The chemical constituents were systematically separated from the roots of Berberis polyantha by various chromatographic methods, including silica gel column chromatography, HP20 column chromatography, polyamide column chromatography, reversed-phase C_(18) column chromatography, and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography. The structures of the compounds were identified by physicochemical properties and spectroscopic techniques(1D NMR, 2D NMR, UV, MS, and CD). Four phenylpropanoids were isolated from the methanol extract of the roots of B. polyantha, and they were identified as(2R)-1-(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-propanone-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(1), methyl 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzoate(2),(+)-syringaresinol(3), and syringaresinol-4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(4). Compound 1 was a new compound, and other compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time. The anti-inflammatory activity of these compounds was evaluated based on the release of nitric oxide(NO) in the culture of lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced RAW264.7 macrophages. At a concentration of 10 μmol·L~(-1), all the four compounds inhibited the LPS-induced release of NO in RAW264.7 cells, demonstrating potential anti-inflammatory properties.
Plant Roots/chemistry* ; Animals ; Mice ; Berberis/chemistry* ; RAW 264.7 Cells ; Macrophages/immunology* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/isolation & purification* ; Nitric Oxide/metabolism* ; Molecular Structure ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents/isolation & purification*

OBJECTIVE To summarize the clinical data of 2 cases of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome(MODS)induced by infection with renal leptospira so as to provide bases for prevention and control of severe dis-eases.METHODS The clinical data of the 2 patients with leptospirosis were retrospectively analyzed after the super typhoon'Yagi'on Sep.6,2024.The cases of leptospirosis that were reported at home and abroad in recent 5 years were retrieved.The epidemiological characteristics,clinical manifestations and treatment outcomes of the cases were observed.RESULTS The 2 patients began to have symptoms on the nineth day after the typhoon,both cases presented with the manifestation such as fever,pain and fatigue,shortness of breach and cough,jaundice and anu-ria,with the blood culture negative;the definite diagnosis was mased by blood metagenomic capture method(MetaCAP).The poultry was considered as the infection source,and the illness condition progressed to sepsis and MODS.Case 1 was complicated with empsyxis,jaundice hemorrhage and renal failure and finally died.Case 2 was also detected with leptospira from cerebrospinal fluid and was complicated with renal failure and meningoencephal-itis but was cured.Among 17 cases of leptospirosis from the literatures,the male and peasants were dominant,the infected water was the major infection factor(at least 7 cases);fever,pain and fatigue,shortness of breath and cough as well as hemoptysis were the major symptoms.There were at least 12 cases with the decline of plate-lets counts,10 cases complicated with empsyxis,11 cases complicated with shock and MODS and 10 cases treated with invasive mechanical ventilation.The misdiagnosis rate was up to 76.47％,and the mortality rate was 29.41％.CONCLUSIONS The leptospirosis is a severe disease,early precise antimicrobial treatment and timely or-gan function support are the crucial to the improvement of prognosis.The health care workers should attach great importance to inquiry for diagnosis,maintain vigilant to the disease for the people with fever of unknown ori-gin,shortness of breath,pain and fatigue by combining the epidemiological history,and make an early definite di-agnosis based on novel molecular diagnosis technique so as to avoid the progression to sepsis and MODS.

OBJECTIVE To summarize the clinical data of 2 cases of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome(MODS)induced by infection with renal leptospira so as to provide bases for prevention and control of severe dis-eases.METHODS The clinical data of the 2 patients with leptospirosis were retrospectively analyzed after the super typhoon'Yagi'on Sep.6,2024.The cases of leptospirosis that were reported at home and abroad in recent 5 years were retrieved.The epidemiological characteristics,clinical manifestations and treatment outcomes of the cases were observed.RESULTS The 2 patients began to have symptoms on the nineth day after the typhoon,both cases presented with the manifestation such as fever,pain and fatigue,shortness of breach and cough,jaundice and anu-ria,with the blood culture negative;the definite diagnosis was mased by blood metagenomic capture method(MetaCAP).The poultry was considered as the infection source,and the illness condition progressed to sepsis and MODS.Case 1 was complicated with empsyxis,jaundice hemorrhage and renal failure and finally died.Case 2 was also detected with leptospira from cerebrospinal fluid and was complicated with renal failure and meningoencephal-itis but was cured.Among 17 cases of leptospirosis from the literatures,the male and peasants were dominant,the infected water was the major infection factor(at least 7 cases);fever,pain and fatigue,shortness of breath and cough as well as hemoptysis were the major symptoms.There were at least 12 cases with the decline of plate-lets counts,10 cases complicated with empsyxis,11 cases complicated with shock and MODS and 10 cases treated with invasive mechanical ventilation.The misdiagnosis rate was up to 76.47％,and the mortality rate was 29.41％.CONCLUSIONS The leptospirosis is a severe disease,early precise antimicrobial treatment and timely or-gan function support are the crucial to the improvement of prognosis.The health care workers should attach great importance to inquiry for diagnosis,maintain vigilant to the disease for the people with fever of unknown ori-gin,shortness of breath,pain and fatigue by combining the epidemiological history,and make an early definite di-agnosis based on novel molecular diagnosis technique so as to avoid the progression to sepsis and MODS.

Objective:To explore the application value of silent MR angiography (MRA) in imaging of brain arteriovenous malformation (BAVM) in children.Methods:A total of 20 children with BAVM confirmed by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were retrospectively collected. All children were imaged by silent MRA and time-of-flight MRA (TOF MRA) in the same examination. The image quality of feeding artery, nidus and drainage vein of BAVM was evaluated using the four-point method. Wilcoxon rank-sum test was utilized to compare the image quality scores between silent MRA and TOF MRA. Weighted Kappa statistics used to evaluate the inter-modality agreement of silent MRA and TOF MRA with DSA in displaying of angioarchitecture characteristics and determination of Spetzler-Martin grading.Results:Among the 20 BAVMs, significant differences in image quality scores of the nidus (2.75±0.55 versus 2.20±0.70) and drainage vein (2.60±0.68 versus 2.20±0.77) were observed between silent MRA and TOF MRA ( Z=-3.05, P=0.002; Z=-2.13, P=0.033, respectively). The agreement between silent MRA and DSA was excellent in nidus size grading, deep venous drainage, associated aneurysm and SM grading (Kappa 0.91, 1.00, 0.83 and 0.93, respectively); The agreement between TOF MRA and DSA was fair to moderate (Kappa 0.46, 0.59, 0.35 and 0.47, respectively). Conclusions:Silent MRA showes better image quality compared to TOF MRA and improves the evaluation of angioarchitecture characteristics and Spetzler-Martin grading of BAVMs in children.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the clinical treatment outcomes and the changes of the outcomes over time in extremely preterm twins in Guangdong Province, China. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed for 269 pairs of extremely preterm twins with a gestational age of <28 weeks who were admitted to the department of neonatology in 26 grade A tertiary hospitals in Guangdong Province from January 2008 to December 2017. According to the admission time, they were divided into two groups: 2008-2012 and 2013-2017. Besides, each pair of twins was divided into the heavier infant and the lighter infant subgroups according to birth weight. The perinatal data of mothers and hospitalization data of neonates were collected. The survival rate of twins and the incidence rate of complications were compared between the 2008-2012 and 2013-2017 groups. RESULTS: Compared with the 2008-2012 group, the 2013-2017 group (both the heavier infant and lighter infant subgroups) had lower incidence rates of severe asphyxia and smaller head circumference at birth (P<0.05). The mortality rates of both of the twins, the heavier infant of the twins, and the lighter infant of the twins were lower in the 2013-2017 group compared with the 2008-2012 group (P<0.05). Compared with the 2008-2012 group, the 2013-2017 group (both the heavier infant and lighter infant subgroups) had lower incidence rates of pulmonary hemorrhage, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage (P-IVH), and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS) and a higher incidence rate of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS There is a significant increase in the survival rate over time in extremely preterm twins with a gestational age of <28 weeks in the 26 grade A tertiary hospitals in Guangdong Province. The incidences of severe asphyxia, pulmonary hemorrhage, PDA, P-IVH, and NRDS decrease in both the heavier and lighter infants of the twins, but the incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia increases. With the improvement of diagnosis and treatment, the multidisciplinary collaboration between different fields of fetal medicine including prenatal diagnosis, obstetrics, and neonatology is needed in the future to jointly develop management strategies for twin pregnancy.
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia/epidemiology* ; Female ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Extremely Premature ; Infant, Newborn ; Pregnancy ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Newborn/epidemiology* ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome

In this paper, the extraction rate of crude polysaccharides and the yield of polysaccharides from Hippocampus served as test indicators. The comprehensive evaluation indicators were assigned by the R language combined with the entropy weight method. The Box-Behnken design-response surface methodology(BBD-RSM) and the deep neural network(DNN) were employed to screen the optimal parameters for the polysaccharide extraction from Hippocampus. These two modeling methods were compared and verified experimentally for the process optimization. This study provides a reference for the industrialization of effective component extraction from Chinese medicinals and achieves the effective combination of modern technology and traditional Chinese medicine.
Dietary Carbohydrates ; Hippocampus ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Polysaccharides ; Temperature

Objective: Several COVID-19 patients have overlapping comorbidities. The independent role of each component contributing to the risk of COVID-19 is unknown, and how some non-cardiometabolic comorbidities affect the risk of COVID-19 remains unclear. Methods: A retrospective follow-up design was adopted. A total of 1,160 laboratory-confirmed patients were enrolled from nine provinces in China. Data on comorbidities were obtained from the patients' medical records. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratio ( Results: Overall, 158 (13.6%) patients were diagnosed with severe illness and 32 (2.7%) had unfavorable outcomes. Hypertension (2.87, 1.30-6.32), type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (3.57, 2.32-5.49), cardiovascular disease (CVD) (3.78, 1.81-7.89), fatty liver disease (7.53, 1.96-28.96), hyperlipidemia (2.15, 1.26-3.67), other lung diseases (6.00, 3.01-11.96), and electrolyte imbalance (10.40, 3.00-26.10) were independently linked to increased odds of being severely ill. T2DM (6.07, 2.89-12.75), CVD (8.47, 6.03-11.89), and electrolyte imbalance (19.44, 11.47-32.96) were also strong predictors of unfavorable outcomes. Women with comorbidities were more likely to have severe disease on admission (5.46, 3.25-9.19), while men with comorbidities were more likely to have unfavorable treatment outcomes (6.58, 1.46-29.64) within two weeks. Conclusion Besides hypertension, diabetes, and CVD, fatty liver disease, hyperlipidemia, other lung diseases, and electrolyte imbalance were independent risk factors for COVID-19 severity and poor treatment outcome. Women with comorbidities were more likely to have severe disease, while men with comorbidities were more likely to have unfavorable treatment outcomes.
Adult ; Aged ; COVID-19/virology* ; China/epidemiology* ; Comorbidity ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Severity of Illness Index ; Treatment Outcome

PURPOSE: The measuring Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA is an important predictor of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). This study evaluated the predictive value of pretreatment serum amyloid A (SAA) and C-reactive protein (CRP) comparing with EBV DNA in patients with NPC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In an observational study of 419 non-metastatic NPC patients, we prospectively evaluated the prognostic effects of pretreatment SAA, CRP, and EBV DNA on survival. The primary end-point was progress-free survival (PFS). RESULTS: The median level of SAA and CRP was 4.28 mg/L and 1.88 mg/L, respectively. For the high-SAA group (> 4.28 mg/L) versus the low-SAA (≤ 4.28 mg/L) group and the high-CRP group (> 1.88 mg/L) versus the low-CRP (≤ 1.88 mg/L) group, the 5-year PFS was 64.5% versus 73.1% (p=0.013) and 65.2% versus 73.3% (p=0.064), respectively. EBV DNA detection showed a superior predictive result, the 5-year PFS in the EBV DNA ≥ 1,500 copies/mL group was obviously different than the EBV DNA < 1,500 copies/mL group (62.2% versus 77.8%, p < 0.001). Multifactorial Cox regression analysis confirmed that in the PFS, the independent prognostic factors were including EBV DNA (hazard ratio [HR], 1.788; p=0.009), tumour stage (HR, 1.903; p=0.021), and node stage (HR, 1.498; p=0.049), but the SAA and CRP were not included in the independent prognostic factors. CONCLUSION: The results of SAA and CRP had a certain relationship with the prognosis of NPC, and the prognosis of patients with high level of SAA and CRP were poor. However, the predictive ability of SAA and CRP was lower than that of EBV DNA.
C-Reactive Protein* ; DNA* ; Herpesvirus 4, Human* ; Humans ; Observational Study ; Prognosis ; Prospective Studies* ; Serum Amyloid A Protein* ; Survival Analysis

Serum levels of soluble MHC class I-related chain A (sMICA) are related with the prognosis of various types of cancer; however, few studies on the prognostic value of sMICA in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been reported. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the relationship between sMICA levels and clinical features of advanced HCC, and we assessed the prognostic value of sMICA in advanced HCC. Furthermore, the relationship of serum sMICA levels and natural killer group 2, member D (NKG2D) expression on natural killer (NK) cells was also evaluated. We detected sMICA levels in the serum of 60 advanced HCC patients using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and measured expression levels of NKG2D on NK cells using flow cytometry. We found that serum sMICA levels in HCC patients were in the range of 0.10-6.21 ng/mL. Chi-square analyses showed that sMICA level was significantly related with only tumor size. Survival analysis showed that a high sMICA level was significantly related with poor prognosis among HCC patients. Multivariate analyses indicated that sMICA was an independent prognostic factor. In addition, the levels of CD56+NKG2D+ NK cells were within the range of 11.2%-55.4%, and correlation analyses indicated that sMICA level was negatively correlated with the level of NKG2D+ NK cells. Our results suggest that serum sMICA levels may be an independent prognostic factor for advanced HCC.
Adult ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; blood ; immunology ; pathology ; Female ; Histocompatibility Antigens Class I ; blood ; Humans ; Killer Cells, Natural ; immunology ; metabolism ; Liver Neoplasms ; blood ; immunology ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily K ; metabolism ; Neoplasm Staging ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Tumor Burden

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the clinical effectiveness of three localization methods, including methylene blue, metal clips and intraoperative colonoscopy in laparoscopic colorectal surgery.

METHODSA retrospective analysis was performed to review the clinical data of 64 patients who underwent the laparoscopic colorectal operations in Cancer Hospital of Fudan University from December 2009 to June 2012. Three methods of tumor localization were used perioperatively, including 23 cases of methylene blue, 20 of metal clips and 21 of colonoscopy.

RESULTSOperations were successfully performed in this cohort and there were no deaths or complications. In methylene blue group, intraoperative colonoscopy was performed in two cases because of the inability to visualize blue dye on the serosal surface of the intestinal wall, another 2 cases were converted to open operation because of methylene blue diffusion and inability to identify resection margin. Intraoperative colonoscopic localization was required for 3 cases of sigmoid colon or upper rectal tumor because of inaccurate tumor localization by metal clips. Poor operative exposure due to obvious bowel distension prompted the conversion to open surgery in 2 cases of colonoscopy localization group, and the accurate position of the lesion was not found in another 2 cases due to long pedunculated adenoma.

CONCLUSIONSColorectal tumor can be localized effectively by endoscopic methylene blue tattooing at a maximum of 2 tumors before operation and the method of 4-point positioning can significantly improve the accuracy of colorectal tumor localization. Tumor localization preoperatively on the day of surgery by metal clip is accurate for the right or left colon cancer. Intraoperative colonoscopy can localize tumor accurately and rapidly for rectosigmoid or descending tumor, and the incidence of bowel distension can be significantly reduced. Localization method should be considered according to the tumor location and surgical procedure.

Adult ; Aged ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome