BACKGROUND: Spicy food consumption has been reported to be inversely associated with mortality from multiple diseases. However, the effect of spicy food intake on the incidence of vascular diseases in the Chinese population remains unclear. This study was conducted to explore this association. METHODS: This study was performed using the large-scale China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) prospective cohort of 486,335 participants. The primary outcomes were vascular disease, ischemic heart disease (IHD), major coronary events (MCEs), cerebrovascular disease, stroke, and non-stroke cerebrovascular disease. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to assess the association between spicy food consumption and incident vascular diseases. Subgroup analysis was also performed to evaluate the heterogeneity of the association between spicy food consumption and the risk of vascular disease stratified by several basic characteristics. In addition, the joint effects of spicy food consumption and the healthy lifestyle score on the risk of vascular disease were also evaluated, and sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the reliability of the association results. RESULTS: During a median follow-up time of 12.1 years, a total of 136,125 patients with vascular disease, 46,689 patients with IHD, 10,097 patients with MCEs, 80,114 patients with cerebrovascular disease, 56,726 patients with stroke, and 40,098 patients with non-stroke cerebrovascular disease were identified. Participants who consumed spicy food 1-2 days/week (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.95, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = [0.93, 0.97], P <0.001), 3-5 days/week (HR = 0.96, 95% CI = [0.94, 0.99], P = 0.003), and 6-7 days/week (HR = 0.97, 95% CI = [0.95, 0.99], P = 0.002) had a significantly lower risk of vascular disease than those who consumed spicy food less than once a week ( Ptrend <0.001), especially in those who were younger and living in rural areas. Notably, the disease-based subgroup analysis indicated that the inverse associations remained in IHD ( Ptrend = 0.011) and MCEs ( Ptrend = 0.002) risk. Intriguingly, there was an interaction effect between spicy food consumption and the healthy lifestyle score on the risk of IHD ( Pinteraction = 0.037). CONCLUSIONS Our findings support an inverse association between spicy food consumption and vascular disease in the Chinese population, which may provide additional dietary guidance for the prevention of vascular diseases.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Prospective Studies ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Vascular Diseases/etiology* ; Risk Factors ; China/epidemiology* ; Adult ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Cerebrovascular Disorders/epidemiology* ; East Asian People

Objective:To analyze the value of minute ventilation to carbon dioxide production slope (VE/VCO 2 slope) combined with peak systolic blood pressure (SBP) in predicting prognosis for patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Methods:A total of 170 patients with CHF who visited the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center of Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University and completed cardiopulmonary exercise test from March 2007 to December 2018 were enrolled in the study. The clinical data, cardiopulmonary exercise testing results and follow-up information of patients were collected to explore the predictors of all-cause mortality in patients with CHF.Results:The median follow-up time was 647 (182-1 764) days. All-cause death occurred in 34 patients. Compared with surviving patients, the proportion of diabetes and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin Ⅱ receptor blocker (ACEI/ARB) use in fatal patients was significantly higher ( P<0.01). The VE/VCO 2 slope and peak SBP*VE/VCO 2 in the fatal patients were significantly higher, and the peak oxygen consumption (peak VO 2) was lower than those in the surviving patients ( P<0.01). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of VE/VCO 2 slope and peak SBP*VE/VCO 2 in predicting all-cause mortality in patients with CHF were 0.648 ( P=0.008) and 0.681 ( P=0.001), respectively; the optimal thresholds were >40.95 ( P=0.008) and > 5 423.50 mmHg (1 mmHg=0.133 kPa, P=0.006), the sensitivity was 0.559 and 0.588, and the specificity was 0.728 and 0.735, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that after adjusting for age, gender, diabetes and ACEI/ARB use, VE/VCO 2 slope ( HR=2.12, P=0.036) and peak SBP*VE/VCO 2 ( HR=2.42, P=0.016) were independent risk factors for all-cause mortality in patients with CHF. Conclusion:Compared to the traditional index VE/VCO 2 slope, a novel index peak SBP* VE/VCO 2 provides a relatively better predictive value for all-cause death of CHF patients.

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is an autoimmune response-mediated liver parenchymal inflammation targeting hepatocytes, with the features of autoantibodies in serum, a high serum level of immunoglobulin G, and/or hypergammaglobulinemia. Most AIH patients have one or more autoantibodies in serum, and these antibodies are important features of AIH and the basis for the diagnosis of AIH. Some antibodies are also associated with the clinical manifestations, disease activity, therapeutic response, and prognosis of AIH. This article reviews AIH-related autoantibodies and their clinical significance.

Objective To detect the expressions of chemokine CXCL5 and its receptor CXCR2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), investigate their relationships between CXCL5, CXCR2 and clinicopathologic features and probe into the significance in the evaluation of prognosis. Methods Immunohistochemical Envision method was utilized to detect the expressions of CXCL5 and CXCR2 in HCC , to explore their relationship between CXCL5, CXCR2 and clinicopathologic features and MVD in HCC. Results (1) The high expression rates of CXCL5 and CXCR2 protein was 64.7% and 68.6%, respectively, significantly higher than those in adjacent tissues of HCC(17.6%, 15.7%, P < 0.05). The overexpression of CXCL5 protein had correlation with tumor size, differentiation, TNM stage and vascular invasion (P < 0.05) and the overexpression of CXCR2 protein did with tumor grade and vascular invasion (P < 0.05). (2) The value of MVD was higher in HCC than that in the adjacent tissues of HCC (P < 0.05), and had positive correlation with the expressions of CXCL5, and CXCR2 proteins. (3) The higher rates of recurrence and metastasis were in the groups of higher expression of CXCL5 and CXCR2 proteins (P < 0.05). Conclusions The overexpressions of CXCL5 and CXCR2 may promote the occurrence and development of HCC as well as the neovasculation in HCC. Therefore, they can be used as markers to evaluate the prognosis of HCC.