[The efficacy of eltrombopag plus cyclosporine A in patients with transfusion-dependent non-severe aplastic anemia: a retrospective study from single center].

The main purpose of our study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of eltrombopag plus cyclosporine A (CsA) in transfusion-dependent non-severe aplastic anemia(TD-NSAA). The clinical characteristics of 13 TD-NSAA patients who received initial treatment of eltrombopag plus CsA from 2019 to 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The 3-month overall hematological response (OR) rate was 12/13. Until the end of follow-up, 12 patients responded, among whom 2 patients reached complete response (CR) and 9 patients reached partial response (PR) and 1 with HR. Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) developed in one patient at 6 months after treatment. Five of thirteen patients reported mild adverse reactions, which were all manageable. Compared with historical data, the combination of eltrombopag with CsA is an effective regimen in patients with TD-NSAA.

Effects of exogenous melatonin and photoperiod on sexual maturation in pullets.

Hy-Line Gray commercial pullets were maintained under 8-h photoperiods, 16-h photoperiods and 16-h photoperiods supplemented with a diet containing 20 or 200 mg/kg melatonin (MEL) to investigate the role of MEL in sexual development. A total of 256 Hy-Line Gray commercial pullets were placed, four birds to a cage, in four similar light-proof rooms (8-h photoperiod) at 6 weeks of age. At 70 day, three rooms containing a total of 192 birds were transferred to a 16-h photoperiod, whereas 64 birds were maintained under the 8-h photoperiod. Diets containing MEL at 20 and 200 mg/kg were fed to birds in two of the rooms under 16-h photoperiods. Birds maintained under an 8-h photoperiod matured 11.25 day later than those maintained under a 16-h photoperiod (p < 0.05). The group of birds receiving 20 mg/kg MEL matured 1.19 day later than those maintained under the 16-h photoperiod and 10.06 day earlier than those maintained under the 8-h photoperiod. The group of birds receiving 200 mg/kg MEL matured 3.13 day later than those maintained under a 16-h photoperiod and 8.12 day earlier than those maintained under an 8-h photoperiod. The average body weight of birds maintained under the 8-h photoperiod was greater than that of birds maintained under the 16-h photoperiod (p < 0.05) and was similar between the different MEL groups. The abdominal fat weight was lower in 16L:8D group compared with 8L:16D group (p < 0.05). The concentrations of follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, oestrogen and insulin did not differ significantly among the groups. The melatonin concentration in 200 mg/kg melatonin group was higher than that observed in the other groups; however, this concentration did not differ significantly (p > 0.05). These data suggest that the birds did not perceive the final 8-h photoperiod as being part of the night when they were given the MEL diets; continuously high plasma MEL was not observed in birds that responded as if they were in constant darkness. However, the later maturity of the groups administered MEL diets compared with the groups maintained under a constant 16-h photoperiod clearly indicated that MEL has some influence on the sexual maturity of pullets.

[A cross-sectional survey and analysis of influencing factors of humanistic of the current status of humanistic care ability of burn specialist nurses].

Objective: To investigate the current status of humanistic care ability of burn specialist nurses and to analyze the influencing factors. Methods: A single-center cross-sectional research method was conducted. From May to August 2020, 63 burn specialist nurses who met the inclusion criteria in Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine were selected. Self-made general data questionnaire was used to investigate 17 indexes, including gender, age, professional title, working years, whether received humanistic care training, academic qualification, and caring ability inventory (CAI) was used to evaluate their humanistic care ability. After the nurses were classified by the general data, independent sample t test and one-way analysis of variance were performed on the data to analyze the total score of CAI. The CAI total scores and scores of cognition, courage, and patience of the nurses were compared with the international norm. The factors with statistically significant differences in unvariate analysis were selected for multiple linear regression analysis to screen the independent influencing factors of humanistic care ability of burn specialist nurses. Results: A total of 63 questionnaires were collected in this survey, all of which were valid. Among the 63 nurses, there were 4 males and 59 females, with the age mainly ranging from 20 to 30 years (30 nurses, 47.62%), the professional titles mainly being nurse practitioner (36 nurses, 57.14%), the working years mainly being more than 10 years (28 nurses, 44.44%), 32 nurses not receiving humanistic care training, and academic qualifications mostly being junior college (37 nurses, 58.73%). There were significant differences in the total scores of CAI among nurses with different ages, professional titles, working years, whether received humanistic care training, and academic qualifications (with F values of 53.95, 49.14, and 75.42, t values of 6.08 and -2.82, respectively, P<0.01). The scores of cognition, courage, and patience and the total scores of CAI of nurses in this group were significantly lower than those of international norm (with t values of -2.02, -2.04, -6.19, and -3.89, respectively, P<0.05 or P<0.01). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, working years, professional title, and whether received humanistic care training were the independent influencing factors of humanistic care ability of burn specialist nurses (with 95% confidence intervals of 1.91-23.23, 16.25-31.48, 1.05-19.09, and 6.72-31.82, unstandardized coefficient values of 12.57, 23.86, 10.07, and 19.27, respectively, P<0.05 or P<0.01). Conclusions: The humanistic care ability of burn specialist nurses is relatively weak. Age, professional title, working years, and whether received humanistic care training are the independent influencing factors of humanistic care ability of burn specialist nurses.

Krebs von den Lungen-6 associated with chest high-resolution CT score in evaluation severity of patients with interstitial lung disease.

AIMS: The purpose of this prospective, single-center study was to measure the value of Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6), a kind of transmembrane mucoprotein, in diagnosing interstitial lung disease (ILD) and in assessing the severity of ILD. METHODS: We enrolled 184 patients and 30 healthy controls. Ninety-eight patients were diagnosed with ILD, 47 with pneumonia, 19 with non-small cell lung cancer without ILD (NSCLC/non-ILD) and 20 with other lung diseases. Serum KL-6 levels, CT scores of high-resolution computerised tomography (HRCT) and pulmonary function in ILD patients were assessed. RESULTS: The mean value of serum KL-6 in patients with ILD, pneumonia, NSCLC/non-ILD, other lung diseases and healthy controls were 1000.67±882.73U/ml, 234.11±91.02U/ml, 269.95±149.23U/ml, 234.85±83.51U/ml and 189.03±55.50U/ml, respectively. Serum KL-6 levels of patients with ILD were significantly higher than that of other groups (P<0.000). The level of serum KL-6 in patients with pneumonia, NSCLC/non-ILD and other lung diseases was also statistically higher than healthy controls (P<0.05). When the cut-off value was 312U/ml, the sensitivity and specificity of KL-6 for the diagnosis of ILD was 84.7% and 85.3% respectively (AUC: 0.936, 95% CI: 0.906-0.965). The serum KL-6 levels in patients with ILD were significantly positively correlated with the CT scores (r=0.539, P=0.000) and negatively correlated with DLCO (r=-0.513, P=0.000). CONCLUSION: Serum KL-6 might be useful in the diagnosis of ILD, especially in the hard-to-diagnose cases, with high sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, KL-6 might be a valuable marker for evaluation of ILD severity.

Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the particulate phase of cigarette smoke using a gas chromatographic-high-resolution mass spectrometric technique.

A new procedure is developed for the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the particulate phase of cigarette smoke. The procedure applies solid-phase extraction using a Bond Elut CH cartridge as a sample preparation step. The efficiency of the cleanup procedure is verified using a gas chromatographic (GC)-high-resolution mass spectrometric (MS) technique, proving that no interference occurs in the PAHs' determination. The efficient cleanup allows GC detection using either high- or low-resolution MS detection. Enhanced sensitivity is obtained using GC-MS and selected ion monitoring. This new technique has several advantages over other reported techniques. The method is simple and robust and has good repeatability and accuracy. The estimated detection limit is 0.1 ng/cigarette for benzo[a]pyrene. In addition to that, the recovery from the smoke pad in which the smoke is collected is approximately 97% for all PAHs. Results for the PAH analyses for 1R5F, 1R4F, and 1R3 Kentucky reference cigarettes are reported in this study. These results provide useful evidence for clarifying the controversy about previously reported data.

GM1 ganglioside regulates the proteolysis of amyloid precursor protein.

Plaques containing amyloid beta-peptides (Abeta) are a major feature in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and GM1 ganglioside is an important component of cellular plasma membranes and especially enriched in lipid raft. GM1-bound Abeta (GM1/Abeta), found in brains exhibiting early pathological changes of AD including diffuse plaques, has been suggested to be involved in the initiation of amyloid fibril formation in vivo by acting as a seed. However, the role of GM1 in amyloid beta-protein precursor (APP) processing is not yet defined. In this study, we report that exogenous GM1 ganglioside promotes Abeta biogenesis and decreases sAPPalpha secretion in SH-SY5Y and COS7 cells stably transfected with human APP695 cDNA without affecting full-length APP and the sAPPbeta levels. We also observe that GM1 increases extracellular levels of Abeta in primary cultures of mixed rat cortical neurons transiently transfected with human APP695 cDNA. These findings suggest a regulatory role for GM1 in APP processing pathways.