OBJECTIVETo investigate the Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) associated lung involvement, concentrating on clinical characteristics, pathological findings of lung involvements, response to treatment, and prognosis.

METHODSWe retrospectively analyzed the characters of the clinical manifestations, thin-section CT and pathological findings of CSS. The study involved 16 patients. Clinical data were obtained by chart review. All patients underwent transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB). Six of them underwent surgical lung biopsy as well.

RESULTSThe patients included 7 men and 9 women, aged from 14 to 61 years (median, 47.5 years). Extrathoracic organs involved included nervous system (7/16) and skin (5/16). Respiratory symptoms included cough (12/16), exertional dyspnea (11/16), hemoptysis (4/16), and chest pain (3/16). CT findings included bilateral ground-glass opacities (12/16), bilateral patchy opacities (12/16), and centrilobular nodules (6/16). The pathological findings of TBLB demonstrated increased eosinophils (3/16), vasculitis (3/16), and interstitial pneumonia (16/16). The pathological findings of surgical lung biopsy of 6 cases showed necrotizing vasculitis in 4 cases, capillaries in 5, eosinophilic pneumonia in 3, granulomas in 2, and airway abnormalities in 3. All patients improved in symptoms after therapy during the study period (range, 3 to 51 months; median, 15 months).

CONCLUSIONSAsthma may be present in CSS patient when there is bronchial involvement. Ground-glass opacities and consolidation seen on high-resolution CT reflect the presence of eosinophilic pneumonia, vasculitis, and pulmonary alveolar hemorrhage. TBLB has significant limitations for the diagnosis of CSS. Early diagnosis and therapy can result in satisfactory prognosis.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Asthma ; physiopathology ; Biopsy ; Churg-Strauss Syndrome ; diagnosis ; diagnostic imaging ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Cyclophosphamide ; Female ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; therapeutic use ; Lung ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; methods ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Objective To understand the relationship between the concentration of air pollutants and daily emergency department visits for different diseases (circulatory system disease, digestive system disease, nervous system disease and respiratory system disease) in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. Methods The daily average concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2, carbon monoxide (CO) and PM2.5 and the daily maximum 8-hour concentrations of O3, the daily average temperature, the relative humidity and cause -specific emergency department visits of the four major diseases from 2015 to 2017 were collected in Guangzhou. Semi-parametric generalized additive model was used to analyze the relationship between the concentration of pollutants and daily cause-specific emergency department visits. Results The daily average concentrations of SO2, NO2, CO, O3 and PM2.5 during the study period were 13.24 μg /m3, 45.96 μg /m3, 0.97 mg /m3, 123.77 μg /m3 and 36.22 μg /m3, respectively. For circulatory system disease，the independently significant associations of SO2 with emergency department visits in single-pollutant models (2.91%, 95% CI: 1.00%-4.85%), and multipollutant models (4.39%, 95% CI: 1.22%-7.67%) were observed. Conclusion The ambient SO2 increases the risk of emergency department visits due to circulatory diseases in Guangzhou. Comprehensive prevention and control measures should be taken to reduce the emission of SO2.

Interleukin-1 receptor associated kinase 4 (IRAK-4), acting as a serine threonine kinase, is considered as a key signal node for the transduction of IL-1R family and TLRs signal pathway. Studies have found that IRAK-4 has a hand in many signal pathways, involving the inflammatory response of human joints, intestines, liver and nervous system, as well as other autoimmune diseases. It is also one of the causes of drug resistance of some cancer cells. Therefore, IRAK-4 tends to be an effective therapeutic target for inflammatory diseases and cancer. The prospects for the development of drugs in this pathway is to develop novel IRAK-4 small molecule inhibitors and investigate their safety and effectiveness, enrich the clinical treatment of inflammatory and cancer diseases finally. This paper classified and summarized the latest research progress on small molecule inhibitors of IRAK-4 signaling pathway according to structures of the compounds, in order to provide assistances and references for the research and development of related drugs.

Objective: To investigate the safety and efficacy of regional transport to percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI) hospitals from non-PCI hospitals after thrombolysis in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction(STEMI) in northwest China. Methods: In this retrospective study, 1 062 STEMI patients who were transferred from non-PCI hospitals within 24 hours from symptom onset, during January 2015 and January 2019 in the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, were included. According to the treatment strategy, they were divided into two groups, namely intravenous thrombolysis combined with PCI group(n=240), and primary PCI group(n=822). Observation endpoint were in-hospital adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events and bleeding events, Including all-cause death, ischemic stroke, malignant arrhythmia, intracranial hemorrhage and hemorrhage with hemoglobin decrease≥50 g/L. Results: A total of 1 062 STEMI patients were included(age was (61±12) years old), with 905 males (85.2%). The proportion of grade 0 TIMI blood flow in the primary PCI group before operation was significantly higher than that in the thrombolysis combined with PCI group(63.0%(518/822) vs. 36.3%(87/240)， P<0.001). Compared with primary PCI group, the time from symptom onset to first medical contact(2.11(1.00, 4.00)hours vs.3.00(1.13, 7.07)hours, P<0.001) and reperfusion in thrombolysis combined with PCI group(3.07(1.83, 4.87)hours vs. 6.92(4.07, 11.15) hours, P<0.001) were significantly shorter. The proportion of all-cause death was significantly higher in the primary PCI group than that in the thrombolysis combined with PCI group (1.8%(15/822) vs. 0, P=0.03). There was no significant difference in hemorrhage, ischemic stroke and malignant arrhythmia between the two groups(all P>0.05). Conclusions: For STEMI patients initially hospitalized in non-PCI hospitals, regional transport combined with PCI is feasible and effective. It does not significantly increase the risk of bleeding and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, with shorter time from symptom onset to myocardial reperfusion.
Aged ; Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary ; China ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Infarction ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Retrospective Studies ; ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction/therapy* ; Thrombolytic Therapy ; Treatment Outcome

Objective: The relationship between serum uric acid (SUA) levels and glycemic indices, including plasma glucose (FPG), 2-hour postload glucose (2h-PG), and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), remains inconclusive. We aimed to explore the associations between glycemic indices and SUA levels in the general Chinese population. Methods: The current study was a cross-sectional analysis using the first follow-up survey data from The China Cardiometabolic Disease and Cancer Cohort Study. A total of 105,922 community-dwelling adults aged ≥ 40 years underwent the oral glucose tolerance test and uric acid assessment. The nonlinear relationships between glycemic indices and SUA levels were explored using generalized additive models. Results: A total of 30,941 men and 62,361 women were eligible for the current analysis. Generalized additive models verified the inverted U-shaped association between glycemic indices and SUA levels, but with different inflection points in men and women. The thresholds for FPG, 2h-PG, and HbA1c for men and women were 6.5/8.0 mmol/L, 11.0/14.0 mmol/L, and 6.1/6.5, respectively (SUA levels increased with increasing glycemic indices before the inflection points and then eventually decreased with further increases in the glycemic indices). Conclusion An inverted U-shaped association was observed between major glycemic indices and uric acid levels in both sexes, while the inflection points were reached earlier in men than in women.
Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Glucose/analysis* ; China/epidemiology* ; Cohort Studies ; Diabetes Mellitus/blood* ; Female ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Glycated Hemoglobin A/analysis* ; Glycemic Index ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Uric Acid/blood*