Objective:To determine bacteriostatic abilities ofArtemisia argyi extracts,and to explore the effect ofArtemisia argyi extracts on oral ulcer in rats.Methods:We extracted the mixture ofArtemisia argyi volatile oils and water-extraction by leaching method and evaluated the anti-microbial effect ofArtemisia argyi extracts on common oral floras in vitro.The rat cheeks were burnt by NaOH to establish the models of oral ulcer.The curative effects of crude drug of Artemisia argyi extracts at 2.0,1.0,0.5 g/mL on oral ulcer in rats were evaluated by measuring the oral ulcer healing time.Serum TNF-α level and expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were analyzed by ELASA and immunohistochemical staining.Results:Artemisia argyi extracts obviously inhibited the Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus.NaOH-made oral ulcer in rats were successfully established.The crude drug at 2.0 and 1.0 g/mL obviously reduced healing time,significantly inhibited the release of TNF-α,and improved the PCNA level in the ulcer tissues (All P＜0.01).The extracts obviously reduced the local inflammatory reaction and promoted tissue repair of oral ulcer.Conclusion:Artemisia argyi extracts promote tissue repair of oral ulcer via inhibiting bacterial growth,reducing the release of TNF-α and improving the PCNA level.

Objective To investigate the relationship between genetic variants in the Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway genes and susceptibility of gastric cancer (GC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).Methods The data of whole genome association studies of the high-risk population of GC and ESCC in China were analyzed by adaptive rank-truncated product (ARTP) method in pathway and gene level.The associations between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and susceptibility of GC and ESCC were analyzed with additive model of unconditional Logistic regressions.PLINK 1.07 and SPSS 19.0 software were performed for statistical analyses,and ARTP package in R3.0.2 was used for pathway and gene level analysis.Results In gene-level analyses,eight genes were found to be associated with susceptibility of GC (P ＜0.05) and six genes were associated with susceptibility of ESCC (P ＜ 0.05).In single SNP-level analyses,21 SNPs were statistically correlated with susceptibility of GC (P ＜ 0.01),and 11 SNPs were statistically correlated with susceptibility of ESCC (P ＜0.01).Conclusions Some genetic variants in TLR pathway are associated with risk of GC and ESCC.The potential molecular mechanisms need further investigation.

Objective: To investigate the application value of caesarean section scar or bikini line incisional approach in laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Methods: The retrospective cohort study was conducted. The clinical data of 162 patients with obesity and metabolic diseases who were admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University between March 2018 and April 2019 were collected. There were 51 males and 111 females, aged (35±8)years, with a range from 12 to 47 years. Of 162 patients, 72 undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy via caesarean section scar or bikini line incisional approach and 90 undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy via traditional incisional approach were respectively allocated into concealed incision group and traditional incision group. Observation indicators: (1) surgical situations; (2) intraoperative situations; (3) postoperative situations; (4) follow-up. Follow-up using outpatient examination, telephone interview, and WeChat was performed to detect the postoperative complications at 1, 3, 6 months and 1, 2, 5 years postoperatively up to May 2019. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean±SD, and the t test was used for comparison between groups. Count data were represented as absolute numbers, and were analyzed by the chi-square test or fisher exact probability. Ordinal data were analyzed by the Wilcoxon rank sum test. Results: (1) Surgical situations: patients in the concealed incision group and traditional incision group underwent successfully laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, without conversion to open surgery, reoperation, or perioperative death. (2) Intraoperative situations: the operation time and volume of intraoperative blood loss of the concealed incision group were (102±17)minutes and (11±4)mL, respectively, versus (105±19)minutes and (11±4)mL of the traditional incision group (t=-1.232, -0.676, P>0.05). There were 6 cases and 21 cases with additional surgical ports during operation in the concealed incision group and traditional incision group, respectively, with a significant difference between the two groups (χ²=6.280, P<0.05). (3) Postoperative situations: in the concealed incision group, 56 patients were very satisfied with scar appearance and 16 patients were satisfied with scar appearance. In the traditional incision group, 42 patients were very satisfied with scar appearance and 48 patients were satisfied with scar appearance. There was a significant difference in the overall satisfaction with the incision scar between the two groups (Z=-4.012, P<0.05). Duration of postoperative hospital stay and total hospital expenses of the concealed incision group were (4.9±0.9)days and (64 408±5 123)yuan, versus (5.2±1.5)days and (64 953±3 477)yuan of the traditional incision group (t=-1.788, -0.804, P>0.05). There were 19 and 14 patients with gastroesophageal reflux in the concealed incision group and traditional incision group, respectively, with no significant difference between the two groups (χ²=2.894, P>0.05). There was no postoperative complication such as infection, hemorrhage or anastomotic leakage in either group. (4) Follow-up: 32 of 162 patients were lost to follow-up, including 10 in the concealed incision group and 22 in the traditional incision group; other 130 patients were followed up for 1-14 months, with a median follow-up time of 7 months. During the follow-up, 1 patient in the traditional incision group was hospitalized again at 3 months after surgery due to upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and was cured after symptomatic supportive treatment. One patient in the concealed incision group was admitted to the local hospital for functional obstruction at 1 month after surgery and was discharged after symptomatic treatment. Other patients had no readmission due to postoperative complications. Conclusion Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy via caesarean section scar or bikini line incision is safe and feasible, with good cosmetic effects.

Objective:To explore the pathogenic variants of a family with syndromic deafness by high-throughput sequencing.Methods:The family was from Puyang City, Henan Province, and had four members, including two with syndromic deafness. The proband and his sister had congenital deafness, and their parents had normal phenotypes. The clinical phenotype of the family was characterized using clinical examinations and pedigree analysis. The clinical examinations included imaging examination, audiometry (pure tone audiometry, acoustic immittance, brainstem auditory evoked potential, and otoacoustic emission), vestibular function test, and ophthalmic examination (visual acuity test, visual field test, fundus examination, visual evoked potential, and electroretinogram). Target exome sequencing of 129 known deafness genes and bioinformatics analysis were used to screen suspected pathogenic variants. Sanger sequencing and minigene assay were used to verify and functionally investigate the mutation detected, respectively. According to the standards and guidelines for interpreting genetic variants proposed by the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, the variants c.6049G>A and c.8699A>G were classified as pathogenic/likely pathogenic, and the variant c.9856C>G was classified as variants of uncertain significance.Results:The probands and his sister had severe sensorineural hearing loss with decreased binocular vision, night blindness, decreased peripheral visual field sensitivity and partial visual field defect, and normal vestibular function. Both of them had three CDH23 mutations, including CDH23 (NM_022124.5) c.6049G>A (p.Gly2017Ser),c.9856C>G (p.His3286Asp), and c.8699A>G (p. Asp2900Gly), The first two were inherited from the father, and the last one was from the mother. The missense variants c.9856C>G and c.8699A>G were not included in the gnomad database. The missense mutation c.6049G>A was located in the last position of exon 46 and was predicted to affect splicing by bioinformatics software. The minigene experiment showed that the mutation cause exon skipping of exon 46, resulting in an abnormal protein. Conclusions:Compound heterozygous variations of the CDH23 are the leading cause of USH1D in the family. This study confirms that the compound heterozygosity of splicing and missense variants of the CDH23 gene could lead to USH1D.

Methods:Two thousand standard sections images werre collected from 2 000 clinical retrospective pediatric hip ultrasound videos from January 2019 to January 2021. All standard sections were annotated by the annotation team through the self-designed software based on Python 3.6 environment for image cross-media data annotation and manual review standardization process with unified standards. Among them, 1 753 were randomly selected for training the deep learning system, and the remaining 247 were used for testing the system. Further, 200 standard sections were randomly selected from the test set, and 8 clinicians independently completed the film reading annotation. The 8 independent results were then compared with the AI results.Results:The testing set consists of 247 patients. Compared with the clinician's measurements, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of diagnosing hip joint maturity was 0.865, the sensitivity was 76.19%, and the specificity was 96.9%. The AUC of AI system interpretation under Graf detailed typing was 0.575, the sensitivity was 25.90%, the specificity was 89.10%. The 95% LoA of α-angle determined by Bland-Altman method, of -4.7051° to 6.5948° ( Bias -0.94, P<0.001), compared with clinicians' measurements. The 95% LoA of β-angle, of -7.7191 to 6.8777 ( Bias -0.42, P=0.077). Compared with those from 8 clinicians, the results of AI system interpretation were more stable, and the β-angle effect was more prominent. Conclusion:The AI system can quickly and accurately measure the Graf correlation index of standard DDH ultrasonic standard diagnosis plane.

Objective:To investigate the prognostic value and related factors of heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) in patients with heart failure.Methods:A total of 877 consecutive patients who were admitted to heart failure care unit of Fuwai hospital and diagnosed as heart failure from July 2015 to July 2017 were enrolled in this study. Baseline serum H-FABP concentration was measured by fluorescence lateral flow immunoassay. According to serum H-FABP levels, patients were divided into three groups: low H-FABP group (H-FABP≤4.04 ng/ml, n=292), middle H-FABP group (H-FABP 4.04-7.02 ng/ml, n=292) and high H-FABP group (H-FABP≥7.02 ng/ml, n=293). The general clinical characteristics were collected and compared among the three groups. According to whether heart failure was caused by coronary artery disease or not, patients with heart failure were divided into ischemic heart failure and non-ischemic heart failure. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to explore the independent risk factors of H-FABP. The primary endpoint events were the composite of all-cause death or heart transplantation. Multivariate Cox regression analyses, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, risk prediction tests with multivariate Cox regression model and Kaplan-Meier analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between H-FABP and the prognosis of heart failure. Results:Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that age, coronary artery disease, alanine aminotransferase, uric acid and N-terminal pro-B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were positively associated with H-FABP (β=0.012, 0.238, 0.001, 0.345 and 0.063 respectively,all P<0.05), while female, hemoglobin, albumin, sodium, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were negatively associated with H-FABP (β=-0.184, -0.006, -0.016, -0.034 and -0.006 respectively, all P<0.05). One hundred and nineteen patients (13.6%) lost to follow-up, and 246 patients (32.5%) suffered from all-cause death or heart transplantation during the median follow-up duration of 931 (412-1 185) days. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that baseline H-FABP (log 2H-FABP) level was the independent predictor of all-cause death or heart transplantation in patients with heart failure ( HR=1.39, P<0.001). ROC curves showed that baseline H-FABP was a predictor of all-cause death or heart transplantation in patients with heart failure within 3 months, 1 year and 2 years (areas under the curves were 0.69, 0.69 and 0.71 respectively), and the best cut-off values were 5.85 ng/ml, 6.54 ng/ml and 6.54 ng/ml respectively. Risk prediction test with multivariate Cox regression model showed that baseline H-FABP could provide additional prognostic value in predicting all-cause death or heart transplantation for patients with heart failure on top of basic model and baseline NT-proBNP ( P<0.001). Taking 6.54 ng/ml and trisected levels of H-FABP as cut-off values respectively, Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that the survival rates were significantly different among the two or three groups ( P<0.001). Subgroup analyses showed that baseline H-FABP (log 2H-FABP) level was an independent predictor of all-cause death or heart transplantation in patients with ischemic heart failure ( HR=1.74, P<0.001), as well as in patients with non-ischemic heart failure ( HR=1.28, P=0.027). Conclusions:Age, sex, coronary artery disease, hemoglobin, albumin, alanine aminotransferase, sodium, eGFR, uric acid and NT-proBNP are associated with H-FABP level. Baseline H-FABP level is an independent predictor of all-cause death or heart transplantation in patients with heart failure. On top of basic model and baseline NT-proBNP, baseline H-FABP could provide additional prognostic value in predicting adverse events for patients with heart failure.

Objective:To explore the predictive value of pulmonary effective arterial elastance (Ea) in patients with heart failure (HF).Methods:This is a retrospective cohort study, which retrospectively included 284 patients with HF who underwent right heart catheterization at Heart Failure Center in Fuwai Hospital between September 2013 and February 2022. Data regarding baseline clinical characteristics, hemodynamic profiles, and prognosis were collected. Ea was calculated as mean pulmonary arterial pressure/stroke volume. Patients were divided into Ea<0.555 group and Ea≥0.555 group according to the median value of Ea (0.555 mmHg/ml, 1 mmHg=0.133 kPa). The primary outcome was the primary clinical event, set as the first occurrence of a series of composite events, including all-cause death, heart transplantation, left ventricular assist device implantation, and HF rehospitalization. Event-free survival was defined as the absence of primary clinical events. Spearman correlation analysis was used to calculate the correlation coefficient between Ea and parameters reflective of right heart function. The Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare the different groups for the estimation of outcomes with the log-rank test. We used Cox proportional-hazards regression models to estimate hazard ratios ( HR) for primary clinical event. Subgroup analysis was performed based on the age, gender, New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class, left ventricular ejection fraction, presence of pulmonary hypertension, and serum N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) values. We used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to calculate the area under the curve ( AUC) of Ea for predicting event-free survival in patients with HF. Results:The median age was 51 years, and 206 (72.5%) patients were male. Ea and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) were significantly correlated ( r=0.698, P<0.001). The correlation between Ea and pulmonary arterial elastance (PAC) were even more significant ( r=-0.888, P<0.001). Compared with Ea<0.555 group, Ea≥0.555 group presented with higher serum NT-proBNP values (4 443 (1 792, 8 554) ng/L vs. 1 721 (480, 4 528)ng/L, P<0.001), higher PVR (3.4 (2.5, 4.7) Wood vs. 1.4 (0.9, 2.2) Wood, P<0.001), lower cardiac output (3.0 (2.3, 3.9) L/min vs. 4.3 (3.8, 4.9) L/min, P<0.001), and lower PAC (1.6 (1.3, 2.0) ml/mmHg vs. 4.0 (3.0, 6.0) ml/mmHg, P<0.001). The median follow-up time was 392 (166, 811) days. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve demonstrated a lower event-free survival rate in the Ea≥0.555 group compared to the Ea<0.555 group ( Plog-rank<0.001). After multivariate adjustment, Ea ( HR=1.734, P<0.001) remained significantly associated with the primary outcome. Subgroup analysis indicated that Ea was associated with the primary outcome across all subgroups. The AUC was 0.724 ( P<0.001) for Ea to predict event-free survival calculated from ROC analysis. Conclusions:Ea is closely related to parameters reflective of right ventricular afterload. Increased Ea is an independent predictor of adverse outcomes in patients with HF.