[Clinical analysis of 9 children with refractory N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibody encephalitis children treated with tocilizumab].

Objective: To analyze the clinical features of children with refractory N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antibody encephalitis treated with tocilizumab. Methods: Demographic and clinical manifeatations, immunotherapy and prognosis data of 9 children with refractory NMDA receptor antibody encephalitis who received tocilizumab in the Department of Pediatrics Neurology, XiangYa Hospital of Central South University from August 2021 to September 2023 were collected retrospectively. Prognosis was evaluated using the modified Rankin scale at initial diagnosis, at the initiation of tocilizumab treatment, and at the last follow-up. Treatment related complications, neuroimaging, and electroencephalography data were analyzed. Results: Among the 9 children, 6 were male and 3 were female, with an onset age of 4.2 (2.8, 8.7) years. At the onset of the disease, 9 children had a modified Rankin scale score of 5. When tocilizumab treatment was initiated, 7 children had a score of 5, and 2 children had a score of 4. The interval between the onset and initiation of tocilizumab treatment was 12 (5, 27) months, and the treatment frequency was 8 (5, 13) times. The follow-up time was 2.8 (1.5, 3.7) years. At the last follow-up, the symptoms of 9 children, including movement disorder, sleep disorder, consciousness disorder, silence and autonomic dysfunction, were improved to varying degrees, and none of them had seizures. At the last follow-up, 4 cases with a modified Rankin scale score of 0, 1 case with a score of 1, 2 cases with a score of 3, 1 case with a score of 4 and 1 case with a score of 5. The modified Rankin scale at the last follow-up was significantly different from that at the start of tocilizumab (Z=-2.56, P=0.014). All children had no serious adverse reactions during the treatment. Conclusions: After treatment with tocilizumab, the symptoms in patients with refractory NMDA receptor antibody encephalitis, including movement disorder, sleep disorder, consciousness disorder, silence and autonomic dysfunction were improved, and none of them had seizures. The modified Rankin scale were improved, and the safety was good.

[Transperineal targeted prostate puncture combined with rapid pathological examination in the diagnosis of prostate cancer].

Exploring the clinical value of multiparametric magnetic resonance (Mp-MRI)-cognitive fusion method of targeted transperineal prostate puncture combined with rapid pathological diagnosis. Patients with suspected prostate cancer admitted to our hospital from 2022.01 to 2023.05 were selected as the study subjects, and Mp-MRI was performed and the suspected lesions were scored by the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS). The enrolled patients were randomly divided into the transperineal prostate targeted puncture plus rapid pathology group (experimental group) and the transperineal prostate systematic combined targeted puncture plus conventional pathology group (control group), and the positive puncture rate, pathological findings, and complications were analyzed to compare the differences between the two groups. A total of 100 patients were enrolled, 53 in the experimental group [age 55-89 years, (73.17±7.79) years; tPSA 7.01-100 µg/L, mean 21.34 (12.38, 44.42) µg/L]and 47 in the control group [age 60-87 years, (71.96±7.07) years; tPSA 6.11-98.82 µg/L, mean 18.77 (9.04, 38.09) µg/L], and there was no significant difference between the two groups in the diagnostic positivity rate of overall PCa and clinically significant PCa (P>0.05); there was no significant difference in the highest Gleason score of pathological tissues between the two groups (P>0.05); the number of cases of medically induced sarcoid hematuria in the experimental group were significantly reduced compared with the control group (P<0.05). In terms of biopsy pain score (VAS), patients in the experimental group experienced less pain than those in the control group (P<0.05). The Mp-MRI-cognitive fusion method of transperineal targeted prostate puncture combined with rapid frozen section pathological examination can provide rapid and accurate pathological results, reduce the chance of post-puncture complications, and alleviate the pain caused by puncture sampling, which has high clinical value.

The expression of UNC5D is abnormal in the early stage of colorectal tumors associated with its proliferation and migration.

OBJECTIVE: Colorectal adenomas are an important precancerous lesion of colorectal adenoma with a high incidence. This study aims to explore new prognostic targets for colorectal adenomas through bioinformatics techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, data from 29 colonic adenomas and 38 normal colonic mucosa in GSE37364 were analyzed to screen for differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Then, batch survival analysis, construction of risk model, mutation analysis, Cox regression analysis and expression analysis were performed on DEGs to determine the hub genes of this study. Finally, immune correlation analysis and cell experiments were carried out on the hub gene to explore its potential mechanism. RESULTS: In our study, a total of 431 up-regulated and 809 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Among these, Unc-5 Netrin Receptor D (UNC5D) emerged as a pivotal gene associated with colorectal adenoma. Notably, UNC5D expression levels were found to be significantly higher in normal tissues compared to colorectal adenoma tissues. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrated that UNC5D showed promising diagnostic potential for patients with colon adenocarcinoma. In vitro experiments revealed that the overexpression of UNC5D had a profound impact on the behavior of colorectal tumor cells. Specifically, it led to a substantial reduction in the proliferation, motility, and invasion of these tumor cells. Additionally, UNC5D was shown to exert control over STAT1/STAT3 phosphorylation, which in turn regulated the expression of PD-L1 in response to interferon (IFN) stimulation. These findings highlight the significant role of UNC5D in modulating immune responses and the development of colorectal adenoma. UNC5D emerges as a potential diagnostic biomarker and an attractive immunotherapeutic target in the context of colorectal malignancies. These results call for further exploration of UNC5D-based strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal adenoma and adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to having the potential to be used as a diagnostic biomarker and an immunotherapeutic target in colorectal malignancies, UNC5D is necessary for the growth of colorectal adenomas. Additionally, UNC5D controlled STAT1/STAT3 phosphorylation to suppress the growth of colorectal cancers by regulating IFN-induced PD-L1 expression.

Analysis of the value of echocardiographic parameters in the early diagnosis of preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the role of echocardiographic parameters in diagnosing bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Ninety preterm infants with a gestational age of less than 32 weeks and a weight less than 1.5 kg, admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital between January 2020 and January 2021, were selected for the study. The study subjects were divided into two groups: a BPD group (54 cases, observation group) and a non-BPD group (36 cases, control group). The correlation between tricuspid regurgitation (TR) velocity and BPD was investigated by detecting the cardiac function of preterm infants in both groups using a color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic instrument and analyzing the cardiac ultrasound results. The early prediction efficiency of TR velocity (m/s) for BPD was evaluated using the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: The incidence of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and pulmonary hypertension (PH) in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group. The levels of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular shorting fraction (LVFS) were significantly lower than those in the control group (p < 0.05). The incidence of patent foramen ovale (PFO), atrial septal defect (ASD), and ventricular septal defect (VSD) in the observation group were not significantly different from the control group (p > 0.05). The proportion of tricuspid regurgitation in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group, and the TR velocity was significantly higher than that in the control group. The Spearman correlation analysis showed that TR velocity (m/s) was positively correlated to BPD severity (r = 0.379, p < 0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) for predicting BPD with TR velocity was 0.735. The sensitivity and specificity were 88.0% and 62.6%, respectively, when the TR velocity was 1.45 m/s. CONCLUSIONS: Echocardiography is useful for understanding the degree of impaired cardiac function in preterm infants and for early detection of PH, which may reduce the mortality rate to a certain extent. The risk of BPD is significantly increased when TR velocity is higher than 1.45 m/s.

[Analysis of perrault syndrome caused by pathogenic variants in LARS2 and HARS2 genes].

Objective: To investigate the molecular etiology of Perrault syndrome by analyzing the clinical phenotype and pathogenic gene variants of 2 male patients with bilateral severe sensorineural deafness. Methods: Two male patients with Perrault syndrome characterized by severe sensonrineual deafness adimitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University between February 2021 and March 2022 were selected, and the clinical phenotype and pathogenic gene variants of them and their family members were summarized. The whole exome sequencing technology was used to screen the pathogenic variants of the probands, and the candidate variants were determined by combining with clinical phenotype. The probands and their family members were verified by the Sanger sequencing method. Results: The whole exome sequencing results showed that the proband of family 1 had a compound heterozygous variants of the LARS2 (NM_015340.4) gene c.1565C>A (p.Thr522Asn) and c.1079T>C (p.Ile360Thr). The reported pathogenic variant c.1565C>A came from the mother, and the novel variant c.1079T>C came from the father. The second proband harbored compound heterozygous variants of HARS2 gene (NM_012208.4) c.1273C>T (p.Arg425Trp) and c.1403G>C (p.Gly468Ala), with the former from the proband's mother, the latter from the father. The c.1273C>T was novel and c.1403G>C was the reported pathogenic variant. All above variants were respectively classified as pathogenic, uncertain significance, uncertain significance and likely pathogenic based on the ACMG guidelines. Conclusion: This study expands the mutational spectrum of LARS2 and HARS2 genes, which highlights that genetic testing plays an important role in the early diagnosis of syndromic deafness.

Toripalimab (anti-PD-1) versus high-dose interferon-α2b as adjuvant therapy in resected mucosal melanoma: a phase II randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: No standard of care for mucosal melanoma (MM) in the adjuvant setting has been established. Meanwhile, relapse-free survival (RFS) is only ∼5 months after surgery alone. This phase II trial aimed to compare toripalimab versus high-dose interferon-α2b (HDI) as an adjuvant therapy for resected MM. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From July 2017 to May 2019, 145 patients with resected MM were randomized (1 : 1) to receive HDI (n = 72) or toripalimab (n = 73) for 1 year until disease relapse/distant metastasis, unacceptable toxicity, or withdrawal of consent. The primary endpoint was RFS. The secondary endpoints included distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), overall survival (OS), and safety. RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 26.3 months, the number of RFS, OS, and DMFS events was 51 versus 46, 33 versus 29, and 49 versus 44 in the toripalimab arm and the HDI arm, respectively. The median RFS was 13.6 [95% confidence interval (CI) 8.31-19.02] months and 13.9 (95% CI 8.28-19.61) months in the toripalimab arm and the HDI arm, respectively. The DMFS was not significantly different between the two arms [hazard ratio (HR) 1.00; 95% CI 0.65-1.54]. The median OS was 35.1 months (95% CI 27.93 months-not reached) in the toripalimab arm, with no significant difference in all-cause death (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.66-1.84) for the two arms. The median sums of the patients' actual infusion doses were 3672 mg and 1054.5 MIU in the toripalimab arm and the HDI arm, respectively. The incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events with a grade ≥3 was much higher in the HDI arm than in the toripalimab arm (87.5% versus 27.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Toripalimab showed a similar RFS and a more favorable safety profile than HDI, both better than historical data, suggesting that toripalimab might be the better treatment option. However, additional translational studies and better treatment regimens are still warranted to improve the clinical outcome of MM.

[Value of radiomics model based on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in differentiation fat-poor angiomyolipoma from alpha-fetoprotein-negative hepatocellular carcinoma in the background of non-cirrhotic liver].

Objective: To explore the value of radiomics model based on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in differentiation fat-poor angiomyolipoma (fp-AML) from alpha-fetoprotein-negative hepatocellular carcinoma (n-HCC) in the background of non-cirrhotic liver. Methods: The complete data of 121 patients from Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center with hepatic fp-AML and n-HCC confirmed by pathology from October 2010 to July 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 75 were males and 46 were females, aged from 23 to 80 (55±12) years. A total of 93 patients from Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University were divided into the training cohort (n=75) and internal test cohort (n=18) according to entry time, and the patients of other 2 hospitals were divided into external test cohort (n=28). The radiomics features were extracted from the preoperative triple-phase contrast-enhanced images. The feature selection algorithm based on Joint Mutual Information Maximisation (JMIM) was used to extract the optimal feature subset, and support vector machine (SVM) was used to build the radiomics model. The diagnostic performance of radiomics model was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and was compared with that of two radiologists. Results: In the internal cohort, the area under the curve (AUC) for the differential diagnosis between fp-AML and n-HCC of the radiomics model was 0.819 (with an accuracy of 72.2%), outperforming than radiologist 1 with 10 years of diagnostic experience (AUC=0.542, P=0.029) and radiologist 2 with 2 years of diagnostic experience (AUC=0.375, P=0.004). In the external cohort, the AUC of the radiomics model was 0.772 (with and accuracy of 71.4%), which was comparable to that of radiologist 1 (AUC=0.661, P=0.442) and better than that of radiologist 2 (AUC=0.400, P=0.008). Conclusion: The radiomics model based on dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI is of high accuracy for preoperatively differentiating hepatic fp-AML from n-HCC in the noncirrhotic liver.

[Risk factors of newly developed nonalcoholic fatty liver disease after pancreaticoduodenectomy].

Objective: To identify the risk factors of newly developed nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) after pancreaticoduodenectomy(PD). Methods: The clinical data of 130 patients who had undergone PD at Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, the Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Nanjing University from June 2018 to December 2020 were collected retrospectively. There were 74 males and 56 females, with age(M(IQR)) of 62(16) years (range: 22 to 84 years). Twenty-nine patients who developed NAFLD were divided into NAFLD group and 101 patients who did not suffer NAFLD were divided into no NAFLD group. Observation indications included:(1)preoperative demographics,intraoperative and postoperative characteristics; (2)the risk factors of newly developed NAFLD after PD. Count data were analyzed using χ2 test or Fisher's exact test. Measurement data were analyzed by student t test or Mann-Whitney U test. Multivariate analysis was performed using Logistic regression model with a stepwise forward approach. Results: All 130 patients successfully underwent PD and 29 cases(22.3%) developed NAFLD in 6 months after PD. The results of univariate analysis showed that gender,diabetic mellitus,the level of triglyceride preoperatively,and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma were the related factors of the development of NAFLD after PD(t=-2.655, χ²=4.563,U=-2.192,χ²=7.044;all P<0.05).Multivariate analysis revealed that gender,body mass index and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma were independent risk factors for the development of NAFLD after PD(OR=2.849,1.214,4.165,all P<0.05). Conclusion: Gender, body mass index and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma were independent risk factors for the development of NAFLD after PD.

[Linear correlation between tooth movement and facial profile change in patients with class â ¡ division 1 malocclusion].

Objective: To investigate the correlation between tooth movement and profile change in patients with class Ⅱ division 1 malocclusion. Methods: Pre- and post-treatment lateral cephalograms of 42 patients [10 males and 32 females, (23.8±6.3) years old, mean treatment time: 1.9 years] with class Ⅱ division 1 malocclusion were collected in Department of Oral & Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from June 2012 to November 2017. The patients were treated with extraction of four first premolars or two maxillary first premolars. Cephalometric analysis was carried out before and after treatment. Thirty parameters were measured. The changes of soft and hard tissue after orthodontic treatment and their correlations were analyzed using bivariate linear regression. Related factors affecting the upper and lower lip, nasolabial angle (NLA) and mentolabial angle (MLA) were analyzed according to the standardized regression coefficient (Beta). Results: Among all the 30 parameters, 18 parameters were statistically different before and after treatment. After treatment, upper central incisor sagittal distance [(63.87±7.14) mm] and upper lip sagittal distance [(77.73±7.60) mm] were significantly decreased (P<0.05). The changes in 14 parameters after treatment showed linear relationship including strong positive correlation between upper lip sagittal retraction and upper central incisor sagittal retraction (r=0.649, P<0.01). There were moderate positive correlations between upper lip and upper central incisor vertical movement (r=0.544, P<0.01). While the sagittal change of gnathion and the Y-axis angle showed moderate negative correlations (r=0.537, P<0.01). The stepwise multiple linear regression showed that the retraction of upper lip process was correlated with the retraction of upper central incisor, the increase of occlusal plane angle and the increase of upper central incisor angle, which was most correlated with the retraction of upper central incisor (Beta=0.79). The downward displacement of upper lip process was correlated with the downward displacement of upper incisor, the decrease of upper central incisor angle, the decrease of the distance between maxillary first molar and palatal plane, and the increase of occlusal plane angle, which was more correlated with the downward displacement of upper incisor and the increase of occlusal plane angle (Beta=0.59). The downward displacement of lower lip process was correlated with the downward displacement of upper incisor and lower incisor, which was more correlated with the upper incisor (Beta=0.36). Conclusions: The relationship among nose, lips and chin was more coordinated. Incisor retraction had significant influence on lip prominence, and the lower lip position was highly related to the movement of upper incisor in sagittal and vertical dimension after orthodontic treatment in patients with class Ⅱ division 1 malocclusion. However, tooth movement had limited impact on the chin position.

[Surgical treatment of Stanford type A aortic dissection after thoracic endovascular aortic repair].

Objective: To examine the surgical treatment of Stanford type A aortic dissection (type A dissection) after thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). Methods: The data of 58 patients with reoccurrence of type A dissection after TEVAR admitted into the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Henan Chest Hospital from February 2012 to January 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. There were 40 males and 18 females, aged (57.0±6.7) years (range: 31 to 71 years). The time between recurrence of type A dissection and TEVAR (M(QR)) was 37 days (72.8 months) (range: 1 h to 14 years). Forty-eight cases underwent emergency operation, 9 cases underwent sub-emergency operation, and 1 case died of dissection rupture on the way to the operating room. All 57 patients underwent radical treatment. Fifty-four cases underwent the frozen elephant trunk technique under deep hypothermia circulatory arrest and selective cerebral perfusion, and 3 cases (>65 years old) underwent arch debranch anastomosis+ascending aorta replacement+descending arch covered stent implantation under mild hypothermia. Results: The operation time was (445±32) minutes (range: 382 to 485 minutes), the aortic crossclamp time was (103±19) minutes (range: 89 to 133 minutes), the cardiopulmonary bypass time was (189±27) minutes (range: 162 to 221 minutes), and the intraoperative blood loss was (665±343) ml (range: 450 to 1 750 ml). Postoperative ICU stay time was 5 (6) days (range: 2 to 27 days), and postoperative hospital stay was 14.0 (4.5) days (range: 2 to 36 days). Three cases died, including 2 cases with severe brain complications and 1 case with systemic multiple organ failure caused by severe liver insufficiency and gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Postoperative follow-up was 0.5 to 7.0 years, which showed that 1 case had left coronary artery anastomotic stoma fistula 3 months after operation and underwent reoperation, 2 cases underwent thoracoabdominal aortic replacement again, and the rest of patients had no anastomotic stoma fistula and incomplete stent distortion and expansion on CT angiography. Four cases died during follow-up, and 1 case died of sudden cerebral infarction 2 years after operation. Conclusion: The recurrent type A dissection after TEVAR is mostly related to stent graft, and the patients can undergo operation actively with good prognosis.

[The prognostic impact of diabetic mellitus and hyperglycemia during DLBCL treatment on patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma].

Objective: This study aims to investigate the clinical features and prognostic factors of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and assess the prognostic value of diabetes mellitus (DM) and hyperglycemia during DLBCL treatment in DLBCL. Methods: The clinical data of 481 newly diagnosed DLBCL patients from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2019 at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were retrospectively collected, focusing on their blood glucose levels before and during treatment. Cox regression method was used for univariate analysis to assess prognostic factors, and the Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw survival curves to assess the prognostic value of DM and hyperglycemia during DLBCL treatment in patients with DLBCL. Results: Eighty-two (17.0%) patients had DM before DLBCL diagnosis and treatment, and 88 (18.3%) patients had at least one blood glucose increase during DLBCL treatment. Cox univariate analysis showed that age, Ann Arbor stage, international prognostic index, and DM were associated with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) (all P<0.05) . The pairwise comparison between the two groups showed that the OS (P=0.001) and PFS (P<0.001) of patients with pre-existing DM were significantly worse than those of patients without abnormal blood glucose. Moreover, the OS (P=0.003) and PFS (P<0.001) of patients with hyperglycemia during DLBCL treatment were significantly worse than those of patients without abnormal blood glucose. No significant difference exists between patients with DM and patients with hyperglycemia during DLBCL treatment (OS, P=0.557; PFS, P=0.463) . Additionally, patients with adequate glycemic control during chemotherapy had a better prognosis compared with patients with poor glycemic control (OS, P=0.037; PFS, P=0.007) . Conclusion: DM is an important factor affecting the prognosis of patients with DLBCL. Moreover, hyperglycemia during treatment is related to the poor prognosis of patients with DLBCL.

Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Small Intracranial Aneurysm Rupture Status Using CTA-Derived Hemodynamics: A Multicenter Study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Small intracranial aneurysms are being increasingly detected while the rupture risk is not well-understood. We aimed to develop rupture-risk models of small aneurysms by combining clinical, morphologic, and hemodynamic information based on machine learning techniques and to test the models in external validation datasets. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From January 2010 to December 2016, five hundred four consecutive patients with only small aneurysms (<5 mm) detected by CTA and invasive cerebral angiography (or surgery) were retrospectively enrolled and randomly split into training (81%) and internal validation (19%) sets to derive and validate the proposed machine learning models (support vector machine, random forest, logistic regression, and multilayer perceptron). Hemodynamic parameters were obtained using computational fluid dynamics simulation. External validation was performed in other hospitals to test the models. RESULTS: The support vector machine performed the best with areas under the curve of 0.88 (95% CI, 0.85-0.92) and 0.91 (95% CI, 0.74-0.98) in the training and internal validation datasets, respectively. Feature ranks suggested hemodynamic parameters, including stable flow pattern, concentrated inflow streams, and a small (<50%) flow-impingement zone, and the oscillatory shear index coefficient of variation, were the best predictors of aneurysm rupture. The support vector machine showed an area under the curve of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.69-0.94) in the external validation dataset, and no significant difference was found for the areas under the curve between internal and external validation datasets (P = .21). CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that machine learning had a good performance in predicting the rupture status of small aneurysms in both internal and external datasets. Aneurysm hemodynamic parameters were regarded as the most important predictors.

Prognostic value of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in critically ill patients with cancer: a propensity score matching study.

BACKGROUND: Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has shown a good prognostic value in many different type of malignancies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between NLR and the outcome of critically ill patients with cancer. METHODS: We performed a single-institution, retrospective study of 1317 adult critically ill patients with cancer and determined the optimal cut-off for NLR by X-tile software. Propensity score matching (PSM) and inverse probabilities of treatment weighting (IPTW) were performed to control confounders. Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the relationship between NLR and 28-day, 6-month and 1-year all-cause mortality. Kaplan-Meier method, subgroup analysis, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis were applied to assess the prognostic value of NLR. RESULTS: The cut-off value for NLR was 17.6. Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that high NLR (> 17.6) was independently associated with 28-day, 6-month and 1-year all-cause mortality with hazard ratio (HR) of 1.58 (1.29, 1.94), 1.51 (1.28, 1.77) and 1.45 (1.25, 1.69), respectively. The results were consistent with survival analyses (p < 0.001, log-rank test). The ROC analyses showed that the discrimination abilities of NLR were better than other blood-based biomarkers. CONCLUSION: NLR is a promising prognostic indicator of survival in unselected critical ill patients with cancer.

Using IL-2R/lymphocytes for predicting the clinical progression of patients with COVID-19.

Effective laboratory markers for the estimation of disease severity and predicting the clinical progression of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is urgently needed. Laboratory tests, including blood routine, cytokine profiles and infection markers, were collected from 389 confirmed COVID-19 patients. The included patients were classified into mild (n = 168), severe (n = 169) and critical groups (n = 52). The leukocytes, neutrophils, infection biomarkers [such as C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and ferritin] and the concentrations of cytokines [interleukin (IL)-2R, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α] were significantly increased, while lymphocytes were significantly decreased with increased severity of illness. The amount of IL-2R was positively correlated with the other cytokines and negatively correlated with lymphocyte number. The ratio of IL-2R to lymphocytes was found to be remarkably increased in severe and critical patients. IL-2R/lymphocytes were superior compared with other markers for the identification of COVID-19 with critical illness, not only from mild but also from severe illness. Moreover, the cytokine profiles and IL-2R/lymphocytes were significantly decreased in recovered patients, but further increased in disease-deteriorated patients, which might be correlated with the outcome of COVID-19. Lymphopenia and increased levels of cytokines were closely associated with disease severity. The IL-2R/lymphocyte was a prominent biomarker for early identification of severe COVID-19 and predicting the clinical progression of the disease.

CCL18 overexpression predicts a worse prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) presents severe morbidity and high mortality owing to local recurrence or remote metastasis. Molecular markers, including chemokines, might provide more efficient prognostic information or even therapeutic targets for the treatment of OSCC. Using quantitative RT-qPCR, we found that CCL18 was dramatically overexpressed in 30 OSCC tissues at the mRNA level in comparison with their adjacent non-cancerous oral mucosa tissues and 15 oral mucosa tissues from non-malignant patients. We then analyzed the relationship between CCL18 overexpression and patient clinical characters and outcomes using immunohistochemistry staining (IHC) in 102 paired OSCC cancerous and adjacent non-cancerous tissues; the increase in CCL18 expression was significantly higher in male patients (p=0.047), tumors of the palate and floor of the mouth (p=0.014), patients with positive lymph node metastasis (p=0.007), and patients with poor tumor differentiation (p=0.029). The median overall survival time and time-to-recurrence were 80.6 and 61.4 months in patients with high CCL18 expression, respectively, as against 93.4 and 81.6 months in patients with comparatively lower CCL18 expression, respectively (p=0.033 and 0.012, respectively; log-rank test). Multivariate analyses indicated age, poor differentiation, and CCL18 levels to be independent prognostic factors for predicting both overall and disease-free survival time. Our study suggests that CCL18 is a novel candidate marker for the OSCC malignancy and prognosis, including lymph node metastasis, time-to-recurrence, and disease-free survival time.

Establishment of a Risk Prediction Model for Mild Cognitive Impairment among Elderly Chinese.

BACKGROUND: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional stage of cognitive function between normal aging and dementia. Substantial variations in the prevalence of MCI in different countries have been studied including China. In this study, we established a prediction system to assess the risk of MCI among the elderly in China. METHODS: The Rothman-Keller model was conducted on the basis of the risk factors of MCI obtained by the combined results of a meta-analysis. The accuracy of the model was verified using actual population data. RESULTS: A total of 1826 subjects as a verification set were enrolled in this study in February 2019. There were statistically significant differences in the combined results of 10 risk factors including hypertension, diabetes, educational level, hyperlipidemia, smoking, physical exercise, living alone, stroke, drinking and heart disease (P<0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of the actual data and the predictive results of this model was 0.859 (95%CI: 0.812-0.906, P<0.05), the sensitivity was 86.6% and the specificity was 76.5%. CONCLUSIONS: This model performs an effective prediction that may be applied to the primary prevention for patients with MCI, helping to reduce the risk of MCI.