Osteosarcopenic obesity and its components-osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and obesity-are associated with blood cell count-derived inflammation indices in older Chinese people.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the associations of osteosarcopenic obesity (OSO) and its components with complete blood cell count-derived inflammation indices. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, data of 648 participants aged ≥60 years (men/women: 232/416, mean age: 67.21 ± 6.40 years) were collected from January 2018 to December 2020. Areal bone mineral density and body fat percentage were used to define osteopenia/osteoporosis and obesity, respectively. The criteria of the 2019 Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia were used to diagnose sarcopenia. Based on the number of these conditions, participants were divided into four groups: OSO/0, OSO/1, OSO/2, and OSO/3. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify associations between blood cell count-derived inflammation indices and the number of disorders with abnormal body composition. RESULTS: Systemic inflammation response index (SIRI), white blood cells, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), aggregate inflammation systemic index (AISI), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) showed statistically significant differences among the four groups (P < 0.05). Unlike in the OSO/0 group, in all other groups, AISI, SIRI, PLR, and NLR were significantly associated with increased likelihood of having multiple disorders with abnormal body composition after adjustment for confounders (P < 0.0001 for all). However, LMR showed an inverse correlation with the number of these conditions (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Higher SIRI, AISI, NLR, and PLR values and lower LMR values are closely associated with OSO and its individual components-osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and obesity-in older adults, suggesting that the value of these indices in the evaluation of OSO warrants further investigation.

Estrogen receptor α mediates the effects of notoginsenoside R1 on endotoxin-induced inflammatory and apoptotic responses in H9c2 cardiomyocytes.

Estrogen receptors (ERs) are important for preventing endotoxin-induced myocardial dysfunction. Therefore, plant-derived phytoestrogens, which target ERs may also affect endotoxin-induced toxicity in cardiomyocytes. Our previous study revealed that notoginsenoside-R1 (NG-R1), a predominant phytoestrogen from Panax notoginseng, protects against cardiac dysfunction. However, the effects of NG-R1 on cardiomyocytes and the precise cellular/molecular mechanisms underlying its action remain to be elucidated. In the present study, pretreatment with NG-R1 suppressed the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced degradation of inhibitor of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) α, the activation of NF-κB and caspase-3, and the subsequent myocardial inflammatory and apoptotic responses in H9c2 cardiomyocytes. An increase in the mRNA and protein expression of ERα was also observed in the NG-R1-treated cardiomyocytes. However, the expression pattern of ERß remained unaltered. Furthermore, the cardioprotective properties of NG-R1 against LPS-induced apoptosis and the inflammatory response in cardiomyocytes were attenuated by ICI 182780, a non-selective ERα antagonist, and methyl-piperidino-pyrazole, a selective ERα antagonist. These findings suggested that NG-R1 reduced endotoxin-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis and the inflammatory response via the activation of ERα. Therefore, NG-R1 exerted direct anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects on the cardiomyocytes, representing a potent agent for the treatment of myocardial inflammation during septic shock.

The T-SPOT.TB Test for Diagnosis of Breast Tuberculosis.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the diagnostic value of the T-SPOT.TB test in cases of breast turberculosis (BTB) in China. METHODS: We enrolled 13 female patients with primary BTB as the BTB test group and 10 healthy volunteers as the control group. The 2 groups underwent T-SPOT.TB tests and tuberculin skin tests (TSTs) before receiving a core-needle biopsy or excision biopsy. We then collected and analyzed T-SPOT.TB and TST data. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the T-SPOT.TB test for detection of BTB (84.6%) was significantly greater than that of TST (53.8%) (P <.05); the specificity of each test (80.0% and 60.0%, respectively) for BTB was not significantly different (P >.05). CONCLUSION: The T-SPOT.TB test could be a useful adjunct to current tests for diagnosis of BTB and could be used for early diagnosis of this condition.

[Clinical analysis of primary small intestinal neoplasms in 305 cases].

OBJECTIVE: To summarive the experience in diagnosis and treatment of primary small intestinal neoplasm. METHODS: The data of 305 patients with pathologically confirmed primary small intestinal tumor collected from 6 hospitals around the Songhua River during the past 33 years were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: There were 42 benign and 263 malignant tumors in this series with a ratio of 1: 6.26. The 263 malignant tumors in this series consisted of 135 adenocarcinomas, 57 malignant stromal tumors, 37 malignant lymphomas, 20 carcinoids, and etc. Chronic occult bleeding, gradual of body weight loss and mild abdominal pain (three obscurities) were the common clinical features and alerting massage of intestinal tumor. Correct preoperative diagnostic rate was only 57.0% (174/305) due to difficulty in early diagnosis, which was 67.2% (92/137) in the duodenal tumors, and 51.9% (82/168) in the jejunoileal tumors. All of the 42 benign tumors were resected completely. For the 263 patients with malignant tumors, radical dissection was performed in 153, palliative resection in 34, and gut by-pass or biopsy in 76. The median survival of the patients who underwent radical resection of their malignant tumors was 92 months, which was significantly higher than that of the other groups. CONCLUSION: Early diagnosis of primary small intestinal tumors is difficult and with a preoperative misdiagnosis rate of 43.0%. Total intestinal barium swallowing, endoscopy and superior mesenteric arteriography are three critical examinations for diagnosis and location. Early surgical resection is crucial in improving the prognosis. The primary small intestinal tumor should be resected as early as possible if no distant metastasis is detected.