Aim To explore the association between mental health status and post-ablation recurrence in elderly atrial fibrillation patients.Methods Consecutive patients aged≥60 years who underwent catheter ablation for atrial fi-brillation in Beijing Anzhen Hospital were enrolled,baseline clinical characteristics,comorbidities and treatment were col-lected.Five item mental health inventory(MHI-5)was used to evaluate the mental health status,and 76 points were taken as the cut-off value.Each patient was followed up at 3,6 and 12 months after ablation to assess atrial fibrillation recurrence,mental health status and other adverse events.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was conducted to ex-amine the association between mental health status and the risk of atrial fibrillation recurrence.Results A total of 238 elderly patients with atrial fibrillation were enrolled,including 58 patients in the MHI-5≤76 points group and 180 patients in the MHI-5＞76 points group.During 12 months follow-up,73 patients(30.7％)developed atrial fibrillation recur-rence,and the recurrence rate in the MHI-5≤76 points group was significantly higher than that in the MHI-5＞76 points group[58.6％(34/58)vs.21.7％(39/180),P＜0.001].Multivariate Logistic analysis showed that after adjusting for demographic data and clinical factors,MHI-5≤76 points was significantly associated with a higher risk of atrial fibrillation recurrence after catheter ablation(OR=6.13,95％CI:3.08～12.24,P＜0.001).Conclusion Poor mental health status is significantly associated with higher post-ablation recurrence in elderly atrial fibrillation patients.

Objective:To assess the efficacy of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy for the respiratory support after tracheal extubation under general anesthesia in neonates.Methods:This was a prospective randomized controlled study. Ninety-four neonates undergoing general surgery under general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation and endotracheal tube removal following surgery from December 2022 to November 2023 in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were selected and divided into 2 groups ( n=47 each) by the random number table method: conventional oxygen therapy group (group C) and high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy group (group H). After the endotracheal tube was removed, group H underwent high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy: oxygen flow was 2 L·kg -1·min -1, the concentration and humidity of oxygen were both 100%, and the temperature was 37 ℃. Group C underwent conventional mask ventilation with the oxygen flow rate 5 L/min, oxygen concentration 100%, ventilation frequency about 25-35 times/min. The outcome measures were recorded from the time after extubation to the time before discharge from the operating theatre. The main outcome measures were the minimum SpO 2 and hypoxemia (SpO 2<90%), choking, laryngospasm and asphyxia. The secondary outcome measures were respiratory rate (immediate extubation, immediate discharge), minimum HR, and time to discharge from the operating theatre. Results:Compared with group C, the lowest SpO 2 was significantly increased, the incidence of hypoxemia and respiratory rate immediately after discharge from the operating room was decreased ( P<0.05), and no significant changes were found in the incidence of choking, laryngospasm and asphyxia, the lowest heart rate, respiratory rate immediately after tracheal extubation and time to discharge from the operating theatre in group H( P>0.05). Conclusions:High-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy can improve oxygenation and significantly reduce the risk of hypoxemia when used for the respiratory support after tracheal extubation under general anesthesia in neonates.

Objective:To explore the role of mechanical hemodynamic support (MHS) in mapping and catheter ablation of patients with hemodynamically unstable ventricular tachycardia (VT), report single-center experience in a cohort of consecutive patients receiving VT ablation during MHS therapy, and provide evidence-based medical evidence for clinical practice.Methods:This was a retrospective cohort study. Patients with hemodynamically unstable VT who underwent catheter ablation with MHS at Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University between August 2021 and December 2023 were included. Patients were divided into rescue group and preventive group according to the purpose of treatment. Their demographic data, periprocedural details, and clinical outcomes were collected and analyzed.Results:A total of 15 patients with hemodynamically unstable VT were included (8 patients in the rescue group and 7 patients in the preventive group). The acute procedure was successful in all patients. One patient in the rescue group had surgical left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation, remaining 14 patients received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for circulation support. ECMO decannulation was performed in 12 patients due to clinical and hemodynamic stability, of which 6 patients were decannulation immediately after surgery and the remaining patients were decannulation at 2.0 (2.5) d after surgery. Two patients in the rescue group died during the index admission due to refractory heart failure and cerebral hemorrhage. During a median follow-up of 30 d (1 d to 12 months), one patient with LVAD had one episode of ventricular fibrillation at 6 months after discharge, and no further episodes of ventricular fibrillation and/or VT occurred after treatment with antiarrhythmic drugs. No malignant ventricular arrhythmia occurred in the remaining 12 patients who were followed up.Conclusions:MHS contributes to the successful completion of mapping and catheter ablation in patients with hemodynamically unstable VT, providing desirable hemodynamic status for emergency and elective conditions.

Background::Oral anti-coagulants (OAC) are the intervention for the prevention of stroke, which consistently improve clinical outcomes and survival among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The main purpose of this study is to identify problems in OAC utilization among hospitalized patients with AF in China.Methods::Using data from the Improving Care for Cardiovascular Disease in China-Atrial Fibrillation (CCC-AF) registry, guideline-recommended OAC use in eligible patients was assessed.Results::A total of 52,530 patients with non-valvular AF were enrolled from February 2015 to December 2019, of whom 38,203 were at a high risk of stroke, 9717 were at a moderate risk, and 4610 were at a low risk. On admission, only 20.0% (6075/30,420) of patients with a diagnosed AF and a high risk of stroke were taking OAC. The use of pre-hospital OAC on admission was associated with a lower risk of new-onset ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack among the diagnosed AF population (adjusted odds ratio: 0.54, 95% confidence interval: 0.43–0.68; P <0.001). At discharge, the prescription rate of OAC was 45.2% (16,757/37,087) in eligible patients with high stroke risk and 60.7% (2778/4578) in eligible patients with low stroke risk. OAC utilization in patients with high stroke risk on admission or at discharge both increased largely over time (all P <0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that OAC utilization at discharge was positively associated with in-hospital rhythm control strategies, including catheter ablation (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 11.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] 10.04–13.47; P <0.001), electronic cardioversion (adjusted OR 2.41, 95% CI 1.65–3.51; P <0.001), and anti-arrhythmic drug use (adjusted OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.38–1.53; P <0.001). Conclusions::In hospitals participated in the CCC-AF project, >70% of AF patients were at a high risk of stroke. Although poor performance on guideline-recommended OAC use was found in this study, over time the CCC-AF project has made progress in stroke prevention in the Chinese AF population.Registration::ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02309398.

Aim To explore the association between mental health status and post-ablation recurrence in elderly atrial fibrillation patients.Methods Consecutive patients aged≥60 years who underwent catheter ablation for atrial fi-brillation in Beijing Anzhen Hospital were enrolled,baseline clinical characteristics,comorbidities and treatment were col-lected.Five item mental health inventory(MHI-5)was used to evaluate the mental health status,and 76 points were taken as the cut-off value.Each patient was followed up at 3,6 and 12 months after ablation to assess atrial fibrillation recurrence,mental health status and other adverse events.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was conducted to ex-amine the association between mental health status and the risk of atrial fibrillation recurrence.Results A total of 238 elderly patients with atrial fibrillation were enrolled,including 58 patients in the MHI-5≤76 points group and 180 patients in the MHI-5＞76 points group.During 12 months follow-up,73 patients(30.7％)developed atrial fibrillation recur-rence,and the recurrence rate in the MHI-5≤76 points group was significantly higher than that in the MHI-5＞76 points group[58.6％(34/58)vs.21.7％(39/180),P＜0.001].Multivariate Logistic analysis showed that after adjusting for demographic data and clinical factors,MHI-5≤76 points was significantly associated with a higher risk of atrial fibrillation recurrence after catheter ablation(OR=6.13,95％CI:3.08～12.24,P＜0.001).Conclusion Poor mental health status is significantly associated with higher post-ablation recurrence in elderly atrial fibrillation patients.

Objective:To compare the effectiveness of areola approach endoscopic thyroidectomy (AET) and conventional open thyroidectomy (OT) in treating papillary thyroid carcinoma.Methods:Four hundred and twenty-eight female patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma who were treated at the Department of General Surgery, Beijing Friendship Hospital between January 2017 and January 2020 were included according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, of whom 183 underwent AET (AET group) and 245 underwent OT (OT group). Direct comparison and subsequent propensity score matching methodology were utilized to compare the differences between the two operation methods in terms of surgical time, intraoperative parathyroid transplantation rate, intraoperative nerve injury, postoperative complications, reoperation rate, number of lymph node dissections, postoperative lymph node metastasis at 2 years, and route tumor implantation. Data analysis was performed by using SPSS 25.0 software. The metric data of normal distribution was represented by mean ± standard deviation ( ± s), and the t-test was used for between-group comparison. The Chi-test was used for between-group comparison of count data. Results:The AET group had an age of (38.89±9.08) years, weight of (62.10±10.45) kg, and height of (161.97±5.31) cm; the OT group had an age of (45.88±12.47) years, weight of (65.11±12.72) kg, and height of (161.62±5.24) cm. The differences in age, weight, and body mass index between the two groups were statistically significant ( P<0.05). The surgical time in the AET group was (183.00±137.22) min, which was significantly longer than (87.94±28.25) min of the OT group ( t=16.67, P<0.001). The parathyroid transplantation rate in the OT group was significantly higher than that in the AET group (49.39% vs 34.97%, χ2=8.87, P=0.003). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of intraoperative nerve injury, postoperative complications, reoperation rate, number of lymph node dissections, postoperative lymph node metastasis at 2 years, and route tumor implantation. After propensity score matching based on differences in age, weight, body mass index, and soon, 183 cases of AET (AET-PS group) and OT (OT-PS group) were obtained for statistical analysis. The surgical time in the AET-PS group was (137.22±32.77) min, which was significantly longer than (90.26±29.35) min of the OT-PS group ( t=14.44, P<0.001). The parathyroid transplantation rate in the OT-PS group was significantly higher than that in the AET-PS group (53.01% vs. 34.97%, χ2=12.08, P=0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of intraoperative nerve injury, postoperative complications, reoperation rate, number of lymph node dissections, postoperative lymph node metastasis at 2 years, and route tumor implantation. Conclusions:AET and OT are equally safe and effective in treating papillary thyroid carcinoma. AET surgery can be performed safely and feasibly under strict adherence to surgical principles.

BACKGROUND: The age, biomarkers, and clinical history (ABC)-atrial fibrillation (AF)-Stroke score have been proposed to refine stroke risk stratification, beyond what clinical risk scores such as the CHA2DS2-VASc score can offer. This study aimed to identify risk factors associated with thromboembolism and evaluate the performance of the ABC-AF-Stroke score in predicting thromboembolism in non-anticoagulated AF patients following successful ablations. METHODS: A total of 2692 patients who underwent successful ablations with discontinued anticoagulation after a 3-month blanking period in the Chinese Atrial Fibrillation Registry (CAFR) between 2013 and 2019 were included. Cox regression analysis was conducted to present the association of risk factors with thromboembolism risk. The ABC-AF-Stroke score was evaluated in terms of discrimination, including concordance index (C-index), net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), clinical utilization by decision curve analysis (DCA), and calibration by comparing the predicted risk with the observed annualized event rate. RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 3.5 years, 64 patients experienced thromboembolism events. Age, prior history of stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA), high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (cTnT-hs), and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were independently associated with thromboembolism risk. The ABC-AF-Stroke score performed statistically significantly better than the CHA2DS2-VASc score in terms of C-index (0.67, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59-0.74 vs. 0.60, 95% CI: 0.52-0.67, P = 0.030) and reclassification capacity. The DCA implied that the ABC-AF-Stroke score could identify more thromboembolism events without increasing the false positive rate compared to the CHA2DS2-VASc score. The calibration curve showed that the ABC-AF-Stroke score was well calibrated in this population. CONCLUSIONS In this real-world study enrolling non-anticoagulated AF patients following successful ablations, age, prior history of stroke/TIA, level of NT-proBNP, and cTnT-hs were independently associated with an increased risk of thromboembolism. The ABC-AF-Stroke score was well-calibrated and statistically significantly outperformed the CHA2DS2-VASc score in predicting thromboembolism risk.
Humans ; Anticoagulants/therapeutic use* ; Atrial Fibrillation/complications* ; East Asian People ; Ischemic Attack, Transient ; Registries ; Risk Assessment ; Risk Factors ; Stroke/etiology* ; Thromboembolism/etiology* ; Troponin T

Objective To investigate the changes in the expression of cold-inducible RNA-binding protein (CIRBP) in a radiation-induced lung injury model. Methods Thirty male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided by body weight into control group (no intervention) and model group (single chest X-ray irradiation with a dose of 20 Gy to build a radiation-induced lung injury model). The mice were dissected five weeks after irradiation. Hematoxylin-eosin staining and Masson staining were used to observe the pathological changes of the lung tissue and the deposition of collagen fibers. Immunohistochemistry was used to measure the expression of the inflammatory factors interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the lung tissue. qRT-PCR was used to measure the expression of CIRBP mRNA in the lung tissue. The expression of CIRBP protein in the lung tissue was determined by the immunofluorescence assay and Western blot. Results Compared with the control group, the model group showed significant pulmonary vascular congestion, significant inflammatory cell infiltration, significant thickening of some alveolar septa, significantly increased IL-6 expression [(129.41 ± 5.58) vs (187.22 ± 34.77), t = 3.179, P < 0.05], significantly increased TNF-α expression [(137.52 ± 23.53) vs (187.02 ± 19.16), t = 5.069, P < 0.05], significantly increased CIRBP mRNA expression [(1 ± 0.08) vs (1.97 ± 0.39), t = 3.45, P < 0.05], and significantly increased CIRBP protein expression [(9.32 ± 1.26) vs (14.76 ± 1.61), t = 3.751, P < 0.05], by the immunofluorescence assay; [(1.13 ± 0.17) vs (1.49 ± 0.14), t = 2.819, P < 0.05], by Western blot). Conclusion The expression of CIRBP is significantly increased in the radiation-induced lung injury model, which may be an important pro-inflammatory factor in radiation-induced lung injury.

Objective:To explore the safety and feasibility of optimized pathological evaluation system of donor's kidney and modified surgery during adult dual kidney transplantation(DKT)and evaluate its effectiveness to provide more alternative protocols for kidney transplantation from extended criteria donors.Methods:DKT was performed in 10 recipients using the same protocol from June 2019 to May 2021.And retrospective reviewing was performed for clinical data, including characteristics of donors and recipients, optimized pathological evaluation system, modified surgery, treatment regimens, complications and follow-ups.Results:There were 8 male and 2 female donors with an age of(57.9±12.8)years and BMI(24.1±4.1)kg/m 2.The percentage of DCD was 70% and DBD 30%.The serum creatinine before procurement was 107.6(93.3-163.5)μmol/l.Zero-point puncture biopsy was performed for both kidneys and optimized pathological evaluation system was implemented(Banff criteria & Remuzzi score). The pathological results indicated that glomerular sclerosis for left and right kidneys were 2.0(1.5-2.0)and 1.5(1.0-2.0). And Remuzzi score for left and right kidneys were(4.4±1.2)and(3.6±1.5)points respectively.All recipients were male with an age of(43.1±9.0)years and BMI(22.2±1.9)kg/m 2.All PRAs were negative pre-operation.Modified surgery was performed in all recipients(two kidneys were implanted outside iliac vessels without patch and artery of superior kidney was anastomosed to internal iliac artery). Operative duration was(195±54.3)min and serum creatinine before discharge 125.0(102.0-199.0)μmol/L.Renal dynamic scintigraphy indicated that glomerular filtration rate was(30.0±8.2)ml/min for left kidney and(29.2±13.9)ml/min for right kidney.MRA results indicated that morphologies of renal arteries and veins were regular.The time between operation and discharge was(22.4±4.7)days.Compared with SKT, serum creatinine before discharge of DKT was lower and DGF incidence of DKT was higher without statistical significance.The time between operation and discharge was longer for DKT than that for SKT( P<0.05). The complications consisted of 20% donor derived infection(DDI)and 50% DGF.And there was no surgical complication associated with vessels and ureter.Renal function remained stable during 6-month follow-ups. Conclusions:Optimized pathological evaluation system of donor's kidney and modified surgery during adult dual kidney transplantation are both safe and feasible.The postoperative function of transplanted dual kidney is successfully restored.However, long-term follow-ups are required for evaluating its effectiveness.

Objective::Previous studies indicated that patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and moderate-to-severe chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at a higher risk of thromboembolism and bleeding during anticoagulation. Whether mild CKD is associated with an increased risk of thromboembolism and bleeding in AF patients remains unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of mild CKD on thromboembolism and major bleeding among patients with AF.Methods::Baseline serum creatinine was available in 17,559 of 25,512 patients enrolled in the China-AF study between August 2011 and December 2018. After excluding those who underwent AF ablation or with moderate-to-severe CKD, 7191 non-valvular AF patients (2059 with mild CKD and 5132 with normal renal function) with regular follow-up for at least 6 months were included. Primary outcomes were the time to the first occurrence of thromboembolic and major bleeding events.Results::Over a mean follow-up of (44.4 ± 23.4) months, 639 thromboembolism and 231 major bleeding events occurred. The crude incidence rates of thromboembolism were higher in the mild CKD group than that of the normal renal function group (3.0/100 person-years vs. 2.2/100 person-years, P < 0.0001), while the crude incidence rates of major bleeding were comparable between the two groups (1.0/100 person-years vs. 0.8/100 person-years, P= 0.076). After multivariate analyses, mild CKD was not associated with an increased risk of thromboembolism (HR = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.89-1.25, P= 0.547) or major bleeding (HR = 1.11, 95% CI: 0.84-1.47, P= 0.476). Conclusions::Mild CKD was not an independent risk factor of thromboembolism or major bleeding in patients with AF.