No abstract

Vascular Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (vEDS) is a hereditary connective tissue disorder (HCTD) characterized by arterial dissection/aneurysm/rupture, sigmoid colon rupture, or uterine rupture. Diagnosis is confirmed by detecting heterozygous variants in COL3A1. This is the largest Asian case series and the first to apply an amplification‐based next‐generation sequencing through custom panels of causative genes for HCTDs, including a specific method of evaluating copy number variations. Among 429 patients with suspected HCTDs analyzed, 101 were suspected to have vEDS, and 33 of them (32.4%) were found to have COL3A1 variants. Two patients with a clinical diagnosis of Loeys–Dietz syndrome and/or familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection were also found to have COL3A1 variants. Twenty cases (57.1%) had missense variants leading to glycine (Gly) substitutions in the triple helical domain, one (2.9%) had a missense variant leading to non‐Gly substitution in this domain, eight (22.9%) had splice site alterations, three (8.6%) had nonsense variants, two (5.7%) had in‐frame deletions, and one (2.9%) had a multi‐exon deletion, including two deceased patients analyzed with formalin‐fixed and paraffin‐embedded samples. This is a clinically useful system to detect a wide spectrum of variants from various types of samples.

No abstract

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is associated with cardiovascular death, including sudden cardiac death due to arrhythmias. Patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) are also at high risk of developing a clinically significant ventricular arrhythmia. It has been reported that sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors can reduce cardiovascular deaths; however, the physiological mechanisms of this remain unclear. It is, however, well known that SGLT2 inhibitors increase blood ketone bodies, which have been suggested to have sympathosuppressive effects. Empagliflozin (EMPA) is an SGLT2 inhibitor. The current clinical trial titled ''Placebo-controlled, double-blind study of empagliflozin (EMPA) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (EMPA-ICD) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM)'' was designed to investigate the antiarrhythmic effects of EMPA. Digital Features This article is published with digital features to facilitate understanding of the article. To view digital features for this article go to https://doi.org/ 10.6084/m9.figshare.12827783. Ihe EMPA-ICD investigators are listed in acknowledgements.