Int J Med Sci
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Background: COVID-19 is known to disrupt immune response and induce hyperinflammation that could potentially induce fatal outcome of the disease. Until now, it is known that interplay among cytokines is rather important for clinical presentation and outcome of COVID-19. The aim of this study was to determine transcriptional activity and functional phenotype of T cells and the relationship between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and clinical parameters of COVID-19 severity. ⋯ Analyses of T cells subsets indicate a noticeable phenotype change. CD4+, but not CD8+ T cells expressed increased transcriptional activity through increased expression of Tbet and RORγT, accompanied with increased percentage of IFN-γ and IL-17 producing T cells. Conclusion: Our results pose a novel hypothesis of the underlying mechanism behind deteriorating immune response in severe cases of COVID-19.
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Objectives: Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a widely used clinical parameter recently deployed in predicting various cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of RDW in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 745 patients with HBV-related HCC, 253 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and 256 healthy individuals to compare their hematological parameters and analyze their RDW levels. ⋯ Finally, we successfully generated a nomogram incorporating RDW and validated its predictive ability. Conclusions: RDW is a potentially valuable hematological marker for predicting the survival and prognosis of patients with HBV-related HCC. The nomogram incorporating RDW can be used as an effective tool to plan the individualized treatment of such patients.
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Objectives: To investigate the effect of thermal pulsation treatment on meibomian gland function, ocular parameters and tear inflammatory cytokines compared with the warm compress group. Methods: Twenty-five participants with MGD underwent a 12-minute thermal pulsation treatment, while 25 participants with MGD underwent manual warm compress treatment. MGD related parameters, including meibomian gland function (MGE, MQ and lid margin), tear stability (NIKBUT, FBUT and LLT), tear secretion (SIT, and TMH), were examined and OSDI questionnaire was also obtained. ⋯ IP-10 was positively correlated with MQ (r = 0.522, *p = 0.037) and negatively correlated with tear stability (r = -0.613, **p = 0.002), and OSDI was only positively correlated with IL-8 (r = 0.679, ***p < 0.001). The decrease of MIG was positively correlated with less corneal epithelium injury (r = 0.557, **p = 0.006) and meibograde (r = 0.49, *p = 0.019). Conclusions: Thermal pulsation treatment obviously improved MGD probably by attenuating tear CXCL chemokines in ocular surface of MGD patients, which demonstrated an efficacy and well-tolerated therapy in clinical.
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The downregulation of WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (WWOX), a tumor suppressor gene, is associated with the tumorigenesis and poor prognosis of various cancers. In this study, we investigated the associations between the polymorphisms of WWOX, clinicopathologic features of prostate cancer (PCa), and risk of postoperative biochemical recurrence (BCR). We evaluated the effects of five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of WWOX on the clinicopathologic features of 578 patients with PCa. ⋯ Furthermore, patients with at least one polymorphic "T" allele in WWOX rs11545028 had an elevated (1.504-fold) risk of PCa with seminal vesicle invasion. In patients with postoperative BCR, the risks of an advanced Gleason grade and clinical metastasis were 3.317- and 5.259-fold higher in patients carrying at least one "G" allele in WWOX rs3764340 than in other patients. Our findings indicate the WWOX SNPs are significantly associated with highly aggressive pathologic features of PCa and an elevated risk of post-RP biochemical recurrence.
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Introduction: Dysphagia-associated pneumonia is a critical health issue especially in the elders and stroke patients which carries a poorer prognosis. Therefore, we aim to identify methods with the potentials to predict subsequent pneumonia in dysphagia patients, which will be of great value in the prevention and early management of pneumonia. Methods: One-hundred dysphagia patients were enrolled and measurements including Dysphagia Severity Scale (DSS), Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS), Ohkuma Questionnaire, and Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10) were assessed by either videofluoroscopy (VF), videoendoscopy (VE), or the study nurse. ⋯ Conclusions: Dysphagia severity evaluated by VE-DSS, VE-FOIS, VF-FOIS, Ohkuma Questionnaire, and EAT-10 is not associated with subsequent pneumonia. Only VF-DSS is associated with both short-term and long-term subsequent pneumonia. In patients with dysphagia, VF-DSS is predictive of subsequent pneumonia.