OBJECTIVETo assess the value of stent-assistant angioplasty for intracranial vascular diseases.

METHODSThirteen patients with intracranial vascular diseases were treated consecutively by stent-assistant angioplasty for different purposes. Of these patients 7 had symptomatic intracranial artery stenosis, 3 intracranial wide-neck aneurysms, 2 intracranial pseudoaneurysms, and 1 bilateral transverse sinus stenosis. Clinical procedures and technical data of the patients were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTSIn the 7 patients, the degree of intracranial artery stenosis reduced from 83% to 5%. Three months after the operation they exhibited good patency of stented lesions. Intracranial wide neck aneurysms (with 2 pseudoaneurysms) were successfully embolized with GDC in 5 patients. The patients with bilateral transverse sinus stenosis were implanted a self-expanded stent in the right transverse sinus. One patient failed because of the tortuous configuration of the left jugular bulb, but the patient's symptoms were improved quickly after the procedure.

CONCLUSIONStent-assistant angioplasty is a useful technique for selected intracranial vascular diseases, and it needs further investigation.

Adult ; Angioplasty, Balloon ; methods ; Cerebrovascular Disorders ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Stents ; Treatment Outcome

Objective To review the experience of multiple modality endovascular treatment for intracranial venous thrombosis, and to evaluate the efficacy and risk of endovascular thrombolysis for intracranial venous thrombosis.Methods From October, 2000 to October, 2001, 12 patients with intracranial venous thrombosis confirmed by CT, MRI, MRV, and/or DSA were treated with multiple modality endovascular thrombolysis including intravenous thrombolysis, mechanical thrombus maceration, intraarterial thrombolysis, and stenting.After thrombolysis, treatment aimed at the primary diseases was continued and warfarin was used for 6 months.The patients were followed-up for 17-29 months, averaged 23 months.Results Of the twelve patients, all underwent transvenous thrombolysis, ten underwent combined transvenous thrombolysis and clot maceration, seven underwent transvenous infusion of urokinase combined with transarterial infusion of urokinase.Two underwent transvenous infusion of urokinase combined with transarterial infusion of urokinase.The thrombolysis duration was from one to three days.The infusion dose of urokinase was 800 000 to 2 900 000 IU, the averaging dosage of urokinase was less than 1 000 000 IU per day.All patients achieved from recanalization of sinuses as confirmed on postprocedural angiography, MRI, and MRV studies prior to hospital discharge.At discharge, all the patients improved neurologically, and GCS improved from averaged 12 of pre-operation to 14 of post-operation.During the averaging 23 months follow-up, no patient recurred. Conclusion Combined multiple modality endovascular treatment is an effective and safe procedure for potentially catastrophic intracranial venous thrombosis.

Objective To evaluate the evidence and recommendations of the relevant clinical practice guidelines for the prevention and treatment of stroke published in the last five years. Methods The stroke and guideline-related key words and free words domestic computer retrieval platforms(China biomedical literature database,CNKI,and Yimaitong etc.),as well as foreign platforms(PubMed,NGC,GIN,etc.) were retrieved.The retrieval time limit ranged from January 2012 to May 2017.Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation Ⅱ(AGREE Ⅱ)was used to assess the quality of the guidelines. Results A total of 9 490 documents were retrieved preliminarily and finally 16 articles were included. The average scoring rates of the 16 guidelines in the 6 fields of AGREE Ⅱ,including the scope and purpose,participants,rigor of the formulation,clarity of expression,applicability,and independence of the editors were 66.3%, 27.4%,23.0%,53.9%,18.8%,and 0%,respectively.The different guidelines all recommend that internal endarterectomy or carotid balloon dilatation and carotid artery stenting are used to extracranial carotid stenosis,while the treatment of vertebral artery stenting is recommended for extracranial vertebral artery stenosis.However,the intravascular interventional therapy is not recommended for intracranial arterial stenosis.The perioperative period of ischemic stroke intravascular intervention need to pay attention to the application of anti-platelet aggregation,anticoagulation,blood pressure,blood glucose,blood lipid management,and postoperative monitoring. For postoperative stent restenosis,especially after vertebral artery stenting,the guidelines recommend using drug-eluting stents,however,the dosage of heparin in intraoperative anticoagulation is still controversial.The intracranial aneurysm guidelines are more recommended for interventional therapy.The cerebral hemorrhage in different regions is recommended for different surgical procedures. Conclusions The guidelines in this field can reflect the key problems in clinical practice and keep up with the international concept.However,the quality of the methodology of the guidelines development needs to be improved. Some of them need to be updated and the recommendations should refer more evidence of the Chinese population.

The locus coeruleus (LC) has been studied in major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). A major problem of immunocytochemical studies in the human LC is interference with the staining of the immunocytochemical end-product by the omnipresent natural brown pigment neuromelanin. Here, we used a multispectral method to untangle the two colors: blue immunocytochemical staining and brown neuromelanin. We found significantly increased tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the LC of MDD patients-thus validating the method-but not in BD patients, and we did not find significant changes in the receptor tyrosine-protein kinase ErbB4 in the LC in MDD or BD patients. We observed clear co-localization of ErbB4, TH, and neuromelanin in the LC neurons. The different stress-related molecular changes in the LC may contribute to the different clinical symptoms in MDD and BD.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Bipolar Disorder ; metabolism ; pathology ; Depressive Disorder, Major ; metabolism ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Immunohistochemistry ; methods ; Locus Coeruleus ; metabolism ; pathology ; Male ; Melanins ; metabolism ; Microscopy ; methods ; Middle Aged ; Neurons ; metabolism ; pathology ; Receptor, ErbB-4 ; metabolism ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spectrum Analysis ; methods ; Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase ; metabolism