Medicine (Baltimore)

BACKGROUND: Pain is a prevalent symptom among patients with cancer, significantly impacting their health and quality of life. Stellate ganglion block (SGB) has been employed as a diagnostic, prognostic, or therapeutic intervention for various pain syndromes. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the effects of ultrasound-guided SGB on postoperative recovery quality and other functional indicators following cancer surgery. METHODS: Data were sourced from PubMed, PEDro, CINAHL, SportDiscus, and Scopus...

The objective of this study is to illustrate the advantages of robot-assisted unilateral biportal endoscopy in lumbar decompression fusion and internal fixation surgery. According to the different surgical methods, we divided the 26 patients into 2 groups, robot-assisted unilateral biportal endoscopy for lumbar interbody fusion (R-ULIF) group and percutaneous endoscopic lumbar decompression and interbody fusion (Endo-LIF) group, with a 1:1 ratio. Gender, disease course, lesion site, fluoroscopy times, operative time, blood loss, postoperative hospital stay, screw placement success rate, fusion rate, complications rate, postoperative pain visual analog scale (VAS) (The VAS score is used only to evaluate pain in the lower back and legs...

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLA), such as anticardiolipin (aCL), anti-β2-glycoprotein I (aβ2GPI), or lupus anticoagulant (LA). Although cerebrovascular events are commonly associated with APS, comprehensive studies on risk factors for cerebral infarction in aPLA-positive patients remain sparse. In this retrospective single-center study, data from 9844 patients tested for aPLA between January 2017 and March 2023 were analyzed...

RATIONALE: Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) manifests in diverse forms. If the nucleus pulposus or endplate tissues protrudes, the location of annular tears also varies, which poses various challenges for the annular suture technique. Tears at the annular attachment area at the edge of the vertebral body (cephalad or caudad) are considered a prohibitively challenging area for annular suturing. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 37-year-old woman presented with a gradual onset of symptoms, experiencing leg pain and numbness over the left leg for 1 year before presentation...

Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) experience a notable decrease in bone mass below the level of injury. While studies have primarily focused on the acute phase with a small cohort, this study aimed to provide comprehensive insights into bone loss patterns over time. A total of 427 individuals with SCI who underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) testing at the Korea National Rehabilitation Center (2010-2021) were included and analyzed by categorizing the DXA results into 1-year intervals based on postinjury duration...

Heavy metal water pollution refers to the abnormal concentration of metal elements and their compounds in water with a relative density of >4.5, which causes the water quality to decline or deteriorate. To assess the presence of 7 metals in drinking water in a city in Xinjiang and the health risks to the human body caused by drinking the water and to provide a scientific basis for health risk management for drinking water. In 2021, 114 monitoring points were set up in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, and 228 water samples were collected in the dry and in the wet seasons to monitor water quality...

To explore the relationship between meaning in life and vulnerability to crisis among undergraduate nursing students and the chain mediating effect between moral values identification and positive psychological capital (PsyCap). A total of 330 undergraduate nursing students majoring in traditional Chinese medicine in ethnic minority areas of Yunnan Province were administered the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Moral Values Identification Identity Questionnaire, Positive PsyCap Questionnaire, and Crisis Vulnerability Scale...

Patient outcomes of osteosarcoma vary because of tumor heterogeneity and treatment strategies. This study aimed to compare the performance of multiple machine learning (ML) models with the traditional Cox proportional hazards (CoxPH) model in predicting prognosis and explored the potential of ML models in clinical decision-making. From 2000 to 2018, 1243 patients with osteosarcoma were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Three ML methods were chosen for model development (DeepSurv, neural multi-task logistic regression [NMTLR]) and random survival forest [RSF]) and compared them with the traditional CoxPH model and TNM staging systems...

Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability and mortality worldwide, necessitating effective rehabilitation strategies for successful recovery. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has gained recognition as a complementary and alternative approach in stroke rehabilitation, owing to its unique syndromes that offer valuable insights for personalized treatment plans. This study aims to elucidate the correlation between TCM syndromes observed during the recovery phase of stroke and the associated neurological deficits...

PANoptosis has been shown to play an important role in tumorigenesis and gain more attention. Yet, the prognostic significance of PANoptosis-related genes has not been investigated more in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). The aim of this research was designed to identify and create a signature of PANoptosis-related genes which was expected to predict prognosis of ccRCC more effectively. The transcriptome data and clinical information were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and the Gene Expression Omnibus database...

Cancer-related anemia (CRA) is a common comorbidity in cancer patients, and it can lead to a worse prognosis. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to investigate the clinical value of the red cell size factor (Rsf) in the early diagnosis of nondigestive tract CRA. A total of 231 patients with nondigestive tract solid cancer were included, and they were divided into anemic and nonanemic subjects according to the hemoglobin (Hb) levels. A BC-7500 blood analyzer was used to detect the indices of red blood cell and reticulocyte, and the mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean reticulocyte volume (MRV), reticulocyte hemoglobin (RHE) content, and reticulocyte production index were observed...

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to observe the clinical effects of "He Tiao Du Ren An Shen Acupuncture" (HTDRAS Acupuncture) for treating restless leg syndrome (RLS). METHODS: We randomly divided 66 RLS patients into 2 groups: the observation group received "He Tiao Du Ren An Shen Acupuncture" and the control group received conventional acupuncture. All participants were treated once a day, 6 days a week, with 1 day off, for a total of 1 month. Clinical effectiveness of the 2 groups was compared, neurotransmitter levels, the International Restless Leg Syndrome Scale and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale were assessed in both groups...

Bone homeostasis is a homeostasis process constructed by osteoblast bone formation and osteoclast bone resorption. Bone homeostasis imbalance and dysfunction are the basis for the development of various orthopedic diseases such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and steroid-induced avascular necrosis of femoral head. Previous studies have demonstrated that ferroptosis can induce lipid peroxidation through the generation of reactive oxygen species, activate a number of signaling pathways, and participate in the regulation of osteoblast bone formation and osteoclast bone resorption, resulting in bone homeostasis imbalance, which is an important factor in the pathogenesis of many orthopedic diseases, but the mechanism of ferroptosis is still unknown...

Glioma remains a significant clinical challenge and poses a dismal patient prognosis. This study focused on the long noncoding ribonucleic acid growth arrest-specific transcript 5 (GAS5) and explored the role of GAS5 and GAS5-related m6A genes in glioma. We explored the mechanisms of GAS5 expression in glioma using bioinformatic analysis based on glioma data from the Cancer Genome Atlas, GSE1142, and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas databases. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis, nomogram construction, immune cell infiltration, drug sensitivity, mutations, and pathway analyses were performed to determine the GAS5 mechanism in glioma...

Current studies have not clarified the relationship between riboflavin intake and all-cause mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aim of this study is to investigate whether there is an association between riboflavin intake and the risk of all-cause mortality in patients with CKD. This was a retrospective cohort study with data extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The study was conducted using Cox regression analysis to calculate hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) to assess the association between riboflavin intake and risk of all-cause mortality...

BACKGROUND: Fat mass and obesity-related gene (FTO) is aberrantly expressed in various cancers including highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues. The aim of this meta-analysis was to explore the effect of FTO expression on clinicopathological and prognostic outcome of gastric cancer. METHODS: China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNK), Wanfang database, VIP database, Chinese biomedical literature database (CBM), PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane library and EMBASE database were searched to screen the literatures according to the inclusion criteria...

The objective of this study was to employ bioinformatics and network pharmacology methodologies to investigate the targets and molecular mechanisms of remdesivir in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated pulmonary fibrosis (PF). Several open-source databases were utilized to confirm the shared targets of remdesivir, COVID-19, and PF. Following this, a comprehensive analysis incorporating function enrichment, protein-protein interaction (PPI), transcription factor (TF), and molecular docking was conducted to investigate the potential mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of remdesivir in the treatment of COVID-19-associated PF...

BACKGROUND: Hemodialysis (HD)-related nursing research has been growing over the past 2 decades, providing critical insights into improving patient care and outcomes. This study aimed to visualize the hotspots and emerging frontiers in HD-related nursing research, offering valuable references for future studies. METHODS: A bibliometric analysis was conducted on publications related to HD nursing research from the Web of Science Core Collection database, spanning the years 2002 to 2023, and the characteristics of literature such as authors, co-cited authors, countries, research institutions, journal distribution, keywords, and cited literature were visually analyzed using CiteSpace and VOSviewer...

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder that results in elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels, which manifest early in the first decades of life. It is a major cause of premature coronary artery disease worldwide, leading to significant public health challenges. The prevalence of genetically determined FH in patients with premature coronary artery disease remains underestimated, particularly in developing countries. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of genetically defined FH in Vietnamese patients with premature acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the Vietnamese population...

BACKGROUND: Glottic contraction and closure causes ventilation obstruction and laryngeal mask airway (LMA) leakage during positive pressure ventilation using LMA. This study aimed to assess the effect of placing the anterior end of the endotracheal tube (ET) at the glottis through the LMA ventilation conduit on treating LMA leakage following glottic contraction and closure. METHODS: In this prospective, randomized, controlled trial, patients with non-minor surgery using LMA ventilation were randomly allocated to the i-gel group (group L) and the i-gel combined with ET group (group LE)...