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The associations between several blood inflammatory indicators and risk of vascular plaques remain inconclusive. A total of 4596 native rural residents in Southeast China were enrolled from the Fuqing cohort study. Blood cell counts and their composite indexes including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and 2 novel indicators (systemic immune inflammation index (SII) and systemic immune inflammation response index (SIRI)) were considered as inflammatory indicators. Common carotid and femoral intima-media thickness (IMT) and plaques were assessed using B-mode ultrasound. Unconditional or multinomial logistic regression was used to evaluate potential associations. The prevalence of multiple femoral plaques (defined as IMT ≥1.5 mm) was significantly higher among participants with the highest tertile of total leukocyte count (odds ratio, 1.78), neutrophil count (1.88), monocyte count (2.51), platelet count (1.68), NLR (1.93), PLR (1.57), SII (2.10), and SIRI (2.94). Higher levels of neutrophil count, platelet count, NLR, and SII were also found to have significant linear dose-response relationships with the prevalence of stenosis, especially in femoral arteries. In conclusion, several blood inflammatory biomarkers may contribute to, or are associated with, the presence of IMT ≥1.5 mm or stenosis especially in femoral arteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cohort study was designed to assess the association between serum endocan levels and the prognosis of acute ischemic stroke. A total of 227 patients were recruited consecutively. Study outcome data on death and major disability (modified Rankin Scale score ≥3) were collected at 3 months after stroke onset. After 3 months of follow-up, death and disability occurred in 48 and 85 patients, respectively, while the primary (death) and secondary (death or disability) outcome incident rate was 21.15% and 37.44%, respectively. The multivariable adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval, 95% CIs) of the highest endocan quartile for death or major disability was 1.21 (1.10, 4.13) compared with the lowest quartile. After adjusting for confounding factors, the increase in the risk of death was not significant. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that endocan predicted primary and secondary outcomes with C-statistical values (95% CIs) of 0.61 (0.55–0.67, P =.001) and 0.68 (0.59–0.76, P <.001), respectively. Elevated endocan levels were independently related to increased risk of poor outcome at 3 months after ischemic stroke onset. Endocan is a potential prognostic factor for ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the association of preoperative lymphocyte‐to‐monocyte ratio (LMR) and overall survival (OS) in patients with oral cancer and develop a dynamic nomogram for individualized survival prediction. Method: The prognostic value of LMR was evaluated in a large‐scale cohort with 651 postoperative patients with oral cancer between January 2010 and December 2017. Propensity score‐matched (PSM) analysis and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) analysis were performed to further verify the prognostic value of LMR. A dynamic nomogram was then developed based on the LMR and clinicopathological features, and its predictive performance and clinical utility were evaluated. Results: A high LMR was significantly associated with better OS of patients with oral cancer (HR = 0.65; 95% CI = 0.44–0.98). The similar association was also observed in the PSM and IPTW analyses. Moreover, compared with TNM staging system, the dynamic nomogram based on the LMR exhibited more excellent predictive performance (0.72 versus 0.64, p <.001), with calibration curves (1,000 bootstrap resamples) suggesting good match between the actual and predicted probabilities. Decision curve analyses (DCAs) showed a more significant positive net benefit in the practical ranges of threshold probabilities using the dynamic nomogram. Conclusion: Preoperative LMR may serve as an easily accessible and non‐invasive prognostic biomarker for predicting the prognosis of patients with oral cancer. A dynamic nomogram based on the LMR may show more convenience in survival prediction for patients with oral cancer. Further future studies are warranted to confirm our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To further explore risk factors of esophageal squamous cell cancer specific for different macroscopic types. Methods: A total of 423 patients and 423 age (±3 years) and gender matched controls were recruited. Multinomial logistic regression and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to evaluate the risk factors of ESCC specific for different macroscopic types. Results: In this study, we found that drinking hot tea (OR = 1.98, 95% CI:1.14–3.43) and higher intake of hard food (OR = 1.64, 95% CI:1.05–2.58) positively associated with ulcerative type of ESCC, but not with medullary type or other types. Although alcohol drinking and lower intake of fresh vegetable appeared to be more harmful to the ulcerative-type ESCC, the discrepant risks were not significantly different in ulcerative type and medullary type. Moreover, tobacco smoking, intake of hot food, spicy food, fresh fruit, scallion and garlic were related to ESCC risk, whereas no significant difference in magnitude of their associations with respect to macroscopic type was observed. Furthermore, significant multiplicative interaction between tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking was found in ulcerative-type and medullary-type ESCC. Conclusion: Drinking hot tea and higher intake of hard food were associated with increased risk of ulcerative type of ESCC. However, the mechanism for this difference needs to be further studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: No previous study has investigated the association between oolong tea consumption and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), we aim to elucidate the association between oolong tea consumption and ESCC and its joint effects with a novel composite index. Methods: In a hospital-based case-control study, 646 cases of ESCC patients and 646 sex and age matched controls were recruited. A composite index was calculated to evaluate the role of demographic characteristics and life exposure factors in ESCC. Unconditional logistic regression was used to calculate the point estimates between oolong tea consumption and risk of ESCC. Results: No statistically significant association was found between oolong tea consumption and ESCC (OR = 1.39, 95% CI: 0.94–2.05). However, drinking hot oolong tea associated with increased risk of ESCC (OR = 1.60, 95% Cl: 1.06–2.41). Furthermore, drinking hot oolong tea increased ESCC risk in the high-risk group (composite index> 0.55) (OR = 3.14, 95% CI: 1.93–5.11), but not in the low-risk group (composite index≤0.55) (OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 0.74–1.83). Drinking warm oolong tea did not influence the risk of ESCC. Conclusions: No association between oolong tea consumption and risk of ESCC were found, however, drinking hot oolong tea significantly increased the risk of ESCC, especially in high-risk populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

>bold<>italic/italic<>/bold< We aimed to evaluate the associations between body iron stores and the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a Chinese population and explore whether this effect may be modified by other factors. >bold<>italic/italic<>/bold< A 1: 1 frequency-matched case–control study was conducted, including 482 NAFLD cases and 490 gender- and age-matched controls. Serum levels of ferritin, hepcidin, and C-reactive protein were measured. >bold<>italic/italic<>/bold< Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that hepcidin was not associated with NAFLD risk; however, elevated serum ferritin was significantly associated with increased risk of NAFLD (adjusted OR 1.619, 95% CI 1.158–2.267), and hepcidin:ferritin ratio was significantly associated with decreased risk of NAFLD -(OR->sub/sub< 0.702, 95% CI 0.501–0.984). When stratified by gender, a significant association was found between elevated serum ferritin and hepcidin:ferritin ratio and NAFLD only for women (OR>sub/sub< 2.131, 95% CI 1.151–3.944 and OR>sub/sub< 0.414, 95% CI 0.219–0.781, respectively). A significant multiplicative interaction between central obesity and elevated serum hepcidin was observed (>italic/italic< < 0.05). >bold<>italic/italic<>/bold< Elevated serum ferritin and hepcidin:ferritin ratio are associated with NAFLD in a Chinese population. Although serum hepcidin is not associated with NAFLD, it may augment the risk effect of central obesity on NAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Limited evidence exists on the roles of serum copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in oral cancer risk. We aimed to preliminarily explore the association between serum Cu and Zn levels and oral cancer risk with relatively large‐scale samples. Methods: Serum Cu and Zn levels of 344 oral cancer patients and 1,122 matched healthy controls in this case–control study were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). Results: Restricted cubic spline revealed the U‐shaped relationship between serum Cu or Zn levels and the risk of oral cancer. Serum deficient or elevated levels of Cu were significantly associated with the risk of oral cancer: The ORs were 1.38 (95% CI: 1.01–1.89) and 2.82 (95% CI: 1.60–4.98), respectively. The positive association of serum low or high levels of Zn with oral cancer risk was also observed: The ORs were 2.72 (95% CI: 1.60–4.62) and 12.41 (95% CI: 9.09–16.93), respectively. Additionally, there were multiplicative interactions between the aforementioned trace elements and smoking. Conclusions: This preliminary study suggests that both serum excess and deficient levels of Cu or Zn were significant correlation with oral cancer risk, which may provide a new insight on the roles of serum Cu and Zn in oral cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]