Tag: pubmed

Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2021 Jul 3;236:113800. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113800. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Although several studies indicate that exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and metals may influence thyroid function, the evidence is limited and inconsistent in general population. The current study was conducted to determine the levels of plasma PBDEs and urinary metals and evaluate the associations of co-exposure to both with thyroid hormones (THs) among rural adult residents along the Yangtze River, China. A total of 329 subjects were included in current analyses, and 8 PBDEs congeners and 14 urinary metals were measured to reflect the levels of environmental exposure. Multiple linear regression models were used to evaluate the association between PBDEs, metals and THs levels. Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) was used to examine PBDEs and metals mixtures in relation to THs. The geometric mean (GM) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of total measured PBDEs was 65.10 (59.96, 70.68) ng/g lipid weights (lw). BDE-209 was the most abundant congener, with a GM (95% CI) of 47.91 (42.95, 53.26) ng/g lw, accounting for 73.6% of the total PBDEs. Free thyroxine (FT4) was significantly negatively associated with BDE-28, 47, 99, 100, 154, and 183, and urinary strontium [β (95% CI): -0.04 (-0.07, -0.02)], but positively associated with selenium [β (95% CI): 0.04 (0.02, 0.06)]. Free triiodothyronine (FT3) was negatively associated with BDE-28 [β (95% CI): -0.03 (-0.05, -0.01)] and urinary arsenic [β (95% CI): -0.01 (-0.02, -0.001)]. The current study did not observe a statistically significant association of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) with PBDEs and urinary metals. BKMR analyses showed similar trends when these chemicals were taken into consideration simultaneously. We found no significant interaction in the association between individual chemical at the 25th versus 75th percentiles and THs estimates, comparing the results when other chemicals were set at their 10th, 50th, and 90th percentile levels. Further study is required to confirm these findings and determine potential mechanisms.

PMID:34229161 | DOI:10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113800

Breast. 2021 Jun 28;59:117-123. doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2021.06.009. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of the 8th American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) pathological prognostic staging on chemotherapy decision-making for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients with T1-2N0M0 disease.

METHODS: Patients diagnosed with T1-2N0M0 TNBC were retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. Statistical methods including Kaplan-Meier survival curve, receiver operating characteristics curve, and Cox proportional hazard model.

RESULTS: We identified 12,156 patients, including 9371 (77.1%) patients who received chemotherapy. Overall, 57.4% of patients (n = 6975) were upstaged after being reassigned by the 8th AJCC staging. However, the 8th staging of AJCC did not have a greater prognostic value compared to the 7th staging (P = 0.064). The receipt of chemotherapy significantly improved the breast cancer-specific survival for stage T1c and T2 tumors (P < 0.001), but not for stage T1a (P = 0.188) and T1b (P = 0.376) tumors. Using AJCC 8th staging, chemotherapy benefit was only found in stage IIA patients (P = 0.002), but not for stage IA (P = 0.653) and IB (P = 0.492) patients. There were 9564 patients with stage T1c and T2 diseases and 4979 patients with 8th AJCC stage IIA disease. Therefore, approximately half of patients (47.9%, n = 4585) may be safe to omit chemotherapy using the AJCC 8th staging compared to the current chemotherapy recommendation for T1-2N0M0 TNBC.

CONCLUSION: The 8th AJCC staging system did not demonstrate the superior discriminatory ability of prognostic stratification than the 7th AJCC staging system in T1-2N0M0 TNBC. However, this new AJCC staging could more accurately predict the chemotherapy benefit, thereby enabling more patients to avoid unnecessary chemotherapy.

PMID:34229126 | DOI:10.1016/j.breast.2021.06.009

Se Pu. 2021 Apr 8;39(4):391-398. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1123.2020.06018.

ABSTRACT

Urine is an important source of biomolecular information for metabolomic studies. However, the acquisition of high-quality metabolomic datasets or reliable biomarkers from urine is difficult owing to the large variations in the concentrations of endogenous metabolites in the biofluid, which are caused by diverse factors such as water consumption, drugs, and diseases. Thus, normalization or calibration is essential in urine metabolomics for eliminating such deviations. The urine osmolality (Π), which is a direct measure of the total urinary solute concentration and is not affected by circadian rhythms, diet, gender, and age, is often considered the gold standard for estimation of the urine concentration. In this study, a pre-data acquisition calibration strategy based on osmolality was investigated for its feasibility to overcome sample concentration variability. Before data acquisition, the product of the osmolality×injection volume of all samples was set to be equivalent through the uses of a customized injection volume or dilution. After ultra performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC-HRMS) analysis of the sample, the raw dataset was normalized to the total ion abundance or total useful MS signals (MSTUS) to achieve further calibration. The osmolality of each urine sample was determined with a freezing-point depression osmometer. For the instrumental analysis, a Vanquish UPLC system coupled to a Q-Exactive Plus HRMS device was used for metabolite analysis and accurate mass measurement. Full-scan mass spectra were acquired in the range of m/z 60-900, and the MS/MS experiments were conducted in “Top5” data-dependent mode. A Waters UPLC column (100 mm×2.1 mm, 1.8 μm) was used for chromatography separation. The raw data were imported into Progenesis QI software for peak picking, alignment, deconvolution, and normalization. SIMCA-P software was used for the principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least-squares discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA). This strategy was first applied to sequentially diluted urine samples, where three frequently used normalization methods were compared. In the identical injection volume experiment, the points were scattered and showed relevant distribution according to the dilution multiple in the plot of PCA scores. There was little improvement after normalization to either the total ion abundance or MSTUS. In the customized injection volume experiment, the urine samples derived from the same source showed ideal clustering. With total ion abundance and MSTUS normalization, the dataset was further improved in the PCA model fitting and prediction. As a result, there were more peaks with a peak area RSD of <30%, which indicated better parallelism. The diluted urine solutions had higher Spearman’s coefficient values with their sample source than those without calibration, which suggested less intra-group differences. The strategy was further validated using data from a metabolomic study of children with congenital hydronephrosis and healthy controls. As a concentration estimator, osmolality showed better linear correlation with the mass signal and was less influenced by physiological or pathological factors, thus obtaining broader application and more accurate results than creatinine. The concentration variability was effectively eliminated after customized dilution calibration and showed a more obvious clustering effect in the PCA score plot. The OPLS-DA-based statistical model used to identify discriminate metabolites was improved, with less chance of overfitting. In conclusion, the calibration strategy based on osmolality combined with total ion abundance or MSTUS normalization significantly overcame the problem of urine concentration variability, eliminated intra-group differences, and possessed better parallelism, thus giving better clustering effects in PCA or OPLS-DA and higher reliability of the statistical model. The results of this study provide guidance and a reference for future metabolomic studies on urine.

PMID:34227759 | DOI:10.3724/SP.J.1123.2020.06018

J Assoc Physicians India. 2021 Jan;69(1):56-60.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Stroke is the second leading cause of death and third most common cause of disability-adjusted life years in the world. Atherosclerosis plays a key role in the pathogenesis of stroke and inflammation is central in the initiation, progression and complications of atherosclerosis by mediating every stage of atheroma development. High platelet counts may increase thrombocyte activation and aggravate the release of inflammatory mediators. In contrast, lymphocytes exert anti-inflammatory response in atherosclerosis development. The advantage of platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is that it reflects the condition of both inflammation and thrombosis pathways and is more valuable than either platelet or lymphocyte counts alone. This emerging marker has not been frequently studied with acute ischemic stroke; hence aim of the present study was to find out the role of PLR (Platelet to lymphocyte ratio) in patients of acute ischemic stroke and correlating with NIHSS for predicting the prognosis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: 100 cases of AIS and equal number of age and gender matched control were enrolled in the study. NIHSS score and PLR (from the CBC test) was calculated both at admission and on day 7 or discharge.

RESULTS: Maximum subjects in our study were in the age range of 61-70 years with males (69%) outnumbering females (31%). Incidence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, smoking and alcoholism was more in the cases than controls. Mean PLR was higher in the patients of AIS (235.98±93.92) as compared to control group (115.60±27.87) (p=0.0001). Moreover, there was statistically significant, positive correlation between PLR and NIHSS score both at admission and discharge. PLR value increased significantly from the baseline in patients who deteriorated (263.42±108.98 to 346.28±125.35; p=0.016), decreased drastically in patients who improved (242.27±75.14 to 167.19±57.91; p=0.0001) and did not change much in patients who tend to remain static (181.35±105.40 to 183.36±111.61; p=0.955).

CONCLUSION: Platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is a simple, cost effective and easily obtainable novel inflammatory marker that may help in predicting the severity of disease and prognosis in terms of functional outcome as evidenced by its increased value in patients of acute ischemic stroke as well as its linear positive correlation with NIHSS score.

PMID:34227777

J Paediatr Child Health. 2021 Jul 6. doi: 10.1111/jpc.15619. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIM: To evaluate the incidence and clinical features of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) in Turkey, following the revised Jones criteria in 2015.

METHODS: This multicentre study was designed by the Acquired Heart Diseases Working Group of the Turkish Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Association in 2016. The data during the first attack of 1103 ARF patients were collected from the paediatric cardiologists between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2016.

RESULTS: Turkey National Institute of Statistics records of 2016 were used for the determination of ARF incidence with regard to various cities and regions separately. The estimated incidence rate of ARF was 8.84/100 000 in Turkey. The ARF incidence varied considerably among different regions. The highest incidence was found in the Eastern Anatolia Region as 14.4/100 000, and the lowest incidence was found in the Black Sea Region as 3.3/100 000 (P < 0.05). Clinical carditis was the most common finding. The incidence of clinical carditis, subclinical carditis, polyarthritis, aseptic monoarthritis, polyarthralgia and Sydenham’s Chorea was 53.5%, 29.1%, 52.8%, 10.3%, 18.6% and 7.9%, respectively. The incidences of clinical carditis, subclinical carditis, polyarthritis and polyarthralgia were found to be significantly different among different regions (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The findings of this nationwide screening of ARF suggest that Turkey should be included in the moderate-risk group.

PMID:34227703 | DOI:10.1111/jpc.15619

J Cell Mol Med. 2021 Jul 6. doi: 10.1111/jcmm.16746. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Ageing is a crucial risk factor for the development of age-related cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, the molecular mechanisms of ageing and novel anti-ageing interventions need to be deeply studied. Alginate oligosaccharide (AOS) possesses high pharmacological activities and beneficial effects. Our study was undertaken to investigate whether AOS could be used as an anti-ageing drug to alleviate cardiac ageing. D-galactose (D-gal)-induced C57BL/6J ageing mice were established by subcutaneous injection of D-gal (200 mg·kg^-1 ·d^-1 ) for 8 weeks. AOS (50, 100 and 150 mg·kg^-1 ·d^-1 ) were administrated intragastrically for the last 4 weeks. As a result, AOS prevented cardiac dysfunction in D-gal-induced ageing mice, including partially preserved ejection fraction (EF%) and fractional shortening (FS%). AOS inhibited D-gal-induced up-regulation of natriuretic peptides A (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and ageing markers p53 and p21 in a dose-dependent manner. To further explore the potential mechanisms contributing to the anti-ageing protective effect of AOS, the age-related mitochondrial compromise was analysed. Our data indicated that AOS alleviated D-gal-induced cardiac ageing by improving mitochondrial biogenesis, maintaining the mitochondrial integrity and enhancing the efficient removal of impaired mitochondria. AOS also decreased the ROS production and oxidative stress status, which, in turn, further inhibiting cardiac mitochondria from being destroyed. Together, these results demonstrate that AOS may be an effective therapeutic agent to alleviate cardiac ageing.

PMID:34227740 | DOI:10.1111/jcmm.16746

Se Pu. 2021 Apr 8;39(4):376-383. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1123.2020.09015.

ABSTRACT

The ratio of stable isotopes of the elements in explosives differs depending on the raw materials obtained from different geographical sources or the production processes adopted. Hence, this ratio can be used as an important index for the comparison and trace of explosives. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS), a high-precision method for the analysis of stable isotope ratios, has evolved into a mature tool in this regard. In combination with elemental analysis, gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, etc., IRMS is widely used in food safety, environmental protection, forensic science, and other fields. IRMS also plays an important role in the comparison and trace of explosives. Since its application to distinguish trinitrotoluene (TNT) produced in different countries in 1975, IRMS has been successfully used in the analysis of various explosives. However, there is no systematic summary on the research progress on the stable isotope ratio analysis of common explosives. This paper provides a brief description of the related principle, instrumental composition, and characteristics of stable isotope ratio analysis. Methods for the stable isotope ratio analysis of common explosives such as ammonium nitrate, black powder, TNT, pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), and cyclotrimethylene trinitroamine (RDX) are reviewed. The bulk stable isotopic ratio analysis method was used in most of the studies to determine the total isotope ratio of the sample. A compound-specific isotope analysis method was also employed to determine the isotope ratio of organic explosives in a complex matrix. The reported stable isotope ratios of explosives such as ammonium nitrate, black powder, and TNT produced in different countries are summarized. The discrimination ability of the stable isotope ratio for explosives is discussed. Based on the stable isotope ratio, explosives from different sources can be distinguished effectively. By combining the results of elemental analysis with the ICP-MS results, the discrimination efficiency of different samples could be further improved. The influence of relevant factors on the isotope ratio during the production and storage of explosives are collated. There is a strong correlation between the stable isotope ratios of explosives and raw materials. The stable isotope ratios of TNT, PETN, and other explosives are related to that of nitric acid used in the production. The stable isotope ratios of nitrogen and oxygen in the explosive are relatively stable and almost unchanged within one year of production. The complexity of the environmental matrix at the explosion site and the low concentration of explosive residues make the stable isotope analysis of explosive residues challenging. However, the changes in the stable isotope ratio before and after the explosion are discussed. Since there is no information on the application of stable isotope analysis to the traceability of explosives, the paper mentions that the standardized explosive sample pretreatment, stable isotope analysis method, collection and analysis of large amounts of explosive samples, and explosive stable isotope database are the basis of explosive traceability. This paper also outlines the existing challenges in the analysis of the stable isotope ratios of explosives, including the small number of explosive samples, lack of a stable isotope explosive analysis database, and difficulty in the stable isotope analysis of explosive residues. Possible solutions to these problems are proposed, followed by suggestions for the future development of the stable isotope ratio analysis of common explosives. The suggestions include establishing an effective extraction and enrichment method for explosive residues, combining IRMS with GC or LC for analyzing explosives, establishing a comprehensive process for the analysis of the stable isotope ratios of inorganic and organic explosives, and comparison and analysis of the stable isotope analysis data using statistical methods.

PMID:34227757 | DOI:10.3724/SP.J.1123.2020.09015

Kardiol Pol. 2021 Jul 6. doi: 10.33963/KP.a2021.0054. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Low values on heart rate variability (HRV) derived parameters at resting have been used to predict cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and mortality. In this regard, short-term HRV recordings (usually from 5-min to 15-min) are increasing their popularity because data acquisition can be performed under more controlled conditions than long-term recordings (e.g., 24-h). However, different methodological aspects before, during, and after the HRV assessment could affect the quantification and the clinical interpretations of the HRV derived parameters, as well as hampers comparisons across different studies. Here, we summarize these methodological aspects that should be considered in both the research and the clinical settings. These are: 1) the validity and reproducibility of the device used to assess the HRV; 2) the influence of the software used to perform the artefact correction; 3) previous conditions before the testing day; 4) establish the proper conditions during the HRV assessment (e.g., controlled respiratory frequency); 5) after assessing the HRV, consider the “best” data selection and statistical analyses approach; and, 6) the role of the heart rate on the associations between the different CVD risk factors outcomes (e.g., cardiorespiratory fitness) and the HRV derived parameters.

PMID:34227676 | DOI:10.33963/KP.a2021.0054

Epilepsia. 2021 Jul 6. doi: 10.1111/epi.16981. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We aimed to explore brain area(s) involved in the generation of ictal asystole (IA) by analyzing the interictal positron emission tomography (PET) metabolism of patients with IA recorded by video-electroencephalography or video-stereo-electroencephalography. We identified in our cohort of focal epilepsy patients who had undergone presurgical evaluation those who had a recorded period of IA of more than 3 s. We investigated the anatomometabolic changes (interictal ¹⁸ F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET) of these patients in comparison with (1) healthy subjects with similar age and sex distribution (n = 19) using whole-brain voxel-based analysis (p-voxel < .001, p-cluster < .05, uncorrected) and (2) patients without IA with similar age and seizure onset zone (n = 55). We found 12 patients with IA. Epilepsy was mainly temporal (four right temporal mesial, four bitemporal, two left temporal lateral, one right temporal lateral, and one right temporal “plus”). Seven patients had negative magnetic resonance imaging. Whole-brain statistical analysis of PET imaging was performed at the voxel level, showing that in comparison to healthy subjects and to epileptic patients without IA, a hypometabolism in the right posterior insula characterized epileptic patients with IA. Our study suggests involvement of the right posterior insula-a part of the central autonomic network-in the pathophysiological mechanism of IA.

PMID:34227678 | DOI:10.1111/epi.16981

Br J Surg. 2021 Jul 6:znab234. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znab234. Online ahead of print.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:34227652 | DOI:10.1093/bjs/znab234