Objective To observe the effects of liver-discharging and stomach-harmonizing therapy on quality of life in senile patients with reflux esophagitis and to evaluate the therapeutic effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on chronic diseases. Methods Sixty patients with senile reflux esophagitis selected from in-patients and out-patients of Henan Province Hospital of TCM from March 2012 to October 2013 were randomly divided into experimental group and control group(each,30 patients). The experimental group was treated with Xiaoyao powder (its ingredients could be added or subtracted according to the patient's individual situation)combined with omeprazole and domperidone,while in the control group,only western drugs,omeprazole and domperidone were applied. The therapies in both groups lasting for 8 weeks constituted one therapeutic course. The MOS 36-item short form healthy survey(SF-36)was used to evaluate the degree of improvement of patients,quality of life,and clinical effects and adverse drug reaction were observed. Results The total scores of SF-36,physical and mental health scores of both groups were increased significantly,and the degree of elevation in scores in the experimental group was markedly higher than that in the control group(total scores of SF-36:124.2±11.5 vs. 117.1±10.9,physical health scores:67.9±5.3 vs. 62.9±6.2,mental health scores:56.1±6.7 vs. 55.0±6.6,all P<0.05). The total effective rate of experimental group was much superior to that of control group(96.7%vs. 80.0%,P<0.05). No obvious adverse reactions happened in the two groups. Conclusion Liver-discharging and stomach-harmonizing therapy can improve the quality of life in aged patients with reflux esophagitis.

The fibroblasts have long been considered as structural elements and playing a main role in wound healing. Recent studies indicated that fibroblasts are heterogenic cells and function as resident sentinel cells in inflammatory reaction. When activated by substances released during tissue injury or derived from infectious microorganisms or by proinflammatory cytokines, tissuespecific fibroblasts can transiently produce certain chemokines and initiate a cascade of inflammatory reaction. In addition fibroblasts can produce prostanoids that participate in inflammatory and immune responses. In this review, the new role of fibroblasts in regulation of inflammation and immune reactions and possible molecular mechanism will be discuss.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and possible mechanism of action of warm needling moxibustion combined with entecavir in the treatment of compensated cirrhosis due to chronic hepatitis B (CHB).Methods: Ninety patients were randomly divided into a control group and an observation group, with 45 patients in each group. The control group was given oral entecavir, and the observation group was given additional warm needling moxibustion. The serum alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), albumin (ALB) levels, portal vein internal diameter, splenic vein internal diameter, spleen thickness, and liver hardness were compared before and after treatment. The serum hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN), procollagen type Ⅲ (PCⅢ), type Ⅳ collagen (Ⅳ-C), interleukin (IL)-21, and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) levels were also measured. Results: After treatment, the serum ALT and AST levels decreased (P<0.05), and the serum ALB levels increased (P<0.05) in both groups. The serum ALT and AST levels were lower in the observation group than in the control group (P<0.05), and the ALB level was higher in the observation group (P<0.05). The portal vein internal diameter, splenic vein internal diameter, spleen thickness, and liver hardness values were reduced in both groups after treatment (P<0.05), and were lower in the observation group than in the control group (P<0.05). The serum HA, LN, PCⅢ, and Ⅳ-C levels were reduced in both groups (P<0.05), and were lower in the observation group than in the control group (P<0.05). In the control group, the serum IL-21 level decreased (P<0.05), but the serum PDGF level did not change significantly (P>0.05); in the observation group, the serum IL-21 and PDGF levels decreased significantly (P<0.05) and were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Warm needling moxibustion combined with entecavir treatment can improve liver function, reduce the inner diameters of the portal vein and splenic vein, spleen thickness, and liver hardness, and improve liver fibrosis indicators in patients with CHB cirrhosis, which may be related to the reduction of serum IL-21 and PDGF levels.

Objective To establish the chip technology‐based real‐time PCR (RT‐PCR) platform and to apply it in the viral loads detection of HIV‐1 and HCV .Methods Based on the primers designed to aim at the conversed regions of HIV‐1 and HCV , The gene chip tube was prepared ,and the RT‐PCR reaction system was established for the simultaneous determination of viral loads .And the melting curves were used to distinguish viral species .The sensitivity and specificity of the method were estimated , and performance of the method was verified by using clinical samples .Results The specificity of the method was good .The lowest detectable limit of the detection method of HCV and HIV‐1 was 1 × 103 copy/mL .The clinical samples with viral loads around 1 × 103 -1 × 106 copy/mL could be detected accurately .Conclusion The method provides a new idea for the detection of HCV and HIV‐1 .

This paper presents a probability segmentation algorithm for lung nodules based on three-dimensional features. Firstly, we computed intensity and texture features in region of interest (ROI) pixel by pixel to get their feature vector, and then classified all the pixels based on their feature vector. At last, we carried region growing on the classified result, and got the final segmentation result. Using the public Lung Imaging Database Consortium (LIDC) lung nodule datasets, we verified the performance of proposed method by comparing the probability map within LIDC datasets, which was drawn by four radiology doctors separately. The experimental results showed that the segmentation algorithm using three-dimensional intensity and texture features would be effective.
Algorithms ; Databases, Factual ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Lung ; pathology ; Probability

Integration of heterogeneous systems is the key to hospital information construction due to complexity of the healthcare environment. Currently, during the process of healthcare information system integration, people participating in integration project usually communicate by free-format document, which impairs the efficiency and adaptability of integration. A method utilizing business process model and notation (BPMN) to model integration requirement and automatically transforming it to executable integration configuration was proposed in this paper. Based on the method, a tool was developed to model integration requirement and transform it to integration configuration. In addition, an integration case in radiology scenario was used to verify the method.
Cooperative Behavior ; Health Information Systems ; Humans ; Models, Theoretical ; Systems Integration

Computer-aided detection (CAD) of pulmonary nodule technology can effectively assist the radiologist to enhance lung nodule detection efficiency and accuracy rate, so it can lay the foundation for the early diagnosis of lung cancer. In order to provide reference for the scholars and to develop the CAD technology, we in this paper review the technology research and development of CAD of the pulmonary nodules which is based on CT image in recent years both home and abroad. At the same time, we also analyse the advantages and shortcomings of different methods. Then we present the improvement direction for reference. According to the literature in recent years, there still has been large development space in CAD technology for pulmonary nodules. The establishment and improvement of the CAD system in each step would be of great scientific value.
Computer Systems ; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; Humans ; Lung ; pathology ; Lung Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Software ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Objective To observe the anti-atherosclerosis (AS) mechanisms of Shuxinwenban granules by observing its effects on the serum level of MMP-9, the expression of VEGF and the formation of the plaques in rabbits. Methods Totally 40 healthy female and male rabbits were divided into control group, model group, Shuxinwenban granules group and Simvastatin group. Control group was treated with basic diet, and other groups were treated with high cholesterol diet for 12 weeks to make AS rabbit models. The treatment groups were given corresponding drugs by gavage for 4 weeks. The serum levels of MMP-9 in rabbits were detected by double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent method and the surface density of VEGF in the atherosclerotic plaques by immunohistochemical staining, at the same time, the pathological changes of the aorta and atheroclerotic plaques were observed. Results Compared with the model group, Shuxinwenban granules significantly decreased the serum levels of MMP-9, and the difference was statistically significant (P <0.01). Similarly, Shuxinwenban granules could significantly decrease the surface density of VEGF in atherosclerotic plaques, the difference was also statistically significant (P<0.01). Pathology showed that the intervention of Shuxinwenban granules decreased the area of atherosclerotic plaque, caused the plaque to smaller and thinner. Conclusion Shuxinwenban granules blocked the inflammatory response by inhibiting the expression of VEGF in atherosclerotic plaque and decreasing the levels of MMP-9 in serum, which lessened the formation of the atherosclerotic plaques.

Objective To study the effect of mechanical ventilation guided by esophageal pressure on hemodynamics and oxygen metabolism of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) swine model with intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) Methods By self-controlled study,SAP model was made by infusing sodium taurocholate (5％) into the pancreatic duct in 6 domestic swine.Mechanical ventilator mode was volumeassist control with tidal volume 10 ml/kg ; FiO2 40％ and PEEP 5 cm H2O (routine ventilation) given to SAP model swine.After 3 h ventilation,pneumo-peritoneum was made with N2 gas to increase the intraabdominal pressure (IAP) to 25 mm Hg in SAP swine.Three more hours later,PEEP was adjusted as the measurement of esophageal pressure (Pes guided ventilation) to such a level that trans-pulmonary pressure stayed above 0 cm H2O during end-expiratory occlusion.During the investigation period,heart rate (HR),cardiac output index (CI),central venous pressure (CVP),mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP) were continuously recorded with the aid of Swan-Ganz catheter and ECG monitor,and oxygen partial pressure of artery (PaO2) and carbon dioxide partial pressure of artery (PaCO2) were measured by blood-gas analysis.In addition,systemic oxygen delivery (DO2) and systemic oxygen consumption (VO2) were calculated by using the data of blood-gas analysis of arterial and central venous blood.Results No swine model was subjected to barotrauma.After routine mechanical ventilation,there were significant differences in HR,CI,MAP,CVP,PAWP,Ppeak,Pplat,Pes,pulmonary compliance (Cstat),PaO2,and DO2 between SAP and IAH in swine (all P ＜ 0.05).Compared with routine ventilation,however,PaO2 and Cstat improved significantly with lower CI and increased Pplat after PEEP adjusted according to measurements of esophageal pressure (all P ＜ 0.05).The lactate decreased significantly after esophageal pressure guided ventilation (all P ＜ 0.05).There were no significant changes in PaCO2,HR,MAP,CVP and PAWP in IAH swine after mechanical ventilation with routine parameters (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions There were remarkable effects on oxygen metabolism in response to mechanical ventilation guided by esophageal pressure.In case of clinical application of mechanical ventilation,the results of this study are in favor of setting transpulmonary pressure according to measurements of esophageal pressure in SAP patients with IAH in an early stage.