Nomogram to diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome in high-risk Chinese adult patients.

INTRODUCTION: Many scales are designed to screen for obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS); however, there is a lack of an efficiently and easily diagnostic tool, especially for Chinese. Therefore, we conduct a cross-sectional study in China to develop and validate an efficient and simple clinical diagnostic model to help screen patients at risk of OSAHS. METHODS: This study based on 782 high-risk patients (aged >18 years) admitted to the Sleep Medicine department of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University from 2015 to 2021. Totally 34 potential predictors were evaluated. We divided all patients into training and validation dataset to develop diagnostic model. The univariable and multivariable logistic regression model were used to build model and nomogram was finally built. RESULTS: Among 602 high-risk patients with median age of 46 (37, 56) years, 23.26% were women. After selecting using the univariate logistic model, 15 factors were identified. We further used the stepwise method to build the final model with five factors: age, BMI, total bilirubin levels, high Berlin score, and symptom of morning dry mouth or mouth breathing. The AUC was 0.780 (0.711, 0.848), with sensitivity of 0.848 (0.811, 0.885), specificity of 0.629 (0.509, 0.749), accuracy of 0.816 (0.779, 0.853). The discrimination ability had been verified in the validation dataset. Finally, we established a nomogram model base on the above final model. CONCLUSION: We developed and validated a predictive model with five easily acquire factors to diagnose OSAHS patient in high-risk population with well discriminant ability. Accordingly, we finally build the nomogram model.

Synthesis and evaluation of sulfobetaine zwitterionic polymer bonded stationary phase.

Zwitterionic polymer stationary phases have attracted increasing attention in hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC). In this work, a zwitterionic sulfobetaine functionalized polyacrylamide stationary phase (named TENS) based on porous silica particles was prepared via controlled surface initiated reversible addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Instead of traditional methacrylate type sulfobetaine monomer, acrylamide type sulfobetaine monomer, which has higher chemical stability and hydrophicility, was employed in this work. The characterization of elemental analysis and solid-state 13C cross polarization/magic-angle-spinning nuclear magnetic resonance indicated the successful preparation of TENS stationary phase. Meanwhile, scanning electron microscope (SEM), nitrogen adsorption experiment and study of size exclusion performance were conducted, revealing that the surface initiated polymerization was well controlled. For better understanding of TENS material under HILIC mode, chromatographic evaluation of TENS material was performed, among which, TENS material exhibited good hydrophilicity and chemical stability. To further study the applicability of TENS material, saccharides which were considered as challenging targets in HILIC, were chosen as tested analytes. Various saccharide samples, including fructooligosaccharide, trisaccharide isomers and ginsenosides, were well separated on TENS material. Moreover, TENS material displayed good selectivity for the enrichment of glycopeptides. These results demonstrated the capability of TENS as a promising material in glycomics and glycoproteomics.

[Development and allometric growth patterns of larval Acipenser schrenckii].

The growth and development of larval Amur sturgeon Acipenser schrenckii could be divided into two stages, i.e., pre-larval or free embryonic stage [from hatching (0 day of age and 10.17 +/- 0.63 mm of body length) to initial feeding (9 days of age and 18.93 +/- 0.74 mm of body length)], and post-larval stage [from initial feeding to juvenile stage (38 days of age and 41.89 +/- 5.09 mm of body length)]. During pre-larval stage, some organs related to feeling, feeding, breathing and swimming developed and differentiated rapidly; and during post-larval stage, dorsal, lateral and ventral scuta appeared, and the fish morphologically developed into juvenile. The growth characteristics of larval A. schrenckii presented allometric patterns, i.e., the growth inflexion points of eye diameter, mouth width, tail fin length, and pectoral fin length appeared in the ages of 2 days, 8-9 days, 10 days, and 11 days, respectively. Before the growth inflexion points, the organs grew fast; while after the growth inflexion points, the growth slowed down and approximately appeared isometric. The organs of larval A. schrenckii had the characteristics of congruous and rapid development. With the development of the organs related to feeling, feeding, breathing and swimming, larval A. schrenckii obtained the ability of escaping from predators and feeding, and consequently, its survival chance increased.