Objective To observe and analysis the features of images of fundus fluorescein angriography (FFA) in low-perfused retinopathy caused by cephalo-cervical peripheral vascular stenosis or occlusion. Methods The results of FFA of 27 patients diagnosed with carotid artery stenosis or occlusion by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and examination of Doppler and vascular-pulsation were retrospectively analyzed. Result All of the patients had a delayed arm-retinal circulation duration from 20.0 to 81.08 seconds with the mean of 32.1 seconds; a delayed retinal arteriovenous filling duration from 6 to 64.0 seconds with the mean of 24.2 seconds. Delayed arm-retinal circulation duration and retinal a rteriovenous filling duration in 10 cases (37.0%); microangioma, vascular wall staining, nonperfused capillary area in 11 (40.7%); and anterior ischemic syndrome in 6 (22.2%) were found. In the 6 patients with anterior ischemic syndrome, 4 cases had narrow retinal artery, segmental changes of blood stream, vascular atresia, and abnormal arterio-venous anastomosis, and 2 cases had bold vascular loops. Conclusions The main manifestations of FFA in patients with low-perfused retinopathy are malperfusion and retinal ischemia, whose degrees relate to the extend of carotid artery stenosis or atresia, and the process of the disease.Serious retinal ischemia may combined with anterior ischemic syndrome. (Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis，2004，20：84-86)
It has been found that the incidence of cardiovascular disease in patients with lower limb amputation is significantly higher than that in normal individuals, but the relationship between lower limb amputation and the episodes of cardiovascular disease has not been studied from the perspective of hemodynamics. In this paper, numerical simulation was used to study the effects of amputation on aortic hemodynamics by changing peripheral impedance and capacitance. The final results showed that after amputation, the aortic blood pressure increased, the time averaged wall shear stress of the infrarenal abdominal aorta decreased and the oscillatory shear index of the left and right sides was asymmetrically distributed, while the time averaged wall shear stress of the iliac artery decreased and the oscillatory shear index increased. The changes above were more significant with the increase of amputation level, which will result in a higher incidence of atherosclerosis and abdominal aortic aneurysm. These findings preliminarily revealed the influence of lower limb amputation on the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases, and provided theoretical guidance for the design of rehabilitation training and the optimization of cardiovascular diseases treatment.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 48.0% of all deaths in Europe and 34.3% in the United States. Studies have shown that arterial stiffness takes precedence over vascular structural changes and is therefore considered to be an independent predictor of many cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, the characteristics of Korotkoff signal is related to vascular compliance. The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility of detecting vascular stiffness based on the characteristics of Korotkoff signal. First, the Korotkoff signals of normal and stiff vessels were collected and preprocessed. Then the scattering features of Korotkoff signal were extracted by wavelet scattering network. Next, the long short-term memory (LSTM) network was established as a classification model to classify the normal and stiff vessels according to the scattering features. Finally, the performance of the classification model was evaluated by some parameters, such as accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. In this study, 97 cases of Korotkoff signal were collected, including 47 cases from normal vessels and 50 cases from stiff vessels, which were divided into training set and test set according to the ratio of 8 : 2. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the final classification model was 86.4%, 92.3% and 77.8%, respectively. At present, non-invasive screening method for vascular stiffness is very limited. The results of this study show that the characteristics of Korotkoff signal are affected by vascular compliance, and it is feasible to use the characteristics of Korotkoff signal to detect vascular stiffness. This study might be providing a new idea for non-invasive detection of vascular stiffness.
Objectives To retrospectively analyze the isolation rate and drug-resistance of pseudomonas aeruginosa in Fuwai Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences from 2013 to 2016. Methods The specimens were collected and cultured. If the isolated bacteria were from the same part of the same patient, the first isolated strains were only counted. The isolated pathogens were identified and the drug-resistance were analyzed. Results A total of 1 404 pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated. The majority of them were from postoperative recovery room of surgery department (62.1%) and ICU of internal medicine (22.3%). The specimen source were mainly from respiratory tract (75.7%), followed by blood (10.0%) and venous catheter (5.5%). The resistance rate of piperacillin and piperacillin/sulbactam to pseudomonas aeruginosa was 0.6% to 10.4%. The resistance rate of ceftazidime and cefepime was 0.3% to 11.7%. The resistance rate of imipenem and meropenem was 7.6% to 20.1%. The resistance rate of amikacin, gentamicin, and tobramycin was 0.3% to 3.2%. The resistance rate of ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin was 0.6% to 5.2%. Conclusions The isolates of pseudomonas aeruginosa are mainly from postoperative recovery room of surgery department and ICU of internal medicine . Imipenem and meropenem are not the best choices for pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. It has great value to combine piperacillin, piperacillin/sulbactam, ceftazidime and cefepime with aminoglycoside or quinolone antibiotics for the treatment of pseudomonas aeruginosa infection which will reduce drug resistance.
Objective To evaluate the rationality of drug treatment for cardiovascular diseases in aged people and the effects of evidence-based practice. Methods Descriptive study was conducted to compare the therapies for the patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases before and after evidence-based practice by investigating drug use during 1998-1999 (211 cases) and 2002-2003 (211 cases). Results Among antihypertensive drugs, the ACEIs and diuretics played a more important role than before. CCBs and ACEIs were still the most frequently used drugs, and drug combination was more common, comparing to that before evidence-based practice. Lipid lowering drugs and ACEIs were used more common in coronary heart disease. Quality of life of patients was more emphasized and combination use of anti-anxiety drugs was adopted. When treating heart failure, β-receptor blockers, aldadinc and ACEIs were more frequently used. Conclusions After evidence-based practice, drug use is much more based on evidence instead of experience and textbook. As a result, the rate of reaching ideal blood pressure is higher than before. The rate of rational drug use before and after evidence-based practice has increased from 42% to 78%, respectively.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass for obesity and its comorbidities. MethodsSuch databases as PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 11, 2013), CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data, etc. were electronically searched from inception to November 2013, for including all studies on Roux-en-Y gastric bypass for obesity and its comorbidities. According to inclusion and exclusion criteria, two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and evaluated methodological quality of included studies. And then meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. ResultsA total of 25 before and after self-control studies involving 2 966 cases with overweight or obesity were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that:after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass operation, the patients had significant reduction in BMI (MD=-16.40, 95%CI-17.42 to-15.38, P < 0.000 01), type 2 diabetes mellitus prevalence (RR=0.23, 95%CI 0.17 to 0.31, P < 0.000 01), and hypertension prevalence (RR=0.34, 95%CI 0.26 to 0.43, P < 0.000 01); besides, fasting glucose, blood pressure and serum lipid levels obviously decreased (P < 0.000 01). ConclusionRoux-en-Y gastric bypass for obesity patients is effective in reducing weight loss, type 2 diabetes mellitus incidence and cardiovascular disease incidence. Due to the limitation of the design of the included studies, the conclusion needs to be verified by further conducting high quality randomized controlled trials with large sample-size.
Therapeutic effect of fixed-dose combination therapy (Polypill) for cardiovascular disease is a hot spot in the field of cardiovascular medicine. A variety of Polypill have been developed for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, and a plenty of clinical evidence of Polypills for cardiovascular disease has been accumulated all over the world. In this paper, we raise ideas and expectation about research & development thinking of Polypill and Chinese herbal compound prescription based on a meta-analysis of efficacy and safety of Polypill in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (published in JAMA in Nov. 2014) as well as main clinical research literature in this field in recent years.
Objective To evaluate the efficacy of n-3 PUFAs (fish oil) for prevention of cardiovascular events. Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were searched from the following electronic databases: PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2009), CBM, and CNKI. Quality assessment and data extraction were conducted by two reviewers independently. Disagreement was resolved through discussion. All data were analyzed by using Review Manager 4.2 software. Results Five studies involving 37 689 participants met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis results showed that: 1) Compared with placebo, the incidence rates of the cardiovascular death (RR=0.91, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.98), cardiovascular events (RR=0.95, 95%CI 0.91 to 0.98), angina (RR=0.79, 95%CI 0.64 to 0.96), and myocardial infarction (RR=0.79, 95%CI 0.65 to 0.96) could be reduced by n-3 PUFAs (fish oil). 2) There were no significant differences in death from any cause, the hospitalization rates of cardiovascular disease, sudden death, and heart failure (RR=0.95, 95%CI 0.90 to 1.00; RR=0.97, 95%CI 0.93 to 1.02; RR=0.90, 95%CI 0.79 to 1.01; RR=0.98, 95%CI 0.91 to 1.06). 3) Compared with placebo, the incidence rates of the arrhythmia and stroke could be increased, but there were no significant differences (RR=1.14, 95%CI: 0.80 to 1.62; RR=1.12, 95%CI 0.97 to 1.30). Conclusion Compared with placebo, n-3 PUFAs (fish oil) has good effects on reducing the incidence rates of total cardiovascular events, cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and angina pectoris, and it has the same efficacy in death from all cause, sudden death, heart failure, and the hospitalization rates of cardiovascular disease. There are no significant differences in the increased rates of arrhythmia and stroke.
Objectives To analyze the risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) of different severities. Methods The study included 50 patients with mild-to-moderate COPD and 50 with severe-to-very severe COPD admitted between January 2014 and January 2016. Comorbidities were recorded on the basis of data obtained from medical charts and clinical evaluations. The Charlson comorbidity index was calculated, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) score was determined in each subject. Results There were more prevalences of smoking, depression and dyslipidemia in the patients with mild-to-moderate COPD than those with severe-to-very severe COPD (all P<0.001). The prevalences of high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, alcoholism, and chronic heart failure were not different significantly between the two groups. The Charlson comorbidity index and HADS scores were not different between the two groups. Conclusions Comorbidities are fairly common in COPD regardless of its severity. Certain risk factors for CVD, as smoking, dyslipidemia, and depression, appear to be more prevalent in patients with mild-to-moderate COPD.
ObjectivesTo investigate the level of ankle-brachial index (ABI) of health examination population in Chongqing municipality and analyze the risk factors related to the level of ABI, so as to provide basis for effective evaluation of atherosclerotic lesions and their severity, as well as early detection, intervention and treatment of clinical cardiovascular diseases. MethodsA total of 22 886 subjects aged from 20 to 85 undergoing health examination in the medical examination center of First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in Chongqing municipality from January to December in 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. ABI and related physiological and biochemical data were collected. The relationship between ABI and age was analyzed using stepwise logistic regression model combined with restricted cubic splines. ResultsThe detection rate of abnormal ABI was 3.31% in 22 886 subjects undergoing health examination with 2.90% in males and 3.92% in females. The subjects aged below 40 presented the highest detection rate of abnormal ABI (6.17%) with 4.72% in males and 8.66% in females. The subjects were divided into two groups, one with ABI≤0.9 and one with ABI>0.9; the differences in age and levels of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), total cholesterol (TC), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) between the two groups were statistically significant (allP<0.05). Multivariate stepwise logistic regression combined with restricted cubic splines showed that age, gender and BMI were presented as independent factors affecting ABI, among which the age below 40 (OR=2.885, 95%CI (2.445, 3.404),P<0.0001) was the main risk factor. A curve relating age to probability of abnormal ABI was produced after correcting for the influences of sex and BMI, stratified by gender and BMI into different subgroups, showing a U-shaped curve of decreasing initially and then increasing between the probability of abnormal ABI and age. ConclusionsThe detection rate of abnormal ABI based on individuals undergoing health examination in Chongqing municipality was 3.31%. A U-shaped curve of downward trend followed by an upward one was shown between probability of abnormal ABI and age after correcting for the influences of gender and BMI. The clinical significance of ABI≤0.9 for youth population (20 to 40 years old) without cardiovascular risk factors requires further exploration.