Objective Covered stents have been widely utilized in aortic dissections and aortic aneurysms since Parieli treated an abdominal aortic aneurysm with a stent-graft in 1991.Covered stents have also been reported for managing peripheral vascular diseases,including large or wide-neck aneurysm,pseudoaneurysm,vascular rupture/perforation and arteriovenous fistula.Encouraging achievements are also bringing in more than one decade,even in China.For transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation,the primary patency rate at 1 year after covered stent grafting is statistically longer than that of bare stent.At present,it is worth studying randomly the covered stent versus bare stent in treating long segmental arterial stenosis and/or occlusion.Furthermore observation should be insisted upon for the long term patency of parent artery after implanting with covered stent.Deploying a covered stent into a tortuous vessel is still a challenge and tough problem.There would still be a long way in China for further development in basic research of improving the substantial property of stent-graft and better design of deploying device.The main target for all interventional radiologists in the foreseen future is how to develop new covered stents with independent knowledge property right and to expand new horizon for its application.

The coronary covered stents have been more and more used to treat intracranial arterial diseases for recent years,and the hot point in study has gradually changed from clinical application of coronary covered stents to the fundamental and clinical trial of specially-designed intracranial covered stentsThe covered stents are mainly employed for the treatment of intracranial arterial disorders,including giant,wide-necked or minute cerebral aneurysms,intracranial pseudoaneurysms caused by a variety of reasons,fusiform or dissecting aneurysms of vertebral-basic artery,and internal carotid cavernous fistula,etc.It is very difficult for current surgical or endovascular treatment,both materially and technically,to deal with the above mentioned intracranial disorders.The covered stent can restore the anatomic shape of artery by direct sealing the aneurysmal neck and the fistula.The complications of covered stent treatment include defect of cranial nerves,occlusion of parent artery or branches.This article aims to review the related medical literature published both at home and abroad,to make a retrospective analysis of the therapeutic results,and to put forward some issues of common interest.

Interventional radiology is a new and developing subject, and a good grasp of imaging knowledge, skilled manipulation and plenty of clinical experience are essential for physicians who are engaged in this special field. For this reason, all interventional physicians should make great efforts to unceasingly improve their theoretical levels and practical abilities. Many interventional physicians who used to be the diagnostic radiologists have solid foundation of medical imaging as well as rich manipulation ability.Nevertheless, what they usually lack is the special clinical knowledge, they are short of relevant clinical ability to confidently deal with the interventional perioperative events. The interventional perioperative performance is an important component of interventional therapy. Standard interventional preoperative preparations can effectively reduce the occurrence of postoperative complications and scientific postoperative managements will help obtain an optimal result.

Objective To investigate the roles of endothelins and nitric oxide in the pathogenesis of sudden sensorineural hearing loss(SSHL). Methods 26 patients with SSHL in Changsha area from October 2000 to April 2001, and 18 healthy subjects in the same period were enrolled in this study. Plasma endothelins level was detected by radioimmunoassay, and serum nitric oxide(NO) level was detected by cadmium-reduced spectrophotometry. Results The plasma endothelins level in the SSHL patients was significantly higher than that in the healthy subjects, and the serum NO level in the SSHL patients was significantly lower than that in the healthy subjects(P0.05). Conclusion The increase of ET level and the decrease of NO level may play an important role in the pathogenesis of SSHL, which may serve as an index to predict the hearing improving or not, but were not related to the degree of hearing loss.

Objectives To investigate the variation of serum ghrelin levels in simple obesity and its clinical implication.Methods Serum ghrelin level was measured by EIA and compared with healthy controls to understand its relationship with insulin,height,body weight and BMI.Results ①The serum ghrelin level of simple obesity group was significantly lower than that of normal group(P

The incidence of vascular malformations is very low, and its clinical manifestations are infinite in variety, from an asymptomatic birthmark to life-threatening massive bleeding, even to congestive heart failure. The pathogenesis of vascular malformations is still unknown, therefore, its effective treatment is a real challenge. With the development of interventional technology and the accumulation of clinical experience in ethanol embolization, in local direct puncture injection and in endovascular embolization, the ethanol embolization will hopefully become the therapy of first choice for this kind of complicate and intractable disorders.

Objective To study the effect of premature physeal fusion of t ri radiate cartilage on hip development. Methods Ten rabbits aged 4 to 5 weeks were used by partial excision of triradiate physeal cartilage on the right hip of ea ch rabbit, and the opposite untreated hip served as control. Postoperative analy sis consisted of radiographic and histological studies. Radiographs of both hips were taken at 2 days and 3, 6, 9 and 12 weeks after surgery to evaluate the dev elopment and stability of hips. All rabbits were sacrificed at 12 weeks postoper atively. The gross and microscopic histological changes of the hip joints were s ubsequently assessed. The statistic analysis was performed by paired student’s t test worked out by SPSS software. Results On the operated hips, bone bridge fo rmed 3 weeks after operation at the site of triradiate cartilage. The medial ace tabular walls became thick, and the acetabula were shallow. At 6 and 9 weeks pos toperatively, the thickness of acetabular walls increased gradually, and irregul ar sclerosis appeared on the acetabular roof. The density of femoral head increa sed in 6 of 10 rabbits. At 12 weeks postoperatively, the acetabular cavity was m ore shallow, and the femoral head appeared flat. Subluxation of hip was observed in 5 rabbits. There was significant difference in approximate acetabular index (AAI), acetabular head index (AHI) and the thickness of acetabular wall between the operated and control hips. The mean value of AAI and AHI on the operated hip s at 12 weeks significantly decreased as compared to that at 2 days. Gross inspe ction confirmed that the acetabular cavity on the operated hips was characterist ically shallow with a marked increase thickness of medial wall. The femoral head became flattened, and the cartilage of both acetabulum and femoral head were th inned. Histological study showed thinning and partial loss of the joint cartilag e layer and irregularity of cartilage cells on the operated hip joints. There we re increased amounts of fibrovascular cells deep to the cartilaginous layer. In addition, the femoral head exhibited a zone of necrosis in its superior pole wit h thinning of the epiphyseal plate. On the control hips, structure of acetabulum and femoral head appeared normal congruity. Conclusion Acetabular triradiate ca rtilage injury might result in bony bar formation and premature fusion of physis . Its main pathologic changes are widening of the acetabular medial wall, shallo wness of the acetabular cavity, and subsequent hip dysplasia and dislocation.

Purpose To observe the characteristics of coronary artery lesion in patients with unstable angina pectoris (UAP) and stable angina pectoris (SAP) using virtual histology intravascular ultrasound (IVUS-VH).Materials and Methods A total of 199 patients with angina pectoris were enrolled and divided into SAP group (101 cases) and UAP group (98 cases) according to clinical symptoms, ECG and myocardial enzyme level. All the patients underwent coronary angiography to determine the criminals vessels, grayscale intravascular ultrasound was used to measure and compare the external elastic membrane area (EEMA), lumen cross-sectional area (lumen CSA), plaque area (PA), plaque burden (PB), remodeling index (RI), plaque eccentricity index (EI) of the criminals vessels. IVUS-VH method was used to measure and compare the area and percentage of calcified tissue,fibrous tissue, lipid tissue and necrotic tissue in the plague components of the criminals vessels between the two groups.Results There was no significant difference (t=1.392,-0.345, 1.921, 0.378 and 0.857,P>0.05) of EEMA, lumen CSA, PA, EI and RI measured at the location with smallest lumen area between the two groups. Necrotic core area and percentage of lesion composition in UAP group was significantly higher than that in SAP group (t=2.361,P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference (t=1.045, 1.884 and 0.787,P>0.05) between the two groups on the area of fiber, lipid and calcification. On the distribution of plaque components, fibrous plaque area percentage of UAP group was lower than that in SAP group (t=-2.418, P<0.05), while the necrotic core area was significantly higher than SAP group (t=2.602, P<0.05), there was no significant difference (t=-0.551 and 0.085,P>0.05) between the two groups on lipid and calcification area.Conclusion Necrotic core area and percentage of plaque composition in the UAP group is larger than the other group. Criminals lesions are more unstable and more easily to be complicated with acute cardiovascular events.