Background: Although the prognostic impact of body mass index (BMI) in patients with non?metastatic naso?pharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) had been extensively studied, its effect among metastatic NPC patients remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic effect of BMI in patients with metastatic NPC. Methods: We retrospectively studied 819 patients who were diagnosed with distant metastasis from NPC and received treatment between 1998 and 2007. The patients were divided into three subgroups according to the World Health Organization classifications for Asian populations: underweight (BMI <18.5 kg/m2), normal weight (BMI 18.5–22.9 kg/m2), and overweight/obese (BMI ≥23.0 kg/m2). The associations of BMI with overall survival (OS) andprogression?free survival (PFS) were determined by Cox regression analysis. Results: Of the 819 patients, 168 (20.5%) were underweight, 431 (52.6%) were normal weight, and 220 (26.9%) were overweight/obese. Multivariate analysis adjusted for covariates showed that overweight/obese patients had a longer OS than underweight patients [hazard ratio (HR), 0.64; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.49–0.84] and normal weight patients (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.57–0.90); no significant difference in PFS was observed among these three groups (P = 0.407). Moreover, in stratified analysis, no statistically significant differences in the effect of overweight/obesestatus among different subgroups were observed. Conclusion: For patients with metastatic NPC, overweight/obese status was associated with longer OS but not longer PFS compared with underweight or normal weight status.

Objective To discuss the pathogenesis of postmenopausal osteoporosis,and to validate molecular docking and predict the composition of traditional Chinese medicine based on reverse network pharmacological.Methods The shared targets of"osteoporosis"and"postmenopausal"were extracted and demonstrated by using Venn diagram.The common targets were analyzed for gene ontology(GO)and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)enrichment.The protein-protein interaction(PPI)network was constructed to clarify the pathogenesis,pathways and key targets of postmenopausal osteoporosis,and finally the key target-active ingredient-traditional Chinese medicine network was constructed,and the characteristics,taste and tropism of traditional Chinese medicines with high identification values were sorted out.Results For postmenopausal osteoporosis,17 key targets of which degree value ≥ 10 that could match with traditional Chinese medicines were analysis in traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform(TCMSP),and the results of 18 times of molecular docking tests were stable and good which performed on the highest degree value 3 targets with 6 traditional Chinese medicines components(degree value≥5,oral bioavailability≥30％,drug likeness≥0.18).Collected 52 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines(degree value ≥4)were mainly cold and bitter,belonging to liver and lung channels in channel tropism,promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis in efficacy from 300 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines.Conclusion In this study,the targets,pathways,compositions and prescriptions were predicted for postmenopausal osteoporosis based on reverse network pharmacological and molecular docking.However,the thinking be broadening for the formulation of traditional Chinese medicine which appropriately added bitter cold drugs、drugs entering liver and lung channels,blood-activating and blood-stasis removing drugs and high-value Chinese medicines such as Ginkgo biloba,Cuscuta,Cauleratholoba,Licorice and Astragalus to improve joint inflammation,inhibit osteoclast differentiation,promote osteoblast differentiation and prevent osteoporosis for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.

Objective To establish and optimize a method for simultaneous determination for the contents of sodium,potassium,calci-um and magnesium ions in serum using microwave digestion combined with ion chromatography,and evaluate its performance.Methods Serum samples were pretreated by microwave digestion,and four cations were quantitatively determined using ion chromatography.The linearity,precision,recovery and accuracy of the established method were verified with reference to the EP6-A and EP15-A3 docu-ments issued by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute(CLSI).Results The imprecisions of determinations for sodium,po-tassium,calcium and magnesium ions expressed as coefficient of variation(CV)were 0.10％to 0.36％,0.15％to 0.48％,0.22％to 0.87％and 0.21％to 0.73％,respectively.The recoveries with adding standard of the four cations were between 97.3％and 103.0％.Referred to RELA2020 and RELA2021,the deviations of the analysis results were-0.57％to-0.14％,-0.84％to-0.16％,-1.82％to-0.37％,and-0.60％to 0.34％for sodium,potassium,calcium,and magnesium,respectively,and all the comparisons were pas-sed.The limits of detection/quantification were 0.017 5/0.058 3 mmol/L,0.000 5/0.001 7 mmol/L,0.009 9/0.032 9 mmol/L and 0.001 1/0.003 5 mmol/L for the four cations,indicating that after pretreatment,no significantly interfere from other impurities for the results of determination was found.Conclusion A method for simultaneous determination of sodium,potassium,calcium and magnesi-um ions in serum was successfully established and optimized using microwave digestion combined with ion chromatography.The method showed good precision and accuracy,simple operation,short time consumption and low cost,thus it could be used for quality improve-ment of clinical electrolyte testing in serum.

Objective:To develop a candidate reference method for cortisol in human serum by isotope dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (ID-LC/MS/MS).Methods:An isotope-labeled internal standard was added to samples, followed by alkalizing with sodium carbonate solution and liquid-liquid extraction with n-hexane/ethyl acetate. Isoelution with a methanol aqueous solution was employed for liquid chromatographic separation, while ESI in the positive ion and multiple reaction monitoring mode were used for mass spectrometry. The volume of sample, standard, and internal standard solutions were all controlled by weighing, and the results were calculated by bracketing method. The accuracy, precision, specificity, linearity, LOD and LOQ of this method were evaluated referring to the CLSI C62-A and C50-A guidelines and the domestic expert consensus documents.Results:The method demonstrated excellent accuracy and precision with the bias of ERM-DA192, ERM-DA193 and RELA 2021-2023 all being less than 2%. The recovery of added cortisol ranged from 98.2% to 101.1%. Both intra- and inter-assay imprecisions was <2%. The method was free from interference by structural analogue and showed a good linearity in the range of 25-1 600 nmol/L. The LOD and LOQ were 0.5 nmol/L and 1.0 nmol/L, respectively. A cortisol assay kit (chemiluminescence immunoassay) traced to this candidate reference method was used to determine 46 clinical serum samples concurrently, and the two methods exhibited good correlation.Conclusions:A candidate reference method for the determination of cortisol in serum was established, demonstrating high sensitivity, good repeatability and accuracy. This method can serve as a reference for the measurement traceability and accuracy evaluation of routine methods.