Post-stroke depression (PSD), a common complication after stroke, severely affects the recovery and quality of life of patients with stroke. Owing to its complex mechanisms, PSD treatment remains highly challenging. Hippocampal synaptic plasticity is one of the key factors leading to PSD; however, the precise molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Numerous studies have found that neurotrophic factors, protein kinases, and neurotransmitters influence depressive behavior by modulating hippocampal synaptic plasticity. This review further elaborates on the role of hippocampal synaptic plasticity in PSD by summarizing recent research and analyzing possible molecular mechanisms. Evidence for the correlation between hippocampal mechanisms and PSD helps to better understand the pathological process of PSD and improve its treatment.

Mining and industrial activity are contributing to the increase of heavy metal (HM) pollution in the environment, especially in soil. These metals leach into water, spread to plants and enter the food chain. Phytoremediation coupled to selected rhizosphere microbiota is an environmentally friendly technology designed to promote HM bioremediation in soils. In this study, sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.) was used together with Rhizophagus irregularis, an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and Cupriavidus sp. strain 1C2, a plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), as a phytoremediation strategy to remove Zn and Cd from an industrial soil (599 mg Zn kg -1 and 1.2 mg Cd kg -1) and produce plant biomass - an agricultural soil was also used to obtain a H. annuus growth and metal accumulation control. The H. annuus biomass in the contaminated industrial soil was 17% lower, at harvest than that in an agricultural soil. Removals of ca. 0.04 and 0.91% of Zn and Cd respectively were obtained with the biomass produced in the industrial soil in a single crop. Bioaccumulation, remediation and translocation factors corroborated the higher Zn and Cd accumulation in the roots, compared to other plants parts. The survival of applied microbiota was indicated by a high root colonization rate of AMF and identification of strain 1C2 in the rhizosphere at the end of the phytoremediation assay. Changes in the bacterial community occurred in the industrial soil and were possibly associated to the phytoremediation effect on the rhizosphere: metals removal by the plant together with the synergic relationships established between AMF, PGPR and the autochthonous microbial community might have favoured specific soil bacterial genera, namely Nitrospira, Acidobacterium and Candidatus Koribacter. In this study, an optimized phytomanagement strategy applied to a real contaminated soil was successfully tested, and plant biomass with potential for upstream energetic valorisation purposes was produced.

Introduction: This prospective study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scan of the temporal bone in predicting the degree of difficulty of stapes exposure during otomicrosurgery. Methods: Twenty-seven patients with chronic otitis media and conductive or mixed deafness who were scheduled to undergo otomicrosurgery were included in the study. The width of the external auditory canal bone, the stapes to the cone bulge, as well as the stapes to the tympanic sinus distance were measured to indicate stapes exposure difficulty, which was confirmed during operation and divided into hard-to-expose and easily-exposed groups. The differences between the groups were compared; statistically significant parameters were included in the logistic regression model. Statistical significance was set at P<0.05. Results: Coronary and horizontal CT measurements of the stapes to cone bulge distance were statistically significant between the two groups ( P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). The CT measurements of the stapes to tympanic sinus and the width of the external auditory canal bone were also statistically significant between the two groups ( P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the bulge distance could be used as an independent predictor of the difficulty of stapes exposure. Conclusion: Preoperative high-resolution CT scans in the coronal and horizontal planes of the stapes to the cone ridge can provide a reference in predicting the difficulty of stapes exposure during otomicrosurgery and deserve further attention.

Soil erosion control is critical to global food production and ecosystem health. The Mediterranean region is particularly concerned because it is prone to erosion and is expected to be strongly affected by climatic and anthropogenic changes. In this paper we explore how land use and management (LUM) can mitigate climate change impacts and increase agricultural attractiveness in pasture-dominated Mediterranean mountain environments. For that, soil erosion for different combinations of current and plausible future climate and LUM conditions were simulated on a small watershed located in eastern Sicily (Italy) using the LandSoil model. LUM scenarios were established as a modulation of environmental protection and agricultural production/diversification. The main management distinctions tested in this paper included intensive vs. extensive practices for pasture, and conventional vs. conservative practices for cereals and orchards. Simulations showed that the impact of climate change was very low and not significant in the studied watershed. Our results also emphasised that agricultural diversification coupled with adaptations in practices and management can improve the attractiveness of agriculture in pasture-dominated environments while maintaining soil protection at an acceptable level.

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a group of enveloped, single-stranded (positive-sense) RNA viruses belonging to the nidoviral order, family Coronaviridae. They are an important family of pathogens that affect the human respiratory system can produce clinical pictures ranging from the common cold, with seasonal pattern in winter, to more serious ones such as those produced by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Near East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) viruses and the latter responsible for the great global pandemic, SAR-Cov2, which causes the COVID-19 disease that has spread worldwide with very efficient transmission and a higher case fatality rate than seasonal influenza. Diagnostic tools for the detection and monitoring of COVID-19 have become an indispensable requirement to quantify the number of cases around the world and from this point to be able to take the corresponding sanitary and political measures to give a forceful response to the outbreaks that are appearing. Testing is vital clinical diagnostic tool, and the techniques available so far have been based on detection of viral genes (such as RT-PCR reference technique), detection of antibodies and detection of viral antigens. Diagnosis has enormous potential in the fight against diseases and in obtaining better health outcomes in the population. The Covid-19 pandemic focused on the preparedness needed to assess, analyze and identify the different variables of health care. With the extensive use of quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) technology, it is now possible to provide accurate and timely laboratory diagnostic test results to public health experts and other stakeholders in a robust manner. This contrasts sharply with the last influenza pandemic in 2009, in which diagnosis in many clinical settings was based primarily on clinical observations, resulting in an underestimation of the actual number of deaths caused by pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus. Several studies worldwide show that diagnostic tests are an indispensable tool in clinical practice. First, because they provide critical information at every step of the patient pathway: from prognosis, preventive studies (screening), diagnosis to monitoring disease progression and predicting responses to treatment. And also because they play an increasingly important role in providing personalized, cost-effective, value-based healthcare. Even so, the value of diagnostic information is often not fully recognized by health systems. Diagnostic research and development helps develop products and solutions that lead to more patient-centered, outcome-based care. This helps enable healthcare professionals to make the right diagnoses at the right time.

Decreased aortic compliance is a precursor to numerous cardiovascular diseases. Compliance is regulated by the rigidity of the aortic wall and the vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) within it. Extracellular matrix stiffening, observed during ageing, reduces compliance and contributes to hypertension. In response to increased rigidity, VSMCs generate enhanced contractile forces that result in VSMC stiffening and a further reduction in compliance. Due to a lack of suitable in vitro models, the mechanisms driving VSMC response to matrix rigidity remain poorly defined. Human aortic-VSMCs were seeded onto polyacrylamide hydrogels whose rigidity mimicked either healthy or aged/diseased aortae. VSMC response to contractile agonist stimulation was measured through changes in cell area and volume. VSMCs were pre-treated with pharmacological agents prior to agonist stimulation to identify regulators of VSMC hypertrophy. VSMCs undergo a differential response to contractile agonist stimulation based on matrix rigidity. On pliable matrices, VSMCs contract, decreasing in cell area. Meanwhile, on rigid matrices VSMCs undergo a hypertrophic response, increasing in area and volume. Piezo1 mediated calcium influx drives VSMC hypertrophy by promoting microtubule destabilisation. Pharmacological stabilisation of microtubules or blocking calcium influx prevented VSMC hypertrophy on rigid matrices whilst maintaining contractility on pliable matrices. In response to extracellular matrix rigidity, VSMCs undergo a hypertrophic response driven by piezo1-mediated microtubule destabilisation. Pharmacological targeting of this response blocks matrix rigidity induced VSMC hypertrophy whilst VSMC contractility on healthy mimicking matrices is unimpeded. Through delineating this rigidity-induced mechanism, we identify novel targets whose pharmacological inhibition may prove beneficial against VSMC-driven cardiovascular disease.

Esophageal fistula involving the thoracic aorta is a rare event. Mycotic aneurysm may complicate this condition: A case reportShokrollah Hafezeftekhari 1, Farzaneh Khoroushi 1, Hossein Bozorgi 11Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IranCorrespondence: Hossein Bozorgi, Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IranEmail: Bozorgih4001@mums.ac.irTel: 09906136895Shokrollah Hafezeftekhari – MD – Radiology ResidentAffiliation: Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Email Address: Hafezesh4001@mums.ac.irFarzaneh Khoroushi – MD – Assistant Professor of RadiologyAffiliation: Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Email Address: KhoroushiF@mums.ac.irHossein Bozorgi – MD – Radiology ResidentAffiliation: Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Email Address: Bozorgih4001@mums.ac.ir

Today, with the rapidly developing technology, data volume and data sharing are increasing day by day. Data mapping and reducing is very important in the process of analyzing big data which in faster and more effectively. In big data analysis, data mapping sequence and mining works by using a specific algorithm the inputs and lists of values as parameters. All values in the system entered for the intermediate results which are converted and created. In the mapping process, the data is subjected to fast sorting processes, taking into account the area that occupied with the number of repetitions. Processing small amounts of data has a cost-reducing effect on issues such as less time, memory, process and disk consumption. In this study, data sorting and data reduction operations were performed more effectively with the proposed algorithm. The data prepared for data analysis with their sortable features and then the process applied. Considering the data size and value structures have been ensured that the reduction process applied to each data reason of large amounts data processed at a much higher cost. This process facilitated the selection of samples are also easier. Software has been developed to realize with new subprogram which was arranged by using of the Hadoop library. The value file transferred and reduced to certain limits and then sequencing and mapping. Indexing has been made in the mapping output. The mapping and reducing classes working in parallel and an output file formed as a result of the evaluation.

A new method is developed for accurately approximating the solution to state-variable inequality path constrained optimal control problems using a multiple-domain adaptive Legendre-Gauss-Radau collocation method. The method consists of the following parts. First, a structure detection method is developed to estimate switch times in the activation and deactivation of state-variable inequality path constraints. Second, using the detected structure, the domain is partitioned into multiple-domains where each domain corresponds to either a constrained or an unconstrained segment. Furthermore, additional decision variables are introduced in the multiple-domain formulation, where these additional decision variables represent the switch times of the detected active state-variable inequality path constraints. Within a constrained domain, the path constraint is differentiated with respect to the independent variable until the control appears explicitly, and this derivative is set to zero along the constrained arc while all preceding derivatives are set to zero at the start of the constrained arc. The time derivatives of the active state-variable inequality path constraints are computed using automatic differentiation and the properties of the chain rule. The method is demonstrated on two problems, the first being a benchmark optimal control problem which has a known analytical solution and the second being a challenging problem from the field of aerospace engineering in which there is no known analytical solution. When compared against previously developed adaptive Legendre-Gauss-Radau methods, the results show that the method developed in this paper is capable of computing accurate solutions to problems whose solution contain active state-variable inequality path constraints.

Research has shown that genetics and epigenetics regulate mating behavior across multiple species. Previous studies have generally focused on the signaling pathways involved and spatial distribution of the associated receptors. However a thorough quantitative characterization of the receptors involved may offer deeper insight into mating behavioral patterns. Here oxytocin, arginine-vasopressin 1a, dopamine 1, and dopamine 2 receptors were investigated across 76 vertebrate species. The receptor sequences were characterized by polarity-based randomness, amino acid frequency-based Shannon entropy and Shannon sequence variability, intrinsic protein disorder, binding affinity, stability and pathogenicity of homology-based SNPs, structural and physicochemical features. Hierarchical clustering of species was derived based on structural and physicochemical features of the four receptor sequences separately, which eventually led to proximal relationships among 29 species. Humans were found to be significantly distant phylogenetically from the prairie voles, a representative of monogamous species based on coital behavior. Furthermore, the mouse (polygamous), the prairie deer mouse (polygamous), and the prairie vole (monogamous) although being proximally related (based on quantitative genomics of receptors), differed in their coital behavioral pattern, mostly, due to behavioral epigenetic regulations. This study adds a perspective that receptor genomics does not directly translate to behavioral patterns.

Background The study aimed to investigate the effects of accident pregnancy CHB (Chronic Hepatitis B) patients’ reproductive age on their offspring during entecavir (ETV) antiviral therapy. Methods We retrospectively enrolled 112 couples were divided into observational and control groups. 53 couples who had accident pregnancies while receiving long-term ETV antiviral medication were recruited for the observational group. The control group comprised 59 couples who became pregnant accidentally while receiving long-term TDF antiviral treatment. All mothers persisted in their pregnancies in the observational group, and ETV was promptly replaced with TDF. Every mother remained pregnant and continued to use TDF in the control group. Results The maternal and baby safety profiles, including the prevalence of congenital disabilities, were comparable across the observational and control groups at delivery. In addition, no unusual indications or symptoms of the newborns were noted during the follow-up intervals of 28, 48, and 96 weeks postpartum. Conclusions Initiating ETV or TDF in early and middle pregnancy seems to be safe for both mothers and infants. Important data from our investigation support using ETV in early-mid gestational accident pregnancies and the prompt substitution of TDF antiviral medication for ETV. The pregnancy was not needed to be terminated.

The world is moving on the clothing mobile application shopping applications, especially during the pandemic COVID 19 days there seems to be an excessive demand of online shopping. Online shopping applications where provides an approach of buying a product of your choice with the least effort also involves some of the risk factors, especially in the psychological environment of the developing county like Pakistan, where people have the minor trust factor and prefer to touch, use and see the personalized appearance before buying the item. This behavior seems to be more regressive when it comes to shopping in terms of clothing. People prefer to wear the items, match the colors, and check if it suits their personality. Online shopping seems to lack this customer's approach, especially in developing countries like Pakistan. There has always been fear and, at the same time, a trust factor. A virtual trial room is an alternative approach where a user can virtually try the clothes on the body after providing the complete image to the system and then try different color combinations, different fabrics, and matching the contrast. Using an Image processing machine learning approach, a methodology is proposed to judge this behavior of the customer after trying the clothes on personal appearance virtually and evaluate the results after comparing them with buying behavior of the user in a simple online application and the online mobile application containing the virtual trial room model. Furthermore, studies have Virtual trial room model a productive model in the online shopping experience. Following the described methodology in mobile clothing mobile application, it is expected to gain utmost trust after eliminating buying risks associated with online shopping.

Manihot esculenta Crantz (cassava) is an important crop with high photosynthetic rate and high yield. It is classified as a C3-C4 plant based on its photosynthetic and structural characteristics. To investigate the structural and photosynthetic characteristics of cassava leaves at the cellular level, a single-cell transcriptome atlas of cassava leaves was created. A total of 11,177 high-quality leaf cells were divided into 15 cell clusters. Based on leaf cell marker genes, we identified three major tissues of cassava leaves, which were mesophyll, epidermis, and vascular tissue, and analyzed their distinctive properties and metabolic activity. To supplement the genes for identifying the types of leaf cells, we screened 120 candidate marker genes. We constructed a leaf cell development trajectory map and discovered six genes related to cell differentiation fate. The structural and photosynthetic properties of cassava leaves analyzed at the single cellular level provide a theoretical foundation for further enhancing cassava yield and nutrition.

Research on the mechanism and protective measures of lung injury caused by CPB has attracted extensive attention. But the exact mechanism is still being explored. This study explored the role of autophagy in CPB lung injury by establishing the left lung ischemia-reperfusion injury model of rats and observing the relationship between CPB lung injury and autophagy. The effects of exogenous membrane tripeptide (AnxA1sp) on lung injury and autophagy in rats were investigated. Compared with the control group, the expressions of autophagy bodies and autophagy-related proteins in the lung tissue of rats after CPB were increased in the model group. With the aggravation of lung injury, autophagy was significantly increased and the degradation of autophagy was blocked. Autophagy was involved in the occurrence and development of CPB lung injury. In the rat model group of AnxA1-/-, lack of AnxA1 can cause insufficient autophagy and aggravated lung injury in CPB rats. The addition of exogenous AnxA1sp can reduce lung I/R injury in CPB rats, activate lung autophagy, promote autophagy flow, reduce the release of lung inflammatory factors, reduce lung pathological injury, and improve lung function. In conclusion, regulating the autophagy of lung tissue can produce a lung protection effect.

Background. Two-dimensional speckle tracking evaluation (2D-STE) is a useful tool to evaluate the complexity of atrial function by the analysis of the different phases of atrial deformation and by the combination with Doppler measurements of diastolic function. Aim of the study. To evaluate the role of the left atrial (LA) strain parameters to predict worsening chronic heart failure (CHF). Methods. We enrolled outpatients affected by CHF referred to our heart failure unit. Each patient underwent a medical visit, an electrocardiogram (ECG), and an echocardiographic examination. LA function was assessed by 2D-STE. The three phases of LA strain – i.e. the reservoir (LAr), the conduit (LAcd), and the contraction (LAct) – were evaluated. Moreover, the ratio between LAr and that of septal (LAr/Ees), lateral (LAr/Eel), and septal-lateral (LAr/Eem) E/e’ were evaluated. During follow-up, the worsening of heart failure was evaluated. Results. Two hundred twenty-eight patients were enrolled. During a mean follow-up of 14±7 months, 47 patients showed at least one event related to heart failure worsening (40 hospitalisations, 5 heart transplantations, and 19 cardiovascular deaths). During univariate Cox regression analysis, LAr, LAcd, LAct, LAr/Ees, LAr/Eel, and LAr/Eem were all associated with events related to heart failure worsening, but during multivariate regression analysis, only LAr (HR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.91–0.98; p: 0.007), LAr/Ees (HR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.30–0.78; p: 0.002), and LAr/Eem (HR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.47–0.89; p: 0.008) remained significantly associated with the events. Finally, LASr/Ee’s showed accuracy in predicting outcomes greater than LASr (C-index 0.78 vs. 0.72, respectively). Conclusions. In CHF patients, the measure of the LA reservoir by 2D-STE is independently associated with heart failure worsening, but the accuracy in predicting the events is even greater when the reservoir is combined with the Doppler measures of diastolic function.

Pomacea canaliculata, commonly known as Golden Apple Snail (GAS), an invasive snail, has successfully invaded ecosystems outside its native ranges with negative impacts being reported. GAS was reported in Kenya in 2020 invading one of the largest rice-producing schemes, the Mwea irrigation scheme. Delimiting surveys were conducted in five major rice production schemes in Kenya to establish the boundary of spread since its first report and to help in the management and development of quarantine strategies to limit the spread of this pest within the scheme and other risk areas. In addition, an Ensemble model approach was used to model the potential distribution of GAS in Eastern Africa. Over 80% of the Mwea scheme’s sections were infested with GAS along the river and irrigation channel gradient from the initial infestation point (Ndekia). The mean adult/m2 and egg clutches count was 8.4 and 7.7, respectively. Significant difference was observed in number of adults/m2 and egg masses among the sections; X2(7) = 138.69, p< 0.001and X 2(7) = 114.17, p < 0.001, respectively. The survey did not find any adults or eggs of GAS in the Ahero, Bura, Hola and West Kano rice schemes. Most of the areas in Kenya were suitable for GAS invasion, though with significant variations across the country. At a regional level, the countries with the highest suitability for GAS were Malawi, Madagascar and Uganda. Mozambique, Tanzania and Ethiopia also had areas of high suitability, but these were more concentrated in specific areas in each of the countries. In comparison, suitability across Sudan and Somalia was very low. Strict quarantine measures should be instituted and implemented to curb not just the spread of GAS in Kenya but entry into uninvaded regions.

Mitochondrial transcription is being studied with the increasing interest to better understand the coding capacity of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Based on studies showing that mtDNA encodes additional genes that are not functional in oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), it has been understood that mitochondrial transcription is more complex than previously thought. In this study, mitochondrial transcription was investigated in terms of polyadenylation patterns in Apis mellifera (Insecta: Hymenoptera). We found that both sense and antisense transcripts were captured and polyadenylated, and gene expression levels and polyadenylation length were highly variable between genes in Apis. Mitochondrial RNAs of A. mellifera were found to be polyadenylated with an average size of 31 adenines. Nevertheless, the highest transcript representatives of each gene generally appeared to have polyadenylation of size 5-9 bases. Generally, transcripts containing longer and/or shorter forms of each gene were thought to indicate the existence of putative UTR-containing genes, functional non-coding RNA genes and variant gene forms. We showed that some transcripts contain non-template dependent additional nucleotides before polyadenyl tail. Transcripts containing at least some bases of the intergenic regions downstream of the gene had the highest transcript representation after the monocistronic gene units. These findings support the possible functional role of the intergenic regions.

Monitoring the effect of ecosystem restoration can be difficult and time consuming. Autonomous sensors, such as acoustic recorders, can aid monitoring across long time scales. This project successfully developed, tested and implemented call recognisers for eight species of frog in the Murray-Darling Basin. Recognisers for all but one species performed well and substantially better than many species recognisers reported in the literature. We achieved this through a comprehensive development phase, which carefully considered and refined the representativeness of training data, as well as the construction (amplitude cut-off) and the similarity thresholds (score cut-offs) of each call template used. Recogniser performance was high for almost all species examined. Recognisers for C. signifera, L. fletcherii, L. dumerilii, L. peronii, and C. parinsignifera all performed well, with most templates having ROC values (the proportion of true positive and true negatives) over 0.7, and some much higher. Recognisers for L. peronii, L. fletcherii and L. dumerilii performed particularly well in the training dataset, which allowed for responses to environmental watering events, a restoration activity, to be clearly observed. While slightly more involved than building recognisers using commercial packages, the workflows ensure that a high quality recogniser can be built and the performance fine-tuned using multiple parameters. Using the same framework, recognisers can be improved in future iterations. We believe that multi-species recognisers are a highly effective and precise way to detect the effects of ecosystem restoration.

Half of patients with heart failure are presented with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The pathophysiology of these patients is complex but increased left ventricular (LV) stiffness is proved to play a key role. However, the application of this parameter was limited since its measurements requires invasive catheterization. With advances in ultrasound technology, new advances have been achieved in the assessment of LV chamber or myocardial stiffness using noninvasive echocardiography. Therefore, this review was carried out to summarize the pathophysiological mechanisms, correlations with invasive LV stiffness constant, applications in different populations as well as the limitations of echocardiography-derived indices for assessment of both LV chamber and myocardial stiffness. LV chamber stiffness indices such as E/e’/LVEDV, E/SRe/LVEDV, and DPVQ were derived on the basis of the relationship between echocardiographic parameters of LVFP and LV size. However, all these methods are surrogate and lumped measurements, relying on E/e’ or E/SRe for evaluating LVFP. The limitations of E/e’ or E/SRe in assessment of LVFP may contribute to the moderate correlation between E/e’/LVEDV or E/SRe/LVEDV and LV stiffness constant. Even the best validated measurement (DPVQ) is considered unreliable in the individual patient. Compared to E/e’/LVEDV and E/SRe/LVEDV, I PVA/IA and F PVA/FA may display better performance in assessing LV chamber stiffness as evidenced by a higher correlation with LV stiffness constant. However, only one study has been conducted in the literature on the exploration and application of I PVA/I A and F PVA/F A, and its accuracy in assessing LV chamber stiffness remains to be confirmed. In terms of echocardiographic indices for LV myocardial stiffness evaluation, the parameters of EMI/DWS, iVP and SWI were proposed. Despite alteration of DWS and its predictive value of adverse outcomes in various populations have been widely validated, it was found that DWS may be better considered as an overall marker of cardiac function performance instead of pure myocardial stiffness. As for the iVP and SWI, the validities of these two indices in assessing LV myocardial stiffness have not been confirmed in invasive studies. More echocardiographic indices with higher sensitivities and specificities warrant to be further uncovered to evaluate LV stiffness.

Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is an inherited cardiac disease characterized by fibrofatty replacement of ventricular myocardium. Ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death (SCD) are the main clinical manifestations[1-3](#ref-0001). ACM was previously called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia (ARVC/D). However, recent studies have shown that this disease is not limited to the right ventricle; in ACM, biventricular involvement reaches 50%. Subsequently, the left-dominant subtype was also identified, which supported the adoption of the broader term “arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy” [1-3](#ref-0001). In this report, we describe a case of secondary syncope in a patient with ACM who developed right bundle branch block with ventricular tachycardia (RBBB-VT), considering that VT originated in the left ventricle. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) of the patient showed enlargement of the left atrium and left ventricle and significant thinning of most of the free wall of the left ventricle. The movement of the left ventricular wall was significantly weakened and nearly disappeared (LVEF, 30%). Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and fat sequencing showed that most of the left ventricular free wall was replaced by fibre and adipose tissue. Therefore, the diagnosis was considered to be arrhythmogenic left ventricular cardiomyopathy (ALVC), and CMR played a key role in the diagnosis.

A document by Avril Harder. Click on the document to view its contents.

Background Neuroblastoma (NB) is a malignancy of neural crest cells that typically occurs in children. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the fat mass and obesity associated ( FTO) gene, a well-conserved gene, are related to tumorigenesis. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding the relationship between FTO gene SNPs and NB susceptibility. Methods TaqMan assay was performed to determine associations between FTO gene SNPs and the risk of NB in 898 patients and 1734 controls from eight medical centers in China. And stratification analysis was performed to assess the association between the selected FTO SNPs and NB susceptibility among different subgroups. Results There was no significant association between the selected FTO polymorphisms and risk of NB in both single locus analysis and combined analysis. Conclusion Our study shows that individuals with retroperitoneal NB and those with III+IV NB are more likely to present with FTO SNPs than other patients. Furthermore, participants with FTO rs8047395 GG genotype were more likely to develop III+IV stage NB than other participants.

Calcineurin inhibitors (CNI), cyclosporine and tacrolimus, are commonly used for pharmacotherapeutic prophylaxis of Graft-vs.-Host disease after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Unfortunately, their use is associated with significant toxicities. While intolerance to CNI is well defined, there is very little data on how they impact outcomes after HCT in children. Our retrospective study in a cohort of 82 children, shows a high intolerance rate of 39% in this population associated with lower event free survival and a higher transplant-related mortality.

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a tumor marker associated with liver cancer and non-seminomatous germ cell tumors. Wilms tumor (WT) is the most common pediatric renal cancer and the second most frequent childhood abdominal malignancy. The International Society of Pediatric Oncology does not routinely recommend pretreatment biopsy in children with suspected WT and the diagnosis is mainly clinical and radiological. We herein describe a pediatric case of suspected WT with atypically elevated serum AFP and clinical and radiological findings uncommon in WT, requiring pretreatment biopsy for a definitive diagnosis. Tumor histology confirmed a stage IV WT.