Medicine
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The effectiveness of thoracoscopic biopsy as a diagnostic method for pleural diseases has been reported; however, obtaining a sufficient specimen size is sometimes difficult. Therefore, an ancillary technique, the precut technique using an injection needle, was devised to address this problem. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the novel precut technique in patients with undiagnosed pleural effusion. ⋯ The average major axis of the biopsy specimens was 18 mm (range, 10-30 mm), which was sufficient to establish a pathological diagnosis. Only 1 patient experienced minor temporal bleeding as a complication. The precut technique enabled the procurement of specimens sufficient in size for pleural biopsy.
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Qiju Dihuang pill is one of the common Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat ophthalmic diseases. In vivo studies have suggested that Qiju Dihuang pill can be used for treating glaucoma, and it can also be used clinically to treat cataract patients. However, the bioactive ingredients and the therapeutic mechanism of Qiju Dihuang pill on treating these ophthalmic diseases remained unclear. ⋯ In final, a molecular docking model was constructed to study the interaction mechanism between active components and drug targets at the molecular level. All the findings show that Qiju Dihuang pill achieves therapeutic effects on treating ophthalmic diseases by regulating the crucial targets of the compounds in it. This work not only provides insight into the therapeutic mechanism of herbal medicine in the treatment of ophthalmic diseases from a multiscale perspective, but also offers an effective approach for drug discovery and development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
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Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is one of the most common forms of head and neck cancers. However, few studies have focused on the correlation between competing endogenous RNA (ceRNAs) and immune cells in LSCC. ⋯ In this study, we found that some key genes (SLC35C1, CLDN23, HOXB7, STC2, TMEM158, TNFRSF4, TUBB3) and immune cells (plasma cells) may correspond to the prognosis of LSCC.
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Hydration of fat-free mass (FFM), defined as the ratio of total body water (TBW) to FFM (TBW/FFM), is stable at 0.739 in adult mammals. However, an increase in the TBW/FFM ratio is common in hemodialysis (HD) patients. This study aimed to evaluate the determinants of TBW/FFM and investigate its predictive value for the prognosis of all-cause mortality in HD patients. ⋯ We calculated the ROC curve (AUC) of TBW/FFM, ECW, ECW/TBW, and intracellular water (ICW) to compare the discriminatory capacities of these parameters in predicting 180-day mortality. The AUC for TBW/FFM (AUC = 0.849; 95% CI, 0.745-0.953) exhibited better discriminatory potential than ECW (AUC = 0.562; 0.410-0.714), although it had a similar predictive potential as the ECW/TBW ratio (AUC = 0.831; 0.731-0.932). High TBW/FFM can be used as a valuable prognostic index for predicting all-cause mortality in patients on HD.
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Ferroptosis is the process of cell death dependent on iron. Growing evidence suggests that ferroptosis plays vital roles in the biological process of many cancers. However, just a small number of ferroptosis-related lncRNAs have been explored in depth. ⋯ Moreover, an independent factors-based nomogram model could offer the quantitative prediction and net benefit for the recurrence of BC patients. Finally, the microenvironment, including tumor mutational burden (TMB), immune cell functions and immune checkpoints, showed big differences between the 2 groups. The 5 ferroptosis-related lncRNAs and their signature might be novel promising biomarkers and immunotherapy targets for patients with BC.