Tag: pubmed

J Surg Res. 2022 Apr 23;277:100-109. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2022.03.011. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Patients after polytrauma suffer from posttraumatic immune system dysregulation and multiple organ dysfunction. Genome-wide microarray profiling in monocytes revealed a regulatory network of inflammatory markers around the transcription factor AP-1 in severely injured patients. Recent research focuses on the role of neutrophils in posttraumatic inflammation. The aim of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the impact of this inflammatory network in neutrophils.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Blood sampling and neutrophil separation were performed on admission of the patient and at 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h after trauma. Neutrophil expression levels of the target genes c-Jun, c-Fos, BCL2A, MMP-9, TIMP-1, ETS-2, IL-1β, and MIP-1β were quantified by RT-qPCR. Patients were assorted into groups according to distinct clinical parameters like massive transfusion (>10 RBC units/24 h), injury severity (ISS), 90-d survival, and the presence of traumatic brain injury (defined by ICI on head CT). Statistics were calculated by Mann-Whitney Rank-Sum Test, Receiver Operating Curves, and binary multiple logistic regression.

RESULTS: Forty severely injured patients (mean ISS 36 ± 14) were included. BCL2A, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and ETS2 levels showed a significant correlation to 90-d-survival in the early posttraumatic period (6 h-24 h). Furthermore, differential BCL2A, IL-1β, MIP-1β, and MMP-9 regulation was observed in patients requiring massive transfusion. We could further show a significant TIMP-1 response in trauma PMN associated with traumatic brain injury.

CONCLUSIONS: This study of seriously injured patients highlights very early posttraumatic transcriptional changes in PMNs, which were clearly associated with posttraumatic events and outcomes.

PMID:35472724 | DOI:10.1016/j.jss.2022.03.011

J Neural Eng. 2022 Apr 26. doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/ac6a7b. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The investigation of neurophysiologic mechanisms of anesthetic drug-induced loss of consciousness (LOC) by using the entropy, complexity, and information integration theories at the mesoscopic level has been a hot topic in recent years. However, systematic research is still lacking.

APPROACH: We analyzed electrocorticography (ECoG) data recorded from nine rats during isoflurane-induced unconsciousness. To characterize the complexity and connectivity changes, we investigated ECoG power, symbolic dynamic-based entropy (i.e., permutation entropy (PE)), complexity (i.e., permutation Lempel-Ziv complexity (PLZC)), information integration (i.e., permutation cross mutual information (PCMI)), and PCMI-based cortical brain networks in the frontal, parietal, and occipital cortical regions.

MAIN RESULTS: Firstly, LOC was accompanied by a raised power in the ECoG beta (12-30 Hz) but a decreased power in the high gamma (55-95 Hz) frequency band in all three brain regions. Secondly, PE and PLZC showed similar change trends in the lower frequency band (0.1-45 Hz), declining after LOC (p<0.05) and increasing after recovery of consciousness (p<0.001). Thirdly, intra-frontal and inter-frontal-parietal PCMI declined after LOC, in both lower (0.1-45Hz) and higher frequency bands (55-95Hz) (p<0.001). Finally, the local network parameters of the nodal clustering coefficient and nodal efficiency in the frontal region decreased after LOC, in both the lower and higher frequency bands (p<0.05). Moreover, global network parameters of the normalized average clustering coefficient and small world index increased slightly after LOC in the lower frequency band. However, this increase was not statistically significant.

SIGNIFICANCE: The PE, PLZC, PCMI and PCMI-based brain networks are effective metrics for qualifying the effects of isoflurane.

PMID:35472693 | DOI:10.1088/1741-2552/ac6a7b

Clin Imaging. 2022 Apr 22;87:28-33. doi: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2022.04.004. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIM: To determine frequency of duodenal anatomical variants on clinically indicated pediatric UGI examinations and determine the influence of these variants and exam quality on the reliability of diagnosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two-pediatric radiologists retrospectively reviewed 100-UGI exams performed on children ≤18-years. Exams were considered diagnostic if the duodenojejunal (DJ) flexure was identified. For diagnostic exams, readers categorized the duodenal location and shape as: normal, normal variant, or abnormal. Exam quality was assessed according to duodenal visualization, number of boluses required, and patient positioning.

RESULTS: Reader 1: 90/100 exams diagnostic -77% normal duodenum, 20% normal variant, and 3% abnormal. Reader 2: 97/100 exams diagnostic – 88% normal, 8% normal variant, and 4% abnormal. Original reports: 99/100 exams diagnostic – 92% normal, 3% normal variant, and 5% abnormal. 42% of exams were “high-quality” and 58% were “low-quality”. The number of abnormal was the same between readers in “high-quality” studies. In “low-quality” studies reader 1 and the original read diagnosed 1 further case as non-rotation which was diagnosed as a normal variant by reader 2. Two further cases were reported as non-rotation by the original reader. Inter-rater reliability was significantly higher among each pair of raters in “high quality” exams (κ 0.3; p ≤ 0.05) compared to “low quality” exams (k < 0.1 – p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Duodenal variants were diagnosed in 8-20% of UGI. Compromised exam quality contributes to poor interrater reliability and may result in diagnostic errors of normal variant duodenums, posing a risk for unnecessary intervention and/or delayed treatment.

PMID:35472665 | DOI:10.1016/j.clinimag.2022.04.004

J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis. 2022 Apr 23;31(7):106477. doi: 10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2022.106477. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Despite the success of recanalization by bridging therapy, about half of treated stroke patients remain disabled. While numerous reports propose clinical predictors of stroke clinical outcome in this context, we originally aimed to study pre-therapeutic factors influencing infarct growth (IG) and poor clinical outcome in strokes due to large vessel occlusion (LVO) successfully recanalized.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We enrolled 87 consecutive successfully recanalized patients (mTICI: 2b/2c/3) by mechanical thrombectomy (±rt-PA) after stroke due to middle cerebral artery (M1) occlusion within 6 h according to AHA guidelines. IG was defined by subtracting the initial DWI volume to the final 24 h-TDM volume. Statistical associations between poor clinical outcome (mRS≥2), IG and pertinent clinico-radiological variables, were measured using logistic and linear regression models.

RESULTS: Among 87 enrolled patients (Age(y): 68.4 ± 17.5; NIHSS: 16.0 ± 5.4), 42/87 (48,28%) patients had a mRS ≥ 2 at 3 months. Diabetic history (OR: 3.70 CI95%[1.03;14.29] and initial NIHSS (/1 point: OR: 1.16 CI95%[1.05;1.27]) were independently associated with poor outcome. IG was significantly higher in stroke patients with poor outcome (+7.57 ± 4.52 vs -7.81 ± 1.67; p = 0.0024). Initial volumes were not significantly different (mRS≥2: 16.18 ± 2.67; mRS[0-1]: 14.70 ± 2.30; p = 0.6771). Explanatory variables of IG in linear regression were diabetic history (β: 21.26 CI95%[5.43; 37.09]) and NIHSS (β: 0.83 CI95%[0.02; 1.64]). IG was higher in diabetic stroke patients (23.54 ± 1.43 vs -6.20 ± 9.36; p = 0.0061).

CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that diabetes leads to continued IG after complete recanalization, conditioning clinical outcome in LVO strokes successfully recanalized by bridging therapy. We suggest that poor tissular reperfusion by diabetic microangiopathy could explain this result.

PMID:35472652 | DOI:10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2022.106477

World Neurosurg. 2022 Apr 23:S1878-8750(22)00516-2. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2022.04.067. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective observational population-based study OBJECTIVES: Aims of this study were to determine the time trend of demographics, complications, and outcomes for patients undergoing posterior/transforaminal (PLIF/TLIF) or anterior/lateral lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF/LLIF) and to compare the differences in the time trends between both procedures.

METHODS: The ACS-NSQIP database was queried for patients undergoing PLIF/TLIF and ALIF/LLIF procedures. Outcomes were analyzed for differences between two time periods in the PLIF/TLIF and ALIF/LLIF cohorts separately (2009-2013 and 2015-2019). Longitudinal time trends of the two procedures were determined by difference-in-differences (DID) analysis. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05.

RESULTS: For both approaches, there was an increase in age and ASA class over time, accompanied by a significant decrease in blood transfusions and morbidity. The DID analysis showed a greater change in age (DID:-1.8%; p<0.001) and more patients rated ASA class 3 (DID: -2.4%; p=0.033) in the ALIF/LLIF patients compared to PLIF/TLIF. Length of stay (LOS) declined significantly over time in both cohorts, with a greater reduction observed for patients who underwent ALIF/LLIF compared to PLIF/TLIF (DID: 0.2%; p=0.014). There were no changes in readmission rates over time in either cohort (PLIF/TLIF DID: 0.6%; p=0.080; ALIF/LLIF DID: -0.2%; p=0.696).

CONCLUSIONS: Time trends for PLIF/TLIF and ALIF/LIIF showed a significant increase in the number of older patients with complex medical status undergoing surgery. Despite these trends, there were decreases in overall postoperative morbidity, incidence of blood transfusion, and LOS, without increasing readmission. These results suggest general improvement in surgical and perioperative management of lumbar fusion over time with greater gains found in ALIF/LLIF specific care compared to PLIF/TLIF.

PMID:35472646 | DOI:10.1016/j.wneu.2022.04.067

Chemosphere. 2022 Apr 23:134695. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134695. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Polycyclic aromatic compound (PAC) contamination in soil as a result of oil spills is a serious issue because of the huge global demand for fossil energy. This study assessed the vertical variation in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), derivatives of PAHs (dPAHs) and bacterial community structure in deep soil with long-term contamination by oil spillage. Our results suggest that the content of total PACs ranged from 1196.6 μg/kg to 14980.9 μg/kg and decreased with depth at all sites. PAHs were the most abundant PACs, with a median concentration of 6640.7 μg/kg, followed by oxygenated PAHs (median 156.3 μg/kg) and nitrated PAHs (median 33.4 μg/kg). PAHs are mainly low molecular weight PACs such as naphthalene, fluorene and phenanthrene, while derivatives of PAHs are all low molecular weight PACs and mainly oxygenated PAHs. Low molecular weight PAHs were an important source of dPAHs under specific conditions. The bacterial community structure showed higher bacterial diversity and lower bacterial richness in shallow soil (2-6 m in depth) than in deep soil (8-10 m in depth). Spearman’s analysis confirmed that dramatic bacterial community shifts are a response to contamination. At the genus level, the presence of PACs highly selected for Pseudomonas, belonging to Proteobacteria. Moreover, functional predictions based on Tax4Fun revealed that soil with long-term contamination had a strong potential for PAC degradation. In addition, statistical analysis showed that oxidation-reduction potential (Eh) was closely related to variations of bacterial community composition and function. Finally, Ramlibacter, Pseudomonas, Pseudonocardia, c_MB-A2-108, f_Amb-16S-1323, and Qipengyuania were identified by cooccurrence network analysis as keystone taxa contributing to the maintenance of bacterial ecological function. Together, our results provide evidence of tight bacterial effects of PAHs and dPAHs and a more complete understanding of the fate of PACs in deep contaminated soils.

PMID:35472616 | DOI:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134695

Behav Processes. 2022 Apr 23:104646. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104646. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Behavioral economic demand has been shown to have high utility in quantifying the value or consumption of a commodity. Demand describes the relationship between cost and consumption of a commodity, and tends to be curvilinear with consumption approaching zero as the cost increases to a sufficiently high cost to suppress consumption completely. Over a period spanning greater than three decades, behavioral economists have made great strides in the modeling of demand and addressing analytical challenges, although this work is not complete and unresolved challenges remain. The analytical challenges associated with modeling zeros both when they arise as consumption values of zero and when consumption at zero cost is assessed have been a substantial part of this evolution in models. The goals of this methodological review are to provide a historical overview of the major behavioral economic demand models that have been proposed, describe some of the common difficulties with analyzing behavioral economic demand, and discuss general considerations for the analysis of demand. In an environment with evolving and multiple competing analytical practices, we conclude that researchers can maximize scientific rigor by embracing transparency in their analysis choices and employing techniques such as sensitivity analyses to determine if their analysis choices impact the conclusions of their experiments.

PMID:35472630 | DOI:10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104646

Prostaglandins Other Lipid Mediat. 2022 Apr 23:106638. doi: 10.1016/j.prostaglandins.2022.106638. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Estimates of heritability are the first step in identifying a trait with substantial variation due to genetic factors. Large-scale genetic analyses can identify the DNA variants that influence the levels of circulating lipid species and the statistical technique Mendelian randomisation can use these DNA variants to address potential causality of these lipids in disease. We estimated the heritability of plasma eicosanoids, octadecanoids and docosanoids to identify those lipid species with substantial heritability. We analysed plasma lipid mediators in 31 White British families (196 participants) ascertained for high blood pressure and deeply clinically and biochemically phenotyped over a 25-year period. We found that the dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acid (DHET) species, 11,12-DHET and 14,15-DHET, products of arachidonic acid metabolism by cytochrome P450 (CYP) monooxygenase and soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), exhibited substantial heritability (h² = 33%-37%; P_adj<0.05). Identification of these two heritable bioactive lipid species allows for future large-scale, targeted, lipidomics-genomics analyses to address causality in cardiovascular and other diseases.

PMID:35472599 | DOI:10.1016/j.prostaglandins.2022.106638

Comput Biol Chem. 2022 Apr 21;98:107685. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2022.107685. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Vertebrates have very well defined nervous systems. A group of researchers hypothesize that plant also has an alternative sort of sensitive nervous system. They find a close relationship of the neurotransmission mechanism of animal with that of the plant and suspect a close relationship in amino acid transport mechanism among both the organisms. Although the protein structure is conserved more than molecular sequences, but the 3D structure of protein is largely influenced by the amino acid residues in the interior part of it. The constituents of a primary protein sequence have a variety of biochemical information which control the structure, function and stability of the protein. Hence, in this present study it is tried for characterization and comparison of neurotransmission receptors associated with human and plant to unfold the evolutionary relationships among them in bio-molecular level based on the chemical properties of the amino acids. The protein sequences of ionotropic glutamate receptor and GABA receptor of human (from vertebrate) and Arabidopsis thaliana (from plant) are considered as datasets. The 20 standard amino acids are classified into 8 chemical groups and are identified by specific numeric values. Alignment-based methods are used to identify the identical and similar amino acids among the aligned sequences.The common pattern finding procedure finds some conserved regions in the receptor protein sequences of both the species. The proximity between the protein sequences are calculated based on the distribution of each chemical group (in percentage) in them and phylogenetic trees are constructed to show the evolutionary relationships of neurotransmission receptors of both the species. The conventional multiple sequence alignment (MSA) method is also applied on the datasets and the results are compared. The analysis is further extended to structural level to understand the extent to which the animal and plant proteins are similar.

PMID:35472591 | DOI:10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2022.107685

J Shoulder Elbow Surg. 2022 Apr 23:S1058-2746(22)00404-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jse.2022.03.016. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Optimal management of a displaced midshaft clavicle fractures remains controversial. This study assessed demographic factors, fracture pattern, and surgical technique as potential predictors of surgical complications. Smoking, diabetes, obesity, polytrauma, high-energy mechanism, inpatient status, transverse or comminuted fractures, and single-plating technique were hypothesized to be associated with an increased risk of complications following clavicle fracture open reduction internal fixation (ORIF).

METHODS: Consecutive patients with minimum 12-week follow-up from the trauma and sports medicine divisions at a single tertiary institution who presented with a midshaft clavicle fracture and underwent ORIF between 2007-2020 were retrospectively identified. Patient demographics, fracture pattern, plating technique, and postoperative complications were recorded. Postoperative complications were classified into major (reoperation) and minor (no reoperation) complications. Chi-squared statistics, Fisher’s exact, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and multivariate logistic regression modeling were utilized with significance level set to p < 0.05.

RESULTS: 198 patients (average 39.5 ± 14.6 years) were identified with average follow-up of 9.1 ± 10.7 months. The cohort consisted of 155 males (78.3%), 62 smokers (31.3%), and 12 diabetics (6.1%). Injury characteristics revealed 80 transverse fractures (40.4%), 87 oblique fractures (43.9%), and 31 Z-type fractures (15.7%). Seventy-nine patients (39.9%) underwent superior plating, 72 (36.4%) anterior plating, and 47 (23.7%) dual plating. Overall, postoperative complications occurred in 47 patients (23.7%), 29 minor (14.6%) and 18 major (9.1%). Major complications requiring reoperation were symptomatic hardware, nonunion, deep infection, wound dehiscence, and broken hardware. Minor complications consisted of sensory deficit or paresthesia beyond peri-incisional numbness, superficial infections, postoperative pain and/or stiffness, and delayed union. Smoking status (p = 0.008), obesity (p = 0.009), and transverse or Z-type fractures (p = 0.002) were significant prognostic factors for overall complication risk. Only manual labor was predictive of minor complications (p = 0.019). Transverse or Z-type fractures and single plating were predictive of major complications (p = 0.004 and p = 0.008, respectively). No reoperations occurred in patients who underwent dual plating. Smokers (p = 0.027) with transverse/Z-type fractures (p = 0.022) were at highest risk of reoperation with single plating.

CONCLUSION: The overall rate of complications following ORIF of displaced midshaft clavicle fracture was 27.3%, with 9.1% requiring reoperation. Given relatively high complication rates, in instances when nonoperative versus operative management are equivocal, nonoperative management should be strongly considered in obese patients, smokers, and patients who present with transverse or Z-type fracture. If operative management is indicated, use of dual plating may decrease reoperation rates.

PMID:35472574 | DOI:10.1016/j.jse.2022.03.016