Objective To develop a virtual endoscopy system which can be integrated into PACS.Methods Key techniques on virtual endoscopy were researched and we implemented a virtual endoscopy system with the help of the Visualization Toolkit VTK.Results The Virtual endoscopy system was integrated into PACS and the post-processing function of PACS was advanced.Conclusion As a novel medical image post-processing technology,virtual endoscopy provides a completely non-invaded inspection,so it has broad application prospects in the computer-aided medical teaching,surgical navigation,surgical planning and clinical diagnosis.

ADAMs is a family of transmembrane proteins with multi domains and multiple functions,which play important roles in many(patho-)physiological processes.They are upregulated in a variety of tumors and possess protein shedding and adhesive activities,which showed that they could be useful as tumor biomarkers and promising targets for designing new anti-tumor drugs.This review focuses on the roles ADAMs play in the process of tumor development and the potential application in cancer therapy.

Objective To investigate the relation between the expression of Caspase recruitment domain-containing membrane-associated guanylate kinase protein 1 (CARMA1),clinicopathological features of gastrointestinal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma,diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL),and Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori) infection.Methods From January 1999 to March 2011,34 patients with DLBCL and 20 patients with MALT lymphoma were selected,and at same period 21 cases with reactive hyperplasia of gastrointestinal lymphoid tissue were enrolled in as control.The expression of CARMA1,Ki-67 and cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA) at protein level were examined by immunohistochemistry.The relative expression quantity of CARMA1 mRNA was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).The condition of H.pylori infection in 25 gastric lymphoma and 10 controls was detected by methylene boric acid and blue staining or semi-nested PCR.Chi-square test was used for counting data analysis,t test for measurement data.Multivariate COX regression analysis was implemented for survival analysis.Survival curve was drawn by Kaplan-Meier method and analyzed by Log-rank test.Results The relative expression quantity of CARMA1 mRNA of 28 patients with DLBLC (3.073±1.846) was higher than that of 14 patients with MALT lymphoma,and the difference was statistically significant (F 0.975,P＜ 0.05).The positive rate of CARMA1 expression at protein level of gastrointestinal lymphoma group (75.9 ％,41/54) was higher than that of control group (47.6％,10/21),and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =5.568,P＜0.05),and the positive rate of CARMA1 expression of MALT lymphoma group (11/20) was lower than that of DLBCL group (88.2％,30/34),and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =5.900,P＜0.05).Among 42 patients with gastrointestinal lymphoma who received surgery,the relative expression quantity of CARMA1 mRNA in cases with high proliferation (2.885±1.837) was higher than that in cases with low proliferation.The expression of CARMA1 mRNA in the cases at advanced stage of the disease (4.416± 1.010) was higher than that in cases at early stage,and the difference was statistically significant (F=3.317 and 2.972,both P＜0.05).Among 54 patients with gastrointestinal lymphoma,the positive rate of CARMA1 expression at protein level of patients with high proliferation (88.6％,31/35) was higher that that of patients with low proliferation (10/19),and the difference was statistically significant (x22 ＝ 6.847,P＜0.05).There were no significant differences in relative expression quantity of CARMA1 mRNA and the positive rate of CARMA1 expression at protein level between 11 gastric lymphoma patients without H.pylori infection and 14 gastric lymphoma patients with H.pylori infection (both P＞0.05).The positive rate of CARMA1 expression at protein level of CagA positive and CagA negative H.pylori infected gastric lymphoma patients was 11/11 and 2/3.The expression of CARMA1 at protein level was correlated with the prognosis of gastrointestinal lymphoma (RR＝4.160,P＜0.05).In the 29 cases of patients with gastrointestinal MALT lymphoma and 18 cases of patients with DLBCL who were followed up,the survival situation of gastrointestinal lymphoma patients with CARMA1 positive expression rate over 50％ was worse than that of patients with the rate less than 50％,and the difference was statistically significant (x2=5.383 and 4.028,both P＜0.05).Conclusions CARMA1 might be involved in the pathogenesis and progression of MALT and DLBCL; and it might be a related factor of poor prognosis.There was no correlation between the expression of CARMA1 and H.pylori infection in these two lymphomas.

Objective:To investigate the craniofacial features in patients with cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD).Methods:The facial features,cervical vertebral bone age and skeletal abnormalities of 8 patients with CCD were studied by analyzing facial photos,cephalo-metric and panoramic radiographs.Results:4 patients were in the early growth stage and the other 4 in the late period of development. The bossing forehead and inclined eye fissure were observed in all patients,but underdevelopment of midfaces were not obviously pres-ented in younger patients.Morphological abnormalities of craniofacial bones,such as ascending ramus,coronoid process,nasal bones and disappearence of gonial angle were observed in all patients.Conclusion:Some craniofacial malformations in patients with CCD may be presented earlier than underdeveloped midface,which can be helpful for early diagnosis of CCD.

Objective: Real time medical image registration technique is one of the key techniques in image based surgery navi-gation system. While in medical image analysis, image registration is usually a very time-cousuming operation, and this is not conducive to clinical real-time requirements. This paper studies and realizes the acceleration of the process of image registra-tion. Methods: In order to improve the regisWation rate, in this paper, we propose a new technology which is based on CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) programming model to accelerate the process of registration in hardware, using paral-lel methods to achieve pixel coordinate transformation, linear interpolation, and calculate the corresponding pixel gray value residuals. Results: The registration is up to the sub-pixel level and the GPU-based registration is dozens or even hundreds of times faster than CPU-based registration. Conclusions: This method greatly enhances the speed of rigid registration without changing the alignment accuracy.

Objective: 3D segmentation is an important part of medical image analysis and visualization. It also continues to be large challenge in the medical image segmentation. While level sets have demonstrated a great potential for 3D medical image segmentation, these algorithms have a large computational burden thus are not suitable for real time processing requirement. To solve this problem, we propose a parallel accerelated method based on CUDA. Methods: We implement C-V level set algorithm in the CUDA environment which is the NVIDIA's GPGPU model.The segmentation speed can greatly improved by using independence of image pixel and concurrence of partial differential equation .The paper shows the flow chart of the parallel computing and gives the detailed introduction of the C-V level set algorithm which is implemented in the CUDA environment. Results: Realizing the C-V level set parallel accerelated algorithm. This method has faster segmentation speed while preserving the qualitative results, Conclusions: This method is viable and makes the fast 3D medical image segmentation come hue.

Objective To observe the effect of low molecular weight heparin calcium combined with astraga-lus injection in the treatment of diabetic nephropathy.Methods From January 2013 to December 2014,78 patients with stage III diabetic nephropathy in our hospital were enrolled into the study.They were randomly divided into con-trol group(41 cases) and treatment group(37 cases).The control group received general therapy,such as low protein diets,compound alpha keto acid,insulin,irbesartan,simvastatin.The treatment group was treated with low molecular weight heparin calcium and astragalus injection on the basis of general therapy.The changes of urinary albumin and 24 hours urinary protein after treatment in the two groups were observed.Results After treatment,the negative rate of urinary micro albumin in the treatment group ( 75.68%) was significantly higher than that of the control group (29.27%)(χ2 =16.765,P<0.01).24 hour urinary protein of the treatment group[(176.2 ±82.3)mg/24h]was significantly lower than that of the control group[(223.8 ±87.8)mg/24h](t=2.471,P<0.05).Conclusion Low molecular weight heparin calcium combined with astragalus injection can reduce the proteinuria of diabetic nephropa-thy,it is an effective intervention therapy for early diabetic nephropathy.

Objective To observe the effect of hydrogen on ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced oxidative damage to skin fibroblasts.Methods Primary human skin fibroblasts from foreskin tissues were divided into five groups:normal control group receiving no treatment,hydrogen control group treated with hydrogen-rich saline,UVB group receiving irradiation only,post-treatment group irradiated with UVB followed by hydrogen-rich saline treatment,and pre-treatment group treated with hydrogen-rich saline followed by UVB irradiation.The dose of UVB was 30,60 and 90 mJ/cm2 in the cell proliferation assay and 90 mJ/cm2 in the other experiments.Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay was performed to evaluate the proliferative activity of fibroblasts,a chemiluminescence method to estimate the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase as well as to determine the level of malondialdehyde in the culture supernatant of fibroblasts,enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the supernatant level of 8-isoprostane-prostaglandin F2α (8-iso-PGF2α),Western blot to detect the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in fibroblasts.One-factor analysis of variance was conducted to assess differences in these parameters among these groups.Results UVB irradiation decreased the proliferative activity (absorbence value at 490 nm) of fibroblasts in a dose-dependent manner.Both the pre-treatment group and post-treatment group showed a statistical increase in proliferative activity of cells compared with the corresponding UVB control groups (all P ＜ 0.05).The activity of SOD and catalase as well as the protein expression of HO-1 were significantly higher (all P ＜ 0.05),whereas the supernatant levels of malondialdehyde and 8-iso-PGF2α were statistically lower (both P ＜ 0.05) in the pre-treatment group and post-treatment group than in the UVB control group.Conclusion Hydrogen may mitigate UVB-induced oxidative damage to skin fibroblasts.

Objective To investigate the mechanisms of nitric oxide (NO) in decreasing intestinal mesenteric arterial hypocontractility in rats with hepatic cirrhosis and portal hypertension,and to analyze the interaction of NO and RhoA/ROCK pathway.Methods The levels of NO in the peripheral blood and mesenteric artery of normal rats (normal control group,5 rats),rats with portal hypertension (experimental control group,6 rats)and rats with portal hypertension treated by L-NAME (L-NAME group,6 rats) were detected.Mesenteric arteriole contractility to norepinephrine in the 3 groups was determined using a vessel perfusion system.The expressions of proteins of NO-cGMP-PKG pathway and RhoA/ROCK pathway in the 3 groups were detected by Western blot.All data were analyzed using the analysis of variance or LSD-t test.The changes of mesenteric arteriole contractility to norepinephrine was expressed in dose-response curve,and was analyzed using the nonlinear regression method,and the EC50 value was calculated.Results (1) The pressures of portal veins of the normal control group,experimental control group and L-NAME group were (6.2 ± 0.9)mm Hg (1 mm Hg =0.133 kPa),(13.9 ± 1.7)mm Hg and (16.6 ± 1.3) mm Hg,respectively,with a significant difference among the 3 groups (F =94.4,P ＜ 0.05).(2) The levels of NO in the normal control group,experimental control group and L-NAME group were (43 ± 5) μmol/L,(82 ± 16) μmol/L and (45 ± 9) μmol/L,respectively,with a significant difference among the 3 groups (F =24.77,P ＜ 0.05).The level of NO of the L-NAME group was significantly lower than that of the experimental control group (P ＜ 0.05).(3) The levels of NO in the mesenteric artery of the normal control group,experimental control group and L-NAME group were (236 ±41) μmol/g,(407 ± 82) μmol/g and (216 ± 42) μmol/g,respectively,with a significant difference among the 3 groups (F =20.29,P ＜ 0.05).The NO level of the L-NAME group was significantly lower than that of the experimental control group (P ＜ 0.05).(4) Compared with the experimental control group,the dose-response curve of mesenteric arterioles to norepinephrine shifted to the left,while it did not reach the level of the normal control group.The levels of EC50 of the normal control group,experimental control group and the L-NAME group were 6.458 × 10-7 mol,9.546 × 10-7 mol and 7.494 × 10-7 mol,respectively.There was a significant difference in the EC50 level between the L-NAME group and the other two group (t =2.726,3.112,P ＜ 0.05).(5) Compared with the normal control group,the protein expression levels of eNOS and p-VASP of mesenteric artery of the experimental control group were significantly increased (P ＜ 0.05),while they were decreased in the L-NAME group (P ＜ 0.05).The protein expression levels of eNOS and p-VASP of mesenteric artery of the L-NAME group were significantly higher than those of the normal control group (P ＜0.05).There were no obvious changes of protein expression levels of PKG-1,ROCK-1 and p-moesin in the 3 groups (P ＞ 0.05).(6) The activity of ROCK-1 was significantly increased with norepinephrine stimulation in the normal control group and the L-NAME group,while no obvious changes were detected in the experimental control group.Conclusions The NO expression is upregulated in mesenteric arteries in rats with hepatic cirrhosis and portal hypertension.Such changes induce ROCK activation via influencing the expression of vasoconstrictors.L-NAME can reduce the NO levels in the mesenteric arteries,which may improve RhoA/ROCK signal pathway transduction.This can help vasoconstrictors induce ROCK activation without affecting the protein expression of ROCK.

Objective To investigate the characteristics of health related quality of life(HR-QOL) in Chinese patients with early Parkinson' s disease(PD), to identify the motor and non-motor factors that are associated with a poorer quality of life in patients with early PD. Methods All 391 patients with early PD were identified in a clinical-based study. Motor functions were measured by Unified Parkinson' s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and Hoehn-Yabr Scale. Non-motor variables were assessed by Center of Epidemiological Survey Depression Scale (CES-D) for depressive symptoms, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for sleep disturbance, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) for fatigue, Alzheimer' s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Sections (ADAS-Cng) for cognitive function, and Constipation Severity Scale for constipation. HR-QOL was measured by SF-36. Motor and non-motor variables were collected at the baseline assessment of a clinical trial and determined during a structured interview and by clinical examination by movement disorder specialists. The results were compared with those in healthy elderly people. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine which variables were strongly associated with lower levels of quality of life. Results Patients with early PD had a lower score on all dimensions of SF-36, except bodily pain dimension. Motor factors, particular physical disability and disease severity, contributed to decreased HR-QOL, but to a lesser extent. The motor score of the UPDRS (23. 8±11.8), Hoehn-Yahr stage(2. 0± 0.7), together with the rigidity score (4.4 ± 3.1), only accounted for 18.9 % (R2=0. 189) of the variance of SF-36 total score. The variables that most strongly predicted a low total SF-36 score were non-motor factors, particularly depressive symptoms, sleep disorders and fatigue. When the CES-D, FSS, and PSQI score were included in the model, the R2 increased from 0. 189 to 0.617, indicating that 61.7% of the variance in HR-QOL could be explained if additional CES-D, FSS and PSQI scores were known. Depressive symptoms, as measured by CES-D, had an overwhelming impact on HR-QOL. When CES-D score was included, the R2 change was 0.433, which indicated that additional 43.3% of the variability in HR-QOL could be explained by adding depressive symptoms. Conclusions PD has a substantial impact on HR-QOL, even if in its early stage. Depressive symptoms, sleep disorders and fatigue correlated strongly with lower quality of life. Depressive symptoms appeared to be the strongest determinant of HR-QOL in early PD patients. Every effort should be made to recognize and treat these conditions, thus improving all aspects of PD and giving these patients as good a quality of life as possible.