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Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of ultrasonic bone curette (UBC) and conventional surgical instruments in thoracic laminectomy decompression (TLD) for the treatment of thoracic spinal stenosis (TSS) by meta-analysis., Materials and Methods: Two authors independently searched Medline via PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Wanfang Database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure for the period from the establishment of the database until January 2023 to identify the studies on the safety and efficacy of UBC vs. conventional instruments for TSS. Data extraction and quality assessment were performed by two researchers independently. We used RevMan 5.4 software (Review Manager Web, The Cochrane Collaboration, Copenhagen, Denmark) to analyze the data., Results: Eight retrospective studies were included in the present work. This meta-analysis revealed that no significant differences in the preoperative JOA scores, the JOA scores at the last follow-up, the improvement rate of JOA scores, and the incidence of cerebrospinal fluid leakage/dura injury were detected between the two groups (p>0.05). However, there were significant differences in the operative time and intraoperative blood loss during single-level TLD [operative time: MD=-1.47, 95% CI (-1.86, -1.09), p<0.001; intraoperative blood loss: MD=-46.62, 95% CI (-53.83, -39.40), p<0.001], total operative time [MD=-56.88, 95% CI (-69.66, -44.10), p<0.001], total intraoperative blood loss [MD=-143.52, 95% CI (-212.49, -74.54), p<0.001], the incidence of neurological deterioration/nerve root injury [RR= 0.29, 95% CI (0.09, 0.91), p=0.03] between the groups., Conclusions: The application of UBC in TLD to treat TSS is safe and effective. UBC can significantly shorten operation time and reduce intraoperative blood loss compared to traditional surgical instruments. Moreover, it has the advantage of reducing perioperative nerve injury.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate and aggregate the evidence from the published studies to determine the effectiveness of intradiscal steroid injection (ISI) in patients with symptomatic Modic type I change (MCI)., Materials and Methods: A systematic literature search was independently performed by two authors. The electronic database, including PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science, were searched with the given search terms but without language restriction. The studies that met the inclusion criteria were included. The relevant data were extracted, and two authors independently assessed the quality of the included studies. We performed the present study using the STATA software package., Results: The present work included seven studies with 434 patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). The risk of bias in the included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was rated from low to unclear, and all the included observational studies were rated as high quality. The result of the meta-analysis revealed that there were significant differences in pain intensity [standardized mean difference (SMD): 3.09, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.60-4.58; p<0.01] and self-assessed improvement/satisfaction [odds ratio (OR): 11.41, 95% CI: 3.39-38.41; p=0.05] after ISI compared to before treatment. However, no significant differences in the proportion of patients with full or part-time employment (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 0.55-1.91; p>0.05), receiving additional care for CLBP (OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.36-1.71; p>0.05), and serious adverse events (OR: 1.09, 95% CI: 0.58 to 2.05; p>0.05) were detected between the groups., Conclusions: Among CLBP patients with MCI, the use of ISI was significantly associated with a reduction in pain intensity in the short term.

Objective: Preeclampsia is a serious disease that affects maternal and fetal health in pregnancy. Mechanism of miRNA in preeclampsia has gradually been explored. This study mainly investigated the mechanism of miR-4421 in preeclampsia., Patients and Methods: The expression of miR-4421 in 42 preeclampsia tissues and 42 normal pregnancy placentas tissues was detected by qRT-PCR. The relationship between the miR-4421 level and clinicopathological features of preeclampsia was analyzed. After miR-4421 was overexpressed, cell proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis were examined. The target gene CYP11B2 of miR-4421 was detected by luciferase reporter assay. The protein expressions were accessed by Western blot., Results: miR-4421 was highly expressed in the placenta of preeclampsia. Clinical data analysis revealed higher systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and urinary protein level in preeclampsia patients with high expression of miR-4421 compared with those in low expression group. Birth weight of fetuses was significantly lower than those born from normal pregnant women. After overexpression of miR-4421, trophoblast proliferation was significantly inhibited and cell cycle was significantly blocked. Luciferase reporter assay and Western blot showed that CYP11B2 can be served as a target gene of miR-4421., Conclusions: MiR-4421 was highly expressed in preeclampsia, which may promote the progression of preeclampsia by down-regulating the expression of CYP11B2.

Objective: Breast cancer metastasis suppressor 1 (BRMS1) was originally identified as a metastasis suppressor gene in human breast cancer., Materials and Methods: A recent study has established an association between BRMS1 with the clinical stage and different pathology grades of prostate cancer. However, whether BRMS1 plays a role in prostate cancer has not been elucidated., Results: In this study, we found that overexpression of BRMS1 in PC-3 cells induced apoptosis and inhibited invasion; moreover, we found that overexpression BRMS1 was associated with the suppressed expression of EMMPRIN., Conclusions: Taken together, our results show that BRMS1 may suppress progression and metastasis of prostate cancer through modulating EMMPRIN expression.