Persistent left superior vena cava is a rare venous variant that is often combined with cardiovascular malformations. In thoracic surgery, especially mediastinal tumor resection, neglect of this variant may make the surgery difficult and risky, and careful preoperative imaging interpretation and adequate preoperative evaluation play an important role in the perioperative safety of the patient. In this paper, we reported a case of a 17-year-old female patient with a persistent left superior vena cava combined with mediastinal tumors. She was successfully discharged 5 days after thoracoscopic surgery, and after 3 years of postoperative follow-up, no tumor recurrence was observed.

PPG(photoplethysmography)holds significant application value in wearable and intelligent health devices.However,during the acquisition process,PPG signals can generate motion artifacts due to inevitable coupling motion,which diminishes signal quality.In response to the challenge of real-time detection of motion artifacts in PPG signals,this study analyzed the generation and significant features of PPG signal interference.Seven features were extracted from the pulse interval data,and those exhibiting notable changes were filtered using the dual-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.The real-time detection of motion artifacts in PPG signals was ultimately based on decision trees.In the experimental phase,PPG signal data from 20 college students were collected to formulate the experimental dataset.The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves an average accuracy of(94.07±1.14)%,outperforming commonly used motion artifact detection algorithms in terms of accuracy and real-time performance.

Objective:To investigate the clinical characteristics and management status of children with Turner syndrome (TS) in China.Methods:As a cross-sectional study, 1 089 TS patients were included in the database of the National Collaborative Alliance for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Turner Syndrome from August 2019 to November 2023. Clinical characteristics (growth development, sexual development, organ anomalies, etc.), karyotypes, auxiliary examinations, and treatments were collected and analyzed.Results:Among the 1 089 TS cases, 809 were recorded karyotypes. The karyotype distribution was as follows: 45, X in 317 cases (39.2%), X chromosome structural variants (including partial deletions of p or q arm, ring chromosome, and marker chromosome) in 89 cases (11.0%), 45, X/46, XX mosaicism in 158 cases (19.5%), mosaicism with X chromosome structural variants in 209 cases (25.8%), and presence of Y chromosome material in 36 cases (4.4%). Among the 824 TS cases, the age of diagnosis was 9.7(6.4, 12.2) years, with a height standard deviation score (HtSDS) of -3.1±1.2. Five hundred and fifty three cases underwent growth hormone (GH) stimulation test, and 352 cases (63.7%) had GH peak values <10 μg/L and 75.9% (577/760) had low IGF1 levels, with IGF1 SDS ≤-2 accounting for 38.2% (290 cases). Among 471 cases aged ≥8 years, 132 cases (28.0%) showed spontaneous sexual development (mean bone age (11.0±1.7) years), 10 cases had spontaneous menarche (mean bone age (12.0±2.2) years), and 2 cases had regular menstrual cycles. Common physical features included cubitus valgus (311 cases (28.5%)), neck webbing (188 cases (17.2%)), low posterior hairline (185 cases (17.0%)), shield chest (153 cases (14.0%)), high arched palate (127 cases (11.6%)), short fourth metacarpal (43 cases (3.9%)), and spinal abnormalities (38 cases (3.5%)). Congenital cardiovascular and urogenital anomalies occurred in 91 cases (19.4%) and 66 cases (12.0%)respectively. Abdominal ultrasound in 33 cases (7.2%) indicated fatty liver, hepatomegaly, intrahepatic bile duct stones, and splenomegaly. Among 23 cases undergoing oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) test, 2 were diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and 4 with impaired glucose tolerance. Following diagnosis, 669 cases (80.7%) received rhGH treatment at a chronological age of (9±4) years and bone age of (8.3±3.2) years. Additionally, 112 cases (19.4%) received sex hormone replacement therapy starting at the age of (14±4) years and bone age of (12.6±1.2) years.Conclusions:The karyotypes of 45, X and mosaicism were most common in Chinese children with TS. The clinical manifestations were mainly short stature and gonadal dysplasia. However, a few TS children could be in the normal range of height, and some cases among those aged of ≥8 years old had spontaneous sexual development. Some exhibited physical features, congenital cardiovascular and urogenital anomalies, and dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-IGF1 axis. Moreover, a few of them developed impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes mellitus. Following diagnosis, most of the patients received rhGH treatment, and a few of them received sex hormone replacement therapy.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is the main type of diabetes in children, which seriously endangers children′s health.With the development of technology, the emergence of artificial pancreas has brought new progress for the treatment of T1DM.Artificial pancreas can imitate the insulin physiological secretion of pancreas β cells to control glucose, and achieve close-loop management by accurately regulating insulin infusion through continuous glucose monitoring, insulin pump and control algorithms.Here the current clinical studies on the safety, effectiveness and limitations of artificial pancreas in the treatment of T1DM were reviewed.It is expected to provide another choice for children with T1DM.

Health insurance fund regulation (HIFR) is a vital issue in the modernization of healthcare security governance, with its importance as a primary task of the healthcare security department continually reinforced in policy practice. This study focused on the 22 specialized policies issued by the National Healthcare Security Administration from its establishment in 2018 to March 2024, deeply analyzed their issue characteristics, and summarized the evolutionary trends of policy changes, as well as the knowledge production patterns that existed in the series of policy formulation, implementation, and feedback processes. Our analysis revealed that the diverse issue characteristics had led to heterogeneous directions in HIFR policies. The policy development process presented distinct composite evolutionary trends, mainly manifested in four aspects: the integration of regulatory system and content, the convergence of professional and societal forces, the parallelism of special governance and regular supervision, and the complementarity of conventional and emerging methods. Additionally, the study demonstrated that the knowledge production embedded in policy evolution encompassed four different dimensions: problem rectification, norm setting, pilot experience, and technical absorption. Together with issue characteristics and policy evolution, they formed an integrated, dynamic, and open system of knowledge production, continuously promoting the renewal and iteration of regulation policies.

Objective:To explore the clinical characteristics and prognostic influencing factors of multiple primary lung cancer (MPLC), and to construct a prognostic prediction model.Methods:The clinical data and prognostic information of MPLC patients diagnosed by pathological examination included in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from January 2010 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were randomly divided into training and validation sets according to a 7:3 ratio using R software. Survival curves were plotted by using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test was used for comparison between groups. The independent influencing factors of overall survival (OS) of MPLC patients in the training set were screened using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models, and accordingly, the nomogram predicting the survival rate of patients at 3, 5 and 8 years were plotted. In the training and validation sets, using the actual survival as the gold standard, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of the constructed models for predicting the patients' 3-, 5- and 8-year OS rates were plotted, the area under the curve (AUC) was obtained, and C-index of the model was analyzed by using R software. The calibration curves of 3-, 5- and 8-year OS rates predicted by the models and the actual OS rates were plotted.Results:A total of 5 495 MPLC patients were included, 3 846 in the training set and 1 649 in the validation set. The differences in the composition of patients of different ages and AJCC stages between the training and validation sets were statistically significant (both P < 0.05), and the differences in the comparison of other clinicopathological characteristics were not statistically significant (all P > 0.05). The results of multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that males (compared with females, HR = 1.256, 95% CI: 1.144-1.379, P < 0.001), age ≥ 70 years old (compared with 50-59 years old, HR = 1.201, 95% CI: 1.030-1.400, P = 0.019), FPLC with pathological types of squamous cell carcinoma or other types (compared with adenocarcinoma, HR = 1.275, 95% CI: 1.137-1.431, P < 0.001; HR = 1.208, 95% CI: 1.041-1.403, P = 0.013), and SPLC with pathological types of squamous cell carcinoma, small cell lung carcinoma, or other types (compared with adenocarcinoma, HR = 1.270, 95% CI: 1.121-1.440, P < 0.001; HR = 1.978, 95% CI: 1.642-2.384, P < 0.001; HR = 1.246, 95% CI: 1.090-1.424, P = 0.001), and AJCC stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ (compared with stage Ⅰ, HR = 1.645, 95% CI: 1.447-1.869, P < 0.001; HR = 2.078, 95% CI: 1.669-2.587, P < 0.001), FPLC without operation (compared with operation, HR = 1.263, 95% CI: 1.038-1.536, P = 0.020), SPLC without operation (operation vs. no operation, HR = 0.680, 95% CI: 0.579-0.799, P < 0.001), FPLC without lymph node dissection or with clearance of 1-3 regional lymph nodes (compared with clearance of ≥4, HR = 1.225, 95% CI: 1.016-1.477, P = 0.034; HR = 1.314, 95% CI: 1.103-1.566, P = 0.002), FPLC with maximum diameter 3-5 cm or >5 cm (compared with <3 cm, HR = 1.181, 95% CI: 1.053-1.324, P = 0.005; HR = 1.232, 95% CI: 1.069-1.420, P = 0.004), and SPLC with maximum diameter 3-5 cm or >5 cm (compared with <3 cm, HR = 1.560, 95% CI: 1.362-1.786, P < 0.001; HR = 1.727, 95% CI: 1.451-2.054, P < 0.001), and FPLC without chemotherapy (chemotherapy vs. no chemotherapy or unknown, HR = 0.744, 95% CI: 0.655-0.845, P < 0.001) were the independent risk factors of patients' poor OS (all P < 0.05). The results of Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the OS of patients with different gender, race, age, two tumor locations, AJCC staging, pathological type of two lung tumors, maximum diameter of two tumors, and whether two tumors were treated surgically or not, and whether two tumors were treated with chemotherapy or not in the training set were compared, and the differences were all statistically significant (all P < 0.05). Based on the independent factors affecting the OS of MPLC patients screened by the results of multivariate Cox regression analysis, nomogram predicting the 3-, 5- and 8-year OS rates of MPLC were plotted. The results of ROC curve analysis showed that the C-index of the training set's nomogram was 0.679 (95% CI: 0.649-0.701), and the AUC values for predicting the 3-, 5- and 8-year OS rates were 0.601, 0.595 and 0.586, respectively; the C-index of the validation set was 0.678 (95% CI: 0.633-0.720), and the AUC values for predicting 3-, 5- and 8-year OS rates were 0.643, 0.631 and 0.626, respectively. The calibration curves showed that the 3-, 5- and 8-year OS rates of patients predicted by the nomogram models in both the training and validation sets were in good agreement with the actual results with a high goodness-of-fit. Conclusions:The established prognostic model has good predictive value and can effectively assess the prognosis of patients.

Objective     To investigate the influencing factors for the clinical remission of advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, establish an individualized nomogram model to predict the clinical remission of advanced ESCC with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and evaluate its efficacy, providing serve for the preoperative adjuvant treatment of ESCC. Methods     The clinical data of patients with esophageal cancer who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nedaplatin 80 mg/m2, day 3+docetaxel 75 mg/m2, day 1, 2 cycles, 21 days per cycle interval) in the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College from February 2016 to August 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. According to the WHO criteria for efficacy assessment of solid tumors, tumors were divided into complete remission (CR), partial remission (PR), stable disease (SD) and progressive disease (PD). CR and PR were defined as effective neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and SD and PD were defined as ineffective neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to analyze the influencing factors for the short-term efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The R software was used to establish a nomogram model for predicting of the model. C-index, calibration curve and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to evaluate the predictive performance of the nomogram. Results     Finally 115 patients were enrolled, including 93 males and 22 females, aged 40-75 (64.0±8.0) years. After receiving docetaxel+nedaplatin neoadjuvant chemotherapy for 2 cycles, there were 9 patients with CR, 56 patients with PR, 43 patients with SD and 7 patients with PD. Among them, chemotherapy was effective (CR+PR) in 65 patients and ineffective (SD+PD) in 50 patients, with the clinical effective rate of about 56.5%(65/115). Univariate analysis showed that there were statistical differences in smoking history, alcoholism history, tumor location, tumor differentiation degree, and cN stage before chemotherapy between the effective neoadjuvant chemotherapy group and the ineffective neoadjuvant chemotherapy group (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that low-differentiation advanced ESCC had the worst clinical response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, moderately-highly differentiated ESCC responded better (P<0.05). Stage cN0 advanced ESCC responded better to neoadjuvant chemotherapy than stage cN1 and cN2 (P<0.05). The C-index and the area under the ROC curve of the nomogram were both 0.763 (95%CI 0.676-0.850), the calibration curve fit well, the best critical value of the nomogram calculated by the Youden index was 70.04 points, and the sensitivity and specificity of the critical value were 80.0% and 58.0%, respectively. Conclusion    The established clinical prediction model has good discrimination and accuracy, and can provide a reference for individualized analysis of the clinical remission of advanced ESCC with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the screening of new adjuvant treatment subjects.

Objective:To explore the clinical significance of the expression of nuclear factor of activated T cells 5 (NFAT5) in esophageal cancer tissues and the effect of the expression of knock-down esophageal cancer cells on their migration ability.Methods:The expression of NFAT5 in tissues of 26 patients with esophageal cancer and their adjacent tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry. Esophageal cancer cells ECA109 were divided into experimental group and control group. The experimental group ECA109 cells were transfected with NFAT5-siRNA plasmid, and the control group ECA109 cells were transfected with MOCK-siRNA plasmid. The mRNA content of NFAT5 was detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR. The expression of NFAT5, TLR4 and MyD88 proteins in the experimental group and control group were detected by Western blot. Transwell assay and cell scratch assay were used to detect the migration ability of the experimental group and the NC group.Results:Immunohistochemical test results showed that the positive rate of NFAT5 in esophageal cancer tissues was 80.77% (21 cases/26 cases) , and the expression rate was 15.38% (4 cases/26 cases) in corresponding adjacent tissues. The positive rate of NFAT5 protein in esophageal cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues ( P<0.001) . The NFAT5 mRNA content of ECA109 cells in experimental group and control group decreased after transfection with corresponding siRNA. The protein expression levels of NFAT5, TLR4 and MyD88 in ECA109 cells in the experimental group were 0.28±0.08, 0.31±0.13 and 0.41±0.14, respectively. The protein expression levels of NFAT5, TLR4 and MyD88 in ECA109 cells in control group were 0.95±0.15, 0.84±0.22 and 1.04±0.26, respectively. The expression of TLR4 and MyD88 in esophageal cancer ECA109 cells decreased significantly ( P<0.05) . The scratch healing rate of esophageal cancer ECA109 cells was 52.67%±5.21% in the experimental group and 82.91%±7.26 % in the control group. Transwell experiment results showed that the number of successfully migrated cells in the experimental group was (35±5) , and the number of successfully migrated cells in the control group was (92±13) . The results showed that the migration ability of esophageal cancer ECA109 cells was significantly decreased after low expression of NFAT5 ( P<0.01) . Conclusions:The expression of NFAT5 is significantly increased in esophageal cancer tissues, and the expression of NFAT5 may be related to the malignant degree of esophageal cancer. Moreover, NFAT5 affects the migration ability of esophageal cancer cells by regulating TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway.

Objective:To assess the clinical value of helium-free magnetocardiography(MCG) in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease(CAD).Methods:A total of 213 patients with suspected CAD undergoing MCG in Beijing Anzhen Hospital were enrolled in the study. All patients underwent coronary CT angiography/invasive coronary angiography(CCTA/ICA) within 48 hours after MCG scanning. The parameters of MCG, including magnetic field multipolarization, magnetic field unipolarization, T-wave flattened, change in magnetic field distribution at TT segment, abnormal T-peak amplitude ration of maximum to minimum, significant movement of poles, magnetic field angle deviation and abnormal distribution of positive pole were used for the evaluation of the stenosis of coronary arteries.Results:Among 213 patients, MCG scanning was completed in 193 cases(90.6%), while 20 cases were excluded for various reasons. The CCTA/ICA results were taken as gold standard, the total coincidence rate of MCG with the degree of stenosis was 88.60%(95% CI: 83.25%-92.72%), the sensitivity and specificity of MCG in the diagnosis of CAD was 89.63%(95% CI: 83.21%-94.21%) and 88.23%(95% CI:78.12%-94.78%), respectively; the positive and negative predictive value were 93.80%(95% CI:88.72%-96.68%) and 81.08%(95% CI:72.15%-87.64%), respectively. Conclusion:MCG is highly accurate in the diagnosis of CAD, it may be widely used clinically as an non-invasive method free of radiation or contrast agent.

AIM: To explore the protective effect of fluorofenidone (AKF-PD) on diethylnitrosamine-induced liver injury in rats and its inhibition of the TGF-β1/Smads pathway in hepatocytes. METHODS: Fifty-five male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into three groups: model group (DEN group, n=20) were gavaged with DEN (10 mg/kg), 5 times for 14 weeks; control group (n=20) were gavaged with saline with the same volume of the model group; treatment group (DEN+AKF-PD Group, n=15), after 4 weeks of modeling, they were gavaged with AKF-PD (500 mg/kg) daily, and stopped at 14 weeks. At the end of experiment, the rats were killed by anesthesia and spinal dislocation. Masson staining was used to observe collagen deposition; primary hepatocytes were extracted and identified, and the levels of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), TGF-β1, Smad3, and Smad7 mRNA, and the expression of Smad3 and Smad7 proteins in hepatocytes were detected. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, Masson staining showed that collagen deposition increased in the DEN group; AKF-PD treatment could significantly improve liver pathological damage and reduce collagen deposition. In addition, compared with the DEN group, the α-SMA, TGF-β1, and Smad3 mRNA levels of the AKF-PD group were significantly reduced, and the Smad7 mRNA level was increased. Moreover, AKF-PD treatment could dependably reduce the expression of Smad3 and increase Smad7. CONCLUSION: AKF-PD can significantly improve liver injury and fibrosis in rats caused by DEN. This effect may be related to the down-regulation of α-SMA, TGF-β1, and Smad3 mRNA levels in hepatocytes and the increase of Smad7 mRNA levels.