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Expressive art therapy, which originated from art therapy, uses visual art as a carrier and plays a complementary role in clinical medicine and psychological medicine in the healing process of mentally ill patients. With the rapid development of science and technology, expressive art therapy has also entered the field of technology-oriented virtual reality. This study aims to summarize the clinical psychology research of expressive art therapy based on virtual reality, to review the current state of the field, in order to provide detailed scientific research evidence summary for relevant content and complete knowledge reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims. Bile acids, the key products for elimination of cholesterol, play an important role in coronary artery disease (CAD). However, few studies focused on the roles of more accessible serum total bile acids (TBA) in the prediction of adverse cardiovascular events for coronary chronic artery occlusion (CTO). The aim of this study was to explore the potential relationship between serum TBA and long-term prognosis in patients with CTO undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods. Baseline TBA was determined in 613 patients with CTO after PCI in the present study. All patients were divided into 3 groups according to the median (3.5 μmol/l) and the normal upper limit of the TBA (10 μmol/l). The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality, and the secondary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Results. Average age in this study was 65.44 ± 9.94 years old. The median of TBA was 3.5 (2.1-6.1) μmol/l. Over a median follow-up of 33.5 months, compared to those with below 3.5 μmol/l TBA, 3.5 ~ 10 μmol/l TBA was associated with significantly reduced risk for the MACE (hazard ratio (HR): 0.59, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.40 to 0.88; p = 0.009) even after adjustment for baseline variables. However, TBA did not predict all-cause mortality and cardiovascular death. Spline analyses showed an L-shaped relationship of the serum TBA with the incidence of MACE. Conclusions. Moderate fasting serum TBA level has a predictive value for MACE even after adjusting for lifestyle and clinical risk factors in CTO patients undergoing PCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This study is aimed to reveal the possible mechanisms of artemisinin in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) through bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification in UC model rats. Methods. Firstly, we searched two microarray data of the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to explore the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between UC samples and normal samples. Then, we selected DEGs for gene ontology (GO) function enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. The acute UC model of rats was established by using 3.5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) for 10 days to verify the core pathway. Finally, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of artemisinin at the molecular level and used metabonomics to study the endogenous metabolites in the rat serum. Results. We screened in the GEO database and selected two eligible microarray datasets, GSE36807 and GSE9452. We performed GO function and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of DEGs and found that these DEGs were mainly enriched in the inflammatory response, immune response, and IL-17 and NF-κB signaling pathways. Finally, we verified the IL-17 signaling pathway and key cytokines, and ELISA and immunohistochemical results showed that artemisinin could downregulate the expression of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β and IL-17 in the IL-17 signaling pathway and upregulate the expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine PPAR-γ. Metabolomics analysis showed that 33 differential metabolites were identified in the artemisinin group (AG) compared to the model group (MG). Differential metabolites were mainly involved in alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism and synthesis and degradation of ketone bodies. Conclusion. In this study, we found that artemisinin can significantly inhibit the inflammatory response in UC rats and regulate metabolites and related metabolic pathways. This study provides a foundation for further research on the mechanism of artemisinin in the treatment of UC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. One of the key concerns of the clinician is to identify and manage risk factors for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in nondiabetic and diabetic patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing stent implantation. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) is a marker of erythrocyte size and activity and is associated with prognosis of cardiovascular disease. However, the role of admission MCV in predicting MACEs following stent implantation in diabetes mellitus (DM), non-DM, or whole patients with ACS remains largely unknown. Methods and Results. A total of 437 ACS patients undergoing stent implantation, including 294 non-DM (59.08 ± 10.24 years) and 143 DM (63.02 ± 9.92 years), were analyzed. Admission MCV was higher in non-DM than DM patients. During a median of 31.93 months follow-up, Kaplan-Meier curve demonstrated that higher admission MCV level was significantly associated with increased MACEs in whole and non-DM, but not in DM patients. In Cox regression analysis, the highest MCV tertile was associated with higher MACEs in whole ([HR] 1.870, 95% CI 1.113-3.144, P = 0.018), especially those non-DM ([HR] 2.089, 95% CI 1.077-4.501, P = 0.029) patients after adjustment of several cardiovascular risk factors. MCV did not predict MACEs in DM patients. During landmark analysis, admission MCV showed better predictive value for MACEs in the first 32 months of follow-up than in the subsequent period. Finally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was conducted to confirmed the value of admission MCV within 32 months. Conclusion. In patients with ACS, elevated admission MCV is an important and independent predictor for MACEs following stent implantation, especially amongst those without DM even after adjusting for lifestyle and clinical risk factors. However, as the follow-up period increased, the admission MCV lost its ability to predict MACEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]