Objective To elucidate the application scope and delineate the criteria of dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) in assessing surgical risk associated with valvular heart diseases in patients presenting with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Methods This retrospective analysis encompassed data from patients with reduced LVEF (LVEF<40%) who underwent DSE prior to valvular heart surgery at the Valvular Surgery Center of Beijing Anzhen Hospital between May 2016 and September 2024. Patients were stratified based on the terminal dose of dobutamine into two cohorts: a limited dose group [receiving a maximum dobutamine dose of <5 µg/(kg·min) due to concomitant conditions such as suspected atrial thrombus, aortic dilation, or previous myocardial infarction] and a non-limited dose group (where dosage was adjusted to either achieve the maximum positive standard or the maximal dose tolerable by the patient). Within the non-limited dose group, patients were further classified into positive and negative response groups. The positive response post DSE was defined based on the following criteria: LVEF≥55% (the maximum positive standard), LVEF<55% but with a 5% improvement (the minimum positive standard) from resting situation, aortic maximum velocity (AVmax)≥400 cm/s, or mean pressure gradient (meanPG)≥40 mm Hg, latter two applicable only to patients with aortic stenosis. Clinical indicators were compared in the three groups. Results A total of 99 patients were enrolled, aged 35 to 87 years, with an average age of (61.7±10.1) years. The number of males was significantly higher than that of females (3:1). There were 61 (61.6%) patients undergoing aortic valve surgery, 25 (25.3%) undergoing mitral valve surgery, and 13 (13.1%) undergoing combined aortic and mitral valve surgery. Nineteen (19.2%) patients experienced adverse symptoms such as palpitations, head and face numbness, dizziness, chest tightness post DSE. Additionally, new-onset or aggravated ventricular premature ventricular contractions were in 40 (40.4%) patients. All above symptoms and signs resolved minutes after cessation of the test. No severe adverse events necessitating oxygen therapy or emergency intervention occurred. Among the 93 patients in the non-limited dose group, 86 were classified in the positive response group and 7 in the negative response group. The left ventricular end diastolic diameter, left ventricular end systolic diameter, and LVEF in the positive group all showed significant improvement compared to preoperative values, and were also significantly better than those in the negative group (P<0.05). All 7 patients with negative DSE results underwent interventional surgery, which was significantly different from the positive group (36 patients, 41.9%). In the limited dose group (n=6), 4 patients with a positive result or a positive trend on DSE underwent median sternotomy, 2 received interventional treatment due to a negative response. No significant differences in mortality were observed among the groups (P>0.05). Conclusion Dobutamine stress echocardiography significantly contributes to risk stratification in surgical interventions for patients with valvular heart disease complicated by reduced LVEF. It aids in determining optimal timing and methods for surgery. With comprehensive patient evaluation and controlled dobutamine dosing, the application of DSE can be safely expanded.

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*

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.

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 investigate the predictive value of triglyceride glucose-body mass index(TyG-BMI),serum triglyceride-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio(TG/HDL-C),and metabolic score for insulin resistance(METS-IR)for fatty pancreatic disease(FPD).Methods A total of 240 patients with FPD treated in The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2020 to November 2023 were included as the case group,while 480 healthy subjects who underwent healthy checks in the same period were randomly selected as the control group.General clinical data and laboratory indicators were collected.The Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test were used to compare non-normally distributed continuous variables,and categorical variables between groups,respectively.A binary logistic regression model was used to assess the relationship between TyG-BMI,TG/HDL-C,and METS-IR and FPD.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was plotted,and the area under the curve(AUC)was calculated to evaluate the predictive diagnostic value of those simplified insulin resistance indicators for FPD in the general population and different sex populations.Results Age,BMI,systolic blood pressure,diastolic blood pressure,fasting plasma glucose,uric acid,alanine aminotransferase,aspartate aminotransferase,gamma-glutamyl transferase,total cholesterol,triglyceride,low-density lipoprotein cholesterol,TyG-BMI,TG/HDL-C,and METS-IR in the case group were significantly higher than those in the control group(all P<0.05).The case group had significantly higher proportions of individuals with hypertension,diabetes,and fatty liver disease than the control group(all P<0.05).The high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was significantly lower in the case group than in the control group(P<0.05).The multivariable Logistic regression analysis showed that after adjusting for various influencing factors,TyG-BMI,TG/HDL-C,and METS-IR remained as independent risk factors for the development of FPD,with the odds ratios(95%confidence intervals)being 1.027(1.018-1.037),6.964(2.022-23.989),and 1.184(1.123-1.248),respectively.In the ROC curve analysis,the AUCs of METS-IR and TyG-BMI were 0.823 and 0.803,respectively,with their sensitivities being 76.3%and 75.8%,specificities being 74.6%and 71.7%,and optimal cut-off values being 34.86 and 196.70,respectively;the next were BMI(AUC=0.758)and TG/HDL-C(AUC=0.734);in the sex-stratified analysis,the AUC values of METS-IR were highest in both the male and female subgroups,which were 0.834 and 0.810,respectively.Conclusion TyG-BMI,TG/HDL-C,and METS-IR show good predictive value for the development of FPD,in which METS-IR is more excellent.

Objective:To explore the possible mechanism of cognitive impairment in aged mice induced by sevoflurane and the role of the AMPK/GSK-3β/Nrf2 signaling pathway.Methods:Eighteen 16-month-old SPF male C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to either a control group or a sevoflurane group according to the random number table method( n=9 per group). Mice in the sevoflurane group were exposed to 3% sevoflurane for 2 h every day for three consecutive days.Cognitive function of mice was assessed by novel object recognition test and Morris water maze test.Golgi staining was used to analyze dendritic spine morphology and density in the hippocampus. Mitochondrial ultrastructure was examined by transmission electron microscopy. Oxidative stress in hippocampal tissue was evaluated by reactive oxygen species(ROS) and glutathione(GSH) assay kits. Western blot was performed to measure synaptic plasticity-related proteins and proteins involved in the AMPK/GSK-3β/Nrf2 signaling pathway, while Nrf2 expression was assessed by immunofluorescence. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 7 software with independent-samples t-test or Mann-Whitney U test for between-group comparisons. Results:(1) The novel object recognition test showed that the recognition index in the sevoflurane group was significantly lower than that in the control group ( Z=-3.256, P=0.001).The escape latency in the Morris water maze test was longer ((49.50±10.14) s, (18.62±6.59) s; t=-7.221, P<0.001) and the number of platform crossings was lower ( Z=-2.673, P=0.008) in the sevoflurane group compared with those of the control group. (2) Results from Western blot and Golgi staining showed that the expression levels of hippocampal synapse-related proteins in the sevoflurane group, including PSD95 ((0.38±0.07), (1.00±0.21); t=4.885) and SYN1 ((0.30±0.10), (1.00±0.10); t=8.575), were lower than those in the control group, as well as the number of dendritic spines ((10.3±2.5), (20.0±1.0); t=6.183)(all P<0.05). (3) Transmission electron microscopy showed mitochondrial damage in the hippocampus of the sevoflurane group, and the expression level of ROS ((3.05±0.90), (0.97±0.16); t=-4.555, P=0.004) was significantly higher than that of the control group, while the expression level of GSH ((0.71±0.07), (1.00±0.09); t=5.396, P=0.002) was significantly lower than that of the control group.(4) Western blot and immunofluorescence demonstrated that hippocampal p-AMPK, p-GSK-3β (Ser9), and HO-1 expression levels in the sevoflurane group were significantly lower than those in the control group ( t=2.845, 7.087, 4.551, all P<0.05), and Nrf2 fluorescence intensity was also markedly reduced ( P<0.05). Conclusion:The cognitive impairment induced by sevoflurane in aged mice may be caused by mitochondrial damage, oxidative stress response and synaptic damage, which maybe associated with the inhibition of the AMPK/GSK-3β/Nrf2 signaling pathway.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD)is a common behavioral disorder in children and has significant non-specific symptoms.The specific pathogenesis of ADHD remains unclear.Chinese medicine has a unique advantage in treating this disease.The"qi cycle in round"theory is a unique diagnosis and treatment system constructed by Huang Yuanyu,a Qing Dynasty physician,through systematic integration and innovative development of the theoretical framework of traditional Chinese medicine,which is widely used in clinical practice.Based on the"qi cycle in round"theory,the pathogenesis of ADHD in children was discussed,and the abnormal middle qi was proposed as the root cause of the disease,with hyperactivity of the liver,lung depletion,and fire as the key contributing factors.Guided by the"qi cycle in round"theory in the treatment of ADHD in children,the approach focuses on restoring and balancing central qi.It emphasized the understanding of the overall changes in the spleen,stomach,lungs,liver,heart,kidney,and other viscera,along with the movement of qi.Treatment focuses on methods such as lifting clear yang,reducing stomach turbidity,softening the liver and quenching the wind,suppressing the lungs and reducing the inversion,and reducing the fire and returning to the yuan.These interventions aim to promote the smooth circulation of the qi circulation from multiple perspectives,thereby facilitating recovery.

Objective To investigate the predictive value of triglyceride glucose-body mass index(TyG-BMI),serum triglyceride-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio(TG/HDL-C),and metabolic score for insulin resistance(METS-IR)for fatty pancreatic disease(FPD).Methods A total of 240 patients with FPD treated in The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2020 to November 2023 were included as the case group,while 480 healthy subjects who underwent healthy checks in the same period were randomly selected as the control group.General clinical data and laboratory indicators were collected.The Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test were used to compare non-normally distributed continuous variables,and categorical variables between groups,respectively.A binary logistic regression model was used to assess the relationship between TyG-BMI,TG/HDL-C,and METS-IR and FPD.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was plotted,and the area under the curve(AUC)was calculated to evaluate the predictive diagnostic value of those simplified insulin resistance indicators for FPD in the general population and different sex populations.Results Age,BMI,systolic blood pressure,diastolic blood pressure,fasting plasma glucose,uric acid,alanine aminotransferase,aspartate aminotransferase,gamma-glutamyl transferase,total cholesterol,triglyceride,low-density lipoprotein cholesterol,TyG-BMI,TG/HDL-C,and METS-IR in the case group were significantly higher than those in the control group(all P<0.05).The case group had significantly higher proportions of individuals with hypertension,diabetes,and fatty liver disease than the control group(all P<0.05).The high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was significantly lower in the case group than in the control group(P<0.05).The multivariable Logistic regression analysis showed that after adjusting for various influencing factors,TyG-BMI,TG/HDL-C,and METS-IR remained as independent risk factors for the development of FPD,with the odds ratios(95%confidence intervals)being 1.027(1.018-1.037),6.964(2.022-23.989),and 1.184(1.123-1.248),respectively.In the ROC curve analysis,the AUCs of METS-IR and TyG-BMI were 0.823 and 0.803,respectively,with their sensitivities being 76.3%and 75.8%,specificities being 74.6%and 71.7%,and optimal cut-off values being 34.86 and 196.70,respectively;the next were BMI(AUC=0.758)and TG/HDL-C(AUC=0.734);in the sex-stratified analysis,the AUC values of METS-IR were highest in both the male and female subgroups,which were 0.834 and 0.810,respectively.Conclusion TyG-BMI,TG/HDL-C,and METS-IR show good predictive value for the development of FPD,in which METS-IR is more excellent.