Prognostic value of PaO2/FiO2, SOFA and D-dimer in elderly patients with sepsis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognostic value for predicting mortality of partial pressure of oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen (PaO2/FiO2), the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score and D-dimer in elderly patients with sepsis. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study enrolled elderly patients with sepsis admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) between January 2019 and October 2020. Patients were divided into a survival group and a non-survival group. Biomarkers, SOFA, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II and Glasgow Coma Scale scores were recorded within 24 h after admission to the ICU. RESULTS: A total of 135 elderly patients with sepsis were enrolled in the study: 89 were in the survival group and 46 were in the non-survival group at 28 days. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses demonstrated that PaO2/FiO2, SOFA and D-dimer were independently associated with 28-day mortality. The predictive performance for mortality of the combination of PaO2/FiO2, SOFA score and D-dimer (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.926) was higher than the values for the individual factors (0.761, 0.745 and 0.878, respectively). CONCLUSION: The combination of PaO2/FiO2, SOFA score and D-dimer represents a promising tool and biomarker for predicting 28-day mortality of the elderly patients with sepsis.

[Accumulation of Cd in Different Crops and Screening of Low-Cd Accumulation Cultivars].

Pot-culture experiments were carried out in Shanghai to screen crop varieties with low bioaccumulation properties with respect to cadmium (Cd). Eight common crops, such as green pepper, cucumber, cowpea, spinach, cauliflower, tomatoes, rice, and wheat, were planted in contaminated soil with different Cd concentrations of 0.23, 0.6, 1.2, 1.8, 2.4, and 3.0 mg·kg-1 to investigate the effects on biomass, Cd accumulation characteristics, and edible risk safety. The results indicated that:① With the increase in soil Cd content, the aboveground biomass of crops increased firstly and then decreased. The different crop types had different tolerance to Cd, with green pepper showed the strongest tolerance and spinach and tomato showed the least tolerance. ② The bioaccumulation factor of Cd in the edible parts of eight crops ranged in order of wheat > spinach > rice > green pepper > cauliflower > tomato > cucumber > cowpea. ③ Total Cd content in soil was significantly correlated with Cd content in the crops (P<0.05), and the order of the correlation coefficients was spinach > wheat > tomato > cucumber > green pepper > rice > cauliflower > cowpea. ④ The risk threshold value of Cd in soil based on the edible safety of different crops ranged in order of cowpea > cucumber > cauliflower > green pepper > tomato > rice > spinach > wheat. Cucumber, cowpea, and cauliflower were selected as the low-Cd-accumulating varieties according to their tolerance to soil Cd, bioaccumulation capacity, and edible risk threshold values.

Toll-like receptor 4 knockout protects against isoproterenol-induced cardiac fibrosis: the role of autophagy.

BACKGROUND: Toll-like receptor 4 participates in the process of acute heart injury. The underlying mechanisms of its protection are multifactorial, but we hypothesized that toll-like receptor-mediated autophagy control plays a vital role. The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of autophagy on cardiac fibrosis. METHODS: Cardiac fibrosis was induced by subcutaneous isoproterenol (ISO) injection, and rapamycin was simultaneously administered orally for 14 days. Animal echocardiography was then used to evaluate the success of the cardiac fibrosis model, and the mice were killed after the echocardiography examination. RESULTS: Toll-like receptor 4 knockout (TLR4 KO) mice had better heart function than did wild-type (WT) mice (P < .05). Rapamycin treatment reduced the left ventricular ejection fraction to 23.5% (P < .05), and the collagen volume fraction of the ISO and ISO plus rapamycin groups was 5.9% and 25.9%, respectively, in TLR4 KO mice. Compared with the WT mice, Beclin 1 and autophagy were downregulated in TLR4 KO mice (P < .05); however, the ISO plus rapamycin group had higher autophagy activity than did the ISO group in TLR4 KO mice (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that TLR4 KO-induced cardioprotection against ISO-induced cardiac fibrosis is associated with reduced autophagy induction. Cardiac fibroblast autophagy participates in its own activation. The moderate inhibition of autophagic activity may be a new strategy for treating cardiac fibrosis.