Association of N-acetylcysteine use with contrast-induced nephropathy: an umbrella review of meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials

BackgroundThe effectiveness of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in treating contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) has been the subject of conflicting meta-analyses, but the strength of the evidence for these correlations between NAC use and CIN has not been measured overall.ObjectiveTo evaluate the data from randomized clinical studies (RCTs) that examined the relationships between NAC use and CIN in meta-analyses.MethodsBetween the creation of the database and April 2023, searches were made in PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and Web of Science. N-acetylcysteine, contrast-induced nephropathy, or contrast-induced renal disease were among the search keywords used, along with terms including systematic review and meta-analysis. The Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews, version 2, which assigned grades of extremely low, low, moderate, or high quality to each meta-analysis’s scientific quality, was used to evaluate each meta-analysis. The confidence of the evidence in meta-analyses of RCTs was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluations method, with evidence being rated as very low, low, moderate, or high.ResultsIn total, 493 records were screened; of those, 46 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility, and 12 articles were selected for evidence synthesis as a result of the screening process. Based on the pooled data, which was graded as moderate-quality evidence, it can be concluded that NAC can decrease CIN (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.65–0.79, p < 0.00001) and blood levels of serum creatinine (MD −0.09, 95% CI −0.17 to −0.01, p = 0.03). In spite of this, there were no associations between NAC and dialysis requirement or mortality in these studies.ConclusionThe results of this umbrella review supported that the renal results were enhanced by NAC. The association was supported by moderate-quality evidence.Systematic review registration[https://clinicaltrials.gov/], identifier [CRD42022367811]

Testing Two Student Nurse Stress Instruments in Chinese Nursing Students:A Comparative Study Using Exploratory Factor Analysis

Background. The development and transformation of nursing within professional tertiary education have exerted a great pressure and challenge upon nursing students. Stress experienced by nursing students is a common precursor of psychological distress and attrition. However, no scale is specifically used to evaluate the sources of stress experienced by nursing students in Mainland China. Aims and Objective. This study is aimed at testing and comparing the reliability and validity including sensitivity and specificity of two nursing students’ stress instruments, the Chinese version of Student Nurse Stress Index Scale (SNSI-CHI), and the Stressors in Student Nursing Scale (SINS-CN) in Chinese nursing students, and describing the stress status of nursing students in China. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two nursing schools in Henan Province from August 2017 to January 2018. Data were collected by using a questionnaire comprising the Chinese version of SNSI (SNSI-CHI), the Chinese version of SINS (SINS-CN), and the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS). Homogeneity and stability, content, construct and concurrent validity, and sensitivity and specificity were assessed. Results. The Cronbach’s alpha (α) of SNSI-CHI was 0.90, and the item-to-total correlations ranged from 0.35 to 0.66. The Cronbach’s α of SINS-CN was 0.93, and the item-to-total correlations ranged from 0.19 to 0.61. The findings of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) confirmed a good construct validity of SNSI-CHI and SINS-CN. The Pearson’s rank correlation coefficients, between total scores of SNSI-CHI and CPSS and SINS-CN and CPSS, were assessed to 0.38 (P<0.01) and 0.39 (P<0.01), respectively. Regarding the CPSS, as the criterion, the cut-points of SNSI-CHI and SINS-CN for the area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve were 0.77and 0.66, respectively. Conclusion. Both scales are valid and reliable for evaluating the source of stress of student nurses in China. Each has its own characteristics, but the SNSI-CHI demonstrated marginal advantage over the SINS-CN. The SNSI-CHI is short, is easily understood, and with clear dimension for the nursing students, and the SNSI-CHI is more acceptable for the users in China

Efficacy of adjunctive azithromycin versus single-dose cephalosporin prophylaxis for caesarean scar defect : Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Pediatric myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease in southern China: analysis of 93 cases

ObjectiveTo study the clinical features of children diagnosed with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD) in southern China.MethodsClinical data of children diagnosed with MOGAD from April 2014 to September 2021 were analyzed.ResultsA total of 93 children (M/F=45/48; median onset age=6.0 y) with MOGAD were involved. Seizures or limb paralysis was the most common onset or course symptom, respectively. The most common lesion locations in brain MRI, orbital MRI, and spinal cord MRI were basal ganglia and subcortical white matter, the orbital segment of the optic nerve, and the cervical segment, respectively. ADEM (58.10%) was the most common clinical phenotype. The relapse rate was 24.7%. Compared with the patients without relapse, relapsed patients had a longer interval from onset to diagnosis (median: 19 days VS 20 days) and higher MOG antibody titer at onset (median: 1:32 VS 1:100) with longer positively persistent (median: 3 months VS 24 months). All patients received IVMP plus IVIG at the acute phase, and 96.8% of patients achieved remission after one to three courses of treatment. MMF, monthly IVIG, and maintaining a low dose of oral prednisone were used alone or in combination as maintenance immunotherapy for relapsed patients and effectively reduced relapse. It transpired 41.9% of patients had neurological sequelae, with movement disorder being the most common. Compared with patients without sequelae, patients with sequelae had higher MOG antibody titer at onset (median: 1:32 VS 1:100) with longer persistence (median: 3 months VS 6 months) and higher disease relapse rate (14.8% VS 38.5%).ConclusionsResults showed the following about pediatric MOGAD in southern China: the median onset age was 6.0 years, with no obvious sex distribution difference; seizure or limb paralysis, respectively, are the most common onset or course symptom; the lesions of basal ganglia, subcortical white matter, the orbital segment of the optic nerve, and cervical segment were commonly involved in the CNS MRI; ADEM was the most common clinical phenotype; most had a good response to immunotherapy; although the relapse rate was relatively high, MMF, monthly IVIG and a low dose of oral prednisone might effectively reduce relapse; neurological sequelae were common, and possibly associated with MOG antibody status and disease relapse

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Influences of Climatic Factors and Human Activities on Forest–Shrub–Grass Suitability in the Yellow River Basin, China

Natural and human factors co-drive changes in vegetation type and distribution. In this study, we constructed an index system covering 17 natural and human activity indicators in six dimensions by using climate data, county-level human activity data, and forest–shrub–grass suitability data from 448 sample counties in the Yellow River Basin of China in 2018. On this basis, we evaluated the influence of human activities and climatic factors on vegetation suitability using multiple regression and relative importance analysis methods. The multiple regression results demonstrate that climatic factors had positive effects on vegetation suitability in the Yellow River Basin, while the influence of human activities on vegetation suitability varied according to the situation. Specifically, economic factors such as per capita disposable income of urban residents and per capita disposable income of rural residents; urbanization factors such as population density, urbanization rate, and construction land area proportion; social development factors such as road density; and agricultural production factors such as the cultivated acreage proportion and the value added of the primary industries proportion all influence vegetation suitability. There is a great regional heterogeneity in the effects of human activities such as economic factors and urbanization factors on vegetation suitability. The relative importance analysis results show that the relative importance of the factors influencing vegetation suitability in the Yellow River Basin was as follows, in order of importance: climatic factors > agricultural production factors > urbanization factors > ecological projects > social development factors > economy factors; however, except for climatic factors, the importance of other influencing factors varied from region to region. This study provides a theoretical basis for optimizing vegetation adjustment schemes and forest and grass ecosystem layout according to regional characteristics