Severe acute urticaria is associated with elevated plasma levels of D-dimer.

Evaluation of the disease severity of acute urticaria (AU) is essential for adequate treatment of patients. However, there are no reliable biomarkers for such an evaluation. In our department, we observed patients with severe AU having elevated plasma D-dimer levels. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the elevated D-dimer levels in patients with severe AU in more detail. One hundred and thirty-nine hospital patients diagnosed with severe AU were enrolled. Clinical laboratory data were collected from electronic medical records. One hundred and seventeen of the patients presented with elevated plasma D-dimer levels. Compared to the normal group, the elevated group had a significantly higher proportion of patients who were female, younger, febrile, and had a shorter prehospital time (P < 0.05). Univariate regression analysis showed that neutrophil percentage, C-reactive protein (CRP), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels increased as D-dimer levels increased, while prehospital time showed the opposite trend. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the simultaneous effects of CRP and LDH on D-dimer levels. Patients who responded to additional antibiotic treatment had higher levels of D-dimer. The group with highly elevated D-dimer levels required a higher maximum dose of daily glucocorticoids (GCs) to control the symptoms of AU. In conclusion, patients with severe AU might have elevated plasma D-dimer levels, which are positively correlated with CRP and LDH levels. Patients with severe AU with dramatically elevated D-dimer levels might need a higher dose of daily GCs and antibiotics to relieve symptoms. D-dimer may be a reasonable marker to evaluate the severity of AU and guide treatment.

Efficacy of Dupilumab in Children 6 Months to 11 Years Old With Atopic Dermatitis: A Retrospective Real-World Study in China.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common skin disease that affects patients' quality of life, especially in the pediatric population. Dupilumab has shown good efficacy and safety in the treatment of AD in adolescents and adults, but the real data on younger children using dupilumab are scarce. Objectives: We investigated the doses, efficacy, and safety of dupilumab in children with moderate-to-severe AD aged ≥6 months to 11 years. Methods: This single-center retrospective cohort analysis included dupilumab-treated patients with severe AD under 12 years of age. Primary endpoints included the proportion of Validated Investigator Global Assessment (vIGA) 0/1 achieved and the percentage change from baseline in eczema area and severity index (EASI) and SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) at week 24 (W24). Secondary endpoints were mean change in pruritus numerical rating score (P-NRS) and body surface area (BSA) after W24 of treatment, description of adverse events, and Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) improvement from baseline in endpoints. Results: Fifty-seven patients were included (mean age 7.2 ± 3.0 years). The primary endpoint (vIGA = 0/1) was achieved by 51 of 57 (89.5%) patients at W24. Significant improvements in EASI, SCORAD, P-NRS, and CDLQI scores were observed from baseline to W24 with dupilumab treatment and remained until W40. In different age groups, the endpoint vIGA achieved 0/1: 95.2% (20/21) of younger children and 88.9% (32/36) of older children. No serious adverse drug reactions were reported. Conclusions: This study aimed to describe the safety and efficacy of dupilumab in pediatric patients and examined differences of efficacy with various doses. The outcomes are comparable with those of existing clinical trials. Phase III Clinical Trial: NCT03346434.

An End-to-End Energy-Efficient Approach for Intake Detection With Low Inference Time Using Wrist-Worn Sensor.

Automated detection of intake gestures with wearable sensors has been a critical area of research for advancing our understanding and ability to intervene in people's eating behavior. Numerous algorithms have been developed and evaluated in terms of accuracy. However, ensuring the system is not only accurate in making predictions but also efficient in doing so is critical for real-world deployment. Despite the growing research on accurate detection of intake gestures using wearables, many of these algorithms are often energy inefficient, impeding on-device deployment for continuous and real-time monitoring of diet. This article presents a template-based optimized multicenter classifier that enables accurate intake gesture detection while maintaining low-inference time and energy consumption using a wrist-worn accelerometer and gyroscope. We designed an Intake Gesture Counter smartphone application (CountING) and validated the practicality of our algorithm against seven state-of-the-art approaches on three public datasets (In-lab FIC, Clemson, and OREBA). Compared with other methods, we achieved optimal accuracy (81.60% F1 score) and very low inference time (15.97 msec per 2.20-sec data sample) on the Clemson dataset, and among the top performing algorithms, we achieve comparable accuracy (83.0% F1 score compared with 85.6% in the top performing algorithm) but superior inference time (13.8x faster, 33.14 msec per 2.20-sec data sample) on the In-lab FIC dataset and comparable accuracy (83.40% F1 score compared with 88.10% in the top-performing algorithm) but superior inference time (33.9x faster, 16.71 msec inference time per 2.20-sec data sample) on the OREBA dataset. On average, our approach achieved a 25-hour battery lifetime (44% to 52% improvement over state-of-the-art approaches) when tested on a commercial smartwatch for continuous real-time detection. Our approach demonstrates an effective and efficient method, enabling real-time intake gesture detection using wrist-worn devices in longitudinal studies.

Plasmonic Nanozymes: Localized Surface Plasmonic Resonance Regulates Reaction Kinetics and Antibacterial Performance.

Among the members of the rapidly growing nanozyme family, plasmonic nanozymes stand out because of their unique localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) characteristics and tunable catalytic activity. We prepared a plasmonic nanozyme of Au gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and Cu metal-organic framework nanosheets (Cu-MOFNs). The Cu-MOFNs have peroxidase-like activity, while AuNPs present unique LSPR characteristics. We found that the as-prepared AuNPs/Cu-MOFNs composite presents 1.6-fold faster reaction kinetics under LSPR excitation compared to that in the dark. Investigations of energy levels, radical capture, and dark-field scattering spectroscopy revealed that LSPR of AuNPs as well as matched energy levels can facilitate efficient hot electron transfer, which could readily cleave the chemical bond of the substrate and accelerate the reaction kinetics. On the basis of these results, we achieved enhanced antibacterial therapy and wound healing using plasmonic AuNPs/Cu-MOFNs. This study spotlights the superiority of plasmonic nanozymes in improving the enzyme-like performance of nanozymes.

Plasmon induced dual excited synergistic effect in Au/metal-organic frameworks composite for enhanced antibacterial therapy.

Efficient antibacterial therapy holds great promise for human health. However, it is often limited by the insufficient activity of antibacterial agents. Herein, we demonstrate that the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) excitation of gold nanostars (AuNSs) can dramatically improve the antibacterial activity of a Zn-metal-organic frameworks (Zn-MOFs) nanosheet, which exhibits higher ability to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) (∼2.5-fold) for bacterial inactivation under light irradiation. Mechanistic investigations demonstrate that the enhancement is closely related to a plasmon-induced "dual excited synergistic effect". On the one hand, the Zn-MOFs nanosheets as photosensitive agents can be excited to generate ROS with bacterial toxicity. More importantly, abundant plasmonic hot electrons are generated on the surface of AuNSs upon LSPR excitation, which are then transferred from AuNSs into the Zn-MOFs due to the energy matching. As a result, the Zn-MOFs nanosheet presents an electron-rich condition, which activates the adsorbed O2 molecule into a transition state followed by its decomposition into ROS for bacterial inactivation. This study highlights the superiority of LSPR excitation on improving the antibacterial activity of MOFs and provides a novel strategy for effective antibacterial therapy.