OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the short-term outcomes of transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR) using the Venus-P valve in patients with moderate-to-severe pulmonary regurgitation and right ventricular systolic dysfunction (RVSD) following surgical repair of complex congenital heart disease. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients undergoing Venus-P valve implantation (TPVR group, n=28) or surgical pulmonary valve replacement (SPVR group, n=19) at Fuwai Hospital between February 2014 and February 2024. All patients had moderate-to-severe pulmonary regurgitation with right ventricular ejection fraction less than 45% preoperatively. Postoperative pulmonary valve function and ventricular parameters were assessed at discharge and during a 6-month follow-up. RESULTS: All procedures were successfully completed with no early mortality. At 6 months, the TPVR group demonstrated significantly lower pulmonary valve transvalvular pressure gradients compared to the SPVR group (P<0.05). Both groups exhibited significant improvements from baseline in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class, biventricular ejection fractions, and right ventricular end-diastolic volume index (all P<0.05). The reduction in right ventricular end-diastolic diameter differed between the two groups (P<0.01). However, multivariable analysis revealed no association between this difference and surgical approach (β=4.4, P>0.05). In the TPVR group, QRS duration was significantly shortened postoperatively (P<0.01), with improvements in left ventricular end-diastolic volume index and cardiac index (both P<0.01), but these improvements did not differ significantly from the SPVR group (all P>0.05). During the follow-up, one patient in each group developed infective endocarditis within 1-month post-procedure; both were successfully treated with antibiotics. No other major complications were observed. CONCLUSIONS For patients with moderate-to-severe pulmonary regurgitation and RVSD, TPVR using the Venus-P valve effectively improves short-term pulmonary valve function and ventricular performance with a favorable safety profile, demonstrating potential as a minimally invasive alternative to SPVR .
Humans ; Pulmonary Valve Insufficiency/surgery* ; Retrospective Studies ; Pulmonary Valve/surgery* ; Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation/methods* ; Ventricular Dysfunction, Right/physiopathology* ; Treatment Outcome ; Female ; Male ; Child ; Adult ; Heart Valve Prosthesis ; Adolescent ; Cardiac Catheterization/methods* ; Child, Preschool

Microbes play important roles in human health and disease. The interaction between microbes and hosts is a reciprocal relationship, which remains largely under-explored. Current com-putational resources lack manually and consistently curated data to connect metagenomic data to pathogenic microbes, microbial core genes, and disease phenotypes. We developed the MicroPhenoDB database by manually curating and consistently integrating microbe-disease associ-ation data. MicroPhenoDB provides 5677 non-redundant associations between 1781 microbes and 542 human disease phenotypes across more than 22 human body sites. MicroPhenoDB also pro-vides 696,934 relationships between 27,277 unique clade-specific core genes and 685 microbes. Dis-ease phenotypes are classified and described using the Experimental Factor Ontology (EFO). A refined score model was developed to prioritize the associations based on evidential metrics. The sequence search option in MicroPhenoDB enables rapid identification of existing pathogenic microbes in samples without running the usual metagenomic data processing and assembly. Micro-PhenoDB offers data browsing, searching, and visualization through user-friendly web interfaces and web service application programming interfaces. MicroPhenoDB is the first database platform to detail the relationships between pathogenic microbes, core genes, and disease phenotypes. It will accelerate metagenomic data analysis and assist studies in decoding microbes related to human dis-eases. MicroPhenoDB is available through http://www.liwzlab.cn/microphenodb and http://lilab2. sysu.edu.cn/microphenodb.

Objective:To study the clinical characteristics and gene mutations in a family with combined inherited antithrombin (AT) and factor Ⅶ (FⅦ) deficiency, and explore the relationship between AT gene, F7 gene mutations and diseases. Methods:Pedigree investigation. Blood samplesand clinical dataswere collected fromthe proband and her family members (a total of 16 people in 3 generations) who admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in November 2018. The prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), fibrinogen (FIB), antithrombin activity (AT: A), antithrombin antigen (AT: Ag), protein C activity (PC: A), protein S activity (PS: A), FⅦ activity (FⅦ: C), FⅦ antigen (FⅦ: Ag) and other indicators were detectedto confirm the diagnosis. DNA direct sequencing analysis of all exons, flanking sequences, 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions of AT genes and F7 genes, and the mutation sites were confirmed by clone sequencingor reverse sequencing. Results:The AT: A and AT: Ag of the proband were 46% and 135 mg/L, respectively (reference range: 250-360 mg/L), some of her family members′ s (father, aunt, two cousins, younger brother and nephew) AT: A and AT: Ag were reduced to 50% of normal range. Her father (Ⅰ 2), aunt (Ⅰ 4), elder brother (Ⅱ 7), younger brother (Ⅱ 8), and nephew (Ⅲ 3)′s FⅦ: C were 45%, 50%, 48%, 47% and 48%, respectively; and their FⅦ:Ag was within the normal range. Genetic analysis revealed that the proband(Ⅱ 6) and some of her family members (father, aunt, two cousins, younger brother and nephew) took rs3138521 polymorphism in the 5′ untranslated region of AT gene. Her father (Ⅰ 2), aunt (Ⅰ 4), elder brother (Ⅱ 7), younger brother (Ⅱ 8), nephew (Ⅲ 3) took c.1091G>A heterozygous missense mutationin exon 8 of F7 gene, resulting in p.Arg304Gln. Conclusion:The rs3138521 in AT gene and c.1091G>A in F7 gene, which may be the molecular mechanism leading to combined inherited AT and FⅦ deficiency in this family.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the molecular pathogenesis for a pedigree affected with hereditary coagulation factor XII (FXII) deficiency. METHODS: Potential variant of the F12 gene was analyzed by PCR and Sanger sequencing. Expression plasmids were constructed by site-directed mutagenesis based on the wild-type and transiently transfected into 293T cells. FXII:C and FXII:Ag of the expression products were determined in the supernatant and cell lysate. Western blotting was used to verify the identify of the protein. RESULTS: Gene sequencing revealed that the proband has carried 46TT genetype and heterozygous p.Glu502Lys variants in exon 13, and a heterozygous p.Gly542Ser variant in exon 14 of the F12 gene. Transfection experiment suggested that the FXII:C and FXII:Ag of p.Glu502Lys variant in the supernatant were 28% and 24%, compared with the wild-type (100%) and FXII:Ag of cell lysates was 39% compared to the wild-type (100%). The FXII:C and FXII:Ag of p. Gly542Ser variant in the supernatant were 32% and 17% and the FXII:Ag of cell lysates was 59%. CONCLUSION The 46TT genetype, p.Glu502Lys and p.Gly542Ser variants of the F12 gene probably underlie the low FXII level in the proband. As shown by in vitro experiment, the p.Glu502Lys and p.Gly542Ser variants can both inhibit the synthesis and secrection of the FXII protein.
Exons ; Factor XII ; genetics ; Factor XII Deficiency ; genetics ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Pedigree

An on-site method for the determination of sulfur mustard ( SM) was developed based on pinhole shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. By using 0. 1 mol/L MgSO4 as effective agglomeration reagent, more Raman “hot spots” were induced, and thus a limit of detection for SM at 10 μg/L was achieved with a linearity of 10-1000 μg/L and an analytical enhanced factor of 1. 1×106. This method can be directly applied in the measurement of SM in environmental water samples with good sensitivity and reproducibility, and the standard addition recovery was between 88%-114%. Good differentiation of four SM related compounds, 2-chloroethyl ethylsulfide, thiodiglycol, bis-β-chloroethyl sulphoxide and bis-β-chloroethyl sulphone, was also obtained.