Objective Speckle is the inherent problem exists in B-Mode ultrasound image,and effective speckle noise reduction will improve the image quality and contribute greatly to clinical doctors to diagnose,especially in fine ophthalmic examination with high frequency ultrasound.Methods This paper proposed a new speckle reduction method based on the Laplacian pyramid and multiscale analysis.In the Laplacian pyramid,true clinical features were separated from noise,according to the different bandpass ultrasound image characteristics in each layer,and the advanced eight directions speckle reduction anisotropic diffusion (SRAD)was adapted to suppressed the speckle noise,and the identified noise and the extracted features were selectively emphasized by suitable edge,coherence and contrast enhancement filtering from fine to coarse scales.The performance of the proposed method was compared to the traditional SRAD method and coherence-enhancing diffusion method by measuring the equivalent number of looks (ENL) and Time cost.Results The ENL and Time cost value of the proposed method were higher compared to the SRAD and the cedif method,i.e 1.172 3 vs 1.122 3,0.929 3 and 0.864 0 vs 1.396 0,1.468 3.Conclusions In summary,the proposed method can more effectively remove the speckle noise while preserving the edge and details of the images.

OBJECTIVETo observe preventive and therapeutic effect of Yifei Jianpi Recipe (YJR) on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) model rats and to explore its mechanism from the way of airway inflammation and airway mucus hypersecretion.

METHODSThe COPD rat model was established by using cigarette smoking combined with intratracheal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Male SD rats were randomly divided into the blank control group (control group), the model group, the YJR group, 6 in each group. Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 0. 1 second (FEV0. 1), FEVO. 1/FVC, peak expiratory flow (PEF) was tested by lung function device. Pathological changes of bronchi and lung tissues were observed by HE staining. Airway Goblet cells were observed using AB-PAS staining. Contents of IL-8, IL-17, and TNF-α in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Protein expressions of intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), nuclear factor KB (NF-KB), mucin 5AC (Muc5AC), and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in rat airway were detected by immunohistochemical assay. mRNA expressions of TLR4 and Muc5AC in bronchi and lung tissues were detected by real-time quantitative PCR (RT qPCR).

RESULTSChanges of bronchi and lung tissues in the model group rats were consistent with typical pathological manifestations of COPD. Compared with the model group, the degree of lung injury was significantly alleviated in the YJR group. Compared with the control group, FVC, FEV0. 1, FEVO. I/FVC, and PEF were decreased (P <0. 01), contents of IL-8, IL-17, and TNF-α in BALF were significantly increased (P <0. 01), protein expressions of ICAM-1, NF-KB, Muc5AC, and TLR4, mRNA expression levels of Muc5AC and TLR4 in bronchi and lung tissues were also significantly increased in the model group (P <0. 01). Compared with the model group, FVC, FEV0. 1, FEV0. 1/FVC, and PEF were significantly increased in the YJR group (P <0. 01, P <0. 05), but the rest indices were significantly lowered (P <0. 01, P <0. 05).

CONCLUSIONYJR could decrease contents of IL-8, IL-17, and TNF-α in BALF of COPD model rats, inhibit protein expression levels of ICAM-1, NF-κB, Muc5AC, and TLR4.in airway and lung tissues, thus playing preventive and therapeutic roles by reducing airway inflammation and airway mucus hypersecretion.

Animals ; Bronchi ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Inflammation ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 ; metabolism ; Interleukin-17 ; metabolism ; Interleukin-8 ; metabolism ; Lipopolysaccharides ; Lung ; Male ; Models, Animal ; Mucin 5AC ; metabolism ; Mucus ; metabolism ; NF-kappa B ; metabolism ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; drug therapy ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Toll-Like Receptor 4 ; metabolism ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; metabolism

ObjectiveTo determine the impact of lupus flares on maternal and fetal outcomes in pregnant patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE).MethodsData was obtained from 46 pregnancies of 44 pregnant women with SLE.The relationship between lupus flares and pregnant outcomes,and the risk factors for adverse maternal and fetal prognosis were analyzed.T-test,X2 test or Fisher's exact test and Logistic regression were used for statistical analysis.Results① Lupus flares occurred in19(41％)pregnancies(group A) and stable lupus disease was observed in 27(59％) pregnancies(group B) during pregnancy.Compared to pregnancies in patients with stable lupus disease at the conception(n=32),pregnancies in patients with unstable lupus disease at the conception(n=8) had higher lupus flare during pregnancy( 100％ vs 16％,P＜0.05).(②) The common manifestations of lupus flares during pregnancy were lupus nephritis (LN) (11 cases),skin rashes (10 cases),arthritis (7 cases),and the common complication was infection ( 11 cases).(③) The incidence of premature labor,fetal growth retardation (FGR) and fetal loss in group A was 42％,47％ and 26％ respectively,which was significantly higher than that of the group B (7％,15％ and 0 respectively)(P＜0.05).There was no difference in the incidence of preeclampsia,fetal distress and neonatal asphyxia between the two groups ( 16％ vs 7％,16％ vs 19％,5％ vs O,respectively,P＞0.05).The incidence of premature labor and FGR in patients with active LN was higher than that of patients without active LN (55％ vs 11％,64％ vs 17％,respectively,P＜0.05).(④)The binary Logistic regression analysis showed that renal impairment,hypocomplementemia,aPL and serum urea nitrogen level were independent risk factors for premature delivery,FGR,fetal loss and fetal distress.Conclusion(①) Lupus flares during pregnancy increase the incidence of premature labor,FGR and fetal loss.Active LN during pregnancy can increase the incidence of premature labor and FGR.② Renal impairment,hypocomplementemia,aPL and serum urea nitrogen level are associated with adverse fetal outcomes in pregnant patients with SLE.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effect and safety of L-carnitine in the treatment of idiopathic oligoasthenozoospermia based on current clinical evidence.

METHODSWe searched the Cochrane Library, PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CNKI, VIP, CBM and Wanfang Database from the establishment to April 2014 for the published literature on the treatment of idiopathic oligoasthenozoospermia with L-carnitine. We conducted literature screening, data extraction, and assessment of the methodological quality of the included trials according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, followed by statistical analysis with the RevMan 5. 2 software.

RESULTSSeven randomized controlled trials involving 751 patients with idiopathic oligoasthenozoospermia met the inclusion criteria, and 678 of them were included in the meta-analysis. L-carnitine treatment achieved a significantly increased rate of spontaneous pregnancy as compared with the control group (RR = 3.2, 95% CI 1.74 to 5.87, P = 0.0002). After 12-16 and 24-26 weeks of medication, total sperm motility (WMD = 5.21, 95% CI 2.78 to 7.64, P < 0.0001 and WMD = 9.29, 95% CI 1.28 to 17.29, P = 0.02) and the percentage of progressively motile sperm (WMD = 12.44, 95% CI 4.58 to 20.31, P = 0.002 and WMD = 9.76, 95% CI 3.56 to 15.97, P = 0.002) were remarkably higher than those in the control group, but no statistically significant differences were observed in sperm concentration between the two groups (WMD = 4.91, 95% CI -2.63 to 12.45, P = 0.2 and WMD = 0.93, 95% CI -3.48 to 5.34, P = 0.68). After 12-16 weeks of treatment, the percentage of morphologically abnormal sperm was markedly decreased in the L-carnitine group as compared with the control (WMD = -2.48, 95% CI -4.35 to -0.61, P = 0.009), but showed no significant difference from the latter group after 24-26 weeks (WMD = -4.38, 95% CI -9.66 to 0.89, P = 0.1). No statistically significant difference was found in the semen volume between the two groups after 12-16 or 24-26 weeks of medication (WMD = -0.13, 95% CI -0.43 to 0.18, P = 0.42 and WMD = 0.28, 95% CI -0.02 to 0.58, P = 0.07). No serious L-carnitine-related adverse events were reported in 4 of the randomniized controlled trials.

CONCLUSIONThe current evidence indicates that L-carnitine can improve spontaneous pregnancy and semen parameters in the treatment of idiopathic oligoasthenozoospermia, with no serious adverse reactions.

Asthenozoospermia ; drug therapy ; Carnitine ; adverse effects ; pharmacology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Rate ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Semen Analysis ; Sperm Count ; Sperm Motility

OBJECTIVETo design and improve signal processing algorithms of ophthalmic ultrasonography based on FPGA.

METHODSAchieved three signal processing modules: full parallel distributed dynamic filter, digital quadrature demodulation, logarithmic compression, using Verilog HDL hardware language in Quartus II.

RESULTSCompared to the original system, the hardware cost is reduced, the whole image shows clearer and more information of the deep eyeball contained in the image, the depth of detection increases from 5 cm to 6 cm.

CONCLUSIONThe new algorithms meet the design requirements and achieve the system's optimization that they can effectively improve the image quality of existing equipment.

Algorithms ; Data Compression ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Ophthalmology ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Ultrasonography

This study was to investigate the permeability and absorbability of capsaicin cubosome across abdominal skin of the SD rats in vitro. Diffusion of capsaicin cubosome and cream was performed with the modified Franz diffusion cell technique. The capsaicin cubosome showed no enhancement of skin permeation within 24 hours. However, the deposition amounts of capsaicin in the rat skin in the cubosome group was markedly higher than those in the commercial cream group (P < 0.01). Cubosome showed excellent characetristic of skin-targed which could be a good carrier for the local transdermal drug delivery system.
Administration, Cutaneous ; Animals ; Capsaicin ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Kinetics ; Male ; Particle Size ; Permeability ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Skin ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Skin Absorption

Objective To explore the role of Clara cell secretory protein(CCSP) in asthmatic children and compare the levels of CCSP in sera and induced sputum.Methods Thirty-four children with asthma who were in remission and 25 healthy controls were enrolled.Sera and hypertonic saline-induced sputum were obtained in asthmatic children,and sera alone were obtained in control subjects.The le-(vels) of CCSP were measured in sera and induced sputum by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.Results Asthmatic children,compared with controls,had significantly lower concentration of CCSP in sera(P

OBJECTIVETo investigate the impact of erlotinib as a second or third line treatment on the symptoms and quality of life (QOL) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSFifty patients with stage III b and IV NSCLC, treated previously with at least one regimen of platinum-based chemotherapy, received 150 mg of erlotinib orally, once a day till disease progression. QOL was assessed by European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 and the lung cancer module (QLQ-LC13). The primary end points for QOL analysis were time to deterioration of three common lung cancer symptoms: cough, dyspnea and pain.

RESULTSAmong 47 evaluable cases, there were partial remission (PR) in 18 cases, stable disease (SD) in 21 cases, and progressive disease (PD) in 8 cases. After two cycles of treatment, the mean scores of global QOL and all 5 functioning scales except the cognitive function increased significantly (P < 0.05). Mean scores of major general symptoms, hypodynamia and anorexia, and disease-related symptoms alleviated significantly. Both response rates of five functioning and global QOL were more than 44% after erlotinib treatment. Response rates of major general symptoms and disease-related symptoms varied from 14% to 76%. Patients with complete or partial response likely had improvement in the QOL response (P < 0.05), and the time to major symptom deterioration in those were significantly longer (P < 0.001) than that in patients with stable or even progressive disease.

CONCLUSIONErlotinib is effective to improve not only survival, but also tumor-related symptoms and quality of life in patients with advanced NSCLC previously treated with cisplatin-contained regimens. The improvement in the quality of life is positively correlated with objective tumor response.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Disease Progression ; Erlotinib Hydrochloride ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Quality of Life ; Quinazolines ; therapeutic use ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; antagonists & inhibitors ; therapeutic use ; Remission Induction ; Salvage Therapy ; Treatment Failure

The change of yield and contents. of active compositions were studied while the fibrous roots were decayed naturally. HPLC method was used to detect the contents of active composition. The results show that fibrousroots could decrease the production of plant by 38.60% (20 g) and 30.99% (40 g), respectively. Treatment 1 could increase the contents of dihydrotanshinone and cryptotanshinone of Salvia miltiorrhiza f. alba by 26.08% and 22.64%, respectively. Compared with the comparison, treatment 2 decreased the contents of ihydrotanshinone, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I and tanshinone II(A) of S. miltiorrhiza f. alba by 60.87%, 79.24%, 84.61% and 88.99%, respectively. Meanwhile, the total contents of the liposoluble constituents reduced by 86.27%. The different concentration of fibrousroots could increase the content of salvianolic acid B by 4.98% (20 g) and 23.64% (40 g), respectively. Meanwhile, the content of rosemary acid was increased by 4.98% (20 g) and 23.64% (40 g), respectively. The content of water-soluble constituents positively correlated to the mount of added fibrousroots, and the change was significantly. The result indicted that the decay of fibrousroots has a significant impact on the growth and the content of the active composition of S. miltiorrhiza f. alba under the condition of continuous cropping. Fibrousroots could decrease the content of biomass and liposoluble constituents significantly, which maybe one of the main factors to S. miltiorrhiza f. alba continuous cropping obstacle formation.
Benzofurans ; analysis ; Biomass ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Diterpenes, Abietane ; analysis ; Plant Roots ; metabolism ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; chemistry ; growth & development

In the study, the effects of Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) on alveolar epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and extracellular matrix degradation were observed in a type of human alveolar epithelial cell, A549 cells, stimulated by TGF-beta1. Firstly, MTT method was applied to evaluation of cellular proliferation and found that PNS from 12.5 mg x L(-1) to 200 mg x L(-1) dosage could not inhibit significantly cellular proliferation. Then, cells were divided into five groups, normal group, TGF-beta1 group, TGF-beta1 + 50 mg x L(-1) PNS group, TGF-beta1 + 100 mg x L(-1) PNS group and TGF-beta1 + 200 mg x L(-1) PNS group. Normal cells were not stimulatec by TGF-beta1; TGF-beta1 cells were only stimulated by TGF-beta1 and the other cells were stimulated by TGF-beta1 with different doses of PNS, respectively. After stimulation, cells and supernatants were collected for assays. Cellular roundness was applied to quantitative evaluation of morphological change. Immunocytochemistry was applied to examine E-cadherion, a-SMA and FN proteins expression in the cells. Enzyme linked-immunosorbent assay was applied to MMP-9 and TIMP-1 levels. The results showed that EMT of A549 cells was induced by TGF-beta1, showing significant change of roundness, E-cadherion, alpha-SMA and FN (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Compared to TGF-beta1, PNS significantly inhibited the changes of roundness (P < 0.05), FN and alpha-SMA (P < 0.05, P < 0.01) and not significantly inhibited the change of E-cadherion. Furthermore, MMP-9 levels were significantly increased by TGFbeta1 stimulation (P < 0.05), without significant change of TIMP-1. Compared with TGF-beta1, PNS could significantly increase MMP-9 level (P < 0.05) and decrease TIMP-1 levels (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). In conclusion, PNS could inhibit alveolar epithelial cell EMT induced by TGF-beta1, with increase of extracellular matrix degradation ability, which showed anti-fibrosis of lung ability.
Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition ; drug effects ; Humans ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 ; metabolism ; Panax notoginseng ; chemistry ; Pulmonary Alveoli ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Saponins ; pharmacology ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; metabolism