Objective To explore the CT imaging features and independent risk factors for cystic pulmonary nodules and establish a malignant probability prediction model. Methods The patients with cystic pulmonary nodules admitted to the Department of Thoracic Surgery of the First People's Hospital of Neijiang from January 2017 to February 2022 were retrospectively enrolled. They were divided into a malignant group and a benign group according to the pathological results. The clinical data and preoperative chest CT imaging features of the two groups were collected, and the independent risk factors for malignant cystic pulmonary nodules were screened out by logistic regression analysis, so as to establish a prediction model for benign and malignant cystic pulmonary nodules. Results A total of 107 patients were enrolled. There were 76 patients in the malignant group, including 36 males and 40 females, with an average age of 59.65±11.74 years. There were 31 patients in the benign group, including 16 males and 15 females, with an average age of 58.96±13.91 years. Multivariate logistic analysis showed that the special CT imaging features such as cystic wall nodules [OR=3.538, 95%CI (1.231, 10.164), P=0.019], short burrs [OR=4.106, 95%CI (1.454, 11.598), P=0.008], cystic wall morphology [OR=6.978, 95%CI (2.374, 20.505), P<0.001], and the number of cysts [OR=4.179, 95%CI (1.438, 12.146), P=0.009] were independent risk factors for cystic lung cancer. A prediction model was established: P=ex/(1+ex), X=–2.453+1.264×cystic wall nodules+1.412×short burrs+1.943×cystic wall morphology+1.430×the number of cysts. The area under the receiver operating charateristic curve was 0.830, the sensitivity was 82.9%, and the specificity was 74.2%. Conclusion Cystic wall nodules, short burrs, cystic wall morphology, and the number of cysts are the independent risk factors for cystic lung cancer, and the established prediction model can be used as a screening method for cystic pulmonary nodules.

Objective·To investigate the expression of miR-146a in peripheral blood CD4+T lymphocytes of patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA)and its correlation with inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)and interleukin-6(IL-6).Methods·A total of 30 active RA patients who received medical treatment and 30 healthy controls who underwent physical examinations at the People's Hospital of Longhua,Shenzhen from August 2019 to July 2021 were selected.Peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs)and CD4+T lymphocytes were isolated from venous blood extracted from RA patients and healthy controls,respectively.Quantitative real-time PCR(qPCR)was used to detect the expression of miR-146a in peripheral blood CD4+T lymphocytes,and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was used to detect the levels of TNF-α and IL-6.After transfection of the peripheral blood CD4+T lymphocytes of RA patients with miR-146a mimic,the expression of miR-146a,TNF-α and IL-6 was detected again.The correlations between miR-146a expression and TNF-α and IL-6 expression in RA patients,both before and after transfection,were analyzed by using Pearson correlation coefficient.Results·Before transfection with miR-146a mimic,the expression levels of miR-146a,TNF-α and IL-6 in peripheral blood CD4+T lymphocytes of RA patients were significantly higher than those of healthy controls(all P＜0.001).After transfection,the expression of miR-146a in peripheral blood CD4+T lymphocytes of RA patients was significantly higher,and the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 was significantly lower(all P＜0.001).The results of Pearson correlation analysis showed that the expression of miR-146a in peripheral blood CD4+T lymphocytes of RA patients,both before and after transfection,was positively correlated with the expression of TNF-α and IL-6,respectively(r=0.959,P＜0.001;r=0.916,P＜0.001;r=0.971,P＜0.001;r=0.861,P＜0.001).Conclusion·miR-146a can regulate the levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in peripheral blood CD4+T lymphocytes of RA patients,indicating that miR-146a may play a role in the pathogenesis of RA.

Objective:Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis(MDR-TB)has a high mortality and is always one of the major challenges in global TB prevention and control.Analyzing the factors that may impact the adverse outcomes of MDR-TB patients is helpful for improving the systematic management and optimizing the treatment strategies for MDR-TB patients.For follow-up data,the Cox proportional hazards regression model is an important multifactor analysis method.However,the method has significant limitations in its application,such as the fact that it is difficult to deal with the impacts of small sample sizes and other practical issues on the model.Therefore,Bayesian and conventional Cox regression models were both used in this study to analyze the influencing factors of death in MDR-TB patients during the anti-TB therapy,and compare the differences between these 2 methods in their application. Methods:Data were obtained from 388 MDR-TB patients treated at Lanzhou Pulmonary Hospital from November 1,2017 to March 31,2021.Survival analysis was employed to analyze the death of MDR-TB patients during the therapy and its influencing factors.Conventional and Bayesian Cox regression models were established to estimate the hazard ratios(HR)and their 95% confidence interval(95% CI)for the factors affecting the death of MDR-TB patients.The reliability of parameter estimation in these 2 models was assessed by comparing the parameter standard deviation and 95% CI of each variable.The smaller parameter standard deviation and narrower 95% CI range indicated the more reliable parameter estimation. Results:The median survival time(1st quartile,3rd quartile)of the 388 MDR-TB patients included in the study was 10.18(4.26,18.13)months,with the longest survival time of 31.90 months.Among these patients,a total of 12 individuals died of MDR-TB and the mortality was 3.1%.The median survival time(1st quartile,3rd quartile)for the deceased patients was 4.78(2.63,6.93)months.The majority of deceased patients,accounting for 50%,experienced death within the first 5 months of anti-TB therapy,with the last mortality case occurring within the 13th month of therapy.The results of the conventional Cox regression model showed that the risk of death in MDR-TB patients with comorbidities was approximately 6.96 times higher than that of patients without complications(HR=6.96,95% CI 2.00 to 24.24,P=0.002)and patients who received regular follow-up had a decrease in the risk of death by approximately 81% compared to those who did not receive regular follow-up(HR=0.19,95% CI 0.05 to 0.77,P=0.020).In the results of Bayesian Cox regression model,the iterative history plot and Blue/Green/Red(BGR)plot for each parameter showed the good model convergence,and parameter estimation indicated that the risk of death in patients with a positive first sputum culture was lower than that of patients with a negative first sputum culture(HR=0.33,95% CI 0.08 to 0.87).Additionally,compared to patients without complications,those with comorbidities had an approximately 6.80-fold increase in the risk of death(HR=7.80,95% CI 1.90 to 21.91).Patients who received regular follow-up had a 90% reduction in the risk of death compared to those who did not receive regular follow-up(HR=0.10,95% CI 0.01 to 0.30).The comparison between these 2 models showed that the parameter standard deviations and corresponding 95% CI ranges of other variables in the Bayesian Cox model were significantly smaller than those in the conventional model,except for parameter standard deviations of receiving regular follow-up(Bayesian model was 0.77;conventional model was 0.72)and pulmonary cavities(Bayesian model was 0.73;conventional model was 0.73). Conclusion:The first year of anti-TB therapy is a high-risk period for mortality in MDR-TB patients.Complications are the main risk factors of death in MDR-TB patients,while patients who received regular follow-up and had positive first sputum culture presented a lower risk of death.For data with a small sample size and low incidence of outcome,the Bayesian Cox regression model provides more reliable parameter estimation than the conventional Cox model.

Objective·To investigate the causal relationship between atrial fibrillation(AF)and cognitive impairment.Methods·A two-sample Mendelian randomization(TSMR)analysis was used to assess the potential causality of AF on cognitive dysfunction.Single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs)strongly associated with AF were extracted as instrumental variables by using a dataset of a large-scale genome-wide association study(GWAS)on AF.The associations of SNPs with Alzheimer's disease dementia,Parkinson's disease dementia,vascular dementia,Lewy body dementia,frontotemporal dementia,undefined dementia,and overall cognitive function assessment were extracted separately from publicly available GWAS data on cognitive dysfunction.The inverse variance-weighted(IVW)method was used for the main analysis,and sensitivity analyses were conducted by using Cochran's Q test,MR-Egger regression,and leave-one-out method.To verify the robustness of the results,replicate analyses and meta-analyses were performed by using different GWAS data.Results·In the initial analysis,101 SNPs were extracted as instrumental variables from a meta-analysis of a genome-wide association study involving up to 1 030 836 individuals.The IVW analysis showed no evidence for causal associations between AF and dementia[dementia(OR=1.032;95％CI 0.973-1.094;P=0.290),Parkinson's disease dementia(OR=1.004;95％CI 0.780-1.291;P=0.977),vascular dementia(OR=1.123;95％CI 0.969-1.301;P=0.125),or unspecified dementia(OR=1.013;95％CI 0.910-1.129;P=0.807)].In the replication analysis,27 SNPs were extracted as instrumental variables from the FinnGen AF GWAS data,and the 1VW analysis were consistent with the initial analysis[cognitive function(OR=0.999;95％CI 0.982-1.016;P=0.874),Alzheimer's disease dementia(OR=0.977;95％CI 0.943-1.012;P=0.193),Lewy body dementia(OR=1.014;95％CI 0.898-1.145;P=0.826),or frontotemporal dementia(OR=0.996;95％CI 0.745-1.333;P=0.980)].Both Mendelian randomization analyses and meta-analyses showed no evidence of an association between genetically predicted AF and different types of dementia or overall cognitive function assessment.MR-Egger regression suggested no horizontal pleiotropy and leave-one-out analysis showed stable results after individually removing each SNP.Conclusion·No evidence of a causal relationship between AF and cognitive impairment was found.The associations observed in observational studies can be partially attributed to confounding factors such as shared biology or co-morbidities.

This paper focused on the research progress of the assessment methods of carers′ fall concern for the elderly. The content of this review included the definition of carers′ fall concern, and the advantages and disadvantages of various assessment method of carers′ fall concern for the caregivers to the elderly, such as qualitative interviews, questionnaires, and scales. Through this review, the authors hoped to provide a reference for selecting or developing a localized carers′ fall concern assessment tool.

Many studies have shown that endovascular recanalization is feasible for the treatment of non-acute symptomatic intracranial large artery occlusion. However, its incidence of perioperative complications is relatively high. Appropriate imaging evaluation can better observe the occluded segments of the vessels before procedure, thereby guiding the choice of clinical treatment.

Objective: To evaluate the performance of baseline clinical characteristics and pretherapeutic histogram parameters derived from T2 mapping of the extraocular muscles (EOMs) in the prediction of treatment response to intravenous glucocorticoid (IVGC) therapy for active and moderate-to-severe thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) and to investigate the effect of fat-suppression (FS) in T2 mapping in this prediction. Materials and Methods: A total of 79 patients clinically diagnosed with active, moderate-to-severe TAO (47 female, 32 male;mean age ± standard deviation, 46.1 ± 10 years), including 43 patients with a total of 86 orbits in the responsive group and 36 patients with a total of 72 orbits in the unresponsive group, were enrolled. Baseline clinical characteristics and pretherapeutic histogram parameters derived from T2 mapping with FS (i.e., FS T2 mapping) or without FS (i.e., conventional T2 mapping) of EOMs were compared between the two groups. Independent predictors of treatment response to IVGC were identified using multivariable analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the predictive performance of the prediction models. Differences between the models were examined using the DeLong test. Results: Compared to the unresponsive group, the responsive group had a shorter disease duration, lower kurtosis (FSkurtosis), lower standard deviation, larger 75th, 90th, and 95th (FS-95th) T2 relaxation times in FS mapping and lower kurtosis in conventional T2 mapping. Multivariable analysis revealed that disease duration, FS-95th percentile, and FS-kurtosis were independent predictors of treatment response. The combined model, integrating all identified predictors, had an optimized area under the ROC curve of 0.797, 88.4% sensitivity, and 62.5% specificity, which were significantly superior to those of the imaging model (p = 0.013). Conclusion An integrated combination of disease duration, FS-95th percentile, and FS-kurtosis was a potential predictor of treatment response to IVGC in patients with active and moderate-to-severe TAO. FS T2 mapping was superior to conventional T2 mapping in terms of prediction.

An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that exosomes are closely associated with liver fibrosis and mediate the process of liver fibrosis by participating in cytokine secretion, macrophage activation, extracellular matrix remodeling, and hepatic stellate cell activation. This article summarizes that the resolution of liver fibrosis requires the reduction of pro-inflammatory and fibrotic cytokines, the reduction of extracellular matrix protein production, the increase of collagenase activity, and finally the loss of activated myofibroblasts. It is believed that exosomes play an important role in the treatment of liver fibrosis and are potential markers for diagnosis and treatment, and in future studies, it is necessary to improve exosome extraction techniques and standardization of treatment quantification.

Objective:To observe the changes of skeletal muscle indexes in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes complicated with sarcopenia treated with sitagliptin and acarbose.Methods:A total of 60 patients over 60 years old with type 2 diabetes complicated with sarcopenia in Dalian Municipal Central Hospital from January 2019 to January 2020 were selected and divided into two groups by random number table method.One group received sitagliptin and metformin,and the other group received acarbose and metformin. The changes of skeletal muscle indexes, glucagon-like peptides-1 (GLP-1), insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) and inflammatory indexes were compared between the two groups at baseline and 36 weeks after treatment.Results:After treatment, the skeletal muscle index (SMI) of sitagliptin group was increased (5.94 ± 1.52 vs. 5.99 ± 1.52), and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). Muscle strength and SMI decreased in acarbosse group (18.75 ± 4.64 vs. 17.72 ± 4.44, 6.09 ± 1.74 vs. 6.00 ± 1.71), with statistical significance ( P<0.05). GLP-1 increased in sitagliptin group, 0 min: (10.65 ± 1.68) pmol/L vs. (12.41 ± 1.88) pmol/L; 60 min: (22.79 ± 2.85) pmol/L vs. (25.51 ± 2.79) pmol/L; 120 min: (24.26 ± 2.94) pmol/L vs. (29.49 ± 2.91) pmol/L; 180 min: (11.68 ± 1.84) pmol/L vs. (12.88 ± 1.83) pmol/L. There were significant differences ( P<0.05). HOMA-IR and CRP decreased: 4.73 ± 3.04 vs. 3.16 ± 2.41, (2.39 ± 0.50) mg/L vs. (2.33 ± 0.43) mg/L, and the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). HOMA-IR in acarbose group decreased after treatment (5.80 ± 3.94 vs. 4.00 ± 1.63), and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). Comparison between the two groups after treatment, the decreased value of muscle strength in sitagliptin group was less than that in acarbose group, and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). GLP-1 and overall GLP-1 area under the curve in sitagliptin group were higher than those in acarbose group (67.64 ± 6.81 vs. 58.98 ± 6.72), with statistical significance ( P<0.05). HOMA-IR and CRP in sitagliptin group were lower than those in acarborose group: 3.16 ± 2.42 vs. 4.00 ± 1.63, (2.33 ± 0.43) mg/L vs. (2.41 ± 0.70) mg/L, with statistical significances ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Sitagliptin therapy improves muscle mass and protects muscle strength in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and sarcopenia.

Objective:This study aimed to explore the effects ofnesfatin-1 on gastric distension (GD)-sensitive neurons in the basomedial amygdala (BMA) and the potential mechanism for nesfatin-1 to regulate gastric motility through the arcuate nucleus (Arc).Methods:The projection of nerve fiber and expression of nesfatin-1 were observed by retrograde tracing and fluo-immunohistochemistry staining;The nuclei microinjection and nuclei electrical stimulation,extracellular discharges of single unit neuron were used to observe the effects ofnesfatin-1 on the GD neurons;Gastric motility recording in vivo were used to monitor the effects ofnesfatin-1 on the amplitude of constriction and frequency of gastric motility in conscious rats.Results:NUCB2/Nesfatin-1/fluorogold-double labeled neurons were from ARC to BMA;Nesfatin-1 could excited the firing rate of most of the GD-E neurons (4.25± 1.02 Hz vs.5.32± 1.17 Hz,P＜0.01) and decreased the firing rate of most of the GD-I neurons (3.73± 0.92 Hz vs.2.64± 0.86 Hz,P＜0.01),inhibited the gastric motility,amplitude and frequency,SHU9119 could weaken the responses induced by nesfaton-1;Electrical stimulation of the Arc,the firing rate of nesfatin-1-induced GD-response neurons (GD-E:5.14± 1.32 Hz vs.6.75± 1.84 Hz,P＜0.05;GD-I:2.84± 0.86 Hz vs.4.05± 1.12 Hz,P ＜0.05) and the gastric amplitude and frequency were increase.Conclusion:It was suggested that nesfatin-1 in the BMA plays an important role in decreasing gastric motility and the Arc may be involved in this regulation process.