[Prevalence of urinary incontinence in middle-aged and elderly adults in 10 areas in China]

Objective: To describe the population and area distribution differences in the prevalence of urinary incontinence in middle-aged and elderly adults in 10 areas in China. Methods: A total of 24 913 participants aged 45-95 years who completed the third resurvey of China Kadoorie Biobank during 2020-2021 were included. The prevalence of urinary incontinence was assessed by an interviewer-administered questionnaire, and urinary incontinence was classified as only stress urinary incontinence, only urgency urinary incontinence and mixed urinary incontinence. The prevalence of urinary incontinence and its subtypes were reported by sex, age and area, and the severity of urinary incontinence and treatment were described. Results: The average age of the participants was (65.4±9.1) years. According to the seventh national census data in 2020, the age-standardized prevalence rates of urinary incontinence was 25.4% in women and 7.0% in men. The age-standardized prevalence rates of only stress, only urgency and mixed incontinence were 1.7%, 4.2% and 1.2% in men and 13.5%, 5.8% and 6.1% in women, respectively. The prevalence rates of urinary incontinence and all subtypes in men and the prevalence of urinary incontinence and all subtypes except only stress urinary incontinence in women all increased with age (P<0.001). After adjusting for age, the prevalence of urinary incontinence in both men and women were higher in rural area than in urban area (P<0.001). The treatment rates in men and women with urinary incontinence were 15.4% and 8.5%, respectively. Conclusions: The prevalence of urinary incontinence was high in middle-aged and elderly adults in China, and the prevalence rate was higher in women than in men, but the treatment rate of urinary incontinence was low.

[Relationship between impaired myocardial untwisting and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in patients with autoimmune diseases]

Objective: To observe the relationship between impaired myocardial untwisting and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in patients with autoimmune diseases (AD). Methods: In this retrospective study, 95 AD patients (27 males, (38.6±14.2) years old) were enrolled as AD group and 71 gender and age matched healthy subjects (24 males, (37.6±12.2) years old) were enrolled as control group, all underwent transthoracic echocardiography and two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) in our hospital between January 2014 and June 2018. Left ventricular untwisting and diastolic function parameters were measured. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify related factors of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in AD patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to identify the diagnosis value of untwisting parameters for left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in AD patients. Results: Compared with control group, left ventricular ejection fraction was lower (58(47, 66)% vs. 67 (62, 71) %, P<0.001), E/e' was higher (10.78 (7.28, 13.65) vs. 6.30 (5.55, 7.25) , P<0.001), isovolumic relaxation time was longer (73.5 (56.5, 88.0) ms vs. 62.0 (58.0, 68.5) ms, P<0.001),and untwist slope during isovolumic relaxation period (USIR) was lower (31.92 (14.09, 54.92) °/s vs. 59.90 (40.09, 87.18) °/s, P<0.001) in AD group than in control group. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed heart rate (OR=0.885, 95%CI 0.840-0.931, P<0.001), E/e' (OR=0.655, 95%CI 0.537-0.798, P<0.001) and USIR (OR=0.986, 95%CI 0.974-0.998, P=0.020) were independently related with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in AD patients. ROC curve showed that area under the curve (AUC) was 0.919 (P<0.001), sensitivity was 87.6%, and specificity was 88.7%, when combining the heart rate, E/e', and USIR as assessment parameters for the diagnosis of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in AD patients at a cutoff of 0.51. Conclusions: Impairment of myocardial untwisting indicates the presence of early stage left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in AD patients. USIR may be a sensitive parameter to evaluate early stage left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in AD patients.

[The effect of para-aortic lymph node metastasis on the resectability of pancreatic cancer]

Pancreatic cancer has poor prognosis and lymph node metastasis is a poor prognostic factor in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer. The metastatic prevalence of para-aortic lymph node (PALN) ranges from 9.1% to 26.5% and it is listed as the distant metastatic group in pancreatic cancer. Nevertheless, it is controversial whether PALN metastasis is the contraindication of surgery in resectable pancreatic cancer for the shortage of level Ⅰ evidence.This study concluded that PALN metastasis indicated poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer, but some patients with PALN metastases could benefit from surgery and their survival could be much improved after the combination of surgery and adjuvant therapy. Therefore, it is not wise to refuse surgery for all pancreatic cancer patients with PALN metastasis and the clinicians can cautiously choose the patients to do surgery. Besides, there are mainly retrospective studies rather than prospective and multicenter studies to explore the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients with PALN metastasis. Thus, more prospective and multicenter studies are needed to decide whether PALN metastasis is an independent prognostic factor in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer.

[Relationship between screening and colorectal cancer incidence: a systematic review and meta-analysis]

Objective: To explore a relationship between screening and incidence for colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: Medline, Scopus, BIOSIS Previews, and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies, which included any randomized controlled trial (RCT) about CRC screening with a report on using endoscopy in screening arms and a usual care in control arms. Results: Nine qualified trials, four one-time and five two-or-more-time screening programs, were included in this review with 997 131 persons randomized and a median follow-up of 10-28 years. In an intention-to-screen analysis, screening was associated with a reduced incidence of advanced CRCs by 10%-60%. Compared with control groups, incidence of CRC firstly increased and then decreased following a screening procedure. Five RCT with six screening arms reported incidences at different follow-up time points, and the incidence ratios at the last time of follow-up were 0.96 (95%CI: 0.86-1.06), 0.80 (95%CI: 0.70-0.92), 1.02 (95%CI: 0.91-1.14), 0.80 (95%CI: 0.70-0.90), 0.83 (95%CI: 0.73-0.94) and 0.94 (95%CI: 0.85-1.05) at the 9.0th, 10.9th, 13.0th, 18.0th, 18.0th, and 19.5th year after baseline, respectively. Compared with population-based screening, people in the hospital/clinic-based screenings had more benefits from CRC incidence reduction, particularly for those with high endoscopy rates, more lesions detected and resected by screening. Conclusions: This study indicates that screening is likely associated with reduction of CRC incidence after 10 years since baseline screening, and this reduction seems to be highly affected by CRC risk of population screened, screening procedure program, and compliance to screening program including accepting endoscopy.

Two years efficiency of lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil combined therapy in chronic hepatitis B patients

BACKGROUND

Lamivudine (LAM) and adefovir (ADV) are widely used in most Asian countries, though monotherapy is associated with the occurrence of resistance.

AIM

To evaluate the efficiency of LAM and ADV combined treatment of chronic hepatitis B patients with compensated cirrhosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

206 eligible Chinese patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either LAM or ADV for the first 24 weeks. According to virologic response at 24 weeks, the patients either continued to monotherapy or switched to combined therapy for 48 weeks. After 48 weeks, all patients received LAM and ADV combined therapy for 96 weeks.

RESULTS

Serum HBV DNA levels significantly decreased in patients with ADV or LAM monotherapy and continuously reduced after the combined therapy. Serum ALT normalized rate were 88.24% and 81.37% at week 48, and 95.74% and 87.36% at week 96 in ADV and LAM group respectively, comparing to 60.78% and 56.73% in ADV and LAM groups at baseline. The accumulated virological breakthrough rate at week 48 and 96 was significantly higher in LAM group.

CONCLUSIONS

Both combination strategies were resulted in the long term virological, biochemical improvement in Chinese chronic hepatitis B patients with compensated cirrhosis.

Expression pattern of heat-shock cognate 70 gene of humphead snapper, Lutjanus sanguineus (Cuvier), infected by Vibrio harveyi

The heat-shock cognate 70 (HSC70) gene of humphead snapper, Lutjanus sanguineus, designated as ByHSC70, was cloned by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) with the primers designed from the known expressed sequence tag (EST) identified from the subtracted cDNA library of the head kidney of humphead snapper. The full-length cDNA of ByHSC70 is 2313 bp, containing a 5' terminal untranslated region (UTR) of 96 bp, a 3' terminal UTR of 267 bp, and an open reading frame (ORF) of 1950 bp encoding a polypeptide of 650 amino acids with a theoretical molecular weight of 71.21 kDa and an estimated isoelectric point (pI) of 5.08. ByHSC70 contained three classical HSP70 family signatures. BLAST analysis showed that the amino acid sequence of ByHSC70 had the highest similarity of 99% when compared with other HSC70s. Fluorescent real-time quantitative RT-PCR was used to examine the expression of ByHSC70 gene in eight kinds of tissues/organs of humphead snapper after challenge with Vibrio harveyi. There was a clear time-dependent expression pattern of ByHSC70 in head kidney, spleen and thymus after bacterial challenge, and the expression of mRNA reached a maximum level at 9, 6 and 24 h post-infection and then returned to control levels after 15, 24 and 36 h, respectively. Our results suggest that HSC70 is an important component in the immune system of humphead snapper, its their rapid transcriptional upregulation in response to V. harveyi infection might be important for survival of humphead snapper.

Mapping QTL for an adaptive trait: the length of caudal fin in Lates calcarifer

The caudal fin represents a fundamental design feature of fishes and plays an important role in locomotor dynamics in fishes. The shape of caudal is an important parameter in traditional systematics. However, little is known about genes involved in the development of different forms of caudal fins. This study was conducted to identify and map quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting the length of caudal fin and the ratio between tail length and standard body length in Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer). One F1 family containing 380 offspring was generated by crossing two unrelated individuals. One hundred and seventeen microsatellites almost evenly distributed along the whole genome were genotyped. Length of caudal fin at 90 days post-hatch was measured. QTL analysis detected six significant (genome-wide significant) and two suggestive (linkage-group-wide significant) QTL on seven linkage groups. The six significant QTL explained 5.5-16.6% of the phenotypic variance, suggesting these traits were controlled by multiple genes. Comparative genomics analysis identified several potential candidate genes for the length of caudal fin. The QTL for the length of caudal fin detected for the first time in marine fish may provide a starting point for the future identification of genes involved in the development of different forms of caudal fins in fishes.

A retrospective evaluation of operative treatment of ankle fractures

Between 1990 and 1992, 89 patients with ankle fracture were treated by open reduction and internal fixation in accordance with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen (AO) principles and were available for evaluation with a mean follow-up period of 3.6 years (range 3 to 5 years). According to the AO classification, there were 21 type A, 37 type B and 31 type C fractures. The results were rated by the Olerud and Molander score. Excellent or good results were seen in 20 type A, 35 type B and 25 type C fractures. Fair or poor results in 1 type A, 2 type B and 6 type C fractures. Complications included screws in the joint in 2 cases and infection in 3 cases.

Cervical ripening before induction of labour in patients with an unfavourable cervix: a comparative randomized study of the Atad Ripener Device, prostaglandin E2 vaginal pessary, and prostaglandin E2 intracervical gel

One hundred and nineteen women with singleton pregnancy and cephalic presentation requiring induction of labour in the presence of an unfavourable cervix (Bishop score < or = 4) were studied. Five patients were excluded because of failure to comply with the protocol. Cervical ripening was carried out using 3 different methods; 36 used the Atad Ripener Device, 39 received 0.5 mg PGE2 intracervical gel and 39 received at least one 3 mg PGE2 intravaginal pessary. There were no differences in the demographic characteristics and the indications for induction. Five patients developed complications during the ripening period necessitating intervention; 3 required emergency Caesarean section and 2 delivered vaginally. Although statistically there were no differences among the 3 methods of cervical ripening, the power of the study is probably not large enough to show the differences. The PGE2 pessary appears to be more effective with 68% of patients either going into labour during cervical ripening or succeeding in the cervical ripening compared to around 50% in the Atad and PGE2 gel groups. The vaginal delivery rate was 87.2% in the pessary group compared to 72.2% in the Atad group and 84.6% in the gel group. The duration of labour was also shorter in the pessary group with 73.5% delivered within 24 hours compared to 57.7% in the Atad group and 57.6% in the gel group. Although the results of the Atad device seem to be inferior, the risk of uterine hyperstimulation from the use of the device is probably lower than that of the PGE2 and may therefore be preferable in women with fetuses at high risk of fetal hypoxia.