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Background: Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) is widespread in patients with impaired renal function. Whether angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin II receptor blockers (ACEi/ARBs) potentially take a crucial role in avoiding GIB incidence among peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients is unknown. Methods: Overall, 734 PD patients were enrolled after using propensity score matching. Kaplan–Meier analysis and COX regression were used to explore correlation between ACEi/ARBs and GIB. Competitive risk model was aimed to identify whether other events were confounding factors. Forest plot was applied to assess the influence of ACEI/ARBs on GIB incidence in different groups. Results: During 8-year follow-up, 89 (12.13%) cases of GIB were recorded. Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed that the incidence of GIB among patients taking ACEi/ARBs was lower than those subjects who had not (log rank = 6.442, P = 0.011). After adjusted different confounding factors, administration of ACEi/ARBs was associated with lowered GIB incidence (adjusted HR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.32–0.77, P = 0.002). In competitive risk model, considering of other events, the incidence of GIB in two groups was still statistically significant (P = 0.010). Subgroup analysis showed ACEi/ARBs taking impeded GIB in the ≥ 60 age group (HR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.28–0.98, P = 0.040). Conclusion: PD patients who were submitted to ACEi/ARBs inclined to have a lower risk for GIB. In this regard, ACEi/ARBs offered a promising choice to GIB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is closely associated with pneumonia in the general population, its relationship is unclear in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Methods: This is a cohort study consisting of 739 PD patients and dividing into two groups. Kaplan–Meier curves were applied to observe the incidence of the first occurrence of pneumonia, competitive risk analysis was conducted to compare whether there was a significant difference in each NLR group in the presence of other competing events, multivariable COX regression analysis was used to evaluate the hazard ratios (HRs), as well as forest plot was used to analyze the relationship between NLR and the first occurrence of pneumonia in different subgroups. Results: Of all the patients, 116 cases of first-time pneumonia were recorded. The first-time pneumonia incidence rate was 71.67/1000 patient-years in high NLR group, which was markedly higher than that of 45.81/1000 patient-years in low NLR group. Kaplan–Meier curves indicated significant differences in the incidence of the first occurrence of pneumonia between two groups (log-rank test p = 0.015). The competitive risk model suggested a significant difference in the cumulative incidence of first pneumonia between the two groups (p = 0.032). Compared to low NLR group, adjusted Cox model showed that high NLR group was associated with increased risk of pneumonia incidence (HR, 1.51; 95% CI 1.04–2.21; p = 0.031). Forest plot showed no interaction was found in subgroups. Conclusions: The risk of pneumonia was significantly increasing in PD patients with high NLR, which may have a certain guiding significance for the clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rs1344706 in the the zinc finger protein 804A (ZNF804A) gene has been identified to be associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) in Europeans. However, whether rs1344706 is associated with schizophrenia in Chinese populations remains inconclusive; furthermore, the association between rs1344706 and BD in Chinese populations has been rarely explored. To explore the association between rs1344706 and schizophrenia/BD in Chinese populations, we genotyped rs1344706 among 1128 Chinese subjects (537 patients with BD and 591 controls) and found that rs1344706 showed marginal allelic association with BD (P = 0.028) with T-allele being more prevalent in cases than that in controls (OR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.03-1.37). Meta-analysis of rs1344706 by pooling all available data showed that rs1344706 was significantly associated with BD (P = 0.001). Besides, positive association of rs1344706 with schizophrenia was observed in Northern Chinese (P = 0.005). Furthermore, ZNF804A is highly expressed in human and mouse brains, especially in prenatal stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]