Interatrial shunt flow profiles in newborn infants: a colour flow and pulsed Doppler echocardiographic study.

Interatrial shunt flow profiles in 36 normal term infants were examined serially by colour flow and pulsed Doppler echocardiographic techniques from within an hour of birth to four or five days after birth. Shunt flow across the foramen ovale was detected in 33 normal infants (92%) within an hour of birth (mean 40 minutes). The occurrence of interatrial shunting decreased with age, but a shunt signal was still detected in 17 infants (47%) on the fourth or fifth day of life, by then the ductus arteriosus had already closed in all the normal infants. The direction of interatrial shunt flow was predominantly left-to-right, but in 64% there was a coexistent small right-to-left shunt in diastole within an hour of birth; by four to five days it was found in 19%. In the six patients with persistent fetal circulation the direction of the interatrial shunt flow was predominantly right-to-left with biphasic peaks in diastole and systole at the early stage of the disease, and the period of right-to-left shunt flow during each cardiac cycle was significantly longer than that in normal infants examined within 1 hour of birth. In all patients the ductus closed before the foramen ovale. At the time of ductal closure in all patients with persistent fetal circulation right-to-left shunt flow was seen during diastole and its period was still prolonged. These findings suggest that interatrial shunting, predominantly left-to-right, is common in normal newborn infants. Evaluation of the characteristics of the interatrial shunt by Doppler echocardiography may be useful for predicting the progress of or improvement in neonates with persistent fetal circulation.     

Transduction of pluripotent human hematopoietic stem cells demonstrated by clonal analysis after engraftment in immune-deficient mice.

Gene transduction of pluripotent human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is necessary for successful gene therapy of genetic disorders involving hematolymphoid cells. Evidence for transduction of pluripotent HSCs can be deduced from the demonstration of a retroviral vector integrated into the same cellular chromosomal DNA site in myeloid and lymphoid cells descended from a common HSC precursor. CD34+ progenitors from human bone marrow and mobilized peripheral blood were transduced by retroviral vectors and used for long-term engraftment in immune-deficient (beige/nude/XIS) mice. Human lymphoid and myeloid populations were recovered from the marrow of the mice after 7-11 months, and individual human granulocyte-macrophage and T-cell clones were isolated and expanded ex vivo. Inverse PCR from the retroviral long terminal repeat into the flanking genomic DNA was performed on each sorted cell population. The recovered cellular DNA segments that flanked proviral integrants were sequenced to confirm identity. Three mice were found (of 24 informative mice) to contain human lymphoid and myeloid populations with identical proviral integration sites, confirming that pluripotent human HSCs had been transduced.     

Patients with the most advanced rheumatoid arthritis remain with Th1 systemic defects after TNF inhibitors treatment despite clinical improvement

Systemic immune defects might reflect severely dysregulated control of chronic inflammation related to disease progression. Th17/Treg cell imbalance has been demonstrated to be involved in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis. Despite controversial results, a growing anti-inflammatory role in this process has been recently attributed to Th1 responses. The aim of the study was to estimate the extent of Th1/Th17/Treg imbalance in peripheral blood (PB) of patients with short- and long-term RA in relation to cytokine milieu and its reversal after therapy with methotrexate and/or TNF inhibitors, respectively. Patients with different duration of RA (median 6 vs. 120 months) in the active phase of RA were enrolled in this study. We performed flow cytometric analysis of PB Th1, Th17, and Treg populations together with estimation of serum cytokine concentrations using cytometric bead array. Disease activity was calculated on the basis of clinical and biochemical indices of inflammation (DAS28, ESR, CRP). All parameters were measured and correlated with each other before and after 6 months therapy. Elevated levels of circulating Th17 cells and IL-6 were found in all active patients, of which Th17 cells were down-regulated by the treatment. Significantly reduced Th1 and functional CTLA-4+ Treg cell frequencies as well as Th1 cytokines observed only in progressive RA seemed to be irreversible. Although therapy induced clinical improvement in almost all patients, those with advanced RA remained with signs of inflammation. Our report demonstrates that both the extent of systemic immune abnormalities and their restoration are dependent on duration of the active RA.     

Usefulness of Reynolds Risk Score in men with stable angina

Introduction

Recently several risk scores have been proposed that, beyond traditional risk factors, also include additional inflammatory biomarkers underlying atherothrombosis. The Reynolds Risk Score (RRS) is a point scale assessing the risk of cardiovascular events over 10 years, which takes into account for the first time high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. The aim of this study was to establish clinical usefulness of RRS in men with stable coronary artery disease and preserved left ventricular systolic function.

Material and Methods

In total, 119 symptomatic non-diabetic man (mean age 63.9±9.23) who were directed for an elective coronary arteriography were enrolled in the study. Clinical data were collected including the elevated heart rate ≥70 bpm/min, basic laboratory results, placental growth factor and results of coronary angiography. Patients were analyzed related to RRS: low risk <10% (n=50), moderate risk 10-19% (n=46) and high risk >20% (n=23).

Results

Opposite to high RRS patients, in the low risk group more often occurred marginal or none atherosclerotic coronary arteries (13% vs. 44%, P=0.0214). The findings have revealed the relationship between the higher risk score and the lower frequency of marginal or no atherosclerotic coronary arteries (OR=0.19, 95%CI 0.05–0.67).

Conclusions

The Reynolds Risk Score appears to be useful in men with stable coronary artery disease and preserved left ventricular systolic function in stratifying the severity of coronary atherosclerosis.     

Kardiomiopatia restrykcyjna – historia ze szczęśliwym zakończeniem

Cardiomyopathies are a group of rare diseases of a myocardium in a pediatric population which affect 1–1.5 cases per 100 000 children. Restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM) is the least common type, which constitutes 2–5% of all cardiomyopathies. RCM is characterized by a diastolic dysfunction which is a result of an increased stiffness of the ventricular myocardium with a normal systolic function. Differential diagnosis should include especially constrictive pericarditis. Because of a poor prognosis, it is important to diagnose patients as soon as possible and to early qualify them for a heart transplantation.     

Reductive Modification of Carbon Nitride Structure by Metals—The Influence on Structure and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Pt, Ru, and Ir were introduced onto the surface of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) using the wet impregnation method. A reduction of these photocatalysts with hydrogen causes several changes, such as a significant increase in the specific surface area, a C/N atomic ratio, a number of defects in the crystalline structure of g-C₃N₄, and the contribution of nitrogen bound to the amino and imino groups. According to the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results, a transition layer is formed at the g-C₃N₄/metal nanoparticle interphase, which contains metal at a positive degree of oxidation bonded to nitrogen. These structural changes significantly enhanced the photocatalytic activity in the production of hydrogen through the water-splitting reaction. The activity of the platinum photocatalyst was 24 times greater than that of pristine g-C₃N₄. Moreover, the enhanced activity was attributed to significantly better separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs on metal nanoparticles and structural distortions of g-C₃N₄.     

OSU-6162, a Sigma1R Ligand in Low Doses,Can Further Increase the Effects of Cocaine Self-Administration on Accumbal D2R Heteroreceptor Complexes

Neurotoxicity Research - Cocaine was previously shown to act at the Sigma1R which is a target for counteracting cocaine actions. It therefore becomes of interest to test if the monoamine stabilizer...