OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect and safety of Chinese medicine (CM) Fuzheng Huazhuo Decoction (FHD) in treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who persistently tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). METHODS: This retrospective cohort study was conducted at Shanghai New International Expo Center shelter hospital in China between April 1 and May 30, 2022. Patients diagnosed as COVID-19 with persistently positive SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results for ⩾8 days after diagnosis were enrolled. Patients in the control group received conventional Western medicine (WM) treatment, while those in the FHD group received conventional WM plus FHD for at least 3 days. The primary outcome was viral clearance time. Secondary outcomes included negative conversion rate within 14 days, length of hospital stay, cycle threshold (Ct) values of the open reading frame 1ab (ORF1ab) and nucleocapsid protein (N) genes, and incidence of new-onset symptoms during hospitalization. Adverse events (AEs) that occurred during the study period were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 1,765 eligible patients were enrolled in this study (546 in the FHD group and 1,219 in the control group). Compared with the control group, patients receiving FHD treatment showed shorter viral clearance time for nucleic acids [hazard ratio (HR): 1.500, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.353-1.664, P<0.001] and hospital stays (HR: 1.371, 95% CI: 1.238-1.519, P<0.001), and a higher negative conversion rate within 14 days (96.2% vs. 82.6%, P<0.001). The incidence of new-onset symptoms was 59.5% in the FHD group, similar to 57.8% in the control group (P>0.05). The Ct values of ORF1ab and N genes increased more rapidly over time in the FHD group than those in the control group post-randomization (ORF1ab gene: β =0.436±0.053, P<0.001; N gene: β =0.415 ±0.053, P<0.001). The incidence of AEs in the FHD group was lower than that in the control group (24.2% vs. 35.4%, P<0.001). No serious AEs were observed. CONCLUSION FHD was effective and safe for patients with persistently positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests. (Registration No. ChiCTR2200063956).
Humans ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/adverse effects* ; Retrospective Studies ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; COVID-19 Drug Treatment ; SARS-CoV-2/drug effects* ; COVID-19/virology* ; Adult ; Aged ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of andrographolide （Andro） on the neuronal apoptosis in ischemic stroke （IS） rats by regulating the neuregulin-1 （Nrg-1）/epithelial growth factor receptor 4 （ErbB4） signaling pathway. METHODS The IS rat model was established using the suture method. Sixty successfully modeled rats were randomly divided into model group （physiological saline）， Andro low-dose group （Andro-L group， 50 mg/kg）， Andro high-dose group （Andro-H group， 100 mg/kg）， and Andro-H+Dacomitinib group （100 mg/kg of Andro+7.5 mg/kg of Nrg-1/ErbB4 signaling pathway inhibitor Dacomitinib）， with 15 rats in each group. Another 15 rats were chosen as the sham group （physiological saline）. The rats were intragastrically administered medication/physiological saline once a day for 7 consecutive days. After medication， the neurological function of the rats was assessed； the levels of lactate dehydrogenase （LDH）， tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α）， interleukin-1β （IL-1β）， IL-10， and nerve growth factor （NGF） in the rat serum were detected； the infarct area of the rat brain was measured， and the pathological changes in the hippocampal tissue of the rats were observed. Moreover， the apoptosis rate of hippocampal neurons and the levels of malondialdehyde （MDA）， superoxide dismutase （SOD）， catalase （CAT）， matrix metalloproteinase-9 （MMP-9）， cleaved-caspase- 3， Nrg-1 protein expressions and phosphorylated ErbB4 （p-ErbB4）/ErbB4 ratio in the hippocampal tissue were detected. RESULTS Compared with the model group， the Zea-Longa score， the escape latency， the serum LDH， TNF-α， IL-1β levels， the percentage of cerebral infarction area， the hippocampal neuron apoptosis rate， the MDA level and MMP-9， cleaved-caspase-3 protein expression levels in the hippocampal tissue in the Andro-L and Andro-H groups were significantly reduced/shortened （P＜0.05）. The dwelling time， the number of platform crossings， the serum IL-10， NGF levels， the CAT， SOD levels， the Nrg-1 protein expression level and p-ErbB4/ErbB4 ratio in the hippocampal tissue were significantly extended/increased （P＜0.05）； the degree of hippocampal neural tissue damage was significantly E-mail：lrxxl3@163.com reduced. Dacomitinib could significantly weaken the improvement effect of high-dose Andro on neuronal injury in IS rats （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS Andro can reduce the inflammatory response， oxidative stress， and hippocampal tissue damage in IS rats， and promote neurological function. Its mechanism of action may be related to the activation of Nrg-1/ErbB4 signaling pathway.

Objective To understand the prevalence characteristics of influenza and changes of influenza virus strains,and provide reference for the prevention and control of influenza in the province.Methods Surveillance da-ta about influenza in Hunan Province from 2014 to 2023 were exported from China Influenza Surveillance Informa-tion System.Differences in the percentage of influenza-like illness(ILI)cases(percentage of influenza-like cases[ILI％]in outpatient and emergency department visits)among different years and different populations,as well as the positive rate of influenza virus in ILI specimens were compared.Results From 2014 to 2023,over 2.65 million cases of ILI were reported,with an ILI％of 4.70％.ILI％among different years presented statistically significant differences(P＜0.001).People aged 0-14 years old were the main population with ILI,accounting for 82.90％.The positive rate of influenza virus in ILI specimens was 14.14％,the positive rate of influenza virus among diffe-rent years and age groups were both significantly different(both P＜0.001).The main prevalent influenza strains from 2014 to 2023 included types A(H1N1),A(H3N2),B(Victoria),and B(Yamagata),alternating among di-fferent years.However,type B(Yamagata)strains were not detected from 2020 to 2023.There were basically two influenza prevalence seasons every year,namely winter-spring and summer.Conclusion People＜15 years old are the main population of influenza,and the prevalence peaks are in winter-spring and summer.From 2021 to 2023,the prevalence alternates mainly among 3 types:A(H1N1),A(H3N2),and B(Victoria).

Objective:To explore the standardization of totally implantable venous power port of nursing process in CT enhancement and application effect of contrast medium injection, so as to provide a safer and more efficient way for contrast medium injection in CT enhanced examination for patients with malignant tumors.Methods:A non-randomized prospective study was conducted, 358 patients with malignant tumors were selected in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University who underwent CT enhanced examination from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2023, 179 patients who had been implanted totally implantable venous power port were selected as the experimental group, and the standardized nursing procedure was given. The other 179 patients were the control group, using radiology routine high-pressure intravenous indwelling needle as the contrast medium access, with routine peripheral venous nursing process. The incidence of contrast medium extravasation during CT enhanced examination was observed and compared between the two groups.Results:All the patients were included. There were 85 males and 94 females, aged (55.50±11.72) years old in the control group. There were 83 males and 96 females, aged (54.50±12.24) years old in the experimental group. The incidence of contrast medium extravasation was 0 in the experimental group and 3.35%(6/179) in the control group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (Fisher exact probability, P<0.05). Conclusions:The application of standardized nursing procedure of totally implantable venous power port to the injection of contrast medium in CT enhanced examination of malignant tumor patients, can significantly reduce the incidence of contrast medium extravasation.

OBJECTIVE: To explore clinical effect of percutaneous endoscopic posterolateral trans-facet lumbar interbody fusion (PE-PTLIF) in treating degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis. METHODS: The data of 38 patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis treated with PE-PTLIF from December 2019 to June 2021 were retrospectively analyzed, including 18 males and 20 females, aged from 39 to 75 years old with an average of (60.2±8.9) years old;1 patient with L_3,4, 23 patients with L_4,5, 14 patients with L₅S₁;29 patients with degreeⅠand 9 patients with degreeⅡaccording to Meyerding grading. Operative time, intraoperative blood loss, drainage volume, postoperative hospital stay and complcations were observed, visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate degree of lumbar and leg pain before operation, 3 d and 3, 6 and 12 months after operation, respectively. Oswestry disability index (ODI) was used to evaluate degree of low back pain dysfunction before operation, 3, 6 and 12 months after operation. The modified MacNab standard was used to evaluate clinical efficacy at 12 months after operation. Dural sac cross-sectional area (DSCSA), intervertebral disc height (IDH), lumbar spondylolisthesis rate (SR), lumbar lordosis angle (LL) and segmental lordosis angle (SL) were compared before operation and 12 months after operation. Interbody fusion at 12 months was evaluated according to Bridwell intervertebral fusion standard. RESULTS: All patients were followed up for 13 to 28 months with an average of (18.47±4.12) months. The operative time was (181.68±19.34) min, intraoperative blood loss was (152.87±57.03) ml, drainage volume was (48.18±11.43) ml, and postoperative hospital stay was (9.45±2.18) d and 3 patients occurred complications. VAS of lumbar pain before operation, 3 days, 3, 6 and 12 months after operation were (6.68±1.16), (4.32±1.13), (2.18±0.70), (1.89±0.56) and (1.57±0.72), respectively. VAS of leg pain were (6.24±1.42), (2.95±1.09), (1.76±0.71), (1.68±0.74) and (1.26±0.69) respectively. Preoperative and postoperative 3, 6 and 12 months of ODI were (63.21±11.21) %, (25.24±6.46) %, (20.97±6.26) % and (17.73±5.88) %, respectively. Postoperative VAS of lumbar and leg pain and ODI were significantly lower than those of preoperative time points (P<0.05). According to the modified MacNab standard, 23 patients got excellent result, 10 good, 3 fair, and 2 poor at 12 months after operation. Postoperative DSCSA, IDH, SR, LL and SL at 12 months were (128.32±21.95) mm², (11.19±1.66) mm, (4.44±2.19)%, (49.32±5.63)°, (9.16±1.90)°, respectively, and were improved compared with preoperative [(58.36±18.11) mm², (8.19±2.06) mm (18.43±4.78) %, (42.38±4.94) ° and (8.06±2.06) °] (P<0.05). Thirty-four patients obtained gradeⅠfusion, 3 patients woth gradⅡfusion and 1 patient with grade Ⅲ fusion at 12 months after operation according to Bridwell intervertebral fusion standard. CONCLUSION PE-PTLIF could provide effective method for the treatment of gradeⅠand gradeⅡdegenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis. It has advantages of less bleeding, sufficient decompression, fast postoperative recovery and high fusion rate, which could effectively relieve lumbar and leg pain, restore vertebral space height and improve lumbar sagittal balance. PE-PTLIF is a safe and minimally invasive surgery.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Spondylolisthesis/surgery* ; Middle Aged ; Spinal Fusion/methods* ; Lumbar Vertebrae/surgery* ; Aged ; Adult ; Retrospective Studies ; Endoscopy/methods*

PURPOSE: Different arch structures may cause different foot function injuries. In the past, the arch structure and flexibility of the foot were often defined by the height of the arch, and there was no three-dimensional (3D) structure classification method. In order to form a more complete 3D description, we propose a new classification system of arch volume flexibility (AVF), and then use this new classification system to investigate the relationship between the AVF and arch index (AI), and the arch height flexibility (AHF) and AI, respectively. METHODS: It is proposed to recruit 180 young male adults for the test. We obtained arch volume and AI through 3D scanning and obtained the navicular height through manual measurement. Based on these data, we calculated the AHF and the AVF. Using the quintile method, these arches are divided into very stiff, stiff, neutral, flexible, and very flexible. According to AI value, all arches were divided into cavus, rectus, and planus. The distribution of AVF was compared using χ² goodness of fit test. The spearman correlation test was used to compare the AHF and AVF. A p < 0.05 indicates that the difference is statistically significant. RESULTS: All participants' plantar data was obtained through 3D scanning, but only 159 of them were complete, so only 318 feet had valid data. The left AHF is (21.23 ± 12.91) mm/kN, and the right AHF is (21.71 ± 12.69) mm/kN. The AVF of the left foot arch is (207.35 ± 118.28) mm³/kg, while the right one is (203.00 ± 117.92) mm³/kg, and the total AVF of the arch was (205.17 ± 117.94) mm³/kg. There was no statistical difference in the AVF between the left and right feet for the same participant (n = 159, p = 0.654). In cavus, the percentage of arch with AVF is 21.4% (very stiff), 21.4% (stiff), 14.3% (neutral), 7.1% (flexible), and 35.7% (very flexible). In rectus, the percentage of arch with AVF is 23.9% (very stiff), 19.6% (stiff), 14.7% (neutral), 24.5% (flexible), and 17.2% (very flexible). In planus, the percentage of arch with AVF is 14.9% (very stiff), 20.6% (stiff), 27.0% (neutral), 16.3% (flexible), and 21.3% (very flexible). Moreover, the correlation between AHF and AVF is not significant (p = 0.060). CONCLUSION In cavus, rectus, and planus, different AVF accounts different percentage, but the difference is not statistically significant. AVF is evenly distributed in the arches of the feet at different heights. We further found the relationship between AHF and AVF is not significant. As a 3D index, AVF may be able to describe the flexibility of the arch more comprehensively than AHF.
Adult ; Humans ; Male ; Foot ; Foot Injuries ; Biomechanical Phenomena

Articular cartilage (AC) injuries often lead to cartilage degeneration and may ultimately result in osteoarthritis (OA) due to the limited self-repair ability. To date, numerous intra-articular delivery systems carrying various therapeutic agents have been developed to improve therapeutic localization and retention, optimize controlled drug release profiles and target different pathological processes. Due to the complex and multifactorial characteristics of cartilage injury pathology and heterogeneity of the cartilage structure deposited within a dense matrix, delivery systems loaded with a single therapeutic agent are hindered from reaching multiple targets in a spatiotemporal matched manner and thus fail to mimic the natural processes of biosynthesis, compromising the goal of full cartilage regeneration. Emerging evidence highlights the importance of sequential delivery strategies targeting multiple pathological processes. In this review, we first summarize the current status and progress achieved in single-drug delivery strategies for the treatment of AC diseases. Subsequently, we focus mainly on advances in multiple drug delivery applications, including sequential release formulations targeting various pathological processes, synergistic targeting of the same pathological process, the spatial distribution in multiple tissues, and heterogeneous regeneration. We hope that this review will inspire the rational design of intra-articular drug delivery systems (DDSs) in the future.

Background and Objectives: Osteoblasts are derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) and playimportant role in bone remodeling. While our previous studies have investigated the cell subtypes and heterogeneity in osteoblasts and BMMSCs separately, cell-to-cell communications between osteoblasts and BMMSCs in vivo in humans have not been characterized. The aim of this study was to investigate the cellular communication between human primary osteoblasts and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Methods: and Results: To investigate the cell-to-cell communications between osteoblasts and BMMSCs and identifynew cell subtypes, we performed a systematic integration analysis with our single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) transcriptomes data from BMMSCs and osteoblasts. We successfully identified a novel preosteoblasts subtype which highly expressed ATF3, CCL2, CXCL2 and IRF1. Biological functional annotations of the transcriptomes suggested that the novel preosteoblasts subtype may inhibit osteoblasts differentiation, maintain cells to a less differentiated status and recruit osteoclasts. Ligand-receptor interaction analysis showed strong interaction between mature osteoblasts and BMMSCs. Meanwhile, we found FZD1 was highly expressed in BMMSCs of osteogenic differentiation direction. WIF1 and SFRP4, which were highly expressed in mature osteoblasts were reported to inhibit osteogenic differentiation. We speculated that WIF1 and sFRP4 expressed in mature osteoblasts inhibited the binding of FZD1 to Wnt ligand in BMMSCs, thereby further inhibiting osteogenic differentiation of BMMSCs. Conclusions Our study provided a more systematic and comprehensive understanding of the heterogeneity of osteogenic cells. At the single cell level, this study provided insights into the cell-to-cell communications between BMMSCs and osteoblasts and mature osteoblasts may mediate negative feedback regulation of osteogenesis process.

Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Tetanus/epidemiology* ; China/epidemiology*

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic value of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) reserve assessed by gated SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (SPECT G-MPI) for major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) in patients with coronary artery disease. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study. From January 2017 to December 2019, patients with coronary artery disease and confirmed myocardial ischemia by stress and rest SPECT G-MPI, and underwent coronary angiography within 3 months were enrolled. The sum stress score (SSS) and sum resting score (SRS) were analyzed by the standard 17-segment model, and the sum difference score (SDS, SDS=SSS-SRS) was calculated. The LVEF at stress and rest were analyzed by 4DM software. The LVEF reserve (ΔLVEF) was calculated (ΔLVEF=stress LVEF-rest LVEF). The primary endpoint was MACE, which was obtained by reviewing the medical record system or by telephone follow-up once every twelve months. Patients were divided into MACE-free and MACE groups. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between ΔLVEF and all MPI parameters. Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the independent factors of MACE, and the optimal SDS cutoff value for predicting MACE was determined by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted to compare the difference in the incidence of MACE between different SDS groups and different ΔLVEF groups. Results: A total of 164 patients with coronary artery disease [120 male; age (58.6±10.7) years] were included. The average follow-up time was (26.5±10.4) months, and a total of 30 MACE were recorded during follow-up. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that SDS (HR=1.069, 95%CI: 1.005-1.137, P=0.035) and ΔLVEF (HR=0.935, 95%CI: 0.878-0.995, P=0.034) were independent predictors of MACE. According to ROC curve analysis, the optimal cut-off to predict MACE was a SDS of 5.5 with an area under the curve of 0.63 (P=0.022). Survival analysis showed that the incidence of MACE was significantly higher in the SDS≥5.5 group than in the SDS<5.5 group (27.6% vs. 13.2%, P=0.019), but the incidence of MACE was significantly lower in the ΔLVEF≥0 group than in theΔLVEF<0 group (11.0% vs. 25.6%, P=0.022). Conclusions: LVEF reserve (ΔLVEF) assessed by SPECT G-MPI serves as an independent protective factor for MACE, while SDS is an independent risk predictor in patients with coronary artery disease. SPECT G-MPI is valuable for risk stratification by assessing myocardial ischemia and LVEF.
Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Coronary Artery Disease/diagnostic imaging* ; Stroke Volume ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging ; Retrospective Studies ; Ventricular Function, Left ; Myocardial Ischemia