Investigation of lacrimal sac space-occupying lesions using color doppler ultrasound, computed tomography, and computed tomography dacryocystography.

AIM: To observe the imaging features of color Doppler ultrasound (CDU) and computed tomography (CT) or computed tomography dacryocystography (CT-DCG) in different types of lacrimal sac space-occupying lesions (SOLs). METHODS: This retrospective case series study included 21 patients with lacrimal sac SOLs who underwent lacrimal sac surgery between January 2018 and March 2022. The imaging features of CDU and CT or CT-DCG in these patients were extracted from the examination cloud system. The images were observed and analyzed. RESULTS: The detection rate of lacrimal SOLs between CDU (21/21, 100%) and CT or CT-DCG (20/21, 95.2%) had no statistically significant difference (P=1.0). CDU could detect the blood flow signals in all SOLs except mucocele and mucopeptide concretion. Among them, polyps had characteristic imaging changes on CDU and CT-DCG. The mucoceles and mucopeptide concretions had characteristic imaging changes on CDU, which could provide more information for differential diagnosis. CONCLUSION: The morphology and internal blood flow signals of lacrimal sac SOLs can be observed using CDU. CT or CT-DCG has advantages in observing structural damage around the lacrimal sac mass. Therefore, CDU may be used as a routine examination to exclude lacrimal sac SOLs before dacryocystorhinostomy in the absence of preoperative CT or CT-DCG.

Accuracy of optimized Sirius ray-tracing method in intraocular lens power calculation.

AIM: To evaluate the accuracy and predictability of ray tracing-assisted intraocular lens (IOL) calculation function in Sirius internal software and further improve the accuracy by optimizing the calculation of predicted lens position (PLP). METHODS: This retrospective study recruited 52 eyes of 49 patients. All of the cases with cataract had undergone phacoemulsification combined with IOL implantation. SRK-T, Haigis formula, and Sirius ray-tracing method were all used for each eye's IOL calculation. The mean absolute value of prediction error (prediction error=predicted refraction-postoperative refraction) was defined as mean absolute prediction error (MAPE) and was determined for each method. Calculation of PLP was optimized by effective lens position (ELP). Optimized PLP was entered to Sirius internal software again to verify whether the method was improved. RESULTS: Compared with SRK-T and Haigis formulas, less accuracy was shown in Sirius ray-tracing method (P=0.001). The ELP of the IOL moved forward compared to PLP (P<0.001). The MAPE of the ELP-inputted Sirius ray-tracing method was reduced. ELP and PLP were well correlated. Taking ELP as y and PLP given by Sirius soft as x, a linear regression formula y=0.1637x+3.1741 was concluded (R2 =0.1066, P=0.018). It was shown that the optimized Sirius ray-tracing method (optimized PLP entered), compared with SRK-T and Haigis formulas, worked with the same accuracy (P=0.038). CONCLUSION: The original Sirius ray tracing method is not satisfactory enough. However, in normal eyes, the optimized Sirius ray-tracing method in IOL calculation was as accurate as SRK-T and Haigis formulas.

Involvement of H19/miR-326 axis in hepatocellular carcinoma development through modulating TWIST1.

Overexpression of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) H19 has been observed in various cancers, which indicates that H19 exert important roles in the progression of carcinogenesis. MiR-326 has been reported to play tumor suppressive roles in multiple tumors. Recently, the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) hypothesis has implied that lncRNAs might function as molecular sponges for microRNAs in various cancers. However, the roles of H19/miR-326 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still remain unclear. The aim of our study was to determine H19/miR-326 expression in HCC cells and investigate their roles in HCC development. We found that H19 was significantly elevated and miR-326 was decreased in HCC cells including Hep3B, HepG2, MHCC-97L, SK-hep1, Hun7, SMCC-7721 compared with LO2 cells, respectively. In the subsequent experiments, we observed that inhibition of H19 can repress HCC cell growth, migration, and invasion in vitro. H19 downregulation can increase miR-326 expression in HCC cells. Meanwhile, miR-326 mimics can also inhibit HCC progression, whereas miR-326 inhibitors exhibited a reverse phenomenon by modulating H19 expression. In addition, a negative association between H19 and miR-326 was predicted and confirmed. Furthermore, the transcription factor TWIST1 has been recognized as a significant regulator in tumor progression. Here, by performing bioinformatics analysis, TWIST1 was identified as a downstream target of miR-326. The findings of our study implied that lncRNA H19 can serve as a ceRNA to sponge miR-326 and modulate TWIST1 levels in HCC pathogenesis. Taken these together, these findings indicated that H19/miR-326/TWIST1 axis was involved in HCC development and can indicate a novel HCC target.

Frailty transitions and types of death in Chinese older adults: a population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the adverse effects of frailty transitions. In this study, we aimed to characterize the transitions between frailty states and examine their associations with the type of death among older adults in China, a developing country with a rapidly growing aging population. METHODS: We used data of 11,165 older adults (aged 65-99 years) from the 2002 and 2005 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Overall, 44 health deficits were used to construct frailty index (FI; range: 0-1), which was then categorized into a three-level variable: nonfrail (FI ≤0.10), prefrail (0.10< FI ≤0.21), and frail (FI >0.21). Outcome was four types of death based on bedridden days and suffering state (assessed in the 2008 wave of CLHLS). RESULTS: During the 3-year period, 3,394 (30.4%) participants had transitioned between different frailty states (nonfrail, prefrail, and frail), one-third transitioned to death, and one-third remained in previous frailty states. Transitions to greater frailty (ie, "worsening") were more common than transitions to lesser frailty (ie, "improvement"). Among four categories of frailty transitions, "worsening" and "remaining frail" had increased risks of painful death, eg, with odds ratios of 1.92 (95% confidence interval [CI] =1.41, 2.62) and 4.75 (95% CI =3.32, 6.80), respectively, for type 4 death (ie, ≥30 bedridden days with suffering before death). CONCLUSION: This large sample of older adults in China supports that frailty is a dynamic process, characterized by frequent types of transitions. Furthermore, those who remained frail had the highest likelihood of experiencing painful death, which raises concerns about the quality of life in frail populations.

The effects of the insulin resistance index on the virologic response to entecavir in patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

PURPOSE: To further observe and verify the effect of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) on the response to antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and investigate the relationship between the virologic response and insulin resistance. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was adopted and 61 NAFLD patients with HBeAg-positive CHB were included as the observation group (group A), and 64 patients with simple CHB were included as the control group (group B). RESULTS: After 12 weeks of treatment with entecavir, the total virologic response rate in group A was statistically significantly lower than that in group B (P<0.05). During weeks 24-96, the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). In weeks 48 and 96, there was no significant difference in the HBeAg seroconversion rates between the two groups (P>0.05). In weeks 12 and 24, there was also no significant difference in the alanine transaminase (ALT) normalization rate between the two groups (P>0.05). Then, in weeks 48 and 96, the ALT normalization rate of group A was obviously lower than that of group B (P<0.05). Group A patients were divided into group A1 (≤M) and group A2 (>M) according to the median value (M=2.79) of the baseline homeostatic model assessment method insulin resistance levels. In weeks 48 and 96, the ALT normalization rate of group A1 was significantly higher than that of group A2 (P<0.05). The correlation coefficient (r) of the baseline homeostatic model assessment method insulin resistance level and the severity of fatty liver in group A was 0.426 (P=0.001). CONCLUSION: NAFLD cannot affect the long-term total virologic response rate and HBeAg seroconversion rate in CHB patients treated with entecavir but can reduce the long-term biochemical response rate, which has a positive correlation with the severity of fatty liver and the insulin resistance index.

microRNA-218 expression and its association with the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with cervical cancer.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of microRNA-218 (miRNA-218) in the serum and cervical tissue and its association with the clinicopathological features of cervical cancer (CC). The expression of miRNA-218 was detected in the serum and cervical tissue of 112 patients with CC and 50 age-matched hysteromyoma patients via the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The clinical data were collected and the association between the expression of miRNA-218 and the clinicopathological characteristics of the patients was analyzed. The expression of miRNA-218 in the cancer group was significantly decreased in the cervical tissue and serum compared with that in the control group (P<0.001). The decreased expression of miRNA-218 was associated with a later International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, a more invasive pathological type and lymphatic node metastasis but not with age, age at menarche, menopausal status, number of pregnancies and deliveries, family history of cancer or tumor size. In conclusion, miRNA-218 was found to be downregulated in the cancer tissue and serum of the patients with CC. The decreased expression of miRNA-218 in CC was associated with the invasiveness of the tumor.