Association Between Triglyceride-Glucose Index and Hearing Threshold Shifts of Adults in the United States: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2015-2016.

Objective: Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL) is a representative human sensory impairment, few studies have paid attention to the correlation between the Triglyceride-Glucose (TyG) index and SNHL to date. We conducted this analysis to elucidate the correlation between the TyG index and pure tone hearing thresholds among US adults. Methods: Our analysis included 1226 adults (age range: 20 to 69 years old) from the 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data. TyG index was scored into three quartiles. Weighted univariate analysis, weighted multivariate linear regression analyses as well as smooth curve fittings evaluated the associations between TyG index and pure tone hearing thresholds. Results: In the multiple regression analysis, the second tertile of TyG index was negatively associated with high-frequency hearing thresholds shifts. Furthermore, the non-linear relationships between TyG index and speech-frequency and high-frequency hearing thresholds were identified by smooth curve fittings. After adjusting for potential confounders, the fitted smooth curves were approximately U-shaped, and the two-segment linear regression models were constructed to calculate their inflection points. Conclusion: Our findings suggested that the TyG index was nearly U-shaped association with speech-frequency and high-frequency hearing thresholds. These results may imply the importance of maintaining a balanced TyG index in health management.

Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of Small Cell Carcinoma in the Nasopharynx: A Population-Based Study.

BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal small cell carcinoma (SmCC) is a rare histological type of nasopharyngeal cancer, and its prognosis remains poor. This study aimed to determine the clinical characteristics and survival prognostic factors of nasopharyngeal SmCC. METHODS: Detailed clinicopathologic and therapeutic characteristics of a patient diagnosed with nasopharyngeal SmCC were determined. Nasopharyngeal SmCC cases reported previously were reviewed and summarized. Furthermore, a retrospective analysis was performed on data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program database. Kaplan-Meier analysis was conducted to compare survival within groups. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to investigate prognostic factors. RESULTS: A nasopharyngeal SmCC patient treated with chemoradiotherapy who achieved 46 months long-term survival was reported. In reviewing 16 reported cases with epidemiologic and therapeutic details, we found most of nasopharyngeal SmCC patients were diagnosed with advanced grades and received chemoradiotherapy. In total, 13,993 cases of nasopharyngeal cancer were extracted from the SEER database, from which 57 nasopharyngeal SmCC cases were eventually screened out. The mean age of the patients was 55.70 years, and 64.9% of these cases were either grade III or IV; the median overall survival (OS) was 18 months. Statistically significant differences were observed in the OS values of groups categorized by age (P = .025) or radiotherapy (P = .037). Age (<70 years) and radiotherapy were identified as independent survival and prognostic factors. CONCLUSION: Patients with nasopharyngeal SmCC are usually diagnosed with advanced grades and have poor prognoses; nevertheless, they can benefit from radiotherapy with prolonged overall survival.