Medicine
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Despite the establishment of the links between ulcerative colitis (UC) and depression, between UC and gut microbiota, few correlations between depression and gut microbiota have yet been demonstrated especially in ulcerative colitis patients. The objective of our study was therefore to determine whether the comorbidity of depressive disorder in ulcerative colitis patients correlate with alterations in the gut microbiota and to identify the specific microbiota signatures associated with depression. Between March 2017 and February 2018, 31 healthy volunteers, 31 UC patients without depression, and 31 UC patients with depression from Longhua Hospital were enrolled. ⋯ The UC with depression group had the lowest microbial abundance. With regard to the vital bacteria in the microbiota-gut-brain axis, patients with UC and depression had the lowest abundance of Firmicutes, Clostridia, and Clostridiales but the highest abundance of Proteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Bacilli. The presence of depression in UC patients presented significant differences in the composition of gut microbiota compared with UC patients without depression, with increased abundance of Firmicutes and reduced abundance of Proteobacteria.
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Sepsis is a life-threatening condition, and serum lactate levels have been used to predict patient prognosis. Studies on serum lactate levels in patients undergoing regular hemodialysis who have sepsis are limited. This study aimed to determine the predictive value of serum lactate levels for sepsis-related mortality among patients who underwent last hemodialysis at three different times before admission to the emergency department (ED). ⋯ A total of 490 patients were enrolled in the study, and 8.0% (39), 21.5% (84), and 74.9% (367) of the patients were in Group A, Group B and Group C, respectively; the serum lactate levels (2.91 vs 2.13 vs 2.79 mmol/L, respectively; P = .175) and 28-day in-hospital mortality (17.9% vs 14.6% vs 22.9%) showed no statistically significant difference between 3 groups. The association between serum lactate levels and 28-day in-hospital mortality was reliable in Group B (P = .002) and Group C (P < .001), but it was unreliable in Group A (P = .629). Serum lactate level has acceptable sensitivity in predicting 28-day in-hospital mortality among patients with sepsis who undergo last hemodialysis after 4 hours, but is not reliable when the last hemodialysis takes place within 4 hours.
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Excessive iron accumulation provokes toxic effects, especially in the cardiovascular system. Under iron overload, labile free non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI) can induce cardiovascular damage with increased oxidative stress. However, the significance of NTBI in individuals without iron overload and overt cardiovascular disease has not been investigated. ⋯ In logistic regression analysis, NTBI was independently associated with a combination of higher levels of both d-ROM and BNP than the upper quartiles after adjustment for possible confounding factors. Serum NTBI concentration is detectable in the general population and shows significant inverse associations with oxidative stress and cardiac load. These findings indicate that serum NTBI in physiological conditions does not necessarily reflect increased oxidative stress, in contrast to the implications of higher levels in states of iron overload or pathological conditions.
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Dysautonomia is common in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) since disease early phase. Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's disease - Autonomic (SCOPA-AUT) is a well-designed scale assessing the autonomic dysfunctions of PD patients. Our objectives were to examine the autonomic dysfunction in PD and scan without evidence of dopaminergic deficit (SWEDD) patients and to assess the correlation of autonomic dysfunctions with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers. ⋯ Specifically, patients with PD have lower scores on the urinary scale [4 (0-17) vs 5 (1-18)], pupillomotor scale [0 (0-3) vs 0 (0-3)], thermoregulatory scale [0 (0-4) vs 1.5 (0-10)] and sexual scale [1 (0-6) vs 2 (0-6)] compared with SWEDD patients. Thermoregulatory dysfunction scores were found correlated with CSF α-syn levels in SWEDD group, and gastrointestinal dysfunction scores were correlated with CSF Abeta1-42 in PD group. Additionally, urinary dysfunction scores were correlated with CSF total tau and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181(p-tau181) levels in both HCs and PD patients.
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To analyze the effects of orthognathic surgery on stress distributions in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) of patients with jaw deformity during unilateral molar clenching (UMC) by using three-dimensional (3D) finite element method. Nine patients with jaw deformity (preoperative group, 26.1 ± 5.6 years old) and 9 asymptomatic subjects (control group, 22.0 ± 6.0 years old) were selected. Furthermore, the patients with jaw deformity were also considered as the postoperative group after undergoing orthognathic surgery. ⋯ The stresses on both TMJs of the control group were significantly different, whereas there was no significant difference on both sides for the preoperative group. All the stresses of the preoperative group were greater than those of the control and postoperative groups, except the minimum principal stress on the ipsilateral fossa. Orthognathic surgery is beneficial for alleviating the abnormal stress distributions on TMJ.