Introduction::Observational studies have revealed an association between waist circumference (WC) and atrial fibrillation (AF). However, it is difficult to infer a causal relationship from observational studies because the observed associations could be confounded by unknown risk factors. Therefore, the causal role of WC in AF is unclear. This study was designed to investigate the causal association between WC and AF using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.Methods::In our two-sample MR analysis, the genetic variation used as an instrumental variable for MR was acquired from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of WC (42 single nucleotide polymorphisms with a genetic significance of P <5 × 10 –8). The data of WC (from the Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits consortium, containing 232,101 participants) and the data of AF (from the European Bioinformatics Institute database, containing 55,114 AF cases and 482,295 controls) were used to assess the causal role of WC on AF. Three different approaches (inverse variance weighted [IVW], MR–Egger, and weighted median regression) were used to ensure that our results more reliable. Results::All three MR analyses provided evidence of a positive causal association between high WC and AF. High WC was suggested to increase the risk of AF based on the IVW method (odds ratio [OR] = 1.43, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.30–1.58, P = 2.51 × 10 -13). The results of MR–Egger and weighted median regression exhibited similar trends (MR–Egger OR = 1.40 [95% CI, 1.08–1.81], P = 1.61 × 10 -2; weighted median OR = 1.39 [95% CI, 1.21–1.61], P = 1.62 × 10 -6). MR–Egger intercepts and funnel plots showed no directional pleiotropic effects between high WC and AF. Conclusions::Our findings suggest that greater WC is associated with an increased risk of AF. Taking measures to reduce WC may help prevent the occurrence of AF.

Objective:To develop an imaging-assisted diagnostic tool for schizophrenia based on multimodal magnetic resonance imaging and artificial intelligence techniques.Methods:Three independent datasets were utilized. For each subject, four brain structural metrics including grey matter volume (GMV), white matter volume (WMV), cortical thickness (CT) and deformation-based morphometry (DBM) indicators were extracted from the structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data, and three brain functional metrics including amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) were extracted from the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. To distinguish patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls, single-metric classification models and multi-metrics-fusion classification models were trained and tested using a within-dataset and a between-dataset cross-validation strategy.Results:The results of within-dataset cross-validation showed that the highest accuracy of the single-metric classifications for schizophrenia diagnosis was 86.18% (FC), while the multi-metric-fusion classifications could reach an accuracy of 90.21%. The results of between-datasets cross-validation showed that the highest accuracy of the single-metric classifications for schizophrenia diagnosis was 69.02% (ReHo), while the multi-metric-fusion classifications could reach an accuracy of 71.25%.Conclusion:The functional metrics generally outperforms the structural metrics for the classification between patients with schizophrenia and heathy controls. Additionally, fusion of multi-modal brain imaging metrics can improve the classification performance. Specifically, the fusion of CT, DBM, WMV, FC and ReHo demonstrates the highest classification accuracy, which is a potential tool for imaging-assisted diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Animals ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Antibodies, Neutralizing ; Macaca mulatta ; COVID-19/prevention & control* ; Antibodies, Viral ; Vaccines

Objectives:To investigate the predictive effect of regional homogeneity (ReHo) from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in acute phase on memory function of chronic phage in ischemic stroke patients and the effects of residual learning (REL) on the predictive performance of machine learning models.Methods:From June 2019 to June 2021, rs-fMRI data of one-week after stroke (acute phase) were collected from 35 first-time ischemic stroke patients, and their memory scores were assessed by the Rey auditory verbal learning test (RAVLT) at 6 months after stroke (chronic phase). Using ReHo from rs-fMRI data in acute phase of ischemic stroke patients, the support vector regression (SVR) and the REL-based SVR (REL-SVR) were constructed to predict the patients’ memory scores at 6 months after stroke, and the performance of the two models was compared using Pearson correlation coefficient.Results:Based on the ReHo from acute phase, the correlation coefficient between the predicted values and the true scores from the SVR model was r=0.524, P=0.001, while the correlation coefficient obtained by the REL-SVR model was r=0.671, P<0.001. Brain regions with relatively higher weights such as Temporal_Pole_Mid_R (weight value: 1.03), Temporal_Mid_R(weight value: 1.03), Temporal_Inf_R (weight value: 1.03), Occipital_Mid_R (weight value: 0.57), Frontal_Mid_L (weight value: 0.32), Frontal_Sup_Medial_L (weight value: 0.53), SupraMarginal_L (weight value: 1.54), Calcarine_L (weight value: 0.65), Lingual_L (weight value: 0.58), Cuneus_L (weight value: 0.65), Precuneus_L (weight value: 0.83), cerebellum(weight value>1.0) made larger contributions to the prediction model. Conclusions:ReHo in the acute-phase can effectively predict memory in the chronic phase of ischemic stroke patients. Furthermore, REL can improve the performance of the traditional SVR model and achieve higher predictive accuracy.

OBJECTIVES: Safe and effective anticoagulation is essential for hemodialysis patients who are at high risk of bleeding. The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of two-stage regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) combined with sequential anticoagulation and standard calcium-containing dialysate in intermittent hemodialysis (IHD) treatment. METHODS: Patients at high risk of bleeding who underwent IHD from September 2019 to May 2021 were prospectively enrolled in 13 blood purification centers of nephrology departments, and were randomly divided into RCA group and saline flushing group. In the RCA group, 0.04 g/mL sodium citrate was infused from the start of the dialysis line during blood draining and at the venous expansion chamber. The sodium citrate was stopped after 3 h of dialysis, which was changed to sequential dialysis without anticoagulant. The hazard ratios for coagulation were according to baseline. RESULTS: A total of 159 patients and 208 sessions were enrolled, including RCA group (80 patients, 110 sessions) and saline flushing group (79 patients, 98 sessions). The incidence of severe coagulation events of extracorporeal circulation in the RCA group was significantly lower than that in the saline flushing group (3.64% vs. 20.41%, P<0.001). The survival time of the filter pipeline in the RCA group was significantly longer than that in the saline flushing group ((238.34±9.33) min vs. (221.73±34.10) min, P<0.001). The urea clearance index (Kt/V) in the RCA group was similar to that in the saline flushing group with no statistically significant difference (1.12±0.34 vs. 1.08±0.34, P=0.41). CONCLUSIONS Compared with saline flushing, the two-stage RCA combined with a sequential anticoagulation strategy significantly reduced extracorporeal circulation clotting events and prolonged the dialysis time without serious adverse events.
Humans ; Citric Acid/adverse effects* ; Prospective Studies ; Sodium Citrate ; Hemorrhage/chemically induced* ; Citrates/adverse effects* ; Anticoagulants/adverse effects* ; Renal Dialysis/adverse effects*

A systematic characterization of the similarities and differences among different methods for detecting structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia, such as voxel-based morphometry (VBM), tensor-based morphometry (TBM), and projection-based thickness (PBT), is important for understanding the brain pathology in schizophrenia and for developing effective biomarkers for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, such studies are still lacking. Here, we performed VBM, TBM, and PBT analyses on T1-weighted brain MR images acquired from 116 patients with schizophrenia and 116 healthy controls. We found that, although all methods detected wide-spread structural changes, different methods captured different information - only 10.35% of the grey matter changes in cortex were detected by all three methods, and VBM only detected 11.36% of the white matter changes detected by TBM. Further, pattern classification between patients and controls revealed that combining different measures improved the classification accuracy (81.9%), indicating that fusion of different structural measures serves as a better neuroimaging marker for the objective diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Objective To explore the differences of macrostructural and microstructural and their correlations in brain white matter (WM) between left-and right-handed adults.Methods Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were performed on twenty-three left-handed (LH) and thirty-two right-handed (RH) healthy subjects.The WM volume,fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were mearsured and compared between the two groups by using the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and voxel-based analysis (VBA) methods.Results (1) LH adults showed lower WM volume than RH adults in bilateral splenium of corpus callosum (SC) (Left:x=-15,y=-57,z =13.5,t=-5.160;Right:x=18,y=-42,z=12,t=-3.654;P＜0.001).Compared with the RH adults,the FA values in WM of the left postcentral gyrus (PoCG) (x =-24,y =-46,z =54) and the above left insula (INS) (x =-36,y =-12,z =20) increased (P＜ 0.001),as well as the average FA values,the average length and number of streamlines in WM tracts increased (P＜0.05) in LH adults.Compared with the RH adults,the MD values in the right HIP (x=24,y=-34,z=-2) decreased(P＜0.001),as well as the average MD values decreased,and the average length in WM tracts increased (P＜0.05) in LH adults.(2)There was positive correlation between FA and the volume of right splenium of corpus callosum in LH and RH adults (LH:r=0.716,RH:r=0.471,P＜0.05).There was negative correlation between FA and MD in the left PoCG (LH:r=-0.769,RH:r=-0.841),left INS (LH:r=-0.775,RH:r=-0.744) and right HIP (LH:r=-0.842,RH:r=-0.742) in LH and RH adults (all P＜0.05).Conclusion There are differences in both macrostructure and microstructure of white matter in several brain regions and WM tracts between left-handed and right-handed people,and correlations between these measures were also observed.

Objective: To investigate the clinical features and change trend of patients with acute coronary syndrome(ACS) undergoing emergent percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI). Methods: In this retrospective study, we retrieved all medical records of 4 907 ACS patients who underwent emergent PCI in Fuwai hospital from January 1,2010 to December 31,2016. We analyzed the clinical features and change trend in these patients. According to clinical diagnosis, patients were grouped as ST-elevated myocardial infarction(STEMI) group (3 719 cases) and NSTE-ACS group (patients with non-STEMI and unstable angina, 1 188 cases). Results: The ACS patients were aged (59.5±11.8) years old. There were 3 772 males and 1 135 females. The annual number of ACS patients underwent emergent PCI increased from 412 patients in 2010 to 1 067 patients in 2016. The number of NSTE-ACS patients increased from 11.4% (47/412) in 2010 to 26.5% (283/1 067) in 2016. Compared with STEMI group, patients in NSTE-ACS group were significantly older ((61.2±10.9) years old vs. (58.9±12.1) years old,P<0.01).The percent of female patients (30.1% (358/1 188) vs. 20.9% (777/3 719), P < 0.01), history of hypertension (69.1% (821/1 188) vs. 60.4% (2 248/3 719,P <0.01), previous PCI (25.8% (307/1 188) vs. 12.4% (461/3 719), P <0.01), and previous coronary artery bypass grafting (3.0% (36/1 188) vs. 1.0% (37/3 719), P <0.01) were all significantly higher in NSTE-ACS group than in STEMI group. On the other hand, NSTE-ACS patients presented less chronic renal failure (2.9% (35/1 188) vs. 4.3% (173/3 719), P <0.05) and hepatic dysfunction (8.5% (101/1 188) vs. 13.3% (495/3 719), P<0.01) as compared to ACS patients. In coronary angiography, NSTE-ACS patients had a higher prevalence of left-main disease (14.0% (166/1 188) vs. 7.8% (291/3 719), P<0.012 5) and triple vessel disease (47.8% (568/1 188) vs. 43.5% (1 619/3 719), P<0.012 5). There were no differences in prevalence of diabetes mellitus (31.9% (1 187/3 719) vs. 34.8% (414/1 188),P>0.05) and acute renal failure (0.1% (38/3 719) vs. 0.6% (7/1 188),P>0.05) between STEMI group and NSTE-ACS group. Conclusions This single center retrospective analysis reveals that there is an increasing trend of NSTE-ACS patients from 2010 to 2016. Furthermore, there are more high-risk clinical characteristics in NSTE-ACS patients than in STEMI patients.

Objective:To provide reference for clinical monitoring and treatment of patients with gastric ulcer caused by antiplate-let therapy. Methods: Clinical pharmacists participated in the pharmaceutical care of antiplatelet therapy for a patient with acute stroke, and provided pharmaceutical recommendations in respects of antiplatelet therapy, antihypertensive therapy and nursing care by means of medication reconciliation and medication education. Results: The stomach bleeding in the patient was controlled, and the blood pressure was controlled within the target value. Conclusion: Clinical pharmacist can ensure the medication safety and improve the medication compliance through monitoring drug use, which can further improve clinical effectiveness.

The sufficiency of hard and soft tissue at the implant site is the guarantee of long-term function, health and the appearance of implant denture. Problem of soft tissue recession at the implant site has always been bothering dentists. Traditional methods for augmentation of soft tissue such as gingival transplantation have disadvantages of instability of the increased soft-tissue and more trauma. Lately the methods that base on tissue engineering to increase the soft tissue of peri-implant sites have drawn great attention. This review focuses on the current methods of peri-implant restoration through tissue engineering, seed cells, biological scaffolds and cytokines.
Dental Implants ; Dental Research ; trends ; Gingiva ; Gingival Recession ; therapy ; Humans ; Tissue Engineering ; methods