Artery buckling affects the mechanical stress in atherosclerotic plaques

Background

Tortuous arteries are often seen in patients with hypertension and atherosclerosis. While the mechanical stress in atherosclerotic plaque under lumen pressure has been studied extensively, the mechanical stability of atherosclerotic arteries and subsequent effect on the plaque stress remain unknown. To this end, we investigated the buckling and post-buckling behavior of model stenotic coronary arteries with symmetric and asymmetric plaque.

Methods

Buckling analysis for a model coronary artery with symmetric and asymmetric plaque was conducted using finite element analysis based on the dimensions and nonlinear anisotropic materials properties reported in the literature.

Results

Artery with asymmetric plaque had lower critical buckling pressure compared to the artery with symmetric plaque and control artery. Buckling increased the peak stress in the plaque and led to the development of a high stress concentration in artery with asymmetric plaque. Stiffer calcified tissue and severe stenosis increased the critical buckling pressure of the artery with asymmetric plaque.

Conclusions

Arteries with atherosclerotic plaques are prone to mechanical buckling which leads to a high stress concentration in the plaques that can possibly make the plaques prone to rupture.

     

Carotid plaque rather than intima-media thickness as a predictor of recurrent vascular events in patients with acute ischemic stroke

Background

To investigate the impacts of carotid plaque and intima-media thickness (IMT) on future vascular events (VEs) in the patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Methods

A total of 479 consecutive Korean patients with acute ischemic stroke were divided into 2 groups according to development of VEs; VE group (65.4 ± 10.9 years) vs no VE group (62.8 ± 13.2 years). VEs were defined as the development of recurrent stroke, coronary events, peripheral arterial disease, and death. Clinical, laboratory, and imaging findings were compared between the groups.

Results

During 105.5 ± 29.0 months of follow up, VEs were developed in 142 patients (29.6%). In univariate analysis, VEs were significantly associated with age, gender, diabetes, renal function, lipid levels, left ventricular function, carotid plaque or IMT. In multivariate analysis, the presence of carotid plaque, diabetes, renal function and male gender were independent predictors of future VEs in the patients with ischemic stroke, but carotid IMT was not a predictor of future VEs. Event free survival was significantly lower in patients with carotid plaque than without carotid plaque on Kaplan-Meier analysis (log rank p < 0.001).

Conclusion

The present study demonstrated that diabetes, impaired renal function, male gender, and the presence of carotid plaque rather than IMT were independent predictors of future VEs in Korean patients with acute ischemic stroke. Active medical management and careful monitoring for the development of recurrent VEs are strongly recommended in patients with acute ischemic stroke and carotid plaque.

     

Simulation of human atherosclerotic femoral plaque tissue: the influence of plaque material model on numerical results

Background

Due to the limited number of experimental studies that mechanically characterise human atherosclerotic plaque tissue from the femoral arteries, a recent trend has emerged in current literature whereby one set of material data based on aortic plaque tissue is employed to numerically represent diseased femoral artery tissue. This study aims to generate novel vessel-appropriate material models for femoral plaque tissue and assess the influence of using material models based on experimental data generated from aortic plaque testing to represent diseased femoral arterial tissue.

Methods

Novel material models based on experimental data generated from testing of atherosclerotic femoral artery tissue are developed and a computational analysis of the revascularisation of a quarter model idealised diseased femoral artery from a 90% diameter stenosis to a 10% diameter stenosis is performed using these novel material models. The simulation is also performed using material models based on experimental data obtained from aortic plaque testing in order to examine the effect of employing vessel appropriate material models versus those currently employed in literature to represent femoral plaque tissue.

Results

Simulations that employ material models based on atherosclerotic aortic tissue exhibit much higher maximum principal stresses within the plaque than simulations that employ material models based on atherosclerotic femoral tissue. Specifically, employing a material model based on calcified aortic tissue, instead of one based on heavily calcified femoral tissue, to represent diseased femoral arterial vessels results in a 487 fold increase in maximum principal stress within the plaque at a depth of 0.8 mm from the lumen.

Conclusions

Large differences are induced on numerical results as a consequence of employing material models based on aortic plaque, in place of material models based on femoral plaque, to represent a diseased femoral vessel. Due to these large discrepancies, future studies should seek to employ vessel-appropriate material models to simulate the response of diseased femoral tissue in order to obtain the most accurate numerical results.

     

Definition of common carotid wall thickness affects risk classification in relation to degree of internal carotid artery stenosis: the Plaque At RISK (PARISK) study

Background

Mean or maximal intima-media thickness (IMT) is commonly used as surrogate endpoint in intervention studies. However, the effect of normalization by surrounding or median IMT or by diameter is unknown. In addition, it is unclear whether IMT inhomogeneity is a useful predictor beyond common wall parameters like maximal wall thickness, either absolute or normalized to IMT or lumen size. We investigated the interrelationship of common carotid artery (CCA) thickness parameters and their association with the ipsilateral internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis degree.

Methods

CCA thickness parameters were extracted by edge detection applied to ultrasound B-mode recordings of 240 patients. Degree of ICA stenosis was determined from CT angiography.

Results

Normalization of maximal CCA wall thickness to median IMT leads to large variations. Higher CCA thickness parameter values are associated with a higher degree of ipsilateral ICA stenosis (p?<?0.001), though IMT inhomogeneity does not provide extra information. When the ratio of wall thickness and diameter instead of absolute maximal wall thickness is used as risk marker for having moderate ipsilateral ICA stenosis (>50%), 55 arteries (15%) are reclassified to another risk category.

Conclusions

It is more reasonable to normalize maximal wall thickness to end-diastolic diameter rather than to IMT, affecting risk classification and suggesting modification of the Mannheim criteria.

Trial registration

Clinical trials.gov NCT01208025.

     

Repeat stent implementation for recanalization of the proximal right coronary artery: a case report

Background

A stent in a false lumen is a common cause of stent occlusion after coronary percutaneous coronary artery intervention therapy, particularly in the culprit lesion of acute myocardial infarction. Here, we present an unusual case of successful recanalization of the proximal right coronary artery with implementation of another stent to crush the previous stent in the false lumen.

Case presentation

A 40-year-old Chinese man underwent coronary stent implementation in the proximal right coronary artery due to acute inferior wall myocardial infarction at another hospital. Six months later, he underwent coronary angiography re-examination for recurrent symptomatic angina at our hospital. Coronary angiography and intravascular ultrasound confirmed that the previous stent was deployed in the false lumen of the right coronary artery. Then, intravascular ultrasound was used to guide the wire to re-enter the true lumen of the proximal right coronary artery, and another stent was deployed into the true lumen to crush the previous stent.

Conclusion

Intravascular ultrasound proved to be a pivotal tool in confirming false or true lumen, as well as determining favorable proximal site entry points to avoid rewiring the mesh of the previous stent.

     

Optimization of fecal sample preparation for untargeted LC-HRMS based metabolomics

Introduction

Collecting feces is easy. It offers direct outcome to endogenous and microbial metabolites.

Objectives

In a context of lack of consensus about fecal sample preparation, especially in animal species, we developed a robust protocol allowing untargeted LC-HRMS fingerprinting.

Methods

The conditions of extraction (quantity, preparation, solvents, dilutions) were investigated in bovine feces.

Results

A rapid and simple protocol involving feces extraction with methanol (1/3, M/V) followed by centrifugation and a step filtration (10 kDa) was developed.

Conclusion

The workflow generated repeatable and informative fingerprints for robust metabolome characterization.

     

The carotid plaque imaging in acute stroke (CAPIAS) study: protocol and initial baseline data

Background

In up to 30% of patients with ischemic stroke no definite etiology can be established. A significant proportion of cryptogenic stroke cases may be due to non-stenosing atherosclerotic plaques or low grade carotid artery stenosis not fulfilling common criteria for atherothrombotic stroke. The aim of the CAPIAS study is to determine the frequency, characteristics, clinical and radiological long-term consequences of ipsilateral complicated American Heart Association lesion type VI (AHA-LT VI) carotid artery plaques in patients with cryptogenic stroke.

Methods/Design

300 patients (age >49 years) with unilateral DWI-positive lesions in the anterior circulation and non- or moderately stenosing (<70% NASCET) internal carotid artery plaques will be enrolled in the prospective multicenter study CAPIAS. Carotid plaque characteristics will be determined by high-resolution black-blood carotid MRI at baseline and 12 month follow up. Primary outcome is the prevalence of complicated AHA-LT VI plaques in cryptogenic stroke patients ipsilateral to the ischemic stroke compared to the contralateral side and to patients with defined stroke etiology. Secondary outcomes include the association of AHA-LT VI plaques with the recurrence rates of ischemic events up to 36 months, rates of new ischemic lesions on cerebral MRI (including clinically silent lesions) after 12 months and the influence of specific AHA-LT VI plaque features on the progression of atherosclerotic disease burden, on specific infarct patterns, biomarkers and aortic arch plaques.

Discussion

CAPIAS will provide important insights into the role of non-stenosing carotid artery plaques in cryptogenic stroke. The results might have implications for our understanding of stroke mechanism, offer new diagnostic options and provide the basis for the planning of targeted interventional studies.

Trial Registration

NCT01284933

     

Pseudo current density maps of electrophysiological heart,nerve or brain function and their physical basis

Background

In recent years the visualization of biomagnetic measurement data by so-called pseudo current density maps or Hosaka-Cohen (HC) transformations became popular.

Methods

The physical basis of these intuitive maps is clarified by means of analytically solvable problems.

Results

Examples in magnetocardiography, magnetoencephalography and magnetoneurography demonstrate the usefulness of this method.

Conclusion

Hardware realizations of the HC-transformation and some similar transformations are discussed which could advantageously support cross-platform comparability of biomagnetic measurements.

     

A lost opportunity for science: journals promote data sharing in metabolomics but do not enforce it

Introduction

Data sharing is being increasingly required by journals and has been heralded as a solution to the ‘replication crisis’.

Objectives

(i) Review data sharing policies of journals publishing the most metabolomics papers associated with open data and (ii) compare these journals’ policies to those that publish the most metabolomics papers.

Methods

A PubMed search was used to identify metabolomics papers. Metabolomics data repositories were manually searched for linked publications.

Results

Journals that support data sharing are not necessarily those with the most papers associated to open metabolomics data.

Conclusion

Further efforts are required to improve data sharing in metabolomics.

     

Contribution of cytoskeletal elements to the axonal mechanical properties

Background

Microtubules, microfilaments, and neurofilaments are cytoskeletal elements that affect cell morphology, cellular processes, and mechanical structures in neural cells. The objective of the current study was to investigate the contribution of each type of cytoskeletal element to the mechanical properties of axons of dorsal root and sympathetic ganglia cells in chick embryos.

Results

Microtubules, microfilaments, and neurofilaments in axons were disrupted by nocodazole, cytochalasin D, and acrylamide, respectively, or a combination of the three. An atomic force microscope (AFM) was then used to compress the treated axons, and the resulting corresponding force-deformation information was analyzed to estimate the mechanical properties of axons that were partially or fully disrupted.

Conclusion

We have found that the mechanical stiffness was most reduced in microtubules-disrupted-axons, followed by neurofilaments-disrupted- and microfilaments-disrupted-axons. This suggests that microtubules contribute the most of the mechanical stiffness to axons.

     

Metabolomic profiling of maternal hair suggests rapid development of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy

Introduction

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a common maternal liver disease; development can result in devastating consequences, including sudden fetal death and stillbirth. Currently, recognition of ICP only occurs following onset of clinical symptoms.

Objective

Investigate the maternal hair metabolome for predictive biomarkers of ICP.

Methods

The maternal hair metabolome (gestational age of sampling between 17 and 41 weeks) of 38 Chinese women with ICP and 46 pregnant controls was analysed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.

Results

Of 105 metabolites detected in hair, none were significantly associated with ICP.

Conclusion

Hair samples represent accumulative environmental exposure over time. Samples collected at the onset of ICP did not reveal any metabolic shifts, suggesting rapid development of the disease.

     

Usefulness of carotid ultrasonography in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease in patients undergoing exercise echocardiography

Background

Relationship between carotid and coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients undergoing invasive and non-invasive test is unclear. The aim of the study is to evaluate whether carotid disease is associated with CAD in patients submitted to exercise echocardiography (EE) and if it improves the EE ability to predict CAD.

Methods

We retrospectively studied 156 subjects without previous vascular disease who underwent EE, carotid ultrasonography and coronary angiography between 2002 and 2013. Positive EE was defined as exercise induced wall motion abnormalities, carotid disease according to Manheim and American Society of Echocardiography Consensus and significant CAD as stenosis ≥50%.

Results

Eighty-nine (57.1%) subjects had significant CAD. Factors associated with CAD in multivariate analysis were fasting plasma glucose (odds ratio [OR] 1.02, p?=?0.031), pre-test probability of CAD >?65% (OR 3.71, p?<?0.001), positive EE (OR 10.51, p?<?0.001) and carotid plaque (CP) presence (OR 2.95, p?=?0.013). There was neither statistical significant difference in area under the curve after addition of CP to EE results (0.77 versus 0.81, p?=?0.525) nor sensitivity, specificity, predictive values or efficiency. CP presence reclassified as very high-risk according to Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation 13 patients (34.2%) with negative EE and 22 (33.3%) without CAD.

Conclusion

CP is associated with CAD in patients undergoing EE, however its addition to EE does not improve CAD prediction, probably due to insufficient statistical power. CP reclassified one third of patients to very high-risk category despite negative EE or CAD absence, these subjects benefit from aggressive primary prevention interventions.

     

Acute effect of cycling intervention on carotid arterial hemodynamics: basketball athletes versus sedentary controls

Objective

To compare the acute effects of a cycling intervention on carotid arterial hemodynamics between basketball athletes and sedentary controls.

Methods

Ten young long-term trained male basketball athletes (BA) and nine age-matched male sedentary controls (SC) successively underwent four bouts of exercise on a bicycle ergometer at the same workload. Hemodynamic variables at right common carotid artery were determined at rest and immediately following each bout of exercise. An ANCOVA was used to compare differences between the BA and SC groups at rest and immediately following the cycling intervention. The repeated ANOVA was used to assess differences between baseline and each bout of exercise within the BA or SC group.

Results

In both groups, carotid hemodynamic variables showed significant differences at rest and immediately after the cycling intervention. At rest, carotid arterial stiffness was significantly decreased and carotid arterial diameter was significantly increased in the BA group as compared to the SC group. Immediately following the cycling intervention, carotid arterial stiffness showed no obvious changes in the BA group but significantly increased in the SC group. It is worth noting that while arterial stiffness was lower in the BA group than in the SC group, the oscillatory shear index (OSI) was significantly higher in the BA group than in the SC group both at rest and immediately following the cycling intervention.

Conclusion

Long-term basketball exercise had a significant impact on common carotid arterial hemodynamic variables not only at rest but also after a cycling intervention. The role of OSI in the remodeling of arterial structure and function in the BA group at rest and after cycling requires clarification.

     

Untargeted metabolomics suffers from incomplete raw data processing

Introduction

Untargeted metabolomics is a powerful tool for biological discoveries. To analyze the complex raw data, significant advances in computational approaches have been made, yet it is not clear how exhaustive and reliable the data analysis results are.

Objectives

Assessment of the quality of raw data processing in untargeted metabolomics.

Methods

Five published untargeted metabolomics studies, were reanalyzed.

Results

Omissions of at least 50 relevant compounds from the original results as well as examples of representative mistakes were reported for each study.

Conclusion

Incomplete raw data processing shows unexplored potential of current and legacy data.

     

Quantitative analysis of tetrahydrofolate metabolites from <Emphasis Type="Italic">clostridium autoethanogenum</Emphasis>

Introduction

Quantification of tetrahydrofolates (THFs), important metabolites in the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway (WLP) of acetogens, is challenging given their sensitivity to oxygen.

Objective

To develop a simple anaerobic protocol to enable reliable THFs quantification from bioreactors.

Methods

Anaerobic cultures were mixed with anaerobic acetonitrile for extraction. Targeted LC–MS/MS was used for quantification.

Results

Tetrahydrofolates can only be quantified if sampled anaerobically. THF levels showed a strong correlation to acetyl-CoA, the end product of the WLP.

Conclusion

Our method is useful for relative quantification of THFs across different growth conditions. Absolute quantification of THFs requires the use of labelled standards.

     

Extraction of natural products from bark of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Betula pendula</Emphasis> using ionic liquids

Introduction

Aqueous–methanol mixtures have successfully been applied to extract a broad range of metabolites from plant tissue. However, a certain amount of material remains insoluble.

Objectives

To enlarge the metabolic compendium, two ionic liquids were selected to extract the methanol insoluble part of trunk from Betula pendula.

Methods

The extracted compounds were analyzed by LC/MS and GC/MS.

Results

The results show that 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (IL-Ac) predominantly resulted in fatty acids, whereas 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tosylate (IL-Tos) mostly yielded phenolic structures. Interestingly, bark yielded more ionic liquid soluble metabolites compared to interior wood.

Conclusion

From this one can conclude that the application of ionic liquids may expand the metabolic snapshot.

     

A methodology for elucidating regulatory mechanisms leading to changes in lipid profiles

Introduction

It is difficult to elucidate the metabolic and regulatory factors causing lipidome perturbations.

Objectives

This work simplifies this process.

Methods

A method has been developed to query an online holistic lipid metabolic network (of 7923 metabolites) to extract the pathways that connect the input list of lipids.

Results

The output enables pathway visualisation and the querying of other databases to identify potential regulators. When used to a study a plasma lipidome dataset of polycystic ovary syndrome, 14 enzymes were identified, of which 3 are linked to ELAVL1—an mRNA stabiliser.

Conclusion

This method provides a simplified approach to identifying potential regulators causing lipid-profile perturbations.

     

KniMet: a pipeline for the processing of chromatography–mass spectrometry metabolomics data

Introduction

Data processing is one of the biggest problems in metabolomics, given the high number of samples analyzed and the need of multiple software packages for each step of the processing workflow.

Objectives

Merge in the same platform the steps required for metabolomics data processing.

Methods

KniMet is a workflow for the processing of mass spectrometry-metabolomics data based on the KNIME Analytics platform.

Results

The approach includes key steps to follow in metabolomics data processing: feature filtering, missing value imputation, normalization, batch correction and annotation.

Conclusion

KniMet provides the user with a local, modular and customizable workflow for the processing of both GC–MS and LC–MS open profiling data.

     

Metabolic response of porcine colon explants to in vitro infection by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brachyspira hyodysenteriae</Emphasis>: a leap into disease pathophysiology

Introduction

Swine dysentery caused by Brachyspira hyodysenteriae is a production limiting disease in pig farming. Currently antimicrobial therapy is the only treatment and control method available.

Objective

The aim of this study was to characterize the metabolic response of porcine colon explants to infection by B. hyodysenteriae.

Methods

Porcine colon explants exposed to B. hyodysenteriae were analyzed for histopathological, metabolic and pro-inflammatory gene expression changes.

Results

Significant epithelial necrosis, increased levels of l-citrulline and IL-1α were observed on explants infected with B. hyodysenteriae.

Conclusions

The spirochete induces necrosis in vitro likely through an inflammatory process mediated by IL-1α and NO.