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Background: Currently, many detection methods have high sensitivity to the diagnosis of lung cancer. However, some postoperative patients with pulmonary nodules are eventually diagnosed as having benign nodules. The ideal evaluation of an individual with a pulmonary nodule would expedite therapy for a malignant nodule and minimize testing for those with a benign nodule. Methods: This case–control study is designed to explore the relationship between ACE1 rs4646994 polymorphism and the risk of lung cancer in patients with pulmonary nodules, for which 400 individuals with lung cancer and benign pulmonary nodules were included. A DNA extraction kit was used to extract DNA from peripheral blood. The relationship between ACE1 rs4646994 and the risk of lung cancer in patients with pulmonary nodules was determined by the chi-square test, logistic regression analysis and cross analysis. Results: The results showed that after adjusting for age and gender confounding factors, the risk of lung cancer in patients with pulmonary nodules carrying the DD genotype was more than three times that of the I carriers (II + ID) genotype (OR = 3.035, 95% CI, 1.252–7.356, p = 0.014). There was no significant difference between lung squamous cell carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma in the polymorphism of ACE1 rs4646994 (p > 0.05). We also found that the ACE1 rs4646994 DD genotype frequency was inversely correlated with the risk of EGFR mutation in lung adenocarcinoma patients. Conclusions: Our study indicated that ACE1 rs4646994 polymorphism increases the risk of lung cancer in patients with pulmonary nodules from China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the associations between salty food preference and osteoporosis (OP) in general Chinese men.Methods and Study Design: We conducted a largescale, community-based, cross-sectional study to estimate the associations by using self-report questionnaire to evaluate the salty food preference. The total of 1,092 men was available to data analysis in this study. Multiple regression models controlling for confounding factors to include salty food preference variables were employed to explore the relationships for OP.Results: We found negative correlations between preference for salty food and T-score (p=0.006). Multiple regression analysis showed that the preference for salty food was significantly positively associated with OP (p<0.05 for all). The men with preference for salty food habits had a higher prevalence of OP.Conclusion: The findings indicated that salty food preference was independently and significantly associated with OP. The prevalence of OP was more frequent in Chinese men preferring salty food habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This article applies a multidimensional social exclusion framework to examine Chinese rural-to-urban migrant victimization. Method: Data from the 2012 China Labor Dynamics Survey is used to examine whether Chinese migrants are more likely to be victimized compared to urban residents and to what extent the prior findings on the meditating roles of social exclusion between immigration and victimization can be applied to understand Chinese migrants’ victimization. Results: Findings reveal the elevated victimization risks among nationwide rural-to-urban migrants. Logistic regression models find that social exclusion mediates the link between migrant status and victimization and that social exclusion predicts victimization. Conclusions: The discriminative institutional arrangements in China are a major force of the universal disadvantages of Chinese migrants. That is, it is not the migrant status itself, but the social exclusion suffered by individuals that increase the likelihood of being criminally victimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies have investigated the association between body mass index (BMI) and breast cancer with consideration to estrogen/progesterone/human epidermal growth factor type 2 receptor status (ER/PR/HER2) in the breast tissue among Chinese pre- and post-menopausal women. Methods: Four thousand two hundred and eleven breast cancer patients were selected randomly from seven geographic regions of China from 1999 to 2008. Demographic data, risk factors, pathologic features, and biological receptor status of cases were collected from the medical charts. Chi-square test, fisher exact test, rank-correlation analysis, and multivariate logistic regression model were adopted to explore whether BMI differed according to biological receptor status in pre- and post-menopausal women. Results: Three thousand two hundred and eighty one eligible cases with BMI data were included. No statistically significant differences in demographic characteristics were found between the cases with BMI data and those without. In the rank-correlation analysis, the rates of PR+ and HER2+ were positively correlated with increasing BMI among post-menopausal women (rs BMI, PR+ = 0.867, P = 0.001; rs BMI, HER2+ = 0.636, P = 0.048), but the ER+ rates did not vary by increasing BMI. Controlling for confounding factors, multivariate logistic regression models with BMI<24 kg/m2 as the reference group were performed and found that BMI≥24 kg/m2 was only positively correlated with PR+ status among post-menopausal breast cancer cases (adjusted OR = 1.420, 95% CI: 1.116–1.808, Wald = 8.116, P = 0.004). Conclusions: Post-menopausal women with high BMI (≥24 kg/m2) have a higher proportion of PR+ breast cancer. In addition to effects mediated via the estrogen metabolism pathway, high BMI might increase the risk of breast cancer by other routes, which should be examined further in future etiological mechanism studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Data on the pharmacological management of acute agitation in schizophrenia are scarce. The aim of this study is to investigate the prescription practices in the treatment of agitation in Chinese patients with schizophrenia. Methods: We conducted a large, multicenter, observational study in 14 psychiatry hospitals in China. Newly hospitalized schizophrenia patients with the PANSS-EC total score ≥ 14 and a value ≥4 on at least one of its five items were included in the study. Their drug treatments of the first 2 weeks in hospital were recorded by the researchers. Results: Eight hundred and 53 patients enrolled in and 847 (99.30%) completed the study. All participants were prescribed antipsychotics, 40 (4.72%) were prescribed benzodiazepine in conjunction with antipsychotics and 81 were treated with modified electric convulsive therapy (MECT). Four hundred and 12 (48.64%) patients were prescribed only one antipsychotic, in the order of olanzapine (120 patients, 29.13%), followed by risperidone (101 patients, 24.51%) and clozapine (41 patients, 9.95%). About 435 (51.36%) participants received antipsychotic polypharmacy, mostly haloperidol + risperidone (23.45%), haloperidol+ olanzapine (17.01%), olanzapine+ ziprasidone (5.30%), haloperidol + clozapine (4.37%) and haloperidol + quetiapine (3.90%). Binary logistic regression analysis suggests that a high BARS score (OR 2.091, 95%CI 1.140–3.124), severe agitation (OR 1.846, 95%CL 1.266–2.693), unemployment or retirement (OR 1.614, 95%CL 1.189–2.190) and aggressiveness on baseline (OR 1.469, 95%CL 1.032–2.091) were related to an increased antipsychotic polypharmacy odds. Male sex (OR 0.592, 95%CL 0.436–0.803) and schizophrenia in older persons (age ≥ 55 years, OR 0.466, 95%CL 0.240–0.902) were less likely to be associated with antipsychotic polypharmacy. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that monotherapy and polypharmacy display equally common patterns of antipsychotic usage in managing agitation associated with schizophrenia in China. The extent and behavioral activities of agitation and several other factors were associated with polypharmacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]