Subdural evacuating port system with subdural thrombolysis for the treatment of chronic subdural hematoma in patients older than 80 years.

Objective: The subdural evacuating port system (SEPS) is a minimally invasive approach that can be performed under local anesthesia for the treatment of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH). Subdural thrombolysis has been described as an exhaustive drainage strategy and found to be safe and effective for improving drainage. We aim to analyze the effectiveness of SEPS with subdural thrombolysis in patients older than 80 years. Method: Consecutive patients aged ≥80 years old who presented with symptomatic CSDH and underwent SEPS followed by subdural thrombolysis between January 2014 and February 2021 were retrospectively studied. Outcome measures included complications, mortality, recurrence, and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores at discharge and 3 months. Results: In total, 52 patients with CSDH in 57 hemispheres were operated on, with a mean age of 83.9 ± 3.3 years, and 40 (76.9%) patients were men. The preexisting medical comorbidities were observed in 39 patients (75.0%). Postoperative complications occurred in nine patients (17.3%), with two having significant complications (3.8%). The complications observed included pneumonia (11.5%), acute epidural hematoma (3.8%), and ischemic stroke (3.8%). One patient experienced contralateral malignant middle cerebral artery infarction and died of subsequent severe herniation, contributing to a perioperative mortality rate of 1.9%. Discharge and 3 months of favorable outcomes (mRS score 0-3) were achieved in 86.5% and 92.3% of patients, respectively. CSDH recurrence was observed in five patients (9.6%), and repeat SEPS was performed. Conclusion: As an exhaustive drainage strategy, SEPS followed by thrombolysis is safe and effective with excellent outcomes among elderly patients. It is a technically easy and less invasive procedure with similar complications, mortality, and recurrence rates compared with burr-hole drainage in the literature.

Identification of miRNAs and Their Target Genes Involved in Cucumber Fruit Expansion Using Small RNA and Degradome Sequencing.

Fruit expansion is an essential and very complex biological process. Regulatory roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) and miRNA-mRNA modules in the cucumber fruit expansion are not yet to be investigated. In this work, 1253 known and 1269 novel miRNAs were identified from nine cucumber fruit small RNA (sRNA) libraries through high-throughput sequencing. A total of 105 highly differentially expressed miRNAs were recognized in the fruit on five days post anthesis with pollination (EXP_5d) sRNA library. Further, expression patterns of 11 differentially expressed miRNAs were validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The expression patterns were similar to sRNAs sequencing data. Transcripts of 1155 sequences were predicted as target genes of differentially expressed miRNAs by degradome sequencing. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment showed that these target genes were involved in 24 biological processes, 15 cell components and nine molecular functions. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis demonstrated that these target genes were significantly enriched in 19 pathways and the enriched KEGG pathways were associated with environmental adaptation, signal transduction and translation. Based on the functional prediction of miRNAs and target genes, our findings suggest that miRNAs have a potential regulatory role in cucumber fruit expansion by targeting their target genes, which provide important data for understanding the miRNA-mediated regulatory networks controlling fruit expansion in cucumber. Specific miRNAs could be selected for further functional research and molecular breeding in cucumber.

Alcohol Consumption Is a Risk Factor for Lower Extremity Arterial Disease in Chinese Patients with T2DM.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between alcohol consumption and diabetic lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD) in hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: We evaluated 138 hospitalized patients with T2DM who consumed alcohol and 833 who did not. We used propensity score matching to reduce the confounding bias between groups. Additionally, a logistic regression analysis was performed with the matched data to evaluate the LEAD risk. RESULTS: In total, 119 pairs of patients who did and did not consume alcohol were matched. According to the logistic regression analysis, patients who consumed >8 U of alcohol/day had a higher risk of LEAD (odds ratio (OR): 6.35, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.78-22.65) than patients who did not consume alcohol. Additionally, after adjusting for age, gender, region, occupation, smoking status, body mass index, weight change, and duration of diabetes, the OR of peripheral artery disease after >20 years of alcohol consumption was 3.48 (95% CI: 1.09-11.15). Furthermore, we observed a significant dose-response relationship between alcohol consumption and LEAD. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol consumption may be a risk factor of LEAD in patients with T2DM. Patients with T2DM should be advised to stop drinking, to prevent the onset of LEAD.

Weight loss before a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for diabetes complications.

Our goal was to investigate the relationship between weight loss before a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and diabetic complications among hospitalized patients with T2DM.We conducted a cross-sectional study and evaluated 347 and 642 hospitalized patients with T2DM who experienced and did not experienced weight loss before T2DM diagnosis, respectively. We used propensity score matching to reduce the confounding bias between the groups. In addition, a logistic regression analysis of the matched data was performed to evaluate the risk of diabetic complications.A total of 339 patients who experienced weight loss were matched to 339 patients who did not experience weight loss. After adjusting for age, gender, origin, occupation, smoking history, alcohol use, and duration of diabetes, the logistic regression analysis showed that compared with patients who did not experience weight loss, patients who lost ≤5 kg had a higher risk of diabetic nephropathy (DN) (odds ratio [OR]: 2.05, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.35-3.10) and diabetic retinopathy (OR: 1.79, 95% CI: 1.11-2.87). However, we did not observe a dose-response relationship in terms of weight loss.We found that weight loss before a diagnosis of T2DM might serve as a risk factor for DN and diabetic retinopathy. Our findings demonstrate that we should strengthen the management and prevention of complications in patients who experience weight loss of ≤5 kg prior to a T2DM diagnosis, particularly those who are centrally obese.

Transcriptome analysis reveals the potential mechanism of the albino skin development in pufferfish Takifugu obscurus.

Our aim was to explore the potential mechanism underlying albino in Takifugu obscurus. The transcriptome sequencing of the skin samples from normal T. obscurus and albino ones was conducted in this paper. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in albino fish compared with controls were assayed. The gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were performed to explore the differentially expressed gene (DEG)-related functions and pathways. A total of 32 genes were found to be differentially expressed, including eight upregulated ones and 24 downregulated ones. Five GO terms were significantly enriched such as hemoglobin complex and oxygen transporter activity. The significantly enriched pathways contained linoleic acid metabolism and arachidonic acid metabolism. Hemoglobin complex, linoleic, and arachidonic acid metabolism may dysregulated in albino fugu. Dietary control of the linoleic acid and arachidonic acid may be an effective management for mediating albino in T. obscurus.