Advanced Medical Research

Causal Effects between Gut Flora Significantly Associated with Cervical Cancer and 1400 Metabolites: A Mendelian Randomized Study

Cong Xu — 2025-08-07

Background: Cervical cancer is a life-threatening disease that substantially affects human health. We investigated the association between metabolites, intestinal flora, and cervical cancer through Mendelian analysis to identify metabolic markers for the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer. Methods: Using data from the FinnGen Biobank, MiBioGen, and GWAS catalog, we conducted a causal study linking the gut microbiota to cervical cancer. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) information on gut flora linked to cervical cancer and 1400 metabolites underwent Mendelian analysis. We used inverse variance weighting (IVW), Mendelian Randomization (MR)-Egger, Weighted median (WM), simple mode, and weighted mode for the analysis. Sensitivity analysis included the Cochran Q test, funnel plot, “leave-one-out”, and MR-Egger intercept test. Results: Our findings identified four microbial groups with important causal associations with cervicitis: Pasteurellaceae, Veillonellaceae, Odoribacter, and Bacillales, which showed a positive correlation with cervical cancer. In addition, Pasteurellaceae were positively associated with cervical cancer. In a Mendelian analysis of 1400 blood metabolites, we confirmed 43 metabolites causally linked to Odoribacter, with 20 positively and 23 negatively correlated. Among the 38 metabolites, 27 were positively correlated, and 11 were negatively correlated with Veillonellaceae. For Pasteurellaceae, 44 metabolites were causally associated with 27 positive and 17 negative metabolites. Additionally, 21 metabolites were significantly correlated with Bacillales, with 11 positive and 10 negative correlations. The IVW estimates were significant, and the sensitivity analysis revealed no heterogeneity or pleiotropy. Conclusion: Mendelian studies provide robust evidence for the role of specific metabolites in cervical cancer, showing a causal link with the gut flora. These findings could lead to the development of new diagnostic tools and treatments. However, their clinical application remains unclear, and further research is required to confirm and optimize these ideas. Continued exploration can enhance our understanding of cervical and other cancers, aiding in their prevention and treatment.

Evaluation Indicators and Optimization Path for Intercultural Communication Competence of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Qing Han — 2025-06-27

As Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) gains increasing global attention, its effective dissemination across cultural boundaries has become a critical issue in international communication and global health governance. However, existing dissemination efforts often face challenges such as cultural misinterpretation, limited policy support, and inadequate evaluation mechanisms. This study aims to construct a comprehensive framework for evaluating the intercultural communication competence of TCM and to propose optimization strategies for its global promotion. Drawing on Lasswell’s 5W communication model, intercultural communication theories, and policy analysis, this research develops a multi-dimensional evaluation indicator system encompassing communicator professionalism, media coverage and interactivity, translation accuracy, cultural adaptability, and audience reception. Based on these indicators, the study proposes a set of optimization paths, including enhanced policy and institutional support, localized content strategies, media digitalization, and interactive communication mechanisms. The findings provide both theoretical foundations and practical guidance for improving the effectiveness of TCM’s international communication. By offering a scientific basis for assessment and optimization, this research contributes to bridging cultural gaps and advancing the high-quality development of TCM in the global context.

Fine-Tuning SAM2 for Generalizable Polyp Segmentation with a Channel Attention-Enhanced Decoder

Yixiao Liu — 2025-02-25

Polyp segmentation is a critical task in medical image analysis, particularly in colonoscopy, where it plays a vital role in the early detection and treatment of colorectal cancer. In recent years, advancements in deep learning, especially the application of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Transformer models, have significantly improved segmentation performance. Despite these advancements, the generalizability of these models across different datasets is often limited. Recently, Meta released the Segment Anything Model 2 (SAM2), which has demonstrated exceptional performance in both video and image segmentation tasks. This paper aims to develop a universal polyp segmentation model by fine-tuning the pre-trained encoder of SAM2. We introduce a learnable prompt layer within the Transformer blocks and employ a full-scale skip connection structure as a decoder to integrate multi-scale semantic features. Our model outperforms state-of-the-art methods on datasets such as Kvasir-Seg and CVC-ClinicDB. Additionally, our experiments show that the model exhibits excellent transfer learning capabilities on unseen datasets, making it a robust and generalizable model in the field of polyp segmentation.

Interventional Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine Compound Formulas on the Expression of Inflammatory Factors in Diabetic Nephropathy

Henry Liu — 2025-09-01

DN is still one of the major microcirculatory complications of diabetes mellitus and the leading cause of end stage renal disease worldwide. The advancement of DN is hard to foresee, all we know at present is it’s starting off with long duration minor inflammation. It takes a long time for your blood sugar to be too high, it makes a lot of things happen in your body, just like how it makes you blood move around and how it mixes up with food that gives you energy. And then your body starts making way too many of these special helpers and trouble makers, these help you fight infections, but sometimes your body decides to make too many. The inflammatory mediators are all TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, etc., which will lead to glomerular endothelial dysfunction, promoting podocyte damage, mesangial cell hyperplasia, promoting tubulointerstitial fibrosis directly, which are the pathologic characteristics of DN. The conventional treatment mainly focuses on lowering the sugar and blood pressure, which do not stop the progression of the disease, and exploring other complementary and alternative treatments is now inevitable. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) tends to take an overall approach when dealing with things and it’s pretty old at tackling health concerns related to diabetes, and that’s great! Multi-compont Multi-target TCM Fufang. Due to more and more studies on the TCM Fufang to look into the nephro-protective effects. This paper will do review for different kind of TCM compound formula intervention to the key inflammatory factors expression in DN. We’ll see how these formulas change the inflammation, we may show that they can lower TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, and other really key stuff, to help kidneys feel good. So the cool thing we figured out is the TCM compound formulas are another sweet treat for DN as this focuses on that big inflammatory piece of the sickness.

Physical Therapy in Patients with Temporomandibular Joint Disorders

Jiye Liu — 2025-04-30

Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) is a chronic disease caused by multiple factors working together. Although it does not affect the patient’s lifespan, it significantly interferes with their psychology and daily life. The treatment for TMD is mainly divided into two categories: conservative treatment and surgical treatment. The vast majority of TMD patients have mild symptoms, so conservative treatment is often their primary choice. As an important component of conservative treatment, physical therapy is highly favored by patients due to its simple operation, minimal side effects, and significant effectiveness. Therefore, this article elaborates on the clinical value of various physical therapies for TMD patients, with the hope of expanding the application of physical therapy in TMD.

Study on the Effect of Aprepitan on Chemotherapy-related Adverse Reactions of Gynecological Malignancies

Xiaojing Sun — 2025-09-18

Objective: To explore the clinical efficacy and safety of aprepitan in preventing chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting (CINV) in patients with gynecological malignancies. Methods: A total of 98 patients with gynecological malignant tumors in our hospital from January 2020 to December 2022 were selected and randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, with 49 cases in each group. The control rates of nausea and vomiting, symptom scores and adverse reactions were compared between the two groups. Results: The total score of R-INVR in the observation group was lower than that in the control group, the remission rate of nausea and vomiting and the total score of FLIE were higher than those in the control group (p < 0.001), and the incidences of adverse reactions such as fatigue, constipation, headache, diarrhea and anorexia were all lower than those in the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Aprepitan can relieve nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy in patients with gynecological malignant tumors, and it has good safety. It is suitable for antiemetic management during chemotherapy in gynecological malignant tumors.

Clinical Efficacy of F4.8 Visual Puncture Minirenal Mirror in the Treatment of Seminal Vesiculitis

Yanan Chen — 2025-02-19

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of F4.8 visual puncture minirenal mirror in the treatment of seminal vesiculitis. Methods: A total of 60 patients with seminal vesiculitis admitted to the Department of Urology, Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University from July 2022 to July 2024 were selected as the study subjects. Patients treated with F4.8 visual puncture minirenal mirror were assigned to the minirenal mirror group (n = 30), while those treated with pharmacotherapy were assigned to the pharmacotherapy group (n = 30). The basic surgical conditions of the minirenal mirror group were analyzed, and the total effective rate at 3 months, as well as improvements in hematospermia, sexual function, pain symptoms, complications, and recurrence rates at 6 months post-treatment, were compared between the two groups. Results: The total effective rate and improvement in sexual function at 6 months post-treatment in the minirenal mirror group were significantly higher than those in the pharmacotherapy group (p < 0.05). The recurrence rate at 6 months post-treatment was lower in the minirenal mirror group than in the pharmacotherapy group (p < 0.05). No significant complications were observed in the pharmacotherapy group during follow-up. In the minirenal mirror group, 13 cases (43.33%) experienced mild hematuria postoperatively, 5 cases (16.67%) had perineal discomfort, and 1 case (3.33%) had fever. Conclusion: F4.8 visual puncture minirenal mirror is a reliable and safe treatment for seminal vesiculitis.

Myositis Ossificans PET/CT Findings in a Patient Presenting with Suspected Sarcoma: Turbulance a Differantial Diagnosis

Osman Kesimoglu — 2025-08-27

Myositis Ossificans (MO) is a benign lesion in which bone tissue forms within muscle or soft tissue after a traumatic injury. It most commonly occurs in the extremities, large muscle groups and demographically in young adults, with a higher incidence in women. 60–75% of cases are associated with trauma. To achieve an accurate diagnosis of suspected soft tissue lesions, different imaging methods need to be evaluated. In cases where imaging findings are insufficient, biopsy may be required for histopathological confirmation. This case report aims to emphasize the following: ¹⁸F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) should be considered in the differential diagnosis of soft tissue tumors, the diagnostic importance of the CT component in ¹⁸F–FDG PET-CT, and the crucial role of a detailed medical history in reaching a diagnosis.