Objective To evaluate the feasibility and value of quantitatively assessing left ventricular systolic function in rats with myocardial infarction (MI) by myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) based on mathematical morphology algorithm.Methods SD rats model of MI were mede,then MCE were performed before MI and at 1,3 weeks after MI.In vitro study:based on the principle of binary morphology,segmentation of endocardium was acquired using dilation,erosion,closed operations and connected domain object tag-based.The automatic segmentation of endocardial contour was compared with the manual segmentation boundary.In vivo study:the left ventricular area was calculated using the software,and the area variation fraction (AVF),a new index of left ventricular systolic function,were acquired.The correlation between AVF and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was analyzed.The value of AVF for diagnosis for left ventricular dysfunction was evaluated by ROC curve.Results ① The cross-correlation coefficient (CCC) and percent error (PE) between automatic contours and manual boundary were more than 0.90 and less than 9％,respectively.② AVF correlated positively with LVEF (r =0.934,P ＜ 0.001).③ ROC analyses showed the area under curves for AVF diagnosing left ventricular dysfunction was 0.834.The best cutoff value was 27.5 ％ for diagnosing left ventricular dysfunction with the sensitivity of 85 ％ and specificity of 60 ％.Conclusions Left ventricular endocardium can be identificated automatically and rapidly by MCE based on mathematical morphology algorithm.AVF can assessed quantitatively left ventricular systolic function in rats with myocardial infarction.

Objective To evaluate the value of tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in diagnosing pulmonary arterial hypertension(PAH) with common simple congenital heart disease(CHD).Methods 104 patients of CHD approved by operation or intervention were retrospectively analyzed.Both TDI and right cardiac catheterization were performed in all patients,whose were divided into PAH and non-PAH groups according to mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) on diagnostic right cardiac catheterization:60 PAH patients[mPAP ≥25 mmHg(1 mmHg =0.133 kPa) and pulmonary arterial capillary wedge pressure ≤15 mmHg],44 non-PAH patients (mPAP ＜25 mmHg).The PAH group was divided into mild (25 mmHg≤ mPAP≤35 mmHg),moderate (36 mmHg≤mPAP≤50 mmHg) and severe (mPAP＞50 mmHg) subgroups.The tricuspid annular systolic peak velocity (TS'),early diastolic peak velocity (TE'),late diastolic peak velocity (TA') were measured by TDI and TE'/TA' and Tei index were calculated.The correlation between TDI parameters and the cardiac catheterization findings (sPAP,mPAP and dPAP) were assessed.Results ①TS' and TE' in PAH group were significantly lower than those in non-PAH(P ＜ 0.05),but Tei in PAH group were significantly higher than that in non-PAH (P ＜0.001),however,there were no significant difference in TA' and TE'/TA' between two groups (P ＞ 0.05).②Tei correlated positively with pulmonary arterial pressure (P ＜0.001),TS' was found to be negatively correlated with pulmonary arterial pressure(P ＜0.05),but no correlation between TE',TA',TE'/TA' and pulmonary arterial pressure(P ＞0.05).③ROC analysis showed the area under curves for Tei index and TS' diagnosis for PAH was 0.893 and 0.699,respectively.At the cutoff of Tei＞0.49 and TS'＜16 cm/s for indicating PAH,the sensitivity were 86.67 ％ and 80.00％,respectively and the specificity were 79.55 ％ and 45.45 ％,respectively.④Tei in the moderate and severe PAH were significantly higher than that in mild PAH (P ＜ 0.05),TS' and TE' in severe PAH were significantly lower than those in mild and moderate PAH (P ＜ 0.05),At the cutoff of Tei＞0.55 for indicating moderate or severe PAH,the sensitivity and specificity were 95.24％ and 72.22％.Conclusions Tei index and TS' have high application value in assessing PAH and classification of PAH.Tei＞0.49 indicates PAH,while Tei＞0.55 suggests moderate or severe PAH.

Objective:To systematically evaluate the correlation between chronic non-occupational arsenic exposure and hypertension.Methods:A literature search was conducted through Web of Science, Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library, WanFang Data, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP Chinese Journal Service Platform (VIP) Database and China Biomedical Literature Database to comprehensively collect epidemiological literature related to chronic non-occupational arsenic exposure and hypertension published domestically and internationally for inclusion in the study, with a time limit from database establishment to January 1, 2023. Meta-analysis of dichotomous variables was conducted using Stata MP15 software, with odds ratio ( OR) value [95%confidence interval( CI)] as the effect evaluation indicator. A random-effects model or a fixed-effects model was selected for comprehensive quantitative analysis according to the heterogeneity results; the sources of heterogeneity were identified through subgroup analysis; a funnel plot was used for qualitative analysis of publication bias and the results were further assessed by Egger test. Stata 15.0 software was then used to analyze the dose-response relationship between chronic non-occupational arsenic exposure and hypertension using restricted cubic spline function and generalized least squares estimation (GLST) method. Results:Twenty-nine articles ( n = 127 258) were finally included, including 24 English articles and 5 Chinese articles. Through Meta-analysis, the combined OR value (95% CI) for hypertension was 1.07 (1.04 - 1.09), with a statistically significant difference ( P < 0.05). The combined OR values (95% CI) for urinary arsenic, drinking water arsenic, and hair arsenic in subgroup analysis were 1.10 (1.04 - 1.17), 1.13 (1.07 - 1.20), and 2.55 (1.55 - 4.20), respectively. The combined OR values (95% CI) for cross-sectional studies, case-control studies and cohort studies were 1.11 (1.06 - 1.16), 1.13 (1.04 - 1.23) and 1.04 (1.00 - 1.07), respectively. For every unit (μg/L) increase in arsenic exposure in drinking water, the risk of hypertension increased by 0.13% [ OR value (95% CI): 1.001 269 (1.000 104 - 1.002 434), P < 0.05]. Conclusions:There is a correlation between chronic non-occupational arsenic exposure and adult hypertension, with urinary arsenic, drinking water arsenic and hair arsenic as possible exposure markers. There is a non-linear dose-response relationship between chronic non-occupational arsenic exposure and adult hypertension.

Objective To investigate the value of polar residual network(PResNet)model for assisting evaluation on rat myocardial infarction(MI)segment in myocardial contrast echocardiography(MCE).Methods Twenty-five male SD rats were randomly divided into MI group(n=15)and sham operation group(n=10).MI models were established in MI group through ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery using atraumatic suture,while no intervention was given to those in sham operation group after thoracotomy.MCE images of both basal and papillary muscle levels on the short axis section of left ventricles were acquired after 1 week,which were assessed independently by 2 junior and 2 senior ultrasound physicians.The evaluating efficacy of MI segment,the mean interpretation time and the consistency were compared whether under the assistance of PResNet model or not.Results No significant difference of efficacy of evaluation on MI segment was found for senior physicians with or without assistance of PResNet model(both P＞0.05).Under the assistance of PResNet model,the efficacy of junior physicians for diagnosing MI segment was significantly improved compared with that without the assistance of PResNet model(both P＜0.01),and was comparable to that of senior physicians.Under the assistance of PResNet model,the mean interpretation time of each physician was significantly shorter than that without assistance(all P＜0.001),and the consistency between junior physicians and among junior and senior physicians were both moderate(Kappa=0.692,0.542),which became better under the assistance(Kappa=0.763,0.749).Conclusion PResNet could improve the efficacy of junior physicians for evaluation on rat MI segment in MCE images,shorten interpretation time with different aptitudes,also improve the consistency to some extent.

AIM:To establish pupil diameter measurement algorithms based on infrared images that can be used in real-world clinical settings.METHODS:A total of 188 patients from outpatient clinic at He Eye Specialist Shenyang Hospital from Spetember to December 2022 were included, and 13 470 infrared pupil images were collected for the study. All infrared images for pupil segmentation were labeled using the Labelme software. The computation of pupil diameter is divided into four steps: image pre-processing, pupil identification and localization, pupil segmentation, and diameter calculation. Two major models are used in the computation process: the modified YoloV3 and Deeplabv3+ models, which must be trained beforehand.RESULTS:The test dataset included 1 348 infrared pupil images. On the test dataset, the modified YoloV3 model had a detection rate of 99.98% and an average precision(AP)of 0.80 for pupils. The DeeplabV3+ model achieved a background intersection over union(IOU)of 99.23%, a pupil IOU of 93.81%, and a mean IOU of 96.52%. The pupil diameters in the test dataset ranged from 20 to 56 pixels, with a mean of 36.06±6.85 pixels. The absolute error in pupil diameters between predicted and actual values ranged from 0 to 7 pixels, with a mean absolute error(MAE)of 1.06±0.96 pixels.CONCLUSION:This study successfully demonstrates a robust infrared image-based pupil diameter measurement algorithm, proven to be highly accurate and reliable for clinical application.