Multi?modality medical image processing has become a hot topic for research in the field of image processing and plays an important role in clinical diagnosis and treatment. Images with different modalities provide different information on patients. Anatomical images ( such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging ) provide information on anatomical morphology and the structure of human body, and functional images ( such as single?photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography) provide the functional information on the distribution of radioactive concentration within human body. Such information needs to be fused to obtain comprehensive fusion images, and the images with different modalities need to be registered to obtain useful fusion images. This article reviews several image registration and fusion techniques used in the medical field, points out their advantages and shortcomings, and introduces the application of various processing techniques in clinical practice.

ObjectiveTo study the effect of prevention and treatment on osteoporosis in climacteric women by sport therapy. Methods 120 climacteric women were separated into rehabilitation group(n = 60)and control group(n = 60). Rehabilitation group accepted the oxygensport therapy, calcium, adjusted food. Control group was given calcium and adjusted food.The changs in densify of lumbar vertebradensify ofwere observed two yeats after treatment. ResultsDensify of lumbar vertebra in the rehabititation groupincreased( but there was no sta-tistical significance) and decreased remarkably in control group( P ＜ 0. 05) . Densify of lumbar vertebra lumbar in rehabititation group in-creased than that of the control group( P ＜ 0. 05) . Conclusion Exercise therapy was effective in preventing and treating osteoporosis in cli-macteric worrn.

Objective To know the effects of air pollution on the activity of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) in the placenta tissue of women in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Methods The decrement of BaP after the metabolic procedure was used as the indicator of AHH activity. 151 lying-in women were selected and the AHH activity in the placenta was determined by fluorescence spectrophotometer, the precooling EDTA was added in the determination to inactivate AHH and to stop the reaction completely in order to get more stable result. Results The AHH activity in the placenta tissue increased as the atmospheric particle concentration and the BaP concentration in the particles increased. Conclusion The air pollution may induce the AHH activity increase in the placenta tissue of pregnant women in Taiyuan. The AHH activity can be used as the biological monitoring indicator in the PAHs polluted areas.

Objective To study the prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) in China. Method School children aged 6～ 20 were surveyed with questionnaire in different areas in our country. Results This survey was carried out in 22 cities and rural areas, distributed in 11 provinces. There were 548 AD patients（ 347 males and 201 females） in a total population of 78 586. The total standardized prevalence (SP) was 0.69％ . The SPs of the males and the females were 0.84％ and 0.51％ , respectively, the difference being statistically significant(P

Ultraviolet (UV) is a kind of important environmental factor that can cause dermatitis,photoaging and skin cancerization.The UV-induced production of inflammatory factors by epidermal keratinocytes has been deemed an important molecular event in occurrence of the above diseases.Various receptors,intracellular signal transduction-related regulatory molecules and nuclear transcription factors are involved in UV-induced inflammatory responses in keratinocytes,which mainly include epidermal growth factor receptor,aryl hydrocarbon receptor,peroxisome proliferatoractivated receptor,protein kinase C family,protein kinase B,mitogen-activated protein kinase family,nuclear factor-κB and transcription factor activator protein-l,etc,and constitute a complex inflammatory signal transduction network.

Objective To investigate the mRNA expressions of IFN-gamma receptor and TNF-alpha receptor in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with psoriasis vulgaris and their role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Methods Fifty patients with psoriasis vulgaris (37 cases of active psoriasis and 13 cases of stable psoriasis) and 24 healthy human controls were included in this study. PBMCs were isolated from blood samples obtained from all patients and controls. The mRNA expressions of IFN-gamma receptor and TNF-aipha receptor in PBMCs were detected by RT-PCR. The disease severity in patients was evaluated by psoriasis area and severity index (PASI). Results The mRNA expressions of IFN-gamma receptor and TNF-alpha receptor were observed in the PBMCs of all subjects. The mRNA expression levels of IFN-gamma receptor were 0.72 ± 0.17 in healthy controls, 1.11 ± 0.55 in all patients with psoriasis, 1.13 ±0.57 in patients with active psoriasis and 1.03 ± 0.52 in patients with stable psoriasis, respectively. A signifi-cant increase was observed in the expression levels of IFN-gamma receptor mRNA in all psoriatic patients and in patients with active psoriasis compared with those in healthy controls (both P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the healthy controls and patients with stable psoriasis (P ＞ 0.05). The expres-sion levels of TNF-alpha receptor mRNA were 2.05 ± 1.34 in healthy controls, 2.70 ± 3.80 in all psoriatic patients, 2.90 ± 4.40 in patients with active psoriasis, 2.14 ± 1.05 in patients with stable psoriasis, respectively;there was no significant difference between psoriatic patients and healthy controls (P ＞ 0.05). However, no correlation was found between the mRNA expression of IFN-gamma receptor, that of TNF-alpha receptor,and disease severity in psoriatic patients. Conclusions The mRNA expression of IFN-gamma receptor in PBMCs is up-regulated in patients with psoriasis vulgaris, which is unrelated to the activity of psoriasis.

Objective To evaluate the effects of alpha-lipoic acid (α-LA)on autophagy in human skin fibroblasts (HSFs). Methods HSFs at passage 3 - 5 were divided into several groups to be cultured with α-LA at final concentrations of 0, 0.01, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.50 mmol/L for 4, 12 and 24 hours, respectively. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium(MTT)assay was performed to evaluate cellular proliferative activity, monodansylcadaverin(MDC)staining to determine autophagy levels, and Western blot to measure the expression of the microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain-3B(LC3-B). Results After incubation for 24 hours, there was a significant difference in the proliferative activity of HSFs among all the groups (F = 10.41, P < 0.05), while no significant differences were observed after incubation for either 4 or 12 hours (F = 2.85, 1.34, respectively, both P > 0.05). MDC staining also showed a significant difference in the percentage of autophagosome-positive cells among all the groups after 24-hour incubation (F = 8.03, P < 0.05), but no significant difference after either 4- or 12-hour incubation (F = 0.11, 0.10, respectively, both P > 0.05). Western blot revealed that the degree of conversion from LC3-Ⅰ to LC3-Ⅱ(LC3-Ⅱ/LC3-Ⅰratio)was significantly different among all the groups after 24-hour incubation (F = 37.49, P < 0.05), but similar after 4- and 12-hour incubation (F = 3.38, 2.13, respectively, both P > 0.05). Conclusion α-LA may inhibit basal autophagy in HSFs.

Objective To investigate the prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) among children aged 2-6 years in Nanjing city.Methods A questionnaire survey was carried out in children aged 2-6 years in 7 main districts of Nanjing City.Results A total of 13 061 children were investigated,among which,768 were diagnosed as AD,including 410 boys and 358 girls.The prevalence rate of AD was 5.88％ (95％ CI,5.48％-6.28％) in total,6.16％ (95％ CI,5.59％-6.74％) in boys and 5.59％ (95％ CI,5.02％-6.15％) in girls.Higher prevalence rate of AD was observed in boys compared with girls,and in children whose place of birth was in urban areas compared with those in rural areas.In addition,the prevalence rate of AD increased with age and with the rise in parental educational level.Conclusions Rapid economic development has dramatically changed life habits,dietary structure and residential environment of people,which can influence the prevalence of AD.

Objective To observe the changes in proliferative activity of and autophagosome formation in human HaCaT keratinocytes and primary keratinocytes after different doses of ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation,and to assess the potential relationship between proliferation impairment and autophagosome formation.Methods Both cultured HaCaT cells and primary keratinocytes from human foreskin were irradiated with different doses (5,10,20and 40 mJ/cm2) of UVB.Those receiving no irradiation served as the control.After additional 12-hour culture,methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay was performed to evaluate the proliferative activity of cells,monodansylcadaverin (MDC) staining to detect autophagosomes in cells.The number of autophagosome-positive or negative cells was counted using inverted fluorescence microscopy.Results UVB radiation induced a significant decrease in the proliferation of keratinocytes,especially in that of HaCaT cells.The proliferative activity expressed as the absorbance value at 490 nm was significantly lower in HaCaT cells (1.367 ± 0.035,1.173 ± 0.034 and 0.873 ±0.025 vs.1.519 ± 0.022,all P＜ 0.01) and primary keratinocytes (0.782 ± 0.012,0.773 ± 0.021 and 0.725 ± 0.031 vs.0.887 ± 0.035,all P ＜ 0.05) irradiated with UVB of 10,20 and 40 mJ/cm2 than in the unirradiated control cells.Significant differences were also observed in the proliferative activity among HaCaT cells irradiated with UVB of 10,20 and 40 mJ/cm2.The proportion of autophagosome-positive cells was increased after irradiation with UVB of 5,10 and 20 mJ/cm2,but decreased after irradiation with UVB of 40 mJ/cm2 in keratinocytes,especially in the primary keratinocytes.In detail,the proportion of autophagosome-positive cells was 22.69％ ± 2.15％,28.10％ ± 2.92％ and 22.92％ ± 2.61％ in HaCaT cells irradiated with UVB of 10,20 and 40 mJ/cm2 respectively,significantly higher than that in the unirradiated cells (10.18％ ± 1.50％,chi-square test for trends:x2 =27.48,P ＜ 0.01).No significant changes were observed in the proportion of autophagosome-positive cells in primary keratinocytes after irradiation with UVB of 5,10 and 20 mJ/cm2,but a marked decrease was found after irradiation with UVB of 40 mJ/cm2 compared with unirradiated keratinocytes (chi-square test for trends:x2 =6.86,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions UVB radiation (10-40 mJ/cm2) decelerates the proliferation of HaCaT cells and primary keratinocytes in a dosedependent manner,and primary keratinocytes seem to be more resistant to UVB damage than HaCaT cells.Low to moderate doses (5-20 mJ/cm2) of UVB promote autophagosome formation in HaCaT cells in a dose-dependent manner,and exert no significant influence on that in primary keratinocytes; however,UVB of 40 mJ/cm2 suppresses autophagosome formation in keratinocytes,especially in primary keratinocytes.

Objective To investigate the role of infiltrating inflammatory cells in photoaging process by comparing the type and number of these cells in sun-exposed and-unexposed skin.Methods The expression of CD3,CD45RO and CD68 were detected by immunohistochemieal staining in 46 paraffin-embeded skin samples from the extensor forearms(sun-exposed)and upper-inner arms(sun-unexposed) of 23 healthy female volunteers.The number of positive cells in sun-exposed and -unexposed sites was counted and statistically tested by paired samples t test,and Pearson correlation analysis was performed to assess the relationship between the number of positive cells and age of these volunteers.Results The number of cells positive for CD3,CD45RO and CD68 per square millimetre in sun-exposed skin was significantly higher than that in sun-unexposed skin(48.91±13.173 vs.40.61±11.571,46.83±12.915 vs.38.00±10.109,85.43±22.346 vs.73.48±16.208,respectively,P<0.01 or 0.05).The number of cells positive for CD3 and CD45RO increased significantly with age (r=0.557,0.555,respectively,both P<0.01) in the sun-exposed skin but not in sun-unexposed skin,and the number of CD68-positive cells was uncorrelated with age in either sunexposed or -unexposed skin.Conclusion T lymphocytes and macrophages may play a role in the process of photoaging.