Associations of CBC-Derived inflammatory indicators with sarcopenia and mortality in adults: evidence from Nhanes 1999 ∼ 2006.

BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that inflammation plays a role in the development of sarcopenia. This study aimed to investigate the links of complete blood cell count (CBC) parameters and CBC-derived inflammatory indicators with sarcopenia and mortality. METHODS: Data pertaining to sarcopenia were extracted from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and mortality events were ascertained through the National Death Index up to December 31, 2019. The CBC-derived inflammatory indicators assessed in this study included the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), neutrophil-monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (NMLR), systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII). The prognostic significance of these CBC-derived inflammatory indicators was evaluated using the random survival forests (RSF) analysis. RESULTS: The study encompassed a cohort of 12,689 individuals, among whom 1,725 were diagnosed with sarcopenia. Among individuals with sarcopenia, 782 experienced all-cause mortality, and 195 succumbed to cardiovascular causes. Following adjustment for confounding variables, it was observed that elevated levels of NLR, dNLR, NMLR, SIRI, and SII were associated with an increased prevalence of sarcopenia. Among participants with sarcopenia, those in the highest quartile of NLR (HR = 1.336 [1.095-1.631]), dNLR (HR = 1.274 [1.046-1.550]), MLR (HR = 1.619 [1.290-2.032]), NMLR (HR = 1.390 [1.132-1.707]), and SIRI (HR = 1.501 [1.210-1.862]) exhibited an elevated risk of all-cause mortality compared to those in the lowest quartile of these inflammation-derived indicators. These associations were similarly observed in cardiovascular mortality (HR = 1.874 [1.169-3.003] for MLR, HR = 1.838 [1.175-2.878] for SIRI). The RSF analysis indicated that MLR exhibited the highest predictive power for both all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among individuals with sarcopenia. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underscore the association between CBC-derived inflammatory indicators and mortality in adults with sarcopenia. Of note, MLR emerged as the most robust predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in this population.

Study on the Extraction of CT Images with Non-Uniform Illumination for the Microstructure of Asphalt Mixture.

An adaptive image-processing method for CT images of asphalt mixture is proposed in this paper. Different methods are compared according to the error analysis calculated between the real gradation and 3D reconstruction gradation. As revealed by the test results, the adaptive image-processing method was effective in carrying out different brightness homogenization processes for each image. The Wiener filter with 7 × 7 size filter was able to produce a better noise reduction effect without compromising image sharpness. Among the three methods, the adaptive image-processing method performed best in the accuracy of coarse aggregate recognition, followed by the ring division method and the global threshold segmentation method. The error of the gradation extracted by the adaptive image-processing method was found to be lowest compared with the real gradation. For a variety of engineering applications, the developed method helps to improve the analysis of CT images of asphalt mixtures.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles carried on chitosan microspheres for traumatic bleeding control.

Chitosan has been made into various hemostats, but their hemostatic efficiency for controlling severe traumatic bleeding is still inadequate. The aim of this work is to make quick hemostats by incorporating mesoporous silica nanoparticles into chitosan. Porous chitosan-silica composite microspheres (CSMS-S) with high hemostatic efficacy were fabricated through a combination of the microemulsion, thermally induced phase separation, and surfactant templating method. A large number of mesoporous silica nanoparticles were formed on and within the CSMS-S microspheres, which had abundant surface and inner macropores. The synergetic two hemostatic mechanisms from chitosan and mesoporous silica nanoparticles let CSMS-S composite microspheres with proper amount of silica displayed better hemostatic potential than the single component porous chitosan microspheres (CSMS). Within a same time interval, the whole blood clotting kinetics showed that CSMS-S could form larger blood clots than CSMS. The hemostatic time of CSMS-S was down to 97 s from 114 s of CSMS in the rat liver laceration model. The cytotoxicity and histological analysis proved that CSMS-S was a safe hemostatic agent without noticeable adverse effects on tissues around the wound. Our results demonstrate that CSMS-K is a promising quick hemostatic agent for traumatic hemorrhaging control.

Biomimetic growth of hydroxyapatite on phosphorylated electrospun cellulose nanofibers.

In biomimicking the formation of collagen fiber/hydroxyapatite (HAp) in natural bone, electrospun cellulose nanofiber (CelluNF)/HAp composites were synthesized in simulated body fluid (SBF). Their morphology and structure were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD and XPS. CelluNFs showed low bioactivity in inducing the growth of HAp. In order to improve this ability, CelluNFs were slightly phosphorylated with a degree of substitution of phosphate group of 0.28. The modified CelluNFs were highly effective in guiding the HAp growth along the fibers. The HAp crystal size in the composites was ca. 24 nm, and the lattice spacing of (211) plane was 2.83 Å. It was found that the HAps in the composites were calcium deficient. The CelluNF/HAp composites are highly porous materials with micro-, meso-, and macro-pores. A mechanism for the HAp growth on CelluNFs was presented. Such CelluNF/HAp composites can be potentially useful in the field of bone tissue engineering.

Translational medicine as a permanent glue and force of clinical medicine and public health: perspectives (1) from 2012 Sino-American symposium on clinical and translational medicine.

Health systems globally face challenges and opportunities in balancing quality, access, and cost, where clinical and translational medicine (CTM) should play more important and powerful roles in the identification, development and validation of solutions and strategies. Strategic collaboration can gather global strengths and resources and improve health systems, care delivery, regulations and policies. CTM-driven innovation and development has the potential to achieve step-change improvements across three dimensions. Thus, we have the reasons to believe that CTM will play even more roles in the development of new diagnostics, therapies, healthcare, and policies and SAS-CTM will become more and more important platform to obtain the latest development in CTM internationally and explore new opportunities in the international collaborations.

[Modification of the analytical method for rotenoids in plants].

Rotenoids are the active ingredients of some botanical insecticides and prospective candidates as anticancer agents. The proper isolation and determination of rotenoids in plants is of great importance for their further research and development. However, the HPLC method available for this purpose was developed particularly for the detection and determination of rotenone, so it appears to be unsuitable for the analysis of other rotenoids such as deguelin, elliptone and their analogues. By checking the UV spectra, it has been found that four types of UV absorption patterns occurred among the major rotenoids isolated from the roots of Derris elliptica and leaves of Tephrosia vogelii, and that the detection wavelength at 240 nm is more adequate for the analysis of a complex of rotenoids than at 280 nm-300 nm, which is used for rotenone detection. The extraction of rotenoids from plants is conveniently carried out by CHCl3-MeOH(9:1, V/V) and the purification can be accomplished by filtration of the crude residue through a C18 reversed-phase cartridge. Rotenoids can be isocratically eluted by MeOH-H2O(66:34, V/V). The results showed that rotenone, deguelin, elliptone, and their 12a-hydroxy- and 6a,12a-dehydro-analogs can be easily detected by the modified method, along with a satisfactory peak separation. The rotenoid components might be characterized by their retention times and relative retention times based on rotenone, which were at a range of 3.26 min-39.42 min and 40.4%-489.1% respectively.