Objective To investigate the effects of evolocumab in the early postoperative period after percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI)on blood lipids and inflammatory cytokines in the patients with ul-tra-high-risk atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease(ASCVD).Methods A total of 65 patients with ultra-high-risk ASCVD treated by PCI in this hospital from October 2022 to March 2023 were selected as the study subjects and divided into the observation group(n=33)and control group(n=32)according to the used drugs.The patients in the control group received the treatment of oral rosuvastatin 10 mg;on the basis of the treatment in the control group,the observation group was treated with subcutaneous injection of evolocumab 140 mg immediately after PCI.The fasting blood samples were collected before surgery,on postoperative 3 d,1,3,6 months,and the levels of inflammation and blood lipid indexes were detected and recorded.The occur-rences of cardiovascular adverse events(MACE)and other complications in postoperative 6 months were re-corded.Results The levels of LDL-C,Lp-PLA2 and lipoprotein a on postoperative 3 d,1,3,6 months in the observation group were gradually decreased,moreover were lower than those in the control group,and the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).The levels of IL-6,homocysteine and hs-CRP on postoper-ative 3 d,1,3,6 months in the two groups were decreased,moreover the levels of various indexes in the obser-vation group were lower than those in the control group,and the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).The incidence rate of MACE in the observation group was lower than that in the control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05);the difference in the incidence rates of other complications between the two groups was not statistically significant(P>0.05).According to the Log Rank test,the sur-vival rate of the observation group was higher than that of the control group,and the difference was statistical-ly significant(P<0.05).Conclusion The early application of evolocumab after PCI could reduce the blood lipid level and inflammatory cytokines levels of the patients with ultra-high-risk ASCVD,and increase their survival rate.

ObjectiveTo explore the construction of a machine learning model for the diagnosis of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndromes in chronic cough and the optimization of this model using the Voting ensemble algorithm. MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted using clinical data from 921 patients with chronic cough treated at the Respiratory Department of Dongfang Hospital， Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. After standardized processing， 84 clinical features were extracted to determine TCM syndrome types. A specialized dataset for TCM syndrome diagnosis in chronic cough was formed by selecting syndrome types with more than 50 cases. The synthetic minority over-sampling technique （SMOTE） was employed to balance the dataset. Four base models， logistic regression （LR）， decision tree （dt）， multilayer perceptron （MLP）， and Bagging， were constructed and integrated using a hard voting strategy to form a Voting ensemble model. Model performance was evaluated using accuracy， recall， precision， F1-score， receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve， area under the curve （AUC）， and confusion matrix. ResultsAmong the 921 cases， six syndrome types had over 50 cases each， phlegm-heat obstructing the lung （294 cases）， wind pathogen latent in the lung （103 cases）， cold-phlegm obstructing the lung （102 cases）， damp-heat stagnating in the lung （64 cases）， lung yang deficiency （54 cases）， and phlegm-damp obstructing the lung （53 cases）， yielding a total of 670 cases in the specialized dataset. High-frequency symptoms among these patients included cough， expectoration， odor-induced cough， throat itchiness， itch-induced cough， and cough triggered by cold wind. Among the four base models， the MLP model showed the best diagnostic performance （test accuracy： 0.9104； AUC： 0.9828）. Compared with the base models， the Voting ensemble model achieved superior performance with an accuracy of 0.9289 on the training set and 0.9253 on the test set， showing a minimal overfitting gap of 0.0036. It also achieved the highest AUC （0.9836） in the test set， outperforming all base models. The model exhi-bited especially strong diagnostic performance for damp-heat stagnating in the lung （AUC： 0.9984） and wind pathogen latent in the lung （AUC： 0.9970）. ConclusionThe Voting ensemble algorithm effectively integrates the strengths of multiple machine learning models， resulting in an optimized diagnostic model for TCM syndromes in chronic cough with high accuracy and enhanced generalization ability.

Objective:To assess the physical activity levels(PA)and patterns among older adults in rural areas, as well as to evaluate the association between PA levels and the conditions of sarcopenia and frailty.Methods:A cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 690 rural individuals aged 60 and above.Data on socio-demographic characteristics were collected, while Appendicular Skeletal Muscle Mass Index(ASMI)and grip strength were measured.The Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly(PASE)was employed to evaluate PA levels.Based on their PASE scores, participants were categorized into three groups: low PA level, medium PA level, and high PA level.Sarcopenia was defined according to the 2019 criteria established by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia(AWGS), and frailty status was assessed using the Frail Scale.Results:Among the study sample, 38.0% exhibited a low level of physical activity, 46.2% had a medium level, and 15.8% engaged in high levels of activity.As age increased, the level of physical activity among older adults significantly declined.Most of the physical activity reported by participants was attributed to household chores and farming-related activities.Participation in structured exercise among older adults was notably low, with only 1.3% engaging in muscle-strengthening exercises on a weekly basis.The majority(53.9%)reported walking as their preferred form of weekly exercise.After adjusting for confounding factors, the prevalence of sarcopenia was found to be 0.40(95% CI: 0.26-0.62)times lower in the medium physical activity group, and 0.56(95% CI: 0.31-1.01)times lower in the high physical activity group, compared to those with a low physical activity level.Similarly, regarding frailty as a negative outcome, the prevalence was 0.66(95% CI: 0.51-0.84)times lower in the medium physical activity group and 0.46(95% CI: 0.30-0.73)times lower in the high physical activity group, relative to the low physical activity group.When using PASE scores as a continuous variable, the results remained consistent. Conclusions:The physical activity levels of rural older adults are inadequate, and participation in multicomponent exercise programs is notably low.A lower level of physical activity is significantly associated with a higher prevalence of sarcopenia and frailty.Our findings indicate that it is essential to implement physical activity education and interventions to enhance exercise health literacy and to prevent sarcopenia and frailty among rural older adults.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of microplasma radiofrequency combined with oral traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Babao Dan capsule to improve damp-heat TCM constitution in the treatment of hypertrophic scar.Methods:A prospective randomized controlled trial method was used to recruit patients diagnosed with damp-heat TCM constitution and suffering from hypertrophic scar who admitted to the Fourth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from March to July 2024. All patients were randomly divided into microplasma radiofrequency combined with TCM treatment group (combination group), microplasma radiofrequency (RF) treatment group (RF group), and oral TCM treatment group (TCM group). Both the combination group and the RF group were treated with a microplasma radiofrequency instrument. Transverse, longitudinal and oblique scar grinding were performed three times with 90 W power, and regular scabs appeared in the treatment area as the treatment end point. After RF treatment in the combination group and the TCM group, Babao Dan capsule was taken with regular warm water, 0.6 g each time, 3 times/day, for 3 months. The Vancouver scar scale (VSS) score (higher score indicating more severe scar), visual analogue scale (VAS) of scar pain and itch (higher score indicating more severe symptom), and TCM constitution score (higher score indicating more severe moist heat constitution) were compared before treatment and 3 months after the first treatment. SPSS 26.0 software was used for statistical analysis. Measurement data conforming to normal distribution were expressed as Mean±SD, ANOVA was used for comparison among groups, and LSD- t method was used for pair comparison between groups. Paired sample t test was used before and after treatment in the same group. Counting data were expressed as cases (%), and the χ2 test was used for inter-group comparison. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results:A total of 60 patients were included, 20 in each group. There were no significant differences in gender distribution, disease course, scar area and distribution among the three groups ( P>0.05), indicating comparability. Before treatment, there were no statistically significant differences in VSS, VAS and TCM physique scores among the 3 groups ( P>0.05). After treatment, VAS scores in the 3 groups, VSS scores in combination group and RF group, TCM physique scores in combination group and TCM group were improved compared with those before treatment, and the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). The VSS score of the combination group was significantly lower than that of the RF group and the TCM group ( P<0.05), but there was no statistical significance between the RF group and the TCM group ( P>0.05). The pruritus VAS score of the combination group was significantly lower than that of TCM group and RF group ( P<0.05), but there was no statistical significance between RF group and TCM group ( P>0.05). There was no significant difference in pain VAS scores among the three groups after treatment ( P>0.05). The TCM physique scores of the combination group and TCM group were significantly lower than those of the RF group ( P<0.01), but there was no statistical significance between the combination group and TCM group ( P>0.05). Conclusion:Microplasma radiofrequency combined with oral Babao Dan capsule can effectively improve the VSS score, pain and pruritus of hypertrophic scars in patients with damp-heat constitution, and the effect is better than that of radiofrequency or TCM alone.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of palliative care on drug use, medical service utilization and medical expenditure of patients with advanced cancer. METHODS: A cohort of patients including pal-liative care and standard care was constructed using the medical records of the patients in Peking University Cancer Hospital from 2018 to 2020, and coarsened exact matching was used to match the two groups of patients. The average monthly opioid consumption, hospitalization rate, intensive care unit (ICU) rate and operation rate, and the average monthly total cost were selected to evaluate drug use, medical service utilization and medical expenditure. Chi-square test and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to compare the differences between the two groups before and after exposure and the change in the palliative care group. The net impact of palliative care on the patients was calculated using the difference-in-differences analysis. RESULTS: In this study, 180 patients in the palliative care group and 3 101 patients in the stan-dard care group were finally included in the matching, and the matching effect of the two groups was good (L₁ < 0.1). Before and after exposure, the average monthly opioid consumption in the palliative care group was significantly higher than that in the standard care group (Before exposure: 0.3 DDD/person-month vs. 0.1 DDD/person-month, P < 0.01; After exposure: 0.7 DDD/person-month vs. 0.1 DDD/person-month, P < 0.01; DDD refers to defined daily dose), palliative care significantly increased the average monthly opioid consumption in the patients (0.3 DDD/person-month, P < 0.01). The hospitalization rate (48.9% vs. 74.3%, P < 0.01) and operation rate (3.9% vs. 8.8%, P < 0.01) of the patients in palliative care group were significantly lower than those in standard care group, and the ICU rate became similar between the two groups (1.1% vs. 1.6%, P=0.634). Palliative care significantly reduced the patients ' hospitalization rate (-25.6%, P < 0.01), ICU rate (-4.9%, P < 0.01) and operation rate (-14.5%, P < 0.01). Before and after exposure, the average monthly total costs of pal-liative care group were slightly higher than those of standard care group (Before exposure: 20 092.3 yuan vs. 19 132.8 yuan, P=0.725; After exposure: 9 719.8 yuan vs. 8 818.8 yuan, P=0.165). Palliative care increased the average monthly total cost by 2 208.8 yuan, but it was not statistically significant (P=0.316). CONCLUSION Palliative care can increase the opioid consumption in advanced cancer patients, reduce the rates of hospitalization, ICU and surgery, but has no significant effect on medical expenditure.
Humans ; Palliative Care/economics* ; Neoplasms/drug therapy* ; Analgesics, Opioid/economics* ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Hospitalization/economics* ; Intensive Care Units/statistics & numerical data* ; Health Expenditures/statistics & numerical data* ; Adult ; Drug Utilization/statistics & numerical data* ; Patient Acceptance of Health Care/statistics & numerical data*

Gut microbial communities are likely remodeled in tandem with accumulated physiological decline during aging, yet there is limited understanding of gut microbiome variation in advanced age. Here, we performed a metagenomics-based enterotype analysis in a geographically homogeneous cohort of 367 enrolled Chinese individuals between the ages of 60 and 94 years, with the goal of characterizing the gut microbiome of elderly individuals and identifying factors linked to enterotype variations. In addition to two adult-like enterotypes dominated by Bacteroides (ET-Bacteroides) and Prevotella (ET-Prevotella), we identified a novel enterotype dominated by Escherichia (ET-Escherichia), whose prevalence increased in advanced age. Our data demonstrated that age explained more of the variance in the gut microbiome than previously identified factors such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or diet. We characterized the distinct taxonomic and functional profiles of ET-Escherichia, and found the strongest cohesion and highest robustness of the microbial co-occurrence network in this enterotype, as well as the lowest species diversity. In addition, we carried out a series of correlation analyses and co-abundance network analyses, which showed that several factors were likely linked to the overabundance of Escherichia members, including advanced age, vegetable intake, and fruit intake. Overall, our data revealed an enterotype variation characterized by Escherichia enrichment in the elderly population. Considering the different age distribution of each enterotype, these findings provide new insights into the changes that occur in the gut microbiome with age and highlight the importance of microbiome-based stratification of elderly individuals.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Bacteroides ; China ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/microbiology* ; Escherichia coli/classification* ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics* ; Metagenomics ; East Asian People

Objective:To investigate the rate-limiting steps of hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, analyze the relevant factors affecting surgical difficulty, and subsequently construct a mathematical model to predict the difficulty of the procedure preoperatively.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted on 100 kidney donors who underwent hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy performed by the same surgeon at Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University from January 2021 to January 2024. Preoperative demographic data, imaging findings, general condition, donor kidney size, and postoperative complications were collected and analyzed. The surgeon′s subjective rating (1-3 points) was used as a quantitative measure of surgical difficulty. ANOVA and Chi-square tests were employed to explore the differences in postoperative complications, recovery, operative time, and intraoperative blood loss among groups with varying levels of difficulty. The main procedure was divided into four steps (excluding abdominal closure): Trocar placement, renal hilar dissection, perinephric dissection, and kidney retrieval. The time for each step and the total operative time were recorded. Pearson correlation test was used to analyze the relationship between each step and the total operative time, and ANOVA test was used to assess the time differences between steps and to determine if the time for the same step varied across different difficulty subgroups, thereby identifying the rate-limiting step of hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. In terms of the risk factors influencing the difficulty of surgery, Pearson and Spearman correlation tests were used to investigate the relationship between preoperative donor data and surgical difficulty scores, and a predictive model was constructed using multiple linear regression. Finally, the model was internally and externally validated to confirm its accuracy and effectiveness.Results:As the surgical difficulty increased (groups 1, 2, and 3), the postoperative drainage tube duration was correspondingly prolonged [(5.92±1.48) d, (8.00±1.75) d, and (11.88±4.45) d, respectively, P<0.05], and the severity of postoperative complications also significantly increased (the incidence of Clavien-Dindo grade ≥2 was 5.66%, 31.82% and 64.00%, respectively, P<0.01). In the analysis of rate-limiting steps, the time taken for all steps, except for Trocar placement, showed significant differences among the difficulty subgroups ( P<0.001). However, the average time for renal hilar dissection was (19.82±5.65) min, which was significantly longer than the other steps ( P<0.001). Therefore, renal hilar dissection was identified as the rate-limiting step of hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. In terms of the influencing factors of surgical difficulty, donor obesity, kidney width, abdominal anteroposterior sagittal diameter, number of renal arteries, distance from renal artery bifurcation to the abdominal aorta, degree of renal artery calcification, and mayo adhesive probability (MAP) score were all correlated with the surgical difficulty score ( P<0.05). However, multiple linear regression analysis revealed that only the number of renal arteries and the MAP score were the independent risk factors for higher surgical difficulty of hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. The predictive equation was: surgical difficulty=0.649×number of renal arteries+ 0.770×MAP score. Both internal and external validation confirmed the model's good accuracy. Conclusions:This study established a reliable and objective predictive model for the difficulty of hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy based on the number of renal arteries and the MAP score. Renal hilar dissection was identified as the rate-limiting step of the procedure. This provides a reference for selecting an appropriate surgeon based on the predicted surgical difficulty.

Objective To summarize the medicinal properties of new foreign introducing Chinese materia medica Drimia maritima(L.)Stearn based on literature research;To further verify its five flavors by applying intelligent sense;To provide new ideas for the medicinal properties research of new foreign introducing Chinese materia medica.Methods Literature about Drimia maritima(L.)Stearn was retrieved from CNKI,VIP,Wanfang Data,PubMed,Web of Science,and combined with the TCM theories medicinal properties of Drimia maritima(L.)Stearn was summarized.PEN3 electronic nose and SA402B electronic tongue were used to obtain intelligent sensory information of Drimia maritima(L.)Stearn,and the principal component analysis(PCA)was used to identify its five flavors.Results Literature research summarize Drimia maritima(L.)Stearn with antioxidant,anti-tumor,strengthening cardiac functions and diuresis,reducing cough and asthma and other pharmacological effects.Combined with the theories,it explored that its property was mainly slightly warm,the tastes were mainly bitter,pungent,sweet,and slightly toxic,belonging to the lung,spleen,stomach and heart meridians.Based on intelligent sense,identification results of five tastes of Drimia maritima(L.)Stearn were bitter,slightly pungent,slightly sweet,salty,non-acid,basically consistent with the literature research.Conclusion Literature research combined with intelligent sense can better summarize and recognize the medicinal properties of Drimia maritima(L.)Stearn.This study can provide a certain reference for a more objective and adequate medicinal properties analysis of new foreign introducing Chinese materia medica.

Objective:To investigate the targets and mechanisms of cycloastragenol in ameliorating azithromycin-induced drug-induced liver injury(DILI)based on network pharmacology and in vitro experiment validation.Methods:Potential targets of cycloastragenol and DILI were predicted using databases.The common and key targets were screened and subjected to GO and KEGG enrichment analyses,as well as molecular docking validation.Primary hepatocytes from C57BL/6 mice were isolated.The optimal concentration and time for azithromycin-induced DILI in mouse primary hepatocytes were determined using CCK8 and ROS assays.The expression of genes and proteins such as NF-κB p65,p-NF-κB p65,AMPKα,and p-AMPKα was assessed using RT-qPCR and Western blot to evaluate the intervention effect of cycloastragenol(10-50 μmol/L).Results:Network pharmacology analysis identified 10 key genes related to cycloastragenol's improvement of DILI,including heat shock protein 90AA1(HSP90AA1),matrix metalloproteinase 2(MMP2),etc.GO enrichment analysis suggested that cycloastragenol primarily regulates biological processes such as membrane potential and chemical synaptic transmission,and affects cellular components such as neuronal cell bodies and distal axons,and related kinase activities.KEGG enrichment analysis showed that it mainly exerts intervention effects through neuro-signaling pathways and IL-17 signaling pathways.Molecular docking demonstrated strong binding of cycloastragenol to HSP90AA1,MMP2,NF-κB p65,AMPKα,nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2(Nrf2),heme oxygenase 1(HO-1),and NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1(NQO1),with a binding energy≤-5.0 kcal/mol for Nrf2.In vitro experiments showed that azithromycin(50 μmol/L,12 h)significantly reduced hepatocyte viability and increased ROS levels(P＜0.01).Different concentrations of cycloastragenol significantly improved the activity of mouse primary hepatocytes,reduced the generation of intracellular ROS,downregulated the phosphorylation level of NF-κB p65,and upregulated the mRNA and protein levels of AMPKα,Nrf2,HO-1,NQO1(P＜0.05).Conclusions:Cycloastragenol may alleviate azithromycin-induced hepatocyte oxidative stress and inflammation by inhibiting NF-κB phosphorylation and activating the AMPK/Nrf2/HO-1/NQO1 pathway,with its mechanism likely closely linked to targeting Nrf2.However,the complex mechanisms of DILI may involve additional unverified pathways.Therefore,further studies are necessary to validate the efficacy and safety of cycloastragenol in animal models.