AIM: To evaluate the diagnostic value of serum Th1-type cytokine levels and extraocular muscle-related parameters in thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy(TAO).METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on 45 patients diagnosed with TAO in our hospital from January 2023 to December 2024, and 20 normal volunteers during the same period as controls. Venous blood samples of the patients were collected to detect the concentrations of Th1-type cytokines [interferon-γ(IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), interleukin-2(IL-2), and interleukin-12(IL-12)] in the serum. Additionally, the end diastolic velocity(Ved), velocity maximum(Vmax), resistance index(RI)of the central retinal artery, as well as the thickness and left-right diameter of the medial rectus muscle were measured. Logistic regression model was used to analyze the risk factors of TAO, and receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC)was adopted to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of each index for the occurrence of TAO.RESULTS: The general information of the two groups was comparable. Compared with the normal control group, the serum concentrations of IFN-γ and TNF-α in TAO patients were significantly increased, Ved and Vmax were lower than those in the control group, and RI and the thickness of the medial rectus muscle were higher than those in the control group(all P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that serum IFN-γ concentration, Ved, Vmax, and the thickness of the medial rectus muscle were all risk factors for TAO. ROC curve analysis indicated that the AUCs of serum IFN-γ concentration, Ved, Vmax, and the thickness of the medial rectus muscle for the diagnostic efficacy of TAO were 0.756, 0.769, 0.732, and 0.642, respectively. The combined detection of IFN-γ, Ved, Vmax, and the thickness of the medial rectus muscle had an AUC of 0.840 and a Youden index of 0.59, which was superior to the detection of a single indicator.CONCLUSION: The levels of serum Th1-type cytokines and extraocular muscle-related ultrasound indicators have certain value in the diagnosis of TAO. The combination of IFN-γ, Ved, Vmax, and the thickness of the medial rectus muscle has better diagnosis efficiency in TAO, which can provide a certain reference for the early diagnosis of TAO.

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy of lumbar cisterna drainage(LCD) in treating paraplegia after thoracic endovascular aortic repair(TEVAR) for acute aortic dissection.Methods:A retrospective descriptive study was used to analyze 4 patients with aortic dissection who developed paraplegia after transthoracic aortic stent graft repair (TEVAR) admitted to Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from May 2015 to May 2022. There were 3 males and 1 females, aged between 38 and 65 years old. All patients with paraplegia after TEVAR were treated with LCD. Follow-up was carried out by outpatient and telephone for 12 months. The imaging indicators and clinical efficacy were observed.Results:Two patients were fully recovered before discharge, one patient was completely recovered by about 3 months after surgery, and one patient still had reduced sensation and grade 4 muscle strength at 12 months of follow-up. The CT angiography of all 4 patients did not show any evidence of endoleak, and there was no enlargement of the distal dissecting aneurysm.Conclusion:Lumbar cisterna drainage can alleviate or cure paraplegia caused by spinal cord ischemia after TEVAR for acute aortic dissection.

Objective To compare the application effects of high-frequency electric surgical knife and scalpel in blepharoplasty.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for 35 patients(70 eyes)who were admitted to the Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital,Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine from January to July 2021,and one side eye was randomly selected as the high-frequency electric surgical knife group(operated by high-frequency electric surgical knife)and the other side eye as the scalpel group(operated by scalpel),with 35 eyes in each group.The effect of blepharoplasty in both eyes after surgery was evaluated.The swelling and ecchymosis of the patients were observed 1 day,1 week,1 month and 3 months after surgery.The Manchester scar scale(MSS)was used to evaluate the scarring of the patients 1 week,1 month and 3 months after surgery.The excised tissues were stained with HE staining and TUNEL staining to assess the degree of necrosis and the extent of thermal damage to the skin and muscle.Results There was no statistically significant difference in swelling,ecchymosis,pain or scarring after surgery between the two groups(P＞0.05).The eyelids of the high-frequency electrosurgical group showed coagulative necrosis of muscle tissue,and the scalpel group had almost no coagulative necrosis.There was statistically significant difference in the proportion of coagulable necrotic muscle after surgery between the two groups(P＜0.05),and the depth of thermal damage in the high-frequency electric surgical knife group was greater than that in the scalpel group(P＜0.05).Conclusion The high-frequency electric surgical knife in blepharoplasty is simple to operate,and safe to use,with timely intraoperative incision and coagulation,which can obtain good surgical field and effect.

Objective To explore the value of quantitative CT(QCT)for assessing complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).Methods Totally 220 T2DM patients were included and divided into uncomplicated group(n=40),mono-complicated group(n=84)and multi-complicated group(n=96).Bone mineral density(BMD)of L2—L4,as well as visceral adipose tissue(VAT)and subcutaneous adipose tissue(SAT)area were collected using QCT and compared among groups.The operator characteristic curves were drawn,and the area under the curves(AUC)were calculated to observe the value of QCT indicators and comprehensive model based on clinical indicators and QCT indicators for evaluating complications of T2DM.Decision curve analysis(DCA)and clinical impact curve(CIC)analysis were used to analyze the clinical application value of the comprehensive model.Results Significant differences of patients’age,lumbar BMDs and areas of VAT were found among 3 groups(all P＜0.05).The AUC of comprehensive model for differentiating uncomplicated group from mono-complicated group,uncomplicated group from multi-complicated group and mono-complicated group from multi-complicated group was 0.753,0.865,and 0.761,respectively,higher than that of BMD,VAT and SAT area(all P＜0.05).DCA and CIC analyses showed that comprehensive model yielded clinical benefits and had good clinical applicability for assessing complications of T2DM.Conclusion QCT was valuable for assessing complications of T2DM.

Investigating the species/biovars,distribution patterns,and genetic correlations of Brucella from sheep in north-west China is critical to reveal the population and epidemiological characteristics of the Brucella melitensis.In this study,con-ventional identification and AMOS-PCR were used to determine the species/biovars of Brucella isolated from 13 regions in northwest China.MLST and MLVA-16 genotyping methods were used to analyze the genetic characteristics of the strains.Con-ventional identification and AMOS-PCR detection revealed that 59 Brucella melitensis were isolated in this study,in-cluding 22 strains from Inner Mongolia,17 strains from Xin-jiang,13 strains from Gansu,and 7 strains from Qinghai,of which 58 strains were B.melitensis biovar 3,and one strain was B.melitensis biovar 1.MLST analysis indicated that 90％(53/59)of B.melitensis were of ST8 sequence type,the dominant epidemic population.The MLVA-11 survey demonstrated that 59 B.melitensis strains clustered into six MLVA-11 genotypes,and 87％of the strains were of MLVA-11 genotype 116.Therefore,the predominant strains in the northwest region were from the Eastern Mediterranean lineage.MLVA-16 divided 59 strains of B.melitensis into 40 gen-otypes,eight of which were shared genotypes.Each genotype was composed of two to seven strains from the same region,thereby indicating that the cases of each shared genotype were outbreaks from a common source of infection.All shared MLVA-16 genotypes comprised strains from the same province,thus indicating apparent regional clustering characteristics of strains in each province.In a genetic comparison between populations and isolated strains from the spleens of sheep,multiple identical MLVA-16 genotypes were found to be composed of strains from different hosts.These findings indicated a transmission path-way from sheep/goats to humans.B.melitensis biovar 3 was the main pathogen causing animal brucellosis in the northwest re-gion,and infected sheep were the main brucellosis infection source in the regional population.The ST8 strains were the domi-nant epidemic population,and the MLVA genotype of strains in each region showed clear regional clustering characteristics.

It has been reported that Jumonji histone demethylase inihibitor(JIB-04)inhibits the occur-rence and development of tumors,but the specific mechanism is still unclear.In this paper,hepatocellu-lar carcinoma cells HepG2 and Huh7 were used as the models,and the effect of JIB-04 on the prolifera-tion of hepatocellular carcinoma was explored and its mechanism was explained.CCK-8 assays and EDU staining assays showed that JIB-04 reduced the proliferation ability of HepG2 and Huh7 cells in a concen-tration-dependent manner,with the half-inhibitory concentrations being 0.7689 μmol/L and 0.7392μmol/L,respectively.Flow cytometry analysis showed that JIB-04 could significantly activate the accu-mulation of ROS in cells.The levels of intracellular GSH and lipid peroxide MDA were detected by gluta-thione(GSH)detection kit and lipid peroxide malondialdehyde(MDA)detection kit,respectively.It was found that under 2 μmol/L JIB-04 treatment,the intracellular GSH of HepG2 and Huh7 cells de-creased by 88.4％and 80.7％,respectively.Lipid peroxides increased 4.75-fold and 9.25-fold,respec-tively.qRT-PCR and Western blotting results showed that JIB-04 could significantly reduce the mRNA levels and protein levels of ferroptosis related factors GPX4 and SLC7A11,while ferroptosis related path-way protein MDM2 was significantly down-regulated and P53 protein was significantly up-regulated.Mechanistic analysis found that JIB-04 reduced histone demethylase KDM4C protein levels by about 58％and 51％.A chromatin immunoprecipitation assay showed that Tri-methylation level of histone H3 at ly-sine 9 at the promoter region of the MDM2 gene,was increased by 2.19-fold and 2.14-fold respectively in JIB-04 treated hepatocellular carcinoma cells.Meanwhile,qRT-PCR proved that MDM2 mRNA level was significantly down-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma cells after JIB-04 treatment.In summary,this study initially reveals that JIB-04 could downregulate the expression of the specific demethylase KDM4C,and then affect the methylation level of H3K9me3 in the promoter region of MDM2 gene to in-hibit the expression of MDM2 gene,reduce MDM2 protein binding to P53 protein,upregulate P53 pro-tein expression and simultaneous downregulate ferroptosis related proteins SLC7A11 and GPX4.It leads to intracellular GSH depletion,ROS and lipid peroxide accumulation,and finally leads to ferroptosis of cells.

Objective:To summarize the clinical characteristics,therapeutic effect and prognostic factors of patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma(HL).Methods:A total of 129 patients with HL diagnosed in Peking University Third Hospital from January 2010 to March 2021 who were given at least one efficacy assessment after treatment were enrolled,and their clinical data,including sex,age,pathological type,Ann Arbor stage,ECOG score,blood test,β2-microglobulin,lactate dehydrogenase level,albumin level were collected.The clinical characteristics,therapeutic effect and long-term prognosis of the patients were summarized and analyzed.Results:In classical HL,nodular sclerosis HL accounted for the highest proportion of 51.6％,followed by mixed cellularity HL(36.5％),lymphocyte-rich classical HL(3.2％),and lymphocyte depletion HL(0.7％),while nodular lymphocyte predominant HL accounted for 4.8％.The 3-year overall survival(OS)rate of HL patients was 89.8％,and 5-year OS was 85.0％.The 3-year progression-free survival(PFS)rate was 73.4％,and 5-year PFS was 63.1％.Multivariate regression analysis indicated that IPI score was an independent negative factor,while hemoglobin(Hb)level was an independent positive factor for OS in HL patients.When the mediastinal mass size was 9.2 cm,it was most significant to judge the survival status of HL patients.5-year OS and 5-year PFS were 97.4％and 76.0％in early-stage HL patients without large mass,respectively,while in patients with advanced-stage HL was 83.4％and 55.9％(both P＜0.05).After 2-4 courses of treatment,the overall response rate(ORR)of patients who received chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy was 95.0％,while that was 89.6％in those with chemotherapy alone.Conclusions:The overall prognosis of patients with HL is satisfactory,especially those in early-stage without large mass.IPI score and Hb level are independent risk factors for the prognosis of HL patients.A 9.2 cm mediastinal mass can be used as the cut-off value for the prognosis of Chinese HL patients.

Objective:To analyze the characteristics and prognosis of patients with mucormycosis after chemotherapy for acute leukemia,and to strengthen understanding of the disease.Methods:7 cases of acute leukemia(AL)patients diagnosed with mucormycosis by metagenomic next generation sequencing(mNGS)after chemotherapy at the First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College from October 2021 to June 2022 were collected,and their clinical data,including clinical characteristics,diagnosis,treatment,and prognosis,were retrospectively analyzed.Results:Among the 7 patients with AL complicated with mucormycosis,there were 3 males and 4 females,with a median age of 52(20-59)years.There were 6 cases of acute myeloid leukemia(AML)and 1 case of acute lymphocytic leukemia(ALL).Extrapulmonary involvement in 4 cases,including 1 case suspected of central nervous system involvement.The median time for the occurrence of mucor infection was 16(6-69)days after chemotherapy and 19(14-154)days after agranulocytosis.The main clinical manifestations of mucormycosis were fever(7/7),cough(3/7),chest pain(3/7)and dyspnea(1/7).The most common chest CT imaging findings were nodules,patchy or mass consolidation(6/7).All patients were treated with posaconazole or voriconazole prophylaxis during neutropenia phase.5 patients died within 8 months,and the median time from diagnosis to death was 1 month.Conclusion:Although prophylactic antifungal therapy is adopted,patients with acute leukemia still have a risk of mucor infection during the neutropenia phase.Fever is the main manifestation in the early stage of mucor infection.The use of intravenous antifungal drugs alone is ineffective and there is a high mortality rate in acute leukemia patients with mucormycosis.

Objective:This study utilizes a hybrid research design,integrating interviews with experimental surveys,to investigate the variances in patient trust models between tertiary hospitals and primary healthcare institutions.Methods:Thirty-eight residents participated in semi-structured interviews,which were then analyzed using content analysis.The experimental survey segment divided participants into two groups:"Tertiary Hospitals"and"Primary Healthcare Institutions,"resulting in 648 valid questionnaires.These questionnaires were subjected to variance analysis to assess differences.Results:Patients exhibit greater systemic trust in tertiary hospitals than in primary healthcare facilities,while interpersonal trust is stronger in primary healthcare settings.Suggestions:Therefore,strategies should be developed to bolster systemic trust at the primary level and emphasize the advantages of interpersonal trust.Moreover,specific measures are required to reshape patients'interpersonal trust in tertiary hospitals.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of pulsed thulium laser(PTL)combined with triamcinolone acetonide injection in the treatment of failed posterior urethral anastomosis(FPUA).Methods:This retrospective study included 35 male pa-tients treated in Gongli Hospital for failed posterior urethral anastomosis from January 2018 to December 2023.All the patients under-went direct-vision internal urethrotomy(DVIU)with transurethral PTL(the PTL group,n=15)or transurethral plasma(the TUP group,n=20),and all received intralesional injection of triamcinolone acetonide.We followed up the patients for a median of 21 months,recorded the age,length of urethral stricture,operation time,pre-and post-operative maximum urinary flow rate(Qmax),postoperative complications and recurrence of urethral stricture,and compared the data obtained between the two groups.Results:All the patients smoothly completed the treatment procedures.No statistically significant differences were observed in the age,length of urethral stricture,operation time and postoperative complications between the two groups(P>0.05).The median follow-up time for the thulium laser group and plasma group was 21.0 months(IQR 16.0-24.0)and 21.0 months(IQR 17.0-25.0),respectively,with a statistically significant difference observed in the maximum urine flow rate before and after surgery at the 12-month mark(P<0.01).No significant disparity was found in terms of relapse-free survival between the two groups(P=0.398)Conclusion:Pulsed thulium laser combined with triamcinolone acetonide injection can effectively maintain a short-term cicatricial stability of the ure-thral stricture and satisfactory urethral patency,obviously superior to plasmotomy as a remedial treatment of urethral stricture after failed posterior urethral anastomosis.