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BackgroundEsophageal carcinoma accompanied by a right aortic arch (RAA) is very rare. When combined with Kommerell diverticulum (KD), a right aortic arch forms a vascular ring encircling both the esophagus and trachea. Due to abnormal anatomy of the upper mediastinum, it is very difficult to dissociate the esophagus and its surrounding tissues, especially the left recurrent laryngeal nerve. Herein, we report a case of successful thoracoscopic esophagectomy in an esophageal cancer patient concurrent with a RAA and KD.Case presentationA 62-year-old male patient was diagnosed with esophageal squamous carcinoma in the middle esophagus at clinical stage I (cT1N0M0) according to UICC-TNM classification 8th edition. Further examinations revealed RAA and KD. Based on the three-dimensional CT (3D-CT) reconstruction, a Mckeown esophagectomy via a left thoracoscopic approach in semi-prone position was performed. During the operation, the left recurrent laryngeal nerve was accurately exposed and well protected. Postoperatively, severe complications, including anastomotic leakage and recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, were not observed. The patient was discharged 12 days after the surgery.ConclusionPreoperative 3D-CT reconstruction is useful to clarify the vascular malformation in esophageal cancer patients with RAA, and helpful to formulate a reasonable surgical approach.

Abstract To develop a nomogram prediction model capable of early identification of high-risk infective endocarditis (IE) patients. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 383 patients with IE and divided them into survival and non-survival groups according to different hospitalization outcomes. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression methods were used to screen independent risk factors affecting the survival outcome of IE, and a Nomogram prediction model was constructed by these factors. The Hosmer–Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test was applied to assess the model fit, the discrimination and calibration of the model were evaluated by plotting ROC curves and calibration curves. Advanced age, embolic symptoms, abnormal leukocyte count, low hemoglobin level and double-sided IE were associated with higher in-hospital mortality in patients with IE (P

AimThe aim of this study was to develop a nomogram based on early clinical features and treatment options for predicting in-hospital mortality in infective endocarditis (IE).MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the data of 294 patients diagnosed with IE in our hospital from June 01, 2012 to November 24, 2021, determined independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis, and established a Nomogram prediction model based on these factors. Finally, the prediction performance of nomogram is evaluated by C-index, bootstrapped-concordance index, and calibration plots.ResultsAge, abnormal leukocyte count, left-sided IE, right-sided IE, and no surgical treatment were independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality in patients with IE, and we used these independent risk factors to construct a nomogram prediction model to predict in-hospital mortality in IE. The C-index of the model was 0.878 (95% CI: 0.824–0.931), and the internal validation of the model by bootstrap validation method showed a prediction accuracy of 0.852 and a bootstrapped-concordance index of 0.53.ConclusionOur nomogram can accurately predict in-hospital mortality in IE patients and can be used for early identification of high-risk IE patients.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common benign disease of the prostate gland and is caused by benign hyperplasia of the smooth muscle cells and stromal cells in this important gland. BPH is also the most common disease underlying lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). The incidence of BPH increases with age and affects more than half of all men 50 years or older. BPH mainly exerts effects on urinary function and can seriously reduce a patient's quality of life. At present, treatment for BPH aims primarily to improve the quality of life and reduce the risk of BPH-related complications. Pharmacological therapy is recommended for moderate-to-severe cases of LUTS that are suggestive of BPH. A range of drugs is currently available to treat this condition, including α1-adrenoceptor antagonists, 5α-reductase inhibitors (5-ARIs), phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5Is), muscarinic receptor antagonists (MRAs), β3-adrenoceptor agonists, and plant extracts. Of these, the most commonly used drugs in the clinic are α1-adrenoceptor antagonists, 5-ARIs, and combination therapy. However, these drugs exert their effects via various mechanisms and are associated with adverse reactions. The purpose of this review is to provide current comprehensive perspectives on the mechanisms of action, efficacy, and adverse reactions associated with the drugs most commonly used for the treatment of BPH.

Objective: To evaluate the hemostasis and coagulation effect of Hemocoagulase Bothrops Atrox in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients undergoing transurethral bipolar plasmakinetic prostatectomy (TUPKP).Methods: This study adopted a multicenter, prospective, and real world design. BPH patients undergoing TUPKP were divided into two groups according to whether they adopted Hemocoagulase Bothrops Atrox (group B) or not (group A) during perioperative period. The electronic clinical data on every included subject, including the international prostate symptom score (IPSS) and the quality of life scale (QoL), maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax), complete blood count, coagulation screening test and adverse events, were measured and compared between the two groups.Results: Finally, 695 patients, 443 in group A and 252 in group B were included. Baseline characteristics showed no significant difference between two groups. In group A, compared with baseline, IPSS decreased 15.66 (95% CI = −16.45 to −14.87), QoL decreased 3.08 (95% CI = −3.30 to −2.87), prothrombin time prolonged 1.02 s (95% CI = 0.56 to 1.48), while white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and hemoglobin also significantly changed; white blood cells, neutrophils and platelets increased, while lymphocytes decreased by 0.14×109/L (95% CI = −0.21 to −0.08) before discharge. In group B, compared with baseline, IPSS decreased 16.12 (95% CI = −17.02 to −15.21), QoL decreased 3.32 (95% CI = −3.56 to −3.07), and white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and hemoglobin were also significantly changed, along with white blood cells and lymphocytes that tested before discharge (p < 0.01); however, prothrombin time was not significant prolonged (MD= 0.48, 95% CI = −0.05 to 1.01). When compared with group A and group B, the average hospitalization time in group A was longer than group B (p < 0.01), transfusion risk was similar in the two groups (OR = 1.582, 95% CI = 0.552 to 4.538). Parameters had no substantial difference between the two subgroups whether prostate volume was more than 80 mL or not.Conclusion: Our study indicated that Hemocoagulase Bothrops Atrox can shorten the prothrombin time, hospitalization time and is probably safe among BPH patients undergoing TUPKP, exhibiting fine hemostasis and coagulation efficacy, and would not be influenced by prostate volume.

Fundamental treatment for papillary thyroid carcinoma ( PTC) involves total or subtotal thyroidectomy. Iodine-131 (131 I) is routinely utilized to target remnant thyroid cancer and metastasis after thyroidectomy. The effectiveness of other therapeutic modalities remains unsatisfactory; thus, these patients have a poor prognosis. The manner in which the ability of 131 I uptake can be improved is vital for their prognosis. Bortezomib has been used as a re-differentiation agent for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma; however, little is reported about the role of bortezomib in thyroid cancer. To evaluate the therapeutic potential of bortezomib in a human PTC cell line, expression of paired-box 8 ( Pax8) protein was determined using Western blot in PTC, normal thyroid, and anaplastic/undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma ( ATC) cells. The expression of Pax8 protein in PTC cells pretreated with bortezomib was determined using the same method. Iodine uptake was determined using 131 I radioactivity assay. The level of Pax8 protein in normal thyroid cells was significantly higher than in PTC ( P < 0.05) and ATC cells ( P < 0.05); its expression in PTC cells was also significantly higher than in ATC cells ( P < 0.05). The PTC cells in the bortezomib-treated group showed a higher expression of Pax8 protein than the control group ( P < 0.05). These findings indicate that bortezomib can increase the expression of Pax8, but does not significantly increase the iodine uptake of PTC cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ferroptosis is a novel form of regulated cell death that involves in cancer progression. However, the role of ferroptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) remains to be elucidated. The purpose of this paper was to clarify the prognostic value of ferroptosis-related lncRNAs in PTC., Methods: The transcriptome data and clinical information were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The correlation between ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs) and lncRNA was determined using Pearson correlation analysis. Multivariate Cox regression model (P < 0.01) was performed to establish a ferroptosis-related lncRNAs risk model. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, risk curve and nomograms were then performed to assess the accuracy and clinical applicability of prognostic models. The correlations between the prognosis model and clinicopathological variables, immune and m6A were analyzed. Finally, in vitro assays were performed to verify the role of LINC00900, LINC01614 and PARAL1 on the proliferation, migration and invasion in TPC-1 and BCPAP cells, as well as the relationship between three lncRNAs and ferroptosis., Results: A five-ferroptosis-related lncRNAs (PARAL1, LINC00900, DPH6-DT, LINC01614, LPP-AS2) risk model was constructed. Based on the risk score, samples were divided into the high- and low-risk groups. Patients in the low-risk group had better prognosis than those in high-risk group. Compared to traditional clinicopathological features, risk score was more accurate in predicting prognosis in patients with PTC. Additionally, the difference of immune cell, function and checkpoints was observed between two groups. Moreover, experiments showed that LINC00900 promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion in TPC-1 and BCPAP cells, while LINC01614 and PARAL1 revealed opposite effects, all of which were related to ferroptosis., Conclusions: In summary, we identified a five-ferroptosis-related lncRNAs risk model to predict the prognosis of PTC. Furthermore, our study also revealed that LINC00900 functioned as a tumor suppressor lncRNA, LINC01614 and PARAL1 as an oncogenic lncRNA in PTC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to declare., (Copyright 2024, Zhao et al.)

Lymph node metastases (LNM) are an indicator for recurrence in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients. However, prophylactic neck dissection (ND) cannot improve survival or recurrence rate because of increased surgical complications and occult LNM. Biomarkers are needed for the prediction of high-risk of LNM to avoid unnecessary operation and reduce the missed malignant lymph nodules. GEO database was searched for the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between PTC patients with LNM (N1) and those without LNM (N0), transcriptional and methylation data of DEGs in THCA were examined from databases. The expression and methylation of TM4SF1 in fresh and paraffin tissues of PTC patients were examined by qRT-PCR, IHC, and MSP. TM4SF1 was the only one significantly associated with LNM. UALCAN revealed that TM4SF1 was overexpressed and hypomethylated in LNM patients. MEXPRESS presented a negative correlation between gene expression and promoter methylation of TM4SF1. DEGs were enriched in multiple pathways and the Extracellular Matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction pathway showed the greatest correlation with LNM. IHC and qRT-PCR of tissues demonstrated that the expression of TM4SF1 in the N1 group was 4.5-fold higher than that in the N0 group (p<0.05). MSP exhibited that the positive rate of aberrant promoter methylation of TM4SF1 was 8.38% in N1 and 66.7% in N0 group (p<0.05). Hyper-expression and hypomethylation of TM4SF1 are associated with lymph node metastases in PTC patients.

The purpose of our current study was to establish a long non-coding RNA(lncRNA) signature and assess its prognostic and diagnostic power in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). LncRNA expression profiles were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The key module and hub lncRNAs related to PTC were determined by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and LASSO Cox regression analyses, respectively. Functional enrichment analyses, including Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and gene set enrichment analysis were implemented to analyze the possible biological processes and signaling pathways of hub lncRNAs. Associations between key lncRNA expressions and tumor-infiltrating immune cells were identified using the TIMER website, and proportions of immune cells in high/low risk score groups were compared. Kaplan-Meier Plotter was used to evaluate the prognostic significance of hub genes in PTC. A diagnostic model was conducted with logistic regression analysis, and its diagnostic performance was assessed by calibration/receiver operating characteristic curves and principal component analysis. A nine-lncRNAs signature (SLC12A5-AS1, LINC02028, KIZ-AS1, LINC02019, LINC01877, LINC01444, LINC01176, LINC01290, and LINC00581) was established in PTC, which has significant diagnostic and prognostic power. Functional enrichment analyses elucidated the regulatory mechanism of the nine-lncRNAs signature in the development of PTC. This signature and expressions of nine hub lncRNAs were correlated with the distributions of tumor infiltrating immune cells. A diagnostic nomogram was also established for PTC. By comparing with the published models with less than or equal to nine lncRNAs, our signature showed a preferable performace for prognosis prediction. In conclusion, our present research established an innovative nine-lncRNAs signature and a six-lncRNAs nomogram that might act as a potential indicator for PTC prognosis and diagnosis, which could be conducive to the PTC treatment., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Yao, Zhao, Lv, Yang and Wang.)

Objectives: To investigate the effects of Astragaloside IV (AST) on diastolic function of rat thoracic aorta rings which was injured by microvesicles derived from hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), and the mechanism of AST., Methods: H/R-induced endothelial microvesicles (H/R-EMVs) were generated from cultured HUVECs in vitro under the condition of hypoxia for 12 hour/Reoxygenation for 4 hour, H/R-EMVs were stored in D-Hank's solution. Male Wistar rats were underwent thoracotomy, the thoracic aorta with intact endothelium were carefully removed and cut into 3~4 mm rings. The experiment was divided into six groups. H/R-EMVs group:thoracic aortic rings of rats were incubated in culture medium and treated with H/R-EMVs in a final concentration of 10 μ g/ml; different doses of AST groups:thoracic aortic rings of rats were treated with 10, 20, 40, 60 mg/L AST co-incubated with 10 μ g/ml H/R-EMVs respectively; control group were treated with the same volume of D-Hank's solution. Duration of incubation was 4 h, each group was tested in five replicate aortic rings. Effects of AST on endothelium-dependent relaxation were detected. The production of nitric oxide (NO) and the level of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), phosphorylated eNOS (p-eNOS, Ser-1177), serine/threonine kinase (Akt), phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt, Ser-473), extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK1/2) and phosphorylated ERK1/2 (p-ERK1/2, Thr202/Tyr204) of rat thoracic aortic rings were detected., Results: Ten μ g/ml H/R-EMVs could impaire the relaxation of rat thoracic aortic rings significantly ( P <0.01). Compared with H/R-EMVs group, relaxation of rat thoracic aortic rings was increased by 20, 40 and 60 mg/L AST in a concentration-dependent manner ( P <0.01), the level of NO production was also enhanced ( P <0.05, P <0.01). The level of t-eNOS, t-Akt and ERK1/2 was not changed, but the level of p-eNOS, p-Akt and p-ERK1/2 increased by the treatment with AST ( P <0.01)., Conclusions: AST could effectively ameliorate endotheliumdependent relaxation of rat thoracic aortic rings impaired by H/R-EMVs in a concentration-dependent manner, the mechanism might involve the increase in production of NO, and the protein level of p-eNOS, p-Akt and p-ERK1/2.

Background: Methylation of sodium iodide symporter promoter has been reported to increase the incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). In this meta-analysis stratified via methylation of sodium iodide symporter promoter, we evaluate the relationship between methylation of sodium iodide symporter promoter and PTC. The association between methylation with aggressiveness and metastasis potential of PTC is also discussed., Methods: We searched electronic databases for original articles and references of included studies both in English and Chinese from 1966 to 2014. Two reviewers selected the case-control study and extracted data from relevant literature independently., Results: Seven articles, including 360 cases and 268 controls, were involved in this meta-analysis. The prevalence of PTC in patients with methylated sodium iodide symporter promoter was significantly higher than those with non-methylated promoter (OR=7.36, 95% CI: 4.25-12.74, P<0.001). Stratified analysis showed that PTC patients with multiple lesions, capsule invasion and lymphatic metastasis had significantly higher rates of methylation (OR=2.22, 95% CI: 1.12-4.41, P=0.02; OR=2.14, 95% CI: 1.12-4.08, P=0.02; OR=3.56, 95% CI: 1.97-6.46, P<0.0001). But no relationship was found among the methylation of sodium iodide symporter and age, gender and size of tumor., Conclusions: The methylation of sodium iodide symporter promoter is related with PTC and its aggressive and metastatic potential. Due to the limited sample size, more clinical researches should be taken in the future.

Objective: Pemphigus is an autoimmune blistering disease of skin and mucous membranes. Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a major subtype of pemphigus, which is histologically characterized by suprabasal acantholysis. The major antigen in PV is desmosomal glycoproteins desmoglein (Dsg) 3. The autoantibodies against Dsg3 cause loss of adhesion between keratinocytes. Some PV patients also have circulating anti-Dsg1 autoantibodies. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) with recombinant Dsg3 and Dsg1 are highly sensitive and specific for detecting anti-Dsg3 and anti-Dsg1 autoantibodies in PV patients. To evaluate the role of desmosomal glycoproteins desmoglein (Dsg3) ELISA and Dsg1 ELISA for detecting anti-Dsg3 and anti-Dsg1 autoantibodies in monitoring disease activity in Pemphigus vulgaris patients., Methods: Twenty PV patients with long-term follow-up were included. We tested their serial sera with modified Dsg3 ELISA (MESACUP Desmoglein TEST "Dsg3", Medical & Biological Laboratories Co. LTD.), Dsg1 ELISA(MESACUP Desmoglein TEST "Dsg1", Medical & Biological Laboratories Co. LTD.) and indirect immunofluorescence (IIF). Then we analyzed the correlation between Dsg3 ELISA index values, Dsg1 ELISA index values, IIF titres and disease activity scores (ABSIS) along the time course., Results: There were significant correlations between Dsg3 ELISA index values, Dsg1 ELISA index values, IIF titres and disease activity scores (both skin scores and oral scores) (P<0.01) along the time course. Significant differences of Dsg3 ELISA index values, Dsg1 ELISA index values and IIF titres between active time-point group and clinical remission time-point group were also observed (P<0.01). We found that Dsg3 ELISA index values, Dsg1 ELISA index values and IIF titres fluctuated in parallel with disease activity, and ELISA index values were superior to IIF titres., Conclusion: Dsg3 ELISA index values fluctuating in parallel with disease activity are useful to monitor disease activity, predict flares or relapses and plan the schedules for tapering the drugs.