Objective: This cross-sectional investigation aimed to determine the incidence, clinical characteristics, prognosis, and related risk factors of olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions related to infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain in mainland China. Methods: Data of patients with SARS-CoV-2 from December 28, 2022, to February 21, 2023, were collected through online and offline questionnaires from 45 tertiary hospitals and one center for disease control and prevention in mainland China. The questionnaire included demographic information, previous health history, smoking and alcohol drinking, SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, olfactory and gustatory function before and after infection, other symptoms after infection, as well as the duration and improvement of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction. The self-reported olfactory and gustatory functions of patients were evaluated using the Olfactory VAS scale and Gustatory VAS scale. Results: A total of 35 566 valid questionnaires were obtained, revealing a high incidence of olfactory and taste dysfunctions related to infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain (67.75%). Females(χ2=367.013, P<0.001) and young people(χ2=120.210, P<0.001) were more likely to develop these dysfunctions. Gender(OR=1.564, 95%CI: 1.487-1.645), SARS-CoV-2 vaccination status (OR=1.334, 95%CI: 1.164-1.530), oral health status (OR=0.881, 95%CI: 0.839-0.926), smoking history (OR=1.152, 95%CI=1.080-1.229), and drinking history (OR=0.854, 95%CI: 0.785-0.928) were correlated with the occurrence of olfactory and taste dysfunctions related to SARS-CoV-2(above P<0.001). 44.62% (4 391/9 840) of the patients who had not recovered their sense of smell and taste also suffered from nasal congestion, runny nose, and 32.62% (3 210/9 840) suffered from dry mouth and sore throat. The improvement of olfactory and taste functions was correlated with the persistence of accompanying symptoms(χ2=10.873, P=0.001). The average score of olfactory and taste VAS scale was 8.41 and 8.51 respectively before SARS-CoV-2 infection, but decreased to3.69 and 4.29 respectively after SARS-CoV-2 infection, and recovered to 5.83and 6.55 respectively at the time of the survey. The median duration of olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions was 15 days and 12 days, respectively, with 0.5% (121/24 096) of patients experiencing these dysfunctions for more than 28 days. The overall self-reported improvement rate of smell and taste dysfunctions was 59.16% (14 256/24 096). Gender(OR=0.893, 95%CI: 0.839-0.951), SARS-CoV-2 vaccination status (OR=1.334, 95%CI: 1.164-1.530), history of head and facial trauma(OR=1.180, 95%CI: 1.036-1.344, P=0.013), nose (OR=1.104, 95%CI: 1.042-1.171, P=0.001) and oral (OR=1.162, 95%CI: 1.096-1.233) health status, smoking history(OR=0.765, 95%CI: 0.709-0.825), and the persistence of accompanying symptoms (OR=0.359, 95%CI: 0.332-0.388) were correlated with the recovery of olfactory and taste dysfunctions related to SARS-CoV-2 (above P<0.001 except for the indicated values). Conclusion: The incidence of olfactory and taste dysfunctions related to infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain is high in mainland China, with females and young people more likely to develop these dysfunctions. Active and effective intervention measures may be required for cases that persist for a long time. The recovery of olfactory and taste functions is influenced by several factors, including gender, SARS-CoV-2 vaccination status, history of head and facial trauma, nasal and oral health status, smoking history, and persistence of accompanying symptoms.
Female ; Humans ; Adolescent ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Smell ; COVID-19/complications* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; COVID-19 Vaccines ; Incidence ; Olfaction Disorders/etiology* ; Taste Disorders/etiology* ; Prognosis

Humans ; Consensus ; Hypersensitivity ; Desensitization, Immunologic/adverse effects* ; Immunotherapy/adverse effects* ; Injections, Subcutaneous ; Allergens

Objective: To construct and verify a light-weighted convolutional neural network (CNN), and explore its application value for screening the early stage (subcategory 0/1 and stage Ⅰ of pneumoconiosis) of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) from digital chest radiography (DR) . Methods: A total of 1225 DR images of coal workers who were examined at an Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Institute in Anhui Province from October 2018 to March 2021 were retrospectively collected. All DR images were collectively diagnosed by 3 radiologists with diagnostic qualifications and gave diagnostic results. There were 692 DR images with small opacity profusion 0/- or 0/0 and 533 DR images with small opacity profusion 0/1 to stage Ⅲ of pneumoconiosis. The original chest radiographs were preprocessed differently to generate four datasets, namely 16-bit grayscale original image set (Origin16), 8-bit grayscale original image set (Origin 8), 16-bit grayscale histogram equalized image set (HE16) and 8-bit grayscale histogram equalized image set (HE8). The light-weighted CNN, ShuffleNet, was applied to train the generated prediction model on the four datasets separately. The performance of the four models for pneumoconiosis prediction was evaluated on a test set containing 130 DR images using measures such as the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and Youden index. The Kappa consistency test was used to compare the agreement between the model predictions and the physician diagnosed pneumoconiosis results. Results: Origin16 model achieved the highest ROC area under the curve (AUC=0.958), accuracy (92.3%), specificity (92.9%), and Youden index (0.8452) for predicting pneumoconiosis, with a sensitivity of 91.7%. And the highest consistency between identification and physician diagnosis was observed for Origin16 model (Kappa value was 0.845, 95%CI: 0.753-0.937, P<0.001). HE16 model had the highest sensitivity (98.3%) . Conclusion: The light-weighted CNN ShuffleNet model can efficiently identify the early stages of CWP, and its application in the early screening of CWP can effectively improve physicians' work efficiency.
Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Anthracosis/diagnostic imaging* ; Pneumoconiosis/diagnostic imaging* ; Coal Mining ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Coal

AIM:To investigate the correlation between severity of diabetic retinopathy(DR)and corneal sub-basal nerve plexus(SNP)changes. METHODS: There were 132 patients with 132 eyes in type 2 diabetes(T2DM)and 80 patients with 80 eyes in age-related cataract selected in our hospital from January 2018 to May 2021, among them, there were 52 non-diabetic retinopathy(NDR)patients with 52 eyes, 40 non proliferative diabetic retinopathy(NPDR)patients with 40 eyes and 40 proliferative diabetic retinopathy(PDR)patients with 40 eyes in T2DM. The general data and corneal laser scanning confocal microscopy were analyzed. Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between DR clinical stage and nerve fiber length. RESULTS: There were no differences in gender and age comparisons among 4 groups(P>0.05). The diabetes duration in PDR group was significantly longer than NPDR group and NDR group(P<0.05). The diabetes duration in NPDR group was significantly longer than NDR group(P<0.05). The levels of fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin in age-related cataract group were significantly lower than other three groups(P<0.05). The best corrected visual acuity in PDR group was significantly lower than NPDR group and NDR group(P<0.05). The best corrected visual acuity in NPDR group was significantly lower than NDR group(P<0.05). The length of nerve fibers in age-related cataract group was significantly higher than NDR group, NPDR group and PDR group(P<0.05). The length of nerve fibers in PDR group was significantly shorter than NPDR group(P<0.05). Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between DR stage and nerve fiber length(rs=-0.347, P<0.001).CONCLUSION: There was a correlation between the severity of DR and the changes of corneal SNP. The length of nerve fibers in patients with PDR was significantly shorter than patients with NPDR; Both PDR and NPDR have a loss of neural structure and should pay attention to the evaluation and treatment of ocular surface lesions in the treatment of T2DM fundus lesions.

OBJECTIVE: To identify new biomarkers and molecular pathogenesis of Down syndrome (DS) by analyzing differentially expressed miRNAs in the placentas and their biological pathways. METHODS: Whole transcriptome sequencing was used to identify the differentially expressed miRNAs in DS (n=3) and normal placental samples (n=3) diagnosed by prenatal diagnosis. The target genes were predicted using miRWalk, Targetscan and miRDB, and GO and KEGG pathway analyses were performed for gene enrichment studies. RESULTS: We identified a total of 82 differentially expressed miRNAs in the placental tissues of DS, including 29 up-regulated miRNAs (fold change ≥2, P < 0.05) and 15 down-regulated miRNAs (fold change ≥2, P < 0.05), among which 10 miRNAs with relatively high expression abundance were selected for further analysis, including 4 up-regulated and 6 down-regulated miRNAs. These selected miRNAs shared the common target genes BTBD3 and AUTS2, both of which were associated with neurodevelopment. GO analysis showed that the target genes of the selected miRNAs were mainly enriched in protein binding, hydrolytic enzymes, metal ion binding protein combining, transferase activity, nucleotide, cytoplasmic constituents, nucleus composition, transcriptional regulation, RNA metabolism regulation, DNA-dependent RNA polymerase Ⅱ promoter transcriptional regulation, eye development, and sensory organ development. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the target genes of these differentially expressed miRNAs were involved in the signaling pathways including tumor-related signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, Ras signaling pathway, Rap1 signaling pathway, cytoskeletal regulatory signaling pathway, purine metabolization-related signaling pathway and P53 signaling pathway. CONCLUSION The differentially expressed miRNAs may play important roles in placental damage and pregnancy pathology in DS and provide clues for the prevention and treatment of mental retardation-related diseases.
Cytoskeletal Proteins/metabolism* ; Down Syndrome/metabolism* ; Female ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Humans ; MicroRNAs/metabolism* ; Nerve Tissue Proteins ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/metabolism* ; Placenta/metabolism* ; Pregnancy ; Transcription Factors/metabolism* ; Transcriptome ; Whole Exome Sequencing

Background and purpose: Peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer is mainly discovered in the ad-vanced cancer. Nonetheless, the clinical applicability of each tumor biomarker in peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer is still ambiguous. Therefore, this study investigated the diagnostic value and clinical significance of CEA, CA125 and CA72-4 in gastric carcinoma patients with peritoneal metastases. Methods: A total of 108 gastric carcinoma patients with peritoneal metastases from Jan. 2008 to Dec. 2013 were studied. All patients were diagnosed by imaging, operations and pathological examination, and also received intravenous or intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Serum tumor markers such as CEA, CA125 and CA72-4 were determined during diagnosis and before each chemotherapy. The diagnostic sensitivity of single marker and combined detection with 2 or 3 markers were analyzed. The correlations among the serum tumor markers and clinical pathological factors, chemotherapeutic effects and survival time were analyzed. Results: Positive rates of CEA, CA125 and CA72-4 were 20.4%, 46.3% and 45.4% in gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastases, respectively. For these patients, the positive rates of CEA/CA125, CEA/CA72-4, CA125/CA72-4 and CEA/CA125/CA72-4 were 54.7%, 52.8%, 69.5% and 79.6%, respectively. The combined detection of 3 tumor markers was much better than single marker detection (P<0.05). Positive rates of CEA, CA125 and CA72-4 were correlated with the ECOG scale (P<0.05). Positive rate of CA125 was associated with ascites (P<0.001), while positive rate of CA72-4 was associated with ovarian metastasis (P<0.05). Median survival time of patients with positive rates of CEA, CA125 and CA72-4 was significantly lower than that of the patients with normal levels of these markers (P<0.05). Compared with pre-treatment, the levels of all three tumor markers significantly declined after three cycles of chemo-therapy (P<0.05). The decline in CA125 level after chemotherapy was significantly correlated with decreased amount of ascites (P<0.05). The tumor markers turned negative after 3 cycles chemotherapy in patients with positive markers upon initial diagnosis, their survival was significantly prolonged (P<0.001). Conclusion: Combined detection of serum CEA, CA125 and CA72-4 can significantly promote diagnostic rate of gastric cancer with peritoneal metastasis, and may be helpful in evaluating chemotherapeutic effects and predicting prognosis.

Abdominal obesity is a core factor in and necessary condition of diagnosing metabolic syndrome. Abdominal fat contains two parts: subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Both are related to hypertension, impaired fasting blood glucose, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Current studies often focus on visceral fat, but subcutaneous fat accumulation also has an inseparable relationship. Physical and chemical changes in abdominal fat cells result in abdominal fat thickening and density increase and cause changes in secretion of adipokines in this process. The common action of the two aspects leads to a number of metabolic problems. The sanjiao dysfunction brings about abdominal accumulation of phlegm, heat and stagnant turbidity and infiltration of them into blood vessels, which are the basic pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome. Abnormal Dai Meridian function plays a key role in this process. Unblocking and regulating the Dai Meridian as a core means, promoting functional activities of qi in the whole body and especially in the middle jiao and restoring the sanjiao function help the clinical treatment of metabolic syndrome.

BACKGROUNDSystemic chemotherapy (SC) is the recommended treatment for gastric cancer with liver metastasis. However, the improvement in survival has been disappointing. The aim of this study was to compare the therapeutic efficacy of gastrectomy with transarterial chemoembolization plus SC (GTC) and SC alone for gastric cancer with synchronous liver metastasis.

METHODSFrom January 2008 to December 2013, 107 gastric cancer patients with synchronous liver metastasis attending the four participating centers were enrolled in this multicenter, ambispective, controlled cohort study. Patients who underwent GTC (n = 32) were compared with controls who were received SC alone (n = 75). The primary endpoints of the study were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). The secondary endpoints were response rate to treatment and treatment-related adverse effects.

RESULTSThe median OS was 14.0 months (95% confidence interval [CI ]: 13.1-14.9 months) in the GTC treatment group and 8.0 months (95% CI : 6.6-9.4 months) in SC group, this difference being statistically significant (P < 0.001). The median PFS was significantly longer in the GTC than in the SC group (5 months, 95% CI : 2.2-7.8 months vs. 3 months, 95% CI : 2.3-3.4 months, respectively) (P < 0.001). The rate of response to treatment was significantly better in the GTC than the SC group (59.4% vs. 37.4%, respectively) (P = 0.035). According to multivariate analysis, OS in patients receiving combination treatment was significantly correlated with the size (P = 0.037) and extent of liver metastases (P < 0.001). PFS was also correlated with the extent of liver metastases (P = 0.003).

CONCLUSIONSGTC is more effective than SC alone in patients with gastric cancer with synchronous liver metastasis. GTC therapy prolongs the survival of selected gastric cancer patients with synchronous liver metastasis.

Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; administration & dosage ; Chemoembolization, Therapeutic ; methods ; Cohort Studies ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Deoxycytidine ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Gastrectomy ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; secondary ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Stomach Neoplasms ; pathology ; therapy

Objective To evaluate the effect of bruceolic oil emulsion on the advanced colorectal carcinoma and life quality of patients.Meth-ods One hundred and thirty patients with advanced colorectal cancer were randomly divided into treatment group ( n=65 ) and control group ( n=65 ).The patients in treatment group were treated with bruceolic oil emulsion combined with mFOLFOX6,and those in the control group only with mFOLFOX6.The objective response rate (ORR)、disease control rate ( DCR ) , time to tumor progression ( TTP ) , toxicities and Karnofsky scores ( KPS) , and quality of life scores ( QOL) in two groups were com-pared.Resultes The 125 evaluable patients were assigned into the treatment group ( 63 patients ) and the control group ( 62 patients ) .The ORR and TTP in the treatment group were higher than in the control group [ 65.08% vs 41.94%, P <0.05;( 13.49 ±3.90 ) months vs (9.26 ±4.66 ) months,P<0.01 )].The treatment group was signifi-cantly superior to the control group in KPS and QOL ( P<0.01 ).The occurrence of bone marrow suppression was significantly lower than that in the control group ( 42.86% vs 69.35%, P<0.01 ).There were no significant differences between the two groups in DCR ( 77.77% vs 72.59%, P >0.05 ) , gastrointestinal reactions and neurotoxicity ( P>0.05 ).Conclusion Bruceolic oil emulsion could improve the clinical curative effect , extend TTP, improve the life quality of patients and decrease marrow suppression in treating advanced colorectal carcinoma.

Adult ; Aged ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mining ; Occupational Exposure ; Pneumoconiosis ; complications ; mortality ; Survival Analysis ; Tuberculosis ; complications ; mortality