Background As one of the most severe occupational diseases in China, pneumoconiosis is significantly burdened by its complications, which adversely affects patients' quality of life. Objective To identify the influencing factors of complications in pneumoconiosis and to construct an early prediction model for pneumoconiosis complications, providing theoretical guidance for clinical diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. Methods A case-control study was conducted using data from the Chongqing 5G Pneumoconiosis Rehabilitation Management Information Platform. A total of 1872 pneumoconiosis patients with complications, who received rehabilitation at various rehabilitation stations in Chongqing from January 2021 to December 2024, were enrolled as the case group. Concurrently, 2348 patients without complications from the same platform and period were included as the control group. Univariate analysis, LASSO regression, and logistic regression were employed to identify influencing factors for complications. An extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model was trained using ten-fold cross-validation to predict pneumoconiosis complications. The SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method was applied for model visualization. Results The analysis of influencing factors revealed that increased age, silicosis type, advanced stage of pneumoconiosis, dependence in activities of daily living, abnormal muscle strength, increased dyspnea index, presence of cough, viscous sputum, impaired cardiac function, severe abnormality in the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and increased Borg score were risk factors for complications (P<0.05). The XGBoost model demonstrated an area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic of 0.718, and a Brier score of 0.211 for the calibration curve. Decision curve analysis demonstrated a superior net benefit within the threshold probability range of 0.2 to 1.0 compared to "all-patient intervention" and "no-patient intervention" strategies, indicating good predictive performance and significant clinical utility. SHAP visualization identified the top six important features as Borg score, age, 6MWT, muscle strength, pneumoconiosis stage, and cough symptoms. Conclusion Multiple factors influence the occurrence of complications in pneumoconiosis patients. Clinical attention should be focused on elderly patients with decreased cardiopulmonary reserve, pronounced respiratory symptoms, and diminished muscle strength. The XGBoost model demonstrates satisfactory discrimination, calibration, and clinical applicability in predicting pneumoconiosis complications and may serve as a useful reference for clinical decision-making.

Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics and changing trend of typhus in Shaanxi Province from 2005 to 2023 to provide a scientific basis for its prevention and control. Methods Excel 2007, SPSS 25.0, Joinpoint 4.9.1.0, and Geoda 1.6 were used for data collection and statistical analysis. Super Map was used for data visualization to describe the changing characteristics of the disease. Results A total of 394 typhus cases were reported in Shaanxi Province from 2005 to 2023. The average annual incidence of typhus was 0.054/100 000, showing a dynamic fluctuation trend(AAPC=-3.3, t=-0.3, P>0.05). The cases were mainly concentrated in Baoji, Hanzhong and Xi′an, accounting for 78.68%. The incidence peak was from May to October, accounting for 64.21% of annual incidence. The epidemic season was from May to October and December. The incidence of the disease was concentrated in the 40-69 age group, accounting for 58.88%, and the sex was 1.07:1. The main occupation was farmers, accounting for 72.08%. The median time from onset to diagnosis was 7 days. Global spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that there were significant spatial autocorrelations in 11 years from 2005 to 2023(P<0.05). Local spatial autocorrelation analysis detected a total of 43“high-high”clustering areas, mainly concentrated in Baoji City. Conclusions The overall incidence of typhus in Shaanxi Province showed a dynamic fluctuation trend, with notable seasonal and regional aggregation. The incidence of typhus was higher in middle-aged and elderly people in rural areas. Surveillance should be strengthened in typhus endemic areas in summer and autumn, and health education should be conducted for key population to form good health habits and reduce the incidence of typhus.

Objective To construct a dynamic prediction model for JC polyomavirus (JCV) reactivation after kidney transplantation. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 128 recipients who met the inclusion criteria and received kidney transplantation in Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, from June 2021 to December 2024. Dynamic Cox regression and dynamic restricted mean survival time (RMST) regression based on the landmark method were adopted to establish the dynamic prediction models, and Monte Carlo cross-validation was used to evaluate model performance. Results The dynamic models could predict the incidence and onset time of JCV reactivation within the subsequent 3 months according to covariates at each landmark time point from the 1st to the 6th month after transplantation. Remuzzi score, body mass index and warm ischemia time were independent risk factors for JCV reactivation, while a history of urinary BK polyomavirus reactivation served as a protective factor. The median values of the area under the curve, C-index and Brier score of the dynamic Cox model were 0.873, 0.851 and 0.065 respectively, and the C-index of the dynamic RMST model was 0.829, all of which were superior to those of the static model. Conclusions The landmark-based dynamic models exhibit excellent predictive performance, which may integrate baseline data and post-transplant follow-up information to realize dynamic assessment of the risk and time window of JCV reactivation, thereby providing evidence for optimizing post-operative monitoring and individualized intervention strategies.

Bronchiolar adenoma (BA) is a rare type of lung tumor characterized by bilayered epithelial cells having a continuous basal layer and a luminal layer. It resembles mucinous adenocarcinoma (MA) on frozen section, with difficulty in distinguishing the basal layer. Immunohistochemistry is the best choice for verifying the diagnosis. This study aimed to comprehensively characterize three cases of BA-combined carcinoma using clinical, histopathological, and genetic features. BA and carcinoma sections were subjected to next-generation sequencing, respectively. It was hypothesized that while different mutation forms matched different regions, BA and lung adenocarcinoma shared the same gene mutation when they co-occurred in the same location. BA with extensive carcinoma is extremely rare and presents diagnostic challenges due to its overlap with conditions such as MA. Because of its distinctive morphological characteristics, BA may be regarded as a low-grade malignancy, particularly during a confusing evaluation. A multifaceted examination of clinical, radiological, immunohistochemical, and genetic data is necessary for an accurate diagnosis.

ObjectiveMethylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) is found to be frequently deleted in malignant cancers, but the role of MTAP underlying metastasis and stemness of liver cancer remains far from clear. 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) is clinically used in treating advanced liver cancer, however, chemoresistance is one of the major barriers impeding its efficacy. Liver cancer stem cells are considered to be the reservoir for tumor progression and chemoresistance. This study aims to explore the role of MTAP in regulating stemness and chemoresistance of 5-Fu in liver cancer. It is designed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying MTAP-manipulated stemness. How MTAP influences metastasis and chemoresistance against 5-Fu in liver cancer is also elaborated. MethodsThe correlation of MTAP expression with stemness marker CD133 was evaluated by flow cytometry. Colony formation assays were conducted to analyze the tumorigenic ability. Western blot assays were applied to delineate the molecular mechanisms underlying MTAP-regulated stemness. Trans-well assays were conducted to analyze the metastatic potential of liver cancer cells.In vivo experiments were performed using subcutaneous xenograft and lung metastasis model on nude mice. Tumor size and weight were analyzed upon 5-Fu treatment. Metastatic nodules on lungs were evaluated. Immunohistochemical and TUNNEL assays were performed on slides obtained from tumor tissues. ResultsMTAP overexpression inhibited expression of CD133 and colony formation, which is further ablated by MTAP inhibitor. MTAP deprivation augmented stemness and colony formation, which is reversed by protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) overexpression but not its catalytically inactive counterparts. Critically, SRY-box transcription factor 2 (SOX2) was found to be a downstream regulator of MTAP/PRMT5, leading to stemness of liver cancer cells. MTAP overexpression suppressed SOX2 expression, while MTAP inhibition augmented expression of SOX2. Critically, MTAP overexpression inhibited migration and invasion of liver cancer cells. In vivo experiments in animal model found that MTAP deprivation promotes tumor growth and metastatic nodules of liver cancer. Additionally, MTAP overexpression inhibits tumor growth. Moreover, MTAP deprivation contributes to chemoresistance shown by increased tumor size and weight treated by 5-Fu. In contrast, MTAP overexpression led to further decline in tumor size and weight elicited by 5-Fu treatment. Accordingly, SOX2 was inhibited in tumor tissues after MTAP overexpression. Marker of proliferation Ki67 (Ki67) expression was dampened while apoptosis was found in MTAP-overexpressed tumor tissues. ConclusionIn this study, plethora of experimental studies collectively demonstrated that MTAP deprivation enhances stemness of liver cancer by regulating SOX2, exerting anti-cancer and chemoresistant role against 5-Fu in liver cancer. It is also worth noting that MTAP inhibition promoted metastasis of liver cancer. MTAP overexpression augmented tumor shrinking elicited by 5-Fu and SOX2 was involved in this process. These results concluded that MTAP/PRMT5/SOX2 signaling axis was involved in regulating stemness and chemoresistance of liver cancer. These findings help to exploit novel therapies by targeting stemness in MTAP-depleted liver cancer. It shed novel light on unveiling MTAP-regulated stemness in antagonizing 5-Fu treatment in liver cancer. It also adds mounting evidence to the theoretical basis for accomplishing personalized chemotherapy of liver cancer patients by targeting MTAP or its downstream PRMT5/SOX2.

Objective:To investigate the dynamic characteristics of human papillomavirus (HPV) genomic integration during cervical lesion progression and the clinical value of HPV integration detection in stratify HPV-positive women, and to explore its molecular mechanisms in cervical carcinogenesis.Methods:A prospective cohort study was designed to enroll high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) positive women who underwent cervical cancer screening in Drum Tower Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing University Medical School and Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital from July 2022 to July 2024. Cervical exfoliated cells samples were collected, and HPV whole genome targeted capture and high-throughput sequencing technology were used. The HPV integration patterns, host gene functional region distribution and pathway enrichment characteristics of 157 samples with different cervical lesions grades were analyzed, including 31 cases of normal cervix, 40 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) Ⅰ, 32 cases of CIN Ⅱ, 42 cases of CIN Ⅲ, and 12 cases of cervical cancer.Results:HR-HPV integration was detected in 80.2% (126/157) of the 157 HR-HPV positive samples. The incidence of HR-HPV integration in cervical cancer patients was 12/12, which was higher than that in normal women (77%, 24/31). The incidence of HPV16 integration was significantly higher in high-grade lesions, and the incidence of HPV16 integration was 43% (18/42) in CIN Ⅲ patients and 8/12 in cervical cancer patients ( P<0.001). A total of 14 438 integration events were detected in 126 samples with HPV integration. The integration sites were mainly distributed in the host intergenic region (51.0%, 7 359/14 438) and intronic region (38.1%, 5 494/14 438), and the integration frequency of viral L1 gene was the highest (28.4%, 4 498/16 781). Functional enrichment analysis showed that HPV integration-related host genes were significantly enriched in transport of small molecules,cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP)-protein kinase G (PKG) signaling pathway, and purine ribonucleotide biosynthetic process, which synergistically drove carcinogenesis through multiple mechanisms. Conclusions:HPV integration events are significantly associated with the progression of cervical lesions. HPV integrated detection based on cervical exfoliated cells is expected to optimize the current screening strategy, reduce excessive intervention of HPV positive women and facilitate their accurate triage management.

Exploring the variability of the intestinal flora of patients with hepatic blastocysticercosis and searching for members of the intestinal microflora that may play a role in the disease process by means of macro-genome sequencing technology. A case-control study was used to include fecal samples from patients with hepatic vesicular schistosomiasis admitted to Qinghai Provincial People′s Hospital between October 2023 and January 2024 and individuals attending health checkups. The experimental group (AE group) consisted of 10 patients with liver vesicular schistosomiasis and the control group (NC group) consisted of 9 individuals attending health checkups. Macrogenomic sequencing was performed on these two groups of samples using the Illumina Novaseq 6000 sequencing platform, using fastp (v0.20.1) to remove junctions, and bbmap (v38.93-0) to remove the hosted sequences, followed by sequence splicing using MEGAHIT (v1.2.9), and then using prodigal (v2.6.3) to The spliced scaffold was subjected to ORF prediction and translated into amino acid sequences, followed by the construction of a non-redundant gene set using MMSeqs2 (v13.45111), and finally compared with the non-redundant gene set using salmon (v1.8.0). Species were annotated by the non-redundant database, species abundance was calculated in each sample, and the two sets were tested using Wilcoxon rank sum test. Finally, the differences in intestinal flora between the two groups were statistically analyzed using linear discriminant analysis, and the correlation between the differential intestinal flora and clinical indicators was analyzed using redundancy analysis (RDA). The results showed that the effective data volume of each sample was distributed from 10.41 to 12.46 G. The number of ORFs in the de-redundantly constructed gene catalogue (non-redundant gene set) was 4 951 408, and the annotation rate of the non-redundant genes was 97.97% when compared with the NR database. The ages of the study subjects in the two groups were (44.78±4.58) years in the NC group and (42.90±10.44) years in the AE group, and the difference was not statistically significant ( t=0.530, P=0.476). The two groups were matched for body mass index (BMI) ( t=2.368, P=0.142), gender ( χ2=0.200, P=0.655), and dietary habits. There was no statistically significant difference in alpha diversity in the AE group (ACE index, t=0.942; chao1 index, t=0.947; shannon index, t=0.813, the simpson′s index, t=0.613, P>0.05), while beta diversity analysis showed significant differences in the overall structure of the two communities (Stress=0.054 5). A total of 120 species were annotated at the phylum level, of which two differed. While 1 736 species were annotated at the genus level, 69 were different, and 309 were different at the species level. The AE group ranked the top 6 in terms of abundance of Anaplasma, Escherichiaceae, Clostridium, Alternaria, Ruminalia, and Treponema spp. at the genus level; whereas, Segatella, Prevotella, E. faecalis, Rossella, and beneficial rod-shaped bacteria were more abundant in the NC group. There were differences in the abundance and diversity of intestinal flora between the two groups, and the structure of community composition was significantly different. Statistical results by linear discriminant analysis (LDA) showed that LDA scores >2 in the NC group included beneficial bacillus spp. and E. faecalis spp. in young infants, etc. LDA scores >2 in the AE group at the mid-species level included Clostridium polterococcus, unknown microorganisms in the genus Clostridium intestinalis, Hathaway′s Henkett′s bacillus, and Clostridium oryzae in the genus Clostridium refractory to culture and small Clostridium spp. in the AE group. Clostridium intestinalis. The RDA results showed a negative correlation between beneficial rod genera and liver function indices, and a positive correlation between Clostridium intestinalis genera and liver function indices. In conclusion, patients with hepatic blastomycosis have altered intestinal flora abundance and diversity, with significant structural changes in community composition and differences in several genera, including Mycobacterium anisopliae and Clostridium intestinalis, and imbalances in the intestinal flora may affect hepatic function by influencing intestinal metabolites and may have an impact on the development of hepatic blastomycosis, a finding that warrants further in-depth study.

Methods: The clinical data of 26 patients diagnosed with irreducible atlantoaxial dislocation complicated by atlantodental bony obstruction were analyzed retrospectively. All patients underwent anterior retropharyngeal atlantodentoplasty, followed by posterior occipitocervical fusion. Details including surgical duration and blood loss volume were recorded. Radiographic data such as the anterior atlantodental interval, O–C2 angle, space available for the cord, clivus–canal angle, and cervical medullary angle, and clinical data including the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score were assessed. The fusion time of the grafted bone and the development of complications were examined. Results: In patients undergoing anterior retropharyngeal atlantodentoplasty, the surgical duration and blood loss volume were 120.1±16.4 minutes and 100.6±33.5 mL, respectively. The anterior atlantodental interval decreased significantly after the surgery (p <0.001). The O–C2 angle, space available for the cord, clivus–canal angle, and cervical medullary angle increased significantly after the surgery (p <0.001). The JOA score during the latest follow-up significantly increased compared with that before the surgery (p <0.001). The improvement rate of the JOA score was 80.8%±18.1%. The fusion time of the grafted bone was 3–8 months, with an average of 5.7±1.5 months. In total, 11 patients presented with postoperative dysphagia and three with irritating cough. However, none of them exhibited other major complications. Conclusions Anterior retropharyngeal atlantodentoplasty can anatomically reduce the atlantoaxial joint with a satisfactory clinical outcome in patients with irreducible atlantoaxial dislocation with atlantodental bony obstruction.

CT is a commonly examination method in pediatric clinical practice.Formulating and popularizing low-dose pediatric CT scanning protocols and constructing a standard image quality evaluation system are the key directions of low-dose pediatric CT imaging.In recent years,domestic CT equipment achieved technological breakthroughs in hardware performance and image reconstruction algorithms,which could provide new paths for pediatric low-dose CT imaging in children combining with artificial intelligence technology.The current status of scanning protocols,the establishment of imaging quality evaluation system and the clinical promotion,as well as challenges of domestic CT in pediatric low-dose CT imaging were reviewed in this article.

Objective:To investigate the effect of triglyceride-glucose(TyG) index and alkaline phosphatase(ALP) on brachial-ankle pulse wave conduction velocity(baPWV) in postmenopausal women.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted, enrolling 3 483 postmenopausal women who underwent health checkup at Taihu Sanatorium in Jiangsu Province from March 2020 to June 2021. The physical activity, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol(HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol(LDL-C), ALP, and baPWV were collected.Results:Age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, and LDL-C levels were significantly lower in the normal baPWV group( n=1 971) than those in the elevated baPWV group( n=1 512; P<0.001). Logistic regression identified the TyG index( OR=1.75) and ALP level( OR=1.20) as independent risk factors for elevated baPWV( P<0.001), besides with age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and regular exercise. Individuals with both high TyG index and elevated ALP had a 2.51-fold higher risk of elevated baPWV(95% CI 2.01-3.14). Adjusted interaction measures(including age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and regular exercise) showed RERI=2.825(95% CI 1.255-3.905), AP=0.348(95% CI 0.180-0.875), and SI=1.657(95% CI 0.628-3.374). Conclusions:The TyG index and ALP levels are independent risk factors for elevated baPWV in postmenopausal women and exhibit an additive interaction effect on arterial stiffness in this population.