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Objective To explore the effect of ambient music on sleep quality and cognitive function of college students with neurotic personality tendency. Methods Thirty college students with neurotic personality tendency who majored in clinical medicine and had sleep problems with Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) ≥8 were recruited from a medical university during October 2021 and January 2022. They were randomly assigned into the control and test groups (n=15). The test group received a 30-minute ambient music intervention via a Bluetooth music box before bedtime, and the control group had no music playing in the Bluetooth music box. Both groups were intervened for 2 d. The parameters of sleep quality, including sleep onset latency (SOL), total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), rapid eye movement (REM), non-rapid eye movement (NREM), and the indicators in cognitive function, such as fatigue induction paradigm, attention network test (ANT), N-back paradigm, were compared pre- and post-intervention in both groups. Results Compared to the control group, the SOL of NREM (N1), N2 and N3 [4.000 (3.000, 6.000) vs 10.000 (7.500, 12.000), P=0.003; 6.000 (5.500, 9.000) vs 12.500 (9.500, 17.500), P=0.006; 16.000 (13.000, 19.500) vs 34.500 (22.000, 46.000), P=0.002] were significantly shorter, and the total N3 duration (109.433±27.281 vs 85.233±23.426, P=0.018) was obviously longer in the test group. In terms of cognitive function, statistically higher ANT correct rate (98.333±1.247 vs 96.154± 2.851, P=0.016) was observed in the test group. Conclusion Ambient music can improve the sleep quality of college students with neurotic personality tendency by shortening SOL and prolonging total N3 duration, and then enhances their concentration levels.

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) patients are prone to stroke and peripheral arterial embolism. Studying the pathogenesis of thrombosis formation in AF and providing effective interventions to reduce the risk is an important direction of clinical and basic research on AF. Objective To investigate the correlation of markers of inflammation and endothelial injury with thrombosis in the left atrium (LA) in AF patients. Methods Twenty-nine patients with valvular heart disease and 10 patients with coronary heart disease who underwent thoracotomy at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from July 2017 to December 2019 were selected, and divided into sinus rhythm group (15 cases) and AF group 〔24 cases, including 12 with left atrial appendage thrombus (LAAT), and 12 without LAAT〕 according to heart rhythm. General demographics were collected. Besides that, other data were also collected, including left atrial diameter (LAD) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), levels of protein kinase B (AKT), nuclear factor-κ B (NF-κ B), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8, tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), endothelin-1 (ET-1), nitric oxide (NO), von Willebrand factor (VWF), intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion factor (VCAM-1) in the left atrial blood sample, and calculated thrombus area in patients with AF and LAAT. The relationships of LAD, LVEF, markers of inflammation and endothelial injury with calculated area of thrombus in AF with LAAT patients were analyzed by Pearson correlation. Results There were significant differences in LAD and LVEF between sinus rhythm patients and AF patients with or without LAAT (P0.05). AF patients without LAAT had higher levels of AKT, NF-κB, IL-8, ET-1, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 and lower NO level in left atrium than patients with sinus rhythm (P0.05). The maximum area, minimum area, and average area of the left atrial appendage thrombus in AF patients with LAAT were 4.8 cm2, 1.67 cm2, and (3.48±0.83) cm2, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed LAD, LVEF, AKT, NF-κB, hs-CRP, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, ET-1, NO, vWF, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 had no linear correlation with the area of thrombus in AF patients with LAAT (P>0.05) . Conclusion Increased levels of markers of inflammation and endothelial injury in left atrium were found in AF patients, which were even more higher when the patients also had LAAT. Detecting the markers of inflammation and endothelial injury in left atrium is helpful to evaluate the thrombus prevalence in AF patients.