An article entitled "Adrenal incidentalomas are tied to increased risk of diabetes: findings from a prospective study" published in JCEM in April 2020, was hereby translated into Chinese after obtaining the copyright [Giuseppe R, et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2020, 105(4): dgz284]. This is a prospective study to explore the frequency of adrenal incidentalomas and their association with comorbid diseases. It recruited 601 patients who underwent abdominal CT scan in the radiology department at a public hospital. Those with any history or doubt of adrenal diseases or malignancy were considered as non-eligible. In 7.3% of the patients, adrenal incidentalomas were serendipitously found. The patients with an adrenal incidentaloma were with higher body mass index( P=0.009) and higher waist circumference( P=0.007) and were more frequently diabetic(31.8% vs 14.2%, P=0.003 8). Multivariate regression analysis showed that diabetes was significantly associated with the presence of adrenal incidentalomas( P=0.003). Autonomous cortisol secretion was observed in 50% of patients(plasma cortisol≥50 nmol/L after 1 mg dexamethasone). This is the first study showing that the frequency of adrenal incidentalomas is 7.3% in a prospective radiological series avoiding ascertainment bias and adrenal incidentalomas are tied to increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Objective To observe the therapeutic effects of aqueous extract of ginger on vascular dementia(VD) in rats.Methods Male SD rats were randomly divided into sham-operation group, model contral group, huperzine A group and three ginger aqueous extract groups for high, middle and low dosage. The VD rat model was established by bilateral corotid ligation and repeated cerebral ischemia reperfusion. Spatial learning and memory abilities in both place navigation test and spatial prob test were evaluated with Morris water maze. The activitie of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in cortex and striatum tissue and SOD and MDA content in brain tissue was detected by spectrophotometry.Results Compared with sham-operation group, the rats in model control group exhibited serious learning and memory deficits in both place navigation test and spatial prob test and decreased significantly AChE activity in striatum tissue. Aqueous extract of ginger could not only improve the learning and memory abilities in both place navigation test and spatial prob test, but also increase AChE activity and the ratio of SOD/MDA and decrease MDA content in brain tissue. Conclusion Aqueous extract of ginger has obvious effects on improving learning and momery abilities of rats with VD. Increasing the function of cholinergic neuron and inhibiting AChE activity are likely to be the partial mechanism.

AIM: To investigate the mechanism of berberine’s inhibiting growth and metastasis of tumor by observing the effects of berberine on proliferation and apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). METHODS: Cultured HUVECs were incubated with berberine. MTT assay and quantitative immunocytochemistry were used to detect cell proliferation and the expression of proliferation cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Morphologic changes of apoptosis were observed by fluorescent staining, and Rhodamin123 was used to determinate mitochondrial membrane potential under the laser confocal microscopy. RESULTS: HUVEC proliferation was inhibited by co-incubating with berberine (20 mg/L) for 24 h and berberine (10 mg/L, 20 mg/L) for 48 h (P

Objective:To analyze the distribution characteristics of plasma renin concentration (PRC) in patients with aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) and its impact on diagnosis.Methods:In this retrospective case series, clinical data from 200 patients with APA (80 men and 120 women; mean age 45.6 years) in the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from November 2013 to January 2022 were evaluated. PRC was determined by automated chemiluminescence immunoassay. The distribution characteristics of PRC were analyzed, and 8.2 mU/L was used as the low renin cutoff to evaluate whether renin was suppressed.Results:The median PRC was 1.6 mU/L (range, 0.4-41.5 mU/L). There were 116 patients with APA with PRC of ≤2 mU/L, 41 patients with 28.2 mU/L) in 8.0% (16/200) of the patients with APA. And PRC was not suppressed in 2.5% (5/200) of the patients with APA, resulting in a primary aldosteronism negative screening outcome.Conclusions:Although most patients with APA have low PRC, there are a small number (8%) of patients whose PRC has not been fully suppressed, which can lead to missed diagnoses during primary aldosteronism screening. While primary aldosteronism is highly suspected, further investigations are required to determine the diagnosis, even if PRC is not fully suppressed at screening.