Advanced heart failure, also known as stage D heart failure, is a complex condition that requires specialized interventions due to its resource-intensive nature.The clinical course of advanced heart failure is highly unpredictable, with various factors complicating its management.The continuous development of new drugs, enhanced surgical techniques, and device therapy has the potential to extend the life expectancy of heart failure patients.With the aging population, the prevalence of advanced heart failure is on the rise.One of the defining characteristics of advanced heart failure is the inability to adequately meet the metabolic demands of end-organs and skeletal muscle, often associated with low cardiac output syndrome.For patients who do not respond to optimized guideline-directed therapies, consideration of heart transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and palliative care is appropriate.This systematic review examines the definition, key features, short-term and long-term management strategies, as well as palliative care for advanced heart failure.

Professor Lau Wanyee, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a pro-fessor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, actively advocates conducting clinical researches through "planting fruit trees" and "growing orchards", aiming to cultivate a team of dual-skilled talents in clinical practice and research, effectively improve the scientific and technological level of clinical medicine in China, make voice heard in the international medical science field, and better serve human health. He organized a clinical research training course in scholars′ forum for Hepatobiliary Young Expert Working Group of Chinese College of Surgeons. Throughout three sessions of the training course, a distinct theme was focused on how to enhance the level of clinical research in China and make voice heard by the international scholars. A group of multi-dimensional experts were gathered, including experts from surgery, methodology, and management, as well as both renowned experts and young talents. A lively teaching model was adopted, combining guided presentations with interactive discussion and debate sessions. A clean and upright academic spirit was strongly advocated, in which international rules were adopted to conduct in-depth analysis and sharp criticism of seven proposed clinical research projects and four published papers with high international influence to find quarrel in a straw. This clinical research training course provides a new model of guidance for young physicians in conducting clinical research. As a result, all attendees felt deeply educated and benefited greatly from the training session. This training activity not only laid a solid foundation for the development of scientization, standardization, and internationali-zation of clinical research in digestive surgery in China, but also demonstrated a correct path for cultivating a group of young and middle-aged clinical medical scientists with scientific spirit.

Surgical treatment is the primary curative approach for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In China, the proportion of advanced HCC is high, with a low rate of surgical removal at initial diagnosis and a high rate of postoperative recurrence, posing a serious threat to public health. With the advent of new therapeutic drugs and updated treatment concepts, the comprehensive treatment of HCC has entered a new era. Systemic treatments represented by targeted therapy and immuno-therapy, non-surgical local treatments such as interventional and radiotherapy, and the combination of systemic and local treatments, have significantly improved the treatment efficacy, bringing hope to patients. The authors review past studies, summarize diagnostic and treatment experience, and discuss the comprehensive treatment strategy for HCC in the era of targeted and immunotherapy, with surgery as the main approach.

Advanced heart failure, also known as stage D heart failure, is a complex condition that requires specialized interventions due to its resource-intensive nature.The clinical course of advanced heart failure is highly unpredictable, with various factors complicating its management.The continuous development of new drugs, enhanced surgical techniques, and device therapy has the potential to extend the life expectancy of heart failure patients.With the aging population, the prevalence of advanced heart failure is on the rise.One of the defining characteristics of advanced heart failure is the inability to adequately meet the metabolic demands of end-organs and skeletal muscle, often associated with low cardiac output syndrome.For patients who do not respond to optimized guideline-directed therapies, consideration of heart transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and palliative care is appropriate.This systematic review examines the definition, key features, short-term and long-term management strategies, as well as palliative care for advanced heart failure.

Humans ; Consensus ; Liver Neoplasms/therapy* ; China

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of 192Ir brachytherapy combined with external beam radiation for the treatment of unresectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Methods:The clinical data of 26 patients with unresectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma admitted to Hebei Province Cangzhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine from February 2016 to July 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients received 192Ir brachytherapy combined with external beam radiation. First, percutaneous hepatobiliary stent implantation was given, followed by external beam radiotherapy (radiotherapy dose 45 Gy, 25 times), and then 192Ir brachytherapy (radiotherapy dose 20 Gy, 4 times), a total of 4 to 6 cycles of chemotherapy. The short-term and long-term efficacy were evaluated, and the Karnofsky performance status (KPS) score, CA19-9, total bilirubin (TBIL), direct bilirubin (DBIL), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) level changes and percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTCD) tube indwelling time were analyzed. Adverse reactions were recorded according to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) injury classification standard. Results:Three months after the end of treatment, 4 cases (15.4%) were completely remitted, 20 cases (76.9%) were partially remitted, 2 cases (7.7%) were stable, and there was no disease progression. The objective remission rate was 92.3% (24/26). The 1-year and 2-year local control rates were 75.0% and 62.5% respectively, and the 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates were 57.7% and 26.9% respectively. The KPS score was 70.39±10.76 one month after the treatment, which was significantly higher than the 60.00±10.58 before treatment ( t=-27.00, P<0.001). The levels of CA19-9 before treatment and 1 month, 2 months and 3 months after treatment were (390.88±202.62) U/ml, (322.45±204.06) U/ml, (254.00±160.49) U/ml, (182.85±124.05) U/ml, which showed a gradual decrease trend, and there was a statistically significant difference ( F=126.94, P<0.001). TBIL [(250.88±80.83) μmol/L, (153.98±61.74) μmol/L, (93.45±38.12) μmol/L, (53.82±26.75) μmol/L], DBIL [(205.82±66.68) μmol/L, (133.23±58.53) μmol/L, (64.31±36.25) μmol/L, (40.55±26.16) μmol/L], ALT [(163.92±54.12) U/L, (68.23±28.86) U/L, (45.73±21.94) U/L, (32.66±12.88) U/L], AST [(177.69±58.68) U/L, (79.23±32.87) U/L, (49.77±25.45) U/L, (35.54±16.10) U/L] showed progressive decline, with statistically significant differences ( F=315.60, P<0.001; F=385.30, P<0.001; F=284.24, P<0.001; F=311.80, P<0.001), and liver function was improved. The PTCD tube was removed after treatment in all patients, with a median time of 54 days (49-96 days). During the treatment, bone marrow suppression, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and biliary tract infection occurred. All of them improved after symptomatic treatment. No serious complications such as bile leakage and biliary hemorrhage occurred. Conclusion:192Ir brachytherapy combined with external beam radiation has a reliable curative effect in the treatment of unresectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma. It can improve the quality of life of patients, and the adverse reactions can be tolerated. It provides a feasible and safe treatment method for the clinic.

Objective:To explore the efficacy and safety of 192Ir three-dimensional brachytherapy combined with intensity-modulated radiotherapy in patients with unresectable advanced obstructive extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Methods:A retrospective analysis of the efficacy and safety of 18 patients with unresectable advanced malignant obstructive extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma admitted to the Cangzhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine in Hebei province from January 2014 to January 2018.All patients were pathologically confirmed and received biliary stent implantation, followed by sequential intensity-modulated radiotherapy and 192Ir three-dimensional brachytherapy.The clinical data of all patients were collected, including gender, age, clinical stage, adverse reactions, brachytherapy dose-volume parameters, changes in bilirubin levels before and after treatment, evaluation of efficacy, local control rate and survival rate. Results:All patients successfully completed the treatment.Re-examination was conducted one month after the combined treatment, of the 18 patients, 16 had partial remission (PR) and 2 were stable(SD). Among them, 14 patients had tumor shrinkage after brachytherapy compared with intensity-modulated radiotherapy, and 4 patients showed no significant change.The 6-month local control rate (LC) was 94.4% (17/18). The 1-year survival rate was 55.6% (10/18), and the 2-year survival rate was 38.9% (7/18). Statistical analysis showed that after combined treatment, total bilirubin and direct bilirubin were significantly reduced, and jaundice symptoms were significantly relieved.The adverse reactions of the patient were nausea, vomiting, fever, biliary tract infection, etc.There were no adverse reactions of grade 3 or above.Conclusions:192Ir three-dimensional brachytherapy combined with intensity-modulated radiotherapy in patients with inoperable advanced extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma has a good local control rate and tolerable adverse reactions, but the impact on long-term survival requires a large sample of controlled studies.

Objective:To evaluate the clinical efficacy and adverse events of 192Ir high-dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) in the treatment of locally recurrent non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods:Clinical data of 22 cases of recurrent NSCLC after radiotherapy admitted to our hospital from September 2013 to March 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. 192Ir HDR-BT was adopted for reradiotherapy. The prescription dose was 30Gy for 1 fraction. CT scan was reviewed every 1 month in the first 3 months after treatment and every 3 months after 3 months. Local control rate and adverse events were evaluated. The 1-and 2-year overall survival (OS) rates of re-treatment after relapse were calculated. Results:All the 22 patients completed the treatment successfully. The 1-, 3-and 6-month complete response (CR) rates were 9%, 14% and 14%, 82%, 82% and 82% for the partial response (PR) rates, 5%, 0% and 0% for the stable disease (SD) rates, 5%, 5% and 5% for the progressive disease (PD) rates, 91%, 96% and 96% for the objective response rates (ORR), respectively. The 1-and 2-year OS rates of re-treatment after relapse were 59% and 27%. Five patients (23%) experienced acute radiation-induced pneumonitis (3 cases of grade 1 and 2 cases of grade Ⅱ), 4 cases (18%) of radiation-induced bone marrow suppression (3 cases of grade I leukopenia and 1 case of grade I thrombocytopenia) and 1 case of postoperative pneumothorax. All these adverse events were mitigated after symptomatic treatment.Conclusion:192Ir HDR-BT is an efficacious and safe treatment of locally recurrent NSCLC.

Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is an autosomal codominant genetic disease characterized by low levels of alpha-1 antitrypsin in the blood. Clinically, in young patients, it mainly manifests as emphysema, acute/chronic liver injury and liver cancer. The treatment methods include symptomatic treatment and alpha -1 antitrypsin supplementation. However, the existing treatment cannot prevent the liver fibrosis progression. At present, more than ten cases of the disease have been reported in China, but the understanding of this disease is still indecisive. Moreover, there exists no biotherapy drug for this disorder. This article introduces the research progress of hepatocyte transplantation treatment for this disorder.