Alterations of Oral Microbiota in Chinese Patients With Esophageal Cancer.

Emerging evidence supports that oral microbiota are associated with health and diseases of the esophagus. How oral microbiota change in Chinese patients with esophageal cancer (EC) is unknown, neither is their biomarker role. For an objective to understand alterations of oral microbiota in Chinese EC patients, we conducted a case-control study including saliva samples from 39 EC patients and 51 healthy volunteers. 16S rDNA genes of V3-V4 variable regions were sequenced to identify taxon. Relationship between oral flora and disease was analyzed according to alpha diversity and beta diversity. Resultantly, the Shannon index (p = 0.2) and the Simpson diversity index (p = 0.071) were not significant between the two groups. Yet we still found several species different in abundance between the two groups. For the EC group, the most significantly increased taxa were Firmicutes, Negativicutes, Selenomonadales, Prevotellaceae, Prevotella, and Veillonellaceae, while the most significantly decreased taxa were Proteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Neisseriales, Neisseriaceae, and Neisseria. In conclusion, there are significant alterations in abundance of some oral microbiomes between the EC patients and the healthy controls in the studied Chinese participants, which may be meaningful for predicting the development of EC, and the potential roles of these species in EC development deserve further studies.

Association between metabolic syndrome and the incidence of gastric cancer: a meta-analysis of cohort studies.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies investigating the association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and incidence of gastric cancer (GC) showed inconsistent results. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of MetS on GC risk in a meta-analysis. METHODS: Cohort studies that evaluating the association between MetS and GC were identified via systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Pooled analyses were performed via a random-effect model or a fixed effect model according to the heterogeneity among the studies. Predefined subgroup analyses were performed to evaluate whether gender or ethnic group of the patients affected the results. RESULTS: Overall, eight cohort studies with 8,745,671 participants were included, and 37,245 GC cases occurred during follow-up. Results showed that MetS defined by the revised National Cholesterol Education Program's Adults Treatment Panel III criteria was not associated with a significantly affected GC risk (adjusted risk ratio [RR]: 1.03, p = 0.59; I2 = 79%). Subgroup analyses showed that MetS was not associated with a significantly affected risk of GC in male or female patients, and in Asians or Caucasians. Moreover, meta-analysis of four datasets showed that MetS defined by the International Diabetes Federation criteria was also not associated with a significant affected risk of GC (adjusted RR: 0.80, p = 0.05; I2 = 0%). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that current evidence from epidemiological studies does not support that patients with MetS are at higher risk for the development of GC.

[The effects of exposure to the famine during early life with elevated resting heart rate in the adult].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between exposure to the famine during early life and elevated resting heart rate (RHR) in adulthood. METHOD: From June 2006 to October 2007, the employees of kailuan group who took part in the health examination were selected. Of those, 18 619 cases who was born during October 1, 1956 to September 30, 1964 in Hebei province were finally included in the analysis based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All the subjects were received questionnaire survey, smoking and drinking, physical examination, Lab examination and the measurement of RHR. The subjects of famine exposure group (3 190 cases) were born from October 1, 1959 to September 30, 1961, semi-exposure group (3 851 cases) were born from October 1, 1958 to September 30, 1959 and from October 1, 1961 to September 30, 1962, control group (11 578 cases) were born from October 1, 1956 to September 30, 1958 and from October 1, 1962 to September 30, 1964. The RHR and the detection rate of elevated RHR were compared among the three groups. The Multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between of exposure to famine during early life and elevated RHR in adulthood. RESULTS: The RHR level was higher in famine exposure group and semi-exposed group than control group, which were (74.34 ± 9.71), (74.41 ± 9.48) and (73.90 ± 9.45) beat per minute (bpm) (P values were 0.003 and 0.020, respectively). In all of the subjects. The results of multivariate logistic regression showed that exposure of famine during early life increased the risk of elevated RHR in adulthood after adjustment for age, gender and other confounders (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.01-1.21). In men, exposure of famine during early life also increased the risk of elevated RHR in adulthood (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.04-1.28); In women, there was no association between the famine exposure and elevated RHR (OR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.74-1.14). CONCLUSION: Exposure of famine during early life increases the risk of elevated RHR in adulthood. This negative effect existed mainly in the male.

[Influence of low birth weight on the increased risk of post-partum hypertension].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence of hypertension between low birth weight infant (LBWI) women and non-LBWI women. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was applied and 3 172 pregnant women giving births during October 1976 to December 2008 in our hospital and underwent physical check-up between 2010 and 2011 at the Kailuan medical group were included and divided into LBWI group and non-LBWI group by the history of LBWI. Prevalence of hypertension was obtained during the follow-up program. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to assess the relative risk of hypertension. RESULTS: A total number of 3 172 women, with an average age of 42.3 years old were divided into LBWI group (n = 147) and non-LBWI group (n = 3 025), with the average birth weights of their infants were 2.31 kg and 3.39 kg, respectively. The prevalence of hypertension from the follow-up program was significantly higher in LBWI group than that in the non-LBWI group (23.8% vs. 16.9%, P < 0.05). After adjustment for other traditional risk factors, the risk of hypertension in LBWI group was 1.60 (95%CI:1.02-2.53) folds higher than that in the non-LBWI group. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of hypertension in women with LBWI was higher than that in those women without LBWI. History of LBWI seemed to have had an increased risk to develop hypertension.

[Effects related to experiences of famine during early life on diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose during adulthood].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of famine-experience during early life on diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose in the adulthood. METHODS: In a total of 101 510 employees who took part in the health examination at the Kailuan Group between 2006 to 2007 were recruited. All the study subjects were born in Hebei province between 1956-10-01 and 1964-09-30 but those who had incomplete data were excluded. 19 347 subjects were finally included for analysis. Members from the famine-exposed group were born between Oct. 1, 1959 and Sep. 30, 1961. There was a semi-exposed group with members born between Oct. 1, 1958 and Sept. 30, 1959 and from Oct. 1, 1961 to Sept. 30, 1962 but members from the control group were born from Oct. 1, 1956 to Sept. 30, 1958 and from Oct. 1, 1962 to Sept. 30, 1964. Prevalence rates on diabetes mellitus and the detection rate of impaired fasting glucose among the three groups were compared. Logistic regression model was used to analyze the effects of famine-experience during early life with the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and the detection rate of impaired fasting glucose during adulthood. RESULTS: Prevalence of diabetes mellitus and the detection rate of impaired fasting glucose in the famine-exposed adult-cohort groups were 8.99%, 8.96% while 8.05% and 9.35% in the semi-exposure groups, 7.71% and 8.20% in the control group. Results from the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that experiences of famine during early life increased the risk of diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose in adulthood with the odds ratios as 1.218 (95% CI: 1.056-1.404, P = 0.007) and 1.142 (95% CI: 0.994-1.312, P = 0.061). After stratification by sex, odds ratios in males were 1.163 (95% CI: 1.001-1.350, P = 0.048)and 1.213(95% CI:1.039-1.417, P = 0.015). The odds ratios in females were 1.319 (95% CI: 0.920-1.891, P = 0.132) and 0.990 (95% CI: 0.679-1.444, P = 0.959). CONCLUSION: Experiences of famine during early life increased the risk of diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose in the adulthood. However, this negative effect existed mainly in the males, according to the results from our study.

Entecavir and lamivudine therapy for severe acute chronic hepatitis B.

Severe acute exacerbation in patients with chronic hepatitis B is a unique clinical presentation that results in high mortality. To compare the efficacy of 4 weeks of entecavir or lamivudine therapy in patients with severe acute exacerbation caused by chronic hepatitis B, 65 patients were retrospectively analyzed. The groups received 0.5 mg entecavir (group A) or 100 mg lamivudine (group B) daily. After 4 weeks of treatment, virological and biochemical responses and the deterioration rates were determined. The average age and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), bilirubin, albumin, creatinine (Cr), and HBV DNA levels were similar in groups A and B prior to treatment, but the prothrombin time (PT) was shorter in group A. Following treatment, ALT and bilirubin levels were improved while there were no significant changes in PT, albumin or Cr levels at week 4 in group B. Only ALT was markedly upregulated following treatment in group A. There were no significant differences between the virological and biochemical responses or the deterioration rates of the two groups. These results suggested that short-term treatment with lamivudine markedly alleviated the increased bilirubin (TB) levels in patients with severe acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B and that there was no significant difference in the deterioration rate between patients treated by the two types of medication.