Diagnotic Value of the Combined Determination of Telomerase Activity in Induced Sputum, Pleural Effusion and Fiberobronchoscopic Biopsy Samples in Lung Cancer

Background and objective It has been proven that telomerase activation correlates with the carcinogenesis, aggressiveness and turnover of lung cancer. Telomerase is one of the improtant molecular biomarkers for diagnosis and targeting therapy in lung cancer. The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic value of the combined determination of telomerase activity in induced sputum, pleural effusion and fiberobronchoscopic biopsy in lung cancer patients. Methods The technique of TRAP (telomeric repeat amplification protocal)-PCR-ELISA was employed to detect telomease levels of induced sputum, pleural effusion and fiberobronchoscopic biopsy in 80 lung cancer patients with pleural effusion and 50 benign pulmonary disease patients with pleural effusion. Results Telomemse levels of induced sputum, pleural effusion and fiberobronchoscopic biopsy were all significantly higher in patients with lung cancer than those with benign pulmonary disease (P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the level of telomerase activity between different pathologic types (P>0.05). The sensitivity of induced sputum, pleural effusion and fiberobronchoscopic biopsy were 62.5% (50/80), 46.3% (37/80) and 60.0% (48/80), respectively. The specificity were 72.0% (36/50), 66.0% (33/50) and 70.0% (35/50), respectively. The overall accuracy were 66.2% (86/130), 53.8% (70/130) and 63.8% (83/130), respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and overall accuracy of combined induced sputum, pleural effusion and fiberobronchoscopic biopsy were 85.0% (68/80), 78.0% (39/50) and 82.3% (107/130), respectively. The sensitivity of telomease level in combined detection for diagnosis of lung cancer was much higher than that in single sample detection (P < 0.01). Conclusion The sensitivity of telomease activity in combined three samples was the highest. It can further improve the accuracy for the diagnosis of lung cancer with pleural effusion

Water Conservation Service Assessment and Its Spatiotemporal Features in National Key Ecological Function Zones

In order to improve ecosystem service and protect nation ecology security, the government had designated lots of important ecosystem service protection areas, named national key ecological function zones (NKEFZ) in China. Water conservation service had been assessed with the help of multisource remote sensing data, and spatiotemporal features were analyzed from 2000 to 2014 in these ecological services zones. By assuming precipitation scenario as the constant, contribution for water conservation from human activities and climate change was analyzed, and result shows that, because of vegetation restoration by human activities, evapotranspiration increased obviously with the increase of the vegetation coverage. This could reduce the water conservation. However, actual annual increase of water conservation mainly comes from the increase of precipitation. Our analysis revealed that the choice of evaluation model played a decisive role in the reason analysis, which would affect the development of ecological policy

Elevated Monocyte to High-density Lipoprotein Ratio Is a Risk Factor for New-onset Atrial Fibrillation after Off-pump Coronary Revascularization

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common complication of coronary revascularization. Currently, the mechanisms of postoperative AF are unclear. This study was aimed at investigating the risk factors for new-onset AF (NOAF) after coronary revascularization and exploring the early warning effects of clinical inflammatory markers. A retrospective analysis was conducted on 293 patients with unstable angina pectoris who underwent coronary artery revascularization in Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, between April 2018 and June 2021, including 224 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting and 69 patients who underwent one-step hybrid coronary revascularization. Baseline data, clinical data, blood indicators and AF episodes within 7 days after the surgery were collected. Participants were divided into two groups according to whether AF occurred, and the data were analyzed between groups. In addition, multivariate logistic regression was used to explore the independent risk factors for developing AF post coronary revascularization. Aging, a larger left atrial inferior-superior diameter, use of an intra-aortic balloon pump, a greater blood volume transfused during perioperative period and a higher monocyte to high-density lipoprotein ratios on postoperative day 1 were independent risk factors for NOAF after coronary artery surgery

Thyroid function and associated mood changes after COVID-19 vaccines in patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis

ContextSevere acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) vaccines may incur changes in thyroid functions followed by mood changes, and patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) were suggested to bear a higher risk.ObjectivesWe primarily aim to find whether COVID-19 vaccination could induce potential subsequent thyroid function and mood changes. The secondary aim was to find inflammatory biomarkers associated with risk.MethodsThe retrospective, multi-center study recruited patients with HT receiving COVID-19–inactivated vaccines. C-reactive proteins (CRPs), thyroid-stimulating hormones (TSHs), and mood changes were studied before and after vaccination during a follow-up of a 6-month period. Independent association was investigated between incidence of mood state, thyroid functions, and inflammatory markers. Propensity score–matched comparisons between the vaccine and control groups were carried out to investigate the difference.ResultsFinal analysis included 2,765 patients with HT in the vaccine group and 1,288 patients in the control group. In the matched analysis, TSH increase and mood change incidence were both significantly higher in the vaccine group (11.9% versus 6.1% for TSH increase and 12.7% versus 8.4% for mood change incidence). An increase in CRP was associated with mood change (p&lt; 0.01 by the Kaplan–Meier method) and severity (r = 0.75) after vaccination. Baseline CRP, TSH, and antibodies of thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) were found to predict incidence of mood changes.ConclusionCOVID-19 vaccination seemed to induce increased levels and incidence of TSH surge followed by mood changes in patients with HT. Higher levels of pre-vaccine serum TSH, CRP, and anti-TPO values were associated with higher incidence in the early post-vaccine phase

Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Glycyrrhetinic Acid and Tea Polyphenols on Depuration of 2-methylisoborneol from Blunt Snout Bream, Megalobrama amblycephala

Abstract_Off-flavor is a serious issue in cultured fish. It affects marketability and texture of fish and causes great economic losses in the aquaculture industry. Holding fish in a clean-water environment for some time is an effective method to depurate them although it involves weight loss. This study investigates the potential effects of dietary supplementation of glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) and tea polyphenols (TP) on the depuration of the strong odors of 2- methylisoborneol (MIB) from blunt snout bream, Megalobrama amblycephala. 560 fish, initial average weight of 48.75±0.48 g were distributed into 28 tanks at a rate of 20 fish per tank. Three diets, namely the control diet, a GA supplemented diet (0.3 g/kg), and a (TP) supplemented diet (0.3 g/kg) were used in this study. The control diet was randomly assigned to 20 tanks, 4 tanks with clean water (control), or with water containing 1μg/L MIB. During the first 28-day the fish in each treatment were hand-fed to apparent satiation three times daily. In the second phase (29-42 day), the control, GA, and TP treatments were divided into four groups: MIB, low density (LD), high density (HD), and dynamic sampling (DS) with twenty fish in DS, and fifteen fish in the others. Fish in LD, HD, and DS in all treatments were starved in clean water. Fish in the DS treatment were sampled at 0, 24, 48, 72 hours, at 7 and 14 days. No differences were observed in body weights between groups within the 28-day feeding trial (P>0.05). Fish in GA, LD, and HD groups had significantly lower hepatosomatic index (HSI) and intraperitoneal fat ratios (IPF) than the control, MIB, and TP groups (P<0.05). After 28 and 42 days, fish in the MIB group had higher MIB concentrations than the other groups (P<0.05). Scores of sensory characteristics were similar, with no statistical differences between the control, GA, and TP groups (P>0.05). MIB content decreased significantly in relation to longer depuration times (P<0.05). Fish weight in LD and HD treatments declined by 10% and 12% respectively after 14-day fasting. In conclusion, clean water depuration for fourteen days is an effective method to purge off-flavored flesh although it involves weight loss and dietary supplementation of GA and TP which also depurate MIB from flesh of Megalobrama amblycephala

Inversion Study of Vertical Eddy Viscosity Coefficient Based on an Internal Tidal Model with the Adjoint Method

Based on an isopycnic-coordinate internal tidal model with the adjoint method, the inversion of spatially varying vertical eddy viscosity coefficient (VEVC) is studied in two groups of numerical experiments. In Group One, the influences of independent point schemes (IPSs) exerting on parameter inversion are discussed. Results demonstrate that the VEVCs can be inverted successfully with IPSs and the model has the best performance with the optimal IPSs. Using the optimal IPSs obtained in Group One, the inversions of VEVCs on two different Gaussian bottom topographies are carried out in Group Two. In addition, performances of two optimization methods of which one is the limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (L-BFGS) method and the other is a simplified gradient descent method (GDM-S) are also investigated. Results of the experiments indicate that this adjoint model is capable to invert the VEVC with spatially distribution, no matter which optimization method is taken. The L-BFGS method has a better performance in terms of the convergence rate and the inversion results. In general, the L-BFGS method is a more effective and efficient optimization method than the GDM-S