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Aim: To explore whether sense of mastery can mediate the relationship between social support and illness perception in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who were at the "Blanking Period." Design: A cross‐sectional design. Methods: 405 patients with AF who were at the "Blanking Period" in the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University were recruited; they completed a set of questionnaires, including the Perceived Social Support Scale, the Personal Mastery Scale and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire. Results: Social support and sense of mastery were both adversely connected to illness perception. The indirect effect of social support on illness perception through sense of mastery was negative, accounting for 86.04% of the total effect. Conclusion: During the "Blanking Period," better social support and sense of mastery contribute to a positive illness perception of AF patients. Social support also can influence patients' illness perception indirectly via the mediator of sense of mastery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Myocardial fibrosis is an important pathological change that occurs during ventricular remodeling in patients with hypertension and is an important pathophysiological basis of cardiovascular disease. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this ventricular remodeling is unclear., Methods: Bioinformatics analysis identified HLA-B and TIMP1 as hub genes in the process of myocardial fibrosis. Expression and correlation analyses of significant hub genes with ventricular remodeling were performed. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to verify the role of HLA-B. ceRNA network was constructed to identify the candidate molecule drugs. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were analyzed., Results: RT-qPCR was performed to verify the roles of HLA-B and TIMP1 in seven control individuals with hypertension and seven patients with hypertension and ventricular remodeling. The WGCNA showed that HLA-B was in the brown module and the correlation coefficient between HLA-B and ventricular remodeling was 0.67. Based on univariate logistic proportional regression analysis, HLA-B influences ventricular remodeling (P<0.05). RT-qPCR showed that the relative expression levels of HLA-B and TIMP1 were significantly higher in HLVR samples compared with their expression in the control group., Conclusions: HLA-B and TIMP1 might provide novel research targets for the diagnosis and treatment of HLVR.