Background The aim of this study was to explore the effect of levosimendan in patients after heart valve replacement and its influence on postoperative recovery. Material/Methods This prospective study included 185 patients with valvular diseases undergoing conventional valve replacement. Patients were divided into 2 groups using a random number table before surgery. Patients in the levosimendan group were administrated levosimendan intravenous infusion immediately after entering the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), cardiac output, and heart failure-related index, such as B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) level, were recorded at 1, 3, and 7 days after surgery. The dosage and administration time of dopamine and epinephrine, mechanical ventilation time, ICU length of stay, and postoperative adverse events were recorded. Results Cardiac output and LVEF of patients in the levosimendan group were significantly higher than those in the control group at different time points ( P <0.05), and BNP level was lower than that of the control group ( P <0.0001). Dosage and administration time of dopamine and epinephrine in the levosimendan group were lower than those of the control group ( P <0.0001, P <0.0001, respectively). ICU length of stay and total incidence of postoperative adverse events were lower than those of the control group ( P <0.0001, P =0.002, respectively). Conclusions Levosimendan administration immediately after heart valve replacement effectively improved the heart function of patients, reduced administration of vasoactive drugs, shortened length of ICU stay, reduced incidence of postoperative adverse events, and promoted recovery of patients after surgery.

Many patients experience excellent physical recoveries after surgery; however, there are some of them who from suffer mood fluctuation, even depression. Postoperative depression may be resulted from cognitive dysfunction, pain, and a compromised immune system during the surgery. But there is a higher possibility that general anaesthesia may be responsible for the development of depression. Here, we employed one of the most used anaesthetics, propofol, in a mouse model to investigate whether this intravenous anaesthetic compound could cause depressive-like behavioural performance in mice. We found a single dose of propofol caused significant abnormal behavioural performance in tail suspension, forced swimming, and open field tests. We also examined the brain section of these mice and revealed that there was significant reduced expression of the CD11b protein, which demonstrated an inhibition of propofol on microglial function. We investigated the effect of propofol on synaptic protein, SYP, and found there was no notable influence on the protein expression. These above results suggested that propofol treatment might promote the depressive-like behaviours in mice via influencing the microglial cell function. Furthermore, we found the level of the IL-6 cytokine was significantly increased in the brain tissue, which might subsequently cause the activation of the transcriptional factor, STAT3. Our finding may provide a new perspective of further understanding the mechanism of anaesthetic drugs and deciphering the underlying mechanism of postoperative depression.

Methanol-water as solvent, transition metal Y-type zeolite as catalyst, L-lysine was synthesized laminin. Explores the methylation process factors, and the structure of the compound by IR, NMR and elemental analysis were characterized.