Recent studies have shown that rice consumption can be an important pathway of methylmercury (MeHg) exposure to humans in Hg mining areas and also in certain inland areas of Southwestern China. The ...seed of rice has the highest ability to accumulate MeHg compared to other tissues. The main objective of this study was to investigate the process of (MeHg) accumulation in rice seed (Oryza sativa L.) by monitoring MeHg levels in specific tissues of rice plants experiencing various levels of Hg multisource pollution during a full rice growing season. Four groups of experimental plantations were utilized, distributed among a rural artisanal Hg production site and a regional background control site. Our results suggest that the newly deposited Hg is more readily transformed to MeHg and accumulated in rice plants than Hg forms with an extended residence time in soil, and soil is the potential source of MeHg in the tissues of rice plants. MeHg in soil was first absorbed by roots and then translocated to the above-ground parts (leaf and stalk). During the full rice growing season only a very small amount of MeHg was retained in the root section. In the premature plant, the majority of MeHg is located in the leaf and stalk; however, most of this MeHg was transferred to seed during the ripening period.
Numerous studies indicate that resident microbiome exists in urine of healthy individuals and dysbiosis of the urobiome (urinary microbiome) may be associated with pathological conditions. This study ...was performed to characterize the alterations in urobiome and explore its implications of clinical outcome in male patients with bladder cancer. 62 male patients with bladder cancer and 19 non-neoplastic controls were recruited. The follow-up study cohort included 40 patients who were diagnosed with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT). Mid-stream urine samples were collected from all the participants the day before cystoscopy. DNA was extracted from urine pellet samples and processed for high throughput 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of the V4 region using Illumina MiSeq. Sequencing reads were filtered using QIIME and clustered using UPARSE. We found bacterial richness indices (Observed Species index, Chao1 index, Ace index; all
< 0.01) increased in cancer group when compared with non-neoplastic group, while there were no differences in Shannon and Simpson index between two groups. During a median follow-up time of 12 (5.25-25) months, 5/40 (12.5%)of the patients developed recurrence and no patient suffered from progression to muscle-invasive disease. Species diversity of the microbiome was significantly higher in the recurrence group compared with non-recurrence group in patients with NMIBC after TURBT. The LEfSe analysis demonstrated that 9 genera were increased (e.g.,
and
) in recurrence group. To our knowledge we report the relative comprehensive study to date of the male bladder cancer urinary microbiome and its relationship to pathogenesis and clinical outcomes. Given our preliminary data, additional studies evaluating the urine microbiome in relation to clinical outcomes are warranted to improve our understanding of tumor recurrence after TURBT.
Background
Noninvasive methods have been used for the assessment of hepatic steatosis in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim was to assess the efficacy and accuracy of ...both magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) and transient elastography(TE) for the evaluation of hepatic steatosis.
Materials and Methods
The PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, MEDLINE and Web of Science databases were searched to retrieve studies examining the accuracy of MRI‐proton density fat fraction(PDFF) and TE‐controlled attenuation parameter(CAP) for evaluating the grading of steatosis(S0‐S3) diagnosed by liver biopsy in NAFLD. We compared the sensitivity, specificity, hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curves(HSROC) and clinical utility of these methods.
Results
Twenty‐four articles with a total of 2979 patients with NAFLD were included. The steatosis distribution was 8.1%/35.1%/32.2%/24.6% for S0/S1/S2/S3. For the diagnostic accuracy of MRI‐PDFF, the HSROCs were 0.97 for ≥S1, 0.91 for ≥S2 and 0.90 for ≥S3. For the diagnostic accuracy of TE‐based CAP, the HSROCs were 0.85 for ≥S1, 0.83 for ≥S2 and 0.79 for ≥S3. Following a ‘positive’ measurement (over the threshold value) for ≥S1, the corresponding post‐test probabilities of PDFF and CAP for the presence of steatosis were 82% and 61%, respectively, when the pretest probability was 24%. If the values were below these thresholds (‘negative’ results), the post‐test probabilities were 3% and 7%.
Conclusion
MRI‐PDFF and TE‐CAP both provide highly accurate noninvasive approaches for quantifying and staging hepatic steatosis in NAFLD. Compared with TE‐CAP, MRI‐PDFF is significantly more accurate for evaluating dichotomized grades of steatosis.
Urogenital microbiota may be associated with the recurrence of bladder cancer, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The notion that microbiota can upregulate PD-L1 expression in certain ...epithelial tumors to promote immune escape has been demonstrated. Thus, we hypothesized that the urogenital microbiota may be involved in the recurrence and progression of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) by upregulating the PD-L1 expression. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the relationship between urogenital microbial community and PD-L1 expression in male patients with NMIBC.
16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed to analyse the composition of urogenital microbiota, and the expression of PD-L1 in cancerous tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry. The subjects (aged 43-79 years) were divided into PD-L1-positive group (Group P, n = 9) and PD-L1-negative group (Group N, n = 19) respectively based on their PD-L1 immunohistochemical results. No statistically significant differences were found in the demographic characteristics between group P and N. We observed that group P exhibited higher species richness (based on Observed species and Ace index, both P < 0.05). Furthermore, subgroup analysis showed that the increase in number of PD-L1 positive cells was accompanied by increased richness of urogenital microbiota. Significantly different composition of urogenital microbiota was found between group P and group N (based on weighted Unifrac and unweighted Unifrac distances metric, both P < 0.05). Enrichment of some bacterial genera (e.g., Leptotrichia, Roseomonas, and Propionibacterium) and decrease of some bacterial genera (e.g., Prevotella and Massilia) were observed in group P as compared with group N. These findings indicated that these genera may affect the expression of PD-L1 through some mechanisms to be studied.
Our study provided for the first time an overview of the association between urogenital microbiota and PD-L1 expression in male patients with NMIBC, indicating that urogenital microbiota was an important determinant of PD-L1 expression in male NMIBC patients.
Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis (CAEBV enteritis) is rare and has not been well described yet. Therefore, we reported the clinicopathologic features of 11 patients with chronic ...active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis and their differences from inflammatory bowel disease. The major clinical presentations of chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis were intermittent fever over 39 °C (100%), diarrhea (73%), abdominal pain (64%), lymphadenopathy (64%), splenomegaly (64%), and hepatomegaly (27%). The main endoscopic findings included numerous shallow, small, and irregular ulcers, mainly involving colon and small intestine together, no cobble-like appearance, and longitudinal ulcers. Compared to inflammatory bowel disease patients, the frequency of intermittent fever, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, the value of C-reactive protein, and serum Epstein-Barr virus DNA (EBV DNA) were significantly higher in chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis patients (p < 0.01). The histologic findings show transmural inflammation with extended lymphoid infiltration, fissuring ulcers, and intraepithelial lymphocytosis. But chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis lacked granulomas and connective tissue changes such as neural hypertrophy and thickened muscularis mucosae. Three chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis patients died within 5 years of disease onset, and those three patients have received total colectomy, two of them died within 1 month after surgery. In this study, clinicopathologic features have been summarized to better recognize chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis. There are resemblances between chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis and inflammatory bowel disease, but some symptoms, signs, and indexes like intermittent fever, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, and elevated C-reactive protein, Epstein-Barr virus DNA are characteristics to differentiate chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis and inflammation. Histopathological features also help the discrimination. Serum Epstein-Barr virus DNA and intestinal tissue in situ hybridization for Epstein-Barr virus-encoded RNA are recommended to exclude chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infective enteritis.
PURPOSE The aim of this meta-analysis is to summarize the diagnostic accuracies of point shear wave elas- tography (pSWE) and two-dimensional (2D) SWE for esophageal varices (EV) and varices needing ...treatment (VNT). METHODS We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy studies. We searched for studies reporting the EV and VNT diagnostic accuracy of pSWE and 2D SWE using PubMed Cen- tral, SCOPUS, MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane databases. STATA software"Midas"package was used for meta-analysis. RESULTS A total of 24 studies with 3867 patients were included in the review. Pooled score sensitivities of pSWE were 91% (95% CI, 80%-96%) for EV, and 94% (95% CI, 86%-97%) for VNT. Pooled score sensi- tivities of 2D SWE were 78% (95% CI, 69%-85%) for EV, and 79% (95% CI, 72%-85%) for VNT. Pooled score specificities of pSWE were 70% (95% CI, 60%-78%) for EV, and 59% (95% CI, 40%-75%) for VNT. Pooled score specificities of 2D SWE for EV were 79% (95% CI, 72%-85%) 72% (95% CI, 66%-77%) for VNT. We found significant heterogeneity for all the elastography-based measurements with the chi- square test results and an I2 statistic >75%. CONCLUSION Both pSWE and 2D SWE can diagnose EV and VNT with moderate diagnostic accuracy. Further large- scale setting-specific longitudinal studies are required to establish the best modality.
It is widely accepted that there exist microbiota communities in urinary tract of healthy individuals. Imbalance in the urinary microbiome plays important roles in the development of various benign ...urological conditions including lower urinary track symptoms (LUTS) and overactive bladder (OAB). However, whether alteration in urinary microbiome exerts influence on the severity of OAB symptom has yet to be elucidated. The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between urinary microbiome and the severity of OAB.
A total of 70 OAB patients were recruited to finish overactive bladder symptom score (OABSS) questionnaires. Catheterized urine samples were obtained for 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The species richness and evenness were evaluated by α diversity, and the difference in urinary microbiome between patients with mild or moderate/severe severity was evaluated by β diversity. The relationship between urinary microbiome and the severity of OAB symptom was evaluated using Pearson's correlation analysis.
Mild patients (OABSS ≤ 5, n = 17) had lower bacterial diversity (Simpson index, P = 0.024) and richness (Chao1, P = 0.023) than those with moderate/severe symptom (OABSS > 5, n = 53). Beta-diversity of urinary microbiome between two groups were significantly different. Furthermore, the score of OABSS was positively correlated with the richness index (Chao1, P = 0.002) and diversity index (Shannon index, P = 0.044) of urinary microbiome. Certain bacterial genera (e.g., Porphyromona and Prevotella) were significantly correlated with severity of OAB sub-symptoms.
This study demonstrated that urinary microbiome was intimately correlated with the severity of OAB symptom and the increase of the diversity and richness of urinary microbiome was accompanied by more severe OAB symptoms, indicating that urinary dysbiosis may play pivotal roles in the deterioration of functional bladder diseases.
► The activities of α,β, and δ rhythms in EEG changed significantly after watching 3DTV. ► The values of (α+θ)/β,α/β,(α+θ)/(α+β),θ/β increased clearly after watching 3DTV. ► The above parameters in ...3D group changed more clearly than in 2D group. ► The objective evaluation model for 3DTV fatigue was established.
With the development of three-dimensional television (3DTV), the fatigue associated with watching 3DTV has received considerable attention. To study how watching 3DTV influences mental fatigue and to investigate the related objective indicators, we use physiological detectors to record EEGs of 10 individual subjects both before and after watching 2D or 3D television. The 2D/3D changes of both energy values of EEG in the four wavebands, namely alpha (α), beta (β), theta (θ), delta (δ), and four fatigue-related algorithms (α+θ)/β,α/β,(α+θ)/(α+β) and θ/β, were compared and analyzed. The results show that the parameters for the 3DTV group, except theta rhythm, changed more significantly than those for the 2DTV groups in some brain regions. For most subjects watching 3DTV, the energy in alpha and beta frequency bands significantly decrease while delta activity shows a significant increase, and theta activity remains largely unchanged. All four algorithms show a significant increase with algorithm (α+θ)/β showing a greater increase (p<0.01) on individual electrodes. The results of this study have implications for detecting fatigue associated with watching 3DTV. The above parameters, combined with subjective evaluations, can serve as objective indicators to evaluate the level of 3DTV fatigue.
This study aimed to explore the effect of combined psychological and nutritional interventions on anxiety, depression, nutritional status, and quality of life among liver cancer patients implanted ...with iodine-125 seeds under the PERMA model. A total of 82 liver cancer patients admitted to our hospital were randomly allocated into two groups: a control group receiving routine care and an observation group receiving the aforementioned combined intervention under the PERMA model. The study duration spanned three months, after which the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form, and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire scores were compared between the groups. Post-intervention findings revealed that the observation group exhibited significantly higher scores in hospital anxiety and depression assessments compared to the control group. Additionally, the observation group demonstrated a significantly higher proportion of patients with good nutritional status, as per the Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form. Furthermore, improvements were observed across all dimensions of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire, with the observation group showing significantly higher scores in comparison to the control group. These findings highlight the substantial value of integrating psychological intervention with nutritional support within the PERMA model as a means to enhance clinical nursing practices.
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