Background Lipid and inflammatory molecules play a key role in the development of inflammation. Neutrophil counts are used as markers of inflammation duration, and HDL-C is used as an anti-atherosclerosis component. However, few studies have been found to integrate these two indicators to explore coronary stenosis. We suggested that neutrophil count as a marker of inflammation persistence and HDL-C as an anti-atherosclerotic component should be integrated into a single biomarker NHR to explore its correlation with CAD degree and predict the severity of coronary stenosis among CAD patients. Methods We examined 404 eligible patients who underwent coronary angiography. Based on the results of coronary angiography, patients in CAD+ group (n = 155) were defined as those having angiographic coronary stenosis of at least 50% lumen reduction in at least one major coronary artery (including left anterior descending artery, left circumflex artery, left main coronary artery, right coronary artery). Patients with luminal stenosis but no more than 50% were defined as CAD− group (n = 49), and patients without luminal stenosis (n = 200) were regarded as control group. The relationship between various serum markers and the severity of coronary stenosis was examined by Spearman correlation analysis. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the influencing factors of the severity of coronary artery disease. Results The modified Gensini score was positively correlated with neutrophil HDL-C ratio and negatively correlated with albumin and HDL-C. Multiple regression analysis showed that neutrophil HDL-C ratio were significantly associated with CAD. Neutrophil HDL-C ratio is an independent predictor of CAD. The ROC analysis provided a cut-off value of 1.51 for neutrophil HDL-C ratio to predict CAD with 94.8% sensitivity and 0.024 Yoden index, and area under the ROC curve of 0.617 (95% CI 0.560–0.675, P < 0.001). Conclusion Neutrophil HDL-C ratio is not only closely related to coronary artery stenosis, but also an independent predictor of severe coronary stenosis.

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ObjectiveSuperb micro-vascular imaging (SMI) is a new noninvasive modality for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules. However, the performance of SMI in differentiating malignant and benign thyroid nodules has not been systematically evaluated. This meta-analysis was performed to assess the accuracy of SMI in diagnosing thyroid nodules.MethodsPubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, Sinomed, Scopus were searched. We recorded the characteristics of the included studies and assessed the quality of each study using the QUADAS-2 tool. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR), negative LR, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated. We also evaluated the publication bias.ResultsThis meta-analysis included 10 studies with a total of 1083 thyroid nodules. The pooled the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative LR were 0.84, 0.86, 6.2, and 0.18, respectively. The DOR and AUC were 33 and 0.91, respectively. Heterogeneity existed between the included studies. No significant publication bias was observed.ConclusionCompared with CDFI, Superb micro-vascular imaging (SMI) has higher diagnostic sensitivity and specificity, better diagnostic efficiency, and could be used to diagnose benign and malignant nodules in the display of blood flow distribution capabilities of thyroid nodules; at the same time, Fagan plot showed that the SMI technique had a good clinical application value, and it could supplement the deficiencies of color Doppler imaging in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules.

Background We aimed to detect the cardiac dysfunction in the early myocardial hypertrophy rat model by layered strain and to evaluate the effect of berberine on the left ventricular systolic function of myocardial hypertrophy rats. Methods 80 healthy SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups. The last three groups(ISO group) were injected with isoproterenol intraperitoneally to establish a model of myocardial hypertrophy;After successful modeling, group A and group B were given berberine hydrochloride intragastric administration (5mg/kg; 10mg/kg), and group C was given the same amount of normal saline by intragastric administration. The left ventricular systolic function was performed at the end of each trial using the layered strain technique. The myocardial tissue of rats was taken for pathological examination, and Masson trichrome staining and hematoxylin-eosin staining were performed. The myocardial interstitial fibrosis was evaluated and the correlation analysis was performed. Results The GCS, GSCendo and GSCmid of the ISO group were lower than those of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (− 20.46% −29.57% −19.39% vs. −15.71% −20.11% −15.35%; P < 0.05). After berberine treatment, the GSCendo in group A (5mg/kg) and group B (10mg/kg) was higher than that in group C (− 24.49% vs.−26.87% vs.−20.09%; P < 0.001); The improvement in group B was more significant (− 24.49% vs.−26.87%; P < 0.001). Pathological results showed that, compared with the control group, fibrosis was significantly increased in the ISO group. After 7 days of berberine intragastric intervention, compared with group C without intervention, the fibrosis deposition in group A and B was reduced, and the fibrosis deposition in group B was more obvious. Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that Gscendo was positively correlated with the percentage of myocardial interstitial fiber deposition. Conclusion Persistent cardiac hypertrophy leads to marked myocardial fibrosis and necrosis. Berberine can inhibit the progression of myocardial fibrosis after the formation of cardiac hypertrophy. The stratified strain technique can identify early myocardial systolic dysfunction in patients with cardiac hypertrophy and evaluate the efficacy of short-term drug intervention, which is expected to be a new method for clinical quantitative evaluation of left ventricular systolic dysfunction.