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Sarcopenia (low muscle mass, i.e., quantity) is associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). In this study, we aimed to illustrate the clinical prognostic value of myosteatosis (muscle fat infiltration) for short-term mortality in patients with ACLF. We retrospectively enrolled consecutive patients with ACLF between January 2019 and January 2022. Computed tomography-based body composition analysis was performed at the third lumbar vertebral level to determine skeletal muscle radiation attenuation. Fine and Gray’s competing risk regression model, with liver transplantation as a competing risk, was used to assess the factors associated with 90-day mortality. A total of 431 patients with ACLF were included. Myosteatosis and sarcopenia were observed in 261 (60.6%) and 87 (20.2%) patients, respectively. Competitive risk regression showed that age (HR 1.021, 95% CI 1.000–1.043, P = 0.042), APASL ACLF Research Consortium (AARC) score (HR 1.498, 95% CI 1.312–1.710, P < 0.001), and sarcopenia (HR 1.802, 95% CI 1.062–3.060, P = 0.029) were independently associated with increased 90-day mortality. Subgroup analysis of male patients with HBV-ACLF revealed that myosteatosis (HR 2.119, 95% CI 1.101–4.078, P = 0.025) was promising prognostic factors for 90-day mortality after being adjusted for ascites, acute kidney injury, AARC score, and sarcopenia. Myosteatosis is predictive of short-term outcomes in male patients with HBV-ACLF. Our results emphasise the importance of focusing on muscle fat infiltration in patients with HBV-ACLF. Further studies are warranted to investigate the underlying mechanisms and potential therapies for myosteatosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sarcopenia is a well-recognized factor affecting the prognosis of chronic liver disease, but its impact on acute decompensation underlying chronic liver disease is unknown. This study evaluated the impact of sarcopenia on short-term mortality in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). One hundred and seventy-one ACLF patients who underwent abdominal CT between 2015 and 2019 were retrospectively included in this study. Skeletal muscle index at the third lumbar vertebrae (L3-SMI) was used to diagnose sarcopenia.The ACLF patients in this study had a L3-SMI of 41.2 ± 8.3 cm2/m2 and sarcopenia was present in 95/171 (55.6%) patients. Body mass index (BMI), cirrhosis, and higher serum bilirubin were independently associated with sarcopenia. Following multivariate Cox regression analysis, cirrhosis (hazard ratio (HR) 2.758, 95%CI 1.323–5.750), serum bilirubin (HR 1.049, 95%CI 1.026–1.073), and international normalized ratio (INR) (HR 1.725, 95%CI 1.263–2.355) were associated with 3-month mortality (P < 0.05), whereas L3-SMI and sarcopenia were not. A subgroup analysis of the factors related to sarcopenia showed that sarcopenia was still not predictive of short-term outcome in ACLF patients. L3-SMI and sarcopenia are not associated with short-term mortality in patients with ACLF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a dynamic syndrome, and sequential assessments can reflect its prognosis more accurately. Our aim was to build and validate a new scoring system to predict short-term prognosis using baseline and dynamic data in ACLF. We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of patients with ACLF from three different hospitals in China. To construct the model, we analyzed a training set of 541 patients from two hospitals. The model's performance was evaluated in a validation set of 130 patients from another center. In the training set, multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that age, WGO type, basic etiology, total bilirubin, creatinine, prothrombin activity, and hepatic encephalopathy stage were all independent prognostic factors in ACLF. We designed a dynamic trend score table based on the changing trends of these indicators. Furthermore, a logistic prediction model (DP-ACLF) was constructed by combining the sum of dynamic trend scores and baseline prognostic parameters. All prognostic scores were calculated based on the clinical data of patients at the third day, first week, and second week after admission, respectively, and were correlated with the 90-day prognosis by ROC analysis. Comparative analysis showed that the AUC value for DP-ACLF was higher than for other prognostic scores, including Child–Turcotte–Pugh, MELD, MELD-Na, CLIF-SOFA, CLIF-C ACLF, and COSSH-ACLF. The new scoring model, which combined baseline characteristics and dynamic changes in clinical indicators to predict the course of ACLF, showed a better prognostic ability than current scoring systems. Prospective studies are needed to validate these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new-type electrolysis-integrated ecological floating beds (EEFBs) were set up to study their water removal ability due to the excellent water treatment capacity of electrolysis, this enhanced EEFBs were made of polyethylene filled with biochar substrate and in middle of the substrate placed the Mg-Al alloy served as anode and graphite served as cathode. The results show that removal rates of total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total phosphorus (TP) and phosphate (PO43−-P) by the EEFBs increased 53.1%, 96.5%, 76.5% and 74.5%, respectively. The electrolysis reaction was the main pathway for TN and TP removals in the EEFBs. A higher concentration of hydrogen autotrophic denitrification bacteria was recorded in the substrate of the EEFBs than that in the traditional ecological floating beds (EFBs) (p < 0.05), suggesting that the electrolysis may have enhanced the NO3−-N removal efficiency of the EEFBs by promoting the growth and reproduce of hydrogen autotrophic denitrification bacteria. The in-situ formation of Mg2+ and Al3+ ions from a sacrificial Mg-Al alloy anode, caused PO43−-P and other suspended matter flocculation, improved phosphorus removal and simultaneously reduced turbidity. Thus, electrolysis-integrated ecological floating bed has high nitrogen and phosphorus removal potential in eutrophic water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To analyze genetic characters of migratory dragonflies, we used 10 microsatellite markers and a partial sequence of the mitochondrial gene Cytb to investigate genetic diversity and demographic history among 19 populations of P. flavescens in eastern the monsoon region of China. In a Bayesian clustering analysis of the microsatellite data, three distinct clades were present, and each population consisted of a mixture of individuals from the three clusters. An AMOVA of the data from both the microsatellite loci and Cytb revealed that genetic variation was mainly within each population. For the 543 individuals from the 19 regions, 77 unique haplotypes were obtained by DnaSP 4.0, and a median-joining network showed no obvious geographical pattern and displayed high gene flow and minimal population genetic structure among the 19 populations. According to a Mantel test, there was no significant association between genetic distance and geographic distribution and no isolation by distance. Mismatch distribution and neutrality tests showed no demographic expansion for the 19 populations. Microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA data suggested there was high gene flow and low differentiation among the populations. These results will help provide valuable information to study the migratory route of insects, especially important agricultural pests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]