Objective To verify the validity and feasibility of national early warning score (NEWS) in evaluation of death risk in elderly patients with critical illness,in order to find out which scoring method is more suitable for elderly critical illness patients.Methods A prospective case-control study was conducted.The critical illness patients aged over 60 years old with the length of hospital stay over 24 hours,and admitted to Department of Emergency of Qingdao Municipal Hospital from January to December 2015 were enrolled.The clinical data including in emergency and the actual outcome of patients were collected,and the patients were divided into death group and survival group according to 30-day outcome.Patients in the two groups were assessed by using NEWS and risk classification according to the first results of vital signs monitoring.Multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the relationship between the NEWS classification and the risk of death in elderly critical ill patients.Results 1 950 emergency elderly patients with critical illness were enrolled,with 78 cases (4.0％) dead within 30 days and 1 872 survived (96.0％).Compared with the survival group,patients in death group were older (years:79.8 ± 10.8 vs.75.3 ± 8.9,t =4.335,P ＜0.001),and had higher acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ (APACHE Ⅱ) score (22.9± 4.6 vs.18.2 ± 4.8,t =8.487,P ＜ 0.001),lower Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score (12.2 ± 4.5 vs.13.4 ± 5.2,t =-2.007,P =0.045),higher incidence of respiratory system diseases (29.5％ vs.17.9％,x 2 =12.742,P =0.013),higher NEWS score (11.2 ± 5.5 vs.3.9 ± 2.7,t =22.063,P ＜ 0.001),as well as higher proportion of patients with NEWS classification of high risk and very high risk (65.4％ vs.15.8％,x 2 =263.125,P ＜ 0.001).With the increase of NEWS risk classification,mortality rate was also increased,and the mortality rate in the patients with low,medium,high and very high risk were 0.81％ (9/1 108),3.63％ (18/496),5.83％ (13/223),30.89％ (38/123),respectively,with statistically significant difference (x 2 =179.741,P ＜ 0.001).It was showed by logistic regression analysis that the NEWS score of elderly patients with critical illness were positively correlated with 30-day death.The 30-day death risk of patients with middle risk,high risk and very high risk was 4.600,9.052 and 54.598 folds of the patients with low risk respectively.Conclusion NEWS score can be used to assess the risk of death in emergency elderly patients with critical illness.NEWS risk classification can quantify and classify the risk of death in the elderly patients with critical illness.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of modified quadruple therapy for patients who were failed in previous Helicobacter pylori ( Hp) eradication treatment .Methods A total of 86 patients with confirmed Hp infection and failed in previous Hp eradication treatment were collected from Qingdao Municipal Hospital during January 2012 and January 2014.Patients were randomly assigned into two group:43 patients in control group were given conventional quadruple therapy ( rabeprazole +colloidal bismuth pectin +amoxicillin +clarithromycin for 14 d ) , and 43 patients in test group were given modified quadruple therapy ( rabeprazole +colloidal bismuth pectin +amoxicillin +clarithromycin for 7 d, and lansoprazole +colloidal bismuth pectin +levofloxacin +metronidazole for 7 d).Chi square test was performed to analyze per-protocol (PP) eradication rates, intent-to-treat (ITT) eradication rates, and Hp recurrence rates between two groups .Results Among 43 patients in test group , 42 completed treatments with PP eradication rate of 100.00% and ITT eradication rate of 97.67%.All patients in control group completed treatments , and Hp eradication was observed in 24 patients , and both PP and ITT eradication rates were 55.81%.The differences in PP and ITT eradication rates between two groups were of statistical significance (χ2 =23.90 and 21.11, P<0.05).The 3-month and 6-month Hp recurrence rates in test group (14.29%and 20.00%) tended to be lower than those in control group (20.83%and 34.78%), but the differences were not of statistical significance (χ2 =0.12 and 1.68, P>0.05).Conclusion The efficacy of modified quadruple therapy for patients who were failed in the previous Hp eradication treatment is satisfactory.

Objective To study interleukin-23 (IL-23) levels in serum and dendritic cells of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and to explore its relationship with the prognosis.Methods Peripheral blood mononuclear cells and serum were collected from 40 ACLF patients with CHB (including survival group 27 cases and non-survival group 13 cases) and 26 healthy controls.Monocytes were induced to immature dendritic cell in vitro and TNF-α was added to induce dendritic cell maturation.IL-23 mRNA of dendritic cells was detected by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and serum IL-23 level was measured by enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA).Differences among the parameters with normal distribution were compared using t test, those with non-normal distribution were compared using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test, and the relationship between two variables was assessed by Spearman′s rank correlation.Results International normalized rate (INR) and model for end-stage liver disense (MELD) scores in non-survival group of ACLF were higher than those in survival group (INR: 2.32 vs 1.64, U=69.00, P=0.002 2;MELD:36 vs 30, U=64.50, P=0.001 4).However, there were no significant differences between two groups at gender, age, alanin aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotrans ferase (AST), bilirubin, creatinine, hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and serum IL-23.IL-23 mRNA level in dendritic cells at baseline in non-survival group of ACLF was significantly higher than that in survival group (76 vs 43, U=71.50, P=0.002 8).After treatment, serum IL-23 was significantly declined in survival group ([160±75] ng/L vs [91±49] ng/L, t=4.012, P=0.000 2), but not in non-survival group.Significant positive correlation was observed between IL-23 mRNA level in dendritic cells and MELD score at baseline (r=0.7198,P<0.01).Conclusions Persistent high serum IL-23 level suggests poor prognosis in ACLF patients with CHB.IL-23 mRNA expression in dendritic cells has good consistency with MELD score and the patients with high IL-23 mRNA expression has poor outcome.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate the role of selected serum microRNA (miRNA) levels as potential noninvasive biomarkers for differentiating S0–S2 (early fibrosis) from S3–S4 (late fibrosis) in patients with a chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. METHODS: One hundred twenty-three treatment-naive patients with a chronic HBV infection who underwent a liver biopsy were enrolled in this study. The levels of selected miRNAs were measured using a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay. A logistic regression analysis was performed to assess factors associated with fibrosis progression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and discriminant analyses validated these the ability of these predicted variables to discriminate S0–S2 from S3–S4. RESULTS: Serum miR-29, miR-143, miR-223, miR-21, and miR-374 levels were significantly downregulated as fibrosis progressed from S0–S2 to S3–S4 (p < 0.05), but not miR-16. The multivariate logistic regression analysis identified a panel of three miRNAs and platelets that were associated with a high diagnostic accuracy in discriminating S0–S2 from S3–S4, with an area under the curve of 0.936. CONCLUSIONS: The levels of the studied miRNAs, with the exception of miR-16, varied with fibrosis progression. A panel was identified that was capable of discriminating S0–S2 from S3–S4, indicating that serum miRNA levels could serve as a potential noninvasive biomarker of fibrosis progression.
Biomarkers ; Biopsy ; Early Diagnosis* ; Fibrosis ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver* ; Logistic Models ; MicroRNAs* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; ROC Curve

Purpose: The role of vacuolar protein sorting 34 (Vps34), an indispensable protein required for cell vesicular trafficking, in the biological behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has yet to be studied. Materials and Methods: In the present study, the expression of Vps34 in HCC and the effect of Vps34 on HCC cell invasion was detected both in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, by modulating the RILP and Rab11, which regulate juxtanuclear lysosome aggregation and recycling endosome respectively, the underlying mechanism was investigated. Results: Vps34 was significantly decreased in HCC and negatively correlated with the HCC invasiveness both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, Vps34 could promote lysosomal juxtanuclear accumulation, reduce the invasive ability of HCC cells via the Rab7-RILP pathway. In addition, the deficiency of Vps34 in HCC cells affected the endosome-lysosome system, resulting in enhanced Rab11 mediated endocytic recycling of cell surface receptor and increased invasion of HCC cells. Conclusion Our study reveals that Vps34 acts as an invasion suppressor in HCC cells, and more importantly, the endosome-lysosome trafficking regulated by Vps34 has the potential to become a target pathway in HCC treatment.