High incidence of gallstones after Roux-en-Y reconstruction gastrectomy in gastric cancer: a multicenter, long-term cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Roux-en-Y reconstruction is a common anastomosis technique during gastrectomy in gastric cancer. There is a lack of studies on gallstones after Roux-en-Y reconstruction gastrectomy. This study investigated the incidence and potential risk factors associated with gallstones after Roux-en-Y reconstructive gastrectomy in gastric cancer. METHODS: The study analyzed data from gastric cancer who underwent radical gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y reconstruction at two hospitals between January 2014 and December 2020. The patients fall into distal and total gastrectomy groups based on the extent of gastrectomy. The cumulative event probability curve was plotted using the Kaplan-Meier, and differences in gallstone between groups were evaluated using the Log-Rank. Propensity score matching was applied to construct a balanced total versus distal gastrectomies cohort. A Cox regression was employed to analyze the risk factors for gallstones after Roux-en-Y reconstructive gastrectomy in gastric cancer. Further subgroup analysis was performed. RESULTS: Five hundred thirty-one patients were included in this study, 201 in the distal gastrectomy group and 330 in the total gastrectomy. During the follow-up, gallstones occurred in 170 cases after gastrectomy, of which 145 cases accounted for 85.29% of all stones in the first two years after surgery. Then, to reduce the impact of bias, a 1:1 propensity score matching analysis was performed on the two groups of patients. A total of 344 patients were evaluated, with each subgroup comprising 172 patients. In the matched population, the Cox regression analysis revealed that females, BMI ≥23 kg/m 2 , total gastrectomy, No.12 lymph node dissection, and adjuvant chemotherapy were risk factors for gallstones after Roux-en-Y reconstructive gastrectomy. Subgroup analysis showed that open surgery further increased the risk of gallstones after total gastrectomy. CONCLUSION: The incidence of gallstones increased significantly within 2years after Roux-en-Y reconstructive gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Patients with these risk factors should be followed closely after gastrectomy to avoid symptomatic gallstones.

Development and validation of a machine learning-based predictive model for secondary post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage.

Background: The main obstacle to a patient's recovery following a tonsillectomy is complications, and bleeding is the most frequent culprit. Predicting post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage (PTH) allows for accurate identification of high-risk populations and the implementation of protective measures. Our study aimed to investigate how well machine learning models predict the risk of PTH. Methods: Data were obtained from 520 patients who underwent a tonsillectomy at The 940th Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force of Chinese People's Liberation Army. The age range of the patients was 2-57 years, and 364 (70%) were male. The prediction models were developed using five machine learning models: decision tree, support vector machine (SVM), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest, and logistic regression. The performance of the models was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) was used to interpret the results of the best-performing model. Results: The frequency of PTH was 11.54% among the 520 patients, with 10.71% in the training group and 13.46% in the validation set. Age, BMI, season, smoking, blood type, INR, combined secretory otitis media, combined adenoidectomy, surgical wound, and use of glucocorticoids were selected by mutual information (MI) method. The XGBoost model had best AUC (0.812) and Brier score (0.152). Decision curve analysis (DCA) showed that the model had a high clinical utility. The SHAP method revealed the top 10 variables of MI according to the importance ranking, and the average of the age was recognized as the most important predictor variable. Conclusion: This study built a PTH risk prediction model using machine learning. The XGBoost model is a tool with potential to facilitate population management strategies for PTH.

Gender-related differences on outcome following transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVR): a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The effect of gender on patients with mitral valve regurgitation (MR) undergoing transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVR) remains to be defined. The aim of the present study is a comprehensive meta-analysis of studies that investigate differences between men and women after TMVR. METHODS: A systematic literature search was carried out on eight databases to collect all relevant studies on gender-related outcomes of TMVR before March 1, 2021. The main outcomes of interest were mortality, cardiac function, MR class and other complications. RESULTS: A total of eight literatures were included, all of which were retrospective observational studies. Compared to women patients, men had lower postoperative New York Heart Association (NYHA) class (OR = 1.53, 95%CI [1.23, 1.91], P = 0.0001) and higher incidence of postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) (OR = 1.25, 95%CI [1.16, 1.34], P < 0.05). There were no significant difference on mortality in 30 days (OR = 0.95, 95%CI [0.81, 1.11], P = 0.53) and in 2 years (OR = 0.99, 95%CI [0.75, 1.30], P = 0.93), mitral valve regurgitation (MR) class (OR = 1.30, 95%CI [0.97, 1.75], P = 0.08) and incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) (OR = 0.88, 95%CI [0.65, 1.18], P = 0.38), stroke (OR = 0.80, 95%CI [0.63, 1.02], P = 0.08) and bleeding in hospital (OR = 0.84, 95%CI [0.59, 1.19], P = 0.32). CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis demonstrates that men undergoing TMVR have worse preoperative diseases (diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, renal failure and myocardial infarction) while they have superior postoperative NYHA class at one-year. There are no significantly difference in other indexes between men and women.

A meta-analysis of based radiomics for predicting lymph node metastasis in patients with biliary tract cancers.

Background: To assess the predictive value of radiomics for preoperative lymph node metastasis (LMN) in patients with biliary tract cancers (BTCs). Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library databases, and four Chinese databases [VIP, CNKI, Wanfang, and China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM)] were searched to identify relevant studies published up to February 10, 2022. Two authors independently screened all publications for eligibility. We included studies that used histopathology as a gold standard and radiomics to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of LNM in BTCs patients. The quality of the literature was evaluated using the Radiomics Quality Score (RQS) and the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2). The diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated to assess the predictive validity of radiomics for lymph node status in patients with BTCs. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated, and Meta-regression and subgroup analyses were performed to assess the causes of heterogeneity. Results: Seven studies were included, with 977 patients. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC were 83% [95% confidence interval (CI): 77%, 88%], 78% (95% CI: 71, 84) and 0.88 (95% CI: 0.85, 0.90), respectively. The substantive heterogeneity was observed among the included studies (I 2 = 80%, 95%CI: 58,100). There was no threshold effect seen. Meta-regression showed that tumor site contributed to the heterogeneity of specificity analysis (P < 0.05). Imaging methods, number of patients, combined clinical factors, tumor site, model, population, and published year all played a role in the heterogeneity of the sensitivity analysis (P < 0.05). Subgroup analysis revealed that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based radiomics had a higher pooled sensitivity than contrast-computed tomography (CT), whereas the result for pooled specificity was the opposite. Conclusion: Our meta-analysis showed that radiomics provided a high level of prognostic value for preoperative LMN in BTCs patients.

Preoperative prognostic nutritional index predicts short-term complications after radical resection of distal cholangiocarcinoma.

Background: The occurrence of postoperative complications of distal cholangiocarcinoma (dCCA) is an indicator of poor patient prognosis. This study aimed to determine the immune-nutritional indexes (INIs) that can predict short-term postoperative complications. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 148 patients with dCCA who were operated radical pancreaticoduodenectomy at the First Hospital of Lanzhou University from December 2015 to March 2022 was conducted to assess the predictive value of preoperative INIs and preoperative laboratory tests for short-term postoperative complications, and a decision tree model was developed using classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to identify subgroups at risk for overall complications. Results: In this study, 83 patients (56.08%) experienced overall complications. Clavien-Dindo grade III-V complications occurred in 20 patients (13.51%), and 2 patients died. The areas under curves (AUCs) of the preoperative prognostic nutritional index (PNI), controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were compared; the PNI provided the maximum discrimination for complications (AUC = 0.685, 95% CI = 0.600-0.770), with an optimal cutoff value of 46.9, and the PNI ≤ 46.9 group had higher incidences of overall complications (70.67% vs. 40.00%, P < 0.001) and infectious complications (28.77% vs. 13.33%, P = 0.035). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified PNI (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.80-0.94) and total bilirubin (OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 1.00-1.01) were independent risk factors for overall complications (P < 0.05). According to CART analysis, PNI was the most important parameter, followed by the total bilirubin (TBIL) level. Patients with a PNI lower than the critical value and TBIL higher than the critical value had the highest overall complication rate (90.24%); the risk prediction model had an AUC of 0.714 (95% CI, 0.640-0.789) and could be used to stratify the risk of overall complications and predict grade I-II complications (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The preoperative PNI is a good predictor for short-term complications after the radical resection of dCCA. The decision tree model makes PNI and TBIL easier to use in clinical practice.

Transcatheter mitral valve replacement for degenerated mitral valve bioprostheses, failure of mitral valvuloplasty and native valve with severe mitral annulus calcification: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Although transcatheter technology has achieved some success in the field of mitral valves, the feasibility of applying it to patients with degenerated mitral valve bioprostheses (valve-in-valve, ViV), failure of mitral valvuloplasty (valve-in-ring, ViR) and serious mitral annulus calcification (vale-in-MAC, ViMAC) has not been effectively evaluated. METHODS: By searching published literature before December 5, 2020 in four databases, we found all the literature related to the evaluation of feasibility assessment of TMViV, TMViR and TMViMAC. Outcomes focused on all-cause mortality within 30 days, bleeding and LVOT obstruction. RESULTS: A total of six studies were included, and all of them were followed up for at least 30 days. After analysis of the ViV-ViR group, we obtained the following results: the all-cause mortality within 30 days of the ViV group was lower than that of the ViR group. Life-threatening or fatal bleeding was more likely to occur in the ViR group after surgery. At the same time, the ViR group was more prone to left ventricular outflow tract obstruction. However, in the ViMAC-ViR group, only the all-cause mortality within 30 days and stroke were statistically significant. In the indirect comparison, we found that TMViV had the best applicability, followed by TMViR. There were few TMViMAC available for analysis, and it requires further studies to improve the accuracy of the results. CONCLUSION: TMViV and TMViR had good applicability and could benefit patients who underwent repeat valve surgery. The feasibility of TMViMAC needs to be further explored and improved.