Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that severely affects the health of the elderly, marked by its incurability, high prevalence, and extended latency period. The current approach to AD prevention and treatment emphasizes early detection and intervention, particularly during the pre-AD stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which provides an optimal “window of opportunity” for intervention. Clinical detection methods for MCI, such as cerebrospinal fluid monitoring, genetic testing, and imaging diagnostics, are invasive and costly, limiting their broad clinical application. Speech, as a vital cognitive output, offers a new perspective and tool for computer-assisted analysis and screening of cognitive decline. This is because elderly individuals with cognitive decline exhibit distinct characteristics in semantic and audio information, such as reduced lexical richness, decreased speech coherence and conciseness, and declines in speech rate, voice rhythm, and hesitation rates. The objective presence of these semantic and audio characteristics lays the groundwork for computer-based screening of cognitive decline. Speech information is primarily sourced from databases or collected through tasks involving spontaneous speech, semantic fluency, and reading, followed by analysis using computer models. Spontaneous language tasks include dialogues/interviews, event descriptions, narrative recall, and picture descriptions. Semantic fluency tasks assess controlled retrieval of vocabulary items, requiring participants to extract information at the word level during lexical search. Reading tasks involve participants reading a passage aloud. Summarizing past research, the speech characteristics of the elderly can be divided into two major categories: semantic information and audio information. Semantic information focuses on the meaning of speech across different tasks, highlighting differences in vocabulary and text content in cognitive impairment. Overall, discourse pragmatic disorders in AD can be studied along three dimensions: cohesion, coherence, and conciseness. Cohesion mainly examines the use of vocabulary by participants, with a reduction in the use of nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adjectives in AD patients. Coherence assesses the ability of participants to maintain topics, with a decrease in the number of subordinate clauses in AD patients. Conciseness evaluates the information density of participants, with AD patients producing shorter texts with less information compared to normal elderly individuals. Audio information focuses on acoustic features that are difficult for the human ear to detect. There is a significant degradation in temporal parameters in the later stages of cognitive impairment; AD patients require more time to read the same paragraph, have longer vocalization times, and produce more pauses or silent parts in their spontaneous speech signals compared to normal individuals. Researchers have extracted audio and speech features, developing independent systems for each set of features, achieving an accuracy rate of 82% for both, which increases to 86% when both types of features are combined, demonstrating the advantage of integrating audio and speech information. Currently, deep learning and machine learning are the main methods used for information analysis. The overall diagnostic accuracy rate for AD exceeds 80%, and the diagnostic accuracy rate for MCI also exceeds 80%, indicating significant potential. Deep learning techniques require substantial data support, necessitating future expansion of database scale and continuous algorithm upgrades to transition from laboratory research to practical product implementation.

OBJECTIVE: To explore clinical efficacy of membrane-induced technique combined with gastrocnemius muscle flap transposition in treating traumatic osteomyelitis of the upper tibia. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 7 patients with traumatic osteomyelitis of the upper tibia who were treated with membrane-induced technique combined with gastrocnemius muscle flap transposition from January 2022 to December 2023. Among them, there were 4 males and 3 females; aged from 29 to 57 years old; 4 patients were treated after open fracture, 2 patients were treated after closed fracture, and 1 patient was treated after scalding; the courses of disease ranges from 2 weeks to 8 years; sinus tracts were present in all patients, and the lesion range of the tibia ranged from 5 to 9 cm. The results of deep tissue bacterial culture showed that 2 patients were negative, 3 patients were staphylococcus aureus, 1 patient was methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, and 1 patient was pseudomonas aeruginosa and 1 patient was klebsiella pneumoniae. After debridement, the range of bone defect ranged from 8 to 12 cm, and the cortical defect accounted for approximately 30% of the circumference. The area of soft tissue defect ranged from 8.0 cm×2.0 cm to 10.0 cm×6.0 cm. At the first stage, vancomycin-loaded/meropenem/gentamicin-loaded bone cement was implanted. The gastrocnemius muscle flap was repositioned to cover the wound surface and free skin grafting was performed. After an interval of 7 to 10 weeks, the stageⅡsurgery was performed to remove bone cement. Autologous iliac bone mixed with vancomycin/gentamicin and calcium sulfate artificial bone was transplanted, and the wound was sutured. One patient retained the original internal plants, one patient removed the internal plants and replaced them with steel plate external fixation, one patient replaced the internal plants and added steel plate external fixation, and three patients were simply fixed with steel plate external fixation. One year after operation, the recovery of knee joint and ankle joint functions was evaluated by using Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) knee joint score and Kofoed ankle joint function score respectively. RESULTS: All patients had their wounds closed simultaneously with bone cement implantation and healed well. All patients were followed up for 12 to 17 months after operation, and satisfactory bone healing was achieved at 6 months after stageⅡsurgery. Twelve months after operation, all patients had good bone healing without obvious limping was observed when walking. At 12 months after operation HSS knee joint score ranged from 93 to 100 points, and Kofoed ankle function score ranged from 96 to 100 points. CONCLUSION For traumatic osteomyelitis of the upper tibia, a staged treatment plan combining membrane-induced technique and gastrocnemius flap transposition on the basis of thorough debridement could safely cover the wound surface, effectively control bone infection and achieve satisfactory bone healing, without adverse effects on limb function.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Osteomyelitis/surgery* ; Adult ; Surgical Flaps ; Retrospective Studies ; Tibia/injuries* ; Muscle, Skeletal/surgery*

Alzheimer's disease (AD), a progressive dementia, is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases. Clinical trial results of amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau regulators based on the pretext of straightforward amyloid and tau immunotherapy were disappointing. There are currently no effective strategies for slowing the progression of AD. Herein, we spotlight the dysregulation of lipid metabolism, particularly the elevation of ceramides (Cers), as a critical yet underexplored facet of AD pathogenesis. Our study delineates the role of Cers in promoting microglial pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death distinct from apoptosis and necroptosis, characterized by cellular swelling, and membrane rupture mediated by the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. Utilizing both in vivo experiments with amyloid precursor protein (APP)/presenilin 1 (PS1) transgenic mice and in vitro assays with BV-2 microglial cells, we investigate the activation of microglial pyroptosis by Cers and its inhibition by icariin (ICA), a flavonoid with known antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Our findings reveal a significant increase in Cers levels and pyroptosis markers (NOD-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain, caspase-1, gasdermin D (gasdermin D (GSDMD)), and interleukin-18 (IL-18)) in the brains of AD model mice, indicating a direct involvement of Cers in AD pathology through the induction of microglial pyroptosis. Conversely, ICA treatment effectively reduces these pyroptotic markers and Cer levels, thereby attenuating microglial pyroptosis and suggesting a novel therapeutic mechanism of action against AD. This study not only advances our understanding of the pathogenic role of Cers in AD but also introduces ICA as a promising candidate for AD therapy, capable of mitigating neuroinflammation and pyroptosis through the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)-NLRP3 inflammasome-gasdermin D (GSDMD) axis. Our results pave the way for further exploration of Cer metabolism disorders in neurodegenerative diseases and highlight the therapeutic potential of targeting microglial pyroptosis in AD.

Cigarette smoke extract (CSE)-treated mouse airway epithelial cells (MAECs)-derived exosomes accelerate the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by upregulating triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM-1); however, the specific mechanism remains unclear. We aimed to explore the potential mechanisms of CSE-treated MAECs-derived exosomes on M1 macrophage polarization and pyroptosis in COPD. In vitro, exosomes were extracted from CSE-treated MAECs, followed by co-culture with macrophages.In vivo, mice exposed to cigarette smoke (CS) to induce COPD, followed by injection or/and intranasal instillation with oe-TREM-1 lentivirus. Lung function and pathological changes were evaluated. CD68 + cell number and the levels of iNOS, TNF-α, IL-1β (M1 macrophage marker), and pyroptosis-related proteins (NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase-1 recruitment domain, caspase-1, cleaved-caspase-1, gasdermin D [GSDMD], and GSDMD-N) were examined. The expression of maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3), spleen focus forming virus proviral integration oncogene (SPI1), methyltransferase 3 (METTL3), and TREM-1 was detected and the binding relationships among them were verified. MEG3 increased N6-methyladenosine methylation of TREM-1 by recruiting SPI1 to activate METTL3. Overexpression of TREM-1 or METTL3 negated the alleviative effects of MEG3 inhibition on M1 polarization and pyroptosis. In mice exposed to CS, EXO−CSE further aggravated lung injury, M1 polarization, and pyroptosis, which were reversed by MEG3 inhibition. TREM-1 overexpression negated the palliative effects of MEG3 inhibition on COPD mouse lung injury. Collectively, CSE-treated MAECs-derived exosomal long non-coding RNA MEG3 may expedite M1 macrophage polarization and pyroptosis in COPD via the SPI1/METTL3/TREM-1 axis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term prognosis of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated with different reperfusion strategies in Chinese county-level hospitals. METHODS: A total of 2,514 patients with STEMI from 32 hospitals participated in the China Acute Myocardial Infarction registry between January 2013 and September 2014. The success of fibrinolysis was assessed according to indirect measures of vascular recanalization. The primary outcome was 2-year mortality. RESULTS: Reperfusion therapy was used in 1,080 patients (42.9%): fibrinolysis ( n= 664, 61.5%) and primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) ( n= 416, 38.5%). The most common reason for missing reperfusion therapy was a prehospital delay > 12 h (43%). Fibrinolysis [14.5%, hazard ratio ( HR): 0.59, 95% confidence interval ( CI) 0.44-0.80] and primary PCI (6.8%, HR= 0.32, 95% CI: 0.22-0.48) were associated with lower 2-year mortality than those with no reperfusion (28.5%). Among fibrinolysis-treated patients, 510 (76.8%) achieved successful clinical reperfusion; only 17.0% of those with failed fibrinolysis underwent rescue PCI. There was no difference in 2-year mortality between successful fibrinolysis and primary PCI (8.8% vs. 6.8%, HR = 1.53, 95% CI: 0.85-2.73). Failed fibrinolysis predicted a similar mortality (33.1%) to no reperfusion (33.1% vs. 28.5%, HR= 1.30, 95% CI: 0.93-1.81). CONCLUSION In Chinese county-level hospitals, only approximately 2/5 of patients with STEMI underwent reperfusion therapy, largely due to prehospital delay. Approximately 30% of patients with failed fibrinolysis and no reperfusion therapy did not survive at 2 years. Quality improvement initiativesare warranted, especially in public health education and fast referral for mechanical revascularization in cases of failed fibrinolysis.
Humans ; ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction/therapy* ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; East Asian People ; Treatment Outcome ; Myocardial Reperfusion ; Myocardial Infarction ; Registries ; Hospitals

Nodular goiter has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Clinically, there has been a burgeoning interest in nodular goiter due to the risk of progression to thyroid cancer. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effect of Chinese medicine (CM) in nodular goiter. Articles were systematically retrieved from databases, including PubMed, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. New evidence showed that CM exhibited multi-pathway and multi-target characteristics in the treatment of nodular goiter, involving hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis, oxidative stress, blood rheology, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy, especially inhibition of cell proliferation and promotion of cell apoptosis, involving multiple signal pathways and a variety of cytokines. This review provides a scientific basis for the therapeutic use of CM against nodular goiter. Nonetheless, future studies are warranted to identify more regulatory genes and pathways to provide new approaches for the treatment of nodular goiter.
Humans ; Goiter, Nodular/metabolism* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; Apoptosis ; China

Objective:To explore the effect of supplementing stem cell therapy with aerobic exercise in left ventricle remodeling after myocardial infarction.Methods:Sixty 6-week-old male Wistar rats had acute myocardial infarction induced by ligation of the anterior descending coronary artery. They were then randomly divided into a model group, a stem cell group, an exercise group and an observation group. Another ten healthy Wistar rats formed a sham operation group. The rats in the stem cell and observation groups were infused with a suspension of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells through the tail vein. Beginning four weeks later, the exercise and observation groups underwent 60 minutes of aerobic treadmill exercise 5 days per week for 8 weeks. At the beginning and end of the eight weeks the rats′ exercise performance was evaluated using a graded treadmill exercise test. And after the last training session cardiac structure and function were detected using ultrasound imaging. Tissue was then collected from the left ventricles and the collagen volume fractions were calculated. The expression of myocardial brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), heavy chain β-myosin (β-MHC) and α-MHC mRNA was detected using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCRs.Results:Compared with the sham operation group, the time and distance to exhaustion shortened significantly in the model group, with a significant decrease in the average maximum running speed, left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricle shortening fraction (LVFS), expression of α-MHC and the α-MHC/β-MHC ratio. There was a significant increase in the average resting heart rate, collagen volume fraction, expression of BNP and β-MHC in the model group. Compared with the model group, there was a significant increase in the average LVEF and LVFS of the stem cell group as well as in the time and distance to exhaustion, maximum running speed, expression of α-MHC and in the α-MHC/β-MHC ratio of the observation group, but a significant decrease in the average collagen volume fraction of the stem cell group compared with the observation group, together with the resting heart rate, collagen volume fraction, the expression of BNP and of β-MHC. Compared with the stem cell group, the observation group showed a significant increase in the average time and distance to exhaustion, maximum running speed, expression of α-MHC and the α-MHC/β-MHC ratio, with a significant decrease in the average resting heart rate, collagen volume fraction, expression of BNP and β-MHC.Conclusion:Aerobic exercise or stem cell therapy alone can inhibit left ventricular remodeling and improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction, at least in rats. The combination of the two treatments has a synergistic effect and can further enhance the effect of stem cell therapy.

Objective: To explore the risk intensity and related influencing factors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among high-stress rescue workers, and to provide effective tools for the risk assessment of PTSD in military rescue workers. Method: From June to August 2022, cluster sampling was used to select the high-stress rescue personnel of an Army department as the survey subjects. The acute Stress reaction (ASD) scale and PTSD checklist were used to evaluate the risk of PTSD in military rescue personnel. Multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the influencing factors of PTSD. Results: The age of 4 460 subjects was (24.38±4.072) years old, including 4 396 males (98.6%). The positive rate of initial screening for ASD was 2.85% (127/4 460). The positive rate of PTSD was 0.67% (30/4 460). Multivariate logistic regression model analysis showed that female, older age, recent trauma exposure history, passive smoking and alcohol consumption were at higher risk of ASD, the values of OR (95%CI) were 4.183 (1.819-9.618), 6.278 (1.363-28.912), 3.094 (1.500-6.379), 2.059 (1.298-3.267) and 2.607 (1.614-4.211), respectively; Lower education level was associated with lower risk of ASD, OR (95%CI) was 0.593 (0.359-0.978); People who are older, thinner, have a history of mental illness, and drink alcohol were at higher risk for PTSD, the values of OR (95%CI) were 20.144 (2.459-165.043), 10.287 (2.218-47.700), 91.104 (8.592-965.980) and 2.866 (1.144-7.180), respectively. Conclusion: Gender, age, education level, passive smoking, alcohol consumption, past history of mental illness and body mass index may be related to the potential risk of PTSD in rescue workers,passive smoking, alcohol consumption, and weight controlling should be focused on to reduce potential risks of PTSD.
Male ; Humans ; Female ; Young Adult ; Adult ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/prevention & control* ; Tobacco Smoke Pollution ; Risk Assessment ; Military Personnel ; Alcohol Drinking

Objective:To investigate the value of counting microvessel density (MVD) and lymphatic vessel density (LVD) in predicting distant metastasis of pancreatic cancer within 1 year after surgery.Methods:The clinicopathological data of 47 patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent surgery in Laibin People's Hospital from January 2020 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into non-metastasis group( n=24) and metastasis group( n=23) according to whether distant metastasis occurred during 1-year follow-up. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the CD 34 expression in microvascular epithelial cells and D2-40 level in lymphatic epithelial cells from pancreatic cancer tissues. MVD and LVD in cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues were counted. The relationship between MVD and LVD in cancer tissues and clinicopathological characteristics such as gender, age, tumor diameter, tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion, nerve invasion and tumor stage were analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was drawn and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to evaluate the value of MVD and LVD in predicting distant metastasis of pancreatic cancer within 1 year after surgery. The effects of MVD and LVD on the distant metastasis rate of pancreatic cancer within one year after operation were evaluated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the independent influencing factors for distant metastasis of pancreatic cancer within 1 year after surgery. Results:MVD and LVD in metastatic cancer tissues were higher than those in adjacent normal tissues [(72.52±9.73) vs (51.73±7.95)/400 times field of view, (23.78±6.87) vs (14.00±5.66)/400 times field of view]. MVD and LVD in the non-metastasis group were also higher than those in the adjacent normal tissues [(63.20±6.52) vs (54.79±5.80)/400 times field of view, (16.25±5.15) vs (13.62±5.03)/400 times field of view], and all the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). MVD in cancer tissue was significantly increased in patients with tumor diameter ≥2 cm, lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion and high TNM stage ( P<0.05), and LVD was significantly increased in patients with tumor diameter ≥2 cm, lymph node metastasis, moderate and low differentiation, vascular invasion, nerve invasion and high TNM stage ( P<0.05). The AUC values of MVD and LVD in predicting distant metastasis of pancreatic cancer within 1 year after surgery were 0.799 (95% CI 0.659-0.939) and 0.803(95% CI 0.676-0.929), and the cut-off values were 70.5 and 20.5/400 times field of view, respectively. The sensitivity was 73.9% and 69.6%, and the specificity was 87.5% and 83.7%. The cumulative distant metastasis rate within 1 year after operation in high MVD and high LVD groups was significantly higher than that in low MVD and low LVD groups ( P<0.05). Multivariate logitic regression analysis showed that tumor diameter ≥2 cm ( OR=1.757, 95% CI 1.536-3.846, P<0.05), lymph node metastasis ( OR=2.364, 95% CI 1.036-4.175, P<0.05), high MVD ( OR=4.345, 95% CI 1.245-3.736, P<0.05) and high LVD ( OR=3.637, 95% CI 1.426-4.035, P<0.05) were independent risk factors for distant metastasis of pancreatic cancer within 1 year after surgery. Conclusions:Increased MVD and LVD in pancreatic cancer tissues are independent influencing factors for distant metastasis within 1 year after surgery, which can be used to predict whether patients have distant metastasis within 1 year after surgery.

Objective To analyze the disease burden caused by occupational coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) in Anhui Methods Province. A total of 1 649 patients with occupational CWP diagnosed in Anhui Province from 1950 to 2019 were selected as the study subjects using a retrospective study method. Age, gender, survival time, location, working age of disease onset, age of death, stage and date of diagnosis of CWP, comorbidities at the time of investigation, hospitalization and outpatient expenses in the past year, cost of absence from work, cost of absence from work of caregivers, and cost of nutrition and transportation were investigated. The years of life lost, years lived with disability (YLDs), disability adjusted life years (DALYs) Results and economic losses were calculated. Among these patients, 1 405 cases survived and 244 cases died. In the age range - - - of 20.0 70.0 years, the YLDs of surviving patients were 2.12 22.20 (8.19±3.59) person years. The YLDs of patients with disease vs - P complications was higher than that of patients without complications [(8.55±3.95) (7.87±3.21) person years, <0.01]. The total - - DALYs of the patients was 14 031.59 person years, and the average per capita DALYs was 8.51 person years. Its YLDs accounted for 82.0 % of the total DALYs. The total economic loss caused by CWP in the 1 405 surviving patients was 354.903 0 Conclusion million yuan, and the average per capita economic loss was 252 600 yuan. The disease burden caused by CWP is relatively high in Anhui Province. In addition to early detection, diagnosis and treatment, it is necessary to focus on prevention and treatment of CWP complications to reduce the disease burden.