Objective:To investigate the daily dietary fiber intake, the main adverse cardiovascular events during follow-up and the cardiac event-free survival in patients with chronic heart failure, and to analyze the relationship between dietary fiber intake and cardiac event-free survival in this population.Methods:This study was a prospective investigation. The investigation was performed in chronic heart failure patients from three third-class hospitals in Suzhou using general information questionnaire and 3-day diet diary. Major adverse cardiovascular events within 6 months after discharge and event-free survival were obtained by telephone call and medical records.Results:The incidence of major cardiovascular adverse events in 122 patients with heart failure was 27.9% within 6 months after discharge. Their dietary fiber intake was 8.1(5.8-10.9)g/d, lower than the recommended intake. Kaplan-Meier plots and log-rank tests demonstrated that cardiac event-free survival was significantly shorter in patients with dietary fiber deficiency ( P=0.043). Patients with dietary fiber intake ≥6 g/d after discharge showed decreased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events compared to patients with dietary fiber intake<6 g/d ( HR=0.422; 95% CI=0.189-0.942; P=0.035). Conclusions:This study revealed insufficient dietary fiber intake in patients with heart failure. Insufficient dietary fiber intake was associated with higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events and shorter cardiac event-free survival in heart failure patients within 6 months after discharge. In conclusion, patients with heart failure can increase dietary fiber intake in order to improve prognosis.

Diabetic retinopathy(DR)is one of the major complications of diabetes mellitus, characterized by neurodegeneration and microangiopathy. Currently, the treatment of DR is mainly focused on the management of late complications and has not achieved the desired clinical outcome. Evidence suggests that the PI3K/AKT pathway, as one of the important intracellular signaling pathways during the cell cycle, is involved in the whole process of DR pathogenesis. This article focuses on the structural composition, activation and blocking pathways, conduction pathways, regulatory mechanisms and biological functions of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway to review its role in DR and to explore the potential of targeting the PI3K/AKT pathway for the treatment of DR.