Efficacy of continuous positive airway pressure on TNF-α in obstructive sleep apnea patients: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is an important mediator of the immune response. At present, the improvement of TNF-α after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is still controversial. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of the present evidence based on a meta-analysis to elucidate the effects of TNF-α on OSAHS after CPAP treatment. RESULTS: To measure TNF-α, ten studies used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and one used radioimmunoassay. The forest plot outcome indicated that CPAP therapy would lower the TNF-α levels in OSAHS patients, with a weighted mean difference (WMD) of 1.08 (95% CI: 0.62-1.55; P < 0.001) based on the REM since there is highly significant heterogeneity (I2 = 90%) among the studies. Therefore, we used the subgroup and sensitivity analyses to investigate the source of heterogeneity. The findings of the sensitivity analysis revealed that the pooled WMD ranged from 0.91 (95% CI: 0.52-1.31; P < 0.001) to 1.18 (95% CI: 0.74-1.63; P < 0.001). The findings were not influenced by any single study. Notably, there was homogeneity in the Asia subgroup and publication year: 2019, implying that these subgroups could be the source of heterogeneity. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis recommends that CPAP therapy will decrease the TNF-α level in OSAHS patients, but more related research should be conducted.

Relationship Between Depression After Hemorrhagic Stroke and Auditory Event-Related Potentials in a Chinese Patient Group.

Purpose: Post-stroke depression (PSD) is the most common psychiatric sequelae of stroke. Numerous studies revealed that event-related potentials (ERP) can reflect depression severity to a certain extent, while there is almost no research on depression after hemorrhagic stroke. Therefore, we employed a prospective cross-sectional study to explore the relationship between ERP and depression after hemorrhagic stroke. Methods: A total of 74 patients with intracranial hemorrhage were included in this study. Neurological deficits were evaluated using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) on admission. Depression severity and cognitive impairment were measured using the 17-item Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD-17) and the Chinese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) after two weeks of treatment. All patients were conducted auditory Oddball paradigm for event-related potential mismatch negativity (MMN) and P300. Results: In total, 36 patients were diagnosed with PSD at the two weeks of treatment, for a percentage of 48.6%. Depression severity of ICH patients correlated positively with both the latency of MMN (r = 0.376, P = 0.001) and P300 (r = 0.325, P = 0.005), and correlated negatively with both the amplitude of MMN (r=-0.385, P = 0.001) and P300 (r=-0.311, P = 0.007). Depression severity was negatively correlated with cognitive function after hemorrhagic stroke (r=-0.347, P = 0.002). Conclusion: The latency and amplitude of MMN and P300 can well reflect the degree of depression after hemorrhagic stroke, which may help in the early diagnosis and effective treatment of PSD.

High resolution computed tomography for the diagnosis of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pneumonia: a study from multiple medical centers in western China.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the role of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) in the diagnosis of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pneumonia and to provide experience in the early detection and diagnosis of 2019-nCoV pneumonia. METHODS: Seventy-two patients confirmed to be infected with 2019-nCoV from multiple medical centers in western China were retrospectively analyzed, including epidemiologic characteristics, clinical manifestations, laboratory findings and HRCT chest features. RESULTS: All patients had lung parenchymal abnormalities on HRCT scans, which were mostly multifocal in both lungs and asymmetric in all patients, and were mostly in the peripheral or subpleural lung regions in 52 patients (72.22%), in the central lung regions in 16 patients (22.22%), and in both lungs with "white lung" manifestations in 4 patients (5.56%). Subpleural multifocal consolidation was a predominant abnormality in 38 patients (52.78%). Ground-glass opacity was seen in 34 patients (47.22%). Interlobular septal thickening was found in 18 patients, 8 of whom had only generally mild thickening with no zonal predominance. Reticulation was seen in 8 patients (11.11%), and was mild and randomly distributed. In addition, both lungs of 28 patients had 2 or 3 CT imaging features. Out of these 72 patients, 36 were diagnosed as early stage, 32 patients as progressive stage, and 4 patient as severe stage pneumonia. Moreover, the diagnostic accuracy of HRCT features combined with epidemiological history was not significantly different from the detection of viral nucleic acid (all P >0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The HRCT features of 2019-nCoV pneumonia are characteristic to a certain degree, which when combined with epidemiological history yield high clinical value in the early detection and diagnosis of 2019-nCoV pneumonia.

[Use of Iron-modified Calcite as an Active Capping Material to Control Phosphorus Release from Sediments in Surface Water Bodies].

The use of calcite (CA) as an active capping material has high potential for controlling the release of phosphorus (P) from sediments, but its efficiency still needs to be enhanced. To address this issue, an iron-modified CA (Fe-CA) was prepared, the removal performance of phosphate from aqueous solution by Fe-CA was studied, and the efficiency of the use of Fe-CA as an active capping material to prevent the liberation of P from sediments was investigated. The results showed that Fe-CA exhibited much higher phosphate removal ability than CA. The phosphate removal efficiency of Fe-CA increased with an increase in the Fe-CA dosage. Increasing the initial phosphate concentration gave rise to an increase in the amount of phosphate removed by Fe-CA, and the maximum amount of phosphate removed by Fe-CZ reached 3.09 mg·g-1. Sediment capping with Fe-CA could effectively control the release of soluble reactive P (SRP) from the sediment into the overlying water, leading to a very low concentration of SRP in the overlying water. Additionally, the Fe-CA capping also resulted in the transformation of a small amount of redox-sensitive P (BD-P) and metal-oxide-bound P (NaOH-rP) in sediments to residual P (Res-P), leading to a slight increase in the stability of P in the sediment. The overwhelming majority (90.8%) of P bound by the Fe-CA capping layer existed in the form of NaOH-rP, calcium-bound P (HCl-P), and Res-P, which are relatively very stable. Furthermore, the percentage of bioavailable P (BAP) as a proportion of total extractable P in the P-bound Fe-CA capping layer was very low, and the bound P was re-released with difficulty into the water column for algae growth. Compared to CA capping, the efficiency for the control of sedimentary P release into the overlying water by Fe-CA capping was much higher, and the stability of P bound by the Fe-CA capping layer was also higher. The results of this work indicate that Fe-CA is a very promising active capping material for the interception of the release of P from sediments into the overlying water.

[Regulating Effect and Mechanism of Calcite/Chlorapatite Mixture Addition on Transformation and Transport of Phosphorus in Sediments].

Understanding the effect of calcite and chlorapatite mixture (CA/ClAP) addition on the mobilization of phosphorus (P) in sediments is crucial to the application of CA/ClAP as an amendment material to control the release of P from sediments. To address this issue, batch experiments were conducted to investigate the removal performance of phosphate by CA/ClAP, and sediment incubation experiments were carried out to study the effect of CA/ClAP addition on the mobilization of P in sediments. The results showed that the removal ability of phosphate by CA/ClAP was much higher than those by calcite and chlorapatite, and the kinetics data of phosphate removal by CA/ClAP followed a pseudo-second-order kinetics model. Increasing calcite and chlorapatite dosages would be favorable for the removal of phosphate by CA/ClAP, and coexisting Ca2+ enhanced the phosphate removal. CA/ClAP addition not only reduced the concentration of soluble reactive P (SRP) in the overlying water, but also decreased the concentration of SRP in the pore water. The addition of CA/ClAP in sediments caused an increase in the content of P in the sediments, but the increased P mainly existed in the form of calcium-bound P (HCl-P), which was difficult to be re-released into the water column under anoxic and common pH (5-9) conditions. The reduction of SRP in the pore water after the addition of CA/ClAP played an important role in the prevention of sedimentary P liberation into the overlying water by the CA/ClAP amendment. The results of this work indicate that CA/ClAP can be used as an amendment material for interception of the release of P from sediments into overlying water.

Environmental estrogen exposure converts lipid metabolism in male fish to a female pattern mediated by AMPK and mTOR signaling pathways.

Environmental estrogens, including bisphenol A (BPA) and 17ß-estradiol (E2), which are widely used in industries and medicine, pose a severe ecological threat to fish due to feminization induction. However, the related metabolic basis for reproductive feminization in male fish has not been well addressed. We first found that female zebrafish exhibited higher lipid accumulation and lipogenesis activity than males. Next, we exposed male and female zebrafish to E2 (200 ng/L) or BPA (100 µg/L) for six weeks, and observed an early-phase reproductive feminization in males, accompanied with reduced spermatids, significant fat deposition and lipogenic gene expressions that mimicked female patterns. Cellular signaling assays revealed that, E2 or BPA modulated lipid metabolism in males mainly through lowering 5' AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and upregulating the lipogenic mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways. For the first time, we show that environmental estrogens could alter lipid metabolism in male fish to a female pattern (metabolic feminization) prior to gonad feminization in male fish, to allows males to accumulate efficiently lipids to harmonize with the feminized gonads. This study suggests that negative effects of environmental estrogens, as hazardous materials, on vertebrate health are more complicated than originally thought.

[Adsorption of Phosphate on Mg/Fe Layered Double Hydroxides (Mg/Fe-LDH) and Use of Mg/Fe-LDH as an Amendment for Controlling Phosphorus Release from Sediments].

We determine the efficiency and mechanism of Mg/Fe layered double hydroxides (Mg/Fe-LDH) addition for the control of phosphorus (P) release from sediments by studying the adsorption behavior and mechanism of phosphate from an aqueous solution on Mg/Fe-LDH. The impact of Mg/Fe-LDH addition on the mobilization of P in sediments as well as the adsorptive removal of phosphate by sediments is investigated, and the stabilization of P bound by Mg/Fe-LDH is also evaluated. Results showed that the kinetics data of phosphate adsorption onto Mg/Fe-LDH fitted better with the Elovich kinetics model than with the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetics models, and that the Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich models were more suitable for describing the adsorption isotherm behavior of phosphate on Mg/Fe-LDH than the Langmuir model. Phosphate adsorption possessed a wide effective pH range of 4-10. Coexisting Ca2+ and Mg2+ enhanced phosphate adsorption onto Mg/Fe-LDH, while coexisting Na+, K+, and Cl- had negligible impacts on the phosphate adsorption. The presence of SO42- and HCO3- in aqueous solution inhibited the adsorption of phosphate on Mg/Fe-LDH. The phosphate adsorption mechanisms were deduced to be anion exchange, electrostatic attraction, ligand exchange and inner-sphere complex formation. The addition of Mg/Fe-LDH into sediments not only greatly reduced the concentration of reactive soluble P (SRP) in the overlying water, but also significantly decreased the level of SRP in the pore water. In addition, Mg/Fe-LDH addition also increased the adsorption capacity for the sediments, and the phosphate adsorption ability for the Mg/Fe-LDH-amended sediments increased with increased amendment dosage. Almost half of the phosphate bound by Mg/Fe-LDH existed in the form of relatively stable P, i.e., metal oxide-bound P (NaOH-rP), which was difficult to release back into the water column under normal pH and anoxic conditions. Nearly half of the phosphate bound by Mg/Fe-LDH existed in the form of easily released P, i.e., NH4Cl extractable P (NH4Cl-P) and redox-sensitive P (BD-P), which had a high risk of re-releasing into the water column. We conclude that it is very necessary for Mg/Fe-LDH to be recycled from the sediments after the application of Mg/Fe-LDH as an amendment to control sedimentary P liberation.

[Factors associated with retention in a community-based methadone maintenance treatment among heroin addicts].

OBJECTIVE: To explore factors associated with retention in a community-based methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) among heroin addicts in Xichang of Sichuan province. METHODS: All 206 heroin addicts were first admitted to MMT community-based program between March to September 2004. Baseline data of patients characteristics, social function, drug using behaviors, sexual behaviors, dose of methadone and retention were collected. RESULTS: Up to Oct, 2005, all 206 patients contributed 8.98 +/- 5.74 person-months of following-up. The retention rates were 58.7% after 6 months and 34.6% after 12 months respectively. Cox proportional hazard regression model indicated that the employed (HR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.39 - 0.92), helping family to do housework in past 30 days more than once a day (HR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.42 - 0.82) and previous self-detoxification > or = 3 times (HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.47 - 0.91) were independently associated with retention. CONCLUSION: We should give individual counseling to help heroin addicts increasing compliance.