BACKGROUND: We conducted a nationwide population-based case-control study to analyse potential predisposing factors for hearing loss (HL) that present during the fetal, perinatal, and postnatal periods in prematurely born children.
METHODS: This study enrolled 21,576 children born at < 37 weeks of gestation; 3,596 with HL and 17,980 with normal hearing born between 2002 and 2015, matched for sex, age at diagnosis, and enrollment time. Data were abstracted from the concatenation of three nationwide databases for overall risk factors till the diagnosis of HL.
RESULTS: Maternal HL, maternal diabetes, particularly type 1 diabetes mellitus, and at or before 32 weeks of gestation were the major obstetric risk factors for HL. Prematurely born children who were born via cesarean section and received a combination of antenatal steroids and magnesium sulfate exhibited a significantly reduced risk of developing HL. Ear malformation was a critical predictor for HL. The major postnatal risk factors included seizure and ototoxic drugs use. Premature infants diagnosed with more than 1 diagnosis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, necrotizing enterocolitis, and intracerebral hemorrhage were at an increased risk of developing HL. Congenital CMV infection and recurrent acute otitis were also independent postnatal factors for HL in prematurely born children.
CONCLUSIONS: To reduce the incidence of childhood HL in prematurely born children, aggressive management of premature birth-related consequences and treatable causes and longitudinal audiological follow-up with early detection and adequate intervention are crucial.

The effect of sand and dust pollution on the sensitive structures of flow sensors in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is a hot issue in current MEMS reliability research. However, previous studies on sand and dust contamination have only searched for sensor accuracy degradation due to heat conduction in sand and dust cover and have yet to search for other failure-inducing factors. This paper aims to discover the other inducing factors for the accuracy failure of MEMS flow sensors under sand and dust pollution by using a combined model simulation and sample test method. The accuracy of a flow sensor is mainly reflected by the size of its thermistor, so in this study, the output value of the thermistor value was chosen as an electrical characterization parameter to verify the change in the sensor\'s accuracy side by side. The results show that after excluding the influence of heat conduction, when sand particles fall on the device, the mutual friction between the sand particles will produce an electrostatic current; through the principle of electrostatic dissipation into the thermistor, the principle of measurement leads to the resistance value becoming smaller, and when the sand dust is stationary for some time, the resistance value returns to the expected level. This finding provides theoretical guidance for finding failure-inducing factors in MEMS failure modes.

暂无摘要。

Studies on risk factors for childhood hearing loss (HL) are usually based on questionnaires or small sample sizes. We conducted a nationwide population-based case-control study to comprehensively analyze the maternal, perinatal, and postnatal risk factors for HL in full-term children.
We retrieved data from three nationwide databases related to maternal characteristics, perinatal comorbidities, and postnatal characteristics and adverse events. We used 1:5 propensity score matching to include 12,873 full-term children with HL and 64,365 age-, sex-, and enrolled year-matched controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate the risk factors for HL.
Among the various maternal factors, maternal HL (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 8.09, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 7.16-9.16) and type 1 diabetes (aOR: 3.79, 95% CI: 1.98-7.24) had the highest odds of childhood hearing impairment. The major perinatal risk factors for childhood hearing impairment included ear malformations (aOR: 58.78, 95% CI: 37.5-92.0) and chromosomal anomalies (aOR: 6.70, 95% CI: 5.25-8.55), and the major postnatal risk factors included meningitis (aOR: 2.08, 95% CI: 1.18-3.67) and seizure (aOR: 3.71, 95% CI: 2.88-4.77). Other factors included acute otitis media, postnatal ototoxic drug use, and congenital infections.
Many risk factors for childhood HL identified in our study are preventable, such as congenital infection, meningitis, ototoxic drug use, and some maternal comorbidities. Accordingly, more effort is required to prevent and control the severity of maternal comorbidities during pregnancy, initiate genetic diagnostic evaluation for high-risk children, and aggressive screening for neonatal infections.

UNASSIGNED: Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) disease is an important infection disease throughout the world. Mycobacterium xenopi (M. xenopi) is a common NTM. Extrapulmonary infections due to M. xenopi, particularly spine infections, are a rare occurrence, but lack of research is cited as a constraint for implementing NTM control in such patients. The purposes of this paper are to describe a case of spondylodiscitis, to review the published literature on cases of M. xenopi spine infections, and to summarize the predisposing factors, diagnosis, and treatment of infection.
UNASSIGNED: A case of spondylodiscitis was caused by M. xenopi in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Research was conducted using the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Embase, Wiley Online Library, and Scopus databases using the following search terms: \"Mycobacterium xenopi\", \"vertebral\", \"spinal\", \"spondylodiscitis\", \"infection\", and \"osteomyelitis\".
UNASSIGNED: We retrieved 14 cases published before August 2022. The risk factors for infection were iatrogenic infections (3/14, 21.43%), SLE (4/14, 28.57%), AIDS (4/14, 28.57%), and immunocompetence without any comorbidities (3/14, 21.43%). The most common sites of infection were thoracic vertebrae (10/14, 71.43%) and lumbar vertebrae (4/14, 28.57%). A total of 14 cases were isolated and identified as M. xenopi from a toad by mycobacterial culture. The identification time was 55.00 ± 7.55 days (the present report identification time of metagenomic next generation sequencing (mNGS) was only 2 days). All patients were treated with antibiotic therapy, and the duration of treatment was 13.18 ± 2.13 months. Clarithromycin-based therapy showed a higher improvement rate (5/6, 83.33%). Surgical intervention was performed in 5 patients. Only 1 patient did not show any improvement after surgical treatment.
UNASSIGNED: M. xenopi spine infection in humans presents with atypical clinical symptoms. mNGS identification may be a good choice. M. xenopi may be considered in immunocompromised patients with spinal infection. We recommend a clarithromycin-containing regimen and prolonging the duration of treatment to ensure effectiveness.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias encountered in clinical practice. The pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for its development are complex, vary amongst individuals, and associated with predisposing factors. Here, we report a case of AF caused by annular constrictive pericarditis (ACP), which is extremely rare due to its unusual anatomical form. In our patient, AF was refractory to multiple antiarrhythmic medications; however, spontaneous conversion to sinus rhythm occurred when the ring encircling the right and left ventricular (RV and LV) cavities along the atrioventricular (AV) groove was severed. This suggests that atrial stretch due to atrial enlargement and increased left atrial (LA) pressure may contribute to the initiation and maintenance of AF. This report highlights the importance of the careful investigation of rare predisposing factors for AF using non-invasive diagnostic approaches and mechanical-electric feedback (MEF) as a pathophysiological mechanism for AF initiation and maintenance.

UNASSIGNED: Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a rare and life-threatening state of immune hyperactivation. It has the highest mortality rate among all hematological immune-related adverse events (irAEs) of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) when treating various cancers. However, the predisposing factors of HLH have rarely been mentioned in previous research.
UNASSIGNED: Herein, we report 2 cases of HLH following treatment with pembrolizumab. A patient was diagnosed with thymic carcinoma (TC) and possible Sjögren\'s syndrome (SS), while another was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, and both were positive for antinuclear antibodies. Both cases experienced transient immune-related fever on day 7 after pembrolizumab administration and splenomegaly on day 10. Then recurrent high-grade fever appeared, and liver function impairment, highly elevated ferritin, and hypertriglyceridemia were tested. After the diagnosis of HLH, both patients were treated with dexamethasone and etoposide without relapse in our follow-up.
UNASSIGNED: Considering the widespread use of ICIs and the high mortality rate of HLH, the immune-related fever, splenomegaly, and other signs of hyperinflammation after the infusion of ICIs, are worthy of attention to the presence of HLH. Preexisting autoimmune diseases (ADs) or positive antibodies, concomitant infection, and the setting of thymic epithelial tumors (TET) may be predisposing factors for HLH. And increased caution is needed before the initiation of ICIs for patients with 2 or more predisposing factors.

Green nail syndrome (GNS) is a triad of green discoloration of the nail plate, proximal paronychia, and distal onycholysis. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is known to be the most common causative agent; however, there is no unified standard for the diagnosis and treatment of GNS. Thus, treatment is challenging and often refractory. Here, we report three representative cases with different predisposing factors, including trauma-related, occupation-related, and onychosis-related GNS. Patients with GNS accompanied by onycholysis were instructed to undergo chemical nail avulsion combined with topical antibiotics, and favorable curative effects were observed in all cases. Chemical nail avulsion with urea powder as a conventional method may be an effective treatment for GNS and warrants clinical generalization.

Granulomatous inflammation (GI) diseases are a group of chronic inflammation disorders characterized by focal collections of multinucleated giant cells, epithelioid cells and macrophages, with or without necrosis. GI diseases are closely related to microbes, especially virulent intracellular bacterial infections are important factors in the progression of these diseases. They employ a range of strategies to survive the stresses imposed upon them and persist in host cells, becoming the initiator of the fighting. Microbe-host communication is essential to maintain functions of a healthy host, so defense capacity of hosts is another influence factor, which is thought to combine to determine the result of the fighting. With the development of gene research technology, many human genetic loci were identified to be involved in GI diseases susceptibility, providing more insights into and knowledge about GI diseases. The current review aims to provide an update on the most recent progress in the identification and characterization of bacteria in GI diseases in a variety of organ systems and clinical conditions, and examine the invasion and escape mechanisms of pathogens that have been demonstrated in previous studies, we also review the existing data on the predictive factors of the host, mainly on genetic findings. These strategies may improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying GI diseases, and open new avenues for the study of the associated conditions in the future.

UNASSIGNED: Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is often found in thoracic tumor patients after thoracic radiation therapy, and influences patient quality of life. However, systematic exploration of RILI, including its molecular biological mechanisms and standardized treatment, has not yet been fully elucidated. The main objective of the narrative review was to describe the available evidence concerning RILI, from the biological mechanism to the clinical management. The underlying causes of RILI are multifactorial, including gene-level changes, the influence of signaling pathways, the convergence of various cells, as well as the expression of cytokines and chemokines. Based on the various mechanisms of RILI, several novel treatment strategies have been proposed and gradually applied in clinical practice.
UNASSIGNED: PubMed was used to collect articles about RILI from 1995 to 2021. The papers included clinical trials, reviews, as well as systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Based on the mechanism, diagnosis, and treatment, we synthesized and analyzed these papers to form a clearly logical and normative suggestion to guide clinical application.
UNASSIGNED: RILI is a constantly developing and changing process including radiation pneumonitis and radiation lung fibrosis. Different kinds of inflammatory and immune cells such as macrophages, fibroblasts, and T cells play key roles in the development of RILI, and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-13, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) are also participants in this process. At present, glucocorticoids are mainly therapeutic drugs for the early stage of RILI, and drugs treatment should abide early period, sufficient doses, and the individual principles. Other novel drugs such as Azithromycin also have been tried in clinical application. radiation dose, combination therapy modality, the condition of the tumor, and the age and underlying conditions of patients all effect the occurrence of RILI. Importantly, RILI has a relatively higher incidence in patients who received radiotherapy combined with other treatments, especially immunotherapy.
UNASSIGNED: The occurrence of RILI after radiotherapy will greatly affect the prognosis and quality of life of patients. In clinical practice, early intervention, active treatment, and more effective therapeutic drugs should be found.