Association between AST/ALT ratio and diabetic retinopathy risk in type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional investigation.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the association between the aspartate aminotransferase to alanine aminotransferase ratio (AST/ALT ratio) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, clinical data from 3002 patients with type 2 diabetes admitted to the Department of Endocrinology of our hospital between January 1, 2021, and December 1, 2022, were retrospectively collected. Measurements of AST and ALT were conducted and diabetes-related complications were screened. The association between AST/ALT ratio and diabetic retinopathy was assessed using multivariate logistic regression, and a generalized additive model (GAM) was used to investigate nonlinear relationships. Subgroup analyses and interaction tests were also conducted. Results: Among the 3002 patients, 1590 (52.96%) were male and 1412 (47.04%) were female. The mean AST/ALT ratio was 0.98 ± 0.32, ranging from 0.37 (Min) to 2.17 (Max). Diabetic retinopathy was present in 40.47% of the patients. After multivariate adjustments, for each 0.1 unit increase in AST/ALT ratio, the risk of DR increased by 4% (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01-1.07, p=0.0053). Higher AST/ALT ratio quartiles were associated with Higher prevalence of DR (OR vs. Q1: Q4 = 1.34 (CI: 1.03-1.75, p=0.0303).The GAM and smoothed curve fit indicated a linear relationship between AST/ALT ratio and DR risk, with no significant interaction effects across different subgroups. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates a positive correlation between the AST/ALT ratio and diabetic retinopathy risk in type 2 diabetes, suggesting its potential role in assessing DR risk.

Inverse association of serum albumin levels with diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetic patients: a cross-sectional study.

This study aimed to explore the association between serum albumin (ALB) levels and diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes. In this cross-sectional study, we retrospectively collected clinical data from patients with type 2 diabetes who were admitted to the Endocrinology Department of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University between January 1, 2021, and December 1, 2022. All included patients underwent measurements of serum albumin levels and screening for diabetes-related complications. The association between serum albumin levels and retinopathy was assessed using logistic regression after adjusting for potential confounders. Further, stratified analyses and curve fitting were conducted to delve deeper into the relationship. After inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, a total of 1947 patients were analyzed. Among these, 982 were male and 965 were female. The mean serum albumin level was 39.86 ± 3.27 g/L. Diabetic retinopathy was present in 41.24% of the patients. After adjusting for potential confounders, we observed a significant inverse association between serum albumin levels and the incidence of retinopathy. Specifically, for every 10 g/L increase in albumin level, the odds of retinopathy decreased (odds ratio [OR] = 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.48-0.94; P = 0.0209).The curve fitting validated the inverse relationship between serum albumin and retinopathy without evidence of non-linearity or threshold saturation effects. Stratified analyses consistently indicated no interaction effects across subgroups. This cross-sectional study identified a significant inverse relationship between serum albumin levels and diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes. However, due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, further prospective studies are warranted to confirm these findings.

Synthesis of spiropyridazine-benzosultams by the [4 + 2] annulation reaction of 3-substituted benzoisothiazole 1,1-dioxides with 1,2-diaza-1,3-dienes.

A simple and efficient method for the synthesis of spiropyridazine-benzosultams has been developed by means of [4 + 2] annulation reaction of 3-substituted benzoisothiazole 1,1-dioxides with 1,2-diaza-1,3-dienes. This approach displays advantages such as mild reaction conditions, wide substrate range tolerance, simple operation, compatibility with gram-scale preparation.

TRIM62 knockdown by inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB pathway and NLRP3 inflammasome attenuates cognitive impairment induced by diabetes in mice.

The tripartite motif 62 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase protein that regulates cellular processes, including differentiation, immunity, development and apoptosis, leading to various disease states, such as cancer and inflammatory diseases. However, the role and mechanism of the tripartite motif 62 in the process of diabetic-induced cognitive impairment have not been reported. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role and mechanism of the tripartite motif 62 in diabetic-induced cognitive impairment. The results showed that the expression of the tripartite motif 62 was up-regulated in diabetic mice. Silencing of TRIM62 increased body weight and decreased fasting blood glucose in diabetic mice. In addition, knockdown of the tripartite motif 62 inhibited STZ-induced inflammation, apoptosis and oxidative stress. Further studies showed that the TLR4/NF-κB pathway and NLRP3 inflammasomes were involved in the regulation of diabetic mice by the tripartite motif 62. More importantly, inhibition of the tripartite motif 62 improved cognitive impairment and learning ability in mice. In conclusion, inhibition of TRIM62 inhibits STZ-induced inflammation, cell apoptosis and oxidative stress, and improves the cognitive ability of mice. Therefore, the tripartite motif 62 may be an important target for the treatment of diabetes-induced cognitive impairment.

Cone-beam X-ray luminescence computed tomography based on MLEM with adaptive FISTA initial image.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: As an emerging dual-mode optical molecular imaging, cone-beam X-ray luminescence computed tomography (CB-XLCT) has shown potential in early tumor diagnosis and other applications with increased depth and little autofluorescence. However, due to the low transfer efficiency of PNPs to convert X-ray energy to visible or near-infrared (NIR) light and X-ray dose limitation, the signal to noise ratio of projections is quite low, making the quality of CB-XLCT relatively poor. METHODS: To improve the reconstruction quality of low-counts CB-XLCT imaging, an adaptive reconstruction algorithm (named ADFISTA-MLEM) based on the maximum likelihood expectation estimation (MLEM) framework is proposed for CB-XLCT reconstruction from Poisson distributed projections. In the proposed framework, the image reconstructed by fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm (FISTA) is used as the initial image for MLEM iterations to improve reconstruction accuracy, in which both the projection noise model and the sparsity constraint of the image could be considered. For relative quantitative imaging, a specific normalization is applied to the projection data and system matrix. To determine the hyperparameter of FISTA, which may be different for different projections, an adaptive strategy (ADFISTA) is then designed for adaptive update of the hyperparameter with reconstructed image in each iteration. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results from numerical simulations and phantom experiments indicate that the proposed framework can obtain superior reconstruction accuracy in terms of contrast to noise ratio and shape similarity. In addition, high intensity-concentration linearity between different probe targets indicates its potential for quantitative CB-XLCT imaging.

Identification of Reactive Hypoglycemia with Different Basic BMI and Its Causes by Prolonged Oral Glucose Tolerance Test.

PURPOSE: To identify the population susceptible to reactive hypoglycemia and explain the possible reasons for their susceptibility. METHODS: Ninety-four patients were divided into normal weight, overweight and obese groups before a 75-gram prolonged oral glucose tolerance test (POGTT). The incidence of reactive hypoglycemia (blood glucose ≤3.1 mmol/L or 55 mg/dL at points of 0-4 hours) was compared among three groups, and blood glucose and insulin levels were monitored simultaneously from 0 - 4 hours to assess the level of insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, the degree of insulin resistance among three groups and within each subgroup (whether hypoglycemia events occurred) was compared. RESULTS: Among the three groups, the incidence of hypoglycemia was significantly different at 3 (P=0.033) and 4 hours (P=0.020). At 4 hours, the incidence of reactive hypoglycemia in the obese group was approximately 3 times that in the normal weight group. The insulin level in obese group at 4 hours was nearly 4 times higher than that in normal group, and the same result also exists in the same subgroup of different groups. In addition, the hypoglycemia subgroup of obese group had higher insulin level than non-hypoglycemia (P=0.000). The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index increased with increasing BMI among the three groups (P=0.000), while the Matsuda index decreased (P=0.000). The comparison of the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index between subgroups in each group showed that the P values were 0.021, 0.038 and 0.085, successively, and the P values for the Matsuda index were 0.019, 0.013 and 0.119, respectively. CONCLUSION: Obese people has higher rate of reactive hypoglycemia than other groups in POGTT, in which insulin resistance may play an important role. But patients who are evaluated for reactive hypoglycemia need to be observed for at least 3 or 4 hours.