BACKGROUND: Glaucoma is a kind of eye disease that can cause irreversible blindness which is characterized by visual field loss. Clinical research shows that the optic nerve head has changed before the visual field loss. The morphological changes of the optic nerve head have become the key to determine the early diagnosis of glaucoma and disease development. So it has important significance for us to study the morphological changes of the tissues of optic nerve head under the high intraocular pressure.
OBJECTIVE: To establish three-dimensional finite element model of optic nerve head which includes choroid, retina and lamina cribrosa, and analyze the thickness of the optic nerve head under the acute high intraocular pressure.
METHODS: (1) We chose healthy cats without refractive media and other eye diseases. The tomographic sequence images of the optic nerve head of a cat were obtained with the intraocular pressure of the normal value by using enhanced depth imaging spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. (2) The three-dimensional model of the retina, choroid and lamina cribrosa was obtained. Three-dimensional model of optic nerve head was established by assembling the model of the retina, the choroid and the lamina cribrosa. The thickness of the retina, choroid and lamina cribrosa was analyzed under different intraocular pressures by using the method of finite element analysis. (3) Animal model of acute ocular hypertension was established by methods of anterior chamber perfusion. The tomographic sequence images of the optic nerve head of a cat were obtained with different intraocular pressures by using enhanced depth imaging spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Then, we measured the thickness changes of the choroid, retina and lamina cribrosa under different intraocular pressures, and compared with the results of finite element analysis.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The thickness of the choroid, retina and lamina cribrosa trended to be thin, and the cup dish ratio of optic nerve head increased gradual y with the increased intraocular pressures. Regarding to the thickness changes of the choroid, retina and lamina cribrosa, the trend of experimental measurement results was consistent with finite element calculation results. Hence, it is feasible to analyze morphological changes of every fundus tissue under high intraocular pressure using the tomographic sequence images obtained by optical coherence tomography. We can predict the morphological changes of the optic nerve head tissue by finite element analysis, which has certain guiding significance in determining the progression of glaucoma.

Objective : To examine the association between acute exposure to traffic-related air pollutants (TRAP) NOX and NO2 and outpatient visits of pediatric respiratory diseases. Methods : Data regarding outpatient visits to Department of Respiratory Diseases of Beijing Children's Hospital from 2015 to 2020 were collected, and the concentrations of nitrogen oxides (NOX), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and other TRAP were collected from the surveillance sites assigned by the Peking University Health Science Center. A time-stratified case-crossover design was employed, and a conditional logistic regression model was created to examine the association between NOX and NO2 acute exposure and outpatient visits of pediatric respiratory diseases. Results : The daily mean outpatient visits of pediatric respiratory diseases were 571 (interquartile range, 554) person-times among children at ages of 0 to 14 years in Beijing Children's Hospital from 2015 to 2020, and the daily mean outpatient visits for upper respiratory tract infections (URI), bronchitis, and pneumonia were 265 (interquartile range, 282), 143 (interquartile range, 178) and 128 (interquartile range, 120) person-times, respectively. The daily mean concentrations of atmospheric NOX and NO2 were 67.8 (interquartile range, 50.7) and 49.3 (interquartile range, 30.7) μg/m3, respectively. Conditional logistic regression analysis showed the largest lagged effect of NOX and NO2 on pediatric respiratory diseases at cumulative lags of 0 to 7 days. An increase in NOX concentrations by an interquartile range resulted in the excess risks of URI, bronchitis and pneumonia by 6.87% (95%CI: 6.37%-7.38%), 7.25% (95%CI: 6.51%-7.99%), and 5.51% (95%CI: 4.69%-6.33%), and an increase in NO2 concentrations by an interquartile range resulted in excess risks of URI, bronchitis and pneumonia by 5.71% (95%CI: 5.12%-6.31%), 5.32% (95%CI: 4.51%-6.14%), and 4.83% (95%CI: 3.91%-5.75%), respectively. NOX and NO2 presented a more remarkable effect on outpatient visits of pediatric respiratory diseases among children at ages of over 5 years. Conclusion NOx and NO2 acute exposure may increase the outpatient visits of pediatric respiratory diseases.

Objective To systematically review the risk prediction models for intradialytic hypotension in maintenance hemodialysis patients,with a view to provide references for clinical practice.Methods PubMed,Embase,Web of Science,Cochrane Library,CINAHL,CNKI,VIP,Wanfang and CBM were searched from inception to May 29,2023.2 reviewers independently screened the literature,extracted information and assessed methodological quality using the Prediction Model Risk of Bias Assessment Tool.Results A total of 20 studies and 25 models were included with the sample size of 68～9 292 cases and the incidence of outcome events of 2.1～51％.Baseline systolic blood pressure,age,ultrafiltration rate,diabetes and dialysis duration were the top 5 predictors of repeated reporting of the models.20 models reported the area under the curve of ranging from 0.649 to 0.969,and 5 models reported calibration metrics.There were 9 internal validations and 4 combined internal and external validation models.The overall applicability of the 20 studies was good,but all had a high risk of bias,mainly in data analysis.Conclusion Research on risk prediction models for intradialytic hypotension in maintenance hemodialysis patients is still in the developmental stage.Future studies should improve the research design and reporting process,and validation studies of existing models should be carried out to further evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility in clinical practice.

To explore how to create and optimize a promotion index system of medical quality evaluation, this article focuses on the hospital visiting process from patients, using analyzing collected those index system from couples of Grade Ⅲ hospitals in Beijing, and combining the results of literal study, field study and specialist consult, according to the different situation of general hospitals and specially hospitals, with the spirit of "maintaining the patients benefits, safeguarding the patients safety,and enhancing the medical quality", introduces the framework of the promotion index system, the rules to select the indicator, and so on, and discusses several problerns related to creating the index system.

Objective:To investigate the role of miR-146a in the pathogenesis of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and its clinical significance.Methods:This article is a prospective clinical cohort study.Twenty-six patients with sJIA (14 cases of initial active group and 12 cases of stable group), 15 patients with multijoint juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and 15 patients with oligojoint JIA diagnosed in the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of Anhui Provincial Children′s Hospital from June 2018 to December 2020 were enrolled.Twenty healthy controls from the out-patient clinic were also recruited.The expression level of miR-146a in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of research objects was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase reaction (qPCR), and the serum levels of interleukin (IL) - 6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) - α and IL-1β in sJIA patients and healthy controls were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.The expression levels of miR-146a in PBMCs and cytokines among different groups were compared by analysis of variance. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation of the relative expression level of miR-146a in PBMCs with clinical inflammatory indexes and serum cytokines in sJIA patients. Results:(1) The expression level of miR-146a in PBMCs of early sJIA patients was significantly higher than that in the multijoint JIA group and oligojoint JIA group (8.77±3.15 vs.4.40±1.59, 2.55±1.15, t=6.27, 14.23; all P<0.05). The expression level of miR-146a in PBMCs of sJIA active patients was significantly higher than that in sJIA stable patients (8.77±3.15 vs.3.63±1.37, t=10.27, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the expression level of miR-146a between the sJIA stable group and healthy control group ( P>0.05). (2) The expression levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α were significantly higher in sJIA active patients group than those in sJIA stable group[(58.56±17.47) ng/L vs.(26.32±10.54) ng/L, (73.72±11.16) ng/L vs.(23.20±9.12) ng/L, (70.93±19.97) ng/L vs.(24.25±9.49) ng/L, all P<0.05]. There was no significant difference in the expression levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α between the sJIA stable group and healthy control group(all P>0.05). (3)The expression of miR-146a in PBMCs of sJIA patients was positively correlated with serum ferritin levels, platelets, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, C-reactive proteins, IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α( r=0.542, 0.433, 0.329, 0.306, 0.333, 0.342, 0.319, all P<0.05). Conclusions:miR-146a may be involved in the inflammatory process of sJIA disease.miR-146a can well distinguish sJIA from multijoint JIA and oligojoint JIA.TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 are involved in sJIA inflammatory responses.

Objective:To study the characteristics and influencing factors of vaginal microbiota in normal pregnant women.Methods:This study was based on a cohort of pregnant women established in Anqing Municipal Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University from February 2018 to February 2020. Vaginal samples of normal pregnant women who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were ordered by the gestational weeks at sampling. Five samples were randomly selected from each gestational week group and if the samples were less than five, all samples were included. Sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was performed. Dominant species were analyzed by MicrobiomeAnalyst. Alpha diversity was measured with Chao1, Observed Features, Shannon diversity, Simpson diversity, Faith_pd and Pielou′s Evenness. The dominant status of Lactobacillus was also described and compared. Multiple linear regression and logistic regression were used to analyze the factors influencing vaginal microbiota. Analysis of variance and Kruskal Wallis test were used for statistical analysis of continuous variables, and Chi-square test and Fisher′s exact test were used for categorical data. The differences were considered statistically significant when the P value was less than 0.05. Results:This study enrolled 91 pregnant women (91 vaginal samples) with an average age of (27.37±3.60) years. There were 18, 56 and 17 vaginal samples collected at the median gestational age of 11.93 weeks (the first trimester), 19.43 weeks (the second trimester) and 38.29 weeks (the third trimester), respectively. The relative abundance of Firmicutes and Lactobacillus was 91.30% and 87.67%, respectively. Lactobacillus iners and Lactobacillus crispatus had a relative abundance of 43.95% and 36.33%, respectively. Moreover, Lactobacillus iners-dominated vaginal microbiota was detected in all trimesters. The number of samples with high relative abundance of Lactobacillus iners gradually decreased with gestational age. Lactobacillus crispatus-dominated vaginal microbiota was found in the second and third trimesters and the number of samples with high relative abundance gradually increased during pregnancy. The Alpha diversity of vaginal microbiota had a decreasing trend during the gestation. There were significant differences in Pielou′s Evenness diversity index of vaginal microbiota between different smoking groups ( P<0.05) and in Shannon diversity index between different drinking groups ( P<0.05). There were significant differences in Chao1, Observed Features and Faith_pd diversity index of vaginal microbiota between pregnant women with different education ( P<0.05) and in Shannon and Simpson diversity index between different income groups ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Vaginal microbiota was dominated by Lactobacillus in normal pregnant women. The dominance of Lactobacillus iners gradually decreased, while that of Lactobacillus crispatus increased during gestation. In normal pregnant women, the Alpha diversity of vaginal microbiota was correlated with smoking, drinking, education and family annual income. Smoking cessation and drinking before pregnancy were related to lower Alpha diversity of vaginal microbiota in pregnant women, while lower education and higher family income were associated with higher Alpha diversity.

Objective:Evidence on potential cardiovascular benefits of personal-level intervention among the elderly exposed to high levels of particulate matter(PM)remains limited.We aimed to assess improvements in surrogate markers of cardiovascular injury in vulnerable populations at risks by using indoor air filtration units.Methods:We conducted a randomized crossover trial for 2 separate 2-week air filtration interventions in 20 households of patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and their partners in the winter of 2013,with concurrent measurements of indoor PM.The changes in biomarkers indicative of cardiac injury,atherosclerosis progression and systemic inflammation following intervention were evaluated using linear mixed-effect models.Results:In the analysis,average levels of indoor PM with aerodynamic diameters＜2.5 μm(PM2.5)decreased significantly by 59.2％(from 59.6 to 24.3 μg/m3,P＜0.001)during the active air filtration.The reduction was accompanied by improvements in levels of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I by-84.6％(95％confidence interval[CI]:-90.7 to-78.6),growth differentiation factor-15 by-48.1％(95％CI:-31.2 to-25.6),osteoprotegerin by-65.4％(95％CI:-56.5 to-18.7),interleukin-4 by-46.6％(95％CI:-62.3 to-31.0)and myeloperoxidase by-60.3％(95％CI:-83.7 to-3.0),respectively.Conclusion:Indoor air filtration intervention may provide potential cardiovascular benefits in vulnerable popu-lations at risks.

Objective:The exact biological mechanism whereby exposure to ambient ozone(O3)may contribute to clinical onset of cardiovascular events remains unclear.In this study,we aim to examine the impacts of O3 exposure on cardiac arrhythmias and potential pathways involved through autonomic dysfunction and myocardial injury.Methods:Seventy-three non-smoking healthy adults were followed with 4 repeated measurements of 24-hour ambulatory arrhythmias,heart rate variability,ST-segment deviation,and blood pressure(BP)in Beijing,China,2014-2016.Generalized additive mixed models coupled with distributed lag nonlinear models were constructed to evaluate the associations and potential interlinks between O3 exposure and outcome measurements.Results:During the study period,24-hour average concentrations of ambient O3 were 47.4 μg/m3(ranging from 1.0 to 165.9 μg/m3).Increased risks of premature ventricular contraction and ventricular tachycardia were associated with interquartile range increases in O3 exposure during the last 5 days before each participant's clinic visit,with relative risks of 2.14(95％confidence interval[CI]:1.95 to 2.32)and 5.47(95％CI:3.51 to 7.43),respectively.Mediation analyses further showed that sympathetic activation,parasympathetic inhibition,and elevated BP levels,as well as heightened risks of ST-segment depression could mediate up to 47.74％of the risks of arrhythmias attributable to O3 exposure.Conclusion:Our results suggest that short-term exposure to ambient O3 could prompt the genesis of arrhythmias partially through worsening autonomic function and myocardial burden.

Electroencephalography (EEG) signals are strongly correlated with human emotions. The importance of nodes in the emotional brain network provides an effective means to analyze the emotional brain mechanism. In this paper, a new ranking method of node importance, weighted -order propagation number method, was used to design and implement a classification algorithm for emotional brain networks. Firstly, based on DEAP emotional EEG data, a cross-sample entropy brain network was constructed, and the importance of nodes in positive and negative emotional brain networks was sorted to obtain the feature matrix under multi-threshold scales. Secondly, feature extraction and support vector machine (SVM) were used to classify emotion. The classification accuracy was 83.6%. The results show that it is effective to use the weighted -order propagation number method to extract the importance characteristics of brain network nodes for emotion classification, which provides a new means for feature extraction and analysis of complex networks.