BACKGROUND: Although intensively studied in patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the prognostic value of diastolic blood pressure (DBP) has little been elucidated in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). This study aimed to reveal the prognostic value of DBP in AECOPD patients. METHODS: Inpatients with AECOPD were prospectively enrolled from 10 medical centers in China between September 2017 and July 2021. DBP was measured on admission. The primary outcome was all-cause in-hospital mortality; invasive mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit (ICU) admission were secondary outcomes. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and multivariable Cox regressions were used to identify independent prognostic factors and calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for adverse outcomes. RESULTS: Among 13,633 included patients with AECOPD, 197 (1.45%) died during their hospital stay. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that low DBP on admission (<70 mmHg) was associated with increased risk of in-hospital mortality (HR = 2.16, 95% CI: 1.53-3.05, Z = 4.37, P <0.01), invasive mechanical ventilation (HR = 1.65, 95% CI: 1.32-2.05, Z = 19.67, P <0.01), and ICU admission (HR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.24-1.69, Z = 22.08, P <0.01) in the overall cohort. Similar findings were observed in subgroups with or without CVDs, except for invasive mechanical ventilation in the subgroup with CVDs. When DBP was further categorized in 5-mmHg increments from <50 mmHg to ≥100 mmHg, and 75 to <80 mmHg was taken as reference, HRs for in-hospital mortality increased almost linearly with decreased DBP in the overall cohort and subgroups of patients with CVDs; higher DBP was not associated with the risk of in-hospital mortality. CONCLUSION: Low on-admission DBP, particularly <70 mmHg, was associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes among inpatients with AECOPD, with or without CVDs, which may serve as a convenient predictor of poor prognosis in these patients. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION Chinese Clinical Trail Registry, No. ChiCTR2100044625.
Humans ; Blood Pressure ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/therapy* ; Cohort Studies ; Respiration, Artificial ; Inpatients ; Hospital Mortality

Humans ; Blood Pressure/physiology* ; Cohort Studies ; Patient Discharge ; Ischemic Stroke ; Stroke ; Brain Ischemia ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Hypertension

Objective:To explore the efficacy and safety of BCL-2 inhibitor-based treatment in patients with relapsed/refractory t (11; 14) primary systemic light chain amyloidosis.Methods:This was a retrospective case series study. Ten patients with relapsed/refractory t(11;14) primary systemic light chain amyloidosis who had all received treatment with a combination regimen including the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax from January 2018 to November 2022 at the Hematology Department of Peking University People′s Hospital were included. Adverse events, and hematological and organ responses were evaluated.Results:The median age of the ten enrolled patients was 59 (range 41-78) years, and the male to female ratio was 8∶2. Except for one patient, a very good partial or better response was achieved in 8/9 patients and one patient obtained a partial response. The overall response rate was 100%. The median time to achieve a hematological response was 60 (range 24-236) days. At least one organ response was observed in 7/9 patients. With a median follow-up of 18 months, one patient experienced hematological progression and one patient died. Grade 3 adverse events included lymphocytopenia (3 cases), anemia (1 case), diarrhea (1 case), and appendicitis (1 case). One patient died of pulmonary fungal infection two months after completion of treatment, which was not excluded as being treatment related.Conclusion:A combination regimen including BCL-2 inhibitors in patients with relapsed/refractory t(11;14) primary systemic light chain amyloidosis is a potentially safe and effective treatment option that warrants further investigation.

Closed-loop hospital management can effectivly cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to ensure the continuity of treatments for hemodialysis patients under closed-loop management and minimize possible medical and infection risks, Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University and 9 hospitals in Shanghai established a hemodialysis alliance in January 2021.The alliance optimized hemodialysis resources within the region through overall planning by preparing sites, materials and personnel shifts in advance, and establishing management systems and work processes to ensure that patients could be quickly and orderly diverted to other blood dialysis centers for uninterrupted high-quality hemodialysis services, in case that some hemodialysis centers in the alliance under closed-loop management.From November 2021 to April 2022, 317 of 1 459 hemodialysis patients in the alliance were diverted to other centers for treatment, accumulating 1 215 times/cases of treatments without obvious adverse reactions. The practice could provide a reference for medical institutions to quickly establish mutual support mode under major public health events.

Objective: In order to master the epidemic trend of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and evaluate the effect of prevention and control, we evaluate the epidemic dynamics of COVID-19 in mainland China, Hubei province, Wuhan city and other provinces outside Hubei from January 16 to February 14, 2020. Methods: We collected the daily number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid detection reported by the National Health Commission from January 16, 2020 to February 14, 2020. The analysis includes the epidemic curve of the new confirmed cases, multiple of the new confirmed cases for period-over-period, multiple of the new confirmed cases for fixed-base, and the period-over-period growth rate of the new confirmed cases. Results: From January 16 to February 14, 2020, the cumulative number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in mainland China was 50 031, including 37 930 in Hubei province, 22 883 in Wuhan city and 12 101 in other provinces outside Hubei. The peak of the number of new confirmed cases in other provinces outside Hubei was from January 31 to February 4, 2020, and the peak of new confirmed cases in Wuhan city and Hubei province was from February 5 to February 9, 2020. The number of new confirmed cases in other provinces outside Hubei showed a significant decline (23% compared with the peak) from February 5 to February 9, 2020, while the number of new confirmed cases in Wuhan city (30% compared with the peak) and Hubei Province (37% compared with the peak) decreased significantly from February 10 to February 14, 2020. Conclusion The epidemic prevention and control measures taken by the state and governments at all levels have shown very significant effects, effectively curbing the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in China.

Objective The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical value of serum microRNA in predicting chemotherapy efficacy in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods A total of 187 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma who received cisplatin combined chemotherapy were enrolled in our hospital from January 2010 to December 2016,including 123 pa-tients with chemotherapy sensitivity and 64 patients with chemotherapy resistance. The serum levels of miRNA before the initial chem-otherapy were measured,the efficacy and predictive value of serum miRNA in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients were evaluated using healthy subjects as controls. Results Serum level of miR-127 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients was significantly higher than that in healthy controls(4. 3 ± 1. 6 vs. 1. 4 ± 0. 5,P<0. 001). Serum level of miR-127 was significantly higher in chemotherapy-resistant patients than that in chemotherapy-sensitive patients(4. 5 ± 1. 3 vs. 3. 8 ± 1. 7,P<0. 001). The ROC curve showed that the predictive value of serum miR-127 for chemotherapy resistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients was 0. 702(P<0. 001), with the optimal cut-off value of 4. 2,sensitivity of 82. 3% and specificity of 76. 3% . Compared with the chemotherapy-sensitive group,the proportion of patients with T3-4 ,N3 and TNM Ⅲ~Ⅳ in the chemotherapy-resistant group was significantly increased(P<0. 01),and the proportion of miR-127≥4. 2 was also increased(P<0. 001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that TNM staging(OR=1. 655,95% CI:1. 142~2. 584,P=0. 016)and serum miR-127≥4. 2(OR=2. 231,95% CI:1. 762~4. 503,P=0. 001)were independent risk factors affecting chemotherapy resistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. Conclusion The el-evated serum level of miR-127 is an important risk factor for predicting chemotherapy resistance in patients with nasopharyngeal car-cinoma.

Objective: To compare the value of right ventricular (RV) free wall longitudinal strain (FWLS) by speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) and conventional parameters in evaluation of RV dysfunction in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Methods: Sixty CTEPH patients were enrolled as group A and 45 pulmonary embolism (PE) patients with normal pulmonary pressure were enrolled as group B in this study. CTEPH patients were divided into 2 subgroups using the World Health Organization (WHO) function classification: patients with WHO Ⅰ-Ⅱ were designated as group A1 and those with WHO Ⅲ-Ⅳ were designated as group A2. Conventional RV functional parameters including tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), tissue Doppler-derived tricuspid annular systolic velocity (S′), fractional area change (FAC), RV index of myocardial performance (RVIMP), and STE-derived RV FWLS were measured and compared. Clinical right heart failure (RHF) was defined as the presence of symptoms of heart failure and signs of systemic circulation congestion during hospitalization. Results: Compared to group B, group A patients had significant enlarged right heart dimension and impaired RV systolic function parameters (all P<0.001). The TAPSE, S′, FAC, and RV FWLS showed significant differences between CTEPH patients with mild (group A1) and severe symptoms (group A2) (all P<0.01), while RVIMP showed no significant difference (P=0.188). On receiver operating characteristic analysis, FWLS had the largest AUC to identify RHF (AUC=0.864, P<0.001), when the cutoff value was 15.05%, the sensitivity was 85.71%, and the specificity was 64.29%, respectively. On binary logistic regression analysis, only right atria area (OR=1.212, 95%CI=1.004-1.48, P=0.046) and RV FWLS (OR=0.662, 95%CI=0.470-0.933, P=0.018) were identified as independent predictor of RHF. Conclusions Compared with conventional parameters, RV FWLS showed advantages in identifying abnormal RV function in CTEPH patients.

Objective To evaluate the effect of inhaling hydrogen (H2) on proteomics during acute lung injury in septic mice.Methods Sixty male ICR mice,aged 6 weeks,weighing 20-25 g,were divided into 4 groups (n=15 each) using a random number table:sham operation group (Sh group),sham operation plus H2 group (Sh+H2 group),sepsis group (S group) and sepsis plus H2 group (S+H2 group).Sepsis was produced by cecal ligation and puncture.The mice in Sh+H2 and S+H2 groups inhaled 2％ H2 for 1 h starting from 1 and 6 h after operation.At 24 h after operation,lungs were removed for identification of proteins by isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis,and the differentially expressed proteins were screened.The differentially expressed proteins were used for KEGG pathway enrichment analysis and STRING protein-protein interaction networks analysis.Western blot was used to confirm the 4 differentially expressed proteins semaphorin 7A,transferrin,OTULIN and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 1.Results A total of 4 472 quantifiable proteins were identified.A total of 192 proteins which were related to acute lung injury during H2 inhalationinduced reduction of sepsis were identified.The 192 proteins involved phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/serine0threonine kinase signaling pathway,chemokine signaling pathway,hypoxia-inducible factor 1 signaling pathway,complement and coagulation cascades,peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signaling pathway and proteins including ribosome proteins,myosin and troponin,collagen and adhesion-related proteins,coagulation-related proteins found in STRING protein-protein interaction networks.Conclusion Inhaling H2 can induce changes in the expression of 192 proteins,which may be the mechanism of lung protection in septic mice.

Objective To assess the association between killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) gene polymorphisms and the risk of hypertension in autoimmune mechanism.Methods We conducted a case-control study including 205 hypertensives and 205 controls matched with sex and age,from a community-based population.KIR genes of all subjects were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP).Conditional logistic regression model and generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) method were used to estimate the association among KIR gene polymorphisms and the risk of hypertension.Results The genotypic frequencies of KIRs were not significantly different between the hypertensives and the control groups (P＞0.05).Among all the models of GMDR concerning the association between interactions of KIR genes and essential hypertension,the testing accuracy of the interaction between K/R2DS2 and KIR2DS3 was the highest (55.13％),with cross-validation consistency as 10/10 (P=0.054).Results from the conditional logistic regression showed that individuals with KIR2DS2 +:KIR2DS3-were significantly associated with an increased risk on hypertension (OR=2.555,95％CI:1.203-5.429,P=0.015).However,individuals with KIR2DS2 +:KIR2DS3 + were significantly associated with a reduced risk of hypertension (0R=0.268,95％ CI:0.088-0.815,P=0.020).Individuals with KIR2DS2-KIR2DS3 + did not seem to be associated with the risk of hypertension (0R=1.602,95％ C I:0.785-3.266,P=0.195),when compared to the KIR2DS2-KIR2DS3-group.Interactions between KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS3 were significantly associated with the risk of hypertension,after adjusted for BMI,smoking,drinking and family history of hypertension (OR=0.065,95％CI:0.013-0.317,P=0.001).Conclusion Individuals with KIR2DS2 and no KIR2DS3 were associated with the increased risk of hypertension.KIR2DS2 that coexisted with KIR2DS3 were associated with the reduced risk of hypertension.Antagonism between KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS3 might serve as a protect factor for hypertension.

BACKGROUNDMany studies have suggested that C-reactive protein (CRP) and blood lipids are associated with hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, few studies discussed the combined action of CRP and blood lipids on the risk of hypertension and prehypertension. This study aimed to investigate the combined action of CRP and lipid profiles on the risk of hypertension and prehypertension in Mongolian adults from Inner Mongolia, China.

METHODSThe systolic and diastolic blood pressure, height, weight and waist circumference were measured and factors such as smoking, alcohol intake, family history of hypertension, etc., were investigated and CRP, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides (TG) were tested for 2 534 Mongolian adults aged ≥ 20 years. The subjects were divided into four subgroups, namely CRP median subgroup, CRP >median and LDL-C (TG) median and LDL-C (TG) >median subgroup. The ORs (95% CIs) of hypertension and prehypertension for the subgroups were calculated by univariate and multivariate analysis.

RESULTSThe multivariate adjusted ORs (95%CIs) of hypertension/prehypertension were 1.389 (0.979-1.970)/1.151(0.865-1.531), 1.666 (1.159-2.394)/1.431 (1.060-1.930), 1.756 (1.242-2.484)/ 1.770 (1.321-2.372), for CRP median subgroup, CRP >median and LDL-C median and LDL-C >median subgroup, respectively, compared with CRP median subgroup, CRP >median and TG median and TG >median subgroup, respectively, compared with CRP median and LDL-C (TG) >median subgroup among the four subgroups.

CONCLUSIONSSubjects with both CRP >median and LDL-C (TG) >median had highest risks of hypertension and prehypertension among all subjects. This study appeared to indicate that the combined action of elevated CRP and elevated LDL-C (TG) further increase the risks of hypertension and prehypertension among Mongolian population.

Adult ; Body Height ; physiology ; Body Weight ; physiology ; C-Reactive Protein ; metabolism ; China ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; blood ; epidemiology ; metabolism ; Lipids ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Waist Circumference ; physiology