OBJECTIVE: To explore the anatomical parameters of the cervical uncinate process "inflection point" through cervical CT angiography (CTA) and MRI measurements, offering a reliable and safe anatomical landmark for anterior cervical decompression surgery. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the cervical CTA and MRI imaging data of normal adults who met the selection criteria between January 2020 and January 2024. The CTA dataset included 326 cases, with 200 males and 126 females, aged 22-55 years (mean, 46.7 years). The MRI dataset included 300 cases, with 200 males and 100 females, aged 18-55 years (mean, 43.7 years). Based on the CTA data, three-dimensional models of C ₃-C ₇ were constructed, and the following measurements were obtained from the superior view: uncinate process "inflection point" to vertebral artery distance (UIVD), uncinate process tip to vertebral artery distance (UTVD), uncinate process "inflection point" to "inflection point" distance (UID), uncinate process long-axis to sagittal angle (ULSA), and uncinate process "inflection point" to transverse foramen-sagittal angle (UITSA). From the anterior view, the anterior uncinate process to sagittal angle (AUSA) was measured. From the posterior view, the posterior uncinate process to sagittal angle (PUSA) was measured. Based on the MRI data, uncinate process "inflection point" to dural sac distance (UIDD) and dural sac width (DSW) were measured. The trends in measurement parameters of C ₃-C ₇ were observed, and the differences in measurement parameters between genders and between the left and right sides of the same segment were compared, as well as the difference in UID and DSW within the same segment was compared. RESULTS: The measurement parameters from C ₃ to C ₇ in the CTA data showed a general increasing trend, with no significant difference between the left and right sides within the same segment ( P>0.05). The UIVD, UTVD, and UID were greater in males than in females, with significant differences observed in the UIVD and UTVD at C ₃ and C ₆ and UID at C ₃, C ₆, and C ₇ ( P<0.05). The MRI measured DSW showed a general increasing trend from C ₃ to C ₇, and the DSW at C ₆ was greater in females than in males, with a significant difference ( P<0.05). The UIDD showed a gradual decreasing trend, with the smallest value at C ₆. There was no significant difference between males and females or between the left and right sides within the same segment ( P>0.05). The UID was greater than the DSW at C ₃-C ₇, and the differences were significant ( P<0.05). CONCLUSION The uncinate process "inflection point" is a constant anatomical structure located at the anteromedial aspect of the uncinate process tip and laterally to the dural sac. It maintains a certain safe distance from the vertebral artery. As a decompression landmark in anterior cervical spine surgery, it not only ensures surgical safety but also guarantees complete decompression.
Humans ; Adult ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Cervical Vertebrae/surgery* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Decompression, Surgical/methods* ; Young Adult ; Adolescent ; Computed Tomography Angiography ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Vertebral Artery/anatomy & histology* ; Anatomic Landmarks/diagnostic imaging*

Background::Hypothermia therapy has been suggested to attenuate myocardial necrosis; however, the clinical implementation as a valid therapeutic strategy has failed, and new approaches are needed to translate into clinical applications. This study aimed to assess the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of a novel selective intracoronary hypothermia (SICH) device in mitigating myocardial reperfusion injury.Methods::This study comprised two phases. The first phase of the SICH was performed in a normal porcine model for 30 minutes ( n = 5) to evaluate its feasibility. The second phase was conducted in a porcine myocardial infarction (MI) model of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion which was performed by balloon occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery for 60 minutes and maintained for 42 days. Pigs in the hypothermia group ( n = 8) received hypothermia intervention onset reperfusion for 30 minutes and controls ( n = 8) received no intervention. All animals were followed for 42 days. Cardiac magnetic resonance analysis (five and 42 days post-MI) and a series of biomarkers/histological studies were performed. Results::The average time to lower temperatures to a steady state was 4.8 ± 0.8 s. SICH had no impact on blood pressure or heart rate and was safely performed without complications by using a 3.9 F catheter. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α, C-reactive protein (CRP), and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) were lower at 60 min post perfusion in pigs that underwent SICH as compared with the control group. On day 5 post MI/R, edema, intramyocardial hemorrhage, and microvascular obstruction were reduced in the hypothermia group. On day 42 post MI/R, the infarct size, IL-6, CRP, BNP, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 were reduced, and the ejection fraction was improved in pigs that underwent SICH.Conclusions::The SICH device safely and effectively reduced the infarct size and improved heart function in a pig model of MI/R. These beneficial effects indicate the clinical potential of SICH for treatment of myocardial reperfusion injury.

Objective:To establish risk stratifying criteria for acute rejection(AR)after kidney transplantation(KT)through analyzing the preoperative risk factors of KT recipients from deceased donor(DD).Methods:A retrospective study is conducted for 1 382 KT recipients of DD kidney at First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from January 2015 to December 2020.According to the presence or absence of AR within 1 year post-KT, they are divided into two groups of acute rejection(group AR, 115 cases)and non-rejection(group non-AR, 1 267 cases). Clinical data of two groups are examined by univariate and multivariate analyses for determining the risk factors of AR and a scoring standard is established on the basis of regression coefficients.They are divided into three groups of low-risk(907 cases), middle-risk(450 cases)and high-risk(25 cases)according to the scoring results and the incidence of AR is compared among different scoring groups.Results:Univariate analysis indicates that donor age(AR, 793 cases; non-AR, 474 cases, P=0.033), age difference between recipients and donors&ge;25 years(AR, 63 cases; non-AR; 315 cases; P<0.001), recipient panel-reactive antibodies(PRA)plus donor-specific antibody(DSA)(+ )(AR, 96 cases; non-AR, 1 169 cases, P=0.002), donor kidney cold ischemic time&ge;12h(AR, 81 cases; non-AR, 1 064 cases, P<0.001), donor/recipient HLA mismatch&ge;3(AR, 70 cases; non-AR, 984 cases, P<0.001)and expanded criteria donor(ECD)(AR, 50 cases; non-AR, 790 cases, P<0.001)are high risk factors for AR(all P<0.05). Variables with statistical significance during univariate analysis are included for multivariate analysis.Five variables are finally determined, including age difference between recipients and donors&ge;25 years(β=0.61, P=0.006), PRA+ DSA(+ )(β=0.74, P=0.008), donor kidney cold ischemic time&ge;12 h(β=0.74, P<0.001), HLA mismatch(&ge;3)(β=0.81, P<0.001)and ECD(β=0.82, P<0.001). Score for each risk factor is calculated according to the relevant regression coefficient and scoring standard formulate on the basis of the above five risk factors with a total score of 36.With an overall incidence of AR at 8.32%(115/1 382), the incidence of AR is 4.3%, 14.7% and 40.0% in low/middle/high-risk group and the difference is statistically significant.It hints that immune risk stratification can effectively determine the risk of postoperative AR for KT recipients.The incidence of AR is significantly higher in middle/high-risk group than that in low-risk group ( P<0.001). Conclusions:For recipients with middle/high immune risk, intensity and dose of immunosuppressants should be appropriately boosted during preoperative induction and maintenance period.And the occurrences of AR and infection should be dynamically monitored.

Objective: To investigate the incremental value of coronary flow reserve (CFR) assessed by cadmium zinc telluride(CZT)-SPECT as an adjunct to myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods: Data of 132 patients (89 males, 43 females; 40-81 years) with or suspected with CAD who successfully underwent rest and stress MPI and CFR from November 2017 to October 2018 in Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University were retrospectively analyzed. Based on coronary angiography (CAG) as the " gold standard" , the value of MPI and MPI+ CFR in the diagnosis of CAD was evaluated and compared. χ² test or Fisher exact probability test was used for data analysis. Results: Of 132 patients, 61 (46.2%) were CAD with stenosis of at least 75% in one vessel (47.5%, 29/61), two vessels (34.4%, 21/61), or three vessels (18.0%, 11/61). A total of 104 (26.3%) vessels with stenosis of at least 75%, 25 (6.3%) vessels with stenosis of 65%-74%, and 30 (7.6%) vessels with stenosis of 50%-64% were found in 396 vessels. For detecting coronary stenosis of at least 75%, the sensitivity and accuracy of MPI on per-patient analysis were 86.89%(53/61) and 68.94%(91/132), which increased to 96.72%(59/61; χ²=3.921, P<0.05) and 87.88%(116/132; χ²=13.984, P<0.01) by MPI+ CFR. On per-vessel analysis, the sensitivity and accuracy of MPI were 72.12%(75/104) and 77.53%(307/396) and increased to 96.15%(100/104; χ²=22.511, P<0.01) and 85.10%(337/396; χ²=7.479, P<0.05) by MPI+ CFR. The sensitivity of MPI for predicting one, two, and three vessels disease were 72.41%(21/29), 42.86%(9/21), and 5/11 and were improved to 93.10%(27/29; χ²=4.350, P=0.037), 90.48%(19/21; χ²=10.714, P=0.001), and 11/11 (P=0.012) by MPI+ CFR. For coronary with stenosis of 65%-74%, the sensitivity of MPI was 24.00%(6/25) and was improved to 64.00%(16/25; χ²=8.117, P=0.004) by MPI+ CFR. For coronary with stenosis of 50%-64%, the sensitivity of MPI was 40.00%(12/30) and was improved to 76.67%(23/30; χ²=8.297, P=0.004) by MPI+ CFR. Conclusion As an adjunct to MPI, CFR can significantly improve the sensitivity and accuracy in the diagnosis of CAD, particularly for patients with mild stenosis and multivessel CAD.

Objective: To investigate the safety and efficacy of rotational atherectomy in the interventional treatment of coronary chronic total occlusion lesions. Methods: In this retrospective study,a total of 31 consecutive patients with coronary chronic total occlusion(CTO) lesions underwent rotational atherectomy in our hospital from February 2004 to December 2016 were enrolled,and the clinical features were analyzed. Coronary atherectomy was performed if balloon failed to cross the CTO lesions or balloon could not be fully dilated in the CTO lesions after wire crossing. The definition of procedure success was defined as residual stenosis less than 20% after implantation of drug eluting stent and rotational atherectomy. After the procedure, the patients were followed up to observe major adverse cardiac and cerebral vascular events which including cardiogenic death, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident, and target lesion revascularization. Results: The 1.25 mm diameter burr was firstly selected in 80.6% (25/31) patients,and 96.8%(30/31) patients used only 1 burr to complete the rotational atherectomy procedure. The complication rate was 9.8% (3/31) including 1 patient with coronary dissection and 3 patients with slow flow or no flow. There was 1 patent with both coronary dissection and slow flow. The procedure success rate was 96.8%(30/31). Interventional treatment related myocardial infarction occurred in 3 patients during hospitalization.The 30 patients with procedure success were followed up 36(11, 96) months. The incidence rate of major adverse cardiac and cerebral vascular events was 13.3% (4/30), of which the cardiogenic death rate was 3.3% (1/30), the myocardial infarction rate was 6.7% (2/30), cerebrovascular accident rate was 3.3%(1/30),and the target lesion revascularization rate was 6.7% (2/30). Conclusion Rotational atherectomy is safe and effective in the interventional treatment of coronary CTO lesions.

Objective To observe the efficacy of antithrombotic treatment of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients with failure primary percutaneous coronary intervention because of high thrombus burden,and its effect on elective percutaneous coronary intervention.Methods Eight acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients were enrolled,who suffered from failure of primary percutaneous coronary intervention because of high thrombus burden.Summarize the antithrombotic strategies in perioperative and postoperative period,the operative strategies and the follow-up coronary intervention were recorded and reviewed.Results All the patients were male and most of them had acute inferior myocardial infarction with right coronary occluded because of high thrombus burden.Four patients received thrombus aspiration and balloon dilation.One patient received thrombus aspiration and the other three patients did not receive coronary intervention.Tirofiban were given in perioperative period to all the patients.Low molecular weight heparin was given to 6 patients.Dual antiplatelet therapy was given to 6 patients (aspirin 100 mg/day plus clopidogrel 75 mg/day) and 1 patient required up-titration of aspirin to 200 mg/day.Coronary angiography were repeated (29.00 ± 23.25) days later,and the thrombus in the culprit vessels disappeared in two patients,and coronary stent implantation was performed in three patients.Conclusions The routine antithrombotic strategies play limited roles in thrombus clearance in acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction patients with failure primary percutaneous coronary intervention because of high thrombus burden.The time for the thrombus to be totally organized and the timing of elective percutaneous coronary intervention are still uncertain and need to be further studied.

Objective To evaluate the application of multi-slice computed tomographic coronary angiography in diagnosis of chronic total occlusion (CTO) of coronary artery.Methods Six hundred and thirty eight patients were diagnosed as CTO disease with coronary angiography (CAG) from June 2011 to December 2012 in Zhongshan Hospital;236 of them received multi-slice computed tomographic coronary angiography in 60 days before.Results In total 708 vessels of the 236 patients,244 vessels were proved totally occluded,128 (52.5％) of which were located in left anterior descending artery,31 (12.7％) were located in left circumflex coronary artery and 85 (34.8％) located in right coronary artery.Multi-slice computed tomographic coronary angiography was superior to CAG in judgment of stump anatomy (64.3％ vs.52.5％,F =7.09,P =0.010),plaque calcification (40.2％ vs.26.2％,F =10.68,P =0.001) and distal vessel interpretability (93.9％ vs.74.6％,F =34.06,P ＜ 0.001).There was no significant difference in judging side branch,tortuosity and lesion length between multi-slice computed tomographic coronary angiography and CAG (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Multi-slice computed tomographic coronary angiography provides more detailed anatomy information of CTO lesions and is of value in diagnosis and treatment of CTO lesions.

Objective To observe the influence of insulin resistance(IR) and isosorbide mononitrate(ISMN) on myocardial cellular apoptosis in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) .Methods Forty male 14‐week old Wistar(W) rats and SHR(S) each were respectively or jointly fed with normal diet (ND) ,high fat and high glucose(HFHG) diet ,normal saline(NS)and ISMN by ga‐vage .Then they were randomly divided into the normal and NS group (normal W and normal S ) ,HFHG and NS group(HFHG W and HFHG S) ,normal and ISMN group(ISMN W and ISMN S) ,HFHG and ISMN group(HI W and HI S) ,with 10 rats in each group .After 12‐week feeding ,carotid arterial blood was collected for detecting blood glucose concentration and insulin level and cal‐culating insulin resistance index (HOMA‐IR);4 myocardial tissue samples were taken for respectively observing the morphology under microscope ,and detecting the NO level ,myocardial Bcl‐2 ,Bax gene and their protein expression levels in myocardial tissue . Results Myocardial NO level ,Bax gene mRNA and related protein levels in the HFHG and ISMN intervention groups were higher than those in the normal group ,while the bcl‐2 gene mRNA and related protein expression were on the contrary ;myocardial tissue NO level ,Bax gene mRNA and related protein expression in the S groups were increased compared with the corresponding W groups ,while the bcl‐2 gene mRNA and related protein expression were on the contrary ;in the HFHG W group ,the myocardial tis‐sue NO level had significantly positive correlation with HOMA‐IR ,and in the ISMN W group ,HOMA‐IR was positively correlated with the NO level in the myocardial tissue .Conclusion Myocardial cellular apoptosis of SHR is increased compared with Wistar rats ;both IR and ISMN can aggravate the apoptosis of SHR myocardial cells ,moreover IR has a mutual induction and reciprocal causation with ISMN .

Objective:To investigate the effect of activin A and nerve growth factor ( NGF) NGF on stimulating neurite outgrowth of dorsal root ganglia(DRG)of the embryonic chicken.Methods:In this study,we observed that activin A and NGF together induced neurite outgrowth of DRG and kept survival of DRG neurons by the primary cultured DRGs from embryonic day 8 ( E8 ) chicken.calcitonin gene-related peptide(CGRP)CGRP mRNA expressions were analyzed by RT-PCR.Results: The DRG treated with activin A +NGF had obvious neurite outgrowth ,compared with only NGF group on day 3,and the number of living DRG neurons also increased.Activin A +NGF up-regulated the mRNA expressions of CGRP in DRG.Conclusion:The Data demonstrated that activin A with NGF can synergistically stimulate DRG neurite outgrowth and maintain the DRG neurons survival , suggesting that it is more effective that NGF and activin A together treat the associated disease of nerve system.

Objective:To analyze the frequency and alteration of circulating dendritic cells (DCs) and subtypes in patients with ST‐elevated acute myocardial infarction(AMI) .Methods:A total of 17 patients with ST‐elevated AMI(AMI group) and 14 pa‐tients with stable angina pectoris(SAP) as SAP group and 15 people with normal coronary angiogram with matched age and gender(control group) were enrolled .The absolute number and percentage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of circulating DCs ,myeloid dendritic cell(mDC) and plasmacytoid dendritic cell(pDC) in the three groups were detected using the 3‐colure staining flow cytometry .The levels of interleukin‐6(IL‐6) and tumor necrosis factor‐α(TNF‐α) were detected with enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay .In the AMI group ,these indexes were measured on the 7th day after the attack .Results:The per‐centage of circulating DCs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the absolute number of DCs ,the percentage of circulating mDC and pDC in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the absolute numbers of mDC and pDC and mDC/pDC ratio in the AM I group on the day of attack(<24 h) were significantly lower than those in the control group and the SAP group(P<0 .01 or 0 .05) .In the AMI group ,on the 7th day after the attack , the percentages of DCs ,mDC and pDC in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the absolute numbers of DCs ,mDC and pDC and mDC/pDC ratio were higher than those on the day of attack (P<0 .01 or 0 .05) .The level of IL‐6 and TNF‐αin the AMI group on the day of attack were significantly higher than those in the control group and SAP group(P<0 .05) ,and the level of IL‐6 decreased on the 7th day after the attack in the AMI group (P<0 .05) .But there was no significant difference in the percentage of DCs ,mDC and pDC in peripheral blood mononu‐clear cells and the absolute numbers and mDC/pDC ratio between the control group and the SAP group(P>0 .05) .Conclu‐sions:Circulating mDC and pDC are significantly reduced in patients on the day of attack of AM I ,and it can increase to nearly normal on the 7th day after attack .It indicates that the possibility of DCs recruits into coronary plaques and improve the forma‐tion of unstable plaque .