Objective To explore the differences among CT angiography(CTA) at different doses in both lower extremity arteries,and the relationship among volume rendering(VR) image quality,CT number and standard deviation(SD) value.Method CTA in lower extremity artery was performed in 90 patients.The participants were randomly divided into three groups,including a routine group (120 kV,150 mAs),120 kV and 80 mAs group,and 100 kV and 130 mAs group with 30 cases in each group.The images were processed with VR and classified into three degrees,the first class,the second class and the third class,and VR image quality levels of three groups were compared.The receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC) was used to analyze the correlation among VR image quality level,CT number and SD value.Results The percentage of VR image level at the first class was 93.3％ in the routine group,86.6％ in the 120 kV and 80 mAs group and 96.6％ in the 100 kV and 130 mAs group.According to the correlation analysis between the SD value and VR image quality of CTA in lower extremity artery,the area under curve in ROC analysis was 0.9078.According to the correlation analysis between the CT number and VR image quality of CTA in lower extremity artery,the area under curve in ROC analysis was 0.9116.Conclusions The low-dose CAT in lower extremity artery is feasible.Application of 100 kV and 130 mAs could ensure better image quality.

Objective To investigate rare and atypical imaging manifestations of abdominal lesions associated with IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD).Methods Forty-one patients with IgG4-RD proved histopathologically or clinically were investigated retrospectively.All the patients underwent precontrast and dynamic enhancement scan of the abdomen.CT was performed in 32 patients and MR imaging in 27 patients (including both of CT and MRI in 18 patients).Whether tissue and organs of the abdomen were involved was observed,especially rare and atypical imaging manifestations including focal pancreatic lesion,pseudocyst and (or) abscess as well as calcification of pancreas,peripheral blood vessels of pancreas involvement and mass-like lesions were existed.Involvement of the organs including liver,gallbladder,spleen,gastrointestinal tract,mesentery and their manifestations were also observed.Results One to four abdominal organs were involved,the numbers of involved organs were as follows:one organ in 13 patients (31.7％),two organs in 12 patients (29.3％),three organs in 13 patients (31.7％),and four organs in 4 patients (7.3％).The most commonly involved organ of the abdomen was the pancreas which was found in 35 patients.Abdominal extrapancreatic lesions were found in 33 patients.Focal involvement of pancreas as a rare manifestation showed in 11 cases (11/35,31.4％).The patterns were focal and multifocal.Rare cases showed pseudocysts (3/35,8.6％) and abscess was found in 1 case.Capsule-like rim was present around the pancreas lesions in 25 cases.Ten cases showed thick and wide rim with unclear boundaries with adjacent blood vessels,and 7 of them showed the peripheral blood vessels surrounded.Bile duct involvement was observed in 26 patients,and gallbladder involvement was observed in only 2 of them.Rare renal involvement patient has mass-like lesion,with hypointensity on T2WI,then showed decreased enhancement and gradually delayed enhancement.One retroperitoneal fibrosis patient also showed mass-like lesion as an atypical and rare manifestation.Three IgG4-related liver inflammatory pseudotumors were found in 2 patients.Lesions showed iso or hypointensity on T2WI,continuously enhancement,with abnormal edge ring.Mesentery involvement was found in 1 patient.Conclusion Several abdominal lesions associated with IgG4-RD have rare and atypical imaging manifestations.There are specific imaging characteristics,which are helpful for most accurate diagnosis of IgG4-RD.

15 male Wistar rats of 8 weeks old were used in this experment. After deeply anesthesia, the masseter muscles, digastric muscles, lateral pterygoid muscles were stimulated in the apartment that was made by us. The curves that express the relations of force-electronic stimulates were recorded and the constitutive equations of these muscles were given. When a single electronic signal stimulates the muscle, the respondence of the muscles can be expressed as F = A(e-alpha t - e-beta t) and the constant A, alpha, beta were determined. When the frequency of the electronic stimulation was higher than 3 Hz, the respondence was expressed as F = Ce-gamma/t + Dsin omega t and the constants C, D and gamma were determined. When the frequency of the electronic stimulation was thirty or higher, the tetanic convulsion occurred.
Animals ; Electric Stimulation ; Jaw ; physiology ; Male ; Masticatory Muscles ; physiology ; Muscle Contraction ; physiology ; Myography ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Time Factors

Objective To explore the relationship between life events and depression of patients with primary sjgren's syndrome (PSS).Methods 80 patients with PSS complicating depressive disorder were tested by self-rating depression scale(SDS) and life event scale (LES),and compared with the control group including 80 PSS patients with non-depressive disorder matched with age and sex.Then the correlation between SDS and LES were analyzed.Results The total score of life events (32.72 ± 13.93),the score of negative life events (24.36 ±11.24),the score of SDS(58.60 ± 16.78) and the frequency of life events(91.3％) in the research group were higher than those in control group(P ＜ 0.05),but the positive life events score (7.15 ± 5.84) was lower than that in control group (9.76 ± 7.29),and there was statistically significant difference between the two groups (P ＜ 0.05),there were more negative life events,especially on the aspects of family,work and study in the research group.There was positive correlation among the negative life events score,total score of life events and SDS score in the research group(P＜ 0.01),meanwhile,negative correlation was revealed between the score of positive life events and SDS score in the research group(P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Patients with PSS complicating depressive disorder experienced more negative life events which play an important role in depression of patients with PSS.

Objective To explore the effect of electroacupuncture at Quchi (LI11) and Zusanli (ST36) acupoints on motor behaviors, the axonal integrity and nerve bundle of motor cortex and striatum in rat model of ischemic stroke induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Methods Thirty-six adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to sham opera-tion group (sham group), ischemia control group (model group) and electroacupuncture treatment group (EA group) with twelve rats in each group. The later two groups were occluded their middle cerebral arteries for two hours. Twenty-four hours after modeling, EA group re-ceived electroacupuncture at Quchi (LI11) and Zusanli (ST36) acupoints on the paralyzed limb, once a day, for 14 days. They were assessed with modified Neurological Severity Scores (mNSS) and Rota-rod test, and scanned with small animal magnetic resonance imaging system for T2-weighted image (T2WI) and DTI, the infarct size, related fractional anisotropy (rFA) and related number of tracks of motor cortex and striatum were recorded. Results Compared with the sham group, the score of mNSS increased in the model group and EA group after model-ing, and was lower in EA group than in the model group seven days and 14 days after intervention (P<0.05). Rota-rod test showed that the retention time was significantly longer in EA group than in the model group (P<0.05). T2WI showed that the infarct size was smaller in EA group than in the model group (P<0.05). DTI showed that rFA in motor cortex and striatum was higher in EA group than in the model group (P<0.05), as well as the related number of tracks (P<0.05) in motor cortex. Conclusion Electroacupuncture at Quchi and Zusanli acupoints could improve the motor function in rats with ischemic stroke, which may be related to the recovery of nerve bundle of motor cortex and stri-atum in ischemic side.

ObjectiveTo investigate the CT and MRI imaging characteristics of autoimmune pancreatitis and its clinical value.MethodsFourteen patients(13males, 1female, mean age 58.3 years) with autoimmune pancreatitis proved histopathologically or clinically were enrolled in the study.Clinical data was studied retrospectively.Among those patients,CT was performed on 12 cases and MR imaging was performed on 8 patients,6 patients underwent both CT and MR imaging.ResultsAll 14 patients had enlargement of the pancreas,which could be divided into three types including diffuse type ( n =7 ),focal type ( n =5 ) and mixed type ( n =2 ).On plain CT the pancreas was of isodensity ( n =5 ) or mild hypodensity ( n =7).In one case there was several small hypodensity cystic lesions within and around the pancreas that was rarely seen in other autoimmune pancreatitis cases.Pancreatic lesions as shown by MRI were all mildly hypointense on T1WI and mildly hyperintense on T2WI,all displayed lesions were detected as high-signal intensity areas on DWI. By medium contrast,autoimmune pancreatitis lesions demonstrated “ snow-like” heterogeneously decreased enhancement on artery phase of dynamic contrast enhanced imaging and then showed gradually delayed enhancement on portal venous phase and later phases.“Capsule-like” rim was present around the autoimmune pancreatitis lesions in 9 cases.Main pancreatic duct was irregular in shape in 4 cases and slightly dilated in 5 patients.Strictures of lower common bile duct and upper bile duct dilatation as well as thickening and enhancement of the bile duct wall were found in 9 cases.Peripheral vascular involvement was seen in 4 cases. Abdominal lymphadenopathy at hepatic portal was observed in 1 patient.Two cases showed tiny decreased enhancement lesions in the kidneys.Steroid therapy was given in 10 cases,all pancreatitis lesions ameliorated as showed by follow-up imaging examinations.ConclusionsAIP specific CT and MRI imaging findings are common in most patients which help establish the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of AIP.

To study the response of cultured cells to the cyclical biaxial biomechanical strain, a system was made according to the principle of Winston. The system was made of culture dish, pressure cavity and step motor. The culture dishes were made of polymethyl methacrylate and the bottom of the culture dishes were made of silicone rubber membrane. When the diameter of the silicone rubber tube and the distance between rollers and curvilinear plate changed, the pressure in the pressure cavity changed and the strain of the membrane changed from 0 to 4%. When the roll of the step motor changed, the frequency of the strain changed from 0.1 to 5 Hz.
Animals ; Cell Culture Techniques ; instrumentation ; Equipment Design ; Finite Element Analysis ; Rats ; Stress, Mechanical

Objective To investigate the correlation between peripheral serum TNF-α and TGF-β1 expression levels with the infiltration degree of lymphocytes in labial glands and interstitial lung disease(ILD) in the patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS).Methods Serum level of TNF-α and TGF-β1 in 116 patients with pSS and 20 persons undergoing physical examination were measured by ELISA.Meanwhile the labial gland samples in pSS patients were performed the pathological examination.The patients were grouped according to the lesion stage of ILD and pathology grade of labial glands.The serum TNF-α and TGF-β1 levels were statistically analyzed.Results Serum levels of TNF-α and TGF-β1 in the pSS-ILD group were significantly higher than those in the simple pSS group and control group(P＜0.01).The levels of serum TNF-α and TGF-β1 in the simple pSS group were significantly higher than those in the control group(P＜0.01).The levels of serum TNF-α and TGF-β1 in the labial glands lymphocytes infiltration group were significantly higher than those in the labial glands lymphocytes non-infiltration group and control group(P＜0.01),while the levels of serum TNF-α and TGF-β1 in the labial glands lymphocytes non-infiltration group were significantly higher than those in the control group(P＜0.01).The TNF-α and TGF-β1 expression was positively correlated with lymphocytes infiltration lesion grade(r=0.867,0.613,P=0.000);the expression of TNF-α and TGF-β1 was positively correlated with the lesion grade of ILD(r=0.814,0.864,P =0.000);the level of TNF-α was positively correlated with the TGF-β1 relative expression amount(r=0.857,P=0.000).Conclusion TNF-α and TGF-β1 are involved in the lymphocytes infiltration of labial glands and ILD occurrence and develvp ment,and their expression increase may be the cause of labial glands structure destruction and complicating ILD.

Objective To investigate the relationship between learning and memory deficit and demyelination of the corpus callosum in twelve-month old APP/PS1 transgenic mice. Methods Twelve twelve-month old APP/PS1 transgenic mice were as AD group, and age-matched wild type (WT) littermates were as WT group. Learning and memory ability was tested with Morris water maze, and the mor-phology of nerve fiber of corpus callosum was detected with Luxol Fast Blue staining. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect myelin ba-sic protein (MBP) in the corpus callosum. Thioflavine S staining was used to detect amyloid plaque in the corpus callosum. Results Com-pared with WT group, the latency increased (Z>2.873, P<0.01) and the times crossing the location of the platform decreased (t=-7.339, P<0.001) in AD group. The nerve fibers were sparse and disorganized, with a lot of vacuoles in the corpus callosum of AD group. The positive expression of MBP in the corpus callosum was significantly decreased (t=-4.481, P<0.001) in AD group compared with WT group. There were amyloid plaques in the corpus callosum of AD group. Conclusion Twelve-month old APP/PS1 transgenic mice exhibit learning and memory deficit, which may be attributed to the deposition of the amyloid plaque mediated demyelinated injury of the corpus callosum.

Brain glucose metabolism disorder is one of the pathophysiological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD), in which aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect) metabolic pathway abnormality is one of the causes of early cognitive impairment in AD, and improving brain energy metabolism has become an important strategy to prevent AD. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a central hub regulating glucose metabolism, the most sensitive molecular compound for sensing fluctuations of energy levels in the body. Activation of AMPK can affect the Warburg effect and its key rate-limiting enzyme activity, regulate brain glucose metabolism involved in the pathogenesis of AD, to achieve the purpose of delaying AD progression and improving cognitive function in early clinical stage. In this review, we will discuss the pathogenesis of AD and targeting of AMPK from the perspective of Warburg effect in glucose metabolism.