Objective:To investigate the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor maintenance therapy after radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy for stage Ⅲ-ⅣA esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in the real world.Methods:The clinical data of 65 patients with stage Ⅲ-ⅣA ESCC treated by radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2022 in Hefei Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Sciences were retrospectively analyzed. According to whether to undergo immune checkpoint inhibitor maintenance therapy after radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the patients were divided into a control group ( n=29) and an immune maintenance therapy group ( n=36) . The objective response rate (ORR) , progression-free survival (PFS) , and overall survival (OS) between the two groups were compared. Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw the survival curve accompanied with log-rank test. Cox regression model was used to conduct both univariate and multivariate analyses. Results:The ORR was 34.5% (10/29) in the control group and 61.1% (22/36) in the immune maintenance therapy group, with a statistically significant difference ( χ2=4.56, P=0.032) . The median PFS of control group and immune maintenance therapy group were 7.2 and 17.9 months, respectively, with a statistically significant difference ( χ2=7.86, P=0.005) . The median OS was 14.1 and 27.8 months, respectively, with a statistically significant difference ( χ2=5.40, P=0.020) . Univariate analysis showed that, objective response ( HR=0.09, 95% CI: 0.03-0.28, P<0.001) and immune maintenance therapy ( HR=0.38, 95% CI: 0.17-0.88, P=0.024) were the influential factors of OS in ESCC patients treaded by radical chemoradiotherapy in stage Ⅲ-ⅣA. Multivariate analysis showed that, objective response ( HR=0.09, 95% CI: 0.03-0.29, P<0.001) and immune maintenance therapy ( HR=0.40, 95% CI: 0.17-0.92, P=0.032) were the independent influencing factors for OS in ESCC patients treaded by radical chemoracial therapy in stage Ⅲ-ⅣA. The incidence of adverse reactions was 22.22% (8/36) in the immune maintenance therapy group and 10.34% (3/29) in the control group, with no statistically significant difference ( χ2=1.61, P=0.204) . All the adverse reactions were grade 1-2, and the symptoms were relieved after symptomatic treatment. Conclusion:Maintenance therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors after radical chemoradiotherapy of stage Ⅲ-ⅣA ESCC can significantly improve the prognosis of patients with good safety.

Objective:To explore the efficacy of consolidation chemotherapy after radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy in stage Ⅲ-ⅣA esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients in the real world.Methods:The clinical data of 139 patients with stage Ⅲ-ⅣA ESCC who underwent radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2022 in Hefei Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Sciences were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into a control group ( n=85) and a consolidation chemotherapy group ( n=54) based on whether they underwent consolidation chemotherapy after radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) between the two groups were compared. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw survival curves and log-rank tests were conducted. The Cox proportional risk model was used for univariate and multivariate analysis. Results:The ORR of the control group and the consolidation chemotherapy group were 44.71% (38/85) and 66.67% (36/54), respectively, with a statistically significant difference ( χ2=5.54, P=0.018) ; the DCR were 70.59% (60/85) and 87.04% (47/54), respectively, with a statistically significant difference ( χ2=5.04, P=0.025). The median PFS of the two groups of patients were 9.0 and 13.1 months, respectively, with a statistically significant difference ( χ2=12.74, P<0.001) ; the median OS were 15.0 and 20.6 months, respectively, with a statistically significant difference ( χ2=24.75, P<0.001). The median OS of ESCC patients in two subgroups of cT 3-4N 1-3M 0 were 16.0 and 30.8 months, respectively, with a statistically significant difference ( χ2=23.49, P<0.001). Univariate analysis showed that tumor length ( HR=1.57, 95% CI: 1.04-2.36, P=0.032), objective response ( HR=0.08, 95% CI: 0.04-0.17, P<0.001), and consolidation chemotherapy ( HR=0.32, 95% CI: 0.20-0.51, P<0.001) were all influencing factors for OS in ESCC patients undergoing radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy in stages Ⅲ-ⅣA. Multivariate analysis showed that tumor length ( HR=1.59, 95% CI: 1.05-2.43, P=0.030), objective response ( HR=0.05, 95% CI: 0.02-0.10, P<0.001), and consolidation chemotherapy ( HR=0.22, 95% CI: 0.13-0.36, P<0.001) were all independent influencing factors for OS in stage Ⅲ-ⅣA ESCC patients undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In terms of safety, the consolidation chemotherapy group experienced 7 adverse reactions mainly gastrointestinal reaction and leukopenia, including 5 cases of grade 1-2 and 2 cases of grade 3-4; 22 cases of adverse reactions occurred in the control group including 16 cases of grade 1-2 and 6 cases of grade 3-4 mainly including neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, anemia and digestive tract reaction. The incidence rates of adverse reactions in the two groups were 12.96% (7/54) and 25.88% (22/85), respectively, with no statistically significant difference ( χ2=3.34, P=0.068) . Conclusion:After radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy, consolidation chemotherapy can significantly improve the prognosis of stage Ⅲ-ⅣA ESCC patients, and the overall adverse reactions are controllable.

Periarticular fracture of the shoulder is a common type of fractures in the elderly. Postoperative adverse events such as internal fixation failure, humeral head ischemic necrosis and upper limb dysfunction occur frequently, which seriously endangers the exercise and health of the elderly. Compared with the fracture with normal bone mass, the osteoporotic periarticular fracture of the shoulder is complicated with slow healing and poor rehabilitation, so the clinical management becomes more difficult. At present, there is no targeted guideline or consensus for this type of fracture in China. In such context, experts from Youth Osteoporosis Group of Chinese Orthopedic Association, Orthopedic Expert Committee of Geriatrics Branch of Chinese Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Osteoporosis Group of Youth Committee of Chinese Association of Orthopedic Surgeons and Osteoporosis Committee of Shanghai Association of Chinese Integrative Medicine developed the Chinese expert consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporotic periarticular fracture of the shoulder in the elderly ( version 2023). Nine recommendations were put forward from the aspects of diagnosis, treatment strategies and rehabilitation of osteoporotic periarticular fracture of the shoulder, hoping to promote the standardized, systematic and personalized diagnosis and treatment concept and improve functional outcomes and quality of life in elderly patients with osteoporotic periarticular fracture of the shoulder.

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is an effective treatment for end-stage anteromedial osteoarthritis of the knee. Medial tibial plateau fracture or femoral condyle fracture may occur after UKA, and its treatment is very challenging. The causes leading to this complication include: surgical technique errors, such as the weakening of posterior cortical strength of the tibial platform during operation, the reduction of bone mass due to too much tibial osteotomy, and the stress concentration in the bone bed due to bad alignment of the prosthesis, etc. Prosthesis design factors, such as press-fit fixation design of cementless UKA prosthesis, and multiple nail holes fixation for tibial osteotomy guide, etc. And the morphology of tibial plateau, such as tibial platform in Asian people with narrow and small shap and medial overhanging condyles. Correct selection of patients, strict surgical principles and standardized surgical techniques are the keys to prevent periprosthetic fractures during and after medial UKA. After the diagnosis is confirmed, the treatment choice mainly depends on the fracture pattern and the stability of the prosthesis.

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is an effective treatment for end-stage anteromedial osteoarthritis of the knee. Medial tibial plateau fracture or femoral condyle fracture may occur after UKA, and its treatment is very challenging. The causes leading to this complication include: surgical technique errors, such as the weakening of posterior cortical strength of the tibial platform during operation, the reduction of bone mass due to too much tibial osteotomy, and the stress concentration in the bone bed due to bad alignment of the prosthesis, etc. Prosthesis design factors, such as press-fit fixation design of cementless UKA prosthesis, and multiple nail holes fixation for tibial osteotomy guide, etc. And the morphology of tibial plateau, such as tibial platform in Asian people with narrow and small shap and medial overhanging condyles. Correct selection of patients, strict surgical principles and standardized surgical techniques are the keys to prevent periprosthetic fractures during and after medial UKA. After the diagnosis is confirmed, the treatment choice mainly depends on the fracture pattern and the stability of the prosthesis.

TSCI have dyskinesia and sensory disturbance that can cause various life-threaten complications. The patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI), seriously affecting the quality of life of patients. Based on the epidemiology of TSCI and domestic and foreign literatures as well as expert investigations, this expert consensus reviews the definition, injury classification, rehabilitation assessment, rehabilitation strategies and rehabilitation measures of TSCI so as to provide early standardized rehabilitation treatment methods for TSCI.

Objective:To evaluate the prognostic effects of gradient boosting machine (GBM) model on the short-term effects of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation.Methods:Clinical data and outcomes of 475 patients who underwent PELD surgery for single-segment lumbar disc herniation from October 2016 to March 2018 were retrospectively collected. The lumbar JOA score was used as a reference for the evaluation of curative effects. The improvement rate ≥50% was considered as good curative effects, while <50% was considered as poor curative effects. GBM model and multivariate Logistic regression model were utilized to screen out the influencing factors of the short-term clinical effects of PELD. Prognostic models were established, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn and compared. Sensitivity, specificity and Youden index were compared to evaluate the predictive performance of GBM model.Results:A total of 395 patients were followed up effectively for 24 months. There were 347 patients (87.8%) with good curative effects. However, forty-eight patients (12.2%) had poor curative effects. There were statistically differences in the lumbar JOA score improvement rates between the groups in regards to age, location and type of herniated disc, degeneration level of intervertebral disc and facet joint in surgical segment, sagittal diameter of the protrusion and whether or not there was calcification, onset time to the surgery time period and degeneration level of intervertebral disc in adjacent segment ( P<0.05). The results of multivariate analysis showed that patients with age ≥60 [ OR=9.15, 95% CI(4.04, 20.73), P<0.001] and with larger sagittal diameter of the protrusion [ OR=1.37, 95% CI(1.18, 1.58), P<0.001] were more likely to have a poor prognosis. Patients with unilateral disc herniation had a better prognosis than the extreme lateral type [ OR=0.17, 95% CI(0.06, 0.55), P=0.003]. The prognoses of patients with grade Ⅲ intervertebral disc degeneration in surgical segment were worse than those with grade Ⅱ [ OR=0.17, 95% CI(0.04, 0.70), P=0.014]. The prognoses of patients with grade Ⅲ intervertebral disc degeneration in adjacent segment were worse than those with grade Ⅱ [ OR=0.29, 95% CI(0.10, 0.81), P=0.018]. The AUC predicted by GBM model was 0.92 [95% CI(0.77, 0.96)] with 93.46% sensitivity, 83.33% specificity and 0.77 Youden index. The above parameters were higher than those by the Logistic regression model. The predictive effects of the two models were both statistically significant ( P<0.001). The AUC values of the two models were also statistically significant ( Z=0.11, P<0.001). Conclusion:GBM model is better than multivariate logistic regression analysis model in predicting the short-term clinical effects of PELD in treating lumbar disc herniation.

α-cells, which synthesize glucagon, also support β-cell survival and have the capacity to transdifferentiate into β-cells. However, the role of α-cells in pathological conditions and their putative clinical applications remain elusive due in large part to the lack of mature α-cells. Here, we present a new technique to generate functional α-like cells. α-like cells (iAlpha cells) were generated from mouse fibroblasts by transduction of transcription factors, including Hhex, Foxa3, Gata4, Pdx1 and Pax4, which induce α-cell-specific gene expression and glucagon secretion in response to KCl and Arg stimulation. The cell functions in vivo and in vitro were evaluated. Lineage-specific and functional-related gene expression was tested by realtime PCR, insulin tolerance test (ITT), glucose tolerance test (GTT), Ki67 and glucagon immunohistochemistry analysis were done in iAlpha cells transplanted nude mice. iAlpha cells possess α-cell function in vitro and alter blood glucose levels in vivo. Transplantation of iAlpha cells into nude mice resulted in insulin resistance and increased β-cell proliferation. Taken together, we present a novel strategy to generate functional α-like cells for the purposes of disease modeling and regenerative medicine.
Animals ; Blood Glucose ; Fibroblasts* ; Gene Expression ; Glucagon ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Immunohistochemistry ; In Vitro Techniques ; Insulin ; Insulin Resistance ; Mice* ; Mice, Nude ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Regenerative Medicine ; Transcription Factors

Objective To evaluate the quality of life (QOL ) of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and to explore its related factors .Methods SF‐36 questionnaire was used to evaluate the QOL of 626 CHB patients visited or hospitalized in China‐Japan Friendship Hospital from July 2014 to June 2015 .And the residents around the hospital were included as control group .Sociological characteristics ,clinical data , health related behaviors and nutritional status were collected .Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the factors related to quality of life . Results Six hundred and twenty‐six participants were enrolled in each group ,including 424 males and 202 females .The average age of CHB group and control group were 44 .2 ± 13 .9 and 44 .2 ± 13 .9 ,respectively .The average QOL score of the CHB patients was 72 .25 ± 16 .06 ,and 8 dimensions and 2 domains of CHB group were lower than those of control group (both P < 0 .05 ) . In multivariate analysis , factors independently associated with higher physical component summary (PCS) score were younger age (18—45 years old:OR=0 .27 ,95% CI:0 .13—0 .54 ;45—60 years old :OR= 0 .47 ,95% CI:0 .23—0 .95) ,high‐quality sleep (OR= 0 .20 ,95% CI:0 .12—0 .33) ,frequent exercise (OR=0 .37 ,95% CI:0 .19—0 .73) or occasional exercise (OR=0 .49 ,95% CI:0 .30—0 .77) ,and mild hepatitis symptoms (mild:OR=0 .19 ,95% CI:0 .05 -0 .76 ;moderate :OR=0 .20 ,95% CI:0 .06—0 .68 ) , while disease duration was associated with lower PCS score ;factor independently associated with higher mental component summary (MCS) score was high quality sleep (OR=0 .25 , 95% CI:0 .16—0 .41) ,while longer duration (OR= 14 .04 ,95% CI:1 .81—109 .38) and lower weight (OR=2 .72 ,95% CI:1 .48—4 .98) were associated with reduced MCS score ( all P<0 .05) .Conclusions The QOL of CHB patients is damaged universally .More attention should be paid to the health related life behavior and nutritional status of CHB patients in the future management .

OBJECTIVETo determine the effect of obesity on prostate specific antigen (PSA) in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and develop a PSA-related parameter that can eliminate the effect of obesity.

METHODSWe reviewed the clinical data of 706 patients with BPH. Two PSA-related parameters, namely PSA mass (total circulating PSA protein) and PSA mass ratio (total circulation PSA protein per prostate volume), were calculated for all the patients and the association of BMI with PSA, PSA mass, and PSA mass ratio was assessed.

RESULTSA higher BMI was significantly associated with a greater plasma volume and prostate volume (P<0.05). Linear regression analysis revealed a greater adjusted R2 of BMI versus plasma volume than of BMI PSA (0.569 vs 0.027). PSA was positively associated with the prostate volume and negatively with BMI and plasma volume (P<0.05). PSA mass was positively associated with prostate volume (P<0.05) but was not associated with BMI or plasma volume (P>0.05). PSA mass ratio was not associated with prostate volume (P>0.05) but negatively associated with BMI and plasma volume. Plasma volume and prostate volume, PSA, and PSA mass ratio (P<0.05), but not PSA mass (P>0.05), differed significantly among normal-weight, overweight, and obese patients.

CONCLUSIONA higher BMI is associated with a greater plasma volume in BPH patients. In obese patients with BPH, a lower PSA concentration may result from hemodilution caused by a greater plasma volume, and PSA mass can eliminate the effect of obesity on PSA.

Body Mass Index ; Hemodilution ; Humans ; Male ; Obesity ; pathology ; Organ Size ; Overweight ; pathology ; Prostate ; pathology ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; blood ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; diagnosis ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; diagnosis