Objective To explore the effect of aortic valve neo-cuspidization (AVNeo) for patients with severe aortic valve lesions simultaneously. Methods Patients who underwent AVNeo combined valve repair surgery for multiple valve diseases were included in Beijing Anzhen Hospital from May 2016 to September 2023. Results We included 11 patients with 7 males and 4 females at a median age of 38 (36, 49) years. Rheumatic heart disease was found in 5 (45.5%) patients and non-rheumatic heart disease in 6 (54.5%) patients. The median EuroSCORE Ⅱ score was 1.62 (1.18, 1.75) points. Eight patients underwent AVNeo plus mitral and tricuspid valve repair, and 3 patients underwent AVNeo plus mitral valve repair. The median operative time was 356 (315, 415) min, and the median cardiopulmonary bypass time and aortic clamping time were 203 (174, 231) min and 168 (131, 188) min, respectively. In the early stage, 2 patients underwent combined valve repair surgery, and 1 patient underwent in-hospital reoperation for aortic valve replacement because of severe aortic regurgitation. There were 9 patients in the mature stage of AVNeo, and no perioperative adverse events or moderate or above residual valvular disease occurred. All patients recovered and were discharged from the hospital. The follow-up period was 3-99 months, and no reoperation, severe valve disease, bleeding, cerebral infarction, or other adverse events occurred in all patients. Conclusion For non-elderly patients whose mitral and tricuspid valves can be repaired successfully with severe aortic valve lesions, AVNeo can be attempted after proficiency. But the operation time and cardiopulmonary bypass time will inevitably be prolonged, and the patient's basic situation should be carefully evaluated before surgery.

Objective To compare the perioperative renal function changes in patients undergoing heart transplantation (HT) and left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation. Methods Patients with end-stage heart failure who underwent surgical treatment at Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University from January 2019 to April 2024 were included. According to the surgical method, patients were divided into a HT group and a LVAD group, and the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of patients before surgery and postoperative 1, 7, 30, 60 days was compared between the two groups. The patients with preoperative renal dysfunction were subdivided into subgroups for comparison of eGFR changes before surgery and 30 days after surgery between the two groups. Results A total of 112 patients were enrolled. There were 78 patients in the HT group, including 61 males and 17 females, aged (44.42±18.51) years. There were 34 patients in the LVAD group, including 30 males and 4 females, aged (54.94±11.37) years. Compared with the HT group, the average age of patients in the LVAD group was greater (P<0.001), body mass index was higher (P=0.008), preoperative eGFR was lower (P=0.009), and the proportions of smokers (P=0.017), alcohol drinkers (P=0.041), and diabetes mellitus (P=0.028) patients were higher. Among patients with preoperative renal dysfunction [eGFR<90 mL/(min·1.73 m2)], compared with the HT group, the postoperative eGFR of the LVAD group was significantly higher than that of the HT group, and it was significantly increased compared with that before surgery; the postoperative eGFR of the HT group was comparable to that before surgery, and more than half of the patients had a lower eGFR than before surgery. Among patients with preoperative renal dysfunction, 11 patients in the HT group received continuous renal replacement therapy, and 8 died early; 2 patients in the LVAD group received continuous renal replacement therapy, and 1 died early. Conclusion For end-stage heart failure patients with combined renal dysfunction, compared with HT, LVAD implantation enables patients to obtain better renal function benefits.

In China, more than half of heart failure patients are ischemic heart failure patients. And a large proportion of left ventricular assist device implantation patients are also ischemic heart failure patients. However, left ventricular assist device implantation in ischemic heart failure patients is facing with problems such as patient screening, coronary artery disease, small left ventricle, mitral insufficiency, and ventricular aneurysm. There are only a few retrospective studies with small sample sizes abroad trying to provide solutions to these problems. While there is a lack of systematic understanding of this issue in China. Therefore, we provide an overview of the application and progress of left ventricular assist devices in ischemic heart failure patients, aiming to help clinicians have a comprehensive understanding of this issue and provide some guidance.

The end of the COVID-19 infection peak in 2022 prompts a backlog of cardiovascular surgical patients to gradually return to the hospital, resulting in a surge in cardiovascular surgeries. However, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinical practice of cardiovascular surgery faces many problems. Therefore, organized by Beijing Anzhen Hospital, experts in cardiovascular surgery and related fields have formulated hospital expert experience on perioperative treatment principles of cardiovascular surgery for patients infected with COVID-19. This article summarizes the clinical decision-making of patients requiring cardiovascular surgery after COVID-19 infection, and advises on the corresponding recommendations according to the existing evidence-based medical evidence as well as the actual clinical practice experience of relevant experts. The main content of the article includes special requirements for cardiovascular surgical treatment indications in patients with COVID-19 infection, selection of surgical timing, special requirements of preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative management, etc., which aims to provide COVID-19-infected patients with guidance on rational decision-making when receiving cardiovascular surgery.

OX40 is a costimulatory receptor that is expressed primarily on activated CD4⁺, CD8⁺, and regulatory T cells. The ligation of OX40 to its sole ligand OX40L potentiates T cell expansion, differentiation, and activation and also promotes dendritic cells to mature to enhance their cytokine production. Therefore, the use of agonistic anti-OX40 antibodies for cancer immunotherapy has gained great interest. However, most of the agonistic anti-OX40 antibodies in the clinic are OX40L-competitive and show limited efficacy. Here, we discovered that BGB-A445, a non-ligand-competitive agonistic anti-OX40 antibody currently under clinical investigation, induced optimal T cell activation without impairing dendritic cell function. In addition, BGB-A445 dose-dependently and significantly depleted regulatory T cells in vitro and in vivo via antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. In the MC38 syngeneic model established in humanized OX40 knock-in mice, BGB-A445 demonstrated robust and dose-dependent antitumor efficacy, whereas the ligand-competitive anti-OX40 antibody showed antitumor efficacy characterized by a hook effect. Furthermore, BGB-A445 demonstrated a strong combination antitumor effect with an anti-PD-1 antibody. Taken together, our findings show that BGB-A445, which does not block OX40-OX40L interaction in contrast to clinical-stage anti-OX40 antibodies, shows superior immune-stimulating effects and antitumor efficacy and thus warrants further clinical investigation.
Mice ; Animals ; Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor/physiology* ; Receptors, OX40 ; Membrane Glycoproteins ; Ligands ; Antibodies, Monoclonal/pharmacology* ; Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology*

As a global disease, heart failure affects at least 26 million people, and its prevalence is still rising. Besides, the mortality rate and readmission rate remain high. Advanced heart failure is the terminal stage of various heart diseases, and often requires some treatments other than drug intervention, such as heart transplantation which is the gold standard for treatment of heart failure. However, limited by the number of donors, the number of heart transplants in the world has reached a bottleneck. There is a huge gap between the number of patients who need heart transplants and patients who get hearts for survival successfully in reality. With the exploration and development of mechanical circulation support devices for more than half a century, they have become a wonderful treatment for patients with advanced heart failure. This article will introduce the latest progress of mechanical circulatory support devices at home and abroad from the aspects of temporary and long-term devices.

Objective:To evaluate the accuracy and stability of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) algorithm in optical surface imaging (OSI) system in non-coplanar radiotherapy.Methods:Three OSI imaging systems were used to measure the phantom repeatedly at different couch rotation angles to analyze the accuracy and stability of OSI system. Seven patients with multiple brain metastases who underwent single-center non-coplanar radiotherapy were randomly selected, and the accuracy and stability of OSI for patient imaging were analyzed. Stability is defined as the difference between the two OSI measurements when the couch is turned from 0° to a non 0° angle, and then back to 0°, using the 0° cone beam CT (CBCT) as the "gold standard". Accuracy is defined as the difference between OSI and CBCT (at 0° couch angle) measurement data. The measurement data with normal distribution were described as Mean ± SD. The data with non-normal distribution were expressed as M (Q). The difference of the former data was compared by one-way ANOVA, and the difference of the latter data was assessed by Kruskal-Wallis H nonparametric test. Results:For non-coplanarity, the translation accuracy of the phantom and the patient was ≤ 1.30 mm and ≤ 1.00 mm, and the rotation accuracy was ≤ 0.50° and ≤ 0.60°, respectively. The translation errors mainly occurred in the left-right and head-foot directions. In terms of stability, the maximum standard deviation of phantom coplanar translation and rotation was 0.06 mm and 0.06°. The maximum standard deviation of patient translation and rotation was 0.17 mm and 0.19°.Conclusions:Although the new SRS algorithm improves the non-coplanar accuracy, it still cannot meet the precise requirements of non-coplanar single isocenter radiotherapy for multiple brain metastases, especially in the left-right and head-foot directions. When the couch rotation angle is large, OSI is not recommended for image-guided radiotherapy. However, its high stability can be used to monitor the intrafractional motion of patients.

Objective:To assess the clinical value of helium-free magnetocardiography(MCG) in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease(CAD).Methods:A total of 213 patients with suspected CAD undergoing MCG in Beijing Anzhen Hospital were enrolled in the study. All patients underwent coronary CT angiography/invasive coronary angiography(CCTA/ICA) within 48 hours after MCG scanning. The parameters of MCG, including magnetic field multipolarization, magnetic field unipolarization, T-wave flattened, change in magnetic field distribution at TT segment, abnormal T-peak amplitude ration of maximum to minimum, significant movement of poles, magnetic field angle deviation and abnormal distribution of positive pole were used for the evaluation of the stenosis of coronary arteries.Results:Among 213 patients, MCG scanning was completed in 193 cases(90.6%), while 20 cases were excluded for various reasons. The CCTA/ICA results were taken as gold standard, the total coincidence rate of MCG with the degree of stenosis was 88.60%(95% CI: 83.25%-92.72%), the sensitivity and specificity of MCG in the diagnosis of CAD was 89.63%(95% CI: 83.21%-94.21%) and 88.23%(95% CI:78.12%-94.78%), respectively; the positive and negative predictive value were 93.80%(95% CI:88.72%-96.68%) and 81.08%(95% CI:72.15%-87.64%), respectively. Conclusion:MCG is highly accurate in the diagnosis of CAD, it may be widely used clinically as an non-invasive method free of radiation or contrast agent.

Objective    To evaluate the preoperative risk factors for acute Stanford type A aortic dissection (ASTAAD) patients in our country by collecting multi-center data. Methods    We consecutively enrolled 700 patients who underwent surgery for ASTAAD in the multi-center hospital database from January 2018 to January 2020. According to the ascending aorta size (AAS), the patients were divided into two groups: a group AAS≥55 mm and a group AAS< 55 mm. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the related preoperative risk factors for the onset of ASTAAD. Results    According to the exclusion criteria, a total of 621 patients were finally enrolled, including 453 males and 168 females with an average age of 48.24±11.51 years, and 509 (81.94%) patients had AAS< 55 mm. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses showed that smoking, hypertension, preoperative cardiac troponin I, and left ventricular ejection fraction were related to the occurrence of ASTAAD. The mortality rate of the patient during hospitalization was 13.04% (81 patients). Conclusion    In clinical practice, various preoperative risk factors affect ASTAAD patients, which should be paid attention to. Comprehensive evaluation and an individualized analysis of patients and timely prevention and intervention improve patients' survival rate.

Objective:To analyze the effects of two decomposition algorithms of dual-energy cone beam CT (DECBCT) (direct decomposition and iterative decomposition) on the image quality and material decomposition accuracy of different sizes of phantoms.Methods:Different sizes of imaging parts of patients were simulated using the combination of CatPhan604 phantoms and customized annuluses. CBCT with high energy of 140 kVp and low energy of 100 kVp were acquired using the Varian Edge CBCT system. Then the material decomposition of DECBCT images was performed using the two algorithms. The electron density (ED) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of each material in the CTP682 module were calculated. They were used to assess the decomposition accuracy and image quality of the two algorithms.Results:Based on the values in the Catphan604 manual, both algorithms have high ED accuracy. Only the ED accuracy of four materials of the smallest sized phantom showed statistical difference ( z = -4.21, 4.30, 2.87, 5.45, P < 0.05), but the average relative error was less than 1%. The CNR of the iterative decomposition algorithm was significantly higher than that of the direct decomposition, increasing by 51.8%-703.47%. The increase in the phantom size significantly reduced the accuracy of ED, and the increased amplitude of the relative error was up to a maximum of 2.52%. The large phantom size also reduced the image quality of iterative decomposition, and the decreased amplitude of CNR was up to a maximum of 39.71. Conclusions:Compared with the direct decomposition, the iterative decomposition algorithm can significantly reduce the image noise and improve the contrast without losing the accuracy of electron density in the DECBCT construction of different sizes of phantoms.