Medicine
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Observational Study
Evaluation of elderly patients with bacteremia in the cardiology intensive care unit.
In this study, the blood culture results of patients aged >65 years who were admitted to the cardiology intensive care unit in a training and research hospital and who had positive blood cultures within the first 48 hours were evaluated. This was a retrospective, observational and nonrandomized study. Patient data at the time of the blood culture were included in the study. ⋯ The most common gram-positive cocci in those died were Staphylococcus hominis (15.6%), Staphylococcus epidermis (14.8%), Enterococcus faecium (9.6%). The most common gram-negative cocci were Escherichia coli (9.6%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (9.6%), Acinetobacter baummanii (1.6%). With an increase in the elderly population, infection management in elderly patients hospitalized in cardiology intensive care units has become increasingly critical.
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Observational Study
AMPK down-regulating Beclin-1 in prostate cancer patients with bone metastasis: An observational study.
Bone metastasis is frequently seen in patients, particularly those with prostate cancer, showing a higher hazard that deteriorates the quality of life of patients, leading to poor prognosis, which eventually causes significant mortality in prostate cancer patients. The present study investigated the mechanism of prostate cancer with bone metastasis by utilizing prostate specimens from patients. A total of 418 patients were initially enrolled for clinical analysis, including age, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, body mass index (BMI), prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and bone MRI, while pathological analysis included grade group and carcinoma of the prostate. ⋯ Finally, 46 patients with prostate cancer bone metastasis (prostate cancer patients) and 61 patients with benign prostate (control group) met the inclusion criteria. We examined the expression levels of Beclin-1 and AMPK in human prostate tissues by IHC and found that Beclin-1 levels were negatively correlated with AMPK in prostate cancer with bone metastasis (P < .05). The results of this study suggest that AMPK-Beclin-1 significantly reduces prostate cancer metastasis to the bone in human tissues.
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Previous studies have demonstrated a correlation between dietary salt intake and stroke; however, there was a lack of conclusive evidence regarding a causal connection between them. We undertook a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study to examine their potential association. The genome-wide data for dietary salt intake was sourced from genome-wide association study that involved 462,630 samples. ⋯ Neither Cochran Q test (P = .52) nor MR-Egger method (P = .48) found obvious heterogeneity; in addition, the MR pleiotropy residual sum and outliers global test (P = .52) and MR-Egger regression intercept (P = .74) also showed no pleiotropy. The result of our MR study showed that there was no direct causal relationship between dietary salt intake and stroke risk. More studies were required to further confirm the stability of this relationship and to trying applied the findings to the clinic.
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Observational Study
Vitality index predicts walking independence in patients with hip fracture: A retrospective study.
This study aimed to determine if the vitality index predicts walking independence in inpatients with hip fractures and calculate a cutoff value. This retrospective cohort study included inpatients with hip fracture (N = 133). Logistic regression analysis was performed with walking independence at discharge and vitality index as the dependent and independent variables, respectively, and age, Berg balance scale (BBS), knee extension muscle strength, and revised Hasegawa's dementia scale at admission as covariates. ⋯ The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.82, and the cutoff value of the vitality index at admission was 6.5 points (sensitivity, 78%; specificity, 83%). Our results suggest that the vitality index at admission can be used to predict walking independence in inpatients with hip fractures. In particular, the vitality index score ≥ 7 points at admission is a convenient index for predicting walking independence.
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Castleman disease, also known as Castleman syndrome, is a rare, nonmalignant lymphoproliferative disorder. The localized subtype of this disease is primarily the hyaline vascular type of Castleman disease (HVCD). Although this disease is a benign lesion, the histologic features are similar to those of some malignant lymphomas, so an accurate diagnosis of the disease is required. Lymph node hyperplasia lesions are usually diagnosed mainly by relying on biopsy histopathology, but the surgical process is time-consuming and expensive, and a part of patients usually refuse to undergo this examination method. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a convenient, rapid, minimally invasive test for surface masses, and patients often receive cytopathology results in as little as a few minutes. Currently, there are few reports on the pathological features of FNAC in HVCD, so our cytopathological experience of using FNAC for rapid diagnosis of HVCD and other diseases that need to be differentiated are described in detail to give some meaningful references to the pathologists in recognizing HVCD from a rare cytological point of view. ⋯ This case shows important cytologic features for the diagnosis of HVCD using FNAC. The FNAC results showed abundant follicular dendritic cells and transparent blood vessels, and these cytologic features recapitulate the histopathologic alterations that were seen in HVCD. So by observing these cytologic features can help us to make an accurate diagnosis of HVCD using FNAC.