Objective To invesitgate the relationship between 8-iseprostane (8-iso-PG) level in exhaled breath condensates (EBCs) and severity of asthma and explore the role of 8-iso-PG in asthma evaluation and monitoring.Methods Fifty-nine patients with asthma were enrolled.In which 15 eases were acute exacerbation, 13 eases were mild intermittent, 15 eases were mild persistent, and 16 eases were mederate-to-severe persistent.Thirteen healthy volunteers were recruited as control.EBCs were collected using EeoSereen system.The 8-iso-PG levels in EBCs were measured by a specific enzyme immunoassay.The patients with mild intermittent asthma were treated with inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) for one month and their EBCs were recollected for 8-iso-PG measurement.Results Exhaled 8-iso-PG levels were obviously increased in the patients with acute asthma compared with those chronic asthmatics [(47.2±6.8) pg/mL vs (24.5±12.0) pg/mL, P < 0.01].In the chronic persistent asthma, the levels were significantly higher in patients with mild persistent and moderate-to-severe asthma [(17.9±1.2) pg/mL and (39.7±4.0) pg/mL, P <0.01].While 8-iso-PG level did not differ significantly in intermittent asthma [(13.5±1.1) pg/mL] compared with the control subjects (P > 0.05).After one-month ICS treatment the 8-iso-PG level in the patients with mild intermittent asthma did not change significantly although the ACT score improved.Conclusions 8-iso-PG levels in EBC are associated with the severity of asthma,implicating 8-iso-PG may be useful in monitoring airway oxidative stress in asthma.ICS treatment is incapable of decreasing the 8-iso-PG,suggesting the ICS has minor impact on oxidative stress.

Objective:To investigate the value of fetal heart quantification (fetal HQ) in assessing ventricular function of fetuses with small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and fetal growth restriction (FGR).Methods:A total of 152 singleton pregnancies with estimated fetal weight (EFW) or abdominal circumference less than the 10th percentile in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were prospectively selected from August 2022 to September 2023, where fetal EFW or abdominal circumference were in the 3rd to 9th percentile with normal Doppler findings were classified as the SGA group ( n=79), and the rest as the FGR group ( n=73). In the same period, 161 cases of normal single fetuses were matched as the control group.Based on the gestational week in which FGR occurred, the FGR group were categorized into the early-onset group (<32 weeks, n=46) and the late-onset group (≥32 weeks, n=27), and fetuses in the FGR group with absent end-diastolic velocity of the umbilical artery were defined as severe FGR ( n=11), and the rest as mild FGR ( n=62). Fetal ventricular fractional area change (FAC), global longitudinal strain (GLS), longitudinal fractional shortening (LFS) and 24-segment fractional shortening (FS) were obtained by fetal HQ. The cardiac systolic function between groups were compared, the correlations between each parameter and gestational week were analyzed, the inter-observer and intra-observer repeatability tests were performed. Results:Compared with the control group, ventricular FAC, LFS, and GLS were lower in the SGA and the FGR group, right ventricular FS of segments 9-24 were reduced in the SGA group, and left ventricular FS of segments 10-19, 21-24 and right ventricular FS of segments 18-24 were reduced in the FGR group, the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). Left ventricular GLS, LFS and right ventricular FAC, GLS, LFS, FS of segments 1-14 were lower in the severe FGR group than in the mild FGR group, the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). The values of left ventricular GLS and LFS were higher in the early-onset FGR group than in the late-onset FGR group, the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). The ROC showed that the ventricular systolic function parameters predicted adverse perinatal outcomes with an AUC>0.6 (all P<0.05). Left ventricular GLS and right ventricular partial-segments FS were no correlations with gestational week in the FGR group (-0.3< rs<0.3, all P<0.05). There was no correlation between the parameters and gestational week in the SGA group (all P>0.05). The inter-observer and intra-observer intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were >0.75, with good reproducibility. Conclusions:Fetal HQ can quantitatively assess the changes of ventricular function in SGA and FGR fetuses, and the ventricular overall, longitudinal and localized contractile function in SGA and FGR fetuses are reduced, and abnormal ventricular systolic function is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes.

Objective To evaluate the characteristics of spatial distribution and time accumulation of impact acceleration at different parts of human body during backward falling process. Methods Four healthy men and four healthy women (20-20 years old) were enrolled. The tri-axial acceleration on head, chest, left/right arm/hand/foot, left/right front/back hip, left/right femur head, sacrum and coccyx throughout the backward falling were measured by ADXL335 tri-axial acceleration sensor. Systemic acceleration distribution of backward falling was polynomial fitted by signal magnitude vector (SMV) of its first peak. Besides, parameters of impulse mechanics such as zero-g time, total falling time, peak SMV, relative pressure impulse of the vulnerable sites (head, hip and its related sites) were also calculated. Results Compared with the other parts of the body, the peak SMV and relative impulses of left/right back hip and head were significantly higher (P＜0.05). Acceleration that paralleled to the ground in left/right back hip was also relatively large. The rotational transform angles of left/right back hip, left/right femur head, sacrum and coccyx were significantly larger (P＜0.05). In addition, during the process of falling backward to the ground, a sliding tendency toward the sagittal plane 53.58°±6.75° occurred at all testing sites. Conclusions Head and hips are vulnerable during backward falling, and their zero-g time (0.26±0.05) s can be used as the longest starting time of falling protection devices. The large change angle of left/right hip, left/right femoral head, sacrum and coccyx may be the important cause of the sprain during backward falling.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the change of pulmonary ventilation function in patients with simple type and complex type pneumoconiosis based on high resolution computed tomography(HRCT). METHODS: A total of 188 male patients with pneumoconiosis were selected as the study subjects by judgment sampling method. Patients were divided them into simple type group(104 cases) and complex type group(84 cases) according to their chest HRCT findings. Another 80 healthy men who have no dust and other occupational hazard exposure were selected as the control group. The lung function tests were performed in patients in these three groups. RESULTS: The indexes of pulmonary function including vital capacity, forced vital capacity(FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second(FEV_1), FEV_1/FVC%, peak expiratory flow, forced expiratory flow at 25% of FVC exhaled, forced expiratory flow at 50% of FVC exhaled, forced expiratory flow at 75% of FVC exhaled and forced expiratory flow at 25% to 75% of vital capacity were lower in patients with pneumoconiosis of simple type and complex type groups than that in the control group(all P<0.01). The above indexes in the complex type group were lower than that in the simple type group(all P<0.01). The detection rate of pulmonary ventilation dysfunction in patients with pneumoconiosis was 64.9%. Among them, the detection rate of obstructive, restrictive and mixed ventilation dysfunction were 33.5%, 5.3% and 26.1%, respectively. The detection rates of pulmonary ventilation dysfunction and mixed ventilation dysfunction were higher in complex type group than that in simple type group(82.1% vs 51.0%, 41.7% vs 13.5%, all P<0.01). The severe and extremely severe pulmonary ventilation dysfunction was higher in complex type group than that in simple group(20.2% vs 8.6%, 21.4% vs 3.8%, all P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The types of pulmonary ventilation dysfunction in patients with pneumoconiosis are mainly obstructive and mixed. The pulmonary ventilation dysfunction tends to develop from obstructive to mixed with the increasing severity of pneumoconiosis. The pulmonary ventilation dysfunction in patients with complex type pneumoconiosis is more serious than that in patients with simple type pneumoconiosis. The HRCT image classification is related to the status of patients' pulmonary ventilation dysfunction.