Objective To assess quantitative and subjective image quality in computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CT-PA)with dual-energy subtraction methods,and to select the best dual-energy subtraction method.Methods 30 consecutive patients underwent CTPA using a single tube,fast voltage switching technique.One set of routine poly-chromatic images (RPI),two sets of monochromatic images with different optimal contrast-to-noise ratios (OCNR)and three sets of dual-energy subtraction images (DE-SI)were obtained by a dedicated workstation with dual-energy software (AW4.5 Advantage WS;GE Healthcare).For all the six sets of images,CNR and the score of global subjective image quality were calculated.Results DESI 3 got the highest CNR,and DESI 1 got the next high CNR.In global subjective image quality,DESI 1 got the highest score.However,when compared with DESI 2,no significant difference was found.Conclusion CTPA with dual-energy subtraction technique is feasible.DESI 1 affords the best bal-ance between quantitative analysis and subjective evaluation compared with other sets of images.

Objective To explore the accuracy of high definition computed tomography angiography (HDCTA)in the evaluation of coronary in-stent restenosis.Methods 93 patients with 159 implanted coronary stents who underwent both HDCTA and CAG were included in the study.The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value (PPV),negative predictive value (NPV)and diag-nostic accordance rate of HDCTA were calculated.The imaging quality was analyzed by visual estimation.Possible factors that in-fluenced the diagnostic accuracy of HDCTA were evaluated,which included stent location,stent diameter and heart rate in the pa-tients with left anterior descending branch stents.Results Restenosis was found in 21 stents by CAG and 19 stents by HDCTA.The false positive and false negative were 5 and 3,respectively.Sensitivity,specificity,PPV,NPV and diagnostic accordance rate were 90.5%,96.4%,79.2%,98.5% and 95.6% respectively.The image quality was 4 score in 75 stents (47.1%),3 score in 33 (20.8%),2 score in 27 (17%),≤1 score in 24 (15.1%).The image quality of proximal segments,large stents (≥3.0 mm)and slow heart rate (<66 beast per minute)was significantly better than that of distal segments,small stents (<3.0 mm)and fast heart rate (≥6 6 beast per minute).Conclusion HDCTA is a convenient,efficient and non-invasive method for follow-up after im-plantation of the coronary artery stents.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical features and operation treatment of the congenital middle ear cholesteatoma. METHOD: A retrospective review of clinical and surgical records of 10 patients with congenital middle ear cholesteatoma were performed. All patients were treated by surgeries,5 of 10 cases deal with one-stage tympanoplasty after drum exploration by external auditory meatus, 3 cases dealed with closed mastoidotympanectomy and tympanomastoidectomy, 2 cases dealed with open mastoidotympanectomy and tympanomastoidectomy. RESULT: The cholesteatomas were located at or around the posterior tympanum or mesotympanum in 5 patients, confined to the tympanic cavity and attic in 3 patients, advanced cholesteatoma that extended from the tympanic cavity into the mastoid antrum was seen in 2 patients. The mean postoperative PTA was 30 dB HL, the mean ABG was within 20 dB, after six months. No residual or recurrence of cholesteatoma was found. CONCLUSION The congenital cholesteatoma often originates from the posterior or anterior of the middle ear, with hiding lesion, thus result in severe conductive hearing loss. Imaging examination plays an important role in diagnosing and treating of congenital cholesteatoma. Early stage surgical treatment can obtain a good hearing reconstruction effect.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cholesteatoma ; congenital ; surgery ; Cholesteatoma, Middle Ear ; surgery ; Ear, Middle ; physiopathology ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Tympanoplasty ; methods ; Young Adult

Adult ; Branchio-Oto-Renal Syndrome ; diagnosis ; Child, Preschool ; Craniofacial Abnormalities ; diagnosis ; Diagnostic Errors ; Female ; Humans ; Male

Objective To investigate antibiotic resistance and molecular epidemiology profile of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Shanghai. Methods The antibiograms of 140 MRSA isolates from 5 hospitals for 13 drugs were analyzed by agar dilution and broth dilution. The PVL gene and SCCmec were detected by PCR; The clonal relatedness of 140 isolates were determined by PFGE and 39 strains were chosen to be characterized further by spa typing. Results All 140 MRSA are PVL negative and most of them were identified as SCCmec Ⅲ [45.7% (64/140)], followed by SCCmec Ⅲ a [25.0% (35/140)], SCCmecⅢb [14.3% (20/140)], SCCmecⅡ [10.7% (15/140)] and SCCmecⅣ [4.3% (6/140)]. All isolates were susceptible to vancomycin, teicoplanin and daptomycin. The resistance to gentamicin, sulphamethoxazole and clindamycin was 98. 6% (138/140), 98. 6% (137/140) and 97. 9% (137/140), respectively. Resistance to erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and tetracycline was above 80%, and resistance to rifampicin was 10. 7% (15/140). Sixteen different PFGE patterns(A-P) were found and most of MRSA belonged to group C[30. 7% (43/140)] ,B[13.6% (19/140)]and Ⅰ [10. 7% (15/140)]. Among 39 strains with prevalent PFGE patterns, 4 spa genotypes were identified: t002133. 33% (13/39)] ,t030 [12. 82% (5/39)] ,t037[51.28% (20/39)]and t459[2. 57% (1/39)]. Conclusions Sixteen different PFGE patterns and 4 spa genotypos were found from 5 hospitals in Shanghai. The most popular MRSA clone is PVL negative, SCCmec Ⅲ, with resistant profile of erythromycin, ciprofloxacin,clindamycin,etracycline, gentamicin,and sulphamethoxazole [E-C-L-T-G-M-]. This result suggests that hospital infection control and reasonable antibiotic usage are critical.

ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical value of serum cystatin C(CysC) and urinary microalbumin(MA) in the diagnosis of early renal function injury in patients with essential hypertension.MethodsOne hundred and twenty patients with essential hypertension(hypertension group) were divided into three groups by the results of blood pressure:grade 1 with 48 cases,grade 2 with 47 cases,grade 3 with 25 cases.Thirty healthy subjects were selected as control group.Serum CysC,urinary MA and serum creatinine (Cr) were detected in all subjects.ResultsThe serum CysC and urinary MA in grade 1,2 and 3 hypertension group [(1.57 ±0.48),(2.12 ±0.72),(2.91 ± 1.09) mg/L and(18.12 ±5.43),(29.01 ±8.07),(46.06 ± 13.21 ) mg/L] were obviously higher than those in control group [ (0.71 ± 0.23 ),(9.35 ±5.17)mg/L](P＜ 0.05).The serum Cr had no significant difference between grade 1,2,3 hypertension group and control group (P ＞ 0.05 ).Serum CysC was positively correlated with urinary MA in hypertension group (r =0.613,P ＜ 0.05),serum CysC and urinary MA were both negatively correlated with estimated glomenlar filtration rate (eGFR)(r=-0.635,-0.563,P＜0.05).ConclusionsSerum CysC and urinary MA are sensitive indexes of early renal function injury in patients with hypertension.The combined determination of serum CysC and urinary MA can improve the detection rate of early renal function injury.

With thousands of sequenced 16 S rRNA genes available,and advancements in oligonucleotide microarray technology,the detection of microorganisms in microbial communities consisting of hundreds of species may be possible.The existing algorithms developed for sequence-specific probe design are not suitable for applications in large-scale bacteria detection due to the lack of coverage,flexibility and efficiency.Many other strategies developed for group-specific probe design focus on how to find a unique group-specific probe that can specifically detect all target sequences of a group.Unique group-specific probe for each group can not always be found.Hence,it is necessary to design non-unique probes.Each probe can specifically detect target sequences of a different subgroup.Combination of multiple probes can achieve higher coverage.However,it is a time-consuming task to evaluate all possible combinations.A feasible algorithm using relative entropy and genetic algorithm (GA) to design group-specific non-unique probes was presented.

The duck circovirus (DuCV) infection in sick ducks from Fujian Province was investigated. The liver samples of 43 sick Muscovy ducks with infectious serositis were collected from 12 duck farms in Fujian Province.Based on the published sequences of DuCV, two primers were designed for the detection of DuCV and four pairs of primers were designed to amplify four overlapping fragments that cover the complete genome of DuCV. The specific PCR products were amplified from positive samples. The fragments were then cloned into pMD18-T vector and sequenced, and the full length genomic sequence of the FJ0601 isolate of DuCV was obtained. PCR analysis showed that the proportion of ducks which were positive for circovirus was 79% and 10 out of the 12 farms were positive. Sequence analysis showed that the complete genome of DuCV-FJ0601 was 1988 bp and possessed features common to the family Circoviridae which included a stem-loop structure and the Rep protein motifs. Homology analysis showed that FJ0601 isolate of DuCV had 97.3%～97.5% nucleotide sequence identity to all the four Taiwan isolates (TC1/2002, TC2/2002, TC3/2002, TC4/2002), 82.9% identity to the America (33753-52) isolate and 82.3% identity to the Germany isolate. Phylogenetic analysis with Clustal W, however,showed that FJ0601 isolate of DuCV was on a common branch with Taiwan isolates, and Germany and America isolates belonged to the other branch.

Objective To explore the surgical intervention outcomes of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC)pa-tients with different extent of the disease.Methods The data of 25 pediatric patients with NEC who were treated with surgical intervention in Shanghai Children′s Hospital from December 201 1 to December 201 5 were retrospectively ana-lyzed.According to the extent of the disease,the patients were divided into 3 groups:focal disease(F),multisegmental disease(M),and pan -involvement(P).The information including operation style,survival rate and time for close osto-my was analyzed.Results There were 1 1 cases with F,8 cases with M,and 6 cases with P.All patients received lapa-rotomy surgery,colostomy,or peritoneal drainage.There were 1 2 patients with very low birth weight,7 patients with low birth weight,6 patients with normal birth weight in this study.There were 1 7 cases with gastrointestinal perforation (9 cases with pneumoperitoneum,8 cases without pneumoperitoneum),8 cases without digestive tract perforation (4 cases without pneumoperitoneum,4 cases with enterostenosis after conservative treatment).In this study,close ostomy was commonly conducted 3 -6 months after the operation,except for 3 cases who received 2 or more times of operation.The survival rate in F group was 1 00.0%(1 1 /1 1 cases),higher than those in the Mgroup with 62.5%(5 /8 cases)and P group with 1 6.7%(1 /6 cases)(χ2 =4.898,1 0.31 2,all P <0.05).However,there was no difference between Mgroup and P group (χ2 =1 .367,P >0.05).Conclusions The extent of disease is correlated to the outcomes of surgical in-tervention,as F had a better outcome than Mand P.Low birth weight is a risk factor for NEC.Protecting the edge of the bowel is a key factor to ensure the survival and improve the quality of life of NEC patients.Close ostomy should be con-sidered when the patients are in a stable condition (liver function and intestinal function recovery,good nutrition condi-tion,etc),and under special circumstances to conduct early or delayed closure of fistula.

Objective To enhance awareness of the dangerous of multiple magnets ingestion in children and to explore the optimal treatment of it.Methods The clinical data of 3 cases with multiple magnet ingestion were retrospectively studied based on literature review.Results Ingestion of multiple magnets (range:2-5 magnets) magnets occurred in 3 cases.Age ranged from 1 to 8 years old.Magnet sources included:2 from children's family,1 from their kindergarten.All patients had several bowel perforations(range:2-4).One case was completed by laparoscopic,1 case was converted to open suegery after laparoscopy,1 case was done by open surgery.All cases got complete recovery after surgical treatment,and no complications occurred by follow-up.Conclusions Ingestion of multiple magnets may show minimal initial physical manifestations at beginning but may result in significant complications later.Two or more magnets separated from each other along the gastrointestinal tract can attract each other across bowel walls,with may result in pressure necrosis,bowel perforation,and fistulas formation and even death.Early surgical consultation with an aggressive surgical approach is recommended.Family and society should be aware of the dangers of magnet ingestion.