Background The concentrations of disinfection by-products (DBPs) are varied by different water sources, disinfectants, or treatment processes in Wuxi, and the associated health risks are also different. Objective To understand the levels of trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetamides (HAcAms) in drinking water in Wuxi, and their variations by water sources, seasons, disinfectants or treatment processes, aiming to provide technical support for ensuring the safety of drinking water. Methods In dry period (December 2019) and wet period (July 2020), the finished water and tap water (from the beginning, middle, and end of the drinking water distribution network) from 12 centralized water treatment plants in Wuxi were collected to detect the concentrations of THMs and HAcAms in water samples. A purge and trap-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method was applied to detect trichloromethane (TCM), bromodichloromethane (BDCM), dibromochloromethane (DBCM), and tribromomethane (TBM), and a solid-phase extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method to detect dichloroacetamide (DCAcAm), trichloroacetamide (TCAcAm), bromochloroacetamide (BCAcAm), dibromoacetamide (DBAcAm), bromodichloroacetamide (BDCAcAm), dibromochloroacetamide (DBCAcAm), and tribromoacetamide (TBAcAm). Analyses and comparisons were made on the concentrations of THMs and HAcAms in drinking water by water sources (the Yangtze River/the Taihu Lake/reservoir), wet/dry seasons, disinfection methods (liquid chlorine/sodium hypochlorite), and treatment processes (conventional treatment/conventional+advanced treatment). Results A total of 96 drinking water samples were collected in Wuxi. THMs were positive in all the water samples (100%), with concentration ranging from 1.027 to 40.225 μg·L⁻¹ and the M (P₂₅, P₇₅) concentration being 24.782 (17.784, 30.932) μg·L⁻¹. None of the 4 THMs exceeded the standard limit of the Standards for drinking water quality (GB 5749-2022 ), and the order of the 4 THMs concentrations from high to low was TCM > BDCM > DBCM > TBM. Five of the 7 HAcAms were detected, the total concentration ranged from 0.137 to 3.288 μg·L⁻¹, and the M (P₂₅, P₇₅) was 0.808 (0.482, 1.704) μg·L⁻¹. The DCAcAm concentration was the highest (2.448 μg·L⁻¹), followed by BCAcAm, while TCAcAm and DBCAcAm were not detected. The M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of the total concentration of THMs in the drinking water from the Taihu Lake was 33.353 (26.649, 36.217) μg·L⁻¹, that of the Yangtze River was 27.448 (24.312, 31.393) μg·L⁻¹, and both were higher than the level of the reservoir [16.359 (2.305, 21.553) μg·L⁻¹] (P<0.05), while the M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of the total concentration of HAcAms in the drinking water from the Taihu Lake was 0.616 (0.363, 0.718) μg·L⁻¹, which was lower than those of the Yangtze River [0.967 (0.355, 2.283) μg·L⁻¹] and the reservoir [1.071 (0.686, 1.828) μg·L⁻¹] (P<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in the total concentrations of THMs and HAcAms between wet season and dry season, or between different disinfection methods (P>0.05). The M (P₂₅, P₇₅) concentrations of THMs and HAcAms in drinking water after advanced treatment process involving ozone, activated carbon, and membrane were 20.565 (3.316, 27.185) μg·L⁻¹ and 0.623 (0.452, 1.286) μg·L⁻¹ respectively, and were lower than the corresponding values after conventional treatment process, 28.740 (23.431, 35.085) μg·L⁻¹ and 0.934 (0.490, 2.116) μg·L⁻¹ respectively (P＜0.05). Conclusion The concentrations of THMs and HAcAms in drinking water in Wuxi are generally at a low level. The levels of controlled THMs meet the requirements of national standards, and the levels of uncontrolled HAcAms as new DBPs are up to μg·L⁻¹. The concentrations of the two kinds of DBPs in drinking water vary by water sources. The concentrations of THMs and HAcAms produced by the advanced treatment process are lower than that by the conventional treatment process.

Humans ; Venous Thromboembolism/prevention & control* ; Anticoagulants/therapeutic use* ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Patients ; Hospitalization ; Risk Factors

Approximately 140 million people worldwide are homozygous carriers of APOE4 (ε4), a strong genetic risk factor for late onset familial and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD), 91% of whom will develop AD at earlier age than heterozygous carriers and noncarriers. Susceptibility to AD could be reduced by targeted editing of APOE4, but a technical basis for controlling the off-target effects of base editors is necessary to develop low-risk personalized gene therapies. Here, we first screened eight cytosine base editor variants at four injection stages (from 1- to 8-cell stage), and found that FNLS-YE1 variant in 8-cell embryos achieved the comparable base conversion rate (up to 100%) with the lowest bystander effects. In particular, 80% of AD-susceptible ε4 allele copies were converted to the AD-neutral ε3 allele in human ε4-carrying embryos. Stringent control measures combined with targeted deep sequencing, whole genome sequencing, and RNA sequencing showed no DNA or RNA off-target events in FNLS-YE1-treated human embryos or their derived stem cells. Furthermore, base editing with FNLS-YE1 showed no effects on embryo development to the blastocyst stage. Finally, we also demonstrated FNLS-YE1 could introduce known protective variants in human embryos to potentially reduce human susceptivity to systemic lupus erythematosus and familial hypercholesterolemia. Our study therefore suggests that base editing with FNLS-YE1 can efficiently and safely introduce known preventive variants in 8-cell human embryos, a potential approach for reducing human susceptibility to AD or other genetic diseases.
Humans ; Apolipoprotein E4/genetics* ; Cytosine ; Mutation ; Blastocyst ; Heterozygote ; Gene Editing ; CRISPR-Cas Systems

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between the glucose-to-lymphocyte ratio (GLR) and prognosis of patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI). METHODS: Based on the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-IV (MIMIC-IV), SA-AKI patients aged ≥ 18 years were selected. According to the tertiles of GLR, the patients were divided into GLR1 group (GLR ≤ 4.97×10^-9 mmol), GLR2 group (4.97×10^-9 mmol < GLR < 9.75×10^-9 mmol) and GLR3 group (GLR ≥ 9.75×10^-9 mmol). Patients with SA-AKI were divided into survival group and death group according to whether they survived 28 days after admission. The patient's gender, age, vital signs, laboratory test results, comorbidities, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), acute physiology score III (APS III) score and treatment measures were extracted from the database. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to make the survival curves of patients with SA-AKI at 28 days, 90 days, 180 days and 1 year. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis model was used to explore the independent risk factors of 28-day mortality in patients with SA-AKI. Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve) was used to analyze the predictive efficacy of GLR for the prognosis of patients with SA-AKI. RESULTS: A total of 1 524 patients with SA-AKI were included, with a median age of 68.28 (58.96, 77.24) years old, including 612 females (40.16%) and 912 males (59.84%). There were 507 patients in the GLR1 group, 509 patients in the GLR2 group and 508 patients in the GLR3 group. There were 1 181 patients in the 28-day survival group and 343 patients in the death group. Grouping according to GLR tertiles showed that with the increase of GLR, the 28-day, 90-day, 180-day and 1-year mortality of SA-AKI patients gradually increased (28-day mortality were 11.64%, 22.00%, 33.86%, respectively; 90-day mortality were 15.98%, 26.72%, 40.55%, respectively; 180-day mortality were 17.16%, 28.29% and 41.73%, and the 1-year mortality were 17.95%, 29.27% and 42.72%, respectively, all P < 0.01). According to 28-day survival status, the GLR of the death group was significantly higher than that of the survival group [×10^-9 mmol: 9.81 (5.75, 20.01) vs. 6.44 (3.64, 10.78), P < 0.01]. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that GLR was an independent risk factor for 28-day mortality in patients with SA-AKI [when GLR was used as a continuous variable: odds ratio (OR) = 1.065, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 1.045-1.085, P < 0.001; when GLR was used as a categorical variable, compared with GLR1 group: GLR2 group OR = 1.782, 95%CI was 1.200-2.647, P = 0.004; GLR3 group OR = 2.727, 95%CI was 1.857-4.005, P < 0.001]. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of GLR for predicting 28-day mortality in patients with SA-AKI was 0.674, when the optimal cut-off value was 8.769×10^-9 mmol, the sensitivity was 57.1% and the specificity was 67.1%. The predictive performance was improved when GLR was combined with APS III score and SOFA score, and the AUC was 0.806, the sensitivity was 74.6% and the specificity was 71.4%. CONCLUSIONS GLR is an independent risk factor of 28-day mortality in patients with SA-AKI, and high GLR is associated with poor prognosis in patients with SA-AKI.
Male ; Female ; Humans ; Blood Glucose ; Glucose ; ROC Curve ; Prognosis ; Sepsis/diagnosis* ; Acute Kidney Injury ; Retrospective Studies ; Intensive Care Units

Objective:To investigate the relationship between histone deacetylase (HDAC) gene polymorphism and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Bai and Han populations in Dali of Yunnan province.Methods:A total of 148 patients with T2DM of Bai and Han nationalities who received treatment in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture People's Hospital from May 2019 to March 2021 were included in the T2DM group. An additional 100 healthy controls of Bai and Han nationalities who concurrently received physical examination in the same hospital from May 2019 to December 2020 were included in the normal control group. The susceptibility genes of T2DM were detected using the Taqman MGB probe method. The susceptibility gene loci were amplified using polymerase chain reaction. The whole sequence of susceptibility gene was sequenced.Results:There were no significant differences in the distribution frequencies of rs2530223 genotype, rs11741808 genotype, rs2547547 genotype, and rs1741981 genotype between Bai and Han populations (all P > 0.05). There was a significant difference in blood lipid level between four loci ( t = -1.06, -0.19, 0.39, -2.12, -2.04, 0.16, 1.47, < 0.01, -0.16, -3.17, -2.93, 0.69, -2.58, -2.33, all P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance between different states (all P < 0.05). The frequency distributions of each genotype and each allele did not differ significantly between healthy control people of Bai nationality and T2DM patients of Bai nationality and between healthy control people of Han nationality and T2DM patients of Han nationality (all P > 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that the polymorphism was not an independent risk factor for T2DM. Conclusion:The relationships between HDAC gene polymorphism and T2DM, obesity and dyslipidemia differ between Bai and Han populations.

Objective:To explore the relationship between the imaging features of enhanced MRI in patients with central chronic pulmonary artery thromboembolism (CPTE) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR).Methods:Thirty-nine patients with CPTE who had contrast-enhanced MRI examination were retrospectively enrolled this study from January 2018 to December 2020. And 33 patients who received right heart catheterization were divided into two groups based on PVR=1 000 dyn·s·cm -5. The differences of imaging features of CPTE in enhanced MRI between the two groups were compared. The relationship between gender, duration of disease, age, pleural thickening, bilateral bronchial artery dilation, number of the involved vascular segments, number of thrombosis, number of the thrombus-related delayed enhancement of artery wall and PVR was analyzed by binary logistic regression. Results:In 39 patients with central CPTE, the dilated lumen (168, 43.30%) and delayed enhancement of wall (122, 31.52%) were found in most of pulmonary arteries. The rate of the lumen dilatation associated with thrombus was the highest among that of the lumen abnormality (66, 52.80%). There were more thrombi in PVR<1 000 dyn·s·cm -5 group than those in PVR≥1 000 dyn·s·cm -5 group (χ 2=9.55, P=0.002). There was no significant difference in the incidence of wall delayed enhancement associated the thrombus between the two groups (χ 2=0.90, P=0.344). The incidence of bilateral bronchial arterial dilatation in PVR<1 000 dyn·s·cm -5 group was higher than that in PVR≥1 000 dyn·s·cm -5 group ( P=0.019). Logistic regression analysis showed that female, the less number of involved vascular segments and bilateral bronchial artery dilation were correlated with the lower PVR. Conclusions:Enhanced MRI is helpful to accurately evaluate the lumen abnormality of pulmonary artery and wall remodeling in central CPTE, which is of great value for the assessment of patients′ conditions and treatment effect.

Objective:To analyze the late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) manifestations, cardiac function, and myocardial strain by feature tracking (FT) in Takayasu arteritis (TA) with pulmonary artery involvement (PTA) using cardiac MR (CMR), and then to investigate manifestations of the impaired myocardial structure and function.Methods:A retrospective study was performed on 32 patients with PTA and 21 healthy subjects without cardiopulmonary diseases from January 2017 to December 2020. All of them underwent CMR examinations. According to the presence of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH),PTA patients were divided into two groups including PAH group (11 cases) and non-PAH group (21 cases). LGE manifestations were observed and Fisher exact test was used for statistical analysis between the two groups. Cardiac function parameters and FT values including global peak strain of the left and right ventricle were calculated separately in PAH, non-PAH group of patients and healthy controls, using One-way ANOVA or non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test for statistical analysis including a pairwise comparison between groups. The correlations between FT values of the PAH group and parameters measured by right heart catheterization test (RHC) and transthoracic echocardiography were analyzed using Pearson or Spearman correlation analysis.Results:There were 23 PTA patients (71.9%) with LGE. LGE in the interventricular insertion points (IPs)(11/11), and in the mid-wall (11/11) or epicardial (10/11) myocardium was more common ( P values were 0.006,<0.001 and 0.011, respectively) in PAH group, compared with LGE in the IPs (11/21), and in the mid-wall (7/21) or epicardial (9/21) myocardium in non-PAH group. The absolute values of left ventricular global peak circumferential strain (LVGPCS), left ventricular global peak longitudinal strain (LVGPLS) and right ventricular global peak longitudinal strain in PAH group were smaller than those in healthy subjects ( P<0.05). The absolute values of LVGPCS and LVGPLS in non-PAH group were smaller than those in healthy subjects ( P<0.05). In PAH group, mean pulmonary artery pressure of RHC was correlated with several FT parameters ( P<0.05), especially left ventricular global peak radial strain ( r=-0.807, P=0.009) and LVGPCS ( r s=0.817, P=0.007). Conclusions:Myocardial injury can be seen in PTA patients. And LGE in the IPs and LGE in the mid-wall or epicardial myocardium is more common in PTA patients with PAH. LVGPCS and LVGPLS can early indicate left heart dysfunction in PTA patients without PAH.

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy of balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) using 99Tc m-macroaggregated albumin (MAA) pulmonary perfusion tomography imaging. Methods:Twenty-five patients (4 males, 21 females; age (56.5±12.3) years) with CTEPH who underwent BPA from January 2017 to April 2020 in Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University were enrolled retrospectively. Effect of BPA on the improvement of pulmonary lobe/pulmonary segment perfusion was analyzed, and the proportions of improved and unimproved pulmonary lobe/pulmonary segment perfusion by BPA were calculated. The percentages of perfusion defect scores (PPDs%) of lung perfusion tomography imaging before BPA and after 4-6 times BPA were compared and analyzed (paired t test). The correlations between PPDs% and mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) before BPA and after BPA were analyzed respectively, and the correlation between decreased percentage of PPDs% and decreased percentage of mPAP after BPA were also analyzed (Pearson correlation analysis). Results:Among 150 lobes of 25 patients, 96.00%(144/150) lobes showed perfusion abnormalities before BPA. After BPA, 11.11%(16/144) showed complete improvement, 57.64%(83/144) showed partial improvement, and 31.25%(45/144) showed no improvement. Among 450 pulmonary segments of 25 patients, 62.44%(281/450) showed perfusion abnormalities before BPA. After BPA, 30.60%(86/281), 37.37%(105/281), 32.03%(90/281) showed complete, partial and no improvement, respectively. The post-BPA PPDs% was significantly lower than that of pre-BPA ((39.08±10.88)% vs (57.88±10.46)%; t=10.40, P<0.001). The post-BPA mPAP was significantly lower than that of pre-BPA ((32.36±10.57) vs (49.08±10.23) mmHg; 1 mmHg=0.133 kPa; t=10.25, P<0.001). There was no significant correlation between PPDs% and mPAP either before BPA ( r=0.01, P=0.953) or after BPA ( r=0.27, P=0.199), but there was a positive correlation between the changes of PPDs% and mPAP ( r=0.40, P=0.045). Conclusions:BPA can significantly improve the pulmonary perfusion and reduce mPAP in CTEPH patients. Pulmonary perfusion tomography imaging can be used to evaluate the efficacy of BPA in CTEPH.

Humans ; Behcet Syndrome/diagnostic imaging*

Objective:To develop an evaluation index system for dynamic adjustment effect of medical service prices in public hospitals, as a set of quantitative evaluation tools for management departments to keep track of the trend in time, implement dynamic monitoring and guide decision-making.Methods:Based on the evaluation system of price adjustment effect, through the importance assessment of expert consultation and multiple index percentile method, the scoring criteria were formulated and the empirical analysis was carried out.Results:The total scores of hospital A and hospital B were 71.31 and 77.94 respectively, classified as " average" . The evaluation could basically reflect the effect of dynamic adjustment of medical service price in public hospitals.Conclusions:The evaluation has the functions of displaying differences, witnessing achievements and tracing causes. It can be used to evaluate the effect of dynamic adjustment of regional prices, to assist the regulators to keep track of trends, monitor dynamically and guide decision-making in time, and be used by hospitals in self-evaluation to find problems, improve their own operation and promote the healthy development of hospitals.