Ratio of submucosal thickness to total bowel wall thickness as a new sonographic parameter to estimate endoscopic remission of ulcerative colitis

Journal of Gastroenterology - The development of feasible, reliable parameters and criteria for intestinal ultrasound (IUS) to estimate endoscopic remission of ulcerative colitis (UC) is a crucial...     

Correction to: Detection of acute rib fractures on CT images with convolutional neural networks: effect of location and type of fracture and reader’s experience

Emergency Radiology -     

Successful catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia originating from the idiopathic saccular apical left ventricular aneurysm

Left ventricular (LV) aneurysm has been recognized to frequently become a substrate of ventricular tachyarrhythmias. We report a case of a 66-year-old woman with symptomatic sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (SMVT) originating from saccular apical LV aneurysm without definite underlying diseases. We performed catheter ablation using electroanatomical and conventional bipolar potential mapping. During SMVT, we found an area of fragmented potential -40 ms preceding the earliest wide QRS complex in the area of the apical LV aneurysm. Radiofrequency applications were delivered to this area. Since then, SMVT was no longer inducible by programmed electrical stimulation. The patient has remained free of VT recurrences during a subsequent 12-month follow-up period.     

Risk stratification and survival in post myocardial infarction patients: a large prospective and multicenter study in Japan

BACKGROUND: Recent clinical trials suggest that the mortality in high-risk patients with ischemic heart disease can be significantly reduced with the use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). Given the high cost and invasiveness of the procedure, it is important to apply it to the patients after myocardial infarction (MI) highly susceptible to sudden arrhythmic death. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess clinical predictors of mortality in post-MI patients in Japan. METHODS AND RESULTS: In 495 consecutive MI survivors, 350 (71%) received acute-reperfusion therapy, whereas 145 (29%) did not. Nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) was present in 136 patients (28%) in 24-h ambulatory ECGs at 7+/-6 in-hospital days. Left ventricular dysfunction (LVEF< or =35%) was present in 20/347 patients (5.7%) at 13+/-8 days. Forty-eight patients (9.7%) died during the follow-up period (48+/-13 months); 23 from cardiac and 25 from noncardiac causes. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses showed that mortality rates were higher among patients who were > or =70 years old (log-rank test, P<0.0001); had heart failure at admission (Killip scale> or =2, P=0.001); did not receive acute-reperfusion (P=0.004); and had left ventricular dysfunction with LVEF< or =35% (P=0.02). The presence of NSVT was a significant predictor of death (P=0.036) only in the patients who did not receive acute-reperfusion. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that an independent predictor of total mortality was an age> or =70 (odds ratio, 1.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.11; P<0.00001). CONCLUSIONS: High-risk patients after acute MI can be identified on the basis of age, ventricular dysfunction, heart failure and acute-reperfusion therapy. The presence of NSVT before discharge has a prognostic value only in the patients without acute-reperfusion.     

Characteristics of a thyroid hormone responsive reporter gene transduced into a Xenopus laevis cell line using lentivirus vector

We introduced a self-inactivation (SIN) lentivirus vector (LV) into Xenopus laevis cell lines and established a permanent cell line expressing a reporter gene in a 3,5,3'-l-triiodothyronine (T(3)) dependent manner. The SIN LV contained the luciferase gene downstream from the X. laevis T(3)-response elements (TREs) and the SV40 promoter, and the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene downstream from the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. It was integrated into the genome of X. laevis XL58, XTC2, and KR cells. The SIN LV transduced the X. laevis cells as efficiently as mammalian cells; however, the expression of EGFP in the transgene decreased with increasing culture time. A cell clone exhibiting the highest TH-dependent luciferase gene expression (XL58-TRE-Luc clone) was isolated from the EGFP-positive XL58 cell pool and characterized. The minimum effective concentration of T(3) that significantly induced the luciferase gene expression was 10(-11)M in the XL58-TRE-Luc clone. The application of the luciferase gene assay using the permanent XL58-TRE-Luc clone for the screening of thyroid-disrupting chemicals revealed that tetrachlorobisphenol A, at 10(-6)M, had a weak T(3)-agonist activity, whereas trichlorobisphenol A, at 10(-8) - 10(-6)M had a weak T(3)-antagonist activity. Our results indicated that the permanent X. laevis cell line containing a T(3)-response transgene could be used as a bioassay, with small intra-assay variation, for the rapid screening, identification, and characterization of the thyroid-disrupting chemicals.     

Involvement of Rho-kinase in prostaglandin F2alpha-stimulated interleukin-6 synthesis via p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase in osteoblasts

We have previously reported that prostaglandin F(2alpha) (PGF(2alpha)) stimulates interleukin-6 (IL-6), a potent bone resorptive agent, through p44/p42 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase in osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 cells. In the present study, we investigated whether Rho-kinase is implicated in the PGF(2alpha)-stimulated IL-6 synthesis in MC3T3-E1 cells. PGF(2alpha) time-dependently induced the phosphorylation of myosin phosphatase targeting subunit (MYPT-1), a Rho-kinase substrate. Y27632, a specific Rho-kinase inhibitor, significantly reduced the PGF(2alpha)-stimulated IL-6 synthesis as well as the MYPT-1 phosphorylation. Fasudil, another inhibitor of Rho-kinase, suppressed the PGF(2alpha)-stimulated IL-6 synthesis. Y27632 and fasudil failed to affect the PGF(2alpha)-induced phosphorylation of p44/p42 MAP kinase. SB203580 and BIRB0796, potent inhibitors of p38 MAP kinase, suppressed the IL-6 synthesis induced by PGF(2alpha). While SP600125, an inhibitor of stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun N-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK), failed to reduce the synthesis. Y27632 as well as fasudil attenuated the PGF(2alpha)-induced phosphorylation of p38 MAP kinase. These results strongly suggest that Rho-kinase regulates PGF(2alpha)-stimulated IL-6 synthesis via p38 MAP kinase activation in osteoblasts.     

Ozone production by amino acids contributes to killing of bacteria

Reactive oxygen species produced by phagocytosing neutrophils are essential for innate host defense against invading microbes. Previous observations revealed that antibody-catalyzed ozone formation by human neutrophils contributed to the killing of bacteria. In this study, we discovered that 4 amino acids themselves were able to catalyze the production of an oxidant with the chemical signature of ozone from singlet oxygen in the water-oxidation pathway, at comparable level to antibodies. The resultant oxidant with the chemical signature of ozone exhibited significant bactericidal activity in our distinct cell-free system and in human neutrophils. The results also suggest that an oxidant with the chemical signature of ozone produced by neutrophils might potentiate a host defense system, when the host is challenged by high doses of infectious agents. Our findings provide biological insights into the killing of bacteria by neutrophils.