Objective To study preliminary the accuracy of clinical target volume (CTV) and internal target volume (ITV) automatically generated by an in-house deformable registration software on fourdimensional CT (4DCT),and evaluate its feasibility of clinical application.Methods Clinic treated one lung cancer patient and one liver cancer patient were selected for the study.CTV was delineated by radiation oncologist according to a single respiratory phase image of 4DCT scanning,and then deformed to the other phases and generated the CTVdefm on each phase image.Differences between the CTVdefm and CTVmanu were then compared.A composite ITVcopm was created by overlapping all the CTVdefm of 10 phases and compared with the ITVMIP which was contoured on the maximum intensity projection (MIP) CT images,including the shape,volume and geometric center position of the ITV contour.Results For the tested lung case,average volume difference between the CTVdefm and CTV was (-2.59 ± 5.02)％ for the all 10 phases,and the vector departure of the two ITV centers was (1.04 ± 0.89) mm.The ITVcomp almost completely matched the ITVMIP on the tested liver case with a volume difference smaller the 1％ and only 1.4 mm vector departure between their geometric centers.Conclusion The validity of the CTVdefm and ITVcomp gained from automatic deformation of manual delineation reference based on 4DCT images were preliminary evaluated and proved to be good enough for clinic planning.

Objective To analyze the imaging features of mycobacterium in AIDSpatients.Methods Twenty-three cases of mycobacterium tuberculosis and 13 patients of non-tuberculous mycobacteria were proved etiologically and included in this study.All patients underwent X-ray and CT examinations,imaging data were analyzed and compared.Results The imaging findings of mycobacterium tuberculosis in AIDS patients included consolidation (n =11),pleural effusion (n =11),mediastinal lymphadenopathy (n =11).Pulmonary lesions were always diffuse distribution,and 14 patients of extrapulmonary tuberculosis were found.Pulmonary lesions in non-tuberculous mycobacteria tend to be circumscribed.Conclusions Non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection in AIDS patients is more common and usually combined with other infections.Imaging features are atypical.

AIM To establish an HPLC method for the simultaneous content determination of saikosaponin a,saikosaponin c,saikosaponin d,rutin,quercetin,isorhmnetin and kaempferol in the aerial and underground parts of “Zhongchai No.2” (Bupleurum chinense DC.from Sichuan Province).METHODS The analysis of “Zhongchai No.2” methanol extract was performed on a 30 ℃ thermostatic Hypersil GOLD column (250 mm × 4.6mm,5.0 μm),with the mobile phase comprising of acetonitrile-0.1％ phosphoric acid flowing at 0.8 mL/min in a gradient elution manner,and the detection wavelength was set at 210 nm.RESULTS Seven constituents showed good linear relationships within their own ranges (r≥0.999 1),whose average recoveries were 96.30％-102.7％ with the RSDs of 0.95％-3.8％.There were a lot of flavonoids in the aerial parts of samples,while a large number of saponins existed in the underground parts,but almost no flavonoids were found.CONCLUSION The aerial parts (stems and leaves) of “Zhongchai No.2” also have medicinal value,to which we should pay attention.

This study was aimed to establish the method of identifying bupleurum cultivated germplasm using simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular markers and to initially establish dataset of characteristic SSR bands to the bred cultivars or strains. From the bupleurum SSR primer pairs which were designed in previous work, 50 primer pairs were selected. Two bred strains and 4 other bupleurum cultivated germplasms were used as test materials. Primers pairs were screened with effective PCR amplification and high polymorphism. Meanwhile, conditions for PCR amplification and electrophoresis were optimized. Then, obtained SSR bands were analyzed and a clustering tree on the basis of genetic distance was constructed. The results showed that 9 SSR primer pairs can be used for identification. The suitable assay conditions were established and characteristic SSR bands were obtained for tested materials. The tested samples can be divided into 4 categories in the genetic similarity coefficient of 0.73. TheB. scorzonerifolium cultivated inHeilongjiang andChuanhongchaiNo. 1 strains were clustered as one category. ChuanbeichaiNo. 1 strain andZhongchai No. 1 cultivar clustered as another category. Cultivated germplasms fromSichuan Fengshunand Rongxian clustered as a unique category. It was concluded that the primer pairs and assay method established in the present study can be used as reference in identification of bupleurum cultivars or cultivated germplasms.

Objective To evaluate the imaging features of pneumonia caused by A (H1N1) influenza virus. Methods Imaging data of 51 patients with pneumonia caused by A H1N1 influenza were retrospectively reviewed. All patients underwent mobile chest radiographs and 44 patients underwent CT as well. On the basis of the lesion degree in the lung, the patients were classified into mild, moderate and serious types. Results Mild type showed patchy consolidation at chest imaging in 4 patients. Moderate type demonstrated consolidation and(or) ground -glass opacities more than 2 lung fields in 33 patients, including 30 bilateral and 3 unilateral. Serious type displayed diffuse consolidation and ground-glass opacities, probably accompanying with interstitial lesions in the lungs in 14 patients, including 6 patients with ARDS, 2 with infection and 1 with cutaneous emphysema. Conclusion The imaging features of pneumonia caused by A H1N1 influenza mainly manifest as consolidation and ground-glass opacities, probably accompanying with interstitial changes. The imaging findings show various in patients with infection. Some serious patients even develope to ARDS.

Objective To evaluate the anti-HBV effect of hypericin from the cellular level and to preliminarily explore its po-tential drug target point.Methods Liver cell line HepG2.2.15 cells secreting HBV particles were selected as the experimental ob-jects.Hypericin served as the HY group,lamivudine was taken as 3TC group and deionized water as the blank control group.The cells were grouped and administrated.The HBV-DNA copy level was measured at72 h after medication by Southern blot and fluo-rescent quantitative PCR;the inhibition rate of HBsAg and HBeAg was detected by using ELISA assay;the pgRNA expression level was tested by using Northern blot and fluorescent quantitative PCR;Western blot and fluorescent quantitative PCR were adopted to detect the expression of regulatory factors including HNF3β,HNF4α,PPARαand RXRα.Results Compared to the blank control group,both hypericin and lamivudine had significant inhibiting effect on HBV DNA and expression level of HBsAg and HBeAg in HepG2.2.15 cells (P <0.05).Hypericin could significantly decrease the pgRNA expression compared with the blank control group (P <0.05),while lamivudine had no obvious change (P <0.05).Moreover,hypericin exhibited significant effects on the expression of HNF3βand regulatory factor HNF4αcompared with the blank control group and 3TC group(P <0.05).Conclusion Hypericin represents a strong anti-HBV effect,moreover could increase the negative regulatory factor HNF3βn expression and decreases the positive factor HNF4αexpression,prompting that its drug target point could be pgRNA.

Objective:To investigate the effect of different concentrations and infection durations of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) on nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome-related proteins in mouse brain astrocytes.Methods:Mouse brain astrocytes were infected with different dilutions (10 0 [undiluted original concentration] - 10 -7) of cell-free VZV suspension, and the cytopathic effect was observed under a microscope in each group to determine the concentration and infection duration of VZV for subsequent experiments. Some mouse brain astrocytes were infected with cell-free VZV suspension at dilutions of 10 0, 10 -2, 10 -4, and 10 -6, and samples were collected on day 5; some other mouse brain astrocytes were infected with cell-free VZV suspension at the median tissue culture infective dose (TCID 50) of 1.0 × 10 5/ml, and the samples were collected on days 3, 5, 7, and 9, separately; normally cultured mouse brain astrocytes served as control groups in the above experiments. Western blot analysis was performed to determine the protein expression of VZV glycoprotein E (gE), NLRP3, caspase-1, and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in mouse brain astrocytes in each group. One-way analysis of variance was used for comparisons of data with a normal distribution, and least significant difference- t test was used for multiple comparisons. Results:On day 3 after infection with VZV at the dilution of 10 0, the number of cells decreased, some cells became irregular, lost their original shapes, and showed granular cytoplasm and an unclear nucleus structure, while some cells fused and formed multinucleated giant cells; on day 5, ≥ 50% of cells showed the aforementioned changes and some intercellular spaces were dilated giving a network-like appearance in the 10 0-dilution group; on day 9, the 10 0- - 10 -6- dilution groups all showed dilated intercellular spaces arranged in networks and cytopathic effect in ≥ 50% of cells; on day 10, some cells in the control group exhibited cytoplasmic vacuolation, exfoliation and flotation. Based on these results, the following experiments were conducted with VZV at a concentration gradient ranging from 10 0 to 10 -6 dilutions, and the observations were performed from day 3 to day 9. Western blot analysis showed increased protein expression of VZV gE, NLRP3, caspase-1, and IL-1β in the VZV infection groups compared with the control group, and there were significant differences among different VZV concentration groups ( F = 21.45, 43.82, 21.85, 29.53, respectively, all P < 0.05) and different infection duration groups ( F = 224.10, 78.79, 186.50, 85.08, respectively, all P < 0.05). With the increasing dilution ratios, the expression of inflammasome-related proteins (NLRP3, caspase-1, and IL-1β) decreased, with the highest expression observed in the 10 0-dilution group and the lowest in the 10 -6-dilution group (all P < 0.05). On days 3, 5, and 7 after VZV infection, the expression of NLRP3 inflammasome-related proteins increased over time, with the highest expression observed on day 7 and the lowest on day 3 (all P < 0.05), while their expression decreased on day 9. Conclusion:The expression of NLRP3 inflammasome-related proteins was up-regulated in mouse brain astrocytes after VZV infection, and their expression levels increased along with the increase in the VZV concentration and infection duration in a certain range.

Objective To examine the predictive value of serum soluble E-selectin ( sE-selectin) levels for high risk plaques as detected by coronary computed tomography angiography ( CCTA).Methods This was a cross-sectional study.CCTA was performed for each patient.Serum levels of sE-Selectin, sVCAM-1,sICAM-1 and sP-Selectin were measured by flow fluorescence immunomicrobead assay ( FFIA). ROC curve and multivariate analysis were used to determine the predictive value for the presence of high risk plaques.Results The high risk plaques group showed higher sICAM-1 and sE-selectin levels.The multivariate Logistic analysis showed that male (OR＝2.131, P＝0.019), old age (OR＝1.053, P＝0.002), hyperlipidemia (OR＝1.960, P＝0.022), high level of apoB (OR＝2.896, P＝0.004) and high level of sE-Selectin(OR＝1.975, P＝0.008) were independently associated with the presence of high risk plaques.The AUC of the multivariate model for high risk plaques was 0.722.The sensitivity, specificity, the positive predictive value and the negative predictive value were 55.3%, 78.3%, 71.8% and 64.4%respectively.Conclusions High sE-selectin levels were associated with the presence of high risk plaques in asymptomatic populations at low to intermediate Framingham risk .sE-selectin can play an important role in plaque screening, as detected by coronary CTA.

Antiviral treatment is the core part in the treatment of herpes zoster. Based on the latest studies, consensus and guidelines, this article aims to provide a basis and reference for clinicians to make a reasonable choice of types and doses of antiviral agents. Valacyclovir, a precursor of acyclovir with high oral bioavailability and great convenience of administration, is generally the first choice of oral antiviral agents; for some special cases, such as immunocompromised patients, intravenous drips of acyclovir should be selected when appropriate. Brivudine is often a better choice for patients with severe renal insufficiency; famciclovir or other antiviral agents should be considered for patients resistant to acyclovir; for immunocompromised patients resistant to acyclovir, intravenous drips of foscarnet sodium can be an option. Oral antiviral agents should be administered at adequate doses. Selecting appropriate antiviral agents and their doses can effectively relieve acute symptoms of patients and reduce the probability of postherpetic neuralgia.

Bupleurum chinense is a commonly used Chinese medicinal material, which has been used medicinally in China for over 2000 years, the development of it is of great value. There have been great advances of studies on its embryology and seed biology in recent years. In this paper, we make a review of the growth of its embryo and fruit, the characteristics of dormancy and storage and the germination of its seed. Besides, we summarize the reasons of its low germination rate and the achievements in improving the situation, for the purpose of providing reference in research on seed physiology of B. chinense.
Bupleurum ; chemistry ; growth & development ; physiology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; Plant Dormancy ; Seeds ; chemistry ; growth & development ; physiology