Plantar fasciitis(PF)is a primary cause of heel pain(HP).Platelet-rich plasma(PRP),as an emerging biological treatment method,possesses unique biological characteristics,showing significant dual therapeutic advantages in suppressing inflammation and promoting tissue repair.This article reviews the pathogenesis of PF,the biological characteristics of PRP and its application in pain management and functional prognosis assessment of PF,particularly focusing on PRP in improving plantar fascia thickness(PFT).

Plantar fasciitis(PF)is a primary cause of heel pain(HP).Platelet-rich plasma(PRP),as an emerging biological treatment method,possesses unique biological characteristics,showing significant dual therapeutic advantages in suppressing inflammation and promoting tissue repair.This article reviews the pathogenesis of PF,the biological characteristics of PRP and its application in pain management and functional prognosis assessment of PF,particularly focusing on PRP in improving plantar fascia thickness(PFT).

Objective To investigate the clinical and radiological features of osteofibrous dysplasia(OFD),and to improve the diagnostic accuracy of OFD and reduce the misdiagnosis rate.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical and radiological data of 21 patients with OFD confirmed by surgical pathology.Results Among the 21 patients,the imaging manifestations showed that the lesions were mainly located within the anterior cortex of the tibia,presenting as cystic expansile bone destruction with corti-cal expansion and thinning,protruding into the medullary cavity.Within the lesions,unequal thickness linear bony septations were visible,resembling soap-bubble changes,along with patchy ground-glass density shadow.A sclerotic rim was observed surrounding the lesions,with a clear boundary from normal tissue.No obvious soft tissue mass or periosteal reaction was noted in all cases.On MRI,the majority of the lesions exhibited prolonged T,and T2 signals,with linear hypointense separations observed within the lesions.No significant edema was noted in the surrounding bone and soft tissues,although a minor degree of bone marrow edema was present.All patients underwent surgical treatment.Fifteen patients were followed up for review,ranging from 3 to 38 months postoperatively.Among them,9 patients had no recurrence,while 6 patients experienced recurrence,manifesting as new lytic bone destruction in the surgical area.Conclusion The radiological manifestations of OFD are characteristic,and an accurate diagnosis can be made for typical cases in combination with the patient's age,location of the lesion and clinical presentation.Due to the high recurrence rate after OFD sur-gery,regular follow-up is recommended.

Ferritin is considered as an ideal delivery system due to its precise targeting, reversible self-assembly, high biocompatibility, and easy modification. this study aims to express, purify, and identify three fusion ferritin proteins, and explore their tumor targeting. Three fusion ferritin genes were synthesized and cloned into prokaryotic expression vectors, and the recombinant proteins were purified by affinity chromatography with nickel columns. The fusion ferritin proteins were identified by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (native-PAGE), Western blotting, and circular dichroism. Fluorescein 5-isothiocyanate (FITC) was used to react with fusion ferritin, and confocal laser scanning microscopy was employed to evaluate the tumor targeting of fusion ferritin. The reaction system of sulfo-cyanine7 (Cy7-SE) with fusion ferritin was injected into the tail vein of melanoma mice for in vivo tumor imaging to explore the tumor targeting of fusion ferritin. The results showed that soluble fusion ferritin proteins of about 21 kDa were expressed under the induction by isopropylthio-β-d-galactoside (IPTG), and the recombinant proteins with high purity were obtained. Western blotting showed that the recombinant proteins could be recognized by the corresponding antibodies. The target proteins were identified as multimers with α helixes by native-PAGE and circular dichroism. In vitro and in vivo tumor uptake experiments demonstrated that fusion ferritin was taken up by tumor cells and tumor tissue. This study successfully expressed, purified, and identified fusion ferritin, and verified its tumor uptake in vitro and in vivo, which laid a foundation for the application of ferritin in biomedicine.
Animals ; Mice ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins/isolation & purification* ; Ferritins/metabolism* ; Escherichia coli/metabolism* ; Melanoma, Experimental/metabolism* ; Humans

Retrieving keyframes most relevant to text from small intestine videos with given labels can efficiently and accurately locate pathological regions. However, training directly on raw video data is extremely slow, while learning visual representations from image-text datasets leads to computational inconsistency. To tackle this challenge, a small bowel video keyframe retrieval based on multi-modal contrastive learning (KRCL) is proposed. This framework fully utilizes textual information from video category labels to learn video features closely related to text, while modeling temporal information within a pretrained image-text model. It transfers knowledge learned from image-text multimodal models to the video domain, enabling interaction among medical videos, images, and text data. Experimental results on the hyper-spectral and Kvasir dataset for gastrointestinal disease detection (Hyper-Kvasir) and the Microsoft Research video-to-text (MSR-VTT) retrieval dataset demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of KRCL, with the proposed method achieving state-of-the-art performance across nearly all evaluation metrics.
Humans ; Video Recording ; Intestine, Small/diagnostic imaging* ; Machine Learning ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods* ; Algorithms

Objective To investigate the clinical and radiological features of osteofibrous dysplasia(OFD),and to improve the diagnostic accuracy of OFD and reduce the misdiagnosis rate.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical and radiological data of 21 patients with OFD confirmed by surgical pathology.Results Among the 21 patients,the imaging manifestations showed that the lesions were mainly located within the anterior cortex of the tibia,presenting as cystic expansile bone destruction with corti-cal expansion and thinning,protruding into the medullary cavity.Within the lesions,unequal thickness linear bony septations were visible,resembling soap-bubble changes,along with patchy ground-glass density shadow.A sclerotic rim was observed surrounding the lesions,with a clear boundary from normal tissue.No obvious soft tissue mass or periosteal reaction was noted in all cases.On MRI,the majority of the lesions exhibited prolonged T,and T2 signals,with linear hypointense separations observed within the lesions.No significant edema was noted in the surrounding bone and soft tissues,although a minor degree of bone marrow edema was present.All patients underwent surgical treatment.Fifteen patients were followed up for review,ranging from 3 to 38 months postoperatively.Among them,9 patients had no recurrence,while 6 patients experienced recurrence,manifesting as new lytic bone destruction in the surgical area.Conclusion The radiological manifestations of OFD are characteristic,and an accurate diagnosis can be made for typical cases in combination with the patient's age,location of the lesion and clinical presentation.Due to the high recurrence rate after OFD sur-gery,regular follow-up is recommended.

Objective To investigate the expression and prognostic value of serum antimicrobial peptide LL37 and human soluble scavenger receptor cysteine-rich domain-containing protein(SSC5D)in elderly patients with chronic heart failure(CHF).Methods A total of 100 CHF patients admitted to Suzhou Kowloon Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from January 2017 to January 2022 were selected as the CHF group.According to the prognosis,these patients were divided into good group(n=60)and poor prognosis group(n=40).Another 100 healthy examinees were selected as the control group.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect serum levels of LL37 and SSC5D.The differences in serum LL37 and SSC5D levels between CHF group and control group were compared.Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between serum LL37 and SSC5D.Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to analyze the relationship between serum LL37 and SSC5D expression and the prognosis of CHF patients.COX regression analysis was used to analyze the factors affecting the prognosis of CHF patients.ROC curve was used to analyze the predictive value of serum LL37 and SSC5D for poor prognosis in elderly CHF patients.Result The levels of serum LL37(771.38±158.25 ng/ml)and SSC5D(15 789.35±1 306.25 pg/ml)in CHF group were higher than those in control group(526.23±115.58 ng/ml,8 938.72±858.29 pg/ml),and the differences were significant(t=12.510,43.830,all P＜0.001).Spearman correlation analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between serum LL37 and SSC5D in CHF patients(r=0.629,P＜0.001).The serum LL37 and SSC5D levels in CHF patients were positively correlated with NYHA cardiac function classification(r=0.776,0.751,all P＜0.001).The survival rate of the high-level LL37 group was lower than that of the low-level LL37 group(38.18％vs 86.67％),and the difference was significant(Log rankx2=24.242,P＜0.001).The survival rate of the high level SSC5D group was lower than that of the low level SSC5D group(37.74％vs 85.10％),and the difference was significant(Log rank x2=23.291,P＜0.001).Compared with the good prognosis group,the poor prognosis group had a higher proportion of patients over 70 years old,proportion of patients with NYHA cardiac function class Ⅲ+Ⅳ,and serum LL37 and SSC5D levels,and the differences were significant(x2=10.774,4.118,t=4.723,14.059,all P＜0.05).Multivariate COX analysis showed that age＞70 years(OR=1.515,95％CI:1.224～1.858),NYHA cardiac function class Ⅲ+Ⅳ(OR=1.236,95％CI:1.198～1.963),high level of LL37(OR=1.705,95％CI:1.163～2.582)and high level of SSC5D(OR=1.591,95％C1:1.052～1.916)were independent risk factors for the prognosis of CHF patients.ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve of serum LL37 combined with SSC5D for predicting poor prognosis of CHF in the elderly was larger than that of serum LL37 and SSC5D alone,and the differences were significant(Z=2.834,2.168,P=0.005,0.030).Conclusion The serum LL37 and SSC5D levels are increased in patients with CHF,and both are risk factors for poor prognosis in patients with CHF,which can be used as clinical indicators to evaluate the prognosis of CHF.

Objective To investigate the prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection and the distribution of parasite species and genotypes among HIV-positive individuals in Jiangxi Province. Methods HIV-positive individuals' sociodemographic and clinical data were collected from three AIDS designated hospitals in Jiangxi Province from January 2022 to March 2023. Subjects' stool samples were collected, and genomic DNA was extracted from stool samples. Nested PCR assay was performed based on the small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene of Cryptosporidium, and Cryptosporidium gp60 gene was amplified in stool samples positive for the SSU rRNA gene. The second-round PCR amplification product was checked with 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis, and the products of suspected positive amplifications were sequenced, followed by sequence alignment. The phylogenetic tree was created using the Neighbor-Joining method with the software MEGA 11.0, to characterize the species, genotypes and sub-genotypes of Cryptosporidium. Results A total of 382 HIV-positive individuals were enrolled, with two cases identified with Cryptosporidium infection (0.52% prevalence), and both cases had no abdominal pain or diarrhea. Following sequencing and sequence alignment, the gene sequences of these two Cryptosporidium isolates shared 99.76% and 99.88% similarity with the gene sequence of C. meleagridis isolates. Phylogenetic analysis based on the Cryptosporidium SSU rRNA gene sequence identified the species of these two Cryptosporidium-positive stool samples as C. meleagridis. Following nested PCR amplification of the Cryptosporidium gp60 gene, sequencing and sequence alignment, the two C. meleagridis isolates were characterized as III eA17G2R1 and III bA25G1R1a sub-genotypes, and the sub-genotype III bA25G1R1a was firstly described in humans. Conclusion The prevalence of Cryptosporidium is low among HIV-positive individuals in Jiangxi Province. The likelihood of Cryptosporidium infection cannot be neglected among HIV-positive individuals without diarrhea.

Objective:To compare the clinical outcomes of arthroscopic external tension band fixation versus open reduction and internal fixation in the treatment of greater tubercle fracture of the humerus.Methods:A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 55 patients with greater tubercle fracture of the humerus admitted to Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province from September 2019 to June 2022, including 24 males and 31 females, aged 26-80 years [(61.7±10.5)years]. Out of them, 35 patients treated with open reduction and internal fixation (open reduction group), and 20 patients were treated with external anchor tension band under arthroscopy (arthroscopy group). The operation time, and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score, Constant-Murley score and shoulder active range of motion (anterior flexion, abduction and posterior extension) before operation, at 1 month after operation and at the last follow-up were compared between the two groups. Bone healing was observed in both groups at the last follow-up. Postoperative complications were compared between the two groups.Results:All the patients were followed up for 12-29 months [(16.9±4.0)months]. There was no significant difference in operation time between the two groups ( P>0.05). There were no significant differences in the VAS score, ASES score, Constant-Murley score and shoulder active range of motion between the two groups before operation ( P>0.05). The VAS score of the arthroscopy group was 3(2, 3)points at 1 month after operation, which was significantly lower than that of the open reduction group [4(3, 4) points] ( P<0.01). No significant difference was found in the VAS score at the last follow-up between the two groups ( P>0.05).The ASES scores of the arthroscopy group were (70.6±4.2)points and (90.2±3.7)points at 1 month after operation and at the last follow-up respectively, which were significantly higher than those of the open reduction group [(64.7±6.4)points and (87.5±4.9)points respectively] ( P<0.05 or 0.01). There was no significant difference in the Constant-Murley score between the arthroscopy group [(71.8±4.3)points] and the open reduction group [(70.9±5.3)points] at 1 month after operation ( P>0.05), while the Constant-Murley score of the arthroscopy group was (94.1±3.1)points at the last follow-up, which was significantly higher than that of the open reduction group [(89.2±4.7)points] ( P<0.01). At 1 month after operation and at the last follow-up, ranges of motion of the anterior flexion, abduction and posterior extension were (52.7±12.3)° and (140.0±16.9)°, (57.4±8.6)° and (125.0±14.3)°, and 16(15, 19)° and 25(20, 30)° in the arthroscopy group respectively, which were significantly higher than those in the open reduction group [(42.2±5.2)° and (110.9±14.0)°, (52.8±6.0)° and (103.7±11.7)°, and 10(10, 20)° and 16(15, 25)° respectively] ( P<0.05 or 0.01). At the last follow-up, it was found that bony union was achieved in both groups. There were no obvious complications such as incision infection or joint stiffnessin both groups. In the open reduction group, 2 patients had internal fixation failure within 1-3 months after operation but was treated with revision operation; 6 patients developed shoulder stiffness at 3-6 months after operation but had outpatient rehabilitation. The incidence rate of postoperative complications in the arthroscopy group [0%(0/20)] was significantly lower than that in the open reduction group [23%(8/35)] ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Compared with open reduction and internal fixation with plates and screws, arthroscopic external anchor tension band fixation in the treatment of greater tuberosity fracture of the humerus has the advantages of earlier pain relief, better shoulder functional improvement, better recovery of shoulder mobility, and fewer complications.

ObjectiveTo realize the automatic recognition of the slicing angles of Fritillariae Thunbergii Bulbus （FTB） based on the improved YOLOv7-tiny algorithm. MethodFirstly， a diverse dataset of FTB images， totaling 16 000 pictures， with various angles was constructed. Furthermore， improvements were made to YOLOv7-tiny by replacing standard convolutions with ghost convolution （GhostConv）， incorporating the coordinate attention （CA） mechanism as a preferred addition， substituting some activation functions with HardSwish function for decreasing the floating point operations. Additionally， a penalty term for angle recognition error was integrated into the loss function， and modifications were made to the non-maximum suppression （NMS） strategy to address cases where multiple detection results were associated with the same target. In order to verify the effectiveness of different improvement points on the optimization of the algorithm model， ablation experiments were carried out on all the improvement points， and the effectiveness of the improvement points was proved by comparing the prediction results before and after the addition of a certain improvement point on the basis of the original model or the model with the addition of an improvement point that has been verified to be effective， in order to evaluate the improvement of the indexes. ResultThe number of parameters required for the improved slicing angle recognition algorithm of FTB was about 55.4% of the original algorithm， and the amount of computation was about 59.4% of the original algorithm. The mAP@0.5［mean average precision at an intersection over union（IoU） of 0.5］ increased by 12.2%， the mean absolute error（MAE） of the recognized angle was 5.02°， representing a reduction of 4.58° compared to the original algorithm. In the experimental environment of this paper， the average recognition time per image was as low as 8.7 ms， significantly faster than the average human reaction time. ConclusionThis study， by utilizing the improved YOLOv7-tiny algorithm， achieves effective slicing angle recognition of FTB with high accuracy and more lightweight， which provides a novel approach for stable and precise automated slicing of FTB， thereby providing valuable insights into the automation of processing other traditional Chinese medicines.