Objective To investigate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on male semen quality through meta-analysis and retrospec-tive study.Methods Literature retrieval was conducted in PubMed,CNKI,Wanfang Database and CBM database.Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 15.0.The male patients meeting the inclusion criteria from our hospital were enrolled as study subjects.General demographic data and semen parameters were collected.Single factor analysis of variance and graphing of semen parameters were con-ducted using GraphPad Prism 9.5.1.The test level was set at 0.05.Results A total of 9 studies involving 267 patients were included in the meta-analysis.There were no significant differences in sperm concentration and survival rate before and after SARS-CoV-2 infec-tion(P＞0.05).Semen volume and percentage of normal morphology significantly increased during 1-3 months after infection(P=0.005,P=0.010),with semen volume recovering to pre-infection level＞3 months later(P＞0.05).Sperm motility and progressive mo-tility increased＞3 months after infection(P=0.046,P=0.045),recovering to pre-infection levels(P=0.099,P=0.098).Sperm DNA fragmentation index may be temporarily elevated within 3 months after infection but gradually decreased＞3 months later.In the retrospective study of 8 cases,there were no statistical differences in semen parameters at different stages compared with pre-infection(P＞0.05),but semen parameters showed a negative trend during＜1 month after infection and recovered to pre-infection levels＞3 months later.Conclusion The results of this laboratory study are basically consistent with the meta-analysis.SARS-CoV-2 infection in males only caused short-term negative effects on sperm morphology,vitality and DNA integrity,but generally recovered to pre-infection levels＞3 months after infection.Due to the limitations of study subjects and sample size,the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on male semen quality needs to be further confirmed by long-term large-scale prospective studies.

Objective:To investigate the short-term efficacy and safety of cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) in patients with heart failure.Methods:This was a cross-sectional study of patients with heart failure who underwent CCM placement at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from February to June 2022. With a follow-up of 3 months, CCM sensation, impedance, percent output, and work time were monitored, and patients were compared with pre-and 3-month postoperative left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) values, and 6-minute walk test distance and New York Heart Association (NYHA) cardiac function classification, and the occurrence of complications was recorded.Results:CCM was successfully implanted in all 9 patients. Seven(7/9) of them were male, aged (56±14) years, 3 patients had ischaemic cardiomyopathy and 6 patients had dilated cardiomyopathy. At 3-month postoperative follow-up, threshold was stable, sense was significantly lower at follow-up than before (right ventricle: (16.3±7.0) mV vs. (8.2±1.1) mV, P<0.05; local sense: (15.7±4.9) mV vs. (6.7±2.5) mV, P<0.05), and impedance was significantly lower at follow-up than before (right ventricle (846±179) Ω vs. (470±65) Ω, P<0.05, local sense: (832±246) Ω vs. (464±63) Ω, P<0.05). The CCM output percentage was (86.9±10.7) %, the output amplitude was (6.7±0.4) V, and the daily operating time was (8.6±1.0) h. LVEF was elevated compared to preoperative ((29.4±5.2) % vs. (38.3±4.3) %, P<0.05), the 6-minute walk test was significantly longer than before ((96.8±66.7)m vs. (289.3±121.7)m, P<0.05). No significant increase in the number of NYHA Class Ⅲ-Ⅳ patients was seen (7/9 vs. 2/9, P>0.05). The patient was not re-hospitalised for worsening heart failure symptoms, had no malignant arrhythmic events and experienced significant relief of symptoms such as chest tightness and shortness of breath. No postoperative complications related to pocket hematoma, pocket infection and rupture, electrode detachment, valve function impairment, pericardial effusion, or cardiac perforation were found. Conclusions:CCM has better short-term safety and efficacy in patients with heart failure.

Objective:To develop and validate an artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic model for coronary artery disease based on facial photos.Methods:This study was a cross-sectional study. Patients who were scheduled to undergo coronary angiography (CAG) at Beijing Anzhen Hospital and Beijing Daxing Hospital from August 2022 to November 2023 were included consecutively. Before CAG, facial photos were collected (including four angles: frontal view, left and right 60° profile, and top of the head). Photo datasets were randomly divided into a training set, a validation set (70%), and a testing set (30%). The model was constructed using Masked Autoencoder (MAE) and Vision Transformer (ViT) architectures. Firstly, the model base was pre-training using 2 million facial photos obtained from the publicly available VGGFace dataset, and fine-tuned by the training and validation sets; the model was validated in the test set. In addition, the ResNet architecture was used to process the dataset, and its outputs were compared with those of the models based on MAE and ViT. In the test set, the area under the operating characteristic curve ( AUC) of the AI model was calculated using CAG results as the gold standard. Results:A total of 5 974 participants aged 61 (54, 67) years were included, including 4 179 males (70.0%), with a total of 84 964 facial photos. There were 79 140 facial photos in the training and validation sets, with 3 822 patients with coronary artery disease; there were 5 824 facial photos in the test set, with 239 patients with coronary artery disease. The AUC value of the MAE and ViT model initialized with pre-training model weights was 0.841 and 0.824, respectively. The AUC of the ResNet model initialized with random weights was 0.810, while the AUC of the ResNet model initialized with pre-training model weights was 0.816. Conclusion:The AI model based on facial photos showes good diagnostic performance for coronary artery disease and holds promise for further application in early diagnosis.

Objective:To investigate the impact of the deep-learning-based CT fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) on clinical decision-making and long-term prognosis in patients with obstructive coronary heart disease.Methods:In this single-center retrospective cohort study, consecutive patients with obstructive coronary heart disease (with at least one stenosis≥50%) on their first coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in Beijing Anzhen Hospital from February 2017 to July 2018 were included. Baseline clinical and CT characteristics were collected. Deep-learning-based CT-FFR and Leiden CCTA risk score were calculated. All patients enrolled were followed up for at least 5 years. The study endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), defined as the composite of cardiac death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina requiring hospitalization, and unplanned revascularization. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to define the optimal cut-off point of the Leiden score in predicting the 5-year MACE, and survival analysis and Cox regression were performed to explore the related factors of MACE.Results:A total of 622 patients, aged 61 (54, 66) years, with 407 (65.4%) males were included. Diagnostic coronary angiography was performed in 78 patients after their baseline CCTA, with 34 (43.6%) patients had CT-FFR>0.80. During a follow-up time of 2 181 (2 093, 2 355) days, 155 patients (24.9%) suffered from MACE. ROC derived optimal cut-off point of Leiden score for predicting MACE was 15.48. Survival analysis found that male patients, Leiden risk score>15 and CT-FFR≤0.80 had worse prognosis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified CT-FFR≤0.80 as an robust and independent predictor of MACE ( HR=4.98, 95% CI 3.15-7.86, P<0.001). Conclusion:Deep-learning-based CT-FFR aids in clinical decision-making and the evaluation of long-term prognosis in patients with obstructive coronary heart disease.

This review systematically polled the latest advancements in biomechanics research in competitive swimming during the Paris Olympic period together.By analyzing the application of biomechanics in competitive swimming,it reveals the key factors in performance improvement and injury prevention,mainly encompassing technique analysis and optimization,research method and equipment,performance evaluation and enhancement,and injury prevention and rehabilitation.Research related to biomechanics in competitive swimming for the Paris Olympic period highlights the significant role of biomechanics in optimizing swimming techniques,assessing athletic performance,and preventing injuries.Particularly,the advancement of sophisticated data collection and analysis equipment,such as high-precision sensors,artificial intelligence,and deep learning technologies,has made the analysis of swimming techniques more comprehensive and precise.Future research should further integrate multi-dimensional data technologies,employing high-precision motion capture,fluid mechanics measurement,and intelligent analysis to delve deeper into the pathways for optimizing swimming techniques.

The clinical data and gene variant characteristics of a patient with glutathione synthetase (GSS) deficiency were summarized. The child was born 15 min prematurely as a male infant with postnatal respiratory distress, metabolic acidosis, severe anemia, hemolysis, hyperbilirubinemia, and motor developmental backwardness. Blood and urine genetic metabolic screening showed a blood glutamate value of 1 343.1 μmol/L and a urine 5-oxoproline value of 1 873.7 nmol/mg creatinine. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging showed nonspecific subarachnoid widening. Whole-exon gene sequencing of the family line suggested that the GSS gene of the preexisting patient originated from paternal and maternal variants, respectively: c.632_633del (p.Gln211Argfs *8), and c.491G>A (p.Arg164Gln). Complex heterozygous variants of the GSS gene were the genetic etiology of the present case.

Objective:To investigate the correlations between serum E selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) and left ventricular geometry and function in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) combined with prehypertension (pre-HT).Methods:A total of 462 patients with pre-HT and OSAS diagnosed by polysomnography (PSG) in the sleep monitoring unit of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from July 2019 to July 2022 were restrospectively analysed, and 52 patients with pure pre-HT (pre-HT group) and 73 patients with pure OSAS (OSAS group) in the same period were selected as the control group. OSAS and pre-HT patients were divided into four groups according to left ventricular geometry: normal geometry (NG) group, concentric remodeling (CR) group, eccentric hypertrophy (EH) group and concentric hypertrophy (CH) group. The general clinical data, PSG parameters, blood biochemical parameters and left ventricular structure and function parameters were compared among the six groups. Pearson correlation and multivariate Logistic regression were used to analyze the correlation between E-selection, ICAM-1, VCAM-1, general clinical data, PSG parameters, blood biochemical parameters with left ventricular geometry and function.Results:①Serum E selectin, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 concentrations increased sequentially from the NG, CR, and EH to CH groups, with the most significant increase in CH group (all P<0.05). In addition, there were statistically significant differences in age, body mass index (BMI), OSAS severity, neck circumference, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), Glu, lowest oxygen saturation (Lowest-SaO 2), mean oxygen saturation (Mean-SaO 2), percentage of time with oxygen saturation below 90% of total sleep time (T90), left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd), interventricular septal thickness (IVST), left ventricular posterior wall thickness (LVPWT), left ventricular mass index (LVMI), relative ventricular wall thickness (RWT), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), peak mitral early diastolic flow velocity/peak mitral late diastolic flow velocity (E/A), E wave deceleration time (DT), A wave duration (AD), and isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT), and overall long-axis longitudinal strain (GLS) and so on(all P<0.05). ②Pearson correlation analysis showed that E selectin was negatively correlated with LVEF, E/A, e′, E/e′, IVRT, and GLS ( r=-0.236, -0.131, -0.224, -0.215, -0.285, -0.336; all P<0.05). ICAM-1 was negatively correlated with LVEF, E, E/A, e′, IVRT, and GLS( r=-0.130, -0.129, -0.104, -0.351, -0.252, -0.259; all P<0.05). VCAM-1 was negatively correlated with E, e′, and IVRT ( r=-0.132, -0.312, -0.387; all P<0.001). ③Multifactorial logistic regression analysis showed that E selectin and VCAM-1 were independently correlated with EH (β=1.139, OR=3.124, P=0.030; β=1.288, OR=3.626, P<0.001) and with CH (β=1.178, OR=3.248, P=0.013; β=1.108, OR=3.028, P<0.001). Conclusions:E selection and VCAM-1 were independently correlated with hypertrophic left ventricular geometry, suggesting that E selectin and VCAM-1 may be involved in the process of abnormal left ventricular structure and function in patients with OSAS combined with pre-HT.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the genetic basis for a child with clinically suspected 3-methylcrotonyl-coenzyme A carboxylase deficiency (MCCD). METHODS: Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples of the proband and her parents. Whole exome sequencing was used to screen pathogenic variant in the proband. Suspected variant was verified by Sanger sequencing. Impact of the variant on the structure and function of protein product was analyzed by using bioinformatic software. RESULTS: Sanger sequencing showed that the proband has carried homozygous missense c.1342G>A (p.Gly448Ala) variant of the MCCC2 gene, for which her mother was a heterozygous carrier. The same variant was not detected in her father. The variant was predicted to be pathogenic by PolyPhen-2 and Mutation Taster software, and the site was highly conserved among various species. Based on the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics standards and guidelines, the c.1342G>A (p.Gly448Ala) variant of MCCC2 gene was predicted to be likely pathogenic(PM2+PP2-PP5). CONCLUSION The homozygous missense variant of the MCCC2 gene c.1342G>A (p.Gly448Ala) probably underlay the molecular pathogenesis of the proband. Genetic testing has confirmed the clinical diagnosis.
Carbon-Carbon Ligases/genetics* ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mutation, Missense/genetics* ; Pedigree ; Urea Cycle Disorders, Inborn/genetics*

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of neonatal inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods The clinical data of two neonates diagnosed with IBD. Clinical manifestation, laboratory examination, imaging, endoscopy and histopathological findings, treatment plan and prognosis were included. Results The clinical manifestations were fever, diarrhea, oral ulcer in two cases of neonatal IBD in this study. Laboratory findings showed inflammatory indicators (such as white blood cells, C-reactive protein) increased mainly accompanied by decreased hemoglobin, platelet, plasma albumin and other indicators. Endoscopic and pathological manifestations were significantly different in ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn disease (CD) children. The lesions range of UC patients were mainly sigmoid colon, and CD patients ileocecal. Conclusions For neonates with highly suspected IBD, positive endoscopy and gene detection are recommended. Early diagnosis and standard treatment are important. For children with refractory IBD with IL-10 and IL-10 receptor gene mutations, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is feasible and could improve its prognosis.

Objective:To investigate the status of the vestibular function of the patients with chronic positional symptoms after peripheral acute vestibular syndrome (AVS) and the curative effect of the vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT). Method:Using caloric test (CT), head shaking nystagmus test (HST), cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials as well as ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials to estimate the function of semicircular canal and otolith organs. The patients with normal VEMPs are divided as Group A. Otherwise are as Group B. Both groups are treated with VRT. The curative effect is estimated by vestibular symptom index (VSI) and Berg balance scale (BBS). Result:Thirty-three of 37 patients (86.5%) had an abnormal result of CT and HST, with 23 of these patients (65.7%) had an abnormal of both test. Twenty-two patients (59.5%) were in Group A and 15 (40.5%) in Group B. Before the therapy, Group B had a higher score of the balance and dizziness symptoms of VSI (P<0.05), and Group A had a higher score of the BBS (P<0.05). After the therapy, the VSI scores of both groups dropped and scores of the BBS raised. Conclusion:Patients with chronic positional symptoms after peripheral AVS have dynamic vestibular lesions to different extents. Those with otolith organs lesions tend to have a worse function of balance. Nevertheless, patients have a better off after VRT.