Pulmonary artery fungal infection with imaging findings resembling pulmonary artery sarcoma.

A 67-year-old female patient was admitted due to "coughing and chest tightness" for more than 7 months. She had recurring chest tightness and shortness of breath after activities for more than 3 months, which worsened in the past 1 month. More than 7 months ago, the patient had a severe cough with a small amount of white sputum and chest tightness and discomfort, and visited a local hospital. The heart color Doppler ultrasound and other examinations were checked, and she was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism. Pulmonary artery CTA (CT angiography) showed the shadow of an intraluminal filling defect in the proximal main pulmonary artery. Therefore, a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism was made, with proximal tortuous stenosis of the left main pulmonary artery and distal expansion, which were considered to be congenital malformations.

LncRNA HCG11/miR-26b-5p/QKI5 feedback loop reversed high glucose-induced proliferation and angiogenesis inhibition of HUVECs.

Acute coronary syndrome caused by the rupture of atherosclerotic plaques is one of the primary causes of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events. Neovascularization within the plaque is closely associated with its stability. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) serves a crucial role in regulating vascular endothelial cells (VECs) proliferation and angiogenesis. In this study, we identified lncRNA HCG11, which is highly expressed in patients with vulnerable plaque compared with stable plaque. Then, functional experiments showed that HCG11 reversed high glucose-induced vascular endothelial injury through increased cell proliferation and tube formation. Meanwhile, vascular-related RNA-binding protein QKI5 was greatly activated. Luciferase reporter assays and RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays verified interaction between them. Interestingly, HCG11 can also positively regulated by QKI5. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assays showed HCG11 can worked as a competing endogenous RNA by sponging miR-26b-5p, and QKI5 was speculated as the target of miR-26b-5p. Taken together, our findings revered that the feedback loop of lncRNA HCG11/miR-26b-5p/QKI-5 played a vital role in the physiological function of HUVECs, and this also provide a potential target for therapeutic strategies of As.

Knee osteochondral junction imaging using a fast 3D T1-weighted ultrashort echo time cones sequence at 3T.

The osteochondral junction (OCJ) of the knee joint is comprised of multiple tissue components, including a portion of the deep layer cartilage, calcified cartilage, and subchondral bone. The OCJ is of increasing radiological interest as it may be relevant in the early pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). Due to its short transverse relaxation, the OCJ is invisible to clinical MR sequences. The purpose of this study was to develop a fast 3D T1-weighted ultrashort echo time cones sequence with fat saturation (FS-UTE-Cones) for high resolution and high contrast imaging of the OCJ on a clinical 3T scanner. First, numerical simulations were performed to investigate how the flip angle affected the signal intensities and contrasts of both short and long T1 tissues. The results from these simulations demonstrated that higher short T1 contrast could be achieved with higher flip angle. Next, T1 relaxation was measured for the different layers of a human patellar cartilage sample, and the results showed that the deepest layer had a significantly shorter T1 value than other layers. Finally, a healthy knee joint was scanned with different flip angles and the OCJ was highlighted in the T1-weighted FS-UTE-Cones sequence using a flip angle greater than 20°. The clinical T2-weighted and proton density-weighted FSE sequences were also included for comparison, revealing a dark OCJ region. Representative T1-weighted FS-UTE-Cones images of the whole knee of a healthy volunteer showed high signal intensity bands in the OCJ regions of the patella, femur, and tibia. On the other hand, T1-weighted FS-UTE-Cones imaging of the knee joints of OA patients revealed regions with reduction or loss of these high signal intensity bands in the OCJ regions, indicating abnormal OCJ tissue composition. The proposed 3D T1-weighted FS-UTE-Cones sequence with a 3-min scan time may be very useful for demonstrating the involvement of the OCJ regions in early OA.

[Diagnostic performance of prospective versus retrospective electrocardiogram-gated 64-slice computed tomography coronary angiography].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the diagnostic performance of prospective electrocardiogram (ECG)-triggered computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) versus retrospective ECG-gated CTCA. METHODS: Patients with suspected coronary artery disease divided into two groups which underwent 64-slice CTCA with prospective ECG-triggered or retrospective ECG-gated scanning (n = 100 each, HR < or = 65 bpm). Multi-planar reconstruction (MPR), curved-planar reconstruction (CPR), maximum intensity projection (MIP) and volume rendering (VR) were made to demonstrate the coronary arteries. The image quality was defined as excellent, good and poor by motion and stair-step artifacts. Individual radiation exposure dose was estimated from the dose-length product. RESULTS: The mean effective radiation dose of prospective ECG-triggered CTCA [(2.81 +/- 0.48) mSv] was significantly lower than that of retrospective ECG-gated CTCA [(10.16 +/- 1.09) mSv, P < 0.01]. Segments of diagnostic image quality (95.2%, 1165/1224) and non-diagnostic coronary segments (4.8%, 59/1224) in prospective ECG-triggered group were similar as those of retrospective ECG-gated group (94.1%, 1186/1261 and 5.9%, 75/1261, all P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Though the radiation exposure dose required is significantly lower, the diagnostic performance of prospective ECG-triggered 64 slice CTCA is comparable with that of retrospective ECG-gated 64 slice CTCA on patients with stable heart rates up to 65 bpm.