Objective : To investigate the possible mechanism of metformin (Met) -induced cardiomyocyte autoph- agy in protecting myocardial injury in septic mice． Methods : The model of myocardial injury in septic mice was es- tablished by cecal ligation and puncture ( CLP) ．Sixty Kunming mice were randomly divided into sham operation group (Sham group) ，model group ( CLP group) ，model + dimethyl sulfoxide ( DMSO) group ( CLP + DMSO group) ，model + metformin (Met) group (Met group) ，model + Met + 3-methyladenine (3-MA) group (Met + 3- MA group) ，model + Met + compound C ( CC) group (Met + CC group) ，with 10 mice in each group．The Met， Met + 3-MA and Met + CC groups were intraperitoneally injected with Met (200 mg / kg) once a day for 2 weeks be- fore modeling．The Met + 3-MA group was intraperitoneally injected with 3-MA ( 10 mg / kg) 1 h before surgery. The Met + CC group was intraperitoneally injected with CC (20 mg / kg) 30 min before surgery．The model was es- tablished 24 h after the last injection of Met．The heart and blood of all mice were collected 24 h after surgery．The Western blot technique was employed to assess the relative expression levels of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) isoforms，namely LC3 I and LC3 II，autophagy effector protein 1 (Beclin-1) ，ubiquitin-bind- ing protein 62 (p62) ，B-cell lymphoma / leukemia-2 (Bcl-2) ，Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) ，adenosine mono- phosphate (AMP) kinase (AMPK) and phosphorylated AMPK (p-AMPK) ．Myocardial pathological changes were observed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining．The changes of myocardial mitochondria and autophagosomes were observed by electron microscopy．Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the pathological changes of myocardium． Electron microscopy was used to observe the changes of myocardial mitochondria and autophago- somes. Results : Compared with Sham group，the relative protein expression of Beclin-1，p62，p-AMPK / AMPK and LC3 II / LC3 I in CLP and CLP + DMSO groups had no statistical significance，but Bax increased and Bcl-2 de- creased in CLP group (P＜0. 01) ．Compared with CLP group，the relative expression of Beclin-1 protein and LC3 II / LC3 I in Met group increased and p62 decreased (P＜0. 01) ，Bax decreased and Bcl-2 increased (P＜0. 01) . Compared with Met group，the relative protein expression of Beclin-1 and LC3 II / LC3 I in Met + 3-MA group de- creased and p62 increased (P＜0. 05) ，Bax increased and Bcl-2 decreased (P＜0. 05) ．Besides，the relative pro- tein expression of p-AMPK / AMPK in Met + CC group decreased (P＜0. 05) ．HE staining showed that there was no disorder in myocardial fibers in Sham group，and a large number of inflammatory cells infiltrated the myocardial fibers of CLP group in a clear disorder．The Met group showed vacuolar changes in the myocardium，while the Met + 3-MA group showed disordered arrangement of myocardial fibers and a small amount of inflammatory cell infiltra- tion．Under electron microscopy，the morphology of myocardial mitochondria in the Sham group was normal，while in the CLP group，the arrangement of mitochondrial cristae was disordered with vacuolar changes，and occasional autophagosomes were observed．Mitochondria in Met group showed slight swelling and a large number of autophago- somes．The mitochondria in the Met + 3-MA group showed significant swelling with a small amount of autophago- somes． Conclusion The protective effect of metformin on myocardial injury in septic mice can reduce cardiomyo- cyte apoptosis and improve mitochondrial damage by activating AMPK signaling pathway to induce autophagy.

Objective    To compare clinical effects of enlarged thymectomy for the treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG) complicated with thymoma via subxiphoid and subcostal arch thoracoscopic resection versus median sternotomy resection. Methods    We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of patients with MG complicated with thymoma admitted in Tangdu Hospital of the Air Force Military Medical University between December 2011 and December 2021. Patients who underwent subxiphoid and subcostal arch thoracoscopic enlarged thymectomy were allocated to a SR group, and patients who underwent median sternotomy enlarged thymectomy were allocated to a MR group. Perioperative outcomes were compared between the two groups. Results    A total of 456 patients were collected. There were 51 patients in the MR group, including 30 males and 21 females aged 23-66 (49.5±11.8) years. There were 405 patients in the SR group, among whom 51 patients were matched to the MR group by propensity score matching, including 28 males and 23 females aged 26-70 (47.2±12.2) years. The operations were accomplished successfully in all patients, and no conversion to thoracotomy occurred in the SR group. The SR group had advantages in the operation time, intraoperative blood loss,  chest drainage duration, hospital stay time, patients’ satisfaction level, pain score and complications (all P<0.05). No statistical difference was found in the number of intraoperative lymph node dissection stations, number of intraoperative lymph nodes dissected or remission of MG between the two groups (P>0.05). Conclusion    Subxiphoid and subcostal arch thoracoscopic enlarged thymectomy and lymphadenectomy is a safe, effective and feasible minimally invasive procedure for the treatment of MG complicated with thymoma.

Abstract OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of isodon ternifolia-containing serum(ITS) on the activation of rat primary hepatic Kupffer cell(KC) induced by lipopolysaccharide(LPS) through TLR4/NF-κB/NLRP3 signal pathway. METHODS The primary KC of rats were isolated and cultured, and the primary KC induced by LPS were divided into blank control group, model control group, blank serum group, positive control group(colchicine containing serum group), ITS group, TLR4 blocker group and TLR4 blocker+ITS group. MTT assay was used to detect the effect of different concentrations of ITS on the proliferation activity of KC. The content of interleukin-1β(IL-1β), interleukin-18(IL-18), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) and interleukin-6(IL-6) in KC supernatant were detected by ELISA. Fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(PCR), Western blotting and immunofluorescence were used to detect the expression of TLR4, nuclear factor κB inhibitor protein α(IκBα), cysteine protease-1(Caspase-1), NLRP3 mRNA and TLR4, IκBα, phosphorylated IκBα(p-IκBα), Caspase-1, NLRP3 and NF-κBp65 in KC. RESULTS Compared with the model control group, the contents of IL-1β, IL-18, TNF-α and IL-6 in the supernatant of KC and the expression of TLR4, IκB α, Caspase-1, NLRP3 mRNA and TLR4, IκBα, p-IκBα, Caspase-1, NLRP3, NF-κBp65 protein in the supernatant of KC in all drug groups were down-regulated or decreased(P<0.05 or P<0.01). Compared with TLR4 blocker group, the improvement of most of the above indexes in TLR4 blocker+ITS group was more obvious. CONCLUSION Isodon ternifolia may inhibit the activation of KC and reduce the expression and release of inflammatory factors by down-regulating TLR4/NF-κB/NLRP3 signal pathway, thus alleviating the inflammatory injury of liver.

Objective To investigate the characteristics of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) subsyndrome in patients with Alzheimer&#39;s disease (AD) and analyze the causes. Methods The demographic data, medical history and dietary habits of 137 patients with Alzheimer&#39;s disease who visited our hospital from January 2019 to October 2021 were collected by questionnaire. Excel 2007 and SPSS 22.0 software were used for statistical analysis of the occurrence of sleep disorders and BPSD subsyndrome. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of its occurrence. Results There were 82 cases of sleep disorder (59.85%) and 118 cases of psycho-behavioral subsyndrome (86.13%) among those137 patients, of which 82 cases of sleep disorder mainly had low sleep quality (87.80%, 72/82), insufficient sleep time (73.17%, 60/82) and difficulty falling asleep (69.51%, 57/82); of which 118 cases of BPSD subsyndrome mainly had affective disorder (88.14%, 104/118), psychotic symptoms (76.27% , 90/118) and high activity (43.22% , 51/118). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that physical work , combined cerebral and cardiovascular diseases, dietary preference and severity of illness were the factors affecting sleep disorder (P<0.05) , while gender, residence, sleep disorder, whether the caregivers were full-time and severity of illness were the factors affecting the occurrence of behavioral subsyndrome (P<0.05). Conclusion Different types of sleep disorders and BPSD subsyndromes are common in patients with Alzheimer&#39;s disease. Attention should be paid to patients and intervention should be performed to improve their sleep and mental status.

Objective    To evaluate the early and mid-term safety of transcatheter aortic valve replacement via transfemoral (TF), transapical (TAp) and transsubclavian (TSc) approaches by meta-analysis. Methods    We systematically searched the clinical comparative trials published from inception to June 2019 from PubMed, Web of Science, EMbase and The Cochrane Library, to evaluate the safety of transcatheter aortic valve replacement through TF, TAp or TSc approaches. The information of all-cause mortality at 30 days, 1 year, 2 years and the incidence of common complications at 30 days after operation (including pacemaker-dependent block, major vascular complications, severe bleeding events, acute renal injury and stroke) were exacted, and a meta-analysis was conducted by RevMan 5.3 software. Results    This study included 11 literatures, with a total of 7 833 patients, among whom 5 348 patients were treated by TF TAVR, 1 796 patients by TAp TAVR and 689 patients by TSc TAVR. The results of the meta-analysis were as follows: (1)  at 30 days after operation, the mortality of TF and TSc approaches were lower than that of the TAp approach (TF vs. TAp:OR=0.57, 95%CI 0.39-0.84, P=0.004; TSc vs. TAp: OR=4.12, 95%CI 1.93-8.79, P=0.000 3). There was no statistical difference between the TF and TSc approaches (TF vs. TSc: OR=0.98, 95%CI 0.38-2.51, P=0.97); at 1 year, there was no statistical difference in mortality among the three approaches (P>0.05); at 2 years, there was no statistical difference between TSc and TF or TAp approaches (TF vs. TSc: OR=1.21, 95%CI 0.95-1.54, P=0.13; TSc vs. TAp: OR=1.02, 95%CI 0.76-1.36, P=0.91). (2) The incidence of acute kidney injury after TF approach was lower than that of the TAp approach (OR=0.30, 95%CI 0.22-0.41, P<0.000 01). (3) There was no statistical difference in major vascular complications between TSc and TF or TAp approaches (TF vs. TSc: OR=0.75, 95%CI 0.38-1.49, P=0.41; TSc vs. TAp: OR=1.37, 95%CI 0.56-3.32, P=0.49). (4) There was no statistical difference in severe bleeding events between TF and TSc (OR=0.97, 95%CI 0.53-1.76, P=0.92). (5) There was no statistical difference in the incidence of postoperative stroke, pacemaker dependent block among the three approaches (P>0.05). Conclusion    TAp and TSc approaches are safe and effective. They are not only an alternative to TF approach, but also the first choice in some patients with poor condition of iliofemoral artery.

Objective    To investigate the safety and feasibility of laryngeal mask general anesthesia as a replacement of tracheal intubation general anesthesia in the "three-port" thoracoscopic thymectomy via subxiphoid and subcostal arch for thymoma patients without myasthenia. Methods    From January 2018 to June 2019, clinical data of patients with thymoma who underwent the novel "three-port" operation in our institution were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups according to the anesthesia methods, including a tracheal intubation general anesthesia group and a laryngeal mask general anesthesia group. There were 70 patients in the tracheal intubation general anesthesia group, including 42 males and 28 females, with an average age of 45.83±15.89 years. There were 39 patients in the laryngeal mask general anesthesia group, including 26 males and 13 females, with an average age of 43.31±15.64 years. The clinical data of the two groups were compared. Results    The baseline characteristics of the patients in the two groups were well balanced (P>0.05). No massive bleeding, conversion to thoracotomy, postoperative myasthenia or death occurred in those patients. No patient with laryngeal mask anesthesia had a conversion to tracheal intubation anesthesia during the operation. There was no significant difference in the operation time, intraoperative bleeding, intraoperative maximum partial pressure of CO2, lowest partial pressure of oxygen and anesthesia effect score between the two groups (P>0.05). There was also no statistical difference in postoperative aspiration, gastrointestinal discomfort, length of hospital stay, pain score and patient satisfaction degree between the two groups (P>0.05). However, the anesthesia time before operation and the time of awake after anesthesia in the laryngeal mask anesthesia group were significantly shorter than those in the tracheal intubation general anesthesia group (P<0.05), and the incidence of transient arrhythmia, laryngeal discomfort and hoarseness in the laryngeal mask general anesthesia group was significantly lower than that in the tracheal intubation general anesthesia group (P<0.05). Conclusion    The "three-port" thoracoscopic thymectomy via subxiphoid and subcostal arch under laryngeal mask general anesthesia is safe and feasible in the treatment of thymoma without myasthenia, and can be recommended routinely.

In recent years, with the extensive development of phacoemulsification and the gradual application of femtosecond laser technology in the field of cataract surgery, femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery(FLACS)has become popular year by year, and has been recognized and promoted by more and more doctors. Femtosecond laser technology has high accuracy, automation and repeatability, so it is quite suitable for cataract surgery characterized by precision operation, it can be used in cataract surgery for corneal incision and limbal incision, anterior capsule incision, lens fragmentation and other key operations. FLACS has broad application prospects and can greatly improve the predictability and safety of surgery. The emergence of FLACS is one of the most important developments in modern cataract surgery. With the continuous development of FLACS, cataract surgery will usher in new technological innovations. However, FLACS are relatively new, and longer term, more comprehensive data are still needed to better demonstrate their effectiveness in the future. We review the current research progress of FLACS.