Objective To study the effect of dexmedetomidine (DEX) on postoperative cognitive function and preoperative inflammation in the elderly patients undergoing general anesthesia. Methods 70 elderly patients undergoing general anesthesia operation were chosen and divided into observation group and control group randomly. DEX and physiological saline were applied in observation group on the basis of routine general anesthesia. The cognitive function of patients in both groups were tested by mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and the incidence rate of cognitive dysfunction (POCD) were measured at 1 day before surgery, 1 day, 3 days, 5 days, and 7 days after surgery. The level of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) were tested before anesthesia, during skin incision, rightly after operation and 1h after operation. Results MMSE scores were significantly higher and the incident rates of POCD were lower in observation group than those in control group at 1 day and 3 days after surgery (P<0.05). The levels of IL-6 and TNF-αincreased obviously during skin incision and postoperative period, and they were significantly lower in observation group (P<0.05). The levels of IL-6 and TNF-αdecreased to the levels before anesthesia in observation group, and were still much higher in control group than that of preanesthesia (P < 0.05). Conclusions DEX infusion intraoperatively may effectively decrease the incidence of early POCD, whose mechanism could be reducing inflammation response.

Objective To innovate an early, rapid and efficient approach to the pmgnestic evaluation of sep-sis in order to lower the mortality. Method Forty-five septic rats, induced by cecal ligation and puncture, were divided into surviving group (n=23) and non-survival group (n=22) on six days after onset of sepsis. Serum samples were taken from septic and sham-operated rats (n=25) at 12 hours after surgery. HPLC/MS assays were performed to acquire the serum metabolic profiles, and radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) was em-ployed to build predictive model for prognostic evaluation of sepsis. Results The principal component analysis al-lows differentiating the rots of survive,non-survive and sham-operated from one another in respect of the pathologic characteristics. Six metabolites, linolenic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid, stearic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and do-cosapentaenoic acid, related to the outcomes of septic rats were then structurally identified. A RBFNN model for outcome predication was built based upon the metabolic profile data from rat sera with the sensitivity of (96.1 ±3.6)% (n=10) and specificity of (91.0±4.3)% (n=10). Condusions HPLC/MS-based metabonomic approach combined with pattern recognition permits accurate outcome prediction of septic rats in the early stage. The proposed approach has advantages of rapid, low-cost and efficiency, and is isph-ing to be applied in clinical prognostic evaluation of septic patients.

Objective The study aimed to elucidate the evolution of the syndromes in Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)and TCM syndrome elements in different chronic stages of psoriasis vulgaris.Methods A database was constructed using electronic medical records collected from July 2019 to March 2024 from 1,049 patients with psoriasis vulgaris.The study used Sankey diagrams and network association graphs to analyze the evolution of TCM syndromes and their elements in patients at the different stages:initial diagnosis,progressive stage(Week 2-3),progressive stage(Week 4-5),skin lesion improvement stage(Week 6-7),and remission stage.The syndrome elements network was constructed using community detection algorithms,and the association rules between local skin lesion syndrome differentiation and overall syndrome differentiation were displayed using heatmaps.Results(ⅰ)Initial diagnosis.In the syndrome differentiation of local skin lesions,blood heat syndrome was the most common(79.79％);among the disease location of TCM syndrome elements(called"disease location"),liver was the most prevalent(35.62％);and among the pathological factors of TCM syndrome elements(called"pathological factors"),fire(heat)was the most common(75.48％).(ⅱ)Active stage(Week 2-3).In the syndrome differentiation of local skin lesions,blood heat syndrome remained the most prevalent(73.13％);among the disease location,liver was still the most prevalent(31.71％);and among the pathological factors,fire(heat)continued to be the most common(82.11％),while dampness(22.26％)and qi stagnation(8.39％)began to increase.(ⅲ)Active stage(Week 4-5).The syndrome differentiation of local skin lesions was dominated by blood heat syndrome(45.91％)and blood dryness syndrome(37.19％);among disease location,the interior was the most prevalent(15.25％);and among the pathological factors,fire(heat)remained the most common(50.66％),with an increase in yin deficiency(34.26％).(ⅳ)Skin lesion improvement stage(Week 6-7).In the syndrome differentiation of local skin lesions,both blood dryness syndrome(49.44％)and blood stasis syndrome(33.33％)increased;among the disease location,meridians increased most significantly and became the most prevalent(13.44％);and among the pathological factors,blood stasis increased most significantly and became the most prevalent(28.20％).(ⅴ)Remission stage.In the syndrome differentiation of local skin lesions,blood stasis syndrome became the primary(55.69％),while the percentage of blood dryness syndrome decreased(21.16％);meridians(25.71％)and blood stasis(62.34％)remained the most predominant syndrome elements related to disease location or pathological factors.Conclusion The overall pattern of TCM syndromes in psoriasis vulgaris evolved from excess to deficiency.From the initial diagnosis to the active phase(Week 2-3),heat syndrome dominated;during the active phase(Week 4-5),heat syndrome coexisted with damp syndrome or yin deficiency syndrome;changes in the syndrome element network were the most significant during the lesion improvement phase,with blood stasis gradually increasing and peaking during the remission phase.Blood stasis,dampness,and qi stagnation were pervasive throughout psoriasis vulgaris;qi stagnation and blood stasis may be the main elements causing further deterioration and prolonged course of the disease during the active phase in patients.

AlM: To explore the effects of irisin on house dust mite (HDM)-induced inflammation and apoptosis in human airway epithelial cells. METHODS: The human bronchial epithelial cell (16HBE) were cultured with in RPMI1640 culture medium with 10% of fetal bovine serum. After cells reached 85% confluence, the medium was replaced with serum-free culture medium for 12 h. Then the 16HBE cells were treated with various concentrations of HDM (0, 400, 800, 12 00 U/mL) for 24 h. Reactive oxygen species assay kit was used to detected the intracellular ROS generation. And qPCR was used to measure the interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) mRNA expression of the HDM-induced 16HBE cell. The cells were pre-treated with or without irisin for 2 h before exposure to various concentration of HDM for 24 h. Then reactive oxygen species assay kit was used to detected the intracellular ROS generation. The IL-6, TNF-α mRNA expression of 16HBE cell were measured by qPCR. Meanwhile, the phosphorylated and total P65 NF-κB and JNK proteins were detected by western blot. The pro-apoptosis protein cleaved-caspase3BAX and the anti-apoptosis protein were also detected by western blot. RESULTS: The quantitative assay showed that intracellular ROS in different concentrations of HDM stimulus group were obviously higher than NC group (P < 0.05). And RT-PCR analysis showed a higher expression level of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA in different concentrations of HDM than in NC group (P < 0.05). Compared with the HDM group, Irisin significantly decreased the level of intracellular ROS of the 16HBE cells (P < 0.05). The released of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA was also decreased in irisin treated 16HBE cells (P < 0.05). And compared with control group, BCL-XL anti-apoptosis protein level was decreased and BAX and c-caspase3 pro-apoptosis protein levels were increased in HDM group (P < 0.05), irisin intervention significantly increased the level of BCL-XL and decreased the levels of BAX and cleaved-caspase 3 (P < 0.05). Compared the control group, phosphorylated P65 NF-κB and JNK protein levels were significantly increased after HDM stimulated (P < 0.05), and irisin intervention decreased the protein levels of phosphorylated P65 NF-κB and JNK (P < 0.05). CONCLUSlON: Irisin can effectively improve the inflammation and apoptosis of HDM-induced 16HBE cells, and this protective effect may be related to its inhibition of NF-κB and JNK MAPK signaling pathways. Irisin may be a potential drug for treating lung inflammation.

ObjectiveTo investigate reinfection or the third time infection with SARS-CoV-2 among the people tested for positive from December 2022 to January 2023 and the influencing factors through a follow-up survey on previous novel coronavirus nucleic acid positive individuals between March to May, 2022. MethodsEpidemiological data of 2 583 novel coronavirus nucleic acid test positive cases were analyzed from March to May, 2022, following a follow-up survey at the 8^th and 12^th month after the first nucleic acid test positivity. Pearson chi-square method was used to analyze the differences of reinfection and the third time infection rates among first-positive patients with different characteristics. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression were used to analyze the influencing factors of reinfection. ResultsA total of 2 264 valid questionnaires were collected in the 8^th month after nucleic acid tested positive, with a recovery rate of 87.7% and a reinfection rate of 9.7%. The third time infection was investigated among the individuals infected twice at the 12^th month after the first nucleic acid test positivity, with a third time infection rate of 4.6%. The median interval (P₂₅, P₇₅) between reinfection and the first nucleic acid test positive for the novel coronavirus was 261 (252, 268) days and the interval (P₂₅, P₇₅) between the third time infection and reinfection was 135 (111,157) days. Gender, age, occupation, smoking, drinking and underlying diseases were not statistically associated with the risk of reinfection (P>0.05). However, the the third time infection rate for medical staffs (20.0%) was higher than that for student /teachers (14.3%) and corporate employees (9.5%), with a statistically significant difference in the third infection rate between different occupations (P<0.05). The risk of reinfection in self-employed individual was lower than that in corporate employees (HR=0.52, 95%CI: 0.33‒0.83), and which was still lower after adjustment for gender and age. The risk of reinfection among those with underlying diseases was 1.54 times (95%CI: 1.08‒2.02) higher than those without underlying diseases, but even 1.85 times (95%CI: 1.25‒2.75) higher after adjustment for gender and age. ConclusionDue to the constant mutation and variants of the novel coronavirus, the risk of reinfection and the third time infection is unavoidable. The presence of underlying diseases and occupation are the main factors influencing reinfection or third time infection.