Objective To compare the results of mitral valve reconstruction and replacement as treatments for moderate to severe ischemic mitral regurgitation(IMR), and report the mid-term outcome. Methods From June 2002 to May 2008, 83 pa-tients with moderate IMR(35 cases) and severe IMR (48 cases) underwent coronary artery bypass grafting(CABG) combined with mitral valvuloplasty (MVP) (n = 43) or mitral valve replacement (MVR) (n = 40). There were 49 males and 34 females with a mean age of (59.3±7.5) years(51 -77years). The procedures of MVP included annuloplasty with a Dacron or autologous per-icardium ring in 21cases, commissural annuloplasty in 9, quadrangular resection of the posterior leaflet in 9 and using St. Jude mitral annuloplasty ring in 4. In the cases underwent MVR, 28 patients received mechanical prostheses and 12 received biopros-theses. Results 30-day mortality rate was 2.3% for MVP and 5.0% for MVR (P >0.05). The 30-day complication rate was similar for the 2 groups but mechanical ventilation time was longer for MVR patients. Mild MR ocurred in 6 patients with MVP (P <0.05). Sevonty-six patients were followed by outpatient department visit or telephone for (20.2 ± 4.9) months (3 - 60 months). During the follow-up period, 7 patients with MVP had mild insufficiency but free off etber complications. All the valve prothesis functioned well. However, 3 cases had thromboembolic complications and 7 late deaths were recorded in MVR group. Five-year complication-free survival rate was 90% for MVP group and 61% for MVR. Conclusion MVP resulted in excellent durability and provided significant mid-term survival benefit over MVR. MVP should be the first choice for patients with chronic IMR.

Objective To investigate the correlation between survival motor neuron (SMN) gene deletion and Chinese patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SALS).Methods A total of 141SALS patients and 134 unrelated controls were recruited from the Chinese population.Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphisro (RFLP) analysis were performed to screen SMN gene deletion.Frequencies of deletion were coropared by Chi-square test.Results Four patients and 3 controls were detected to have horoozygous SMN2 deletion.The frequencies of SMN2 deletion were 2.84%(4/141) and 2.24% (3/134), respectively, which was not significantly different (χ2= 0.0001, P =1.000).No subjects were found to have homozygous SMN1 deletion.Condusion There is no correlation between SMN gene deletion and Chinese patients with SALS.

To investigate whether peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor-y (PPARγ) ligand Troglitazone can reduce endothelial injury and activation during storage of harvested saphenous vein grafts. Segments of human saphenous vein graft were collected from 9 patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery and then divided into two equal parts of control and test specimens, were stored in ei-ther heparinized blood (control group) or heparinized blood containing 20 μmol/L troglitazone (test group) for 1 h at room temperature. Tissue distribution and protein expression of VCAM-1, ICAM-1, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) were compared using immunohistochemistry and West-ern blot analysis. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, a marker of neutrophil sequestration in human saphenous vein grafts, was also measured in each group. The expression of ICAM-1 (753±132 versus 7201±934; P<0.01) , VCAM-1 (3731±294 versus 8292±793; P<0.01), and MPO activity (1.52±0.42 U/g, 5.04±1.26 U/g P<0.01) were significantly lower in test group. In contract, eNOS expression (7983±834 versus 3989±1008; P<0.01) was significantly higher in test group. PPARγ ligand troglita- zone might reduce endothelial injury during the storage period of human saphenous vein grafts.