OBJECTIVE To investigate the mechanisms of rutin in alleviating depressive symptoms associated with premenstrual dysphoric disorder （PMDD） characterized by liver qi stagnation syndrome. METHODS Network pharmacology was employed to identify the intersecting targets of action between PMDD and rutin. A protein-protein interaction network was constructed to screen core targets， followed by gene ontology （GO） and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes （KEGG） pathway enrichment analysis. Molecular docking simulations validated rutin’s binding affinity to core targets. The bilateral ovaries of female Wistar rats were removed， followed by artificial hormone induction. The rats were then randomly divided into normal group （10 rats） and modeling group （50 rats）. PMDD rat model with liver qi stagnation syndrome was established via restraint stress. The successfully modeled rats were further divided into model group， fluoxetine group （positive control） and rutin group， with 12 rats in each group. The corresponding drug solutions or water were administered by gavage at 9：00 a.m. every day， continuing for two estrous cycles. The open-field test， forced swimming test and Y-maze test were utilized to evaluate the effects of rutin on the behavioral indexes of model rats. Additionally， the density of neuronal dendritic spines in the hippocampal tissues of the rats was observed. Serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor （BDNF） levels and the expressions of BDNF， tyrosine kinase receptor type B （TrkB）， synuclein （Syn）， and postsynaptic density protein 95 （PSD95） in hippocampal tissues were quantified， respectively. RESULTS Network pharmacology and molecular docking revealed the core targets through which rutin ameliorated PMDD characterized by liver qi stagnation syndrome included BDNF， TrkB， PSD65， Syn， etc. The results of experimental validation demonstrated that rutin significantly increased the spontaneous alternation behavior scores of PMDD model rats with liver qi stagnation syndrome during the non-receptive phase， shortened their immobility time during the forced swimming test， and enhanced the density of neuronal dendritic spines in the hippocampal tissues. Additionally， rutin upregulated the levels of serum BDNF and the protein expressions of BDNF， TrkB and Syn in the hippocampal tissues （P＜0.05）. However， it had no significant effect on the above indexes in model rats during the receptive phase （P＞0.05）. CONCLUSIONS Rutin ameliorates depressive symptoms， enhances spatial memory capabilities， and reduces neuronal damage in PMDD model rats with liver qi stagnation syndrome. These effects may be associated with the activation of BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway and upregulation of Syn protein expression.

Objective To investigate the short- and long-term prognoses and the risk factors affecting “textbook outcome” (TO) after laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD) for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Methods The clinical and follow-up data of patients diagnosed with PDAC and treated with LPD from January 2019 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The prognosis was compared between TO and non-TO groups, and univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent prognostic factors for TO. Results A total of 284 patients were enrolled in this study, including 185 cases in the TO group and 99 cases in the non-TO group. The 1-, 3- and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates of the TO and non-TO groups with PDAC were 87.3% vs. 85.9%, 52.5% vs. 38.4%, and 18.0% vs. 4.5%, respectively (P=0.020); the recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates were 74.1% vs. 65.7%, 27.1% vs. 21.0%, and 10.0% vs. 0%, respectively (P=0.042). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that operation time >360 min (OR=0.561, 95%CI: 0.321-0.979, P=0.042), intraoperative blood loss >400 ml (OR=0.392, 95%CI: 0.175-0.879, P=0.023), hard or tough texture of pancreas (OR=2.240, 95%CI: 1.247-4.022, P=0.007), and main pancreatic duct diameter >3 mm (OR=1.931, 95%CI: 1.126-3.312, P=0.017) were independent prognostic factors for TO. Conclusion After the learning curve, more than 60% of patients with PDAC can achieve TO after LPD. The chances of achieving TO are significantly reduced when the operation time >360 min, the intraoperative blood loss >400 ml, the texture of pancreas was soft, and the diameter of the main pancreatic duct >3 mm.

Background Chronic intermittent hypobaric hypoxia (CIHH) can effectively alleviate type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In this process, the underlying mechanism in its association with the epigenetic regulation of DNA methylation in the promoter regions of glucose metabolism key enzyme genes remains unclear yet. Objective To investigate the effects of CIHH on expression and promoter region methylation of key enzyme genes related to glucose metabolism in diabetes mice, and to explore the underlying mechanism by which CIHH regulates glucose metabolism. Methods Forty C57BL/6J male mice were divided randomly into a normobaric normoxic control (NN/CON) group, a chronic intermittent hypobaric hypoxia intervention control (CIHH/CON) group, a normobaric normoxic diabetic model (NN/DM) group, and a chronic intermittent hypobaric hypoxia intervention diabetic model (CIHH/DM) group. The mice in the NN/DM and the CIHH/DM groups were fed for 7 weeks with high-fat and high-sugar diet. Subsequently, these mice were intraperitoneally injected consecutively with 50 mmol·L⁻¹ streptozotocin (STZ) for 5 d at a dose of 40 mg·kg⁻¹ (body weight) per day to create T2DM model mice. The mice in the CIHH/DM and the CIHH/CON groups were intervened by simulating hypobaric hypoxia at 5000 m altitude for 6 h per day, while the mice in the NN/DM and the NN/CON groups were always placed in a normobaric normoxic environment. All mice were continuously treated for 4 weeks, and blood glucose were monitored during this period. After the CIHH intervention experiment, the glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity of mice were evaluated. A set of indicators involved in key glycolytic enzymes glucokinase (GK) and pyruvate kinase (PK), as well as key gluconeogenic enzymes phosphoenolpyruvate carboxyl kinase (PEPCK) and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6P) were measured in the liver of mice, including enzyme activity, relative mRNA expression level, and DNA methylation level in the gene promoter regions. Results Compared with the mice in the NN/DM group, the blood glucose levels of the mice in the CIHH/DM group decreased after the 25^th day of the CIHH intervention (P<0.05). Regarding the diabetic glucose tolerance curves, the area under the curve (AUC) of the mice in the CIHH/DM group was lower than that of the NN/DM group (P<0.05). Compared with the mice in the NN/DM group, the mice in the CIHH/DM group showed that the serum insulin content and HOMA of insulin resistance index (HOMA-IRI) decreased (P<0.05), the enzyme activities of GK and PK increased and the relative mRNA expression levels of their genes were up-regulated (P<0.05), while the enzyme activities of PEPCK and G6P decreased and the relative mRNA expression levels of their genes were down-regulated (P<0.05) in liver. The average DNA methylation levels in the promoter regions of GK, PK, PEPCK, and G6P genes in liver of mice in each group were not significantly different (P>0.05), and their correlations with mRNA expression levels were also not statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusion CIHH intervention may reduce blood glucose level, improve glucose tolerance, alleviate insulin resistance, and regulate the key enzyme activities of glucose metabolism and the relative mRNA expression of their corresponding genes in T2DM mice, but the above phenomena are not related to the DNA methylation levels in the promoter regions of these key enzymes.

OBJECTIVE To clarify the weight index and optimize the technology of compound Mingmu Yijing pills. METHODS Water content, dissolution time limit and bolus-forming pass rate were included as evaluation indexes. The analytic hierarchy process(AHP) and the criterion importance through inter-criteria correlation(CRITIC) method based on the objectivity of indicators were adopted, AHP-CRITIC mixed weighting method. In this way, the relative coefficients of each index were calculated for weight distribution and comprehensive score, and the molding process was optimized and verified by Box-Behnken response surface test. RESULTS Compared with the single weighting method, the AHP-CRITIC mixed weighting method was more reasonable and stable. This method finally optimized the forming process conditions of Mingmu Yijing pills as follows: adding water amount of 0.8 times, the damp mass infiltration for 0.5 h, drying temperature of 60 ℃, drying time of 8 h. The mean comprehensive score of validation experiment was 88.21, RSD was 0.29%. CONCLUSION AHP-CRITIC method scientifically determines the weight of multiple indicators, and the verification test confirms that the optimized molding process is stable and feasible, which can be used in practical large-scale production.

Information on patients with rifampicin-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (RR-PTB) in Yangzhou City from 2012 to 2020 was obtained from the Information System of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The epidemic characteristics of RR-PTB patients were analyzed by using χ2 test. The average annual registered incidence rate of RR-PTB patients in Yangzhou City from 2012 to 2020 was 0.57/100 000, and the difference between the registered incidence rates in each year was statistically significant ( χ2=29.326, P<0.001). The proportion of re-treated patients (64.8%) was higher than that of newly treated patients (35.2%, χ2=50.593, P<0.001). The registered incidence rate in males (0.91/100 000) was higher than that in females (0.24/100 000, χ2=80.566, P<0.001). The age distribution showed that the highest incidence rate was in the age group≥60 years (0.96/100 000) and the lowest was in the age group 0-<45 years (0.31/100 000, χ2=55.853, P<0.001). From 2012 to 2020, Baoying County had the largest number of registered RR-PTB patients (44 cases), and its registered incidence rate (0.64/100 000) was only lower than that of Guangling District (0.98/100 000). The registered incidence rate of RR-PTB patients in Baoying County during 2016—2020 also increased significantly compared to 2012—2015 ( P=0.001). Logistic regression was used to analyze the factors related to the treatment outcome of RR-PTB patients. The results showed that patients aged≥60 years and those classified as the re-treatment were risk factors for successful treatment of RR-PTB patients ( P<0.05). In summary, males, people aged≥60 years, patients classified as the re-treatment, and residents of Baoying County should be the key populations for RR-PTB epidemic prevention and control in Yangzhou City.

Objective:To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of prostate imaging recurrence reporting (PI-RR) system for detecting local recurrence after radical prostatectomy (RP) in prostate cancer (PCa) and to assess the consistency of the PI-RR scores assigned by different seniority radiologists.Methods:This study was a cross-sectional study. A total of 176 PCa patients who underwent multi-parametric MRI (mpMRI) for biochemical recurrence (BCR) after RP from July 2015 to October 2021 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University were retrospectively collected. The mpMRI images were reviewed and the PI-RR scores of the main lesions were assigned independently by six different seniority radiologists (2 junior, 2 senior and 2 expert radiologists). Following the reference standard determined by biopsy pathologic results, follow-up imaging, or prostate specific antigen levels, the patients were divided into two groups: 54 patients with local recurrence and 122 patients without local recurrence. The intraclass correlation coefficient ( ICC) and Kappa test were used to evaluate the consistency of the PI-RR scores by different seniority radiologists. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was employed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the PI-RR scores assessed by different seniority radiologists for detecting local recurrence of PCa after RP. The DeLong test was utilized to compare the areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of different seniority radiologist PI-RR scores and a false discovery rate (FDR) was applied to correct results using the Benjamini and Hochberg method. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated according to the cutoff value of PI-RR score≥3 or 4. Results:The ICC (95% CI) of all different seniority radiologists was 0.70 (0.64-0.76). The Kappa value was 0.528, 0.325 and 0.370 respectively between expert and senior radiologists, expert and junior radiologists, senior and junior radiologists. The AUC (95% CI) of junior, senior, and expert radiologists were separately 0.73 (0.65-0.81), 0.81 (0.74-0.88), and 0.86 (0.80-0.93). The AUC of the expert radiologist PI-RR score was higher than those of senior and junior radiologist PI-RR scores ( Z=2.22, 3.21, FDR P=0.039, 0.003). The PI-RR score of senior radiologist had higher AUC than that of junior radiologist ( Z=2.22, FDR P=0.026). With the PI-RR score of 3 or greater as a cutoff value, the sensitivity of junior, senior and expert radiologists were respectively 0.59, 0.65, and 0.78 and the specificity were 0.82, 0.93, and 0.95. With the PI-RR score of 4 or greater as a cutoff value, the sensitivity of junior, senior and expert radiologists were respectively 0.50, 0.54, and 0.69 and the specificity were 0.88, 0.96 and 0.97. Conclusion:PI-RR score can accurately diagnose local recurrence of PCa after RP. PI-RR score has a moderate inter-reader consistency across different seniority radiologists. And the diagnostic performance is influenced by the experience of radiologists.

Objective To investigate the correlation between serum long non-coding RNA FGD5-AS1(ln-cRNA FGD5-AS1),microRNA-103a-3p(miR-103a-3p)and puerperal infection(PI)in patients with gesta-tional diabetes mellitus(GDM)in late pregnancy.Methods A total of 168 late pregnancy GDM patients who were hospitalized and delivered in the hospital from January 2022 to June 2023 were retrospectively selected as the experimental group,and the patients were separated into an infected group(96 cases)and an uninfected group(72 cases)based on whether they had PI.At the same time,120 late pregnant women who underwent prenatal examination in the hospital and had normal gestational blood glucose were selected as the control group.Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR(qRT-PCR)was applied to detect the expression levels of ln-cRNA FGD5-AS1 and miR-103a-3p.Multivariate Logistic regression was applied to analyze the influencing factors of PI in late pregnancy GDM patients.StarBase website was applied to analyze the relationship between lncRNA FGD5-AS1 and miR-103a-3p.Pearson was applied to analyze the correlation between lncRNA FGD5-AS1 and miR-103a-3p.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was applied to evaluate the value of ln-cRNA FGD5-AS1 and miR-103a-3p in predicting the occurrence of PI.Results There was a statistically sig-nificant difference in the expression levels of serum lncRNA FGD5-AS1 and miR-103a-3p between the experi-mental group and the control group(P＜0.05),the expression level of serum lncRNA FGD5-AS1 in the infec-ted group was obviously higher than that in the uninfected group(P＜0.05),but the expression level of ser-um miR-103a-3p in the infected group was obviously lower than that in the uninfected group(P＜0.05).The expression level of lncRNA FGD5-AS1 was an independent risk factor for PI in late-pregnancy GDM patients(P＜0.05),and the expression level of miR-103a-3p was an independent protective factor for PI in late-preg-nancy GDM patients(P＜0.05).There was a negative correlation between lncRNA FGD5-AS1 and miR-103a-3p expression level(r=-0.409,P＜0.001).The efficacy of the combined detection of lncRNA FGD5-AS1 and miR-103a-3p for predicting PI in late pregnancy GDM patients was superior to that of serum lncRNA FGD5-AS1 and miR-103a-3p alone(P＜0.05).Conclusion LncRNA FGD5-AS1 is an independent risk factor for PI in late pregnancy GDM patients,while miR-103a-3p is an independent protective factor for PI in late pregnancy GDM patients.The combined detection has higher value for predicting PI in late pregnancy GDM patients.

Objective To explore the value of a clinical-radiomics-deep learning(CRDL)fusion model based on biparametric mag-netic resonance imaging(bpMRI)in predicting biochemical recurrence(BCR)after radical prostatectomy(RP).Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 363 patients with prostate cancer(PCa)confirmed by RP pathology who underwent preoperative MRI,inclu-ding 84 cases experienced BCR(23.1％)and 279 cases did not experience BCR(76.9％).The patients were randomly divided into a training set(n=254)and a test set(n=109)in a ratio of 7∶3.Univariate Cox regression analysis was employed to select clinical variables related to BCR and the clinical model was constructed using backward stepwise multivariate Cox regression analysis.The radiomics features and deep learning(DL)features based on the DenseNet network were extracted.Radiomics and DL signatures were separately developed using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO)-Cox regression algorithm.A CRDL fusion model was constructed by combining significant clinical features,DL signature and radiomics signature.The models'predictive performance for BCR was evaluated and compared using the concordance index(C-index).K-M survival curve and Log-rank test were used to assess the performance of CRDL fusion model in risk stratifica-tion of biochemical recurrence free survival(bRFS).Results In the test set,there was no statistically significant difference among C-index of radiomics signature,DL signature and clinical model(P＞0.05).The CRDL fusion model achieved a C-index of 0.83,higher than the clinical model,radiomics signature,and DL signature(P=0.03,0.01,and 0.03).K-M survival curve showed a significant difference in bRFS between low-risk and high-risk patients stratified by the CRDL fusion model[P＜0.000 1,hazard ratio(HR)=30.56,95％confidence interval(CI)10.64-87.75].Conclusion Radiomics signature and DL signature have comparable predictive per-formance for BCR after RP.The CRDL fusion model exhibits the best predictive efficacy for BCR,which is valuable for guiding postoperative treatment strategies in clinical practice.

Information on patients with rifampicin-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (RR-PTB) in Yangzhou City from 2012 to 2020 was obtained from the Information System of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The epidemic characteristics of RR-PTB patients were analyzed by using χ2 test. The average annual registered incidence rate of RR-PTB patients in Yangzhou City from 2012 to 2020 was 0.57/100 000, and the difference between the registered incidence rates in each year was statistically significant ( χ2=29.326, P<0.001). The proportion of re-treated patients (64.8%) was higher than that of newly treated patients (35.2%, χ2=50.593, P<0.001). The registered incidence rate in males (0.91/100 000) was higher than that in females (0.24/100 000, χ2=80.566, P<0.001). The age distribution showed that the highest incidence rate was in the age group≥60 years (0.96/100 000) and the lowest was in the age group 0-<45 years (0.31/100 000, χ2=55.853, P<0.001). From 2012 to 2020, Baoying County had the largest number of registered RR-PTB patients (44 cases), and its registered incidence rate (0.64/100 000) was only lower than that of Guangling District (0.98/100 000). The registered incidence rate of RR-PTB patients in Baoying County during 2016—2020 also increased significantly compared to 2012—2015 ( P=0.001). Logistic regression was used to analyze the factors related to the treatment outcome of RR-PTB patients. The results showed that patients aged≥60 years and those classified as the re-treatment were risk factors for successful treatment of RR-PTB patients ( P<0.05). In summary, males, people aged≥60 years, patients classified as the re-treatment, and residents of Baoying County should be the key populations for RR-PTB epidemic prevention and control in Yangzhou City.