ObjectiveTo investigate the recurrence of ischemic stroke (IS) and to analyze the association between four indices of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG) and the risk of IS recurrence by analyzing the follow-up data related to IS in the community-based natural population of Songjiang District, Shanghai, so as to provide a scientific basis for improving the prognosis of stroke patients in the community and controlling IS recurrence. MethodsA prospective follow-up study was conducted among the IS patients in the community-based cohort population, collecting data about patient’s age, gender, disease history, biochemical indicators, and etc. Cox regression model and restricted cubic spline model were used to analyze the relationship between different levels of plasma lipids and the recurrence of IS in these patients. ResultsA total of 1 368 patients with IS were included. The total follow-up duration was 7 171.46 person-years, with a median follow-up time of 6.24 years. There were 420 cases of IS recurrence, resulting in a cumulative recurrence rate of 30.70%. The results of multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the recurrence risk of IS was reduced when the baseline TC and LDL-C levels of IS patients were in the ranges of 4.65‒5.67 mmol·L^-1 and 2.52‒3.46 mmol·L^-1, respectively. The results of restricted cubic spline analysis showed a U-shaped relationship between baseline TC and LDL-C levels and the recurrence risk in IS patients. ConclusionThe cumulative recurrence rate of patients with IS in the community of Songjiang District in Shanghai is high, and the levels of TC and LDL-C at baseline survey are correlated with the recurrence of IS in these patients. It is suggested to pay more attention to the levels of LDL-C and TC in patients with IS, so as to improve the prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Blood glucose and serum albumin have been associated with cardiovascular disease prognosis, but the impact of admission-blood-glucose-to-albumin ratio (AAR) on adverse outcomes in critical ill coronary artery disease (CAD) patients was not investigated. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with CAD were non-consecutively selected from the MIMIC-IV database and categorized into quartiles based on their AAR. The primary outcome was 1-year mortality, and secondary endpoints were in-hospital mortality, acute kidney injury (AKI), and renal replacement therapy (RRT). A restricted cubic splines model and Cox proportional hazard models assessed the association between AAR and adverse outcomes in CAD patients. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis determined differences in endpoints across subgroups. RESULTS: A total of 8360 patients were included. There were 726 patients (8.7%) died in the hospital and 1944 patients (23%) died at 1 year. The incidence of AKI and RRT was 63% and 4.3%, respectively. High AAR was markedly associated with in-hospital mortality (HR = 1.587, P = 0.003), 1-year mortality (HR = 1.502, P < 0.001), AKI incidence (HR = 1.579, P < 0.001), and RRT (HR = 1.640, P < 0.016) in CAD patients in the completely adjusted Cox proportional hazard model. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis noted substantial differences in all endpoints based on AAR quartiles. Stratified analysis and interaction test demonstrated stable correlations between AAR and outcomes. CONCLUSIONS The results highlight that AAR may be a potential indicator for assessing in-hospital mortality, 1-year mortality, and adverse renal prognosis in critical CAD patients.

ObjectiveTo provide scientific support for the compilation of high-quality anti-nuclear， biological， and chemical （NBC） medical textbooks in China by retrieving books in the field of biological weapons defense in China， summarizing the publication time and distribution of publishing institutions， and categorizing content and key points of related books. MethodsRelevant subject terms in the field of biological weapons defense were searched through the official website of China National Digital Library and other websites， up until December 31， 2023， and were limited to books. Topic analysis was conducted on the introductions and contents of the books using the latent Dirichlet allocation （LDA） model. The number of topics was determined based on perplexity， and topics were identified according to the intertopic distance map， followed by a qualitative description of the core content of each topic. ResultsA total of 104 books were included in this study， among which four were identified as higher educational textbooks. The volume of publications increased during the periods 2002‒2004 and 2020‒2023. Research institutions accounted for the highest percentage of publishers （37.78%）， and 56.67% of the publishers were military institutions. The study identified six topics： "distribution， defense， and response to biological weapons"， "category， diagnosis， and treatment of biological warfare agents"， "response to biological public health emergencies"， "status of nuclear， biological， and chemical weapons internationally"， "biosafety risk management and prevention and control"， and "technologies and equipment related to biological hazard identification". ConclusionThere are few books in the field of biological weapons defense in China and the content is relatively outdated. In the future， the preparation of teaching materials should be aimed at practical emergency handling techniques for biological weapons， enhance the emphasis on biological weapons detection and biological warfare early warning， improve the fundamental theories at different training levels， and timely update the current research status in the field.

Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of local visceral leishmaniasis in Beijing Municipality from 2021 to 2023, so as to provide insights into formulation of the visceral leishmaniasis control strategy. Methods Epidemiological data of visceral leishmaniasis cases reported in Beijing Municipality from 2021 to 2023 were collected from the National Health Informatization Disease Prevention and Control Information System, and the epidemiological characteristics of local visceral leishmaniasis cases were analyzed using a descriptive epidemiological method. In November 2021 and 2023, 50 to 100 permanent residents were voluntarily selected within a 100 meter radius of sites where patients lived or acquired Leishmania infections, and venous blood was sampled for anti-Leishmania antibody testing. Venous blood was sampled from dogs for anti-Leishmania antibody testing in natural villages where patients lived or acquired Leishmania infections, or in districts where Leishmania infected dogs were reported. In addition, sandflies were captured with CO₂ mosquito traps and fine mesh nets in natural villages where patients lived or acquired Leishmania infections from May to September, 2021 and 2023, for sandfly species identification. Results A total of 4 local visceral leishmaniasis cases were reported in Beijing Municipality from 2021 to 2023, with ages of 2 to 77 years, and acquiring Leishmania infections in Mentougou District (2 cases), Changping District (1 case), and Yanqing District (1 case). The anti-Leishmania antibody testing was all negative in 73 human blood samples and the sero-prevalence of anti-Leishmania antibody was 25.00% in 36 venous blood samples from domestic dogs in 2021, with a total of 4 520 Phlebotomus chinensis captured. The sero-prevalence of anti-Leishmania antibody was 0.51% in 198 human blood samples and 13.58% in 243 venous blood samples from domestic dogs in 2023, with 16.10%, 25.00%, 17.78% and 3.13% sero-prevalence in dogs sampled from Mentougou District, Changping District, Yanqing District and Haidian District, respectively (P = 0.011), while a total of 1 712 Ph. chinensis were captured, including 1 421 female sandflies (86.54%). Conclusions The prevalence of local visceral leishmaniasis was low in Beijing Municipality from 2021 to 2023; however, there is a risk of further spread in the epidemic foci. Intensified visceral leishmaniasis surveillance and control is recommended.

Objective To establish a weightlessness simulation animal model using miniature pigs, leveraging the characteristic of multiple systems’ tissue structures and functions similar to those of humans, and to observe pathophysiological changes, providing a new method for aerospace research. Methods Nine standard-grade miniature pigs were selected and randomly divided into an experimental group (n=7) and a control group (n=2). The experimental group was fixed using customized metal cages, with canvas slings suspending their hind limbs off the ground, and the body positioned at a -20° angle relative to the ground to simulate unloading for 30 days (24 hours a day). Data on body weight, blood volume, and blood biochemistry indicators were collected at different time points for statistical analysis of basic physiological changes. After the experiment, the miniature pigs were euthanized and tissue samples were collected for histopathological observation of the cardiovascular, skeletal and muscle systems HE and Masson staining. Statistical analysis was also conducted on the thickness of arterial vessels and the diameter of skeletal muscle fibers. Additionally, western blotting was employed to detect the expression levels of skeletal muscle atrophy-related proteins, including muscle-specific RING finger protein 1 (MuRf-1) and muscle atrophy F-box (MAFbx, as known as Atrogin-1), while immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an indicator of astrocyte activation in the brain, reflecting the pathophysiological functional changes across systems. Results After hindlimb unloading, the experimental group showed significant decreases in body weight (P<0.001) and blood volume (P<0.01). During the experiment, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and red blood cell count levels significantly decreased (P<0.05) but gradually recovered. The expression levels of alanine aminotransferase and γ-glutamyltransferase initially decreased (P<0.05) before rebounding, while albumin significantly decreased (P<0.001) and globulin significantly increased (P<0.01). Creatinine significantly decreased (P<0.05). The average diameter of gastrocnemius muscle fibers in the experimental group significantly shortened (P<0.05), with a leftward shift in the distribution of muscle fiber diameters and an increase in small-diameter muscle fibers. Simultaneously, Atrogin-1 expression in the gastrocnemius and paravertebral muscles significantly increased (P<0.05). These changes are generally consistent with the effects of weightlessness on humans and animals in space. Furthermore, degenerative changes were observed in some neurons of the cortical parietal lobe, frontal lobe, and hippocampal regions of the experimental group, with a slight reduction in the number of Purkinje cells in the cerebellar region, and a significant enhancement of GFAP-positive signals in the hippocampal area (P<0.05). Conclusion Miniature pigs subjected to a -20° angle hind limb unloading for 30 days maybe serve as a new animal model for simulating weightlessness, applicable to related aerospace research.

Objective:To explore the differences in bacterial community structure between proximal colon cancer (PC), distal colon cancer (DC), and rectal cancer (RC), and the values of featured microbiota in differentiating PC with tumor markers.Methods:This case-control study enrolled 85 newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients, including 22 PC, 15 DC and 48 RC patients, and 8 colorectal adenoma patients from May 2019 to July 2022 at the Department of General Surgery, Anyang Oncology Hospital. The blood and fecal samples were collected before surgery and then subjected to biochemical tests for tumor markers and 16S rDNA tests, respectively. SPSS (27.0.1) was applied to perform the t-test, one-way ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and Chi-Squared Test. Also, the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was plotted on tumor markers and/or f_Bacteroidaceae with SPSS software .Results:All groups had significant differences in the CA125 ( F=3.543, P<0.05), CA72-4 ( F=3.596, P<0.05), and serum tumor-associated materials (TAM) levels ( F=5.787, P<0.01). In PC group, the levels of CA125 [PC vs RC, (36.84±6.30) kU/L vs (12.73±4.21) kU/L, P<0.01] and CA72-4 [PC vs RC, (45.56±10.86) kU/L vs (3.30±7.63) kU/L, P<0.01] were significantly higher than that of the RC group, while the level of TAM was remarkably elevated in PC group than in RC group [PC vs RC, (124.84±5.19) U/ml vs (102.44±3.63) U/ml, P<0.001] and CRA group [PC vs CRA, (124.84±5.19) U/ml vs (95.39±8.42) U/ml, P<0.01]. The LEfSe analysis showed that the featured microbiota in the PC group included f_Bacteroidaceae, f_Neisseriaceae, f_Clostridiaceae_1, f_Spirochaetaceae, and so on. The largest area under the ROC belonged to the combination of TAM and f_Bacteroidaceae, which reached 0.845 (95% CI 0.747-0.944), with sensitivity being 0.857 and specificity being 0.815. Conclusions:There is heterogeneity in gut microbiota composition among PC, DC, RC, and CRA. The combination of gut microbiota and tumor biomarkers demonstrated good differentiating effects in proximal colon cancers.

Objective:To investigate the changes of thyroid hormones and the flow velocity of superior thyroid artery in patients with Graves' disease and Hashimoto's thyrotoxicosis before and after treatment with methimazole.Methods:A case-control study was conducted to select 45 cases of Graves' disease and 45 cases of Hashimoto's thyroiditis from October 2021 to December 2022 in the Department of Endocrinology, North China University of Science and Technology Affiliated Hospital. The changes of thyroid hormone and blood flow velocity of superior thyroid artery in patients with Graves' disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis before and after treatment with methimazole were analyzed. Measurement data satisfying normal distribution were expressed by xˉ±s, and the mean between two groups was compared by t test. Measurement data not satisfying normal distribution were expressed by M( Q1, Q3), and the median between two groups was compared by Wilcoxon rank sum test. χ 2 test was used to compare the constituent ratio of enumeration data among groups. Results:There was no significant difference in thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) between the two groups before treatment, and there was no significant difference in TSH between the two groups after 1 month and 3 months of treatment (all P>0.05). The levels of free triiodothyronine (FT3) were (24.09±9.29) pmol/L and (17.41±9.36) pmol/L in Graves' disease group and Hashimoto's thyroiditis group respectively before treatment. FT4 were (60.23±20.82) and (43.47±21.71) pmol/L, respectively, and the peak stolie vloiy (PSV) were (69.53±5.70) and (52.65±4.64) cm/s, respectively in Graves' disease group and Hashimoto's thyroiditis group respectively before treatment. There were significant differences between the two groups ( t values wrere 3.39 and 3.74, Z=13.83, all P<0.001). The difference of FT3 between one month after treatment and before treatment was (-6.36±5.32) and (-12.64±9.08) pmol/L ( t=4.02, P<0.001) and the difference in FT3 between 3 months of treatment and before treatment was (-10.14±9.50) and (-17.80±11.17) pmol/L, respectively ( t=3.51, P<0.001) between the Graves disease group and the Hashimoto's thyroiditis group. The difference in FT4 between the Graves disease group and the Hashimoto's thyroiditis group after 1 month of treatment and before treatment was (-28.47±10.09) and (-20.57±14.48) pmol/L ( t=7.01, P<0.001), and the difference of FT4 was (-47.06±20.57) and (-30.17±20.54) pmol/L ( t=3.91, P<0.001) between the Graves disease group and the Hashimoto toxin group. The difference between one month after treatment and before treatment was (-13.10(-34.10,-2.60)) and (-10.50(-27.5,-0.20)) cm/s ( Z=2.63, P=0.009), respectively. The difference between 3 months and before treatment was (-31.40(-53.20,-12.70)) and (-19.90(-46.00,-4.70)cm/s ( Z=4.40, P<0.001)) between the Graves disease group and the Hashimoto's thyroiditis group, and the difference was statistically significant. Conclusion:Thyroid hormone levels were decreased after treatment with methimazole in patients with diffuse toxic goiter and Hashimoto toxemia, but the difference was not statistically significant. The PSV level of superior thyroid artery in patients with diffuse toxic goiter was significantly lower than that in patients with Hashimoto's thyrotoxicosis.

BACKGROUND:Increasing evidence suggests that N6-methyladenosine(m6A)regulators are closely associated with osteoarthritis and are considered to be a new direction in the prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis,but their specific mechanism of action is unknown. OBJECTIVE:To conduct a bioinformatics analysis of the osteoarthritis gene microarray dataset in order to explore the role of m6A in osteoarthritis and analyze the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. METHODS:The m6A regulators associated with osteoarthritis and their expression were first extracted from the GSE1919 dataset in the GEO database using R software,and then the results were analyzed by gene difference analysis and GO and KEGG enrichment analyses.Subsequently,the results of protein-protein interaction network topology analysis and machine learning results were intersected to obtain the m6A Hub regulators,which were validated by in vitro cellular experiments. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:A total of 16 osteoarthritis-related m6A regulators were extracted and 11 m6A differential regulators,including ZC3H13,YTHDC1,YTHDF3 and HNRNPC,were obtained by differential analysis.GO enrichment analysis showed that osteoarthritis-related m6A differential regulators played a role in the biological processes such as mRNA transport,RNA catabolism,and regulation of insulin-like growth factor receptor signaling pathway.(3)KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the differential regulators were mainly involved in the p53,interleukin-17 and AMPK signaling pathways.The combined protein-protein interaction network topology analysis and machine learning results obtained the m6A Hub regulator-YTHDC1.(5)The results of in vitro cellular experiments showed that there was a significant difference in the expression of m6A key regulator between the control and experimental groups(P<0.05).To conclude,YTHDC1 is closely related to the development of osteoarthritis,which is expected to be a molecular target of m6A for the treatment of osteoarthritis.

BACKGROUND:Cellular senescence is closely related to the development and progression of osteoarthritis,but the specific targets and regulatory mechanisms are not yet clear. OBJECTIVE:To mine key genes in cellular senescence-mediated osteoarthritis by integrating bioinformatics and machine learning approaches and validate them via experiments to explore the role of cellular senescence in osteoarthritis. METHODS:The osteoarthritis gene expression profiles obtained from the GEO database were intersected with cellular senescence-related genes obtained from the CellAge database and the expression of the intersected genes was extracted for differential analysis,followed by GO and KEGG analysis of the differential genes.The key osteoarthritis cellular senescence genes were then screened by protein-protein interaction network analysis and machine learning,and in vitro cellular experiments were performed.Finally,the expression of the key genes was detected by qPCR. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:A total of 31 osteoarthritis cell senescence differential genes were identified.GO analysis showed that these genes were mainly involved in the biological processes,such as regulation of leukocyte differentiation,monocyte differentiation,regulation of T cell differentiation and exerted roles in DNA transcription factor binding,histone deacetylase binding,chromatin DNA binding,and chemokine binding.KEGG analysis showed that osteoarthritis cell senescence differential genes were mainly activated in the JAK/STAT signaling pathway,PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and FoxO signaling pathway.MYC,a key gene for osteoarthritis cellular senescence,was identified by protein-protein interaction network topology analysis and machine learning methods.The results of the in vitro cellular assay showed that the mRNA expression of MYC was significantly lower in the experimental group(osteoarthritis group)than the control group(normal group)(P＜0.05).To conclude,MYC can be a key gene in the senescence of osteoarthritic cells and may be a new target in the prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis by mediating immune response,inflammatory response and transcriptional regulation.

Objective: This study aims to overcome challenges in lumbar spine imaging, particularly lumbar spinal stenosis, by developing an automated segmentation model using advanced techniques. Traditional manual measurement and lesion detection methods are limited by subjectivity and inefficiency. The objective is to create an accurate and automated segmentation model that identifies anatomical structures in lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging scans. Methods: Leveraging a dataset of 539 lumbar spinal stenosis patients, the study utilizes the residual U-Net for semantic segmentation in sagittal and axial lumbar spine magnetic resonance images. The model, trained to recognize specific tissue categories, employs a geometry algorithm for anatomical structure quantification. Validation metrics, like Intersection over Union (IOU) and Dice coefficients, validate the residual U-Net’s segmentation accuracy. A novel rotation matrix approach is introduced for detecting bulging discs, assessing dural sac compression, and measuring yellow ligament thickness. Results: The residual U-Net achieves high precision in segmenting lumbar spine structures, with mean IOU values ranging from 0.82 to 0.93 across various tissue categories and views. The automated quantification system provides measurements for intervertebral disc dimensions, dural sac diameter, yellow ligament thickness, and disc hydration. Consistency between training and testing datasets assures the robustness of automated measurements. Conclusion Automated lumbar spine segmentation with residual U-Net and deep learning exhibits high precision in identifying anatomical structures, facilitating efficient quantification in lumbar spinal stenosis cases. The introduction of a rotation matrix enhances lesion detection, promising improved diagnostic accuracy, and supporting treatment decisions for lumbar spinal stenosis patients.