Reduced plasma cortistatin is related to clinical parameters in patients with essential hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Cortistatin (CST), an endogenous bioactive polypeptide, has been acknowledged for its protective effect against several cardiovascular diseases, but its relationship with hypertension remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate changes in plasma CST in hypertensive patients and further analyze correlations with blood pressure, metabolic parameters and left ventricular structure and function. METHODS: In this hospital-based study, basic information and plasma samples for evaluating clinically relevant indicators such as total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), fasting blood glucose (FGB), serum creatinine (Scr) and CST were collected from 81 essential hypertension patients and 75 normotensive subjects. Plasma CST levels were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Compared with normotensive subjects, plasma CST was significantly lower in hypertensive patients. Plasma CST levels in hypertensive patients without blood pressure control was significantly lower than those of hypertensive patients with blood pressure control. Plasma CST levels were significantly negatively correlated with SBP and serum creatinine (Scr) in the overall population. Furthermore, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the OR of CST for hypertension was 0.64 using the unadjusted model, and there was still statistical significance using the four-adjusted model. CONCLUSIONS: The circulating concentration of CST was significantly lower in hypertensive patients and was higher after blood pressure control, suggesting that CST may be a new endogenous protective target for hypertension.

Anisotropic Finite Element Modeling Based on a Harmonic Field for Patient-Specific Sclera.

Purpose. This study examined the influence of anisotropic material for human sclera. Method. First, the individual geometry of patient-specific sclera was reproduced from a laser scan. Then, high quality finite element modeling of individual sclera was performed using a convenient automatic hexahedral mesh generator based on harmonic field and integrated with anisotropic material assignment function. Finally, comparison experiments were designed to investigate the effects of anisotropy on finite element modeling of sclera biomechanics. Results. The experimental results show that the presented approach can generate high quality anisotropic hexahedral mesh for patient-specific sclera. Conclusion. The anisotropy shows significant differences for stresses and strain distribution and careful consideration should be given to its use in biomechanical FE studies.