ObjectiveTo explore the causal association between venous thromboembolism (VTE) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks using a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study. MethodsThe single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data associated with VTE and CVD from genome-wide association studies were obtained as instrumental variables. Inverse variance weighted (IVW) was used as the main MR method and other methods were used as supplementary methods. Cochran's Q test, the intercept term of MR-Egger, and MR-PRESSO were used to assess pleiotropy and heterogeneity to ensure the robustness of the results. ResultsThe IVW method suggested a causal association between VTE and atrial fibrillation (OR=1.033, 95%CI 1.009 to 1.058, P=0.008), but no association was identified between VTE and coronary artery disease (OR=0.994, 95%CI 0.974 to 1.023, P = 0.551), heart failure (OR=1.021, 95%CI 0.992 to 1.050, P=0.159) and myocardial infarction (OR=1.012, 95%CI 0.971 to 1.055, P=0.568). The results of Cochran's Q test showed that there was no heterogeneity in the MR analyses of VTE and CVD. The MR-Egger intercept analysis and the MR-PRESSO global testing did not detect potential horizontal pleiotropy, and the results were robust. Reverse MR analysis was used to verify the presence of reverse causal associations. The reverse MR analysis demonstrated that reverse causal associations between VTE and CVD were not evidenced. ConclusionThe results of the MR study demonstrated a causal association between VTE and atrial fibrillation, but not with coronary artery disease, heart failure or myocardial infarction.
Objective To systematically evaluate anti-platelet effect of clopidogrel influenced by CYP2C192,3 polymorphism in patients with cardiovascular diseases, in order to provide references for its safe medication. Methods Literature was retrieved in electronic databases covering EMbase, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, CBM and CNKI from establishment dates to November, 2011. Observational studies and clinical trials were included, cross-checked, assessed and pooled for meta-analysis. meta-analysis was performed using the software RevMan 5.1. Results A total of 13 articles including 14 trials (n=36 855) were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: a) there was no significant difference in the incidences of cardiovascular events between CYP2C192,3 carriers and CYP2C191 carriers; b) the risk of stent thrombosis in CYP2C192,3 carriers was significantly higher than that in CYP2C191 carriers (Plt;0.000 1), and the relative risk of CYP2C192,3 carriers increased 92% within one month (Plt;0.000 1); c) as for bleeding events, there were no significant differences between CYP2C192,3 carriers and CYP2C191 carriers. Conclusion Compared with CYP2C191 carriers, CYP2C192,3 carriers have a higher risk of stent thrombosis in clopidogrel-treated patients, but there are few differences in cardiovascular and bleeding events between the two carriers. Therefore, CYP2C192,3 carriers with cardiovascular diseases and ready to receive PCT are suggested to pay more attention to stent thrombosis when using clopidogrel. We propose that patients with cardiovascular diseases and ready to receive PCT should have CYP2C19 tests to determine the use of antiplatelet drug (clopidogrel) to avoid thrombus.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 48.0% of all deaths in Europe and 34.3% in the United States. Studies have shown that arterial stiffness takes precedence over vascular structural changes and is therefore considered to be an independent predictor of many cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, the characteristics of Korotkoff signal is related to vascular compliance. The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility of detecting vascular stiffness based on the characteristics of Korotkoff signal. First, the Korotkoff signals of normal and stiff vessels were collected and preprocessed. Then the scattering features of Korotkoff signal were extracted by wavelet scattering network. Next, the long short-term memory (LSTM) network was established as a classification model to classify the normal and stiff vessels according to the scattering features. Finally, the performance of the classification model was evaluated by some parameters, such as accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. In this study, 97 cases of Korotkoff signal were collected, including 47 cases from normal vessels and 50 cases from stiff vessels, which were divided into training set and test set according to the ratio of 8 : 2. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the final classification model was 86.4%, 92.3% and 77.8%, respectively. At present, non-invasive screening method for vascular stiffness is very limited. The results of this study show that the characteristics of Korotkoff signal are affected by vascular compliance, and it is feasible to use the characteristics of Korotkoff signal to detect vascular stiffness. This study might be providing a new idea for non-invasive detection of vascular stiffness.
Abstract: The amniotic fluidderived stem cells (AFSC) possess considerable advantageous characteristics including high proliferation potential, easy availability, low immunogenicity and oncogenicity，and accordance with medical ethnics. Moreover, they do not require the sacrifice of human embryos for their isolation and the cells can differentiate into all three kinds of germs. Accordingly，they initiate a new and very promising field in stem cell research and they will be a potential source of stem cells for therapies related to regeneration medicine of cardiovascular diseases. The research about the AFSC utilization in cardiovascular diseases is just started. Though there were some exciting breakthroughs, there still remain many challenges. In the article，we will discuss AFSC characteristics, influence of amniotic fluid harvesting time on stem cells, isolation and purification, emphasizing mainly on the potential of AFSC differentiation into cardiovascular cells, current situation and problems in this field.
Objective To observe and analysis the features of images of fundus fluorescein angriography (FFA) in low-perfused retinopathy caused by cephalo-cervical peripheral vascular stenosis or occlusion. Methods The results of FFA of 27 patients diagnosed with carotid artery stenosis or occlusion by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and examination of Doppler and vascular-pulsation were retrospectively analyzed. Result All of the patients had a delayed arm-retinal circulation duration from 20.0 to 81.08 seconds with the mean of 32.1 seconds; a delayed retinal arteriovenous filling duration from 6 to 64.0 seconds with the mean of 24.2 seconds. Delayed arm-retinal circulation duration and retinal a rteriovenous filling duration in 10 cases (37.0%); microangioma, vascular wall staining, nonperfused capillary area in 11 (40.7%); and anterior ischemic syndrome in 6 (22.2%) were found. In the 6 patients with anterior ischemic syndrome, 4 cases had narrow retinal artery, segmental changes of blood stream, vascular atresia, and abnormal arterio-venous anastomosis, and 2 cases had bold vascular loops. Conclusions The main manifestations of FFA in patients with low-perfused retinopathy are malperfusion and retinal ischemia, whose degrees relate to the extend of carotid artery stenosis or atresia, and the process of the disease.Serious retinal ischemia may combined with anterior ischemic syndrome. (Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis，2004，20：84-86)
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death worldwide. A large body of epidemiologic evidence suggests that regular physical activity (PA) and high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness can prevent the progression of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events. "Physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and cardiovascular health: a clinical practice statement of the ASPC" released in December, 2022 by the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC) and provided the most up-to-date guidance on the associations and mechanisms between PA and cardiorespiratory fitness, the development of exercise prescriptions, and exercise-associated cardiovascular risk. In this article, the main content of this guideline was interpreted, aiming to develop a more scientific exercise prescription for patients with cardiovascular disease.
Therapeutic effect of fixed-dose combination therapy (Polypill) for cardiovascular disease is a hot spot in the field of cardiovascular medicine. A variety of Polypill have been developed for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, and a plenty of clinical evidence of Polypills for cardiovascular disease has been accumulated all over the world. In this paper, we raise ideas and expectation about research & development thinking of Polypill and Chinese herbal compound prescription based on a meta-analysis of efficacy and safety of Polypill in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (published in JAMA in Nov. 2014) as well as main clinical research literature in this field in recent years.
Objectives To retrospectively analyze the isolation rate and drug-resistance of pseudomonas aeruginosa in Fuwai Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences from 2013 to 2016. Methods The specimens were collected and cultured. If the isolated bacteria were from the same part of the same patient, the first isolated strains were only counted. The isolated pathogens were identified and the drug-resistance were analyzed. Results A total of 1 404 pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated. The majority of them were from postoperative recovery room of surgery department (62.1%) and ICU of internal medicine (22.3%). The specimen source were mainly from respiratory tract (75.7%), followed by blood (10.0%) and venous catheter (5.5%). The resistance rate of piperacillin and piperacillin/sulbactam to pseudomonas aeruginosa was 0.6% to 10.4%. The resistance rate of ceftazidime and cefepime was 0.3% to 11.7%. The resistance rate of imipenem and meropenem was 7.6% to 20.1%. The resistance rate of amikacin, gentamicin, and tobramycin was 0.3% to 3.2%. The resistance rate of ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin was 0.6% to 5.2%. Conclusions The isolates of pseudomonas aeruginosa are mainly from postoperative recovery room of surgery department and ICU of internal medicine . Imipenem and meropenem are not the best choices for pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. It has great value to combine piperacillin, piperacillin/sulbactam, ceftazidime and cefepime with aminoglycoside or quinolone antibiotics for the treatment of pseudomonas aeruginosa infection which will reduce drug resistance.
Objective To evaluate the efficacy of n-3 PUFAs (fish oil) for prevention of cardiovascular events. Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were searched from the following electronic databases: PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2009), CBM, and CNKI. Quality assessment and data extraction were conducted by two reviewers independently. Disagreement was resolved through discussion. All data were analyzed by using Review Manager 4.2 software. Results Five studies involving 37 689 participants met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis results showed that: 1) Compared with placebo, the incidence rates of the cardiovascular death (RR=0.91, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.98), cardiovascular events (RR=0.95, 95%CI 0.91 to 0.98), angina (RR=0.79, 95%CI 0.64 to 0.96), and myocardial infarction (RR=0.79, 95%CI 0.65 to 0.96) could be reduced by n-3 PUFAs (fish oil). 2) There were no significant differences in death from any cause, the hospitalization rates of cardiovascular disease, sudden death, and heart failure (RR=0.95, 95%CI 0.90 to 1.00; RR=0.97, 95%CI 0.93 to 1.02; RR=0.90, 95%CI 0.79 to 1.01; RR=0.98, 95%CI 0.91 to 1.06). 3) Compared with placebo, the incidence rates of the arrhythmia and stroke could be increased, but there were no significant differences (RR=1.14, 95%CI: 0.80 to 1.62; RR=1.12, 95%CI 0.97 to 1.30). Conclusion Compared with placebo, n-3 PUFAs (fish oil) has good effects on reducing the incidence rates of total cardiovascular events, cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and angina pectoris, and it has the same efficacy in death from all cause, sudden death, heart failure, and the hospitalization rates of cardiovascular disease. There are no significant differences in the increased rates of arrhythmia and stroke.
Objective To measure the level of circulating endothelial progenitor cells ( EPCs) in peripheral blood of patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( AECOPD) , and to explore the relationship between EPCs and severity markers of the disease and cardiovascular adverse outcome predictors.Methods Forty patients with COPD were recruited, including 27 at acute exacerbation phase and 13 with stable COPD from December 2010 to December 2011. Sixteen healthy nonsmokers were included as controls. Circulating EPCs were isolated by Ficoll density-gradient centrifugation and purified by Magnetic Activated Cell Sorting system. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein ( hsCRP) was estimated by using a latex immunoturbidimetric assay kit, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 ( MMP-9) was measured by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay ( ELISA) . Arterial blood gas analysis and echocardiograph were performed in the AECOPD patients. The correlations between circulating EPCs, lung function, and cardiovascular markers were investigated. Results Circulating EPCs were significantly lower in AECOPD and stable COPD patients compared with the healthy controls [ ( 5.1 ±2.6) ×103 /mL and ( 6.0 ±3.2) ×103 /mL vs. ( 9.0 ±4.3) × 103 /mL, Plt;0. 05] . EPCs had a weak correlation with hsCRP ( P = 0. 033) , but not with MMP-9. In the AECOPD patients, EPC counts were significantly inversely correlated with PASP ( pulmonary artery systolic pressure) and NT-proBNP ( amino-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide) levels, and positively with left ventricular ejection fraction. No correlations were found between EPCs and lung function, blood gas, hospital stays or smoking index. Conclusions Circulating EPCs were significantly lower in AECOPD patients compared with healthy controls, in which systemic inflammation might be involved. Decreased EPCs were correlated with cardiac dysfunction in patients with AECOPD, which may account for the increased cardiovascular risk in this population.