Aspirin in Patients with Viral Hepatitis: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a disease demonstrating increasing morbidity and mortality, especially in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. Studies have shown that aspirin can reduce the incidence of liver cancer; however, the degree of benefit in patients with viral hepatitis is unclear. This study focused on the association between aspirin use and HCC risk in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. METHODS: A systematic search of the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases was performed from the earliest available date to December 16, 2023. The primary outcome was HCC incidence, and the secondary outcome was gastrointestinal bleeding. The results were expressed as hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Meta-analyses were performed by using random or fixed-effects models based on the heterogeneity assessed via the I2 statistic. RESULTS: A total of 13 articles (303,414 participants and 14,423 HCC patients) were included in the analysis. The incidence of HCC in aspirin users was lower than that in non-aspirin users (HR 0.75; 95% CI, 0.68-0.83; P < 0.001; I2 = 90.0%). Subgroup analysis further showed that this effect may be more obvious in HCV patients, non-cirrhotic patients, patients with statins, and long-term aspirin users, but it may have the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding (HR 1.13; 95% CI, 1.07-1.20; P = 0.906; I2 = 0.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis shows that in patients with chronic viral hepatitis, aspirin use is associated with a significantly reduced risk of liver cancer, but attention should be paid to the possible risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, and this conclusion needs further validation in the future.

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex detection: a meta-analysis.

Objective: Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) has been gradually applied to the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) due to its rapid and highly sensitive characteristics. Despite numerous studies on this subject, their results vary significantly. Thus, the current meta-analysis was performed to assess the performance of the mNGS on tuberculosis. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library were searched up to June 21, 2023. Studies utilizing the mNGS for tuberculosis detection were included. The risk of bias was assessed by QUADAS-2, and a meta-analysis was performed with STATA14.0 software. Results: Seventeen studies comprising 3,205 specimens were included. The combined sensitivity and specificity of mNGS for clinical specimens were 0.69[0.58-0.79] and 1.00[0.99-1.00], respectively. Subgroup analysis identified sequencing platform, diagnostic criteria, study type, sample size, and sample types as potential sources of heterogeneity. Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) has a lower sensitivity of 0.58 (0.39-0.75). In a population with a 10% prevalence rate, the accuracy of sensitivity reached 94%. Conclusion: Metagenomic next-generation sequencing technology exhibits high sensitivity and speed in diagnosing Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Its application in mono and mixed infections peoples shows promise, and mNGS is likely to be increasingly used to address challenges posed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complexes in the future.

Prevalence of malnutrition based on global leadership initiative in malnutrition criteria for completeness of diagnosis and future risk of malnutrition based on current malnutrition diagnosis: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The proposal of the global leadership initiative in malnutrition (GLIM) criteria has received great attention from clinicians. The criteria are mainly used in the research environment and have the potential to be widely used in the clinic in the future. However, the prevalence of malnutrition and risk of future malnutrition based on a current diagnosis of malnutrition are worth exploring. Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library was performed from the earliest available date to 1 February 2023. According to the diagnostic criteria of the GLIM, we analysed the prevalence of malnutrition by directly adopting the GLIM criteria for diagnosis without a previous nutritional risk screening (one-step approach) and by adopting the GLIM criteria for diagnosis after a nutritional risk screening (two-step approach). The main outcome was the prevalence of malnutrition based on the one-and two-step approaches. Secondary outcomes were the future risk of malnutrition based on the GLIM diagnosis, including mortality within and beyond 1 year. primary outcomes were pooled using random-effects models, and secondary outcomes are presented as hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: A total of 64 articles were included in the study, including a total of 47,654 adult hospitalized patients and 15,089 malnourished patients based on the GLIM criteria. Malnutrition was diagnosed by the one-step approach in 18 studies and by the two-step approach in 46 studies. The prevalence of malnutrition diagnosed by the one-and two-step approaches was 53% (95% CI, 42%-64%) and 39% (95% CI, 0.35%-0.43%), respectively. The prevalence of malnutrition diagnosed by the GLIM criteria after a nutritional risk screening was quite different; the prevalence of malnutrition diagnosed by the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS2002) GLIM tool was 35% (95% CI, 29%-40%); however, the prevalence of malnutrition diagnosed by the Mini Nutrition Assessment (MNA) GLIM tool was 48% (95% CI, 35%-62%). Among the disease types, the prevalence of malnutrition in cancer patients was 44% (95% CI, 36%-52%), while that in acute and critically ill patients was 44% (95% CI, 33%-56%). The prevalence in patients in internal medicine wards was 40% (95% CI, 34%-45%), while that in patients in surgical wards was 47% (95% CI, 30%-64%). In addition, the mortality risk within 1 year (HR, 2.62; 95% CI, 1.95-3.52; I2 = 77.1%) and beyond 1 year (HR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.70-2.45; I2 = 59.9%) of patients diagnosed with malnutrition by the GLIM criteria was double that of patients with normal nutrition. Conclusion: The prevalence of malnutrition diagnosed by the GLIM criteria after a nutritional risk screening was significantly lower than the prevalence of malnutrition diagnosed directly by the GLIM criteria. In addition, the mortality risk was significantly greater among malnourished patients assessed by the GLIM criteria.Systematic review registration: identifier CRD42023398454.

Hypothermia may reduce mortality and improve neurologic outcomes in adult patients treated with VA-ECMO: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: VA-ECMO can greatly reduce mortality in critically ill patients, and hypothermia attenuates the deleterious effects of ischemia-reperfusion injury. We aimed to study the effects of hypothermia on mortality and neurological outcomes in VA-ECMO patients. METHODS: A systematic search of the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases was performed from the earliest available date to 31 December 2022. The primary outcome was discharge or 28-day mortality and favorable neurological outcomes in VA-ECMO patients, and the secondary outcome was bleeding risk in VA-ECMO patients. The results are presented as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Based on the heterogeneity assessed by the I2 statistic, meta-analyses were performed using random or fixed-effects models. GRADE methodology was used to rate the certainty in the findings. RESULTS: A total of 27 articles (3782 patients) were included. Hypothermia (33-35 °C) lasting at least 24 h can significantly reduce discharge or 28-day mortality (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.33-0.63; I2 = 41%) and significantly improve favorable neurological outcomes (OR, 2.08; 95% CI, 1.66-2.61; I2 = 3%) in VA-ECMO patients. Additionally, there was no risk associated with bleeding (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.86-1.53; I2 = 12%). In our subgroup analysis according to in-hospital or out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, hypothermia reduced short-term mortality in both VA-ECMO-assisted in-hospital (OR, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.11-0.86; I2 = 0.0%) and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.25-0.69; I2 = 52.3%). Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients assisted by VA-ECMO for favorable neurological outcomes were consistent with the conclusions of this paper (OR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.63-2.72; I2 = 0.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that mild hypothermia (33-35 °C) lasting at least 24 h can greatly reduce short-term mortality and significantly improve favorable short-term neurologic outcomes in VA-ECMO-assisted patients without bleeding-related risks. As the grade assessment indicated that the certainty of the evidence was relatively low, hypothermia as a strategy for VA-ECMO-assisted patient care may need to be treated with caution.

A Trajectory Collaboration Based Map Matching Approach for Low-Sampling-Rate GPS Trajectories.

GPS (Global Positioning System) trajectories with low sampling rates are prevalent in many applications. However, current map matching methods do not perform well for low-sampling-rate GPS trajectories due to the large uncertainty between consecutive GPS points. In this paper, a collaborative map matching method (CMM) is proposed for low-sampling-rate GPS trajectories. CMM processes GPS trajectories in batches. First, it groups similar GPS trajectories into clusters and then supplements the missing information by resampling. A collaborative GPS trajectory is then extracted for each cluster and matched to the road network, based on longest common subsequence (LCSS) distance. Experiments are conducted on a real GPS trajectory dataset and a simulated GPS trajectory dataset. The results show that the proposed CMM outperforms the baseline methods in both, effectiveness and efficiency.

Factor diagnosis and future governance of dangerous goods accidents in China's ports.

Dangerous goods are particularly hazardous, as they can be flammable, explosive, and toxic. These characteristics make them vulnerable to accidents, and such mishaps during port operations can lead to massive economic losses and even deaths. It is, therefore, necessary and important to analyze and study the dangerous goods accidents at ports, so as to identify major factors and prevent them. Formal concept analysis (FCA) is a powerful tool for rule extraction. This paper introduces FCA along with relevant documents and case studies to analyze the dangerous goods accidents at China's ports, building a concept lattice model of dangerous goods accidents at China's ports, and reduces the condition attributes to come up with three key attributes of dangerous goods accidents at China's ports: warehousing management, facilities and equipment, goods registration and extract four effective diagnostic rules for dangerous goods accidents at ports. This paper proposes corresponding governance strategies to the rules of dangerous goods accidents, which can significantly prevent and manage dangerous goods accidents at China's ports in the future. In the future, the concept scale can be introduced to study the problem that the influencing factor is multi-valued attribute so as to expand the scope of research.

Isocoumarin derivatives and benzofurans from a sponge-derived Penicillium sp. fungus.

Ten new fungal metabolites, including three hydroisocoumarins, penicimarins A-C (1-3), three isocoumarins, penicimarins D-F (6-8), and four benzofurans, penicifurans A-D (11-14), together with four known isocoumarin derivatives (4, 5, 9, 10), were obtained from the sponge-derived fungus Penicillium sp. MWZ14-4, collected from the South China Sea. Their planar structures and relative configurations were elucidated by detailed analysis of spectroscopic data and by comparison with related known compounds. The absolute configurations of 1-4 were assigned by the modified Mosher's method and TDDFT ECD calculations together with comparison of their CD spectra. Compound 1 represents a rare naturally occurring isocoumarin derivative with 4-substitution, but no substituent at the 3-position. These compounds were evaluated for antibacterial activities and cytotoxic activities in vitro. Among them, penicifuran A (11) exhibited inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus albus with an MIC value of 3.13 µM.