Background:
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is usually diagnosed between 24th and 28th gestational week using the 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). It is difficult to predict GDM before 24th gestational week because fast plasma glucose (FPG) decreases as the gestational age increases. It is controversial that if FPG ≥5.1 mmol/L before 24th gestational week should be intervened or not. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of FPG to screen GDM before 24th gestational week in women with different pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI).
Methods:
This was a multi-region retrospective cohort study in China. Women who had a singleton live birth between June 20, 2013 and November 30, 2014, resided in Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu, and received prenatal care in 21 selected hospitals, were included in this study. Pre-pregnancy BMI, FPG before the 24th gestational week, and one-step GDM screening with 75 g-OGTT at the 24th to 28th gestational weeks were extracted from medical charts and analyzed. The pregnant women were classified into four groups based on pre-pregnancy BMI: Group A (underweight, BMI < 18.5 kg/m2), Group B (normal, BMI 18.5–23.9 kg/m2), Group C (overweight, BMI 24.0–27.9 kg/m2) and Group D (obesity, BMI ≥28.0 kg/m2). The trend of FPG before 24th week of gestation was described, and the sensitivity and specificity of using FPG before the 24th gestational week to diagnose GDM among different pre-pregnancy BMI groups were reported. Differences in the means between groups were evaluated using independent sample t-test and analysis of variance. Pearson Chi-square test was used for categorical variables.
Results:
The prevalence of GDM was 20.0% (6806/34,087) in the study population. FPG decreased gradually as the gestational age increased in all pre-pregnancy BMI groups until the 19th gestational week. FPG was higher in women with higher pre-pregnancy BMI. FPG before the 24th gestational week and pre-pregnancy BMI could be used to predict GDM. The incidence of GDM in women with FPG ≥5.10 mmol/L in the 19th to 24th gestational weeks and pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity was significantly higher than that in women with FPG ≥5.10 mmol/L and pre-pregnancy BMI <24.0 kg/m2 (78.5% [62/79] vs. 52.9% [64/121], χ2 = 13.425, P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
FPG decreased gradually as the gestational age increased in all pre-pregnancy BMI groups until the 19th gestational week. Pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity was associated with an increased FPG value before the 24th gestational week. FPG ≥5.10 mmol/L between 19 and 24 gestational weeks should be treated as GDM in women with pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity.
Background:
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is reported associated with the alteration of gut microbial composition termed as dysbiosis. However, the pathogenic mechanism of IBS remains unclear, while the studies of Chinese individuals are scarce. This study aimed to understand the concept of dysbiosis among patients with Chinese diarrhea-predominant IBS (IBS-D), as a degree of variance between the gut microbiomes of IBS-D population and that of a healthy population.
Methods:
The patients with IBS-D were recruited (assessed according to the Rome III criteria, by IBS symptom severity score) from the Outpatient Department of Gastroenterology of Peking University Third Hospital, and volunteers as healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled, during 2013. The 16S rRNA sequences were extracted from fecal samples. Ribosomal database project resources, basic local alignment search tool, and SparCC software were used to obtain the phylotype composition of samples and the internal interactions of the microbial community. Herein, the non-parametric test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test was carried out to find the statistical significance between HC and IBS-D groups. All the P values were adjusted to q values to decrease the error rate.
Results:
The study characterized the gut microbiomes of Chinese patients with IBS-D, and demonstrated that the dysbiosis could be characterized as directed alteration of the microbiome composition leading to greater disparity between relative abundance of two phyla, Bacteroidetes (Z = 4.77, q = 1.59 × 10-5) and Firmicutes (Z = -3.87, q = 5.83 × 10-4). Moreover, it indicated that the IBS symptom features were associated with the dysbiosis of whole gut microbiome, instead of one or several certain genera even they were dominating. Two genera, Bacteroides and Lachnospiracea incertae sedis, were identified as the core genera, meanwhile, the non-core genera contribute to a larger pan-microbiome of the gut microbiome. Furthermore, the dysbiosis in patients with IBS-D was associated with a reduction of network complexity of the interacted microbial community (HC vs. IBS-D: 639 vs. 154). The disordered metabolic functions of patients with IBS-D were identified as the potential influence of gut microbiome on the host (significant difference with q < 0.01 between HC and IBS-D).
Conclusions:
This study supported the view of the potential influence of gut microbiome on the symptom of Chinese patients with IBS-D, and further characterized dysbiosis in Chinese patients with IBS-D, thus provided more pathological evidences for IBS-D with the further understanding of dysbiosis.
Xin Ma, Qi Kong, Chen Wang, Gary Rajah, Yu-Chuan Ding, Yu-Ren Zhang, Xiang-Ying Du
中华医学杂志英文版2019年 132卷 08期
DOI: 10.1097/CM9.0000000000000174
摘要
Background:
Asymptomatic coronary artery stenosis (ACAS) ≥50% is common in patients with acute ischemic cerebrovascular disease (AICVD), which portends a poor cardiovascular and cerebrovascular prognosis. Identifying ACAS ≥50% early may optimize the clinical management and improve the outcomes of these high-risk AICVD patients. This study aimed to investigate whether aortic arch plaque (AAP), an early atherosclerotic manifestation of brain blood-supplying arteries, could be a predictor for ACAS ≥50% in AICVD.
Methods:
In this cross-sectional study, atherosclerosis of the coronary and brain blood-supplying arteries was simultaneously evaluated using one-step computed tomography angiography (CTA) in AICVD patients without coronary artery disease history. The patients were divided into ACAS ≥50% and non-ACAS ≥50% groups according to whether CTA showed stenosis ≥50% in at least one coronary arterial segment. The AAP characteristics of CTA were depicted from aspects of thickness, extent, and complexity.
Results:
Among 118 analyzed patients with AICVD, 29/118 (24.6%) patients had ACAS ≥50%, while AAPs were observed in 86/118 (72.9%) patients. Increased AAP thickness per millimeter (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 1.56, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.18–2.05), severe-extent AAP (adjusted OR: 13.66, 95% CI: 2.33–80.15), and presence of complex AAP (adjusted OR: 7.27, 95% CI: 2.30–23.03) were associated with ACAS ≥50% among patients with AICVD, independently of clinical demographics and cervicocephalic atherosclerotic stenosis. The combination of AAP thickness, extent, and complexity predicted ACAS ≥50% with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.78 (95% CI: 0.70–0.85, P < 0.001). All three AAP characteristics provided additional predictive power beyond cervical and intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis for ACAS ≥50% in AICVD (all P < 0.05).
Conclusions:
Thicker, severe-extent, and complex AAP were significant markers of the concomitant ACAS ≥50% in AICVD, possibly superior to the indicative value of cervical and intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis. As an integral part of atherosclerosis of brain blood-supplying arteries, AAP should not be overlooked in predicting ACAS ≥50% for patients with AICVD.
Background:
It is currently unclear if fibrinogen is a risk factor for adverse events in patients receiving percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or merely serves as a marker of pre-existing comorbidities and other causal factors. We therefore investigated the association between fibrinogen levels and 2-year all-cause mortality, and compared the additional predictive value of adding fibrinogen to a basic model including traditional risk factors in patients receiving contemporary PCI.
Methods:
A total of 6293 patients undergoing PCI with measured baseline fibrinogen levels were enrolled from January to December 2013 in Fuwai Hospital. Patients were divided into three groups according to tertiles of baseline fibrinogen levels: low fibrinogen, <2.98 g/L; medium fibrinogen, 2.98 to 3.58 g/L; and high fibrinogen, ≥3.58 g/L. Independent predictors of 2-year clinical outcomes were determined by multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression modeling. The increased discriminative value of fibrinogen for predicting all-cause mortality was assessed using the C-statistic and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI).
Results:
The 2-year all-cause mortality rate was 1.2%. It was significantly higher in the high fibrinogen compared with the low and medium fibrinogen groups according to Kaplan-Meier analyses (1.7% vs. 0.9% and 1.7% vs. 1.0%, respectively; log-rank, P= 0.022). Fibrinogen was significantly associated with all-cause mortality according to multivariate Cox regression (hazard ratio 1.339, 95% confidence interval: 1.109–1.763, P= 0.005), together with traditional risk factors including age, sex, diabetes mellitus, left ventricular ejection fraction, creatinine clearance, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The area under the curve for all-cause mortality in the basic model including traditional risk factors was 0.776, and this value increased to 0.787 when fibrinogen was added to the model (IDI= 0.003, Z= 0.140, P= 0.889).
Conclusions:
Fibrinogen is associated with 2-year all-cause mortality in patients receiving PCI, but provides no additional information over a model including traditional risk factors.
Wen-Hui Yang, Jun Xie, Zhi-Yong Lai, Mu-Dan Yang, Ge-Hong Zhang, Yuan Li, Jian-Bing Mu, Jun Xu
中华医学杂志英文版2019年 132卷 08期
DOI: 10.1097/CM9.0000000000000156
摘要
Background:
In the era of precision medicine, chemotherapy is still considered the cornerstone of treatment for lung cancer patients without gene mutations. How to reduce the toxicity and increase the efficiency of chemotherapy is worth exploring. This study aimed to investigate the curative effects and safety of hyperthermia combined with chemotherapy (HCT) for advanced patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially those with malignant pleural effusion.
Methods:
We retrospectively evaluated medical records of 93 patients with advanced NSCLC (stage IIIB-IV) from March 2011 to January 2014. The patients were divided into HCT and chemotherapy (CT) groups. The HCT group was treated with gemcitabine and cisplatin (GP) regimen combined with regional radiofrequency deep hyperthermia, while the CT group was treated with GP regimen only. Those with malignant pleural effusion extra underwent thoracentesis and intrapleural injection chemotherapy combined with hyperthermic or not. Clinical treatment results and adverse reactions were compared and analyzed after treatment. SPSS 19.0 software (SPSS Inc., USA) was used for statistical data processing. P values less than 0.05 were accepted to be statistically significant.
Results:
Among the 93 patients, HCT group included 48 patients (16 patients with malignant pleural effusion), CT group included 45 patients (10 patients with malignant pleural effusion). There was no significant difference between the two groups in patient characteristics. The overall response rate (ORR) of pleural effusions was much better in HCT group than that in CT group (81.2% vs. 40.0%, P= 0.046). The patients in HCT group had lower incidence rate of weakness (12.5% vs. 46.7%, χ2= 13.16, P < 0.001) and gastrointestinal (25.0% vs. 77.8%, χ2 = 25.88, P < 0.001) adverse reactions than that in CT group. The objective tumor response and survival showed no significant differences.
Conclusions:
Hyperthermia combined with chemotherapy might lead to the development of better therapeutic strategy for advanced NSCLC with malignant pleural effusion patients. Also, it could greatly reduce the chemotherapy toxic effects in the incidence of weakness and gastrointestinal adverse reactions in advanced NSCLC patients.
Background:
Positive surgical margins are independent risk factor for biochemical recurrence, local recurrence, and distant metastasis after radical prostatectomy. However, limited predictive tools are available. This study aimed to develop and validate a preoperative nomogram for predicting positive surgical margins after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP).
Methods:
From January 2010 to March 2016, a total of 418 patients who underwent LRP without receiving neoadjuvant therapy at Peking University Third Hospital were retrospectively involved in this study. Clinical and pathological results of each patient were collected for further analysis. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression (backward stepwise method) were used for the nomogram development. The concordance index (CI), calibration curve analysis and decision curve analysis were used to evaluate the performance of our model.
Results:
Of 418 patients involved in this study, 142 patients (34.0%) had a positive surgical margin on final pathology. Based on the backward selection, four variables were included in the final multivariable regression model, including the percentage of positive cores in preoperative biopsy, clinical stage, free prostate specific antigen (fPSA)/total PSA (tPSA), and age. A nomogram was developed using these four variables. The concordance index (C-index) of the nomogram was 0.722 in the development cohort and 0.700 in the bootstrap validations. The bias-corrected calibration plot showed a limited departure from the ideal line with a mean absolute error of 2.0%. In decision curve analyses, the nomogram showed net benefits in the range from 0.2 to 0.7.
Conclusion:
A nomogram to predict positive surgical margins after LRP was developed and validated, which could help urologists plan surgical procedures.
Background:
There are few reports of peri-operative application of intra-aortic balloon pumping (IABP) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and different grades of left ventricular dysfunction. This study aimed to analyze the early outcomes of perioperative application of IABP in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) among patients with CAD and left ventricular dysfunction, and to provide a clinical basis for the peri-operative use of IABP.
Methods:
A retrospective analysis of 612 patients who received CABG in the General Hospital of People’s Liberation Army between May 1995 and June 2014. Patients were assigned to an IABP or non-IABP group according to their treatments. Logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the influence of peri-operative IABP implantation on in-hospital mortality. Further subgroup analysis was performed on patients with severe (ejection fraction [EF] ≤ 35%) and mild (EF = 36%–50%) left ventricular dysfunction.
Results:
Out of 612 included subjects, 78 belonged to the IABP group (12.7%) and 534 to the non-IABP group. Pre-operative left ventricular EF (LVEF) and EuroSCOREII predicted mortality was higher in the IABP group compared with the non-IABP group (P < 0.001 in both cases), yet the two did not differ significantly in terms of post-operative in-hospital mortality (P = 0.833). Regression analysis showed that IABP implantation, recent myocardial infarction, critical status, non-elective operation, and postoperative ventricular fibrillation were risk factors affecting in-hospital mortality (P < 0.01 in all cases). Peri-operative IABP implantation was a protective factor against in-hospital mortality (P = 0.0010). In both the severe and mild left ventricular dysfunction subgroups, peri-operative IABP implantation also exerted a protective role against mortality (P = 0.0303 and P = 0.0101, respectively).
Conclusions:
Peri-operative IABP implantation could reduce the in-hospital mortality and improve the surgical outcomes of patients with CAD with both severe and mild left ventricular dysfunction.
Background:
To prevent risk of life-threatening stent thrombosis, all patients need to undergo dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) for at least 6 weeks to 12 months after stent implantation. If DAPT is continued during noncardiac surgery, there is a risk of severe bleeding at the surgical site. Our study was to assess the risk of bleeding in patients with continued DAPT during orthopedic surgery.
Methods:
The clinical data of 78 patients with coronary heart disease who underwent orthopedic surgery from February 2006 to July 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Prior to orthopedic surgery, DAPT was continued in 16 patients (group I), 24 patients were treated with single antiplatelet therapy (group II), and 26 patients received low-molecular-weight heparin therapy for more than 5 days after the discontinuation of all antiplatelet therapies (group III). Twelve patients were excluded, as they had undergone minimally invasive surgery such as transforaminal endoscopy and vertebroplasty. The perioperative blood loss of each patient was calculated using Nadler’s formula and Gross’ formula. The intraoperative bleeding volume, total volume of intraoperative bleeding in addition to postoperative drainage, and total blood loss were compared between groups. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05.
Results:
There were no significant differences between the three groups in age, intraoperative bleeding volume, total volume of intraoperative bleeding in addition to postoperative drainage, and total perioperative blood loss calculated by Nadler’s formula and Gross’ formula (all P > 0.05). Six patients experienced postoperative cardiovascular complications due to the delayed restart of antiplatelet therapy; one of these patients in group III died from myocardial infarction.
Conclusions:
Continued DAPT or single antiplatelet treatment during orthopedic surgery does not increase the total intraoperative and perioperative bleeding compared with switching from antiplatelet therapy to low-molecular-weight heparin. However, the discontinuation of antiplatelet therapy increases the risk of serious cardiac complications.
Background:
Cervical cancer has the fourth highest incidence and mortality rate of all cancers in women worldwide; it seriously harms their physical and mental health. The aim of this study was to observe the roles and preliminary mechanism of Taurine (Tau)-induced apoptosis in cervical cancer cells.
Methods:
Cells from the human cervical cancer cell line SiHa were transfected with the recombinant plasmid pEGFP-N1-MST1 (mammalian sterile 20-like kinase 1); then, the cell proliferation activity was analyzed by the MTT assay, cell apoptosis by flow cytometry, and the related protein levels by Western blotting.
Results:
Tau inhibited the proliferation of SiHa cells and induced apoptosis in these cells (the apoptotic rate was 21.95% in the Tau 160 mmol/L group and 30% in the Tau 320 mmol/L group), upregulated the expression of the MST1 (control, 0.53; Tau 40-320 mmol/L groups, 0.84–1.45) and Bax (control, 0.45; Tau 40–320 mmol/L groups, 0.64–1.51) proteins (P < 0.01), and downregulated the expression of Bcl-2 (control, 1.28, Tau 40–320 mmol/L groups, 0.93–0.47) (P < 0.01). The overexpression of MST1 promoted the apoptosis of SiHa cells, enhanced the apoptosis-inductive effects of Tau (P < 0.01), upregulated the expression of the proapoptotic proteins p73, p53, PUMA (p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis), and caspase-3, and promoted the phosphorylation of YAP (Yes-associated protein).
Conclusions:
Tau inhibited the proliferation and induced the apoptosis of cervical cancer SiHa cells. The MST1 protein plays an important role in the Tau-induced apoptosis of cervical cancer cells.
Objective:
Saphenous vein grafts disease (SVGD) is a common complication after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and normally treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The most common complication after SVG-PCI is slow or no-reflow. It is known that the no-reflow phenomenon occurs in up to 15% of the SVG-PCI and is associated with high risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) and mortality, therefore, it is important to investigate the factors that could predict the clinical outcome of PCI for risk stratification and guiding interventions. In recent years, the spectral analysis of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) radiofrequency data (virtual histology-IVUS [VH-IVUS]) has been used to provide quantitative assessment on both plaque compositions and morphologic characteristics.
Data sources:
The PubMed, Embase, and Central databases were searched for possible relevant studies published from 1997 to 2018 using the following index keywords: "Coronary artery bypass grafting," "Saphenous venous graft disease," "Virtual histology-intravascular ultrasound," "Virtual histology-intravascular ultrasound," and "Percutaneous coronary intervention."
Study selection:
The primary references were Chinese and English articles including original studies and literature reviews, were identified and reviewed to summarize the advances in the application of VH-IVUS techniques in situ vascular and venous graft vascular lesions.
Results:
With different plaque components exhibiting a defined spectrum, VH-IVUS can classify atherosclerotic plaque into four types: fibrous tissue (FT), fibro fatty (FF), necrotic core (NC), and dense calcium (DC). The radiofrequency signal is mathematically transformed into a color-coded representation, including lipid, fibrous tissue, calcification, and necrotic core. Several studies have demonstrated the independent relationship between VH-IVUS–defined plaque classification or plaque composition and MACEs, but a significant association between plaque components and no-reflow after PCI in acute coronary syndrome. In recent years, VH-IVUS are applied to assess the plaque composition of SVGD, based on the similarity of pathophysiological mechanisms between coronary artery disease (CAD) and SVGD, further studies with the larger sample size, the long-term follow-up, multicenter clinical trials may be warranted to investigate the relationship between plaque composition of saphenous vein graft (SVG) by VH-IVUS and clinical outcomes in patients with SVGD undergoing PCI.
Conclusions:
In degenerative SVG lesions, VH-IVUS found that plaque composition was associated with clinical features, future studies need to explore the relationship between VH-IVUS defined atherosclerotic plaque components and clinical outcomes in SVGD patients undergoing PCI, an innovative prediction tool of clinical outcomes can be created.
Objective:
The endothelial glycocalyx (eGC) is a dynamic and multicomponent layer of macromolecules found at the surface of vascular endothelium, which is largely underappreciated. It has recently been recognized that eGC is a major regulator of endothelial function and may have therapeutic value in organ injuries. This study aimed to explore the role of the eGC in various pathologic and physiologic conditions, by reviewing the basic research findings pertaining to the detection of the eGC and its clinical significance. We also explored different pharmacologic agents used to protect and rebuild the eGC.
Data sources:
An in-depth search was performed in the PubMed database, focusing on research published after 2003 with keywords including eGC, permeability, glycocalyx and injuries, and glycocalyx protection.
Study selection:
Several authoritative reviews and original studies were identified and reviewed to summarize the characteristics of the eGC under physiologic and pathologic conditions as well as the detection and protection of the eGC.
Results:
The eGC degradation is closely associated with pathophysiologic changes such as vascular permeability, edema formation, mechanotransduction, and clotting cascade, together with neutrophil and platelet adhesion in diverse injury and disease states including inflammation (sepsis and trauma), ischemia-reperfusion injury, shock, hypervolemia, hypertension, hyperglycemia, and high Na+ as well as diabetes and atherosclerosis. Therapeutic strategies for protecting and rebuilding the eGC should be explored through experimental test and clinical verifications.
Conclusions:
Disturbance of the eGC usually occurs at early stages of various clinical pathophysiologies which can be partly prevented and reversed by protecting and restoring the eGC. The eGC seems to be a promising diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target in clinical settings.