Objective To establish and identify transgenic mice model that specifically express delta drosophila homolog-like 1 (DLK1) in liver for the functional study of DLK1 on liver differentiation,hepatopathy,and hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods The coding sequence of DLK1 cDNA was inserted downstream of mouse albumin gene enhancer/promoter to construct a liver-specific DLK1 expression recombinant vector.The DNA fragment of transgene digested from the recombinant vector by Pine I was transfected to Hepl-6 cells to verify the expression of DLK1 in vitro.Then the transgene fragment was microinjeeted into fertilized eggs of C57×CBA F1 mice and 20 transgenic founder mice were generated.The F1 mice of DLK1 transgenie founder mice were used to identify the expression of the transgene in liver and other tissues.Results RT-PCR and cellular immunofluorescence showed DLK1 expression when the transgene fragment was transfeeted into Hep1-6.For transgenic mice,RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry showed that DLK1 was specifically expressed in adult F1 mice liver.Conclusion Successfully established the liver-specific DLK1 expression transgenic mice model.

Objective:To compare the therapeutic effects and safety of dexmedetomidine and midazolam on patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who received non-invasive ventilation.Methods:Patients with COVID-19 who needed non-invasive ventilation in one critical care medicine ward of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital during the team support period from the department of critical care medicine of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from January 23rd to February 15th in 2020 were investigated retrospectively. Ramsay score, mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO 2) before sedation and at 1, 12, 24 hours after sedation, sleep time were collected, and the side effects such as excessive sedation, fall of tongue, abdominal distension, aspiration, bradycardia, escalation to invasive mechanical ventilation during 24 hours were also collected. According to different sedative drugs, patients were divided into the control group (without sedative drugs), dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group. The changes of indicators among the three groups were compared. Results:Fourteen patients were injected with dexmedetomidine (loading dose of 1 μg/kg for 10 minutes, maintained at 0.2-0.7 μg·kg -1·h -1); 9 patients were injected with midazolam (loading dose of 0.05 mg/kg for 2 minutes, maintained at 0.02-0.10 mg·kg -1·h -1); 12 patients didn't use sedative drugs due to limitations of previous hospital or patients' rejection. In dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group, the Ramsay score was maintained at 2-3 points after sedation, which were higher than those of control group at different time points after sedation, and there was no significant difference between dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group. MAP of dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group decreased gradually after sedation. MAP after 1-hour sedation was significantly lower than that before sedation, and MAP after 24 hours sedation was significantly lower than that in the control group [mmHg (1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa): 109.7±11.5, 107.1±12.3 vs. 121.1±13.3, both P < 0.05]. HR decreased gradually after sedation treatment, which was significantly lower after 12 hours of sedation than that before sedation, and HR in dexmedetomidine group was significantly lower than that in control group after 12 hours of sedation (bpm: 84.0±13.9 vs. 92.8±15.4 at 12 hours; 81.0±16.7 vs 92.6±12.7 at 24 hours, both P < 0.05). PaO 2 increased and RR decreased in all three groups after ventilation. PaO 2 in dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group were significantly higher than that in the control group after 12 hours of sedation [cmH 2O (1 cmH 2O = 0.098 kPa): 79.0±6.5, 79.0±8.9 vs. 70.0±7.8, both P < 0.05]; the decreases of RR in dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group were significant than that in control group after 1 hour of sedation (bpm: 34.0±3.9, 33.8±4.6 vs. 39.0±3.6, both P < 0.05). There were no differences of MAP, HR, PaO 2 and RR between dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group at different time points. The sleep duration in dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group were significantly longer than that in the control group (hours: 4.9±1.9, 5.8±2.4 vs. 3.0±1.8, both P < 0.05), but there was no difference between dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group ( P > 0.05). Adverse events occurred in all three groups. In midazolam group, there were 2 cases of excessive sedation with fall of tongue and abdominal distension, including 1 case of aspiration, 1 case receiving intubation due to refractory hypoxemia and 1 case due to unconsciousness. In dexmedetomidine group, there were 2 cases of bradycardia, 1 case of intubation due to refractory hypoxemia. In control group, 4 cases underwent intubation due to refractory hypoxemia. Conclusions:Non-invasive mechanical ventilation is an important respiratory support technology for patients with severe COVID-19. Appropriate sedation can increase the efficiency of non-invasive mechanical ventilation. Dexmedetomidine is more effective and safer than midazolam in these patients, but attention should be paid to HR and blood pressure monitoring.

Objective To investigate the efficacy and prognosis of using midazolam combined with atracurium for treatment of a patient with super-refractory status epilepticus (SRSE) and coma. Methods A case of SRSE and coma admitted to the Department of Critical Care Medicine of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University in May 2018 was enrolled. The symptoms, signs, laboratory examinations and treatment process were summarized, and combined with the literature review, the therapeutic course and prognosis were analyzed. Results A male patient, 24 years old, had convulsions after 4-day fever, blood routine, blood biochemistry, coagulation function and infection indexes were basically normal on admission. There was no obvious abnormality in cerebrospinal fluid examination; blood pathogenic microorganism examination suggested that viral infection possibly occur. Electroencephalogram (EEG) showed that the lesions involved the right frontal pole-frontal area-temporal area; cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suggested that sinusitis and meningeal and hippocampal infections might be present. Although several antiepileptic drugs had been used, the convulsions could not be controlled, after combined with the application of midazolam and atracurium, the convulsions were controlled, in the mean time, antiviral drug, glucocorticoid and immunoglobulin and therapies for prevention of complications were applied. Forty-three days later, the patient's consciousness was recovered and muscle strength was gradually improved. Conclusion The combination of midazolam and atracurium is effective for controlling epileptic activities and alleviating sequelae in patients with SRSE and coma.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the reliability and accuracy of deep learning technology in automatic sex estimation using the 3D reconstructed images of the computed tomography (CT) from the Chinese Han population. METHODS: The pelvic CT images of 700 individuals (350 males and 350 females) of the Chinese Han population aged 20 to 85 years were collected and reconstructed into 3D virtual skeletal models. The feature region images of the medial aspect of the ischiopubic ramus (MIPR) were intercepted. The Inception v4 was adopted as the image recognition model, and two methods of initial learning and transfer learning were used for training. Eighty percent of the individuals' images were randomly selected as the training and validation dataset, and the remaining were used as the test dataset. The left and right sides of the MIPR images were trained separately and combinedly. Subsequently, the models' performance was evaluated by overall accuracy, female accuracy, male accuracy, etc. RESULTS: When both sides of the MIPR images were trained separately with initial learning, the overall accuracy of the right model was 95.7%, the female accuracy and male accuracy were both 95.7%; the overall accuracy of the left model was 92.1%, the female accuracy was 88.6% and the male accuracy was 95.7%. When the left and right MIPR images were combined to train with initial learning, the overall accuracy of the model was 94.6%, the female accuracy was 92.1% and the male accuracy was 97.1%. When the left and right MIPR images were combined to train with transfer learning, the model achieved an overall accuracy of 95.7%, and the female and male accuracies were both 95.7%. CONCLUSIONS The use of deep learning model of Inception v4 and transfer learning algorithm to construct a sex estimation model for pelvic MIPR images of Chinese Han population has high accuracy and well generalizability in human remains, which can effectively estimate the sex in adults.
Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Deep Learning ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Pelvis ; Reproducibility of Results ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Young Adult ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over