Objective:To analyze the influencing factors of thyroid volume in children aged 8 - 10 in Yunnan Province, and provide scientific basis for improving iodine deficiency disorders monitoring.Methods:From March to July 2020, in 129 counties (cities, districts) under the jurisdiction of Yunnan Province, each county (city, district) was divided into 5 sampling areas based on east, west, south, north, and middle. One township was selected from each area, and 40 non-boarding children aged 8 - 10 from one primary school were selected from each township (age balanced, half male and half female) as survey subjects. One random urine sample and household edible salt samples were collected for urine iodine and salt iodine testing, and physical examination and thyroid volume measurement were conducted for children. The influencing factors of thyroid volume were analyzed using Pearson correlation.Results:A total of 24 934 urine samples were collected from children, with a median urine iodine of 233.2 μg/L. A total of 24 933 household edible salt samples were collected from children, the median salt iodine was 24.17 mg/kg, and the qualified rate of iodized salt was 96.63% (24 003/24 839); A total of 24 937 children were examined of their thyroid gland, with a median thyroid volume of 2.62 ml and a goiter rate of 1.12% (280/24 937). Among them, there were 12 410 boys and 12 527 girls, with thyroid volumes of 2.61 and 2.64 ml, respectively. The thyroid volume of boys was positively correlated with age, height, weight, body mass index, body surface area, and salt iodine ( r = 0.15, 0.21, 0.26, 0.18, 0.25, 0.03, P < 0.001). The thyroid volume of girls was positively correlated with age, height, weight, body mass index, and body surface area ( r = 0.17, 0.26, 0.28, 0.17, 0.27, P < 0.001). Conclusion:Children aged 8 - 10 in Yunnan Province are at an iodine excess level; the age, weight, height, body mass index, and body surface area are influencing factors of thyroid volume.

Objective:To investigate the efficacy and safety of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors in treatment of gastric cancer with ascites.Methods:A retrospective case-control study was conducted. The clinical data of 39 gastric cancer patients with malignant ascites treated in Xi'an Third Hospital from May 2021 to June 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were divided into the routine group (18 cases) and the observation group (21 cases) according to different treatment methods. The patients in the routine group were treated with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy combined with systemic intravenous chemotherapy; the patients in the observation group were treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors on the basis of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy combined with systemic intravenous chemotherapy. The clinical efficacy, tumor marker levels, Karnofsky scores, and incidence of adverse reactions of both groups were compared. Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the overall survival (OS) of both groups.Results:There were 12 males (66.7%) and 6 females (33.3%) in the routine group, with the age of (57±13) years; 13 males (61.9%) and 8 females (38.1%) in the observation group, with the age of (59±12) years. After treatment, the serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate 125 (CA125), carbohydrate 199 (CA199) levels in the 2 groups were lower than those before treatment, and the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). After treatment, the serum CEA, CA125, CA199 levels in the observation group were lower than those in the routine group, and the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). After treatment, Karnofsky scores in the observation group were higher than those before treatment [(78.6±7.5) scores vs. (69.5±8.9) scores], and Karnofsky scores in the observation group were higher than those in the routine group [(78.6±7.5) scores vs. (72.8±7.9) scores],and the differences were statistically significant ( t = -3.65, 2.33, all P < 0.05). The objective remission rate (ORR) was 55.6% (10/18) and 71.4%(15/21), respectively in the routine group and the observation group, and the difference was statistically significant ( χ2 = 9.24, P = 0.002). The median OS time was 38.97 months (95% CI: 34.99-42.95 months) and 23.62 months (95% CI: 18.49-28.74 months), respectively in the observation group and the routine group, and the difference was statistically significant ( χ2 = 3.88, P = 0.049). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse events between the 2 groups (all P > 0.05). No serious treatment-related complications were found in the observation group. Conclusions:Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors shows a good therapeutic effect in the treatment of gastric cancer with ascites, and the adverse reactions are controllable.

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) diseases are common clinical conditions. The number of patients with TMJ diseases is large, and the etiology, epidemiology, disease spectrum, and treatment of the disease remain controversial and unknown. To understand and master the current situation of the occurrence, development and prevention of TMJ diseases, as well as to identify the patterns in etiology, incidence, drug sensitivity, and prognosis is crucial for alleviating patients′suffering.This will facilitate in-depth medical research, effective disease prevention measures, and the formulation of corresponding health policies. Cohort construction and research has an irreplaceable role in precise disease prevention and significant improvement in diagnosis and treatment levels. Large-scale cohort studies are needed to explore the relationship between potential risk factors and outcomes of TMJ diseases, and to observe disease prognoses through long-term follw-ups. The consensus aims to establish a standard conceptual frame work for a cohort study on patients with TMJ disease while providing ideas for cohort data standards to this condition. TMJ disease cohort data consists of both common data standards applicable to all specific disease cohorts as well as disease-specific data standards. Common data were available for each specific disease cohort. By integrating different cohort research resources, standard problems or study variables can be unified. Long-term follow-up can be performed using consistent definitions and criteria across different projects for better core data collection. It is hoped that this consensus will be facilitate the development cohort studies of TMJ diseases.

【Objective】 To explore the surgical treatments and therapeutic outcomes for benign testicular tumor. 【Methods】 Clinical data of 53 patients with benign testicular tumor treated with surgery during May 2004 and Jul.2021 were retrospectively analyzed. 【Results】 The postoperative pathological diagnosis of 53 patients included 33 patients with epidermal cysts, 12 with mature teratomas, 2 with bilateral testicular tumors (one of them was epidermal cysts in the left and mature teratoma in the right, and the other was bilateral leiomyomas), and 6 benign cases. Testis sparing surgery (TSS) group had 23 patients and radical orchiectomy (RO) group had 30 patients. There were no significant differences in patients’ age, tumor location, disease course, and ultrasound examination results between the two groups (P>0.05). The tumor size of the RO group was (2.60±0.94) cm, which was larger than that of the TSS group (1.55±0.52) cm (P<0.001). There were no statistically significant differences in surgical time and postoperative hospital stay between the two groups (P>0.05). A total of 15 patients (13 with TSS and 2 with RO) underwent intraoperative frozen rapid pathological examination (FSA), which was consistent with post-operative paraffin pathological results. Durign the follow up of 2-219 months,median 38 months, there was no recurrence in either groups. 【Conclusion】 Testis sparing surgery is a reliable treatment modality for benign testicular tumor, which may also decrease the level of androgen and incidence of asthenozoospermia. It can be considered for tumors less than 2 cm with benign tendency or uncertain nature.

Objective:To investigate the safety and efficacy of robot-guided ventricular partition puncture drainage in severe intraventricular hemorrhage.Methods:A total of 23 patients with severe intraventricular hemorrhage who underwent robot-guided ventricular partition puncture drainage (experimental group) and 19 patients who underwent robot-guided bilateral ventricular puncture drainage (control group) at Department of Neurosurgery, People's Hospital of Baise from January 2021 to December 2021 were included. The differences in residual hematoma volume within 24 h of surgery, drainage tube retention time, mortality rate within 30 d of surgery, incidence of complications (re-bleeding, intracranial infection, pulmonary infection, hydrocephalus) within 6 months of surgery, and scores of Glasgow coma scale (GCS), activity of daily living (ADL), and National Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) at 6 months after surgery were compared between the 2 groups.Results:Compared with the control group, the experimental group had significantly lower residual hematoma volume within 24 h of surgery ([8.854±3.519] mL vs. [5.668±2.873] mL), shorter drainage tube retention time ([6.580±1.981] d vs. [4.910±2.763] d), lower incidence of hydrocephalus within 6 months of surgery (42.105% vs. 8.696%), and significantly higher GCS and ADL scores and lower NIHSS scores at 6 months after surgery (8.790±2.898 vs. 11.610±2.948; 69.470±12.899 vs. 78.480±12.861; 13.950±5.265 vs. 9.870±4.124, P<0.05). Conclusion:Robot-guided ventricular partition puncture drainage is a safe and effective surgical method for severe intraventricular hemorrhage.

Objective:To compare the clinical efficacy of anchor repair versus screw fixation in the treatment of posterior malleolar fracture with distal tibiofibular syndesmosis injury.Methods:PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, CNKI, Wanfang, and Chinese Medical Journal Full-text Database were searched for articles on anchor repair versus screw fixation in the treatment of posterior malleolar fracture with distal tibiofibular syndesmosis injury. The search time was from the establishment of each database to April 2023. Literature screening, data extraction and literature quality assessment were performed independently by two researchers according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and meta-analysis of the included literature was performed.Results:A total of 7 articles were included in the meta-analysis, including 3 randomized controlled trials and 4 case-control studies. There were 280 cases treated with anchor repair and 312 cases treated with screw fixation. The results of meta-analysis showed that the number of fluoroscopy [ MD=-5.08, 95% CI (-9.20, -0.96), P=0.020], postoperative anterior inferior tibiofibular space [ MD=-0.93, 95% CI (-1.06, -0.81), P<0.001] and incidence of malposition [ OR=0.21, 95% CI (0.10, 0.46), P<0.001] in the anchor repair group were smaller than that in the screw fixation group, while postoperative recovery time were earlier than that in the screw fixation group [ MD=-2.22, 95% CI (-2.68, -1.75), P<0.001], postoperative ankle plantarflexion angle [ MD=2.77, 95% CI (0.28, 5.25), P=0.030], and postoperative 6 months of American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society score [ MD=5.85, 95% CI (2.05, 9.64), P=0.003] were greater than those of the screw fixation group. The operation time [ MD=-10.45, 95% CI (-24.25, 3.35), P=0.140], the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society score at 6 months after operation [ MD=0.09, 95% CI (-0.94, 1.11), P=0.860] and the postoperative ankle dorsiflexion angle [ MD=0.66, 95% CI (-0.75, 2.88), P=0.360] were not statistically different. Conclusion:Compared with screw fixation, fixation of anterior inferior tibiofibular ligament with anchor fixation has the advantages of less fluoroscopy, faster recovery time, better reduction quality, and higher ankle function score.

Objective:To investigate the predictive value of serum proenkephalin A 119-159 (penKid) on incidence and the 28-day mortality in patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI).Methods:This study was a single center, observational cohort study. Sepsis/septic shock patients admitted to Department of Critical Care Medicine of Taizhou People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University from September 2021 to September 2022 were selected and divided into the SA-AKI group and the non-SA-AKI group according to whether acute kidney injury (AKI) occurred within 28 days. Patients in the SA-AKI group were subdivided into the death group and the survival group according to whether death occurred within 28 days. Baseline data and laboratory indicators such as penKid concentration were compared among different groups. COX regression analysis was used to explore the risk factors of death within 28 days in the SA-AKI patients, And Kaplan-Meier curve was used to analyze patient prognosis.Result:A total of 161 patients were included in this study, of whom 66 (41.0%) developed AKI. The baseline penKid concentration in the SA-AKI group was significantly higher than that in the non-SA-AKI group [(2.99 ± 0.68) μg/L vs. (1.86±0.75) μg/L, P<0.05]. Multivariate COX regression analysis showed that the baseline penKid ( HR=5.608, 95% CI: 3.507-8.967, P<0.001) and lactate (LA) ( HR=1.089, 95% CI: 1.003-1.183, P=0.043) were independent risk factors for AKI in sepsis/septic shock patients. Of the 66 SA-AKI patients, 27 (40.9%) died within 28 days, and the baseline penKid concentration in the death group was significantly higher than that in the survival group [ (3.55 ± 0.54) μg/L vs. (2.60±0.47) μg/L, P<0.05]. COX regression analysis showed that penKid ( HR=5.892, 95% CI: 2.457-14.132, P<0.001) was an independent risk factor for mortality in SA-AKI patients. Kaplan-Meier curve showed that the 28-day mortality of patients with baseline penKid ≥ 3.24 μg/L was significantly higher than that of patients with baseline penKid <3.24 μg/L ( P<0.001). Conclusions:In sepsis/septic shock patients, the penKid concentration measured on the first day in the SA-AKI group is significantly higher than that in the non-SA-AKI group. In SA-AKI patients, the penKid concentration measured in patients who survived within 28 days is significantly lower than that in the death group. PenKid is an independent risk factor for the occurrence and death of SA-AKI.

Objective:To investigate the association between the expression of long non-coding RNA genes and the HULC rs7763881 polymorphism, recurrence, and metastasis after radical resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods:Paraffin tissue samples were selected from 426 cases diagnosed with HCC between January 2004 to January 2012. The expression of different genotypes of HULC gene locus rs7763881 in paraffin tissues was detected by PCR, and the association between different genotype expressions and clinical case characteristics of HCC [gender, age, TNM stage, alpha-fetoprotein, tumor maximum diameter (cm), vascular invasion, tumor capsule, tumor grade] was analyzed. Cox proportional risk regression model was used to analyze the correlation between different genotypes and clinicopathological features, prognosis, and recurrence. Survival analysis between different genotypes was performed using the Kaplan–Meier method for a parallel log-rank test.Results:There were 27 (6.3%) cases in the whole group who lost to follow-up. A total of 399 (93.7%) specimens were included in the study, and 105 (26.3%), 211 (52.9%) and 83 (20.8%) were included in the rs77638881 AA, AC, and CC genotypes, respectively. Kaplan-Meier curve showed that the postoperative overall survival and recurrence-free survival rate were significantly higher in patients with the AA than AC/CC genotype ( P < 0.05). Univariate analysis showed that the AC/CC genotype was closely related to tumor vascular invasion and recurrence or metastasis of HCC ( P < 0.05). Cox multivariate analysis results showed that patients with the AA genotype were taken as references, and the results showed that the risk of recurrence and metastasis in patients with the CA/CC genotype increased to varying degrees, with statistical significance ( P < 0.05). Conclusion:The rs7763881 polymorphic loci located on the HULC gene are closely related to HCC recurrence and metastasis after radical resection. Thus, it may be an indicator for evaluating HCC recurrence and metastasis.

The application of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated proteins (Cas) can be limited due to a lack of compatible protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) sequences in the DNA regions of interest. Recently, SpRY, a variant of Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9), was reported, which nearly completely fulfils the PAM requirement. Meanwhile, PAMs for SpRY have not been well addressed. In our previous study, we developed the PAM Definition by Observable Sequence Excision (PAM-DOSE) and green fluorescent protein (GFP)‍-reporter systems to study PAMs in human cells. Herein, we endeavored to identify the PAMs of SpRY with these two methods. The results indicated that 5'-NRN-3', 5'-NTA-3', and 5'-NCK-3' could be considered as canonical PAMs. 5'-NCA-3' and 5'-NTK-3' may serve as non-priority PAMs. At the same time, PAM of 5'-NYC-3' is not recommended for human cells. These findings provide further insights into the application of SpRY for human genome editing.
CRISPR-Associated Protein 9/metabolism* ; CRISPR-Cas Systems ; DNA ; Gene Editing/methods* ; Humans ; Streptococcus pyogenes/metabolism*

Brassica juncea is a yearly or biennial vegetable in Brassica of Cruciferae. The yield and quality of its product organs are affected by flowering time. WRKY proteins family can respond to biological and abiotic stresses, developmental regulation and signal transduction. WRKY75 is an important member of WRKY family which can regulate flowering, but the flowering regulation mechanism in B. juncea has not been reported. In this study, a gene BjuWRKY75 in B. juncea was cloned, and the encoded-protein belonged to the group Ⅱ of WRKY protein with highly conserved domain. BjuWRKY75 had the highest homology with BriWRKY75 of Brassica nigra. The relative expression level of BjuWRKY75 in flowers was significantly higher than that in leaves and stems, and it was expressed stably in leaves. BjuWRKY75 protein was localized in the nucleus and interacted with the promoter of the flowering integrator BjuFT, which contained the W-box response element for the interaction between protein and DNA. Thus, it could transcriptionally activate the expression of the downstream genes. The overexpression of BjuWRKY75 in Arabidopsis led to earlier flowering significantly. In conclusion, BjuWRKY75 could directly target the promoter of BjuFT and accelerate flowering. These results may facilitate further study on the regulation of flowering molecules of BjuWRKY75.
Arabidopsis/genetics* ; Flowers/genetics* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Mustard Plant/genetics* ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Promoter Regions, Genetic