Impact of deoxynivalenol on rumen function, production, and health of dairy cows: Insights from metabolomics and microbiota analysis.

Deoxynivalenol contamination in feed and food, pervasive from growth, storage, and processing, poses a significant risk to dairy cows, particularly when exposed to a high-starch diet; however, whether a high-starch diet exacerbates these negative effects remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the combined impact of deoxynivalenol and dietary starch on the production performance, rumen function, and health of dairy cows using metabolomics and 16 S rRNA sequencing. Our findings suggested that both high- and low-starch diets contaminated with deoxynivalenol significantly reduced the concentration of propionate, isobutyrate, valerate, total volatile fatty acids (TVFA), and microbial crude protein (MCP) concentrations, accompanied by a noteworthy increase in NH3-N concentration in vitro and in vivo (P < 0.05). Deoxynivalenol altered the abundance of microbial communities in vivo, notably affecting Oscillospiraceae, Lachnospiraceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, and Selenomonadaceae. Additionally, it significantly downregulated lecithin, arachidonic acid, valine, leucine, isoleucine, arginine, and proline metabolism (P < 0.05). Furthermore, deoxynivalenol triggered oxidative stress, inflammation, and dysregulation in immune system linkage, ultimately compromising the overall health of dairy cows. Collectively, both high- and low-starch diets contaminated with deoxynivalenol could have detrimental effects on rumen function, posing a potential threat to production performance and the overall health of cows. Notably, the negative effects of deoxynivalenol are more pronounced with a high-starch diet than a low-starch diet.

The Influence of Diabetes, Hypertension, and Hyperlipidemia on the Onset of Age-Related Macular Degeneration in North China: The Kailuan Eye Study.

Objective: To analyze the prevalence of dry and wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in patients with diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia, and to analyze the risk factors for AMD. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional epidemiologic study was conducted involving 14,440 individuals. We assessed the prevalence of dry and wet AMD in diabetic and non-diabetic subjects and analyzed the risk factors for AMD. Results: The prevalence of wet AMD in diabetic and non-diabetic patients was 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively, and the prevalence of dry AMD was 17% and 16.4%, respectively. The prevalence of wet AMD in healthy, hypertensive, hyperlipidemic, and hypertensive/hyperlipidemic populations was 0.5%, 0.3%, 0.2%, and 0.7%, respectively. The prevalence of dry AMD in healthy, hypertensive, hyperlipidemic, and hypertensive/hyperlipidemic populations was 16.6%, 16.2%, 15.2%, and 17.2%, respectively. Age, sex, body mass index, and use of hypoglycemic drugs or lowering blood pressure drugs were corrected in the risk factor analysis of AMD. Diabetes, diabetes/hypertension, diabetes/hyperlipidemia, and diabetes/hypertension/hyperlipidemia were analyzed. None of the factors analyzed in the current study increased the risk for the onset of AMD. Conclusion: There was no significant difference in the prevalence of wet and dry AMD among diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of wet and dry AMD among subjects with hypertension and hyperlipidemia. Diabetes co-existing with hypertension and hyperlipidemia were not shown to be risk factors for the onset of dry AMD.

A Strategy for Rapid Discovery of Marker Peptides Associated with Fibrinolytic Efficacy of Pheretima aspergillum Based on Bioinformatics Combined with Parallel Reaction Monitoring.

Quality control of animal-derived traditional Chinese medicines has improved dramatically as proteomics research advanced in the past few decades. However, it remains challenging to identify quality attributes with routine proteomics approaches since protein with fibrinolytic activity is rarely reported in pheretima, a typical animal-derived traditional medicine. A novel strategy based on bioinformatics combined with parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) was developed here to rapidly discover the marker peptides associated with a fibrinolytic effect. Potential marker peptides were found by lumbrokinase sequences' alignment and in silico digestion. The fibrinogen zymography was used to visually identify fibrinolytic proteins in pheretima. As a result, it was found that the fibrinolytic activity varied among different portions of pheretima. Fibrinolytic proteins were distributed regionally in the anterior and anterior-mid portion and there was no significant fibrinogenolytic activity observed in the mid-posterior and posterior portion. Finally, PRM experiments were deployed to validate and quantify selected marker peptides and a total of 11 peptides were identified as marker peptides, which could be potentially used in quality control of pheretima. This strategy provides a robust workflow to benefit the quality control of other animal-derived traditional medicines.

Association Between Diabetic Retinopathy, Brain Structural Abnormalities, and Cognitive Impairment for Accumulated Evidence in Observational Studies.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the association between diabetic retinopathy (DR) and cerebral disease or cognitive impairment. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. METHOD: The hypothesis was formulated prior to data collection. Cross-sectional studies and cohort studies that assessed the association between any measure of DR and cerebral small vessel disease or any type of cognitive impairment in diabetic participants were included. The data were independently extracted by two investigators. This systematic review and meta-analysis adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses and Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines RESULTS: A total of 27 studies were included. The combined odds ratio of 5 cross-sectional/cohort studies that reported that the associations between DR and cerebral structural changes was 1.75 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.36-2.25). The combined hazard ratio of 4 cohort studies that examined the association between DR and cognitive impairment events was 1.47 (95% CI: 1.22-1.78). The combined odds ratio of 14 cross-sectional/cohort studies that examined the association between DR and different cognitive impairment events was 1.43 (95% CI: 1.06-1.93). The overall coefficient (ß) of 4 studies that examined the relationship between DR and specific cognitive performance was 0.09 (95% CI: 0.00-0.18). Considering the quality of the data, we have performed subgroup analysis in studies scored >7 and studies scored ≤7, respectively, according to the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. CONCLUSION: The present meta-analysis suggests that DR is associated with an increased risk of structural abnormalities in the brain and cognitive impairment. This association remained significant after adjusting for blood glucose, and the presence of hypertension, indicating that DR is an important danger signal for cerebral abnormalities.

Peripheral arterial filling time and peripheral retina fluorescence features in ultra-widefield angiography.

AIM: To evaluate the peripheral arterial filling time (PAFT) and venous filling time (VFT) in eyes without known diseases that may influence filling process using ultra-widefield (UWF) fluorescein angiography (FA), and to review the peripheral retina fluorescence features. METHODS: A total of 30 eyes of 30 patients were retrospectively reviewed in this observational study. UWF-FA was performed using Optos 200Tx. PAFT and VFT was recorded. The interval between the arterial or venous filling completion and the previous photo was documented. The appearance of the far peripheral retina was described as either granular background fluorescence or mottled fluorescent band or vascular leakage. Terminal vascular patterns was described as loop pattern or branching pattern. Microvascular abnormalities such as arteriovenous shunting, vessels crossing the horizontal raphe, right angle vessels, terminal networks, capillary nonperfusion, drusen or microaneurysms were evaluated. RESULTS: The normal limits of PAFT was 3.397-8.984s and 4.399-11.753s for VFT. The appearance of the far peripheral retina, defined as granular background (63%), mottled fluorescence (20%), or vascular leakage (17%), was symmetrical between both eyes. Capillary nonperfusion (23%) and microaneurysms (40%) were more frequently found in eyes with loop pattern than in eyes with branching pattern. Other peripheral signs such as right-angle vessels (73%), and terminal networks (80%) were commonly seen on UWF-FA in the normal peripheral retina. CONCLUSION: The main courses of retinal artery and vein filling time are overlapping with each other on UWF-FA. Notably, the arterial filling process is completed in the arteriovenous phase rather than the traditionally named arterial phase. There are various manifestations in the peripheral retina of normal eyes.

Risk Factors of Recurrent Retinal Detachment Following Surgical Treatment for Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment: A Retrospective Study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify potential risk factors for recurrent retinal detachment after surgical treatment for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment with choroidal detachment (RRD-CD) in a Chinese population. METHODS: A total of 1212 patients with RRD-CD admitted to Beijing Tongren Hospital from 2004 to 2018 were reviewed retrospectively. The rate of recurrent retinal detachment was calculated, and risk factors were analyzed by logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The average age of the patients was 48.51 years, 760 patients (62.7%) were male, and 630 patients (52.0%) had right eye disease. The recurrence rate in the same eye was 21.3%. The incidence of recurrence retinal detachment was higher in patients who were male, middle age, and with poor preoperative vision, longer axial length, and scleral buckling. Recurrence usually occurred 3 months after surgery. CONCLUSION: Male, middle age, longer axial length, and scleral buckling could be risk factors for recurrent retinal detachment following surgical treatment in patients with RRD-CD.

Prediction of risk of diabetic retinopathy for all-cause mortality, stroke and heart failure: Evidence from epidemiological observational studies.

To examine and quantify the potential relation between diabetic retinopathy (DR) and risk of all-cause mortality, stroke and heart failure (HF).The resources of meta-analysis of epidemiological observational studies were from Pub-med, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, conference, and proceedings.Random/fixed effects models were used to calculate pooled subgroup analysis stratified by different grades of DR was performed to explore the potential source of heterogeneity. Statistical manipulations were undertaken using program STATA.Of the included 25 studies, comprising 142,625 participants, 19 studies were concluded to find the relation of DR to all-cause mortality, 5 for stroke, and 3 for HF. Risk ratio (RR) for all-cause mortality with the presence of DR was 2.33 (95% CI 1.92-2.81) compared with diabetic individuals without DR. Evidences showed a higher risk of all-cause mortality associated with DR in patients with T2D or T1D (RR 2.25, 95% CI 1.91-2.65. RR 2.68, 95% CI 1.34-5.36). According to different grades of DR in patients with T2D, RR for all-cause mortality varied, the risk of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) was 1.38 (1.11-1.70), while the risk of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) was 2.32 (1.75-3.06). There was no evidence of significant heterogeneity (Cochran Q test P = 0.29 vs 0.26, I = 19.6% vs 22.6%, respectively). Data from 5 studies in relation to DR and the risk of stroke showed that DR was significantly associated with increased risk of stroke (RR = 1.74, 95%CI: 1.35-2.24), compared with patients without DR. Furthermore, DR (as compared with individuals without DR) was associated with a marginal increased risk of HF in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) (n = 3 studies; RR 2.24, 95% CI 0.98-5.14, P = 0.056).Our results showed that DR increased the risk of all-cause mortality, regardless of the different stages, compared with the diabetic individuals without DR. DR predicted increased risk of stroke and HF. Although only 3 studies about HF were available, the association between DR and HF should be careful.

Optical Coherence Tomographic Features and Visual Prognosis after Treatment for Idiopathic Choroidal Neovascularization.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine whether pretreatment spectral-domain optical coherence tomographic (SD-OCT) features are associated with visual prognosis after treatment for idiopathic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (ISCNV) with intravitreal ranibizumab. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated SD-OCT images of eyes with ISCNV undergoing treatment with intravitreal ranibizumab with a mean follow-up of 7 months. RESULTS: This study included 22 patients (22 eyes) with a mean age of 32.7 ± 8.1 years. In univariate analysis, better final visual acuity expressed in logMAR units was significantly associated with a lower amount of pretreatment ellipsoid zone defects (p = 0.03; standardized correlation coefficient ß = 0.46) and a lower amount of pretreatment external limiting membrane (ELM) damage (p = 0.007; ß = 0.56). All other SD-OCT parameters were not significantly associated with final visual acuity. A higher improvement in visual acuity was marginally significantly associated with larger pretreatment ellipsoid zone defects (p = 0.049; ß = -0.43). CONCLUSIONS: The integrity of the outer retinal layers at baseline, in particular of the ELM, is of importance in predicting the final visual outcome in patients undergoing intravitreal medical therapy for ISCNV.

[Application of the pedicle screw in the subaxial cervical spine].

OBJECTIVE: To research the clinical application of lower cervical pedicle screw fixation procedure. METHODS: From September 2011 to July 2013,32 patients underwent posterior pedicle screw-rod system fixation were retrospective analyzed includinig 20 males and 12 females with an average age of 56.4 years old ranging from 21 to 78 years. Among them, 10 patients were traumatic cervical spinal injury, 9 patients were cervical spinal canal tumors, 7 cases were posterior longitudinal ligament ossification of cervical vertebrae, 6 cases were multiple segmental cervical spondylopathy. Preoperatively, X-ray, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance angiography of the vertebral artery were performed in all patients. After the operation and during the follow-up,X-ray and computed tomography were performed to confirm the pedicle screw position. The accuracy of the pedicle screw placement was evaluated by 4 grades classification from Lee. The spinal cord function was assessed by ASIA impairment scale for traumatic patients and JOA score for non traumatic patients. RESULTS: Totally 144 pedicle screws performed on 32 patients from C3 to C7 involving 132 screws of grade 0,5 screws of grade 1,5 of screws grade 2 and 2 screws of grade 3 according to postoperative CT. There were 12 screws penetrating the pedicle cortex including 8 screws at lateral,2 screws at caudal, 1 screw at medial and 1 screw at cranial. The follow-up time was 12 to 33 months with an average of (21.0±1.5) months. The spinal cord function was not improved in 6 complete cervical spinal cord injury patients,but their paraplegic level descended 1 to 3 segments. Four incomplete cervical spinal cord injury patients' ASIA impairment scale was increased by 1 to 2 grades in average. The JOA score of 22 atraumatic patients increased from preoperative 11.5±0.8 to 15.9±0.6 of postoperative at 6 months (P<0.01). There were no screw loosening,screw pullout and screw-rod breakage. CONCLUSION: The lower cervical pedicle screw fixation can provide excellent 3D stability of the vertebral column. The operation risk and Complication could be minimized by adequate preoperative evaluation for appropriate cases and individual pedicle screw placement. It deserved the clinical expansion.

Subfoveal choroidal thickness change after intravitreal ranibizumab for idiopathic choroidal neovascularization.

PURPOSE: To investigate changes in subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) after intravitreal injections of ranibizumab for idiopathic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (ISCNV). METHODS: The prospective consecutive case series study included 16 patients with unilateral ISCNV. All eyes with ISCNV were treated with a single intravitreal injection of 0.5 mg ranibizumab followed by as-needed dosing. Subfoveal choroidal thickness was measured using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography. RESULTS: The mean total follow-up time was 4.9 ± 1.5 months, and the follow-up after the last intravitreal ranibizumab injection was 4.4 ± 1.3 months. In the treated eyes, the SFCT decreased significantly from 354 ± 84 µm at baseline to 328 ± 79 µm at 1 month later (P < 0.001) and reincreased (P = 0.02) to 342 ± 75 µm at the final visit (P = 0.15 versus baseline value). Change in SFCT was marginally (P = 0.11) associated with the change in retinal foveal thickness. In the contralateral unaffected eyes, the SFCT did not change significantly during follow-up (P = 0.76). CONCLUSION: In patients with unilateral ISCNV, intravitreal ranibizumab therapy was associated with a thinning of an abnormally thick subfoveal choroid, marginally in association with a parallel decrease in retinal foveal thickness. It remained elusive whether the choroidal thinning was due to a direct pharmacological effect of ranibizumab or whether it was secondary due to the foveal retinal thinning. In view of the significant differences in SFCT between affected eyes and unaffected contralateral eyes at baseline and in view of the significant therapy-associated decrease in SFCT, the potential role of SFCT as an additional marker for the diagnosis and follow-up of ISCNV and other neovascular maculopathies may be examined in future studies.

Choroidal thickness in idiopathic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization.

PURPOSE: To evaluate choroidal thickness in patients with idiopathic choroidal neovascularization. METHODS: The observational case series study included patients who were consecutively diagnosed with idiopathic unilateral choroidal neovascularization as demonstrated by ophthalmoscopy, fluorescein angiography and enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT). Using EDI-OCT, choroidal thickness was measured at the fovea and at locations in a distance of 500, 1,000 and 1,500 µm temporal and nasal to the fovea. RESULTS: Mean subfoveal choroidal thickness was significantly (p = 0.002) thicker in the study group than in the control group (357 ± 99 vs. 316 ± 83 µm). In a parallel manner, the differences between the study group and the control group in choroidal thickness were significant for all other measurement points, except for the examination at 1,500 µm nasal to the fovea (p = 0.09). The results remained unchanged after adjusting for axial length and age. CONCLUSIONS: Idiopathic unilateral choroidal neovascularization is associated with a thickening of the choroid.

Vascular endothelial growth factor in Coats' disease.

PURPOSE: To examine whether vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as one of the most important intraocular cytokines for angiogenesis and increased vascular permeability is associated with Coats' disease. METHODS: The clinical interventional study included 28 patients with Coats' disease and seven control patients with congenital cataract. During intraocular surgery, we obtained aqueous humour samples in which the VEGF concentration was measured by double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Coats' disease was graded into four stages. RESULTS: The mean aqueous VEGF level was significantly higher in the Coats' study group than in the control group (158±88 versus 97±21 pg/ml; p=0.002). The VEGF concentrations increased significantly (p<0.001) from 91±32 pg/ml in Coats' disease stage 2 to 100±37 pg/ml in stage 3A1, 185±56 pg/ml in stage 3A2 to 256±93 pg/ml in patients with stage 3B. Vascular endothelial growth factor concentrations in Coats' stage 2 and 3A1 did not differ significantly from the values in the control group. Parallel to the association with the stage of the diseases, the VEGF concentrations were significantly (p<0.001) correlated with extent of exudative retinal detachment. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing severity of Coats' disease is significantly associated with intraocular VEGF concentrations. These results favour the intravitreal application of anti-VEGF drugs as medical therapy of Coats' diseases.

Hyperglycemic effects of a periocular dexamethasone injection in diabetic patients after vitreoretinal surgery.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the hyperglycemic effects of periocular dexamethasone injection in type 2 diabetic patients after vitreoretinal surgery (VRS). METHODS: This was a retrospective non-randomized controlled trial. Twenty consecutive hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes and ocular inflammatory reaction after VRS were enrolled in this study. Ten patients received 2.5 mg dexamethasone and 10 patients received 5 mg dexamethasone. Fourteen consecutive type 2 diabetic patients without ocular inflammatory reaction after VRS were used as control group. We measured fasting blood glucose (FBG) and at 2 h after each meal (post prandial glucose, PBG; 09:00, 13:00, and 19:00 h) after periocular dexamethasone injection. Differences among three groups were determined by q tests. RESULTS: The PBG levels in both dexamethasone-treated groups started to increase within 5 h after injection (i.e., PBG at 13:00 h), and were significantly increased at 19:00 h after injection (P<0.05). BG levels were almost 2-fold higher than at baseline and compared with the control group. The BG values declined gradually by 24 h to 48 h after injection. There were no differences in BG levels between the two dexamethasone-treated groups (P>0.05), except for PBG at 19:00 h on day 2 after injection (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Periocular dexamethasone injection can cause transient hyperglycemia in diabetic patients after VRS. BG monitoring should be performed following such injection.

[Analysis of changes of ultrasonic image and hemodynamics of retrobulbar blood vessels in Coats disease].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the changes of color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and hemodynamics of retrobulbar blood vessels in Coats disease. METHODS: It was a prospective and self-comparative study in which 18 cases (18 eyes) were included. Axial eye length was measured with A scan. Routine CDFI was performed in all cases. We examined ophthalmic arteries (OA), central retinal arteries (CRA) and posterior ciliary arteries (PCA) by CDFI, and recorded the peak systolic velocities (PSV), end diastolic velocities (EDV), time averaged maximum velocities (TAMX), pulsatility indexes (PI) and resistance indexes (RI) in all cases. Each hemodynamic parameter in the affected eye (21.36 ± 1.19) mm was compared with those in the contralateral normal eye (controls). T-test was used for the estimation of significance of the difference between the diseased and normal eyes. RESULTS: The axial length in diseased eyes was significantly shorter than that of the controls (22.92 ± 1.09) mm (t = 3.617, P < 0.05). The changes of CDFI in diseased eyes included retinal detachment, retinal cyst, subretinal organization, etc. Vitreoretinal traction, intraocular ossification and calcification were uncommon. The PSV (6.96 ± 1.21) cm/s and EDV (1.99 ± 0.36) cm/s in the diseased eyes were significantly lower than the PSV (8.30 ± 1.46) cm/s and EDV (2.48 ± 0.47) cm/s in the control eyes (t = 2.995, 3.476;P < 0.05). No significance difference was present in other hemodynamic parameters between diseased and normal eyes. CONCLUSIONS: Coats disease is a congenital disease that may influence the development of the eye. The ultrasonography is helpful for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis in Coats disease. Low perfusion of the central optic artery might exist in Coats disease. The hemodynamics changes in Coats disease require further studies.