The influence of embryo stage on obstetric complications and perinatal outcomes following programmed compared to natural frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of embryo stage at the time of transfer on obstetric and perinatal outcomes in programmed frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) versus natural FET cycles.DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.SettingNot applicable.Patient(s)Women with programmed frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) and natural FET.Intervention(s)The PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CCRT) were searched from 1983 to October 2022. Twenty-three observational studies were included.Primary outcome measureThe primary outcomes were hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDPs), gestational hypertension and preeclampsia (PE). The secondary outcomes were gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), placenta previa, postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), placental abruption, preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), large for gestational age (LGA), small for gestational age (SGA), macrosomia, and preterm delivery (PTD).Result(s)The risk of HDP (14 studies, odds ratio (OR) 2.17; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.95-2.41; P<0.00001; I2 = 43%), gestational hypertension (11 studies, OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.15-1.66; P=0.0006; I2 = 19%), PE (12 studies, OR 2.09; 95% CI 1.88-2.32; P<0.00001; I2 = 0%), GDM (20 studies, OR 1.09; 95% CI 1.02-1.17; P=0.02; I2 = 8%), LGA (18 studies, OR 1.11; 95% CI 1.07-1.15; P<0.00001; I2 = 46%), macrosomia (12 studies, OR 1.15; 95% CI 1.07-1.24; P=0.0002; I2 = 31%), PTD (22 studies, OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.15-1.27; P<0.00001; I2 = 49%), placenta previa (17 studies, OR 1.2; 95% CI 1.02-1.41; P=0.03; I2 = 11%), PPROM (9 studies, OR 1.19; 95% CI 1.02-1.39; P=0.02; I2 = 40%), and PPH (12 studies, OR 2.27; 95% CI 2.02-2.55; P <0.00001; I2 = 55%) were increased in programmed FET cycles versus natural FET cycles with overall embryo transfer. Blastocyst transfer had a higher risk of HDP (6 studies, OR 2.48; 95% CI 2.12-2.91; P<0.00001; I2 = 39%), gestational hypertension (5 studies, OR 1.87; 95% CI 1.27-2.75; P=0.002; I2 = 25%), PE (6 studies, OR 2.23; 95% CI 1.93-2.56; P<0.00001; I2 = 0%), GDM (10 studies, OR 1.13; 95% CI 1.04-1.23; P=0.005; I2 = 39%), LGA (6 studies, OR 1.14; 95% CI 1.07-1.21; P<0.0001; I2 = 9%), macrosomia (4 studies, OR 1.15; 95% CI 1.05-1.26; P<0.002; I2 = 68%), PTD (9 studies, OR 1.43; 95% CI 1.31-1.57; P<0.00001; I2 = 22%), PPH (6 studies, OR 1.92; 95% CI 1.46-2.51; P<0.00001; I2 = 55%), and PPROM (4 studies, OR 1.45; 95% CI 1.14-1.83; P=0.002; I2 = 46%) in programmed FET cycles than in natural FET cycles. Cleavage-stage embryo transfers revealed no difference in HDPs (1 study, OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.32-2.02; P=0.65; I2 not applicable), gestational hypertension (2 studies, OR 0.85; 95% CI 0.48-1.51; P=0.59; I2 = 0%), PE (1 study, OR 1.19; 95% CI 0.58-2.42; P=0.64; I2not applicable), GDM (3 study, OR 0.79; 95% CI 0.52-1.20; P=0.27; I2 = 21%), LGA (1 study, OR 1.15; 95% CI 0.62-2.11; P=0.66; I2not applicable), macrosomia (1 study, OR 1.22; 95% CI 0.54-2.77; P=0.64; I2 not applicable), PTD (2 studies, OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.74-1.49; P=0.79; I2 = 0%), PPH (1 study, OR 1.49; 95% CI 0.85-2.62; P=0.17; I2not applicable), or PPROM (2 studies, OR 0.74; 95% CI 0.46-1.21; P=0.23; I2 = 0%) between programmed FET cycles and natural FET cycles.Conclusion(s)The risks of HDPs, gestational hypertension, PE, GDM, LGA, macrosomia, SGA, PTD, placenta previa, PPROM, and PPH were increased in programmed FET cycles versus natural FET cycles with overall embryo transfer and blastocyst transfer, but the risks were not clear for cleavage-stage embryo transfer

Successful pancreatoduodenectomy of de novo duodenal malignancy after orthotopic liver transplantation: A case report

IntroductionLiver transplantation is a risk factor for premalignant and malignant changes of the duodenum. De novo duodenal malignancy is seldom reported after liver transplantation.Case ReportThe present study reports a case of an asymptomatic 67-year-old male patient who underwent liver transplantation more than 10 years ago and subsequently developed duodenal malignancy. Endoscopic biopsy of the de novo duodenal malignancy indicated duodenal carcinoma and pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) was performed. The patient was successfully discharged 12 days after the surgery. A metastatic lesion occurred at the right seventh rib 14 months after the pancreatoduodenectomy. Postoperative pathological examination indicated hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis.ConclusionsTo the best of our knowledge, this case type has not been previously reported. The present study sheds light on the development, the treatment, the prognosis, and the management of a new type of de novo duodenal malignancy

A genetic study of the NOS3 gene for ischemic stroke in a Chinese population

We recruited 560 unrelated patients with ischemic stroke and 153 unrelated controls to undertake a genetic analysis for association between the NOS3 gene and ischemic stroke. All the subjects were Chinese of Han descent. Because the NOS3 gene spans about 21 kb of DNA and contains 26 exons, we selected a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs3918181, an A to G base change located in intron 14 of the gene, as a DNA marker. PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was applied to genotype rs3918181 (RsaI site). The chi-square (χ2) goodness-of-fit test showed that the genotypic distributions of the marker were not deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in both the patient group (χ2 = 0.166, p = 0.684) and the control group (χ2 = 0.421, p = 0.517). The cocaphase analysis showed allelic association of rs3918181 with ischemic stroke in males (χ2 = 4.04, p = 0.044, OR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.01∼2.02) and frequency of allele A was significantly higher in male patients than male control subjects. The χ2 test revealed genotypic association between rs3918181 and ischemic stroke in males (χ2 = 4.26, df = 1, p = 0.039, OR = 1.61, 95% CI 1.02∼2.53) but not in females. The present work suggests that rs3918181 is associated with ischemic stroke in male patients. This finding gives further evidence in support of the eNOS association with ischemic stroke in the Chinese population

All‐In‐One OsciDrop Digital PCR System for Automated and Highly Multiplexed Molecular Diagnostics

Digital PCR (dPCR) holds immense potential for precisely detecting nucleic acid markers essential for personalized medicine. However, its broader application is hindered by high consumable costs, complex procedures, and restricted multiplexing capabilities. To address these challenges, an all‐in‐one dPCR system is introduced that eliminates the need for microfabricated chips, offering fully automated operations and enhanced multiplexing capabilities. Using this innovative oscillation‐induced droplet generation technique, OsciDrop, this system supports a comprehensive dPCR workflow, including precise liquid handling, pipette‐based droplet printing, in situ thermocycling, multicolor fluorescence imaging, and machine learning‐driven analysis. The system's reliability is demonstrated by quantifying reference materials and evaluating HER2 copy number variation in breast cancer. Its multiplexing capability is showcased with a quadruplex dPCR assay that detects key EGFR mutations, including 19Del, L858R, and T790M in lung cancer. Moreover, the digital stepwise melting analysis (dSMA) technique is introduced, enabling high‐multiplex profiling of seven major EGFR variants spanning 35 subtypes. This innovative dPCR system presents a cost‐effective and versatile alternative, overcoming existing limitations and paving the way for transformative advances in precision diagnostics

A comparative analysis on the factors promoting China's economic growth based on demand

AbstractBy applying co-integration test and variance decomposition to the quarterly data from Q1 2000 to Q3 2010, this paper conducts an empirical study on the demand factors that promote the economic growth of China. The conclusions are as follows: consumption, investment and net exports all have influence on China's actual output, among which, consumption makes a greater contribution to the economic growth than investment and net exports. In addition, by studying the time-varying effectiveness, we also notice that consumption has the most effectiveness on stimulating economic growth, while investment is the less and net exports is the least. Based on the above two theories, we put forward some suggestions how to promote China's economic growth continually

Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Pedestrian Detection with Multi-Levels Features Fusion

Pedestrian detection aims to localize and recognize every pedestrian instance in an image with a bounding box. The current state-of-the-art method is Faster RCNN, which is such a network that uses a region proposal network (RPN) to generate high quality region proposals, while Fast RCNN is used to classifiers extract features into corresponding categories. The contribution of this paper is integrated low-level features and high-level features into a Faster RCNN-based pedestrian detection framework, which efficiently increase the capacity of the feature. Through our experiments, we comprehensively evaluate our framework, on the Caltech pedestrian detection benchmark and our methods achieve state-of-the-art accuracy and present a competitive result on Caltech dataset

Molecular Evolution and Expression Divergence of HMT Gene Family in Plants

Homocysteine methyltransferase (HMT) converts homocysteine to methionine using S-methylmethionine (SMM) or S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) as methyl donors in organisms, playing an important role in supplying methionine for the growth and the development of plants. To better understand the functions of the HMT genes in plants, we conducted a wide evolution and expression analysis of these genes. Reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationship showed that the HMT gene family was divided into Class 1 and Class 2. In Class 1, HMTs were only found in seed plants, while Class 2 presented in all land plants, which hinted that the HMT genes might have diverged in seed plants. The analysis of gene structures and selection pressures showed that they were relatively conserved during evolution. However, type I functional divergence had been detected in the HMTs. Furthermore, the expression profiles of HMTs showed their distinct expression patterns in different tissues, in which some HMTs were widely expressed in various organs, whereas the others were highly expressed in some specific organs, such as seeds or leaves. Therefore, according to our results in the evolution, functional divergence, and expression, the HMT genes might have diverged during evolution. Further analysis in the expression patterns of AthHMTs with their methyl donors suggested that the diverged HMTs might be related to supply methionine for the development of plant seeds

Somatic mutation of DNAH genes implicated higher chemotherapy response rate in gastric adenocarcinoma patients

Abstract Background The dynein axonemal heavy chain (DNAH) family of genes encode the dynein axonemal heavy chain, which is involved in cell motility. Genomic variations of DNAH family members have been frequently reported in diverse kinds of malignant tumors. In this study, we analyzed the genomic database to evaluate the mutation status of DNAH genes in gastric adenocarcinoma and further identified the significance of mutant DNAH genes as effective molecular biomarkers for predicting chemotherapy response in gastric cancer patients. Methods We analyzed the clinical and genomic data of gastric cancer patients published in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. Data on chemotherapy response, overall survival (OS) and chemotherapy-free survival were retrieved. Then, we verified the results via targeted sequencing of gastric cancer patients with similar clinical characteristics but different chemotherapeutic outcomes. Results In total, 132 gastric adenocarcinoma patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment from TCGA were included in our study. Somatic mutations in all 13 members of the DNAH family of genes were associated with different chemotherapy responses. Compared with patients with wild-type DNAH genes (n = 59), a significantly higher proportion of those with mutations in DNAH genes (n = 73) (55.9% vs 80.8%) responded to chemotherapy (P = 0.002). Moreover, DNAH mutations were correlated with significantly better OS (P = 0.027), chemotherapy-free survival (P = 0.027), fluoropyrimidine-free survival (P = 0.048) and platinum-free survival (P = 0.014). DNAH mutation status was an independent risk factor for OS (P = 0.015), chemotherapy-free survival (P = 0.015) and platinum-free survival (P = 0.011). We identified somatic mutations in 27 (42.2%) of the 64 stage III gastric adenocarcinoma patients receiving fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy by targeted exon sequencing with strict screening conditions. In our own cohort, a significantly higher proportion of patients (n = 32) with DNAH mutations than patients with wild-type DNAH genes (n = 32) had a good prognosis (OS > 48 months) (70.4% vs 35.1%) (P = 0.005). Conclusions Dynein axonemal heavy chain gene mutations contribute positively to chemotherapy sensitivity in gastric cancer patients