ObjectiveTo explore the incidence of major low anterior resection syndrome （LARS） within six months after sphincter-preserving surgery for rectal cancer and to analyze its associated factors. MethodsClinical records， postoperative rehabilitation data and LARS scores were collected from 889 patients at 3 months postoperatively and from 844 patients at 6 months postoperatively. Patients were divided into a major LARS group and a non-major LARS group. Multivariable Logistic regression was used to analyze factors associated with major LARS at 3 and 6 months postoperatively， and the predictive value of the models was assessed using the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test and the receiver operating characteristic （ROC）. ResultsAmong patients undergoing sphincter-preserving surgery for rectal cancer， 247 patients （27.8%） had major LARS at 3 months postoperatively and 181 patients （21.4%） at 6 months postoperatively. Multivariable Logistic regression showed that Kegel exercises， preoperative radiotherapy， anastomotic leakage， a tumor distance from the anal verge of ≤5 cm， and an anastomotic distance from the anal verge of ≤5 cm were independent factors for major LARS at 3 months postoperatively （P<0.05）. At 6 months postoperatively， occasional Kegel exercises during 0~3 months， Kegel exercises during 4~6 months， hydrotherapy during 4~6 months， preoperative chemotherapy， a tumor distance from the anal verge of ≤5 cm， and an anastomotic distance from the anal verge of ≤5 cm were independent factors （P<0.05）. The models at 3 and 6 months postoperatively showed goodness-of-fit test P values of 0.986 and 0.517 and area under the curve （AUCs） of 0.843 and 0.870， indicating good predictive value. ConclusionThe incidence of major LARS within six months after sphincter-preserving surgery for rectal cancer is relatively high， and greater attention should be paid to patients who receive preoperative chemoradiotherapy， develop anastomotic leakage， or have tumor and anastomotic distances from the anal verge of ≤5 cm. Patients should also be advised that early postoperative Kegel exercises and hydrotherapy may reduce the incidence of major LARS.

ObjectiveTo investigate the mechanism of Xiezhuo Jiedu prescription in the treatment of ulcerative colitis （UC） by inhibiting ferroptosis and alleviating intestinal mucosal injury based on the nuclear factor E₂ related factor 2/solute carrier family 7 member/glutathione peroxidase 4 （Nrf2/SLC7A11/GPX4） signaling pathway. MethodsA total of 60 male SD rats were divided into a normal group， a model group， high- and low-dose Xiezhuo Jiedu prescription groups （26.64 and 13.32 g·kg^-1， respectively）， a ferroptosis inhibitor group （Ferrostatin-1， 0.005 g·kg^-1）， and a mesalazine group （0.27 g·kg^-1）， with 10 rats in each group. A UC rat model was established by intrarectal administration of trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid （TNBS）-ethanol. The normal group and the model group were intragastrically administered normal saline. The other groups were given intragastric administration according to the corresponding dosage for 7 d. The general condition， disease activity index （DAI） score， colon length， and mucosal injury index （CDMI） score were observed in each group. The pathological changes of colon tissue in each group were observed by hematoxylin-eosin （HE） staining. The intestinal mucosa and mitochondrial morphology in each group were observed by transmission electron microscopy. The expression levels of Occludin， Claudin-1， mucin 2 （MUC2）， and E-cadherin in intestinal tissue were detected by immunofluorescence （IF）. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA） was used to detect the expression levels of serum tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α）， interleukin-6 （IL-6）， and interleukin-10 （IL-10） in each group， and a lactic acid assay kit or ELISA was employed to detect the expression levels of reactive oxygen species （ROS）， ferrous ions （Fe²⁺）， glutathione （GSH）， malondialdehyde （MDA）， 4-hydroxynonenal （4-HNE）， diamine oxidase （DAO）， and D-lactate （D-LA）. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction （Real-time PCR） was applied to detect the mRNA expression levels of Nrf2， SLC7A11， GPX4， Occludin， Claudin-1， MUC2， and E-cadherin in each group， and Western blot was adopted to detect the protein expression levels of Nrf2， p-Nrf2， SLC7A11， and GPX4 in each group. ResultsCompared with the normal group， rats in the model group exhibited listlessness， sluggish response， and mucopurulent and bloody stools. The model group also showed significantly increased DAI score， colon length， CDMI score， and expression levels of TNF-α， IL-6， ROS， Fe²⁺， MDA， 4-HNE， DAO， and D-LA （P<0.01）. In addition， it presented significantly decreased IF values of Occludin， Claudin-1， MUC2， and E-cadherin and mRNA and protein expression levels of IL-10， GSH， Nrf2， p-Nrf2， SLC7A11， and GPX4 （P<0.01）. There were different degrees of improvement in each administration group after treatment， and the improvement was the most significant in the high-dose Xiezhuo Jiedu prescription group （P<0.01）. ConclusionXiezhuo Jiedu prescription may alleviate intestinal mucosal injury by inhibiting ferroptosis of intestinal epithelial cells via regulating the Nrf2/SLC7A11/GPX4 signaling pathway， thereby exhibiting efficacy in the treatment of UC.

Objective To systematically analyze the characteristics of the disease burden of hypertensive heart disease (HHD) in the elderly (≥60 years) globally and in China from 1990 to 2021, and to predict its future trends from 2022 to 2040, with the aim of providing data support for optimizing comprehensive prevention and control strategies for HHD. Methods Based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 database, the number of prevalent cases and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of HHD in the elderly were extracted for the world, China, and five regions categorized by sociodemographic index (SDI). Joinpoint regression was used to analyze the temporal trends of age-standardized prevalence rate and age-standardized DALYs rate of HHD in the elderly. A three-factor decomposition method was applied to evaluate the relative contributions of aging, population growth, and epidemiological changes to the variations in the elderly HHD burden. Additionally, a Bayesian age-period-cohort model was used to predict the elderly HHD burden from 2022 to 2040. Results In 2021, the number of prevalent elderly HHD cases reached 10 283 000 globally and 3 412 400 in China, representing increases of 179.20% and 159.20% respectively, compared with 1990. The DALYs of elderly HHD were 18 812 700 person-years globally and 4 731 400 person-years in China, rising by 76.08% and 29.45% respectively from 1990. Meanwhile, the growth rates of the number of prevalent cases and DALYs of elderly HHD varied across different SDI regions. From 1990 to 2021, the age-standardized prevalence rate of elderly HHD in China, as well as the age-standardized DALYs rate of elderly HHD both globally and in China, showed significant downward trends (all average annual percentage changes<0, all P<0.001). In 2021, the 70-74 years age group accounted for the highest proportion of prevalent cases and DALYs of elderly HHD, both globally and in China. Decomposition analysis revealed that population growth was the dominant factor driving the increase in the elderly HHD burden across all regions. The prediction model results indicated that the number of prevalent cases and DALYs of elderly HHD would continue to rise globally and in China from 2022 to 2040, with the growth rate of the elderly HHD burden in China between 2021 and 2040 expected to exceed the global average. Conclusion Over the past 32 years, although the age-standardized disease rates of elderly HHD have mainly shown a downward trend globally and in China, the absolute number of the disease burden has increased substantially. The projection model indicates a continued upward trajectory, with the growth rate in China higher than the global average. Therefore, there is an urgent need to implement precise prevention and control strategies to effectively mitigate the disease burden of elderly HHD.

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality worldwide. Coupled with the substantial workload, the clinical management of lung cancer is challenged by the critical need to efficiently and accurately process increasingly complex medical information. In recent years, large language models (LLMs) technology has undergone explosive development, demonstrating unique advantages in handling complex medical data by leveraging its powerful natural language processing capabilities, and its application value in the field of lung cancer diagnosis and treatment is continuously increasing. The paper systematically analyzes that the exceptional potential of LLMs in lung cancer auxiliary diagnosis, tumor feature extraction, automatic staging, progression/outcome analysis, treatment recommendations, medical documentation generation, and patient education. However, they face critical technical and ethical challenges including inconsistent performance in complex integrated decision-making (e.g., TNM staging, personalized treatment suggestions) and "black box" opacity issues, along with dilemmas such as training data biases, model hallucinations, data privacy concerns, and cross-lingual adaptation challenges ("data colonization"). Future directions should prioritize constructing high-quality multimodal corpora specific to lung cancer, developing interpretable and compliant specialized models, and achieving seamless integration with existing clinical workflows. Through dual drivers of technological innovation and ethical standardization, LLMs should be prudently advanced for holistic lung cancer management processes, ultimately promoting efficient, standardized, and personalized diagnosis and treatment practices.

Objective: To investigate the technical considerations and clinical value of plasma exchange (PE) in the treatment of cardiohepatic syndrome (CHS). Methods: A 76-year-old male patient with CHS was treated. The patient’s underlying conditions included valvular heart disease (severe mitral and tricuspid regurgitation), chronic heart failure (cardiac function class IV) complicated with liver failure [total bilirubin (TBIL) up to 590.6 μmol/L; alanine aminotransferase (ALT) up to 325.4 IU/L; aspartate aminotransferase (AST) up to 190.4 IU/L]. Due to poor response to conventional anti-heart failure and hepatoprotective therapy, three sessions of stepwise PE (total volume 6 400 mL) were performed. A "calcium-fluid balance-hemodynamics“ trinity monitoring system was established during treatment, comprising:1) prophylactic calcium supplementation (continuous calcium infusion at 5 mL/h initiated before PE); 2) dynamic blood gas monitoring (ionized calcium measured every 30-60 min with calcium dose adjusted accordingly); 3) individualized fluid balance setting (75%-90%); 4) standby norepinephrine (0.02-0.1 μg/kg/min). Results: Complications such as hypocalcemia (lowest 0.83 mmol/L) and hypotension (lowest 65/38 mmHg) occurred during treatment. Hemodynamics were stabilized by adjusting calcium supplementation, regulating fluid balance, and concomitant use of vasoactive agents. After treatment, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) decreased by 42.0% (from 7 122.53 pg/mL to 4 128.77 pg/mL), TBIL decreased by 69.7% (from 590.6 μmol/L to 178.7 μmol/L), ALT decreased by 91.8% (from 325.4 IU/L to 26.7 IU/L), and AST decreased by 83.2% (from 190.4 IU/L to 31.9 IU/L). Conclusion: PE based on the "calcium-fluid balance-hemodynamics" trinity monitoring system can improve cardiac and liver function in patients with CHS.

Objective To evaluate the performance of lightweight Chinese large language models (LLMs) in answering specialized lung cancer questions, and to explore the impact of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) on model performance. Methods Eleven lightweight Chinese LLMs with parameter sizes ranging from 7B to 32B were included. A lung cancer-specific evaluation dataset consisting of 200 questions [100 A1-type (basic knowledge) and 100 A2-type (clinical case) questions], constructed based on clinical guidelines and thoracic surgery textbooks, was used for assessment. Model performance was evaluated under two conditions (with and without RAG). Accuracy was used to assess model performance, and response latency was recorded to reflect inference efficiency. An accuracy–latency scatter plot was constructed for descriptive analysis of overall model performance. Results All models successfully completed the evaluation. With the introduction of RAG, the overall average accuracy improved from 61.68% to 76.36%. Smaller models demonstrated the most significant improvement (e.g., the accuracy of DeepSeek-7B increased from 32.50% to 60.00%, P<0.001). The average response latency increased from 12.58 s to 13.80 s. The Qwen3 series showed the best overall performance, and Qwen3-32B achieved the highest accuracy under both conditions (76.50% and 84.00%, respectively). After RAG integration, performance differences among model families were markedly reduced. Based on the accuracy-latency trade-off, Qwen3-32B achieved the best balance between accuracy and response latency under the baseline condition, whereas Qwen3-14B demonstrated superior overall performance in terms of accuracy, latency, and computational cost after RAG integration. Conclusion The integration of RAG technology improves the ability of lightweight Chinese LLMs to answer specialized lung cancer questions. Under the dual practical constraints of limited computational resources and medical data security requirements, the "lightweight model+RAG" technical framework may represent a promising deployment solution.

The 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Meeting, two of the most prestigious events in oncology, have concluded sequentially. As the most authoritative annual gatherings in lung cancer and the entire oncology field, the WCLC and ESMO conferences brought together top oncology experts and scientists from around the world to share, discuss, and publish the latest cutting-edge advancements in oncology. In both conferences, lung cancer immunotherapy remained a hot topic of considerable interest. This article aims to summarize and discuss the important research progress on perioperative immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer reported at the two conferences.

BACKGROUND: The available evidence regarding the benefits of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on patients receiving dialysis with coronary artery disease (CAD) is limited and inconsistent. This study aimed to evaluate the association between PCI and clinical outcomes as compared with medical therapy alone in patients undergoing dialysis with CAD in China. METHODS: This multicenter, retrospective study was conducted in 30 tertiary medical centers across 12 provinces in China from January 2015 to June 2021 to include patients on dialysis with CAD. The primary outcome was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), defined as a composite of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, and non-fatal stroke. Secondary outcomes included all-cause death, the individual components of MACE, and Bleeding Academic Research Consortium criteria types 2, 3, or 5 bleeding. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the association between PCI and outcomes. Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) and propensity score matching (PSM) were performed to account for potential between-group differences. RESULTS: Of the 1146 patients on dialysis with significant CAD, 821 (71.6%) underwent PCI. After a median follow-up of 23.0 months, PCI was associated with a 43.0% significantly lower risk for MACE (33.9% [ n  = 278] vs . 43.7% [ n  = 142]; adjusted hazards ratio 0.57, 95% confidence interval 0.45-0.71), along with a slightly increased risk for bleeding outcomes that did not reach statistical significance (11.1% vs . 8.3%; adjusted hazards ratio 1.31, 95% confidence interval, 0.82-2.11). Furthermore, PCI was associated with a significant reduction in all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities. Subgroup analysis did not modify the association of PCI with patient outcomes. These primary findings were consistent across IPTW, PSM, and competing risk analyses. CONCLUSION This study indicated that PCI in patients on dialysis with CAD was significantly associated with lower MACE and mortality when comparing with those with medical therapy alone, albeit with a slightly increased risk for bleeding events that did not reach statistical significance.
Humans ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention/methods* ; Male ; Female ; Coronary Artery Disease/drug therapy* ; Retrospective Studies ; Renal Dialysis/methods* ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; China ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Treatment Outcome

BACKGROUND:Zinc-based alloy medical implant materials have excellent mechanical properties,complete degradability and good biocompatibility,and are mainly used in orthopedic implants,cardiovascular stents,bile duct stents,tracheal stents,nerve catheters,etc. OBJECTIVE:To review the research progress of biodegradable zinc-based alloys in bone defect repair and prospect the promising research direction and achievements of zinc-based materials. METHODS:After searching PubMed,Web of Science,WanFang Data,and CNKI databases from the establishment of the database to June 2023,various relevant articles on biodegradable zinc-based alloys for bone implant material research were collected.The basic characteristics of biodegradable zinc based alloys were summarized,and the role of zinc-based alloys in promoting bone tissue repair was sorted and summarized.The current research hotspots and shortcomings were discussed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Zinc-based alloys have good biocompatibility.Using zinc-based alloys as the matrix material,with the help of scaffold structure construction technology and coating optimization process,the bone conductivity of zinc-based alloys will be effectively improved,and their degradation products will have efficient bone induction to regulate the gene expression of osteoblasts and osteoclasts,thereby promoting the repair and reconstruction of bone defects.(2)However,in the research on optimizing zinc-based alloys,the coating process is relatively insufficient,and additive loading technology is still lacking.(3)Zinc-based alloys have excellent mechanical and biological properties.Through special processes,their bone conductivity and osteoinductivity can be increased to effectively improve their ability to promote bone repair and reconstruction,and it is expected to further achieve the development of personalized transplant materials.Further research and development are needed to optimize the integration of coating and additive loading technologies into zinc-based alloys.

BACKGROUND:Agomelatine is a clinically proven treatment for neuropsychiatric symptoms,such as anxiety and depression.Furthermore,our previous study has demonstrated that agomelatine ameliorates cognitive behaviors,hippocampal synaptic plasticity,and brain pathology in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.However,it remains unclear whether agomelatine can improve anxiety and depression-like behaviors in Alzheimer's disease model mice. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the improving effects of agomelatine on anxiety-and depression-like behaviors in APP/PS1 transgenic mice and its underlying molecular mechanisms. METHODS:(1)Eighteen APP/PS1 transgenic mice were randomly divided into model control group(n=9)and model intervention group(n=9).Another wild-type mice were randomized into control group(n=9)and intervention group(n=9).Model intervention group and intervention group were intraperitoneally injected with 10 mg/kg agomelatine per day for 31 continuous days.Behavioral experiments,including the elevated cross maze and forced swimming tests,and mRNA sequencing of the hippocampus were then performed.(2)Mouse hippocampal neuronal cell lines(HT22)and brain microvascular endothelial cell lines(bEnd.3)were cultured and divided into four groups:blank group without any drug,drug group with 20 μmol/L agomelatine,model group with 10 μmol/L β-amyloid 1-42,and experimental group with 10 μmol/L β-amyloid 1-42+20 μmol/L agomelatine.After 24 hours of incubation,protein expression of S416p-tau and S9p-GSK3β in HT22 cells was detected by immunoblotting,and protein expression of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 and glycosylation end-product receptor in bEnd.3 cells was detected by immunoblotting. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:In the elevated plus maze test,the time spent in the open arms(P＜0.01)and the entries into open arms(P＜0.05)in the mice of model control group were evidently lower than those in the control group,whereas those were obviously increased in the model intervention group compared with the model control group(P＜0.05).Forced swimming test results showed that the immobile time exhibited a marked increase in the model control group compared with the control group(P＜0.05),but it was significantly decreased in the model intervention group compared with the model control group(P＜0.05).Hippocampal tissue mRNA sequencing showed that agomelatine enhanced the expression of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 in the hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice.Western blot analysis revealed that the level of S416p-tau in HT22 cells was higher in the model group than the blank group(P＜0.05),while it was markedly decreased in the experimental group compared with the model group(P＜0.05);the level of S9p-GSK3β in HT22 cells was higher in the drug group than the blank group(P＜0.05)as well as higher in the experimental group than the model group(P＜0.05).Moreover,the expression of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 in bEnd.3 cells was higher in the experimental group than the model group(P＜0.05).To conclude,agomelatine can alleviate anxiety-and depression-like behaviors in Alzheimer's disease mice by promoting the clearance of β-amyloid and phosphorylated tau.