Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a technique that uses an array of electrodes to deliver safe stimulating currents and measures the boundary voltages between adjacent electrode pairs in the array in sequence. Subsequently, it reconstructs the impedance distribution in all or part of the tissue using reconstruction algorithms to achieve structural and functional imaging. Lung EIT technology features continuity, being radiation-free and non-invasive, and it can be used for real-time dynamic monitoring of the lungs in critically ill patients. This paper introduces the basic principles of lung EIT, analyzes the research progress and existing problems of the technology from the perspectives of hardware systems, imaging algorithms, and clinical applications (such as lung ventilation, lung perfusion, and lung function assessment), and discusses the development direction to provide ideas for expanding the clinical application of lung EIT.
Electric Impedance ; Humans ; Tomography/methods* ; Lung Diseases/therapy* ; Algorithms

ObjectiveTo explore the recognition of oral breath odor map of chronic atrophic gastritis （CAG） patients with dampness-heat syndrome by electronic nose technique. MethodsPatients with chronic gastritis were recruited， including 60 cases in CAG group of dampness-heat syndrome， 50 cases in CAG group of non-dampness-heat syndrome， 60 cases in chronic non-atrophic gastritis （CNAG） group of dampness-heat syndrome， 50 cases in CNAG group of non-dampness-heat syndrome， and 30 cases of healthy volunteers were selected to set up the health control group. Ten cases in the CAG dampness-heat group and 50 cases in the CAG non-dampness-heat group were selected to form the CAG group， and 10 cases in CNAG dampness-heat group and 50 cases in CNAG non-dampness-heat group were selected to form the CNAG group. In addition to the health control group， the remaining patients were tested for Helicobacter pylori （Hp）； the electronic nose （GISXM-MQWA01） was used to collect the oral breath odor of all the participants to draw the mapping， and amplitudes and slopes of each curve （including curves A， B， C， D， E， F， G， H， I， J） of the oral odor mapping of health control group， CAG group， CNAG group， CAG dampness-heat group， CAG non-dampness-heat group， and CNAG dampness-heat group was compared. The modified transformer model was used to classify the odor mapping characteristics， and the confusion matrix method was used to evaluate the classification model， with metrics including accuracy and area under ROC curve （AUC）. ResultsThe Hp positivity rate in CAG dampness-heat group was 80.00% （48/60）， CAG non-dampness-heat group was 62.00% （31/50）， CNAG dampness-heat group was 46.67% （28/60）， and CNAG non-dampness-heat group was 42.00% （21/50）； the difference in Hp positivity rate between CAG dampness-heat group and CAG non-dampness-heat group was statistically significant （P＜0.05）. The amplitudes of response curves A， B， C， D， F， G， and I， and slopes of A and F in the odor mapping of the CAG group were lower than those in health control group， while the amplitude and slope of curve E were higher than those in the health control group and CNAG group （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）； The amplitude of the response curves A， B， C， D， F， G， and I， and slopes of A， D， and F in the CNAG group were lower than those in the health control group （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. The amplitude of response curve D and slope of response curve J in the odor mapping of the CAG dampness-heat group were higher than those in CNAG dampness-heat group， the amplitude of curve F was lower than that in CAG non-dampness-heat group， and the amplitude of curve H and slopes of curve A， H， and J were higher than those in CAG non-dampness-heat group （P＜0.05）. The recognition accuracy of CAG group and health control group reached 77.78%， AUC = 0.88； the recognition accuracy of CAG group and CNAG group was 69.44%， AUC = 0.61； the recognition accuracy of CAG dampness-heat group and CAG non-dampness-heat group reached 75.8%， AUC=0.70. ConclusionElectronic nose technology can make a more accurate identification of the oral breath odor in CAG patients with dampness-heat syndrome， with a decrease in the amplitude of the curve F and an increase in the amplitude of the curve H and in the slopes of the curves A， H， and J may as the characteristics of their odor mapping.

Objective To analyze the epidemic characteristics and influencing factors of influenza in Gaoming District of Foshan City from 2017 to 2021, and provide theoretical basis for influenza prevention in Gaoming District of Foshan City. Methods According to the influenza data in Gaoming District of Foshan City, descriptive analysis was made on the epidemiological characteristics. With the duration of influenza as the outcome variable and the time of taking measures, gathering place, influenza virus typing and influenza vaccination as independent variables, logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of the duration of influenza. Results From 2017 to 2021, 5 782 influenza cases were reported in Gaoming District of Foshan City, with male (51.45%) higher than female (48.55%). The age of influenza onset was mainly 3-8 years old (50.47%). The incidence season was mainly concentrated in winter (69.82%). From 2017 to 2021, influenza cases in Gaoming District of Foshan were mainly in nursery care children (49.44%) and primary schools (29.78%). The influenza viruses that caused the outbreak were mainly A H1N1 (48.88%) and B Yamagata (23.11%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the time of action and vaccination status were protective factors for the duration of influenza epidemic. Conclusion In Gaoming District of Foshan, influenza is mainly concentrated in children aged 3 to 8 years old, especially in winter. Children in kindergartens and primary schools are the places of high incidence of influenza. It is necessary to advocate active vaccination of students and take rapid measures to reduce the duration of influenza outbreak.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the genotypes and distribution of thalassemia in children in Quanzhou Region so as to provide reference for the prevention and control of thalassemia. METHODS: A total of 1 302 children with suspected thalassemia were collected from January 2014 to April 2020 in Quanzhou Region. The deletional α-thalassemia was detected by Gap-PCR, and DNA reverse dot blot (RDB) hybridization was used to detect α- and β-thalassemia mutations. RESULTS: In the 1 302 cases, 667 cases were identified as thalassemia carriers, and the positive detection rate was about 51.23%. Among them, 380 cases of α-thalassemia gene were detected, and -- CONCLUSION There are various genotypes of thalassemia in children in Quanzhou Region, and many children with thalassemia major or intermedia. Therefore, further prevention and control of thalassemia need to be strengthened for reducing the birth of thalassemia major or intermedia.
Child ; China ; Genetic Testing ; Genotype ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Mutation ; alpha-Thalassemia/genetics* ; beta-Thalassemia/genetics*

Objective:To develop a mesenteric creeping fat index (MCFI) based on CT enterography (CTE) to characterize the degree of creeping fat wrapping around the inflamed gut in Crohn disease (CD), and to assess the relationship between MCFI and the inflammatory intestinal stricture.Methods:From December 2018 to July 2019, the patients with CD who underwent surgery in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University were prospectively collected. The extent of perienteric mesenteric vessels wrapping around the gut was reconstructed to develop MCFI based on CTE images. The intestinal stricture index was obtained by calculating the ratio of the maximal upstream luminal diameter divided by the minimum luminal diameter apparent within the stricturing region. Using region-by-region correlation between CTE and surgical specimen, creeping fat score in intestinal specimen was obtained by assessing the extent of creeping fat wrapping around the resected bowel segment, and HE staining was performed on the bowel specimen corresponding to creeping fat to obtain the pathological inflammatory score. The Spearman correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between MCFI, creeping fat score in intestinal specimen, and inflammatory score, intestinal stricture index. The ROC curve analysis was used to assess the accuracy of MCFI in distinguishing moderate-severe and mild inflammatory bowel walls.Results:Totally 30 CD patients were enrolled. The creeping fat score in intestinal specimen positively correlated with pathological inflammatory score ( r s=0.403, P=0.027) and with intestinal stricture index ( r s=0.642, P<0.001). MCFI positively correlated with creeping fat score in intestinal specimen ( r s=0.840, P<0.001), with pathological inflammatory score ( r s=0.497, P=0.005), and with intestinal stricture index ( r s=0.599, P<0.001). ROC analysis showed that the area under the curve of MCFI for differentiating moderate-severely from mildly inflammatory bowel walls was 0.718 (95%CI 0.522-0.913). Using MCFI≥4 as a cutoff value, the sensitivity and specificity were 81.8% and 47.4%, respectively. Conclusions:There was a correlation between creeping fat and inflammatory intestinal strictures in CD. MCFI can non-invasively depict the degree of creeping fat wrapping around the gut and assess the inflammatory intestinal stricture.

Background & Objective: Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common complications of diabetes and leads to sensory symptoms, including diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP). Emodin has potential analgesic effect for the treatment of pain-related diseases. However, the analgesic effect of emodin on DNP and its possible mechanism remains unknown. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of emodin on STZ-induced DNP in rats and its potential molecular mechanism. Methods: To determine the analgesic effect of emodin on DNP, a mouse model of STZ-induced DNP was established. The pain-related behaviors were evaluated by von Frey test, and hot plate test. The mRNA and protein expression of several TRP channels was detected by qRT-PCR and western blot methods, and the level of inflammatory cytokines was determined by ELISA. Results: The mechanical and thermal pain thresholds were significantly decreased in DNP rats. A single injection of emodin treatment significantly reduced DNP. Further results demonstrated that emodin inhibited the up-regulation of Trpv1 mRNA in the DRG of DNP rats. Our data also indicated that emodin significantly reduced the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 in the DRG of DNP rats. Conclusions: Emodin ameliorates mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia in DNP rats by down-regulating the expression of TRPV1 in DRG and the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6. Emodin serves as a potent analgesic reagent for treatment and prevention of DNP.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the hospital is faced with such challenges as sustained input in patient screening, referral and rescue, supportive medical supplies including the management of personal protective supplies and the maintenance of medical equipment. In the face of increasing workload, the medical materials support team of the hospital took the following measures in the principles of " discovering new sources of supplies and minimizing consumption" . These measures taken include proactive supply procurement strategy, prioritizing allocations based on risk exposure, uniform distribution of supplies based on inventory and usage, and traceable management for donated supplies; optimal and central deployment of equipments, emergency installation, pre-maintenance and emergency repairs for equipments; efficient and safe sterilization of reusable materials and equipments using sterilizers; enhanced personnel training and management to keep updating the medical supplies capacity of the team. All these efforts have contributed significantly to the orderly work of epidemic control.

Objective: To understand the prevalence, diagnosis and treatment of chronic critical illness (CCI) in China. Methods: The clinical data of 472 adult patients admitted to ICU in 53 hospitals, including basic information, disease-related data, nutrition program, etc., were collected on May 10, 2019, by means of multi-center cross-sectional study. If surgical intervention was needed or the occurrence of the disease was directly related to the surgery, ICU patients were regarded as surgical ICU cases (n=211). In this study, the diagnostic criteria for CCI were: (1) admission to ICU >14 days;(2) combined with persistent organ dysfunction. The prevalence,distribution and treatment of CCI and surgery-related CCI were recorded and analyzed. The Mann-Whitney U test, chi-square test or Fisher exact test were used for comparative analysis. Results: Among the 472 ICU patients from 53 hospitals, 326 were male (69.1%) and 146 were female (30.9%). The prevalence of CCI was 30.7% (145/472). Among 211 surgery-related ICU patients, 57 developed CCI with a prevalence of 27.0%. As compared to non-CCI patients, higher APACHE II score [median (IQR) 13.5 (10.0, 18.3) vs. 11.0 (7.0, 16.0), U=2970.000, P=0.007], higher Charlson comorbidity index [median (IQR) 4.0 (2.0, 7.0) vs. 3.0 (1.0, 5.0), U= 3570.000, P=0.036] and higher ratio of breath dysfunction [68.4% (39/57) vs. 48.1% (74/154), χ²=6.939, P=0.008] and renal dysfunction [42.1% (24/57) vs. 18.2% (28/154), χ²=12.821, P<0.001] were found in surgery-related CCI patients. While SOFA score, Glasgow coma score and other visceral function were not significantly different between surgery-related CCI and non-CCI patients (all P>0.05). NUTRIC score showed that surgery-related CCI patients had higher nutritional risk [43.9% (25/57) vs. 26.6%(41/154), U=5.750, P=0.016] and higher ratio of mechanical ventilation [66.7% (38/57) vs. 52.3% (79/154), χ²=3.977, P=0.046] than non-CCI patients. On the survey day, the daily caloric requirements of 50.2% (106/211) of surgery-related ICU patients were calculated according to the standard adult caloric intake index (104.6 to 125.5 kJ·kg^-1·d^-1, 1 kJ=0.239 kcal), and the daily caloric requirements of 46.4% (98/211) of patients were calculated by physicians according to the severity of the patient′s condition. 60.2% (127/211) of nutritional support therapy was enteral nutrition (including a combination of enteral and parenteral nutrition), while the remaining patients received parenteral nutrition (24.6%, 52/211), simple glucose infusion (9.0%, 19/211), or oral diet (6.2%, 13/211). The target calorie of CCI group was 104.6 (87.9, 125.5) kJ·kg^-1·d^-1, and the actual calorie intake accounted for 0.98 (0.80, 1.00) of the target calory. In the non-CCI group, the target calorie was 104.6 (87.9, 125.5) kJ·kg^-1·d^-1, and the actual calorie consumed accounted for 0.91 (0.66, 1.00) of the target calorie. There was no statistically significant difference between two groups (P=0.248, P=0.150). Conclusion The prevalence of CCI and surgery-related CCI in ICU is high, along with severe complications, respiratory and renal dysfunction and mechanical ventilation. Surgical patients admitted to ICU are at high nutritional risk, and active and correct nutritional support is essential for such patients.

3D printing technology is a kind of manufacturing technology for increasing materials. Based on its advantages of rapid prototyping, digitalization and customization, it can effectively meet the needs of personalized and accurate medical treatment, and has been widely studied and applied in the medical field. This paper introduces the principle, technology and materials of 3D printing technology, and describes the research and application status of the technology in medical field. Meanwhile, some problems of 3D printing technology existing in the current development and its future application prospects also will be discussed.
Medicine ; trends ; Printing, Three-Dimensional ; Research ; trends

Objective To study the effect and mechanism of capillary microcirculation disturbance on intracerebral hemorrhage. Methods The loading effect of capillaries was replaced by the introduction of porous media. A microcirculation model from the capillaries to the veins was established. The appropriate mechanical boundary conditions were set up for the model by referring to various physiological conditions of human body, and the changes in blood pressure and stress of vascular wall under various conditions were simulated. Results Under normal circumstances, the whole blood pressure of the LSA was relatively low, and the pressure difference between the beginning and the end of the LSA was more obvious, and the stress of all parts of the vascular wall was at the same level. In the case of microcirculation disorder, the whole blood pressure of the LSA increased and the pressure difference between the beginning and the end of the LSA significantly decreased. The stress for each part of the vessel increased and the stress at the end of the LSA increased most significantly. Conclusions The influence of microcirculation disturbance on hemodynamics of the LSA was particularly significant. It was an important factor leading to hemorrhage of the LSA rupture. The research findings are of important theoretical and practical significance for understanding the mechanism of cerebral vascular rupture and preventing the occurrence of cerebral hemorrhage in the case of microcirculation disturbance.