Objective To investigate the role of the percentage of the total cross-sectional area of small pulmonary vessels for the lung area (%CSA) from multi-slice CT (MSCT) in evaluating the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods One hundred and sixty-six COPD patients and 166 normal subjects underwent chest MSCT scans and all data were analyzed retrospectively. COPD patients underwent pulmonary function tests (PFT), including forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1%) and FEV1/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC), and were classified into mild (n=32), moderate (n=65), severe (n=69) groups according to pulmonary function results, respectively. The%CSA less than 5 mm2 and 5—10 mm2 for the lung area (%CSA<5 and %CSA5-10) of small pulmonary vessels were measured with Image J image-processing program. Comparison of%CSA<5 and%CSA5-10 between the COPD and control groups was perfomred using t test, and the comparison between the 3 COPD subgroups and control group were carried out using ANOVA test. The correlation between %CSA and PFT was evaluated by the Spearman rank correlation test. The sensitivity and specificity of %CSA to diagnose COPD and the best cutoff were calculated from areas under the ROC curves. Results %CSA<5 of COPD patients and control group were (0.56 ± 0.19)%and (0.82 ± 0.15)%(t=12.80, P<0.001), respectively.%CSA5-10 of the two groups were (0.19 ± 0.09)%and (0.33 ± 0.16)%(t=8.93,P<0.001), respectively. The AUC values of%CSA<5 and%CSA5-10 were 0.866 and 0.790, respectively. When the cut-off values of%CSA<5 and%CSA5-10 were 0.65%and 0.24%, the sensitivities and specificities were 88%and 71%, 76%and 81%, respectively. The mean values of%CSA<5 in mild, moderate and severe groups were (0.67±0.20)%, (0.61±0.16)%and (0.44±0.14)%, respectively (P<0.05). The mean values of %CSA5-10 in the three groups were (0.19 ± 0.06)%, (0.19 ± 0.10)% and (0.20 ± 0.08)%, respectively.%CSA5-10 in the three groups were of no significant difference (P>0.05). FEV1%and FEV1/FVC in COPD patients were (60.38±15.52)%and 57.95±22.27.%CSA<5 in COPD patients correlated positively with both FEV1%and FEV1/FVC (r=0.609 and 0.721, P<0.01, respectively).%CSA5-10 in COPD patients correlated positively with both FEV1%and FEV1/FVC (r=0.271 and 0.288, P<0.01, respectively). Conclusion The measurement of%CSA<5 and%CSA5-10 in MSCT images correlated with PFTs and%CSA<5, which may play an important role in evaluating the severity of COPD.

ObjectiveTo explore the characteristics of the tongue coating microbiota in patients of coronary heart disease （CHD） with qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome. MethodsA total of 27 CHD patients with qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome， 29 patients with non-qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome， and 20 healthy individuals were included in this study. The tongue coating microbiota of the participants was analyzed using 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing technology， followed by Alpha and Beta diversity analyses and comparisons of microbial abundance. ResultsA total of 479 operational taxonomic units （OTUs） were detected， among which 245 OTUs were shared across all three groups. There were 33 OTUs unique to the qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome group， 21 OTUs unique to the non-qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome group， and 121 OTUs unique to the healthy group. The observed species count （Sob）， total species richness （Chao1）， abundance-based coverage estimator （ACE）， and Shannon diversity index were significantly lower in the qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome and non-qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome groups compared to the healthy group （P＜0.05）. Principal coordinate analysis （PCoA） of the tongue coating microbiota showed significant differences in distance matrices among the three groups （P＜0.05）. Compared with the healthy group， the qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome group exhibited an increased abundance of Actinobacteria， Patescibacteria， Spirochaetes， Verrucomicrobia， Rothia， TM7X， Gemella， and Corynebacterium， while Fusobacteria， Cyanobacteria， Leptotrichia， and Lactobacillus decreased （P＜0.05）. In the non-qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome group， Actinobacteria， Verrucomicrobia， Rothia， and Corynebacterium increased， whereas Cyanobacteria and Lactobacillus reduced （P＜0.05）. When comparing with the non-qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome group， the qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome group had a significantly higher abundance of Patescibacteria， Peptostreptococcus， Solobacterium， Filifactor， Moraxella， Porphyromonas endodontalis， and Capnocytophaga， while Cyanobacteria reduced （P＜0.05）. Conclusuion Patients with CHD of qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome exhibit a decrease in beneficial bacteria and an increase in pathogenic bacteria. Patescibacteria， Peptostreptococcus， Solobacterium， Filifactor， Moraxella， Porphyromonas endodontalis， and Capnocytophaga were identified as the key differential microbiota distinguishing qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome from non-qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome patients.

Objective:To explore the consistency of peripheral whole blood and venous serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels, and the value of peripheral whole blood PCT in evaluating pediatric bacterial infection.Methods:This multicenter cross-sectional parallel control study was conducted in 11 children′s hospital. All the 1 898 patients older than 28 days admitted to these hospitals from March 2018 to February 2019 had their peripheral whole blood and venous serum PCT detected simultaneously with unified equipment, reagent and method. According to the venous serum PCT level, the patients were stratified to subgroups. Analysis of variance and chi-square test were used to compare the demographic characteristics among groups. And the correlation between the peripheral blood and venous serum PCT level was investigated by quantitative Pearson correlation analysis.The PCT resultes were also converted into ranked data to further test the consistency between the two sampling methods by Spearman′s rank correlation test. Furthermore, the ranked data were converted into binary data to evaluate the consistency and investigate the best cut-off of peripheral blood PCT level in predicting bacterial infection.Results:A total of 1 898 valid samples were included (1 098 males, 800 females),age 27.4(12.2,56.7) months. There was a good correlation between PCT values of peripheral whole blood and venous serum ( r=0.97 , P<0.01). The linear regression equation was PCT?venous serum=0.135+0.929×PCT peripheral whole blood. However, when stratified to 5 levels, PCT results showed diverse and unsatisfied consistency between the two sampling methods ( r=0.51-0.92, all P<0.01). But after PCT was converted to ordinal categorical variables, the stratified analysis showed that the coincidence rate of the measured values by the two sampling methods in each boundary area was 84.9%-97.1%. The dichotomous variables also showed a good consistency (coincidence rate 96.8%-99.3%, Youden index 0.82-0.89). According to the severity of disease, the serum PCT value was classified into 4 intervals（<0.5、0.5-<2.0、2.0-<10.0、≥10.0 μg/L）, and the peripheral blood PCT value also showed a good predictive value (AUC value was 0.991 2-0.997 9). The optimal cut points of peripheral whole blood PCT value 0.5、1.0、2.0、10.0 μg/L corresponding to venous serum PCT values were 0.395, 0.595, 1.175 and 3.545 μg/L, respectively. Conclusions:There is a good correlation between peripheral whole blood PCT value and the venous serum PCT value, which means that the peripheral whole blood PCT could facilitate the identification of infection and clinical severity. Besides, the sampling of peripheral whole blood is simple and easy to repeat.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the cumulative effect regarding the family history of cardiovascular disease and smoking on ischemic stroke events in population with Mongolian ethnicity.

METHODSBased on data gathered from the baseline investigation, a 10-year prospective cohort follow-up project was conducted among 2 589 participants with Mongolian ethnicity. Ischemic stroke events were defined as the outcomes of the study. All the 2 589 participants were categorized into four subgroups: without family history of cardiovascular disease/nonsmokers, without family history of cardiovascular disease/smokers, with family history of cardiovascular disease/nonsmokers and with family history of cardiovascular disease/smokers, according to family history of cardiovascular disease and smoking status. Cumlative incidence rates of events among the four subgroups was described with Kaplan-Meier curves. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) of ischemic stroke events among the four subgroups.

RESULTSData from the Kaplan-Meier curves showed that the cumulative incidence rates of ischemic stroke were 1.17% (15/1 278), 3.83% (37/967), 5.70% (9/158) and 8.33% (15/180) for the groups of no family history of cardiovascular disease/nonsmokers, no family history of cardiovascular disease/smokers, with family history of cardiovascular disease/nonsmokers and with family history of cardiovascular disease/smokers, respectively. By cox proportional hazards model, after adjusting for age, male, drinking status, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, fasting glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol factors, the HRs (95% CI) of ischemic stroke were 2.26 (1.19-4.28) and 2.45 (1.13-5.33) in the no family history of cardiovascular disease/smokers group, with family history of cardiovascular disease/smokers group when compared to the no family history of cardiovascular disease/nonsmokers group, respectively. The risk of ischemic stroke appeared the highest in the group with family history of cardiovascular disease/smokers (all P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSmoking may increase the risk of ischemic stroke events among the population with family history of cardiovascular disease.

Alcohol Drinking ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; ethnology ; genetics ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Body Mass Index ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; ethnology ; genetics ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Mongolia ; epidemiology ; Population Surveillance ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Prospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Smoking ; adverse effects ; epidemiology ; Stroke ; epidemiology ; genetics

Bacillus spp. are probiotics and can secrete a variety of natural antimicrobiol active substances, of which lipopeptides are an important class. Up to now, about 90 lipopeptides have been identified, and most of them are cyclic lipopeptides. surfactin, iturin, fengycin, bacillomycin and polymyxins are widely studied, and the first three have huge potential for application due to their properties of surfactants and anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory functions. In this paper, the research progress in the structure, function, synthesis regulation, separation, purification and production of surfactin, iturin and fengycin was reviewed. Synthetic biology is a vital means to increase the yield of lipopeptides, and in the future, lipopeptides can be used in crop cultivation, animal farming, food, medicine and petroleum industries as well as environmental protection. Future research should be strengthened on the discovery of new lipopeptides, synthesis of high-activity lipopeptides, economical production of lipopeptides on a large scale and their safety evaluation.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Anti-Infective Agents/pharmacology* ; Bacillus ; Bacillus subtilis ; Lipopeptides/pharmacology* ; Peptides, Cyclic/pharmacology*