Objective To provide a framework for understanding the need for a structured assessment of altered mental status (AMS) to better understand underlying causes of the mental status changes in adults and therefore potentially improve diagnostic skills and eventually management.Methods This is a prospective cohort observational study.We recruited consecutive adult patients with undifferentiated AMS at a single center tertiary care academic emergency department over 24 months.Demographical,clinical presentations,assessment approaches,cause factors,emergency treatments and outcomes were collected prospectively.Results One thousand nine hundred and thirty-four patients with AMS were recruited,this number of patients represented 5％ of the total ED census.Out of 1934 patients,1026 (53.1％) were male,908 (46.9％) were female.Mean age was (51.95 ± 15.71) years.Etiologic factors included neurological (n =641,35.0％),pharmacologic & toxicologic (n =421,23.0％),systemic and organic (n =266,14.5％),infectious (n =167; 9.1％),endocrine/metabolic (n =145,7.9％),psychiatric (n =71,3.9％),traumatic (n =38,2.1％),gynecologic and obstetric (n =35,1.9％).Total mortality rate was 8.1％ (n =156).The death rate was higher in elderly patients (≥ 60) than that in younger patients (10.8％ vs.6.9％,P =0.003).Conclusions The patient with AMS poses a challenge to physicians in ED.The most frequently encountered diagnostic category causing AMS were primary CNS disorders,intoxication,organ system dysfunction and endocrine/metabolic diseases.Fatality rate is very high.Prompt evaluation and treatment are essential to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with this condition.

Objective:To construct an early prediction model for post cardiopulmonary resuscitation-acute kidney injury (PCPR-AKI) by machine learning and provide a basis for early identification of acute kidney injury (AKI) high-risk patients and accurate treatment.Methods:It was a single-center retrospective study. The clinical data of patients admitted to Tianjin Medical University General Hospital after cardiopulmonary resuscitation following cardiac arrest from January 1, 2016 to October 31, 2023 were collected. The end-point event of the study was defined as AKI occurring within 48 hours after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The patients were divided into AKI group and non-AKI group according to the AKI diagnostic criteria, and the differences of baseline clinical data between the two groups were compared. The patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly (using the train_test_split function, set the random seeds to 1, 2, and 3) divided into training and validation sets at a ratio of 7∶3. Random forest (RF), support vector machine, decision tree, extreme gradient boosting and light gradient boosting machine algorithm were used to develop the early prediction model of PCPR-AKI. The receiver-operating characteristic curve and decision curve analysis were used to evaluate the performance and clinical practicality of the predictive models, and the importance of variables in the optimal model was screened and ranked.Results:A total of 547 patients were enrolled, with age of 66 (59, 70) years old and 282 males (51.6%). There were 238 patients (43.5%) having incidence of AKI within 48 hours after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the AKI group, 182 patients (76.5%) were in stage 1, 47 patients (19.7%) were in stage 2, and 9 patients (3.8%) were in stage 3. There were statistically significant differences in the age, time to reach resuscitation of spontaneous circulation, time from cardiac arrest to starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation, proportion of initial defibrillation rhythm, proportion of electric defibrillation, proportion of mechanical ventilation, adrenaline dosage, sodium bicarbonate dosage, proportion of coronary heart disease, proportion of hypertension, proportion of diabetes, serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, blood lactic acid, blood potassium, brain natriuretic peptide, troponin, D-dimer, neuron specific enolase, and 24 hours urine volume after cardiopulmonary resuscitation between AKI group and non-AKI group (all P<0.05). Among the five machine learning algorithms, RF model achieved the best performance and clinical practicality, with area under the curve of 0.875, sensitivity of 0.863, specificity of 0.956, and accuracy rate of 90.7%. In the variable importance ranking of RF model, the top 10 variables were as follows: time to reach resuscitation of spontaneous circulation, time from cardiac arrest to starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation, initial defibrillable rhythm, serum creatinine, mechanical ventilation, blood lactate acid, adrenaline dosage, brain natriuretic peptide, D-dimer and age. Conclusions:An early predictive model for PCPR-AKI is successfully constructed based on machine learning. RF model has the best predictive performance. According to the importance of the variables, it can provide clinical strategies for early identification and precise intervention for PCPR-AKI.

Objective:To study the effect of Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granules on joint function, quality of life and inflammatory factors in patients with Kashin-Beck disease.Methods:By group design, 135 patients with Kashin-Beck disease in Chongxin County, Pingliang City, Gansu Province, were selected and divided into intervention group (100 cases treated with Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granules, 12 g/bag, 1 bag/time, 3 times/day, treatment for 1 month) and control group (35 cases treated with ibuprofen, 0.3 g/capsule, 1 capsule/time, 2 times/day, treatment for 2 weeks) according to the randomized, single-blind principle. The changes of joint dysfunction index score, joint function improvement rate, total scores of Kashin-Beck disease quality of life (KBDQOL) and scores of each dimension were analyzed before treatment, 1 month and 3 months after treatment. The serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), nuclear factor κB (NFκB)-p65, inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2), nitric oxide (NO), and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay before treatment and 1 month after treatment.Results:The total scores of joint dysfunction index of the intervention group and the control group 1 month after treatment and 3 months after treatment were lower than those before treatment, but 3 months after treatment was higher than 1 month after treatment ( P < 0.001). One month after treatment, the total effective rates of joint function improvement in the intervention group and the control group were 68.00% (68/100) and 54.55% (18/33), respectively; 3 months after treatment, the total effective rates of the intervention group and the control group were 36.00% (36/100) and 39.39%(13/33), respectively. The total scores and scores of each dimension of KBDQOL were not significant for the main effect of the group ( P > 0.05), but significant for the main effect at the time point ( P < 0.05), and there was no interactive effect ( P > 0.05). There were significant differences in the scores of social support and mental status dimensions in the intervention group at different time points ( P < 0.001). And in the intervention group, the total score, the scores of physical function, activity limitation, economy and overall health dimensions were statistically significant between before treatment and 1 month after treatment, 1 month after treatment and 3 months after treatment( P < 0.05); however, there was no significant difference between before treatment and 3 months after treatment ( P > 0.05). One month after treatment, the serum PGE2 levels of both groups were decreased ( P < 0.05), and there was no difference in other inflammatory factors at different groups and time points ( P > 0.05). Conclusion:Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granules can effectively inhibit the inflammatory reaction of patients with Kashin-Beck disease, promote the improvement of joint function and improve the quality of life in various aspects.

Environmental chemical pollutants are increasing, which brings various harms to human health. Epigenetics may be an important medium between exposure to environmental chemical contaminants and adverse health effects. Many environmental chemical pollutant exposures can regulate gene expression and promote disease occurrence and development through epigenetic mechanisms. This review outlines the mechanisms of epigenetics and the latest research advances in exposure and epigenetics of several environmental chemical substances (heavy metal arsenic, bisphenol A, dioctyl phthalate and benzene). To further understand and study the relationship between environmental chemical pollutant exposures and epigenetics in order to elucidate the mechanisms of disease occurrence and development.

Environmental chemical pollutants are increasing, which brings various harms to human health. Epigenetics may be an important medium between exposure to environmental chemical contaminants and adverse health effects. Many environmental chemical pollutant exposures can regulate gene expression and promote disease occurrence and development through epigenetic mechanisms. This review outlines the mechanisms of epigenetics and the latest research advances in exposure and epigenetics of several environmental chemical substances (heavy metal arsenic, bisphenol A, dioctyl phthalate and benzene). To further understand and study the relationship between environmental chemical pollutant exposures and epigenetics in order to elucidate the mechanisms of disease occurrence and development.

Objective:To learn about the current situation of prevention and control results of three-year campaign for Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) in Pingliang City, and to provide scientific basis for prevention and control of KBD.Methods:A retrospective analysis was carried out to collect the KBD surveillance data of all villages in the counties (cities, districts) affected by KBD in Pingliang City, Gansu Province during 2019 - 2020 from the "National Integrated Management System for Endemic Disease Prevention and Control (Three-year Campaign Action Management System)", including, the prevalence of children aged 7 to 12 years old, the implementation of prevention and control measures, and the case investigation, the establishment, management of health files and treatment of current patients.Results:Patients with KBD were distributed in 6 counties (cities, districts), 64 townships (towns), and 690 villages in Pingliang City, and all of them were seriously ill area. In 2019 and 2020, 40 537 and 41 053 children aged 7 to 12 years old were examined, respectively, and the clinical detection rate was 0.08% (31/40 537) and 0.03% (12/41 053), respectively; the X-ray detection rate was 0 in each year. In the dietary structure of residents in Pingliang City from 2018 to 2020, the consumption proportions of rice, flour and other diets was 15.03%, 76.63% and 8.34%, respectively, and the purchase proportion of staple food was 19.28%. From 2018 - 2020, 9 564 households and 36 282 people had been relocated from the affected areas, 4 831 children aged 7 to 12 years old had been raised in different places, 14.81% (420 914/2 842 939) of the original cultivated land had been converted to cash crops, 21.81%(620 045/2 842 939) of the original cultivated land had been converted from farmland to forest (grass), and 231 811 nutrition package for children aged 6 to 24 months had been given. A total of 6 269 KBD patients were investigated and registered, including 3 722 males and 2 547 females, with a gender ratio of 1.00 ∶ 0.68. The most clinical grading was grade Ⅰ, accounting for 78.00% (4 890/6 269), followed by grade Ⅱ (15.89%, 996/6 269) and grade Ⅲ (6.11%, 383/6 269); the age of onset was (64.57 ± 10.01) years old, ranging from 16 to 87 years old; most patients were over 50 years old, accounting for 86.57% (5 427/6 269). In 2019, 1 659 KBD patients were treated. The apparent efficiency, effective efficiency and ineffective efficiency were 25.38% (421 cases), 52.92% (878 cases) and 21.70% (360 cases), respectively. In 2020, 1 395 KBD patients were treated; the apparent efficiency, effective efficiency and ineffective efficiency were 19.50% (272 cases), 61.65% (860 cases) and 18.85% (263 cases), respectively.Conclusions:All villages in KBD area in Pingliang City have reached the elimination standard and achieved the elimination goal. We should continue to do a good job in the dynamic monitoring of the disease, strengthen the implementation of prevention and control measures and rehabilitation intervention for patients with KBD, and improve the quality of life of patients.

AIM: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of ultrasonic cycloplasty(UCP)combined with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)+ panretinal photocoagulation(PRP)in the treatment of advanced neovascular glaucoma(NVG).METHODS: Retrospective study. A total of 45 patients(45 eyes)with advanced NVG who received surgery in our hospital from August 2020 to September 2022 were collected and divided into UCP+ anti-VEGF +PRP group(16 patients, 16 eyes), transscleral cyclophotocoagulation(TCP)+anti-VEGF+PRP group(20 patients, 20 eyes), UCP alone group(9 patients, 9 eyes). The intraocular pressure, pain scores, postoperative medication, effective rate, total success rate and the incidence of complications of the patients in the three groups were compared before surgery and at 1 d, 1 wk, 1 and 3 mo after surgery.RESULTS: There was no significant difference in preoperative intraocular pressure, pain scores and preoperative medication of patients in the three groups(all P>0.05). While there were statistical significance in the intraocular pressure and pain scores at 1 d, 1 wk, 1 and 3 mo after surgery(all P<0.01). The intraocular pressure of the UCP alone group(31.78±10.23 mmHg)was found to be higher than that of both the UCP+ anti-VEGF +PRP group(19.44±8.23 mmHg)and the TCP+ anti-VEGF +PRP group(20.80±10.27 mmHg)at 1 mo postoperatively(all P<0.017). The pain score of the TCP+ anti-VEGF +PRP group at 1 d and 1 wk postoperatively was higher than both the UCP+ anti-VEGF +PRP group and the UCP alone group(all P<0.017). The effective rates of UCP+ anti-VEGF +PRP group, TCP+ anti-VEGF +PRP group and UCP alone group were 81%(13/16), 75%(15/20)and 67%(6/9), respectively,(P=0.675), and the success rates were 69%(11/16), 50%(10/20), and 0(0/9), respectively(P=0.003). There was no significant difference in complications of patients in the three groups(P>0.05).CONCLUSION: UCP combined with anti-VEGF +PRP and TCP combined with anti-VEGF +PRP showed comparable efficacy in reducing intraocular pressure in advanced NVG. UCP combined with anti-VEGF+PRP was more effective in relieving pain and with no serious complications in advanced NVG. UCP alone can effectively control intraocular pressure and alleviate the pain of patients in the early postoperative period, but long-term control still requires anti-VEGF+PRP.