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Objective: To investigate the effects of a drug‐coated balloon (DCB) on inflammatory cytokines in patients with coronary artery calcification (CAC) after interventional therapy. Methods: This study included 58 patients with coronary heart disease who underwent coronary angiography (CAG) from October 2020 to September 2021. Patients were divided into CAC and non‐CAC groups, and a DCB was used to intervene in the target lesions. Ten‐milliliter preoperative and postoperative blood samples were drawn from the coronary lesions in both groups to detect the expression of serum interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α), and intercellular adhesion molecule‐1 (ICAM‐1). All patients were subjected to a 6‐month follow‐up to observe the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs). Results: No significant differences in baseline clinical data were found between the groups. Serum IL‐6, TNF‐α, and ICAM‐1 expressions in coronary blood samples immediately before DCB were not significantly different from those after DCB in all patients. After DCB, serum TNF‐α expression in the CAC group was significantly lower than that in the non‐CAC group (p < 0.05). In contrast, no significant difference in serum IL‐6 and ICAM‐1 expression was found between the groups. During the 6‐month follow‐up, no significant difference in the incidence of MACE was found between both groups. Conclusions: DCB reduced the expression of inflammatory cytokine TNF‐α in CAC, which may be one of the key mechanisms underlying the treatment of CAC by DCB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a method for the multi-threshold segmentation of grayscale imaging using the local minimum points of a histogram curve as the segmentation threshold. By smoothing the histogram curve and judging the conditions, the expected peaks and valleys are identified, and the corresponding minimum points are used as segmentation thresholds to achieve fast multi-threshold image segmentation. Compared to the OTSU method (maximum between-class variance) for multi-threshold segmentation and the region growing method, this method has less computational complexity. In the recognition and segmentation process of solder pads with adhesion of underfill in LED Chips, the segmentation time is less than one percent of that of the OTSU method and the region growing method. The segmentation effect is better than the OTSU method and the region growing method, and it can achieve fast multi-threshold segmentation of images. Moreover, it has strong adaptability to the differences in the overall grayscale of images, meeting the requirements for high UPH (Units Per Hour) in industrial production lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To observe the protective effect of theo-polyphenols (TP) on hepatic histology of hyperlipidemia model in quails. Methods: Model of hyperlipidemia in quails was established. The 75 male quails were divided randomly into 5 groups, 15 in each group. The non-hyperlipidemia group (normal control group) was fed with ordinary forage. The hyperlipidemia group (hyperlipidemia control group) was fed with high lipid forage. The three TP groups were fed with high lipid forage together with a low (25 mg/kg), middle (50 mg/ kg) and high (100 mg/kg) dose of TP respectively. The total experimental period was 6 weeks for all the quails. Results: TP could prevent the increase of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and liver index (LI) caused by high lipid food, thus showing protective dosedependant effect on hepatic histology in hyperlipidemia. Conclusion: TP has the effect of regulating serum lipids in preventing and treating fatty liver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To observe the changes of rapidly activated delayed rectifier potassium channel (IKr) and slowly activated delayed rectifier potassium channel (IKs) in cardiac hypertrophy and to evaluate the effects of IKr and IKs blocker on the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias in guinea pigs with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH).
 Methods: Guinea pigs were divided into a sham operation group and a left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) group. LVH model was prepared. Whole cell patch-clamp technique was used to record IKr and IKs tail currents in a guinea pig model with LVH. The changes of QTc and the incidence rate of ventricular arrhythmias in LVH guinea pigs were observed by using the IKr and IKs blockers.
 Results: Compared with cardiac cells in the control group, the interventricular septal thickness at end systole (IVSs), left ventricular posterior wall thickness at end systole (LVPWs), QTc interval and cell capacitance in guinea pigs with LVH were significantly increased (P<0.05); while IKs densities were significantly reduced [+60 mV: (0.36±0.03) pA/pF vs (0.58±0.05) pA/pF, P<0.01]. However, LVH exerted no significant effect on IKr densities. IKr blocker markedly prolonged the QTc interval (P<0.01) and increased the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias in guinea pigs with LVH compared with the control guinea pigs. In contrast, IKs blocker produced modest increase in QTc interval in guinea pigs of control group with no increase in LVH animals. IKs blocker did not induce ventricular arrhythmias incidence in either control or LVH animals.
 Conclusion: The cardiac hypertrophy-induced arrhythmogenesis is due to the down-regulation 
of IKs.