Microvascular function

BACKGROUNDS: Blink reflex (BR) is an oligosynaptic reflex that involves the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve (TN), ipsilateral main sensory and trigeminospinal nuclei, bilateral facial nuclei, and the facial nerves (FN). Theoretically, as it tests the function of both TN and FN simultaneously, it is an ideal tool for monitoring the status of TN and FN during skull base surgeries. Nevertheless, it is only recently utilized in surgeries as the use of anesthesia limits its use. METHODS: Two authors inputted the search terms: [(Blink Reflex) AND (Intraoperative Neuromonitoring OR Neuro Intraoperative Monitoring OR Intraoperative OR NIOM OR IONM) AND (skull base surgery OR Facial Nerve OR Trigeminal Nerve OR Microvascular Decompression OR Hemifacial Spasm)] in Medline through its Pubmed interface and other search engines...

OBJECTIVES: Systemic vasculitis is a heterogenous group of autoimmune diseases characterized by enhanced cardiovascular mortality. Endothelial dysfunction is associated with accelerated vascular damage, representing a core pathophysiologic mechanism contributing to excess CV risk. Recent studies have also shown that complement activation holds significant role in the pathogenesis of Anti-Neutrophilic Cytoplasmic Autoantibody (ANCA) -associated vasculitis (AAV). Given the potential crosstalk between the endothelium and complement, we aimed to assess, for the first time simultaneously, easily accessible biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction and complement activation in SV...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review examines the available evidence concerning the incidence of heart failure in patients with chronic coronary syndrome, with a focus on gender differences. RECENT FINDINGS: The incidence of heart failure in the context of chronic coronary syndrome presents conflicting data. Most of the available information stems from studies involving stable patients' post-acute coronary syndrome, revealing a wide range of incidence rates, from less than 3% to over 20%, observed over 5 years of follow-up...

BACKGROUND: Local brain tissue can suffer from ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, which lead to vascular endothelial damage. The peptide δ opioid receptor (δOR) agonist [D-ala2, D-leu5]-Enkephalin (DADLE) can reduce apoptosis caused by acute I/R injury in brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs). OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the mechanism by which DADLE enhances the level of mitophagy in BMECs by upregulating the expression of transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 4 (TRPV4)...

Recently, there has been growing interest in using cell therapy through core decompression (CD) to treat osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). Our study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and mechanism of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs) in treating steroid-induced ONFH. We constructed a steroid-induced ONFH rabbit model as well as dexamethasone (Dex)-treated bone microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) model of human femoral head. We injected hUCMSCs into the rabbit femoral head via CD...

BACKGROUND: Kidney biopsies are routinely used for diagnostic and prognostic purposes but their utility in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting is limited. We investigated the associations of clinical and histopathological risk factors with ICU-acute kidney injury (AKI) in donors with brain death (DBD) with kidneys of lower quality and procurement biopsies. METHODS: Overall, 221 donors with brain death, 239 biopsies and 197 recipients were included. The biopsies were reread and scored according to the Banff recommendations...

OBJECTIVE: Designing physiologically adequate microvascular trees is of crucial relevance for bioengineering functional tissues and organs. Yet, currently available methods are poorly suited to replicate the morphological and topological heterogeneity of real microvascular trees because the parameters used to control tree generation are too simplistic to mimic results of the complex angiogenetic and structural adaptation processes in vivo. METHODS: We propose a method to overcome this limitation by integrating a conditional deep convolutional generative adversarial network (cDCGAN) with a local fractal dimension-oriented constrained constructive optimization (LFDO-CCO) strategy...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: As oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a chronic progressive disorder, the treatment is based on the severity of the disease. Surgical treatment is the only choice for grade III and grade IV OSMF cases because the patient can neither clean his/her mouth nor properly chew. The resulting soft tissue defect requires resurfacing with various well-vascularized tissues such as extraoral flaps, intraoral flaps, microvascular flaps, and allografts that have been used. Reconstruction of the resultant defects proved to be challenging...

BACKGROUND: Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) is a common complication of ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and can lead to adverse cardiovascular events. Whether CMD after STEMI is associated with functional left ventricular remodeling (FLVR) and diastolic dysfunction, has not been investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS: This is a nonrandomized, observational, prospective study of patients with STEMI with multivessel disease. Coronary flow reserve and index of microcirculatory resistance of the culprit vessel were measured at 3 months post-STEMI...

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD), a primary microvascular complication arising from diabetes, may result in end-stage renal disease. Epigenetic regulation of endothelial mesenchymal transition (EndMT) has been recently reported to exert function in metabolic memory and DKD. Here, we investigated the mechanism which Sirt7 modulated EndMT in human glomerular endothelial cells (HGECs) in the occurrence of metabolic memory in DKD. Lower levels of SDC1 and Sirt7 were noted in the glomeruli of both DKD patients and diabetes-induced renal injury rats, as well as in human glomerular endothelial cells (HGECs) with high blood sugar...

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of microvascular decompression（MVD） in treating inpatients suffering from primary hemifacial spasm（HFS）. Methods: A total of 21 inpatients with HFS underwent MVD. The clinical effect was follow up evaluated according to the clinical symptoms until post operative 6 months. Results: The effective rate of MVD for 1 day, 14 days, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months post-operation was 95.2%, 100%, 100%, 100% and 100%, respectively.one patient had transient tinnitus and the symptom disappeared within 6 days postoperatively...

Circular RNA (circRNA) can influence the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA). However, there are still many circRNAs whose functions are unknown. Our research explores the role of a novel circRNA, hsa_circ_0079875, in HCC. The expression of hsa_circ_0079875 in HCC was verified by next-generation sequencing, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The distribution of hsa_circ_0079875 in HCC cells was investigated by RNA subcellular isolation and FISH assays...

PURPOSE: Children's poor levels of physical activity (PA) participation and early-onset vascular aging are identified as global health challenges. Children's guided activity play (GAP)-based PA programs have emerged as effective strategies to improve cardiovascular risk factors and health-related fitness. This study proposes to investigate whether GAP improves children's cutaneous microvascular reactivity and health-related fitness. METHODS: Children's (n = 18; 9...

Although the association between persistent hypertension and the compromise of both micro- and macro-circulatory functions is well recognized, a significant gap in quantitative investigations exploring the interplay between microvascular and macrovascular injuries still exists. In this study, the authors looked into the relationship between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and hypertensive retinopathy in treated hypertensive adults. The authors conducted a cross-sectional study of treated hypertensive patients with the last follow-up data from the China Stoke Primary Prevention Trial (CSPPT) in 2013...

PURPOSE: This study explored the relationship among microvascular parameters as delineated by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and retinal perfusion. Here, we introduce a versatile framework to examine the interplay between the retinal vascular structure and function by generating virtual vasculatures from central retinal vessels to macular capillaries. Also, we have developed a hemodynamics model that evaluates the associations between vascular morphology and retinal perfusion...

BACKGROUND: Reliable assessment of coronary microvascular function is essential. Techniques to measure absolute coronary blood flow are promising but need validation. The objectives of this study were: first, to validate the potential of saline infusion to generate maximum hyperemia in vivo. Second, to validate absolute coronary blood flow measured with continuous coronary thermodilution at high (40-50 mL/min) infusion speeds and asses its safety. METHODS: Fourteen closed-chest sheep underwent absolute coronary blood flow measurements with increasing saline infusion speeds at different dosages under general anesthesia...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia worldwide and significantly impacts the essential functions of daily life and social activities. Research on AD has found that its pathogenesis is related to the extracellular accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles in the cortical and limbic areas of the human brain, as well as cerebrovascular factors. The detection of Aβ or tau can be performed using various probes and methodologies. However, these modalities are expensive to implement and often require invasive procedures, limiting accessibility on a large scale...

Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) encompasses a spectrum of structural and functional alterations in coronary microvasculature resulting in impaired coronary blood flow and consequent myocardial ischemia without obstruction in epicardial coronary artery. The pathogenesis of CMD is complex involving both functional and structural alteration in the coronary microcirculation. In adults, CMD is predominantly discussed in context with anginal chest pain or existing ischemic heart disease and its risk factors...

AIM: To investigate whether there was an association between coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) and left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in patients with myocardial ischemia with non-obstructive coronary artery disease (INOCA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our study included 115 subjects with suspected myocardial ischemia that underwent stress perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). They were divided into non-CMD and CMD two groups. CMR-derived volume-time curves and CMR-FT parameters were used to assess LV diastolic function using CVI42 software...

Hyperglycemia is a key contributor to diabetic macrovascular and ocular complications. It triggers a cascade of cellular damage, particularly in the retinal microvascular endothelial cells (RMECs). However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain only partially understood. This study hypothesizes that CircZNF609 plays a pivotal role in mediating high glucose-induced damage in RMECs by modulating miR-150-5p and its downstream target genes, thereby affecting cellular survival, apoptosis, and oxidative stress...