No abstract

Previous studies showed that C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory marker, was associated with stroke severity and long-term outcome. However, the relationship between the acute-phase CRP level and discharge outcome has received little attention. We prospectively studied 301 patients with acute ischemic stroke (over a period of two weeks) from two hospital stroke wards and one rehabilitation department in Henan, China. Patients’ demographic and clinical data were collected and evaluated at admission. Poor discharge outcome was assessed in patients at discharge using the Modified Rankin Scale (MRS > 2). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the risk factors of poor discharge outcome after adjusting for potential confounders. Poor discharge outcome was observed in 78 patients (25.9%). Univariate analyses showed that factors significantly influencing poor discharge outcome were age, residence, recurrent acute ischemic stroke, coronary heart disease, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score at admission, non-lacunar stroke, time from onset of stroke to admission, CRP, TBIL (total bilirubin), direct bilirubin (DBIL), ALB (albumin), FIB (fibrinogen) and D-dimer (p < 0.05). After adjusting for age, residence, recurrent ischemic stroke, coronary heart disease, NIHSS score at admission, lacunar stroke, time from onset of stroke to admission, CRP, TBIL, DBIL, ALB, FIB and D-dimer, multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that poor outcome at discharge was associated with recurrent acute ischemic stroke (OR, 2.115; 95% CI, 1.094–4.087), non-lacunar stroke (OR, 2.943; 95% CI, 1.436–6.032), DBIL (OR, 1.795; 95% CI, 1.311–2.458), and CRP (OR, 4.890; 95% CI, 3.063–7.808). In conclusion, the CRP level measured at admission was found to be an independent predictor of poor outcome at discharge. Recurrent acute ischemic stroke, non-lacunar stroke and DBIL were also significantly associated with discharge outcome in acute ischemic stroke.

A collection of 94 F6 individuals derived from crosses between Lotus japonicus, Gifu B-129 (G) and Miyakojima MG-20 (M) were used for mapping. By using the HEGS running system, 427 EcoRI/MseI primer pairs were selected to generate a total of 2053 markers, consisting of 739 G-associated dominant markers, 674 M-associated dominant markers, 640 co-dominant markers, 95 SSR markers and 2 dCAPS markers. Excluding heavily distorted markers, 1588 were mapped to six chromosomes of the L. japonicus genome based on the 97 reference markers. This linkage map consisted of 1023 unique markers (excluding duplicated markers) and covered a total of 508.5 cM of the genome with an average chromosome length of 84.7 cM and interval distance of 0.50 cM. Fifteen quantitative traits loci for eight morphological traits were also mapped. This linkage map will provide a useful framework for physical map construction in L. japonicus in the near future.

Background The association between diurnal temperature range (DTR) and hospitalization for exacerbation of chronic respiratory diseases (CRD) was rarely reported. Objectives To examine the association between DTR and daily hospital admissions for exacerbation of CRD and find out the potential effect of modifications on this association. Method Data on daily hospitalization for exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and bronchiectasis and meteorology measures from 2013 through 2017 were obtained from 21 cities in South China. After controlling the effects of daily mean temperature, relative humidity (RH), particulate matter < 2.5 μm diameter (PM2.5) and other confounding factors, a standard generalized additive model (GAM) with a quasi-Poisson distribution was performed to evaluate the relationships between DTR and daily hospital admissions of CRD in a two-stage strategy. Subgroup analysis was performed to find potential modifications, including seasonality and population characteristics. Result Elevated risk of hospitalization for exacerbation of CRD (RR = 1.09 [95%CI: 1.08 to 1.11]) was associated with the increase in DTR (the 75th percentile versus the 25th percentile of DTR at lag0–6). The effects of DTR on hospital admissions for CRD were strong at low DTR in the hot season and high DTR in the cold season. The RR (the 75th percentile versus the 25th percentile of DTR at lag0–6) of hospitalization was 1.11 (95%CI: 1.08 to 1.12) for exacerbations of COPD and 1.09 (95%CI: 1.05 to 1.13) for asthma. The adverse effect of DTR on hospitalization for bronchiectasis was only observed in female patients (RR = 1.06 [95%CI: 1.03 to 1.10]). Conclusion Our study provided additional evidence for the association between DTR and daily hospitalization for exacerbation of CRD, and these associations are especially stronger in COPD patients and in the cold season than the hot season. Preventive measures to reduce the adverse impacts of DTR were needed for CRD patients.