Intravenous leiomyomatosis (IVL) is a rare benign tumor. The study aimed to assess outcomes of patients treated surgically for IVL.Between November 2002 and January 2015, 76 patients were treated for IVL. The stage of IVL was evaluated preoperatively by echocardiography and enhanced computerized tomography (CT) scan, and graded into 4 stages according to intravascular tumor progression. We recorded age, lower limb edema before surgery, surgical parameters, and hospitalization expenses. Patients were followed up every 6 months and tumor recurrence was assessed by CT and ultrasound. Patients were followed up for a mean of 4.5 ± 2.5 years (range 1–13 years) and there was no operative, hospital, or long-term mortality or were lost to follow-up.The rate of lower extremity edema, amount of blood loss, postoperative transfusion, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, postoperative hospitalization, and hospitalization expenses differed significantly between patients at different presurgery stages. Tumors recurred in 4 of 7 patients with stage I IVL that opted for surgery that preserved the ovaries and uterus. No recurrence was observed in patients graded stage II or more, in all of which the uterus and ovaries were removed. Recurrence was observed in only 4 of 76 cases of IVL, all of whom opted for surgery that spared the ovaries and uterus.Different surgical strategies should be decided based on the staging to completely remove the tumor and ensure the safety of patients. Removal of both ovaries is necessary for inhibiting tumor growth and avoiding recurrence.

PAAs must be seriously classified by aetiology to be treated appropriately. Patients with giant-size PAAs, and those with pulmonary hypertension, anatomical anomalies, and rapid growth and compression of neighbouring critical structures, are proper candidates for surgery. Surgical options include aneurysm repair and replacement with allogeneic/synthetic grafts, depending on the situation. Additionally, the correction of associated abnormalities should be performed simultaneously during surgery. Surgical outcomes are effective, and long-term prognoses are satisfactory.

Summary Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) induces a strong local infiltration of regulatory T‐cells (Tregs) in the lungs. However, at present, there remains a lack of adequate evidence showing the direct effect of Tregs on pulmonary repair and the related mechanisms of ARDS. Therefore, in this project, we studied the impact of Tregs on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced ARDS and pulmonary inflammation. Surprisingly, we found that depletion of Tregs by injection of PC61 anti‐CD25 antibody not only interfered with the inflammation resolution, such as inhibited total cell infiltration into the alveolar space, downregulated neutrophils, upregulated macrophages, but also impaired pulmonary epithelium and endothelial cell proliferation. Consistent with the attenuation of pulmonary repair, we found that the Th1 and Th17 immune responses were also impaired in Treg‐depleted mice, suggesting that the presence of Tregs is vital for tissue repair, as Tregs modulate and promote the Th immune response in LPS‐induced pulmonary inflammation.

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential relationship between intravenous leiomyomatosis (IVL) and uterine myoma (UM) at the molecular level. RNA-sequencing was performed on IVL tumours, UM tumours, and adjacent normal uterine muscle. We compared the gene expression levels between IVL and normal uterine muscle, UM and normal uterine muscle, to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Then we used Gene Ontology Enrichment Analysis to determine the functions of the DEGs and performed specimen cluster analysis. We obtained 98 DEGs between IVL and adjacent normal uterine muscle, and 61 DEGs between UM and adjacent normal uterine muscle. Functional enrichment of both IVL and UM DEGs showed that they are associated with hormone stimulus, extracellular matrix, and cell adhesion. Unsupervised clustering analysis showed that IVL and UM could not be separated completely. Among these dysregulated genes, we found that HOXA13 showed a distinct dysregulated status between IVL and UM. HOXA13 may therefore serves as a biomarker to distinguish IVL and UM. Our results showed that IVL and UM may have similar dysregulated gene networks. They may be closely related, and HOXA13 may serves as a biomarker to distinguish between IVL and UM.

IntroductionIntravenous leiomyomatosis (IVL) is currently regarded as a special variant of the common uterine leiomyoma (LM). Though IVL shows a similar histological morphology to LM, IVL is characterized by unique intravenous growth patterns and low‐grade malignant potential, which are quite different from LM. There are currently few studies underlying the molecular alterations of IVL, though this information is important for understanding the pathogenesis of the disease, and for identifying potential biomarkers.MethodWe carried out a high‐throughput whole transcriptome sequencing of tumor and normal tissue samples from five IVL patients and five LM patients and compared the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between IVL and leiomyoma. We performed multiple different enrichment and target analyses, and the expression of selected DEGs was validated using RT‐qPCR in formalin‐fixed samples.ResultsOur study identified substantial different genes and pathways between IVL and LM, and functional enrichment analyses found several important pathways, such as angiogenesis and antiapoptosis pathways, as well as important related genes, including SH2D2A, VASH2, ADAM8, GATA2, TNF, and the lncRNA GATA6‐AS1, as being significantly different between IVL and LM (P = .0024, P = .0195, P = .0212, P = .0435, P = .0401, and P = .0246, respectively). CXCL8, LIF, CDKN2A, BCL2A1, COL2A1, IGF1, and HMGA2 were also differently expressed between IVL and LM groups, but showed no statistical difference (P = .2409, P = .1773, P = .0596, P = .2737, P = .1553, P = .1045, and P = .1847, respectively) due to the large differences among individuals. Furthermore, RT‐qPCR results for five selected DEGs in IVL tissues and adjacent nontumor tissues were mainly consistent with our sequencing results.ConclusionOur results indicated that IVL may be a solid entity that is unique and different from LM, proving consistent with previous studies. Furthermore, we identified DEGs, particularly within angiogenesis and antiapoptosis pathway‐related genes that may play crucial roles in the development and pathogenesis of IVL and may be potential specific biomarkers.

Echocardiography is a simple and important technique to diagnose IVL with intracardiac extension. This disease should be considered in a female patient presenting with an extensive mass from IVC with well-demarcated border in the right-sided cardiac chambers.

The only known curative treatment for IVCL is surgery. Herein, we present an individualized strategy for selecting surgical treatment.

In this updated meta-analysis, we assessed the cardioprotective effect of remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) in pediatric patients undergoing congenital heart surgery. A total of 9 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 793 pediatric patients under 18 years old were identified. RIPC obviously reduced the release of troponin I at 6 h after surgery [standard mean difference (SMD) -0.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.14 to -0.04; p = 0.03], mitigated the inotropic scores within 4-6 h (SMD -0.43, 95% CI -0.72 to -0.14; p = 0.004) and within 12 h (SMD -0.26, 95% CI -0.50 to -0.02; p = 0.03) and shortened the ventilator support time (SMD -0.28, 95% CI -0.49 to -0.07; p = 0.01) as well as the duration of intensive care unit (ICU) stay (SMD -0.21, 95% CI -0.35 to -0.06; p = 0.004). Our meta-analysis determined that RIPC had cardioprotective effects in the early postoperative phase. Additional RCTs focused on the cardiac benefits from RIPC in pediatric patients are warranted.