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Purpose Inflammation after stent graft surgery is known as postimplantation syndrome (PIS) and it causes leukocytosis. However, we have experienced leukopenia in the very early postoperative phase of endovascular surgery at our institution. We investigated leukopenia, an under-recognized phenomenon that occurred after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), endovascular aortic repair (EVAR), and thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). Methods Records of patients who underwent TAVI, EVAR, and TEVAR between March 2018 and February 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Primary outcomes were the decline rate of white blood cell count (DR-WBC) in the immediate postoperative period and its differences among surgical procedures. The secondary endpoint was the relationship between DR-WBC and infectious complications. Furthermore, the incidence of PIS and its differences among the procedures and associations with DR-WBC were evaluated. Results A total of 108 patients (TAVI 41, EVAR 37, TEVAR 30) were included. DR-WBC immediately after surgery was higher in the TAVI group when compared with other groups (TAVI, 43.1 ± 22.6%; EVAR, 27.6 ± 17.3%; TEVAR, 25.4 ± 27.4%; P < 0.01). DR-WBC was not significantly different regardless of postoperative infection (P = 0.45) or PIS (P = 0.62). The incidence rate of PIS was higher in the EVAR group compared with the TAVI group, and was not associated with DR-WBC. Conclusions Leukopenia was a common phenomenon immediately after endovascular surgery, especially TAVI. It resolved a day after surgery and was not associated with PIS or infectious complications. Therefore, it seems to be a transient abnormal hematological finding and a self-limiting condition., Author(s): Takashi Soejima [sup.1], Kazuyuki Mizunoya [sup.1], Yuki Izumi [sup.2], Takeshi Yokoyama [sup.2], Ryo Takagi [sup.3], Yuji Morimoto [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.412167.7, 0000 0004 0378 6088, Department of Anesthesiology, [...]

Hemodialysis therapy is an extracorporeal circulation treatment that serves as a substitute for renal function. In Japan, patients receive this efficient four-hour treatment, three times per week, allowing them to maintain a social life nearly equivalent to that of healthy individuals. Before the treatment, two punctures are performed to establish extracorporeal circulation, and a high blood flow rate is essential to ensure efficient therapy. Specialized blood vessels created through arteriovenous fistula (AVF) surgery are utilized to achieve high blood flow rates. Although the AVF allows safe and efficient dialysis treatment, AVF stenosis leads to a serious problem in dialysis. To early detect this abnormal blood flow, auscultation and palpation methods are widely used in hospitals. However, these methods can only provide qualitative judgment of the AVF condition, so the results cannot be shared among other doctors and staff. Additionally, since the conventional methods require contact with the skin, some issues require consideration regarding infection and low reproducibility. In our previous study, we proposed an alternative method for auscultation using non-contact optical imaging technology. This study aims to construct a reliable AVF stenosis detection method using Thrill waveform analysis based on the developed non-contact device to solve the problem with the contact palpation method. This paper demonstrates the performance validation of the non-contact imaging in the normal AVF group (206 total data, 75 patients, mean age: 69.1 years) and in the treatable stenosis group (107 total data, 17 patients, mean age: 70.1 years). The experimental results of the Mann–Whitney U test showed a significant difference ( p = 0.0002 ) between the normal and abnormal groups, which indicated the effectiveness of the proposed method as a new possible alternative to palpation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SIRT5, one of the mammalian sirtuins, specifically recognizes succinyl‐lysine residues on proteins and catalyzes the desuccinylation reaction. In this study, we characterized SIRT5 mutants with hydrophobic amino acid substitutions at Q140 and N141, in addition to the catalytic residue H158, known as an active site residue, by the Michaelis–Menten analysis and X‐ray crystallography. Kinetic analysis showed that the catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km) of the Q140L and N141V mutants decreased to 0.02 times and 0.0038 times that of the wild‐type SIRT5, respectively, with the activity of the N141V mutant becoming comparable to that of the H158M mutant. Our findings indicate that N141 contributes significantly to the desuccinylation reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid emergence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria has raised a serious public health concern. Therefore, new antibiotic developments have been highly desired. Here, we propose a new method to visualize antibiotic actions on translating ribosomes in the cell-free system under macromolecular crowding conditions by cryo-electron microscopy, designated as the DARC method: the Direct visualization of Antibiotic binding on Ribosomes in the Cell-free translation system. This new method allows for acquiring a more comprehensive understanding of the mode of action of antibiotics on the translation inhibition without ribosome purification. Furthermore, with the direct link to biochemical analysis at the same condition as cryo-EM observation, we revealed the evolution of 2-DOS aminoglycosides from dibekacin (DBK) to arbekacin (ABK) by acquiring the synthetic tailored anchoring motif to lead to stronger binding affinity to ribosomes. Our cryo-EM structures of DBK and ABK bound ribosomes in the cell-free environment clearly depicted a synthetic tailored γ-amino-α-hydroxybutyryl (HABA) motif formed additional interactions with the ribosome enhancing antibiotic bindings. This new approach would be valuable for understanding the function of antibiotics for more efficient drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]