Objective To assess the diagnostic value of saline infusion test ( SIT) and its optimal cutoff in the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism ( PA ), and to analyze whether the dietary salt intake affects the SIT accuracy. Methods This is a prospective study. All 236 patients with a high risk for PA underwent the screening test, SIT and the fludrocortisone suppression test (FST) in separate days. The diagnosis of PA was established according to the FST criteria. According to the 24 h urinary sodium level, the patients were divided into low salt, normal salt, and high salt groups respectively, and the effect of salt intake on SIT was analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to compare the diagnostic accuracies. Results Finally, in 236 patients with high risk for PA, 134 patients with PA and 102 patients with essential hypertension ( EH) were diagnosed. Using post-test plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) for diagnosis, the area under the ROC curve (AUCROC) of the SIT was 0.974 (0.957, 0.991), which was significantly higher than that of the post-test plasma aldosterone to renin ratio (ARR) [0.900 ( 0. 862, 0. 938)] and that of the PAC suppression percentage [ 0. 752 ( 0. 690, 0. 813)] ( both P<0.01). Considering both sensitivity and specificity, an optimal cutoff of PAC post-SIT was set at 8 ng/dl, resulting in a sensitivity of 88. 1% and a specificity of 95. 1%. The PAC post-SIT, whether in PA or EH patients, had no statistically significant differences among low salt, normal salt, and high salt groups (P>0.05). Conclusion SIT is reliable for the diagnosis of PA. PAC post-SIT more than 8.0 ng/dl is recommended to confirm PA.

Panax ginseng(PG)and Panax notoginseng(PN)are highly valuable Chinese medicines(CM).Although both CMs have similar active constituents,their clinical applications are clearly different.Over the past decade,RNA sequencing(RNA-seq)analysis has been employed to investigate the molecular mechanisms of extracts or monomers.However,owing to the limited number of samples in standard RNA-seq,few studies have systematically compared the effects of PG and PN spanning multiple conditions at the transcriptomic level.Here,we developed an approach that simultaneously profiles transcriptome changes for multiplexed samples using RNA-seq(TCM-seq),a high-throughput,low-cost workflow to molecularly evaluate CM perturbations.A species-mixing experiment was conducted to illustrate the accuracy of sample multiplexing in TCM-seq.Transcriptomes from repeated samples were used to verify the robustness of TCM-seq.We then focused on the primary active components,Panax notoginseng sa-ponins(PNS)and Panax ginseng saponins(PGS)extracted from PN and PG,respectively.We also char-acterized the transcriptome changes of 10 cell lines,treated with four different doses of PNS and PGS,using TCM-seq to compare the differences in their perturbing effects on genes,functional pathways,gene modules,and molecular networks.The results of transcriptional data analysis showed that the tran-scriptional patterns of various cell lines were significantly distinct.PGS exhibited a stronger regulatory effect on genes involved in cardiovascular disease,whereas PNS resulted in a greater coagulation effect on vascular endothelial cells.This study proposes a paradigm to comprehensively explore the differences in mechanisms of action between CMs based on transcriptome readouts.

Objective:To investigate the clinical value of outpatient screening in department of general surgery during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.Methods:The retrospective and descriptive study was conducted. The clinical data of 57 patients who visited surgery clinic and emergency department of Union Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology between February 1st and 26th in 2020 were collected. There were 30 males and 27 females, aged (53±16)years, with a range from 17 to 87 years. All the 57 patients were measured score of outpatient screening in department of general surgery. The score ≥3 indicated high risk and the score < 3 indicated low risk. Observation indicators: (1) clinical data of patients; (2) score of outpatient screening for COVID-19 of patients. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean± SD, and comparison between groups was analyzed by the t test. Measurement data with skewed distribution were described as M (IQR), and comparison between groups was analyzed by the rank sum test. Count data were described as absolute numbers, and comparison between groups was analyzed using the chi-square test. Results:(1) Clinical data of patients: of the 57 patients, there were 12 males and 14 females of the 26 confirmed or suspected cases, versus 18 males and 13 females of the 31 non-infection cases, showing no significant difference between the two groups ( χ2=0.805, P>0.05). The 26 confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 had an age of (57±16)years, and 31 non-infection cases had an age of (50±16) years, with no significant difference between the two groups ( t=-1.646, P>0.05). (2) Score of outpatient screening for COVID-19 of patients: the score of outpatient screening for COVID-19 of the 26 confirmed or suspected cases was 3.0(4.0), versus 1.0(1.0) of the 31 non-infection cases, showing a significant difference between the two groups ( Z=-3.695, P<0.05). There were 17 and 9 of the 26 confirmed or suspected cases with high risks and low risks, respectively, versus 3 and 28 of the 31 non-infection cases, with a significant difference between the two groups ( χ2=19.266, P<0.05). Conclusion:During the COVID-19 outbreak, outpatient screening in department of general surgery can effectively screen out high-risk patients.

KylinRay-IMRT is the advanced radiotherapy treatment planning module of accurate radiotherapy system (KylinRay) aiming to provide accurate and efficient plan design platform. In this paper the system design, main functions and key technologies of KylinRay-IMRT were introduced. KylinRay-IMRT supports three dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and many other types of treatment plan design with function modules including patient data management, image registration and fusion, image contouring, image three dimensional reconstruction and visualization, three dimensional conformal radiotherapy planning, intensity modulated radiotherapy planning, plan evaluation and comparison, and report print. KylinRay-IMRT has been tested by the national standard YY/T 0889-2013, the results showed that the performance of KylinRay-IMRT can fully meet the standard requirements.
Humans ; Radiotherapy Dosage ; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted ; Radiotherapy, Conformal ; Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed