Publications by authors named "Zurong Yang"

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and heart failure frequently coexist, presenting significant public health challenges. QiShenYiQi Dropping Pills (QSDP) are widely employed in the treatment of diabetes mellitus concomitant with heart failure (DM-HF). Nevertheless, the precise mechanisms underlying their efficacy have yet to be elucidated.

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Background: China is confronted with the significant menace posed by hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). Nevertheless, the long-term spatial-temporal variations, regional prevalence patterns, and fundamental determinants' mechanisms for HFRS remain inadequately elucidated.

Methods: Newly diagnosed cases of HFRS from January 2004 to December 2019 were acquired from the China Public Health Science Data repository.

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Background: Despite ongoing changes in the global epidemiology of cystic echinococcosis (CE), there is a lack of research conducted to date.

Methods: We extracted data on incidence and disability-adjusted life years for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019 to evaluate the epidemiological characteristics and burden of CE through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019. We used locally weighted linear regression to analyse the primary driving factors of the prevalence of CE at the national and regional levels and utilised a Bayesian Age-Period-Cohort model to forecast the global incidence of CE in the next decade.

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Acute gastroenteritis outbreaks may be caused by the excretion of norovirus (NoV) from asymptomatic individuals. Despite numerous studies involving asymptomatic NoV infection during outbreaks in China, a comprehensive assessment of its role has not been conducted, which is critical for emergency management. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of asymptomatic NoV infection during outbreaks in China.

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Background: Although many studies on asymptomatic norovirus infection in outbreaks have been conducted globally, structured data (important for emergency management of outbreaks) on the prevalence of this epidemic are still not available. This study assessed the global prevalence of asymptomatic norovirus infection in outbreaks.

Methods: We identified publications on asymptomatic infections from norovirus outbreaks by searching the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Medline, and Web of Science databases and screening references from the articles reviewed.

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Varicella is a highly prevalent infectious disease with a similar transmission pathway to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-COVID-19 nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have been implemented to prevent the spread of the infection. This study aims to analyze varicella's epidemiological characteristics and further investigate the effect of anti-COVID-19 NPIs on varicella in Xi'an, northwestern China.

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Article Synopsis
  • Brucellosis is a contagious disease affecting humans and animals, and its prevalence is rising in areas like Datong City, China, due to ecological changes and intensified agriculture.
  • A study utilized Bayesian spatiotemporal models to track high-risk clusters of human brucellosis in Datong from 2005 to 2020, revealing a trend of infection spreading west and south.
  • Findings show that urbanization, economic factors, and climate conditions negatively correlate with brucellosis incidence, while animal husbandry practices significantly influence its distribution, providing critical data for developing effective control strategies.
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Background: Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) against COVID-19 may prevent the spread of other infectious diseases. Our purpose was to assess the effects of NPIs against COVID-19 on infectious diarrhea in Xi'an, China.

Methods: Based on the surveillance data of infectious diarrhea, and the different periods of emergence responses for COVID-19 in Xi'an from 2011 to 2021, we applied Bayesian structural time series model and interrupted time series model to evaluate the effects of NPIs against COVID-19 on the epidemiological characteristics and the causative pathogens of infectious diarrhea.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated changes in the structure and function of lower-limb muscles in patients with type 2 diabetes, both with and without diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).
  • A total of 203 patients were examined using ultrasonography to measure the cross-sectional area and shear wave velocity of specific muscles, revealing significant decreases in the abductor hallux muscle in those with DPN.
  • The findings suggest that the abductor hallux's properties are linked to clinical factors like the Toronto Clinical Scoring System and glycosylated hemoglobin levels, indicating potential imaging markers for monitoring DPN in diabetes patients.
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Influenza shares the same putative transmission pathway with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and causes tremendous morbidity and mortality annually globally. Since the transmission of COVID-19 in China, a series of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) against to the disease have been implemented to contain its transmission. Based on the surveillance data of influenza, Search Engine Index, and meteorological factors from 2011 to 2021 in Xi'an, and the different level of emergence responses for COVID-19 from 2020 to 2021, Bayesian Structural Time Series model and interrupted time series analysis were applied to quantitatively assess the impact of NPIs in sequent phases with different intensities, and to estimate the reduction of influenza infections.

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Background: Human brucellosis imposes a heavy burden on the health and economy of endemic regions. Since 2011, China has reported at least 35,000 human brucellosis cases annually, with more than 90% of these cases reported in the northern. Given the alarmingly high incidence and variation in the geographical distribution of human brucellosis cases, there is an urgent need to decipher the causes of such variation in geographical distribution.

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Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a mosquito-borne viral disease, which is the most serious viral encephalitis in China and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Since 2005, the epidemic patterns of JE have changed dramatically in China because of the vaccination of children younger than 15 years old, and JE is expanding geographically along with global warming. This retrospective epidemiological study analyzed dynamic environmental factors and the spatio-temporal distribution of human cases of JE in Shaanxi Province-one of the most severely affected areas of China-from 2005 to 2018.

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Virtual finite element human body models have been widely used in biomedical engineering, traffic safety injury analysis, etc. Soft tissue modeling like skeletal muscle accounts for a large portion of a human body model establishment, and its modeling method is not enough explored. The present study aims to investigate the compressive properties of skeletal muscles due to different species, loading rates and fiber orientations, in order to obtain available parameters of specific material laws as references for building or improving the human body model concerning both modeling accuracy and computational cost.

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Background: Brucellosis is a serious public health problem primarily affecting livestock workers. The strong seasonality of the disease indicates that climatic factors may play important roles in the transmission of the disease. However, the associations between climatic variability and human brucellosis are still poorly understood.

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To investigate whether ischemic postconditioning (IPTC) can promote the recovery of left ventricular impaired regional or global longitudinal systolic function.
 Methods: The trial was divided into a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) group, an PCI+IPTC group and a control group. Thirty-two patients with anterior acute anterior wall ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) underwent the first emergency PCI in the PCI group, 28 patients with anterior acute STEMI underwent the combination of PCI and IPTC in the PCI+IPTC group, while 30 patients underwent coronary angiography in the control group.

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Plantar heel pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders and generally causing long term discomfort of the patients. The objective of the present study is to combine in vivo experimental measurements and finite element modelling of the foot to investigate the influences of stiffness and thickness variation of individual plantar tissues especially the heel pad on deformation behaviours of the human foot. The stiffness and thickness variance of individuals were measured through supersonic shear wave elastography considering detailed heel pad layers refered to in literature as: dermis, stiffer micro-chamber layer, softer macro-chamber layer.

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Purpose: To investigate whether acute and transient pressure overload in patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension affects cardiac function in fetuses.

Methods: We enrolled 104 singleton pregnant women with gestational ages ranging 30 to 33 weeks, visiting for prenatal care. Among them, 34 had gestational hypertension (GH), 32 had preeclampsia (PE), and 38 were healthy and formed the control group.

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Purpose: To investigate whether acute and transient pressure overload in patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) affects left ventricular (LV) systolic function.

Methods: From pregnancy to 3 months after delivery, 82 patients were analyzed: 27, 25, and 30 with gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and the healthy control group, respectively. Conventional echocardiography and velocity vector imaging (VVI) were performed, and blood levels of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) were analyzed.

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To investigate the evolution of left ventricular global strain in anterior myocardial infarction patients treated with emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
 Methods: A total of 54 patients with PCI were enrolled as a PCI group. Forty healthy subjects were enrolled as a control group.

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Objective: To assess the left ventricular (LV) longitudinal systolic function and asynchrony in patients with coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CAD) by syngo velocity vector imaging (VVI).

Methods: Twenty-eight control subjects and 79 patients with CAD were examined, including 28 patients with myocardial infarction, 26 patients with coronary lumen stenosis <50%, and 25 patients with myocardial ischemia. According to the results of coronary arteriography and electrocardiogram (ECG), the myocardial segments of the LV of CAD patients were divided into four groups: ischemic, infarcted, nonischemic, and normal.

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