Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease最新文献

Ocular imaging plays an irreplaceable role in the evaluation of eye diseases. Developing cellular-resolution ophthalmic imaging technique for more accurate and effective diagnosis and pathogenesis analysis of ocular diseases is a hot topic in the cross-cutting areas of ophthalmology and imaging. Currently, ocular imaging with traditional optical coherence tomography (OCT) is limited in lateral resolution and thus can hardly resolve cellular structures. Conventional OCT technology obtains ultra-high resolution at the expense of a certain imaging range and cannot achieve full field of view imaging. In the early years, Time-domain full-field OCT (TD-FF-OCT) has been mainly used for ex vivo ophthalmic tissue studies, limited by the low speed and low full-well capacity of existing two-dimensional (2D) cameras. The recent improvements in system design opened new imaging possibilities for in vivo applications thanks to its distinctive optical properties of TD-FF-OCT such as a spatial resolution almost insensitive to aberrations, and the possibility to control the curvature of the optical slice. This review also attempts to look at the future directions of TD-FF-OCT evolution, for example, the potential transfer of the functional-imaging dynamic TD-FF-OCT from the ex vivo into in vivo use and its expected benefit in basic and clinical ophthalmic research. Through non-invasive, wide-field, and cellular-resolution imaging, TD-FF-OCT has great potential to be the next-generation imaging modality to improve our understanding of human eye physiology and pathology.

Background: Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) has become an important cause of liver cancer. The current understanding of MAFLD-related liver cancer is not sufficient, however.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical and metabolic characteristics of inpatients with MAFLD-related liver cancer.

Design: This is a cross-sectional investigation.

Methods: An investigation was conducted to collect the cases of hepatic malignant tumor hospitalized in Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University from 1 January 2010 to December 31 2019. The basic information, medical history, laboratory examination results, and imaging examination results of 273 patients diagnosed with MAFLD-related liver cancer were recorded. The general information and metabolic characteristics of patients with MAFLD-related liver cancer were analyzed.

Results: In total, 5958 patients were diagnosed with hepatic malignant tumor. Among them, liver cancer due to other causes accounted for 6.19% (369/5958), MAFLD-related liver cancer was diagnosed in 273 cases of them. From 2010 to 2019, MAFLD-related liver cancer showed an increasing trend. Among 273 patients with MAFLD-related liver cancer, 60.07% were male, 66.30% were ⩾60 years old, and 43.22% had cirrhosis. The 273 patients were comprised by 38 patients with evidence of fatty liver and 235 patients without evidence of fatty liver. There was no significant difference in the proportions of sex, age, overweight/obesity, type 2 diabetes, and the presence of ⩾2 metabolic-related factors between the two groups. In the group without evidence of fatty liver, 47.23% patients had cirrhosis, which was significantly higher than 18.42% in the group with evidence of fatty liver (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: MAFLD-related liver cancer should be considered in liver cancer patients with metabolic risk factors. Half of MAFLD-related liver cancer occurred in the absence of cirrhosis.

Background: Corneal fluorescein sodium staining is a valuable diagnostic method for various ocular surface diseases. However, the examination results are highly dependent on the subjective experience of ophthalmologists.

Objectives: To develop an artificial intelligence system based on deep learning to provide an accurate quantitative assessment of sodium fluorescein staining score and the size of cornea epithelial patchy defect.

Design: A prospective study.

Methods: We proposed an artificial intelligence system for automatically evaluating corneal staining scores and accurately measuring patchy corneal epithelial defects based on corneal fluorescein sodium staining images. The design incorporates two segmentation models and a classification model to forecast and assess the stained images. Meanwhile, we compare the evaluation findings from the system with ophthalmologists with varying expertise.

Results: For the segmentation task of cornea boundary and cornea epithelial patchy defect area, our proposed method can achieve the performance of dice similarity coefficient (DSC) is 0.98/0.97 and Hausdorff distance (HD) is 3.60/8.39, respectively, when compared with the manually labeled gold standard. This method significantly outperforms the four leading algorithms (Unet, Unet++, Swin-Unet, and TransUnet). For the classification task, our algorithm achieves the best performance in accuracy, recall, and F1-score, which are 91.2%, 78.6%, and 79.2%, respectively. The performance of our developed system exceeds seven different approaches (Inception, ShuffleNet, Xception, EfficientNet_B7, DenseNet, ResNet, and VIT) in classification tasks. In addition, three ophthalmologists were selected to rate corneal staining images. The results showed that the performance of our artificial intelligence system significantly outperformed the junior doctors.

Conclusion: The system offers a promising automated assessment method for corneal fluorescein staining, decreasing incorrect evaluations caused by ophthalmologists' subjective variance and limited knowledge.

Background: The prevalence of 'low bone mineral density (BMD)' in Type 2 diabetes (T2DM), especially stratified by body mass index, is seldom reported. The relation of the euthyroid range and low BMD in T2DM remains to be further elucidated.

Objectives: We aim to investigate the thyroid hormones' impact on BMD among euthyroid patients with T2DM.

Design and methods: A total of 1452 hospitalized T2DM patients with normal thyroid function (43.6% males aged over 50 and 56.4% postmenopausal females) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. BMD was measured at lumbar spine by GE lunar dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry system, and 'low BMD' was defined as T-score <-1.0 SD. The prevalence of 'low BMD' was compared between obese and nonobese (body mass index < 25 kg/m²) groups for both sexes, and the relation of low BMD and free T4 quartiles was explored by multiple logistic regression.

Results: The general prevalence of 'low BMD' was 12.3% for male patients aged over 50 (15.5% in the nonobese group and 8.0% in the obese group) and 49.8% for postmenopausal females (56.7% in the nonobese group and 48.9% in the obese group). After adjustment in multiple linear regression, free T4 level remained significantly related to decreased BMD in nonobese male subgroup. Multiple logistic regression revealed that BMD of the highest free T4 quartile (1.12-1.48 ng/dL) decreased significantly than other three quartiles after adjusting for confounding factors including age, body mass index, serum calcium and creatinine level, fasting glucose, alkaline phosphatase, glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, and smoking history (OR = 2.724, 95% CI = 1.085-6.840, p = 0.033). No significant relation was found in obese male or postmenopausal female groups.

Conclusion: High-normal free T4 is a potential independent risk factor for 'low BMD' in nonobese male T2DM patients aged over 50. Close attention should be paid to thyroid function profile, even within normal range, in nonobese men with underlying higher fracture risks on diabetes status.

Background: Apremilast, an oral phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, is approved in the European Union for the treatment of moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis in adult patients refractory or contraindicated to or intolerant of other systemic therapies.

Objectives: The APPRECIATE study assessed apremilast use in real-world practice and its clinical value to physicians and patients. APPRECIATE was a multinational, observational, retrospective, cross-sectional study.

Methods: Apremilast effectiveness at 6 (±1) months was assessed on the basis of psoriasis severity and health-related quality-of-life scores and treatment satisfaction using physician/patient-reported outcomes, respectively. We report the Austrian cohort of 72 patients.

Results: At 6 (±1) months, three-quarters of patients remained on apremilast, while physicians and patients reported treatment benefits across all psoriasis symptoms and manifestations. Of patients, the majority were satisfied with their treatment and achieved treatment goals considered most relevant. Patients' and physicians' perceptions of treatment effectiveness were aligned, and health-related quality-of-life scores indicated an improvement in the majority of patients. Apremilast tolerability was consistent with the known safety profile.

Conclusions: Among psoriasis patients receiving apremilast in Austria, improvement in clinical outcomes were observed and satisfaction with apremilast treatment among patients and physicians was high.

Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02740218.

Background: Metformin is a potent antiglycemic agent, but its importance has receded owing to the launch of novel antidiabetic medications. The benefit of metformin includes not only blood sugar control but also anti-inflammation, autophagy activation, and neuroprotection. This study investigated the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in people with type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who adhered to metformin after adding on a second-line antiglycemic agent.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits of metformin in CVD prevention in patients with T2DM.

Design: We designed the study by comparing the incident rate of CVD events in patients with T2DM who received metformin continually and who ceased metformin during 2002-2014.

Methods: Medical information was obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database, and patients with T2DM receiving second-line antiglycemic agents were categorized into metformin-adherent and nonadherent groups according to prescription claims. The study outcomes were the incidence of CVD hospitalization, including stroke (ischemic and hemorrhagic) and myocardial infarction (MI).

Results: A total of 31,384 patients with T2DM constituted the metformin-adherent group and were 1:1 matched to nonadherent patients. Metformin adherence was associated with a lower risk of hospitalization due to stroke [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 0.51, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.43-0.59, p < 0.001] and MI (aHR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.43-0.53, p < 0.001). The risk reduction persisted in both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. Our subgroup analysis revealed that the protective effect on stroke and MI hospitalization persisted in metformin-adherent patients, both sexes, patients aged ⩽65 or >65 years, and patients with or without concurrent insulin treatment.

Conclusions: This study revealed that metformin adherence in patients with T2DM who required a first-line treatment may reduce the risk of subsequent CVD. Despite the availability of numerous novel antiglycemic agents, metformin adherence by patients who require a combination of antiglycemic agents provides an additional benefit of CVD protection.

Background: Which noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) treatment - transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) - is more beneficial for stroke patients' cognitive rehabilitation is still up for debate.

Objectives: Our goal is to provide an overview of the research on the effectiveness and safety of various NIBS protocols.

Design: Systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Methods: This NMA compared any active NIBS versus sham stimulation in adult stroke survivors to enhance cognitive function, with a focus on global cognitive function (GCF), attention, memory, and executive function (EF) using the databases MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.gov. The NMA statistical approach was built on a frequency framework. The effect size was estimated by the standardized mean difference (SMD) and a 95% confidence interval (CI). We compiled a relative ranking of the competing interventions based on their surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA).

Results: NMA showed that high-frequency repeated TMS (HF-rTMS) improved GCF compared with sham stimulation (SMD = 1.95; 95% CI: 0.47-3.43), while dual-tDCS improved memory performance versus sham stimulation significantly (SMD = 6.38; 95% CI: 3.51-9.25). However, various NIBS stimulation protocols revealed no significant impact on enhancing attention, executive function, or activities of daily living. There was no significant difference between the active stimulation protocols for TMS and tDCS and sham stimulation in terms of safety. Subgroup analysis demonstrated an effect favoring activation site of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (SUCRA = 89.1) for enhancing GCF and bilateral DLPFC (SUCRA = 99.9) stimulation for enhancing memory performance.

Conclusion: The HF-rTMS over the left DLPFC appears to be the most promising NIBS therapeutic option for improving global cognitive performance after stroke, according to a comparison of numerous NIBS protocols. Furthermore, for patients with post-stroke memory impairment, dual-tDCS over bilateral DLPFC may be more advantageous than other NIBS protocols. Both tDCS and TMS are reasonably safe.

Registration: PROSPERO ID: CRD42022304865.

Background: Patients with incidental eosinophilia is becoming increasingly common in clinical practice. But it remains challenging to diagnose and treat owing to its complex etiology. The awareness of physicians and the strategies of diagnosis and treatment toward eosinophilia are still unclear.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate attention, diagnosis, treatment, and awareness of eosinophilia among physicians, as well as factors influencing clinical practice, and to find ways to improve the efficacy of this disease.

Design: This is a cross-sectional survey.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 to 4 June 2021 in a tertiary hospital. Self-administered and validated electronic questionnaire was used to investigate the attention toward eosinophilia, the strategies of diagnosis and treatment, and the awareness in physicians.

Results: A total of 607 valid questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 84.5%. Among the responders, 65.4% of physicians claimed to be familiar with patients with eosinophilia but only 11.0% of them had read the relevant guidelines or expert consensus. Among 207 physicians who had ever diagnosed patients with eosinophilia, only 19.4% had performed detailed examinations. The accuracy of awareness questions was 1.6-53.5%, and only 26.5% of physicians had high levels of awareness. An increase in the awareness level of up to 2.82 folds was seen among physicians with factors such as job title, encountering patients with eosinophilia, linking patients' conditions to peripheral blood eosinophil count, and paying attention to guidelines.

Conclusion: This study highlighted the importance of raising awareness and knowledge of eosinophilia among physicians in China. More works on education about eosinophilia guideline are needed, which may help physicians make decision with more benefits to patients.

Objectives: To explore the optical coherence tomography (OCT) biomarkers to predict the transition to chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (cCSC) after retinal laser photocoagulation.

Methods: Patients enrolled in this study were from a 12-week clinical trial comparing the efficacy and safety of subthreshold micropulse laser (SML) with threshold conventional laser (TCL) for CSC and had extended follow-up for more than 1 year. They were divided into two groups, transited to cCSC group (cCSC group) and did not transited to cCSC group (non-cCSC group) according to fundus examination at the extended follow-up. Collect the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and OCT characteristics of patients at baseline and 12 weeks after laser treatment.

Results: Twenty-seven patients were enrolled (42.6 ± 7.7 years old), and duration of follow-up was 178.9 ± 88.8 (57.0-312.0) weeks. Nine patients (33.3%) were assigned to cCSC group, and the other 18 patients (66.7%) were assigned to the non-cCSC group. Twelve weeks after the laser treatment, subretinal fluid (SRF) of 15 patients (83.3%) in non-cCSC group and 5 patients (55.6%) in cCSC group absorbed completely; the height of SRF had statistical difference between two groups (p = 0.035); rough RPE was less common in cCSC group (p = 0.030); hyper reflective mass (HRM) was more common in cCSC group (p = 0.024); more number of hyper reflective foci (HRF) in outer segment of photoreceptor layer were detected in cCSC group (p = 0.035). From baseline to 12 weeks after laser treatment, the number of HRF in outer segment photoreceptor layer did not change significantly in cCSC group (p = 0.665) but decreased significantly in non-cCSC group (p = 0.000). A total of five patients suffered binocular CSC, three of them in the non-cCSC group occurred later than the other two in the cCSC group (129.9-278.3 weeks vs 96.1-114.9 weeks after baseline).

Conclusion: SRF, rough RPE, HRM, and number of HRF in outer segment photoreceptor layer 12 weeks after laser treatment, and change in the number of HRF in outer segment photoreceptor layer from baseline to 12 weeks after laser treatment may predict the transition to cCSC.