Objective To investigate the technique of b iliary reconstruction and treatment of biliary complications in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Methods From Feb. 1999 to Jan. 2003, OLT was performed in 103 patients with end-stage l iver disease. OLT was performed with standard techniques with or without a veno -venous bypass. Reconstructions of biliary tract were performed using choledoc hocholedochostomy (CDC) or Roux-en-Y choledochoje- junostomy (RCDJ). CDC was carried out in 94 cases, with T tube (CDCT) in 62 cases and without T tube (CDCO ) in 32 cases respectively. Among the 32 cases without T tube, 11 had a small tu be placed in the common bile duct through the recipient cystic duct. RCDJ was pe rformed in 9 cases without internal stent. Diagnosis of the biliary complication s after OLT was based on the clinical manifestations, ultrasound findings, MRCP and ERCP. All the patients were followed up regularly after discharge for 12 to 48 months. Results The overall incidence of biliary complications in 103 patients after OLT was 7 .8% (8/103). Of the 62 cases of CDCT posttransplant, biliary complications occ urred in 6 cases ( 9.6% ), including 4 cases of bile leaks following OLT and 2 cases of bile leaks following T-tube removed. Of the 32 patients subject to CD CO, 1 ( 3.1% ) had stricture of anastomosis. Of the 9 cases subject to RCDJ, one patient was complicated with bile leaks at the anasto mosis. Two cases of the bile leaks were drained reoperatively, and others were k ept adequate drained. The patient with stricture of CDCO was cured by balloon di latation and stent placed endoscopically. No death associated with biliary compl ications occurred. Conclusions Bile leaks and stricture of anatomosis are the common biliary complications afte r OLT. Good blood supply to biliary tract and surgical technique are the keys to prevent biliary complications after OLT. The timely endoscopical and radiologic al technique is a valuable nonoperative precedure for diagnosis and treatment of biliary complicat ions.

AIM To observe effects of IBMX on cGMP and GFAP production in gerbil hippocampus after recirculation following ischemia. METHODS Bilateral occlusion of common carotid arteries and immunofluorescent stain methods in gerbil hippocampal tissue slice were used. RESULTS Recirculation following ischemia leads to a rise in hippocampus cGMP and GFAP concentration. cGMP and GFAP positive cells mainly distributed in rediatum layer and molecular layer in the CA 1 subfield, Most of cGMP positive cells are astrocytes under double immunofluorescent stain. Most of cGMP strong positive cells are also those of GFAP strong positive cells. IBMX increased cGMP and GFAP production. CONCLUSION cGMP is possible to play an important role in the activation or regulation of GFAP in the hippocampus.

0.05). The laser group with the dose of 3 J?cm-2 showed more increase in cell survival at 24 and 48 h after being seeded as compared with control group(P

Our country has been using maturity grading method, which was proposed by Grammum in 1979, to evaluate the placental function. However, this method is subjective to consequence because it totally depends on the observation and experiences of clinicians. With the development of ultrasound technology, therefore, we reviewed more novel applications in other aspects of placenta (such as blood flow, vascularization, etc). Over the past years, scholars in the world have done a lot of research around these topics. In this review we introduce placental maturity grading with B-mode ultrasound, placental vascularization qualitative and quantitative analysis with three-dimensional Doppler ultrasound and placental volume measurement, respectively.
Female ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Neovascularization, Pathologic ; Placenta ; diagnostic imaging ; Pregnancy ; Ultrasonography, Prenatal

OBJECTIVE:To gain clear idea of influence of multiorigins of Cordyc ep s on quality and nature of this drug.METHODS:The mannitol contents in the Cordy ceps samples collected from different growing areas were determined and compared ,and their MDR(Mutual Different Rate)was analyzed.RESULTS:The MDRs among specim ens from Sichuan,Tibet and Yunnan were 0.012～0.32 and the MDRs among the Cordyc eps samples from different micro-ecological environment were 0.037～1.36.CONCLU SION:On the mannitol content in Cordyceps,the effect of the species diversity a nd the micro-ecological environment might exceed that of district and climate d ifference.

Objective To improve the key steps of direct volume rendering(DVR) method to obtain ideal semitransparent 3D visualization of medical images from 2D slices.Method An arbitrary data set was classified into a simple one and a complex one according to the boundaries existing within the data set,thereby a piecewise linear function was used to construct the transfer function(TF).Low-grayed voxels were regarded as a kind of material which did not radiate but do induce attenuation of sampling lights.The TF was adjusted according to the opacity distribution when one resampling process ends,and the rendering procedure was completed.Result Interior structures of tissues in different levels were rendered.Conclusion Multi-level visualization of 3D medical images for the semitransparent effect can be obtained by considering all the tissues in the data set as semitransparent materials.

Objective To improve the precision of the traditional segmentation of echocardiogram, by suppressing the influence from inherent speckle noises in medical ultrasonic images. Method An automatic segmentation method based on reconstructed morphology was proposed in this paper. First, the opening and closing operations by reconstruction were imposed to the ultrasonic image. Second, the top-hat operation was used to extract the bright and/or dark features and to find out the boundaries corresponding to these features, whereby implemented the automatic segmentation. Result The segmented echocardiogram had less artificial boundaries resulted from speckle noise, and could accurately be extracted the artery and ventricle. Conclusion The presented method can detect both dark and bright objects accurately, and the boundary has a fine continuity. In addition, the algorithm is also applicable to the extraction of sole bright/dark features, accordingly to reduce the complexity and time needed and to improve the accuracy.

Objective To investigate the genetic polymorphisms of 3 short tandem repeat (STR) loci D18S53, D18S59 and D18S488 on chromosome 18 in fetus of Tianjin Han population, and to provide basic data in the use of 3 STR lo-ci in the prenatal diagnosis of Edward syndrome (ES). Methods A total of 64 villus samples and 374 amniotic fluid sam-ples were collected from gravida in Tianjin Han population. QF-PCR and ABI PRISM 377 sequence were used in this study. The frequencies of the genotypes were tested with H-W equilibrium. Genetic analysis was performed to conclude some data of population genetics such as the frequency of the alleles, the heterozygosity of observation (Ho), the polymorphism informa-tion content (PIC), the probability of discrimination power (DP), and the probability of exclusion (PE). Results The 15, 13 and 15 alleles of D18S53, D18S59 and D18S488 were observed respectively. The frequencies of the genotypes were in good agreement with H-W equilibrium. The Ho of 3 STR loci were 0.797, 0.847 and 0.792. The PIC was 0.81, 0.75 and 0.73. The DP was 0.944, 0.901 and 0.881. The PE was 0.593, 0.689 and 0.585. Conclusion D18S53, D18S59 and D18S488 STR lo-ci were the favorable genetic markers of chromosome 18, which can be used in prenatal genetic diagnosis of ES.

Ultrasonic estimation of fetal weight is important in the management o f labor and delivery. Lots of charts and formulas have been put forward in virtu e of regression methods. Artificial neural network, a kind of computer artificia l intelligence technology, can simulate human thinking based on neural structure and physiology. With the excellence in complex and non-linear information proce ssing, artificial neural network is fitter for the forecasting of fetal weight t han traditional regression methods.

Speckle is the main reason which declines the quality of medical ultrasonic images. In this paper, the initial condition for the Downhill filter, a morphological reconstruction algorithm, is modified and applied in the speckle reduction. Firstly, the initial area and start position as the mark image was determined in the marker image. Then the modified Downhill filter was used in the ultrasonic marker image. The results showed that, in comparison with the other three filters, this modified Downhill filter, while maintaining the integrity of the contour,could reduce the speckle in the regions of cavity efficiently and rapidly.
Algorithms ; Humans ; Image Enhancement ; methods ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Ultrasonography ; methods