Objective To explore the feasibility of extending liver blood perfusion cessation by ultrasound combining microbubbles.Methods The livers of 9 healthy rabbits were treated with a pulsed therapeutic ultrasound device,in presence of microbubbles.For quantification of liver perfusion,contrastenhanced ultrasonography was performed on 6 rabbits before treatment and at different time points of 0 min,30 min,60 min and 48 hours after treatment.Pathological examination of the treated livers was performed immediately after treatment on the other 3 rabbits.Results The liver blood perfusion almost vanished immediately after treatment,remained at a low perfusion level from 30 to 60 min,and completely recovered 48 hours later.The peak intensity dropped from ( - 51.88 ± 4.26)dB to ( - 62.53 ± 4.83)dB after treatment and rose up to ( - 52.00 ± 4.60) dB 48 hours later.The peak intensities before treatment and 48 hours after treatment were significantly higher than those of 0 min,30 min and 60 min time points after treatment( P ＜0.05).Pathological examination showed significant swelling of hepatocytes and hemorrhage around portal veins.Conclusions Microbubbles enhanced ultrasound can induce liver blood perfusion cessation for up to 1 hours.The mechanism could be swelling of hepatocytes and hemorrhage of portal track.

Objective:To observe any relationship between corticospinal tract integrity and the upper limb motor function of stroke survivors treated with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).Methods:Bilateral corticospinal tracts (CSTs) were reconstructed in ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke survivors with upper limb motor dysfunction using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Thirty patients with good CST integrity (rFA>0.5) and 30 with rFA≤0.5 were further divided into a high frequency rTMS group (HF, n=10), a low frequency group (LF, n=10), and a control group ( n=10). All groups were given routine rehabilitation, while the high and low frequency groups were additionally provided with 5Hz and 1Hz rTMS respectively applied over the M1 area of the contralesional hemisphere. Before and after 3 weeks of treatment, all of the subjects were evaluated using the Fugl-Meyer upper extremity scale (F-M UE), the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) and the Modified Barthel Index (MBI). Results:For the high CST integrity group, significant improvement was observed in the average scores of all measurements, with the average FMA-UE, WMFT and MBI scores of the LF group [(38.10±5.71), (43.20±5.32) and (78.00±11.35)] significantly better than those of the other 2 groups. Among the low CST integrity group, the HF subgroup showed greater improvement than the other 2 on average.Conclusions:For patients with good CST integrity, LF-rTMS over the contralesional cortex is superior to HF-rTMS in promoting upper limb motor function, while for patients with low CST integrity HF-rTMS over the contralesional cortex has a better effect than LF-rTMS or sham stimulation in terms of improving upper limb motor function after a stroke.

Objective:To evaluate the surgery combined chemotherapy and radiation in locally advanced neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix (NECC) .Methods:This is a single-center retrospective cohort study. Locally advanced NECC patients admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Acadmy of Medical Sciences from January 2011 to April 2022 were enrolled. They were divided into concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, and surgery combined with chemotherapy and radiation group. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the progression free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), recurrence rate, and mortality rate.Results:(1) Forty-six cases were included, 22 in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, 24 in surgery combined chemotherapy and radiation group. With 16 patients (35%, 16/46) received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), the NACT effective rate was 15/16. (2) The median follow-up time was 27.5 months (range: 10-106 months), with 26 (57%, 26/46) experienced recurrences. There were 4 (9%, 4/46) pelvic recurrences and 25 (54%, 25/46) distant recurrences, and 3 (7%, 3/46) both pelvic and distant recurrences. Compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, surgery combined chemotherapy and radiation group had lower pelvic recurrence rate [14% (3/22) vs 4% (1/24); χ2=1.296, P=0.255] but without statistic difference. Both groups had similar distant recurrence rate [55% (12/22) vs 54% (13/24); χ2=0.001, P=0.979] and overall recurrence rate [59% (13/22) vs 54% (13/24); χ2=0.113, P=0.736]. (3) During the follow-up period, 22 cases (48%, 22/46) died, with 11 cases (50%, 11/22) in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group and 11 cases (46%, 11/24) in surgery combined chemotherapy and radiation group, without significant difference ( χ2=0.080, P=0.777). The postoperative 3-year and 5-year OS rates were 62.3% and 36.9%. Compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, the patients in surgery combined chemotherapy and radiation group showed an extended trend in PFS (17.0 vs 32.0 months) and OS (37.0 vs 50.0 months) but without statistic differences ( P=0.287, P=0.125). Both groups had similar 3-year OS rate (54.2% vs 69.9%; P=0.138) and 5-year OS rate (36.1% vs 38.8%; P=0.217). Conclusions:Our study supports the multi-modality treatment strategy (including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation) as an important component in the treatment of locally advanced NECC. The combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation seems to have advantages in the treatment of locally advanced NECC, but needs to be confirmed by further multicenter studies.

Objective:To explore the normal ranges of perfusion parameters between cerebral hemisphere, cerebellar hemisphere and brain anatomical subregions (56 pairs) in different gender and age groups with multiple post labeling delay time (Multi-PLD) arterial spin labeling (ASL) imaging.Methods:From November 2020 to December 2020, 42 healthy adult volunteers (Male 25, Female 17) were recruited to perform 7 PLD ASL imaging, including 21 young adults (15 males and 6 females, aged 23—35 years) and 21 seniors (10 males and 11 females, aged 36—74 years). The data was processed offline by Cereflow software to obtain arterial arrival time (ATT) and corrected cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) perfusion parameters. SimpleITK standardization function was used to standardize the calculated perfusion image according to the anatomical automatic labeling (AAL) template. Therefore, CBF, ATT, CBV perfusion values of brain subregions were obtained. Paired samples t test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, independent samples t test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare the differences of perfusion parameters in the cerebral hemisphere, the cerebellar hemisphere, brain subregions depending on side, gender and age. Pearson correlation analysis was used to compare the correlations of perfusion parameters with age. Results:CBF in 62.5% (35/56) subregions and CBV in 44.6% (25/56) subregions were higher in right side than those in left side. ATT in most brain anatomical subregions (16/56) were higher in left side. The CBF [(35.30±8.31) vs. (34.34±7.53) ml·100g -1·min -1, P=0.021], CBV [(0.47±0.11) vs. (0.45±0.09) ml/100g, P<0.001], ATT [(1.30±0.10) vs. (1.24±0.11) s, P<0.001] in left cerebellar hemisphere were higher than that of right side. The CBF (28/56) of cerebral hemisphere, cerebellar hemisphere and brain subregions was higher in females than that in males, while ATT in 83.9% (47/56) subregions was lower than that in males (all P<0.05). CBV in female subjects was higher only in 5 brain regions (superior occipital gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, inferior occipital gyrus, superior parietal gyrus and cerebelum_7b) (all P<0.05). In young subjects, CBF in 44.6% (25/56) subregions and CBV in 33.9% (19/56) subregions were higher than those in the senior group (all P<0.05). The ATT in most subregions in young group were lower than those in senior group, but the difference was statistically significant only in rectus gyrus ( P=0.026) and paracentral lobule ( P=0.006). The CBF ( r=-0.430, P=0.005) and CBV ( r=-0.327, P=0.035) of cerebral hemisphere were negatively correlated with age. The CBF (24/25, r range:-0.497 —-0.343, all P<0.05) and CBV (16/19, r range:-0.474 —-0.322, all P<0.05) in most subregions were negatively correlated with age, while ATT was positively correlated (gyrus rectus: r=0.311, P=0.045; paracentral lobule: r=0.392, P=0.010). Conclusions:Multi-PLD ASL imaging could be applied for quantitative analysis of brain perfusion. The perfusion parameters of anatomical subregions are different depending on side, gender, and age.

As an important promising biomarker, high frequency oscillations (HFOs) can be used to track epileptic activity and localize epileptogenic zones. However, visual marking of HFOs from a large amount of intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) data requires a great deal of time and effort from researchers, and is also very dependent on visual features and easily influenced by subjective factors. Therefore, we proposed an automatic epileptic HFO detection method based on visual features and non-intuitive multi-domain features. To eliminate the interference of continuous oscillatory activity in detected sporadic short HFO events, the iEEG signals adjacent to the detected events were set as the neighboring environmental range while the number of oscillations and the peak–valley differences were calculated as the environmental reference features. The proposed method was developed as a MatLab-based HFO detector to automatically detect HFOs in multi-channel, long-distance iEEG signals. The performance of our detector was evaluated on iEEG recordings from epileptic mice and patients with intractable epilepsy. More than 90% of the HFO events detected by this method were confirmed by experts, while the average missed-detection rate was < 10%. Compared with recent related research, the proposed method achieved a synchronous improvement of sensitivity and specificity, and a balance between low false-alarm rate and high detection rate. Detection results demonstrated that the proposed method performs well in sensitivity, specificity, and precision. As an auxiliary tool, our detector can greatly improve the efficiency of clinical experts in inspecting HFO events during the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.

Objective: To provide basis for early selection of drug intervention or surgical treatment for premature patent ductus arteriosus(PDA) by a dynamic monitoring of serum N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide(NT-proBNP)levels with ultrasonic examination, so as to improve the prognosis of premature infants. Methods: A total of 108 premature infants with gestational age less than 32 weeks and body weight less than 1.5 kg, within 24 h of birth were admitted to the Department of NICU, Harbin Children′s Hospital from June 2016 to December 2018.The serum NT-proBNP levels were measured at 3 d, 6 d, 9 d after birth, and echocardiography was performed at the same time.According to the results of echocardiography and clinical symptoms, infants were divided into haemodynamically significant PDA(hsPDA)(n=29), asymptomatic PDA(asPDA)(n=24)and non-PDA as control group(n=55). Among them, the hsPDA group was further divided into drug treatment group(n=21) and surgical treatment group(n=8). The surgical treatment group was those who failed 2 courses of oral ibuprofen treatment or had contraindications to drug treatment.Arterial catheter ligation was used for surgical treatment group on 9 to 21 days after birth.NT-proBNP levels were detected at 24 hours and 3 days after surgery, and echocardiography was performed at the same time.The levels of serum NT-proBNP were compared between the three groups and before and after the treatment, and the ROC curve of NT-proBNP was drawn to analyze its diagnostic value. Results: (1) At 3 and 6 days after birth, serum NT-proBNP levels were 8 346 pg/ml and 3 340 pg/ml in the hsPDA group, and 2 536 pg/ml and 1 079 pg/ml in the asPDA group, 1 132 pg/ml and 879 pg/ml in the control group, respectively.The levels of NT-proBNP in the hsPDA group were significantly higher than those in the asPDA group(P<0.05), and the levels of NT-proBNP in the asPDA group were higher than those in the control group(P<0.05). At 9 days after birth, serum NT-proBNP levels were 2 231 pg/ml in the hsPDA group, 834 pg/ml in the asPDA group, and 808 pg/ml in the control group.The levels of serum NT-proBNP in the hsPDA group were significantly higher than those in the asPDA group and the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference between the asPDA group and the control group (P>0.05). (2)At 3, 6, and 9 d after birth, serum NT-proBNP levels were 9 000 pg/ml, 8 989 pg/ml, 9 000 pg/ml in the surgical treatment group, and 3 741 pg/ml, 2 544 pg/ml and 1 032 pg/ml in the drug treatment group, respectively.The levels of serum NT-proBNP in the surgical treatment group were significantly higher than those in the drug treatment group (P<0.05). The serum NT-proBNP levels in both drug treatment group and surgical treatment group were significantly lower than those before treatment (P<0.05). At 3 d after the operation, the serum NT-proBNP level was 941 pg/ml in the surgical treatment group and 736 pg/ml in the drug treatment group.There was no significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05). (3)At 3 d after birth, the area under the ROC curve of serum NT-proBNP was 0.91 (95%CI 0.865-0.964), and the sensitivity and specificity of NT-proBNP to diagnose hsPDA at 2 343.5 pg/ml were 93.1% and 73.41.% respectively. Conclusion NT-proBNP level monitoring can be used as a sensitive indicator for early identification of hsPDA, and it has a clinical significance for intervention strategy and intervention time selection.