Objective:To explore the differences in clinical and imaging features between pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma (PASC) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).Methods:The clinical data, imaging and pathological data of 171 patients pathologically diagnosed with PASC after surgical resection (PASC group) (from February 2011 to October 2020, 148 patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University and 23 patients from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine) and 100 patients pathologically diagnosed with PDAC after surgical resection (PDAC group) (from January to June, 2018, at the First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University) were retrospectively analyzed. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging features were analyzed by two associate chief physician of department of radiology. Independent sample t test, rank sum test, chi-square test or Fisher exact probability test were used for statistical analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to analyze independent predictors of PASC. Results:The longest diameter of tumor of PASC group was larger than that of PDAC group (35.0 mm (28.0 mm to 45.0 mm) vs. 29.5 mm (23.0 mm to 36.0 mm)), and the rates of cystic necrosis, ring-enhancement, normal distal main pancreatic duct and normal pancreatic parenchyma of PASC group were higher than those of PDAC group (62.0%, 106/171 vs. 12.0%, 12/100; 66.1%, 113/171 vs. 25.0%, 25/100; 52.0%, 89/171 vs. 12.0%, 12/100; 70.2%, 120/171 vs. 29.0%, 29/100, respectively); and the differences were statistically significant ( Z=-4.001, χ2=72.183, 42.612, 43.284 and 43.221, all P<0.01). The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the cystic necrosis, ring-enhancement, normal distal main pancreatic duct and normal pancreatic parenchyma were indenpendent predictors of PASC (odds ratio=10.083, 2.361, 3.086 and 2.632, 95% confidence interval 8.736 to 11.639, 2.096 to 2.660, 2.605 to 3.656 and 2.267 to 3.057, all P<0.01); and the sensitivity for PASC diagnosis was 62.0%, 66.1%, 51.7% and 70.3%, respectively; the specificity was 88.0%, 75.0%, 88.0% and 71.0%, respectively; the positive predictive value was 89.3%, 81.9%, 88.1% and 80.5%, respectively. Conclusions:PASC and PDAC have similar clinical features. The imaging features of cystic necrosis, ring-enhancement, normal distal main pancreatic duct and normal pancreatic parenchyma are independent predictive factors of PASC.

Objective:To survey the cognition of general practice residency training and the willingness of teaching among specialists.Methods:A questionnaire survey was conducted among 221 specialists from 24 departments in Nantong First People's Hospital from May 2021 to June 2021 to investigate the their cognition of general practice residency training program and the teaching willingness.Results:Total 221 questionnaires were distributed and 185 valid ones were retrieved with a response rate of 83.70%. The results showed that 49 specialists (26.49%) well knew the national general practice training policy, 70 (37.84%) knew the most, 52 (28.11%) knew basically, 11 (5.95%) knew little, and 3 (1.62%) did not know at all. Meanwhile, 44 specialists (23.78%) well knew the hospital incentive policies about general practice education, 62 (33.51%) knew the most, 57 (30.81%) knew basically, 18 (9.73%) knew little, and 4 (2.16%) did not know at all. Whether they holding the teaching certificate of general practice was significantly associated with the cognition of national general practice training policy (χ2=14.28, P=0.003) and with their knowledge of residency training program (χ2=16.79, P=0.001), but not associated with knowing the hospital-level incentive policy (χ2=8.18, P=0.075). A total of 170 (91.89%) participants were willing to be clinical teachers of general practice. The reasons for the willingness of teaching were as following: learning more from the teaching in 161 participants (94.71%), expanding sources of patients from rural areas in 102 (60.00%), facilitating promotion in 77 (45.29%), and others in 30 (17.60%). Among 62 specialists holding teaching certificate, 60 (96.77%) were willing to teach general practice residents; while among 123 specialists without teaching certificate, 110 (89.43%) were willing to teach (χ2=4.92, P=0.027). In all hospital incentive policies, promotion of professional titles was most attractive one (82, 44.32%), followed by performance appraisal (63, 34.05%), priority for in-service training (25, 13.51%), and appraisal for excellence award (15, 8.11%). Conclusions:Strengthening trainings for general practice the faculty is helpful to improve their cognition of the general practice residency training programs. And rational hospital incentive policies can enhance the willingness of specialists to teach general practice residency.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between the annual professional proficiency test results and the theoretical examination score of completion assessment in standardized residency training, as well as the value of the annual professional proficiency test results in predicting whether a resident passes the theoretical examination of completion assessment.Methods:The residents who participated in the annual professional proficiency test of residency training in Affiliated Hospital 2 of Nantong University in 2019-2021 and the completion assessment of residency training in 2020-2022 were selected as subjects, and related data were collected, including sex, education background, personnel type, training specialty, the results of annual professional proficiency test, and the theoretical examination score of completion assessment. According to whether the resident passed the theoretical examination of completion assessment, they were divided into passed group and failed group. SPSS 19.0 was used to perform the chi-square test, the independent samples t-test, and the binary logistic regression analysis; the Pearson correlation coefficient was used for correlation analysis; the sensitivity analysis was represented by ROC curve. Results:Compared with the residents who passed the theoretical examination of completion assessment, the residents who did not pass the examination had a significant reduction in the proportion of the residents from our hospital and a significant increase in the proportion of the residents commissioned by foreign institutions ( χ 2=7.00, P=0.008). The passed group had a significantly higher national percentile of annual professional proficiency test score than the failed group (43.46%±26.61% vs. 23.40%±18.71%, t=6.02, P<0.001). The national percentile of annual professional proficiency test score was positively correlated with the theoretical examination score of completion assessment ( r=0.43, P<0.05). The source of residents commissioned by foreign institutions and the low percentile of annual professional proficiency test score were independent risk factors for failing the theoretical examination of completion assessment ( P=0.020 and P<0.001). The national percentile of annual professional proficiency test score had an area under the ROC curve of 0.73 (95% CI: 0.65-0.80) in predicting the outcome of theoretical examination and had a certain predictive value with a cut-off value of 15.1%. Conclusions:In addition to strengthening homogenization and professional base management for residency training, it is necessary to make full use of the results of annual professional proficiency test in standardized residency training and timely check the professional knowledge of the residents whose a national percentile of <15.1%, so as to effectively improve the pass rate of theoretical examination and the quality of training.

Objective:To investigate the relationship between the perineural invasion score based on multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and extrapancreatic perineural invasion (EPNI) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).Methods:The clinical, radiological, and pathological data of 374 patients pathologically diagnosed as pancreatic cancer who underwent radical resection in the First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University from March 2018 to May 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were divided into EPNI negative group ( n=111) and EPNI positive group (n=263) based on the pathological presence of EPNI. The perineural invasion score was performed for each patient based on radiological images. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between the perineural invasion score based on MDCT and EPNI in PDAC. Results:There were significant statistical differences between EPNI negative group and positive group on both pathological characteristics (T stage, N stage, invasion of common bile duct, and positive surgical margin) and radiological characteristics (tumor size, vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, perineural invasion score based on MDCT, pancreatic border, parenchymal atrophy, invasion of duodenum, invasion of spleen and splenic vein and invasion of common bile duct) (all P value <0.05). Univariate analysis revealed that the tumor size, vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, perineural invasion score based on MDCT, pancreatic border, pancreatic atrophy, invasion of duodenum, invasion of spleen and splenic vein and invasion of common bile duct were independently associated with EPNI. Multivariate analyses revealed that the perineural invasion based on MDCT was an independent risk factor for EPNI in pancreatic cancer (score=1, OR=2.93, 95% CI 1.61-5.32, P<0.001; score=2, OR=5.92, 95% CI 2.68-13.10, P<0.001). Conclusions:The perineural invasion score based on MDCT was an independent risk factor for EPNI in pancreatic cancer and can be used as an evaluation indicator for preoperative prediction of EPNI in PDAC.

Objective:To identify the relationship between the CT arterial radiomics score and the treatment response to neoadjuvant therapy for pancreatic cancer.Methods:The clinical data of 243 pancreatic cancer patients who received surgical resection after neo-adjuvant therapy in the First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University from March 2017 to March 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Based on the tumor regression grade (TRG), the patients were divided into good response group (TRG 0-1, n=30) and non-good response group (TRG 2-3, n=213). The clinical, radiological and pathological features were compared between two groups. Fully-automated segmentation tool was used for segmenting the arterial CT scan of pancreatic tumor before and after treatment. Python package was applied to extract the radiomics features of tumors after segmentation and the extracted features were reduced and chosen using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) logistic regression algorithm. Lasso logistic regression formula was applied to calculate the arterial radiomics score. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between arterial radiomics score and treatment response to neoadjucant therapy. Receiver operating-characteristics (ROC) curve was drawn and area under curve (AUC), specificity, sensitivity and accuracy for evaluating the treatment response were calculated. The clinical usefulness of arterial radiomics score for diagnosing the response of neoadjuvant treatment for pancreatic cancer were determined by decision curve analysis (DCA) . Results:A total of 330 arterial radiomics CT features were obtained, and 9-selected arterial phase features associated with treatment response were determined after being reduced by the Lasso logistic regression algorithm. Univariate analysis showed that the arterial radiomics score, three-dimensional diameter after neoadjuvant therapy, pancreatic contour, T stage, N stage, Peri-pancreatic nerve invasion, lymph-vascular space invasion (LVSI) and invasion of duodenum were all associated with treatment response (all P value <0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analyses confirmed that arterial radiomics score was obviously associated with the neoadjuvant treatment response ( P<0.001). At the cut-off value of 1.93, AUC of the arterial radiomics score for diagnosing neoadjuvant treatment response was 0.92, and the specificity, sensitivity and accuracy was 86.7%, 84.5% and 84.8%. DCA demonstrated that when the percentage for predicting the treatment response by using the arterial radiomics score was >0.2, the patients could benefit from the application of arterial radiomics score for evaluating neoadjuvant therapy response. Conclusions:The arterial radiomics score was strongly correlated with the neoadjuvant treatment response of pancreatic cancer, and can accurately predict neoadjuant treatment efficacy.

Sarcopenia is an age-related disease that mainly involves decreases in muscle mass, muscle strength and muscle function. At the same time, the body fat content increases with aging, especially the visceral fat content. Adipose tissue is an endocrine organ that secretes biologically active factors called adipokines, which act on local and distant tissues. Studies have revealed that some adipokines exert regulatory effects on muscle, such as higher serum leptin levels causing a decrease in muscle function and adiponectin inhibits the transcriptional activity of Forkhead box O3 (FoxO3) by activating peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor-γ coactivator -1α (PGC-1α) and sensitizing cells to insulin, thereby repressing atrophy-related genes (atrogin-1 and muscle RING finger 1 [MuRF1]) to prevent the loss of muscle mass. Here, we describe the effects on muscle of adipokines produced by adipose tissue, such as leptin, adiponectin, resistin, mucin and lipocalin-2, and discuss the importance of these adipokines for understanding the development of sarcopenia.
Humans ; Adipokines ; Leptin ; Adiponectin ; Sarcopenia ; Muscles

Hearing loss has become increasingly prevalent and causes considerable disability, thus gravely burdening the global economy. Irreversible loss of hair cells is a main cause of sensorineural hearing loss, and currently, the only relatively effective clinical treatments are limited to digital hearing equipment like cochlear implants and hearing aids, but these are of limited benefit in patients. It is therefore urgent to understand the mechanisms of damage repair in order to develop new neuroprotective strategies. At present, how to promote the regeneration of functional hair cells is a key scientific question in the field of hearing research. Multiple signaling pathways and transcriptional factors trigger the activation of hair cell progenitors and ensure the maturation of newborn hair cells, and in this article, we first review the principal mechanisms underlying hair cell reproduction. We then further discuss therapeutic strategies involving the co-regulation of multiple signaling pathways in order to induce effective functional hair cell regeneration after degeneration, and we summarize current achievements in hair cell regeneration. Lastly, we discuss potential future approaches, such as small molecule drugs and gene therapy, which might be applied for regenerating functional hair cells in the clinic.
Infant, Newborn ; Humans ; Hair Cells, Auditory, Inner/physiology* ; Ear, Inner/physiology* ; Hair Cells, Auditory/physiology* ; Regeneration/genetics* ; Stem Cells