Objective To evaluate the value of real-time ultrasonic elastography in the differential diagnosis of rectal tumors.Methods One hundred patients (30 cases of adenoma and 70 cases of adenocarcinoma) with rectal tumors proved by pathology and 70 normal subjects referred to the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University from April 2012 to October 2013 were included in this prospective cohort. All patients underwent real-time ultrasonic elastography. The tumour tissue and reference tissue were chosen for strain ratio measurements. Only tumor tissue was selected for the tumor sample area. Tissue recognized as normal rectal wall and perirectal tissue was selected as the reference sample area. At the same time the elasticity score were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of the elasticity score and strain ratio method were used to find the cut-off point of adenoma and adenocarcinoma. The corresponding sensitivity, accuracy and specifi city were calculated. One-way ANOVA was used to comparestrain ratio value among healthy control group, retal adenoma group and rectal adenocarcinoma group and among patients with different preoperative stages of adenocarcinoma group. LSD-t test was used to compare strain ratio value between two groups.Results ROC curve showed that the best cut-off value of elasticity score in diagnosis of rectal tumor was 3, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 85.1%, 73.1% and 82.0%, and the area under ROC curve was 0.780. The best cut-off value of strain ratio in diagnosis of rectal tumour was 2.34, the sensitivity, specifi city and accuracy in diagnosis were 91.4%, 83.3% and 89.0%, and the area under ROC curve was 0.945. Strain ratio of healthy control group, rectal adenoma group and rectal adenocarcinoma group was 0.74±0.44, 1.75±0.58 and 7.48±6.80. There was signifi cantly statistical difference among three groups in strain ratio. Compared with the strain ratio of healthy control group and rectal adenoma group, that of rectal adenocarcinoma group was higher (t=-8.26, P=0.000; t=-6.98,P=0.000). Compared with the strain ratio of healthy control group, that of rectal adenoma group was higher (t=-8.53,P=0.000). Strain ratio of patients with preoperative pathological stages T1, T2, T3 and T4 rectal carcinoma was 4.91±3.60, 7.07±7.23, 8.64±2.62 and 8.58±9.95 and there was no significantly statistical difference among patients with different preoperative stages of adenocarcinoma group (F=0.86,P=0.47).Conclusion The real-time ultrasonic elastography is a promising modalityfor the differential diagnosis of rectal tumors.

Renalase, a novel amine oxidase, is secreted by kidney. It regulates heart function and blood pressure by degrading catecholamines. Hormones secreted by the kidney are associated with cardiovascular disease. Renalase, as a new biomarker of heart and kidney functional correlation, can lower blood pressure, protect ischemic heart muscle, improve heart function and degrade catecholamine.
Animals ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; physiopathology ; Heart Failure ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Hypertension ; physiopathology ; Monoamine Oxidase ; genetics ; physiology ; Myocardial Ischemia ; physiopathology

OBJECTIVE: To comprehend the epidemiological status and risk factors in hypertensive disorder complicating pregnancy (HDCP) in a district in Changsha, and to provide epidemiological evidence for early intervention of HDCP. METHODS: A total of 2 148 pregnant women in a district in Changsha from 2008 to 2009 were retrospectively analyzed and the related factors were evaluated by multivariate unconditional logistic analysis. RESULTS: The incidence of HDCP was 5.21% from 2008 to 2009. Multivariate unconditional logistic regression analysis showed that age (>35 years old)(OR=6.440,95%CI:2.987-13.884), body mass index (BMI) before pregnancy (OR=2.180,95%CI:1.619-2.936), and history of diabetes or kidney disease (OR=14.221,95%CI: 3.990-50.684) were risk factors for HDCP. CONCLUSION Age, BMI before pregnancy, and history of diabetes or kidney disease are risk factors for HDCP, while gravidity, parity, number of abortion and multiple gestation pregnancy have no obvious correlation with HDCP.
Adult ; Age Factors ; Body Mass Index ; China ; epidemiology ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Incidence ; Logistic Models ; Multivariate Analysis ; Pregnancy ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of renal denervation on the blood pressure, plasma renalase content and expression of renalase and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the idney of spontaneous hypertensive (SH) rats and to explore the role of renal denervation in lowering the blood pressure. METHODS: SH rats were randomly assigned into a baseline group, a surgery (renal denervation) group, a sham group and a control group (n=48). WKY rats matched in age (n=12) served as a baseline control group. All rats were housed until 12 weeks old. Then, the rats in the baseline group and the WKY group were sacrificed whose blood and kidney were collected for examination. In the renal denervation group, the sham group and the control group, the blood pressure was monitored continuously. One week and 6 weeks after the renal denervation, 6 rats in each group were sacrificed whose blood and kidney were collected. ELISA was employed to measure the plasma renalase and Western blot assay done to detect the expression of TH and renalase in the kidney. RESULTS: Compared with WKY rats, blood pressure significantly increased and TH protein expression markedly elevated (P<0.05) in SH rats in the baseline group, but plasma renalase content and protein expression of renalase in the kidney dramatically reduced (P<0.05). One week after the surgery, the mean arterial pressure and TH protein expression in the surgery group were lowered compared with the baseline group and dramatically reduced compared with the sham group and the control group (P<0.05). In the surgery group, the renalase level was markedly increased compared with the baseline group, the sham group, and the control group (P<0.05). Six weeks after the renal denervation, the mean arterial pressure and TH level in the surgery group were significantly increased but the renalase content and expression markedly reduced compared with those 1 week, but there were no marked differences among the surgery group, the sham group, and the control group (P>0.05). No pronounced differences in the above variables were found between the sham group and the control group at any time point (P>0.05). CONCLUSION Renal denervation can lower the blood pressure, which may attribute to the suppression of sympathetic nerves, increase in plasma renalase content and renalase expression in the kidney.
Animals ; Blood Pressure ; physiology ; Hypertension ; surgery ; Kidney ; enzymology ; innervation ; Male ; Monoamine Oxidase ; blood ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Inbred SHR ; Sympathectomy ; methods ; Sympathetic Nervous System ; physiopathology ; Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase ; metabolism

【Objective】 To investigate the expression of Kinesin family member 14 (KIF14), and its correlation with clinical prognosis and immune cell infiltration of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). 【Methods】 The correlation between KIF14 expression in ccRCC and different clinicopathological features were analyzed with TCGA, GEO and Ualcan databases. The correlation between KIF14 expression and prognosis was analzyed with Kaplan-Meier method. The correlation between KIF14 expression and immune cell infiltration was analzyed with TIMER. The protein-protein interaction network of KIF14 was conducted with Genemania. The co-expression genes of KIF14 in TCGA-KIRC were picked out in Linkedomics database and were used to perform GO annotations and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis with R software. The biological functions of KIF14 were verified with in vitro functional assay. 【Results】 KIF14 was highly expressed in ccRCC tissue and was positively correlated with clinical stage, pathological grade, and lymphatic metastasis, but negatively correlated with clinical prognosis. KIF14 expression was an independent risk factor for overall survival of ccRCC patients. GO annotations showed that KIF14 was involved in DNA replication, nuclear division, organelle fission, and cell adhesion. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that KIF14 participated in cell cycle and p53 signaling pathway. Genemania analysis indicated KIF14 interacted with CENPE, CIT, KIF23, and other proteins. Timer showed that KIF14 was positively correlated with immune cell infiltration. Knockdown of KIF14 expression suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of ccRCC. 【Conclusions】 KIF14 may serve as a novel prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target of clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Objective:To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the convolutional neural network（CNN） in diagnosing nasopharyngeal carcinoma using endoscopic narrowband imaging. Methods:A total of 834 cases with nasopharyngeal lesions were collected from the People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region between 2014 and 2016. We trained the DenseNet201 model to classify the endoscopic images, evaluated its performance using the test dataset, and compared the results with those of two independent endoscopic experts. Results:The area under the ROC curve of the CNN in diagnosing nasopharyngeal carcinoma was 0.98. The sensitivity and specificity of the CNN were 91.90% and 94.69%, respectively. The sensitivity of the two expert-based assessment was 92.08% and 91.06%, respectively, and the specificity was 95.58% and 92.79%, respectively. There was no significant difference between the diagnostic accuracy of CNN and the expert-based assessment （P=0.282, P=0.085）. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the accuracy in discriminating early-stage and late-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma（P=0.382）. The CNN model could rapidly distinguish nasopharyngeal carcinoma from benign lesions, with an image recognition time of 0.1 s/piece. Conclusion:The CNN model can quickly distinguish nasopharyngeal carcinoma from benign nasopharyngeal lesions, which can aid endoscopists in diagnosing nasopharyngeal lesions and reduce the rate of nasopharyngeal biopsy.
Humans ; Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma ; Narrow Band Imaging ; China ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging*