BackgroundWhile human cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus infection continue to increase globally, available clinical data on H5N1 cases are limited. We conducted a retrospective study of 26 confirmed human H5N1 cases identified through surveillance in China from October 2005 through April 2008.Methodology/Principal FindingsData were collected from hospital medical records of H5N1 cases and analyzed. The median age was 29 years (range 6–62) and 58% were female. Many H5N1 cases reported fever (92%) and cough (58%) at illness onset, and had lower respiratory findings of tachypnea and dyspnea at admission. All cases progressed rapidly to bilateral pneumonia. Clinical complications included acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS, 81%), cardiac failure (50%), elevated aminotransaminases (43%), and renal dysfunction (17%). Fatal cases had a lower median nadir platelet count (64.5×109 cells/L vs 93.0×109 cells/L, p = 0.02), higher median peak lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) level (1982.5 U/L vs 1230.0 U/L, p = 0.001), higher percentage of ARDS (94% [n = 16] vs 56% [n = 5], p = 0.034) and more frequent cardiac failure (71% [n = 12] vs 11% [n = 1], p = 0.011) than nonfatal cases. A higher proportion of patients who received antiviral drugs survived compared to untreated (67% [8/12] vs 7% [1/14], p = 0.003).Conclusions/SignificanceThe clinical course of Chinese H5N1 cases is characterized by fever and cough initially, with rapid progression to lower respiratory disease. Decreased platelet count, elevated LDH level, ARDS and cardiac failure were associated with fatal outcomes. Clinical management of H5N1 cases should be standardized in China to include early antiviral treatment for suspected H5N1 cases.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia, and promptly diagnosis of AD is crucial for delaying the development of disease and improving patient quality of life. However, AD detection, particularly in the early stages, remains a substantial challenge due to the lack of specific biomarkers. The present study was undertaken to identify and validate the potential of circulating miRNAs as novel biomarkers for AD. Solexa sequencing was employed to screen the expression profile of serum miRNAs in AD and controls. RT-qPCR was used to confirm the altered miRNAs at the individual level. Moreover, candidate miRNAs were examined in the serum samples of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and vascular dementia (VD). The results showed that four miRNAs (miR-31, miR-93, miR-143, and miR-146a) were markedly decreased in AD patients' serum compared with controls. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that this panel of four miRNAs could be used as potential biomarker for AD. Furthermore, miR-93, and miR-146a were significantly elevated in MCI compared with controls, and the panel of miR-31, miR-93 and miR-146a can be used to discriminate AD from VD. We established a panel of four serum miRNAs as a novel noninvasive biomarker for AD diagnosis.

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Background The triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index is an alternative marker of insulin resistance (IR) and is closely associated with the prevalence and prognosis of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). However, the association between the TyG index and in-stent restenosis (ISR) after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains unknown. Methods The present study retrospectively recruited patients who were admitted for ACS and underwent coronary angiography at 6 to 24 months after successful DES-based percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In addition, we calculated the TyG index with the following formula: Ln(fasting triglyceride [mg/dL] × fasting blood glucose [mg/dL]/2) and divided patients into 3 groups according to the tertile of the TyG index. Most importantly, multivariate logistic regression analysis models were also constructed to assess the association between the TyG index and DES-ISR in patients with ACS. Results A total of 1574 patients with ACS (58.4 ± 9.4 years, 77.4% male) were included in this study. At the median follow-up time of 12 (9–14) months, the prevalence of DES-ISR increased stepwise with the increasing tertile of the TyG index (11.6% vs 17.3% vs 19.4%, p = 0.002), and the TyG index was also higher in the ISR group than in the non-ISR group (9.00 ± 0.58 vs 8.84 ± 0.61, p < 0.001). In addition, the positive association between the TyG index and the prevalence of DES-ISR was also determined in the fully adjusted model (TyG, per 1-unit increase: OR 1.424, 95% CI 1.116 to 1.818, p = 0.005; tertile of TyG, the OR (95% CI) values for tertile 2 and tertile 3 were 1.454 (1.013 to 2.087) and 1.634 (1.125 to 2.374), respectively, with tertile 1 as a reference). The association was also reflected in most subgroups. Moreover, adding the TyG index to the predictive model for DES-ISR in patients with ACS could contribute to an increase in C-statistics (0.675 vs 0.659, p = 0.010), categorical net reclassification improvement (0.090, p < 0.001), and integrated discrimination improvement (0.004, p = 0.040). Conclusion An elevated TyG index was independently and positively associated with DES-ISR in patients with ACS who underwent PCI. However, the incremental predictive value of the TyG index for DES-ISR was slight. To further confirm our findings, future studies are needed.