OBJECTIVE: To determine the correlation between interleukin-18 (IL-18) level and Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk score as well as risk stratification in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and to determine the clinical prognostic value of IL-18 for major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in ACS patients. METHODS: A total of 150 ACS patients were subjected to risk assessment and stratification with GRACE risk score. All ACS patients received conventional treatments and MACE was recorded. Plasma IL-18 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and the relationship between plasma IL-18 level and GRACE scores in ACS patients was analyzed. Predictive accuracy of IL-18 level and GRACE risk score for MACE were determined by receiver operating characteristic curve and the corresponding area under the curve. RESULTS: According to GRACE risk stratification, IL-18 level was significantly elevated in the high risk group (>140) compared with that in the middle risk group (109-140; P<0. 05), while IL-18 level was significantly elevated in the middle risk group compared with that in the low risk group (≤108; P<0. 05). According to the IL-18 level, patients were stratified into 4 groups by quartile (from the lowest to the highest, Q1-Q4). Compared with Q1-Q3 groups, the GRACE risk score and percentage of high risk patients were the highest in the Q4 group (P<0.05). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that IL-18 level was positively related with GRACE risk score and that the area under the curve of IL-18 level and GRACE risk score for predicting MACE in hospital patients were 0.887 and 0.914, respectively. CONCLUSION Both IL-18 level and GRACE risk score are valuable parameters for risk of MACE in patients with ACS. IL-18 may be an important biomarker in the prognosis of ACS patients.
Acute Coronary Syndrome ; diagnosis ; Biomarkers ; blood ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Interleukin-18 ; blood ; Prognosis ; ROC Curve ; Risk Assessment ; Severity of Illness Index

Objective To investigate the application effect of the sandwich teaching method in the course of Surgical Nursing . Methods Two classes of the students majoring in nursing were randomly divided into control group and observation group, with 36 students in each group. The students in the control group received the traditional teaching method, and those in the observation group received the sandwich teaching method . The teaching effect was compared between the two groups by theoretical assessment and questionnaire survey. SPSS 24.0 was used for analysis of variance and the t-test. Results Compared with the control group, the observation group had significantly higher scores of course assessment, learning atmosphere, and learning initiative. The observation group also had significantly higher good rates of learning atmosphere and learning initiative than the control group(P<0.05). Conclusion The sandwich teaching method can significantly improve students' abilities of communication and problem solving, arouse their enthusiasm of learning, and increase the interestingness of classroom, and therefore, it has a practical value in teaching.

BACKGROUNDmiR-338-3p is a recently discovered miRNA and is involved in cell differentiation. However, few data are yet available on the aberrant expression of miR-338-3p in human colorectal carcinoma (CRC). This work aimed to investigate the relationship between miR-338-3p expression pattern and clinicopathological features of human CRC and the possible regulative mechanisms.

METHODSThe 40 CRC, adjacent nontumorous tissues and 2 human CRC-derived cell lines (SW-480 and SW-620) were collected, respectively, and the total RNA and protein were isolated routinely. The miR-338-3p expression pattern was detected by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Northern blotting. Smoothened (SMO, possible target of miR-338-3p) mRNA and corresponding protein expression pattern were detected by semiquantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting. miR-338-3p expression patterns were compared between nontumor mucosa and CRC samples, graded by progression-related factors. Disease outcome was calculated by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis to determine whether miR-338-3p was related to disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients. Moreover, SMO 3'-UTR fragment was PCR amplified from genome DNA of human colon and inserted into a luciferase reporter plasmid. The luciferase reporter plasmid construct was then transfected into CRC cells together with pre-miR-338-3p or anti-miR-338-3p and the luciferase activity in the transfected cells was detected.

RESULTSThe expression of miR-338-3p was significantly downregulated in CRCs than those in the adjacent nontumorous tissues, and the value was negatively related to advanced TNM stage and local invasion (P < 0.01). Furthermore, miR-338-3p value was decreased markedly in SW-620 cell line relative to SW-480 (P < 0.01). Low expression of miR-338-3p was associated with unfavorable outcome in DFS but not in OS independent of clinical covariates. Moreover, RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis demonstrated that there was no significant difference in SMO mRNA expression between the corresponding CRCs and nontumorous tissues, whereas SMO protein markedly increased in CRCs (P < 0.01). A significant increase in luciferase activity was detected in CRC cells, which were cotransfected with the luciferase reporter plasmid construct and anti-miR-338-3p (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSmiR-338-3p is expressed differentially in CRC and associated with progression and prognosis of CRC. SMO might be a possible target of miR-338-3p, which made it a potential antitumor candidate for treatment and prevention of CRC.

Adult ; Aged ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; genetics ; pathology ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; genetics ; physiology ; Humans ; Male ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis

Objective To study the effect of β-aescine sodium on tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) in patient with severe traumatic brain injury and the clinical significance. Methods 60 patients with severe traumatic brain injury were divided equally into control group (n=30) and treatment group (n=30), who accepted routine therapy and further β-aescine sodium respectively. The serum TNF-α was determined before and 1 d, 2 d, 3 d, 5 d and 7 d after treatment. The patients were assessed with Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) 3 months after treatment.Results There was significant difference of serum TNF-α between treatment group and control group since 3 d after treatment (P<0.05). The score of GOS was better in the treatment group than in the control group 3 months after treatment (P<0.05). Conclusion β-aescine sodium is effective on severe traumatic brain injury. Level of TNF-α may be related with the outcome of patients with severe traumatic brain injury.

Next generation sequencing (NGS) has developed very rapidly in the last decade. Compared with Sanger sequencing, NGS has the advantages of high sensitivity and high throughput. Movement disorders are a common type of neurological disease. Although traditional linkage analysis has become a standard method to identify the pathogenic genes in diseases, it is getting difficult to find new pathogenic genes in rare Mendelian disorders, such as movement disorders, due to a lack of appropriate families with high penetrance or enough affected individuals. Thus, NGS is an ideal approach to identify the causal alleles for inherited disorders. NGS is used to identify genes in several diseases and new mutant sites in Mendelian movement disorders. This article reviewed the recent progress in NGS and the use of NGS in Mendelian movement disorders from genome sequencing and transcriptome sequencing. A perspective on how NGS could be employed in rare Mendelian disorders is also provided.
Alleles ; Genetic Linkage ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; methods ; Humans ; Movement Disorders ; diagnosis ; genetics ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Transcriptome