Lianhua Qingwen Granules or Capsules (LHQW) has accumulated much research evidence in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. However, there are still few data on its ...efficacy and safety in children with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of LHQW in children with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection.
We conducted a single-center, propensity-score matched retrospective cohort study of children with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in Shanghai New International Expo Center mobile cabin hospital between April 1st and June 1st, 2022. Eligible patients received either LHQW granules/capsules plus supportive care (LHQW group) or supportive care alone (control group). The primary outcome was the negative conversion time of nucleic acid. Secondary outcomes included the negative conversion rate of nucleic acid, the length of hospital stay, clinical disease progression, and cycle threshold Ct values for SARS-CoV-2 open reading frame ORF1ab or nucleocapsid N genes.
Overall, 2808 patients were enrolled, and 346 patients in each group were included in the analysis. Among the propensity-score matched groups, LHQW treatment was associated with an accelerated negative conversion time of nucleic acid (median: 5 d vs. 6 d, Hazard ratio: 1.25, 95% CI: 1.08 – 1.46, Log-rank p < 0.001), a higher negative conversion rate of nucleic acid (Day 2 – 6: 2.9% vs. 0.6%, p = 0.036; 29.8% vs. 5.5%, p < 0.001; 42.5% vs. 24.3%, p < 0.001; 51.4% vs. 31.5%, p < 0.001; 63.3% vs. 55.2%, p = 0.030), shorter hospital stay (median: 10 d vs. 11 d, Hazard ratio: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.29 – 1.74, Log-rank p < 0.001), and lower rates of asymptomatic infection progressing to mild (37.9% vs. 46.5%, p = 0.021).
Our study suggested that LHQW treatment was associated with faster clinical recovery in children with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection.
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Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu capsule (ZL) is a Chinese patent medicine and used for the treatment of acute cerebral infarction (ACI) and its clinical application has gradually been widely recognized in ...China. However, the effects of ZL for patients with ACI have never been systematically evaluated.
A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy of ZL in ACI.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs).
A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines. The comprehensive literature search was accomplished in 6 electronic databases to find relevant randomized controlled trials from their inception until October 31, 2020. The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions was used for methodological quality and independent evaluation. Review Manager 5.3 was used to analyze all the data obtained. The Clinical Effective Rate (CER) was the primary outcome, and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Score (NIHSS), Barthel Index (BI), and Modified Rankin Scale (MRS) were the secondary outcomes.
Seven clinical studies recruiting 571 eligible patients were included in this meta-analysis. The results of meta-analysis suggested that compared with conventional treatment alone, ZL combined with conventional treatment significantly improved CER (RR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12-1.29, p < 0.00001), decrease National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale Score (NIHSS) (MD = -2.60, 95% CI: -3.41–1.79, p < 0.00001), Barthel Index (BI) (MD = -9.75, 95% CI: 7.15-12.36, p < 0.00001) and Modified Rankin Scale (MRS) (MD = -0.57, 95% CI: -0.84–0.30, p < 0.00001). There were no reported adverse events in the studies. Most results were robust and the quality of evidence was from moderate to low.
ZL combined with conventional treatment can improve the short-term outcomes of ACI patients, indicating ZL is a promising treatment choice for ACI and may be used as adjunctive treatment to the conventional treatment of ACI. However, due to the limitations of included clinical trials, high-quality clinical trials with longer follow-ups are still needed to further assess the effectiveness and safety of ZL for ACI patients.
To evaluate the clinical efficacy of psychotherapy combined with acupoint herbal application on elderly patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
From January 2019 to January 2021, sixty elderly patients ...with pulmonary tuberculosis treated in our hospital were assessed for eligibility and recruited. They were concurrently assigned (1:1) via the random envelope method to receive either psychotherapy plus acupoint herbal application (observation group) or conventional treatment (conventional group) acupoint herbal application.
Psychotherapy plus acupoint herbal application was associated with significantly higher levels of pulmonary functions indices and immune function indices versus conventional treatment. Psychotherapy plus acupoint herbal application resulted in lower SAS and SDS scores versus conventional treatment. The combined treatment showed a better clinical efficacy and sputum negative rate versus conventional treatment.
Psychotherapy plus acupoint herbal application improves the lung function and immune function of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and relieves their negative emotions, which contributes to better treatment efficacy and merits clinical promotion.
Objective/Hypothesis
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was reported to associate with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in many studies. However, its correlation with prognosis of non‐human ...papillomavirus (HPV) associated HNSCC remains unknown. Here, we sought to investigate clinical significance of HCV RNA transcript in non‐HPV associated HNSCC by analyzing corresponding RNA‐seq data.
Study Design
A retrospective cohort study.
Methods
Four hundred and forty‐eight non‐HPV associated HNSCC patients with aligned RNA‐seq and clinical follow‐up data were included and divided into two groups: low‐HCV and high‐HCV. Means of continuous variables and proportions of categorical variables were compared using independent sample t‐test and chi‐square test, respectively. Survival data were compared using Cox regression analysis, Kaplan–Meier curves, and log‐rank test. Expression of genome‐wide mRNAs and abundance of immune cells were compared using volcano plot and cell signature estimated score analysis.
Results
HCV RNA transcript negatively correlates with pathologic (P = .028) and clinical‐stage (P = .023), clinical N stage (P = .025), and nodal extracapsular spread (P = .042) and is an independent prognosis factor in non‐HPV associated HNSCC (HR = 1.488; 95% CI: 1.004–2.206; P = .048). Elevated expression of HCV improved 5‐year overall survival (43.6% vs. 53.2%; P = .035) in all non‐HPV associated HNSCC patients, the same as in male (46.6% vs. 58.7%; P = .049), clinical M0 stage (42.8% vs. 52.9%; P = .036), white (42.9% vs. 55.9%; P = .010), and histologic grade 1 to 2 subgroups (42.1% vs. 57.2%; P = .043). The expression of several immune‐related genes and abundance of some immune cells significantly changed with the increase of HCV RNA transcript, while HCV‐related oncogenes and tumor suppressor gene did not.
Conclusions
HCV RNA transcript is an independent favorable factor for prognosis of non‐HPV associated HNSCC.
Levels of Evidence
4 Laryngoscope, 131:1774–1781, 2021
Throughout recent decades, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have shown encouraging potential in cancer treatment, and several pan-HDAC inhibitors have been approved for treating malignant ...cancers. Numerous adverse effects of pan-HDAC inhibitors have been reported, however, during preclinical and clinical evaluations. To avoid undesirable responses, an increasing number of investigations are focusing on the development of isotype-selective HDAC inhibitors. In this study, we present an effective and quantitative cellular assay using high-content analysis (HCA) to determine compounds’ inhibition of the activity of HDAC6 and Class I HDAC isoforms, by detecting the acetylation of their corresponding substrates (i.e., α-tubulin and histone H3). Several conditions that are critical for HCA assays, such as cell seeding number, fixation and permeabilization reagent, and antibody dilution, have been fully validated in this study. We used selective HDAC6 inhibitors and inhibitors targeting different HDAC isoforms to optimize and validate the capability of the HCA assay. The results indicated that the HCA assay is a robust assay for quantifying compounds’ selectivity of HDAC6 and Class I HDAC isoforms in cells. Moreover, we screened a panel of compounds for HDAC6 selectivity using this HCA assay, which provided valuable information for the structure–activity relationship (SAR). In summary, our results suggest that the HCA assay is a powerful tool for screening selective HDAC6 inhibitors.
Purpose: To investigate the association of serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) with the severity of neurological deficits and prognosis in patients with acute cerebral infarction ...(ACI). Patients and Methods: In this retrospective analysis, 119 patients with ACI were recruited from January to December 2020. The serum hs-CRP level was measured by a latex-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay. The severity of neurological deficits and prognosis of ACI patients were assessed using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and the modifed Rankin Scale (mRS). Multivariate logistic analysis was performed and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to evaluate the value of hs-CRP in predicting the prognosis of ACI. Results: The patients with a more favorable prognosis (mRS score 0-2) had a lower median serum hs-CRP level than those with a worse prognosis (mRS score 3-6) (3.32 IQR: 1.51, 8.04 to 17.93 IQR:16.02, 19.01; P<0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders, multivariable linear regression showed that serum hs-CRP level was independently associated with NIHSS score (Beta = 0.952, P<0.001) and mRS score (Beta=0.878, P<0.001). Multivariate logistic analysis revealed that high hs-CRP level was an independent predictor of the poor prognosis in patients with ACI (adjusted (1) OR = 1.995; 95% CI = 1.499-2.655; adjusted (2) OR = 2.75; 95% CI = 1.015-7.457). ROC curve analysis indicated that the area under the curve for hs-CRP to predict poor prognosis was 0.986. The cutoff value, sensitivity, and specificity were 11.835 mg/L, 95%, and 92.5%, respectively. In terms of ischemic stroke subtypes, the serum hs-CRP level was higher in large-artery atherosclerosis (LAA) patients than in those with small-artery occlusion (SAO) and cardioembolism (CE). In addition, the patients with LAA had higher scores of NIHSS and mRS than those with SAO and CE. Conclusion: Serum hs-CRP level is an independent predictor of prognosis, and an efficient index to discriminate patients with ACI, especially for those with LAA. Keywords: acute cerebral infarction, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, neurological deficits
Primary squamous cell carcinoma of the thyroid (PSCCTh) is a sporadic malignancy arising from the thyroid gland. The factors that affect treatment and survival in patients with PSCCTh remain unclear. ...Our study aims to characterize PSCCTh and establish a prognosis prediction model for patients with PSCCTh.
Clinical data and follow-up information for 277 patients from 1973 to 2016 were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) 18-registry database (RRID:SCR_003293). Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses and nomogram modeling of potential prognostic factors were conducted.
Among the collected patient cases, 57% were female and 43% were male. The median survival of all cases was 6 months; by gender, median survival was 5 and 8 months in the female and male groups, respectively. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses revealed that age, extent of disease (EOD), T stage, N stage, and treatment were independent prognostic indicators for overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) in patients with PSCCTh. In addition, it was confirmed that the established nomogram model had good consistency and discrimination for PSCCTh prognosis as measured by the concordance index (C-index), area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), and calibration curves.
Our study indicates that age, EOD, T stage, N stage, and treatment may correlate with OS and DSS in patients with PSCCTh. Importantly, our nomogram prediction model, constructed using parameters including age, T stage, N stage, and treatment, may assist physicians in evaluating patients' prognoses and providing precise therapy for PSCCTh.
The periodic Gaussian process (PGP) has been increasingly used to model periodic data due to its high accuracy. Yet, computing the likelihood of PGP has a high computational complexity of ...\(\mathcal{O}\left(n^{3}\right)\) (\(n\) is the data size), which hinders its wide application. To address this issue, we propose a novel circulant PGP (CPGP) model for large-scale periodic data collected at grids that are commonly seen in signal processing applications. The proposed CPGP decomposes the log-likelihood of PGP into the sum of two computationally scalable composite log-likelihoods, which do not involve any approximations. Computing the likelihood of CPGP requires only \(\mathcal{O}\left(p^{2}\right)\) (or \(\mathcal{O}\left(p\log p\right)\) in some special cases) time for grid observations, where the segment length \(p\) is independent of and much smaller than \(n\). Simulations and real case studies are presented to show the superiority of CPGP over some state-of-the-art methods, especially for applications requiring periodicity estimation. This new modeling technique can greatly advance the applicability of PGP in many areas and allow the modeling of many previously intractable problems.
Russula subnigricans is now one of the leading lethal mushroom species in China, with a mortality rate of more than 50%. The typical clinical manifestation of Russula subnigricans poisoning is ...rhabdomyolysis, and we are unaware of previous reports of Russula subnigricans-associated hemolysis.
Herein we report a cluster of five patients with confirmed Russula subnigricans poisoning. Four of the patients who ingested sun-dried Russula subnigricans never developed rhabdomyolysis. However, in one patient, acute hemolysis developed on the second day following ingestion and was associated with a fall in hemoglobin concentration and a rise in unconjugated bilirubin concentration. Further investigation revealed that the patient had glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency.
This case cluster suggests that the toxin of Russula subnigricans could cause hemolysis in a susceptible patient and warrants further study.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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