Nanomedicine in cardiovascular therapy: recent advancements

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is comprised of a group of disorders affecting the heart and blood vessels of the human body and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Current therapy for CVD is limited to the treatment of already established disease, and it includes pharmacological and/or surgical procedures, such as percutaneous coronary intervention with stenting and coronary artery bypass grafting. However, lots of complications have been raised with these modalities of treatment, including systemic toxicity with medication, stent thrombosis with percutaneous coronary intervention and nonsurgical candidate patients for coronary artery bypass grafting. Nanomedicine has emerged as a potential strategy in dealing with these obstacles. Applications of nanotechnology in medicine are already underway and offer tremendous promise. This review explores the recent developments of nanotechnology in the field of CVD and gives an insight into its potential for diagnostics and therapeutics applications. The authors also explore the characteristics of the widely used biocompatible nanomaterials for this purpose and evaluate their opportunities and challenges for developing novel nanobiotechnological tools with high efficacy for biomedical applications, such as radiological imaging, vascular implants, gene therapy, myocardial infarction and targeted delivery systems.     

用Amplatzer房间隔封堵器堵闭边缘不足的房间隔缺损效果观察

目的　探讨用Amplatzer房间隔缺损封堵器经导管堵闭部分边缘缺乏或不足(<5mm)的房间隔缺损的可行性。方法　1999年7月至2 0 0 1年9月对芝加哥大学儿童医院的2 3例边缘<5mm的房间隔缺损患儿试用Amplatzer封堵器进行堵闭,其中男10例,女13例,平均年龄10 7岁。2 0例经食管超声心动图或心内超声心动图测量的房间隔缺损前缘0～4mm ,2例下缘为2mm ,1例后缘为2mm。同期,4 8例房间隔缺损边缘>5mm的患儿作对照。结果　全部2 3例边缘<5mm的房间隔缺损患儿和4 8例对照儿均成功安装了封堵器。两组间年龄、缺损大小和所用封堵器大小差异无显著性意义(P >0 . 0 5 )。2 3例边缘<5mm的患儿中17例(73. 9% )即刻完全堵闭,对照组4 4例(91 .7% )即刻完全堵闭(P <0 .0 5 ) ;2 4h复查边缘<5mm患儿及对照组的完全堵闭率分别是91 3%和93 8% (P >0. 0 5 ) ;6个月复查两组完全堵闭率分别是95 7%和95 8% (P >0 . 0 5 )。缺损边缘<5mm患儿及对照组手术时间分别为(72 . 5±2 6 .5 )min和(6 1. 4±2 1 .9)min ;X线暴光时间分别为(12 .6±7 .0 )min和(9. 8±4 . 2 )min ,与对照组比较手术时间稍长。两组患儿术中和术后均未出现并发症。结论　前、后或下缘<5mm的房间隔缺损仍可以用Amplatzer房间隔缺损封堵器经导管堵闭,但长期手术     

Isolated Left Ventricular Diastolic Collapse Due to Extra‐Thoracic Compression

Isolated collapse of the left ventricle (LV) in diastole is not a very common finding on two‐dimensional echocardiography. Reported cases in the literature were due to either loculated postoperative pericardial effusion/hematoma or left pleural effusion. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of LV diastolic collapse secondary to extra‐thoracic compression.