Objective:To investigate the value of quantitative CT (QCT) body component parameters before and after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) as prognostic indicator for patients with hepatic cell carcinoma (HCC).Methods:Retrospective analysis was performed on 40 patients with advanced HCC who received TACE treatment in Anhui Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University from November 2013 to May 2017, all of them received QCT scanning before and after treatment. The information were recorded, including gender, age, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), TNM stage, liver function Child-Pugh grade, portal venous thromboembolism, cirrhosis, maximum tumor diameter, tumor type, and frequency of interventional therapy. QCT parameters were measured before and after treatment, including L1, L2 bone mineral density (BMD), L3-level paravertebral muscle area (MA), subcutaneous fat area (SFA) and visceral fat area (VFA), and the change rate of QCT parameters (ΔBMD, ΔMA, ΔSFA, ΔVFA) before and after TACE were calculated after the QCT scan interval was standardized. The cut-off values of ΔBMD, ΔMA, ΔSFA and ΔVFA to diagnose the prognosis of HCC patients after TACE were obtained by drawing the ROC curves. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the survival rate, the Log-rank method was used for univariate analysis, and the Cox regression analysis model was used for multivariate analysis to screen out independent factors affecting the prognosis of HCC patients after TACE.Results:ROC curve analysis showed that the cut-off values of ΔBMD, ΔMA, ΔSFA and ΔVFA to diagnose the prognosis of HCC patients after TACE were -8.64%, -6.84%, -9.84% and 5.70%, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that AFP, TNM stage, liver function Child-Pugh grade, portal venous thrombosis, tumor type and ΔMA, ΔSFA, ΔVFA had statistically significant effects on prognosis ( P<0.1). Multivariate analysis showed that ΔMA, ΔVFA and portal venous thromboembolism were independent influencing factors for the prognosis of HCC patients after TACE treatment ( P<0.05). Conclusions:ΔMA, ΔVFA and portal venous thromboembolism have reference value for prognosis assessment of TACE treatment for HCC patients, and QCT body composition analysis is helpful to evaluate the prognosis of HCC patients.

Objective:To compare serum level of β thromboglobulin in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) complicated different complications.Methods:According to their complications,a total of 398 patients with unsta- ble angina pectoris (UAP)were divided into pure UAP group (UAP control group,n=82),hypertension group (n=89),diabetes mellitus (DM)group (n=133)and brain infarction group (n=94).Serum level of β thromboglobu- lin were measured and compared among four groups 6h after onset and before discharge.Incidence of myocardial in- farction within six months were followed up in four groups.Results:On 6h after onset,the serum level of β throm- boglobulin of brain infarction group,DM group,hypertension group,UAP control group was (61.13±3.32)ng/ml,(59.77±3.15)ng/ml,(52.12±3.27)ng/m, (48.55±3.14)ng/ml respectively,in which the level of brain infarction group was the highest,the difference between any two groups were significant (P<0.01 all);Compared with 6h after onset,there were significant reductions in serum levels of β thromboglobulin of four groups before dis- charge P<0.01 all,their ordering and difference significant degree were no change.The incidence of myocardial infarction (MI)in brain infarction group,DM group,hypertension group,UAP control group was 11.7%,6.0%, 3.4%,2.4% respectively,the MI incidence of brain infarction group was significant more than that of UAP con- trol group,the differences among other groups was no significant,P>0.05.Conclusion:β-thromboglobulin level during UAP onset is significant higher than that of remission period,and it rises most significantly in brain infarction group,and in this group the percentage of myocardial infarction occurred within six months is highest

Objective To investigate CT enhanced effect in abdominal vessels with three different iodine concentration with the fixed iodine delivery rate and total iodine load.Methods 90 patients were randomized into 270 (270 mg I/mL),320 (320 mg I/mL) and 370 (370 mg I/mL)groups.On arterial phase images,the CT values of abdominal aorta (AA)were measured at the level of the porta hepatis,the right renal artery and the bifurcation of iliac artery.On portal veins phase images,the CT values of the main portal vein,the left branch and the right branch of portal vein were also measured.The differences in subj ective scores of image quality,CT values,signal to noise ratio (SNR),contrast to noise ratio (CNR)between the AA and portal vein were analyzed.Results The CT values of AA in 270,320 and 370 groups in arterial phase at the level of the porta hepatis were(302.28±24.81)HU,(302.14±33.76)HU and (303.49±35.85)HU,those at the right renal artery level were(304.01±25.55)HU,(305.22±33.63)HU and(306.14±31.51)HU,and at the bifurcation of iliac artery level were (306.85±23.26)HU,(308.68±31.80)HU and (310.22±29.76)HU.There were no significant differences among the three groups (P>0.05).The CT values of the main portal vein in portal phase were (133.94±8.41)HU, (1 3 5.6 3 ± 11.82)HU and(135.43±10.08)HU,those of the left branch were(134.21±6.04)HU,(135.12±9.97)HU and(135.31±8.82)HU, those of the right branch were (133.77±7.06)HU,(134.09±11.53)HU and (136.04±10.61)HU.There were also no significant differences among the three groups (P>0.05).No statistical differences were observed among the three groups in the scores of image quality, SNR and CNR(P>0.0 5).Conclusion Similar CT enhanced effect and excellent image quality can be obtained by using different iodine concentration of contrast agent with the fixed iodine delivery rate and total iodine load in abdominal vessels.

Objective:To explore the beam performance of GTR 360° PBS dedicated nozzle for IBA Proteus Plus proton system and evaluate the beam characteristics of PBS during acceptance test procedure (ATP) to meet the precision and safety requirements of clinical treatment.Methods:According to the requirements of acceptance tests, the beam tests of PBS mainly included: test of integrated depth dose (IDD), test of maximum field size at the maximum and minimum ranges, field uniformity and informative PBS tests for the GTR 360°, test of lateral dose uniformity in a single field uniform dose in a cube, test of longitudinal dose uniformity in a single field uniform dose in a cube, and test of monitor unit reproducibility and proportionality.Results:The maximum deviation measured of range, fall back accuracy and distal fall-off was 0.03 g/m 2, 0.01 g/m 2 and 0.078 g/m 2, respectively. Maximum field size at the maximum and minimum ranges was 30.2 cm×40.2 cm and 30.1 cm×40.1 cm, respectively. During the different gantry angles and ranges, the lowest γ passing rate of a pattern plan was 97%, the maximum deviation of the centrical beam spot size at the X and Y axes was -0.16 mm and -0.21 mm, and the worst symmetry was 0.80%. Compared with the centrical beam spot, the maximum size deviation of the other beam spots was 0.11 mm and 0.14 mm at the X and Y axes, and the maximum position accuracy deviation of the beam spot was 0.60 mm and 0.43 mm at the X and Y axes. The maximum deviation of lateral dose uniformity at at the X and Y axes was 0.55% and 0.80% in the high energy region, and 0.6% and 0.75% in the low energy region. The maximum deviation of longitudinal dose uniformity was 0.79% in the high energy region, and 2.22% in the low energy region. The monitor unit (MU) reproducibility factor was 0.106% and the maximum proportionality deviation was 0.67%. Conclusion:The dedicated nozzle of PBS has passed all the beam performance acceptance tests, which meet the requirements of all parameters, and the whole system yields relatively high accuracy, repeatability and good stability.

Objective To discuss the value of clinical radiomic nomogram(CRN)and deep convolutional neural network(DCNN)in distinguishing atypical pulmonary hamartoma(APH)from atypical lung adenocarcinoma(ALA).Methods A total of 307 patients were retrospectively recruited from two institutions.Patients in institu-tion 1 were randomly divided into the training(n=184:APH=97,ALA=87)and internal validation sets(n=79:APH=41,ALA=38)in a ratio of 7∶3,and patients in institution 2 were assigned as the external validation set(n=44:APH=23,ALA=21).A CRN model and a DCNN model were established,respectively,and the performances of two models were compared by delong test and receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves.A human-machine competition was conducted to evaluate the value of AI in the Lung-RADS classification.Results The areas under the curve(AUCs)of DCNN model were higher than those of CRN model in the training,internal and external validation sets(0.983 vs 0.968,0.973 vs 0.953,and 0.942 vs 0.932,respectively),however,the differences were not statistically significant(p=0.23,0.31 and 0.34,respectively).With a radiologist-AI com-petition experiment,AI tended to downgrade more Lung-RADS categories in APH and affirm more Lung-RADS cat-egories in ALA than radiologists.Conclusion Both DCNN and CRN have higher value in distinguishing APH from ALA,with the former performing better.AI is superior to radiologists in evaluating the Lung-RADS classification of pulmonary nodules.

Triptolide is a key active component of the widely used traditional Chinese herb medicine Tripterygium wilfordii Hook.F.Although triptolide exerts multiple biological activities and shows promising efficacy in treating inflammatory-related diseases,its well-known safety issues,especially reproductive toxicity has aroused concerns.However,a comprehensive dissection of triptolide-associated testicular toxicity at single cell resolution is still lacking.Here,we observed testicular toxicity after 14 days of triptolide exposure,and then constructed a single-cell transcriptome map of 59,127 cells in mouse testes upon triptolide-treatment.We identified triptolide-associated shared and cell-type specific differentially expressed genes,enriched pathways,and ligand-receptor pairs in different cell types of mouse testes.In addition to the loss of germ cells,our results revealed increased macrophages and the inflammatory response in triptolide-treated mouse testes,suggesting a critical role of inflammation in triptolide-induced testicular injury.We also found increased reactive oxygen species(ROS)signaling and down-regulated pathways associated with spermatid development in somatic cells,especially Leydig and Sertoli cells,in triptolide-treated mice,indicating that dysregulation of these signaling pathways may contribute to triptolide-induced testicular toxicity.Overall,our high-resolution single-cell landscape offers comprehensive information regarding triptolide-associated gene expression profiles in major cell types of mouse testes at single cell resolution,providing an invaluable resource for understanding the underlying mechanism of triptolide-associated testicular injury and additional discoveries of therapeutic targets of triptolide-induced male reproductive toxicity.

Objective To explore the value of combined prediction model based on clinical and CT radiomics features in discriminating atypical pulmonary hamartoma(APH)from atypical lung adenocarcinoma(ALA).Methods A total of 290 patients with APH and ALA confirmed by pathology were retrospectively selected.250 patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University were randomly assigned into a training set(APH=91,ALA=84)and an internal validation set(APH=39,ALA=36)at a ratio of 7∶3,and other 40 patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC were assigned as an external validation set(APH=21,ALA=19).The independent model and multivariate logistic regression combined model were constructed using the selected clinical-CT features and radiomics features,respectively,and a nomogram was drawn.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve and DeLong test were used to evaluate and compare the performances of the models.Results The area under the curve(AUC)of the combined model established by 3 clinical-CT features and 4 radiomics features in the training set was 0.980,which was higher than that of clinical-CT model(AUC=0.885,P＜0.001)and radiomics model(AUC=0.975,P=0.042).The AUC of the combined model in the internal and external validation sets(0.963 vs 0.917)were also higher than those of clinical-CT model(0.858 vs 0.774)and radiomics model(0.953 vs 0.897),respectively.Conclusion The combined prediction model based on clinical and CT radiomics features can improve the differential diagnosis ability of APH and ALA.

Objective: To study the dosimetric characteristics and plan quality of PTV-based intensity modulated proton radiotherapy (IMPT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans for prostate cancer, so as to provide a reference for clinical application. Methods: A total of 10 prostate cancer cases were included in this retrospective study. IMPT and RapidArc plans were designed by RayStation and Eclipse TPS based on PTV, respectively. For each case, IMPT plans were generated using multiple field optimization (MFO) technique with two parallel-opposed lateral fields, whereas RapidArc plans were generated using double-arc technique (two full arcs). Final dose calculation of IMPT was conducted by pencil beam(PB) and Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm, respectively, with adopted data model from the pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy system of IBA Protues Plus(IBA Group, Belgium); The data model originated from the linear accelerator of Varian Clinac iX (Varian Medical Systems, America) was used for RapidArc plans. Dosimetric parameters of DVH and dose distribution were used to compare the dose differences in targets and organs at risk (OARs) between these two treatment techniques. Results: For targets, HIs of PB-IMPT and MC-IMPT were slightly better than that of RapidArc , but CI of IMPT was slightly lower than that of RapidArc; D_1% of PB-IMPT was significantly better than those of MC-IMPT and RapidArc (Z=-2.805, -2.803, P<0.05). PB-IMPT and MC-IMPT achieved better protection than RapidArc on rectum V₃₀(Z=-2.191, -1.988, P<0.05)and D_mean(Z=-2.599, -2.497, P<0.05), bladder V₃₀(Z=-2.701, -2.701, P<0.05), V₄₀(Z=-2.395, -2.395, P<0.05)and D_mean(Z=-2.701, -2.701, P<0.05). There was no significant difference between PB-IMPT and MC-IMPT plans for prostate cancer, except for the D_1% [(73.86±67.34) Gy vs.(75.45±2.01) Gy] (RBE) and HI [(0.040±0.010) vs. (0.058±0.020)] of the target. Conclusions Both techniques can meet the clinical requirements, but IMPT showed significant dosimetric advantages compared with RapidArch by reducing the dose to OARs and improving the plan quality.

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a complicated psoriasis comorbidity with manifestations of psoriatic skin and arthritic joints, and tailoring specific treatment strategies for simultaneously delivering different drugs to different action sites in PsA remains challenging. We developed a need-based layered dissolving microneedle (MN) system loading immunosuppressant tacrolimus (TAC) and anti-inflammatory diclofenac (DIC) in different layers of MNs,