The machine learning–aided serum lipidomics approach could be used to help early diagnosis of patients with PDAC.

Pancreatic ductal carcinoma (PDAC) is a common malignant tumor of the digestive system. GATA4 is one of the transcriptional regulatory factors, which regulates the development of endoderm-derived organs, including heart and gut. GATA4 may act as a putative tumor suppressor gene. However, the role of GATA4 in pancreatic carcinogenesis is not yet clarified. This study showed that GATA4 was highly expressed in pancreatic cancer tissues, and its expression level was positively related to the grade of pathological differentiation, suggesting that it may contribute to the progression of pancreatic neoplasia. Ectopic expression of GATA4 gene reduced cell viability and interference of GATA4 expression significantly increased the colony formation ability of pancreatic cancer cells. Furthermore, GATA4 inhibited tumor growth in xenograft mice. Agilent expression microarray profiling analysis indicated that the genes with significant levels of differential expression in GATA4 over-expressing cells were enriched in the cell differentiation process. Analysis of KEGG signaling pathway demonstrated that the regulated genes were partially enriched in MAPK and JAK-STAT signaling pathways. Re-expression of GATA4 up-regulated P53 gene expression. Our data indicate that GATA4 gene might play a role in cell proliferation and differentiation during the progression of pancreatic cancer.

The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution characteristics of GerdQ results in a Chinese population and the association between lifestyle and GerdQ scores. Among the 37 442 individuals enrolled from September 2009 to March 2016, 7 449 (19.89%) had a GerdQ score of ≥8 points and 29 993 (80.11%) had a GerdQ score of <8 points. The percentage of men with suspected GERD was significantly higher than the percentage of women with suspected GERD (χ2=111.571, P≤0.001), and the prevalence of GERD was higher in the young and middle-aged populations than in the elderly population. The prevalence of GERD increased gradually with weight gain (χ2=145.227, P≤0.001). With regard to lifestyle, the prevalence of GERD in the subjects who smoked (χ2=119.361, P≤0.001), consumed alcohol excessively, lacked physical activity (χ2=86.916, P≤0.001), and had an excessive intake of oil, meat, fish, and eggs showed an ascending trend (χ2=105.388, P≤0.001). In contrast, an adequate intake of vegetables (≥300 g/d) and fruit (≥200 g/d) was associated with a significantly lower incidence of GERD. Suspected GERD is very common in individuals undergoing health examinations. Unhealthy lifestyles are closely related to the high incidence of suspected GERD. GerdQ scores can play a role in screening for GERD.

The relationship between subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and blood lipid metabolism is controversial. This study is intended to evaluate the relationship between SCH and blood lipid profiles using well defined diagnostic criteria. Data from 11,512 physical examinees in our hospital who had finished two tests with an interval of at least 3 months were analyzed, including 685 cases of SCH as stipulated in this study. In addition to common physical examination indicators, other parameters such as thyroid function indices and blood lipids were measured twice with an interval of at least 3 months. Subjects were diagnosed with SCH only when their levels of TT3, TT4, FT3 and FT4 were normal and TSH levels were increased on both tests, which meant these subjects were in a state of SCH for at least 3 months. The results of blood lipids for the second time were analyzed. Statistically significant differences were found in age, sex, BMI, hemoglobin, total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein (HDL-C), and BFP between the SCH and control groups (P < 0.001). However, there were no statistically significant differences in age, sex, blood pressure, blood lipids, blood glucose or BMI between patients with mild SCH and those with severe SCH (P > 0.05). After balancing the age and sex ratio, no factors were confirmed to be statistically significant independent factors of SCH. None of the parameters showed statistically significant differences between patients with mild SCH and those with severe SCH (P > 0.05). After defining rigorous criteria for the diagnosis of SCH, no definite association between SCH and TC, LDL-C or HDL-C was confirmed in this study. SCH may have no relationship to the most concerning blood lipid profile.

To identify the relationship between glycemic indices and β cell function in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The cross-sectional analysis included 61 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes who received continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for 72 hours. The association between β cell function and glycemic indices including A1C and glycemic variability was investigated. A1C (r = -0.405, p = 0.001) and standard deviation of blood glucose (SDBG, r = -0.274, p = 0.032) were significantly correlated to HOMA-β cell function (HBCI), whereas mean amplitude of glycemic excursions (MAGE, r = -0.210, p = 0.104) was not informative. After multiple confounders adjustments, A1C (β = -7.35, p < 0.001), MAGE (β = -4.64, p = 0.040), and SDBG (β = -12.3, p = 0.012) were associated with HBCI. A1C and glycemic variability were both associated with β cell function in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The main limitations of the present study are the cross-sectional design in nature and the limited sample size.

Background: Many people were found with pulmonary nodules during physical examinations. It is of great practical significance to discriminate benign and malignant nodules by using data mining technology.Methods: The subjects' demographic data, baseline examination results, and annual follow‐up low‐dose spiral computerized tomography (LDCT) results were recorded. The findings from annual physical examinations of positive nodules, including highly suspicious nodules and clinically tentative benign nodules, was analyzed. The extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model was constructed and the Grid Search CV method was used to select the super parameters. External unit data were used as an external validation set to evaluate the generalization performance of the model.Results: A total of 135,503 physical examinees were enrolled. Baseline testing found that 27,636 (20.40%) participants had clinically tentative benign nodules and 611 (0.45%) participants had highly suspicious nodules. The proportion of highly suspicious nodules in participants with negative baseline was about 0.12%–0.46%, which was lower than the baseline level except the follow‐up of >5 years. In the 27,636 participants with clinically tentative benign nodules, only in the first year of LDCT re‐examination was the proportion of highly suspicious nodules (1.40%) significantly greater than that of baseline screening (0.45%) (p < 0.001), and the proportion of highly suspicious nodules was not different between the baseline screening and other follow‐up years (p > 0.05). Furthermore, 322 cases with benign nodules and 196 patients with malignant nodules confirmed by surgery and pathology were compared. A model and the top 15 most important clinical variables were determined by XGBoost algorithm. The area under the curve (AUC) of the model was 0.76 [95% CI: 0.67–0.84], and the accuracy was 0.75. The sensitivity and specificity of the model under this threshold were 0.78 and 0.73, respectively. In the validation of model using external data, the AUC was 0.87 and the accuracy was 0.80. The sensitivity and specificity were 0.83 and 0.77, respectively.Conclusions: It is important that pulmonary nodules could be more accurately identified at the first LDCT examination. A model with 15 variables which are routinely measured in the clinic could be helpful to distinguish benign and malignant nodules. It could help the radiological team issue a more accurate report; and it may guide the clinical team regarding LDCT follow‐up.