BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac arrhythmia in the elderly. This study aimed to evaluate urban-rural disparities in its prevalence and management in elderly Chinese. METHODS: Consecutive participants aged ≥ 65 years attending outpatient clinics were enrolled for AF screening using handheld single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) from April 2017 to December 2022. Each ECG rhythm strip was reviewed from the research team. AF or uninterpretable single-lead ECGs were referred for 12-lead ECG. Primary study outcome comparison was between rural and urban areas for the prevalence of AF. The Student's t-test was used to compare mean values of clinical characteristics between rural and urban participants, while the Pearson's chi-square test was used to compare between-group proportions. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the association between AF and various patient characteristics. RESULTS: The 29,166 study participants included 13,253 men (45.4%) and had a mean age of 72.2 years. The 7073 rural participants differed significantly (P ≤ 0.02) from the 22,093 urban participants in several major characteristics, such as older age, greater body mass index, and so on. The overall prevalence of AF was 4.6% (n = 1347). AF was more prevalent in 7073 rural participants than 22,093 urban participants (5.6% vs. 4.3%, P < 0.01), before and after adjustment for age, body mass index, blood pressure, pulse rate, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and prior medical history. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified overweight/obesity (OR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.17-1.54) in urban areas and cigarette smoking (OR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.20-2.17) and alcohol consumption (OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.04-1.93) in rural areas as specific risk factors for prevalent AF. In patients with known AF in urban areas (n = 781) and rural areas (n = 338), 60.6% and 45.9%, respectively, received AF treatment (P < 0.01), and only 22.4% and 17.2%, respectively, received anticoagulation therapy (P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS In China, there are urban-rural disparities in AF in the elderly, with a higher prevalence and worse management in rural areas than urban areas. Our study findings provide insight for health policymakers to consider urban-rural disparity in the prevention and treatment of AF.

OBJECTIVE: High-altitude hypoxia exposure often damages hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. Nogo-A is an important axonal growth inhibitory factor. However, its function in high-altitude hypoxia and its mechanism of action remain unclear. METHODS: In an in vivo study, a low-pressure oxygen chamber was used to simulate high-altitude hypoxia, and genetic or pharmacological intervention was used to block the Nogo-A/NgR1 signaling pathway. Contextual fear conditioning and Morris water maze behavioral tests were used to assess learning and memory in rats, and synaptic damage in the hippocampus and changes in oxidative stress levels were observed. In vitro, SH-SY5Y cells were used to assess oxidative stress and mitochondrial function with or without Nogo-A knockdown in Oxygen Glucose-Deprivation/Reperfusion (OGD/R) models. RESULTS: Exposure to acute high-altitude hypoxia for 3 or 7 days impaired learning and memory in rats, triggered oxidative stress in the hippocampal tissue, and reduced the dendritic spine density of hippocampal neurons. Blocking the Nogo-A/NgR1 pathway ameliorated oxidative stress, synaptic damage, and the learning and memory impairment induced by high-altitude exposure. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate the detrimental role of Nogo-A protein in mediating learning and memory impairment under high-altitude hypoxia and suggest the potential of the Nogo-A/NgR1 signaling pathway as a crucial therapeutic target for alleviating learning and memory dysfunction induced by high-altitude exposure. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT available in www.besjournal.com.
Animals ; Oxidative Stress ; Hippocampus/metabolism* ; Rats ; Nogo Proteins/genetics* ; Male ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Hypoxia/metabolism* ; Altitude ; Synapses ; Humans ; Altitude Sickness/metabolism*

DNA genetic markers have always played important roles in individual identification, kinship analysis, ancestry inference and phenotype characterization in the field of forensic medicine. DNA methylation has unique advantages in biological age inference, body fluid identification and prediction of phenotypes. The majority of current studies independently examine DNA and DNA methylation markers using various workflows, and they use various analytical procedures to interpret the biological information these two markers present. Integrated methods detect DNA and DNA methylation markers simultaneously through a single experimental workflow using the same preparation of sample. Therefore, they can effectively reduce consumption of time and cost, streamline experimental procedures, and preserve valuable DNA samples taken from crime scenes. In this paper, the integrated detection approaches of DNA and DNA methylation markers on different detection platforms were reviewed. In order to convert methylation modifications to detectable forms, several options were available for pretreatment of genomic DNA, including digestion with methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme, affinity enrichment of methylated fragments, conversion of methylated or unmethylated cytosine. Multiplexed primers can be designed for DNA markers and converted DNA methylation markers for co-amplification. The schemes of using capillary electrophoresis platform for integrated detection add the pretreatment of genomic DNA on the basis of detecting DNA genetic markers. DNA and DNA methylation markers are then integrated by co-amplification. But the limited number of fluorescent options available and the length of amplicons restrict the type and quantity of markers that can be integrated into a panel. Pyrophosphate sequencing also supports integrated detection of DNA and DNA methylation markers. On this platform, due to the conversion of unmethylated cytosine to thymine after treatment with bisulfite, the methylation level of CpG site can be directly calculated using the peak height ratio of cytosine bases and thymine bases. Therefore, the methylation levels and SNP typing can be simultaneously obtained. However, due to the limited read length of sequencing, the detection of markers with longer amplicons is restricted. It is not conducive to fully interpret the complete information of the target sequence. Next-generation sequencing also supports integrated detection of DNA and DNA methylation markers. A preliminary experimental process including DNA extraction, pretreatment of genomic DNA, co-preparation of DNA and DNA methylation library and co-sequencing, has been formed based on the next-generation sequencing platform. It confirmed the feasibility of next-generation sequencing technology for integrated detection of DNA and DNA methylation markers. In field of biomedicine, various integrated detection schemes and corresponding data analysis approaches of DNA and DNA genetic markers developed based on the above detection process.Co-analysis can simultaneously obtain the genomic genetic and epigenetic information through a single analytic process. These schemes suggest that next-generation sequencing may be an effective method for achieving more accurate and highly integrated detection, helping to explore the potential for application in forensic biological samples. We finally explore the impact of interactions between sites and different pretreatment methods on the integrated detection of DNA and DNA methylation markers, and also propose the challenge of applying third-generation sequencing for integrated detection in forensic samples.

Objective To analyze the antigen recognition sites of commercial and homemade antibodies against aquaporin(AQP)9,and to identify the application effect.Methods Western blotting was used to compare the efficacy of three commercial antibodies and self-made antibody in identifying AQP9 genotypes.The antigen recognition sites of four antibodies and their specificities in practical applications were analyzed.Results Western blotting showed that protein bands of three commercial antibodies were detected in both WT and Aqp9-/-mice.The keyhole limpet hemocyanin(KLH)conjugated synthetic peptides corresponding to the three commercial antibodies were derived from rat,human and human,respectively.And The sequences of these three synthetic peptides were different from those of mice.AQP3/7 and AQP9 have similar molecular weight and were expressed in the liver with high homology.An obvious band of self-made antibody was observed at the 27 kD position in WT mice,but no band was observed at the corresponding position in Aqp9-/-mice.Conclusion Commercial antibodies 1 and 3 can be used to assist in the identification of genotypes in Aqp9-/-mice.Homemade antibodies can accurately identify genotypes at the protein level.

Objective To establish an acute exposure model of extreme plateau hypobaric hypoxia environment and explore transcriptomic changes related to learning and memory impairment in rats.Methods Healthy male SD rats aged 6-weeks,200-250 g,were selected and divided into control group and plateau group.The control group was treated with normal pressure and oxygen(19 rats),and the plateau group was placed in a hypobaric hypoxia chamber(19 rats)at a simulated altitude of 8000 meters and treated for 72 hours.Behavioral changes were detected with 16 animals from each group using contextual fear conditioning and Morris water maze(8 rats each).Three hippocampal tissues were extracted from each group for transcriptomic sequencing,and the molecular mechanism of learning and memory impairment induced by extreme plateau environment was analyzed by Gene Ontology(GO),Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)and gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA)enrichment.Results The behavioral result showed that compared with the control group,the fear memory and spatial learning memory abilities of rats in plateau group were decreased.GO and KEGG analyses showed that the extreme altitude environment reshaped the hippocampal microenvironment and affected the intercellular signal transmission,while GSEA analysis showed that the extreme altitude environment up-regulated the gene set related to the plasma membrane and extracellular matrix.Conclusion The extreme plateau environment at an altitude of 8000 meters could affect the microenvironment of rat hippocampus,destroy intercellular connections and impair intercellular communication and then induce learning and memory impairment.

Objective:To investigate the safety,efficacy,and prognosis of high-dose melphalan in combination with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). Methods:The clinical data of 17 patients with newly diagnosed MM who underwent ASCT as first-line consolidation therapy at the Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College from March 2020 to October 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The safety,efficacy,and prognosis of this treatment approach were evaluated. Results:Of the 17 patients,10 were male and 7 were female,with a median age of 56 (45-64) years. The stem cell engraftment rate was 100％,with a median neutrophil engraftment time of+10 (9-12) days and a median platelet engraftment time of+12 (10-21) days. The incidence of oral mucositis and intestinal infection after transplantation was 100％,with 2 cases of pulmonary infection,1 case of urinary tract infection,1 case of skin infection,and 11 cases of transient elevation of serum amylase. After transplantation,13 patients achieved a complete response (CR) or better,and the CR rate showed an increasing trend compared to before transplantation (13/17 vs 8/17;P=0.078). The median follow-up time was 18 (6-36) months,and 15 patients survived without progression,1 patient experienced disease progression,and 1 patient died due to clinical relapse and abandonment of treatment. The 2-year overall survival (OS) rate and progression-free survival (PFS) rate were approximately 90.0％ and 83.9％,respectively. Conclusion:High-dose melphalan in combination with ASCT as first-line consolidation therapy for MM can enhance the depth of patient response,further improve therapeutic efficacy,and the transplant-related complications are controllable,making it a viable option worth promoting in clinical practice.

Purpose: To intelligently diagnose whether there is bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) in female with decent detrusor contraction ability by focusing on urodynamic study (UDS) data. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the UDS data of female patients during urination. Eleven easily accessible urinary flow indicators were calculated according to the UDS data of each patient during voiding period. Eight diagnosis models based on back propagation neural network with different input feature combination were constructed by analyzing the correlations between indicators and lower urinary tract dysfunction labels. Subsequently, the stability of diagnostic models was evaluated by five-fold cross-validation based on training data, while the performance was compared on test dataset. Results: UDS data from 134 female patients with a median age of 51 years (range, 27–78 years) were selected for our study.Among them, 66 patients suffered BOO and the remaining were normal. Applying the 5-fold cross-validation method, the model with the best performance achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) value of 0.949±0.060 using 9 UDS input features. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for BOO diagnosis model in the testing process are 94.4%, 100%, and 89.3%, respectively. Conclusions The 9 significant indicators in UDS were employed to construct a diagnostic model of female BOO based on machine learning algorithm, which performs preferable classification accuracy and stability.

Abstract: Objective　To investigate the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) genotypes and regional distribution of Yersinia pestis strains in the natural plague foci of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province (referred to as "Hainan prefecture") and provide a scientific basis for plague prevention and control in this area. Methods　A total of 36 representative Yersinia pestis strains, which were isolated from different host animals and insect vectors from 1954 to 2009 in Hainan Prefecture, were selected as experimental subjects. The DNAs were extracted using the traditional sodium dodecyl sulfate decomposition and phenol-chloroform method. Three pairs of CRISPR primers (YPa, Ypb, YPc) were used for PCR amplification, sequencing and analysis of the DNA of the tested strains, respectively, as a means to identify the CRISPR genotypes of Yersinia pestis in Hainan Prefecture. Results　A total of 17 spacers were observed among 36 strains of Yersinia pestis, including 9 of YPa, 5 of YPb and 3 of YPc. All strains were divided into 5 CRISPR gene clusters (Cb2, Cb4 ', Ca7, Ca7 ', Ca35 ') and 6 genotypes (G1, G9, G22, G22-A1 ', G26-A1 ', G26-A1 'A4 -). The G26-a1 ' was the main genotype, which was distributed in Gonghe, Guide and Xinghai County, and the G22 is the second type, which was distributed in Gonghe and Guide County. Conclusions　The genetic polymorphism of CRISPR loci of Yersinia pestis strains in Hainan was high, and the regional distribution characteristics of Yersinia pestis strains with different genotypes were significant.

OBJECTIVE: To derive the Chinese medicine (CM) syndrome classification and subgroup syndrome characteristics of ischemic stroke patients. METHODS: By extracting the CM clinical electronic medical records (EMRs) of 7,170 hospitalized patients with ischemic stroke from 2016 to 2018 at Weifang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong Province, China, a patient similarity network (PSN) was constructed based on the symptomatic phenotype of the patients. Thereafter the efficient community detection method BGLL was used to identify subgroups of patients. Finally, subgroups with a large number of cases were selected to analyze the specific manifestations of clinical symptoms and CM syndromes in each subgroup. RESULTS: Seven main subgroups of patients with specific symptom characteristics were identified, including M3, M2, M1, M5, M0, M29 and M4. M3 and M0 subgroups had prominent posterior circulatory symptoms, while M3 was associated with autonomic disorders, and M4 manifested as anxiety; M2 and M4 had motor and motor coordination disorders; M1 had sensory disorders; M5 had more obvious lung infections; M29 had a disorder of consciousness. The specificity of CM syndromes of each subgroup was as follows. M3, M2, M1, M0, M29 and M4 all had the same syndrome as wind phlegm pattern; M3 and M0 both showed hyperactivity of Gan (Liver) yang pattern; M2 and M29 had similar syndromes, which corresponded to intertwined phlegm and blood stasis pattern and phlegm-stasis obstructing meridians pattern, respectively. The manifestations of CM syndromes often appeared in a combination of 2 or more syndrome elements. The most common combination of these 7 subgroups was wind-phlegm. The 7 subgroups of CM syndrome elements were specifically manifested as pathogenic wind, pathogenic phlegm, and deficiency pathogens. CONCLUSIONS There were 7 main symptom similarity-based subgroups in ischemic stroke patients, and their specific characteristics were obvious. The main syndromes were wind phlegm pattern and hyperactivity of Gan yang pattern.
Humans ; Syndrome ; Ischemic Stroke ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Liver ; Phenotype

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the risk factors for neonatal asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and establish a nomogram model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted with 613 cases of neonatal asphyxia treated in 20 cooperative hospitals in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture from January to December 2019 as the asphyxia group, and 988 randomly selected non-asphyxia neonates born and admitted to the neonatology department of these hospitals during the same period as the control group. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify risk factors for neonatal asphyxia. R software (4.2.2) was used to establish a nomogram model. Receiver operator characteristic curve, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis were used to assess the discrimination, calibration, and clinical usefulness of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia, respectively. RESULTS: Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that minority (Tujia), male sex, premature birth, congenital malformations, abnormal fetal position, intrauterine distress, maternal occupation as a farmer, education level below high school, fewer than 9 prenatal check-ups, threatened abortion, abnormal umbilical cord, abnormal amniotic fluid, placenta previa, abruptio placentae, emergency caesarean section, and assisted delivery were independent risk factors for neonatal asphyxia (P<0.05). The area under the curve of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia based on these risk factors was 0.748 (95%CI: 0.723-0.772). The calibration curve indicated high accuracy of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia. The decision curve analysis showed that the model could provide a higher net benefit for neonates at risk of asphyxia. CONCLUSIONS The risk factors for neonatal asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture are multifactorial, and the nomogram model based on these factors has good value in predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia, which can help clinicians identify neonates at high risk of asphyxia early, and reduce the incidence of neonatal asphyxia.
Infant, Newborn ; Humans ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Female ; Nomograms ; Retrospective Studies ; Cesarean Section ; Risk Factors ; Asphyxia Neonatorum/etiology*