Objective:To investigate the association between albumin-corrected anion gap(ACAG)and short-to long-term death out-comes in patients with acute pancreatitis(AP).Methods:This retrospective study was based on the Medical Information Mart for Inten-sive Care-IV database,and the adult patients who were diagnosed with AP and were admitted to the intensive care unit were enrolled in this study.Cox regression risk analysis,receiver operating charac-teristic(ROC)curve analysis,Kaplan-Meier survival curve analy-sis,restricted cubic spline,and subgroup analysis were used to in-vestigate the value of ACAG in predicting the death outcome of AP patients.Results:A total of 444 patients were enrolled in this study,and according to the death status of the patients on day 28 after ad-mission,the patients were divided into survival group with 412 pa-tients and death group with 32 patients,with a mortality rate of 7.2%on day 28 after admission.The multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that ACAG was an independent predictive factor for all-cause mortality rate on day 28 after admission in AP patients(hazard ratio[HR]=1.18,95%CI=1.05-1.32),while it was not an in-dependent predictive factor for death outcome on days 90(HR=1.05,95%CI=0.97-1.14)and 180(HR=1.01,95%CI=0.94-1.09)and at 1 year(HR=1.02,95%CI=0.95-1.10).The ROC curve analysis showed that ACAG had an area under the ROC curve(AUC)of 0.732(95%CI=0.632-0.832)in predicting 28-day death outcome,which was better than that of AG(AUC=0.665,95%CI=0.550-0.781)and serum albumin(Alb)(AUC=0.655,95%CI=0.550-0.761)and was similar to that of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment(SOFA)score(AUC=0.745,95%CI=0.651-0.838).The ROC curve showed that the optimal cut-off value of ACAG was 21.375.Based on the cut-off value of ACAG of 21.375,the patients were divided into high-value group and normal-value group,and the Kaplan-Meier curve analysis showed that the patients with a high level of ACAG had a significantly higher mortality rate than those with normal ACAG(P<0.001).The subgroup analysis showed that the results were stable.Conclusion:ACAG can be used as an independent pre-dictive factor for all-cause mortality rate on day 28 after admission in AP patients,with a better efficacy than AG and Alb and a similar efficacy to SOFA.However,it is not significantly associated with 90-day,180-day,and 1-year death outcomes in AP patients.

Objective To explore the prevalence of sialorrhea and its clinical correlation with dysphagia in Chinese patients with Parkinson′s disease ( PD ).Methods One hundred and sixteen consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of PD were selected.Demographic data included sex , age, years of education, age at onset of PD, clinical genotype, disease duration, treatment, Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) stage.Sialorrhea was assessed using the Unified Parkinson′s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) Ⅱitem number 6.All patients were studied with videofluoroscopic study of swallowing ( VFSS).Results The prevalence rate of sialorrhea in PD was 59.5% (69/116, 95% CI 50.6%-68.4%).Males were more likely to develop sialorrhea than females (47/70 vs 22/46,χ2 =4.298, P=0.038).PD patients′sialorrhea correlated with oral dysphagia:with food leaking from the mouth ( liquid r=0.229, P=0.014; juice r=0.197, P=0.034;pudding viscosities r=0.231, P=0.013;solid food r=0.255, P=0.006), with more than 1 ml of oral food residues (liquid r=0.319, P<0.01;solid food r=0.185, P=0.047), with delay in food transfer to the root of the tongue (liquid r=0.279, P=0.002; juice r=0.209, P=0.024), and delayed swallow transfer ( pudding viscosities r=0.257, P=0.005).Sialorrhea score was not related to H&Y stage, clinical course and levodopa equivalent doses (LED).The prevalence rate of dysphagia in PD was 87.1%(95% CI 81.0% -93.2%).Liquid was more likely to cause pharyngeal dysphagia ( P=0.03).With the increase in H&Y stage , so did the oral and pharyngeal stages of dysphagia.Late and mid-course was more likely to develop oral and pharyngeal dysphagia than those with early clinical course .Conclusions Sialorrhea and dysphagia are common non-motor symptoms in PD patients.Sialorrhea is more prevalent in males and correlates with oral phase of dysphagia.Liquid is more likely to cause pharyngeal dysphagia.With increase in H&Y stage , so did oral and pharyngeal dysphagia.Even though late clinical course is more likely to develop oral and pharyngeal dysphagia than early clinical course , the comparison between late and intermediate clinical courses does not reach statistical significance .

Objective To evaluate the impact of lower renal calyceal anatomic structure on flexible fibreoptic ureteroscopy with holmium laserin treatment of calyceal calculi.Methods From January 2007 to December 2011,a total of 60 patients with a lower calyceal renal stone were enrolled in this study.The mean age was 51 years (range 23 to 78 years).The mean height was 169.8 cm,and mean body mass was 71.2 kg.Intravenous urogram (IVU) was performed on all patients and the lower pole anatomy (including infundibulopelvic angle,length of the inferior caliceal infundibulum and infundibular width) were measured in these patients.The correlation between lower pole anatomy and the success of flexible fibreoptic ureteroscopy with holmium laser for calyceal calculi was analyzed.Results Of the 60 patients,42 patients were successful in stone clearance.The patients in the stone-free group age of (50.1 ± 14.6) years,height (169.8 ±5.1) cm,body mass (71.4 ±5.1) kg,the maximum stone size in diameter (10.9 ±2.1) mm,stone burden (85.4 ± 9.5) mm2,lower infundibular length (36.3 ± 3.7) mm and lower infundibular width (4.9 ±1.4) mm; the other 18 patients age (50.7 ± 11.7) years,height (169.9 ±6.4) cm,body mass (71.6±4.7) kg,the maximum stone size in diameter (11.3 ±2.4) mm,stone burden (82.5 ±8.6)mm2,lower infundibular length (37.2 ± 2.3) mm and lower infundibular width (4.8 ± 1.9) mm.There was no difference between the stone-free group and the residual group in all above parameters (P ＞ 0.05).However,the infundibulopelvic angle in the stone-free group was significantly greater than that in the residual group (63.4 ± 23.2 vs 45.32 ± 17.6,P ＜ 0.05).x2 test showed the stone clearance rate in patients with angle ≥45 was better than that in those with angle ＜45 (84.6％ vs 42.7％,P ＜0.05).If grouped by infundibulopelvic angle,patients with infundibulopelvic angle greater than 90°had stone clearance rate 92.3％ (12/13),those with angle ranged from 30° to 90° had 73.2％ (30/41),and those with infundibulopelvic angle smaller than 30° had 0％ (0/6).Logistic regression analysis showed that the angle was a significant independent predictor of stone clearance (OR =1.12,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The infundibulopelvic angle has adverse influences on the performances of flexible ureteroscopy.The samller the angle is,the poorer the performances of flexible ureteroscopy is.