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Abstract Background Previous therapy with anthracyclines (ANT) and conditioning regimen followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) represents a high risk for development of cardiotoxicity. The aim of this study was to assess subclinical myocardial damage after HSCT using echocardiography and cardiac biomarkers - high sensitive cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and to identify patients at risk of developing clinical cardiotoxicity. Patients and methods Thirty-seven patients who were treated with allogeneic HSCT for hematologic diseases at median age of 28 years at time of HSCT were studied. Conditioning regimen included either chemotherapy without total body irradiation (TBI) or combination of chemotherapy with TBI. Twenty-nine (78,3%) patients were pretreated with ANT therapy. Cardiac biomarkers were serially measured before conditioning regimen and at days 1, 14 and 30 after HSCT. Cardiac systolic and diastolic functions were assessed before conditioning regimen and 1 month after HSCT by echocardiography. Results The changes in plasma NT-proBNP and hs-cTnT levels during the 30 days following the HSCT were statistically significant (P < 0,01 v.s. P < 0,01). Persistent elevations of NT-proBNP and hs-cTnT simultaneously for a period exceeding 14 days after HSCT were found in 29,7% patients. Serum concentrations of cardiomarkers were significantly elevated in ANT group compared to non-ANT group. These observations were underscored by the echocardiographic studies which did reveal significant changes in systolic and diastolic parameters. Five of 37 (13,5%) patients developed clinical manifestation of cardiotoxicity. Conclusions Elevations in both cardiac biomarkers were found before clinical signs of cardiotoxicity developed. Persistent elevations in NT-pro-BNP and hs-cTnT concentrations simultaneously for a period exceeding 14 days might be used for identification of patients at risk of developing cardiotoxicity and requiring further cardiological follow up.

Background: Primary thyroid leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a very rare tumour with less than 40 published cases yet. Direct metastatic extension into the great cervical veins and caval veins is extremely uncommon. Extension to the right heart has not yet been reported., Case Summary: A 62-year-old man was admitted for sudden onset of left neck pain and dyspnoea. Computed tomography and ultrasonography found an extensive mass of the left great cervical veins, superior vena cava, and a nodule in the left thyroid lobe. Transesophageal echocardiography visualized large protrusion of this mass into the right atrium. Cytology of a thyroid nodule diagnosed a benign hyperplastic nodule. The mass was considered to be likely an extensive thrombus. The patient was started on anticoagulant therapy. The next course was complicated by pulmonary embolism and later by enterorrhagia. Despite clinical stabilization, the patient died suddenly. Autopsy finding differed from the clinical conclusion. Microscopic investigation revealed that the mass seen in the cervical veins down to the right atrium was a spindle cell tumour with a primary site in the left thyroid lobe. Immunohistochemistry was consistent with the final diagnosis of primary thyroid LMS., Discussion: Differential diagnosis of the masses of great cervical veins and right atrium can be challenging. Pure venous thrombus and tumour thrombus must be distinguished. Thyroid LMS should also be considered in patients with masses in the right atrium and thyroid nodules., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.)

The majority of naturally occurring proteins have evolved to function under mild conditions inside the living organisms. One of the critical obstacles for the use of proteins in biotechnological applications is their insufficient stability at elevated temperatures or in the presence of salts. Since experimental screening for stabilizing mutations is typically laborious and expensive, in silico predictors are often used for narrowing down the mutational landscape. The recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence further facilitate the development of such computational tools. However, the accuracy of these predictors strongly depends on the quality and amount of data used for training and testing, which have often been reported as the current bottleneck of the approach. To address this problem, we present a novel database of experimental thermostability data for single-point mutants FireProtDB. The database combines the published datasets, data extracted manually from the recent literature, and the data collected in our laboratory. Its user interface is designed to facilitate both types of the expected use: (i) the interactive explorations of individual entries on the level of a protein or mutation and (ii) the construction of highly customized and machine learning-friendly datasets using advanced searching and filtering. The database is freely available at https://loschmidt.chemi.muni.cz/fireprotdb., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.)