Epidemiology of Suicide and Associated Socio-Demographic Factors in Emergency Department Patients in 7 General Hospitals in Northwestern China.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to illustrate the characteristics of suicide attempters treated in the Emergency Departments of 7 general hospitals in Xi'an and to provide relevant data for early psychological treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between October 2010 and September 2014, 155 suicide attempters were treated in the Emergency Departments. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and multivariate analyses were used to identify the factors associated with suicidal behaviors. RESULTS: Females outnumbered males at a ratio of 3.7 to 1. The greatest proportion of cases was in the age group of 21 to 30 years (52.9%). Patients who finished middle school or high school accounted for most of the suicide attempters (50.3%). The most common method used for attempted suicide was drug ingestion (86.5%). The majority of cases attempted suicide at home (74.8%) during the night. Marriage frustration, work and study problems, family fanaticism and conflict, somatic disease, and history of mental disorders were all significantly associated with suicide attempts. The ratio of patients to be discharged or to die were similar in occupation, marital status, and the place of suicide attempt; however, the results were different in gender, age, educational level, methods used for suicide, time of day, and reason. CONCLUSIONS: Suicide is an important public health problem and is multidimensional in nature. Future studies with larger samples are expected to provide more specific knowledge of the effect of each social factor on the suicide risk in Chinese in order to improve the prevention of suicides.

Updated meta-analysis of pancreatic stent placement in preventing post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis.

AIM: To investigate the efficacy and safety profile of pancreatic duct (PD) stent placement for prevention of post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) pancreatitis (PEP). METHODS: We performed a search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library to identify randomized controlled clinical trials of prophylactic PD stent placement after ERCP. RevMan 5 software provided by Cochrane was used for the heterogeneity and efficacy analyses, and a meta-analysis was performed for the data that showed homogeneity. Categorical data are presented as relative risks and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and measurement data are presented as weighted mean differences and 95%CIs. RESULTS: The incidence rates of severe pancreatitis, operation failure, complications and patient pain severity were analyzed. Data on pancreatitis incidence were reported in 14 of 15 trials. There was no significant heterogeneity between the trials (I(2) = 0%, P = 0.93). In the stent group, 49 of the 1233 patients suffered from PEP, compared to 133 of the 1277 patients in the no-stent group. The results of this meta-analysis indicate that it may be possible to prevent PEP by placing a PD stent. CONCLUSION: PD stent placement can reduce postoperative hyperamylasemia and might be an effective and safe option to prevent PEP if the operation indications are well controlled.

Expression of Paxillin is Correlated with Clinical Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of Paxillin in colorectal carcinoma and its significance in clinical prognosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Tissue specimens from 242 colorectal cancer patients who underwent radical resection were collected in Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital from 2010 to 2014. The mRNA levels of Paxillin in colorectal cancer tissue and tissue adjacent to carcinoma of 62 patients were measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Immunohistochemistry staining was used to detect the expression of Paxillin in 242 samples of paraffin-embedded tissues. RESULTS: The mRNA and protein level of Paxillin in colorectal cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in the tissue adjacent to carcinoma (P<0.001 and P=0.003, respectively). The expression of Paxillin was significantly correlated to tumor histological grade (P<0.001), tumor size (P=0.01), serum CA199 level (P<0.001), the clinical TNM stage (P<0.001), and distant metastasis (P<0.001). Survival analysis showed that the prognosis of the patients with high expression of Paxillin was poorer than those with low expression of Paxillin (P=0.03). Cox proportional hazards model with stepwise selection showed that age, Paxillin expression level, and the clinical TNM stage were independent prognostic factors influencing survival for patients (P=0.01, P=0.004 and P<0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Paxillin was expressed at significantly higher levels in colorectal cancer tissues and might serve as a potential prognostic indicator in patients with colorectal cancer.

Admission glucose and risk of early death in non-diabetic patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Impaired admission glucose (AG) is considered to significantly increase risk on both early and late death of the patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), especially for non-diabetic patients; however, some reports contradict the relationship. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis to clarify this issue. MATERIAL/METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched to identify all related prospective cohort studies. The relative risks (RR) with their 95% confidence interval (CI) were pooled quantitatively. RESULTS: The pooled RR of early outcome events indicated patients with glucose concentrations ≥6.1-11.1 mmol/L had a 4.38-fold (95% CI, 3.23-5.94) higher early mortality. The pooled RR of late outcome events indicated that the patients with glucose concentrations ≥7.8-11.1 mmol/L had a 1.65-fold (95% CI, 1.33-2.04) higher late mortality based on in-hospital or 30-day survivors. CONCLUSIONS: High AG may be a helpful prognostic marker of significantly increased risk on early death in non-diabetic patients with STEMI, and has an explicit but prognostic adverse impact on long-term mortality but not early mortality in these patients.