Purpose To evaluate the differential diagnostic value of 5.0T MRI susceptibility-weighted imaging(SWI)in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and mass-forming intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma(MICC).Materials and Methods A total of 56 patients with HCC and 36 patients with MICC confirmed by pathology from March 2023 to November 2024 in Anhui Provincial Hospital were retrospectively enrolled.Two radiologists independently analyzed three features of the lesions,including the low-signal rims around the lesion,hemorrhage within the lesion,and the relationship between lesions and adjacent vessels,on the SWI sequence between the two groups,respectively,via inter-rater consistency analysis.These above features between the two groups were compared and contrasted them with those obtained from conventional MR plain and enhanced scans,respectively.For intralesional hemorrhages,the diagnostic value was quantified by calculating the internal tissue susceptibility signal.Results The radiologists showed good consistency in the low-signal rims,intratumoral hemorrhage as well as the relationship between the lesion and the blood vessel on the SWI in the HCC group and the MICC group(Kappa=0.802-0.929,all P<0.001).Compared with conventional MR plain,SWI significantly enhanced the detection rates of perilesional low-signal rims and intratumoral hemorrhage(χ2=89.409,46.210,both P<0.001).These findings were more prevalent in HCC patients.The internal tissue susceptibility signal grading showed that HCC predominantly exhibited grade 3,whereas MICC predominantly exhibited grade 1,with statistically significant differences(Z=-4.059,P<0.05).Additionally,compared with enhanced MRI,SWI demonstrated higher accuracy in diagnosing the relationship between lesions and blood vessels in both groups;however,these differences were not statistically significant(χ2=0.275,0.247,P=0.871,0.619).In the HCC group,the relationship between tumors and blood vessels was primarily characterized by compression and tumor thrombus formation,while in the MICC group,it was predominantly marked by invasive changes,including vessel encasement,stenosis or occlusion,with a statistically significant difference between the two groups(Z=-6.809,P<0.001).Conclusion SWI sequence of 5.0T MRI provides clear visualization of the internal and peripheral structures of HCC and MICC.It can accurately delineate the relationship between lesions and blood vessels without the need for contrast agents,offering significant clinical utility in differentiating these two conditions.

Purpose To evaluate the differential diagnostic value of 5.0T MRI susceptibility-weighted imaging(SWI)in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and mass-forming intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma(MICC).Materials and Methods A total of 56 patients with HCC and 36 patients with MICC confirmed by pathology from March 2023 to November 2024 in Anhui Provincial Hospital were retrospectively enrolled.Two radiologists independently analyzed three features of the lesions,including the low-signal rims around the lesion,hemorrhage within the lesion,and the relationship between lesions and adjacent vessels,on the SWI sequence between the two groups,respectively,via inter-rater consistency analysis.These above features between the two groups were compared and contrasted them with those obtained from conventional MR plain and enhanced scans,respectively.For intralesional hemorrhages,the diagnostic value was quantified by calculating the internal tissue susceptibility signal.Results The radiologists showed good consistency in the low-signal rims,intratumoral hemorrhage as well as the relationship between the lesion and the blood vessel on the SWI in the HCC group and the MICC group(Kappa=0.802-0.929,all P<0.001).Compared with conventional MR plain,SWI significantly enhanced the detection rates of perilesional low-signal rims and intratumoral hemorrhage(χ2=89.409,46.210,both P<0.001).These findings were more prevalent in HCC patients.The internal tissue susceptibility signal grading showed that HCC predominantly exhibited grade 3,whereas MICC predominantly exhibited grade 1,with statistically significant differences(Z=-4.059,P<0.05).Additionally,compared with enhanced MRI,SWI demonstrated higher accuracy in diagnosing the relationship between lesions and blood vessels in both groups;however,these differences were not statistically significant(χ2=0.275,0.247,P=0.871,0.619).In the HCC group,the relationship between tumors and blood vessels was primarily characterized by compression and tumor thrombus formation,while in the MICC group,it was predominantly marked by invasive changes,including vessel encasement,stenosis or occlusion,with a statistically significant difference between the two groups(Z=-6.809,P<0.001).Conclusion SWI sequence of 5.0T MRI provides clear visualization of the internal and peripheral structures of HCC and MICC.It can accurately delineate the relationship between lesions and blood vessels without the need for contrast agents,offering significant clinical utility in differentiating these two conditions.

The "brain electric field" therapy is a novel electroacupuncture method created by Professor GAO Weibin to treat cerebral infarction in the recovery period. This therapy is suitable for the treatment of motor disorders, sensory disorders, cognitive disorders, hemianopsia and bulbar paralysis during the recovery period of cerebral infarction. Based on the different symptoms, the corresponding brain functional areas are selected, supplemented with Taiyang 2, Tunyan 2, Tiyan, Gongxue and Xiatianzhu. These points are attached to electric acupuncture apparatus, and stimulated with dense wave, at frequency of 50 Hz and tolerable intensity. This therapy presents a remarkable effect on cerebral infarction in the recovery period, providing the new approach to the treatment of this disease.
Humans ; Cerebral Infarction/therapy* ; Electroacupuncture ; Acupuncture Points ; Brain/physiopathology* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Female

To address the difficulty in accurately detecting pulmonary nodules of different properties,a full-scale channel feature aggregation encoding and decoding network(FCFA-Net)is employed to assist experienced physicians in diagnosis.The network which consists of SMC,full-scale feature aggregator,autocorrelation feature enhancer,channel feature hierarchy extraction decoder and binomial constraint loss function can fully extract shallow and deep features from CT images for realizing the segmentation of pulmonary nodules of different sizes and shapes.Compared with UNet,UNet++and TransUnet,FCFA-Net increases the accuracy by 9.96%,7.84%and 3.75%,recall rate by 5.50%,2.96%and 1.37%,mean intersection over union by 11.35%,7.16%and 4.18%,F1 score by 8.07%,5.87%and 3.10%,respectively.Additionally,ablation experiment results demonstrate that each structure is effective and can achieve the best result within the acceptable parameter range.

To address the difficulty in accurately detecting pulmonary nodules of different properties,a full-scale channel feature aggregation encoding and decoding network(FCFA-Net)is employed to assist experienced physicians in diagnosis.The network which consists of SMC,full-scale feature aggregator,autocorrelation feature enhancer,channel feature hierarchy extraction decoder and binomial constraint loss function can fully extract shallow and deep features from CT images for realizing the segmentation of pulmonary nodules of different sizes and shapes.Compared with UNet,UNet++and TransUnet,FCFA-Net increases the accuracy by 9.96%,7.84%and 3.75%,recall rate by 5.50%,2.96%and 1.37%,mean intersection over union by 11.35%,7.16%and 4.18%,F1 score by 8.07%,5.87%and 3.10%,respectively.Additionally,ablation experiment results demonstrate that each structure is effective and can achieve the best result within the acceptable parameter range.

N 6 -methyladenosine (m6A) is a chemical modification that exists in a variety of RNAs and is most commonly observed in mRNA. The liver is a vital metabolic and digestive organ in human body, and m6A methylation plays an important role in the physiological and pathological processes of the liver. This article reviews the biological role and potential application value of m6A methylation in liver physiology and liver diseases such as viral hepatitis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma, and it is pointed out that m6A methylation can regulate related factors and is involved in the development and progression of liver diseases, which provides new ideas and targets for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Objective To investigate the effect of maternal separation (MS) on cognitive function in adult male rats through the expression of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in hippocampus, and to reveal the roles of early life stress (ELS) on neural development in rats. Methods Healthy SD pregnant rats (n=12) were randomly divided into maternal separation group (MS group) and control group (NMS group) (n=6 for each group). The newborn rats in the MS group were separated from the mother rats for 3 h every day from postnatal day 3 to 22 whereas no intervention was taken in the NMS group. At the age of 10 weeks, Morris water maze was used to test the learning and memory abilities of two groups of offspring male rats. Neuron immunofluorescence staining was used to examine the number and distribution of neurons in dentate gyrus (DG) of two groups of offspring male rats. Western Blot method was used to detect nNOS, eNOS, Bax/BCL2, Caspase-3 and P53 levels in the hippocampus of the two groups. Ki67/DCX immunofluorescence staining were used to examine the proliferation and differentiation of neurons in the DG area of the hippocampus. TUNEL staining was used to detect the neuronal degeneration and death in the DG area of the hippocampus. Results Behavioral tests showed that the escape latency of male rats in MS group was prolonged, the target quadrant residence time and the number of platform crossing decreased (P<0.05) compared with NMS group. Compared with NMS group, the number of normal and degenerated neurons in hippocampal DG area of MS group had no significant change (P＞0.05). However, the expression of nNOS and eNOS in hippocampus was decreased (P<0.05) and the expression of Bax/BCL2 was increased (P<0.05), but the expression of caspase-3 and P53 remained unchanged (P＞0.05). In addition, Neuronal proliferation and differentiation were decreased and apoptosis was increased in MS group (P<0.05). Conclusion Repeated MS reduces the expression levels of nNOS in the hippocampus, affects the neuronal function in the DG area, and has a long-term influence on the neurodevelopment, which results in cognitive deficits related to learning and memory abilities in adult rats.

Objective To investigate the safety and efficacy of nephron-sparing surgery (NSS)for selective T2 stage renal tumor.Methods The surgical database of 26 patients treated with NSS for clinical T2 stage renal cell carcinomas between March 2010 and May 2013 were collected and analyzed retrospectively.There were 17 males and 9 females,with a mean age of 52 years (39-74 years),mean tumor size of 10.3 cm(7.2-16.5 cm),and mean R.E.N.A.L score of 7.5 (6-10).Patients'demographics,clinical characteristics,oncologic outcomes,renal function were reviewed.Results The renal masses were removed successfully and the surgical margins were negative.There were 21 (80.8％) cases of clear cell carcinoma,4 (15.4％) papillary carcinoma and 1 (3.8％) chromophobe carcinoma.The mean ischemia time was (28.3 ± 12.5) minutes (7 patients were clamp-free).Three patients needed transfusion,one experienced urine fistula and cured by conservative treatment,and one patient's renal function got progressive worsening and required long-term hemodialysis.The average serum creatinine was 121 μ mol/L before and 136 μmol/L after surgery (P =0.06).After a period of 22-47 months' follow-up,no patient had local recurrence or metastasis.Conclusions NSS can be safely performed and provide effective oncologic outcomes for selective patients with clinical T2 stage renal cell carcinomas.R.E.N.A.L nephrometry is an important factor and should be used to evaluate the feasibility of NSS.

OBJECTIVETo explore the changes in HBsAg titer and HBV DNA load and their correlation in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and HBV-related liver cirrhosis (HBV-LC).

METHODSForty-six patients with mild to moderate CHB (CHB-LM), 24 patients with severe CHB (CHB-S), and 28 patients with HBV-LC at admission, and 51 patients with HBV-LC at 4.08 ± 3.06 months during antiviral treatment were tested for serum HBsAg titer and HBV DNA load using Abbott chemiluminescence and fluorescence quantitative PCR, respectively.

RESULTSThe serum HBsAg titer and HBV DNA load gradually decreased with increased disease severity (from CHB-LM, CHB-S to HBV-LC; χ(2)=12.537 and 8.381, respectively, P<0.05). HBsAg titer and HBV DNA load were significantly higher in CHB-LM and CHB-S groups than in HBV-LC group (P<0.05), but comparable between CHB-LM and CHB-S groups (Z=-0.649 and 0.032, respectively, P>0.05). Among HBeAg-positive patients, HBsAg titer and HBV DNA load tended to decrease with increased disease severity (from CHB-LM, CHB-S to HBV-LC; χ(2)=6.146, P=0.046 and χ(2)=1.017, P>0.05; respectively), and CHB-LM group had significantly higher HBsAg titer than HBV-LC group (Z=-2.247, P=0.025). Among the HBeAg-negative patients, serum HBsAg and HBV DNA load gradually declined with the disease severity (χ(2)=8.660 and 13.581, respectively, P<0.05), and were obviously higher in CHB-LM and CHB-S groups than in HBV-LC group (P<0.05). Positive correlations were found between serum HBsAg and HBV DNA levels in CHB-LM (r=0.389, P=0.009) and HBV-LC groups (r=0.431, P=0.022), but not in CHB-S group (r=0.348, P=0.104). After antiviral therapy, the serum HBsAg titer was slightly decreased (Z=-1.050, P=0.294) while HBV DNA load markedly reduced (Z=-5.415, P<0.001), showing no correlation between them (r=0.241, P=0.111) or between the measurements before and after treatment (r=0.257, P=0.085).

CONCLUSIONSerum HBsAg titer and HBV DNA load decreases progressively from CHB-LM to CHB-S and HBV-LC in both HBeAg- positive and -negative patients. The serum HBsAg titer is positively correlated with HBV DNA load, but their levels are not consistently parallel.

Antiviral Agents ; therapeutic use ; DNA, Viral ; blood ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; blood ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; virology ; Viral Load

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the sublingual immunotherapy with dermatophagoides farinae drops on patients with allergic rhinitis. METHOD: One hundred and twelve cases were collected from adult patients with dust-mite allergic rhinitis of our hospital who could adhere to treatment and regular follow-up. These patients were randomly allocated to receive either sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT group, n = 56) or medical treatment (Control group, n = 56). To evaluate the clinical efficacy by side effects which were registered, symptom and medication scores which were assessed and rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ) which was completed in the baseline and two years after treatment. RESULT: Dropouts after the 2 years' treatment were 5 of SLIT group and 4 of Control group respectively. SLIT group induced the significant reductions on both the symptom scores (7.81 ± 3.14 to 3.89 ± 2.01, P < 0.0 1) and the medication scores (2.86 ± 0.75 to 0.44 ± 0.06, P < 0.01). Meanwhile, Control group induced the reductions on both the symptom scores (8.01 ± 3.32 to 5.20 ± 2.43) and the medication scores (2.95 ± 0.80 to 1.75 ± 0.40). There were significant differences (P< 0. 01) in symptom and medication scores between the two groups after 2-year treatment. The patients in SLIT group had fewer symptoms and lower intake of medication. There were statistically significant differences in RQLQ between SLIT group [19 (15,22)] and Control group [36 (26,47)] after two years treatment (Z = -5. 21, P < 0.01). SLIT group also had significant improvement in RQLQ (Z = -6.10, P < 0.01) between before and after the treatment. There were 4 patients who showed adverse reactions in SLIT group (3 occurred in increment period, and 1 occurred in the maintenance period). The incidence of adverse reactions was 7.14%. No severe systemic side effects were registered. CONCLUSION SLIT with standardized dermatophagoides farinae drops in China is safe and effective to patients with allergic rhinitis.
Administration, Sublingual ; Adult ; Animals ; Antigens, Dermatophagoides ; immunology ; China ; Dermatophagoides farinae ; Humans ; Quality of Life ; Rhinitis, Allergic ; drug therapy ; Sublingual Immunotherapy ; Treatment Outcome