梗死的患者243例，另外选择同期 体检的无脑梗死患者120例作为对照组。2组研究对象均检测血清Lp-PLA2、hs-CRP水平。依据颈部动 脉超声检查结果将脑梗死患者进一步分为无斑块组、稳定斑块组和易损斑块组。 结果 ①脑梗死患者的血清Lp-PLA2（[ 180.04±35.02）ng/mL vs（152.13±39.67）ng/mL，P=0.014]、 hs-CRP[（10.02±0.47）mg/L vs（2.64±0.33）mg/L，P =0.017]水平高于对照组。②稳定斑块组 （[ 162.96±11.34）ng/mL，P=0.013]和易损斑块组（[ 197.79±32.56）ng/mL，P=0.004]Lp-PLA2水平高 于无斑块组（[ 143.67±12.35）ng/mL]；易损斑块组Lp-PLA2水平高于稳定斑块组（P=0.007），差异均 有统计学意义。③易损斑块组血清hs-CRP水平[（12.86±1.67）mg/L]高于稳定斑块组[（10.82±0.53） mg/L，P=0.029]及无斑块组（[ 9.54±0.47）mg/L，P=0.037]，差异有统计学意义。 结论 在脑梗死患者中，血清Lp-PLA2与hs-CRP可能与颈部动脉粥样硬化斑块的发生及其不稳定性 有关。     

何首乌等位基因特异性PCR鉴别方法研究

目的建立一种快速鉴别何首乌真伪的方法。方法通过何首乌及其混伪品的psb A-trn H基因序列,寻找SNP位点并设计特异性引物,对来自于不同产地的何首乌及其3个同属混伪品进行PCR扩增,优化反应体系条件,并对此方法进行考察。结果建立了何首乌特异性PCR的方法,在退火温度48℃、循环次数30时仅有何首乌能扩增得到191 bp的特异性条带,伪品则无。结论等位基因特异性PCR鉴别何首乌真伪方法简单、可靠。