UNASSIGNED: The relationship between serum antinuclear antibody (ANA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains unknown. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate whether serum ANA was associated with an increased risk of RA in a case-control study.
UNASSIGNED: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis hospitalized at Shandong Provincial Hospital from January 2018 to December 2022 were recruited as the case group, and patients with other types of arthritis and healthy people at the same time were taken as the control group. Antinuclear antibody (ANA) was detected by indirect immunofluorescence assays. Propensity score matching was employed to construct a cohort of patients exhibiting comparable baseline characteristics. The relationship between serum ANA and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis was analyzed by logistic regression analysis.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 1,175 patients with RA and 1,662 control subjects were included in this study. After adjusting for potential confounding factors in the propensity-score matched cohort, the risk of RA gradually increased with rising of ANA titers. When ANA titers were divided into three groups (1:100, 1:320, and 1:1,000), the OR (95% CI) for ANA titers from low to high was 3.95 (3.01, 5.18), 16.63 (9.44, 29.30), and 17.34 (9.53, 31.54), respectively, compared to those when ANA was negative. The ANA patterns closely related to the occurrence of RA include nuclear homogeneous, nuclear speckled, and cytoplasmic speckled. Among them, the positive rate of nuclear homogeneous was the highest, which accounted for 42.64%. The OR (95% CI) of ANA patterns including nuclear homogeneous, nuclear speckled, and cytoplasmic speckled was 16.81 (11.46, 24.65), 3.40 (2.49, 4.63), and 3.09 (1.77, 5.40), respectively.
UNASSIGNED: There was a curve relation between ANA titer and RA, and the higher the ANA titer, the higher the probability of RA. However, there was no statistical difference in probability of RA for 1:320 versus 1:1,000 ANA titers. The most important kind of ANA pattern in the blood of RA patients was nuclear homogeneous. These findings suggest that ANA may be a novel risk marker for RA.

Carotid plaque instability is a risk factor for ischemic stroke, and changes in serum creatinine are associated with carotid plaque. However, the relationship between serum creatinine and carotid plaque stability is not well explained. This study aimed to interpret this relationship for clinical treatment of carotid plaque.
A total of 4363 subjects aged 29-86 from December 2013 to December 2018 were included in this study. The stability of carotid plaque was determined based on ultrasound echoes and divided into two groups: carotid plaque stable group and carotid plaque unstable group. The relationship between serum creatinine and carotid plaque stability was determined using curve fitting methods as well as logistic regression.
After age stratification, there was an inverted U-shaped curve between the stability of right carotid plaque and serum creatinine in males, When serum creatinine levels were less than 84 μmol/L, the probability of carotid plaque instability gradually increased, and the carotid plaque became stable when creatinine levels were greater than 84 μmol/L. The relationship between left carotid female plaque stability and serum creatinine showed a U-shaped curve. When serum creatinine levels were less than 80 μmol/L, the carotid plaque stability stabilized, and the probability increased when creatitine levels were more than 80 μmol/L, as the carotid plaque instability rose.
There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between the stability of carotid plaque in the right carotid artery and serum creatinine in males, and a U-shaped relationship between the stability of carotid plaque in the left carotid artery and serum creatinine in females.

UNASSIGNED: Existing evidence on the association between blood pressure (BP) and mortality risk in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) is scarce.
UNASSIGNED: This study aimed to assess the associations between blood pressure (BP) and risks of in-hospital and all-cause mortality in ICU patients with AF.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 2,345 records of patients with AF whose BP was monitored after admission to the ICU were obtained from the MIMIC-III database. Incidences were calculated for endpoints (hospital mortality, 7-day mortality, 30-day mortality, and 1-year mortality). We performed smooth curve and logistic regression analyses to evaluate the association between BP and the risk of each endpoint.
UNASSIGNED: Smooth curve regression showed that systolic blood pressure (SBP), mean arterial pressure (MBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) followed U-shaped curves with respect to endpoints (hospital mortality, 7-day mortality, 30-day mortality, and 1-year mortality). The incidence of these endpoints was lowest at 110/70/55 mm Hg. There was an increased risk of 1-year mortality observed with BP > 110/70/55 mm Hg (SBP, odds ratio [OR] = 1.008, 95% CI 1.001-1.015, p = 0.0022; MBP, OR = 1.010, 95% CI 1.005-1.016, p < 0.001) after adjusting for age, sex, and medical history. In contrast, an inverse association between BP and the risk of 1-year mortality was observed with BP ≤ 110/70/55 mm Hg (SBP, OR = 0.981, 95% CI 0.974-0.988, p < 0.001; MBP OR = 0.959, 95% CI 0.939-0.979, p < 0.001; and DBP, OR = 0.970, 95% CI 0.957-0.983, p < 0.001).
UNASSIGNED: We observed a U-shaped association between BP and in-hospital/all-cause mortality in ICU patients with AF. However, the underlying causes need to be investigated.

Background: The possible effects of dietary fiber intake on hypertension have not been clarified fully. The association of dietary fiber intake with hypertension risk in midlife women was analyzed in this study. Methods: Baseline data were obtained from the Study of Women\'s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Smooth curve, linear regression, and logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the associations of four indices of daily dietary estimate (DDE) of dietary fiber (dietary fiber intake, dietary fiber intake from beans, dietary fiber intake from vegetables/fruit, and dietary fiber intake from grains) with blood pressure in midlife women. For this research purpose, diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥90 mmHg was defined as diastolic hypertension, and systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥140 mmHg was defined as systolic hypertension. Results: This study included 2,519 participants with an average age of 46. The smooth curve showed approximate negative correlations between three fiber indices (DDE dietary fiber, DDE fiber from vegetables/fruit, and DDE fiber from grains) and blood pressure, including DBP and SBP (all P < 0.005). There were also approximate negative correlations between two fiber indices (DDE dietary fiber and DDE fiber from grains) and the risk of diastolic hypertension and systolic hypertension (all P < 0.05). Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis suggested that DDE dietary fiber (Sβ = -0.057, 95% CI -0.194 - -0.012, P = 0.027), DDE fiber from vegetables/fruit (Sβ = -0.046, 95% CI -0.263 - -0.007, P = 0.039), and DDE fiber from grains (Sβ = -0.073, 95% CI -0.600 - -0.099, P = 0.006, Model 4) were still negatively correlated with DBP after adjusting for confounding factors. Only DDE fiber from grains was independently and negatively associated with SBP (Sβ = -0.060, 95% CI -0.846 - -0.093, P = 0.015) after these same confounding factors were adjusted for. Importantly, multiple logistic regression analysis suggested that only higher DDE fiber from grains was independently associated with a reduced risk of diastolic hypertension (OR = 0.848, 95% CI 0.770-0.934, P = 0.001, Model 4) and systolic hypertension (OR = 0.906, 95% CI 0.826-0.993, P = 0.034, Model 4) after the adjustments were made for confounding factors. Conclusions: We found that dietary fiber intake, especially DDE fiber from grains, contributes to a lower risk of systolic hypertension and diastolic hypertension in midlife women.