OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of percutaneous foraminal endoscopy in the treatment of lumbar lateral recess stenosis in elderly. METHODS: The clinical data of 31 elderly patients with lumbar lateral recess stenosis treated by percutaneous foraminal endoscopic decompression from March 2018 to August 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Including 16 males and 15 females, aged from 65 to 81 years with an average of (71.13±5.20) years, the course of disease ranged from 3 months to 7 years with an average of (14.36±6.52) months. Visual analogue scale (VAS) and Oswestry disability index (ODI) were used to assess clinical symptom and functional status before operation and 1, 6, 12 months after operation. At the final follow-up, the modified Macnab standard was used to evaluate clinical efficacy. RESULTS: All patients were completed the operation successfully. The operation time was from 75 to 120 min with an average of (97.84±11.22 ) min. All 31 patients were followed up from 12 to 28 months with an average of (17.29±5.56) months. Postoperative lumbago-leg pain VAS and ODI were significantly improved at 1, 6, and 12 months(P<0.01). At the final follow-up, according to the modified Macnab standard to evaluate the effect, 23 got excellent results, 5 good, 3 fair. One patient had severe adhesions between peripheral tissues and nerve root, and postoperative sensory abnormalities in the lower extremities were treated conservatively with traditional Chinese medicine and neurotrophic drugs, which recovered at 2 weeks after surgery. No complications such as nerve root injury and infection occurred. CONCLUSION The intervertebral foraminal endoscopy technique, which is performed under local anesthesia for a short period of operation, ensures adequate decompression while minimizing complications, and is a safe and effective surgical procedure for elderly patients with lumbar lateral recess stenosis.
Male ; Female ; Humans ; Aged ; Infant ; Constriction, Pathologic/surgery* ; Spinal Stenosis/surgery* ; Decompression, Surgical/methods* ; Retrospective Studies ; Lumbar Vertebrae/surgery* ; Endoscopy/methods* ; Treatment Outcome

Whether in the West or the East, the connection between the ear and the rest of the body has been explored for a long time. Especially in the past century or more, the relevant theoretical and applied research on the ear has greatly promoted the development of ear therapy, and finally the concept of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been proposed. The purpose of taVNS is to treat a disease non-invasively by applying electrical current to the cutaneous receptive field formed by the auricular branch of the vagus nerve in the outer ear. In the past two decades, taVNS has been a topic of basic, clinical, and transformation research. It has been applied as an alternative to drug treatment for a variety of diseases. Based on the rapid understanding of the application of taVNS to human health and disease, some limitations in the development of this field have also been gradually exposed. Here, we comprehensively review the origin and research status of the field.

Objective: Several COVID-19 patients have overlapping comorbidities. The independent role of each component contributing to the risk of COVID-19 is unknown, and how some non-cardiometabolic comorbidities affect the risk of COVID-19 remains unclear. Methods: A retrospective follow-up design was adopted. A total of 1,160 laboratory-confirmed patients were enrolled from nine provinces in China. Data on comorbidities were obtained from the patients' medical records. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratio ( Results: Overall, 158 (13.6%) patients were diagnosed with severe illness and 32 (2.7%) had unfavorable outcomes. Hypertension (2.87, 1.30-6.32), type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (3.57, 2.32-5.49), cardiovascular disease (CVD) (3.78, 1.81-7.89), fatty liver disease (7.53, 1.96-28.96), hyperlipidemia (2.15, 1.26-3.67), other lung diseases (6.00, 3.01-11.96), and electrolyte imbalance (10.40, 3.00-26.10) were independently linked to increased odds of being severely ill. T2DM (6.07, 2.89-12.75), CVD (8.47, 6.03-11.89), and electrolyte imbalance (19.44, 11.47-32.96) were also strong predictors of unfavorable outcomes. Women with comorbidities were more likely to have severe disease on admission (5.46, 3.25-9.19), while men with comorbidities were more likely to have unfavorable treatment outcomes (6.58, 1.46-29.64) within two weeks. Conclusion Besides hypertension, diabetes, and CVD, fatty liver disease, hyperlipidemia, other lung diseases, and electrolyte imbalance were independent risk factors for COVID-19 severity and poor treatment outcome. Women with comorbidities were more likely to have severe disease, while men with comorbidities were more likely to have unfavorable treatment outcomes.
Adult ; Aged ; COVID-19/virology* ; China/epidemiology* ; Comorbidity ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Severity of Illness Index ; Treatment Outcome

Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; metabolism ; Cells, Cultured ; HSP72 Heat-Shock Proteins ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Interleukin-10 ; metabolism ; Synovial Membrane ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Toll-Like Receptor 2 ; metabolism ; Toll-Like Receptor 4 ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of heat shock protein 72 (Hsp72) on the expression of IL-6 and IL-8 and activation of NF-kappaB in synoviocytes from patients suffered from rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODSIL6 and IL8 concentrations in culture supernatants were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB and degradation of the inhibitory protein IkappaBalpha were examined using immunohistochemistry and Western blot.

RESULTSHsp72 down-regulated IL-6 and IL-8 production in RA synoviocytes induced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Hsp72 inhibited nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB and degradation of IkappaBalpha induced by TNF-alpha.

CONCLUSIONHsp72 has an anti-inflammatory effect on RA by down-regulation of IL-6 and IL-8 in synoviocytes, which is mediated through inhibiting the activation of NF-KalphaB signal pathways.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; metabolism ; Cells, Cultured ; HSP72 Heat-Shock Proteins ; pharmacology ; Humans ; I-kappa B Proteins ; metabolism ; Interleukin-6 ; metabolism ; Interleukin-8 ; metabolism ; NF-KappaB Inhibitor alpha ; NF-kappa B ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; Synovial Membrane ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; pharmacology

Objective To investigate the value of CRW stereotactic navigation system and three-dimensional-CT in the radiofrequency thermocoagulation for primary trigeminal neuralgia.Methods One hundred and twenty-four patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia were treated with percutaneous radio-frequency thermocoagulation with the aid of CRW stereotactic system and three-dimensional CT. Results All of 124 patients were punctured successfully without any complications. Eighty-nine patients (71.8%) were punctured successfully at nce,33 patients(26.6%)were punctured successfully at twice. Because of the variation of the skull bottom, 2 patients (1.6%) were punctured successfully at many times. The effective rate of thermocoagulation is 98.4%. Eighty-seven patients (70.2%) appeared facial sensory decline and 1 (0.8%) appeared keratitis after operation; no such complications as diplopia, masticatory atonia and difficulty in opening mouth appeared. Seven patients (5.6%) relapsed after follow-up for 3 months to 2 years. Conclusion A stereotactic and CT reconstruction can greatly improve the accuracy of puncturing on the foramen ovale, reduce the complications and help to adopt an individualized puncture strategy, which can ensure the effectiveness and increase the cure rate.