OBJECTIVETo study the efficacy of pedicled greater omentum transposed to mediastinum in prevention against postoperative in-hospital intrathoracic complications after esophagectomy.

METHODSClinical data of 148 consecutive patients with esophageal cancer undergoing Ivor-Lewis surgery in our department from January 2010 to May 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. Among them, 84 patients with omental transposition(transposition group) and 64 patients without omental transposition(non-transposition group) were compared.

RESULTSPostoperative hospital stay was shorter in patients with omental transposition compared to those without omental transposition(P<0.05). Intrathoracic infection rate was significantly lower in transposition group(33/84, 39.3%) than that in non-transposition group(36/64, 56.2%), and as was the combined sepsis rate[19/33, 57.6% vs. 31/36, 86.1%, P<0.05]. No significant differences were found in the morbidity of anastomotic leakage, wound infection, cardiac complication and mortality during hospitalization. The median postoperative hospital stay was significantly shorter in transposition group than that in non-transposition group(13.0 vs. 16.5 days, P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONOmental transposition to mediastinum can reduce the development and severity of intrathoracic infection and shorten hospital stay in patients undergoing esophagectomy.

Anastomotic Leak ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; surgery ; Esophagectomy ; methods ; Humans ; Mediastinum ; surgery ; Omentum ; transplantation ; Postoperative Complications ; prevention & control ; Retrospective Studies

Objective:To explore the value of ultrasonic measurement of optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) in predicting the risk of death in patients with severe brain injury.Methods:This was a prospective observational study based on 84 postoperative patients with severe brain injury from January 2020 to September 2020 in our department. The patients were divided into two groups: the survival group and the deceased group. The clinical features between the two groups were compared. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of ONSD, neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and the combination of the two in predicting death in patients with severe brain injury. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the independent risk factors for death. A prediction model for the risk of death was constructed.Results:There were 61 cases (72.6%) in the survival group and 23 cases (27.4%) in the deceased group. There were significant differences in age, Glasgow coma score (GCS), ONSD and NSE at 12 h after surgery between the two groups. According to the ROC curve, the optimal cutoff levels of ONSD and NSE for predicting death were 5.5 mm and 21.75 ng/mL, respectively. When the two indicators were combined, the area under the curve was 0.897 ( P<0.01). At this threshold, the sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 70.5%, respectively. ONSD ( OR=9.713; 95% CI: 1.192-79.147) and GCS scores ( OR=0.492; 95% CI: 0.318-0.763) at 12 h after surgery were independent risk factors for death in patients with severe brain injury (both P<0.05). Conclusions:Early postoperative ONSD is an independent risk factor for death in patients with severe brain injury. The combination of ONSD and NSE has the best predictive effect.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of early bronchoalveolar lavage on patients with aspiration pneumonia.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted on 55 patients with aspiration pneumonia who met inclusion criteria but not exclusion criteria in the Intensive Care Department of our hospital from January 2020 to April 2021. The patients were divided into the control group (32 cases) and the bronchoscopic lavage group (23 cases) according to whether they received bronchoscopic lavage within 24 h after aspiration. Basic information (sex, age, body mass index, chest X-ray score, oxidation index, temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, white blood cells, PCT, IL-6, CPR and APACHE Ⅱ score), etiology changes at the early stage (≤ 3 d) and later stage (4-7 d after admission), and changes in prognostic indexes (mechanical ventilation time, length of ICU stay, length of stay and mortality) were compared between the two groups. The clinical efficacy of early endoscopy lavage for aspiration pneumonia was evaluated.Results:The positive rate of early etiological culture was 85.2%, the bacterial positive rate was 72.9% and the fungal positive rate was 14.6%. Pseudomonas aeruginosa accounted for 20.8%, Klebsiella pneumoniae accounted for 14.6%, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus accounted for 12.5%, and there was no significant difference in the distribution between the bronchoscopic lavage group and the control group (all P>0.05). The positive rate of late etiological culture was 88.6%, the bacterial positive rate was 85.7% and the fungal positive rate was 2.9%. The positive rate of late bacterial culture was significantly decreased in the bronchoscopic lavage group ( P < 0.05), and the other results were not significantly different from the control group (all P>0.05). After early bronchoscopic lavage, the duration of mechanical ventilation, length of ICU stay and length of stay were significantly shortened, and the fifth day CPIS score was significantly decreased (all P< 0.05). Conclusions:Early endotracheal lavage can reduce mechanical ventilation time, length of ICU stay and length of stay of aspiration pneumonia, and reduce the positive rate of bacterial culture in the lung at the later stage, which needs to be further verified by a large randomized controlled study.

Objective:To investigate the expression of Piezo1 in small intestinal mucosal epithelial cells of patients with Crohn′s disease (CD) and its clinical correlation with CD.Methods:From January 1st 2010 to November 30th 2020, the clinical data including age, gender, disease location and biological behavior, etc of 57 patients with CD (CD group) who underwent surgery at The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University were retrospectively. And at same time the normal samll intestinal epithelial tissues of 10 healthy individuals who underwent colonoscopy were collected as the healthy control group. The expression of Piezo1 in small intestinal epithelial cells of CD patients with different disease sites, biological behavior and disease activity were detected by immunofluorescence staining and hematoxylin-eosin staining. The histological score system and intestinal fibrosis score were used to analyze the inflammation and fibrosis of the intestinal tissues of patients with CD. Semi-quantitative analysis of Piezo1 in small intestinal epithelial cells was analyzed by ImageJ software. And the correlation between Piezo1 expression and clinical characteristics and pathological features of small intestine was also analyzed. Independent sample t test and analysis of variance were used for statistical analysis. Results:In CD group, there were 37 males (64.9%) and 20 females (35.1%). The age was (39.1±14.2) years old, ranged from 18 to 71 years old, and the average duration of the disease was (26.5±24.1) months. There were 29 cases (50.9%)of ileal type, 26 cases (45.6%) of ileocolonin type and 2 cases (3.5%) of colonic type. There were 12 cases (21.1%) of non-penetrating non-stenotic type, 31 cases (54.4%) of stenotic type and 14 cases (24.6%) of penetrating type. There were 47 cases (82.5%) with moderate activity and 10 cases (17.5%) with severe activity. There were 17 cases (29.8%) of moderate intestinal inflammation, 40 cases (70.2%) of severe intestinal inflammation. The score of intestinal fibrosis in six cases (10.5%) was 1, 28 cases (49.1%) was 2, 18 cases (31.6%) was 3, five cases was 4. The relative expression level of Piezo1 in intestinal mucosal epithelial cells of CD group was higher than that of healthy control group (12.9±4.6 vs. 8.5±1.1), the relative expression of Piezo1 in intestinal mucosal epithelia cells of stenotic type and penetrating type CD patients were both higher than that of non-penetrating and non-stenotic CD patients (12.6±3.8 and 9.8±2.4 vs. 6.0±1.3), and the differences were all statistically significant ( t=3.00, -3.66 and -3.32, all P<0.01). The relative expression of Piezo1 in small intestinal epithelial cells of CD patients with severe intestinal inflammation was higher than that of CD patients with moderate intestinal inflammation (13.1±4.0 vs. 9.7±3.1), and the difference was statistically significant ( t=-2.65, P<0.05). The relative expression levels of Piezo1 in small intestinal epithelial cells of patients with intestinal fibrosis score of 4, 3, 2 and 1 were 17.6±5.2, 12.6±1.7, 9.1±2.1 and 5.8±1.1, respectively; the relative expression levels of Piezo1 in intestinal epithelial cells of patients scored 4 were higher than that of patients scored 3, 2 and 1, and that of patients scored 3 was higher than patients scored 2 and 1, and that of patients scored 2 was higher than that of patients scored 1, and the differences were all statistically significant ( t=-2.98, -5.10, -3.84, 4.60, 6.55 and 2.56, all P<0.05). The relative expression of Piezo1 in intestinal mucosal epithelial cells was related to the severity of intestinal inflammation and fibrosis. The more severe the intestinal inflammation and fibrosis, the higher the relative expression of Piezo1 in intestinal mucosal epithelial cells. Conclusions:The relative expression of Piezo1 in small intestinal epithelial cells is related to the biological behavior and the severity of intestinal inflammation and fibrosis of CD. It is speculated that the expression of Piezo1 in small intestinal epithelial cells may be clinically related to the process of intestinal wall fibrosis in CD to some extent, however whether it plays an important role in the process of intestinal wall fibrosis in CD and its specific mechanism need to be further studied.

Objective To investigate the changes and formation mechanism of plasma endothelial microparticles (EMPs) in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP). Methods Blood samples were collected from 60 patients with AP who were treated in The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from August 2020 to June 2021, and these patients were divided into mild acute pancreatitis (MAP) group with 23 patients, moderate-severe acute pancreatitis (MSAP) group with 23 patients, and severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) group with 14 patients; 20 individuals who underwent physical examination were enrolled as control group.Differential centrifugation was used to obtain platelet-poor plasma, flow cytometry was used to measure the level of CD31 + CD41 - EMPs, and ELISA was used to measure the levels of endothelin-1(ET-1), von Willebrand factor (vWF), nitric oxide (NO), and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1(VCAM-1).HUVECs were stimulated by the plasma of AP patients, and then flow cytometry and qRT-PCR were used to measure the changes in EMPs, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and mitochondrial membrane potential and the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), intercellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1), VCAM-1, NADPH oxidase, and P-selectin.A one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between multiple groups, and the least significant difference t -test was used for further comparison between two groups.The Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between groups and within each group.The chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups, and the Pearson correlation test was used for correlation analysis. Results Compared with the control group, the MAP, MSAP, and SAP groups had a significant increase in the level of EMPs (all P < 0.05).Compared with the MAP and MSAP groups, the SAP group had a significant increase in the level of EMPs (both P < 0.05).In the patients with AP, the level of EMPs was negatively correlated with Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation Ⅱ score, Bedside Index for Severity in Acute Pancreatitis, Ranson score, CT score, and C-reactive protein ( r =0.686 2, 0.777 3, 0.713 8, 0.771 8, and 0.473 9, all P < 0.01).Compared with the control group, the MAP, MSAP, and SAP groups had significant increases in the levels of ET-1, vWF, and VCAM-1 and a significant reduction in the level of NO (all P < 0.05).Compared with the control group, the MSAP and SAP groups had the plasma that promoted the release of a large amount of EMPs (both P < 0.05).Compared with the control group, all the other groups, except the MAP group in terms of VCAM-1 and eNOS, had significant increases in the mRNA expression levels of eNOS, iNOS, ICAM-1, P-selectin, VCAM-1, and NADPH oxidase (all P < 0.05).Compared with the HC group, the MAP, MSAP, and SAP groups and the LPS group had a significant increase in the level of ROS and a significant reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential in HUVECs (all P < 0.05). Conclusion There is a significant increase in the plasma level of EMPs in AP patients, which is correlated with the severity of pancreatitis.Meanwhile, the plasma of AP patients can promote the formation of EMPs in HUVECs in vitro, which may be associated with cell oxidative injury.

Objective : To investigate the effect of platelet particles on the extent of intestinal inflammation and in⁃ testinal mucosal permeability in mice with dextran sodium sulfate induced colitis. Methods : The experiment was divided into four groups : normal control group ( n = 10 , drinking sterile distilled water + intraperitoneal injection of 0. 9% sodium chloride solution) , PMPs group ( n = 10 , drinking sterile distilled water + intraperitoneal injection of PMPs) , DSS model group ( n = 10 , drinking DSS solution + intraperitoneal injection of 0. 9% sodium chloride solution) , and experimental group ( n = 15 , drinking DSS solution + intraperitoneal injection of PMPs) . Peripheral blood⁃derived PMPs suspension was collected from inflammatory bowel disease ( IBD) patients. A colitis model was constructed in mice by allowing them to freely drink a 5% DSS solution for 1 week , followed by continuous intraperitoneal injection of PMPs for 7 days. Disease activity index (DAI) scores was recorded daily and the severity of intestinal inflammation with histopathological scores (HI) was assessed by HE staining of colon samples at the end of the experiment. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) , neutrophil elastase (NE) , citrullinated histone H3 (citH3) , and free DNA levels were measured in colon homogenate , observe intestinal mucosal structure by transmission electron microscopy , and intestinal permeability was tested using fluorescein isothiocyanate⁃dextran (FITC⁃D) . Results: Compared with the normal control group , the colonic mucosa of mice in the PMPs group showed edema , severe destruction of epithelial structure , extensive aggregation of inflammatory cells , and increased overall HI score (P < 0. 01) ; the levels of inflammatory factors such as IL⁃1β and TNF⁃α in colonic tissue homogenates of mice in the PMPs group increased (P < 0. 05) , and the expression of NETs increased (P < 0. 05) ; the plasma FITC⁃D level of mice in the PMPs group significantly increased (P < 0. 05) , and the permeability of intestinal mucosa increased. Compared with the DSS group , the experimental group mice had higher plasma FITC⁃D levels ( P < 0. 05 ) and more electron microscopic colonic epithelial damage. Conclusion PMPs induces NETs formation in mice , promotes colonic inflammation in mice , increases intestinal mucosal permeability and aggravates intestinal inflammation in mice with DSS colitis.