The primary approach for clinical treatment of short stature （SS） in children is the use of recombinant human growth hormone （rhGH）. However， the high cost of treatment and the daily injection frequency place a significant economic and psychological burden on the families of affected children. For SS adolescents who have missed the peak growth velocity period of puberty， the use of rhGH alone is also difficult to significantly increase their final adult height. Numerous studies have shown that aromatase inhibitors （AIs） are effective in improving the height of SS boys， especially the combination therapy of AIs and rhGH， which has a better effect. Although the use of AIs may affect the children’s bones， cognitive function， reproductive system and hormone levels， most of these effects are temporary. Since existing research has not fully elucidated its impact on the pubertal changes of girls， it is necessary to fully weigh the benefits and risks when using AIs to treat SS girls in clinical practice. In the future， it is also necessary to carry out pharmacoeconomic research based on the medical environment of China to evaluate the cost- effectiveness of AIs for SS in children.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect and mechanism of Hyssopus cuspidatus Boriss. extract (HCE) in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic asthma. METHODS: Components identification of HCE was conducted using ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time of flight-mass spectrometry. Mice were sensitized with OVA to establish asthmatic model, and dexamethasone was used as positive control. Respiratory reactivity, white cells counting in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and peripheral blood, cytokine level measurement in serum and lung tissue, and histologic examination were performed to evaluate the therapeutic effect of HCE on asthma. Network pharmacology approach was used for mechanism prediction. Western blotting and untargeted lipidomics method were applied for mechanism validation. RESULTS: Fifty-two compounds were identified in HCE, predominantly terpenoids and flavonoids. HCE markedly reduced airway resistance, the eosinophil infiltration in lung tissues, and the levels of immunoglobulin E, interleukin-4, interleukin-5, and interleukin-13. Network pharmacology analysis suggested phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3K), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38 Mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) may be key proteins of HCE in the treatment of allergic asthma. Western blot results indicated that the levels of phosphorylated PI3K, JNK, and P38 were downregulated in HCE-treated group. Moreover, HCE significantly upregulated the levels of ceramide and sphingomyelin and downregulated the level of phosphatidylcholine. CONCLUSION HCE inhibited allergic asthma via PI3K/JNK/P38 signaling pathway and lipid homeostasis regulation.

Background/Aims: The aim of this study was to analyze the chronological changes in postoperative complications in surgical ulcerative colitis patients over the past decade in China and to investigate the potential parameters that contributed to the changes. Methods: Ulcerative colitis patients who underwent surgery during 2008–2017 were retrospectively enrolled from 13 hospitals in China. Postoperative complications were compared among different operation years. Risk factors for complications were identified by logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 446 surgical ulcerative colitis patients were analyzed. Fewer short-term complications (24.8% vs. 41.0%, P=0.001) and more laparoscopic surgeries (66.4% vs. 25.0%, P<0.001) were found among patients who received surgery during 2014–2017 than 2008–2013. Logistic regression suggested that independent protective factors against short-term complications were a higher preoperative body mass index (odds ratio [OR], 0.870; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.785–0.964; P=0.008), laparoscopic surgery (OR, 0.391; 95% CI, 0.217–0.705; P=0.002) and elective surgery (OR, 0.213; 95% CI, 0.067–0.675; P=0.009). The chronological decrease in short-term complications was associated with an increase in laparoscopic surgery. Conclusions Our data revealed a downward trend of short-term postoperative complications among surgical ulcerative colitis patients in China during the past decade, which may be due to the promotion of minimally invasive techniques among Chinese surgeons.

Artificial intelligence (AI), a branch of computer science, is an emerging science used to develop theories, methods, technologies and application systems that can simulate human intelligence. The goal is to enable machines to solve some complex tasks that require human intelligence. With the era of big data coming, AI has been widely used in multitudinous professional fields, including machine vision, speech recognition, image understanding, genetic programming, intelligent factory and expert systems. As the most common three-dimensional deformity of the spine, scoliosis not only changes patients' appearance and body shape but also affects their mental health. Some challenges have to be solved in diagnosis and treatment of scoliosis, such as the complexity of the anatomical structure of the spine, the importance of maintaining the posture, and the long learning-curve of spine specialty. Additionally, some aspects, such as heavy workload, fatigue, high misdiagnosis rate and missed diagnosis rate, are prone to occur in large-scale scoliosis screening and diagnosis. Researchers have discovered that AI can learn inherent laws and representation of sample data in recent years. AI technology has been used in clinical practice, such as screening, diagnosis, surgical decision-making, intraoperative operation, prognosis prediction and conservative interventions. However, AI technology has serious limitations currently. There are many disadvantages in diagnosis and treatment of scoliosis, including irregular data collection, technical difficulty, inherent defects of AI, overdependency on AI, legal and ethics issues. Thus, summarizing the relevant trends and application of AI in the diagnosis and treatment of scoliosis is still required by using the literature database and data-sharing network. The aim of the present review is to provide a glimpse into the future applications of AI.

Scoliosis is characterized by one or several segments of the spine bending sideways, accompanied by vertebral rotation and sagittal imbalance with complex etiology. Scoliosis can be caused by congenital vertebral abnormalities, asymmetry of the paraspinal muscles due to neurological lesions, and malnutrition or metabolic disorders of bone tissue. Growth hormone is a peptide hormone that plays a key role in promoting human growth and development, especially in bone growth. When the secretion of growth hormone in children or adolescents in the rapid growth stage is insufficient, it may lead to the occurrence of idiopathic short stature (ISS) and growth hormone deficiency (GHD). In clinic, ISS and GHD are mainly treated by recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH). According to some early clinical reports, in the process of rhGH treatment, many patients occur scoliosis or the original scoliosis progression is aggravated. Therefore, many scholars conclude that rhGH treatment of ISS or GHD will lead to the occurrence or development of scoliosis. However, with the increase of clinical statistics and the further progress of research, many scholars found that rhGH treatment of ISS or GHD will only increase the Cobb angle of patients with scoliosis, but will not lead to the occurrence of scoliosis, that is, rhGH treatment of ISS or GHD will not increase the prevalence of scoliosis. At present, whether rhGH treatment of ISS and GHD can lead to scoliosis and aggravation of scoliosis remains controversial. Therefore, this paper summarizes and analyzes the correlation research on the risk of scoliosis complications in children treated with rhGH, and concludes that age, gender, body mass index, and growth potential are risk factors for the development or progression of scoliosis during treatment, and discusses the balance of advantages and disadvantages of using rhGH for ISS or GHD to provide a direction for future clinical guidance.

Objective    To explore whether surgery combined with adjuvant chemotherapy can bring survival benefits to patients with cervical and upper thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods    The clinical data of patients with cervical and upper thoracic ESCC who underwent R0 resection and neck anastomosis in our department from 2006 to 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients received neoadjuvant therapy or adjuvant radiotherapy were excluded. The adjuvant chemotherapy group was given a combination of taxanes and platinum based chemotherapy after surgery; the surgery alone group did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the survival difference between the adjuvant chemotherapy group and the surgery alone group. Results    A total of 181 patients were enrolled, including 141 (77.9%) males and 40 (22.1%) females, with an average age of 61.0±8.2 years (80 patients aged≤61 years, 101 patients aged>61 years). There were 70 (38.7%) patients of cervical ESCC, and 111 (61.3%) patients of upper thoracic ESCC. Eighty-seven (48.1%) patients underwent postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, and 94 (51.9%) patients underwent surgery alone, and the basic clinical characteristics were well balanced between the two groups (P>0.05). The median survival time of patients in the adjuvant chemotherapy group and the surgery alone group was 31.93 months and 26.07 months, and the 5-year survival rate was 35.0% and 32.0%, respectively (P=0.227). There was no statistical difference in median survival time between the cervical ESCC and upper thoracic ESCC group (31.83 months vs. 29.76 months, P=0.763). For cervical ESCC patients, the median survival time was 45.07 months in the adjuvant chemotherapy group and 14.70 months in the surgery alone group (P=0.074). Further analysis showed that the median survival time of lymph node negative group was 32.53 months, and the lymph node positive group was 24.57 months (P=0.356). The median survival time was 30.43 months in the lymph-node positive group with adjuvant chemotherapy and 17.77 months in the lymph-node positive group with surgery alone. The survival curve showed a trend of difference, but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.557). Conclusion    There is no statistical difference in the long-term survival of cervical and upper thoracic ESCC patients after R0 resection. Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy may have survival benefits for patients with cervical ESCC and upper ESCC with postoperative positive lymph nodes, but the differences are not statistically significant in this setting.

Objective:To explore the clinical application of distal and proximal bilateral lateral pre-decompression in replant of digit degloving injury.Methods:From March 2012 to May 2021, 14 patients with 29 digits had replantation surgery of degloved soft tissue and severed digits in Section II, Department of Orthopaedics, Changzhou Medical District of 904th Hospital of PLA Joint Logistic Support Force. There were 2 types of injuries: degloving injury of soft tissue but with intact digital tip, and digital tip degloving injury with intact distal phalanx and nail bed. With the technique of distal and proximal bilateral lateral pre-decompression, pre-decompression incisions were made to the subdermal on both sides of the degloved skin over the proper palmar digital arteries. From where, the distal stump of the proper palmar digital arteries and nerves for anastomosis were found and had them anastomosed with the proximal proper palmar digital arteries and proper palmar digital nerves, then anastomosed digital pulp and digital dorsal veins (11 cases were direct anastomosis and 3 cases were bridged anastomosis). Follow-up was carried out by outpatient consultation, telephone and WeChat APP. The appearance of the digit body, the shape of digital pulp, the nails grow and the motions of the digits were observed, and the Evaluation Standard of Replantation of Severed Fingers by the Society of Hand surgery of Chinese Medical Association was used to evaluate the recovery of function.Results:All 29 segments of degloving digit survived. Small necrotic areas was found in 4 digits and healed after the change of dressing. The followed-up time was lasted for 3-36 months. There was no obvious atrophy found in all the digits. Appearances of digit pulp and nails were satisfactory with good sensational recovery for TPD at 6-10 mm, 7 mm in average. Motions of all the repaired digits were good. According to the Evaluation Standard of Replantation of Severed Fingers by the Society of Hand surgery of Chinese Medical Association, 23 digits were in excellent, 4 in good and 2 in poor, with a satisfactory rate at 93.1%.Conclusion:For a distal digit injury with intact distal soft tissue and relatively mild injury of blood vessels and nerves, using the method of distal and proximal bilateral lateral pre-decompression can help to achieve good appearance in survived digital pulp, good sensational recovery and good nail growth. An individualised treatment intra-and-after the surgery could offer an ideal therapeutic effect.

The morbidity of scoliosis in adolescents in China is about 3%-5%, 80%-85% of the patients are adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), whose etiology is unknown. Scoliosis is a structural spine disease occurring during puberty or before skeletal maturation. Scoliosis has a greatly negative impacton not only the growth and development of adolescent spine, but also the mental health of adolescents. Ocular disease is a common clinical disease in which the eye ball and its accessory structures have structural abnormalitiesordys function. Ocular disease snotonly bring in convenience to patients's life, but also may induce diseases in other organs. Recent studies have shown that various ocular diseases may have a potential impact on scoliosis, and quite a fewof patients with certain ocular diseases have higher incidence rate of scoliosis. Therefore, in this article, the etiological relationship between eye diseases and scoliosis will be summarized, which provides guidance and direction for the etiological research of scoliosis and eye diseases. After sorting out, we found that the relationship between ophthalmic diseases and scoliosis mainly concentrated in the following four aspects: choroidal thickness and scoliosis, Goldenhar syndrome, gene level and strabismus. Among them, the genetic relationship is the most complex, about 40 kinds of gene or chromosome abnormalities have been found to cause ocular diseases and scoliosis; Goldenhar syndrome, also known as oculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum, first revealed the relationship between ocular diseases and scoliosis, but the current statistical relationship is still very vague. There are few studies on choroidal thickness and strabismus at home and abroad, which are statistical studies, only revealing the relationship between choroidal thickness and scoliosis, and there are many defects in the study of choroidal thickness, which need further research.

Mitochondrial fission regulator 2 (MTFR2) is associated with mitochondrial fission, while few studies have assessed the associations between MTFR2 expression and clinical characteristics or prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In this study, we compared the expression of MTFR2 in 6 ESCC tumors and relative normal tissues by immunohistochemistry (IHC). To assess the effect of MTFR2 expression on clinicopathologic characteristics and survival, 115 paraffin embedded ESCC tissue samples were assessed by IHC staining. Furthermore, the association between clinicopathological properties and MTFR2 expression in patients with ESCC was examined. The survival analysis was performed using the Cox regression models. We found that MTFR2 expression was significantly increased in ESCC tumors compared with normal esophageal epithelial cells. IHC analysis of 115 paraffin embedded ESCC tumor specimens of the patients showed that the expression of MTFR2 was significantly associated with clinical stage (P < 0.001), tumor classification (P < 0.001), histological grade (P < 0.001), and other clinicopathological characteristics. Both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that MTFR2 expression was inversely correlated with the survival of ESCC patients. In conclusion, the expression of MTFR2 is significantly associated with clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of ESCC. Thus, MTFR2 expression could serve as a potentially important prognostic biomarker and clinical target for patients with ESCC.

Objective:To study the genomic sequence of Coxsackievirus A8 (CV-A8) associated with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) from 2013 to 2018 in China and to analyze the genetic evolution of each coding region of the full-length genome.Methods:The genome sequences of 11 CV-A8 strains isolated from patients with HFMD in different regions of China from 2013 to 2018 were determined. Sequence alignment and genetic evolution analysis were performed by Sequencher 5.0 and MEGA 7.0 software, etc.Results:Sequence alignment showed that the genome length of 11 CV-A8 strains ranged from 7 393 bp to 7 400 bp. There was no base insertion or deletion in the coding region compared with the prototype strain, but there were individual base insertion or deletion in the non-coding region. The nucleotide and amino acid similarities in the VP1 region of 11 CV-A8 strains were 78.3%-98.6% and 92.6%-99.7%, respectively, and the nucleotide and amino acid sequences identities with the CV-A8 prototype strain were 78.3%-98.2% and 92.6%-99.7%, respectively. Based on the phylogenetic analysis of VP1 region sequences, the CV-A8 can be divided into five genotypes: A, B, C, D and E. The 11 CV-A8 strains in this study belonged to genotypes C (1 strain), D (2 strains) and E (8 strains). The nucleotide and amino acid similarities of 11 CV-A8 full-length genomes were 81.3%-98.8% and 95.9%-99.5%, respectively. The phylogenetic tree of the P2 region showed that the eight E genotypes CV-A8 had the closest evolutionary distance with CV-A4, CV-A14, and CV-A16. The phylogenetic tree of the P3 region showed that the eight E genotypes CV-A8 had a close evolutionary distance with CV-A5, CV-A16, CV-A14 and CV-A4.Conclusions:The 11 CV-A8 stains in this study showed significant intra-genotype diversity in capsid region and recombinant diversity in non-capsid region which indicated that CV-A8 quasispecies were still undergoing dynamics variation. CV-A8 may become an important pathogen of HFMD and the monitoring of CV-A8 needs to be further strengthened.