Objective: To investigate the reciprocal causal relationships between periodontitis and hepatobiliary diseases through Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses, to provide evidence for joint prevention and clinical decision-making in patients with concurrent periodontitis and hepatobiliary diseases. Methods: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were extracted from the largest genome-wide association study on periodontitis (17 353 cases, 28 210 controls) and hepatobiliary diseases within the European ancestry and used as instrumental variables (IVs). The strength of the associations was examined by calculating the F-statistic. The SNPs significantly associated with the outcome were removed by scanning on Phenoscanner platform. Bidirectional causal associations between periodontitis and hepatobiliary diseases were estimated using inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR-Egger, and Weighted Median methods. The robustness of the findings was further verified through additional sensitive MR approaches, including Cochran’s Q statistic （IVW）, Rucker’s Q statistic （MR-Egger）, MR-PRESSO and Leave-one-out analysis. Further MR analyses, utilizing other available genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on hepatobiliary diseases, were conducted to validate the results. Results: The IVW method found that periodontitis had a causal impact on acalculous cholecystitis (odds ratio = 1.277, 95% CI 1.097-1.485, P=0.002), implying an increased risk of acalculous cholecystitis associated with periodontitis, while the MR-Egger regression and Weighted Median failed to observe significant causal effects of periodontitis on acalculous cholecystitis. However, no bidirectional causal associations between periodontitis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis or liver cancer were observed using IVW, MR-Egger regression and Weighted Median. The bidirectional causal relationships were deemed unlikely to be influenced by horizontal pleiotropy. Further, the validation analysis based on alternative GWAS data suggested parallel results. Conclusions The MR analyses suggest that periodontitis may elevate the risk of acalculous cholecystitis. Further investigations, including clinical studies and mechanistic explorations, are warranted to validate these findings. However, the MR analyses do not support bidirectional causal associations between periodontitis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Noise-induced hearing loss(NIHL)is a public health problem that requires immediate attention.Nearly one-third of hearing loss can be attributed to noise exposure.However,the molecular mechanism of NIHL is complex,and there is currently no specific drug available for preventing and treating NIHL.Therefore,it is particu-larly important to establish standardized preclinical research models of NIHL and identify molecular targets for treat-ment so as to carry out the prevention and drug treatment of NIHL effectively.In this article,we summarized the research methods and pharmacological treatment studies on NIHL to provide references for the prevention and treat-ment of NIHL.

Objective: To investigate the incidence density of adult sleep disorders (SD) in Yinzhou District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province from 2017 to 2023, so as to provide insights into formulating the control measures of SD. Methods: The electronic health records of permanent residents aged 18 years and over in Yinzhou District from 2017 to 2023 were collected through the Yinzhou Regional Health Information Platform. New cases of SD were diagnosed for the first time a year after establishing health records. The incidence density was estimated using Poisson distribution. The temporal, population and regional distribution characteristics of new cases of SD were analyzed using a descriptively epidemiological method. Results: From 2017 to 2023, there were 1 255 129 permanent residents aged 18 years and over in Yinzhou District, with a total observed person-time of 6 292 884 person-years and a median of 5.67 (interquartile range, 3.74) person-years. There were 165 490 new cases of SD, including 67 095 males (40.54%) and 98 385 females (59.46%). The incidence density of SD in Yinzhou District from 2017 to 2023 was 26.30/1 000 person-years, with no significant trend observed (P>0.05). The incidence density of SD was higher in females than in males (29.63/1 000 person-years vs. 22.57/1 000 person-years, P<0.05). The highest incidence density of SD was observed in individuals aged 70 to <80 years (63.30/1 000 person-years), and the lowest was in individuals aged 18 to <30 years (7.24/1 000 person-years). The incidence density of SD in individuals aged 30 years and over was higher than that in individuals aged 18 to <30 years (all P<0.05). The incidence density of SD was 32.03/1 000 person-years in individuals with junior high school education or below, which was higher than individuals with senior high school/technical secondary school education (25.93/1 000 person-years) and college degree and above (18.87/1 000 person-years, all P<0.05). Dongliu Street, Dongjiao Street, and Baihe Street had relatively higher incidence densities of SD, at 45.11/1 000 person-years, 42.87/1 000 person-years and 40.16/1 000 person-years, respectively. Conclusions From 2017 to 2023, there was no significant trend in the incidence density of SD in Yinzhou District. Higher incidence density were observed in females, the elderly, and individuals living in central urban areas.

Objective:To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of herpangina (HA) and its correlation with the incidence of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in children aged ≤6 years in Yinzhou District of Ningbo from 2017 to 2022.Methods:Epidemiological characteristics of HA in children aged ≤6 years were analyzed based on the electronic medical record data and public health management data from 2017 to 2022 collected from the Health Information Platform of Yinzhou. The incidence of HFMD was calculated using the infectious disease reporting data from the public health management data. Autoregressive integrated moving average model and cross-correlation function were used to evaluate the correlation between the incidence of HA and HFMD.Results:From 2017 to 2022, a total of 25 385 cases of HA were detected in children aged ≤6 years in Yinzhou, the male-to-female ratio of the cases was 1.12∶1. The average annual incidence of HA was 4 986.67/100 000, with the highest incidence in 2018 (10 477.09/100 000) and the lowest incidence in 2020 (870.88/100 000). The incidence peak of HA was during June to July. The incidence of HA was higher in age group 1 year (7 950.45/100 000) than in other age groups. The incidences of HA in Yunlong, Jiangshan and Xiaying were higher, with the incidence of 8 764.31/100 000, 8 377.58/100 000 and 7 965.31/100 000, respectively. The correlation coefficients between the incidence of HA and HFMD at lag day 0, 7, 12 and 18 were 0.199, 0.139, 0.090 and 0.086, respectively (all P<0.05). Conclusions:From 2017 to 2022, the incidence of HA was high in children aged ≤6 years in Yinzhou with obvious seasonality and area difference. The incidence of HA was correlated with the incidence of HFMD and the incidence of HFMD had certain lags. The comprehensive prevention and control of HA and HFMD should be further strengthened by prioritizing HA surveillance and implementing integrated surveillance and management of HA and HFMD.

Objective:To evaluate the predictive efficacy of sinus CT radiomics for treatment outcomes in nasal polyp patients undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery.Methods:A retrospective cohort study was conducted at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, including 194 patients with nasal polyps treated between January 2015 and December 2019. The cohort comprised 132 males and 62 females, aged 16 to 75 years. Patients were divided into a training set ( n=135) and an internal validation set ( n=59). An external validation set ( n=34), consisting of 22 males and 12 females aged 16 to 59 years, was included from January 2020 to December 2021. Disease control was evaluated using the criteria from the European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps 2020 (EPOS 2020). Radiomic features were extracted from sinus CT images and analyzed using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression. Models combining radiomic and clinical features were developed to predict treatment efficacy. Results:The radiomics and combined models, based on four selected features, outperformed the clinical feature model in the training set, with AUC values of 0.901 and 0.915, versus 0.874, respectively. In the internal validation set, AUCs were 0.839, 0.832, and 0.716. Despite reduced AUCs in the external set, the radiomics model maintained good generalizability (0.748, 0.764, 0.620). Decision curve analysis showed significant clinical benefits in both radiomics and combined models.Conclusion:The CT-based radiomics model demonstrates significant predictive power in identifying refractory nasal polyps, suggesting its potential for clinical application in treatment outcome prediction.

Objective:To investigate whether hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) mediates the podocyte injury through reactive oxygen species (ROS) /nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) signaling pathway.Methods:HBx-overexpressing lentivirus was transfected into renal podocytes of mouse to mimic the pathogenesis of hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis. Podocytes were divided into the following five groups: blank control group (no special treatment), negative control group (transfected with control lentivirus), HBx overexpression group (transfected with HBx overexpression lentivirus), HBx overexpression+NLRP3 siRNA group (transfected with HBx overexpression lentivirus and NLRP3 siRNA), and HBx overexpression+ROS inhibitor group (transfected with HBx overexpression lentivirus and adding ROS inhibitor). The morphological changes of podocytes were observed with electron microscope. The generation of ROS was detected by dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate assay (DCFH-DA). Hoechst 33342 staining was used to observe the morphological and quantitative changes of podocyte nuclei. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect caspase-1 activity, and the levels of lactate dehydrogenase, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting were used to detect the expression levels of mRNA and protein of pyroptosis-related protein, such as NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing card (ASC), caspase-1, IL-1β and IL-18. TUNEL staining and flow cytometer were used to detect the number of pyroptosis cells. Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the expression levels of desmin and nephrin.Results:After successful infection of podocytes with HBx-overexpressing lentivirus, pyroptosis-related morphological changes in the cells were observed under electron microscope. The level of ROS in the HBx overexpression group was significantly higher compared to the negative control group ( P<0.05). Hoechst 33342 staining revealed condensed nuclei in the HBx overexpression group. TUNEL staining and flow cytometer demonstrated that podocytes underwent increased pyroptosis in the HBx overexpression group. The mRNA and protein expression levels of pyroptosis-related proteins such as NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1, IL-1β and IL-18 were up-regulated upon HBx overexpression (all P<0.05). Caspase-1 enzyme activity, lactate dehydrogenase and desmin expression levels were enhanced after HBx overexpression (all P<0.05). However, NLRP3 knockdown or addition of ROS inhibitors attenuated the pyroptosis and increased expression levels of pyroptosis-related proteins caused by HBx overexpression (all P<0.05). Conclusion:ROS/NLRP3 pathway plays an important role in HBx-induced podocyte pyroptosis.

Objective:To investigate the trend of postoperative cavity status in patients with eosinophilic chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps (eCRSwNP) who underwent total nasalization surgery and partial reboot surgery. And to discuss the relationship between tissue eosinophil counts and status of postoperative cavity.Methods:Patients with eCRSwNP in four tertiary medical centers (Longgang ENT Hospital, Xiamen Humanity Hospital, Guangdong Clifford Hospital and the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University) from March 2018 to October 2021 were divided into 2 groups. The group without previous surgery history was performed for the nasalization surgery, and another group with previous surgery history underwent the part-reboot surgery. The follow-up time after operation was defined as the following 5 stages: 6, 12, 20-24, 36 and more than 42 months. According to FESS-95 Guangzhou standard, status of sinus cavity was assessed and classified into 3 categories: good, better and bad. The association between the sinus cavity status and tissue eosinophil counts in the above 5 stages was analyzed by one-way ANOVA, and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results:A total of 72 eCRSwNP patients finished the follow-up in this study. There were 47 males and 25 females in these patients, aged from 11 to 67 years. A total of 50 cases underwent nasalization surgery and 22 cases underwent partial reboot surgery. With the follow-up time from 6 to 48 months, there were 72 cases (100.0%) who completed 6 months and 12 months follow up, 46 cases (63.9%) for 20-24 months, 36 cases (50.0%) for 32-36 months and 16 cases (22.2%) with the follow-up time more than 42 months. No matter what kind of surgery, there was no "bad" situation of the surgical cavity status 6 months after the operation, and the differentiation gradually occurred more than 12 months after the surgery. Moreover, the rates of "good" cavity status for the 5 stages in the group of nasalization surgery were 78.0%, 66.0%, 56.7%, 47.6% and 42.9%, and were 63.6%, 45.5%, 25.0%, 20.0% and 11.1% in the partial reboot surgery group, respectively, suggesting that the status of nasal cavity in nasalization surgery group was always better than that in partial reboot surgery group in every period. In addition, the "bad" rate was 0, 8.0%, 10.0%, 14.3% and 28.6% in the group of nasalization surgery, and was 0, 27.3%, 18.8%, 33.3% and 55.6% in the partial reboot surgery group, respectively. The average percentage of tissue eosinophil counts in the 72 cases was 42.1%, which had no obvious effect on the status of the surgical cavity ( P>0.05). Conclusions:For eCRSwNP patients, the operative cavity status in the patients without previous operation history treated with nasalization surgery is good. The time of 1-2 years after surgery is the main period for sinus lesions. The counts of tissue eosinophils has no significant influence on surgical sinus cavity status in the eCRSwNP patients.

Objective:To retrospectively analyze the influencing factors during the hospitalization of premature infants in the neonatal intensive careunit (NICU) based on the breast-feeding choices of the primary family caregivers of premature infants discharged from NICU.Methods:According to the breast-feeding status of 342 premature infants discharged from the NICU from The First hospital of Jilin University from June 1st, 2019 to December 31th, 2019, a self-designed data collection form for premature infants was used to investigate them, and the influencing factors of NICU hospitalization on breast-feeding selection were retrospectively analyzed.Results:The factors influencing breastfeeding included gestational age ( tvalue was-2.177, P=0.029), birth weight ( tvalue was-2.036, P=0.043), feeding mode during hospital stay ( χ2value was 6.582, P=0.010), length of hospital stay ( Zvalue was-2.205, P=0.027), maternal age ( Zvalue was-2.975, P=0.003), maternal education level ( χ2value was 8.350, P=0.04) and twin pregnancy ( χ2value was 7.367, P=0.007). The results of multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that breast-feeding during hospitalization ( P=0.003) and older age of the mother ( P<0.001) were favorable factors to promote breast-feeding. Twin pregnancy ( P=0.006), low maternal education ( P=0.001) and gestational age ( P=0.006) were the risk factors that were not conducive to the implementation of breastfeeding. Conclusion:During the hospital period, the implementation of breastfeeding and the old age of the mother are conducive to the choice of breastfeeding after discharge, while twin pregnancy, low education of the mother and premature infants of large gestational age are not conducive to the implementation of breastfeeding.

Objective: To study the value of olfactory cleft scores through computed tomography (CT) in predicting the oral glucocorticoids (GC) sensitivity in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. Methods: Fourty-seven consecutive patients with CRSwNP from the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University between January and March of 2018 were recruited in this prospective, single-blinded study. There were 28 males and 19 females, with age ranging from 17 to 66 years old. After a course of oral prednisone (30 mg/d for 14 d), these patients were subsequently classified into objectively GC-sensitive and -insensitive subgroup according to the change in nasal polyp size score, or subjectively GC-sensitive and -insensitive subgroup according to the change in total nasal symptom score. The following parameters were compared between GC-sensitive and -insensitve subgroups: Lund-Mackay scores, olfactory cleft scores, and blood eosinophil counts and ratio. T test and χ² test were used. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used for factor prediction and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the predictive ability of those factors. Results: There were 53.2% (25/47) and 61.7% (29/47) of patients objectively and subjectively sensitive to GC therapy, respectively. All data conformed to normal distribution. The olfactory cleft score and the blood eosinophil counts and ratio in objectively GC-sensitive subgroup were significantly higher than those in objectively GC-insensitive subgroup (3.6±1.0 vs 2.2±1.4, (404.4±200.3)/μl vs (209.5±233.1)/μl, (5.25±2.59)% vs (3.17±3.46)%, t value was 3.98, 3.08, respectively, χ²=2.35, all P<0.05). The cleft score, the blood eosinophil counts and ratio also showed the same trend in subjectively GC-sensitive and -insensitive subgroup (3.6±1.0 vs 1.9±1.3, (401.4±213.6)/μl vs (171.1±200.2)/μl, (5.39±2.76)% vs (2.48±2.99)%, t value was 5.05, 3.68, respectively, χ²=3.40, all P<0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression revealed that olfactory cleft score was an independent risk factor for objective or subjective GC-sensitivity (OR=2.882, 95%CI: 1.301-6.384; OR=2.508, 95%CI: 1.248-5.039). The olfactory cleft score exhibited comparable accuracy with the blood eosinophil ratio as predictor of objective and subjective GC-sensitivity (Area under curve of olfactory cleft score was 0.775, 0.829, respectively). An olfactory cleft score of 3.5 could act as a reliable indicator for predicting the clinical response to GC therapy in CRSwNP. Conclusion Olfactory cleft score through CT scan has the potential value in predicting GC-sensitivity in CRSwNP patients.