Recently, significant progress has been made in the field of endovascular repair of complex aortic disease involving the major branches (aortic arch disease and complex abdominal aortic aneurysms). Open surgery was considered the “gold standard” for the treatment of these complicated aortic diseases, but was challenged by the huge surgical trauma and high risk of post-operative complications. However, the rapid development of branched and fenestrated endografts has provided an alternative safe and effective minimally invasive treatment for patients who cannot tolerate open surgery. Preliminary evidence has also shown that branched and fenestrated endografts have achieved significant technical success rates and clinical outcomes and have gradually become an important direction of innovation and development for endovascular repair of complex aortic disease. Nevertheless, both branched and fenestrated endografts are currently in the early stages of experience and a series of high-quality research studies are needed in the future to further compare them with open surgery and within different endovascular techniques.

Recently, significant progress has been made in the field of endovascular repair of complex aortic disease involving the major branches (aortic arch disease and complex abdominal aortic aneurysms). Open surgery was considered the “gold standard” for the treatment of these complicated aortic diseases, but was challenged by the huge surgical trauma and high risk of post-operative complications. However, the rapid development of branched and fenestrated endografts has provided an alternative safe and effective minimally invasive treatment for patients who cannot tolerate open surgery. Preliminary evidence has also shown that branched and fenestrated endografts have achieved significant technical success rates and clinical outcomes and have gradually become an important direction of innovation and development for endovascular repair of complex aortic disease. Nevertheless, both branched and fenestrated endografts are currently in the early stages of experience and a series of high-quality research studies are needed in the future to further compare them with open surgery and within different endovascular techniques.

Background and objective The malignant tumor that has the highest global morbidity and death rate is lung cancer,which primarily affects the elderly.The therapy landscape for non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)has trans-formed with the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs).The purpose of this study was to compare the safety and efficacy of immune monotherapy and immunotheray combined with chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC aged 75 years and above.Methods This study retrospectively analyzed 111 patients with advanced NSCLC who were at least 75 years old and received treatment at the First or Fifth Medical Centers of the People's Liberation Army General Hospital from January 2018 to October 2022.These patients underwent first-line or second-line treatment,with 70 receiving immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy and 41 receiving immunotherapy alone.Propensity score matching(PSM)was used to match the baseline characteristics of the patients,including age,Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status(ECOG PS)score,and the number of treatment lines.The study endpoints included objective response rate(ORR),progression-free survival(PFS),overall survival(OS),and safety assessment.Results The median OS for the immunotherapy combined with chemother-apy group was 27.87 months,and the median PFS was 11.50 months.The median OS for the immune monotherapy group was 34.93 months,and the median PFS was 17.00 months.There were no significant differences in OS(P=0.722)and PFS(P=0.474)between the two groups,but a significant difference was observed in ORR(P=0.025).After PSM matching,each group comprised 27 patients.The median OS for the immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy group was 17.70 months,the median PFS was 8.97 months.The median OS for the immune monotherapy group was 17.87 months,and the median PFS was 11.53 months.No significant differences were observed in OS(P=0.635),PFS(P=0.878)and ORR(P=0.097).In terms of safety,the overall inci-dence of adverse events(AEs)before matching was 62.86％ in the immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy group,which was higher than 41.46％ in the immune monotherapy group(P=0.029),while there was no difference in the incidence of AEs of grade 3 or above between the two groups(P=0.221).After matching,AEs occurred in 17(62.96％ )patients in the immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy group and 13(48.15％ )in the immune monotherapy group.There were no significant differences in the overall incidence of AEs(P=0.273)or the incidence of grade 3 or above(P=0.299)between the two groups.Conclusion Im-munotherapy combined with chemotherapy does not significantly improve OS or PFS in patients with NSCLC aged 75 years and above when compared to immunotherapy alone,and this conclusion was further validated by the analysis after PSM.The safety assessment suggests that before matching,the incidence of AEs of any grade in the immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy group was higher.Still,the two groups had no difference in the incidence of AEs of grade 3 or above.Following matching,the tol-erability of the treatment was similar in both groups.According to the safety assessment,the unique circumstances and course of treatment for geriatric patients with advanced NSCLC should be considered.

Objective:To evaluate the therapeutic effect of excimer laser ablation (ELA) in the treatment of lower extremity arterial ischemic diseases.Methods:The clinical data of 44 patients with lower extremity ischemic diseases treated with ELA in the People′s Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from December 2020 to April 2021 were analyzed retrospectively. Among the 44 patients, there were 29 patients in lower extremity arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO), including 3 patients with femoral artery stent occlusion. 8 patients of diabetes foot (DF) and 7 patients of thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO). Observation indicators include target vascular patency rate, amputation rate, vascular reintervention rate and mortality rate. The measurement data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation ( ± s), one-way analysis of variance was used for inter-group comparison, and paired sample t-test was used for intra-group comparison. The Chi-square test was used for comparison between count data. Results:The success rate of operation was 100% in 44 patients. The rate of major amputation in ASO group was 10.3%, while the other two groups had a major amputation rate of 0. The minor amputation rates of the three groups were 6.9%, 25.0% and 28.6%, respectively. The vascular reintervention rate was 10.3% in ASO group, 12.5% in DF group and 0 in TAO group. The 1-year mortality rate in the ASO group was 10.3%, while the other two groups had a mortality rate of 0. The 2-year mortality rate of the three group were 31.0%, 12.5% and 0, respectively.Conclusion:For the treatment of lower extremity arterial ischemic diseases, ELA is safe and effective, but the curative effect need to further clarify by large sample and long-term clinical follow-up observation.

Objective:To investigate the effects of probiotics on intestinal flora, intestinal function, and T lymphocyte level in patients with cervical cancer after radiotherapy.Methods:A total of 92 patients with cervical cancer who underwent pelvic radiotherapy in The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from September 2020 to February 2022 were included in this study. They were randomly divided into control and experimental groups ( n = 46/group). The patients in the experimental group took probiotics during radiotherapy, while the patients in the control group did not take probiotics during radiotherapy. The amount of intestinal flora, D-lactic acid, diamine oxidase, and T lymphocyte subset levels pre- and post-radiotherapy were compared between the two groups. Urinary lactulose (L) and mannitol (M) concentrations were determined in each group. Urinary excretion ratios of L to M were calculated. Results:After 10, 15, and 20 times of radiotherapy and after all radiotherapies, the amount of Escherichia coli and Enterococcus in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group ( F = 128.60, 224.99, all P < 0.05). The amount of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group ( F = 2 065.46, 948.23, both P < 0.05). After 10, 15, and 20 times of radiotherapy and after all radiotherapies, plasma D-lactic acid level in the experimental group was (9.34 ± 1.63) μg/L, (9.15 ± 1.36) μg/L, (8.68 ± 1.06) μg/L, and (8.05 ± 0.82) μg/L, respectively. After 10, 15, and 20 times of radiotherapy and after all radiotherapies, plasma diamine oxidase level in the experimental group was (86.34 ± 20.25) μg/L, (84.28 ± 17.45) μg/L, (80.40 ± 13.35) μg/L, and (76.85 ± 10.87) μg/L, respectively, and urinary excretion ratio of L to M in the experimental group was (1.84 ± 0.16), (1.55 ± 0.12), (1.26 ± 0.09), (0.98 ± 0.06), respectively, all of which were significantly lower than those in the control group ( F = 121.60, 31.73, 417.84, all P < 0.05). After 10, 15, and 20 times of radiotherapy and after all radiotherapies, CD4 + level in the experimental group was (39.80 ± 4.90)%, (40.92 ± 5.30)%, (42.52 ± 6.14)%, (43.83 ± 6.55)%, respectively, CD4 +/CD8 + was (1.52 ± 0.25), (1.63 ± 0.22), (1.71 ± 0.39), (1.83 ± 0.22), respectively, all of which were significantly higher than those in the control group ( F = 58.69, 31.07, all P < 0.05). Conclusion:Probiotics can improve the status of intestinal flora and intestinal barrier function in patients with cervical cancer after radiotherapy, and simultaneously improve the cellular immune function of patients.

Objective:To analyze the worldwide development status and frontier hotspots in the field of critical care nutrition in recent 10 years, and to inform domestic future research direction.Methods:Publications on critical care nutrition researches between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2021 were retrieved from Web of Science core database. CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used for visual analysis.Results:After screening, a total of 2,467 articles were included, with an overall increasing trend in the number of publications. A total of 11,301 authors devoted to critical care nutrition researches, among whom Daren K. Heyland (81) published the most globally and Academician Jieshou Li (9) published the most in China. The United States (812), China (221) and Canada (206) were the top 3 countries concerning numbers of publications in this field. The main research institutions were Harvard University, Queen's University and University of Leuven while Nanjing University ranked the highest domestically. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Nutrition in Clinical Practice and Clinical Nutrition were the three most active journals in this field. Cluster analysis of keywords identified 11 representative cluster labels. Global focuses in critical care nutrition were influence of malnutrition, nutritional treatment pattern and energy and protein supplementation. Special interests were in the nutrition therapy in newborns, obese population and sepsis patients as well as intestinal microbial flora and coronavirus disease 2019.Conclusions:Critical care nutrition research is still under rapid development. Close collaboration between domestic core research circles and institutions should be emphasized while promoting international interactions. Researches on key issues such as energy and protein supplementation should be encouraged, so as to provide stronger evidence for better diagnosis and treatment standards in critical care nutrition.

Objective: To investigate the hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge among clinicians in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, so as to provide the evidence for intensified training and improved diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C among clinicians. Methods: In November, 2021, clinicians were sampled using a stratified random sampling method from a city-level and a county (district)-level hepatitis C designated hospital in Jiaxing City. A questionnaire survey was performed using the Questionnaire for Hepatitis C Prevention and Control Knowledge among Clinicians, and the awareness of basic knowledge, professional knowledge and related knowledge about hepatitis C prevention and control among clinicians were descriptively analyzed. Results: A total of 186 questionnaires were allocated and 179 valid questionnaires were recovered, with an effective recovery rate was 96.24%. The respondents included 107 men (59.78%) and 72 women (40.22%) and had a mean age of (37.06±9.46) years. There were 107 respondents with a bachelor degree (59.78%), 56 with junior professional titles (31.28%), and 170 from non-infectious disease departments (94.97%). The awareness of basic hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge was 96.09%, and the awareness of “Transfusion of blood containing hepatitis C virus may acquire hepatitis C” was high (98.88%), and the awareness of “Hepatitis C can be cured” was low (77.09%). The awareness of professional hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge was 3.91% to 100.00%, and the awareness of “Pathogens of hepatitis C” (100.00%) and “Recommended screening populations for hepatitis C” (86.59%) was high, while the awareness of “There are two categories of hepatitis C cases: clinically diagnosed cases and confirmed cases” (3.91%) and “Clinical diagnosis of hepatitis C: positive anti-HCV antibody + any one of abnormal liver function or epidemiological history or clinical symptoms” (3.91%) was low. The awareness rates of “The state has included antiviral agents against hepatitis C into medical insurance” was and “Antiviral agents against hepatitis C are reimbursed in outpatient and inpatient departments of our hospital” were 81.56% and 59.78%, respectively. There were 69 clinicians participating hepatitis C-related training within one year (38.55%), and the awareness of clinicians that had participated in hepatitis C-related training had a higher awareness rate of basic hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge than those without participation (100.00% vs. 93.64%, P<0.05). Conclusion The awareness of basic hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge is high among clinicians in Jiaxing City; however, the training on diagnosis and classification criteria of hepatitis C and related medical insurance policy require to be improved.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical characteristics and spectrum of SPTB gene variants among 16 Chinese children with Hereditary spherocytosis (HS) and explore their genotype-phenotype correlation. METHODS: Sixteen children who were diagnosed with HS at the Affiliated Hospital of Capital Institute of Pediatrics from November 2018 to July 2022 were selected as the research subjects. Genetic testing was carried out by whole exome sequencing. Candidate variants were verified by Sanger sequencing and subjected to bioinformatic analysis and prediction of 3D structure of the protein. Correlation between the SPTB genotypes and clinical phenotypes was analyzed using Chi-squared test. RESULTS: The male-to-female ratio of the HS patients was 6 : 10, with the median age being 7-year-and-10-month. Clinical features of the patients have included anemia, reticulocytosis and gradual onset of splenomegaly. Mild, moderate and severe anemia have respectively occurred in 56.25% (9/16), 31.25% (5/16) and 12.50% (2/16) of the patients. SPTB gene variants were detected in all patients, among which 10 were unreported previously and 7 were de novo in origin. Loss of function (LOF) variants accounted for 93.75% (15/16). Only one missense variant was detected. Eleven, 4 and 1 of the variants had occurred in the repeat domain, CH1 domain, and dimerization domain, respectively. There was no significant correlation between the type or domain of the SPTB gene variants with the clinical features such as severity of anemia (x² = 3.345, P > 0.05). All of the variants were predicted to be pathogenic or likely pathogenic based on the guidelines from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. CONCLUSION Mild to moderate anemia are predominant clinical features of the HS children harboring a SPTB gene variant, for which LOF variants are the main mutational type. The clinical feature of HS is unaffected by the type of the variants.
Child ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Computational Biology ; Genetic Testing ; Genomics ; Genotype ; Spherocytosis, Hereditary/genetics* ; East Asian People/genetics* ; Spectrin/genetics*

Objective:To investigate the epidemiology, evolution and transmission characteristics of HIV-1 CRF07_BC in Nanjing between 2015 and 2019 to provide scientific basis for precise prevention and control of HIV-1 transmission.Methods:Pol gene sequences of 319 patients with HIV-1 CRF07_BC infection in Nanjing were amplified and sequenced and a maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree was then constructed. Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling method was used to generate Maximum Clade Credibility Tree. Bayesian Skyline Plot was used to reconstruct the changing trend of the effective population size. Pairwise gene distance method was used to construct molecular network to investigate the transmission features. Results:Among the 319 patients, 303 (95.0%) were male; 264 (82.8%) had multiple sexual partners; only 14 (4.4%) had been using condoms. Most of the infections were occurred in men who have sex with men (MSM), accounting for 77.4%. The maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis of HIV-1 CRF07_BC revealed two clusters: Cluster1 and Cluster2. Cluster1 mainly contained the strains isolated from MSM and Cluster2 mainly consisted of the strains isolated from heterosexual patients. The most recent common ancestor was 2002.47(1999.91, 2005.43) year for Cluster1 and 1996.38(1992.55, 1999.76) year for Cluster2. The evolutionary rates (95% highest posterior density, 95%HPD) of Cluster1 and Cluster2 were 1.73×10 -3 (1.36×10 -3-2.16×10 -3) substitutions·site -1·year -1 and 2.09×10 -3 (1.50×10 -3 -2.79×10 -3 ) substitutions·site -1·year -1, respectively. The effective population sizes of Cluster1 and Cluster2 tended to be stable after 2002 and 2003, respectively. In addition, Cluster1 and Cluster2 formed eleven and eight unique branches, respectively, suggesting the possibility of divergent epidemics of this genotype. A total of 35 propagation clusters were formed in the molecular propagation network, including 92 Nanjing sequences with an average degree of 4.3. Males, MSM and people with multiple sexual partners were more likely to be connected to the network. Students and young patients were more likely to be connected to the network. Conclusions:HIV-1 CRF07_BC infection was characterized by low age, multiple sexual partners, unprotected behaviors and transmission among MSM in Nanjing from 2015 to 2019. It was recommended to pay more attention to students and young people, to formulate more effective prevention and control measures for high-risk sexual behaviors, and to carry out continuous molecular monitoring of CRF07_BC strain, so as to provide scientific basis for the prevention and control of HIV CRF07_BC.

Objective:To investigate the relationship between the expression of hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 α (HNF-1α) and the occurrence and development of liver inflammation and fibrosis in liver tissues of patients with chronic hepatitis B.Methods:Sixty-four patients with chronic hepatitis B who were diagnosed and treated in our hospital from 2011 to 2018 were selected. All patients underwent ultrasound-guided aspiration liver biopsy. The pathological results of liver biopsy were collected for inflammation grading and fibrosis staging. The liver puncture biopsies was collected by paraffin sectioning. The expression of HNF1α in the liver tissue was detected by immunohistochemical staining. Mantel-Haenszel χ2 test was used for bidirectional ordered grouping data, and Spearman’s rank-correlation test was used for rank correlation analysis. Results:There were varying degrees of inflammatory necrosis and fibrosis in the liver tissues of patients with chronic hepatitis B. There was a linear relationship between the expression of HNF1α and the level of inflammation in liver tissues ( χ2MH = 40.70, P < 0.05). The expression of HNF1α in liver tissues of patients with chronic hepatitis B was decreased with the increase of liver inflammation. The expression intensity of HNF1α was negatively correlated with the inflammation grade ( rs = -0.815, P < 0.05). There was a linear relationship between the expressions of HNF1α and the degree and stage of liver fibrosis ( χ2MH = 31.95, P < 0.05). The expression level of HNF1α in liver tissue was gradually decreased with the aggravation of liver fibrosis. The expression intensity of HNF1α was negatively correlated with fibrosis stage ( rs = -0.713, P < 0.05). Conclusion:HNF1α is closely related to the occurrence and development of liver tissue inflammation and fibrosis, and is expected to be a sensitive indicator for evaluating the level of liver tissue inflammation and fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B. In addition, its down-regulation may be involved in the process of occurrence and development of liver inflammation and liver fibrosis, and may become a new target for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B.