ObjectiveTo investigate the intervention effects of modified Linggui Zhugan Tang （LGZGT） on patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome （OSAHS） of the spleen deficiency and dampness obstruction with blood stasis type， reveal its possible mechanisms， and provide a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment of OSAHS with traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）. MethodsEighty OSAHS patients with spleen deficiency and dampness obstruction with blood stasis were randomly assigned to a control group and an observation group （1∶1） using a random number table， with 40 patients in each group. The control group received standard basic treatment combined with oral Doxofylline tablets， while the observation group received standard basic treatment combined with modified LGZGT. Serum levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor （MIF）， microRNA-223 （miR-223）， and interleukin-18 （IL-18） were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）， and the mRNA expression levels of MIF， miR-223， and IL-18 were measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction （Real-time PCR）. After two months of treatment， the total clinical efficacy， apnea-hypopnea index （AHI）， lowest nocturnal oxygen saturation （LSpO₂）， body mass index （BMI）， TCM syndrome scores， and expression levels of MIF， miR-223， and IL-18 before and after treatment were compared between the two groups. Correlations between MIF， miR-223， IL-18 and AHI and LSpO₂ were also analyzed. ResultsCompared with the control group， the observation group showed a significantly higher total clinical effective rate （P<0.01， Z=-3.49）. Within the control group， no significant changes were observed in AHI， LSpO₂， BMI， TCM syndrome scores， or MIF， miR-223， IL-18 levels and their mRNAs after treatment. In the observation group， AHI， BMI， TCM syndrome scores， and MIF and IL-18 levels and their mRNAs decreased significantly， while LSpO₂ increased significantly （P<0.01）. After treatment， compared with the control group， the observation group exhibited significantly lower AHI， BMI， TCM syndrome scores， and MIF and IL-18 levels and their mRNAs， and significantly higher LSpO₂ （P<0.01）. Correlation analysis showed that MIF and IL-18 were positively correlated with AHI （P<0.01） and negatively correlated with LSpO₂ （P<0.01）， whereas miR-223 was negatively correlated with AHI （P<0.01） and positively correlated with LSpO₂ （P<0.01）. ConclusionModified LGZGT may improve OSAHS of the spleen deficiency and dampness obstruction with blood stasis type by reducing airway inflammatory factors， alleviating airway inflammation， relieving airway edema and stenosis， and improving airway obstruction.

Liver fibrosis is a key pathological stage in the progression of chronic liver diseases to liver cirrhosis， and effective etiological control or therapeutic interventions can help to achieve varying degrees of liver fibrosis regression in some patients. Accordingly， accurate assessment of the degree of liver fibrosis regression has gradually become an important concern in clinical management and the development of novel therapeutic agents. Conventional assessment methods mainly focus on fibrosis staging and have certain limitations in reflecting structural remodeling and dynamic changes of the liver. This article systematically reviews the recent research advances in the assessment of liver fibrosis regression from various aspects such as histological and digital pathology， serological and multi-omics biomarkers， and functional and molecular imaging modalities and discusses their respective advantages and limitations in assessing liver fibrosis regression. On this basis， this article discusses a multimodal integrated evaluation strategy based on artificial intelligence， in order to provide new ideas for accurate assessment of liver fibrosis regression， individualized therapeutic monitoring， and optimization of clinical trial endpoints.

Objective To explore the value of high-frequency ultrasound in the detection of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma and displaying lesion characteristics. Methods A total of 38 paitients with hepatocellular carcinoma satellite lesions within 40 mm of subcutaneous tissue were underwent low-frequency (1-5 MHz) and high-frequency (6-9 MHz) ultrasound. Detection rates and ultrasonic features were compared. Results High-frequency grayscale ultrasound had a higher detection rate (71.1% vs. 36.8%, P＜0.001). Subgroup analysis showed higher detection rates with chemotherapy history (88.9% vs. 33.3%, P＝0.002), fatty liver (71.9% vs 31.3%, P＜0.001) or superficial lesion (within 20 mm, 76.5% vs 41.2%, P＝0.031). High-frequency ultrasound also showed clearer margins (P＝0.004) and more arterial-phase rim enhancement (P＝0.007). Conclusions 6-9 MHz ultrasound detects metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma, especially superficial lesions, more effectively than 1-5 MHz ultrasound and better visualizes characteristics.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role of activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) in atherosclerotic plaques for regulating inflammatory responses during atherosclerosis (AS) progression. METHODS: Human coronary artery specimens from autopsy cases were examined for ATF3 protein expression and localization using immunofluorescence staining and Western blotting. Apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE^-/-) mouse models of AS induced by high-fat diet (HFD) feeding for 12 weeks were subjected to tail vein injection of adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9) to knock down ATF3 expression. After an additional 5 weeks of HFD feeding, the mice were euthanized for analyzing structural changes of the aortic plaques, and the expression levels of ATF3, inflammatory factors (CD45, CD68, IL-1β, and TNF-α), and NF-κB pathway proteins (P-IKKα/β and P-NF-κB p65) were detected. In the cell experiment, THP-1-derived foam cells were transfected with an ATF3-overexpressing plasmid or an ATF3-specific siRNA to validate the relationship between ATF3 and NF‑κB signaling. RESULTS: In human atherosclerotic plaques, ATF3 expression was significantly elevated and partially co-localized with CD68. ATF3 knockout in ApoE^-/- mice significantly increased aortic plaque volume, upregulated the inflammatory factors, enhanced phosphorylation of the NF‑κB pathway proteins, and increased the expressions of VCAM1, MMP9, and MMP2 in the plaques. In THP-1-derived foam cells, ATF3 silencing caused activation of the NF‑κB pathway, while ATF3 overexpression suppressed the activity of the NF-κB pathway. CONCLUSIONS AS promotes ATF3 expression, and ATF3 deficiency exacerbates AS progression by enhancing plaque inflammation via activating the NF-κB pathway, suggesting the potential of ATF3 as a therapeutic target for AS.
Animals ; Activating Transcription Factor 3/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction ; NF-kappa B/metabolism* ; Humans ; Mice ; Plaque, Atherosclerotic/metabolism* ; Inflammation/metabolism* ; Apolipoproteins E ; Atherosclerosis/metabolism* ; Diet, High-Fat

Objective To analyze the characteristics and evolution path of resources in different development stages of specialties,and to study the construction of the operation strategy of clinical specialties in public hospitals that match the development stage.Methods According to the organizational life cycle theory,the hospital specialty development in-terpretation model was constructed from three aspects:clinical,scientific research and teaching,and its operation strategy was analyzed.Results The development stage of the specialty was divided into initial stage,growth stage,promotion stage and plateau stage,and the progressive operation strategy was used to promote the development of the specialty to a higher stage.Conclusion It is necessary to design strategies according to local conditions,and ex-plore the resource development characteristics of public hospital specialties and the corresponding operation manage-ment strategies according to the explanatory model.

Objective:To explore the influencing factors of hematoma enlargement in patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage and construct a corresponding risk prediction nomogram. The screening effects of the constructed model and different hematoma enlargement risk assessment tools were compared and analyzed.Methods:Two hundred and thirty-two patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage from the Department of Neurosurgery, Lianyungang First People's Hospital from April 2021 to February 2022 were selected as the research subjects. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors of hematoma expansion in patients with hyperhemamic intracerebral hemorrhage, and R software was used to construct a nomo diagram. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and Hosmer-Lemeshow (H-L) goodness-of-fit were used to evaluate the discrimination and calibration of the model, and the decision curve was used to analyze the clinical validity of the model. The constructed Nomo diagram, nine-point method and BRAIN score were used to assess the risk of hematoma enlargement in the included patients and used them as test variables, and the ROC curve was plotted to compare and analyze the area under the ROC curve, sensitivity and specificity of the constructed Nomo diagram, nine-point method and BRAIN score. The Kappa test was used to analyze the consistency between the Nomo diagram, the nine-point method, and the BRAIN score and the hematoma expansion results.Results:The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that blood pressure was poorly controlled ( OR=13.290, 95% CI: 3.676-48.049), ventricular penetration ( OR=4.825, 95% CI: 1.458-15.975), early neurological deterioration ( OR=27.740, 95% CI: 8.713-88.314), Glasgow Coma Scale(GCS)≤8 points ( OR=25.883, 95% CI: 6.542-102.404) was the main influencing factor for hematoma expansion in patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage (The P values were <0.001, 0.010, <0.001, and <0.001, respectively). The H-L test results of Nomogram for predicting hematoma enlargement were χ2=3.20, P=0.525, the calibration curve was close to the ideal curve, and the mean absolute error was 0.015, and the decision curve analysis showed that the model had good clinical validity. The ROC results showed that the area under the ROC curve of the constructed Neumo diagram, nine-point method and BRAIN score were 0.971 (95% CI: 0.941-0.989), 0.696 (95% CI: 0.632-0.755), and 0.778 (95% CI: 0.719-0.830)(all P<0.001). The sensitivities were 94.37%, 71.83%, and 84.51%, and the specificities were 90.68%, 58.39%, and 65.84%, respectively. The results of Kappa test showed that the Kappa values of Nuomo diagram, nine-point method and BRAIN score were 0.806 , 0.264 and 0.429 (all P<0.001). Conclusion:The main influencing factors of hematoma enlargement in patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage were poor blood pressure control, intraventricular hemorrhage, early neurological deterioration, and GCS score. The effect of the constructed Nuomo diagram model in predicting hematoma expansion in patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage is better than that of the nine-point method and the BRAIN score, which has clinical application value.

Objective:To develop radiomics score (RS) based on 18F-FDG PET/CT, and construct the machine learning model combining clinical and other relevant factors for personalized prediction of 2-year event-free survival (2-EFS) in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and to perform interpretability analysis of the model. Methods:A total of 91 patients (49 males, 42 females; age (57.8±12.8) years) with pathologically confirmed DLBCL from December 2017 to December 2020 at the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University were retrospectively analyzed. According to the ratio of 7∶3, patients were randomly divided into training set ( n=63) and test set ( n=28), and divided into non-progression group and progression group according to the follow-up results. The whole-body PET semi-quantitative parameters were calculated from the PET/CT images before treatment, and 328 radiomics features were extracted from the largest target lesions of patients. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) was used to develop the RS. Clinical and PET characteristic difference analysis was performed through χ2 test and Mann-Whitney U test. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) models were constructed based on clinical, PET radiomics features and RS, and the prediction efficiency of each model was evaluated by ROC AUC. The model interpretability was analyzed by using shapely additive explanation (SHAP). Results:Of all patients, 32 had disease progression and 59 did not. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between the training set and the test set ( χ2 values: 0.06-1.84, U values: 665.00-763.00, all P>0.05). The comparison between the progression group and non-progression group in the training set showed statistical differences in the international prognostic index (IPI) score ( χ2=4.87, P=0.027), myelocytomatosis viral oncogene (MYC) protein expression ( χ2=4.29, P=0.038), and metabolic tumor volume (MTV; U=307.00, P=0.038). Seven radiomics features were screened by LASSO. Among XGBoost models with different feature combinations, IPI score, MYC protein expression, MTV combined with RS had the highest predictive efficiency (training set: AUC=0.73; test set: AUC=0.70). Through SHAP analysis, RS was the most predictive feature in the optimal model. Conclusion:The machine learning integrated model of IPI score, MYC protein expression and MTV combined with RS can effectively predict the prognosis of DLBCL patients, and baseline 18F-FDG PET/CT radiomics can be used as a potential means to evaluate the prognosis of DLBCL patients.

Objective:To investigate the steady-state mechanism of interconversion between the SMN1 and SMN2 genes in a normal population. Methods:Fluorescence PCR capillary electrophoresis was employed to assess gene conversion and copy number variation of SMN1 and SMN2 in a cohort of 1, 133 healthy individuals (including 256 males and 877 females) recruited between 2019 and 2023. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Henan Provincial People′s Hospital (Ethics No.: 2019-134). Results:No significant gender difference was observed in the single copy carrying rate of SMN1. The probability of conversion from SMN1 to SMN2 was determined to be 3.2% for females, 2.7% for males, and 3.1% for the overall population. The probability of conversion from SMN2 to SMN1 was found to be 5.5% for females, 6.3% for males, and 5.6% for the overall population. No statistically significant difference was found in the conversion probability between different genders ( P>0.05). Among the 99 cases of gene conversion, the SMN1 gene predominantly exhibited a copy number of 2 (97.0%), with the remainder having 3 copies (3%). The SMN2 gene primarily showed a copy number of 2 (72.7%), with the rest having 1 copy (27.3%). Conclusion:Gene conversion tends to normalize the copy numbers of both SMN1 and SMN2 genes towards 2. However, SMN1 exhibited a higher priority over SMN2, causing the copy numbers approaching two.

Objective:To evaluate the clinical efficacy of liquid phase concentrated growth factors (LPCGF) combined with a stabilization splint in treating temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJOA) compared to a stabilization splint alone.Methods:A retrospective analysis of 60 TMJOA patients from December 2020 to June 2022 at Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Yinchuan Stomatology Hospital was conducted. Patients were divided into experimental group (LPCGF+stabilization splint) and control group (stabilization splint only). The experimental group received an initial LPCGF injection, followed by biweekly injections for two sessions. Clinical assessments, including visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, maximum mouth opening (MMO), and Friction index, were conducted at baseline and at 3, 6, and 12 months post-treatment.Results:At 3 months post-treatment, the VAS scores of both the control group and the experimental group [6.00 (5.00, 7.00), 6.00 (5.00, 7.00)] were significantly lower than those before treatment [2.00 (2.00, 3.00), 2.00 (2.00, 3.00)] (all P<0.001), and there was no statistically significant difference between the groups ( P>0.05). The MMO [36.00 (34.75, 39.00), 37.50 (35.00, 40.00) mm] were significantly larger than those before treatment [(29.32±4.83), (27.63±6.43) mm] (all P<0.001), and there was no statistically significant difference between the groups ( P>0.05). The craniiomandibular index (CMI), dysfunction index (DI), and palpation (PI) of both groups were significantly lower than those before treatment (all P<0.001), and there were no statistically significant differences between the groups ( P>0.05). At 6 months post-treatment, the VAS scores of both the control group and the experimental group were significantly higher than those before treatment (all P<0.001), the MMO were significantly larger than those before treatment ( P<0.001), and the Fricton index was significantly lower than that before treatment ( P<0.05). Among them, the VAS score, DI, and CMI of the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group (all P<0.05), and there was no statistically significant difference in MMO and PI between the two groups ( P>0.05). At 12 months post-treatment, the VAS score of the experimental group was significantly lower than that before treatment ( P<0.001), while there was no statistically significant difference between the control group and before treatment ( P>0.05). The VAS score of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group ( P<0.001). The MMO of both the control group and the experimental group were significantly larger than those before treatment ( P<0.001), and the DI and CMI were significantly lower than those before treatment (all P<0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups ( P>0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in PI between the two groups compared with before treatment (all P>0.05), and there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups ( P>0.05). Conclusions:LPCGF combined with a stabilization splint offers a more effective long-term pain relief for TMJOA.

Objective: To understand the dynamic temporal evolution pathways of Internet addiction among university students and to identify the core driving nodes, so as to provide theoretical evidences for the precise implementation of targeted interventions. Methods: Using a convenient cluster sampling method, a total of 1 066 full time freshmen and sophomores were recruited from three universities in Guizhou, Jiangxi, and Guangdong Provinces for a follow up survey (T1:January-March 2024; T2:January-March 2025). The Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) was employed to assess the status of Internet addiction among university students, and cross sectional as well as cross lagged panel network models were constructed to analyze Internet addiction and its multidimensional influencing factors. Results: The T1 network comprised 19 nodes and 114 non zero edges, while the T2 network comprised 19 nodes and 126 non zero edges. Cross sectional network analysis revealed the strongest association between "insufficient sleep" and "daytime fatigue"; the core nodes were "first thought upon waking for going online" and "feeling low after disconnection" (characteristics of psychological dependence) at T1, while the core nodes shifted to "impaired health" and "excitement when online" (characteristics of functional impairment and addictive psychodynamic features) at T2. Cross lagged network analysis further indicated that "reduced leisure" directly predicted "sleep compression", and a bidirectional relationship was observed between "needing more time to achieve satisfaction" and "academic decline". Conclusions Internet addiction among university students exhibits dynamic evolutionary characteristics. Stage specific targeted interventions focusing on core driving nodes are needed, integrating behavioral regulation and academic support to break the vicious cycle and enhancing the ability to cope with real life demands.