Objective:To investigate the correlation between peri-coronary fat attenuation index (FAI) and plaque formation in patients with myocardial bridge (MB) of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and to develop an optimal predictive model to explore the potential application of FAI in the primary prevention of MB related atherosclerosis.Methods:In this retrospective study, prediction models associated with perivascular fat inflammation were developed and validated using both logistic regression and machine learning (ML) algorithm. A training dataset was collected from 253 patients who underwent ≥2 coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) with ≥3 months intervals from one tertiary hospital from January 2007 to April 2021 and had baseline CCTA showing no plaques in LAD MB. The median follow-up time was 3.2 years. According to the same criteria, a total of 75 LAD MB patients from four other hospitals were included to form an independent external validation dataset, with a median follow-up time of 1.8 years. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis with integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) and category net reclassification index (NRI) were used to compare the performance of the predictive models.Results:62 patients (24.5%) in the training dataset had proximal plaque formation in LAD MB, while 22 patients (29.3%) in the external validation dataset had plaque formation during the follow-up period. Baseline FAI within the longitudinal distance equal to 30 mm proximal to the MB entrance was an independent predictor ( OR=1.068, P=0.046). According to the model results, ROC curves were plotted. The AUC of Model 1 was 0.822, and the AUCs of Model 2 and 1 were 0.821 and 0.591 in the training dataset. After the DeLong test, the AUC of Model 1 was superior to that of Model 2 ( Z=2.839, P=0.005) and Model 1 ( Z=6.124, P<0.001). These findings were further validated in the external validation dataset, where ML-model 3 yielded the best predictive performance, outperforming the logistic regression-based Model 2 (categorical NRI=0.359, P=0.048; IDI=0.108, P=0.046). Conclusion:FAI measured within the 30 mm proximal to the entrance of MBs due to its prone to plaque development is an independent predictor for atherosclerotic plaque formation. The ML-prediction model based on a decision tree algorithm combines FAI, MB anatomical features, and patient risk factors, which is beneficial for patients undergoing routine CCTA examination to identify inflamed coronary arteries in advance and guide the clinical adoption of more targeted preventive treatment, including anti-inflammatory treatment.

The advancement of surgical techniques enables effective treatment for many patients with oral and maxillofacial tumors.How-ever,post-surgery problems such as chewing,swallowing and speech difficulty may arise due to the defects in speech organs and inade-quate compensatory function of tissue flap repair.Speech disorders,in particular,isolate patients by making it difficult for them to com-municate with others,not only impact their quality of life but also potentially lead to psychological problems and social interaction disor-ders.Although the decline in life quality and other related issues caused by speech dysfunction due to surgery and radiotherapy or chemo-therapy have been widely recognized,there is currently no standardized and universally applicable assessment method and standardized re-habilitation treatment management guideline or consensus for speech disorders following oral and maxillofacial tumor surgery at home and abroad.Based on previous clinical practice,combined with the characteristics of speech disorders in patients after oral and maxillofacial tumor surgery,the clinical experience of the experts in maxillofacial tumor surgery and rehabilitation and the relevant domestic and foreign literature,relevant experts organized discussions and modifications,reach a consensus on core content such as the assessment of speech disorders and the implementation plan for early rehabilitation treatment management,providing a reference for clinical practice,in order to improve patients'speech-related life quality and enhance the assessment and rehabilitation treatment techniques for speech disorders after oral and maxillofacial tumor surgery.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between peri-coronary fat attenuation index (FAI) and plaque formation in patients with myocardial bridge (MB) of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and to develop an optimal predictive model to explore the potential application of FAI in the primary prevention of MB related atherosclerosis.Methods:In this retrospective study, prediction models associated with perivascular fat inflammation were developed and validated using both logistic regression and machine learning (ML) algorithm. A training dataset was collected from 253 patients who underwent ≥2 coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) with ≥3 months intervals from one tertiary hospital from January 2007 to April 2021 and had baseline CCTA showing no plaques in LAD MB. The median follow-up time was 3.2 years. According to the same criteria, a total of 75 LAD MB patients from four other hospitals were included to form an independent external validation dataset, with a median follow-up time of 1.8 years. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis with integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) and category net reclassification index (NRI) were used to compare the performance of the predictive models.Results:62 patients (24.5%) in the training dataset had proximal plaque formation in LAD MB, while 22 patients (29.3%) in the external validation dataset had plaque formation during the follow-up period. Baseline FAI within the longitudinal distance equal to 30 mm proximal to the MB entrance was an independent predictor ( OR=1.068, P=0.046). According to the model results, ROC curves were plotted. The AUC of Model 1 was 0.822, and the AUCs of Model 2 and 1 were 0.821 and 0.591 in the training dataset. After the DeLong test, the AUC of Model 1 was superior to that of Model 2 ( Z=2.839, P=0.005) and Model 1 ( Z=6.124, P<0.001). These findings were further validated in the external validation dataset, where ML-model 3 yielded the best predictive performance, outperforming the logistic regression-based Model 2 (categorical NRI=0.359, P=0.048; IDI=0.108, P=0.046). Conclusion:FAI measured within the 30 mm proximal to the entrance of MBs due to its prone to plaque development is an independent predictor for atherosclerotic plaque formation. The ML-prediction model based on a decision tree algorithm combines FAI, MB anatomical features, and patient risk factors, which is beneficial for patients undergoing routine CCTA examination to identify inflamed coronary arteries in advance and guide the clinical adoption of more targeted preventive treatment, including anti-inflammatory treatment.

The advancement of surgical techniques enables effective treatment for many patients with oral and maxillofacial tumors.How-ever,post-surgery problems such as chewing,swallowing and speech difficulty may arise due to the defects in speech organs and inade-quate compensatory function of tissue flap repair.Speech disorders,in particular,isolate patients by making it difficult for them to com-municate with others,not only impact their quality of life but also potentially lead to psychological problems and social interaction disor-ders.Although the decline in life quality and other related issues caused by speech dysfunction due to surgery and radiotherapy or chemo-therapy have been widely recognized,there is currently no standardized and universally applicable assessment method and standardized re-habilitation treatment management guideline or consensus for speech disorders following oral and maxillofacial tumor surgery at home and abroad.Based on previous clinical practice,combined with the characteristics of speech disorders in patients after oral and maxillofacial tumor surgery,the clinical experience of the experts in maxillofacial tumor surgery and rehabilitation and the relevant domestic and foreign literature,relevant experts organized discussions and modifications,reach a consensus on core content such as the assessment of speech disorders and the implementation plan for early rehabilitation treatment management,providing a reference for clinical practice,in order to improve patients'speech-related life quality and enhance the assessment and rehabilitation treatment techniques for speech disorders after oral and maxillofacial tumor surgery.

Objective:To compare the effect of middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) versus conventional therapy for chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH).Methods:Retrospective analysis of 38 patients with 48 CSDHs treated with MMAE from May 2019 to May 2021 was performed. Comparisons were made with a conventional treatment for 126 patients with 126 CSDHs from January 2016 to May 2021. The MMAE and conventional treatment patients were matched by the propensity score matching method, and a total of 25 pairs of patients (31 pairs of CSDHs) were successfully matched. The CSDH recurrence, rescue treatment, radiographic follow-up outcome, clinical improvement and complication between the two groups were compared by t test, χ 2 test or Fisher exact probability methods. Results:The rescue treatment rate in MMAE group was significantly lower than that in conventional treatment group [0 (0/31) vs 19.4% (6/31), P=0.024] and the complete resolution rate at 6 months follow-up in MMAE group was significantly higher than that in conventional treatment group [96.8 (30/31) vs 74.2% (23/31), P=0.026]. In terms of CSDH recurrence, there was a trend of lower recurrence in the MMAE group [3.2%(1/31) vs 22.6% (7/31), P=0.053]. The complete resolution rate at 3 months follow-up was 61.3% (19/31) in MMAE group and 45.2% (14/31) in conventional treatment, clinical improvement rate was 92.0% (23/25) in MMAE group and 88.0% (22/23) in conventional treatment, good outcome rate (mRS≤2) was 92.0% (23/25) in MMAE group and 84.0% (21/25) in conventional treatment, complication rate was 0(0/25) in MMAE group and 4.0% (1/25) in conventional treatment, and there were no significant differences in all above-mentioned parameters ( P>0.05). Conclusions:The MMAE may be considered as a safe and effective treatment for CSDH, and MMAE for CSDH is associated with lower trend of recurrence, lower rescue treatment rate and better radiographic follow-up outcome than conventional therapy.

Infectious intracranial aneurysms (IIA) is a rare infectious neurovascular disease. The most common clinical manifestation of IIA is subarachnoid hemorrhage or intracranial hematoma caused by aneurysm rupture, which has a high morbidity and mortality. For unruptured IIA, the clinical manifestations are hidden and the diagnosis is more difficult. This article mainly reviews the research progress of diagnosis and treatment of IIA, in order to provide reference for the diagnosis and treatment of IIA.

Infectious intracranial aneurysm (IIA) is a kind of rare infectious neurovascular disease. The most common cause of IIA is bacterial embolism after acute or subacute infective endocarditis. The most common clinical symptoms of IIA include subarachnoid hemorrhage or intracranial hematoma resulted from aneurysm rupture, which has high disability and mortality rate. The treatment options for IIA mainly include anti-infective therapy, surgical treatment and endovascular interventional therapy. However, due to pathogenesis differences and aneurysm size, shape, location and rupture, the treatment plans for IIA patients need to be implemented individually. This article mainly focuses on the research progress of the different treatments of IIA in order to provide references for IIA clinical treatment.

Objective:To explore the lesion characteristics and predictors of invasive coronary angiography (ICA)-verified obstructive lesions with fractional flow reserve (FFR)>0.80, that is, anatomy-function mismatch.Methods:A total of 515 obstructive vessels in 419 coronary disease patients from 11 Chinese medical centers undergoing coronary CT angiography and ICA and FFR were retrospectively analyzed. All vessels had one target lesion with diameter stenosis ≥50 % by ICA. There were 229 vessels in the match group (FFR≤0.80) and 286 vessels in the mismatch group (FFR>0.80). The lesion characteristics including lesion territory, the distance of the coronary artery ostium to the proximal end of the lesion, minimum lumen area, reference lumen area, plaque length and burden, plaque volume and component volume, remodeling index and plaque morphological complexity were measured and compared between the two groups. Optimal thresholds of quantitative plaque characteristics were defined by Yoden index. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the predictors of anatomy-function mismatch. Area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to analyze the ability of different lesion features to predict mismatched lesions.Results:The coronary stenosis, plaque burden and length, plaque volume (including each component volume) in the mismatch group were smaller than those in the match group, and FFR, minimum lumen area were larger (all P<0.05). Left anterior descending artery (LAD) lesion and severe complex plaque were more common in the match group than the mismatch group with a statistically significant difference. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that LAD lesion, minimum lumen area>4 mm 2, plaque burden and length, plaque calcification volume<27 mm 3, plaque lipid volume<30 mm 3, plaque fiber volume<150 mm 3 and plaque morphological complexity were predictiors of anatomic function mismatched lesions; Multivariate logistic regression showed that the minimum lumen area>4 mm 2 (OR=3.371, 95%CI 1.903-5.973, P<0.001), plaque lipid volume<30 mm 3 (OR=3.014, 95%CI 1.691-5.373, P<0.001), plaque morphological complexity (mild OR=17.772, 95%CI 8.072-39.128, P<0.001, moderate OR=6.383, 95%CI 3.739-10.896, P<0.001) were independent predictors of mismatched lesions. The AUC of the model based on the minimum lumen area, plaque lipid volume and morphological complexity was 0.824, which was superior to either of the plaque feature alone ( P<0.001). Conclusions:The minimum lumen area, lipid volume and plaque morphological complexity are independent predictors of the anatomical-functional mismatch lesions, and the combination can significantly improve the prediction value.

Objective:To explore the value and significance of sensorimotor cortex (SMC) in the recovery of upper limb motor function after cerebral infarction in the striatum with blood oxygenation level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI).Methods:A total of 17 patients with primary onset of striatal intracapsular infarction (SCI) with unilateral severe upper limb paralysis, who were strictly screened from the Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University from June 2015 to December 2017, were selected as research subjects, and 15 healthy volunteers were selected as controls. BOLD-fMRI under the passive finger extension (FE) task on the hemiplegic side was performed within one week, one month and three months after the onset of the disease. The activation of SMC was observed by SPM8 software. The activation of corresponding brain activation areas in BOLD-fMRI was observed by Xjview software and compared with the standard brain activation areas dynamically. The upper limb section of the Fugl-Meyer Scale (FM-UL) was used to track the motor function of the upper limb. The upper limb motor function of the selected patients was evaluated before functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, at one month and three months after onset of the disease.Results:In the controls, fMRI showed that the main brain activation areas were located in the contralateral SMC and bilateral supplementary motor area. According to the activation time course of the affected side SMC and the comparison results with the standard brain activation area, the study patients were divided into three groups: group 1 (six patients), in which the activation intensity of SMC was stronger than that of standard brain activation area in the early stage of onset; group 2 (five patients), in which the activation intensity of SMC in the affected side was stronger than that in the standard brain activation area at one month after onset; group 3 (six patients), in which the activation intensity of SMC in the affected side increased gradually in three months, but still did not exceed the standard brain activation area. The activated voxel values of the affected side SMC in group 1 patients at the first time, one month and three months were 3 570.2±1 125.9, 1 205.8±328.2 and 1 121.5±407.5, respectively, the difference within the group being statistically significant ( F=12.8, P=0.001); the activated voxel values of the affected SMC in group 2 patients were 556.2±171.7, 648.6±177.3 and 993.2±182.9, respectively, and the differences within the group were statistically significant ( F=6.5, P=0.018); the activated SMC values of the affected SMC in group 3 patients were 520.0±375.9, 573.5±375.0 and 680.9±359.8, respectively, and there was no statistically significant difference within the group ( P>0.05). The three times FM-UL scores corresponding to group 1 patients were (10.0±3.3) points, (52.3±4.6) points and (63.7±2.9) points; the three times FM-UL scores corresponding to group 2 patients were (10.6±5.7) points, (36.6±2.4) points and (59.2±3.1) points; and the three times FM-UL scores corresponding to group 3 patients were (9.2±4.0) points, (12.5±3.0) points and (13.3±5.0) points; FM-UL scores in group 1 and group 2 patients showed statistically significant differences within the groups ( F=348.4, 183.6; P<0.001), whereas that in group 3 patients showed no statistically significant difference within the group ( P>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the initial FM-UL score among the groups ( P>0.05), while the differences among the groups at one month and three months were statistically significant ( F=191.7,304.5; P<0.001). Conclusions:The survival of SMC on the affected side after cerebral infarction is a prerequisite for the rehabilitation of limb motor function. Its early activation cannot predict the clinical prognosis, but the dynamic enhancement of SMC activation on the affected side is related to the rehabilitation speed of the affected limb.

Objective:To study the dynamic changes of cortical functional reorganization in striatocapsular infarction (SCI) by blood oxygenation level dependent-functional MR imaging (BOLD-fMRI) and its relation with recovery of motor function in the upper extremity of the hemiplegia.Methods:A total of 17 patients with SCI at first onset and combined with upper extremity of the hemiplegia, admitted to our hospital from June 2015 to December 2017, were included; 15 healthy volunteers recruited at the same time were selected as control group. Within 1 week of onset, and 1 and 3 months after onset, BOLD-fMRI was performed under passive finger flexion and extension task on hemiplegia side, and the activation of brain functional areas at different stages was observed by SPM8 software. The Xjview software was used to observe the activation of the corresponding brain activation areas in BOLD-fMRI and make dynamic comparison with the standard brain activation areas. The upper limb part of Fugl-Meyer (FM-UL) scale was used to track the motor function of the upper limb.Results:The activation in the control group was mainly located in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex (SMC) and bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA). The regions of interest in early BOLD-fMRI for stroke patients at early stage can be divided into 3 types. The activation in patients with type I was mainly at the affected side, enjoying bilateral SMC and SMA activation; 1 and 3 months after onset, activation at the contralateral SMC decreased gradually, and activation at the ipsilateral SMC region gradually increased. The activation in patients with type Ⅱ was merely at the ipsilateral SMC and SMA regions; 1 month after onset, bilateral SMC area and SMA area were significantly activated, mainly at the contralateral side; 3 months after onset, the SMC area was further activated at the ipsilateral side and weakened at the ipsilateral side. The activation in patients with type Ⅲ was only at SMC or M1 at the ipsilateral side; 1 month after onset, activation at the ipsilateral SMC area increased slightly; 3 months after onset, activation at the ipsilateral SMC area further enhanced, and SMA area was without activation performance. The FM-UL scores of the affected limbs of patients with type I, type II and type III at the early onst were 10.0±3.3, 10.6±5.7 and 9.2±4.0, respectively, without statistical differences ( P>0.05); 1 month after onset, the FM-UL scores of patients with type I, type II and type III were 52.3±4.6, 36.6±2.4 and 12.5±3.0, respectively, with significant differences ( P<0.05); 3 months after onset, FM-UL scores of patients with type I, type II and type III were 63.7±2.9, 59.2±3.1 and 13.3±5.0, respectively, with statistical differences ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Intracranial functional reorganization is a dynamic process. The early and dynamic activation of the affected SMC region and the early activation of the contralateral SMC region and bilateral SMA regions are of great significance in the process of stroke rehabilitation.