Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias, which does great harm to patients. Effective methods were urgently required to prevent the recurrence of AF. Four methods were used to analyze RR sequence in this paper, and differences between Pre-AF (preceding an episode of AF) and Normal period (far away from episodes of AF) were analyzed to find discriminative criterion. These methods are: power spectral analysis, approximate entropy (ApEn) and sample entropy (SpEn) analysis, recurrence analysis and time series symbolization. The RR sequence data used in this research were downloaded from the Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Prediction Database. Supporting vector machine (SVM) classification was used to evaluate the methods by calculating sensitivity, specificity and accuracy rate. The results showed that the comprehensive utilization of recurrence analysis parameters reached the highest accuracy rate (95%); power spectrum analysis took second place (90%); while the results of entropy analyses and time sequence symbolization were not satisfactory, whose accuracy were both only 70%. In conclusion, the recurrence analysis and power spectrum could be adopted to evaluate the atrial chaotic state effectively, thus having certain reference value for prediction of AF recurrence.
Atrial Fibrillation ; diagnosis ; Entropy ; Heart Atria ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Recurrence ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Support Vector Machine

Primary ureteral plasmacytoid carcinomas is a rare tumor with high grade and poor diagnosis. Pathological and immunohistochemical staining play an extremely key role in diagnosis since there is no specific clinical and radiological evidence. The surgical removement is the first line treatment. Herein, we report a case of ureteral plasmacytoid carcinoma that was well controlled with multimodal therapy.

Mitochondrial diseases are maternally inherited heterogeneous disorders that are primarily caused by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations. Depending on the ratio of mutant to wild-type mtDNA, known as heteroplasmy, mitochondrial defects can result in a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. Mitochondria-targeted endonucleases provide an alternative avenue for treating mitochondrial disorders via targeted destruction of the mutant mtDNA and induction of heteroplasmic shifting. Here, we generated mitochondrial disease patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (MiPSCs) that harbored a high proportion of m.3243A>G mtDNA mutations and caused mitochondrial encephalomyopathy and stroke-like episodes (MELAS). We engineered mitochondrial-targeted transcription activator-like effector nucleases (mitoTALENs) and successfully eliminated the m.3243A>G mutation in MiPSCs. Off-target mutagenesis was not detected in the targeted MiPSC clones. Utilizing a dual fluorescence iPSC reporter cell line expressing a 3243G mutant mtDNA sequence in the nuclear genome, mitoTALENs displayed a significantly limited ability to target the nuclear genome compared with nuclear-localized TALENs. Moreover, genetically rescued MiPSCs displayed normal mitochondrial respiration and energy production. Moreover, neuronal progenitor cells differentiated from the rescued MiPSCs also demonstrated normal metabolic profiles. Furthermore, we successfully achieved reduction in the human m.3243A>G mtDNA mutation in porcine oocytes via injection of mitoTALEN mRNA. Our study shows the great potential for using mitoTALENs for specific targeting of mutant mtDNA both in iPSCs and mammalian oocytes, which not only provides a new avenue for studying mitochondrial biology and disease but also suggests a potential therapeutic approach for the treatment of mitochondrial disease, as well as the prevention of germline transmission of mutant mtDNA.
Animals ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; genetics ; Humans ; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; MELAS Syndrome ; genetics ; Male ; Mice ; Microsatellite Repeats ; genetics ; Mitochondria ; genetics ; metabolism ; Mutation ; genetics