Objective: To observe the blood perfusion volume variation pattern in the body surface microcirculation at the Yuan-Primary and the Xi-Cleft points during the menstrual cycle in female college students with moderate constitution under normal physiological state of the uterus; to explore the specific laws of the body surface microcirculation at the Yuan-Primary and Xi-Cleft points in response to the uterine qi and blood changes under normal physiological conditions, and to provide the experimental basis for the specificity of acupoints reflecting the uterine function. Methods: Forty-three healthy and moderate constitution female college students with regular menstrual cycles, without dysmenorrhea and not yet giving birth were recruited. Bilateral Yuan-Primary points [Taichong (LR 3), Taibai (SP 3) and Taixi (KI 3)] and Xi-Cleft points [Zhongdu (LR 6), Diji (SP 8) and Shuiquan (KI 5)], belonging to the three yin meridians of foot and adjacent to the spinal cord segment of the uterus, were selected as the detection acupoints; the crossing point of the three yin meridians of foot [Sanyinjiao (SP 6)], the uterus-related meridian acupoint [Xuehai (SP 10)], the uterus-non-related meridian acupoint [Xuanzhong (GB 39)], and the non-meridian non-acupoint point were selected as the control points. The laser speckle blood flow imaging technique was used to monitor the blood perfusion volume in skin microcirculation at the above points at the menstrual, follicular, ovulatory, and luteal phases of the subjects. Results: The blood perfusion volume in the body surface microcirculation at the right Zhongdu (LR 6) at the ovulatory phase was higher than that at the menstrual, follicular and luteal phases (all P<0.05); there was no significant difference in the microcirculation blood perfusion volume at the other points among different phases (all P>0.05). Conclusion: The blood perfusion volume in the body surface microcirculation at Zhongdu (LR 6), the Xi-Cleft point of the Liver Meridian, shows a specific response to qi and blood changes in the uterus of women with moderate constitution.

Biomarkers ; Humans ; Matrix Metalloproteinases ; Myocardial Infarction ; Prognosis ; Reperfusion ; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-1 ; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinases

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness and adverse effects of Cyberknife stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) on liver metastases from PCa. METHODS: From June 2009 to September 2016, we treated 20 cases of PCa liver metastases by Cyberknife SBRT, at a total dose of 36 (30－50) Gy, on 1－3 liver metastatic lesions, for 3－5 times, with a prescription isodose line of 70－92%. We assessed the therapeutic effect according to the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST), calculated the survival and disease-control rates using the Kaplan-Meier method, and analyzed the adverse events based on the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events－Version 4.0 (CTCAE 4.0). RESULTS: Of all the cases treated, complete response (CR) was found in 8 (40.0%), partial response (PR) in 9 (45.0%), stable disease (SD) in 2 (10.0%), and progressive disease (PD) in 1 (5.0%), with a local control rate (CR+PR) of 85.0% and a disease-control rate (CR+PR+SD) of 95.0%. Among the 14 patients with elevated PSA, 10 (71.4%) showed a significant decrease after treatment. The median follow-up time was 17 months, the 1- and 2-year survival rates were 85.0% and 15.0%, respectively, and the median survival time of the 20 patients was 16.5 months (95% CI: 12.12－22.88). Cyberknife SBRT was well tolerated in all the patients, with only a few mild adverse events (mainly grades 1 and 2 but no 4 and 5) during the whole course of treatment. CONCLUSIONS Cyberknife SBRT is safe and effective in the treatment of PCa liver metastases, with a high local control rate, and capable of reducing the PSA level and raising the long-term survival rate of the patients.

AIM: To establish an intelligent diagnostic model of keratoconus for small-diameter corneas by data mining and analysis of patients' clinical data.METHODS: Diagnostic study. A total of 830 patients(830 eyes)were collected, including 338 male(338 eyes)and 492 female(492 eyes), with an average age of 14-36(23.19±5.71)years. Among them, 731 patients(731 eyes)had undergone corneal refractive surgery at Chongqing Nanping Aier Eye Hospital from January 2020 to March 2022, and 99 patients had a diagnosed keratoconus from January 2015 to March 2022. Corneal diameter ≤11.1 mm was measured by Pentacam in all patients. Two cornea specialists classified patients' data into normal corneas, suspect keratoconus, and keratoconus groups based on the Belin/Ambrósio enhanced ectasia display(BAD)system in Pentacam. The data of 665 patients were randomly selected as the training set and the other 165 patients as the validation set by computer random sampling method. Seven parametric corneal features were extracted by convolutional neural networks(CNN), and the models were built by Residual Network(ResNet), Vision Transformer(ViT), and CNN+Transformer, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of models was verified by cross-entropy loss and cross-validation method. In addition, sensitivity and specificity were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve.RESULTS: The accuracy of ResNet, ViT, and CNN+Transfermer for the diagnosis of normal cornea and suspect keratoconus was 85.57%, 86.11%, and 86.54% respectively, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve(AUC)was 0.823, 0.830 and 0.842 respectively. The accuracy of models for the diagnosis of suspect keratoconus and keratoconus was 97.22%, 95.83%, and 98.61%, respectively, and the AUC was 0.951, 0.939, and 0.988 respectively.CONCLUSION: For corneas ≤11.1 mm in diameter, the data model established by CNN+Transformer has a high accuracy rate for classifying keratoconus, which provides real and effective guidance for early screening.

BACKGROUND: Clinical outcomes are poor if patients with acute heart failure (AHF) are discharged with residual congestion in the presence of renal dysfunction. However, there is no single indication to reflect the combined effects of the two related pathophysiological processes. We, therefore, proposed an indicator, congestion and renal index (CRI), and examined the associations between the CRI and one-year outcomes and the incremental prognostic value of CRI compared with the established scoring systems in a multicenter prospective cohort of AHF. METHODS: We enrolled AHF patients and calculated the ratio of thoracic fluid content index divided by estimated glomerular filtration rate before discharge, as CRI. Then we examined the associations between CRI and one-year outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 944 patients were included in the analysis (mean age 63.3 ± 13.8 years, 39.3% women). Compared with patients with CRI ≤ 0.59 mL/min per kΩ, those with CRI > 0.59 mL/min per kΩ had higher risks of cardiovascular death or HF hospitalization (HR = 1.56 [1.13-2.15]) and all-cause death or all-cause hospitalization (HR = 1.33 [1.01-1.74]). CRI had an incremental prognostic value compared with the established scoring system. CONCLUSIONS In patients with AHF, CRI is independently associated with the risk of death or hospitalization within one year, and improves the risk stratification of the established risk models.