Objective: To investigate the factors affecting drug-induced liver injury among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Ningbo City from 2015 to 2019, so as to provide insights into the prevention of drug-induced liver injury. Methods: Demographic features, presence of drug-induced liver injury, and disease history prior to anti-tuberculosis therapy were captured from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Ningbo City from 2015 to 2019 through the Tuberculosis Management Information System of the Chinese Disease Control and Prevention Information System and Ningbo Regional Diagnosis and Treatment Information Platform. Factors affecting drug-induced liver injury was identified using the multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 9 397 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were enrolled, among whom 66.43% ( 6 242 case ) were male, 65.89% ( 6 192 cases ) were at ages of <60 years, and 92.35% ( 8 678 cases ) were treatment-naïve. There were 1 425 patients with drug-induced liver injury (15.16% incidence), including 729 cases with grade 1 (51.16%), 24 cases with grade 2 (1.68%), 7 cases with grade 3 (0.49%), 7 cases with grade 4 ( 0.49% ), and 658 cases with ungraded drug-induced liver injury ( 46.18% ). The median duration between drug administration and development of drug-induced liver injury was 24 ( interquartile range, 44 ) days. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified treatment-naïve ( OR=1.464, 95%CI: 1.153-1.859 ) and history of liver disease ( OR=2.001, 95%CI: 1.709-2.342) as risk factors for drug-induced liver injury in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Conclusion The incidence of drug-induced liver injury was 15.16% among pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Ningbo City from 2015 to 2019. Treatment-naïve and a history of liver disease are associated with drug-induced liver injury among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.

Background In recent years, a growing number of studies have indicated that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) exposure can impact heart development, though the specific mechanisms remain elusive. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a critical environmental sensor capable of inducing oxidative stress and cell apoptosis. Objective To explore the role of AHR in the cardiac developmental toxicity of PFOA by using zebrafish embryo as an in vivo model. Methods Zebrafish embryos at 2 h post-fertilization (2 hpf) were exposed to dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) control, 1, 10, 100, and 1000 μg·L⁻¹ of PFOA. The AHR inhibitor CH223191 (CH) was added to the high-concentration group (1000 μg·L⁻¹) to form an intervention group. Under a dissecting microscope, the survival rate, mortality rate, heart rate, and heart malformation rate of 72 hpf zebrafish larvae were assessed. The activity of AHR was measured using 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-dealkylation (EROD) staining. The levels of intracellular and mitochondrial ROS in the heart of zebrafish larvae were assessed using dichloro-dihydro-fluorescein diacetate and MitoSOX™ Red, respectively. Apoptosis was examined using acridine orange (AO) staining and Immunofluorescence method. Total RNA was extracted from dissected hearts, and mRNA expression levels of oxidative stress-related genes (sod2, cat) and apoptosis-related gene (p53) were analyzed using quantitative PCR. Results Compared to the DMSO control group, PFOA at even the lowest concentration (1 μg·L⁻¹) increased heart malformation rate (P＜0.05) and reduced heart rate (P＜0.01) in the zebrafish larvae at 72 hpf, and the results showed a clear concentration-response relationship. Adding the AHR inhibitor CH significantly decreased heart malformation rate and restored heart rate to the control group level. The EROD results showed that PFOA at 1000 μg·L⁻¹ increased AHR activity (P＜0.001). Further studies revealed that PFOA caused a dose-dependent increase in intracellular ROS (P<0.001) and an increase in mitochondrial ROS (P<0.001) in the heart region of zebrafish larvae. A high dose of PFOA (1000 μg·L⁻¹) also induced elevated mRNA expression levels of oxidative stress-related genes sod2 and cat (P<0.05). Addition of the AHR inhibitor CH effectively antagonized PFOA-induced (1000 μg·L⁻¹) oxidative stress in the heart of zebrafish larvae (P<0.001). In addition, PFOA exposure induced a concentration-dependent increase in apoptotic bodies in the heart of zebrafish larvae (P<0.05). Moreover, PFOA at 1000 μg·L⁻¹ caused an increase in the cleaved-caspase 3 immunofluorescence signal (P<0.05) as well as overexpression of the apoptosis-associated gene p53 (P<0.001).which were attenuated by the CH supplementation. Conclusion PFOA triggers oxidative stress and apoptosis via AHR activation in the heart of zebrafish larvae, resulting in cardiac defects.

Objective:To analyze hepatic hemodynamic parameters detected by Doppler ultrasound (DU) of uncomplicated children who underwent left lateral segment(LLS) LDLT (LLS-LDLT), explore their change trends over time and determine the normal reference intervals.Methods:This retrospective study involved the data from 261 pediatric LLS-LDLT cases in Tianjin First Central Hospital from June 2014 to January 2018. Hemodynamic parameters included peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV), resistivity index (RI), and pulsation index (PI) of hepatic artery (HA), and portal vein velocity (PVV) during intra-operative and on the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th days after operation were collected. Among whom, 232 cases with uncomplicated and normal recovery were finally involved in our study, with 200 cases who were collected from June 2014 to August 2017 as test group. Those collected from September 2017 to January 2018, totally 32 cases were set as validation group. The change trends and normal ranges of hemodynamic parameters over time were analyzed in test group, and the results were further tested in the validation group.Results:In the test group, PSV HA, EDV HA showed a similar change trend at one week after surgery, with an overall decrease-rise trend; RI HA, PI HA also changed similarly with an overall rise-decrease trend. PVV at surgery was lower than at all time points after surgery. In addition, this study provided the normal reference intervals of hemodynamic parameters for LDLT patients at early postoperative period, which at intra-operation they were PSV HA 18.4-98.3 cm/s, EDV HA 0-43.3 cm/s, RI HA 0.41-1.0, PI HA 0.51-2.0, PVV 19.0-83.7 cm/s. Within 1 week after surgery: PSV HA 21.0-97.7 cm/s, EDV HA 0-32.7 cm/s, RI HA 0.47-1.0, PI HA 0.62-2.0, PVV 23.0-92.0 cm/s. By using those results, the coincidence rate of Doppler parameter change trend was 84.3%(27/32), 84.3%(27/32), 78.1%(25/32), 78.1%(25/32), 87.5%(28/32) for PSV HA, EDV HA, RI HA, PI HA, PVV in the validation group, respectively. As for the normal reference intervals of blood flow parameters, RI HA and PI HA in one case in the validation group were lower than the lower limits of the normal reference intervals, accounting for 3.1% of the total. PSV HA in two cases was lower than the lower limit of normal reference interval, accounting for 6.2% of the total. Conclusions:The hepatic hemodynamic in post-transplanted children detected by DU has specific changing trends and normal ranges, which provides valuable reference values for ultrasonologists and pediatric transplant clinicians.

BACKGROUND:Total knee arthroplasty is one of the effective methods to treat end-stage knee osteoarthritis.However,some patients still experience chronic post-surgical pain.It is significant to find out the influencing factors of chronic post-surgical pain.Demographic factors,social psychological factors and perioperative pain were the focus of previous studies,but muscle factors closely related to the occurrence and development of knee osteoarthritis were rarely reported. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the value of preoperative quantitative ultrasound analysis of quadriceps femoris in predicting chronic post-surgical pain after total knee arthroplasty. METHODS:A total of 250 patients with knee osteoarthritis who underwent the first unilateral total knee arthroplasty under elective general anesthesia from January to August 2022 in the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University were selected.All patients were treated with the same anesthesia and operative methods.Before the surgery,clinical data were recorded,and the thickness and echo intensity of quadriceps femoris on the operated side were measured by ultrasound imaging,which could quantify the degree of quadriceps femoris atrophy.Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the independent factors affecting the occurrence of chronic post-surgical pain,and receiver operating characteristic curves were used to evaluate its predictive value. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)250 subjects were involved in the result analysis,and 91 of them had chronic post-surgical pain,with an incidence of 36.4%.(2)There were significant differences between the chronic pain and non-chronic pain groups in preoperative pain score during movement,preoperative Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index,preoperative anxiety and depression scale score,preoperative muscle thickness and echo intensity of quadriceps femoris,and postoperative acute pain score(P<0.05).(3)Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that preoperative thickness of quadriceps femoris was an independent protective factor for chronic post-surgical pain and preoperative pain score during movement was an independent risk factor for chronic post-surgical pain.(4)Receiver operating characteristic curves showed that the area under the curve of the preoperative thickness of quadriceps femoris was 0.625(95%CI:0.555-0.695),and the critical value was 2.78 cm,sensitivity was 0.802,specificity was 0.415.(5)It is concluded that the preoperative thickness of quadriceps femoris is an independent protective factor for chronic post-surgical pain,but its predictive efficacy is low,and its clinical application needs to be further verified or modified.

Objective:To investigate the value of brain functional connectivity density (FCD) derived from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in differentially diagnosing 2 subtypes of Parkinson's disease (PD): tremor dominant (TD) and non-tremor dominant (nTD), as well as its correlation with clinical symptom scores.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed; 45 PD patients (25 with TD and 20 with nTD), admitted to Department of Neurology, Drum Tower Hospital Affiliated to Medical School of Nanjing University were chosen; and 24 middle-aged and elderly volunteers matched in age, gender and years of education at the same time were chosen as normal controls (NCs). The rs-fMRI data were collected and FCD map of the whole brain was computed. The FCD differences in whole brain and brain regions enjoying different FCD were compared among the 3 groups. ROC curve was used to analyze the differential diagnostic efficacy of FCD in brain regions enjoying different FCD in TD and nTD. Correlations of FCD in brain regions enjoying different FCD with disease course, Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) grading, unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (UPDRS) III scores, tremor scores and non-tremor scores were analyzed by Pearson or Spearman correlation analyses.Results:Brain regions enjoying different FCD among the TD, nTD, and NC groups were the right lingual gyrus, right orbital medial frontal gyrus, right insula, left superior temporal gyrus, left insula, right anterior central gyrus, left posterior central gyrus, right medial and paracingulate gyrus, and left angular gyrus. FCD in the right orbital medial frontal gyrus and left angular gyrus of TD group was significantly higher than that in the nTD group ( P<0.05); while FCD in the right insula, right anterior central gyrus, left posterior central gyrus and right medial and paracingulate gyrus of TD group was significantly lower than that in the nTD group ( P<0.05). Area under the curve of combined application of FCD in brain regions enjoying different FCD in differentially diagnosing TD and nTD was 0.842, with sensitivity and specificity of 80.0%. FCD in the left superior temporal gyrus and left posterior central gyrus was positively correlated with H-Y grading ( P<0.05), while FCD in the left angular gyrus was negatively correlated with H-Y grading ( P<0.05). FCD in the left superior temporal gyrus was positively correlated with UPDRS III scores ( P<0.05). FCD in the right lingual gyrus, right insula, left insula, right anterior central gyrus, left posterior central gyrus, right medial and paracingulate gyrus was negatively correlated with tremor scores ( P<0.05). FCD in the left superior temporal gyrus, right medial and paracingulate gyrus was positively correlated with non-tremor scores ( P<0.05), whereas that in the left angular gyrus was negatively correlated with non-tremor scores ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Abnormalities in FCD exist in certain brain regions of PD patients, with disparities between TD and nTD. Combined application of FCD in brain regions enjoying different FCD can effectively differentiate TD and nTD, and this FCD is also partially correlated with the symptom scores of PD patients.

With the continuous advancement of the deepening reform of the medical security system, the medical insurance payment method, as an important part of it, has become the focus of the reform. As one of the main types of innovative payment methods, payment for performance combines payment and medical service quality to improve the efficiency of medical and health services and patient satisfaction. In order to accelerate the clinical application of new medical technologies, improve patients′ access to innovative technologies, and reduce the disease economic burden of patients, Shanghai has carried out a pilot reform of paying for performance for three new technologies including Cryoablation in the treatment of cancer, Da Vinic Robotic Surgical System and Plasma MicroRNA Panel detection. Through multiple rounds of expert consultation and on-the-spot investigation, the positive detection rate, complication rate and tumor reduction rate were finally determined as the performance evaluation indicators of the three technologies, and the corresponding payment standards were defined. The pilot reform in Shanghai could provide reference for other regions to carry out performance based payment.

Objective:To investigate the application value of magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) automatic fiber quantification (AFQ) in the diagnosis and prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD).Methods:Clinical and MR data of 21 patients with AD (AD group) and 33 normal controls (NC group) were collected.AFQ software was used to analyze DTI data, track 20 white matter fiber bundles in the brain, and compare the differences of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) value of each bundle between groups.Each fiber bundle was divided into 100 equal parts along the direction of travel, and the FA or MD value of each part was taken as a characteristic.Screening the characteristics with statistic differences between groups for classification of AD and NC by support vector machine (SVM) with leave one method for cross validation.Classification effectiveness was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results:Eleven (left/right anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), left/right corticospinal tract (CST), genu of corpus callosum (CC Genu), right inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), left/right uncinated fasciculus (UF), and left/right arcuate fasciculus (AF)) of the 20 fiber bundles were successfully tracked in all subjects.Compared with NC group, the FA values of 2 fiber bundles (left/right UF) in AD group were significantly decreased( t=-2.532, -2.391, both P<0.05), and the MD values of 7 fiber bundles (left ATR, left/right CST, right ILF, left/right UF, and left AF) were significantly increased ( t=2.569, 2.411, 2.108, 2.357, 3.773, 3.796, 3.492, all P<0.05). Among the 2 200 characteristics of 11 fiber bundles, 412 classification characteristics with inter-group differences were selected.Among which, 78 FA characteristics were distributed in 7 fiber bundles (left ATR, left/right CST, CC Genu, right ILF, left/right UF), and 334 MD characteristics were distributed in 9 fiber tracts (left/right ATR, left/right CST, CC Genu, right ILF, left/right UF, and left AF). The accuracy of SVM classification was 85.19%, sensitivity was 80.95%, specificity was 87.88%, and area under ROC curve was 0.894 7. Conclusion:AFQ analysis based on DTI has a high application value in the diagnosis and prediction of AD.

Objective:To explore the alterations in functional connectivity density (FCD) resulted from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and their correlations with cognitive scores in various cognitive domains in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).Methods:Forty-three PD patients admitted to Department of Neurology, Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University from January 2022 to April 2024 were selected and divided into PD-MCI group (MoCA scores<26) and PD with normal cognition (PD-NC) group (MoCA scores≥26) according to Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Another 23 middle-aged and elderly healthy volunteers (HC group) matched with PD patients in age, gender and education level were recruited at the same period. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data were collected and whole brain FCD was calculated. Differences of clinical data, whole brain FCD, and FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD among the 3 groups were compared. Efficiency of FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD between PD-MCI group and PD-NC group in differentially diagnosing PD-MCI and PD-NC was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Pearson correlation was used to the analyze the correlations of FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD with MoCA score and cognitive scores in various cognitive domains.Results:Among the 43 patients, 23 were into the PD-MCI group and 20 into the PD-NC group. PD-MCI group had significantly lower scores in the visuospatial and executive function, abstraction, and delayed memory cognitive domains than PD-NC group ( P<0.05). Brain regions with significantly different FCD among the 3 groups were the right parahippocampal gyrus, left gyrus rectus, right rolandic operculum, left middle occipital gyrus, right precentral gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left medial superior frontal gyrus. Compared with the HC group, the PD-MCI group and PD-NC group had significantly increased FCD at the right parahippocampal gyrus, left gyrus rectus and right rolandic operculum, statistically decreased FCD at the right precentral gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left medial superior frontal gyrus ( P<0.05). Compared with the HC group, the PD-MCI group had significantly increased FCD at the left middle occipital gyrus ( P<0.05). Compared with the PD-NC group, the PD-MCI group had significantly decreased FCD at the right parahippocampal gyrus, and statistically increased FCD at the left middle occipital gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus ( P<0.05). Area under ROC curve (AUC) of FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD in discriminating PD-MCI and PD-NC was 0.878, with sensitivity of 90.0% and specificity of 91.3%. FCD at right parahippocampal gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with MoCA score ( P<0.05); FCD at right parahippocampal gyrus was positively correlated with cognitive scores in the visuospatial and executive function, and delayed memory domains ( P<0.05); FCD at left middle occipital gyrus was negatively correlated with cognitive scores in the executive function and visual-spatial skills, and abstraction domains ( P<0.05); FCD at the left medial frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with cognitive scores in the visuospatial and executive function, abstraction and delayed memory domains ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Abnormal FCD can be noted in some brain regions of PD patients, enjoying differences between PD-MCI patients and PD-NC patients. Combined FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD has high value in differentially diagnosing PD-MCI and PD-NC, and FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD is correlated with cognitive function changes in PD patients.

Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) in production is frequently exposed to inadequate light, which significantly affects its agronomic traits via inhibiting their physiological, metabolic and developmental processes. To explore the mechanism how the grape plants respond to the weak light stress, we used 'Yinhong' grape and examined their physiology-biochemistry characteristics and transcriptional profile under different levels of weak light stress. The results showed that grape seedlings upon low intensity shading treatments were not significantly affected. As the shading stress intensity was strengthened, the epidermis cells, palisade tissue, and spongy tissue in the leaves were thinner, the intercellular space between the palisade tissue and spongy tissue was larger compared with that of the control, and the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxidase were decreased gradually. Additionally, the soluble protein content increased and the free proline content decreased gradually. Compared with the control, significant changes in plant photosynthetic characteristics and physiology-biochemistry characteristics were observed under high intensity of shading (80%). RNA-seq data showed that the differentially expressed genes between CK and T2, CK and T4, T2 and T4 were 13 913, 13 293 and 14 943, respectively. Most of the enrichment pathways were closely related with the plant's response to stress. Several signaling pathways in response to stress-resistance, e.g. JA/MYC2 pathway and MAPK signal pathway, were activated under weak light stress. The expression level of a variety of genes related to antioxidation (such as polyphenol oxidase and thioredoxin), photosynthesis (such as phytochrome) was altered under weak light stress, indicating that 'Yinhong' grape may activate the antioxidation related pathways to cope with reactive oxygen species (ROS). In addition, it may activate the expression of photosynthetic pigment and light reaction structural protein to maintain the photosynthesis activity. This research may help better understand the relevant physiological response mechanism and facilitate cultivation of grape seedlings under weak light.
Vitis/metabolism* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Photosynthesis/genetics* ; Plant Leaves ; Light ; Seedlings/metabolism*

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role and mechanism of circRNA-SR-related CTD associated factor 8 (SCAF8) in regulating endothelial cell pyroptosis in high glucose environment. METHODS: Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured and divided into six groups. The normal control group and high glucose control group were cultured in cell culture medium with 5 and 33 mmol/L glucose, respectively. The RNA control group, circRNA-SCAF8 inhibition group, miR-93-5p overexpression group and miR-93-5p inhibition group were added with non-functional siRNA, circRNA-SCAF8 inhibitor, miR-93-5p overexpression molecule and miR-93-5p inhibitor in high glucose environment, respectively. Cell viability and pyroptosis were detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, flow cytometry and Hoechst 33342/propidium iodide fluorescence double staining. Western blotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to detect the expression of pyroptosis-related factors including apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD (ASC), cysteine aspartic acid specific protease-1 (caspase-1) and Gasdermin D (GSDMD), NOD like receptor protein 3 (NLRP-3), thioredoxin interacting proteins (TXNIP), IL-18 and IL-1β. The expression of circRNA-SCAF8, miR-93-5p and TXNIP was detected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to locate circRNA-SCAF8 and miR-93-5p. Dual luciferase assay was used to verify the targeted regulatory relationship between miR-93-5p and upstream and downstream molecules. RESULTS: Compared with the RNA control group, the cell survival rate of circRNA-SCAF8 inhibition group and miR-93-5p overexpression group increased (both P<0.01), the pyroptosis decreased (both P<0.01), and the expressions of pyroptosis-related factors such as TXNIP, NLRP-3, caspase-1, GSDMD, ASC, IL-18 and IL-1β were significantly decreased (all P<0.05). The expression of miR-93-5p was significantly increased after inhibition of circRNA-SCAF8 (P<0.01), and the expression of circRNA-SCAF8 tended to decrease after overexpression of miR-93-5p, but with no statistical significance (P>0.05). Dual luciferase assay showed that miR-93-5p downre-gulated circRNA-SCAF8 expression by binding to the 3 ´ UTR region of circRNA-SCAF8, and miR-93-5p downregulated TXNIP expression by binding to the 3 ´ UTR region of TXNIP. FISH showed that circRNA-SCAF8 and miR-93-5p were both located in the cytoplasm and were highly associated in the cells. qRT-PCR showed that the relative expression of TXNIP increased or decreased after overexpression or inhibition of miR-93-5p compared with the RNA control group, respectively (both P<0.05), suggesting that miR-93-5p could regulate TXNIP gene expression. CONCLUSIONS CircRNA-SCAF8/miR-93-5p/TXNIP axis is involved in the regulation of pyroptosis in HUVECs under high glucose.
Humans ; Factor VIII ; RNA, Circular ; Endothelial Cells ; Interleukin-18 ; Pyroptosis ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Caspase 1 ; MicroRNAs/genetics* ; Carrier Proteins/genetics* ; RNA-Binding Proteins