Application value of adrenal venous sampling in the surgical treatment of primary aldosteronism.

The diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA) is critical for determining treatment strategies. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical value of preoperative adrenal venous sampling (AVS) for determining the benefit of PA surgery. Patients diagnosed with PA at Liaocheng People's Hospital (Liaocheng, China) between January 2015 and December 2020 were selected and divided into two groups: Group A underwent adrenal computed tomography (CT) only, whereas Group B underwent adrenal CT and successful AVS. Subsequently, the improvement rate of adrenal CT and adrenal CT + AVS in the treatment of PA was compared. A total of 164 patients were included, with an average age of 46.69±13.64 years. There were 62 patients in Group A and 102 in Group B. Among the patients diagnosed with unilateral lesions on adrenal CT scan, 82.61% of patients in group A and 87.72% in group B showed improvement; however, the difference was not significant (χ2=0.534, P=0.465). Among the patients diagnosed with bilateral lesions on adrenal CT images, 62.50% of patients in Group A and 91.11% of patients in Group B showed improvement (P=0.019). In conclusion, unilateral adrenal lesions detected by CT did not benefit significantly from surgical decision-making after AVS. AVS should be advised for all patients with bilateral adrenal PA who are willing to undergo adrenal surgery, which is conducive to correct lateral segmentation and improve treatment choices.

Improving electron transportation and operational lifetime of full color organic light emitting diodes through a "weak hydrogen bonding cage" structure.

Efficient electron-transporting materials (ETMs) are critical to achieving excellent performance of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), yet developing such materials remains a major long-term challenge, particularly ETMs with high electron mobilities (µeles). Herein, we report a short conjugated ETM molecule (PICN) with a dipolar phenanthroimidazole group, which exhibits an electron mobility of up to 1.52 × 10-4 cm2 (V-1 s-1). The origin of this high µele is long-ranged, regulated special cage-like interactions with C-H⋯N radii, which are also favorable for the excellent efficiency stability and operational stability in OLEDs. It is worth noting that the green phosphorescent OLED operation half-lifetimes can reach up to 630 h under unencapsulation, which is 20 times longer than that based on the commonly used commercial ETM TPBi.

Efficient near-infrared emission benefits from slowing down the internal conversion process.

Organic deep-red (DR) and near-infrared (NIR) emitters with high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) are rare due to the strong non-radiative (knr) decay. Here, we report two DR/NIR emitters with high PLQY, TPANZPyPI and TPANZ3PI. Interestingly, the TPANZPyPI film exhibits 46.5% PLQY at 699 nm. Theoretical calculations indicate that TPANZPyPI can achieve this high PLQY in the near-infrared emission region due to its small S1 to S0 internal conversion (IC) rate. Meanwhile, research has found that, compared to TPANZ3PI, TPANZPyPI with a more rigid structure can effectively suppress the T2 to T1 IC process, which is conducive to higher exciton utilization efficiency (EUE). TPANZPyPI's non-doped OLED shows NIR emission with 4.6% @ 684 nm maximum external quantum efficiency (EQEmax). Its doped OLEDs radiate DR with an EQEmax of 6.9% @ 666 nm. These EQEs are among the highest values for hybridized local charge transfer state materials emitting more than 640 nm. This work demonstrates for the first time, based on a combination of theory and experiment, that increasing the molecular rigidity can inhibit the excited state IC process in addition to the S1 to S0 IC, realizing efficient electroluminescence.

No association of age-related maculopathy susceptibility protein 2/HtrA serine peptidase 1 or complement factor H polymorphisms with early age-related maculopathy in a Chinese cohort.

PURPOSE: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of age-related maculopathy susceptibility protein 2/HtrA serine peptidase 1 (ARMS2/HTRA1) and complement factor H (CFH) have been reported to be associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of ARMS2/HTRA1 and CFH SNPs with early age-related maculopathy (ARM) in a Han Chinese cohort. METHODS: The cohort consisted of 315 unrelated subjects, including 158 patients with early ARM and 157 recruited controls. Early ARM was diagnosed and graded according to the Age-Related Eye Disease Study criteria. Four SNPs in ARMS2/HTRA1 and six SNPs in CFH previously reported to be associated with AMD were genotyped using TaqMan genotyping assays. Logistic regression implemented with the R statistical language was used for association analysis. RESULTS: None of the ARMS2/HTRA1 and CFH SNPs showed any significant association with early ARM (all p>0.453), with the odds ratios ranging from 0.88 to 1.17. None of the SNPs were associated with unilateral or bilateral early ARM or any grade of early ARM (all p>0.249). CONCLUSIONS: The association of ARMS2/HTRA1 and CFH SNPs in early ARM was not detected in our cohort. The findings in the current study indicated that the effects of ARMS2/HTRA1 and CFH in early ARM could be much lower compared to those in AMD.

Endophenotyping reveals differential phenotype-genotype correlations between myopia-associated polymorphisms and eye biometric parameters.

PURPOSE: To investigate the association with ocular biometric parameters in myopia-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the gap junction protein delta 2 (GJD2), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) genes in two geographically different Chinese cohorts. METHODS: In 814 unrelated Han Chinese individuals aged above 50 years including 362 inland residents and 432 island dwellers, comprehensive ophthalmic examinations were performed. Three SNPs, including GJD2 rs634990, IGF1 rs6214, and HGF rs3735520, were genotyped. Genetic association with ocular biometric parameters was analyzed in individual cohorts, using linear regression controlled for sex and age. Common associations shared by the two cohorts were revealed by meta-analysis. RESULTS: Meta-analysis showed that GJD2 rs634990 alone was not associated with any biometric parameters (adjusted p>0.645). The T allele of IGF1 rs6214 was specifically associated with thicker lens (ß±SE=0.055±0.022, adjusted p=0.034). The A allele of HGF rs3735520 was associated with longer vitreous chamber depth (ß±SE=0.143±0.060, adjusted p=0.050). Significant interaction between HGF rs3735520 and GJD2 rs634990 was found in association with axial length and vitreous chamber depth (adjusted p=0.003 and 0.033, respectively), and possibly with spherical error (adjusted p=0.056). CONCLUSIONS: Our endophenotyping analysis showed differential association between selected myopia-associated genes and ocular biometric parameters in our Chinese cohorts, which may underline substantial but diversified effects of these genes and their interaction on the development of eye structure and etiology of myopia.

Association between Parkinson's disease and risk of colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Growing evidence has reported that gut microbiota is involved in pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and colorectal cancer (CRC), and the association between PD and CRC does not reach a consensus. In order to explore their correlation, herein we summarize the epidemiological evidence and included relevant studies to perform a meta-analysis. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search for relevant articles published was performed in Medline, Web of Science and Embase up to June 30, 2016. The pooled risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was used to estimate the effects and calculated using the method of generic inverse variance with the Random-effects model. RESULTS: Thirteen studies were included and analyzed in this meta-analysis. The pooled result of 11 cohort studies and 2 case-control studies comprising 343,226 PD patients showed that patients with PD had a decreased risk of CRC (RR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.66-0.93, P = 0.006). Further subgroup analyses performed in Western population revealed that the significant inverse association between PD and risk of CRC was not undermined by many factors, including study design, tumor location, gender and quality of the study. CONCLUSION: Patients with PD was significantly associated with a decreased risk of CRC in Western population. Future studies are warranted to further clarify this association in Asian population.

Numerical simulation of reactive processes in an experiment with partially saturated bentonite.

Bentonites are preferred materials for use as engineered barriers for high-level nuclear waste repositories. Simulation of geochemical processes in bentonite is therefore important for long-term safety assessment of those repositories. In this work, the porewater chemistry of a bentonite sample subject to simultaneous heating and hydration, as studied by Cuevas et al. [Cuevas, J., Villar, M., Fernández, A., Gómez, P., Martín, P., 1997. Porewaters extracted from compacted bentonite subjected to simultaneous heating and hydration. Applied Geochemistry 12, 473-481.], was assessed with a non-isothermal reactive transport model by coupling the geochemical software PHREEQC2 with the object-oriented FEM simulator GeoSys/RockFlow. Reactive transport modelling includes heat transport, two-phase flow, multicomponent transport and geochemical reactions in the liquid phase, i.e. ion exchange, mineral dissolution/precipitation and equilibrium reactions. Simulations show that the easily soluble minerals in bentonite determine the porewater chemistry. Temperature affects both two-phase flow and geochemical reactions. Porosity change due to dissolution/precipitation is low during the experiment. However, changes of the effective porosity caused by bentonite swelling can be very large. The simulated results agree well with the experimental data.

Risk of lung cancer in Parkinson's disease.

Recently, growing evidence has revealed the significant association between Parkinson's disease (PD) and cancer. However, controversy still exists concerning the association between PD and lung cancer. A comprehensive article search for relevant studies published was performed using the following online databases: PubMed, Web of Science and Embase up to August 31, 2016. The pooled risk ratio (RR) and their 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using the method of inverse variance with the random-effects model. Fifteen studies comprising 348,780 PD patients were included in this study. The pooled result indicated that patients with PD were significantly associated with a decreased risk of lung cancer (RR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.41-0.70, P < 0.001). In addition, subgroup analyses performed in Western population also confirmed the significant inverse relationship between PD and risk of lung cancer (RR: 0.48, 95% CI: 0.39-0.60, P < 0.001). In the subgroup analysis, a reduced risk of lung cancer in PD patients from Western population was consistent regardless of study design, gender, or study quality. In conclusion, PD patients were significantly associated with a reduced risk of lung cancer in Western population. The relationship between them in Asian population needs to be confirmed by future studies.

[The comparison study of glaucoma trabeculectomy applying amniotic membrane or mitomycin C].

PURPOSE: To probe the results of trabeculectomy with human amniotic membrane (HAM) or mitomycin(MMC) in the treatment of glaucoma. METHODS: In a randomized control clinical trial, 48 eyes of 28 glaucoma patients were divided into two groups, each group has 24 eyes, and each group was divided into two sub-groups according to the age. The former was underwent trabeculectomy with HAM transplanted, the later was administrated intra operatively with MMC, 0.2-0.4mg/ml, for 2-4 minutes, the follow-up was 6 months. RESULTS: The operation success rate of both groups was higher than the standard trabeculectomy, and the difference between the two groups was not significant. Complications induced by HAM were mainly shallow anterior chamber, whereas by MMC were thin wall bleb, bleb leaking, persistent hypotony and hypotonous maculopathy. CONCLUSION: Application properly HAM or MMC can improved the operation success rate, maintain the functional bleb long time and decreased the complications.