ObjectiveTo compare the differences between clinical and environmental sources of Acinetobacter baumannii （AB） at a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou in terms of molecular epidemiological characteristics， antimicrobial resistance， disinfectant tolerance， virulence and the distribution of related genes， as well as plasmid epidemiological characteristics； and to assess the association between environmental and clinical strains and the potential transmission risks associated with environmental contamination. MethodsA total of 118 clinical and 102 environmental AB isolates were collected from a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou between 2024 and 2025. Species identification was performed using mass spectrometry and 16S rRNA sequencing； minimum inhibitory concentrations （MICs） for eight antimicrobial agents were determined using the agar dilution method； biofilm formation capacity was assessed using the crystal violet staining method； A Galleria mellonella infection model was used to evaluate the virulence； whole-genome sequencing was employed for multilocus sequence typing （MLST）， phylogenetic analysis， and studies on the distribution of resistance， disinfectant resistance and virulence genes， and plasmid screening. ResultsA total of 38 known ST types were identified among the 220 AB strains， with ST2 and ST40 being the predominant lineages. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that the clinical infection group exhibited resistance to minocycline， imipenem and other antibiotics， as well as the tolerance levels to the disinfectants triclosan and benzalkonium bromide， were generally higher than those in the environmental group （P＜0.001）， and the detection rates of drug resistance genes such as bla_OXA-23 and adeB all exceeded 70.0%. Statistical analysis confirmed that the MIC values of TCS and BAB were significantly positively correlated with various antibiotic resistance phenotypes （P＜0.05）. In biofilm experiments， the proportion of strong biofilm-forming strains in the environmental group （64.7%） was significantly higher than that in the clinical infection group （11.9%；χ²=69.06， df=2， P＜0.000 1）， and the mortality rate of the strains increased with enhanced biofilm-forming ability. Furthermore， a total of 41 plasmid lineages and 219 insertion sequences were detected； ISs such as IS1006 and IS1007 were frequently co-occurring with resistance and virulence genes including bla_OXA-23 and katA. ConclusionsThe predominant lineages of AB in this tertiary hospital were ST2 and ST40. The clinical infection group generally exhibits higher levels of antibiotic resistance and tolerance to disinfectants compared to the environmental group， while biofilm-forming ability differs ： the environmental group dominates in strong biofilm formation， and the clinical group dominates in weak to moderate biofilm formation. Plasmids and ISs may be involved in the co-occurrence and dissemination control strategies and for the molecular epidemiological surveillance of multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Objective To investigate the current status of frailty in patients on maintenance hemodialysis(MHD),and explore the correlation of frailty with anxiety and depression.Methods General information,clinical data and blood biochemical data of 101 cases who underwent MHD in Department of Nephrology,Shunde Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University from January 2023 to January 2024 were collected.FRAIL scale was applied to evaluate the frailty of the patients,and they were accordingly classified into frailty group and non-frailty group(including pre-frail and non-frail participants).Anxiety and depression were evaluated by GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scale.Univariate analysis and logistic regression were used to explore the association of frailty with anxiety,depression and other possible influencing factors.Results Among the 101 cases,29 cases(28.71%)were includedin frailty group and 72 cases(71.29%)in non-frailty group.There were 42 patients with depression(41.58%)and 25 with anxiety(24.75%).In the frailty group,the prevalence of depression was 65.52%and that of anxiety 55.17%.There were significant differences in age,grip strength,exercise,stroke and coronary heart disease,anxiety and depression,ferritin and CRP between the two groups(P＜0.01).Multivariate regression analysis showed that depression,anxi-ety,no exercise,stroke and high ferritin concentration were independent risk factors for frailty in MHD patients(P＜0.05).Conclusion In patients on MHD,frailty is closely associated with depression,anxiety,and lack of exercise,and stroke as well as high ferritin concentration are independent risk factors for frailty.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to develop a comprehensive instrument for evaluating and ranking clinical practice guidelines, named Scientific, Transparent and Applicable Rankings tool (STAR), and test its reliability, validity, and usability. METHODS: This study set up a multidisciplinary working group including guideline methodologists, statisticians, journal editors, clinicians, and other experts. Scoping review, Delphi methods, and hierarchical analysis were used to develop the STAR tool. We evaluated the instrument's intrinsic and interrater reliability, content and criterion validity, and usability. RESULTS: STAR contained 39 items grouped into 11 domains. The mean intrinsic reliability of the domains, indicated by Cronbach's α coefficient, was 0.588 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.414, 0.762). Interrater reliability as assessed with Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.774 (95% CI: 0.740, 0.807) for methodological evaluators and 0.618 (95% CI: 0.587, 0.648) for clinical evaluators. The overall content validity index was 0.905. Pearson's r correlation for criterion validity was 0.885 (95% CI: 0.804, 0.932). The mean usability score of the items was 4.6 and the median time spent to evaluate each guideline was 20 min. CONCLUSION The instrument performed well in terms of reliability, validity, and efficiency, and can be used for comprehensively evaluating and ranking guidelines.
Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Humans

We aimed to investigate the relationship of dietary zinc intake with new-onset hypertension among Chinese adults. A total of 12,177 participants who were free of hypertension at baseline from the China Health and Nutrition Survey were included. Dietary intake was assessed by three consecutive 24-h dietary recalls combined with a household food inventory. Participants with systolic blood pressure ≽ 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ≽ 90 mmHg or diagnosed by a physician or under antihypertensive treatment during the follow-up were defined as having new-onset hypertension. During a median follow-up duration of 6.1 years, 4269 participants developed new-onset hypertension. Overall, the association between dietary zinc intake and new-onset hypertension followed a J-shape (P for non-linearity < 0.001). The risk of new-onset hypertension significantly decreased with the increment of dietary zinc intake (per mg/day: hazard ratio (HR) 0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88-0.98) in participants with zinc intake < 10.9 mg/day, and increased with the increment of zinc intake (per mg/day: HR 1.14; 95% CI 1.11-1.16) in participants with zinc intake ≽ 10.9 mg/day. In conclusion, there was a J-shaped association between dietary zinc intake and new-onset hypertension in general Chinese adults, with an inflection point at about 10.9 mg/day.
Adult ; Humans ; Cohort Studies ; Zinc ; Diet ; Hypertension/epidemiology* ; Eating ; China/epidemiology*

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the clinical characteristics and risk factors for severe events of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in elderly patients. METHODS: Retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of all elderly COVID- 19 patients treated in Changsha Public Health Treatment Center from January 17, 2020 to March 15, 2020, which included basic diseases, symptoms, test results, and other clinical characteristics, and prognostic indicators such as severity of illness, length of hospital stay, virus shedding time and mortality rate. The differences in clinical characteristics and prognostic indicators between elderly, middle-aged, and young COVID-19 patients were also analyzed. Logistic regression model was used to conduct univariate and multivariate analysis of risk factors for developing severe events in elderly COVID-19 patients; receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the prediction efficacy. RESULTS: Of the 230 COVID-19 adult patients, 34 were young patients (14.8%), 136 were middle-aged patients (59.1%), and 60 were elderly (26.1%). Among the 60 elderly patients, 23 were male (38.3%) and 37 were female (61.7%), with a medium age of 66 years old. Common symptoms were fever (66.7%), cough (50.0%), and fatigue (41.7%). C reactive protein (CRP) was increased significantly. The proportion of severe cases was 31.7%, and mortality was 1.7%. The median length of hospitalization and median virus shedding time were 18.5 days and 21 days, respectively. Compared with the young and the middle-aged patients, the elderly had a higher proportion of hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, more common shortness of breath, higher proportions of pneumonia and severe cases (all <0.05), and the decreased lymphocyte count and lymphocyte percentage (both <0.05), as well as higher CRP and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) levels (both <0.05). Compared with non-severe cases, severe elderly patients demonstrated higher CRP and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels (all <0.05), the reduced lymphocyte count (<0.05), and the prolonged length of hospitalization and virus shedding duration (both <0.05). Univariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the lymphocytes proportion, CRP and AST levels were significantly correlated with the risk for developing severe events in elderly COVID-19 patients (all <0.05). Multivariate logistic regression found that severe events in elderly patients with COVID-19 were significantly correlated with CRP level (OR=1.041, =0.013). ROC curve analysis revealed that the area under the curve (AUC) for CRP to diagnose severe events in elderly COVID 19 patients was 0.851. CONCLUSIONS The proportion of severe cases in elderly COVID-19 patients is higher than that in young and middle-aged patients. CRP level has a good predictive value for the possibility of severe events in elderly COVID-19 patients.
Adult ; Aged ; Betacoronavirus ; C-Reactive Protein ; analysis ; China ; Comorbidity ; Coronavirus Infections ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

Objective To detect the expression levels of renal tissue M-type phospholipase A2 receptor 1(PLA2R1) antigen and its antibody in the patients with membranous nephropathy(MN).Methods Fifty-eight cases of biopsy-proved idiopathic membranous nephropathy(IMN),fifteen cases of hepatitis B-associated membranous nephropathy(HBV-MN) and seventeen cases of V type lupus nephritis(V-LN) were selected.Renal tissue PLA2R1 antigen was detected by indirect immunofluorescence and colocaliazed with IgG4.Serum anti-PLA2R1 antibody was simultaneously examined.The expression difference of PLA2R1 antigen and antiPLA2R1 antibody in MN was analyzed.And the differences of clinical data were analyzed between PLA2R1 positive and negative patients.Results The PLA2R1 antibody was not found in the renal tissue and serum of the patients with LN and HBV-MN;PLA2R1 antigen was found in 81.03％ of IMN patients,and its antibody was found in serum of 70.69％ of IMN patients.PLA2R1 antigen and IgG4 co-localization all deposited along glomerular capillary loop presenting as fine granules.The 24 h urine protein level in the patients with PLA2R1 antigen deposition in renal tissues was higher than that in the patients without PLA2R1 deposition (P＜0.05),moreover serum albumin level was lower than that in the patients without PLA2R1 deposition(P＜0.05).Conclusion The sensitivity and specificity of renal tissue PLA2R1 antigen in the diagnosis of IMN are higher.The expression of PLA2R1 antigen in renal tissue by biopsy is significantly correlated with the clinical severity.

Objective To explore the features of clinicopathology,gastroscopy,endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and immunohistochemistry of esophageal mesenchymal tumors (EMT).Methods The clinical data of 98 cases of EMT patients who underwent endoscopic biopsy,endoscopic treatment or surgery and were diagnosed according to pathological and immunohistochemistry examination were collected.The clinicopathologic characteristics,endoscopy,EUS and immunohistochemistry of these cases were retrospectively analyzed,and differentiated from other submucosal tumor.Results Among the 98 cases of EMT,there were 77 leiomyomas (LM),15 gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST),four lipomas,one leiomyoblastoma and one schwannoma.The age of GIST group were older than that of LM group,and most were male patients predominated in these two groups.Dysphagia was the most common symptom of EMT.Gastrointestinal bleeding was rare,which was different from other gastrointestinal mesenchymal tumors.Under endoscopy,the appearances of EMT were similar,as submucosal protuberant lesions.One esophageal GIST was extraluminal lesion.Under EUS,LM,GIST and schwannoma showed low echo images originated from the muscularis propria or muscularis mucosa.Lipomas showed high echo images originated from submucosa.Pathological examination indicated that main cell type of LM and schwannoma was spindle cell,part of GIST was epitheloid cell type.The expressions of CD117 and CD34 were high in GIST,the expressions of SMA and Desmin were high in LM.S-100 was expressed in schwannoma.Other submucosal tumors,such as esophageal cyst,esophageal tuberculosis,esophageal carcinosarcoma,and some esophageal squamous carcinoma were easily misdiagnosed as EMT.Conclusions Esophageal LM is the most common EMT,followed by GIST.EUS is helpful in EMT diagnosis,however it can not accurately distinguish GIST,LM or schwannoma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA), and endothelin-1 (ET-1) on the atherosclerosis progress in the maintenance hemodialysis patients. METHODS: We enrolled 19 patients with maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) and 11 healthy people as control. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to their age above or below 40 years old (11 and 8 in each, respectively), whereas the subjects in control group were below 40 years old. All the clinical information of the research subjects was collected: including age, gender, time of hemodialysis, blood pressure, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and serum creatinine (SCr). Immunohistochemistry and pathological image analysis were used to investigate the pathological changes, calcification and the expression of PAI-1, t-PA, and ET-1 on the blood vessel. RESULTS: Compared with the age-matched healthy control group, there were higher blood vascular media thickness, blood vascular media thickness/diagmeter ratio, blood vascular media thickness area/vascular inter-wall area ratio (P<0.05) and more calcification (P<0.05) in the the internal iliac artery in the chronic renal failure MHD patients. All the results were similar when compared the above 40 years old group with the below 40 years old one in the chronic renal failure MHD patients. There were positive correlation of blood vascular media thickness with age and blood pressure (P<0.05). Expression of PAI-1, ET-1, t-PA on the internal iliac artery vessel was elevated in the chronic renal failure MHD patients compared with the health control (P<0.05). The level of PAI-1 or ET-1 was much higher in the above 40 years old group than the below 40 years old one in the chronic renal failure MHD patients, whereas there was no significant difference in the t-PA expression between the 2 groups (P<0.05). There were positive correlation of PAI-1 or ET-1 expression with age and blood pressure (P<0.05). There were positive correlation of PAI-1 or ET-1 expression with blood vascular media thickness and calcification (P<0.05 or P<0.01). There was no correlation of hemodialysis time with blood vascular media thickness, calcification, PAI-1, t-PA, or ET-1 expressions. CONCLUSION MHD patients accompany with atherosclerosis which is severer in the patients above 40 years old than the patients below 40 years old. The higher of the blood pressure, the severer of the atherosclerosis. Abnormal expression of PAI-1 plays an important role in the progress of the atherosclerosis in the chronic renal failure MHD patients, whereas t-PA has no function in this process. The level of PAI-1 and ET-1 would be helpful to evaluating the degree of atherosclerosis in the chronic renal failure MHD patients. Hemodialysis time may not be a potential accelerator for atherosclerosis progression.
Adult ; Atherosclerosis ; blood ; etiology ; Endothelin-1 ; blood ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1 ; blood ; Renal Dialysis

Objective To investigate the regulation and the mechanism of Melatonin in calcium overload of pancreatic acinar cell in acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP). Methods Fifty-four Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were equally divided into three groups:sham-operation group (SO group),ANP group (created with retrograde cholangiopancreatography injection of sodium taurocholate) and MT group (ANP model made after intra-peritoneal injection MT for 30 mins).Rats were sacrificed at 1,4 and 8hours after operation and pancreas tissues were underwent pathological examination.The free calcium concentration of pancreas tissues was determined by fluorescence minitoring method; and the expression of CaMK Ⅱ in pancreas tissues at mRNA and protein level was tested by real-time PCR and Western Blot.Results Pancreatic pathological injury in ANP groups was progressively severe as time extended,which was obviously ameliorated in MT group compared with ANP group (the t value of compared pathological score at 1,4 and 8 hour was:-7.95,-9.72 and -7.69,all P=0.00).Compared at same time point,the free Ca2+ concentration of pancreas tissues in ANP group was significantly higher than that of SO group (the t value of 1,4 and 8 hour was 13.09,18.58 and 16.56,all P=0.00).It was a little bit higher in MT group compared with that of SO group,however was significantly lower than that of ANP group (the t value of 1,4 and 8 hour was -10.03,-11.75 and -11.02,all P =0.00).Compared with SO group,the expression of CaMK Ⅱ at mRNA and protein level significantly increased in ANP group; MT significantly inhibited its expression.Conclusions The expression of CaMK Ⅱ may be inhibited by MT interfere,and then lower the calcium overload in pancreatic acinar cell,which play a role in pancreas tissue protection.

Objective To explore the differences and similarities of clinical characteristics,pathological features, treatment and prognosis between primary gastric lymphoma(PGL)and primary intestinal lymphoma (PIL). Methods The clinical characteristics, pathological features, therapeutic results, the detection of Helicobacter pylori (Hp) and prognosis of 48 PGL cases and 15 PIL cases were retrospectively analyzed. Results There was no statistical significance in age, gender, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal bleeding, B symptoms, clinical stage, mortality between PGL and PIL groups (P>0. 05). However, there were significant differences in the pathological type, acute abdomen emergency surgery between these two groups (P<0. 05). There was 12 Hp positive cases in mucosalassociated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma of PGL group (12/19), and 5 Hp positive cases in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) (5/20). There was significant difference in Hp detection rate of these two pathological types. Hp was not found in PIL group. The Cox multivariate analysis indicated that stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ was the independent adverse factors affecting PGL prognosis (P<0. 05).Conclusions Mainly histological types are DLBCL and MALT lymphoma in PGL, and DLBCL in PIL.PIL predispose to T-cell lymphoma compared with PGL. MALT lymphoma is rare in PIL group. The mainly clinical stage is Ⅲ-Ⅳ both in PGL group and PIL group. Emergency surgery is often needed in PIL because of intussusception or perforation. The prognosis of PGL is correlated with the stage and the prognosis of PIL are correlated with the stage, B symptoms and T cell phenotype.