OBJECTIVE To investigate the therapeutic effect and mechanism of Qiwei dongqingye powder （QDP） on bronchial asthma in mice. METHODS The mice were divided into blank group （normal saline）， model group （normal saline）， dexamethasone group （2 mg/kg）， and QDP low-， medium-， and high-dose groups （200， 400， 800 mg/kg）， with 14 mice in each group. Except for the blank group， mice in all other groups were given ovalbumin via intraperitoneal injection followed by aerosol inhalation to induce a bronchial asthma model. During the modeling process， mice in each group were administered corresponding drug solutions or normal saline intragastrically/intraperitoneally. After the last medication， the number of cells in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid （BALF） of the mice was observed and counted； the pathological changes of the bronchus and lung tissue were observed； the levels of malondialdehyde （MDA）， nitric oxide （NO）， total superoxide dismutase （T-SOD）， and glutathione peroxidase （GSH-Px） in the lung tissue of the mice were determined， and the level of interleukin-17 （IL-17） in the BALF and serum was determined. Transcriptomics was employed to predict and validate the mechanism of action of QDP against bronchial asthma. RESULTS Compared with the model group， the total cell count， neutrophil count， lymphocyte count， and macrophage counts in the BALF of the QDP high-dose group were all significantly reduced （ P ＜0.05）； the levels of MDA and NO in the lung tissue， and the levels of IL-17 in the BALF and serum were all decreased significantly （ P ＜0.05）； the levels of T-SOD and GSH-Px were significantly increased （ P ＜0.05）； the arrangement of lung tissue cells tended to normalize， with reduced infiltration of inflammatory cells and decreased exfoliation of bronchial simple columnar epithelial cells. The transcriptomic results revealed that the differentially expressed genes were B-cell receptor signaling pathway， nuclear factor κB （NF-κB） signaling pathway， ferroptosis signaling pathway， and others. Further validation revealed that， compared with the model group， the expression levels of NF-κB p65 and chemokine ligand 20， as well as the phosphorylation level of NF-κB inhibitor protein α， were significantly decreased in the lung tissues of the mice in all QDP groups （ P ＜0.05）. Conversely， the protein expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 （Nrf2） and heme oxygenase 1 （HO-1） were significantly increased （ P ＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS QDP can effectively alleviate bronchial asthma by inhibiting the NF-κB signaling pathway， activating the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway， regulating oxidative stress， and reducing inflammatory responses.

Cemental tear is a rare and indetectable condition unless obvious clinical signs present with the involvement of surrounding periodontal and periapical tissues. Due to its clinical manifestations similar to common dental issues, such as vertical root fracture, primary endodontic diseases, and periodontal diseases, as well as the low awareness of cemental tear for clinicians, misdiagnosis often occurs. The critical principle for cemental tear treatment is to remove torn fragments, and overlooking fragments leads to futile therapy, which could deteriorate the conditions of the affected teeth. Therefore, accurate diagnosis and subsequent appropriate interventions are vital for managing cemental tear. Novel diagnostic tools, including cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), microscopes, and enamel matrix derivatives, have improved early detection and management, enhancing tooth retention. The implementation of standardized diagnostic criteria and treatment protocols, combined with improved clinical awareness among dental professionals, serves to mitigate risks of diagnostic errors and suboptimal therapeutic interventions. This expert consensus reviewed the epidemiology, pathogenesis, potential predisposing factors, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of cemental tear, aiming to provide a clinical guideline and facilitate clinicians to have a better understanding of cemental tear.
Humans ; Dental Cementum/injuries* ; Consensus ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Cone-Beam Computed Tomography ; Tooth Fractures/therapy*

OBJECTIVE: To develop a method for identifying high-risk patients among septic populations requiring mechanical ventilation, and to conduct phenotypic analysis based on this method. METHODS: Data from four sources were utilized: the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC-IV 2.0, MIMIC-III 1.4), the Philips eICU-Collaborative Research Database 2.0 (eICU-CRD 2.0), and the Anhui Medical University Second Affiliated Hospital dataset. The adult patients in intensive care unit (ICU) who met Sepsis-3 and received invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) on the first day of first admission were enrolled. The MIMIC-IV dataset with the highest data integrity was divided into a training set and a test set at a 6:1 ratio, while the remaining datasets were served as validation sets. The demographic information, comorbidities, laboratory indicators, commonly used ICU scores, and treatment measures of patients were extracted. Clinical data collected within first day of ICU admission were used to calculate the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score. K-means clustering was applied to cluster SOFA score components, and the sum of squared errors (SSE) and Davies-Bouldin index (DBI) were used to determine the optimal number of disease subtypes. For clustering results, normalized methods were employed to compare baseline characteristics by visualization, and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to analyze clinical outcomes across phenotypes. RESULTS: This study enrolled patients from MIMIC-IV dataset (n = 11 166), MIMIC-III dataset (n = 4 821), eICU-CRD dataset (n = 6 624), and a local dataset (n = 110), with the four datasets showing similar median ages and male proportions exceeding 50%; using 85% of the MIMIC-IV dataset as the training set, 15% as the test set, and the rest dataset as the validation set. K-means clustering based on the six-item SOFA score was performed to determine the optimal number of clusters as 3, and patients were finally classified into three phenotypes. In the training set, compared with the patients with phenotype II and phenotype III, those with phenotype I had the more severe circulatory and respiratory dysfunction, a higher proportion of vasoactive drug usage, more obvious metabolic acidosis and hypoxia, and a higher incidence of congestive heart failure. The patients with phenotype II was dominated by respiratory dysfunction with higher visceral injury. The patients with phenotype III had relatively stable organ function. The above characteristics were consistent in both the test and validation sets. Analysis of infection-related indicators showed that the patients with phenotype I had the highest SOFA score within 7 days after ICU admission, initial decreases and later increases in platelet count (PLT), and higher counts of neutrophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes as compared with those with phenotype II and phenotype III, their blood cultures had a higher positivity rates for Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria and fungi as compared with those with phenotype II and phenotype III. The Kaplan-Meier curve indicated that in the training, test, and validation sets, the 28-day cumulative mortality of patients with phenotype I was significantly higher than that of patients with phenotypes II and phenotype III. CONCLUSIONS Three distinct phenotypes in septic patients receiving IMV based on unsupervised machine learning is derived, among which phenotype I, characterized by cardiorespiratory failure, can be used for the early identification of high-risk patients in this population. Moreover, this population is more prone to bloodstream infections, posing a high risk and having a poor prognosis.
Humans ; Machine Learning ; Sepsis/therapy* ; Respiration, Artificial ; Intensive Care Units ; Organ Dysfunction Scores ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Adult

Objective To explore the protective effect of miR-374c-5p on hydrogen peroxide(H2O2)-induced apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells(HUVECs).Methods HUVECs were cultured in vitro and the harvested cells were divided into four groups:control group,H2O2 group,H2O2+miR-374c-5p mimics trans-fection group,and H2O2+miR-374c-5p inhibitor transfection group.Cell activity was assessed by CCK-8 prolifer-ation rate assay,apoptosis was detected by TUNEL staining microscopy.Expression of miR-374c-5p and Fas mRNA by RT-qPCR,and Fas protein in HUVECs by was detected by Western blot.Results Proliferation of HUVECs was significantly inhibited(P＜0.001);H2O2 was significantly increased as compared with the H2O2 in-tervention group(P＜0.001);Proliferation in H2O2+miR-374c-5p inhibitor transfection group was significantly increased as compared to H2O2 intervention group(P＜0.001).Conclusions miR-374c-5p protectes the HUVECs against apoptosis induced by H2O2.

Lymphoedema of lower extremities,chronic and progressive,will severely deteriorate the quality of life of patients as it progresses.Thus,early diagnosis and treatment to delay the progress of the disease is conducive to improving the prognosis of patients.At present,common techniques for the diagnosis of lower limb lymphedema,whose advantages and disadvantages vary,cannot be applied to individual case comprehensively.CEUS has the advantages of non-invasion,convenience,real-time,and good repeatability for this disease.CEUS can enhance the image of lymph in lymphatics,and has a high sensitivity to superficial lymphatics,gradually applied in lymphedema of lower limbs.This article reviews the application of CEUS in lower limb lymphedema.

Purpose: The effect of soy products on prostate cancer (PCA) remains a topic of debate. This study aimed to investigate the association between soy products consumption and the incidence of PCA. Materials and Methods: A search was conducted in the PubMed, EBSCO, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases up to December 2023. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to assess the association. Results: A total of 22 articles, comprising 1,409,213 participants, were included for this meta-analysis. The results indicate that soy products reduce the risk of PCA (OR=0.94, 95% CI=0.91–0.97, p<0.001), especially in cases of localized or low-grade PCA (OR=0.94, 95% CI=0.90–0.97, p<0.001), but exhibit no effect on non-localized or high-grade PCA (OR=0.96, 95% CI=0.91–1.01, p=0.085).Furthermore, increased consumption frequency was negatively associated with PCA risk. Specifically, soy products can reduce the risk of PCA in African Americans (OR=0.89, p=0.006) and Latinos (OR=0.93, p=0.036), but have no impact on Japanese (OR=0.99, p=0.655), Chinese (OR=0.90, p=0.155), and Whites (OR=0.96, p=0.133). Non-fermented soy products were associated with a reduction in the incidence rate of PCA (OR=0.93, 95% CI=0.90–0.96, p<0.001), while fermented soy products had no effect on the incidence rate of PCA (OR=1.10, 95% CI=0.98–1.22, p=0.096). Conclusions The consumption of soy products can reduce the overall risk of PCA among men. Various factors, including soy products-related factors (e.g., consumption, frequency), population-related factors (e.g., race), and PCA-related factors (e.g., PCA stage) collectively influence the effect of soy products on PCA.

Objective To longitudinally analyze the perioperative serum levels of inflammatory fac-tors in patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage(HICH),and to explore their correla-tion with prognosis.Methods A total of 173 HICH patients admitted to our hospital from Febru-ary 2021 to January 2023 were consecutively enrolled.Their serum levels of inflammatory factors were measured before operation,and in 6,12,24,48 and 72 h after operation.All of them were fol-lowed up for 6 months,and according to their prognosis,they were divided into good prognosis group(116 patients)and poor prognosis group(57 patients).Multivariate logistic regression anal-ysis was applied to analyze the correlation of the perioperative serum inflammatory factors with HICH prognosis.Results In these HICH patients,IL-6 and IL-1β were increased continuously within 72 h after operation,and the TNF-α level reached its peak at 48 h after operation.The poor prognosis group had significantly longer time from bleeding to admission(6.32±1.50 h vs 5.14±2.00 h),larger hematoma[35.50(24.50,46.00)ml vs 30.00(21.00,41.50)ml],and higher ratio of hematoma breaking into ventricles(28.07％vs 2.59％),and lower GCS score at admission(10.07±1.32 vs 11.00±0.85)when compared with the good prognosis group(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the levels of IL-6,IL-1β and TNF-α at different postoperative time points were independent influencing factors for poor prognosis of HICH patients(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).Conclusion Serum levels of inflammatory factors IL-6,IL-1βand TNF-α are all elevated in HIGH patients during perioperative period,and their increments at different time points are correlated with the increased risk of adverse prognosis in the patients within 6 months after operation.

Objective:To evaluate the role of lactate dehydrogenase in diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP) and the relationship with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α) in mice.Methods:SPF-grade healthy male C57BL/6J mice, aged 6-8 weeks, weighing 18-22 g, were used to establish diabetes mellitus model by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) 120 mg/kg. Twenty-four mice with diabetes mellitus were divided into 2 groups ( n=12 each) using a random number table method: DNP group and DNP + oxamate group (OXA group). Another 12 SPF-grade healthy male C57BL/6J mice were selected as control group (C group). In OXA group, oxamate 750 mg/kg was intraperitoneally injected once a day for 28 consecutive days. The equal volume of normal saline was given instead in C group and DNP group. The mechanical paw withdrawal threshold (MWT), blood glucose and body weight were measured at 3 days before STZ injection and at 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks after STZ injection (T 0-4). After the last behavioural test was completed, blood samples were collected from the posterior orbits of anesthetized mice for determination of serum lactate concentrations. The animals were then sacrificed and the tissues from the prefrontal cortex of the brain were taken for determination of lactate content, mitochondrial membrane potential (by the JC-1), content of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (using dihydroethidium probes), and level of histone lactylation and expression of PGC-1α (by Western blot). Results:Compared with C group, the MWT was significantly decreased at T 2-4, the serum lactate concentrations, contents of lactate and ROS and level of histone lactylation were increased, the mitochondrial membrane potential was decreased, and the expression of PGC-1α was down-regulated in DNP and OXA groups ( P<0.05). Compared with DNP group, no significant change was found in blood glucose and body weight ( P>0.05), the MWT was significantly increased at T 2-4, the serum lactate concentrations, contents of lactate and ROS and level of histone lactylation were decreased, the mitochondrial membrane potential was increased, and the expression of PGC-1α was up-regulated in OXA group ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Lactate dehydrogenase promotes the development of DNP, and the mechanism is related to promotion of increase in histone lactfication and down-regulation of PGC-1α expression in the prefrontal cortex of mice.

Chronic aortic stenosis and regurgitation can cause left ventricular remodeling.Whether these changes are reversible and their reversibility after valve replacement are the main determinants affecting the timing and prognosis of surgery.Imaging techniques are commonly used to evaluate myocardial structure and function,in which echocardiography and enhanced CT are helpful to evaluate artificial flap function and monitor left ventricular deformation,while cardiac MR and PET/CT are helpful to identify the progression and regression of postoperative cardiac fibrosis.The combined application of these new techniques can improve clinical outcomes by early diagnosis and non-invasive detection of postoperative left ventricular reverse remodeling.This paper reviews the evaluation and application of multi-modal imaging techniques for left ventricular reverse remodeling after aortic valve replacement.

Objective:To observe the effect of team resuscitation with Pit-Crew cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) mode on improving the quality of chest compression.Methods:A control method was conducted in this study. Sixty-four medical staffs in ICU and Emergency departments were divided into the role division group and non-role division group according to the ratio of doctors to nurses, with 8 teams in each group and 4 staffs in each team. A team leader was appointed in each team of the role division group to organize and coordinate the whole CPR process, and the non-role division group was not appointed. Each team performed chest compression for 8 min according to the recommendations of the 2020 AHA CPR Guideline under the monitoring of the CPR quality tracking system using a resuscitation manikin. CPR time, chest compression fraction (CCF), times of pressing interruption, times of pressing exceeding standard interruption (>10 s), pressing frequency, chest full recoil rate and other parameters were observed and recorded. The computer system recorded the above parameters, Student's t test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare the differences of indexes between the two groups. Results:After the training, the role division group achieved higher CCF [(69.13±1.55)% vs. (59.13 ± 6.08)%, P<0.05], and the total time was significantly shorter and times of overshoot interruptions was significantly less in the role division group compared with the non-role division group [(79.88±28.76) s vs. (135.25±32.99) s; 4 (3, 5) times vs. 2 (1, 2) times respectively; P<0.01]. There were no statistical differences in the total time of CPR and interruption numbers ( P>0.05). In addition, there were also no statistically significant differences in the pressing total numbers, correct times, pressing frequency, pressing depth, and the full rebound times of compression, as well as the substandard indicators of compression such as pressing too fast, too slow, too deep and insufficient rebound times of compression (all P>0.05). Conclusions:Pit-Crew CPR mode with designated team leader contributes to the implementation of high quality CPR, and the monitoring of CPR quality parameters and the applying of real-time feedback system can effectively improve the quality of chest compression.