Clinical characteristics of testicular torsion and factors influencing testicular salvage in children: A 12-year study in tertiary center.

BACKGROUND: Testicular torsion is the most common acute scrotum worldwide and mainly occurs in children and adolescents. Studies have demonstrated that the duration of symptoms and torsion grade lead to different outcomes in children diagnosed with testicular torsion. AIM: To predict the possibility of testicular salvage (TS) in patients with testicular torsion in a tertiary center. METHODS: We reviewed the charts of 75 pediatric patients with acute testicular torsion during a 12-year period from November 2011 to July 2023 at the Suzhou Hospital of Anhui Medical University. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine independent predictors of testicular torsion. The data included clinical findings, physical examinations, laboratory data, color Doppler ultrasound findings, operating results, age, presenting institution status, and follow-up results. RESULTS: Our study included 75 patients. TS was possible in 57.3% of all patients; testicular torsion occurred mostly in winter, and teenagers aged 11-15 years old accounted for 60%. Univariate logistic regression analyses revealed that younger age (P = 0.09), body mass index (P = 0.004), torsion angle (P = 0.013), red blood cell count (P = 0.03), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (P = 0.009), and initial presenting institution (P < 0.001) were associated with orchiectomy. In multivariate analysis, only the initial presenting institution predicted TS (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The initial presenting institution has a predictive value for predicting TS in patients with testicular torsion. Children with scrotal pain should be admitted to a tertiary hospital as soon as possible.

Pb2Cl2(HPO3)(H2O) and Pb3Br2(HPO3)2: Two Phosphite Halides with 3D Structural Networks and Enlarged Birefringence.

Compounds constructed by mixed anions are widely favorable for their diverse crystal structures and physical performances. Here, two lead phosphite halides, Pb2Cl2(HPO3)(H2O) (1) and Pb3Br2(HPO3)2 (2), were obtained by facile hydrothermal reactions. Both compounds crystallize in the space group Pnma. 1 exhibits a 3D structure composed of HPO3 units, PbCl4O3 pentagonal bipyramids, and PbO3 pyramids. 2 also shows a 3D framework built by HPO3 units, PbO2Br4 octahedron, PbO5 and PbO3Br2 square pyramids. By introducing halogen anions to the lead phosphite system, 1 and 2 show enhanced birefringences of 0.083 and 0.072 at 1064 nm, respectively, compared with 0.023@1064 nm for Pb2(HPO3)2. In this work, syntheses, crystal structures, optical properties, and theoretical calculation results have been studied in detail.

Promotion effect of FGF23 on osteopenia in congenital scoliosis through FGFr3/TNAP/OPN pathway / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

BACKGROUND@#Congenital scoliosis (CS) is a complex spinal malformation of unknown etiology with abnormal bone metabolism. Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), secreted by osteoblasts and osteocytes, can inhibit bone formation and mineralization. This research aims to investigate the relationship between CS and FGF23.@*METHODS@#We collected peripheral blood from two pairs of identical twins for methylation sequencing of the target region. FGF23 mRNA levels in the peripheral blood of CS patients and age-matched controls were measured. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were conducted to evaluate the specificity and sensitivity of FGF23. The expression levels of FGF23 and its downstream factors fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFr3)/tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP)/osteopontin (OPN) in primary osteoblasts from CS patients (CS-Ob) and controls (CT-Ob) were detected. In addition, the osteogenic abilities of FGF23-knockdown or FGF23-overexpressing Ob were examined.@*RESULTS@#DNA methylation of the FGF23 gene in CS patients was decreased compared to that of their identical twins, accompanied by increased mRNA levels. CS patients had increased peripheral blood FGF23 mRNA levels and decreased computed tomography (CT) values compared with controls. The FGF23 mRNA levels were negatively correlated with the CT value of the spine, and ROCs of FGF23 mRNA levels showed high sensitivity and specificity for CS. Additionally, significantly increased levels of FGF23, FGFr3, OPN, impaired osteogenic mineralization and lower TNAP levels were observed in CS-Ob. Moreover, FGF23 overexpression in CT-Ob increased FGFr3 and OPN levels and decreased TNAP levels, while FGF23 knockdown induced downregulation of FGFr3 and OPN but upregulation of TNAP in CS-Ob. Mineralization of CS-Ob was rescued after FGF23 knockdown.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Our results suggested increased peripheral blood FGF23 levels, decreased bone mineral density in CS patients, and a good predictive ability of CS by peripheral blood FGF23 levels. FGF23 may contribute to osteopenia in CS patients through FGFr3/TNAP / OPN pathway.

Pb5(GeO4)(Ge2O7) and Pb3.32Ca1.68(GeO4)(Ge2O7): Two Nonlinear Optical Germanates Induced by Diverse PbOx Polyhedra.

Oxide nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals have drawn wide interest for their comprehensive physical performances including wide infrared (IR) transparency ranges, large band gaps, and good stability in open air. Here, two isostructural germanate oxides, Pb5(GeO4)(Ge2O7) (1) and Pb3.32Ca1.68(GeO4)(Ge2O7) (2), adopting the noncentrosymmetric (NCS) space group P6̅, were composed via a conventional solid-state reaction. The latter was designed by the partial cation substitution strategy based on parent 1. The whole structures of 1 and 2 are composed of isolated distorted GeO4 tetrahedra, Ge2O7 dimers, and diverse M (M = Pb, Ca, or Pb/Ca)-centered polyhedra. They exhibit second-harmonic generation (SHG) responses around 3.3 and 1.4 times that of KH2PO4 (KDP) under 1.064 µm laser radiation, respectively. Theoretical calculation results reveal that the Pb2+ cations with stereo-active long pair (SCALP) electrons of 1 favor the large SHG response, while Pb-based polyhedra showing inert SCALP electrons make predominant contributions to the moderate SHG effect of 2.

Expression of CBX8 in gastric adenocarcinoma and the relationship with clinicopathologic characters and survival prognosis / 临床与实验病理学杂志

Purpose To explore the expression of CBX8 in gastric adenocarcinoma tissue and its clinical significance.Methods 119 cases of primary gastric adenocarcinoma treated by surgery and corresponding adjacent normal tissues were collected. The protein expression levels of CBX8 in gastric adenocarcinoma and their corresponding adjacent normal tissue was determined using tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry PV 6000 method staining. The relationship between CBX8 expression and clinicopathologic characters and survival prognosis was analyzed. Results The positive expression rate of CBX8 in gastric cancer and their corresponding adjacent normal tissue was 46.2％ (55/119) and 13.4％ (16/119) respectively. There was statistically significant difference between two groups (χ2=30.53, P < 0.01). The expression of CBX8 in gastric adenocarcinoma tissue was obviously correlated with the differentiation, clinical staging, and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The high expression rate of CBX8 in the poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma was lower than moderately differentiated and well differentiated group. The high expression rate of CBX8 in stage Ⅰ + Ⅱ gastric adenocarcinoma was higher than that in stage Ⅲ + Ⅳ. The gastric adenocarcinoma patients with high expression of CBX8 had low metastasis rate. Cox multivariate analysis showed CBX8, clinical staging, and lymphatic metastasis were independent predictors of overall survival and disease-free survival (P < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the patients with higher expression of CBX8 had both longer overall survival time (P = 0.004) and disease-free survival time (P =0.004). Conclusion The expression of CBX8 may be involved in the tumorigenesis and progression of gastric adenocarcinoma. CBX8 is one of the independent predictor of prognosis, and the detecting of CBX8 expression may have important clinical value for the evaluation of gastric adenocarcinoma. CBX8 may became a new target for target therapy of gastric adenocarcinoma.

Clinical and pathological features in 138 cases of drug-induced liver injury / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the categories of drugs causing hepatotoxicity and analyze the clinical and histological features of the corresponding drug-induced liver injury (DILI), in order to gain insights into potential diagnostic factors for DILI.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 138 DILI patients treated at our hospital from April 2008 to April 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. The responsible drug for each DILI case was recorded. The Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method (RUCAM) had been used to diagnose DILI. Only cases that had scored as highly probable or probable (more than or equal to 6 points by RUCAM) were included in this study. The patients' general condition, clinical manifestations, and serum biochemical and immunological parameters were assessed. Sixty-six of the patients underwent liver biopsy, and were assessed for liver pathological changes. Clinical and laboratory test data were collected and used to classify the total 138 cases as hepatocellular injury, cholestatic, or mixed hepatocellular-cholestatic types.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Within our patient population, the leading cause of DILI was Chinese herb medicine, accounting for 53.62% of cases. Antibiotics were implicated in 7.97% of cases, and dietary supplement in 6.52% of cases. Correlation between the clinical features and histological injury pattern was stronger at the time of biopsy (more than or equal to 3 days after laboratory results) (kappa = 0.63, P less than 0.05) than at the onset of DILI (kappa = 0.25, P less than 0.05). All modified hepatic activity index (HAI) necroinflammatory scores and fibrosis scores were more severe in the cholestatic and mixed injury types than in the hepatocellular injury type (P less than 0.01 and P less than 0.05, respectively).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Chinese herbal medicine, dietary supplements and antibiotics were the main causes of DILI in our patient population. The clinical and histological features correlated well, especially at later stages of DILI. The degree of inflammation and fibrosis was significantly higher in cholestatic and mixed hepatocellular-cholestatic injury types than in the hepatocellular injury type. Assessment of both clinical and pathological features may represent a more accurate diagnostic method for DILI.</p>

Evidence of selection at melanin synthesis pathway loci during silkworm domestication.

The domesticated silkworm (Bombyx mori) was domesticated from wild silkworm (Bombyx mandarina) more than 5,000 years ago. During domestication, body color between B. mandarina and B. mori changed dramatically. However, the molecular mechanism of the silkworm body color transition is not known. In the present study, we examined within- and between-species nucleotide diversity for eight silkworm melanin synthesis pathway genes, which play a key role in cuticular pigmentation of insects. Our results showed that the genetic diversity of B. mori was significantly lower than that of B. mandarina and 40.7% of the genetic diversity of wild silkworm was lost in domesticated silkworm. We also examined whether position effect exists among melanin synthesis pathway genes in B. mandarina and B. mori. We found that the upstream genes have significantly lower levels of genetic diversity than the downstream genes, supporting a functional constraint hypothesis (FCH) of metabolic pathway, that is, upstream enzymes are under greater selective constraint than downstream enzymes because upstream enzymes participate in biosynthesis of a number of metabolites. We also investigated whether some of the melanin synthesis pathway genes experienced selection during domestication. Neutrality test, coalescent simulation, as well as network and phylogenetic analyses showed that tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) gene was a domestication locus. Sequence analysis further suggested that a putative expression enhancer (Abd-B-binding site) in the intron of TH gene might be disrupted during domestication. TH is the rate-limiting enzyme of melanin synthesis pathway in insects. Real-time polymerase chain reaction assay did show that the relative expression levels of TH gene in B. mori were significantly lower than that in B. mandarina at three different developmental stages, which is consistent with light body color of domesticated silkworm relative to wild silkworm. Therefore, we speculated that expression change of TH gene may contribute to the body color transition from B. mandarina to B. mori. Our results emphasize the exceptional role of gene expression regulation in morphological transition of domesticated animals.

Chromosome characteristics of three Coptis species / 中国中药杂志

In the present paper, three Coptis species, collected from Sichuan and Chongqing, China, were used for karyotypic analyses. The results indicated that both C. chinensis and C. omeinensis were diploid with chromosome 2n = 2x = 18, and C. deltoidea was an autotriploid with chromosomes 2n = 3x = 27, which explained why this species was morphologically so isolated from other species and its sterile and narrow distributing regions. The relationship between C. chinensis and C. omeinensis based on chromosome data was discussed. The probable origin of C. deltoidea was also suggested.

Expression of EGFR, Grb2, p-mTOR and VEGF in human colorectal cancer tissues / 第二军医大学学报

Objective: To observe the expression of phosphorylated mammalian target of rapamycin(p-mTOR), epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR), growth factor receptor-bound protein 2(Grb2) and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in human colorectal cancer tissues and to explore their roles in the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer. Methods: Tissue microarray containing 185 colorectal cancer tissues was constructed and the expression of EGFR, Grb2, p-mTOR and VEGF in the colorectal cancer tissues and the corresponding adjacent tissues was examined by immunohistochemistry methods. The relationship between their expression with the clinicopathological characteristics such as age, sex, invasion depth, lymphatic metastasis, clinical stage and differentiation degree was analyzed. Results: EGFR, Grb2, p-mTOR and VEGF were scarcely expressed or absent in the corresponding adjacent tissues; their positive rates in the colorectal caner tissues were 21.1%, 44.9%, 42.2% and 54.1%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those in the corresponding adjacent tissues (P<0.05). The expression of EGFR, Grb2, p-mTOR and VEGF was not correlated with the patients' sex, age and differentiation degree of cancer. Overexpression of EGFR was found significantly associated with the invasion depth and clinical stage of cancer(P<0.05); and overexpression of p-mTOR and VEGF was significantly associated with lymphatic metastasis, invasion depth and clinical stage(P< 0.05). There was a correlation between every two of the four proteins (r=0.245-0.567, P<0.05). Conclusion: Over-expression of EGFR, Grb2, p-mTOR and VEGF is closely associated with the development and progresssion of colorectal cancer, and they may be worth further studying as new targets for the molecular target therapy of colorectal cancer.

[Early diagnosis and therapy of osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of decompresion through double-incision of foot dorsum on the treatment of osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot under the monitoring of saturation of blood oxygen. METHODS: From January 2000 to June 2007, 26 cases of osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot were decompressed through double-incision of foot dorsum under the monitoring of saturation of blood oxygen, and relaxation suture or skin grafting were operated within 3 to 10 days after decompressing. Among them, 22 patients were males and 4 were females, with an average age of 36.3 years old ranging from 22 to 68 years. According to AOFAS system, the pain, function, autonomic activities and support were evaluated. RESULTS: All patients were followed-up for from 6 to 43 months with the average of 19 months. All patients were healed. According to AOFAS system, the total scores increased from preoperative (30.4 +/- 8.02) to postoperative (92.5 +/- 5.0) (t = 3.13, P < 0.01); the results were excellent in 21 cases, good in 4 and poor in 1. CONCLUSION: The patients of fracture-dislocated, swelling and injured in the soft tissue because of severe violence should observed closely on osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot early. Feet are operated and thoroughly decompressed as soon as it is diagnosed as the compartment syndrome. Osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot decompressed by foot dorsum double-incision is convenient and satisfied, and the operation is performed by internal fixation if it is displacedly fractured at the same time.

Early diagnosis and therapy of osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot / 中国骨伤

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effects of decompresion through double-incision of foot dorsum on the treatment of osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot under the monitoring of saturation of blood oxygen.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From January 2000 to June 2007, 26 cases of osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot were decompressed through double-incision of foot dorsum under the monitoring of saturation of blood oxygen, and relaxation suture or skin grafting were operated within 3 to 10 days after decompressing. Among them, 22 patients were males and 4 were females, with an average age of 36.3 years old ranging from 22 to 68 years. According to AOFAS system, the pain, function, autonomic activities and support were evaluated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All patients were followed-up for from 6 to 43 months with the average of 19 months. All patients were healed. According to AOFAS system, the total scores increased from preoperative (30.4 +/- 8.02) to postoperative (92.5 +/- 5.0) (t = 3.13, P < 0.01); the results were excellent in 21 cases, good in 4 and poor in 1.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The patients of fracture-dislocated, swelling and injured in the soft tissue because of severe violence should observed closely on osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot early. Feet are operated and thoroughly decompressed as soon as it is diagnosed as the compartment syndrome. Osteofascial compartment syndrome of the foot decompressed by foot dorsum double-incision is convenient and satisfied, and the operation is performed by internal fixation if it is displacedly fractured at the same time.</p>