OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical application value of mineralized collagen (MC) bone scaffolds in repairing various types of skull defects, and to assess the suitability and repair effectiveness of porous MC (pMC) scaffolds, compact MC (cMC) scaffolds, and biphasic MC composite (bMC) scaffolds. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 105 patients who underwent skull defect repair with pMC, cMC, or bMC between October 2014 and April 2022. The cohort included 63 males and 42 females, ranging in age from 3 months to 55 years, with a median age of 22.7 years. Causes of defects included craniectomy after traumatic surgery in 37 cases, craniotomy in 58 cases, tumor recurrence or intracranial hemorrhage surgery in 10 cases. Appropriate MC scaffolds were selected based on the patient's skull defect size and age: 58 patients with defects <3 cm² underwent skull repair with pMC (pMC group), 45 patients with defects ≥3 cm² and aged ≥5 years underwent skull repair with cMC (cMC group), and 2 patients with defects ≥3 cm² and aged <5 years underwent skull repair with bMC (bMC group). Postoperative clinical follow-up and imaging examinations were conducted to evaluate bone regeneration, the biocompatibility of the repair materials, and the occurrence of complications. RESULTS: All 105 patients were followed up 3-24 months, with an average of 13 months. No material-related complication occurred in any patient, including skin and subcutaneous tissue infection, excessive ossification, and rejection. CT scans at 6 months postoperatively showed bone growth in all patients, and CT scans at 12 months postoperatively showed complete or near-complete resolution of bone defects in all patients, with 58 cases repaired in the pMC group. The CT values of the defect site and the contralateral normal skull bone in the pMC group at 12 months postoperatively were (1 123.74±93.64) HU and (1 128.14±92.57) HU, respectively, with no significant difference ( t=0.261, P=0.795). CONCLUSION MC exhibits good biocompatibility and osteogenic induction ability in skull defect repair. pMC is suitable for repairing small defects, cMC is suitable for repairing large defects, and bMC is suitable for repairing pediatric skull defects.
Humans ; Tissue Scaffolds ; Male ; Female ; Collagen ; Retrospective Studies ; Adult ; Child ; Adolescent ; Middle Aged ; Child, Preschool ; Skull/surgery* ; Young Adult ; Infant ; Plastic Surgery Procedures/methods* ; Tissue Engineering/methods* ; Craniotomy/methods* ; Bone Regeneration ; Treatment Outcome ; Porosity ; Biocompatible Materials

Integrated TOF-PET/MR is a multimodal imaging system which can acquire high-quality magnetic resonance (MR) and positron emission tomography (PET) images at the same time, and it has time of flight (TOF) function. The TOF-PET system usually features better image quality compared to traditional PET because it is capable of localizing the lesion on the line of response where annihilation takes place. TOF technology measures the time difference between the detectors on which the two 180-degrees-seperated photons generated from positron annihilation are received. Since every individual crystal might be prone to its timing bias, timing calibration is needed for a TOF-PET system to work properly. Three approaches of timing calibration are introduced in this article. The first one named as fan-beam method is an iterative method that measures the bias of the Gaussian distribution of timing offset created from a fan-beam area constructed using geometric techniques. The second one is to find solutions of the overdetermination equations set using L1 norm minimization and is called L1-norm method. The last one called L2-norm method is to build histogram of the TOF and find the peak, and uses L2 norm minimization to get the result. This article focuses on the comparison of the amount of the data and the calculation time needed by each of the three methods. To avoid location error of the cylinder radioactive source during data collection, we developed a location calibration algorithm which could calculate accurate position of the source and reduce image artifacts. The experiment results indicate that the three approaches introduced in this article could enhance the qualities of PET images and standardized uptake values of cancer regions, so the timing calibration of integrated TOF-PET/MR system was realized. The fan-beam method has the best image quality, especially in small lesions. In integrated TOF-PET/MR timing calibration, we recommend using fan-beam method.
Algorithms ; Calibration ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Multimodal Imaging ; Positron-Emission Tomography

Objective To explore the relationship between the interleukin-6 (IL-6) RS1800796 gene polymorphism and susceptibility of Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection.Methods One hundred and twenty-three children with EV71 infection were selected as infection experimental group from March 2012 to December 2014 in the Central Hospital of Xiangtan,and they were divided into mild EV71 infection group (62 cases) and severe EV71 infection group (61 cases).And 52 age-and gender-matched healthy children were selected as the healthy control group.Two mL blood samples were collected from all subjects,and DNA was extracted by Beijing Optimal Boland Gene Technology LTD.The SNaPshot was used to determine the genotype for G/C polymorphism at RS1800796 position of IL-6 gene.Results The genotype frequency of IL-6 RS1800796 GG in the infection experimental group [73.2％ (90/123 cases)]was significantly higher than that in the healthy control group[48.1％ (25/52 cases)],and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =10o 215,P =0.002,OR =2.945,95 ％ CI:1.500-5.782).No significant difference was found in the distribution of genotype frequency of the IL-6 RS1800796 GG between the mild EV71 infection group and the severe EV71 infection group[71.0％ (44/62 cases)vs.75.4％ (46/61 cases),x2 =0.309,P =0.685].The G allele in IL-6 RS1800796 G/C was more frequent in the infection group (85.0％)than that in the control group (70.2％),and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =10.183,P =0.002,OR =2.399,95％ CI:1.389-4.143).No significant difference was found in allele frequency of the IL-6 RS1800796 G between the mild EV71 infection group and the severe EV71 infection group (83.1％ vs.86.9％,x2 =0.703,P =0.477).Conclusion The G allele of IL-6 RS1800796 confers susceptibility to infection of EV71.But G allele carrier will not increase the risk of severity after infection.

Objective To explore the relationship between interleukin(IL)-13 RS20541 gene polymorphism and susceptibility of enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection in children's hand-foot-mouth disease.Methods Blood samples were collected from 123 children with EV71 infection from the Central Hospital of Xiangtan (experimental group),and they were divided into mild EV71 infection group (n =62) and severe EV71 infection group (n =61) according to their severity.And 52 healthy children without EV71 infection were selected as the controls,with age and sex matched.Two mL blood samples stored in the-80 ℃ freezer,were collected from all subjects,and DNA was extracted by Beijing ubiolab genetic technology company limited.The SNaPshot was used to determine genotype for G/A polymorphism at RS20541 position of IL-13 gene.SPSS 18.0 software was used to analyze the data.Results IL-13 RS20541 loci had 3 genotypes:AA,GA,GG;the frequency of AA,GA,GG in the experimental group was 4.07％,44.71％,51.22％,which was significantly lower than that in the healthy control group (the frequency of AA,GA,GG were 11.54％,32.69％,55.77％),there was no statistically significant difference in genotypes (x2 =4.676,P ＞ 0.05);there was no statistically significant difference in allele frequency (the frequency of A,G in experimental group was 26.42 ％,73.58 ％,and that of the healthy control group was 27.88 ％,72.12 ％;x2 =0.080,P ＞ 0.05).EV71 infection caused by mild group,severe group and healthy controls genotype frequencies between the 3 groups [(AA + GA) were 53.22％,44.26％,44.23％;GG were 46.78％,55.74％,55.77％;x2 =1.294,P ＞ 0.05] and allele frequency (A were 30.65％,22.13％,27.88％;G were 69.35％,77.87％,72.12％;x2 =2.349,P ＞ 0.05) among the mild group,severe group and healthy control group had no statistical significance.Conclusion There is no correlation between the IL-13RS20541 gene polymorphism and EV 71 infection in children with the hand-foot-mouth disease.