[Influence of preemptive analgesia with etoricoxib on three types of pain after extraction of impacted teeth]

Objective: To evaluate the effect of preventive use of etocoxib-induced preemptive analgesia on three types of pain (wound pain, swallowing pain, mouth opening pain) after extraction of impacted teeth. Methods: In this study, 60 patients (60 teeth) with impacted mandibular third molars in Department of Jinyintan Outpatient, School of Stomatology, Wuhan University from May to October 2020 were enrolled. The patients were numbered by SPSS 21.0 and randomly divided into two groups. The odd number was included in the etocoxib group, and the even number was included in the control group, with 30 cases in each group. Patients in the two groups were given etocoxib 60 mg or placebo vitamin C 100 mg 30 min before operation. Pain at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 24 hours after tooth extraction was recorded with numeric rating scale (NRS) score. The total dose of ibuprofen rescue intake was recorded. Kaplan-Meier curves and Log-Rank analyses were used to evaluate the proportion of patients without rescue analgesic. Results: The NRS scores of wound pain, swallowing pain and mouth opening pain in the etoricoxib group were lower than those in the control group within 24 hours after tooth extraction (P<0.05). The total dose of emergency analgesics in the etoricoxib group [(0.7±0.7) dose] was lower than that in the control group [(1.4±0.9) dose] (P<0.01). The mean time between first application of analgesics was 11.5 hours in etoricoxib group and 3.5 hours in the placebo group, respectively (P<0.05). Conclusions: This study revealed that etoricoxib has a substantial preemptive analgesic effect, resulting in the reduced use of analgesics after third molar removal.

Pathological drivers of neurodegeneration in suspected non-Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology

Background

Little is known about the heterogeneous etiology of suspected non-Alzheimer’s pathophysiology (SNAP), a group of subjects with neurodegeneration in the absence of β-amyloid. Using antemortem MRI and pathological data, we investigated the etiology of SNAP and the association of neurodegenerative pathologies with structural medial temporal lobe (MTL) measures in β-amyloid-negative subjects.

Methods

Subjects with antemortem MRI and autopsy data were selected from ADNI (n=63) and the University of Pennsylvania (n=156). Pathological diagnoses and semi-quantitative scores of MTL tau, neuritic plaques, α-synuclein, and TDP-43 pathology and MTL structural MRI measures from antemortem T1-weighted MRI scans were obtained. β-amyloid status (A+/A−) was determined by CERAD score and neurodegeneration status (N+/N−) by hippocampal volume.

Results

SNAP reflects a heterogeneous group of pathological diagnoses. In ADNI, SNAP (A−N+) had significantly more neuropathological diagnoses than A+N+. In the A− group, tau pathology was associated with hippocampal, entorhinal cortex, and Brodmann area 35 volume/thickness and TDP-43 pathology with hippocampal volume.

Conclusion

SNAP had a heterogeneous profile with more mixed pathologies than A+N+. Moreover, a role for TDP-43 and tau pathology in driving MTL neurodegeneration in the absence of β-amyloid was supported.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13195-021-00835-2.

THEIA™ development, and testing of artificial intelligence-based primary triage of diabetic retinopathy screening images in New Zealand

AIM

To develop and evaluate an artificial intelligence triage system with high sensitivity for detecting referable diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy, while maintaining high specificity for non-referable disease, for clinical implementation within the New Zealand national diabetic retinopathy screening programme.

METHODS

The THEIA™ artificial intelligence system for retinopathy and maculopathy screening, was developed at Toku Eyes using routinely collected retinal screening datasets from two of the largest district health boards in Auckland, New Zealand: the Auckland District Health Board and the Counties Manukau District Health Board. All retinal images from consecutive individuals receiving retinal screening between January 2009 and December 2018 were used. Images were labelled as non-sight-threatening, potentially referable or sight-threatening for New Zealand implementation, or as referable (potentially referable + sight-threatening)/non-referable (non-sight-threatening) for global comparison.

RESULTS

Data from 32 354 unique people with diabetes (63 843 when including multiple visits) were available, of which 95-97%, 0.9-2.4% and 1.1-3.1% were categorized as non-sight-threatening, potentially referable and sight-threatening, respectively. Using the referable/non-referable categories, THEIA achieved overall sensitivity of 94% (95% CI 92-95) in the Auckland District Health Board and 95% (95% CI 92-97) in the Counties Manukau District Health Board datasets, while preserving specificity of 63% (95% CI 62-64) for the Auckland District Health Board and 61% (95% CI 60-62) for the Counties Manukau District Health Board. Implementing THEIA into a New Zealand national diabetic screening programme could significantly reduce the manual grading load.

CONCLUSION

THEIA, an artificial intelligence tool to assist in clinical decision-making, tailored to the needs of the New Zealand national diabetic screening programme, delivered high sensitivity for detecting referable retinopathy within the multi-ethnic New Zealand population with diabetes.

Transfacial lithotomy approach to intraparenchymal stones in the submandibular gland: our primary exploration

The article describes our exploration of a sialendoscopy-assisted transfacial sialolithotomy approach to intraparenchymal stones in the submandibular gland with gland preservation. Five patients with large intraparenchymal stones in the submandibular gland were included. Ultrasonography and computed tomograms (CT) were performed to locate the stones. As the large stones failed to be retrieved during endoscopy, patients were treated by a transfacial lithotomy approach with sialendoscopy. The glands were preserved in all cases. This approach can be considered an optional technique for the treatment of large intraparenchymal stones in the submandibular gland that fail to be removed during a transoral procedure.

The role of Dock2 on macrophage migration and functions during Citrobacter rodentium infection

Dedicator of cytokinesis 2 (Dock2), an atypical guanine exchange factor, is specifically expressed on immune cells and mediates cell adhesion and migration by activating Rac and regulates actin cytoskeleton remodeling. It plays a crucial role in the migration, formation of immune synapses, cell proliferation, activation of T and B lymphocytes and chemotaxis of pDCs and neutrophils. However, in-vivo physiological functions of Dock2 have been relatively seldom studied. Our previous studies showed that Dock2^-/- mice were highly susceptible to colitis induced by Citrobacter rodentium infection, and in early infection, Dock2^-/- mice had defects in macrophage migration. However, the specific roles of Dock2 in the migration and functions of macrophages are not clear. In this study, we found that the expression of chemokines such as chemokine (C-C motif) ligand (CCL)4 and CCL5 and chemokine receptors such as chemokine (C-C motif) receptor (CCR)4 and CCR5 in bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) of Dock2^-/- mice decreased after infection, which were supported by the in-vivo infection experimental results; the Transwell experiment results showed that Dock2^-/- BMDM had a defect in chemotaxis. The bacterial phagocytic and bactericidal experiment results also showed that Dock2^-/- BMDM had the defects of bacterial phagocytosis and killing. Furthermore, the adoptive transfer of wild-type BMDM alleviated the susceptibility of Dock2^-/- mice to C. rodentium infection. Our results show that Dock2 affects migration and phagocytic and bactericidal ability of macrophages by regulating the expression of chemokines, chemokine receptors and their responses to chemokine stimulation, thus playing an essential role in the host defense against enteric bacterial infection.

[Study on changes of pulmonary function in patients with pneumoconiosis in three years]

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of pulmonary function changes and its possible influencing factors in patients with pneumoconiosis. Methods: In December 2019, pneumoconiosis patients hospitalized in four departments of occupational diseases in Hunan Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Hospital from December 2015 to December 2016 were selected as subjects. Lung function including forced vital capacity (FVC) , FVC%, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) , FEV1%, forced expiratory volume in one second / forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) , diffusion capacity of the lung foe carbon monoxide% (DLCO%) 、maximal expiratory rlow 75% (MEF75%) , maximal expiratory rlow 50% (MEF50%) and maximal expiratory rlow 25% (MEF25%) were tested, and collect their age, occupation history, smoking history and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Self Rating Questionnaire (CAT) score. They were followed up after 3 years to analyze the 3-year decline rates of lung function indicators and their relationship with stage of pneumoconiosis, age, smoking index, baseline values of lung function and CAT score. Results: 265 cases were studied effectively. After 3 years, the values of 9 lung function indicators of pneumoconiosis patients were significantly lower than those of 3 years ago (P<0.05) . The decline rates of FEV1%, FEV1/FVC, MEF75%, MEF50% and MEF25% were positively correlated with the stage of pneumoconiosis (r=0.250, 0.290, 0.219, 0.280, 0.141, P<0.05) . The decline rates of FEV1% and MEF75% were positively correlated with smoking index (r=0.148, 0.152, P<0.05) . The decline rates of DLCO% and MEF25% were positively correlated with the baseline value of initial pulmonary function (r=0.276, 0.153, P<0.05) , while the decline rates of FEV1%, FEV1/FVC and MEF50% were negatively correlated with the baseline values of initial pulmonary function (r=-0.215, -0.146, -0.214, P<0.05) . The decline rates of FVC%, FEV1%, MEF75% and MEF50% were positively correlated with the changes of CAT scores (r=0.147, 0.208, 0.210, 0.196, P<0.05) . Logistic regression analysis showed that old age and high initial value of DLCO% were the risk factor for the decline of DLCO% (OR=1.105、1.078, P<0.05) .High smoking index was the risk factors for the decline of MEF75% (OR=1.016, P<0.05) . High stage and the increase of CAT score were the risk factors for the decline of MEF50% (OR=1.548, 1.162, P<0.05) . High initial value of MEF25% was the risk factor for the decline of MEF25% (OR=1.010, P<0.05) . Conclusion: The pulmonary function index of pneumoconiosis patients declined significantly in 3 years. The stage of pneumoconiosis, age, smoking index and degree of pulmonary function damage were related to the decline rate of pulmonary function.

Diffusion-tensor imaging for differentiating uterine sarcoma from degenerative uterine fibroids

AIM

To explore the applicability of diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) sequence quantitative parameters in differentiating uterine sarcoma (USr) from degenerative uterine fibroids (DUF).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Fourteen cases of USr and 30 cases of DUF were analysed retrospectively. The diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and DTI images were analysed by two observers using Functool software on a ADW4.6 workstation. The images were post-processed to generate an apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map of DWI, ADC map of DTI (ADC^T map), and fractional anisotropy (FA) map. Three regions of interest (ROI) were selected from the ADC, ADC^T, and FA maps to obtain the ADC, ADC^T, and FA values. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of all parameters were used to analyse and compare the diagnostic value of USr and DUF.

RESULTS

The ADC value, ADC^T value, and FA value of USr (1.190 ± 0.262 × 10^-3mm²/s, 1.165 ± 0.270 × 10^-9mm²/s, 0.168 ± 0.063) were significantly lower compared to the values for DUF (1.525 ± 0.314 × 10^-3mm²/s, 1.650 ± 0.332 × 10^-9mm²/s, 0.254 ± 0.111; all p<0.001). The diagnostic threshold values for USr were: ADC ≤1.290 × 10^-3mm²/s, ADC^T ≤1.322 × 10^-9mm²/s and FA ≤0.192. The corresponding sensitivities and specificities were 78.6%/90%, 96.7%/92.9%, and 86.7%/85.7%, respectively. The areas under the curve (AUC) were 0.875, 0.974, and 0.831, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

DTI quantitative parameters can be used to differentiate USr from DUF. The ADC^T value had the highest diagnostic efficacy.

First-Principles Study of Anharmonic Lattice Dynamics in Low Thermal Conductivity AgCrSe_{2}: Evidence for a Large Resonant Four-Phonon Scattering

We report a study of the anharmonic lattice dynamics in low lattice thermal conductivity (κ_{l}) material AgCrSe_{2} by many-body perturbation theory. We demonstrate surprisingly giant four-phonon scattering exclusive for the heat-carrying transverse acoustic phonons due to large quartic anharmonicity and nondispersive phonon band structure, which lead to four-phonon Fermi resonance and breaks the classical τ^{-1}∼ω^{m}T^{n} relation for phonon-phonon interactions. This strong resonant scattering extends over the Brillouin zone and substantially suppresses the thermal transport, even down to a low temperature of 100 K. The present results provide fundamental insights into the four-phonon resonant dynamics in the low-κ_{l} system with flat phonon dispersions, i.e., cuprous halides and skutterudites.

A single-center validation of the effectiveness in Obstructive Sleep Apnea screening with a photoplethysmography-based smart device

Background

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the most common upper-airway disease, is closely associated with cardiovascular risk. However, the early detection of OSA is challenging, relying on polysomnography (PSG) or portable monitor (PM) in hospitals. A novel technology, photoplethysmography (PPG), has been developed for OSA screening. But there has been limited validation of PPG-based smart devices compared to PSG or PM.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility and verify the validity of PPG-based smart devices in the detection of OSA in real-world settings.

Methods

A total of 119 consecutive outpatients, were recruited from the Chinese PLA General Hospital from Sep 29 to Nov 10, 2019. Participants were simultaneously tested with a smart watch, and PSG or PM for a whole night sleep.

Results

In all, 102 patients (48.5±13.7 years old, female 23.5%) were into the final analysis after excluding 17 patients with poor quality of PPG signals. Among them, 83 patients (81.3%) were diagnosed with OSA. Compared to PM, the corresponding accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of PPG-based smart device in predicting moderate to severe OSA patients ( Apnea Hypopnea Index, AHI ≥15) were 87.9% (95% Confidential Interval, CI: 78.8%–94.1%), 89.7% (95% CI: 75.8%–97.1%) and 86.0% (95% CI: 72.1%–94.7%), respectively. Compared to PSG, the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity in predicting all the sleep apnea patients (AHI ≥5) were 81.1% (95% CI: 72.1%–88.2%), 76.5% (95% CI: 50.1%–93.2%) and 100% (95% CI: 29.2%–100%), respectively. Moreover, for moderate to severe OSA patients (AHI ≥15), the predictive ability of PPG-based smart device in OSA was of no significant difference compared to PM (P=0.75) or PSG (P=0.52).

Conclusions

The PPG-based smart device demonstrated good performance in detecting OSA. Nevertheless, it requires further validation in a large-scale population on screening OSA.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding source: None

Quality assessment of randomized controlled trial abstracts on drug therapy of periodontal disease from the abstracts published in dental Science Citation Indexed journals in the last ten years

Background

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) provide the highest level of evidence and are likely to influence clinical decision-making. This study evaluated the reporting quality of RCT abstracts on drug therapy of periodontal disease and assessed the associated factors.

Material and Methods

The Pubmed database was searched for periodontal RCTs published in Science Citation Indexed (SCI) dental journals from 2010/01/01 to 2019/07/17. Information was extracted from the abstracts according to a modified Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guideline checklist. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis and the statistical associations were examined using the linear regression analysis (P <0.05).

Results

This study retrieved 1715 articles and 249 of them were finally included. The average overall CONSORT score was 15.6 ± 3.4, which represented 40.9% (±0.6) of CONSORT criteria filling. The reporting rate of some items (trial design, numbers analyzed, confidence intervals, intention-to-treat analysis or per-protocol analysis, harms, registration) was less than 30%. The adequate reporting rate of some items (participants, randomization, numbers analyzed, confidence intervals, intention-to-treat analysis or per protocol analysis) was no more than 4%. None of the abstracts reported funding. According to the multivariable linear regression results, number of authors (P=0.030), word count (P <0.001), continent (P=0.003), structured format (P <0.001), type of periodontal disease (P <0.001) and international collaboration (P=0.023) have a significant association with reporting quality.

Conclusions

The quality of RCT abstracts on drug therapy of periodontal disease in SCI dental journals remained suboptimal. More efforts should be made to improve RCT abstracts reporting quality.

Key words:Abstracts, RCT, drug therapy, periodontal disease, CONSORT, reporting quality assessment.

Abstract CT401: The experience of treating patients with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic in China

Background: Cancer patients are regarded as highly vulnerable group in the current SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic. Up to date, the clinical characteristics of cancer patients with COVID-19 are largely unknown.

Patients and methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we collected and analyzed data of the cancer patients with y confirmed COVID-19 infection from three designated hospitals in Wuhan, China from Jan 13, 2020, to Feb 26, 2020. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the risk factors associated with severe events defined as a condition that admission to an intensive care unit, the use of mechanical ventilation, or death. We also followed 124 cancer patients with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) and their families for their infection rate and clinical outcome.

Results: Twenty-eight COVID-19 infected cancer patients were included with median age of 65.0 years (IQR:56.0-70.0) and male gender of 60.7% (17/28). Amount of these 28 patients, 7 (25%) had lung cancer, and 8 (28.6%) were considered to be infected via hospital-associated transmission. Fifteen (53.6%) patients had severe events with the mortality rate of 28.6%. The last anti-tumor treatment within 14 days from the diagnoses of COVID significant increased risk of developing severe events (HR=4.079, 95%CI 1.086-15.322, P=0.037). The common chest CT findings were ground-glass opacity (21, 75.0%) and patchy consolidation (13, 46.3%). The patchy consolidation on CT had a higher risk for developing severe events (HR=5.438, 95%CI 1.498-19.748, P=0.010). There was only one patient (1/124, 0.8%) who have been on ICI treatment for his metastatic HCC confirmed with COVID infection, and with mild clinic presentation and a short hospital course.

Conclusions: Cancer patients showed aggressive presentation and poor outcomes with the COVID-19 infection. It is recommended that vigorous screening for COVID-19 infection should be performed for cancer patients with anti-tumor. From our limited data, there is no evidence to suggest difference in cancer patients on ICI treatment.

Citation Format: Li Zhang, F Zhu, L Xie, C Wang, J Wang, R Chen, P Jia, H Q. Guan, L Peng, P Peng, P Zhang, Q Chu, Q Shen, Y Wang, S Y. Xu, J P. Zhao, M Zhou, Y Chen. The experience of treating patients with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic in China [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr CT401.

Sleep disturbances among medical workers during the outbreak of COVID-2019

Background

The outbreak of Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) has posed unprecedented pressure and threats to healthcare workers in Wuhan and the entire country.

Aims

To assess the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on the sleep quality of healthcare workers in a children’s healthcare centre in Wuhan.

Methods

A cross-sectional, anonymized, self-reported questionnaire survey was conducted at the Children’s Healthcare Centre of Renmin Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China. The questionnaire consisted of three parts, including socio-demographic characteristics and COVID-19 epidemic-related factors, the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), and Zung’s self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS).

Results

In total, 47 out of 123 (38%) participants with PSQI scores > 7 were identified as having sleep disturbance. A logistic regression analysis showed that sleep disturbance was independently associated with being an only child (adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.40 (1.21–9.57), P < 0.05), exposure to COVID-19 patients (adjusted OR and 95% CI 2.97 (1.08–8.18), P < 0.05) and depression (adjusted OR and 95% CI 2.83 (1.10–7.27), P < 0.05).

Conclusions

We observed that, during the outbreak of COVID-19, sleep disturbance was highly prevalent among paediatric healthcare workers, and sleep disturbance was independently associated with being an only child, exposure to COVID-19 patients and depression. Therefore, more mental health services are required for front-line paediatric healthcare workers in Wuhan.

Suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 inhibits the maturation of dendritic cells involving the nuclear factor kappa B signaling pathway in the glioma microenvironment

Recurrence and diffuse infiltration challenge traditional therapeutic strategies for malignant glioma. Immunotherapy appears to be a promising approach to obtain long-term survival. Dendritic cells (DCs), the most specialized and potent antigen-presenting cells (APCs), play an important part in initiating and amplifying both the innate and adaptive immune responses against cancer cells. However, cancer cells can escape from immune surveillance by inhibiting maturation of DCs. Until the present, molecular mechanisms of maturation inhibition of DCs in the tumor microenvironment (TME) have not been fully revealed. Our study showed that pretreatment with tumor-conditioned medium (TCM) collected from supernatant of primary glioma cells significantly suppressed the maturation of DCs. TCM pretreatment significantly changed the morphology of DCs, TCM decreased the expression levels of CD80, CD83, CD86 and interleukin (IL)-12p70, while it increased the expression levels of IL-10, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and IL-6. RNA-Seq showed that TCM pretreatment significantly increased the gene expression level of suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) in DCs. suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) knock-down significantly antagonized the maturation inhibition of DCs by TCM, which was demonstrated by the restoration of maturation markers. TCM pretreatment also significantly suppressed T cell viability and T helper type 1 (Th1) response, and SOCS1 knock-down significantly antagonized this suppressive effect. Further, TCM pretreatment significantly suppressed p65 nuclear translocation and transcriptional activity in DCs, and SOCS1 knock-down significantly attenuated this suppressive effect. In conclusion, our research demonstrates that TCM up-regulate SOCS1 to suppress the maturation of DCs via the nuclear factor-kappa signaling pathway.

[Influencing factors on smoking cessation among outpatients from the National Central Subsidy Smoking Cessation Clinic Project, in 2015-2018]

Objective: To evaluate the effect of smoking cessation project run by the Central Subsidy Smoking Cessation Clinic and to explore the related influencing factors on smoking cessation, in order to improve related services and provide better guidance to these smoking cessation clinics. Methods: Practitioners who had been trained to run smoking cessation projects were recruited to conduct face-to-face interview with the smokers. Questionnaires were completed to provide information on related psychological, social and behavioral issues. In these clinics, medications were provided to the patients by the health care takers in the clinic. One month after the first visit, smoking cessation rate (self-reported, 7-day point prevalence abstinence rate at 30-day follow-up) was counted. Results: The overall smoking cessation rate (self-reported, 7-day point prevalence abstinence rate at 30-day follow-up) appeared as 34.1%. Results from the multivariate logistic regression showed that patients over the age of 60 were the ones most likely to quit smoking. Smokers who showed higher possibility of quitting would include those: not on the daily base, intend to quit within 30 days, with other diseases, or taking varenicline and bupropion. Factors as unemployment, longer history of smoking, bigger quantity of cigarettes consumption per day, dependence on nicotine and urgency on taking up the first cigarette in the early morning etc., were related to the less likelihood of giving up smoking. However, histories of cessation did not seem to affect the possibility of quitting. Conclusions: Data from self-reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence at 30-day follow-up study showed that the smoking cessation intervention programs run by the central subsidy smoking cessation clinic project had been effectively implemented. Advocacy on quit smoking at early stage seemed to have better outcomes, thus should be called for. Since medications as varenicline tartrate and bupropion hydrochloride can increase the possibility of stop smoking, we would suggest that all the hospitals which are with smoking cessation clinics be equipped with these medicines. Professional assistance provided by practitioners is of key importance to help overcome the withdrawal symptoms during the periods of cessation, on these smokers.