Objective To compare the effects of levosimendan (Levo) and recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide (rhBNP) in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). Methods Seventy-five patients were included into this randomized positive-controlled and parallel-group study to receive either Levo (Levo group), rhBNP (rhBNP group) or dobutamine therapy (control group). Heart rate, respiratory rate, 24-hour urine volume,improvement in six-minute walk-test after 72-h treatment were compared between three groups. The blood level of BNP and values of left ventricular end dia?stolic diameter (LVEDD) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) after one-week treatment were compared between three groups. Results After 72-h treatment, heart rate and respiratory rate were significantly decreased, and 24-hour urine volume, six-minute walk-test were significantly increased in three groups (P<0.05). The NT-proBNP and LVEF were im?proved after one week treatment (P>0.05), but the LVEDD was improved barely (P>0.05). The improvements were more significant in Levo group and rhBNP group compared to those of control group (P<0.05). There were no significant differenc?es in improvements between Levo group and rhBNP group. The common adverse reactions were hypotension and ventricular premature beats. There were no significant differences in adverse event rates between three groups (P<0.05). Conclusion As compared with dobutamine, Levo and rhBNP have optimized efficacy, fewer side effects and good safety in the treatment of ADHF. They are worth of clinical application.

BACKGROUND: Alveolar bone grafting is known to reduce nasal asymmetry by supporting a defective alar baseand a sunken nostril. However, there are no studies on details of changes in the upper lip with appropriatemeasurements.OBJECTIVE: To measure the change in the upper lip height and nostril sill after alveolar bone grafting.METHODS: Forty-six congenital unilateral cleft lip and alveolus (UCLA) patients (mean age 9.85 years). The patients underwent alveolar bone grafting with autogenous iliac bone grafts. The average bone graft volume was 2.98 cm3.Photographs of the frontal, lateral and basal views were obtained using standardized photographic techniques. The fixedposition points on the patients' faces were measured. Preoperative and postoperative upper lip height and projection, theproportion indexes of the nostril sill were compared.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The 6-month follow-up results showed that the height of the upper lip was increased,but no significant difference was found. The projection of the upper lip was more prominent, but there was not statisticallysignificant difference bbetween pre- and post-operation. The nostril sill was significantly elevated in three of four distanceitems. In conclusion, the height of the upper lip is elongated and the nostril sill is elevated after alveolar bone grafting inUCLA patients.

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic value of the thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) and global registry of acute coronary events (GRACE) risk scores for in-hospital mortality in Chinese non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) patients. Methods: Data of present study derived from the prospective, multi-center registry trial of Chinese AMI (CAMI). Among 31 provinces, municipalities or autonomous districts in China, at least one tertiary and secondary hospital was selected. From January 2013 to September 2014, 5 896 consecutive non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients who were admitted to 107 hospitals within 7 days of symptom onset were enrolled. For each patient, TIMI and GRACE risk scores were calculated using specific variables collected at admission. Their prognostic value was evaluated by the endpoint of in-hospital mortality. Results: Among 5 896 NSTEMI patients (age was (65.4±12.1) years old), 68.2% (n=4 020) were males. The in-hospital mortality was 6.0% (n=353) and the median length of hospital stay was 10.0 (7.0, 13.0) days. The incidence of pre-hospital cardiac arrest was 3.6% (n=213) among 5 896 NSTEMI patients. Six hundreds and forty five patients (10.9%) received primary percutaneous coronary intervention, and 6 patients underwent emergent coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (0.1%), and the median time of reperfusion was 529.5 (256.0, 1 065.0) minutes. The prescription percentage of statins, β-blocker, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin Ⅱ receptor blockers, and aldosterone antagonists were 94.8% (n=5 587), 71.7% (n=4 228), 65.5% (n=3 864) and 26.0% (n=1 533) respectively. The area under the curve of GRACE risk score for in-hospital mortality (0.7930 (95%CI 0.767-0.818)) was better than that of TIMI risk score (0.5588 (95%CI 0.532-0.586), P<0.001). Conclusion GRACE risk score demonstrates better predictive accuracy than TIMI risk score for in-hospital mortality in NSTEMI patients in this patient cohort.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Over the past decades, transradial approach for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been increasingly adopted in clinical practice. Women represent a large population who will possibly benefit from PCI, but they are often under-represented in clinical studies. Therefore, the role of TRI in women remains to be further defined. This study sought to compare safety and efficacy for transradial intervention (TRI) and transfemoral intervention (TFI) in women undergoing PCI in China. METHODS: The study population consisted of 5,067 women undergoing PCI at Fuwai Hospital, Beijing, China between 2006 and 2011 (TRI: n=4,105, TFI: n=962). Incidence rates of clinical outcomes during hospitalization and at 1-year follow-up were compared between TRI and TFI. In order to minimize potential biases, a 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) was performed. A total of 899 pairs were matched. RESULTS: Baseline and procedural characteristics were well-balanced between TRI and TFI groups after controlling for confounders using PSM. TRI was associated with reduced major post-PCI bleeding (odds ratio [OR], 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54–0.76; p < 0.001) and access site complications (OR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.61–0.74; p < 0.001) after PSM. There was no statistical differences in the incidence rates of major adverse cardiac events (a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and target vessel revascularization) both during hospitalization and at 1-year follow-up (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS In this propensity score-based analysis of TRI versus TFI in Chinese women, TRI showed advantages of safety and feasibility over TFI. A wider adoption of TRI in women has the potential to improve outcomes in treatment of coronary artery diseases.

Objective:To investigate the establishment and application value of a radio-mics prediction model for lymph node metastasis of gallbladder carcinoma based on dual-phase enhanced computed tomography (CT).Methods:The retrospective cohort study was conducted. The clinicopathological data of 194 patients with gallbladder carcinoma who were admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from January 2012 to December 2020 were collected. There were 70 males and 124 females, aged (64±10)years. All patients underwent curative-intent resection of gallbladder carcinoma. A total of 194 patients were randomly divided into 156 cases in training set and 38 cases in test set according to the ratio of 8:2 based on random number method in R software. The training set was used to establish a diagnostic model, and the test set was used to validate the diagnostic model. After the patients undergoing CT examination, image analysis was performed, radiomics features were extracted, and a radiomics model was established. Based on clinicopathological data, a nomogram prediction model was established. Observation indicators: (1) lymph node dissection and histopathological examination results; (2) establishment and characteristic analysis of a radiomics prediction model; (3) analysis of influencing factors for lymph node metastasis of gallbladder carcinoma; (4) establishment of a nomogram prediction model for lymph node metastasis; (5) comparison of the predictive ability between the radiomics prediction model and nomogram prediction model for lymph node metastasis. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean± SD, and measurement data with skewed distribution were represented as M(range). Count data were expressed as absolute numbers, and comparison between groups was performed by the chi-square test. Univariate analysis was conducted by the chi-square test, and multivariate analysis was performed by the Logistic regression model forward method. The receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn, and the area under curve, decision curve, confusion matrix were used to evaluate the predictive ability of prediction models. Results:(1) Lymph node dissection and histopathological examination results. Of the 194 patients, 182 cases underwent lymph node dissection, with the number of lymph node dissected as 8(range, 1?34) per person and the number of positive lymph node as 0(range, 0?11) per person. Postoperative histopathological examination results of 194 patients: 122 patients were in stage N0, with the number of lymph node dissected as 7(range, 0?27) per person, 48 patients were in stage N1, with the number of lymph node dissected as 8(range, 2?34) per person and the number of positive lymph node as 1(range, 1?3) per person, 24 patients were in stage N2, with the number of lymph node dissected as 11(range, 2?20) per person and the number of positive lymph node as 5(range, 4?11) per person. (2) Establishment and characteristic analysis of a radiomics prediction model. There were 107 radiomics features extracted from 194 patients, including 18 first-order features, 14 shape features and 75 texture features. According to the intra-group correlation coefficient and absolute median difference of each radiomics feature, mutual information, Select K-Best, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression were conducted to further reduce dimensionality. By further combining 5 different machine learning algorithms including random forest, gradient boosting secession tree, support vector machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbors and Logistic regression, the result showed that the Select K-Best_SVM model had the best predictive performance after analysis, with the area under receiver operating characteristic curve as 0.76 in the test set. (3) Analysis of influencing factors for lymph node metastasis of gallbladder carcinoma. Results of univariate analysis showed that systemic inflammation response index, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), CA19-9, CA125, radiological T staging and radiological lymph node status were related factors for lymph node metastasis of patients with gallbladder cancer ( χ2=4.20, 11.39, 5.68, 11.79, 10.83, 18.58, P<0.05). Results of multivariate analysis showed that carcinoembryonic antigen, CA125, radiological T staging (stage T3 versus stage T1?2, stage T4 versus stage T1?2), radiological lymph node status were independent influencing factors for lymph node metastasis of patients with gallbladder carcinoma [ hazard ratio=2.79, 4.41, 5.62, 5.84, 3.99, 95% confidence interval ( CI) as 1.20?6.47, 1.81?10.74, 1.50?21.01, 1.02?33.31, 1.87?8.55, P<0.05]. (4) Establishment of a nomogram prediction model for lymph node metastasis. A nomogram prediction model was established based on the 4 independent influencing factors for lymph node metastasis of gallbladder carcinoma, including CEA, CA125, radiological T staging and radiological lymph node status. The concordance index of the nomogram model was 0.77 (95% CI as 0.75?0.79) in the training set and 0.73 (95% CI as 0.68?0.72) in the test set, respectively. (5) Comparison of the predictive ability between the radiomics predic-tion model and nomogram prediction model for lymph node metastasis. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed that the areas under the curve of Select K-Best_SVM radiomics model were 0.75 (95% CI as 0.74?0.76) in the training set and 0.76 (95% CI as 0.75?0.78) in the test set, respectively. The areas under the curve of nomogram prediction model were 0.77 (95% CI as 0.76?0.78) in the training set and 0.70 (95% CI as 0.68?0.72) in the test set, respectively. The decision curve analysis showed that Select K-Best_SVM radiomics model and nomogram prediction model had a similar ability to predict lymph node metastasis. The confusion matrix showed that Select K-Best_SVM radiomics model had the sensitivity as 64.29% and 75.00%, the specificity as 73.00% and 59.09% in the training set and test set, respectively. The nomogram had the sensitivity as 51.79% and 50.00%, the specificity as 80.00% and 72.27% in the training set and test set, respectively. Conclusion:A dual-phase enhanced CT imaging radiomics prediction model for lymph node metastasis of gallbladder carcinoma is successfully established, and its predictive ability is good and consistent with that of nomogram.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Over the past decades, transradial approach for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been increasingly adopted in clinical practice. Women represent a large population who will possibly benefit from PCI, but they are often under-represented in clinical studies. Therefore, the role of TRI in women remains to be further defined. This study sought to compare safety and efficacy for transradial intervention (TRI) and transfemoral intervention (TFI) in women undergoing PCI in China. METHODS: The study population consisted of 5,067 women undergoing PCI at Fuwai Hospital, Beijing, China between 2006 and 2011 (TRI: n=4,105, TFI: n=962). Incidence rates of clinical outcomes during hospitalization and at 1-year follow-up were compared between TRI and TFI. In order to minimize potential biases, a 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) was performed. A total of 899 pairs were matched. RESULTS: Baseline and procedural characteristics were well-balanced between TRI and TFI groups after controlling for confounders using PSM. TRI was associated with reduced major post-PCI bleeding (odds ratio [OR], 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54–0.76; p < 0.001) and access site complications (OR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.61–0.74; p < 0.001) after PSM. There was no statistical differences in the incidence rates of major adverse cardiac events (a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and target vessel revascularization) both during hospitalization and at 1-year follow-up (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In this propensity score-based analysis of TRI versus TFI in Chinese women, TRI showed advantages of safety and feasibility over TFI. A wider adoption of TRI in women has the potential to improve outcomes in treatment of coronary artery diseases.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Beijing ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; China ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Death ; Female ; Femoral Artery ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemorrhage ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Incidence ; Myocardial Infarction ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Propensity Score ; Radial Artery

Ocular diseases include various anterior and posterior segment diseases. Due to the unique anatomy and physiology of the eye, efficient ocular drug delivery is a great challenge to researchers and pharmacologists. Although there are conventional noninvasive and invasive treatments, such as eye drops, injections and implants, the current treatments either suffer from low bioavailability or severe adverse ocular effects. Alternatively, the emerging nanoscience and nanotechnology are playing an important role in the development of novel strategies for ocular disease therapy. Various active molecules have been designed to associate with nanocarriers to overcome ocular barriers and intimately interact with specific ocular tissues. In this review, we highlight the recent attempts of nanotechnology-based systems for imaging and treating ocular diseases, such as corneal d iseases, glaucoma, retina diseases, and choroid diseases. Although additional work remains, the progress described herein may pave the way to new, highly effective and important ocular nanomedicines.