Objective To evaluate the therapeutic results of percutaneous transhepatic stent angioplasty for portal vein stenosis following liver transplant.Methods From 2005 to 2007,7 patients developed portal vein stenosis following liver transplant.Percutaneous transhepatic stent angioplasty of the portal vein was performed in all patients.The therapeutic results were monitored by clinical follow-up and imaging examination.Results In seven patients,the percutaneous transhepatic stents were placed successfully.The follow up period ranged from 3 months to 34 months.Portal venous patency Was maintained in six patients(one patient died due to hepatic arterial thrombosis and ischemic insult to bile duct at three months following the stent placement).No complications due to stent angioplasty occurred.Conclusion Percutaneous transhepatic stent angioplasty is an effective and safe method for treatment of portal vein stenosis following liver transplant.

This article presented our experience on transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and portal vein embolization (PVE) before hepatic resection for huge hepatocellular carcinoma with cirrhosis.The preoperative future liver remnant/total estimated liver Volume (FLR/TELV) ratios of 5 patients were less than 40％,and preoperative TACE was implemented 3 weeks after PVE.In all these patients,right hepatectomy was successfully implemented.Preoperative TACE and PVE expanded the indication of hepatectomy,increased the safety of surgery and improved the curative rate.

Objective To evaluate the medium and long-term therapeutic results of percutaneous transhepatic angioplasty for portal vein stenosis (PSV) following pediatric liver transplantation.Methods From Jan.2008 to Dec.2012,5 cases with PVS after pediatric liver transplantation received percutaneous transhepatic angioplasty.There were 3 male and 2 female cases ranging from 7 months to 8 year-old with the median age of 2 years and 10 months.The protopathy included 1 Carolis disease and 4 congenital biliary atresia.The therapeutic results were monitored by clinical follow-up and imaging examination.The clinical data,imaging examination and therapeutic results were analyzed.Results All interventions were performed successfully,and the treatment efficacy was 100％.One patient was diagnosed with earl-onset PVS at 0.5 month after liver transplantation.Four patients were diagnosed with late-onset PVS at 3-30 months after liver transplantation.The prestenotic portal venous average diameter was (2.3 ± 0.6) mm (1.2-3.0 mm),the degrees of stenosis were 70％-95％.The poststenotic portal venous average diameter was (9 ± 1) mm (8-10 mm) (t =32.560,P ＜ 0.05).The prestenotic portal venous average pressure gradient was (11.0 ± 3.2) mmHg (8-16 mmHg),and the poststenotic portal venous pressure gradient was(2.2 ± 1.5) mmHg(0-4.0 mmHg) (t =8.242,P ＜ 0.05).Postoperative follow-up was 10-66 months,the portal veins of all cases were patent,and patency rate was 100％.Conclusions Percutaneous transhepatic stent angioplasty is an effective and safe method for treatment of PVS following liver transplantation.Its medium and long-term patency rates are high.

Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness of percutaneous endovascular treatment of hepatic venous outflow obstruction (HVOO)after pediatric liver transplantation(LT).Methods From January 2008 to January 2013,10 children with obstruction of hepatic vein (HV) or inferior vena cava (IVC) anastomosis underwent percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) with balloon dilation or stent placement.The hepatic venous outflow obstruction occurred 10-455 days (median,125 days) after pediatric liver transplantation.According to the time of obstruction,the obstruction was divide into early onset (＜1 month) and late onset(＞1 month).The effectiveness of PTA was analyzed.Results Twenty-one procedures were performed.One treatment was ineffective,and technical and initial clinical success ratio was 95.2％ (20/21) and 70.0％ (7/10),respectively.In 3 cases with early onset after LT,operation was performed after unsuccessful PTA in 1 case.One patient who developed recurrent stenosis was treated with PTAS.The other patient died of acute rejection.Late onset after LT was found in 7 cases,who were treated with PTA or stent successfully.Conclusions In cases of venous outflow obstruction resulting from HV and/or IVC lesions after pediatric liver transplantation,percutaneous endovascular treatment with balloon dilation or stent placement is a safe and effective alternative treatment that results in midterm and long-term patency.Early-onset or hepatic veins combined with superior vena cava obstruction should be implanted with stents as early as possible.Late-onset or hepatic veins obstruction alone can be get better results with Balloon Dilatation.

Objective To evaluate the therapeutic results of percutaneous transhepatic stent angioplasty in patients with portal vein stenosis following liver transplantation.Methods From 2005 to 2013,38 patients developed portal vein stenosis following liver transplantation.Percutaneous transhepatic angioplasty of the portal vein stenosis was performed on these patients.The results were monitored by clinical follow-up and imaging studies.Results Percutaneous transhepatic angioplasty was successful in these patients.Self-expanding metallic stents (n=7),balloon-expandable coronary stent (n=29),and membranous stent (n=1) were used.The follow-up period ranged from 3 to 90 months.Portal venous patency was maintained in 34 patients (one patient died due to multi organ failure,1 patient accepted a third liver transplantation because of biliary tract complication,and 1 patient received a repeat placement of a membranous tent because the portal vein stent was blocked by a tumor thrombus,and 1 patient developed stent restenosis).There was 1 patient who developed hemorrhage in the early postoperative period (2.63％).A diagnosis of hepatic artery hemorrhage was made by hepatic artery angiography and the patient was treated by interventional embolization.Conclusion Percutaneous transhepatic stent angioplasty is an efficacious and safe method to treat portal vein stenosis following liver transplantation.

The endpoint detection of cough signal in continuous speech has been researched in order to improve the efficiency and veracity of manual recognition or computer-based automatic recognition. First, using the short time zero crossing ratio(ZCR) for identifying the suspicious coughs and getting the threshold of short time energy based on acoustic characteristics of cough. Then, the short time energy is combined with short time ZCR in order to implement the endpoint detection of cough in continuous speech. To evaluate the effect of the method, first, the virtual number of coughs in each recording was identified by two experienced doctors using the graphical user interface (GUI). Second, the recordings were analyzed by automatic endpoint detection program under Matlab7.0. Finally, the comparison between these two results showed: The error rate of undetected cough is 2.18%, and 98.13% of noise, silence and speech were removed. The way of setting short time energy threshold is robust. The endpoint detection program can remove most speech and noise, thus maintaining a lower rate of error.
Algorithms ; Artificial Intelligence ; Cough ; physiopathology ; Endpoint Determination ; Humans ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; methods ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Sound

Objective To evaluate the drug-eluting-beads (DEB)-TACE as down-stage therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma before liver transplantation.Methods Inclusion criteria:the hepatocellular carcinoma exceeding the standard of Milan criteria.From Jan 2016 to Jan 2018,30 patients received DEB-TACE as down-stage therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma before liver transplantation.4 weeks after DEB-TACE,the imaging examination was performed.The patients who received the liver transplantation,the pathological conditions were recorded and the tumor free survival of the patients was followed up.Results 30 patients received 30 times DEB-TACE successfully.76.7％ (23/30) patients was down-staged to meet UCSF criteria,53.3％ (16/30) patients was down-staged to meet Milan criteria.13 patients had being given liver transplantation,pathology showed that DEB-TACE achieved complete necrosis in 30.8 ％ (4/13)cases.No significant treatment related complications were observed.After liver transplantation 12 patients are alive with no tumor recurrence.The tumor recurrence rate after liver transplantation was 7.7％.Conclusion DEB-TACE is safe and effective as down-stage therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma before liver transplantation.

Objective To evaluate the value of DEB-TACE before liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma patients.Methods From Jan.2016 to Jan.2018,23 patients received DEB-TACE before liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma were induced.Complications evaluation was followed up after interventional therapy.4 weeks after the intervention,the imaging examination was performed to examine the tumor response rate depond on mRECIST,the pathological conditions and tumor free survival were studied in the patients who received liver transplantation.Results The achievement ration of operation was 100％ in 23 patients.23 patients received 24 times successfully,1 patient received DEB-TACE twice,and the remaining 22 patients received DEB-TACE once.No serious complications occurred.Eighteen patients (78.3％,18/23) had postembolic syndrome after interventional therapy,mainly fever and pain.Four weeks after DEB-TACE,the complete response rate was 47.8％ (11/23),partial response rate was 30.4％ (7/23),disease stability rate was 21.7％ (5/23).All the 23 patients were included in the waiting list for transplantation.Among them,15 cases received liver transplantation.Pathological results showed that the total necrosis rate was 53.3％ (8/15),and the tumour necrosis rate in 4 of them was less than 50％.The average tumour necrosis rate of the neoplasm was 75.0％.The 15 patients who received liver transplantation were alive with no tumor recurrence.Conclusion DEB-TACE is a safe and effective treatment for patients suffered from hepatocellular carcinoma in waiting for liver transplantation.However,due to the short time of DEBs in China,further research is needed.