Clinical Characteristics in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis Induced by HBV Infection and Combined with Mild Alcohol Intake

Objective To investigate the differences of clinical and biochemical characteristics between patients with liver cirrhosis induced by HBV infection combined with and without mild alcohol intake.Methods Data of patients with liver cirrhosis who were hospitalized in the First Hospital Affiliated to Xinjiang Medical University were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into three groups: patients with liver cirrhosis induced by HBV infection and combined with mild alcohol intake, patients with HBV-related cirrhosis, and patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis. Biochemical detections including liver function, fasting lipid profiles, lipoprotein, kidney function, glucose, uric acid and regular blood tests were carried out and results were compared among three groups. Data were analyzed through STATA software and co-variant analysis. Results Total of 2 350 patients with liver cirrhosis were included, 732 patients had cirrhosis induced by HBV infection combined with mild alcohol intake, 1 316 patients had HBV-related liver cirrhosis, 302 patients had alcohol-related cirrhosis. The highest mean level of white cell count, mean corpuscular volume, γ-glutamyltranspeptidase and uric acid were observed in HBV infection combined with mild alcohol intake group. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that HBV infection, excessive alcohol intake, male and age were risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) in patients with liver cirrhosis. Conclusions HBV infection combined with mild alcoholic-related liver cirrhosis group showed the highest oxidative stress compared with alcoholic liver cirrhosis group, which suggested that mild alcohol intake may increase the incidence of liver cirrhosis in HBV infected patients and may not increase the incidence of HCC.

Oxygen Metabolism-induced Stress Response Underlies Heartbrain Interaction Governing Human Consciousness-breaking and Attention

Neuroscientists have emphasized visceral influences on consciousness and attention,but the potential neurophysiological pathways remain under exploration.Here,we found two neurophysiological pathways of heartbrain interaction based on the relationship between oxygen-transport by red blood cells(RBCs)and consciousness/attention.To this end,we collected a dataset based on the routine physical examination,the breaking continuous flash suppression(b-CFS)paradigm,and an attention network test(ANT)in 140 immigrants under the hypoxic Tibetan environment.We combined electroencephalography and multilevel mediation analysis to investigate the relationship between RBC properties and consciousness/attention.The results showed that RBC function,via two independent neurophysiological pathways,not only triggered interoceptive re-representations in the insula and awareness connected to orienting attention but also induced an immune response corresponding to consciousness and executive control.Importantly,consciousness played a fundamental role in executive function which might be associated with the level of perceived stress.These results indicated the important role of oxygen-transport in heart-brain interactions,in which the related stress response affected consciousness and executive control.The findings provide new insights into the neurophysiological schema of heartbrain interactions.