Long Noncoding RNA and mRNA Expression Profiles in Rats with LPS-induced Myocardial Dysfunction.

Background: Sepsis is an uncontrolled systemic inflammatory response. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the pathogenesis of sepsis. However, little is known about the roles of lncRNAs in sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction. Objective: We aimed to determine the regulatory mechanism of lncRNAs in sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction. Methods: In this study, we analysed the lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles using microarray analysis. Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, protein-protein interaction network, and gene set enrichment analysis were used to evaluate the data. We also constructed coding and noncoding coexpression and competing endogenous RNA networks to investigate the mechanisms. Results: In vivo lipopolysaccharide -induced sepsis rat model was established. A total of 387 lncRNAs and 1,952 mRNAs were identified as significantly changed in the left ventricle. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis of mRNAs showed that the upregulated genes were mainly enriched in the "complement and coagulation cascade pathway" and "immune-related biological processes" terms. Eight significantly changed lncRNAs detected by RT-qPCR may be responsible for these processes. A competing endogenous RNA network was generated, and the results indicated that eight lncRNAs were related to the "calcium ion binding" process. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that crosstalk between lncRNAs and mRNAs may play important roles in the development of sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction.

LncRNA-mRNA expression profile and functional network of vascular dysfunction in septic rats.

BACKGROUND: We used microarrays to analyse the changes in long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and mRNAs in aorta tissue in model rats with lipopolysaccharide-induced sepsis and determined the lncRNA-mRNA and lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA functional networks. METHODS: Wistar rats were intraperitoneally injected with lipopolysaccharide, and the lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles in the aorta were evaluated using microarrays. The functions of the differentially expressed mRNAs were analysed using Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses. We then constructed coding/non-coding co-expression and competing endogenous RNA networks to study the mechanisms related to sepsis in rats. RESULTS: We identified 503 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 2479 differentially expressed mRNAs in the model rats with lipopolysaccharide-induced sepsis. Mitochondrial fission process 1 (MTFP1) was the most significantly down-regulated mRNA. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the significantly down-regulated mRNAs in the sepsis models were in pathways related to mitochondrial structure, function, and energy metabolism. Coding/non-coding co-expression and competing endogenous RNA analyses were conducted using 12 validated lncRNAs in combination with all mRNAs. The coding/non-coding co-expression analysis showed that the 12 validated lncRNAs were mainly regulatory factors for abnormal energy metabolism, including mitochondrial structure damage and aberrant mitochondrial dynamics. The competing endogenous RNA analysis revealed that the potential functions of these 12 lncRNAs might be related to the inflammatory response. CONCLUSION: We determined the differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs in the aorta of septic rats using microarrays. Further studies on these lncRNAs will help elucidate the mechanism of sepsis at the genetic level and may identify potential therapeutic targets.

Effect of berberine on global modulation of lncRNAs and mRNAs expression profiles in patients with stable coronary heart disease.

BACKGROUND: Berberine (BBR) is an isoquinoline alkaloid found in the Berberis species. It was found to have protected effects in cardiovascular diseases. Here, we investigated the effect the regulatory function of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) during the treatment of stable coronary heart disease (CHD) using BBR. We performed microarray analyses to identify differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and mRNAs between whole blood samples from 5 patients with stable CHD taking BBR and 5 no BBR volunteers. DE lncRNAs and mRNAs were validated by quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: A total of 1703 DE lncRNAs and 912 DE mRNAs were identified. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis indicated DE mRNAs might be associated with mammalian target of rapamycin and mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. These pathways may be involved in the healing process after CHD. To study the relationship between mRNAs encoding transcription factors (DNA damage inducible transcript 3, sal-like protein 4 and estrogen receptor alpha gene) and CHD related de mRNAs, we performed protein and protein interaction analysis on their corresponding proteins. AKT and apoptosis pathway were significant enriched in protein and protein interaction network. BBR may affect downstream apoptosis pathways through DNA damage inducible transcript 3, sal-like protein 4 and estrogen receptor alpha gene. Growth arrest-specific transcript 5 might regulate CHD-related mRNAs through competing endogenous RNA mechanism and may be the downstream target gene regulated by BBR. Verified by the quantitative real-time PCR, we identified 8 DE lncRNAs that may relate to CHD. We performed coding and non-coding co-expression and competing endogenous RNA mechanism analysis of these 8 DE lncRNAs and CHD-related DE mRNA, and predicted their subcellular localization and N6-methyladenosine modification sites. CONCLUSION: Our research found that BBR may affect mammalian target of rapamycin, mitogen-activated protein kinase, apoptosis pathway and growth arrest-specific transcript 5 in the process of CHD. These pathways may be involved in the healing process after CHD. Our research might provide novel insights for functional research of BBR.

Quantitative analysis of late iodine enhancement using dual-layer spectral detector computed tomography: comparison with magnetic resonance imaging.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the segmental myocardial extracellular volume (ECV) fraction and to define a threshold ECV value that can be used to distinguish positive late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) segments from negative myocardial segments using dual-layer spectral detector computed tomography (SDCT), with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a reference. METHODS: Fifty-six subjects with cardiac disease or suspected cardiac disease, underwent both late iodine enhancement on CT (CT-LIE) scanning and late gadolinium enhancement on MRI (MRI-LGE) scanning. Each procedure occurred within a week of the other. Global and segmental ECVs of the left ventricle were measured by CT and MRI images. According to the location and pattern of delayed enhancement on MRI image, myocardial segments were classified into 3 groups: ischemic LGE segments (group 1), nonischemic LGE segments (group 2) and negative LGE segments (group 3). The correlation and agreement between CT-ECV and MRI-ECV were compared on a per-segment basis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to establish a threshold for LIE detection. RESULTS: Among the 56 patients, 896 segments were analyzed, and of these, 73 segments were in group 1, 229 segments were in group 2, and 594 segments were in group 3. In segmental analysis, CT-ECV in group 3 (27.0%; 24.9-28.9%) was significantly lower than that in group 1 (33.2%; 30.7-36.3%) and group 2 (34.9%; 32.3-39.8%; all P<0.001). Good correlations were seen between CT-ECV and MRI-ECV for all groups (group 1: r=0.920; group 2: r=0.936; group 3: r=0.799; all P<0.001). Bland-Altman analysis between CT-ECV and MRI-ECV showed a small bias in all 3 groups (group 1: -2.1%, 95% limits of agreement -11.3-7.1%; group 2: -0.6%, 95% limits of agreement -13.1-11.9%; group 3: 1.0%, 95% limits of agreement -12.7-14.7%). CT-ECV could differentiate between LGE-positive and LGE-negative segments with 83.1% sensitivity and 93.3% specificity at a cutoff of 31%. CONCLUSIONS: ECV values derived from CT imaging showed good correlation and agreement with MR imaging findings, and CT-ECV provided high diagnostic accuracy for discriminating between LGE-positive and LGE-negative segments. Thus, cardiac CT imaging might be a suitable noninvasive imaging technique for myocardial ECV quantification.

Genome-wide identification of altered RNA m6A profiles in vascular tissue of septic rats.

Sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospital intensive care units. In light of recent studies showing that variations in N6-methyladenosine (m6A) levels in different RNA transcripts influence inflammatory responses, we evaluated the m6A profiles of rat aortic mRNAs and lncRNAs after lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis. LC-MS-based mRNA modification analysis showed that global m6A levels were significantly decreased in aortic tissue of rats injected intraperitoneally with LPS. This finding was consistent with downregulated expression of METTL3 and WTAP, two members of the m6A writer complex, in LPS-exposed aortas. Microarray analysis of m6A methylation indicated that 40 transcripts (31 mRNAs and 9 lncRNAs) were hypermethylated, while 223 transcripts (156 mRNAs and 67 lncRNAs) were hypomethylated, in aortic tissue from LPS-treated rats. On GO and KEGG analyses, 'complement and coagulation cascades', 'transient receptor potential channels', and 'organic anion transmembrane transporter activity' were the major biological processes modulated by the differentially m6A methylated mRNAs. In turn, competing endogenous RNA network analysis suggested that decreased m6A levels in lncRNA-XR_343955 may affect the inflammatory response through the cell adhesion molecule pathway. Our data suggest that therapeutic modulation of the cellular m6A machinery may be useful to preserve vascular integrity and function during sepsis.

Lipopolysaccharide Alters the m6A Epitranscriptomic Tagging of RNAs in Cardiac Tissue.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification plays important roles in the pathology of a variety of diseases. However, the roles of m6A modification in sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction are not well defined. Rats were divided into control and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis group. Global m6A levels of left ventricle tissue were measured by LC-MS/MS, and transcriptome-wide m6A modifications were profiled using epitranscriptomic microarrays (mRNAs and lncRNAs). Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to understand the functional implications of m6A modifications during sepsis. Methylated lncRNAs and mRNAs were measured by m6A single-base site qPCR. The global m6A levels in left ventricle tissue were significantly decreased in the LPS group. While 27 transcripts (23 mRNAs and four lncRNAs) were hypermethylated, 46 transcripts (39 mRNAs and 7 lncRNAs) were hypomethylated in the LPS group. The mRNA expression of writers and readers was significantly decreased in the LPS group. The m6A modification of Clec1b, Stk38l and Tnfrsf26 was associated with platelet activation and apoptotic pathways. Moreover, the decrease in m6A modification of lncRNA XR_346,771 may be related to cation import in cardiac tissue. Our data provide novel information regarding changes to m6A modifications in cardiac tissue during sepsis, and m6A modifications might be promising therapeutic targets.

Incremental improvement of diagnostic performance of coronary CT angiography for the assessment of coronary stenosis in the presence of calcium using a dual-layer spectral detector CT: validation by invasive coronary angiography.

To investigate value of spectral reconstructions for the quantification of coronary stenosis in the presence of calcified or partially calcified plaques using a dual-layer spectral detector CT (SDCT). Seventy-two consecutive patients were retrospectively enrolled. Conventional 120 kVp images, eight virtual monoenergetic images (VMI) (70 to 140 keV), the effective atomic number (Z effective) and iodine no water images were reconstructed. Invasive coronary angiography was used as the reference standard. Parallel and serial testing were used to assess the incremental diagnostic value of Z effective and iodine no water images to the best VMI series. 122 coronary lesions of 72 patients (49 men and 23 women; 63.7 ± 10.2 years) were enrolled in analysis. Reconstruction at 100 keV yielded optimal diagnostic performance, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and diagnostic accuracy to identify stenosis ≥ 50% or ≥ 70% were 84%, 70%, 80%, 76%, 79% and 78%, 98%, 93%, 91%, 92%, respectively. A serial combination (100 keV VMI followed by Z effective images) resulted in an improved specificity (from 70 to 80%) with a moderate loss of sensitivity (81% from 84%) in identifying ≥ 50% stenosis (P = 0.021). For patients with high Agatston score, this combination could further reduce false positive cases and improve diagnostic accuracy. 100 keV VMI provide optimal diagnostic performance for the detection of coronary stenosis in the presence of calcified or partially calcified plaques using a dual-layer SDCT, with further improvements obtained with the combined use of Z effective images.

Efficacy of adaptive servo-ventilation and continuous positive airway pressure treatment in chronic heart failure with sleep-disordered breathing: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation (NPPV) is recognized as an effective adjuvant therapy for sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF + SDB). In recent years, some studies have found that adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV) has a negative impact on survival, especially among patients with central sleep apnea (CSA), the use of which is controversial. This study aims to explore the effects of NPPV on cardiac function and survival in patients with sleep-disordered breathing and chronic congestive heart failure. This meta-analysis was based on literature searches of publications published before August 31, 2019, in the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases. A total of 88 independent studies were summarized and compared, comprising a sampling of 19,259 subjects. Compared with the nontreatment group, treatment with ASV had no effect on all-cause mortality in patients with HFrEF + CSA (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.13 [0.84, 1.51]). Short-term treatment with ASV, e.g., 3-6 months, was significantly beneficial regarding event-free survival in patients with HFrEF + CSA (HR = 0.13 [0.04, 0.45]). Periodic short-term (e.g., 3-6 months) positive-pressure ventilation can significantly improve cardiac function, which is beneficial for the survival of patients with HFrEF + CSA. Attention should be paid to the length and period of treatment, as prolonged treatment may have negative effects.

Iterative closest graph matching for non-rigid 3D/2D coronary arteries registration.

Background and objective Fusion of the preoperative computed tomography angiography and intraoperative X-ray angiography images can considerably enhance the visual perception of physicians during percutaneous coronary interventions. This technique can provide 3D information of the arteries and reduce the uncertainty of 2D guidance images. For this purpose, 3D/2D vascular registration with high accuracy and robustness is crucial for performing accurate surgery. Methods In this study, we propose an iterative closest graph matching (ICGM) method that utilizes an alternative iteration framework including correspondence and transformation phases. A coarse-to-fine matching approach based on redundant graph matching is proposed for the correspondence phase. The transformation phase involves rigid and non-rigid transformations, in which rigid transformation is calculated using a closed-form solution, and non-rigid transformation is achieved using a statistical shape model established from a synthetic deformation dataset. Results The proposed method is evaluated and compared with nine state-of-the-art methods on simulated data and clinical datasets. Experiments demonstrate that our method is insensitive to the pose of data and robust to noise and deformation. Moreover, it outperforms other methods in terms of registering real data. Conclusions Given its high capture range, the proposed method can register 3D vessels without prior initialization in clinical practice.

Analyses of circRNA and mRNA profiles in the submandibular gland in hypertension.

The aim of this study was to elucidate the roles played by circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the mechanism underlying submandibular gland (SMG) dysfunction in hypertension. We employed RNA-seq to analyze the circRNA and mRNA expression profiles of SMGs. Seventy-five differentially expressed (DE) circRNAs and 691 DE mRNAs were determined to be significantly altered in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Altered mRNAs were primarily related to the immune system and immune response. Eight circRNAs were selected for further analysis. Cell adhesion molecules were determined to be the most strongly enriched pathway through analysis of DE mRNAs, the coding noncoding gene co-expression (CNC) network and the competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network. The salivary secretion pathway was observed to be notably enriched through analysis of the ceRNA network. These results suggest that the crosstalk among circRNAs may play a crucial role in the development of SMG dysfunction in hypertension.

LncRNA and mRNA expression profiles and functional networks of hyposalivation of the submandibular gland in hypertension.

Hyposalivation is a complication of hypertension. However, little is known about the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in salivary glands in hypertension. This study aimed to compare the lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles between spontaneous hypertension rats (SHRs) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats through microarray analysis and apple bioinformatics methods to analyse their potential roles in hyposalivation. The differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and mRNAs were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Compared with WKY rats, 225 DE lncRNAs and 473 DE mRNAs were identified in the SMG of SHRs. The pathway analyses of DE mRNAs showed that inflammatory mediator regulation of transient receptor potential channels was involved in hyposalivation in SHRs. Ten DE lncRNAs were chosen for further research. A coding-non-coding gene co-expression (CNC) network and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network analysis revealed that the potential functions of these 10 DE lncRNAs were closely connected with the processes of the immune response. This study showed abundant DE lncRNAs and mRNAs in hypertensive SMGs. Furthermore, our results indicated strong associations between the immune response and hyposalivation and showed the potential of immune-related genes as novel and therapeutic targets for hyposalivation.

Identification of circRNA and mRNA expression profiles and functional networks of vascular tissue in lipopolysaccharide-induced sepsis.

Sepsis is the most common cause of death in intensive care units. This study investigated the circular RNA (circRNA) and mRNA expression profiles and functional networks of the aortic tissue in sepsis. We established a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced rat sepsis model. High-throughput sequencing was performed on the aorta tissue to identify differentially expressed (DE) circRNAs and mRNAs, which were validated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Bioinformatic analysis was carried out and coding and non-coding co-expression (CNC) and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory networks were constructed to investigate the mechanisms. In total, 373 up-regulated and 428 down-regulated circRNAs and 2063 up-regulated and 2903 down-regulated mRNAs were identified. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses of mRNAs showed that the down-regulated genes were mainly enriched in the process of energy generation. CNC and ceRNA regulatory networks were constructed with seven DE circRNAs. The results of functional enrichment analysis of CNC target genes revealed the important role of circRNAs in inflammatory response. The ceRNA network also highlighted the significant enrichment in calcium signalling pathway. Significant alterations in circRNAs and mRNAs were observed in the aortic tissue of septic rats. In addition, CNC and ceRNA networks were established.

Effect of metformin on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients with coronary artery diseases: a systematic review and an updated meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Metformin is the most widely prescribed drug to lower glucose and has a definitive effect on the cardiovascular system. The goal of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to assess the effects of metformin on mortality and cardiac function among patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: Relevant studies reported before October 2018 was retrieved from databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Web of Science. Hazard ratio (HR) was calculated to evaluate the all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality and incidence of cardiovascular events (CV events), to figure out the level of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), creatine kinase MB (CK-MB), type B natriuretic peptide (BNP) and to compare the average level of low density lipoprotein (LDL). RESULTS: In this meta-analysis were included 40 studies comprising 1,066,408 patients. The cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality and incidence of CV events were lowered to adjusted HR (aHR) = 0.81, aHR = 0.67 and aHR = 0. 83 respectively after the patients with CAD were given metformin. Subgroup analysis showed that metformin reduced all-cause mortality in myocardial infarction (MI) (aHR = 0.79) and heart failure (HF) patients (aHR = 0.84), the incidence of CV events in HF (aHR = 0.83) and type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients (aHR = 0.83), but had no significant effect on MI (aHR = 0.87) and non-T2DM patients (aHR = 0.92). Metformin is superior to sulphonylurea (aHR = 0.81) in effects on lowering the incidence of CV events and in effects on patients who don't use medication. The CK-MB level in the metformin group was lower than that in the control group standard mean difference (SMD) = - 0.11). There was no significant evidence that metformin altered LVEF (MD = 2.91), BNP (MD = - 0.02) and LDL (MD = - 0.08). CONCLUSION: Metformin reduces cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality and CV events in CAD patients. For MI patients and CAD patients without T2DM, metformin has no significant effect of reducing the incidence of CV events. Metformin has a better effect of reducing the incidence of CV events than sulfonylureas.

[Automatic multi-region segmentation of intracoronary optical coherence tomography images based on neutrosophic theory].

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become a key technique in the diagnosis of coronary artery stenosis, which can identify plaques and vulnerable plaques in the image. Therefore, this technique is of great significance for the diagnosis of coronary heart disease. However, there is still a lack of automatic, multi-region, high-precision segmentation algorithms for coronary OCT images in the current research field. Therefore, this paper proposes a multi-zone, fully automated segmentation algorithm for coronary OCT images based on neutrosophic theory, which achieves high-precision segmentation of fibrous plaques and lipid regions. In this paper, the method of transforming OCT images into T in the area of neutrosophics is redefined based on the membership function, and the segmentation accuracy of fiber plaques is improved. For the segmentation of lipid regions, the algorithm adds homomorphic filter enhancement images, and uses OCT to transform OCT images into I in the field of neutrosophics, and further uses morphological methods to achieve high-precision segmentation. In this paper, 40 OCT images from 9 patients with typical plaques were analyzed and compared with the results of manual segmentation by doctors. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm avoids the over-segmentation and under-segmentation problems of the traditional neutrosophic theory method, and accurately segment the patch area. Therefore, the work of this paper can effectively improve the accuracy of segmentation of plaque for doctors, and assist clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease.

Patch-Based Adaptive Background Subtraction for Vascular Enhancement in X-Ray Cineangiograms.

OBJECTIVE: Automatic vascular enhancement in X-ray cineangiography is of crucial interest, for instance, for better visualizing and quantifying coronary arteries in diagnostic and interventional procedures. METHODS: A novel patch-based adaptive background subtraction method (PABSM) is proposed automatically enhancing vessels in coronary X-ray cineangiography. First, pixels in the cineangiogram are described by the vesselness and Gabor features. Second, a classifier is utilized to separate the cineangiogram into the rough vascular and non-vascular region. Dilation is applied to the classified binary image to include more vascular region. Third, a patch-based background synthesis is utilized to fill the removed vascular region. RESULTS: A database containing 320 cineangiograms of 175 patients was collected, and then an interventional cardiologist annotated all vascular structures. The performance of PABSM is compared with six state-of-the-art vascular enhancement methods regarding the precision-recall curve and C-value. The area under the precision-recall curve is 0.7133, and the C-value is 0.9659. CONCLUSION: PABSM can automatically enhance the coronary artery in the cineangiograms. It preserves the integrity of vascular topological structures, particularly in complex vascular regions, and removes noise caused by the non-uniform gray-level distribution in the cineangiogram. SIGNIFICANCE: PABSM can avoid the motion artifacts and it eases the subsequent vascular segmentation, which is crucial for the diagnosis and interventional procedures of coronary artery diseases.

[Coronary vessel intimal sequence extraction based on prior boundary constraints in optical coherence tomography image].

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new technique applied in cardiovascular system. It can detect vessel intimal, small structure of plaque surface and discover small lesions with its high axial resolution and quantification character. Especially with the application of OCT in characterization of coronary atherosclerotic plaque, diagnosis and treatment strategy making, optimizing percutaneous coronary intervention therapy and assessment after stent planting make the OCT become an efficient tool for cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment. This paper presents a novel coronary vessel intimal sequence extraction method based on prior boundary constraints in OCT image. On the basis of conventional Chan-Vese model, we modified the evolutionary weight function to control the evolutionary rate of boundary by adding local information of boundary curve. At the same time, we added the gradient energy term and intimal boundary constraint term based on priori boundary condition to further control the evolutionary of boundary curve. At last, coronary vessel intimal is extracted in a sequence way. The comparison with vessel intimal, manual segmented by clinical scientists (golden standard), indicates that our coronary vessel intimal extraction method is robust to intimal boundary blur, distortion, guide wire shadow and plaque disturbs. The results of this study can be applied to clinical aid diagnosis and precise diagnosis and treatment.

Takayasu arteritis presented with acute heart failure: case report and review of literature.

Acute heart failure due to myocarditis is not common in Takayasu arteritis, let alone in combination with thrombosis affecting both ventricles and pulmonary arteries. The concomitant infection of non-tuberculosis mycobacterium further complicates the clinical scenario and poses challenges for implementation of tailored treatments. This case report describes a teenage girl with a history of intermittent claudication and Erythema Nodosum who developed acute heart failure. Detailed clinical investigations and imaging techniques confirmed the diagnosis.

[Plaque region segmentation of intracoronary optical cohenrence tomography images based on kernel graph cuts].

The segmentation of the intracoronary optical coherence tomography(OCT) images is the basis of the plaque recognition, and it is important to the following plaque feature analysis, vulnerable plaque recognition and further coronary disease aided diagnosis. This paper proposes an algorithm about multi region plaque segmentation based on kernel graph cuts model that realizes accurate segmentation of fibrous, calcium and lipid pool plaques in coronary OCT image, while boundary information has been well reserved. We segmented 20 coronary images with typical plaques in our experiment, and compared the plaque regions segmented by this algorithm to the plaque regions obtained by doctor's manual segmentation. The results showed that our algorithm is accurate to segment the plaque regions. This work has demonstrated that it can be used for reducing doctors' working time on segmenting plaque significantly, reduce subjectivity and differences between different doctors, assist clinician's diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease.

[Plaque segmentation of intracoronary optical coherence tomography images based on K-means and improved random walk algorithm].

In recent years, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed into a popular coronary imaging technology at home and abroad. The segmentation of plaque regions in coronary OCT images has great significance for vulnerable plaque recognition and research. In this paper, a new algorithm based on K-means clustering and improved random walk is proposed and Semi-automated segmentation of calcified plaque, fibrotic plaque and lipid pool was achieved. And the weight function of random walk is improved. The distance between the edges of pixels in the image and the seed points is added to the definition of the weight function. It increases the weak edge weights and prevent over-segmentation. Based on the above methods, the OCT images of 9 coronary atherosclerotic patients were selected for plaque segmentation. By contrasting the doctor's manual segmentation results with this method, it was proved that this method had good robustness and accuracy. It is hoped that this method can be helpful for the clinical diagnosis of coronary heart disease.

Inhibition of intimal hyperplasia via local delivery of vascular endothelial growth factor cDNA nanoparticles in a rabbit model of restenosis induced by abdominal aorta balloon injury.

In-stent restenosis (ISR) is one of the major factors affecting long-term outcomes of percutaneous coronary interventions. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been hypothesized to have a positive role in preventing ISR, however, this remains controversial. The aim of the present study was to assess whether nanoparticles can be used to deliver VEGF to injured arteries and whether this is beneficial in preventing restenosis. New Zealand White rabbits were randomly divided into a control group, an empty nanoparticles group and a VEGF nanoparticles group (n=6 in each group). Polylactic-polyglycolic acid VEGF nanoparticles were prepared using a phacoemulsification method. A rabbit model of restenosis was established following abdominal aorta balloon injury, and VEGF gene nanoparticles, empty nanoparticles or normal saline were delivered locally at the site of injury via a GENIE Catheter™ perfusion balloon. Intimal proliferation determination and immunohistochemistry analysis were performed at day 28 following arterial injury. Compared with the control and empty nanoparticle groups, the neointima area (0.49±0.09, 0.48±0.08 and 0.19±0.11 mm2, respectively; P<0.001) and proliferation index (0.32±0.03, 0.32±0.05 and 0.13±0.06, respectively; P<0.001) were significantly lower in the VEGF nanoparticles group. In addition, in the VEGF nanoparticles group, the immunoreactivity of α-actin and proliferating cell nuclear antigen were significantly lower (P≤0.001), while the immunoreactivity of VEGF was higher (P=0.01). Therefore, the results revealed that local delivery of VEGF gene nanoparticles reduced intimal thickening and cell proliferation following abdominal aorta balloon injury in a rabbit model, demonstrating the efficacy of this therapy against restenosis.