Bone age, the most commonly used and effective indicator for understanding children's growth and development, plays an important role in the diagnosis and efficacy evaluation of various growth and development disorders. Clinically, X-rays of the left hand and wrist are mostly taken for bone age assessment, but there is a certain radiation risk. Ultrasound can clearly display the epiphysis and secondary ossification center, and conveniently perform multi-site scanning and dynamic measurement without radiation. In recent years, great progress has been made in the research and clinical application of ultrasound in bone age assessment. This article, by reviewing the latest literature, discusses the value of musculoskeletal ultrasound and quantitative ultrasound in bone age assessment, raises the problems in the study of ultrasound assessment of bone age, and suggests direction for improvement.

Preliminary exploration of using ultrasound to quantitatively evaluate the development of epiphyseal cartilage and analyze its correlation with bone age, based on the ultrasound findings of the long bone joint end.

To research on area ossification ratio (AOR), a novel parameter for quantitatively assessing adolescent bone age by conventional ultrasonography, and evaluate the correlation between AOR and radiographic bone age.

To evaluate the correlation between ultrasound ossification ratio(OR) and exercise intensity among adolescents.

Objective:To develop a deep transfer learning method for the differential diagnosis of osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) with other common hip diseases using anteroposterior hip radiographs.Methods:Patients suffering from ONFH, DDH, and other hip diseases including primary hip osteoarthritis, non-infectious inflammatory hip disease, and femoral neck fracture treated in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine from January 2018 to December 2020 were enrolled in the study. A clinical data set containing anteroposterior hip radiographs of the eligible patients was created. Data augmentation by rotating and flipping images was performed to enlarge the data set, then the data set was divided equally into a training data set and a testing data set. The ResNet-152, a deep neural network model, was used in the study, but the original Batch Normalization was replaced with Transferable Normalization to construct a novel deep transfer learning model. The model was trained to distinguish ONFH and DDH from other common hip diseases using anteroposterior hip radiographs on the training data set and its classification performance was evaluated on the testing data set.Results:The clinical data set was comprised of anteroposterior hip radiographs of 1024 hips, including 542 with ONFH, 296 with DDH, and 186 with other common hip diseases (56 hips with primary osteoarthritis, 85 hips with non-infectious inflammatory osteoarthritis, 45 hips with femoral neck fracture). After data augmentation, the size of the data set multiplied to 6144. The model was trained 100 050 times in each task. Accuracy was used as the representative parameter to evaluate the performance of the model. In the binary classification task to identify ONFH, the best accuracy was 95.80%. As for the multi-classification task for classification of ONFH and DDH from other hip diseases, the best accuracy was 91.40%. The plateau of the model was observed in each task after 50 000 times of training. The mean accuracy in plateaus was 95.35% (95% CI: 95.33%, 95.37%), and 90.85% (95% CI: 90.82%, 90.87%), respectively. Conclusion:The present study proves the encouraging performance of a deep transfer learning method for the first-visit classification of ONFH, DDH, and other hip diseases using the convenient and economical anteroposterior hip radiographs.

Objective To analyze the mutations of causal genes in 5 children with primary distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA),and explore their association of genotype and phenotype,so as to raise the awareness of the disease.Methods The whole exome sequencing was used to identify mutations in these 5 children from 5 families.Results A total of 4 different mutations of ATP6V0A4 gene were found in 2 dRTA children,including a novel heterozygous intron mutation (c.639 + 1G＞ A),a reported heterozygous nonsense variant (c.580C ＞T,p.Arg194*) and 2 novel heterozygous duplications (c.1504dupT,p.Tyr502Leufs*22;c.2351dupT,p.Phe785Ilefs*28).Two novel heterozygous missense mutations of ATP6V 1B 1 gene (c.409C ＞ T,p.Pro 137Ser;c.904C ＞ T,p.Arg302Trp) were identified in the third child,and a heterozygous missense mutation of SLC4A1 gene (c.1765C ＞ A,p.Arg589Ser) previously reported was found in the fourth child.No mutation of the dRTA-related causal genes was found in the fifth child.Furthermore,the mutations of causal genes in each of the first three children were compound heterozygous,which were consistent with the autosomal recessive inheritance pattern,and the variant from the fourth child was de novo.Conclusions The present study has found 7 mutations,including 5 novel variants,which enriches the human gene mutation database (HGMD) and contributes to a better understanding of the disease mechanisms.

Objective To investigate the application effects of extended care plan in patients with stroke based on evidence-based nursing. Methods A total of 130 patients who met inclusion criteria were selected and received matched groups. The patients of observation group were given the implementation of evidence-based extended nursing plan, while the patients of control group were provided telephone follow-up 1 month after discharge. We compared differences in the ability of daily life ( Barthel index) and health behavior ( HPLP Ⅱ) between two groups at the patients discharged from hospital 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. Results Compared between two groups at patients discharged from hospital 3 months, 6 months and 12 months, the differences of Barthel index score were statistically significant ( Ftime=13.389,P<0.05; Fgroup=19.352,P<0.05;Ftime?group=3.416,P<0.05); patients discharged from hospital after 3 months, 6 months and 12 months, the differences of HPLP Ⅱ score were statistically significant between two groups (Ftime=12.187, P<0.05;Fgroup=36.512,P<0.01; Ftime?group=6.692,P<0.01); 3 months, 6 months and 12 months after discharge, the incidences of recurrence were 3. 33%, 10. 00%, 18. 33% in observation group while they were 3.57%, 17.85%, 33.93% in the control group (P<0.01).Conclusions Taking the evidence-based nursing method to develop scientific and normative extended care plan can improve the ability of stroke patients′ daily life and health behavior and reduce the recurrence, which is worth of clinical practice recommendations.

Objective To explore the value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in predicting tumor recurrence for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver transplantation (LT).Method We respectively analyzed 52 patients with HCC who underwent the 18F-FDG PET/CT examination before LT.In terms of tumor recurrence,all patients were divided into recurrence group and non-recurrence group.According to the degree of 18F-FDG uptake,all patients were divided into PET(-) group and PET (+) group.The SUVmax of primary tumor/the SUVmax of normal-liver background (T/B) was calculated by 18F FDG PET/CT.All patients were then divided into T/B≤1.15 group and T/B＞1.15 group.Result During the follow-up period,25 out of 52 patients (48.1％) developed posttransplant HCC recurrence and 27 (51.9％) had no recurrence.T/B of patients with recurrence (2.51 ± 0.95) was significantly higher than that of patients with non-recurrence (1.37 ± 0.46),t =4.12,P＜0.001.The disease-free survival rate of 0.5 year,1 year,2 years and 3 years after LT in PET(-) group and PET(+) group was 100.0％,92.3％,92.3％ and 92.3％,and 89.7％,59.0％,43.6％ and 35.7％ respectively.Log-rank test revealed that disease-free survival rate in PET(-) group was significantly higher than that in PET(+) group,x2 =17.8,P=0.003.The disease-free survival rate of 0.5 year,1 year,2 years and 3 years after LT in T/B≤1.15 group and T/B＞1.15 group was 100.0％,92.3％,92.3％ and 92.3％,and 89.5％,59.7％,42.1％ and 33.7％ respectively.Log-rank test showed that disease-free survival rate of T/B≤1.15 group was significantly higher than that of T/B＞1.15 group,x2 =10.24,P =0.001.Conclusion 18F-FDG PET/CT can predict HCC recurrence after LT.PET(-)and T/B≤1.15 of the 18F-FDG PET/CT in patients with HCC after LT were associated with a good prognosis,and PET(+) and T/B＞1.15 of the 18F-FDG PET/CT in patients with HCC after LT with a poor prognosis.

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the characteristics of skin prick test (SPT) and immumofluorescence method (IFM) in detecting the atopy of dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Dp) and dermatophagoides farinae (Df)and explore the relationship of them. METHOD: Four hundred and ninety-one patients with two or more symptoms of nasal obstruction,itching, sneezing and rhinorrhea received SPT and serum specific IgE detection using IFM. RESULT: SPT was more sensitive than IFM in detecting the atopy of Dp and Df (P < 0.05). If using the IFM as the gold standard, the sensitivity of SPT was all above 95% with the specificity a little bit lower than 80%. These two methods had a positive correlation in detecting the atopy of Dp and Df (r = 0.779, 0.776; P < 0.01). The sIgE concentrations of these two mites were highly correlated with each other (r = 0.954, P < 0.01), the SPT was highly correlated with each other (r = 0. 946, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION SPT was more sensitive than IFM in detecting the atopy of Dp and Df. In most cases, SPT can replace IFM to detect patients' allergia on mites. Besides, it is good enough to detect either of the serum specific IgE concentrations of Dp and Df.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Animals ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; methods ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pyroglyphidae ; immunology ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial ; diagnosis ; immunology ; parasitology ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Skin Tests ; methods ; Young Adult

Objective To study the dynamics changes of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) bacterial load within 48 h after infection in a rabbit meningitis model, and provide information for diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of this disease. Methods Taking New Zealand white rabbit as the study object, meningitis model was established via cerebellar cistern puncture with different concentrations of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) to explore the relationship between the mortality of animals and the subarachnoid inoculation dosage. The dynamics study of CSF bacterial load was conducted with proper inoculation bacterial dosage. Forty-eight rabbits were separated into four groups (12 each group): E. coli meningitis model group, E. coli meningitis + ceftriaxone treated group, S. aureus meningitis model group and S. aureus meningitis + vancomycin treated group. At 0,12, 24, 36 and 48 h of inoculation, CSF and blood samples were obtained for CSF bacterial quantitative culture, CSF leukocyte count and peripheral blood leukocyte count. Finally, the relationships between the early mortality of animals, the efficacy of antibiotics, CSF leukocyte counts and the dynamics changes of CSF bacterial load were analyzed in the bacterial meningitis rabbit model.The CSF bacterial load and the white blood cell count curve were compared by analysis of covariance (ANOVA). Correlation test was done using correlate partial analysis. Results The relationship between subarachnoid inoculation dosage and the mortality of rabbits presented S-curve correlation.The bacterial load in subarachnoid space peaked in 12-24 h after infection and then gradually decreased. Effective antibiotic therapy could significantly speed up the decline of this process. There were significantly different between E. coli meningitis model group and E. coli meningitis+ceftriaxone treated group (F= 27. 10, P<0. 01), between S. aureus meningitis model group and S. aureus meningitis + vancomycin treated group (F=5. 97, P = 0. 016). There was a positive correlation between CSF bacterial load and CSF leukocyte count in E. coli and S. aureus meningitis model groups (r=0. 89, 0.84, respectively; P = 0.046, 0.049, respectively). Conclusions In the treatment of bacterial meningitis, effective and sufficient antibiotics should be used as soon as possible to control the CSF bacterial load and reduce the mortality. The CSF leukocyte count can be used as indicator of CSF bacterial load and guide the antibiotic treatment in clinical bacterial meningitis.