High-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy is equally effective to noninvasive ventilation for mild-moderate acute respiratory distress syndrome in patients with acute pancreatitis: A single-center, retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The use of high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen therapy is gaining popularity for the treatment of acute hypoxic respiratory failure. However, limited evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of HFNC for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP). METHODS: This retrospective analysis focused on AP patients with mild-moderate ARDS, who were treated with either HFNC or noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in the emergency medicine department, from January 2020 to December 2022. The primary endpoint was treatment failure, defined as either invasive ventilation or a switch to any other study treatment (NIV for patients in the NFNC group and vice versa). RESULTS: A total of 146 patients with AP (68 in the HFNC group and 78 in the NIV group) were included in this study. The treatment failure rate in the HFNC group was 17.6% and 19.2% in the NIV group - a risk difference of -1.6% (95% CI, -11.3 to 14.0%; P = 0.806). The most common causes of failure in the HFNC group were aggravation of respiratory distress and hypoxemia. However, in the NIV group, the most common reasons for failure were treatment intolerance and exacerbation of respiratory distress. Treatment intolerance in the HFNC group was significantly lower than that in the NIV group (16.7% vs 60.0%, 95% CI -66.8 to -6.2; P = 0.023). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that body mass index (≥28), acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II score (≥15), partial arterial oxygen tension/fraction of inspired oxygen (≤200), and respiratory rate (≥32/min) at 1 hour were independent predictors of HFNC failure. CONCLUSION: In AP patients with mild-moderate ARDS, the usage of HFNC did not lead to a higher rate of treatment failure when compared to NIV. HFNC is an ideal choice of respiratory support for patients with NIV intolerance, but clinical application should pay attention to the influencing factors of its treatment failure.

Chemotaxis of Meloidogyne incognita Response to Rhizosphere Bacteria.

Rhizosphere microorganisms and the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by them take part in the regulation of the chemotaxis of nematodes. A total of 150 strains of rhizosphere bacteria were screened via a chemotaxis experiment with Meloidogyne incognita. Some isolates affected the behavior of the nematodes, including attraction, randomness, and repulsion. Volatile metabolites produced via the selected bacteria were associated with the chemotaxis of nematodes. M. incognita was highly attracted to decanal. In addition, dimethyl disulfide, 2,5-dimethylpyrazine, pentadecanoic acid, and palmitic acid were found to attract weakly M. incognita. Furthermore, the chemotaxis of M. incognita was tested in a pot experiment. The bacteria Bacillus sp. 1-50, Brevibacillus brevis 2-35, B. cereus 5-14, Chryseobacterium indologens 6-4, and VOC decanal could regulate the movement of M. incognita in the pot with or without plants. The results provide insights into rhizosphere microorganisms and their VOCs and how they regulate the chemotaxis of the nematodes.

Detection of intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer with biparametric magnetic resonance imaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the diagnostic performance of biparametric magnetic resonance imaging (bpMRI) for the detection of intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer (IHPC). Methods: Two medical databases (PubMed and Web of Science) were systematically reviewed by 2 independent researchers. Studies published before March 15, 2022, that used bpMRI (i.e., T2-weighted images combined with diffusion-weighted imaging) to detect prostate cancer (PCa) were included. The results of prostatectomy or prostate biopsy were the reference standards for the studies. The Quality Assessment of Diagnosis Accuracy Studies 2 tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. Data on true- and false-positive and -negative results were extracted to complete 2×2 contingency tables, and the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were calculated for each study. Summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) plots were constructed using these results. Results: In all, 16 studies (6,174 patients) that used Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System version 2 or other scoring systems, such as Likert, SPL and Questionnaire were included. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and the diagnosis odds ratio of bpMRI in the detection of IHPC were 0.91 (95% CI: 0.87-0.93), 0.67 (95% CI: 0.58-0.76), 2.8 (95% CI: 2.2-3.6), 0.14 (95% CI: 0.11-0.18), and 20 (95% CI: 15-27), respectively, with an area under the SROC curve of 0.90 (95% CI: 0.87-0.92). There was considerable heterogeneity between the studies. Conclusions: bpMRI exhibited a high negative predictive value and accuracy in the diagnosis of IHPC, and may be valuable for detecting PCa with poor prognosis. However, the bpMRI protocol needs to be standardized further to improve its wider applicability.

Study on the expression of TRIM7 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with sepsis and its early diagnostic value.

BACKGROUND: The early diagnosis of sepsis is beneficial to put forward a reasonable clinical treatment plan as soon as possible. This study was to explore the expression of Tripartite Motif 7 (TRIM7) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with sepsis and its diagnostic value. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. A total of 69 patients with infectious diseases were enrolled in the emergency room. They were divided into the sepsis group (34 cases) and the non-sepsis infection group (35 cases). There were 25 healthy subjects who were selected as the control group. The expression of TRIM7 in PBMCs was observed by immunofluorescence staining. The correlation between the expression of TRIM7 mRNA and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, white blood cell (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 was discussed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was utilized for evaluating the value of TRIM7 expression for the early diagnosis of sepsis. RESULTS: The fluorescence intensity representing the expression level of TRIM7 in PBMCs of patients in the sepsis group was the lowest among three groups. The TRIM7 mRNA expression in PBMCs of the sepsis group was greatly decreased in comparison with that of the non-sepsis infection group and control group (P < 0.05). Spearman correlation analysis indicated that TRIM7 mRNA expression was negatively correlated with APACHE II score, SOFA score, WBC, CRP, PCT, TNF-α and IL-6. ROC curve analysis revealed that the area under curve (AUC) of TRIM7 mRNA expression in PBMCs for the diagnosis of sepsis was 0.798, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.691- 0.905, a sensitivity of 73.5%, and a specificity of 77.1%. CONCLUSION: The expression of TRIM7 in PBMCs of patients with sepsis is significantly down-regulated, which has certain clinical value for early diagnosis of sepsis.

Juvenile Hormone Is an Important Factor in Regulating Aspongopus chinensis Dallas Diapause.

Aspongopus chinensis is a Chinese traditional edible and medicinal insect, which is in great demand in the society. This insect reproduces once a year which is caused by reproductive diapause resulting in insufficient production in wild resources. However, the mechanism of diapause in A. chinensis is still unclear. In this study, we focus on the relationship between juvenile hormones (JHs) and A. chinensis diapause. The results showed that JHIII concentration in diapause adult individuals was significantly lower than that in diapause termination adult individuals. When exogenous JHⅢ was injected into diapause adults, the rate of mating was increased significantly, development of the reproductive systems was accelerated, consumption of fat intensified, the expression of juvenile hormone acid o-methyl-transferase (JHAMT) was upregulated, and juvenile hormone epoxide hydrolase (JHEH) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) gene expressions were downregulated. In addition, RNAi of JHAMT decreased JH concentration, delayed the development of reproductive systems, slowed down fat consumption, and delayed the mean mating occurrence time significantly. Conversely, RNAi of JHEH resulted in an increased concentration of JH, development of reproductive systems was accelerated, consumption of fat was intensified, and mean mating occurrence time advanced significantly. Taken together, these findings uncovered that JH plays an important role in regulating reproductive diapause in A. chinensis and, thus, could provide a theoretical basis for further research on the diapause of A. chinensis.

The accuracy of sizing of the femoral component in total knee replacement.

PURPOSE: Femoral sizing in total knee replacement is important. Either undersizing or oversizing may result in deleterious effects to the clinical outcome after the surgery. There has been no study on the precision and accuracy of femoral sizing and the effect of measurement at different landmarks over the distal femur. This study assesses the intra-observer and inter-observer error of femoral sizing and identifies the effect of the placement site of the anterior referencing tool on femoral sizing. METHODS: Five investigators with different clinical experience measured the femoral size of 10 cadaveric specimens twice using three anterior referencing tool. The measurement of the femoral size was repeated at nine designated points on the anterior cortex of the cadaveric femora. RESULTS: Excellent intraobserver and interobserver agreements were obtained using the three anterior referencing tools. When the size on which the majority agreed was regarded as the actual size of the specimen, measurement at the nine designated points on the anterior cortex showed a deviation from the actual size from 6.2 to 46.2 %. Placing the femoral sizer stylus at the middle and 2 cm above the proximal margin of the anterior femoral condyle yielded the highest precision and accuracy. CONCLUSION: Regardless of the experience of the surgeons, measurement of the femoral size using the three anterior referencing tools is very accurate. Placing the stylus of the femoral sizer at the middle and 2 cm above the proximal margin of the anterior femoral condyle best reflects the actual size of the femur. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Experimental study.

Mechanism of neurophysiological treatment of amblyopia using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

PURPOSE: To research the mechanism of neurophysiological treatment of amblyopia by observing the visual cortex activation under rotating grating stimulus with functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and identify the components of the activation. METHODS: Nine healthy volunteers were examined using gradient-recalled echo and echo-planar imaging (GRE-EPI) pulse sequence performed at the 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner. In the block designing, rotating grating, stationary grating and luminance were plotted as task states, stationary grating, luminance and darkness as control states, respectively. The tasks of stimuli included 6 steps. Imaging processing and statistical analysis were carried out off-line using statistical parametric mapping (SPM99) software in single-subject. RESULTS: Some individual areas of visual cortex were activated by various stimuli information supplied by rotating grating. The strong activation in the middle of occipital lobe related to the stimuli of luminance, bilateral activation of Brodmann's 19th area related to visual motion perception, and the mild activation in the middle of occipital lobe related to form perception. CONCLUSION: The plotting of control state is important in bock design. The effective visual information of rotating grating includes components of luminance, visual motion perception and form perception. Functional MRI has potential as a tool for studying the physiological mechanism of visual cortex.