Objective:This study explored the correlation between carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and cardiac diastolic dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Methods:381 T2DM patients hospitalized in the endocrinology department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from January 2019 to January 2020 were selected. According to E/A value, they were divided into normal diastolic function group (149 cases) and incomplete diastolic function group (232 cases); According to the CIMT value, they were divided into CIMT normal group (213 cases) and CIMT thickening group (168 cases). The general data, blood lipid, blood glucose, liver and kidney function, cardiac color Doppler ultrasound and carotid color Doppler ultrasound were compared and analyzed. Multivariate logistic analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors of cardiac diastolic dysfunction in patients with T2DM. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to analyze the ability of CIMT value to predict cardiac diastolic dysfunction in T2DM patients.Results:Multivariate regression analysis showed that age ( OR=1.067, P<0.001), increased CIMT ( OR=1.863, P=0.011) and systolic blood pressure ( OR=1.014, P=0.016) were the risk factors for occurrence of cardiac diastolic dysfunction in patients with T2DM ( P<0.05). ROC analysis demonstrated that the area under the curve (AUC) for cardiac diastolic dysfunction diagnosed by CIMT was 0.625 (95% CI: 0.568-0.683, P<0.001). The cut-off value was 0.875, with a sensitivity of 52.6% and specificity of 69.1%. Conclusions:Increased CIMT is an independent risk factor for cardiac diastolic dysfunction in patients with T2DM. The level of CIMT has certain predictive value for the occurrence of cardiac diastolic dysfunction.

Objective:To explore the expression and clinical significance of immunosuppressive receptor T cell immunoglobulin and immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif domain (TIGIT) on the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in silicosis patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Methods:August 2018, a total of 78 patients with silicosis (all were quarry workers in Sanmen County, Zhejiang Province) were enrolled and divided into silicosis combined with active pulmonary tuberculosis group (APTB group), silicosis combined with latent tuberculosis infection group (LTBI group), and simple silicosis with non-tuberculosis infection group (non-TB group). Flow cytometry was used to analyze the expressions of TIGIT, programmed death-1 (PD-1) and transcription factor T-bet on PBMC from patients. Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson correlations analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results:Among the 78 patients, eight were in the APTB group, 24 in the LTBI group, and 46 in the non-TB group. The expressions of PD-1 and TIGIT on CD8 + T cells in the APTB group (29.45%(16.78%) and 65.40%(12.12%), respectively) were significantly higher than those in the LTBI group (17.40%(11.17%) and 48.30%(28.75%), respectively; U=23.500 and 43.500, respectively, P=0.000 8 and 0.020 5, respectively) and non-TB group (15.95%(12.46%) and 45.30%(19.75%), respectively; U=64.000 and 69.000, respectively, P=0.002 3 and 0.003 8, respectively), and the differences were all statistically significant. The expression of TIGIT was positively correlated with PD-1 on CD8 + T cells in silicosis patients ( r=0.434 3, P<0.01). The proportion of PD-1 + TIGIT + CD8 + T cells in the APTB group (19.90%(22.67%)) was significantly higher than those in the non-TB group (11.55%(11.29%), U=76.500, P=0.007 1) and LTBI group (11.55%(10.53%), U=41.000, P=0.015 4), while the proportion of PD-1 -TIGIT -CD8 + T cells in the APTB group (30.60%(12.90%)) was significantly lower than non-TB group (48.90%(18.98%), U=58.000, P=0.001 3) and LTBI group (47.20%(24.59%), U=41.000, P=0.015 4). The differences were all statistically significant. The expression of T-bet on the peripheral blood CD8 + T cells in the APTB group (29.45%(16.78%)) was higher than that in the non-TB group (15.95%(12.46%)) and the LTBI group (17.40%(11.17%)), and the differences were both statistically significant ( U=46.500 and 46.000, respectively, P=0.000 3 and 0.028 3, respectively). The expression of T-bet on CD8 + T cells was positively correlated with TIGIT on CD8 + T cells ( r=0.456 7, P<0.01). The expression of T-bet on PD-1 + TIGIT + CD8 + T cells in the APTB group (65.40%(12.12%)) was higher than those in the LTBI group (48.30%(28.75%), U=23.500, P=0.000 8) and non-TB group (45.30%(19.75%), U=65.000, P=0.002 6), and the differences were both statistically significant. Conclusion:The immunosuppressive receptor PD-1 and TIGIT are highly expressed on CD8 + T cells in silicosis patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis, which indicates CD8 + T cells exhaustion in these population, while the highly co-expression of T-bet suggests the exhausted subsets may have reversed potentiality.

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic value of neutrophil CD64 index (nCD64) in disseminated nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infection.Methods:Thirty-six patients with NTM infection from January 2020 to June 2021 in Huashan Hospital, Fudan University were included. Patients were classified into groups of disseminated infection and focal infection according to their medical history and discharge diagnosis. The expressions of nCD64 in patients with focal infection and disseminated infection before treatment were collected and analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney U test, and the diagnostic value of nCD64 for disseminated NTM infection was analyzed using the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve). Results:Among the 36 patients with NTM infection, 18 cases were focal infection (due to the low white blood cell count of the patient with myelodysplastic syndrome, the detection results were biased, which were excluded from the subsequent analysis) and 18 cases were disseminated infection. The expression of nCD64 in focal infection was 0.72(0.50, 1.55), and that in disseminated infection was 13.63(6.77, 32.31). The difference was statistically significant ( U=15.50, P<0.001). Using focal infection as a control, the area under the ROC curve for the operational characteristics of the subjects was 0.949 3 for disseminated NTM infection. The diagnostic cut-off value of nCD64 was 3.06, with the sensitivity and specificity of the disseminated NTM infection were 88.89% and 100.00%, respectively. Conclusions:In patients with NTM infection before effective treatment, the diagnostic cut-off value of nCD64 of 3.06 has high sensitivity and specificity, which is useful for the aided diagnosis of disseminated NTM infection.

Objective This study aimed to explore the predictive value of endoplasmic reticulum stress response(ERS)-related regulatory gene expression for the pathological grading,prognosis,and malignant progres-sion phenotype of gliomas(excluding glioblastomas).Methods After excluding duplicate and non-survival samples,clinical sequencing data of glioma samples from the American Cancer Genome Atlas and the Chinese Brain Glioma Genome Atlas were selected as the training and validation sets.A prognosis-related ERS risk regression model was constructed through differential gene enrichment and protein interaction analysis.The predictive value of ERS Cox model for glioma prognosis and malignant progression phenotype was validated using ROC curve analysis,real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR,and immunohistochemistry.Results The study findings reveal that the expression of 7 ERS-related risk factors increases with the rise in glioma grade and accurately predicts unfavorable patient prognosis(with accuracies higher than 0.7 for predictions at 1,3,and 5 years),all of which are statistically significant.Further validation demonstrates a positive correlation between ERS risk genes and the glioma malignant phenotype marker CD44,as well as a negative correlation with the clinically favorable prognosis marker GPR158,both of which have statistical differences(P<0.05).Finally,gene expression and immunohistochemistry analysis of clinical samples confirm that ERS-related risk factors are highly expressed in higher-grade gliomas,positively correlated with CD44 expression,with statistical significance(P<0.05).Conclusion The preliminary results of the study suggest that the risk regression model based on ERS response exhibits the capacity to predict pathological grading and prognosis.Moreover,it demonstrates a positive correlation with the malignant progression phenotype of gliomas.These findings offer insights for precise and targeted diagnosis and treatment of gliomas.

Objective:To analyze the differences of peripheral blood transcriptome between mild and severe influenza A (H1N1) patients, and to find indicators for the assessment of disease severity.Methods:A total of ten patients (five patients with mild disease and five patients with severe disease) diagnosed with H1N1 infection from January to May 2018 at Huashan Hospital, Fudan University in Shanghai were enrolled, and five healthy people were also enrolled as controls. The peripheral blood of patients was collected for transcriptome sequencing at the time when they were first diagnosed. Measurement data were compared using t test or Mann-Whitney U test. The count data were compared using Fisher exact test when appropriate. Data analysis of transcriptome predictions was performed using bioinformatics methods. Results:The platelet counts were significantly different between mild and severe groups ((163.4±21.5 )×10 9/L vs (255.6±52.5)×10 9/L, t=3.636, P=0.007). There were no differences between the two groups in gender, age, white blood cell counts, neutrophil percentage, lymphocyte percentage and hemoglobin levels (all P>0.05). However, the average expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 8 and MMP9 in severe group (18.41 and 174.00, respectively) were both higher than those in mild group (2.33 and 22.91, respectively) and healthy control (1.43 and 34.65, respectively; all P<0.01). Conclusion:MMP8 and MMP9 could be expected to serve as the molecular biological markers for predicting the disease severity in patients with influenza A (H1N1) infection.

Objective To retrospectively analyze and compare the clinical efficacy and safety between fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) combined with and without temozolomide in the treatment of large brain metastases.Methods Between 2009 and 2017,84 patients with large brain metastases (tumor size ≥ 6 cm3) were recruited and assigned into the CRT group (concurrent TMZ and FSRT,n=42) and RT group (FSRT alone,n=42).The radiation dose was 52.0 Gy in 13 fractions or 52.5 Gy in 15 fractions.Patients were reexamined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during treatment.The radiation field would be shrunk if the gross target volume (GTV) was reduced.The clinical efficacy was evaluated at postoperative 2 to 3 months.The primary end-point event was local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) and the secondary end-point events included intracranial progression-free survival (IPFS),progression-free survival (PFS),overall survival (OS),brain metastasis-specific survival (BMSS) and adverse events.The survival rates were assessed with Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test and monovariate analysis.Results The median GTV in the CRT and RT groups was 16.9 cm3 and 15.7 cm3.During the treatment,75％ of the lesions in the CRT group were reduced compared with 34％ in the RT group (P=0.000).The local control (LC) rate in the CRT and RT groups was 100％ and 98％.The median follow-up time was 16.1 months (range,2.1-105.7 months).In the CRT group,the LRFS (P=0.040),IPFS (P=0.022),PFS (P=0.045),OS (P=0.013) and BMSS (P=0.006) were significantly better than those in the RT group,respectively.In the CRT group,the incidence of grade Ⅰ-Ⅱ gastrointestinal adverse events was 33％,significantly higher compared with 26％ in the RT group (P=0.006).No grade Ⅳ-Ⅴ adverse events occurred in both groups.Conclusion Combined application of temozolomide and FSRT can further enhance the LC and survival rates and do not increase the risk of severe adverse events in patients diagnosed with large brain metastases.

Objective To retrospectively analyze the dosimetry and efficacy of whole-brain irradiation (WBRT) with simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) by helical tomotherapy (HT) in the treatment of multiple brain metastases (BMs),and to evaluate the feasibility,efficacy,and safety of HT.Methods From 2014 to 2017,a total of 43 patients with multiple BMs (no less than 3 lesions) were enrolled as subjects.A dose of 40 Gy was delivered to the whole brain in 20 fractions,while a dose of 60 Gy was delivered to the gross target volume (GTV) in 20 fractions.Patients were reexamined by magnetic resonance imaging during treatment.The radiation field would be shrunk if GTV was reduced.Target coverage (TC),conformity index (CI),prescription isodose/target volume (PITV) ratio,and homogeneity index (HI) were assessed.Clinical indices included local recurrence-free survival (LRFS),intracranial progression-free survival (IPFS),progression-free survival (PFS),overall survival (OS),and toxicities.Results The median lesion number was 6(3-36) and the median total volume of GTV was 8.74 cm3.The TC,CI,PITV,and HI for GTV were 0.96±0.028,0.51±0.164,2.09±1.245,and 0.12±0.066,respectively,while the TC and HI for the whole brain were 0.95±0.033 and 0.43±0.161,respectively.In all the patients,26％ had replarming during treatment.The two-stage treatment reduced the radiation dose to organs at risk.The 1-year LRFS,IPFS,PFS,and OS rates were 96％,80％,39％,and 86％,respectively.No grade ≥3 toxicities were observed.Conclusions WBRT with SIB by HT achieves satisfactory conformity,homogeneity,efficacy,and safety,which is a recommended treatment plan for multiple BMs.Replanning during treatment can better protect normal tissue.