Objective To investigate the diagnostic potential of combining 3.0T magnetic resonance imag-ing(MRI)T2 mapping sequences with serum nesfatin-1 levels for detecting early osteoarthritis(OA)in elderly knees.Methods 97 elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis(OA group)and 52 elderly individuals undergoing physical examinations(control group)were recruited from a hospital between May 2023 and May 2024.Based on X-ray findings,the OA group was further divided into an early-stage subgroup and a non-early-stage subgroup.All participants underwent 3.0T MRI T2 mapping sequence scans to measure the T2 values in the knee cartilage region,and serum nesfatin-1 levels were assessed.Differences in these indicators were compared between groups.Additionally,a receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was constructed to evaluate the diagnostic value of these parameters for early-stage knee OA in elderly individuals.Results Among 97 elderly patients with knee OA,35 cases were classified into the early-stage group,and 62 cases were categorized into the non-early-stage group.The T2 values in five cartilage regions of the knee and serum nesfatin-1 levels were significantly higher in the OA group compared to the control group(P<0.05).Moreover,these values were significantly lower in the early-stage group than in the non-early-stage group(P<0.05).The areas under the curve(AUC)for diagnosing early-stage OA using T2 values in knee cartilage regions and serum nesfatin-1 levels ranged from 0.774 to 0.871.Notably,the AUC for combined diagnosis reached 0.939(P<0.05).Conclusion 3.0T MRI using the T2 mapping sequence in combination with serum nesfatin-1 level detection demonstrates high diagnostic value for early OA in elderly patients with knee involvement.

Objective To extract and summarize the clinical registration information of periodontitis registered in the US ClinicalTrials.gov and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry(ChiCTR),and further analyze the registration characteristics of periodontitis clinical trials.Methods The ClinicalTrials.gov and ChiCTR data-bases were searched and compiled for periodontitis clinical registration information from 2000 to December 26,2024,including registration number,country/region of registration,annual number of registered projects,sample size,study type and design,study phase,and trial progress status.Results As of December 26,2024,a total of 520 242 registered clinical trials were retrieved from the ClinicalTrials.gov registry platform,of which 1 542(0.30%)were related to periodontitis.There were 189(12.26%)studies on periodontitis-related pro-jects in Turkey,while a total of 37(2.4%)projects were initiated by researchers in China,which ranked ninth.The Chinese Clinical Trial Register(ChiCTR)had 92 954 registered projects,of which 165 were on pe-riodontitis,and most of them were conducted by well-known affiliated hospitals and stomatology hospitals.The number of registrations in the ClinicalTrials.gov database increased year by year and reached a peak in 2022(146 registrations).Trial designs were focused on interventional and observational studies.ClinicalTri-als.gov study phases were focused on phases 2 and 4,while ChiCTR was clustered at phase 0(pre-registra-tion).Conclusion The number of clinical registrations for periodontitis in China's database is relatively low,and despite a steady upward trend,there is still a gap compared with other countries internationally.Future re-search should focus on how to encourage more oral health related research institutions to register on the plat-form and how to increase the sample size.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the correlation between variants in the start codon of the α-globin gene and phenotypes of thalassemia, so as to provide a basis for the diagnosis and prevention of α-thalassemia. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on 7 patients diagnosed by Yangjiang People's Hospital and Guangzhou Hybribio Co. Ltd., from June 2019 to October 2022. Routine blood tests and hemoglobin electrophoresis were carried out. Potential variants were identified through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with Reverse dot blotting (RDB), Gap-PCR, and Sanger sequencing. This study has been approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of People's Hospital of Yangjiang (Ethics No: 20240001). RESULTS: For the 7 patients, results of blood routine test of one case was unknown, and that of another was normal. The remaining 5 cases had presented with microcytic hypochromic anemia. The results of hemoglobin electrophoresis showed that one case had normal Hb A and slightly lower Hb A2, whilst another had significantly decreased Hb A and Hb A2, in addition with the appearance of a Hb H band. The content of Hb Bart's in four neonates was ≥ 0.4%. The remaining one case had no result. Genetic testing has identified 4 rare start codon mutations, namely HBA2: c.2delT, HBA2: c.1A>G, HBA2: c.1A>T, and HBA1: c.2T>C. Among these, Patient 1 had harbored compound heterozygous variants of HBA2: c.427T>C (Hb CS) and HBA2: c.2delT. Patient 4 had harbored compound heterozygous variants of HBA2: c.1A>G and Southeast Asian type deletion. CONCLUSION Heterozygotes with HBA start codon variants usually present as silent or mild thalassemia, and the symptoms of anemia may deteriorate when combined with other α-thalassemia variant. The HBA2: c.1A>T start codon variant was unreported previously in China. The detection of start codon variants has helped to clarify the causes of anemia, genetic counseling, and guidance for reproduction.
Humans ; Phenotype ; Codon, Initiator/genetics* ; Female ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; alpha-Globins/genetics* ; alpha-Thalassemia/genetics* ; Hemoglobin A/genetics* ; Adult ; Mutation

Objective:To analyze the correlation between variants in the start codon of the α-globin gene and phenotypes of thalassemia, so as to provide a basis for the diagnosis and prevention of α-thalassemia.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted on 7 patients diagnosed by Yangjiang People′s Hospital and Guangzhou Hybribio Co. Ltd., from June 2019 to October 2022. Routine blood tests and hemoglobin electrophoresis were carried out. Potential variants were identified through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with Reverse dot blotting (RDB), Gap-PCR, and Sanger sequencing. This study has been approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of People′s Hospital of Yangjiang (Ethics No: 20240001).Results:For the 7 patients, results of blood routine test of one case was unknown, and that of another was normal. The remaining 5 cases had presented with microcytic hypochromic anemia. The results of hemoglobin electrophoresis showed that one case had normal Hb A and slightly lower Hb A 2, whilst another had significantly decreased Hb A and Hb A 2, in addition with the appearance of a Hb H band. The content of Hb Bart′s in four neonates was ≥0.4%. The remaining one case had no result. Genetic testing has identified 4 rare start codon mutations, namely HBA2: c. 2delT, HBA2: c. 1A>G, HBA2: c. 1A>T, and HBA1: c. 2T>C. Among these, Patient 1 had harbored compound heterozygous variants of HBA2: c. 427T>C (Hb CS) and HBA2: c. 2delT. Patient 4 had harbored compound heterozygous variants of HBA2: c. 1A>G and Southeast Asian type deletion. Conclusion:Heterozygotes with HBA start codon variants usually present as silent or mild thalassemia, and the symptoms of anemia may deteriorate when combined with other α-thalassemia variant. The HBA2: c. 1A>T start codon variant was unreported previously in China. The detection of start codon variants has helped to clarify the causes of anemia, genetic counseling, and guidance for reproduction.

Objective To investigate the diagnostic potential of combining 3.0T magnetic resonance imag-ing(MRI)T2 mapping sequences with serum nesfatin-1 levels for detecting early osteoarthritis(OA)in elderly knees.Methods 97 elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis(OA group)and 52 elderly individuals undergoing physical examinations(control group)were recruited from a hospital between May 2023 and May 2024.Based on X-ray findings,the OA group was further divided into an early-stage subgroup and a non-early-stage subgroup.All participants underwent 3.0T MRI T2 mapping sequence scans to measure the T2 values in the knee cartilage region,and serum nesfatin-1 levels were assessed.Differences in these indicators were compared between groups.Additionally,a receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was constructed to evaluate the diagnostic value of these parameters for early-stage knee OA in elderly individuals.Results Among 97 elderly patients with knee OA,35 cases were classified into the early-stage group,and 62 cases were categorized into the non-early-stage group.The T2 values in five cartilage regions of the knee and serum nesfatin-1 levels were significantly higher in the OA group compared to the control group(P<0.05).Moreover,these values were significantly lower in the early-stage group than in the non-early-stage group(P<0.05).The areas under the curve(AUC)for diagnosing early-stage OA using T2 values in knee cartilage regions and serum nesfatin-1 levels ranged from 0.774 to 0.871.Notably,the AUC for combined diagnosis reached 0.939(P<0.05).Conclusion 3.0T MRI using the T2 mapping sequence in combination with serum nesfatin-1 level detection demonstrates high diagnostic value for early OA in elderly patients with knee involvement.

Objective:To analyze the correlation between variants in the start codon of the α-globin gene and phenotypes of thalassemia, so as to provide a basis for the diagnosis and prevention of α-thalassemia.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted on 7 patients diagnosed by Yangjiang People′s Hospital and Guangzhou Hybribio Co. Ltd., from June 2019 to October 2022. Routine blood tests and hemoglobin electrophoresis were carried out. Potential variants were identified through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with Reverse dot blotting (RDB), Gap-PCR, and Sanger sequencing. This study has been approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of People′s Hospital of Yangjiang (Ethics No: 20240001).Results:For the 7 patients, results of blood routine test of one case was unknown, and that of another was normal. The remaining 5 cases had presented with microcytic hypochromic anemia. The results of hemoglobin electrophoresis showed that one case had normal Hb A and slightly lower Hb A 2, whilst another had significantly decreased Hb A and Hb A 2, in addition with the appearance of a Hb H band. The content of Hb Bart′s in four neonates was ≥0.4%. The remaining one case had no result. Genetic testing has identified 4 rare start codon mutations, namely HBA2: c. 2delT, HBA2: c. 1A>G, HBA2: c. 1A>T, and HBA1: c. 2T>C. Among these, Patient 1 had harbored compound heterozygous variants of HBA2: c. 427T>C (Hb CS) and HBA2: c. 2delT. Patient 4 had harbored compound heterozygous variants of HBA2: c. 1A>G and Southeast Asian type deletion. Conclusion:Heterozygotes with HBA start codon variants usually present as silent or mild thalassemia, and the symptoms of anemia may deteriorate when combined with other α-thalassemia variant. The HBA2: c. 1A>T start codon variant was unreported previously in China. The detection of start codon variants has helped to clarify the causes of anemia, genetic counseling, and guidance for reproduction.

Objective:To explore the hematological phenotype and genotypic characteristics of five Chinese individuals with a rare thalassemia mutation HBB: c. 93-21G>A. Methods:A retrospective study was carried out on five individuals identified by the People′s Hospital of Yangjiang and Guangzhou Hybribio Co., Ltd. from May 2018 to September 2022. Routine blood test and hemoglobin electrophoresis were performed, and the genotypes of five subjects were determined by using PCR combined with reverse dot blotting (RDB), nested PCR, Gap-PCR and Sanger sequencing. This study was approved by Medical Ethics Cornmittee of the People′s Hospital of Yangjiang (Ethics No. 20240001).Results:Among the five individuals, hematological data of one was unavailable, and the remaining four had presented with microcytosis and hypochromia. The results of hemoglobin electrophoresis indicated that all of them had a HbA 2 level of ≥4.7%. Genetic analysis showed that one case had harbored compound heterozygous mutations of ααα anti3.7 triplet and HBB: c. 93-21G>A, one had compound heterozygous mutations of -α 3.7 and HBB: c. 93-21G>A, whilst the remaining three were heterozygous for the HBB: c. 93-21G>A mutation. Conclusion:The hematological phenotype of β-thalassemia carriers ( HBB: c. 93-21G>A) is similar to that of other β + thalassemia heterozygotes with mild β-thalassemia characteristics.

AIM: To investigate the effects of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized bone marrow stem cells on treatment of the myocardial infarction in experimental rats. METHODS: Three hours after injected with isoprenaline(ISO) interaperitoneally to develop acute ischemic model, rats' bone marrow stem cells were mobilized by G-CSF and migrated to the site of myocardial infarction. The hearts were harvested from 24 hours to 2 weeks after administration of ISO for histopathological examination. RESULTS: 24 hours after administration of ISO , myocardial infarct zones scattered in the pallium of the control group ,there were a large amoumt of inflammatory cells infiltration around the infarct zones and majority of them were neutrophils. The infarction in the G-CSF treatment group was milder, majority of the infiltrative cells were monocytoid; 48 hours after administration of ISO, infarct zones expanded greatly in control group, while that of the G-CSF treatment group increased just mildly; 2 weeks after administration of ISO, there was no significant scar in the G-CSF treatment group. We also found the regeneration of myocytes in the pallium. CONCLUSION: G-CSF treatment protected the ischemic myocardium and it may be used to treat the acute myocardial infarction.