AIM: To investigate the mechanism by which IL-6 is involved in cancer prognosis, and further to demonstrate the relationship between IL-6 and tumor-associated antigens such as CA15-3, CEA and CA125 in breast cancer. METHODS: In the present study, we transfected an exogenous IL-6 gene into the MCF-7 cells. Secretion of CA15-3, CEA and CA125 into the culture media were measured by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). RESULTS: After a 72 hours in culture, the amount of IL-6 in the media of pCI-neo-IL-6-transfected MCF-7 cells (338.5±22.6 pg/106 cells) was significantly higher than that of non-transfected MCF-7 cells (25.4±4.6 pg/106 cells, P＜0.01, paired t-test), or pCI-neo-transfected MCF-7 cells (19.6±3.0 pg/106 cells, P＜0.01, paired t-test). The levels of CA15-3, CEA and CA125 secreted by the pCI-neo-IL-6-transfected MCF-7 cells were significantly higher than that of the parental MCF-7 cells or pCI-neo-transfected MCF-7 cells. The specific IL-6 antibody could decrease the expression of CA15-3, CEA and CA125 in both the MCF-7 cells and the IL-6 cDNA-transfected MCF-7 cells. CONCLUSION: Transfer of IL-6 gene augments tumor-associated antigens of human breast cancer cells. The association of elevated IL-6 concentration with a poor prognosis in cancer patients may partially be the result of increased expression of tumor-associated antigens by IL-6.

Objective:To observe the changes of peri-implant tissue around the individualized abutment that was grinded from zirconia provisional crown in one year.Methods:In this research, a prosthodontic-driven virtual implant planning and immediate provisionalization were conducted in computer assisted design software. And computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) techniques were used to fabricate the zirconia provisional crown and surgical guide template before surgery. The implant was accurately placed with the surgical guide, and the zirconia provisional crown was immediately delivered after surgery. Three months later, the implant osseointegration was completed, and zirconia provisional crown was prepared intraorally to generate customized zirconia abutment for final prosthesis. The study included 30 patients with single anterior tooth loss, including 18 males and 12 females, aged from 26 to 50 years old, and the mean age was (36.2±6.1) years old. The patients were from the Center of Oral Implantology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University Medical College from January 2017 to February 2018. After cementation of the final prosthesis, the cases were followed up at 6 and 12 months time intervals. Implant survival rate, probing depth, bleeding on probing, marginal bone level loss and papilla index score (PIS) were recorded in every appointment.Results:The survival rate of 30 implants was 100%, and the probing depths were less than 5 mm. The bone resorption at 6 and 12 months follow-up after the final delivery was 0 (0, 0) mm and 0 (-0.2, 0) mm, respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant ( P>0.05). The PIS was 3.0 (2.0, 4.0), 3.0 (2.8, 4.0) and 3.0 (3.0, 4.0) on the final delivery, 6 and 12 months after final delivery, respectively. Conclusions:Marginal bone level and bone loss were stable with this new implant clinical protocol at the one-year follow-up.

INTRODUCTION: Data on patients with small aortic annuli (SAA) undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) are limited. We aim to describe the impact of aortic annular size, particularly SAA and TAVI valve type on valve haemodynamics, durability and clinical outcomes. METHOD: All patients in National Heart Centre Singapore who underwent transfemoral TAVI for severe symptomatic native aortic stenosis from July 2012 to December 2019 were included. Outcome measures include valve haemodynamics, prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM), structural valve degeneration (SVD) and mortality. RESULTS: A total of 244 patients were included. The mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons score was 6.22±6.08, with 52.5% patients with small aortic annulus (<23mm), 33.2% patients with medium aortic annulus (23-26mm) and 14.3% patients with large aortic annulus (>26mm). There were more patients with self-expanding valve (SEV) (65.2%) versus balloon-expandable valve (BEV) (34.8%). There were no significant differences in indexed aortic valve area (iAVA), mean pressure gradient (MPG), PPM, SVD or mortality across all aortic annular sizes. However, specific to the SAA group, patients with SEV had larger iAVA (SEV 1.19±0.35cm2/m2 vs BEV 0.88±0.15cm2/m2, P<0.01) and lower MPG (SEV 9.25±4.88 mmHg vs BEV 14.17±4.75 mmHg, P<0.01) at 1 year, without differences in PPM or mortality. Aortic annular size, TAVI valve type and PPM did not predict overall mortality up to 7 years. There was no significant difference in SVD between aortic annular sizes up to 5 years. CONCLUSION Valve haemodynamics and durability were similar across the different aortic annular sizes. In the SAA group, SEV had better haemodynamics than BEV at 1 year, but no differences in PPM or mortality. There were no significant differences in mortality between aortic annular sizes, TAVI valve types or PPM.
Humans ; Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement ; Heart Valve Prosthesis ; Aortic Valve Stenosis/surgery* ; Aortic Valve/surgery* ; Prosthesis Design ; Postoperative Complications/surgery* ; Treatment Outcome ; Hemodynamics

Background and Objectives: We compared real-world clinical outcomes of patients receiving intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) versus rotational atherectomy (RA) for heavily calcified coronary lesions. Methods: Fifty-three patients who received IVL from January 2017 to July 2020 were retrospectively compared to 271 patients who received RA from January 2017 to December 2018.Primary endpoints were in-hospital and 30-day major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Results: IVL patients had a higher prevalence of acute coronary syndrome (56.6% vs 24.4, p<0.001), multivessel disease (96.2% vs 73.3%, p<0.001) and emergency procedures (17.0% vs 2.2%, p<0.001) compared to RA. In-hospital MACE (11.3% vs 5.9%, p=0.152), MI (7.5% vs 3.3%, p=0.152), and mortality (5.7% vs 3.0%, p=0.319) were not statistically significant. 30-day MACE was higher in the IVL cohort vs RA (17.0% vs 7.4%, p=0.035). Propensity score adjusted regression using IVL was also performed on in-hospital MACE (odds ratio [OR], 1.677; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.588–4.779) and 30-day MACE (OR, 1.910; 95% CI, 0.774–4.718). Conclusions These findings represent our initial IVL experience in a high-risk, real-world cohort. Although the event rate in the IVL arm was numerically higher compared to RA, the small numbers and retrospective nature of this study preclude definitive conclusions. Theseclinical outcomes are likely to improve with greater experience and better case selection, allowing IVL to effectively treat complex calcified coronary lesions.