Magnetic resonance diffusion-weighted imaging (MR-DWI) is a functional technology at the molecular level.Compared to other imaging exams (such as DSA,CT,US),DWI is non invasive,has no radiation,and objective.Thus,it is widely accepted in clinical settings.As a means to assess the therapeutic efficacy of intervention,DWI has a promising prospect.In this article,we review the application of MR-DWI in evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of hepatocellular carcinoma intervention.

Objective To determine the optimal volume proportion of iodize d oil (Lipiodol)-ethanol mixture by comparing the clinical efficacy of transhepatic arterial embolization-ablation therapy using different volume proportion of Lipiodol-ethanol mixture in treating experimental rabbit models with VX 2 liver cancer. Methods VX2 tumor was implanted in eighteen adult male New Zealand white rabbits. The 18 VX 2 rabbit models were randomly and equally divided into the following six groups according to the Lipiodol-ethanol volume ratio ∶ group A (3 ∶ 1), group B (2 ∶ 1), group C (1 ∶ 1), group D (1 ∶ 2), group E (1 ∶ 3) and group F (1 ∶ 4). One week after the treatment, all the rabbits were sacrificed and their livers were removed and sent for pathologic examination. The tumor growth rate, the microvascular density, the apoptosis index (AI) of tumor tissues and the injury of the hepatic tissue adjacent to the tumor were evaluated. Results After the treatment, the tumor’s size was increased in group A, E and F. The tumor growth rate of group A was significantly higher than that of the other five groups , and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The tumor’s size of groups B, C and D was decreased, although the difference was not significant when compared with the tumor’s size of groups E and F (P > 0.05). The proportion of ethanol in Lipiodol ∶ethanol mixture bore a negative relationship to the microvascular density counts (R2= 0.840, F = 89.432, P < 0.001). AI of group A was strikingly lower than that of groups C, D, E and F (P < 0.05). The difference in AI between group A and group B was not significant (P > 0.05), while the difference in AI between group B and group C or between group B and group F was statistically significant (P<0.05), and no significant difference in AI existed between each other among other groups (P > 0.05). The injury extent of the hepatic tissue adjacent to the tumor in group A and B was remarkably milder than that of other groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion When considered in terms of safety, the optimal volume proportion of Lipiodol-ethanol mixture should be 2 ∶ 1. Successful super-selective catheterization of the tumor feeding artery, strict and close fluoroscopic monitoring of the injection and proper increase in the proportion of ethanol can definitely improve the therapeutic efficacy.

Objective To study the efficacy of Yunnan baiyao aerosol treatment for patients undergone percutaneous coronary intervention ( PCI) with subcutaneous hematoma .Methods Seventy patients undergone PCI with subcutaneous hematoma were chosen as the research objects and divided into the observation group (35 cases) and the control group (35 cases) according to the order of odd or even number of patients enrolled . The patients in the observation group were treated with Yunnan baiyao aerosol plus Yunnan baiyao aerosol insurance solution, and those in the control group were treated with wet dressing of magnesium sulfate (50%). The treatment effects , healing time and degree of pain relief of the two groups were compared .Results The total efficiency of the observation group was 97.1%, which was significantly better than 85.7 of the control group (χ2 =11.893, P<0.05).The healing time of the observation group was (3.6 ±0.8) days, which was significantly shorter than (5.3 ±1.1) days in the control group (t=7.382, P<0.05).After 3 days of the treatment, 4 patients in the observation group and 13 patients in the control group had the severe pain .The difference of the degree of pain relief between the observation group and the control group was statistically significant ( Z =-7.432, P <0.05 ).Conclusions Yunnan baiyao aerosol treatment to subcutaneous hematoma after PCI can rapidly and safely relieve pain , swelling and stasis .It can be operated and accepted by patients easily .And it is worthy of clinical application .

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) preparations are widely used for healthcare and clinical practice. So far, the methods commonly used for quality evaluation of TCM preparations mainly focused on chemical ingredients. The biological ingredient analysis of TCM preparations is also important because TCM preparations usually contain both plant and animal ingredients, which often include some mis-identified herbal materials, adulterants or even some biological con-taminants. For biological ingredient analysis, the efficiency of DNA extraction is an important fac-tor which might affect the accuracy and reliability of identification. The component complexity in TCM preparations is high, and DNA might be destroyed or degraded in different degrees after a series of processing procedures. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an effective protocol for DNA extraction from TCM preparations. In this study, we chose a classical TCM preparation, Liuwei Dihuang Wan (LDW), as an example to develop a TCM-specific DNA extraction method. An optimized cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method (TCM-CTAB) and three com-monly-used extraction kits were tested for extraction of DNA from LDW samples. Experimental results indicated that DNA with the highest purity and concentration was obtained by using TCM-CTAB. To further evaluate the different extraction methods, amplification of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) and the chloroplast genome trnL intron was carried out.The results have shown that PCR amplification was successful only with template of DNA extracted by using TCM-CTAB. Moreover, we performed high-throughput 454 sequencing using DNA extracted by TCM-CTAB. Data analysis showed that 3-4 out of 6 prescribed species were detected from LDW samples, while up to 5 contaminating species were detected, suggesting TCM-CTAB method could facilitate follow-up DNA-based examination of TCM preparations.

Agricultural activities, including stock-farming, planting industry, and fish aquaculture, can affect the physicochemical and biological characters of freshwater lakes. However, the effects of pollution producing by agricultural activities on microbial ecosystem of lakes remain unclear. Hence, in this work, we selected Honghu Lake as a typical lake that is influenced by agriculture activities. We collected water and sediment samples from 18 sites, which span a wide range of areas from impacted and less-impacted areas. We performed a geospatial analysis on the composition of microbial communities associated with physicochemical properties and antibiotic pollution of samples. The co-occurrence networks of water and sediment were also built and analyzed. Our results showed that the microbial communities of impacted and less-impacted samples of water were largely driven by the concentrations of TN, TP, NO-N, and NO-N, while those of sediment were affected by the concentrations of Sed-OM and Sed-TN. Antibiotics have also played important roles in shaping these microbial communities: the concentrations of oxytetracycline and tetracycline clearly reflected the variance in taxonomic diversity and predicted functional diversity between impacted and less-impacted sites in water and sediment samples, respectively. Furthermore, for samples from both water and sediment, large differences of network topology structures between impacted and less-impacted were also observed. Our results provide compelling evidence that the microbial community can be used as a sentinel of eutrophication and antibiotics pollution risk associated with agricultural activity; and that proper monitoring of this environment is vital to maintain a sustainable environment in Honghu Lake.
Agriculture ; Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; analysis ; China ; Eutrophication ; Geologic Sediments ; chemistry ; microbiology ; Lakes ; chemistry ; microbiology ; Microbiota ; Risk Factors ; Water Pollutants, Chemical ; analysis