Alzheimer′s disease (AD) is a degenerative neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. The disease is concealed. Patients often experienced several years or even more than ten years of course evolution from the beginning of pathological changes to clinical symptoms. Once entering the stage of dementia, there is no ideal drug to reverse the disease. In order to improve the efficiency of early diagnosis, the research on early biomarkers of the disease has become a hot topic in recent years. In addition to the Aβ and tau, microRNAs have been discovered as potential biomarkers of AD.

Objective To compare the stability effect of the fixation segment using the new test system based robotics to simulate the complex human movement at natural state about the three-level fixa-tion by using four, five or six pedicle screws in treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures. Methods Six human cadaveric spines were dissected from T_(11)-L_3. The inferior half part of L_1 vertebral bodies and L_1-L_2 dises were resected to mimie an unstable L_1 burst fracture with loss of anterior column support. Specimens were tested in accordance with the following order:intact, 4,5 and 6 pedicle screws fixation at the three-level fixation. The range of motion (ROM) of the fixation segment (T_(11)-L_3) was measured with the six-freedom degree robotics system controlled by mixed force and displacement during flexion, exten-sion, lateral bending and axial torsion, when the stiffness was calculated. One-way statistieal analysis was used for analyzing the collected data. Results With increased number of screws, the ROM of the fixa-tion segment (T_(11)-L_3) was gradually decreased and the stiffness gradually increased. The ROM under ax-ial rotation of six and five screws group became smaller than four screws group (P < 0.05). The stiffness under axial rotation of six screws group was higher than four screws group (P < 0.05). There was no sta-tistical difference between five screws group and four screws group in regard of the stiffness in axial rota-tion (P > 0.05). There were no significant differences in ROM and stiffness under six different loading directions between six screws group and five screws group (P > 0.05). No statistical difference was observed for three fixation modes in aspects of ROMs and stiffness under flexion-extension or lateral ben-ding (P > 0.05). Conclusions Three-level fixation of burst fractures with five or six screws offers im-proved biomechanical stability compared with traditional four screws fixation. But the difference is insig-nificant between six and five screws fixations.

This paper introduces the hardware and software of a biomechanical robot-based testing device. The bottom control orders, posture and torque data transmission, and the control algorithms are integrated in a unified visual control platform by Visual C+ +, with easy control and management. By using hybrid force-displacement control method to load the human spine, we can test the organizational structure and the force state of the FSU (Functional spinal unit) well, which overcomes the shortcomings due to the separation of the force and displacement measurement, thus greatly improves the measurement accuracy. Also it is esay to identify the spinal degeneration and the load-bearing impact on the organizational structure of the FSU after various types of surgery.
Algorithms ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Equipment Design ; Humans ; Joints ; physiology ; Robotics ; instrumentation ; methods ; Software ; Spine ; physiology

Objective To investigate clinical value of high sensitive-cardiac troponin T(hs-cTnT) combined with creatine kinase isoenzyme MB(CK-MB) in the diagnosis of children with myocarditis.Methods From Nov.2014 to Nov.2015,a total of 102 cases of myocarditis,suspected with myocardial damage and without myocardial damage(pneumonia and capillary bronchitis),and 50 healthy children were enrolled.Plasma levels of hs-cTnT and CK-MB were detected and compared.Results The levels of plasma hs-cTnT and CK-MB in children with myocarditis were significantly higher than those without myocarditis and healthy subjects(P<0.05).Hs-cTnT and CK-MB levels in children with myocarditis,less than one month old,were significantly higher than those with age of 1 month to 3 years old(P<0.05).Conclusion Combined detection of hs-cTnT and CK-MB could be with high sensitive and specificity in diagnosis of children with myocarditis,accurately assess the disease condition and improve the therapeutic effect and prognosis,which might be worthy of clinical application.

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of breast mass-like lesions by digital breast tomosynthesis technique (DBT) versus full field digital mammography (FFDM).Methods 182 breast mass cases undergoing respectively DBT and FFDM diagnosis were reviewed to evaluate the the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy,breast BI-RADS classification and differences of edge character.Results Of the 182 cases,101 cases were malignant,81 cases were benign.DBT and FFDM in malignant mass detection rate were 95.0％ and 95.0％ respectively,the benign tumor detection rate were 80.2％ and 80.2％ respectively,the difference was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).The diagnostic sensitivity was 93.1％ (94/101) and 82.2％ (83/101),specificity was 66.7％ (54/81) and 53.1％ (43/81),accuracy was 81.3％ (148/182) and 69.2％ (126/182),all the differences were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).The BI-RADS classification difference of the malignant mass was statistically significant (x2 =12.912,P =0.044 5),and the benign mass was also statistically significant (x2 =12.739,P =0.026 0).The clear edge benign tumors detected by DBT and FFDM respectively were 65 and 45 cases (x2 =10.224,P =0.001 4).The spicule sign detected by DBT and FFDM respectively in malignant tumors were 71 and 50 cases (x2 =8.244,P =0.004 1).Conclusion DBT compared to traditional FFDM photography improves the lesion visibility,increases the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity,conducing to the identification of benign and malignant lesions.

This is a report on how we use the hybrid force-displacement control method to load the human knee and analyze the effect and value of our robot experimental system through the biomechanical experiments of total meniscal resection of human knee. The whole robot control system can load continuously on the specimens, thus overcoming the shortcomings of the traditional loading methods which can only load discretely. In the meantime, by using the robot-based testing system, the force (torque) of the specimens and the spatial position under the force can be measured in real-time, which overcomes the shortcomings caused by the separation of force (torque) measurement from displacement measurement and so greatly improves the measurement accuracy.
Adult ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Cadaver ; Female ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; physiology ; Male ; Menisci, Tibial ; surgery ; Middle Aged ; Robotics ; methods ; Torque ; Weight-Bearing ; physiology

It is of paramount importance for the diagnosis and therapy of lung cancer, even for the increasing of 5-year survival rate in that the early dignosis of malignant pulmonary nodules are made by intelligent identification successfully. As it stands, in intelligent identification of pulmonary nodules, computer-aided detection/diagnosis (CAD) plays the most important role. The key points of intelligent identification of pulmonary nodules are (1) Detecting pulmonary nodules based on the characterization of nodule appearance; (2) Measuring accurately the nodule size; (3) Computing accurately the growth rate. This article presents a review on the basic technologies and methods of CAD for identifying malignant pulmonary nodules in the course of making early diagnosis, including lung segmentation, registration of volume data, identification of benign/malignant pulmonary nodule, and so on.
Artificial Intelligence ; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; Solitary Pulmonary Nodule ; diagnostic imaging ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; methods

A Fast Multi-resolution Volume Rendering Method (FMVRM) based on wavelet and Shear-Warp is herein proposed. In this method, the medical volume data is compressed using wavelet transformation first. Then based on the set resolution, the medical volume data is decompressed guided by Opacity transfer function (OTF). Finally, the 3D medical image is reconstructed on the basis of Shear-Warp using Block-based run length encoded (BRLE) data structure, in which, the aliasing artifacts resulting from under-sampling in Shear-Warp is avoided by the pre-integrated volume rendering technology. Experiments demonstrate the good performance of the proposed method.
Algorithms ; Artifacts ; Data Compression ; methods ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; methods

Limited by the imaging principle of whole body bone SPECT image, the gray value of bladder area is quite high, which affects the image's brightness, contrast and readability. In the meantime, the similarity between bladder area and focus makes it difficult for some images to be segmented automatically. In this paper, an improved Snake model, GVF Snake, is adopted to automatically segment bladder area, preparing for further processing of whole body bone SPECT images.
Algorithms ; Bone and Bones ; diagnostic imaging ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Models, Anatomic ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon ; methods ; Urinary Bladder

Based on the characteristic of the PET-CT multimodal image series, a novel image registration and fusion method is proposed, in which the cubic spline interpolation method is applied to realize the interpolation of PET-CT image series, then registration is carried out by using mutual information algorithm and finally the improved principal component analysis method is used for the fusion of PET-CT multimodal images to enhance the visual effect of PET image, thus satisfied registration and fusion results are obtained. The cubic spline interpolation method is used for reconstruction to restore the missed information between image slices, which can compensate for the shortage of previous registration methods, improve the accuracy of the registration, and make the fused multimodal images more similar to the real image. Finally, the cubic spline interpolation method has been successfully applied in developing 3D-CRT (3D Conformal Radiation Therapy) system.
Algorithms ; Artificial Intelligence ; Diagnostic Imaging ; methods ; Humans ; Image Enhancement ; instrumentation ; methods ; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation ; methods ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; instrumentation ; methods ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; methods ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; instrumentation ; methods ; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation ; methods ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; instrumentation ; methods