Unveiling the hidden risk: paternal smoking and alcohol exposure prior to conception as independent factors for allergic rhinitis in children.

Introduction: Limited knowledge exists regarding the impact of paternal smoking and alcohol exposure on the development of allergic rhinitis in offspring. Our study aimed to investigate the potential association between preconception paternal smoking and alcohol exposure and the likelihood of children allergic rhinitis. Methods: A retrospective case-control study of 556 prepubertal children aged 3-12 years was performed. The participants were 278 children with allergic rhinitis and 278 healthy controls matched for age and gender. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed and collected on-site, focusing on various factors related to the children's fathers, mothers, and the children themselves during the first year of life and the past 12 months, from March to October 2022. Results: Multivariate analysis demonstrated that paternal smoking, paternal alcohol consumption prior to conception, paternal allergic diseases, children with a family history of allergies, maternal allergic diseases and pregnancy complications were identified as independent risk factors for allergic rhinitis in their offspring. Moreover, after considering confounding factors, it was observed that paternal smoking exceeding 5 cigarettes per day in the year preceding pregnancy and exceeding 11 years significantly elevated the likelihood of allergic rhinitis in children (OR = 2.009 and 2.479, respectively). Furthermore, the consumption of alcohol by the father at intervals of less than one month in the year prior to pregnancy and a duration of alcohol consumption exceeding 11 years prior to pregnancy are both associated with a significantly increased risk of allergic rhinitis in children (OR = 2.005 and 3.149, respectively). Conclusions: Paternal smoking and alcohol consumption prior to conception contribute to an increased risk of allergic rhinitis in children, with the risk being dependent on the dosage and duration of exposure. Therefore, it is important to not only focus on personal and maternal environmental exposures when considering the occurrence risk of allergic rhinitis in children, but also to consider paternal detrimental exposures prior to conception.

Application value of a computer-aided diagnosis and management system for the detection of lung nodules.

Background: Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems can help reduce radiologists' workload. This study assessed the value of a CAD system for the detection of lung nodules on chest computed tomography (CT) images. Methods: The study retrospectively analyzed the CT images of patients who underwent routine health checkups between August 2019 and November 2019 at 3 hospitals in China. All images were first assessed by 2 radiologists manually in a blinded manner, which was followed by assessment with the CAD system. The location and classification of the lung nodules were determined. The final diagnosis was made by a panel of experts, including 2 associate chief radiologists and 1 chief radiologist at the radiology department. The sensitivity for nodule detection and false-positive nodules per case were calculated. Results: A total of 1,002 CT images were included in the study, and the process was completed for 999 images. The sensitivity of the CAD system and manual detection was 90.19% and 49.88% (P<0.001), respectively. Similar sensitivity was observed between manual detection and the CAD system in lung nodules >15 mm (P=0.08). The false-positive nodules per case for the CAD system were 0.30±0.84 and those for manual detection were 0.24±0.68 (P=0.12). The sensitivity of the CAD system was higher than that of the radiologists, but the increase in the false-positive rate was only slight. Conclusions: In addition to reducing the workload for medical professionals, a CAD system developed using a deep-learning model was highly effective and accurate in detecting lung nodules and did not demonstrate a meaningfully higher the false-positive rate.

Maternal tobacco exposure during pregnancy and allergic rhinitis in offspring: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Maternal tobacco exposure during pregnancy is known to cause a potential hazard to the offspring's health. So far, published studies have shown no consistent results with whether tobacco exposure in utero is causally linked to the development of allergic rhinitis in offspring. The aim of this study was to comprehensively evaluate the association between maternal tobacco exposure during pregnancy and allergic rhinitis in offspring by meta-analysis and to provide reference for clinical work. METHODS: Literatures were searched in CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Web of science and Embase up to September 30,2020. Screening, inclusion, quality assessment, data extraction and data analysis of the literatures were conducted. Meta-analysis was performed with Revman 5.3 and State15.1 software. Odds ratio (OR) and 95%CI were used as observation indicators. RESULTS: We had retrieved 16 articles with 22 independent datasets and 11,49,879 sample size. When all the studies were analyzed together, the results showed that maternal smoking exposure during pregnancy would increase the risk of allergic rhinitis in offspring (OR = 1.13, 95%CI:1.02-1.26), especially maternal passive smoking during pregnancy (OR = 1.39, 95%CI:1.05-1.84). But subgroup analysis showed that maternal active smoking during pregnancy was only significantly associated with offspring allergic rhinitis in cross-sectional studies (OR = 1.24, 95%CI:1.07-1.45) and study done in America study (OR = 1.22, 95%CI:1.05-1.42). CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco exposure during pregnancy could increase the risk of allergic rhinitis in offspring. The importance of avoiding prenatal tobacco exposure should be emphasized more for the health of next generation in the public.

The Relationship Between Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of SMAD3/SMAD6 and Risk of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Chinese Population.

BACKGROUND: The TGF-ß signal pathways play a key role in the development and promotion of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The pathway is mediated by the SMAD family proteins that include SMAD3 and SMAD6. Our study aimed to evaluate the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of SMAD3/SMAD6 and susceptibility to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in the Chinese population. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a hospital-based case-control study compromised of 1043 ESCC patients and 1315 non-cancer patients. Seven SMAD3/SMAD6 (rs8028147, rs3743343, rs3743342, rs8025774, rs8031440, rs803167, and rs34643453) SNPs were selected and used to evaluate their correlation with ESCC susceptibility. Genetic model tests, stratified analyses, linkage disequilibrium analyses, and haplotype analyses were performed in our study. RESULTS: Participants with SMAD3 rs3743342 C>T, rs8025774 C>T, rs8031440 G>A or rs8031627 G>A had a significantly higher risk of ESCC. This was more evident in males, older patients (>63 years), smokers, and non-alcohol drinking participants. Linkage disequilibrium analyses further revealed that there were strong correlations between SMAD3 rs3743342 C>T, rs8025774 C>T, rs8031440 G>A, and rs8031627 G>A. In the same line, haplotype analyses revealed that SMAD3 ACCCGGSMAD6A and SMAD3AGCCGGSMAD6A were associated with less susceptibility to ESCC while SMAD3ATTTAASMAD6A was associated with a higher risk of ESCC. CONCLUSION: SNPs of SMAD3 were related to higher susceptibility to ESCC. As such, they may contribute to the development of viable strategies for early diagnosis and treatment of ESCC. However, more detailed association mechanisms between SMAD3/SMAD6 SNPs and ESCC need further experiments to prove.

BMP4: a Possible Key Factor in Differentiation of Auditory Neuron-Like Cells from Bone-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that BMP4 may play an important part in the development of auditory neurons (ANs), which are degenerated in sensorineural hearing loss. However, whether BMP4 can promote sensory fate specification from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) is unknown so far. METHODS: MSCs isolated from Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were confirmed by expression of MSC markers using flow cytometry and adipogenesis/osteogenesis using differentiation assays. MSCs treated with a complex of neurotrophic factors (BMP4 group and non-BMP4 group) were induced into auditory neuron-like cells, then the differences between the two groups were analyzed in morphological observation, cell growth curve, qRT-PCR, and immunofluorescence. RESULTS: Flow cytometric analysis showed that the isolated cells expressed typical MSC surface markers. After adipogenic and osteogenic induction, the cells were stained by oil red O and Alizarin Red. The neuronal induced cells were in the growth plateau and had special forms of neurons. In the presence of BMP4, the inner ear genes NF-M, Neurog1, GluR4, NeuroD, Calretinin, NeuN, Tau, and GATA3 were up-regulated in MSCs. CONCLUSIONS: MSCs have the capacity to differentiate into auditory neuron-like cells in vitro. As an effective inducer, BMP4 may play a key role in transdifferentiation.

[Advances in diagnosis and treatment of Meniere's disease].

Meniere's disease (MD), a kind of common disease of otology, is based on the endolymphatic hydrops. The clinical features of MD are intermittent episodes of vertigo, fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus and ear fullness. With the in-depth exploration of the disease, the diagnosis and treatment of MD has made a series of research results. In this paper, the related literature and research reports in recent years were reviewed.

Imaging assessment of profound sensorineural deafness with inner ear anatomical abnormalities.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of a combined computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in evaluating profound sensorineural deafness patients before cochlear implant (CI) surgery. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 1012 cases of profound sensorineural deafness that received CI was performed. RESULTS: A total of 96 cases were diagnosed with inner ear abnormalities including large vestibular aqueduct syndrome (LVAS, n = 61), Michel deformity (n = 3), cochlear incomplete partition I (n = 2), cochlear incomplete partition II (n = 6), cochlear hypoplasia with vestibular malformation (n = 3), cochlear ossification (n = 3), bilateral internal auditory canal obstruction (n = 5) and internal auditory canal stenosis (n = 2). CONCLUSION: High resolution CT (HRCT) can display bony structures while MRI can image the membranous labyrinth in preoperative evaluation for cochlear implantation. The combination of these two modalities provides reliable anatomical information regarding the bony and membranous labyrinths, as well as the auditory nerve.

Polyphase exhumation in the western Qinling Mountains, China: Rapid Early Cretaceous cooling along a lithospheric-scale tear fault and pulsed Cenozoic uplift.

The western sector of the Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt plays a key role in both Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous "Yanshanian" intracontinental tectonics and Cenozoic lateral escape triggered by India-Asia collision. The Taibai granite in the northern Qinling Mountains is located at the westernmost tip of a Yanshanian granite belt. It consists of multiple intrusions, constrained by new Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous U-Pb zircon ages (156 ± 3 Ma and 124 ± 1 Ma). Applying various geochronometers (40Ar/39Ar on hornblende, biotite and K-feldspar, apatite fission-track, apatite [U-Th-Sm]/He) along a vertical profile of the Taibai Mountain refines the cooling and exhumation history. The new age constraints record the prolonged pre-Cenozoic intracontinental deformation as well as the cooling history mostly related to India-Asia collision. We detected rapid cooling for the Taibai granite from ca. 800 to 100 °C during Early Cretaceous (ca. 123 to 100 Ma) followed by a period of slow cooling from ca. 100 Ma to ca. 25 Ma, and pulsed exhumation of the low-relief Cretaceous peneplain during Cenozoic times. We interpret the Early Cretaceous rapid cooling and exhumation as a result from activity along the southern sinistral lithospheric scale tear fault of the recently postulated intracontinental subduction of the Archean/Palaeoproterozoic North China Block beneath the Alashan Block. A Late Oligocene to Early Miocene cooling phase might be triggered either by the lateral motion during India-Asia collision and/or the Pacific subduction zone. Late Miocene intensified cooling is ascribed to uplift of the Tibetan Plateau.

Late gestational maternal serum cortisol is inversely associated with fetal brain growth.

To analyze the association between fetal brain growth and late gestational blood serum cortisol in normal pregnancy.Blood total cortisol was quantified at delivery in 432 Chinese mother/child pairs. Key inclusion criteria of the cohort were: no structural anomalies of the newborn, singleton pregnancy, no alcohol abuse, no drug abuse or history of smoking no hypertensive disorders and no impairment of glucose tolerance and no use of steroid medication during pregnancy. Differential ultrasound examination of the fetal body was done in early (gestational day 89.95 ± 7.31), middle (gestational day 160.17 ± 16.12) and late pregnancy (gestational day 268.89 ± 12.42). Newborn's cortisol was not correlated with any of the ultrasound measurements during pregnancy nor with birth weight. Multivariable regression analysis, considering timing of the ultrasound examination, the child's sex, maternal BMI, maternal age, maternal body weight at delivery, the timing of cortisol measurement and maternal uterine contraction states, revealed that maternal serum total cortisol was significantly negative correlated with ultrasound parameters describing the fetal brain: late biparietal diameter (R²=0.512, p=0.009), late head circumference (R²=0.498, p=0.001), middle biparietal diameter (R²=0.819, p=0.013), middle cerebellum transverse diameter R²=0.76, p=0.014) and early biparietal diameter(R²=0.819, p=0.013). The same analysis revealed that birth weight as well as ultrasound parameters such as abdominal circumference and femur length were not correlated to maternal cortisol levels. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that maternal cortisol secretion within physiological ranges may be inversely correlated to fetal brain growth but not to birth weight. It remains to be demonstrated whether maternal cortisol secretion negatively influencing fetal brain growth translates to adverse neurological outcomes in later life.