ObjectiveTo summarize the research status and progress of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in Takayasu arteritis (TAK). MethodRecent literature published at home and abroad about the study of IL-6 in the TAK was reviewed and analyzed. ResultsIL-6 was a pro-inflammatory cytokine secreted by a variety of cells, which participated in a variety of inflammatory and immune reactions, and played an important role in the progress of TAK. The expression levels of IL-6 in the peripheral blood and vascular wall tissues of patients with TAK were increased. The gene polymorphism of IL-6 might be related to the occurrence of TAK. Tocilizumab, an IL-6 receptor antagonist, was effective and safe in the treatment of TAK. ConclusionsIL-6 can be used as one of the monitoring indicators for the active phase and recurrence of TAK. IL-6 receptor antagonist can be used as the treatment choice of TAK, but the application results in different stages of TAK are still worth expecting.
ObjectiveTo review and analyze the clinical manifestations of common aortitis in cardiac surgery. MethodsWe screened 41 552 patients who were hospitalized in the Department of Cardiac Surgery of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University from 2010 to 2020, analyzed the patients' clinical data, and classified according to the type of diseases. Then we summarized all their clinical manifestations. ResultsIn our center 145 patients were operated for aortitis diseases, including 75 males and 70 females, with the age of 24-76 (45.6±11.3) years. There were 61 patients of Takayasu's arteritis, 51 patients of Behcet's disease, 8 patients of syphilitic aortitis, 8 patients of systemic lupus erythematosus, 2 patients of Kawasaki disease, 4 patients of ankylosing spondylitis, 10 patients of dry syndrome, and 1 patient of scleroderma. ConclusionAortitis is not uncommon in cardiac surgery, and awareness of the disease should be enhanced. So that we can distinguish various types of aortitis and to make proper management to improve patients' prognosis.
ObjectivesTo explore the changes of some peripheral blood cells related to inflammation in patients with non-arteritis central retinal artery occlusion (NA-CRAO). MethodsA retrospective clinical study. From July 2019 to July 2021, a total of 218 patients with NA-CRAO hospitalized (NA-CRAO group) in Department of Ophthalmology, Xi'an People's Hospital (Xi'an Fourth Hospital) and 218 patients with routine physical examination (control group) during the same period were included in the study. There were no significant differences in age (t=0.60), sex composition ratio (χ2=0.83) and body mass index (t=0.77) between the two groups (P＞0.05). 0.2 ml fasting peripheral blood was collected from the subject, and white blood cells (WBC), neutrophils (NEUT), lymphocytes (LYMPH), red blood cells (RBC), RBC distribution width (RDW), platelets (PLT), mean PLT volume (MPV), and large PLT ratio (PLCR) were detected. The NEUT/LYMPH ratio (NLR) and PLT/LYMPH ratio (PLR) were calculated. t test was used to compare measurement data between groups. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed for blood cells with P＜0.05. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) was used to calculate the area under the curve (AUC) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) of each inflammatory indicator, and the optimal cutoff value was determined according to the Jorden index (sensitivity+specificity－1). ResultsCompared with control group, WBC, NEUT, NLR, RDW, PLR were increased in NA-CRAO group, while RBC and LYMPH were decreased, with statistical significance (t=9.68, 12.43, 9.47, 3.64, 5.54, 5.18, 0.46; P＜0.001). There was no significant difference in PLT, MPV and PLCR between the two groups (t=0.32, 1.56, 0.84; P＞0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that NLR was a possible risk factor for the occurrence of NA-CRAO (odds ratio=2.51, 95%CI 0.780-0.859, P=0.031). ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC predicted by NLR was 0.819, the optimal critical value was 3.05, and the sensitivity and specificity were 59.2% and 92.7%, respectively. ConclusionsIn peripheral blood cells of NA-CRAO patients, NEUT is significantly increased and LYMPH is decreased. NLR is a possible risk factor for NA-CRAO.
Objective To summarize the clinical characteristics of polyarteritis nodosa which begin with pulmonary lesions, so as to make early diagnosis and treatment possible. Methods Clinical data of three patients of polyarteritis nodosawhich began with pulmonary lesions were summarized includingmode of onset, evolvement of symptom and sign, data of laboratory test. The results of vascular ultrasound and histopathology examination were analyzed for their diagnostic value.Results Cough, sputum productive cough, and irregular high fever were present in the earlier period. Increases of C-reactive protein ( CRP) , erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( ERS) , white blood cell count ( WBC) , and anemia were main laboratory findings. Computed tomography revealed scattered infiltration in the lung. Anti-infective treatment was ineffective. Involvement of skin, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, nerve and muscle was present in sequence. Two of the three cases were confirmed by pathological biopsy. The symptoms were improved by the treatment with glucocorticoid. Conclusions Polyarteritis nodosa which begin with pulmonary lesions is easy to misdiagnose due to atypical symptoms. It is important for diagnosis of polyarteritis nodosa to collect evidence of systematic involvement through taking careful history and physical examination. Further angiography and biopsy can confirm the diagnosis. Cytotoxic drugs and/ or glucocorticoid are effective for the treatment of polyarteritis nodosa.
目的 探讨大动脉炎所致肾动脉上腹主动脉闭塞的手术治疗方法。方法 回顾性分析1例肾动脉上腹主动脉闭塞行腹主动脉-双股动脉人工血管搭桥手术治疗的患者的临床资料,并进行文献复习。结果 术后患者头痛明显好转，血压由术前的220/110 mm Hg(1 mm Hg=0.133 kPa)降至160/100 mm Hg,双下肢踝肱指数由0.50升至1.19。术后2周复查CTA示人工血管通畅，术后3个月复查彩超示人工血管通畅，血压在(140～150)/(80～95) mm Hg间波动，双眼视力1.0左右，已恢复正常生活。结论 大动脉炎所致肾动脉上腹主动脉闭塞常会影响多个重要脏器的供血，病变复杂，手术时机及方法的正确选择及长期抗炎治疗可以提高患者的治疗效果。
Objective To construct and evaluate a screening and diagnostic system based on color fundus images and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted screening for optic neuritis (ON) and non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). MethodsA diagnostic test study. From 2016 to 2020, 178 cases 267 eyes of NAION patients (NAION group) and 204 cases 346 eyes of ON patients (ON group) were examined and diagnosed in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University; 513 healthy individuals of 1 160 eyes (the normal control group) with normal fundus by visual acuity, intraocular pressure and optical coherence tomography examination were collected from 2018 to 2020. All 2 909 color fundus images were as the data set of the screening and diagnosis system, including 730, 805, and 1 374 images for the NAION group, ON group, and normal control group, respectively. The correctly labeled color fundus images were used as input data, and the EfficientNet-B0 algorithm was selected for model training and validation. Finally, three systems for screening abnormal optic discs, ON, and NAION were constructed. The subject operating characteristic (ROC) curve, area under the ROC (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and heat map were used as indicators of diagnostic efficacy. ResultsIn the test data set, the AUC for diagnosing the presence of an abnormal optic disc, the presence of ON, and the presence of NAION were 0.967 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.947-0.980], 0.964 (95%CI 0.938-0.979), and 0.979 (95%CI 0.958-0.989), respectively. The activation area of the systems were mainly located in the optic disc area in the decision-making process. ConclusionAbnormal optic disc, ON and NAION, and screening diagnostic systems based on color fundus images have shown accurate and efficient diagnostic performance.
Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a chronic nonspecific inflammation that commonly occurs in the aorta and its main branches. Most patients with TA are lack of clinical manifestations, leading to misdiagnosis. When the TA is correctly diagnosed, the patients may already have stenosis or occlusion in the involved arteries, resulting in arterial ischemia and hypoxia symptoms, and in severe cases it will be life-threatening. Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) is an emerging method for assessing TA, but the assessment relies heavily on experiences of radiologists performing manual and qualitative analyses, so the diagnostic results are often not accurate. To overcome this limitation, this paper presents a computer-assisted quantitative analysis of TA carotid artery lesions based on CEUS. First, the TA lesion was outlined on the carotid wall, and one homogeneous rectangle and one polygon were selected as two reference regions in the carotid lumen. The temporal and spatial features of the lesion region and the reference regions were then calculated. Furthermore, the difference and ratio of the features between the lesion and the reference regions were computed as new features (to eliminate interference factors). Finally, the correlation was analyzed between the CEUS features and inflammation biomarkers consisting of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP). The data in this paper were collected from 34 TA patients in Zhongshan Hospital undergoing CEUS examination with a total of thirty-seven carotid lesions, where two patients were with two lesions before and after treatment and one patient was with left and right bilateral lesions. Among these patients, 13 were untreated primary patients with a total of 14 lesions, where one patient was with bilateral lesions. The results showed that for all patients, the neovascularization area ratio in the 1/3 inner region of a lesion (ARi1/3) achieved a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.56 (P=0.001) with CRP, and for the primary patients, the neovascularization area ratio in the 1/2 inner region of a lesion (ARi1/2) had an r-value of 0.76 (P=0.001) with CRP. This study indicates that the proposed computer-assisted method can objectively and semi-automatically extract quantitative features from CEUS images, so as to reduce the effect on diagnosis due to subjective experiences of the radiologists, and thus it is expected to be used for clinical diagnosis and severity evaluation of TA carotid lesions.
Patients with Takayasu arteritis combined with aortic valve disease often have a poor prognosis following surgical valve replacement, frequently encountering complications such as perivalvular leakage, valve detachment, and anastomotic aneurysm. This article presents a high-risk case wherein severe aortic valve insufficiency associated with Takayasu arteritis was successfully managed through transcatheter aortic valve implantation via the transapical approach. The patient had satisfactory valve function with no complications observed during the six-month postoperative follow-up period. This case provides a minimally invasive and feasible alternative for the clinical management of such high-risk patients.