bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Establishment of A Nomogram for Predicting the Prognosis of Soft Tissue Sarcoma Based on Seven Glycolysis-Related Gene Risk Score
Authors: Liu Yuhang , Liu Changjiang , Zhang Hao , Yi Xinzeyu , Yu Aixi 
Published: December 2021

Background: Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is a group of tumors with a low incidence and a complex type. Therefore, it is an arduous task to accurately diagnose and treat them. Glycolysis-related genes are closely related to tumor progression and metastasis. Hence, our study is dedicated to the development of risk characteristics and nomograms based on glycolysis-related genes to assess the survival possibility of patients with STS.Methods: All data sets used in our research include gene expression data and clinical medical characteristics in the Genomic Data Commons Data Portal (National Cancer Institute) Soft Tissue Sarcoma (TCGA SARC) and GEO database, gene sequence data of corresponding non-diseased human tissues in the Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx).Next, transcriptome data in TCGA SARC was analyzed as the training set to construct a glycolysis-related gene risk signature and nomogram, which were confirmed in external test set.Results: We identified and verified the 7 glycolysis-related gene signature that is highly correlated with the overall survival (OS) of STS patients, which performed excellently in the evaluation of the size of AUC, and calibration curve. As well as, the results of the analysis of univariate and multivariate Cox regression demonstrated that this 7 glycolysis-related gene characteristic acts independently as an influence predictor for STS patients. Therefore, a prognostic-related nomogram combing 7 gene signature with clinical influencing features was constructed to predict OS of patients with STS in the training set that demonstrated strong predictive values for survival.Conclusion: These results demonstrate that both glycolysis-related gene risk signature and nomogram were efficient prognostic indicators for patients with STS. These findings may contribute to make individualize clinical decisions on prognosis and treatment.
T Helper Cell Subsets in the Pleural Fluid of Tuberculous Patients Differentiate Patients With Non-Tuberculous Pleural Effusions
Authors: Roofchayee Neda Dalil , Adcock Ian M. , Marjani Majid , Dezfuli Neda K. , Varahram Mohammad , Garssen Johan , Mortaz Esmaeil 
Published: December 2021

BackgroundTuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) is one of the most common forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (Tb). Patients with TPE or malignant pleural effusions (MPE) frequently have a similar lymphocytic pleural fluid profile. Since the etiology of PE in various diseases is different, identifying the cellular components may provide diagnostic clues for understanding the pathogenesis.ObjectiveWe determined the frequency of T helper (Th) subtypes in the PEs for differentiation of Tb and non-Tb patients.MethodsThirty patients with TPE, 30 patients with MPE, 14 patients with empyema (EMP), and 14 patients with parapneumonic effusion (PPE) were enrolled between December 2018 and December 2019. Five-milliliter fresh PE in tubes containing heparin as an anticoagulant was obtained from patients. The frequencies of CD4+IL-9+, CD4+IL-22+, CD+IL-17+, and regulatory T-cells CD4+CD25+ FOXP3+ (Treg) were determined by flow cytometry.ResultsTreg cells have a lower frequency in TPE patients [4.2 (0.362–17.24)] compared with non-TPE patients [26.3 (3.349–76.93, p &lt; 0.0001)]. The frequency of CD4+IL-9+ cells was significantly lower in TPE patients [3.67 (0.87–47.83)] compared with non-TPE groups [13.05 (1.67–61.45), p &lt; 0.0001]. On the contrary, there was no significant difference in the frequency of CD4+IL-17+ and CD4+IL-22+ cells between TPE and non-TPE patients (p = 0.906 and p = 0.2188). Receiver-operator curve (ROC) analysis demonstrated that CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ T cells [optimal cutoff value = 13.6 (%), sensitivity 90%, specificity 75.86%] could be considered as predictor for TPE. However, adenosine deaminase [cutoff value 27.5 (IU/l), sensitivity 90%, specificity 96.5%] levels had an even greater predictive capacity.ConclusionADA, Treg cells, and CD4+IL-9+ cells may differentiate TPE from non-TPE patients. However, these results need validation in an independent large cohort.
Hyponatremia, Inflammation at Admission, and Mortality in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study
Authors: Ayus Juan Carlos , Negri Armando Luis , Moritz Michael L. , Lee Kyung Min , Caputo Daniel , Borda Maria Elena , Go Alan S. , Eghi Carlos 
Published: December 2021

Background: Systemic inflammation has been associated with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease and mortality. Hyponatremia can result from inflammation due to non-osmotic stimuli for vasopressin production.Methods: We prospectively studied 799 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between March 7 and November 7, 2020, at Hospital Posadas in Buenos Aires, Argentina in order to evaluate the association between hyponatremia, inflammation, and its impact on clinical outcomes. Admission biochemistries, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), ferritin, patient demographics, and outcome data were recorded. Outcomes (within 30 days after symptoms) evaluated included ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, dialysis-requiring acute kidney injury (AKI), and in-hospital mortality. Length of hospital stay (in days) were evaluated using comprehensive data from the EHR.Results: Hyponatremia (median Na = 133 mmol/L) was present on admission in 366 (45.8%). Hyponatremic patients had higher hsCRP (median 10.3 [IR 4.8–18.4] mg/dl vs. 6.6 [IR 1.6–14.0] mg/dl, p &lt; 0.01) and ferritin levels (median 649 [IQR 492–1,168] ng/dl vs. 393 [IQR 156–1,440] ng/dl, p = 0.02) than normonatremic patients. Hyponatremia was associated with higher odds of an abnormal hsCRP (unadjusted OR 5.03, 95%CI: 2.52–10.03), and remained significant after adjustment for potential confounders (adjusted OR 4.70 [95%CI: 2.33–9.49], p &lt; 0.01). Hyponatremic patients had increased mortality on unadjusted (HR 3.05, 95%CI: 2.14–4.34) and adjusted (HR 2.76, 95%CI:1.88–4.06) in Cox proportional hazard models. Crude 30-day survival was lower for patients with hyponatremia at admission (mean [SD] survival 22.1 [0.70] days) compared with patients who were normonatremic (mean [SD] survival 27.2 [0.40] days, p &lt; 0.01).Conclusion: Mild hyponatremia on admission is common, is associated with systemic inflammation and is an independent risk factor for hospital mortality.Clinical Trial Registration:www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT04493268.
Assessment of Non-invasive Markers for the Prediction of Esophageal Variceal Hemorrhage
Authors: Li Shasha , Huang Peng , Jeyarajan Andre J. , Ma Chao , Zhu Ke , Zhu Chuanlong , Jiang Ning , Li Ming , Shao Tuo , Han Mingfeng , Tan Lin , Lin Wenyu 
Published: December 2021

Background: Esophageal variceal (EV) hemorrhage is a life-threatening consequence of portal hypertension in cirrhotic patients. Screening upper endoscopy and endoscopic variceal ligation to identify and treat EVs have contraindications, complications, and high costs. We sought to identify non-invasive tests (NITs) as alternatives to endoscopic EV screening.Methods: In this case-control study, we retrospectively analyzed 286 cirrhotic patients treated for EVs at the Second People's Hospital of Fuyang City, China from January to December 2019. We applied ROC curve analysis to assess the accuracy of various NITs in predicting EV hemorrhage.Results: There were significant differences between the hemorrhage and non-hemorrhage groups in median serum albumin (ALB) (p &lt; 0.001), median bilirubin (TBIL) (p &lt; 0.046), prothrombin (PT) time (p &lt; 0.001), Golgi protein 73 (GP73; p = 0.012) and Child-Pugh (C-P) scores (p &lt; 0.001). For ALB (cutoff &lt;33.2g/L), PT time (cutoff &gt; 14.2 seconds), GP73 (cutoff &gt; 126.4 ng/ml), and C-P scores, the areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) were 73.4% (95% CI: 67.5–79.2), 68.6% (95% CI: 62.4–74.8), 62.2% (95% CI: 52.8–71.5) and 69.8% (95%CI: 63.8–75.8), respectively, with corresponding sensitives of 71.5, 59.8, 69.8, and 92.2% and specificities of 65.6%, 70.1%, 56.5%, and 38.6%. When ALB was combined with GP73, the AUC was 74.3% (95% CI: 66.1–82.5) with a sensitivity of 65.1% and specificity of 76.5%. When ALB, PT, and C-P scores were combined, the AUC was 76.5% (95% CI: 70.9–82.1) with a sensitivity of 79.5% and specificity of 64.3%. When ALB, PT, GP73, and C-P scores were combined, the AUC was 75.2% (95% CI: 67.3–83.1) with a sensitivity of 54.0% and specificity of 86.9%.Conclusion: ALB, TBIL, GP73, and C-P scores, may be used to predict EV hemorrhage in cirrhotic patients. The combination of multiple NITs is better than a single index and can increase diagnostic performance.
Integrative Analysis of MALT1 as a Potential Therapeutic Target for Prostate Cancer and its Immunological Role in Pan-Cancer
Authors: Tan Haotian , Xie Yaqi , Zhang Xuebao , Wu Shuang , Zhao Hongwei , Wu Jitao , Wang Wenting , Lin Chunhua 
Published: December 2021

Background: Mucosa-associated lymphoma antigen 1 (MALT1) is an oncogene in subsets of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue type (MALT) lymphoma. However, the role of MALT1 across cancers, especially in prostate cancer is still poorly understood.Methods: Here, we used several public datasets to evaluate MALT1 expression. Then, PCa cell lines and nude mice were used to investigate the cellular functions in vitro and in vivo. Microarray data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas and MALT1 was subjected to gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis to identify the biological functions and relevant pathways. Additionally, the correlations between MALT1 expression and mismatch repair (MMR) gene mutation, immune checkpoint gene expression, tumor mutational burden (TMB), and microsatellite instability (MSI) were investigated by Pearson correlation analysis. Moreover, the correlation between MALT1 expression and tumor immune infiltration was analyzed by the Tumor Immune Evaluation Resource (TIMER) database.Results: MALT1 overexpression was significantly correlated with MMR gene mutation levels and crucially promoted proliferation and colony genesis while reducing PCa cell apoptosis levels in vivo and in vitro. MALT1 expression showed strong correlations with immune checkpoint genes, TMB, and MSI in most cancers. The GO analysis indicated that MALT1-coexpressed genes were involved in heterotypic cell-cell adhesion, actin filament-based movement regulation, and action potential regulation. GSEA revealed that MALT1 expression was associated with several signaling pathways, including the NF-κB signaling, Wnt/β-catenin and TGF-β signaling pathways, in PCa. Additionally, MALT1 expression was significantly correlated with the infiltration of immune cells, including B cells, CD8+ T cells, dendritic cells and macrophages, and negatively correlated with CD4+ cell infiltration in PCa.Conclusion: MALT1 expression is higher in pancancer samples than in normal tissues. MALT1 promoted proliferation and colony genesis while reducing PCa cell apoptosis levels, and MALT1 suppression could inhibit xenograft tumor establishment in nude mice. Furthermore, MALT1 expression is closely related to the occurrence and development of multiple tumors in multiple ways. Therefore, MALT1 may be an emerging therapeutic target for a variety of cancers especially PCa.
Relationships Among Pre-Pregnancy BMI, Gestational, and Postpartum Oral Glucose Tolerance Results in Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Mi Chunmei , Liu Hong , Peng Hongying , Cheng Chunxia , Wang Meng , Liu Hua , Feng Guo , Wu Jinru , Nie Hao , Liu Min 
Published: December 2021

Background and Aims:To investigate the relationship among maternal demographic and clinical characteristics, gestational and postpartum oral glucose tolerance test (ppOGTT) results in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).Methods:Patients with gestational diabetes mellitus from January 1, 2016, to August 31, 2019, were enrolled. General characteristics, dietary energy intake, pre-gestational body mass index (BMI), gestational oral glucose tolerance test (gOGTT), and 42 days ppOGTT results of all participants were collected. The relationships among maternal clinical characteristics, fasting glucose of gOGTT (gOGTT-FPG), 1 h postprandial glucose of gOGTT (gOGTT-1h PG), 2 h postprandial glucose of gOGTT (gOGTT-2h PG), and maternal postpartum glucose outcomes were evaluated.Results:A total of 156 patients with GDM were included in this study. Among them, 73.7% had inadequate daily total energy intake, an insufficient ratio of carbohydrates and protein, and an excessive fat ratio. Most of the patients (81.4%) were normal in their ppOGTT examination. Less than 20% of the patients (16.7%) were in the pre-diabetic situation, and 3 patients (1.9%) had diabetes. Pre-pregnancy BMI of patients with GDM was a risk factor for increased gOGTT-FPG levels. Those who were overweight before pregnancy had a greater risk for a higher gOGTT-FPG compared to those who had normal pre-pregnancy BMI (P= 0.021, odds ratio[OR] = 4.583). Abnormal gOGTT-2hPG was a risk factor for abnormal ppOGTT (P= 0.04). Those who had an elevated gOGTT-2hPG (≧8.5 mmol/L) had a 2.426 times higher risk for abnormal ppOGTT than those who had normal gOGTT-2hPG (&lt;8.5 mmol/L) results.Conclusion:For women who are overweight before pregnancy, it is better to control their BMI to normal before getting pregnant. Women who had abnormal gOGTT-2h PG should pay more attention to the ppOGTT results.
Relationship Between Dietary Patterns and Carotid Atherosclerosis Among People Aged 50 Years or Older: A Population-Based Study in China
Authors: Liu Yunyun , Wang Xuena , Zhang Qing , Meng Ge , Liu Li , Wu Hongmei , Gu Yeqing , Zhang Shunming , Wang Yawen , Zhang Tingjing , Górska Magdalena J. , Sun Shaomei , Wang Xing , Zhou Ming , Jia Qiyu , Song Kun , Tan Liping , Niu Kaijun 
Published: December 2021

Background: The relationship between dietary patterns and atherosclerosis is inconclusive. Usually, diets vary greatly among different regions due to cultural differences and lifestyles. Few studies to date based on a Chinese population have investigated the relationship between dietary patterns and the formation of atherosclerosis in carotid arteries. We aimed to investigate whether dietary patterns were related to carotid atherosclerosis among an adult population in Tianjin, China.Methods: This cross-sectional study included a total of 2,346 participants aged 50 years or older (mean: 59.7 ± 6.29 years). Dietary intakes were assessed using a validated 81-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire, and factor analysis was used to identify dietary patterns. Carotid atherosclerosis was defined as a common carotid artery intima-media thickness ≥1.0 mm or plaques, or a carotid bifurcation intima-media thickness ≥1.2 mm. Multiple logistic regression models were used to explore the relationship between dietary patterns and carotid atherosclerosis.Results: Three factors were determined: “health” dietary pattern (factor 1), “traditional Tianjin” dietary pattern (factor 2), and “sweets” dietary pattern (factor 3). The multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) of carotid atherosclerosis for the increasing quartiles of the sweets dietary pattern scores in women were as follows: 1.00 (reference), 1.33 (0.91, 1.97), 1.21 (0.82, 1.79), 1.64 (1.08, 2.51) (p for trend &lt;0.05). No significant difference was found between any dietary pattern and carotid atherosclerosis in men.Conclusion: Greater adherence to “sweets” dietary patterns was positively related to a higher prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis in women aged 50 or older. No relationship was found between any dietary pattern and carotid atherosclerosis in men. Further prospective studies are warranted to test this finding in other populations.
Dosimetric Comparison of Intraoperative Radiotherapy and SRS for Liver Metastases
Authors: Scafa Davide , Muedder Thomas , Holz Jasmin A. , Koch David , Nour Younéss , Garbe Stephan , Gonzalez-Carmona Maria A. , Feldmann Georg , Vilz Tim O. , Köksal Mümtaz , Giordano Frank A. , Schmeel Leonard Christopher , Sarria Gustavo R. 
Published: December 2021

Purpose/ObjectivesTo perform a dosimetric comparison between kilovoltage intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) simulating both deep-inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) and free-breathing (FB) modalities for patients with liver metastases.Methods/MaterialsDiagnostic computed tomographies (CT) of patients carrying one or two lesions &lt;4 cm and who underwent surgery were retrospectively screened and randomly selected for the study. For DIBH-SRS, a gross target volume (GTV) plus planning target volume (PTV) were delineated. For FB-SRS, a GTV plus an internal target volume (ITV) and PTV were defined. Accounting for the maximal GTV diameters, a modified GTV (GTV-IORT) was expanded circumferentially to simulate a resection cavity. The best suitable round-applicator size was thereafter selected. All treatment plans were calculated homogeneously to deliver 40 Gy. Doses delivered to organs at risk (OAR) and target volumes were compared for IORT vs. both SRS modalities.ResultsEight patients encompassing 10 lesions were included in the study. The mean liver volume was 2,050.97 cm3 (SD, 650.82), and the mean GTV volume was 12.23 cm3 (SD, 12.62). As for target structures, GTV-IORT [19.44 cm3 (SD, 17.26)] were significantly smaller than both PTV DIBH-SRS [30.74 cm3 (SD, 24.64), p = 0.002] and PTV FB-SRS [75.82 cm3 (SD, 45.65), p = 0.002]. The median applicator size was 3 cm (1.5–4.5), and the mean IORT simulated delivery time was 45.45 min (SD, 19.88). All constraints were met in all modalities. Liver V9.1 showed significantly smaller volumes with IORT [63.39 cm3 (SD, 35.67)] when compared to DIBH-SRS [150.12 cm3 (SD, 81.43), p = 0.002] or FB-SRS [306.13 cm3 (SD, 128.75), p = 0.002]. No other statistical or dosimetrically relevant difference was observed for stomach, spinal cord, or biliary tract. Mean IORT D90 was 85.3% (SD, 6.05), whereas D95 for DIBH-SRS and FB-SRS were 99.03% (SD, 1.71; p = 0.042) and 98.04% (SD, 3.46; p = 0.036), respectively.ConclusionKilovoltage IORT bears the potential as novel add-on treatment for resectable liver metastases, significantly reducing healthy liver exposure to radiation in comparison to SRS. Prospective clinical evidence is required to confirm this hypothesis.
Automatic Sequence-Based Network for Lung Diseases Detection in Chest CT
Authors: Hao Jinkui , Xie Jianyang , Liu Ri , Hao Huaying , Ma Yuhui , Yan Kun , Liu Ruirui , Zheng Yalin , Zheng Jianjun , Liu Jiang , Zhang Jingfeng , Zhao Yitian 
Published: December 2021

ObjectiveTo develop an accurate and rapid computed tomography (CT)-based interpretable AI system for the diagnosis of lung diseases.BackgroundMost existing AI systems only focus on viral pneumonia (e.g., COVID-19), specifically, ignoring other similar lung diseases: e.g., bacterial pneumonia (BP), which should also be detected during CT screening. In this paper, we propose a unified sequence-based pneumonia classification network, called SLP-Net, which utilizes consecutiveness information for the differential diagnosis of viral pneumonia (VP), BP, and normal control cases from chest CT volumes.MethodsConsidering consecutive images of a CT volume as a time sequence input, compared with previous 2D slice-based or 3D volume-based methods, our SLP-Net can effectively use the spatial information and does not need a large amount of training data to avoid overfitting. Specifically, sequential convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with multi-scale receptive fields are first utilized to extract a set of higher-level representations, which are then fed into a convolutional long short-term memory (ConvLSTM) module to construct axial dimensional feature maps. A novel adaptive-weighted cross-entropy loss (ACE) is introduced to optimize the output of the SLP-Net with a view to ensuring that as many valid features from the previous images as possible are encoded into the later CT image. In addition, we employ sequence attention maps for auxiliary classification to enhance the confidence level of the results and produce a case-level prediction.ResultsFor evaluation, we constructed a dataset of 258 chest CT volumes with 153 VP, 42 BP, and 63 normal control cases, for a total of 43,421 slices. We implemented a comprehensive comparison between our SLP-Net and several state-of-the-art methods across the dataset. Our proposed method obtained significant performance without a large amount of data, outperformed other slice-based and volume-based approaches. The superior evaluation performance achieved in the classification experiments demonstrated the ability of our model in the differential diagnosis of VP, BP and normal cases.
Peiminine Induces G0/G1-Phase Arrest, Apoptosis, and Autophagy via the ROS/JNK Signaling Pathway in Human Osteosarcoma Cells in Vitro and in Vivo
Authors: Yu Lei , Chen Yuxi , Yuan Shaohui , Cao Yang , Bi Zhenggang 
Published: December 2021

Aims: Peiminine has been reported to have various pharmacological properties, including anticancer activity. In this study, we investigated the effect of this alkaloid on osteosarcoma and explored the underlying mechanisms.Methods: To evaluate the antiosteosarcoma effects of peiminine in vitro, cell viability was assessed by CCK-8 and live/dead assays; the effects of the drug on apoptosis and the cell cycle were examined by flow cytometry; the effects on cell migration and invasion were detected by wound healing and Transwell assays, respectively, while its effects on autophagy were observed by transmission electron microscopy and an LC3 fluorescent puncta formation assay. The role of autophagy in the peiminine-mediated effects in osteosarcoma cells was evaluated by CCK-8 assay and western blotting after the application of the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine. The effect of peiminine on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was analyzed using fluorescence confocal microscopy and spectrophotometry. Additionally, peiminine-treated osteosarcoma cells were exposed to SP600125, a JNK inhibitor, and N-acetylcysteine, a ROS scavenger, after which the contribution of the ROS/JNK signaling pathway to osteosarcoma was assessed using cell viability and LC3 fluorescent puncta formation assays, flow cytometry, and western blotting. A xenograft mouse model of osteosarcoma was generated to determine the antitumor effects of peiminine in vivo.Results: Peiminine suppressed proliferation and metastasis and induced cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and autophagy in osteosarcoma cells. These anticancer effects of peiminine were found to be dependent on intracellular ROS generation and activation of the JNK pathway. In line with these results, peiminine significantly inhibited xenograft tumor growth in vivo.Conclusions: Peiminine induced G0/G1-phase arrest, apoptosis, and autophagy in human osteosarcoma cells via the ROS/JNK signaling pathway both in vitro and in vivo. Our study may provide an experimental basis for the evaluation of peiminine as an alternative drug for the treatment of osteosarcoma.