Objective To study the effect of glucocorticoid-containing triple therapy on the acute exacerbation frequency of patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with different blood eosinophil percentage (EOS%). Methods One hundred and twenty-four patients who were admitted to the hospital with moderate to severe COPD from January 2020 to March 2020 in the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in this hospital were selected as the research subjects, and the patients were divided into group A according to EOS% (EOS%<2%) and B group (EOS%≥2%). Then the A and B groups were randomly divided into four subgroups A1, A2 and B1, B2, and the patients in groups A1 and B1 were treated with dual long-acting bronchodilation. The medication for the patients in groups A2 and B2 was a triple preparation containing glucocorticoids. Namely A1 group (EOS%<2%, dual therapy), A2 group (EOS%<2%, triple therapy), B1 group (EOS%≥2%, dual therapy), B2 group (EOS%≥2%, triple therapy). The patients were instructed to take medication regularly as in hospital after discharge. After discharge, patients were followed up by telephone every two weeks for a period of one year. The number of acute exacerbations, the change of forced expiratory volume in the first second as a percentage of the expected value (FEV1%pred) and the incidence of pneumonia were compared between group A and group B during the follow-up period of one year. Results In the patients with EOS%≥2%, triple therapy reduced the number of acute attacks by 40% during treatment compared with dual therapy patients (average 0.875 vs. 1.471 times per patient per year, P=0.0278). While in the patients with EOS%<2%, it was reduced by 4% (1.080 vs. 1.125 times, P=0.3527). In the same use of glucocorticoid-containing triple preparations, the number of acute exacerbations in the patients with EOS%≥2% during medication was 19% less than that of the patients with EOS%<2% (an average of 0.875 to 1.080 times per patient per year, P=0.0462). Regardless of EOS%≥2% or <2%, there was no significant difference in the changes of FEV1%pred between triple therapy and double therapy patients before and after treatment (P>0.05). Regardless of EOS%≥2% or <2%, there was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of pneumonia between patients with triple therapy and double therapy during medication (P>0.05). Conclusion Inhaled glucocorticoid triple therapy is suitable for moderate to severe COPD patients with high percentages of blood eosinophils.
Objective To investigate the incidence and management of CTEPH in the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in Xijing Hospital to enrich the epidemiological data of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) in China.Methods We conducted a retrospective study to investigate the incidence and management of CTEPH in the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in Xijing Hospital from 2008 to 2012. Results The incidence of CTEPH was 5.24% . About 62.90% of venous thromboembolism/pulmonary embolism (VTE/PE) patients were unprovoked, and about 53.85% of CTEPH patients was unprovoked. About 38% of CTEPH patients had no history of VTE, and 62% of CTEPH patients had no history of acute pulmonary embolism. None of the CTEPH patients was treated by pulmonary thromboendarterctom (PTE) , and about 53.85% of patients were only given anticoagulant monotherapy. Conclusions The incidence of CTEPH is higher in our hospital than reported. This phenomenon may be related to the lack of awareness of risk factors of CTEPH and the insufficient thrombolytic and anticoagulant therapy to acute pulmonary embolism. It’s very urgent to standardize the diagnosis and management of CTEPH in pulmonologists.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic central neurodegenerative disease. The pathological features of AD are the extracellular deposition of senile plaques formed by amyloid-β oligomers (AβOs) and the intracellular accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles formed by hyperphosphorylated tau protein. In this paper, an in vitro pathological model of AD based on neuronal network chip and its real-time dynamic analysis were presented. The hippocampal neuronal network was cultured on the microelectrode array (MEA) chip and induced by AβOs as an AD model in vitro to simultaneously record two firing patterns from the interneurons and pyramidal neurons. The spatial firing patterns mapping and cross-correlation between channels were performed to validate the degeneration of neuronal network connectivity. This biosensor enabled the detection of the AβOs toxicity responses, and the identification of connectivity and interactions between neuronal networks, which can be a novel technique in the research of AD pathological model in vitro.