Bariatric surgery effectively treats morbid obesity. However, the negative effect of this surgery on the bone is concerning. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the fracture risk associated with bariatric surgery in morbidly obese subjects. Relevant studies published from database inception to September 2017 were identified in PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to evaluate the quality of the observational studies, and the Jadad score evaluated randomized controlled trials. Among the 1003 studies initially identified, five observational trials and one randomized controlled trial were eligible for inclusion. All studies included in the meta-analysis were considered high quality. Risk for any type of fracture was higher in the surgical group than in the non-surgical group (risk ratio [RR] 1.29, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18-1.42). After surgery, the fracture risk in non-vertebral sites was significantly increased, especially in the upper limbs (RR 1.42, 95% CI 1.08-1.87; and RR 1.68, 95% CI 1.15-2.45). Compared with those with restrictive procedures, subjects who underwent mixed restrictive and malabsorptive procedures tended to have an increased fracture risk (RR 1.54, 95% CI 0.96-2.46). To conclude, bariatric surgery is associated with an increased risk of total and non-vertebral fractures, especially in the upper limbs.

Available evidence suggests that statin use before spontaneous ICH does not increase short-term mortality, unfavorable functional outcome or post-ICH hematoma volume at admission.

Whether anatomic resection (AR) achieves better outcomes than nonanatomic resection (NAR) in patients with primary intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is unclear. Data were retrieved for all consecutive patients who underwent liver resection for primary ICC from January 2007 to July 2017. The prognoses of the patients without direct invasion to contiguous organs or extrahepatic metastasis who underwent AR or NAR were compared. 85 patients underwent AR, and 65 patients underwent NAR. operation time were slightly decreased in the NAR group. The risk of Clavien-Dindo classification (CDC) IV in the AR group was significant higher than that in the NAR group. Cox regression analysis showed lymph node metastasis and adjuvant therapy were significant prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), respectively. After 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM), 29 pairs of patients were compared. The survival curves showed the NAR group had slightly improved DFS and OS than the AR group before and after matching. Thus, we conclude NAR was not inferior to AR in improving the survival outcomes for patients with primary solitary ICC lesions without direct invasion to contiguous organs or extrahepatic metastasis. Furthermore, patients may benefit from NAR.

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Liver function played an uneven role in HT for different stroke subtypes. Indicators of liver function independently associated with HT were AST for cardioembolic stroke, BILI for stroke of undetermined aetiology and none for stroke of large-artery atherosclerosis and small-artery occlusion.

Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is characterized by ventricular chamber enlargement and systolic dysfunction with normal left ventricular wall thickness. The pathogenesis of DCM has been extensively investigated for many years, but it remains uncertain. Recently, many studies indicated that autoimmune mechanisms are likely to participate in the pathogenesis of DCM. Interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R) gene polymorphisms have been previously found to be associated with autoimmune diseases. To assess the role of IL-23R in DCM, we examined three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IL-23R gene, namely, rs1884444, rs11465817 and rs10889677. A total of 176 DCM patients and 216 controls were included in the study, and all SNPs were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Our results showed that SNP rs10889677, but not rs1884444 and rs11465817, had association with DCM in Chinese Han population. The results suggest that IL-23R polymorphisms appear to play an important role in the susceptibility of DCM in Chinese Han population.

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