OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the partial biomechanical properties of the posterior occipital muscles (rectus capitis posterior major, rectus capitis posterior minor, and obliquus capitis inferior) in patients with cervical vertigo. METHODS: A total of 30 patients with cervical vertigo admitted from April 2024 to September 2024 were included in the vertigo group, and 30 age-and gender-matched healthy subjects were recruited as the normal group. In the vertigo group, there were 21 females and 9 males, with an average age of (24.00±2.25) years;in the normal group, there were 22 females and 8 males, with an average age of (23.00±3.00) years. Shear wave elastography was used to measure the thickness and stiffness of the posterior occipital muscles in both groups. RESULTS: In the vertigo group, there were no statistically significant differences in the Young's modulus values (E) of stiffness of the posterior occipital muscles (rectus capitis posterior major, rectus capitis posterior minor, obliquus capitis inferior) between the left and right sides(P>0.05). The Young's modulus values(E) of stiffness of the right posterior occipital muscles (rectus capitis posterior major, rectus capitis posterior minor, obliquus capitis inferior) in the cervical vertigo group were (39.66±8.21) kPa, (45.61±5.85) kPa, and (43.73±5.22) kPa, respectively, which were significantly higher than those in the normal group 33.97(17.76) kPa, 41.38(8.99) kPa, 38.27(12.58) kPa, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). In the vertigo group, the Young's modulus values(E) of stiffness of the left rectus capitis posterior major and left obliquus capitis inferior were (40.41±9.13) kPa and (42.11±6.20) kPa, respectively, which were significantly greater than those in the normal group (33.30±11.31) kPa, 38.94(14.62) kPa, with statistically significant differences(P<0.05);however, there was no statistically significant difference in the left rectus capitis posterior minor between the two groups(P>0.05). In the vertigo group, there were no statistically significant differences in the stiffness of the posterior occipital muscles (rectus capitis posterior major, rectus capitis posterior minor, obliquus capitis inferior) between the left and right sides(P>0.05). Additionally, there were no statistically significant differences in the thickness of the bilateral posterior occipital muscles between the vertigo group and the normal group (P>0.05). CONCLUSION The posterior occipital muscles of patients with cervical vertigo are stiffer than those of healthy individuals, while there is no significant difference in muscle thickness between the two groups.
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques/methods* ; Adult ; Vertigo/physiopathology* ; Neck Muscles/physiopathology* ; Young Adult

Brucellosis is a kind of animal epidemic disease that can be transmitted to human beings through skin, mucous membrane, digestive tract, respiratory tract and other ways. In recent years, the incidence of brucellosis has increased. Its pathogenesis is relatively complicated. In addition to bacteria, toxins and other factors, genetic susceptibility has gradually attracted the attention of scholars. In this paper, we summarized the previous reports and reviewed the relationship between interleukin gene polymorphism and susceptibility to brucellosis.

Whether habit stimulation is effective in DOC patient arousal has not been reported. In this paper, we analyzed the responses of DOC patients to habit stimulation. Nineteen DOC patients with alcohol consumption or smoking habits were recruited and 64-channel EEG signals were acquired both at the resting state and at three stimulation states. Wavelet transformation and nonlinear dynamics were used to extract the features of EEG signals and four brain lobes were selected to investigate the degree of EEG response to habit stimulation. Results showed that the highest degree of EEG response was from the call-name stimulation, followed by habit and music stimulations. Significant differences in EEG wavelet energy and response coefficient were found both between habit and music stimulation, and between habit and call-name stimulation. These findings prove that habit stimulation induces relatively more intense EEG responses in DOC patients than music stimulation, suggesting that it may be a relevant additional method for eliciting patient arousal.
Adult ; Alcohol Drinking ; physiopathology ; Brain ; physiopathology ; Consciousness Disorders ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Electroencephalography ; Female ; Habits ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Music ; Names ; Nonlinear Dynamics ; Physical Stimulation ; Rest ; Smoking ; physiopathology ; Speech ; Treatment Outcome ; Wavelet Analysis

Objective To explore the effect of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene polymorphism on brain volume in healthy young adults.Methods One hundred and ninety-three healthy young volunteers (age:20-40 years) were recruited in Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University between August 2013 and May 2014.Two milliliters of peripheral blood were collected for the determination of ApoE genotype using direct sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products.Brain MRI scans were performed using three-dimensional T1-weighted turbo field echo imaging sequence.The diffcrences of brain morphometry between the ε4 carriers group (ε3/ε4 and ε4/ε4 genotype) and the ε4 non-carriers group (ε3/ε3 genotype) were analyzed using voxel based morphometry (VBM).Results The ε4 carriers accounted for 14.51％ (28/193) of the total population.Twenty of ε4 carriers and 45 of ε4 non-carriers were included in the final images analysis.VBM analysis showed that the ApoE ε4 carriers had 10 atrophic brain areas compared with the ε4 non-carriers (P ＜ 0.005,uncorrected,10 continuous voxels),which mainly located in the right anterior cingulate,the bilateral caudates,parietal lobes and lateral temporal lobes.Conclusions The influence of ApoE gene polymorphisms on brain volume has appeared in the youth.The ε4 gene is related to the reductions of the gray matter volume in multiple brain areas.