ObjectiveTo optimize the water extraction process of Coptidis Rhizoma （CR） and the processing of Polygalae Radix （PR） with the water decoction of CR， and to compare chemical constituents before and after processing. MethodsWith water volume， soaking time， decocting time， and decocting times as influencing factors， and the content of berberine， epiberberine， coptisine， jatrorrhizine， and palmatine and the yield of dry extract as evaluation indexes， the orthogonal test combined with multi-index comprehensive scoring method was employed to optimize the water extraction parameters of CR. With solid-liquid ratio， stir-frying temperature， and stir-frying time as influencing factors， and the content of tenuifolin， polygalaxanthone Ⅲ， and 3，6ʹ-disinapoyl sucrose and the yield of ethanol extract as evaluation indexes， the orthogonal test combined with multi-index comprehensive scoring method was applied to optimize the processing parameters of PR with the water decoction of CR. The differential chemical constituents of PR before and after processing were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-Exactive Orbitrap-mass spectrometry （UPLC-Q Exactive Orbitrap MS）. ResultsThe optimal water extraction process of CR was as follows： Decocting for 3 times， 40 min each time， with 10 times the amount of water. The optimal processing technology of PR with the water decoction of CR was a solid-liquid ratio of 1∶1.5， a stir-frying temperature of 140 ℃， and stir-frying time of 20 min. A total of 31 differential components were identified before and after processing， including 17 components of PR and 15 components of CR. After processing， 14 new components such as coptisine， berberine， and palmatine emerged， and the content of arillanin A， glomeratose A， 3，6ʹ-disinapoyl sucrose， and ferulic acid was increased. The content of other intrinsic constituents of PR， such as onjisaponin D， polygalaxanthone Ⅺ， sibiricose A3， and tenuifoliside B， was generally decreased. ConclusionThe optimized characteristic processing technology of PR with the water decoction of CR is stable and feasible. Significant differences in chemical composition were observed between raw and processed PR. Processing with the water decoction of CR can effectively reduce the gastrointestinal irritant components originally present in PR while simultaneously introducing the bioactive constituents from CR. This study provides data support for the standardization research and mechanism elucidation of the ancient characteristic processing methods of the Jinling medical school.

Objective: To analyze the association between each regional fat mass and total body bone mineral density (BMD) in children and adolescents aged 7-17 years in Beijing, so as to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for implementing interventions. Methods: From September to December 2020, a stratified cluster random sampling method was used to select 1 423 children and adolescents aged 7-17 years in Tongzhou District, Beijing. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was employed to measure regional body composition and total body BMD. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the association between regional fat mass and total body BMD. Results: The median (interquartile range) fat mass values for total body, upper limbs, abdomen, hips, and thighs were 13.51(8.84, 19.21), 1.59(1.08, 2.23), 0.73(0.39, 1.29), 2.32(1.46, 3.26), 5.29(3.59, 7.21)kg, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, the results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that total body fat mass (β=0.010), abdominal fat mass (β=-0.100), and hip fat mass (β=0.104) were significant associations with total body BMD (all P<0.01). Sexstratified analysis revealed that in boys, total body fat mass (β=0.008) and hip fat mass (β=0.058) were positively associated with BMD, while thigh fat mass (β=-0.038) showed a negative association with total body BMD (all P<0.05). In girls, total body fat mass (β=0.013), hip fat mass (β=0.163), and thigh fat mass (β=0.023) were positively associated with total body BMD, whereas abdominal fat mass (β=-0.196) showed a negative association with total body BMD (all P<0.05). Among children and adolescents with body fat percentage below the standard range, within the standard range and above the standard range, total body fat masses were positively associated with total body BMD (β=0.021, 0.016, 0.015); among children and adolescents with body fat percentage within the standard range while upper limb (β=-0.042), abdominal (β=-0.067), and thigh fat mass (β=-0.018) showed negative associations with total body BMD, and hip fat mass demonstrated a positive association with total body BMD (β=0.082) (all P<0.05). Conclusion Regional fat distribution is associated with total body BMD in children and adolescents, with the nature of these associations varying by sex and body fat percentage.

Objective To investigate the diagnostic accuracy and clinical applicability of the Linknet-VGG16 deep learning algorithm for measuring the effective optical zone(EOZ)after corneal refractive surgery.Methods This single-center retrospective cohort study included 69 patients(69 eyes)who underwent femtosecond laser-assisted in situ kerato-mileusis(FS-LASIK)(34 eyes)or small incision lenticule extraction(SMILE)(35 eyes)at the Refractive Surgery Center of Affiliated Zhengzhou Aier Eye Hospital of Henan University from June 2023 to June 2024.Data from the right eyes of all patients were selected for statistical analysis.During the surgery,patients in the FS-LASIK group adopted the VisuMax fem-tosecond laser system combined with the Amaris 750S excimer laser system,while those in the SMILE group only used the VisuMax femtosecond laser system.A total of 276 Pentacam images were re-examined postoperatively.A Linknet segmenta-tion model based on the VGG16 encoder was constructed,and image normalization techniques were applied to accelerate model convergence.Model performance was assessed using accuracy,intersection over union(IoU),and the Dice coeffi-cient.The traditional EOZ measurement method based on corneal tangential curvature served as the reference standard.Bland-Altman analysis was conducted to evaluate consistency across all images and within each group,and the time effi-ciency of both methods was compared.Results Six representative medical image segmentation architectures(U-Net,U-Net++,DeepLabv3-ResNet50,DeepLabv3+-ResNet50,Unet-Densenet169,and Linknet-VGG16)were systematically evaluated.The Linknet-VGG16 model demonstrated superior performance over the other 5 models in pixel-level accuracy,IoU and Dice coefficient,which were 99.83％,99.48％and 99.74％,respectively.Although there was no significant differ-ence in accuracy and Dice coefficient between Linknet-VGG16 and U-Net models(whose accuracy was 99.82％and Dice coefficient was 99.72％),the inference speed of the U-Net model(62.46 ms)was 31.76％slower than that of the Linknet-VGG16 model(42.62 ms).The evaluation results of a clinically applicable comprehensive scoring model(weights:accura-cy 20％,IoU 20％,Dice coefficient 20％,speed 25％,model size 15％)showed that the Linknet-VGG16 model achieved a score of 88.01,surpassing other architectures(U-Net:86.29;DeepLabv3+-ResNet50:80.41;DeepLabv3-ResNet50:73.82;U-Net++:73.22;Unet-Densenet169:66.66).Bland-Altman analysis revealed that the mean difference of the 136 images in the FS-LASIK group was 0.01 mm[95％limits of agreement(LoA):-0.36 to 0.35 mm],with 96.3％of data points falling within the LoA.The mean difference of the 140 images in the SMILE group was-0.01 mm(95％LoA:-0.36 to 0.33 mum),with 95.7％of data points falling within the LoA.The mean difference of all 276 images was 0.00 mm(95％LoA:-0.36 to 0.34 mm),with 96.4％of data points falling within the LoA.These results indicated excellent consistency.The average measurement time per image using the traditional EOZ measurement method was 13.00 minutes,whereas the deep learning model required only 3.22 seconds.Conclusion The traditional EOZ measurement method based on corne-al tangential curvature exhibits good consistency with the fully automatic EOZ measurement method based on deep learning algorithms,achieving high image recognition accuracy.Additionally,the deep learning algorithm significantly reduces measurement time,compared with the traditional method based on corneal tangential curvature.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury of the knee is a common sports injury that leads to knee instability, articular cartilage degeneration, periarticular ligaments and meniscus injuries. Arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is the gold standard in the treatment of ACL injuries, but femoral fixation, being one of the main factors affecting postoperative function after ACLR, remains controversial with various methods and no universal standard. Interference screws as a commonly used fixation method are made of various materials, among which metal screws provide strong fixation but have the disadvantages of graft damage, interference with the MRI examination, and a removal surgery. Degradable metal has good mechanical properties but its degradation is unpredictable. Bioabsorbable interference screws do not require a second operation and do not interfere with the MRI examination, but there are risks of screw breakage, dislocation, and bone tunnel widening. Sheathed interference screws increase the tendon-bone contact area but require a high level of integrity of the bone tunnel. Suspension fixation, the most commonly used method for ACLR femoral side, provides high initial strength, but may cause tendon lengthening, wiper effect and bungee effect. Cross-pin fixation such as Rigidfix, fixes the graft with two absorbable transverse nails with even stress distribution. However, it has a limited choice of femoral tunnel location,poses a risk of cross-pin fracture, and is not suitable for patients with tendons smaller than 7 mm in diameter. Over-the-top fixation does not need the building of a femoral tunnel and is more commonly used in skeletally immature, partial ACL injuries and ACLR revision surgery, where damage to the epiphysis can be avoided and can be used as a means of reinforcement. However, it is not sufficient in patients with high requirements for knee flexion stability and requires longer tendon graft.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury of the knee is a common sports injury that leads to knee instability, articular cartilage degeneration, periarticular ligaments and meniscus injuries. Arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is the gold standard in the treatment of ACL injuries, but femoral fixation, being one of the main factors affecting postoperative function after ACLR, remains controversial with various methods and no universal standard. Interference screws as a commonly used fixation method are made of various materials, among which metal screws provide strong fixation but have the disadvantages of graft damage, interference with the MRI examination, and a removal surgery. Degradable metal has good mechanical properties but its degradation is unpredictable. Bioabsorbable interference screws do not require a second operation and do not interfere with the MRI examination, but there are risks of screw breakage, dislocation, and bone tunnel widening. Sheathed interference screws increase the tendon-bone contact area but require a high level of integrity of the bone tunnel. Suspension fixation, the most commonly used method for ACLR femoral side, provides high initial strength, but may cause tendon lengthening, wiper effect and bungee effect. Cross-pin fixation such as Rigidfix, fixes the graft with two absorbable transverse nails with even stress distribution. However, it has a limited choice of femoral tunnel location,poses a risk of cross-pin fracture, and is not suitable for patients with tendons smaller than 7 mm in diameter. Over-the-top fixation does not need the building of a femoral tunnel and is more commonly used in skeletally immature, partial ACL injuries and ACLR revision surgery, where damage to the epiphysis can be avoided and can be used as a means of reinforcement. However, it is not sufficient in patients with high requirements for knee flexion stability and requires longer tendon graft.

Objective To investigate the diagnostic accuracy and clinical applicability of the Linknet-VGG16 deep learning algorithm for measuring the effective optical zone(EOZ)after corneal refractive surgery.Methods This single-center retrospective cohort study included 69 patients(69 eyes)who underwent femtosecond laser-assisted in situ kerato-mileusis(FS-LASIK)(34 eyes)or small incision lenticule extraction(SMILE)(35 eyes)at the Refractive Surgery Center of Affiliated Zhengzhou Aier Eye Hospital of Henan University from June 2023 to June 2024.Data from the right eyes of all patients were selected for statistical analysis.During the surgery,patients in the FS-LASIK group adopted the VisuMax fem-tosecond laser system combined with the Amaris 750S excimer laser system,while those in the SMILE group only used the VisuMax femtosecond laser system.A total of 276 Pentacam images were re-examined postoperatively.A Linknet segmenta-tion model based on the VGG16 encoder was constructed,and image normalization techniques were applied to accelerate model convergence.Model performance was assessed using accuracy,intersection over union(IoU),and the Dice coeffi-cient.The traditional EOZ measurement method based on corneal tangential curvature served as the reference standard.Bland-Altman analysis was conducted to evaluate consistency across all images and within each group,and the time effi-ciency of both methods was compared.Results Six representative medical image segmentation architectures(U-Net,U-Net++,DeepLabv3-ResNet50,DeepLabv3+-ResNet50,Unet-Densenet169,and Linknet-VGG16)were systematically evaluated.The Linknet-VGG16 model demonstrated superior performance over the other 5 models in pixel-level accuracy,IoU and Dice coefficient,which were 99.83％,99.48％and 99.74％,respectively.Although there was no significant differ-ence in accuracy and Dice coefficient between Linknet-VGG16 and U-Net models(whose accuracy was 99.82％and Dice coefficient was 99.72％),the inference speed of the U-Net model(62.46 ms)was 31.76％slower than that of the Linknet-VGG16 model(42.62 ms).The evaluation results of a clinically applicable comprehensive scoring model(weights:accura-cy 20％,IoU 20％,Dice coefficient 20％,speed 25％,model size 15％)showed that the Linknet-VGG16 model achieved a score of 88.01,surpassing other architectures(U-Net:86.29;DeepLabv3+-ResNet50:80.41;DeepLabv3-ResNet50:73.82;U-Net++:73.22;Unet-Densenet169:66.66).Bland-Altman analysis revealed that the mean difference of the 136 images in the FS-LASIK group was 0.01 mm[95％limits of agreement(LoA):-0.36 to 0.35 mm],with 96.3％of data points falling within the LoA.The mean difference of the 140 images in the SMILE group was-0.01 mm(95％LoA:-0.36 to 0.33 mum),with 95.7％of data points falling within the LoA.The mean difference of all 276 images was 0.00 mm(95％LoA:-0.36 to 0.34 mm),with 96.4％of data points falling within the LoA.These results indicated excellent consistency.The average measurement time per image using the traditional EOZ measurement method was 13.00 minutes,whereas the deep learning model required only 3.22 seconds.Conclusion The traditional EOZ measurement method based on corne-al tangential curvature exhibits good consistency with the fully automatic EOZ measurement method based on deep learning algorithms,achieving high image recognition accuracy.Additionally,the deep learning algorithm significantly reduces measurement time,compared with the traditional method based on corneal tangential curvature.

Astrocytes and microglia engage in extensive and complex communication and mutual effect, which referrs to microglia-astrocyte crosstalk. Recent studies have highlighted that this crosstalk plays a pivotal role in neurodegenerative diseases, exerting either protective or detrimental effects. This review briefly introduces the molecular mechanism of microglia-astrocyte crosstalk and its research progress in Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease, aiming to provide new research directions and therapeutic targets for clinical improvement of neurodegenerative diseases from perspective of microglia-astrocyte crosstalk.

Objective:Using bacterial culture as the gold standard, to evaluate the agreement of rapid antigen detection test (RADT) and rapid nucleic acid test (RNAT) in diagnosing group A Streptococcus (GAS) pharyngitis in pediatric outpatients, and assess their potential clinical utility. Methods:This cross-sectional study prospectively collected throat swab specimens and clinical data of 338 children diagnosed with acute pharyngitis at the Department of Outpatient Beijing Children′s Hospital, Capital Medical University, between July 2023 and February 2024. The specimens were tested for GAS bacterial culture, RADT and RNAT. Using bacterial culture results as the reference standard, Kappa consistency analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic concordance between RADT and RNAT. Chi-square test was used to compare clinical characteristics between cases diagnosed by different methods.Results:In the 338 children diagnosed with pharyngitis, 195 were male and 143 were female, with an age at the visit of 7.4 (5.9, 7.4) years. The positivive rates for GAS detection were 25.7% (87/338) by bacterial culture, 20.7% (70/338) by RADT, and 41.7% (141/338) by RNAT. In terms of diagnostic performance, RADT exhibited a higher specificity (96.8% (243/251)) and better agreement with bacterial culture results ( κ=0.73), whereas RNAT showed greater sensitivity (95.4% (83/87)) but lower specificity (76.9% (193/251)) and moderate agreement ( κ=0.61). Among the 87 children with positive bacterial culture for GAS, 56 were male and 31 were female, with an age at visit of 7.3 (6.2, 8.8) years. Clinically, body temperature predominantly ranged from 38.1 to 39.0 ℃ in 48 cases (55.2%), and common accompanying symptoms included sore throat 62 cases (71.3%), cough 33 cases (37.9%), and cervical lymphadenopathy or tenderness 16 cases (18.4%). On physical examination, tonsillar enlargement was present in 73 cases (83.9%) and exudate in 37 cases (42.5%). The McIsaac score was most frequently 4 points, observed in 37 cases (42.5%). Laboratory tests showed a peripheral white blood cell (WBC) count of 14.5 (12.3, 18.7)×10?/L and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration of 22.0 (10.1, 41.4) mg/L. There were no statistically significant differences in the proportion of fever, sore throat, cough, tender cervical lymphadenopathy, tonsillar exudates, or tonsillar enlargement, nor in WBC count or CRP, among children who tested positive by RADT, RNAT, or bacterial culture (all P>0.05). Conclusions:Compared with bacterial culture,the RADT demonstrates higher specificity, while the RNAT exhibits greater sensitivity. Both methods show good concordance with culture results and may serve as effective adjunctive tools for the early screening of GAS pharyngitis.

Objective:To summarize the clinical manifestations of anti-synthetase syndrome (ASS) with interstitial lung disease (ILD) patients with different antibody subtypes and the skeletal muscle pathology of ASS.Methods:A total of 106 ASS-ILD patients admitted to the First Medical Center of Chinese People′s Liberation Army General Hospital from May 11, 2015 to June 25, 2023 were included. Their intramuscular and extramuscular clinical manifestations were collected. The correlation between different antibody subtypes in patients with ASS and the various subtypes of ILD was investigated. The skeletal muscle pathological characteristics of 13 ASS patients were also summarized.Results:Among the 106 ASS-ILD patients, 56 (52.8%) were anti-JO-1 antibody positive, 19 (17.9%) were anti-PL-7 antibody positive, 11 (10.4%) were anti-PL-12 antibody positive, 14 (13.2%) were anti-EJ antibody positive, and 6 (5.7%) were anti-OJ antibody positive. All the patients had ILD [including nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), organizing pneumonia (OP), mixed pneumonia]. In all the patients, 46.2% (49/106) had cardiac damage, 37.7% (40/106) had arthritis, 29.2% (31/106) had myasthenia gravis, 24.5% (26/106) had myalgia, and 19.8% (21/106) had Raynaud′s phenomenon. The incidence of NSIP was 75.0% (42/56) in the anti-JO-1 antibody-positive group, significantly higher than other groups (anti-PL-7 antibody-positive group, 8/19;anti-PL-12 antibody-positive group, 3/11;anti-EJ antibody-positive group, 5/14;anti-OJ antibody-positive group, 2/6; P=0.001). UIP was most common in the anti-PL-7 antibody-positive group (8/19). OP was most frequent in the anti-PL-12 antibody-positive group (5/11). The incidence of arthritis was highest in the anti-JO-1 antibody-positive group (51.8%, 29/56). The anti-Ro-52 antibody-positive rate was significantly higher in the anti-EJ antibody-positive group (12/14) than in the other 4 groups [anti-JO-1 antibody-positive group, 33.9% (19/56); anti-PL-7 antibody-positive group, 10/19; anti-PL-12 antibody-positive group, 6/11; anti-OJ antibody-positive group, 0/6; P=0.001]. ASS skeletal muscle pathology was manifested as necrotizing myopathy pattern (6/13), inflammatory myopathy pattern (4/13), and nonspecific myopathy pattern (3/13). All the 106 patients received methylprednisolone as the basic treatment. Among them, 69 patients (65.1%) received methylprednisolone alone, while 37 patients (34.9%) received combination therapy involving immunosuppressants, whose symptoms improved after treatment. Conclusions:A discernible correlation exists between the clinical manifestations of ASS with ILD and specific antibody subtypes. ASS patients generally respond well to immunotherapy. ASS can manifest as 3 distinct skeletal muscle pathological patterns: necrotizing myopathy pattern, inflammatory myopathy pattern, and nonspecific myopathy pattern.