ObjectiveTo investigate the expression and significance of CD73 in rats with intermittent hypoxia and high fat diet.MethodsThe rat model of chronic intermittent hypoxia combined with high fat diet was established. Twenty-four healthy male Wistar rats in the SPF level were randomly divided into 4 group, with 6 rats in each group, namely group A (normoxia and normal diet), group B (normoxia and high fat diet), group C (intermittent hypoxia and normal diet)and group D (intermittent hypoxia and high-fat diet). After 6 weeks of experiment, the serum lipid levels, myocardial morphological changes under microscope, the expression level of CD73 protein detected byimmunohistochemistry and Western blot in myocardial cells in rats were compared among these groups.ResultsThe serum lipid levels were significantly different among these groups (P<0.05). HE results showed that the myocardial cells of group A had no obvious abnormalities; disorganized visible myocardial fibers with focal necrosis in groups B and C; myocardial cell injury was most obvious in group D, in which visible muscle fibers arranged in disorder, and grain was not clear, part of the muscle fibers were dissolved predominantly. Compared with group A, CD73 protein expression levels in myocardial cells in groups B, C, and D were significantly elevated (P<0.01). Furthermore, CD73 protein expression level in myocardial cells in group D was significantly higher than those in groups B and C (P<0.01). Western blot showed consistent results as immunohistochemistry: compared with group A, CD73 protein expression levels in groups B, C, and D were significantly elevated (P<0.05), and CD73 protein expression level in myocardial cells in group D was significantly higher than those in groups B and C (P<0.01).ConclusionChronic intermittent hypoxia and high fat diet can cause myocardial cell damage and upregulate CD73 expression in the cardiomyocytes.
Objective To systematically review the association between prothrombin gene G20210A mutation and the risk of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). Methods Databases including PubMed, Springer, Google Scholar, The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2016), CNKI, WanFang Data and CBM were searched for case-control studies concerning the association between prothrombin gene G20210A mutation and cerebral venous thrombosis risk from inception to January 2016. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software and Stata 12.0 software. Results A total of 26 case-control studies were included, involving 1 361 CVT cases and 6 323 controls. The results of meta-analysis showed that: there was a significant association between prothrombin gene G20210A mutation and CVT risk (OR=4.56, 95% CI 3.51 to 5.93,P<0.000 01). Sensitivity analysis showed no significant publication bias was detected confirmed the stability of results. Subgroup analysis showed that G20210A mutation increased CVT risk in adults (OR=5.02, 95% CI 3.81 to 6.60,P<0.000 01), but not in children (OR=1.99, 95% CI 0.83 to 4.79,P=0.12). Conclusion Prothrombin gene G20210A mutation can significantly increase the CVT risk. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, the above results are needed to be validated by more high quality studies.
ObjectiveTo explore the predictors of seizures during pregnancy, and to explore whether seizure control in the 6 months and 1 year prior to pregnancy can predict the risk of seizures during pregnancy and the occurrence of adverse maternal and infant outcomes, so as to guide the choice of the best fertility timing for women with epilepsy (WWE).MethodsA total of 46 WWE with 48 pregnancies were enrolled in Epilepsy Clinics of Tianjin Medical University from August 2016 to January 2020. Retrospective analysis was used to analyze the risk factors of epileptic seizures in pregnancy. The patients were grouped according to the time of absence of seizures during pregnancy. To analyze the influence of epileptic seizure, pregnancy complications and pregnancy outcome.Results Among 48 pregnancies, the risk of premature rupture of membranes was significantly higher in patients with epilepsy than those without epilepsy (34.6% vs. 0.0%), and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). There was no significant difference in the risk of PIH, GDM, gestational anemia and pregnancy complications (P>0.05). For women who had seizure during pregnancy, the mean birth weight of the offspring was slightly lower, and the incidence of low birth weight and fetal distress was higher, but the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05); Seizures in the 6 months before pregnancy were significantly associated with seizures during pregnancy [RR=4.28, 95%CI (2.10, 8.74), P<0.01]. Further, the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes increased significantly [RR=2.00, 95%CI (1.10, 3.65), P<0.05] for WWE who had seizure in 6 month before pregnancy; The rates of seizures during pregnancy in the two groups were 25.0% and 20.0%, but the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Compared with the 6-months, the ≥1 year group had a lower risk of PIH and gestational anemia, and the offspring had a lower risk of low birth weight, premature delivery and fetal distress, but the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05).ConclusionEnsuring seizure-free at least 6 months before pregnancy will significantly reduce the probability of seizures during pregnancy, and is significantly associated with a lower incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Women of childbearing age with epilepsy are advised to plan pregnancy after reaching seizure-free at least 6 months.
ObjectiveThrough neuropsychological assessment, explore the factors that may cause cognitive impairment in patients with focal epilepsy.MethodsCollected 53 epilepsy patients in outpatients and inpatients of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from March 2016 to January 2020, including 25 males and 28 females, with an average age of (23.58±13.24) years old, and the course of disease (6.49±7.39), all met the 2017 ILEA diagnostic criteria for focal epilepsy, and there was no history of progressive brain disease or brain surgery. Carry out relevant cognitive assessments for the enrolled patients, use SPSS statistical software to conduct Spearman correlation analysis on the cognitive functions of the study subjects, and further analyze the related factors of cognition through Logistic regression analysis to clarify the factors related to cognition whether it may be a risk factor for cognitive impairment in patients with focal epilepsy.Results Spearman correlation analysis showed that the FIQ of patients with focal epilepsy was related to education level, age of onset, seizure pattern, total number of seizures, AEDs and EEG interval discharge side (P<0.05). Binary Logistic regression analysis shows that among all cognitive-related factors, only the number of AEDs (P=0.003) and EEG interval discharge (P=0.013) are the risk of cognitive impairment in patients with focal epilepsy factor.ConclusionIn the clinical treatment of epilepsy, seizures should be actively controlled, but the types of drugs should be minimized. When there are more than 3 kinds of drugs, surgical treatment or other non-surgical treatments can be considered. At the same time, the EEG should be reviewed regularly to understand the changes in epileptiform discharges between episodes.
Objective The ReHo, ALFF, fALFF of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) technology were used to study the influencing factors and neural mechanism of cognitive dysfunction in patients with benign epilepsy of childhood with centrotemporal spikes (BECT). Methods Fourteen patients were enrolled (from April 2015 to March 2018) from epilepsy specialist outpatients and Functional Department of Neurosurgery of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital. They underwent the long term VEEG monitoring (one sleep cycle was included at least), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (China Revised), the head MRI and RS-fMRI examinations. Spike-wave index (SWI), FIQ, VIQ, PIQ scores were calculated. According to full-scale IQ (FIQ), they were divided into two groups: FIQ<90 (scores range from 70 to 89, the average score was 78.3±8.9, 6 cases) and FIQ≥90 (scores range from 90 to 126, the average score was 116.6±12.9, 8 cases). SPSS21.0 statistical software was used to compare the general clinical data and SWI of the two groups, and the correlation between clinical factors and the evaluation results of Wechsler Intelligence Scale was analyzed. The RS-fMRI images were preprocessed and the further data were analysed by two independent samplest-test under the whole brain of regional homogeneity (ReHo), amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and fractional of ALFF (fALFF) methods. The differences of brain activation regions in RS-fMRI between the two groups were observed, and the results of general clinical data, SWI and cognitive function test were compared and analyzed comprehensively. Results The differences of SWI were statistically significant (P<0.05): FIQ<90 group were greater than FIQ≥90 group. The FIQ, VIQ and PIQ of two groups were negatively correlated with SWI (P<0.05). And the FIQ and PIQ were negatively correlated with the total number of seizures (P<0.05). Compared with FIQ≥90 group by two samplet-test based on whole level ReHo, ALFF, fALFF methods, deactivation of brain regions of FIQ<90 group include bilateral precuneus, posterior cingulate and occipital lobe, and enhanced activation of brain regions include left prefrontal cortex, bilateral superior frontal gyrus medial and right precentral gyrus, supplementary motor area, angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, bilateral insular lobe and subcortical gray matter structures. Conclusions Frequent epileptic discharges during slow wave sleep and recurrent clinical episodes were risk factors for cognitive impairment in BECT patients. Repeated clinical seizures and frequent subclinical discharges could cause dysfunction of local brain areas associated with cognition and the default network, resulting in patients with impaired cognitive function.