Interrelationships among abnormal P-wave axis, metabolic syndrome and its components, and mortality in US adults.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with increased rates of cardiovascular disease and mortality and is linked to abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG) parameters. We aimed to explore the relationships and interactions among MetS and its components, abnormal P-wave axis (aPWA), and mortality rates. METHODS: We analyzed data from 7526 adult participants with sinus rhythm recruited from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. MetS was classified based on the NCEP ATP III-2005 definition. aPWA included all P-wave axis outside 0-75°. The National Death Index was utilized to identify survival status. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) categorized by aPWA, MetS, and their components were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards models to investigate all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities. RESULTS: Within a median follow-up period of 20.76 years, 4686 deaths were recorded, of which 1414 were attributable to cardiovascular disease. Participants with both MetS and aPWA had higher all-cause (HR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.29-1.64, interaction P = 0.043) and cardiovascular (HR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.02-1.79, interaction P-value = 0.058) mortality rates than participants without MetS and with a normal P-wave axis. Participants with the greatest number of MetS components and aPWA had a higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR: 1.70, 95% CI: 1.13-2.55, P = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with both aPWA and MetS have a higher risk of mortality, and those with a greater number of MetS components and aPWA have a higher risk of all-cause mortality. These findings highlight the significance of integrating ECG characteristics with metabolic health status in clinical assessment.

Fisetin Prevents Angiogenesis in Diabetic Retinopathy by Downregulating VEGF.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the more serious complications of diabetes. However, the mechanisms involved in DR are complex and still need to be investigated. The beneficial effects of fisetin have been widely reported, but whether it is beneficial in DR is not clear yet. This study was designed to investigate the regulatory role of fisetin in regulating DR and explore the involved mechanism. First, 30 mM glucose was used to establish DR cell model in vitro. Cell counting kit 8 (CCK8) assay was utilized to study the effects of fisetin on cell viability through treating human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRMECs) with 25, 50, and 100 µM fisetin. Transwell and wound healing assays were used to detect the function of fisetin on the migration and angiogenesis on HG-induced HRMECs. Finally, OE-VEGF was used as a mimic of VEGF, and western blotting (WB) was used to verify the targeting genes of fisetin. HG induced an increase in cell viability, cell migration, and angiogenesis in HRMECs, whereas fisetin inhibited these enhancements induced by HG through inhibiting VEGF. In conclusion, fisetin prevents angiogenesis in DR by downregulating VEGF.

Investigation and Analysis of Influencing Factors of Moderate to Severe Pain After Uterine Artery Embolization in Patients with Cesarean Scar Pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the occurrence and influencing factors of moderate to severe pain in patients with cesarean scar pregnancy (CSP) after uterine artery embolization (UAE). METHODS: Ninety-eight patients with CSP who underwent UAE in gynecology department of the Fujian Medical University Union Hospital from January 2017 to December 2020 were enrolled, and the specialty data in patients were collected for pain assessment with the adoption of the numerical rating scale (NRS). RESULTS: Moderate to severe pain occurred in 36 patients after surgery, and the interquartile of time to the first onset of postoperative pain in patients was 3.04 (1.75, 7.40) hours. The number of pregnancies, number of miscarriages, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) before curettage, duration of medication before UAE, and hemorrhage after UAE were not significantly correlated with the occurrence of moderate to severe pain after UAE (P > 0.05). The volume of gestational sac and days of gestation were responsible for the occurrence of moderate to severe pain after UAE (P < 0.05), with the former being the main influencing factor, and these explained 8.3% of the total variance. CONCLUSION: Moderate to severe pain occurred commonly in patients with CSP undergoing UAE. In clinical care of patients with CSP who are going to undergo UAE, data concerning the volume of gestational sac and days of gestation should be considered for anticipatory pain assessment, and interventions should be implemented as early as possible to reduce the pain and improve the experience of care.

Effects of progressive muscle relaxation training on negative emotions and sleep quality in COVID-19 patients: A clinical observational study.

This study investigates the effect of progressive muscle relaxation training on negative mood and sleep quality in Coronavirus Pneumonia (COVID-19) patients.COVID-19 is an emerging infectious disease, and there is still uncertainty about when the outbreak will be contained and the effectiveness of treatments. Considering that this disease is highly contagious, patients need to be treated in isolation. This may lead to psychological symptoms such as anxiety and depression, and even sleep problems.This study is a clinical observation study.Participants included 79 COVID-19 patients admitted to a designated hospital for COVID-19 patients in Wuhan from February to March, 2020. Patients were selected and assigned to the control group and the observation group according to their wishes, with 40 and 39 cases in each group, respectively. The control group received routine treatment and nursing, and the observation group received progressive muscle relaxation training, in addition to the routine treatment and nursing. We compared scores of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Scale (PSQI), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) before and after the intervention.There was no significant difference in PSQI, GAD-7, and PHQ-9 scores between the control group and the observation group before the intervention (P > .05). After the intervention, the difference in scores of PSQI, GAD-7, and PHQ-9 in the 2 groups were statistically significant (P < .05).Progressive muscle relaxation training can significantly reduce anxiety and depression and improve sleep quality in COVID-19 patients during isolation treatment.Progressive muscle relaxation training was shown to improve the treatment effect of patients and is worthy of clinical promotion.

A Rapid Method for Antigen-Specific Hybridoma Clone Isolation.

Using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and limited dilution methods to screen and clone antigen-specific hybridoma cells is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. This work features a simple and rapid cell surface fluorescence immunosorbent assay (CSFIA), designed for the detection and isolation of antigen-specific hybridoma clones. In this assay, antigens are first anchored to the hybridoma cell surface through a dual-functioning molecular Oleyl-PEG4000-NHS. Specific antibodies secreted from hybridoma cells are then captured by the antigens on the cell surface. Positive hybridoma cells are stained using a fluorescently labeled anti-mouse IgG-Fc antibody. After the addition of a methylcellulose semisolid medium, positive clones are easily picked using a pipet. These positive cell clones can be used to produce monoclonal antibodies after direct expansion. Using this method, positive hybridoma clones against both malachite green and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus are selected with high efficiency. Compared to the ELISA-based method, the CSFIA-based method achieved the capability of isolating >2-fold more hybridoma clones in <25% of the corresponding processing time. In brief, the CSFIA-based method is highly efficient and inexpensive with a simple and direct operation, which is an excellent candidate method for antigen-specific positive clone isolation in a monoclonal antibody preparation.

Silver nanoprism etching-based plasmonic ELISA for the high sensitive detection of prostate-specific antigen.

Ultrasensitive and quantitative detection using simple and low-cost assays is critical in clinical diagnostics. In this report, we developed a triangular silver nanoprism (AgNPRs) etching-based plasmonic biosensor for the detection of cancer biomarkers. The triangular AgNPRs-based plasmonic biosensor is an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay combined with the enzyme-mediated surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of triangular AgNPRs. Triangular AgNPRs uses the immune response of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) to trigger the glucose oxidase (GOx)-catalysed oxidation of glucose (Glu), producing hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide acts as an oxidant to etch the triangular AgNPRs into smaller spherical silver nanoparticles, which is accompanied by a substantial blueshift of the SPR peak and a colourimetric blue-to-purple change that can be observed by the naked eye. The SPR peak shift enables the quantitative assessment of PSA due to the remarkable colour change. The triangular AgNPRs-based plasmonic ELISA approach exhibited a quasilinear response to logarithmic PSA concentrations in the range of 10fg/mL to 100pg/mL with a limit of detection (LOD) of 4.1fg/mL. In addition, the LOD of PSA in this approach exceeds that of the conventional HRP-based ELISA (1.25ng/mL) approach by more than 5 orders of magnitude. Patient serum samples from 16 donors were assayed with triangular AgNPRs-based plasmonic ELISA. The results from the triangular AgNPRs-based immunoassay and the time-resolved fluorescence immunoassay showed excellent correlation, and there were no significant differences in the quantified amounts of PSA. The triangular AgNPRs-based plasmonic ELISA approach has advantages (ultrasensitive, cost-effective, ease of operation) that are expected to be of great interest in diagnostics and to be suitable for a point-of-care test.

Silver nanoparticle enhanced Raman scattering-based lateral flow immunoassays for ultra-sensitive detection of the heavy metal chromium.

We report a simple and ultra-sensitive surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) strip sensor based on silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs). LFIAs are inexpensive, simple, portable and robust, thus making them commonplace in medicine, agriculture and food safety. However, their applications are limited due to the low signal intensity of the color-formation reaction based on the label accumulation. SERS is a powerful molecular spectroscopy technique for ultra-detection, which is based on the enhancement of the inelastic scattering from molecules located near nanostructured metallic surfaces when the molecules are illuminated and the surface plasmons are excited. Because of the rapidity and robustness of LFIAs and the high sensitivity of SERS, we introduce SERS into LFIAs (SERS-LFIA). Our SERS-LFIA demonstrates fast, excellent performance and is suitable for the semiquantitative examination of ultratrace analytes (Cr(3+)), with the limit of the detection (LOD) as low as 10(-5) ng mL(-1), which is 10(5)-fold more highly sensitive than those previously used to detect Cr(3+) within 15 min.