Objective:To investigate the correlation between mutations in KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and PIK3 CA and the clinical characteristics of elderly colorectal cancer(CRC)patients. Methods:Paraffin-embedded tissue samples were obtained from 191 elderly CRC patients who consulted at Huadong Hospital, affiliated to Fudan University, between January 2022 and July 2023.Following deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA)extraction, the amplification refractory mutation system polymerase chain reaction(ARMS-PCR)was employed to detect the mutation profiles of KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and PIK3 CA.Concurrently, serum samples collected prior to radical resection were analyzed for carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA), carbohydrate antigen 19-9(CA19-9), and carbohydrate antigen 72-4(CA72-4)using electrochemical luminescence.A comparative analysis of the clinical characteristics and preoperative serological tumor marker concentrations among patients with different gene mutations was conducted to elucidate their correlation. Results:A total of 191 elderly CRC patients were enrolled in the study, with ages ranging from 60 to 94 years(mean age 72.1±7.8 years), including 112 males.The mutation rate of KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and PIK3 CA, as determined by combined detection, was found to be 49.21%(94/191)among elderly CRC patients. KRAS exhibited the highest mutation rate at 35.08%, with statistically significant differences observed in gender, primary site, degree of differentiation, and neurovascular invasion between patients with and without KRAS mutations( P<0.05 for all comparisons).The BRAF mutation rate was 8.90%, and significant differences in gender, age, primary site, and degree of differentiation were also noted between patients with and without BRAF mutations( P<0.05 for all).The mutation rates for NRAS and PIK3 CA were 2.62% and 5.24%, respectively, with no statistically significant differences in the clinical characteristics of patients across different groups( P>0.05 for all).Additionally, the proportion of patients over the age of 90 in the double mutation group was significantly higher( P<0.01).Significant differences in serum CA19-9 concentrations were observed among the various mutation types( P<0.05). Conclusions:There are notable differences in age, gender, primary site, degree of differentiation, and neurovascular invasion among elderly CRC patients with varying mutation statuses of KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and PIK3 CA.Patients with double mutations exhibited higher concentrations of CA19-9 in preoperative serum.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between mutations in KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and PIK3 CA and the clinical characteristics of elderly colorectal cancer(CRC)patients. Methods:Paraffin-embedded tissue samples were obtained from 191 elderly CRC patients who consulted at Huadong Hospital, affiliated to Fudan University, between January 2022 and July 2023.Following deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA)extraction, the amplification refractory mutation system polymerase chain reaction(ARMS-PCR)was employed to detect the mutation profiles of KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and PIK3 CA.Concurrently, serum samples collected prior to radical resection were analyzed for carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA), carbohydrate antigen 19-9(CA19-9), and carbohydrate antigen 72-4(CA72-4)using electrochemical luminescence.A comparative analysis of the clinical characteristics and preoperative serological tumor marker concentrations among patients with different gene mutations was conducted to elucidate their correlation. Results:A total of 191 elderly CRC patients were enrolled in the study, with ages ranging from 60 to 94 years(mean age 72.1±7.8 years), including 112 males.The mutation rate of KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and PIK3 CA, as determined by combined detection, was found to be 49.21%(94/191)among elderly CRC patients. KRAS exhibited the highest mutation rate at 35.08%, with statistically significant differences observed in gender, primary site, degree of differentiation, and neurovascular invasion between patients with and without KRAS mutations( P<0.05 for all comparisons).The BRAF mutation rate was 8.90%, and significant differences in gender, age, primary site, and degree of differentiation were also noted between patients with and without BRAF mutations( P<0.05 for all).The mutation rates for NRAS and PIK3 CA were 2.62% and 5.24%, respectively, with no statistically significant differences in the clinical characteristics of patients across different groups( P>0.05 for all).Additionally, the proportion of patients over the age of 90 in the double mutation group was significantly higher( P<0.01).Significant differences in serum CA19-9 concentrations were observed among the various mutation types( P<0.05). Conclusions:There are notable differences in age, gender, primary site, degree of differentiation, and neurovascular invasion among elderly CRC patients with varying mutation statuses of KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and PIK3 CA.Patients with double mutations exhibited higher concentrations of CA19-9 in preoperative serum.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the dynamic disinfection effect of the upper-room 222 nm ultraviolet radiation on the air in different areas of the emergency department, and to provide references for a new solution of air disinfection that man-machine coexisted in the medical and healthcare institutions. MethodsThe upper-room 222 nm ultraviolet radiation air sterilizers were installed at a height of 2.3‒2.6 m from the ground in the observation room, computed tomography (CT) scanning room, rescue room and consulting room of the emergency department in Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University . The test area was divided into a 222 nm ultraviolet group and a control group according to whether the 222 nm ultraviolet germicidal air disinfection was conducted or not. The experimental group started air disinfection at8:00 a.m., and the air sampling was conducted from 9:00 a.m. to 16:00 p.m., with a 10 min sampling interval of every 1 hour. While the control group only collected air sample with the same air sampling method used in the experimental group, without air disinfection. The air microbial sampler with six-level sieve impingement was used for the air sampling, and the differences in the total number of airborne bacterial colonies were compared between the two groups. ResultsA total of 128 air samples were collected in the trial, of which 64 were from the experimental group and 64 from the control group. The total number of airborne bacterial colonies in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group (all P<0.001), and was maintained at a lower level throughout the entire period. The killing rate of 222 nm ultraviolet radiation to airborne microorganisms was approximately 55.76% to 76.33% in different sampling areas. The qualified rates of the total number of dynamic airborne bacterial colonies in the observation room, rescue room and consulting room were improved from 12.50%, 37.50% and 25.00% to 81.25%, 100.00% and 100.00%, respectively (all P<0.001). Over 62.50% of the time, the air quality in the consulting room and CT room in the 222 nm ultraviolet group met the environment standards for airborne bacterial colony criteria of class Ⅰ or class Ⅱ. ConclusionThe upper-room222 nm ultraviolet radiation germicidal disinfection can effectively reduce the total number of airborne bacterial colonies and improve the environment for emergency department, and the continuous using of it is helpful for keeping the air safe and clean.

Objective:To analyze the genus, drug resistance/virulence and phylogenetic characteristics of Brucella strains isolated from brucellosis surveillance sentinels in Henan Province from 2013 to 2022, and provide baseline data for the surveillance, early warning and outbreak tracing of brucellosis. Methods:Blood samples were collected from patients with Brucella infection for strain isolation, culture and species identification, drug susceptibility test, whole genome sequencing, splicing and assembly, functional/virulence/resistance gene prediction analysis and phylogenetic tree drawing based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Results:In 36 brucellosis patients, the majority were men (86.11%, 31/36), young adults aged 18-50 (88.89%, 32/36) and farmers/herdsmen (72.22%, 26/36). A total of 36 strains of Brucella melitensis were isolated, and average 1 305 functional proteins of 21 categories were predicted by strain genome; all the strains carried four main virulence factors (pmm, VirB group, BtpA/BtpB, BvrS/BvrR). The drug sensitivity rate was 100.00% to six types of antibiotics including levofloxacin, rifampicin, doxycycline, streptomycin, tetracycline and gentamicin, they showed different resistances to three antibiotics including compound trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin and ampicillin. The strains carried four types of resistance genes and two clusters of resistance genes, with four combinations of genotypes, the resistance mechanisms included antibiotic degradation/modification enzymes, resistant nodular cell differentiation (RND) efflux pumps, 16S/23S ribosomal rRNA binding site mutations, etc. The number of SNP differed in the genomes of 36 Brucellamelitensis strains ranged from 0 to 454 and phylogenetic tree was divided into three major branches, with relative branch distances between 0.000 0 and 0.498 6 for each strain. Conclusions:Human Brucellamelitensis strains isolated from surveillance sentinels in Henan from 2013 to 2022 carried multiple virulence and antibiotic resistance genes and had different drug resistance phenotypes. Single nucleotide polymorphism analysis and phylogenetic tree analysis showed significant differences in phylogenetic relationships among different strains.

Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is a highly aggressive malignant lymphoma. As most chemotherapy drugs have difficulty in crossing the blood-brain barrier, PCNSL shows a difficulty in clinical treatment, a high recurrence rate and a poor prognosis. Early identification of relapsed patients and prompt initiation of salvage therapy play a critical role in the improvement of patients' prognosis. Brain biopsy is the gold standard to identify recurrence, while the risk of operation failure and complications is still high. Non-invasive imaging techniques are beneficial for early identification of recurrence in PCNSL and can provide an important basis for guiding relapsed patients to adjust treatment plans in time. However, there is no unified evaluation standard for imaging methods of monitoring the relapsed lesions of PCNSL. With the further research of the pathophysiological mechanism of PCNSL, biomarker detection has become a new method to identify recurrence and more clinical evidence is still needed in the future.

Background::Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is underrecognized, and its association with coronary artery disease (CAD) remains limited, especially in China. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of FH and its relationship with CAD in a large Chinese cohort.Methods::FH was defined using the Make Early Diagnosis to Prevent Early Death (MEDPED) criteria. The crude and age-sex standardized prevalence of FH were calculated based on surveys of the Prediction for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk in China (China-PAR) project during 2007-2008. The associations of FH with incident CAD and its major subtypes were estimated with the cohort-stratified multivariate Cox proportional hazard models based on the data from the baseline to the last follow-up (2018-2020).Results::Among 98,885 included participants, 190 participants were defined as FH. Crude and age-sex standardized prevalence and 95% confidence interval (CI) of FH were 0.19% (0.17%–0.22%) and 0.13% (0.10%–0.16%), respectively. The prevalence varied across age groups and peaked in the group of 60–<70 years (0.28%), and the peak prevalence (0.18%) in males was earlier, yet lower than the peak crude prevalence in females (0.41%). During a mean follow-up of 10.7 years, 2493 cases of incident CAD were identified. After multivariate adjustment, FH patients had a 2.03-fold greater risk of developing CAD compared to non-FH participants.Conclusions::The prevalence of FH was estimated to be 0.19% in the participants, and it was associated with an elevated risk of incident CAD. Our study suggests that early screening of FH has certain public health significance for the prevention of CAD.

Background::Population-based epidemiological evidence regarding the association between fruit and vegetable intake and the incidence of hypertension is inconsistent. This prospective cohort study aimed to investigate the association between fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of new-onset hypertension.Methods::Based on the project of Prediction for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk in China (China-PAR), 58,981 Chinese adults without hypertension at baseline were included. Information on fruit and vegetable intake was collected using a food-frequency questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of incident hypertension.Results::During 640,795 person-years of follow-up, 21,008 new cases of hypertension were recorded. Compared with participants in the lowest quintile (Q1) of total fruit and vegetable (TFV) intake, the HRs (95% CIs) of incident hypertension were 0.90 (0.86-0.95), 0.85 (0.81-0.90), 0.82 (0.78-0.86), and 0.83 (0.78-0.88) for the Q2 to Q5 group ( ptrend < 0.001), respectively. In further analyses categorizing participants according to the recommended intake level (500 g/day), we found that increasing the intake of TFV, even though it was still insufficient for the recommendation, also had a protective effect against the incident hypertension. When considering the intake of fruit or vegetable separately, we found similar trends as the TFV intake. Conclusion::These results suggest that a higher intake of fruit and vegetable is beneficial for preventing hypertension in Chinese adults.

Background::Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is underrecognized, and its association with coronary artery disease (CAD) remains limited, especially in China. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of FH and its relationship with CAD in a large Chinese cohort.Methods::FH was defined using the Make Early Diagnosis to Prevent Early Death (MEDPED) criteria. The crude and age-sex standardized prevalence of FH were calculated based on surveys of the Prediction for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk in China (China-PAR) project during 2007-2008. The associations of FH with incident CAD and its major subtypes were estimated with the cohort-stratified multivariate Cox proportional hazard models based on the data from the baseline to the last follow-up (2018-2020).Results::Among 98,885 included participants, 190 participants were defined as FH. Crude and age-sex standardized prevalence and 95% confidence interval (CI) of FH were 0.19% (0.17%–0.22%) and 0.13% (0.10%–0.16%), respectively. The prevalence varied across age groups and peaked in the group of 60–<70 years (0.28%), and the peak prevalence (0.18%) in males was earlier, yet lower than the peak crude prevalence in females (0.41%). During a mean follow-up of 10.7 years, 2493 cases of incident CAD were identified. After multivariate adjustment, FH patients had a 2.03-fold greater risk of developing CAD compared to non-FH participants.Conclusions::The prevalence of FH was estimated to be 0.19% in the participants, and it was associated with an elevated risk of incident CAD. Our study suggests that early screening of FH has certain public health significance for the prevention of CAD.

Background::Population-based epidemiological evidence regarding the association between fruit and vegetable intake and the incidence of hypertension is inconsistent. This prospective cohort study aimed to investigate the association between fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of new-onset hypertension.Methods::Based on the project of Prediction for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk in China (China-PAR), 58,981 Chinese adults without hypertension at baseline were included. Information on fruit and vegetable intake was collected using a food-frequency questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of incident hypertension.Results::During 640,795 person-years of follow-up, 21,008 new cases of hypertension were recorded. Compared with participants in the lowest quintile (Q1) of total fruit and vegetable (TFV) intake, the HRs (95% CIs) of incident hypertension were 0.90 (0.86-0.95), 0.85 (0.81-0.90), 0.82 (0.78-0.86), and 0.83 (0.78-0.88) for the Q2 to Q5 group ( ptrend < 0.001), respectively. In further analyses categorizing participants according to the recommended intake level (500 g/day), we found that increasing the intake of TFV, even though it was still insufficient for the recommendation, also had a protective effect against the incident hypertension. When considering the intake of fruit or vegetable separately, we found similar trends as the TFV intake. Conclusion::These results suggest that a higher intake of fruit and vegetable is beneficial for preventing hypertension in Chinese adults.

Objective:To investigate the mutation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), cell proliferation-associated antigen (Ki-67) in elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and their correlation with clinical feature such as gender, histological type and TNM stage.Methods:The tissue samples of 340 elderly NSCLC patients with definite histopathological diagnosis were collected from January 2020 to December 2020 in Huadong Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, including 195 males and 145 females, age between 68.9±6.0 years. Patients were grouped according to clinical features such as gender, histological type and TNM stage. The expression of EGFR mutation, PD-L1 and Ki-67 were detected by Super-ARMS and immunohistochemistry. The correlation between tnem and clinical features was statistically analyzed, and the correlation between EGFR mutation and PD-L1/Ki-67 expression was further analyzed separately.Results:In elderly NSCLC patients′ tissues, the positive rate of EGFR mutation was 48.53% (165/340). L858R and 19del mutations were the most common types, which were 56.36% (93/165), 30.30% (50/165) respectively. The mutation rate of EGFR was higher in women, lung adenocarcinoma, well-differentiated, and low-stage patients, which were 65.52% (95/145), 53.77% (164/305), 56.75% (143/252), 52.53% (135/257) respectively. In addition, the positive rate of PD-L1 expression was higher in elderly patients with non-adenocarcinoma lung cancer and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, which were 37.14% (13/35), 24.53% (13/53) respectively. The negative rate of PD-L1 expression was higher in elderly patients with NSCLC in stage Ⅰ+Ⅱ, no lymph node metastasis and weakly positive Ki-67, which were 89.11% (229/257), 87.63% (248/283), 94.71% (197/208) respectively. Correlation analysis showed that EGFR mutation was negatively correlated with the expression of PD-L1 and Ki-67 (PD-L1: r=-0.22, P<0.001; Ki-67: r=-0.32, P<0.001). Conclusion:There is a negatively correlation between EGFR mutation and the expression of PD-L1 and Ki-67 in elderly NSCLC, suggesting that the combined detection of EGFR mutation and PD-L1 expression could provide the basis for precise targeted therapy for elderly NSCLC patients.