Important forensic diagnostic indicators of sudden death in coronary atherosclerotic heart dis-ease,such as acute or chronic myocardial ischemic changes,sometimes make it difficult to locate the ischemic site due to the short death process,the lack of tissue reaction time.In some cases,the de-ceased died of sudden death on the first-episode,resulting in difficulty for medical examiners to make an accurate diagnosis.However,clinical studies on coronary instability plaque revealed the key role of coronary spasm and thrombosis caused by their lesions in sudden coronary death process.This paper mainly summarizes the pathological characteristics of unstable coronary plaque based on clinical medi-cal research,including plaque rupture,plaque erosion and calcified nodules,as well as the influencing factors leading to plaque instability,and briefly describes the research progress and technique of the atherosclerotic plaques,in order to improve the study on the mechanism of sudden coronary death and improve the accuracy of the forensic diagnosis of sudden coronary death by diagnosing different patho-logic states of coronary atherosclerotic plaques.

Objective:To explore the survival prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients over 60 years old with comorbidities treated with microwave ablation.Methods:A retrospective analysis of 267 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma aged 60 years or older admitted to the PLA General Hospital from April 2012 to September 2022 were analyzed, including 179 patients with preoperative comorbidities and 88 patients without comorbidities. The overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of the two groups were compared by the Log-rank test, and the Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to evaluate ablation-related risk factors.Results:A total of 267 patients were included (comorbidity group, n=179; no comorbidity group, n=88). There were no statistical differences in OS and PFS between the two groups (all P>0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that comorbidities were not risk factors that affected the survival prognosis (OS and PFS) of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after microwave ablation ( P>0.05). Total bilirubin (hazard ratio 0.356, 95% CI=0.174-0.731, P=0.005) was a risk factor affecting OS; tumor number (hazard ratio 0.538, 95% CI=0.365-0.793, P=0.002) and international coagulation normalized ratio (hazard ratio 1.022, 95% CI=1.001-1.043, P=0.040) were risk factors affecting PFS. Subgroup analysis showed that patients with a maximum diameter of >3 cm and female patients, the OS of the comorbidity group was significantly lower than that of the non-comorbidity group( P<0.05). Conclusions:Microwave ablation therapy remains an effective treatment modality in hepatocellular carcinoma patients over 60 years of age with comorbidities, and its survival prognosis is not inferior to patients with hepatocellular carcinoma without comorbidities.

Purpose::To identify the risk factors for training-related lower extremity muscle injuries in young males by a non-invasive method of body composition analysis.Methods::A total of 282 healthy young male volunteers aged 18 -20 years participated in this cohort study. Injury location, degree, and injury rate were adjusted by a questionnaire based on the overuse injury assessment methods used in epidemiological studies of sports injuries. The occurrence of training injuries is monitored and diagnosed by physicians and treated accordingly. The body composition was measured using the BodyStat QuadScan 4000 multifrequency Bio-impedance system at 5, 50, 100 and 200 kHz to obtain 4 impedance values. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to check whether the data conformed to a normal distribution. Data of normal distribution were shown as mean ± SD and analyzed by t-test, while those of non-normal distribution were shown as median (Q 1, Q 3) and analyzed by Wilcoxon rank sum test. The receiver operator characteristic curve and logistic regression analysis were performed to investigate risk factors for developing training-related lower extremity injuries and accuracy. Results::Among the 282 subjects, 78 (27.7%) developed training injuries. Lower extremity training injuries revealed the highest incidence, accounting for 23.4% (66 cases). These patients showed higher percentages of lean body mass ( p = 0.001), total body water (TBW, p=0.006), extracellular water ( p=0.020) and intracellular water ( p=0.010) as well as a larger ratio of basal metabolic rate/total weight ( p=0.006), compared with those without lower extremity muscle injuries. On the contrary, the percentage of body fat ( p=0.001) and body fat mass index ( p=0.002) were lower. Logistic regression analysis showed that TBW percentage > 65.35% ( p=0.050, odds ratio =3.114) and 3rd space water > 0.95% ( p=0.045, odds ratio =2.342) were independent risk factors for lower extremity muscle injuries. Conclusion::TBW percentage and 3rd space water measured with bio-impedance method are potential risk factors for predicting the incidence of lower extremity muscle injuries in young males following training.

Objective:To systemically evaluate the characteristics of cytokine levels in intraocular fluid of neovascular glaucoma (NVG).Methods:Literature on the detection of cytokine levels in NVG published before June 2022 was searched in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang databases, and China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP).Two investigators independently completed the literature search, inclusion, and data extraction following the inclusion and exclusion criteria.Quantitative analyses were performed using Stata 16.0 software.Study heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 test, and effects were combined using the appropriate effect model to complete the meta-analysis. Results:A total of 24 studies were screened, including 771 NVG cases and 727 age-related cataract cases (control group).The standardized mean difference ( SMD) of the combined effect value of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mass concentration in the aqueous humor between the two groups was 8.79, with a 95% confidence interval ( CI) of 6.43 to 11.14.The SMD of interleukin-6 (IL-6) between the two groups was 12.50, with a 95% CI of 9.41 to 15.58.The VEGF and IL-6 levels in aqueous humor and vitreous humor were significantly higher in NVG group than in control group (all at P<0.05).The pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) level in aqueous humor was lower in NVG group than in control group ( SMD: -3.03, 95% CI: -5.50--0.55, P<0.05).The levels of IL-8 ( SMD: 3.99, 95% CI: 1.14-6.85), erythropoietin (EPO) ( SMD: 9.62, 95% CI: 0.44-18.79), placental growth factor (PIGF) ( SMD: 2.62, 95% CI: 1.38-3.86), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) ( SMD: 3.37, 95% CI: 1.87-4.87) were all significantly higher in NVG group than in control group (all at P<0.05).There was no significant difference in IL-1β level in aqueous humor between the two groups ( P>0.05). Conclusions:In NVG patients, VEGF, IL-6, IL-8, EPO, PIGF, TNF-α levels are obviously increased and PEDF level is obviously decreased.These biomarkers can be used as potential predictors or therapeutic targets for NVG.

Objective: To explore the efficacy and safety of clonidine adhesive patch in Tourette syndrome (TS) patients with comorbid attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods: This study was conducted on a sample of children and adolescents with TS who had comorbid ADHD between May 2012 and March 2015. The patients were diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition, and were randomly assigned to four different dose groups: 1.0 mg/week, 1.5 mg/week, 2.0 mg/week and placebo group, and the symptom was evaluated by Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham Rating Scale, Version IV (SNAP-IV) and Yale Global Tic Severity Scale scales every 2 weeks. The primary outcome was tic disorders (TD) effective rate at week 8. Results: One hundred and twenty-seven TS patients with comorbid ADHD in 2.0 mg/week (n=35), 1.5 mg/week (n=27), 1.0 mg/week (n=36) and placebo groups (n=29) were included in this subgroup analysis. The TD effective rate of the 2.0 mg, 1.5 mg, and 1.0 mg groups at week 8 were significantly better than that in placebo group (85.7%, 81.5%, and 86.1% vs. 20.7%, all p<0.0001). All groups demonstrated significant improvements in SNAP-IV total scale scores compared to baseline (p=0.0004), with treatment groups showing only a trend for better performance compared to placebo group at week 8, without statistical differences (22.1±15.41, 21.3±11.96, and 21.2±12.48 vs. 26.0±13.37, p=0.3385). A total of 9 adverse reactions occurred, all recovered spontaneously without additional medication. Conclusion Clonidine adhesive patch could safely and effectively reduce the tic symptoms of TS patients with comorbid ADHD, and might be potentially helpful in the ADHD symptoms control.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate postmortem interval (PMI) by analyzing the protein changes in skeletal muscle tissues with the protein chip technology combined with multivariate analysis methods. METHODS: Rats were sacrificed for cervical dislocation and placed at 16 ℃. Water-soluble proteins in skeletal muscles were extracted at 10 time points (0 d, 1 d, 2 d, 3 d, 4 d, 5 d, 6 d, 7 d, 8 d and 9 d) after death. Protein expression profile data with relative molecular mass of 14 000-230 000 were obtained. Principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares (OPLS) were used for data analysis. Fisher discriminant model and back propagation (BP) neural network model were constructed to classify and preliminarily estimate the PMI. In addition, the protein expression profiles data of human skeletal muscles at different time points after death were collected, and the relationship between them and PMI was analyzed by heat map and cluster analysis. RESULTS: The protein peak of rat skeletal muscle changed with PMI. The result of PCA combined with OPLS discriminant analysis showed statistical significance in groups with different time points (P<0.05) except 6 d, 7 d and 8 d after death. By Fisher discriminant analysis, the accuracy of internal cross-validation was 71.4% and the accuracy of external validation was 66.7%. The BP neural network model classification and preliminary estimation results showed the accuracy of internal cross-validation was 98.2%, and the accuracy of external validation was 95.8%. There was a significant difference in protein expression between 4 d and 25 h after death by the cluster analysis of the human skeletal muscle samples. CONCLUSIONS The protein chip technology can quickly, accurately and repeatedly obtain water-soluble protein expression profiles in rats' and human skeletal muscles with the relative molecular mass of 14 000-230 000 at different time points postmortem. The establishment of multiple PMI estimation models based on multivariate analysis can provide a new idea and method for PMI estimation.
Animals ; Humans ; Rats ; Multivariate Analysis ; Postmortem Changes ; Protein Array Analysis ; Technology

OBJECTIVES: To explore the cytotoxicity of four wild mushrooms involved in a case of Yunnan sudden unexplained death (YNSUD), to provide the experimental basis for prevention and treatment of YNSUD. METHODS: Four kinds of wild mushrooms that were eaten by family members in this YNSUD incident were collected and identified by expert identification and gene sequencing. Raw extracts from four wild mushrooms were extracted by ultrasonic extraction to intervene HEK293 cells, and the mushrooms with obvious cytotoxicity were screened by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). The selected wild mushrooms were prepared into three kinds of extracts, which were raw, boiled, and boiled followed by enzymolysis. HEK293 cells were intervened with these three extracts at different concentrations. The cytotoxicity was detected by CCK-8 combined with lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) Assay Kit, and the morphological changes of HEK293 cells were observed under an inverted phase contrast microscope. RESULTS: Species identification indicated that the four wild mushrooms were Butyriboletus roseoflavus, Boletus edulis, Russula virescens and Amanita manginiana. Cytotoxicity was found only in Amanita manginiana. The raw extracts showed cytotoxicity at the mass concentration of 0.1 mg/mL, while the boiled extracts and the boiled followed by enzymolysis extracts showed obvious cytotoxicity at the mass concentration of 0.4 mg/mL and 0.7 mg/mL, respectively. In addition to the obvious decrease in the number of HEK293 cells, the number of synapses increased and the refraction of HEK293 cells was poor after the intervention of Amanita manginiana extracts. CONCLUSIONS The extracts of Amanita manginiana involved in this YNSUD case has obvious cytotoxicity, and some of its toxicity can be reduced by boiled and enzymolysis, but cannot be completely detoxicated. Therefore, the consumption of Amanita manginiana is potentially dangerous, and it may be one of the causes of the YNSUD.
Humans ; HEK293 Cells ; Sincalide ; China ; Amanita ; Death, Sudden

Management and treatment of terminal metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains heavily debated. We sought to investigate the efficacy of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor plus anlotinib as a potential solution for terminal mCRPC and further evaluate the association of genomic characteristics with efficacy outcomes. We conducted a retrospective real-world study of 25 mCRPC patients who received PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib after the progression to standard treatments. The clinical information was extracted from the electronic medical records and 22 patients had targeted circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) next-generation sequencing. Statistical analysis showed that 6 (24.0%) patients experienced prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response and 11 (44.0%) patients experienced PSA reduction. The relationship between ctDNA findings and outcomes was also analyzed. DNA-damage repair (DDR) pathways and homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway defects indicated a comparatively longer PSA-progression-free survival (PSA-PFS; 2.5 months vs 1.2 months, P = 0.027; 3.3 months vs 1.2 months, P = 0.017; respectively). This study introduces the PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib as a late-line therapeutic strategy for terminal mCRPC. PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib may be a new treatment choice for terminal mCRPC patients with DDR or HRR pathway defects and requires further investigation.
Male ; Humans ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Treatment Outcome ; Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant/drug therapy* ; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors/therapeutic use* ; Retrospective Studies

The acute combination fractures of the atlas and axis in adults have a higher rate of neurological injury and early death compared with atlas or axial fractures alone. Currently, the diagnosis and treatment choices of acute combination fractures of the atlas and axis in adults are controversial because of the lack of standards for implementation. Non-operative treatments have a high incidence of bone nonunion and complications, while surgeries may easily lead to the injury of the vertebral artery, spinal cord and nerve root. At present, there are no evidence-based Chinese guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute combination fractures of the atlas and axis in adults. To provide orthopedic surgeons with the most up-to-date and effective information in treating acute combination fractures of the atlas and axis in adults, the Spinal Trauma Group of Orthopedic Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association organized experts in the field of spinal trauma to develop the Evidence-based guideline for clinical diagnosis and treatment of acute combination fractures of the atlas and axis in adults ( version 2023) by referring to the "Management of acute combination fractures of the atlas and axis in adults" published by American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS)/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) in 2013 and the relevant Chinese and English literatures. Ten recommendations were made concerning the radiological diagnosis, stability judgment, treatment rules, treatment options and complications based on medical evidence, aiming to provide a reference for the diagnosis and treatment of acute combination fractures of the atlas and axis in adults.

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.