Zeng J, Zhao Y, Gao D, Lu X, Dong JJ, Liu YB, Shen B. Medical appraisal of Chinese military aircrew with abnormal results of coronary computed tomographic angiography. World J Cardiol 2024; 16(9): 522-530 [PMID: 39351334 DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v16.i9.522]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Bin Shen, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Naval Medical Center, Naval Medical University of Chinese PLA, No. 338 Huaihaixi Road, Shanghai 200052, China. yijiacheng455@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Cardiol. Sep 26, 2024; 16(9): 522-530 Published online Sep 26, 2024. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v16.i9.522
Medical appraisal of Chinese military aircrew with abnormal results of coronary computed tomographic angiography
Jia Zeng, Yao Zhao, Di Gao, Xiang Lu, Jing-Jing Dong, Yan-Bing Liu, Bin Shen
Jia Zeng, Yao Zhao, Xiang Lu, Jing-Jing Dong, Yan-Bing Liu, Bin Shen, Naval Medical Center, Naval Medical University of Chinese PLA, Shanghai 200052, China
Di Gao, No. 92329 Station Health Team, Chinese PLA, Huludao 125000, Liaoning Province, China
Co-first authors: Jia Zeng and Yao Zhao.
Author contributions: Zeng J and Zhao Y contributed equally to this work as co-first authors; Zeng J and Shen B designed the research; Zeng J and Zhao Y conceived of the study (equal), developed the methodology (equal), collected data (equal), analyzed and interpreted data (equal), written manuscript (equal); Zhao Y, Gao D, Lu X, Dong JJ, Liu YB and Zhang Y collected and analyzed the clinical data; Zeng J, Zhao Y and Gao D wrote the manuscript; Shen B revised the manuscript.
Supported by Enhancement Foundation Program of Naval Medical Center of Naval Medical University.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Naval Medical Center Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patients for the publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bin Shen, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Naval Medical Center, Naval Medical University of Chinese PLA, No. 338 Huaihaixi Road, Shanghai 200052, China. yijiacheng455@163.com
Received: July 15, 2024 Revised: August 18, 2024 Accepted: August 28, 2024 Published online: September 26, 2024 Processing time: 66 Days and 0.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Coronary artery diseases can cause myocardial ischemia and hypoxia, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, and even sudden death led to inflight incapacitation of aircrew. As the main cause of grounding due to illness, they severe threats to the health and fighting strength of military aircrew. Early warning in an early and accurate manner and early intervention of diseases possibly resulting in inflight incapacitation are key emphases of aeromedical support in clinic.
AIM
To figure out the flight factors and clinical characteristics of military aircrew with abnormal results of coronary artery computed tomographic angiography (CTA), thereby rendering theoretical references for clinical aeromedical support of military flying personnel.
METHODS
The clinical data of 15 flying personnel who received physical examinations in a military medical center from December 2020 to June 2023 and were diagnosed with coronary artery diseases by coronary artery CTA were collected and retrospectively analyzed, and a descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on their onset age, aircraft type and clinical data.
RESULTS
The 15 military flying personnel diagnosed with coronary artery diseases by coronary artery CTA were composed of 9 pilots, 1 navigator and 5 air combat service workers. Multi-vessel disease was detected in 9 flying personnel, among which 8 (88.9%) were pilots. Flying personnel with multi-vessel disease had higher content of cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B than those with single-vessel disease.
CONCLUSION
Coronary artery diseases are the major heart disease for the grounding of flying personnel due to illness, which can lead to inflight incapacitation. Coronary artery CTA is conducive to early detection and early intervention treatment of such diseases in clinic.
Core Tip: Early warning and intervention of diseases leading to inflight incapacitation is not only the most crucial task in clinical aeromedical work, but also the key link to reduce the grounding rate, ensure the fighting strength of troops and extend the life cycle of pilots. Construction of early warning model, accurate early warning and early intervention of key parameters in the results of routine physical examination are of great military significance for ensuring the health improvement of flying personnel.
