OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression and role of adrenomedullin (ADM) and adrenomedullin receptor (ADMR) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

METHODSSmall pulmonary artery remodeling was observed using morphometric analysis. The expression of ADM and ADMR mRNA in lung tissue was calculated by in situ hybridization in 9 COPD cases. Cardiac catheterization was performed in 22 COPD cases to monitor changes of hemodynamic parameters and patients were divided into two groups based on mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP). The cases without pulmonary hypertension (PH) were placed in Group A (n = 12) and those with PH were placed in Group B (n = 10). The levels of pulmonary arterial plasma ADM were measured by radioimmunoassay. Blood gas analysis was also conducted.

RESULTSThe ratio of vascular wall thickness to external diameter (MT%) and the ratio of vascular wall area to total area (MA%) were higher in patients with COPD (P < 0.01). In situ hybridization showed that ADM mRNA and ADMR mRNA were expressed in the pulmonary artery walls of control subjects. The expression levels were significantly higher in those of COPD sufferers (P < 0.01). Statistically positive relationships were visible between ADM and ADMR, and the plasma ADM level of Group B was significantly higher than that of Group A (P < 0.05). The plasma ADM level had a significantly positive correlation to mPAP and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), while being negatively correlated to levels of PaO(2).

CONCLUSIONADM may play an extremely protective role as a local autocrine/paracrine factor in COPD.

Adrenomedullin ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Oxygen ; blood ; Peptides ; blood ; genetics ; physiology ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; prevention & control ; RNA, Messenger ; analysis ; Receptors, Adrenomedullin ; Receptors, Peptide ; genetics ; physiology

Objective A practical and highly accurate algorithm for dynamic monitoring of plantar pressure was proposed, the magnitude of vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) during walking was measured by a capacitive insole sensor, and reliability of the prediction accuracy was verified. Methods Four healthy male subjects were require to wear capacitive insole sensors, and their fast walking and slow walking data were collected by Kistler three-dimensional (3D) force platform. The data collected by the capacitive insole sensors were pixelated, and then the processed data were fed into a residual neural network, ResNet18, to obtain high-precision vGRF. Results Compared with analysis of the data collected from Kister force platform, the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) for fast walking and slow walking were 8.40% and 6.54%, respectively, and the Pearman correlation coefficient was larger than 0.96. Conclusions This study provides a novel algorithm for dynamic measurement of GRF in mobile scenarios, which can be used for estimation of complete GRF outside the laboratory without being constrained by the number and location of force plates. Potential application areas include gait analysis and efficient capture of pathological gaits.

At present the parkinsonian rigidity assessment depends on subjective judgment of neurologists according to their experience. This study presents a parkinsonian rigidity quantification system based on the electromechanical driving device and mechanical impedance measurement method. The quantification system applies the electromechanical driving device to perform the rigidity clinical assessment tasks (flexion-extension movements) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, which captures their motion and biomechanical information synchronously. Qualified rigidity features were obtained through statistical analysis method such as least-squares parameter estimation. By comparing the judgments from both the parkinsonian rigidity quantification system and neurologists, correlation analysis was performed to find the optimal quantitative feature. Clinical experiments showed that the mechanical impedance has the best correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.872, < 0.001) with the clinical unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (UPDRS) rigidity score. Results confirmed that this measurement system is capable of quantifying parkinsonian rigidity with advantages of simple operation and effective assessment. In addition, the mechanical impedance can be adopted to help doctors to diagnose and monitor parkinsonian rigidity objectively and accurately.