Objective To investigate the effect of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) on serum angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) 2 levels in acute heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Methods A total of 106 patients with acute HFrEF were selected, and were divided randomly into control group and trial group. The control group was under routine treatment, while the trial group was under routine treatment combined with lyophiluzed recombinant human BNP for 24-hour. Cardiac functional parameters were measured by echocardiography both at the enrollment and the end of 7-day treatment. Serum levels of ACE2 and N-terminal pro-BNP (NT-proBNP) were determined using commercially available ELISA kits at the enrollment, the end of 24-hour treatment, and the end of 7-day treatment,respectively. Results A total of 103 patients with acute HFrEF were enrolled (control group=51, trial group=52). There were no significant differences in the use of drugs (e.g., aspirin) and serum biochemical indices (e.g. cardiac troponin I, creatinine) before treatment between these two groups. Compared to systolic blood pressure (SBP) at admission, SBP on the second day after treatment were significantly decreased in two groups (P<0.05). Compared to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) at admission, LVEF values were significantly elevated on the seventh day after treatment in two groups ( P<0.05). There were no significant differences in SBP, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and LVEF at admission between these two groups (P>0.05);there were also no significant differences in DBP on the second day after treatment, and LVEF on the seventh day after treatment (P>0.05), while SBP was significantly higher on the second day after treatment in control group than that of trial group (P < 0.05). Serum levels of NT-proBNP were decreased with the prolongation of time in two groups. Serum levels of ACE2 were decreased with the prolongation of time in control group, while were increased initially following decreased (which were still higher on the seventh day after treatment than that at admission) with the prolongation of time in trial group. Serum levels of NT-proBNP were higher after 2 days treatment or 7 days of treatment in control group than those of trial group, while serum levels of ACE2 were decreased after 2 days of treatment or 7 days of treatment in control group than those of trial group (P<0.05). Conclusion Patients with acute HFrEF may benefit from BNP by increasing serum ACE2 levels.

Background and purpose:The incidence of autonomic dysfunction(AD)in patients with advanced cancer is approximately 65%-80%.The neurasthenic symptoms such as dizziness,palpitations and fatigue caused by AD are difficult to alleviate even with sufficient rest,seriously affecting the patients'quality of life.Meanwhile,the cardiovascular autonomic nervous system plays a significant regulatory role in heart rate,myocardial function and myocardial blood flow.AD increases the morbidity and mortality risk of cardiovascular diseases in patients.AD is not only a functional state but might also be an early sign of overall myocardial lesion.Research indicates that after adjusting for age,gender and cardiovascular risk factors,previous radiation exposure is associated with AD manifestations such as increased resting heart rate and abnormal heart rate recovery after exercise.However,there are currently few relevant studies on the effect of radiotherapy on cardiac autonomic function,and the specific injury effects and dose threshold of injury occurrence remain unclear.This study aimed to explore the impact of thoracic radiotherapy on the cardiac autonomic function of patients with malignant tumors by comparing the differences in heart rate variability(HRV)analysis parameters before and after radiotherapy,and to explore the dosimetric risk factors for the occurrence of AD by comparing the dosimetry between the case group and the control group,providing a theoretical basis for optimizing the dose distribution of radiotherapy regimens in order to improve patient prognosis and reduce the occurrence of complications.Methods:We prospectively collected data of patients with malignant tumors who underwent thoracic radiotherapy in the Radiotherapy Department of the Affiliated Hospital of North China University of Science and Technology from February 2023 to December 2023.Inclusion criteria:① Patients who were pathologically confirmed to have malignant tumors(lung cancer breast cancer or esophageal cancer);② patients with radiation therapy indications as recommended by the guidelines;③ patients with an ECOG score of 0-1;④ patients with no significant abnormalities in electrocardiogram and echocardiography results.Exclusion criteria:① previously received chest radiotherapy;② patients with obvious palpitation,chest tightness and chest pain before treatment;③ diabetes,heart disease and other serious underlying diseases;④ anti-arrhythmic drugs are currently being used;⑤ patients who cannot tolerate radiotherapy and who were lost or lost during follow-up.HRV analysis was used to evaluate changes in autonomic nerve function after radiotherapy.Patients with AD were included in the case group,and the remaining patients were included in the control group.Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis methods were used to explore the dosimetric risk factors and cardiac dose limitations for the occurrence of AD after thoracic radiotherapy.This study was approved by the ethics committee of Affiliated Hospital of North China University of Science and Technology(ethics number:20230228020).Results:A total of 89 patients with thoracic tumors meeting the study criteria were enrolled in the study.Among them,41(46%)patients experienced cardiac AD after radiotherapy.The cardiac Dmax(6 273.500 cGy vs 4 675.900 cGy,P＜0.001),cardiac Dmean(1513.700 cGy vs 452.050 cGy,P＜0.001),cardiac V5(49.000%vs 21.250%,P＜0.001),V20(30.500%vs 7.300%,P＜0.001),V30(18.700%vs 3.600%,P＜0.001)and V40(10.900%vs 1.500%,P＜0.001)were significantly higher in the case group than in the control group.The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that cardiac V30 was an independent risk factor for the occurrence of cardiac AD[OR(95%CI)=1.583(1.093-2.291),P=0.015].Cardiac V30 could predict the occurrence of radiation-induced cardiac injury with an area under the curve of 0.788,and 17.1%was the optimal cut-offvalue of cardiac V30 for predicting the occurrence of cardiac AD.Conclusion:After thoracic radiotherapy,the cardiac irradiation dose-volume was significantly higher in patients with cardiac AD than in the control group.When cardiac V30 was higher than 17.1%,the risk of cardiac AD in patients significantly increased.

ObjectiveTo analyze the hotspots and development of researches on animal-assisted intervention in the past ten years. MethodsThe researches on animal-assisted intervention from 2011 to 2021 were retrieved from the Web of Science core database, and analyzed the countries/regions, institutions, authors, cited journals, cited literature and keywords using CiteSpace. ResultsA total of 607 researches were included. The researches increased with years, while United States (230), Italy (65) and the United Kingdom (45) were the top three in the number of publications; Purdue University published the most researches (20); and Santaniello A, etc. were the high-producing authors. The key nodes of literature were mainly systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials. Animal-assisted therapy and dogs were high-frequency keywords, with 20 keywords of high centrality and 16 keywords of strongest bursting. Hotspots focused on Alzheimer's disease, depression, children, autism. Disorder and occupational therapy might be the new topics in the future. ConclusionThe animal-assisted intervention has been mainly used as a healthcare in psychology, and may be an approach of occupational therapy.

Objective Based on the gene expression omnibus(GEO)database,bioinformatics methods were employed to analyze the expression characteristics of hypoxia-related differentially expressed genes(HRDEGs)in ischemic stroke,and key genes were screened,to provide important support for a deeper understanding of ischemic stroke.Methods The GSE16561 and GSE58294 datasets were downloaded from the GEO database,and Python software was used for data integration.The Combat method was employed to eliminate batch effects while retaining disease grouping characteristics.Principal component analysis was conducted to reduce dimensionality of the data before and after batch effect removal,and intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC)testing was performed on the ischemic stroke and normal control groups.Gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA)and single-sample GSEA were conducted on the merged and batch effects eliminated dataset,with a nominal P-value(NOM P-val)＜0.05 and false discovery rate P-value(FDR P-val)＜0.25 used as criteria to select significantly different gene sets.Differential expression genes between the ischemic stroke samples and normal control samples after merging and eliminating batch effects of the GSE16561 and GSE58294 datasets were identified using R software,with an absolute value of log2 gene expression fold change(FC)≥0.58 and adjusted P-value(Padj)＜0.05 as selection criteria.Intersection with hypoxia-related genes obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology Information(NCBI)in the United States yielded the HRDEGs.Gene ontology(GO)and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes(KEGG)enrichment analyses were performed on the HRDEGs,and the STRING database was used to construct a protein-protein interaction network of differentially expressed genes.The top 10 key genes were filtered using Cytoscape 3.8 software.Results The ICC analysis results showed excellent consistency in the ischemic stroke and normal control samples after batch effect removal,with ICC values of 0.94 and 0.98 for the GSE16561 and GSE58294datasets,respectively.GSEA results demonstrated significant enrichment of 34 gene sets in the stroke samples in the newly merged and batch effects removed dataset from GSE16561 and GSE58294,leading to the identification of 404 differentially expressed genes(all with Padj＜0.05),including 354 upregulated genes and 50 downregulated genes.Intersection with hypoxia-related genes yielded 64 HRDEGs.GO enrichment analysis indicated significant enrichment of HRDEGs in vesicle lumen,cytoplasmic vesicle lumen,secretory granule lumen,with molecular functions such as amide binding,peptide binding,phospholipid binding,and enzyme inhibitor activity.These genes are primarily involved in the positive regulation of cytokine production,regulation of immune response,response to bacterium-derived molecules,and response to lipopolysaccharide,among other biological processes.KEGG enrichment analysis revealed enrichment of HRDEGs in pathways related to lipid and atherosclerosis,Salmonella infection,neutrophil extracellular trap formation,nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor signaling pathway,protein glycosylation in cancer,tuberculosis,and necroptosis.Based on the protein-protein interaction network,10 key genes were identified,including arginase1(ARG1),caspase1(CASP1),interleukin1 receptor type 1(IL-1R1),integrin subunit alpha M(ITGAM),matrix metalloproteinase9(MMP9),prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2(PTGS2),signal transducer and activator of transcription 3(STAT3),Toll-like receptor2(TLR2),TLR4,and TLR8.Conclusion This study has identified 10 key genes associated with ischemic stroke and hypoxia through bioinformatics mining,which maybe provid potential targets for subsequent research and diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.

Objective To investigate the pathological damage to and inflammation of different intestinal segments in a rat model of severe hemorrhage,and to explore the effect of polarization of intestinal macrophage on the pathophysiology of intestinal inflammation.Methods Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups:the sham operation group and hemorrhage group.In the hemorrhage group,40％of the total blood volume was lost in 25-30 minutes,while in the sham operation group,only the femoral artery and vein were intubated without bleeding.The rats were killed at 0,3,6,12 and 24 hours.The entire intestine was isolated quickly,and sections of the intestine were cut at the duodenum,jejunum,ileocecal junction,colon and rectum for histopathological evaluation.ELISA was adopted to determine related inflammation factors while multi-color immunohistochemistry was used to calculate macrophage surface markers.The data was statistically analyzed.Results(1)Compared with the sham group,there was no significant difference in colon histology at 3 h and 6 h,but significant difference was detected in rectum scores only at 24 h.The scores of other intestinal segments were significantly different at each time point.The severity of ileocecal and colonic lesions after bleeding increased with time.The duodenum,jejunum and ileocecum were more critically injured at 3 h than the rectum at 6 h.The injury to the duodenum,jejunum,ileum and colon was much more pronounced than to the rectum at 12 h.(2)The expressions of TNF-α and IL-1β in the rectum were increased significantly at 12 h post operation.The expressions of IL-1β,TNF-α in the jejunum increased obviously at 3 h and 6 h,respectively.(3)Three hours after severe bleeding,the level of macrophages in the jejunum and ileocececal area increased significantly,and the percentage of M1 macrophages was higher.After 6 hours,the proportion of M2 macrophages in the jejunum and M1 macrophages decreased significantly.After 3 hours,the percentage of M1 macrophages in the colon decreased,but that of M2 macrophages increased.The proportion of M2 polarized macrophages in the duodenum and rectum increased at 3 h after severe bleeding but decreased at 6 h.Conclusion Pathological damage to intestinal sections after bleeding varies depending on the time,and is correlated with the inflammatory level of macrophages.