Objective To evaluate the effect of radiofrequency catheter ablation treament of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias on spontaneous attack of atrial fibrillation (AF) and to further discuss the electrophysiological mechanisms of AF. Methods Thirty-one patients (20 men, 11 women; mean age 54?12 years, age range 24-69 years) with supraventricular tachyarrhythmias coexisting with AF were included in the study. The mean history of the study group was 9?5 (range 1-19) years and the mean number of AF attack was 6?5 times (range 2-18). Of the 31 cases, 5 supraventricular tachyarrhythmias were electrophysiologically proven to be typical atrial flutter (AFL), 17 atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (AVRT), 9 atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT). Linear lesions to make bi-directional block were done in cavo-tricuspid isthmus in AFL patients, slow pathway modification in AVNRT and accessory pathway ablation in AVRT. Results After mean follow-up of 39?19 months (range 12-72), of the 31 patients, 23 had no occurrence of AF. In 3 of the 5 AFL patients, no AF occurred after ablation, but 2 still had AF occurrence, of whom one had frequent atrial premature contractions (APCs) and short runs of AF. In 26 patients with supraventricular tachycardia, 20 had no occurrence of AF after ablation. In the remaining 6, 2 had less frequent occurrence, and 4 remained the same, of whom one had hypertention with enlarged left atrium, and another had frequent APCs and short runs of atrial tachycardia. Conclusion AFL may share the same substrate with AF or may be the trigger factor of AF, and AVNRT and AVRT are only trigger factors of AF. So after successful ablation treatment of these tachycardias, no AF occurs. But in some cases, AF substrate still exists, and AF can be triggered by other trigger factors besides tachycardias mentioned above.

Objective To compare the effect of retroperitoneoscopic ureterolithotomy (RPUL) and ureteroscopic lithotripsy (URL) for upper ureteral calculi.Methods One hundred and twenty cases treated by RPUL and 108 cases by URL from January 2002 to October 2012 were reviewed.In RPUL and URL group,the diameter of stone was (1.56 ± 0.52) cm vs (1.44 ± 0.46) cm,ipsilateral hydronephrosis was (2.85 ± 0.86) cm vs (2.76 ± 0.82) cm,body mass index was (23.65 ± 2.80) kg/m2 vs (22.54 ± 2.68) kg/m2.There were no signficant differences.Data on the operation time,the hospital stay after operation,the operation,successsful rate,complication incidence and stone-free rate were compared between the 2 groups.Results Comparisons between RPUL group and URL group included the following:the operation time was (75.5 ± 25.8) min vs (62.5 ± 15.3) min,the hospital stay after operation was (6.2 ± 1.2) d vs (4.0 ± 0.8) d.There were significant differences.The operation successful rate was 95.0％ (114/120) in RPUL group and 85.2％ (92/108) in URL group.The complications incidence rate was 3.5％ (4/114) in RPUL group and 17.4％ (16/92) in URL group.The stone-free rate was 100.0％ (114/114) in RPUL group and 89.1％ (82/92) in URL group.The differences were significant (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions RPUL and URL had the advantages of less trauma and blood loss and rapid recovery.RPUL had fewer complication and higher success rate than URL,and could be a minimally invasive option for the treatment of ureteral calculi.

Objective To evaluate the diagnosis and treatment of cystic renal cell carcinoma and to improve the preoperative diagnosis and curative rate of the disease. Methods Ten cases of cystic renal cell carcinoma were retrospectively analyzed in the aspects of imaging and pathologic characteristics. There were 7 males and 3 females with average age of 56 years old (ranging from 38--74 years old) in this study. There were 3 cases complained of sore waist, 7 cases were found renal masses in annual physical examination and 2 cases had the history of renal cysts. The cyst diameter was 3.5 8.2 cm. Six cases had been diagnosed with ultrasound and 7 cases had been diagnosed with CT scan pre-operatively. Eight eases were diagnosed with frozen section during operation. All the 10 cases accepted radical nephreetomies. Results The post-operative histological diagnosis showed that there were 9 cases of clear cell carcinoma and 1 case of granular cell carcinoma. The pathological character istics were tumor necrosis of renal cell carcinoma in 6 cases, multilocular cystic renal cell carcinoma in 2 cases and carcinoma in renal cyst in 2 cases. Eight patients followed up from 6 months to 5 years. Six patients were still alive (mean 28.5 months). Conclusion The keys to improve the diagnosis and curative rate of the cystic renal cell carcinoma are paying attention to the pre-operative imaging study, the intra-operative frozen section examination and histopathology results.

Aim To investigate the effects of β1-ad-renergic receptor (β1-AR ) on rapid component of the delayed rectifier potassium current ( IKr ) in ventricular
myocytes of guinea pigs with chronic heart failure ( CHF) . Methods The CHF model of guinea pigs was established by descending thoracic aortic banding .
Whole-cell patch-clamp technique was used to record IKr in ventricular myocytes. The effects ofβ1-AR on IKr in CHF ventricular myocytes were detected and its mechanisms were studied by pretreatment with protein kinase A ( PKA ) inhibitor and calmodulin kinase II( CaMK II) inhibitor. Results In CHF ventricular myocytes, xamoterol, the selectiveβ1-AR agonist, de-creased IKr by (52±8)% and prolonged action poten-tial duration. These effects were completely abolished by pretreatment of myocytes with CGP20712A, a selec-tive β1-AR antagonist. íamoterol only decreased IKr
by (28±3)% by pretreatment of CHF myocytes with specific PKA inhibitor KT5720 . KN93 , an inhibitor of CaMKII, did not attenuate the inhibitory effect on CHF ventricular myocytes. Conclusion IKr is inhibi-ted by β1-AR activation in CHF ventricular myocytes. PKA, but not CaMKII signaling pathway is involved in, at least in part, the inhibitory effect ofβ1-AR acti-vation on IKr.

P-450-dependent epoxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid and the products of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) have been demonstrated to be involved in angiogenesis and tumor progression. This study examined the expression of EETs and the role of the pathway in the angiogenesis of multiple myeloma (MM). MM cell lines of U266 and RPMI8226 were cultured, and the EETs levels (11, 12-EET and 14, 15-EET) in the supernatant were determined by ELISA. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured and used for analysis of the angiogenesis activity of the two MM cell lines, which was examined both in vitro and in vivo by employing MTT, chemotaxis, tube formation and matrigel plug assays. 11, 12-EET and 14, 15-EET were found in the supernatant of the cultured MM cells. The levels of the two EETs in the supernatant of U266 cells were significantly higher than those in the RPMI8226 cell supernatant (P<0.05), and the levels paralleled the respective angiogenesis activity of the two different MM cell lines. 17-octadecynoic acid (17-ODYA), as a specific inhibitor of P450 enzyme, suppressed HUVECs proliferation and tube formation induced by MM cells. Furthermore, 17-ODYA decreased the EET levels in the supernatant of MM cells. These results suggest that EETs may play an important role in the angiogenesis of MM, and the inhibitor 17-ODYA suppresses this effect.

Objective Various factors may affect the effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy or cardiac resynchronization and implantable cardioverter-defibrilator ( CRT/CRTD) in chronic heart failure patients ( CHF) .The aim of our study was to explore the correlation of age and gender with the effects of CRT/CRTD in chronic heart failure patients. Methods This study included 136 CHF patients, 92 males and 44 females, treated by CRT/CRTD from January 2005 to March 2015.We divided the patients into three age groups:≥70 yr (n=29), 50-70 yr (n=77), and <50 yr (n=30), and compared the baseline characteristics, CRT respon-ding rate and all-cause mortality among different groups.The CRT response was defined as the decrease of NYHA cardiac function≥1 grade and left ventricular ejection fraction ( LVEF) improvement ≥5%. Results In the 136 CHF patients, there were 72 CRT responders (53%), 52%in the≥70 yr group, 55%in the 50-70 yr group, and 50%in the <50 yr group, with no statistically sig-nificant differences among the three groups (P>0.05).However, the CRT responding rate was remarkably higher in the female than in the male patients (66%vs 47%, P=0.027).Cox multivariate and Kaplan-Meier analyses revealed no significant differences in all-cause mortality between different genders or age groups.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the left ventricular diastolic diameter and base QRS duration were independent factors of the CRT response. Conclusion Age does not affect the CRT response in chronic heart failure patients, while female patients have a higher CRT respon-ding rate than male patients.

Objective To study the mode and clinical implications of onset of spontaneous tosade de pointes in the congenital long QT syndrome. Methods We reviewed electrocardiograms (ECGs) of 55 patients with congenital QT syndrome for syncope. Documentation of the onset of tosade de pointes was available for 16 patients. All these patients had "definitive long QT syndrome" by accepted clinical and ECG criteria. Results One hundren and forty-nine runs of tosade de pointes were documented in 16 patients,of whom,there were 130 runs of pause-dependent tosade de pointes. Conclusion Our results show that the pause-dependent tosade de pointes,which has been recognized as a hallmark of tosade de pointes in the acquired long QT syndrome,plays a major role in the genesis of tosade de pointes in the congenital long QT syndrome.

OBJECTIVELow or moderate consumption of red wine has a greater benefit than the consumption of other beverages in the prevention of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease and this is increasingly attributed to the polyphenol compounds in red wine, such as resveratrol. In the present study, we investigated the effect of resveratrol on platelet aggregation in vitro and in vivo.

METHODSPlatelet aggregation in rabbits and normal subjects was measured using Born's method.

RESULTSResveratrol, at 10 - 1000 micromol/L, significantly inhibited platelet aggregation in vitro induced by collagen, thrombin, and ADP in healthy subjects. The inhibitory effect was concentration-dependent. Hypercholesterolemia induced by high-cholesterol diet enhanced ADP-induced platelet aggregation. Resveratrol 4 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1) inhibited ADP-induced platelet aggregation in vivo despite no changes in serum lipid levels.

CONCLUSIONSResveratrol inhibits platelet aggregation both in vitro and in vivo. This may be one of the mechanisms by which resveratrol prevents atherosclerosis.

Animals ; Arteriosclerosis ; prevention & control ; Cholesterol, LDL ; blood ; Humans ; Lipids ; blood ; Platelet Aggregation ; drug effects ; Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors ; pharmacology ; Rabbits ; Stilbenes ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVETo describe a new noncontact balloon catheter mapping system and to assess the clinical utility of this system for guiding endocardial mapping and ablation of tachycardia.

METHODSFive patients with tachycardia underwent endocardial mapping and radiofrequency ablation using the noncontact balloon catheter mapping system. A 9 French, 64-electrode balloon catheter and a conventional 7 French electrode catheter for mapping and ablation were positioned in the same ventricular chamber. Ventricular three-dimensional geometry was established by the computerized mapping system. Using a boundary element inverse solution, 3360 virtual endocardial electrograms were computerized and used to derive isopotential maps. The earliest endocardial activation site, the exit site and the activation sequence of tachycardia or the critical isthmus of the reentry circuit were identified. Radiofrequency ablation with circular or linear lesion was performed at the target sites guided by the locator system.

RESULTSSix clinical types of tachycardia, 5 of which were ventricular tachycardia and one was concealed fasciculoventricular fiber mediated tachycardia, were induced by programmed stimulation. The mean cycle length of these tachycardias was 336.6 +/- 42.69 msec. The earliest activation site and the exit site of 5 mapped tachycardias were all identified using the system. One type of ventricular tachycardia was hemodynamically unstable and difficult to terminate, and could not be mapped. Among the 6 types of tachycardias, radiofrequency ablation was successful in 4. There was no complication during and after the procedure. During the mean follow-up of 6 months, no tachycardia recurred in the patients with a successful ablation.

CONCLUSIONSThe noncontact mapping system described in this study has advantage over conventional mapping techniques for refractory tachycardia. It is not only helpful for understanding the electrophysiologic mechanism of a complex case, but also suitable for mapping hemodynamically intolerated and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia.

Adult ; Body Surface Potential Mapping ; methods ; Cardiac Catheterization ; Catheter Ablation ; methods ; Catheterization ; methods ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Tachycardia, Ventricular ; physiopathology ; surgery

P-450-dependent epoxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid and the products of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) have been demonstrated to be involved in angiogenesis and tumor progression.This study examined the expression of EETs and the role of the pathway in the angiogenesis of multiple myeloma (MM).MM cell lines of U266 and RPMI8226 were cultured,and the EETs levels (11,12-EET and 14,15-EET) in the supematant were determined by ELISA.Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured and used for analysis of the angiogenesis activity of the two MM cell lines,which was examined both in vitro and in vivo by employing MTT,chemotaxis,tube formation and matrigel plug assays.11,12-EET and 14,15-EET were found in the supematant of the cultured MM cells.The levels of the two EETs in the supernatant of U266 cells were significantly higher than those in the RPMI8226 cell supematant (P＜0.05),and the levels paralleled the respective angiogenesis activity of the two different MM cell lines.17-octadecynoic acid (17-ODYA),as a specific inhibitor of P450 enzyme,suppressed HUVECs proliferation and tube formation induced by MM cells.Furthermore,17-ODYA decreased the EET levels in the supernatant of MM cells.These results suggest that EETs may play an important role in the angiogenesis of MM,and the inhibitor 17-ODYA suppresses this effect.