[Risk factors and clinical features of hospital-associated venous thromboembolism].

Objective: To investigate the clinical features and risk factors of hospital-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE). Methods: The study enrolled acute VTE patients admitted into China-Japan Friendship Hospital from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017. The hospital-associated VTE (HA-VTE) group and the community-associated VTE (CA-VTE) group were classified according to whether the VTE occurred during hospitalization or within a 90-day period of admission to hospital (including inpatient with at least two days of hospital stay or a surgical procedure under general or regional anaesthesia). Differences in clinical features, risk factors, and mortality rate were compared between the two groups. Results: A total of 437 patients with acute VTE were analyzed in the study. Among them, 266 patients were HA-VTE, 171 patients were CA-VTE. Patients in the CA-VTE group were more likely to have varicose veins, sedentary, long-distance travel, and patients in the HA-VTE group were more complicated with recent surgery (<1 month), bed rest, active malignant tumor, acute infections, acute cerebral infarction, fracture, central venous catheter (P<0.05). The CA-VTE group had more clinical symptoms such as lower extremity pain, dyspnea, chest pain and chest tightness (P<0.05). HA-VTE patients had less clinical symptoms but were more severe than the CA-VTE patients, with more sudden deaths (0 vs 3.4%, P=0.035). Among HA-VTE patients, 92.8% experienced VTE during hospitalization or within 1 month of the preceding hospital encounter, with a 13-day median time to VTE. The all-cause mortality rate was higher for HA-VTE group than CA-VTE group (8.3% vs 1.2%, P<0.001), and the in-hospital VTE was more common compared to VTE diagnosed post-discharge (12.2% vs 3.4%, P<0.001). Conclusions: More than half events of VTE are related to recent hospitalizations. HA-VTE has different risk factors from CA-VTE, combined with fewer clinical symptoms but higher all-cause mortality rate. More attention about VTE should be paid to hospitalized patients to reduce the incidence of HA-VTE events.

Resveratrol, an activator of SIRT1, upregulates AMPK and improves cardiac function in heart failure.

Reduced AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) expression has been shown to play a significant role in the cardiac dysfunction in heart failure. This study was designed to examine the effect of resveratrol, a potent activator of silent information regulator (SIRT1), on cardiac function and AMPK expression in heart failure. Adult male rat left anterior descending arteries were ligated, and they were fed with either a regular diet or a diet enriched with resveratrol. Heart failure was produced by myocardial infarction, and was associated with markedly increased AMPK and SIRT1 protein levels. Resveratrol treatment had a tremendous beneficial effect, both in terms of improving AMPK expression and on cardiac function. Decreased cardiac function and AMPK expression were also found in SIRT1 knockout (+/-) mice. In cultured cardiomyocytes, resveratrol increased AMPK and SIRT1 expressions, and overexpression of SIRT1 was found to be sufficient to activate AMPK in H9c2 cells. In contrast, pretreatment of cardiomyocytes with an SIRT1 antagonist, nicotinamide, blocked these beneficial effects of resveratrol. Therefore, the protective effects of resveratrol were found to be dependent on its ability to activate SIRT1 and improve AMPK expression. These results demonstrated that in heart failure, the enzymatic activity of cardiac SIRT1 is increased, which contributes to increased expression of AMPK, and resveratrol enhances the expression of AMPK and improves cardiac function through the activation of SIRT1.

Low-temperature nitridation of Fe nanoparticles precursor.

Nitridation of Fe nanoparticle precursor was performed in a NH3 atmosphere at the temperatures of 473 K and 673 K for one hour. Fe nanoparticles precursor had a typical spherical shape with iron oxides shell and alpha-Fe core, which was obtained by an arc-discharge method. Up to date, the nitriding temperature of 473 K in present work was the lowest by thermal ammonolysis method because of the characteristics of the nano-sized particles. The resultant product after nitridation was a mixture of iron-nitrides (gamma'-Fe4N and epsilon-Fe3N) nanoparticles with homogeneous dispersion. The nitriding mechanism, oxidizing behaviors and magnetic properties of iron-nitride nanoparticles were measured and discussed.

Oxidation and corrosion behaviors of Mg-based nanoparticles.

Various Mg-based nanoparticles were prepared by evaporating bulk magnesium in the atmospheres of Ar, Ar+N2 and CH4, respectively. The formations, phases, morphologies, thermal properties and corrosion behaviors of these kinds of nanocomposite particles were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA) and potentiodynamic polarisation scan (PPS). It is shown that the Mg-based nanoparticles produced in Ar and Ar+N2 atmospheres have hexangular crystal habits with particles' sizes ranging from 50 to 400 nm, while the nanoparticles produced in CH4 atmosphere have amorphous carbon out layers with particles' sizes among 20-100 nm. TG/DTA results show that two-steps oxidation process can be confirmed for all samples, which may be attributed to the oxidations of out layer and core of nanoparticle. The CH4 atmosphere-prepared nanoparticles exhibit better corrosion resistance properties due to its peculiar carbon doping.

[An analysis of lymphocyte subsets and purified protein derivative-antibody in pulmonary tuberculosis].

The lymphocyte subsets and PPD-antibody in peripheral blood were determined in 72 cases of bacteriological positive pulmonary tuberculosis using monoclonal antibody to anti-T lymphocyte and ELISA assay. The results showed that the percentage of T3 was 52.44 +/- 11.46% and the OD of PPD-antibody was 0.47 +/- 0.27 in initially treated patient group; 40.27 +/- 7.81%, 0.81 +/- 0.17 in chronic carrier group respectively. There were statistically significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.01). The percentage of T3 was significantly larger in 30-59 yr group than in more than 60 yr group among non chronic carriers (55.9 +/- 11.3% vs 44.4 +/- 2.4, P < 0.05). PPD-antibody was strongly associated with extent of lesion in lung.

[Diagnostic problems in pulmonary miliary tuberculosis, an analysis of 125 cases].

From Dec. 1984 to Dec. 1985, 4805 cases of various types of pulmonary tuberculosis were admitted to our hospital. Among them, there were 125 cases of pulmonary miliary tuberculosis, accounted for 2.6% of total cases. The rate of delayed diagnosis was 92%. The rate of delayed diagnosis patients of rural areas was higher than that of city (96.9%, versus 82.8%, P less than 0.05). Only 33.6% showed typical miliary changes on chest radiographs. The complication of enlargement of peripheral lymph nodes and extrapulmonary tuberculosis were much higher in miliary tuberculosis patients than that of total cases (36%, 45/125; 4.9%, 236/4805; P less than 0.01. 71.2%, 89/125; 5.8%, 278/4805; P less than 0.01 respectively).