OBJECTIVES: Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, posing a serious threat to public health. Prognostication of overall survival (OS) in patients undergoing radical gastrectomy remains a clinical priority. Evidence suggests that preoperative nutritional and inflammatory status correlated with postoperative outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic value of the skeletal muscle index at the third lumbar vertebra (L3-SMI) as a trichotomous variable and to compare the performance of commonly used nutritional and inflammation-related indicators in predicting postoperative survival in GC patients. METHODS: This retrospective study analyzed clinical data of patients who underwent radical gastrectomy with neoadjuvant chemotherapy between 2011 and 2018 at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. L3-SMI was measured by preoperative CT, and 8 preoperative nutritional/inflammatory indices were calculated from the latest laboratory tests before surgery: neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), systemic inflammation response index (SIRI), pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV), albumin-globulin ratio (AGR), and prognostic nutritional index (PNI). L3-SMI was categorized into 3 groups using X-tiler software. ROC curves were used to determine optimal cut-off values for the other eight indices. Kaplan-Meier curves and univariate/multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyze the association between variables and OS. Concordance index (C-index) and subgroup analysis assessed predictive performance and consistency across patient subgroups. RESULTS: A total of 546 patients were included, with a minimum follow-up time of 36 months. Kaplan-Meier and univariate analysis showed that L3-SMI and the 8 indicators were significantly associated with OS (all P<0.01). After adjusting for age, gender, tumor site, differentiation, pTNM stage, type of surgery, anemia, CEA, and AFP, multifactorial Cox analysis revealed that L3-SMI (HR=0.676, 95% CI 0.523 to 0.872), AGR (HR=0.611, 95% CI 0.452 to 0.827), and PNI (HR=0.590, 95% CI 0.418 to 0.833) were independent predictors of OS. The full model confirmed the independent prognostic roles of L3-SMI, AGR, and PNI. Among all indicators, PNI had the highest C-index for 1-year OS prediction (0.632, 95% CI 0.568 to 0.695), while AGR showed the best performance at 3 years (0.585, 95% CI 0.548 to 0.622) and 5 years (0.578, 95% CI 0.542 to 0.613). Subgroup analysis indicated that higher L3-SMI, AGR, and PNI were associated with lower mortality risk in patients aged<65 years, with lower gastric tumors, poor differentiation, stage III pTNM, or who underwent subtotal gastrectomy. CONCLUSIONS Compared with other indicators, preoperative nutritional markers such as L3-SMI, AGR, and PNI demonstrated superior prognostic value for OS in gastric cancer patients undergoing radical gastrectomy. Assessing these indices can help identify patients at high risk of poor prognosis, thereby guiding targeted nutritional interventions and potentially improving survival outcomes.
Humans ; Stomach Neoplasms/mortality* ; Gastrectomy/methods* ; Retrospective Studies ; Female ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Aged ; Adult ; Nutritional Status ; Inflammation ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Preoperative Period ; Survival Rate

Purpose: Ankle pump exercises (APE) have been widely used in clinical practice. However, best practices for APE have not been established. Recognize the most effective frequency of APE for improving lower extremity hemodynamics and establish recommendations in clinical practice. Methods: Therefore, a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed according to PRISMA-NMA. Six English databases (Pubmed, Medline, CINAHL, Embase, the Cochrane library and ProQuest) and four Chinese databases (CNKI, Wanfang, VIP and Sinomed) were searched. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies investigating the effects of different frequencies of APE on lower limb hemodynamics published before July 2022 were included. The reference list was also searched. Seven studies (one RCTs and six quasi-experimental studies) were included in the systematic review and five studies (one RCTs and four quasi-experimental studies) were included in the NMA. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane and Joanna Briggs Institute tools. The NMA was performed using the R software (version 4.2.1) and OpenBUGS (version 3.2.3). Results: The results of the NMA showed that a frequency of every 3–4 s the most effective in improving lower extremity hemodynamics (P =.85), followed by every 1–2 s (P = .81), every 5–6 s (P=.32) and less than every 10 s (P =.02). Subgroup analysis failed to find a difference between healthy participants and those with unilateral total hip arthroplasty or fracture (MD = −0.23, 95% CI-5.92 to 4.61). Conclusions Consequencely, for adult patients, with or without lower extremity disease, a frequency of every 3–4 s can be recommended as the optimal frequency of APE in clinical care practice.Registered number on PROSPEROCRD42022349365. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=349365.

Background:At present,domestic guidelines and consensus recommend the use of nutritional risk screening 2002(NRS 2002)and patient-generated subjective global assessment(PG-SGA)for nutritional risk screening and assessment of patients with gastrointestinal cancer during the perioperative period.However,PG-SGA has higher professional requirements,complex content and time-consuming.In the current busy situation of medical staff,NRS 2002 is more used for screening alone.Aims:To explore the consistency of NRS 2002 and PG-SGA in the assessment of nutritional status and clinical outcomes in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies,and to explore the accuracy of screening using NRS 2002 alone,so as to provide guidance for the establishment of clinical nutritional screening and assessment standards.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 157 patients with gastrointestinal malignancies who underwent radical operation in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Xiangya Hospital,Central South University from January 2020 to October 2022.Nutritional screening and evaluation were performed by NRS 2002 and PG-SGA scales and demographic data and nutrition-related laboratory indicators were collected to observe short-term postoperative clinical outcomes.Results:Patients with nutritional risk or malnutrition had lower body mass index(BMI),lymphocytes and prealbumin(P<0.05).The correlation and consistency of NRS 2002 and PG-SGA scales were good(r=0.728,κ=0.46)and the areas under the curve(AUC)for predicting postoperative complications were 0.691 and 0.702,respectively.In addition,nutritional risk and postoperative complications were significantly increased in patients with malnutrition(P<0.05).Conclusions:Therefore,gastrointestinal surgeons can only use NRS2002 to perform nutritional screening of patients and make corresponding nutritional treatment according to the screening results in the case of busy clinical work.

Objective:To establish a competency assessment system for nutritional support specialist nurses, so as to provide reference basis for training reform, functional performance, and improvement of nursing service quality for nutritional support specialist nurses.Methods:Based on the practice standards of nutrition support specialist nurses published by American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, the draft of the competency assessment system for nutrition support specialist nurses was developed through literature search and group discussion. From November 2021 to February 2022, two rounds of expert letter consultation were conducted with 15 experts by Delphi method, indicators were screened and modified according to expert suggestions, and the final competency assessment system for nutrition support specialist nurses was formed.Results:The effective response rates of the two rounds of expert inquiry questionnaires were 93.3% (14/15) and 100.0% (15/15) , with expert authority coefficients of 0.922 and 0.917, respectively. In the first round of expert consultation, 50.0% (3/6) of the first-level indicators agreed with a percentage≥80.0%, and 64.9% (24/37) of the second-level indicators agreed with a percentage≥80.0%. In the second round of expert letter consultation, the agreement percentage of the first and second indicators were≥80.0%. The final competency assessment system for nutrition support specialist nurses included 6 first-level indicators (practical ability, communication and coordination ability, education and consultation ability, legal and ethical decision-making ability, scientific research ability, leadership) and 29 second-level indicators.Conclusions:The competency assessment system for nutritional support specialist nurses constructed in this study is scientific, reasonable, and highly reliable, which can be used to standardize the training process of nutritional support specialist nurses, promote personal development.

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of acupuncture-moxibustion plus moving cupping on the back in treating sub-health in the undergraduates. Method According to the theory of preventive treatment in the Chinese medicine, 30 undergraduates with sub-health were treated by acupuncture at Baihui (GV20), Guanyuan (CV4), and bilateral Zusanli (ST36), plus moving cupping to the Governor Vessel, totally for 20 d. The Self-rating Sub-health Scale (SRSHS) was adopted for evaluation before and after intervention, for observing the clinical efficacy. Result Of the 30 subjects, 14 were recovered, 14 showed effective, 2 failed, and the total effective rate was 93.3%. The SRSHS score dropped significantly after intervention (P＜0.001). The psychological factor responded most significantly to the intervention, followed by the physical factor, while the social function factor didn’t show a significant change. Conclusion Acupuncture-moxibustion plus moving cupping is significantly effective in improving and treating the sub-health state in the undergraduates.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the value of proximal gastrectomy (PG) and total gastrectomy (TG) for the treatment of cancer of cardia and fundus. METHODS: Publications on comparision between PG and TG in the treatment of cancer of cardia and fundus were collected, the data from the publications were matched with the PG group and the TG group respectively according to its corresponding surgical resection, and the data on postoperative complications, motality and 5-year survival rate were meta-analyzed by fixed effect model and random effect model. RESULTS: Thirteen reseaches on 2 219 patients were included in this study, 2 of which were randomly controlled studies. There were no significant differences in the postoperative complications (OR=1.00, 95%CI: 0.44-2.28,P>0.05) and mortality (OR=1.25, 95%CI: 0.62-2.48,P>0.05) between the PG group and the TG group, while there was significant difference in the 5-year survival rate (HR=0.87, 95%CI: 0.76-0.99,P=0.04). The 5-year survival rate in the TG group was higher than that in the PG group. CONCLUSION Total gastrectomy for the treatment of cancer of cardia and fundus has better long-term therapetic effect.
Cardia ; pathology ; Gastrectomy ; methods ; Gastric Fundus ; pathology ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Stomach Neoplasms ; mortality ; surgery ; Survival Rate