Ultrasonic quantitative measurement of hepatorenal index for diagnosing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children / 中国介入影像与治疗学

Objective To explore the value of ultrasonic quantitative measurement of hepatorenal index(HRI)for diagnosing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)in children.Methods Abdominal ultrasound and upper abdominal MRI data of 70 obese children were retrospectively analyzed.ROI with different sizes and shapes of liver and right kidney were delineated on longitudinal and transverse ultrasound images,respectively,and the echo intensity of ROIs were measured to obtain HRIsmall ROI on longitudinal section,HRIsmall ROI on transverse section,HRIlarge ROI on longitudinal section and HRIlarge ROI on transverse section,i.e.HRI1,HRI2,HRI3,HRI4,while the gray,skewness and kurtosis of liver ultrasound image were recorded.Liver proton density fat fraction(PDFF)were measured based on MRI,and NAFLD was diagnoses taken PDFF≥6%as standard.The correlations of HRI with PDFF and liver ultrasound image related parameters were analyzed.Taken MRI as the standard,receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was drawn to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of HRI for NAFLD.Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed taken age,sex,body mass index(BMI)percentile,HRI3 and liver ultrasound image related parameters as independent variables and MRI diagnosis of NAFLD as dependent variable to screen the predictors of MRI diagnosis of NAFLD.Results HRI1,HRI2,HRI3 and HRI4 obtained with ultrasound was 1.89±0.52,1.88±0.55,1.97±0.51 and 1.92±0.55,respectively.PDFF obtained with MRI was(12.53±3.14)%,and diagnosed NAFLD in 34 cases.HRI and PDFF had moderate positive correlation(r=0.51-0.61,all P＜0.01).The correlation between HRI3 and PDFF was the strongest(r=0.61),and HRI3 was weakly correlated with liver gray3(r=-0.270,P=0.020),with area under the curve(AUC)for diagnosing NAFLD of 0.93(P＜0.01).BMI percentile(OR=1.06),HRI3(OR=34.20)and liver gray3(OR=0.79)were all predictive factors for MRI diagnosis of NAFLD.Conclusion Ultrasonic quantitative measurement of HRI had high clinical value for diagnosing NAFLD in children.

Epidemic characteristics of respiratory tract infection diseases in children in Kaizhou District, Chongqing in 2019 - 2022 / 公共卫生与预防医学

Objective To analyze the incidence characteristics and pathogen epidemic characteristics of respiratory tract children in Chongqing Kaizhou area. Methods A total of 5 328 children admitted to our hospital from January 2019 to December 2022 were selected as the research subjects. Indirect immunofluorescence method was used to detect 8 common respiratory pathogens in the serum of the children; Using SPSS 22.0 software, analyze the incidence characteristics and pathogen prevalence of 8 pathogens in respiratory tract children. Results (1) The highest detection rate was MP (χ2=12.141, P2=7.923, P2=1.872, P2=3.928, P<0.05). Conclusion The detection rate of respiratory pathogens varies in age and sex, which is highest in spring, so pay attention to the respiratory tract infection in spring, focusing on the prevention and treatment of mycoplasma pneumoniae.

Value of transvaginal ultrasound combined with 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy / 中国辐射卫生

Objective To compare the value of transvaginal ultrasound, 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning alone and in combination for diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy, so as to provide insights into early screening of ectopic pregnancy. Methods This study enrolled a total of 130 patients with suspected ectopic pregnancy admitted to Dachuan People’s Hospital in Dazhou City, Sichuan Province, China between February 2019 and December 2022. All patients underwent transvaginal ultrasound examination and 3.0T MRI scanning. The consistency of transvaginal ultrasound and 3.0T MRI with clinical diagnostic results was evaluated with surgical pathology or clinical follow-up results as the golden standards. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of transvaginal ultrasound and 3.0T MRI, alone and in combination, were compared for diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. Results Of the 130 patients with suspected ectopic pregnancy, 108 cases were confirmed with ectopic pregnancy by surgical pathology, and 22 cases were confirmed without ectopic pregnancy by clinical follow-up. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of transvaginal ultrasound were 85.19% (92/108), 54.55% (12/22), and 80.00% (104/130), respectively, with 0.358 consistency with clinical diagnostic results. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 3.0T MRI were 92.59% (100/108), 81.81% (18/22), and 90.77% (118/130), respectively, with 0.694 consistency with clinical diagnostic results. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of transvaginal ultrasound combined with 3.0T MRI were 98.15% (106/108), 72.73% (16/22), and 93.85% (122/130), respectively, with 0.764 consistency with clinical diagnostic results. In addition, the sensitivity and accuracy of transvaginal ultrasound combined with 3.0T MRI were significantly higher than transvaginal ultrasound alone for diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy (χ2 = 11.88 and 10.96, both P < 0.01). Conclusion Transvaginal ultrasound combined with 3.0T MRI may provide more diagnostic information for ectopic pregnancy, and is highly consistent with the clinical diagnostic results. In addition, transvaginal ultrasound combined with 3.0T MRI improves the diagnostic sensitivity and accuracy for ectopic pregnancy than transvaginal ultrasound alone.

Analysis of fertility intention to have a third child among childbearing age women in Wanzhou District of Chongqing Municipality and its influencing factors / 重庆医学

Objective To survey the current situation of fertility intention to have a third child among childbearing age women in Wanzhou District of Chongqing Municipality under the background of the new fer-tility policy,and to analyze its influencing factors.Methods The convenience sampling method was adopted to conduct the survey on the third child fertility intention by the self-designed questionnaire and the Question-naire Star platform among the childbearing women with one child or two children in Wanzhou District of Chongqing Municipality from September to October 2022.The multiple linear regression analysis and two-step cluster analysis were used to explore the influencing factors.Results A total of 632 questionnaires were re-ceived,32 invalid questionnaires were excluded,and the effective recovery rate was 94.9％.The score of fertili-ty intention to have a third child in the respondents was(12.81±2.83)points.The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the age,marital status,place of residence,spouse cultural degree,family rearing child model,whether the family can provide support and previous vaginal delivery history were the influencing fac-tors of fertility intention to have a third child among the childbearing age women in this place(P＜0.05).The two step cluster analysis showed that"obstetrician/midwife's help"was the most important predictive factor for the childbearing age women to choose to have a third child.Conclusion The current situation of childbear-ing age women's fertility intention to have a third child in Wanzhou District of Chongqing Municipality is not optimistic.It is necessary to create the positive factors that encourage childbearing age women to make deci-sion about having a third child.

Actual experience of the training effect of Baduanjin on patients with hemiplegic limb dysfunctions after cerebral infarction: A qualitative study.

AIM: To explore the actual experience of training effect of Baduanjin on patients with hemiplegic limb dysfunctions after cerebral infarction through semistructured interviews and promote Baduanjin training application in clinical and community settings. DESIGN: This qualitative study was conducted using the conventional content analysis approach. METHODS: Twenty-five patients with hemiplegic limb dysfunctions after cerebral infarction were recruited as participants by applying purposive sampling method between September 2017-December 2020 in the physical therapy department of a rehabilitation hospital affiliated with Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. Semistructured interviews were conducted after patients participated in Baduanjin training for 6 weeks. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis method of Graneheim and Lundman. RESULTS: Three major themes were identified after analysis, namely improving functions of hemiplegic limbs, improving the condition of the entire body and the feelings of practice. The participants indicated that Baduanjin could improve the limb functions and general conditions of hemiplegic patients. Their experience in practicing Baduanjin was generally positive, and they were willing to continue practicing.

Effect of Baihu Jia Renshen Tang on PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway in Liver of MKR Diabetic Mice / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ObjectiveTo explore the effects of Baihu Jia Renshen Tang （BHRS） on the related molecules on the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B（PI3K/Akt）signaling pathway in the liver of MKR diabetic model mice. MethodThirty 6-week-old MKR mice were selected and fed on a high-fat diet for four weeks，followed by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin（STZ）for the diabetes model establishment. The model was properly induced in the case of the fasting blood glucose （FBG） of ≥11.1 mmol·L-1. After modeling，the mice were randomly divided into a model group，a BHRS group （12.09 g·kg-1·d-1），and a metformin group （0.065 g·kg-1·d-1），with 10 mice in each group. Ten FVB mice were assigned to the control group. The mice in the groups with drug intervention were continuously administered correspondingly for 28 days. After administration，the mice were sacrificed，followed by the oral glucose tolerance test （OGTT） and FBG detection. Serum very low-density lipoprotein（VLDL）content was determined by semi-quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. Four indexes related to blood lipid were determined by the biochemistry analyzer. Liver tissues were subjected to pathological examination by hematoxylin-eosin（HE）staining. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of PI3K，Akt，phosphorylated（p）-PI3K，p-Akt，forkhead box protein O1 （FoxO1），insulin receptor（InsR），and insulin receptor substrate-2（IRS-2） in liver tissues of mice. Real-time polymerase chain reaction（Real-time PCR） was used to detect the mRNA expression of PI3K，Akt，FoxO1，InsR，and IRS-2 in liver tissues of mice. ResultCompared with the control group，the model group showed poor general conditions，abnormal glucose tolerance （P<0.05），increased FBG （P<0.01），abnormal blood lipid metabolism，increased serum total cholesterol （TC），triglyceride（TG），low-density lipoprotein cholesterol（LDL-C），and VLDL （P<0.05），decreased level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol（HDL-C）（P<0.05），fatty degeneration and obvious pathological changes of liver cells，reduced protein expression of PI3K，Akt，p-PI3K/PI3K，p-Akt/Akt，IRS-2，and InsR in liver tissues（P<0.05），increased protein expression of FoxO1（P<0.05），decreased mRNA expression of PI3K，Akt，IRS-2，and InsR in liver tissues （P<0.05），and increased FoxO1 mRNA expression（P<0.05）. Compared with the model group，the BHRS group showed improved general conditions and glucose and lipid metabolism （P<0.05），improved pathological state of liver cells，increased protein expression of PI3K，Akt，p-PI3K/PI3K，p-Akt/Akt，IRS-2，and InsR in liver tissues（P<0.05），decreased protein expression of FoxO1（P<0.05），increased mRNA expression of PI3K，Akt，IRS-2，and InsR in liver tissues （P<0.05），and reduced FoxO1 mRNA expression（P<0.05）. ConclusionBHRS can effectively reduce blood glucose，regulate blood lipid metabolism，and improve the pathological state of the liver in MKR diabetic mice，and its mechanism of action may be related to the regulation of the activity of molecules on the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Clinical efficacy and long-term immunogenicity of an early triple dose regimen of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination in cancer patients

INTRODUCTION@#Three doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines have been recommended for cancer patients to reduce the risk of severe disease. Anti-neoplastic treatment, such as chemotherapy, may affect long-term vaccine immunogenicity.@*METHOD@#Patients with solid or haematological cancer were recruited from 2 hospitals between July 2021 and March 2022. Humoral response was evaluated using GenScript cPASS surrogate virus neutralisation assays. Clinical outcomes were obtained from medical records and national mandatory-reporting databases.@*RESULTS@#A total of 273 patients were recruited, with 40 having haematological malignancies and the rest solid tumours. Among the participants, 204 (74.7%) were receiving active cancer therapy, including 98 (35.9%) undergoing systemic chemotherapy and the rest targeted therapy or immunotherapy. All patients were seronegative at baseline. Seroconversion rates after receiving 1, 2 and 3 doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination were 35.2%, 79.4% and 92.4%, respectively. After 3 doses, patients on active treatment for haematological malignancies had lower antibodies (57.3%±46.2) when compared to patients on immunotherapy (94.1%±9.56, P<0.05) and chemotherapy (92.8%±18.1, P<0.05). SARS-CoV-2 infection was reported in 77 (28.2%) patients, of which 18 were severe. No patient receiving a third dose within 90 days of the second dose experienced severe infection.@*CONCLUSION@#This study demonstrates the benefit of early administration of the third dose among cancer patients.

MaxEnt model-ArcGIS-based evaluation of habitat suitability of Hedysari Radix / 中成药

AIM To evaluate the habitat suitability of Hedysari Radix based on MaxEnt model and ArcGIS.METHODS Using the MaxEnt model to screen the ecological factors affecting the distribution of Hedysari Radix,an evaluation model was thus established.ArcGIS software was used to evaluate the ecological suitability of Hedysari Radix to obtain the data about the highly suitable area,the moderate suitable area,the low suitable area and non-suitable area for its growth in China.RESULTS Hedysari Radix found its 1.29×106 km2 suitable area in China,among which the highly suitable area was 5×104 km2,mainly in Gansu Province,the moderately suitable area was 3.38×105 km2,and the low-suitable area was 9×105 km2,occupying 4.03%,26.20%and 69.77%of all,respectively.The main ecological factors affecting the distribution of Hedysari Radix were determined to be altitude,precipitation in the hottest quarter,solar radiation in September and December,seasonal temperature variation deviation and basic saturation of upper soil(0-30 cm).CONCLUSION With its result complying well with the literature records,this study provides theoretical basis for the introduction and cultivation of Hedysari Radix,and sustainable utilization of resources as well.

Gardner-Diamond syndrome / 中华皮肤科杂志

Gardner-Diamond syndrome is a rare skin disease characterized by recrudescent, spontaneous and tender ecchymoses, and mostly affects psychologically disturbed adult women. The positive autoerythrocyte sensitization test has noticeable diagnostic significance. Currently, there is no specific therapy for Gardner-Diamond syndrome. This review summarizes advances in the pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Analysis of Chinese Medical Syndrome Features of Ischemic Stroke Based on Similarity of Symptoms Subgroup / 中国结合医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To derive the Chinese medicine (CM) syndrome classification and subgroup syndrome characteristics of ischemic stroke patients.@*METHODS@#By extracting the CM clinical electronic medical records (EMRs) of 7,170 hospitalized patients with ischemic stroke from 2016 to 2018 at Weifang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong Province, China, a patient similarity network (PSN) was constructed based on the symptomatic phenotype of the patients. Thereafter the efficient community detection method BGLL was used to identify subgroups of patients. Finally, subgroups with a large number of cases were selected to analyze the specific manifestations of clinical symptoms and CM syndromes in each subgroup.@*RESULTS@#Seven main subgroups of patients with specific symptom characteristics were identified, including M3, M2, M1, M5, M0, M29 and M4. M3 and M0 subgroups had prominent posterior circulatory symptoms, while M3 was associated with autonomic disorders, and M4 manifested as anxiety; M2 and M4 had motor and motor coordination disorders; M1 had sensory disorders; M5 had more obvious lung infections; M29 had a disorder of consciousness. The specificity of CM syndromes of each subgroup was as follows. M3, M2, M1, M0, M29 and M4 all had the same syndrome as wind phlegm pattern; M3 and M0 both showed hyperactivity of Gan (Liver) yang pattern; M2 and M29 had similar syndromes, which corresponded to intertwined phlegm and blood stasis pattern and phlegm-stasis obstructing meridians pattern, respectively. The manifestations of CM syndromes often appeared in a combination of 2 or more syndrome elements. The most common combination of these 7 subgroups was wind-phlegm. The 7 subgroups of CM syndrome elements were specifically manifested as pathogenic wind, pathogenic phlegm, and deficiency pathogens.@*CONCLUSIONS@#There were 7 main symptom similarity-based subgroups in ischemic stroke patients, and their specific characteristics were obvious. The main syndromes were wind phlegm pattern and hyperactivity of Gan yang pattern.

The value of radiomics for individualized prophylactic cranial irradiation in limited-stage small cell lung cancer / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

Objective:To investigate the predictive value of enhanced CT-based radiomics for brain metastasis (BM) and selective use of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC).Methods:Clinical data of 97 patients diagnosed with LS-SCLC confirmed by pathological and imaging examination in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital from January 2012 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox and Spearman correlation tests were used to select the radiomics features significantly associated with the incidence of BM and calculate the radiomics score. The calibration curve, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), 5-fold cross-validation, decision curve analysis (DCA), and integrated Brier score (IBS) were employed to evaluate the predictive power and clinical benefits of the radiomics score. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were adopted to draw survival curves and assess differences between two groups.Results:A total of 1272 radiomics features were extracted from enhanced CT. After the LASSO Cox regression and Spearman correlation tests, 8 radiomics features associated with the incidence of BM were used to calculate the radiomics score. The AUCs of radiomics scores to predict 1-year and 2-year BM were 0.845 (95% CI=0.746-0.943) and 0.878 (95% CI=0.774-0.983), respectively. The 5-fold cross validation, calibration curve, DCA and IBS also demonstrated that the radiomics model yielded good predictive performance and net clinical benefit. Patients were divided into the high-risk and low-risk cohorts based on the radiomics score. For patients at high risk, the 1-year and 2-year cumulative incidence rates of BM were 0% and 18.2% in the PCI group, and 61.8% and 75.4% in the non-PCI group, respectively ( P<0.001). In the PCI group, the 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates were 92.9% and 78.6%, and 85.3% and 36.8% in the non-PCI group, respectively ( P=0.023). For patients at low risk, the 1-year and 2-year cumulative incidence rates of BM were 0% and 0% in the PCI group, and 10.0% and 20.2% in the non-PCI group, respectively ( P=0.062). In the PCI group, the 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates were 100% and 77.0%, and 96.7% and 79.3% in the non-PCI group, respectively ( P=0.670). Conclusion:The radiomics model based on enhanced CT images yields excellent performance for predicting BM and individualized PCI.

Correlation of endoscopic evaluation with laboratory indices and clinical disease activity in Crohn disease patients with different intestinal involvement / 中华消化内镜杂志

Objective:To investigate the correlations of endoscopic evaluation results with laboratory indices and clinical disease activity in Crohn disease (CD) patients with different intestinal involvement.Methods:Data of 147 patients diagnosed as having CD who visited the Department of Gastroenterology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2022 were collected retrospectively. According to the involvement of intestinal segment, patients were divided into three groups: the group with isolated small intestinal involvement ( n=55), the group with both small intestinal and large intestinal involvement ( n=48), and the group with isolated large intestinal involvement ( n=44). Correlations of endoscopic evaluation (based on CDEIS) with laboratory indices and clinical disease activity (based on Harvey-Bradshaw index) were analyzed. Results:C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) could be used for the prediction of endoscopic disease activity. The areas under curve (AUC) of receiver operator characteristic (ROC) were 0.677 (0.506-0.849) and 0.744 (0.597-0.890), respectively. In terms of determing clinical disease activity, clinical Harvey-Bradshaw index was consistent with endoscopic CDEIS score in 65.3% (96/147) patients, showing a low positive correlation ( r=0.260, P<0.05). In subgroup analysis for patients with isolated small intestinal involvement, CRP showed no predictive value for clinical disease activity [AUC (95% CI): 0.617 (0.461-0.773), P=0.148], while for endoscopic activity neither CRP nor ESR showed predictive value [AUC (95% CI): 0.537 (0.146-0.929), P=0.829; AUC (95% CI): 0.571 (0.153-0.990), P=0.680]. Furthermore, for patients with isolated small intestinal involvement and both small intestinal and large intestinal involvement, no correlation was found between clinical Harvey-Bradshaw index and endoscopic CDEIS score ( r=0.222, P=0.092; r=0.142, P=0.322). Conclusion:For CD patients with small intestinal involvement, especially isolated small intestinal involvement, laboratory indices and clinical disease activity cannot accurately reflect endoscopic disease activity. Great importance should be attached to evaluation of the extent and activity of intestinal lesions by endoscopy, especially enteroscopy.

Image Recognition of Pediatric Pneumonia Based on Fusion of Texture Features and Depth Features.

Pneumonia is one of the diseases that seriously endangers human health, and it is also the leading cause of death of children under the age of five in China. The most commonly used imaging examination method for radiologists is mainly based on chest X-ray images. Still, imaging errors often result during imaging examinations due to objective factors such as visual fatigue and lack of experience. Therefore, this paper proposes a feature fusion model, FC-VGG, based on the fusion of texture features (local binary pattern LBP and directional gradient histogram HOG) and depth features. The model improves model performance by adding detailed information in texture features to the convolutional neural network while making the model more suitable for clinical use. We input the X-ray image with texture features into the modified VGG16 model, C-VGG, and then add the Add fusion method to C-VGG for feature fusion so that FC-VGG is obtained, so FC-VGG has texture features detailed information and abstract information of deep features. Through experiments, our model has achieved 92.19% accuracy in recognizing children's pneumonia images, 93.44% average precision, 92.19% average recall, and 92.81% average F1 coefficient, and the model performance exceeds existing deep learning models and traditional feature recognition algorithms.

Auxiliary Pneumonia Classification Algorithm Based on Pruning Compression.

Pneumonia infection is the leading cause of death in young children. The commonly used pneumonia detection method is that doctors diagnose through chest X-ray, and external factors easily interfere with the results. Assisting doctors in diagnosing pneumonia in patients based on deep learning methods can effectively eliminate similar problems. However, the complex network structure and redundant parameters of deep neural networks and the limited storage and computing resources of clinical medical hardware devices make it difficult for this method to use widely in clinical practice. Therefore, this paper studies a lightweight pneumonia classification network, CPGResNet50 (ResNet50 with custom channel pruning and ghost methods), based on ResNet50 pruning and compression to better meet the application requirements of clinical pneumonia auxiliary diagnosis with high precision and low memory. First, based on the hierarchical channel pruning method, the channel after the convolutional layer in the bottleneck part of the backbone network layer is used as the pruning object, and the pruning operation is performed after its normalization to obtain a network model with a high compression ratio. Second, the pruned convolutional layers are decomposed into original convolutions and cheap convolutions using the optimized convolution method. The feature maps generated by the two convolution parts are combined as the input to the next convolutional layer. Further, we conducted many experiments using pneumonia X-ray medical image data. The results show that the proposed method reduces the number of parameters of the ResNet50 network model from 23.7 M to 3.455 M when the pruning rate is 90%, a reduction is more than 85%, FIOPs dropped from 4.12G to 523.09 M, and the speed increased by more than 85%. The model training accuracy error remained within 1%. Therefore, the proposed method has a good performance in the auxiliary diagnosis of pneumonia and obtained good experimental results.

An in vitro study: prebiotic effects of edible palm hearts in batch human fecal fermentation system.

BACKGROUND: Edible palm hearts (EPH), known as palmito, chonta or swamp cabbage in America or umbut in Malaysia, is a type of vegetable harvested from palm tree species. EPH is firm and smooth and described as having a flavor resembling artichoke. It has underlying prebiotic potential that selectively stimulates the growth and activity of beneficial colonic microbiota, thus enhancing the host's health. This study is the first to present results of EPH from local species such as oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), sago palm (Metroxylon sagu) and coconut (Cocos nucifera) using in vitro colonic fermentation with human fecal slurry. Samples obtained at 0, 6, 12 and 24 h were evaluated by bacterial enumeration using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). RESULTS: All EPH samples revealed induction effects towards Bifidobacterium spp., Lactobacillus-Enterococcus and Bacteroidaceae/Prevotellaceae populations similar to those in inulin fermentation. A significant decrease (P ≤ 0.05) in pathogenic Clostridium histolyticum group was observed in the response of raw sago palm hearts. In general, all samples stimulate the production of SCFA. Particularly in the colonic fermentation of sago palm heart, acetate and propionate revealed the highest concentrations of 286.18 and 284.83 mmol L-1 in raw and cooked form, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that edible palm hearts can be a potential prebiotic ingredient that promotes human gastrointestinal health, as well as discovering a new direction towards an alternative source of functional foods. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Predictive Value of Soluble Growth Stimulator Gene 2 Protein for Coronary Slow Flow/No-Reflow in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients Receiving Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

Background: Soluble growth stimulator gene 2 protein (sST2) is associated with heart failure and myocardial infarction; however, the predictive value of plasma sST2 level for coronary slow flow/no-reflow (CSF/NRF) is unclear. This study aimed to explore the predictive value of plasma sST2 levels for CSF/NRF in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) who underwent emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods: A total of 242 STEMI patients who underwent emergency PCI at our hospital between November 2020 and July 2021 were enrolled in this study. According to the postprocedural procedure, these patients were divided into the CSF/NRF and control groups. Clinical data were collected from both groups and were used to explore the predictive value of serum sST2 levels for CSF/NRF. Results: Of the total 242 patients, CSF/NRF was observed in 50 patients (20.7%). Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed in age, diabetes mellitus, sST2 level, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), fasting blood sugar, preprocedural blood pressure, intraprocedural hypotension, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, MB isoenzyme of creatine kinase (CK-MB), and cardiac troponin I (cTNI). Multivariate analysis showed that the sST2 level, NLR, and intraoperative hypotension were independent risk factors for CSF/NRF. ROC curve analysis showed that the sensitivity and specificity of the sST2 level for predicting CSF/NRF were 68.0% and 75.5%, respectively, when the sST2 level was more than 64.6 ng/mL (AUC = 0.780, 95% CI: 1.003-1.020, P=0.009). Conclusion: For STEMI patients, preprocedural sST2 levels significantly correlated with CSF/NRF occurring in PCI. sST2 level is a potential predictor for CSF/NRF occurrence.

Accuracy of the Euro CTO(CASTLE) score obtained on coronary computed tomography angiography for Predicting 30-minute wire crossing in chronic total occlusions.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the feasibility and accuracy of the Euro CTO (CASTLE)CTA score obtained on coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for predicting the success of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and the 30-min wire crossing in chronic total occlusions (CTO). METHOD: One hundred and fifty patients (154 CTO cases; median age, 61 (interquartile range [IQR], 54-68) years; 75.3% male) received CCTA at the People's Hospital of Liaoning Provincce within 1 month before the procedure. The Euro CTO (CASTLE) score obtained on CCTA(CASTLECTA) was calculated and compared with the Euro CTO (CASTLE) score obtained based on coronary angiography (CASTLECAG) for the predictive value of 30-min wire crossing and CTO procedural success. RESULTS: In our study, the CTO-PCI success rate was 89.0%, with guidewires of 65 cases (42.2%) crossing within 30 min. There were no significant differences in the median CASTLECTA and CASTLECAG scores in the procedure success group (3 [IQR, 2-4] vs 3 (IQR, 2-3]; p = 0.126). However, the median CASTLECTA score was significantly higher than the median CASTLECAG score in the procedure failure group (4 [IQR, 3-5.5] vs 4 [IQR, 2.5-5.5]; p = 0.021). There was no significant difference between the median CASTLECTA score and the median CASTLECAG score in the 30-min wire crossing failure group (3 [IQR, 3-4] vs 3 [IQR, 2-4]; p = 0.254). However, the median CASTLECTA score was significantly higher than the median CASTLECAG score in the 30-min wire crossing group (3 [IQR, 2-3] vs 2 [IQR, 2-3]; p < 0.001). The CASTLECTA score described higher levels of calcification than the CASTLECAG score (48.1% vs 33.8%; p = 0.015). There was no significant difference between the CASTLECTA score (area under the curve [AUC], 0.643; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.561-0.718) and the CASTLECAG score (AUC, 0.685; 95% CI, 0.606-0.758) for predicting procedural success (p = 0.488). The CASTLECTA score (AUC, 0.744; 95% CI, 0.667-0.811) was significantly better than the CASTLECAG score (AUC, 0.681; 95% CI, 0.601-0.754; p = 0.046) for predicting 30-min wire crossing with the best cut-off value being CASTLECTA ≤ 3. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 90.8%, 55.2%, 54.6%, and 87.0%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The CASTLECTA scores obtained from noninvasive CCTA perform better for the prediction of the 30-min wire crossing than the CASTLECAG score.

Risk factors for complications after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in super-aged patients / 中华消化内镜杂志

Objective:To study the risk factors for complications after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in super-aged patients (≥80 years).Methods:Clinical data of 512 super-aged patients with pancreaticobiliary diseases who underwent 638 ERCP procedures at the Digestive Endoscopy Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, from July 2011 to June 2021, were studied retrospectively. Indications and results of the ERCP operations were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the risk factors for ERCP-related complications.Results:The total success rate of ERCP cannulation in super-aged patients was 94.0% (600/638), which showed no difference compared with that of patients of <60 years old (2 433/2 557, 95.2%) or patients of 60~<80 years old (2 815/3 004, 93.7%) ( χ2=5.49, P=0.064). The overall incidence of post-ERCP complications was 15.2% (97/638), and the in-hospital mortality was 2.1% (11/512), which showed significant difference compared with patients of <60 years old (8/1 809, 0.4%) and patients of 60-<80 years old (21/2 127, 1.0%) ( χ2=13.39, P=0.002). Multivariate regression analysis showed that hypertension ( HR=1.94, 95% CI: 1.237-3.041, P=0.004), history of upper gastrointestinal reconstruction ( HR=2.28, 95% CI: 1.064-4.891, P=0.034), endoscopic sphincterectomy ( HR=1.65, 95%CI: 1.012-2.679, P=0.045), early procedure period ( HR=0.57, 95% CI: 0.352-0.923, P=0.022), operation time >30 minutes ( HR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.094-2.759, P=0.019), preoperative white blood cell count >9.5×10 9/L ( HR=2.66, 95% CI: 1.661-4.257, P<0.001) and procalcitonin ≥0.05 ng/L ( HR=2.54, 95% CI: 1.172-5.513, P=0.018) were independent risk factors for post-ERCP complications. Conclusion:ERCP is safe and effective for super-aged patients. However, much attention should be paid to post-ERCP complications of patients with hypertension, history of upper gastrointestinal reconstruction, endoscopic sphincterectomy, operation time >30 minutes, preoperative white blood cell count >9.5×10 9/L and procalcitonin ≥0.05 ng/L to avoid serious adverse events such as mortality.

Growth and development of children and related influencing factors: a cross-sectional study of the families with children aged 0-6 years in Jiangsu Province / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To investigate the growth and development of children aged 0-6 years in Jiangsu Province of China and the effects of family factors on the children's growth and development.@*METHODS@#The stratified random sampling method was used to select 2 004 families with children aged 0-6 years of Jiangsu Province. A questionnaire survey on nutritional knowledge, attitude, and behavior was performed for the main caregivers. The Z-score method was used to evaluate nutritional status. The ordinal polytomous logistic regression analysis model was used to investigate the influencing factors for nutritional status.@*RESULTS@#A total of 2 290 questionnaires were distributed, among which 2 004 valid questionnaires were collected (87.51%). The mean age of the children was (28±14) months, and there were 1 105 boys (55.14%) and 899 girls (44.86%). The primary caregivers were mostly parents (1 867 families, 93.16%), and the caregivers of 1 466 families (73.15%) had a university/college degree. Most families had an annual income of 50 000-100 000 yuan/year or 100 000-200 000 yuan/year, accounting for 32.88% and 34.23%, respectively. The results of Z-score showed the growth retardation rates of 1.45% (16/1 105) in boys and 1.78% (16/899) in girls, the underweight rates of 0.54% (6/1 105) in boys and 0.67% (6/899) in girls, the emaciation rates of 1.36% (15/1 105) in boys and 2.00% (18/899) in girls, and the obesity rates of 8.78% (97/1 105) in boys and 10.12% (91/899) in girls, respectively. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that a higher annual family income and a higher nutrition knowledge level of caregiver were beneficial to the growth and development of children (P<0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Children aged 0-6 years in Jiangsu Province have a good status of growth and development but a relatively high obesity rate, and therefore, the monitoring of obesity should be taken seriously. Family economic status and the level of nutritional knowledge of caregivers have a significant impact on children's growth and development.

Effect of Huangqi Guizhi Wuwutang on Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy in MKR Mice via Regulating Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ObjectiveTo investigate the mechanism of Huangqi Guizhi Wuwutang （HQGZWWT） in the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy （DPN） in MKR mice via regulating endoplasmic reticulum （ER） stress. MethodThirty-two 8-week-old MKR mice （half were male and half were female） were fed with a high-fat diet for four weeks， and then 1% streptozotocin （STZ） was injected intraperitoneally for five days. After the blood glucose was stabilized， the mice were housed in the cage covered with ice bags for another one hour stimulation per day for four weeks. Mice with fasting blood glucose （FBG） value ≥11.1 mmol·L-1 were randomly divided into model group ， Huangqi Guizhi Wuwutang in original dosage group （30 g·kg-1·d-1）， Huangqi Guizhi Wuwutang in formula dosage group （6.25 g·kg-1·d-1）， and positive drug group （mecobalamin tablets， 0.17 mg·kg-1·d-1）. Another eight MKR mice of the same age were set as blank group and eight FVB mice were normal group. After four weeks of intragastric administration in each group， the change in FBG was tested， and hematoxylin and eosin （HE） staining and transmission electron microscope were used for observing the morphology of sciatic nerve tissue. In addition， the expression of c-Jun N-terminal kinase （JNK）， phosphorylated c-Jun N-terminal kinase （p-JNK） and inositol requiring enzyme 1α （IRE1α） proteins was determined by immunohistochemical test and Western blot （WB）. ResultCompared with the conditions in the normal group and blank group， the time of paw withdrawal， paw licking and tail flick in the model group was shortened （P<0.01）， and the conduction velocity of sciatic nerve was decreased （P<0.01）. Compared with the conditions in the model group， the behavioral and functional indicators were improved by HQGZWWT （P<0.05，P<0.01）. The immunohistochemical test revealed the JNK expression was elevated in the model group compared with the conditions in the normal group and blank group （P<0.05）， while that was lowered by HQGZWWT compared with the condition in the model group （P<0.05）. However， there was no difference among the treatment groups. According to the WB， the expression of IRE1α and p-JNK in the model group was enhanced compared with the conditions in the normal group and blank group （P<0.05，P<0.01）， while that was decreased by HQGZWWT compared with the condition in the model group （P<0.05，P<0.01）. No difference was observed between the HQGZWWTO and HQGZWWTF groups. ConclusionHQGZWWT can improve the neurophysiological function and pathological damage of sciatic nerve， which may be related to its delaying the ER stress response of sciatic nerve.