Perforating ocular injury caused by acupuncture: A case report.

Acpuncture as a branch of traditional Chinese medicine is popular in China. It can regulate the running of meridian qi to stimulate the ocular nerve activity and increase blood supply. Periocular acupuncture treatment is very frequent, but it can lead to safety hazards that cannot be ignored. For instance, ocular trauma may develop if done improperly, resulting in impaired vision and even blindness. We report a rare case of perforating ocular injury caused by acupuncture.

[Hemodynamic performance of newly developed composite stentless porcine aortic valve: in vitro testing and in vivo experiment with sheep].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of a newly developed composite stentless porcine aortic valve constructed from noncoronary leaflets of three porcine aortic valves. METHODS: Fresh porcine hearts with ascending aorta were obtained from a slaughterhouse. The porcine aortic roots with ascending aorta and anterior leaflet of mitral valve and partial ventricular septum were dissected out and were pressurized to maintain their natural anatomical shapes with the leaflets floating freely at zero-pressure. Three noncoronary leaflets fixed in 0.6% glutaraldehyde were carefully matched for size and symmetry to construct a novel composite stentless porcine aortic valve. The lower margin and outside of the valve was covered with a piece of bovine pericardium. The novel stentless valves were tested in vitro pulsatile flow to detect the effective orifice area (EOA) and mean pressure difference (DeltaP) of the valve compared with the stented bovine pericardial bioprostheses of the same size. Sixteen male juvenile sheep underwent implantation of the novel valves in the supra-annular position in under cardio-pulmonary bypass. The intraoperative and postoperative echocardiography and pathological specimen were given to evaluate the hemodynamic performance and observed in the respects of a long-term survival, function of valve and pathological specimen. RESULTS: Since novel valves had the unfavorable muscle-based right coronary leaflet characteristic of porcine valve removed it had larger EOA. Pulsatile flow testing indicated that the EOA of the 3 novel valves was (3.47 +/- 0.15), (3.69 +/- 0.11), and (3.92 +/- 0.18) cm2 respectively, all significantly greater than those of the stented bovine pericardial bioprosthesis [(2.00 +/- 0.16), (2.21 +/- 0.26), and (2.37 +/- 0.42) cm2 respectively] at each integral simulated cardiac output between 3 - 6 L/min (all P < 0.05), while the DeltaP levels of the novel valves were (2.35 +/- 0.41), (3.10 +/- 0.20), and (3.56 +/- 0.16) mm Hg respectively, all significantly lower than those of the stented bovine pericardial bioprosthesis [(4.98 +/- 0.46), (6.82 +/- 1.27), and (8.40 +/- 1.83) mm Hg respectively, all P < 0.05]. Twelve of the sixteen sheep survived after operation. Five of them had lived for more than 90 days, 3 more than 180 days, and 2 more than 360 days. The intra-operative echocardiographic analyses showed low DeltaP [(3.90 +/- 0.78) mm Hg] and no regurgitation in all sheep. After 15 to 360 days, all valves performed excellently. The sheep were postoperatively sacrificed in 5 d, 15 d, 45 d, 90 d, 180 d, or 300 d respectively. Necropsy revealed the valves had a low to mild level of calcification, without periprosthetic leakage and overgrowth of fibrous tissue. CONCLUSION: The newly developed composite stentless porcine aortic valves show excellent hemodynamic performance with lower transvalvular pressure gradient and are relatively easy to implant.

[Crosslinking bovine pericardial bioprosthetic heart valves by phthalocyanine sensitized photooxidation reaction].

OBJECTIVE: To crosslink bovine pericardial valves by phthalocyanine sensitized photooxidation reaction. METHODS: Fresh bovine pericardial tissues were immersed in PBS solution containing 0.01% cupreous sulfonatophthalocyanine and exposed to a broad wavelength light source for 20-120 h. Using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyarylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) to analyze the cross-linking extent of pericardial tissue. With the help of attenuated total reflection-fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), explained the change of protein structure after photooxidation reaction. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to measure the change of shrinkage temperature. Tissue water content experiment method was also used. RESULTS: Photooxidized tissue was resistant to extraction when it was compared with untreated tissue and had similar crosslinking extent over glutaraldehyde-treated tissue. The three dimension structure of collagen were changed but not seriously destroyed and the model of photooxidation reaction was validated. Phthalocyanine-treated tissue was much more flexible than glutaraldehyde-treated tissue. CONCLUSION: Bovine pericardial tissue can be successfully crosslinked by phthalocyanine-mediated photooxidation reaction.

[Using chemical methods to crosslink xenogeneic heart valves: the progress of bioprosthetic heart valves].

Glutaraldehyde clinically is the most commonly accepted crosslinking reagent for bioprosthetic valves preparation. Glutaraldehyde-treated tissue is stable against chemical and enzymatic degradation; however, its calcification and cytotoxicity are severe. Dye-mediated photooxidation is an alternative tissue preservation method that oxidizes the protein with visible light in the presence of a suitable photosensitizer. This article reviews chemical mechanism, research progress, clinical applications future development of these two methods.