Background and Objectives: The Fractional Flow Reserve and Intravascular UltrasoundGuided Intervention Strategy for Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Intermediate Stenosis (FLAVOUR) trial demonstrated non-inferiority of fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided PCI. We sought to investigate the cost-effectiveness of FFR-guided PCI compared to IVUS-guided PCI in Korea. Methods: A 2-part cost-effectiveness model, composed of a short-term decision tree model and a long-term Markov model, was developed for patients who underwent PCI to treat intermediate stenosis (40% to 70% stenosis by visual estimation on coronary angiography).The lifetime healthcare costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were estimated from the healthcare system perspective. Transition probabilities were mainly referred from the FLAVOUR trial, and healthcare costs were mainly obtained through analysis of Korean National Health Insurance claims data. Health utilities were mainly obtained from the Seattle Angina Questionnaire responses of FLAVOUR trial participants mapped to EQ-5D. Results: From the Korean healthcare system perspective, the base-case analysis showed that FFR-guided PCI was 2,451 U.S. dollar lower in lifetime healthcare costs and 0.178 higher in QALYs compared to IVUS-guided PCI. FFR-guided PCI remained more likely to be cost-effective over a wide range of willingness-to-pay thresholds in the probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Conclusions Based on the results from the FLAVOUR trial, FFR-guided PCI is projected to decrease lifetime healthcare costs and increase QALYs compared with IVUS-guided PCI in intermediate coronary lesion, and it is a dominant strategy in Korea.

Background and Objectives: The Fractional Flow Reserve and Intravascular UltrasoundGuided Intervention Strategy for Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Intermediate Stenosis (FLAVOUR) trial demonstrated non-inferiority of fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided PCI. We sought to investigate the cost-effectiveness of FFR-guided PCI compared to IVUS-guided PCI in Korea. Methods: A 2-part cost-effectiveness model, composed of a short-term decision tree model and a long-term Markov model, was developed for patients who underwent PCI to treat intermediate stenosis (40% to 70% stenosis by visual estimation on coronary angiography).The lifetime healthcare costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were estimated from the healthcare system perspective. Transition probabilities were mainly referred from the FLAVOUR trial, and healthcare costs were mainly obtained through analysis of Korean National Health Insurance claims data. Health utilities were mainly obtained from the Seattle Angina Questionnaire responses of FLAVOUR trial participants mapped to EQ-5D. Results: From the Korean healthcare system perspective, the base-case analysis showed that FFR-guided PCI was 2,451 U.S. dollar lower in lifetime healthcare costs and 0.178 higher in QALYs compared to IVUS-guided PCI. FFR-guided PCI remained more likely to be cost-effective over a wide range of willingness-to-pay thresholds in the probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Conclusions Based on the results from the FLAVOUR trial, FFR-guided PCI is projected to decrease lifetime healthcare costs and increase QALYs compared with IVUS-guided PCI in intermediate coronary lesion, and it is a dominant strategy in Korea.

Background and Objectives: The Fractional Flow Reserve and Intravascular UltrasoundGuided Intervention Strategy for Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Intermediate Stenosis (FLAVOUR) trial demonstrated non-inferiority of fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided PCI. We sought to investigate the cost-effectiveness of FFR-guided PCI compared to IVUS-guided PCI in Korea. Methods: A 2-part cost-effectiveness model, composed of a short-term decision tree model and a long-term Markov model, was developed for patients who underwent PCI to treat intermediate stenosis (40% to 70% stenosis by visual estimation on coronary angiography).The lifetime healthcare costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were estimated from the healthcare system perspective. Transition probabilities were mainly referred from the FLAVOUR trial, and healthcare costs were mainly obtained through analysis of Korean National Health Insurance claims data. Health utilities were mainly obtained from the Seattle Angina Questionnaire responses of FLAVOUR trial participants mapped to EQ-5D. Results: From the Korean healthcare system perspective, the base-case analysis showed that FFR-guided PCI was 2,451 U.S. dollar lower in lifetime healthcare costs and 0.178 higher in QALYs compared to IVUS-guided PCI. FFR-guided PCI remained more likely to be cost-effective over a wide range of willingness-to-pay thresholds in the probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Conclusions Based on the results from the FLAVOUR trial, FFR-guided PCI is projected to decrease lifetime healthcare costs and increase QALYs compared with IVUS-guided PCI in intermediate coronary lesion, and it is a dominant strategy in Korea.

Background and Objectives: The Fractional Flow Reserve and Intravascular UltrasoundGuided Intervention Strategy for Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Intermediate Stenosis (FLAVOUR) trial demonstrated non-inferiority of fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided PCI. We sought to investigate the cost-effectiveness of FFR-guided PCI compared to IVUS-guided PCI in Korea. Methods: A 2-part cost-effectiveness model, composed of a short-term decision tree model and a long-term Markov model, was developed for patients who underwent PCI to treat intermediate stenosis (40% to 70% stenosis by visual estimation on coronary angiography).The lifetime healthcare costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were estimated from the healthcare system perspective. Transition probabilities were mainly referred from the FLAVOUR trial, and healthcare costs were mainly obtained through analysis of Korean National Health Insurance claims data. Health utilities were mainly obtained from the Seattle Angina Questionnaire responses of FLAVOUR trial participants mapped to EQ-5D. Results: From the Korean healthcare system perspective, the base-case analysis showed that FFR-guided PCI was 2,451 U.S. dollar lower in lifetime healthcare costs and 0.178 higher in QALYs compared to IVUS-guided PCI. FFR-guided PCI remained more likely to be cost-effective over a wide range of willingness-to-pay thresholds in the probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Conclusions Based on the results from the FLAVOUR trial, FFR-guided PCI is projected to decrease lifetime healthcare costs and increase QALYs compared with IVUS-guided PCI in intermediate coronary lesion, and it is a dominant strategy in Korea.

Azvudine and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid) are recommended for COVID-19 treatment in China, but their safety and efficacy in the elderly population are not fully known. In this multicenter, retrospective, cohort study, we identified 5131 elderly hospitalized COVID-19 patients from 32,864 COVID-19 patients admitted to nine hospitals in Henan Province, China, from December 5, 2022, to January 31, 2023. The primary outcome was all-cause death, and the secondary outcome was composite disease progression. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to control for confounding factors, including demographics, vaccination status, comorbidities, and laboratory tests. After 2:1 PSM, 1786 elderly patients receiving azvudine and 893 elderly patients receiving Paxlovid were included. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses revealed that compared with Paxlovid group, azvudine could significantly reduce the risk of all-cause death (log-rank P = 0.002; HR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.573-0.883, P = 0.002), but there was no difference in composite disease progression (log-rank P = 0.52; HR: 1.05, 95% CI: 0.877-1.260, P = 0.588). Four sensitivity analyses verified the robustness of above results. Subgroup analysis suggested that a greater benefit of azvudine over Paxlovid was observed in elderly patients with primary malignant tumors (P for interaction = 0.005, HR: 0.32, 95% CI: 0.18-0.57) compared to patients without primary malignant tumors. Safety analysis revealed that azvudine treatment had a lower incidence of adverse events and higher lymphocyte levels than Paxlovid treatment. In conclusion, azvudine treatment is not inferior to Paxlovid treatment in terms of all-cause death, composite disease progression and adverse events in elderly hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Liquid chip technology is based on liquid carrier. Comparing to the traditional detection methods, it has unique characteristics such as multiple detection ability, high throughput, high sensitivity, good repeatability, less sample and fast analysis. It can analyse proteins, nucleic acids and other biological molecules in liquid. At present, it has been widely used in the laboratory diagnosis of tumors, autoimmune diseases, allergic diseases, cytokines related diseases, as well as infectious diseases. This article discussed the principles, detection performances, clinical applications and future prospects of liquid chip technology.

Objective:To retrospectively analyze the changes in the proportion of refined lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of patients with Graves disease (GD), and their correlation with the clinical characteristics and efficacy of GD, and to explore the immunological pathogenesis of Graves disease for seeking new therapeutic targets.Methods:A total of 97 newly diagnosed GD patients (GD group), 27 patients after treatment (treatment group), and 31 healthy individuals (control group) who visited the Fifth Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital from 2018 to 2021 were included in this study. The data of refined lymphocyte subsets, thyroid function, blood routine and clinical treatment of the three groups were compared and analyzed. The t-test and rank sum test were used to compare the proportions of lymphocyte subsets among different groups, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the proportions of lymphocyte subsets and thyroid function indicators.Results:The proportion of B cells in GD group was higher than that in the control group [16.2%(11.8%, 21.8%) vs 10.2%(8.1%,13.6%)], while the proportion of natural killer (NK) cells was lower [9.4%(4.9%, 13.6%) vs 14.6%(12.1%,18.8%)], and the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). Abnormal T cell differentiation: the proportions of functional cells, including activated T cells, memory T cells, clustering antigen(CD)4+memory T cells, Th1 cells, and Tc1 cells, were lower than that in the control group [3.2%(2.1%, 5.7%) vs 5.8%(3.0%, 9.3%), P<0.05; 36.7% (29.9%, 48.1%) vs 48.0%(39.2%,57.7%), P<0.05; 23.1%(17.4%, 30.1%) vs 28.9%(23.3%,34.6%), P<0.05; 16.4% (11.8%, 23.6%) vs 24.3%(16.9%,28.5%), P<0.05; 28.5% (14.7%, 39.2%) vs 46.3%(21.6%,69.2%), P<0.05]. The proportion of activated T cells in the treatment group was higher than that in the GD group [6.5% (4.6%, 13.6%) vs 3.2% (2.1%, 5.7%), P<0.05]. The total triiodothyronine results showed positive correlations with B cells ( r=0.356, P<0.01) and negative correlations with NK cells ( r=?0.416, P<0.01), while the total thyroxine values showed negative correlations with NK cells and activated T cells ( r=?0.318,?0.335; P<0.01). Thyroid stimulating hormone and CD8+initial T cells were positively correlated ( r=0.382, P<0.01). The proportion of B cells, cytotoxic T cells and suppressor T cells in CD8+cells of patients with complications [such as Graves orbitopathy (GO), thyroid toxic cardiomyopathy, etc.] was significantly different from that of the simple GD patients [18.3% (14.1%, 27.1%) vs 14.6% (10.8%, 21.4%), Z=2.54, P<0.05; 73.4%(65.6%,83.6%)vs 65.0%(50.3%,79.3%), Z=2.93, P<0.05; 26.6%(16.4%, 37.5%)vs 35.0%(20.7%,49.7%), Z=?2.74, P<0.05]. The proportion of suppressor T cells in GO patients was lower than that in non-GO patients [6.1% (3.4%, 8.1%) vs 8.5% (4.9%, 13.6%), Z=?3.20 P<0.05]. Conclusion:There are significant alterations in the circulating immune cells of GD patients, suggesting that immunological abnormalities play a crucial role in the onset and progression of the disease.

Liquid chip technology is based on liquid carrier. Comparing to the traditional detection methods, it has unique characteristics such as multiple detection ability, high throughput, high sensitivity, good repeatability, less sample and fast analysis. It can analyse proteins, nucleic acids and other biological molecules in liquid. At present, it has been widely used in the laboratory diagnosis of tumors, autoimmune diseases, allergic diseases, cytokines related diseases, as well as infectious diseases. This article discussed the principles, detection performances, clinical applications and future prospects of liquid chip technology.

Objective:To retrospectively analyze the changes in the proportion of refined lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of patients with Graves disease (GD), and their correlation with the clinical characteristics and efficacy of GD, and to explore the immunological pathogenesis of Graves disease for seeking new therapeutic targets.Methods:A total of 97 newly diagnosed GD patients (GD group), 27 patients after treatment (treatment group), and 31 healthy individuals (control group) who visited the Fifth Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital from 2018 to 2021 were included in this study. The data of refined lymphocyte subsets, thyroid function, blood routine and clinical treatment of the three groups were compared and analyzed. The t-test and rank sum test were used to compare the proportions of lymphocyte subsets among different groups, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the proportions of lymphocyte subsets and thyroid function indicators.Results:The proportion of B cells in GD group was higher than that in the control group [16.2%(11.8%, 21.8%) vs 10.2%(8.1%,13.6%)], while the proportion of natural killer (NK) cells was lower [9.4%(4.9%, 13.6%) vs 14.6%(12.1%,18.8%)], and the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). Abnormal T cell differentiation: the proportions of functional cells, including activated T cells, memory T cells, clustering antigen(CD)4+memory T cells, Th1 cells, and Tc1 cells, were lower than that in the control group [3.2%(2.1%, 5.7%) vs 5.8%(3.0%, 9.3%), P<0.05; 36.7% (29.9%, 48.1%) vs 48.0%(39.2%,57.7%), P<0.05; 23.1%(17.4%, 30.1%) vs 28.9%(23.3%,34.6%), P<0.05; 16.4% (11.8%, 23.6%) vs 24.3%(16.9%,28.5%), P<0.05; 28.5% (14.7%, 39.2%) vs 46.3%(21.6%,69.2%), P<0.05]. The proportion of activated T cells in the treatment group was higher than that in the GD group [6.5% (4.6%, 13.6%) vs 3.2% (2.1%, 5.7%), P<0.05]. The total triiodothyronine results showed positive correlations with B cells ( r=0.356, P<0.01) and negative correlations with NK cells ( r=?0.416, P<0.01), while the total thyroxine values showed negative correlations with NK cells and activated T cells ( r=?0.318,?0.335; P<0.01). Thyroid stimulating hormone and CD8+initial T cells were positively correlated ( r=0.382, P<0.01). The proportion of B cells, cytotoxic T cells and suppressor T cells in CD8+cells of patients with complications [such as Graves orbitopathy (GO), thyroid toxic cardiomyopathy, etc.] was significantly different from that of the simple GD patients [18.3% (14.1%, 27.1%) vs 14.6% (10.8%, 21.4%), Z=2.54, P<0.05; 73.4%(65.6%,83.6%)vs 65.0%(50.3%,79.3%), Z=2.93, P<0.05; 26.6%(16.4%, 37.5%)vs 35.0%(20.7%,49.7%), Z=?2.74, P<0.05]. The proportion of suppressor T cells in GO patients was lower than that in non-GO patients [6.1% (3.4%, 8.1%) vs 8.5% (4.9%, 13.6%), Z=?3.20 P<0.05]. Conclusion:There are significant alterations in the circulating immune cells of GD patients, suggesting that immunological abnormalities play a crucial role in the onset and progression of the disease.

Purpose To explore the differences of the accuracy of detection and recognition of thyroid nodules and the diagnostic efficacy of benign and malignant thyroid nodules via artificial intelligence(AI)ultrasound assisted systems based on different ultrasound parameters.Materials and Methods A total of 147 patients with 289 nodules who underwent thyroid surgery in the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from March 30,2023 to May 1,2023 were prospectively selected.Different ultrasound parameters were adjusted and the AI system was used to detect and diagnose benign and malignant thyroid nodules via each parameter.Taken pathological results as the gold standard,the accuracy of thyroid nodule detection and the accuracy of benign and malignant diagnosis under different ultrasound parameters were compared,respectively.Results Under the standard ultrasound parameters,the accuracy of AI system in detecting thyroid nodules was 94.1%,the sensitivity for benign and malignant diagnosis was 90.9%,the specificity was 79.6%,and the accuracy was 86.6%,respectively.In terms of detection accuracy,accuracy under low gain(χ2=4.453,P=0.035)and high gain(χ2=6.215,P=0.013)parameters of AI system were significantly lower than those of standard ultrasound parameters.In terms of diagnostic efficacy,specificity(χ2=4.620,P=0.032),accuracy(χ2=7.521,P=0.006),area under the curve(Z=3.102,P=0.001),high gain sensitivity(χ2=6.170,P=0.013),accuracy(χ2=4.127,P=0.042),area under the curve(Z=2.152,P=0.031)and high depth accuracy(χ2=5.011,P=0.025),area under the curve(Z=2.420,P=0.015)of low gain were all significantly reduced compared to standard ultrasound parameters,with statistical differences.Conclusion When using the AI system to assist in the examination of thyroid nodules,attention should be paid to the adjustment of ultrasound instrument parameters.Improper parameter adjustment may reduce the AI system's ability to detect thyroid nodules and the accuracy of benign and malignant diagnosis.