Prediction of stroke risk in patients with transient ischemic attack: ABCD score and its derived scores

Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) is a high-risk signal of acute ischemic cerebrovascular disease, indicates a significant increase in the risk of ischemic stroke, especially within 7 days. Risk assessment and stratification are important in patient with TIA. A variety of simple prediction scales were developed based on the risk factors for stroke in patients with TIA, such as the California scale, ABCD scale, and ABCD2 scale. Among them, the ABCD scale score is used most commonly, but as its application becomes more and more common, the defects of this scale are also increasingly apparent. In recent years, some derived scales of ABCD score were introduced in order to improve the sensitivity and specificity of prediction. This article reviews the evolution, contents, characteristics, and predictive value of the ABCD score and its derived scales in the prediction of the stroke risk in patients with TIA

Exploring the Mechanism Whereby Sinensetin Delays the Progression of Pulmonary Fibrosis Based on Network Pharmacology and Pulmonary Fibrosis Models

The incidence of pulmonary fibrosis (PF), a progressively fatal disease, has increased in recent years. However, there are no effective medicines available. Previous results have shown that sinensetin probably has some curative effects on PF. Therefore, this paper aims to predict the targets of sinensetin using a network pharmacology method and to confirm its effects and functional targets in PF using a mouse PF model. First, network pharmacology analysis showed that sinensetin has 105 functional targets, and 1,698 gene targets closely relate to PF. The intersection of the functional targets and gene targets produced 52 targets for the treatment of PF with sinensetin. The PPIs (protein–protein interactions) led to several potential key target genes, including MAPK1, EGFR, SRC, and PTGS2. The results of GO and KEGG analyses suggested the crucial function of apoptosis in PF and its involvement in the PI3K signaling pathway. Subsequently, we tested the molecular docking of sinensetin with the PI3K protein using the AutoDock4 software. The results showed that sinensetin could fit well into several binding sites of the PI3K protein. Furthermore, we constructed a PF mouse model through one-off intratracheal instillation of bleomycin and then intragastrically administered different concentrations of sinensetin to the model mice. Twenty-eight days later, the mice were sacrificed, and the lung tissues, serum, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were collected. The in vivo tests showed that the body weight of model mice increased slightly compared with that of PF mice after intragastric sinensetin. HE and Masson staining suggested a certain extent of reduction in the pathology of lung tissues. The expression of collagens I and III, as well as hydroxyproline in the lung tissues, was reduced to a certain extent. IL-6 levels in the serum and BALF decreased markedly. The expression of vimentin and α-SMA in pulmonary tissues decreased. Cell apoptosis, as well as P-PI3K and P-AKT levels, in lung tissues also reduced. In summary, network pharmacology and in vivo test results suggest sinensetin causes an effective delay in the progression of pulmonary fibrosis, and the functional mechanism is likely related to PI3K-AKT signaling

Percutaneous closure of postinfarct muscular ventricular septal defects: A multicenter study in China

AbstractBackgroundSurgical repair is an effective method to treat ventricular septal defect (VSD) complicating acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, the mortality rate remains high. This study was designed to assess the immediate and mid-term results of transcatheter closure of postinfarct muscular VSDs.MethodsData were retrospectively collected from 42 AMI patients who underwent attempted transcatheter VSD closure between 2008 and 2012 in seven heart centers of China.ResultsNine patients underwent emergent VSD closure in the acute phase (within two weeks from VSD) while the others underwent elective closure. The time between VSD occurrence and closure in emergency group and elective group was 7.7±2.3 days and 35±14.5 days, respectively (p<0.01). The percentage of procedure success in the emergency group and elective group was 77.8% (7/9) and 97% (32/33), respectively (p=0.048). The hospital mortality was higher for emergent closure in comparison to elective closure (66.7% vs. 6.1%, p<0.01). During a median follow-up of 25 months (0–58 months), two patients died at 8 and 29 months, respectively, and no serious complications occurred in other patients.ConclusionInterventional postinfarct VSD closure is a safe and effective approach that can be performed with a high procedural success rate, with favorable outcomes if it can be undertaken >14 days postinfarct

2-(2,2-Dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-1-benzofuran-7-yl­oxy)-N-(o-tol­yl)acetamide

In the title compound, C19H21NO3, the dihedral angle between the mean planes of the two benzene rings is 38.13 (12)°. The furan ring adopts an envelope-like conformation with the C atom bonded to the dimethyl groups displaced by 0.356 (2) Å from the plane through the other four atoms. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked into inversion dimers by weak C—H⋯O inter­molecular inter­actions

catena-Poly[[[diaqua­iron(II)]-μ-pyridine-2,5-dicarboxyl­ato-[tetra­aqua­iron(II)]-μ-pyridine-2,5-dicarboxyl­ato] tetra­hydrate]

In the crystal structure of the title compound, {[Fe2(C7H3NO4)2(H2O)6]·4H2O}n, there are two types of coordination for the FeII atoms. One FeII atom is in a distorted octa­hedral N2O4 environment, with two chelating rings from the pyridine­dicarboxyl­ate ligands and two O atoms from the water mol­ecules, while the other is in a distorted octa­hedral O6 environment with two O atoms from the pyridine­dicarboxyl­ate ligands and four O atoms from the water mol­ecules. Both FeII atoms lie on crystallographic centers of symmetry. The complex possesses an infinite chain structure running along the [101] direction. These chains are inter­connected by the uncoordinated water mol­ecules through O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Quality Characteristics and Fungal Diversity during Natural and Inoculated Fermentation of “Hutai 8” Wine

In order to increase the added value of table grape products and consequently improve the income of fruit farmers, this experiment systematically studied the relationship between fungal diversity and “Hutai 8 ” wine quality during the winemaking process. Fungal diversity changes during natural and inoculated wine fermentation were studied by high-throughput sequencing, and changes in flavor characteristics were evaluated as well. The results showed that compared with inoculated fermentation, naturally fermented wine had lower alcohol content and higher acetic acid content. Moreover, the contents of volatile alcohols and esters were higher than those of the wine produced by inoculated fermentation, and the content of fatty acids was lower. At the early stage of natural fermentation, Hanseniaspora was dominant in the microbial community of naturally fermented wine, a large number of Saccharomyces appeared at the middle stage, and there were still a large number of Hanseniaspora at the late stage. S. cerevisiae remained dominant during inoculated fermentation. Ethyl acetate and some alcohols, such as benzyl alcohol, benzyl alcohol, hexanol, cis-3-nonene-1-ol, were correlated with the genera Alternaria, Acremonium and Cladosporium. In addition, there could be a risk of naturally fermented “Hutai 8” wine deteriorating and producing a large amount of ethyl acetate, which can adversely affect the aroma. Therefore, inoculated fermentation is recommended to produce “Hutai 8” wine

Expression pattern and activity of six glutelin gene promoters in transgenic rice*

The shortage of strong endosperm-specific expression promoters for driving the expression of recombinant protein genes in cereal endosperm is a major limitation in obtaining the required level and pattern of expression. Six promoters of seed storage glutelin genes (GluA-1, GluA-2, GluA-3, GluB-3, GluB-5, and GluC) were isolated from rice (Oryza sativa L.) genomic DNA by PCR. Their spatial and temporal expression patterns and expression potential in stable transgenic rice plants were examined with β-glucuronidase (GUS) used as a reporter gene. All the promoters showed the expected spatial expression within the endosperm. The GluA-1, GluA-2, and GluA-3 promoters directed GUS expression mainly in the outer portion (peripheral region) of the endosperm. The GluB-5 and GluC promoters directed GUS expression in the whole endosperm, with the latter expressed almost evenly throughout the whole endosperm, a feature different from that of other rice glutelin gene promoters. The GluB-3 promoter directed GUS expression solely in aleurone and subaleurone layers. Promoter activities examined during seed maturation showed that the GluC promoter had much higher activity than the other promoters. These promoters are ideal candidates for achieving gene expression for multiple purposes in monocot endosperm but avoid promoter homology-based gene silencing. The GluC promoter did not contain the endosperm specificity-determining motifs GCN4, AACA, and the prolamin-box, which suggests the existence of additional regulatory mechanism in determining endosperm specificity

Automatic and Rapid Discrimination of Cotton Genotypes by Near Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics

This paper reports the application of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and pattern recognition methods to rapid and automatic discrimination of the genotypes (parent, transgenic, and parent-transgenic hybrid) of cotton plants. Diffuse reflectance NIR spectra of representative cotton seeds (n = 120) and leaves (n = 123) were measured in the range of 4000–12000 cm−1. A practical problem when developing classification models is the degradation and even breakdown of models caused by outliers. Considering the high-dimensional nature and uncertainty of potential spectral outliers, robust principal component analysis (rPCA) was applied to each separate sample group to detect and exclude outliers. The influence of different data preprocessing methods on model prediction performance was also investigated. The results demonstrate that rPCA can effectively detect outliers and maintain the efficiency of discriminant analysis. Moreover, the classification accuracy can be significantly improved by second-order derivative and standard normal variate (SNV). The best partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) models obtained total classification accuracy of 100% and 97.6% for seeds and leaves, respectively