[Transthoracic Echocardiography Revealed Inferior Vena Cava and Right Atrial Occupation:Report of One Case].

One case with ascites and lower limb edema as the initial manifestations was reported.The echocardiography revealed inferior vena cava and right atrial occupation,which combined with increased alpha fetoprotein and imaging examination,suggested liver malignant tumor combined with tumor thrombus of inferior vena cava and right atrium.After targeted therapy combined with immunotherapy,the tumor shrank and alpha fetoprotein decreased significantly,suggesting that the treatment was effective.The median survival time of the patient was 3 months.This patient had a clear history of cirrhosis due to hepatitis B and was clinically diagnosed with advanced liver cancer,which suggested the importance of early liver cancer screening.

Role of Ultrasound Lung Comets in the Diagnosis of Acute Heart Failure in Emergency Department: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: A new technique of transthoracic lung ultrasonography (TLS) has emerged and demonstrated promising results in acute heart failure diagnosis at an early stage. However, the diagnostic value of ultrasound lung comets (ULCs) for acute heart failure (AHF) performed in busy emergency department (ED) is uncertain. The present meta-analysis aimed to assess the diagnostic efficiency of ULCs in AHF. METHODS: We conducted a search on online journal databases to collect the data on TLS performed for diagnosing AHF published up to the end of July 2017. The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve were calculated. The post-test probability of AHF was calculated by using Bayes analysis. RESULTS: We enrolled a total of 15 studies involving 3,309 patients. The value of sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, DOR, area under the SROC curve, and Q* index was 85%, 91%, 8.94, 0.14, 67.24, 0.9587, and 0.9026, respectively. We detected significant heterogeneity among included studies, and therefore, all these results were analyzed under the random-effect model. We also explored possible sources of heterogeneity among the studies by using meta-regression analysis. Results suggest that the time interval between patient's admission to bedside TLS examination was closely related to TLS accuracy. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis demonstrated that detecting ULCs is a convenient bedside tool and has high accuracy for early AHF diagnosis in ED. TLS could be recommended to be applied for early diagnosis of AHF in ED.

The Rice Receptor-Like Kinases DWARF AND RUNTISH SPIKELET1 and 2 Repress Cell Death and Affect Sugar Utilization during Reproductive Development.

Cell-to-cell communication precisely controls the creation of new organs during reproductive growth. However, the sensor molecules that mediate developmental signals in monocot plants are poorly understood. Here, we report that DWARF AND RUNTISH SPIKELET1 (DRUS1) and DRUS2, two closely related receptor-like kinases (RLKs), redundantly control reproductive growth and development in rice (Oryza sativa). A drus1-1 drus2 double knockout mutant, but not either single mutant, showed extreme dwarfism and barren inflorescences that harbored sterile spikelets. The gibberellin pathway was not impaired in this mutant. A phenotypic comparison of mutants expressing different amounts of DRUS1 and 2 revealed that reproductive growth requires a threshold level of DRUS1/2 proteins. DRUS1 and 2 maintain cell viability by repressing protease-mediated cell degradation and likely by affecting sugar utilization or conversion. In the later stages of anther development, survival of the endothecium requires DRUS1/2, which may stimulate expression of the UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase gene UGP2 and starch biosynthesis in pollen. Unlike their Arabidopsis thaliana ortholog FERONIA, DRUS1 and 2 mediate a fundamental signaling process that is essential for cell survival and represents a novel biological function for the CrRLK1L RLK subfamily.

The rice wall-associated receptor-like kinase gene OsDEES1 plays a role in female gametophyte development.

The wall-associated kinase (WAK) gene family is a unique subfamily of receptor-like kinases (RLKs) in plants. WAK-RLKs play roles in cell expansion, pathogen resistance, and metal tolerance in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Rice (Oryza sativa) has far more WAK-RLK genes than Arabidopsis, but the functions of rice WAK-RLKs are poorly understood. In this study, we found that one rice WAK-RLK gene, DEFECT IN EARLY EMBRYO SAC1 (OsDEES1), is involved in the regulation of early embryo sac development. OsDEES1 silencing by RNA interference caused a high rate of female sterility. Crossing experiments showed that female reproductive organs lacking OsDEES1 carried a functional defect. A detailed investigation of the ovaries from OsDEES1 RNA interference plants indicated that the knockdown of OsDEES1 expression did not affect megasporogenesis but that it disturbed female gametophyte formation, resulting in a degenerated embryo sac and defective seed formation. OsDEES1 exhibited a tissue-specific expression pattern in flowers and seedlings. In the ovary, OsDEES1 was expressed in the megagametophyte region and surrounding nucellus cells in the ovule near the micropylar region. OsDEES1 was found to be a membrane-localized protein with a unique sequence compared with other WAK-RLKs. These data indicate that OsDEES1 plays a role in rice sexual reproduction by regulating female gametophyte development. This study offers new insight into the functions of the WAK-RLK family.

Altered architecture and enhanced drought tolerance in rice via the down-regulation of indole-3-acetic acid by TLD1/OsGH3.13 activation.

Plant architecture is determined by genetic and developmental programs as well as by environmental factors. Sessile plants have evolved a subtle adaptive mechanism that allows them to alter their growth and development during periods of stress. Phytohormones play a central role in this process; however, the molecules responsible for integrating growth- and stress-related signals are unknown. Here, we report a gain-of-function rice (Oryza sativa) mutant, tld1-D, characterized by (and named for) an increased number of tillers, enlarged leaf angles, and dwarfism. TLD1 is a rice GH3.13 gene that encodes indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)-amido synthetase, which is suppressed in aboveground tissues under normal conditions but which is dramatically induced by drought stress. The activation of TLD1 reduced the IAA maxima at the lamina joint, shoot base, and nodes, resulting in subsequent alterations in plant architecture and tissue patterning but enhancing drought tolerance. Accordingly, the decreased level of free IAA in tld1-D due to the conjugation of IAA with amino acids greatly facilitated the accumulation of late-embryogenesis abundant mRNA compared with the wild type. The direct regulation of such drought-inducible genes by changes in the concentration of IAA provides a model for changes in plant architecture via the process of drought adaptation, which occurs frequently in nature.

Molecular and genetic evidence for the key role of AtCaM3 in heat-shock signal transduction in Arabidopsis.

Heat shock (HS) is a common form of stress suffered by plants. It has been proposed that calmodulin (CaM) is involved in HS signal transduction, but direct evidence has been lacking. To investigate the potential regulatory function of CaM in the HS signal transduction pathway, T-DNA knockout mutants for AtCaM2, AtCaM3, and AtCaM4 were obtained and their thermotolerance tested. Of the three knockout mutant plants, there were no differences compared with wild-type plants under normal conditions. However, the AtCaM3 knockout mutant showed a clear reduction in thermotolerance after heat treatment at 45 degrees C for 50 min. Overexpression of AtCaM3 in either the AtCaM3 knockout or wild-type background significantly rescued or increased the thermotolerance, respectively. Results from electrophoretic mobility-shift assays, real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and western-blot analyses revealed that, after HS, the DNA-binding activity of HS transcription factors, mRNA transcription of HS protein genes, and accumulation of HS protein were down-regulated in the AtCaM3 knockout mutant and up-regulated in the AtCaM3-overexpressing transgenic lines. Taken together, these results suggest that endogenous AtCaM3 is a key component in the Ca2+-CaM HS signal transduction pathway.