Dietary vitamin C and vitamin E with the risk of aortic aneurysm and dissection: A prospective population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The associations between dietary vitamin C (VC), vitamin E (VE) intake and aortic aneurysm and dissection (AAD) remain unclear. This study aimed to prospectively investigate the associations between dietary VC and VE with the incident risk of AAD. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 139 477 participants of UK Biobank cohort were included in the analysis. Dietary VC and VE consumptions were acquired through a 24-h recall questionnaire. Cox proportional regression models were used to examine the associations between VC, VE intake and the risk of AAD. Incident AAD was ascertained through hospital inpatient records and death registers. During a median follow-up of 12.5 years, 962 incident AAD events were documented. Both dietary VC [adjusted hazard ratio (HR), 0.77; 95 % confidence intervals (CI), 0.63-0.93; P-trend = 0.008] and VE (adjusted HR, 0.70; 95 % CI, 0.57-0.87; P-trend = 0.002) were inversely associated with incident AAD when comparing the participants in the highest quartile with those in the lowest. In subgroup analyses, the associations were more pronounced in participants who were over 60 years old, participants with smoking history, hypertension or hyperlipidemia, who were under the high risk of AAD. CONCLUSION: Higher dietary VC and VE intakes are associated with reduced risk of AAD. Our study emphasizes the importance of diet adjustment strategies targeted on VC and VE to lower the incidence rate of AAD especially in the high-risk population.

Serum albumin and risk of incident diabetes and diabetic microvascular complications in the UK Biobank cohort.

AIM: To examine the associations between serum albumin and the incidences of diabetes and diabetic microvascular complications in participants of the UK Biobank cohort. METHODS: There were 398,146 participants without diabetes and 30,952 patients with diabetes from the UK Biobank cohort included in this study. Multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were used to analyze the association of albumin with the incidences of diabetes and diabetic microvascular complications. Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was used to determine the genetic relationships between serum albumin and diabetes. RESULTS: After a median 12.90 years follow-up, 14,710 participants developed incident diabetes (58.83 ± 7.52 years, 56.10% male). After multivariate adjustment, serum albumin was inversely associated with incident diabetes: hazard ratio (HR) [95% confidence interval] per 10 g/l increase 0.88 [0.82;0.94]. MR analyses suggested a potential genetic influence of serum albumin on diabetes in both the UK Biobank and the FinnGen consortium: odds ratios (ORs) [95% confidence interval per 1 g/l increase 0.99 [0.98;1.00] and 0.78 [0.67;0.92], respectively. In patients with diabetes, higher serum albumin levels were significantly associated with lower risk for diabetic microvascular complications. Specifically, per 10 g/l increase in serum albumin, the HRs for diabetic nephropathy, ophthalmopathy, and neuropathy were 0.42 [0.30;0.58], 0.61 [0.52;0.72], and 0.67 [0.51;0.88], respectively. CONCLUSION: In this large prospective study, serum levels of albumin were inversely associated with the incidences of diabetes and diabetic microvascular complications. These findings underscore the importance of maintaining optimal nutrient status in reducing the risk of diabetes and its complications.

Clinical strategies for differentiating IgG4-related cholecystitis from gallbladder carcinoma to avoid unnecessary surgical resection.

Immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-related cholecystitis (IgG4-C) is often difficult to distinguish from gallbladder carcinoma (GBC). This study aimed to determine a practical strategy for differentiating between IgG4-C and GBC to avoid unnecessary surgical resection. The expression of IgG4 in the gallbladder was detected by immunohistochemistry. The clinicopathological and radiological characteristics of IgG4-C patients and GBC patients were analyzed retrospectively. Immunohistochemistry revealed that IgG4 was upregulated in the plasma cells of IgG4-C tissues. The median serum total bilirubin levels were significantly higher in the patients with IgG4-C than in those with GBC (45.8 µmol L-1 vs. 29.9 µmol L-1). The serum γ-GGT levels were higher in IgG4-C patients than in GBC patients, whereas the serum levels of CA125 were significantly higher in GBC patients than in IgG4-C patients. The imaging scans were helpful for differentiating IgG4-C from GBC based on the presence of a layered pattern and Rokitansky-Aschoff sinuses in the gallbladder wall. There were no statistically significant differences in age, presence of abdominal pain, level of emaciation between the two groups. Our study demonstrated that the combination of imaging with serum total bilirubin, γ-GGT and CA125 levels can offer added preoperative diagnostic value and reduce the rate of IgG4-C misdiagnosis.

Clinicopathological analysis of 12 patients with autoimmune pancreatitis.

Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is a rare type of chronic pancreatitis that is often misdiagnosed as pancreatic cancer (PaC). This study was undertaken to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of AIP, in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Among the 271 patients with PaC who underwent pancreatoduodenectomy between January 2003 and December 2012 at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, chronic pancreatitis was identified and tissue samples obtained from 16 patients. The clinicopathological and imaging characteristics of 16 of the patients with chronic pancreatitis were analyzed retrospectively. The expression of immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4) in the pancreas tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry. Immunohistochemistry showed that IgG4 was highly expressed in 12 out of the 16 patients, and those 12 patients were diagnosed with AIP. Among those 12 patients, 6 presented with emaciation and 7 with jaundice and abdominal pain, respectively. Among the 16 included patients, 12 had an elevated level of serum γ-glutamyltransferase and 9 had an elevated level of serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9. The imaging features were as follows: Pancreatic enlargement in 11 patients (particularly pancreatic head enlargement), pancreatic miniature in 1, 'sausage-like' pancreatic changes in 4 and 'halo' sign pancreatic changes in 5. Massive plasma cell infiltration (11/12) and parenchymal fibrosis (8/12) were observed in the pancreatic tissues through pathology. These results suggest that combining imaging with IgG4 expression for the purpose of diagnosis can enhance the preoperative diagnostic value and reduce the rate of AIP misdiagnosis.