Objective:To investigate the value of the virtual monoenergetic image (VMI) obtained by a new dual-layer detector spectral CT combined with metal artifact reduction algorithms(O-MAR) in reduction of different types of artifacts caused by 125I seeds implantation and in improvement of the post-operative CT image quality. Methods:This was a cross-sectional study. Thirty-five patients who underwent dual-layer detector spectral CT scanning of the chest and abdomen after 125I seeds implantation were retrospectively included at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from March to September 2022. The spectral data were collected and reconstructed into conventional CT image (CI), VMI image (50-150 keV, 20 keV/level), CI+O-MAR image, and VMI+O-MAR image (50-150 keV, 20 keV/level). The artifacts′ removal effects and image quality improvement in each group were evaluated. Two slices with the strongest artifacts were selected for analysis for each patient, resulting in a total of 70 slices. Objective indicators including artifact index (AI), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of soft tissue regions affected by artifacts were measured and calculated. Subjective indicators including the overcorrected artifacts and new artifacts, the different forms of artifacts, the diagnosis of artifacts, and the image quality were assessed. One-way analysis of variance was used for comparisons among multiple groups. Paired t test was used to compare the quantitative indicators between the combined O-MAR group and the non-O-MAR group. Kappa statistics was used to evaluate the consistency between observers. Results:In high/low-density artifacts (ROI H/L), the AI values in all groups showed decrease with increasing VMI keV. In artifact-affected tissue (ROI T), SNR of the CI/VMI (70-150 keV)+O-MAR group were significantly higher than those of the CI/VMI group ( P<0.05), CNR of the CI/VMI(50-150 keV)+O-MAR group were significantly higher than those of the CI/VMI group ( P<0.05). Both overcorrection and new artifacts mainly presented in VMI 50 keV and VMI 70 keV groups; Compared with VMI (50-70 keV) group, significantly less numbers of overcorrection and new artifacts were found in VMI (50-70 keV)+O-MAR group ( P<0.05); regarding the comparison of artifact types, with the VMI keV increasing, the number of a-type banded artifacts gradually decreased on images with high-density artifacts, reaching a minimum of 3 in the VMI 150 keV+O-MAR group; while the number of e-type artifacts with little or no artifacts increased, with the highest number of 23 in the VMI 150 keV+O-MAR group. The total number of high-density artifacts in each type decreased with increasing VMI keV. As VMI keV increased, the diagnostic and image quality scores of high-density artifacts in each group were significantly higher than those of low-density artifacts in the VMI+O-MAR group ( P<0.05). Conclusions:VMI combined with O-MAR can significantly improve the objective and subjective image quality of follow-up CT imaging after 125I seed implantation, enhancing lesion visibility and diagnostic confidence. Additionally, VMI+O-MAR showed more pronounced correction effect on high-density artifacts.

Developing new therapeutic agents for cancer immunotherapy is highly demanding due to the low response ratio of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade in cancer patients. Here, we discovered that the novel immune checkpoint VISTA is highly expressed on a variety of tumor-infiltrating immune cells, especially myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and CD8⁺ T cells. Then, peptide C1 with binding affinity to VISTA was developed by phage displayed bio-panning technique, and its mutant peptide VS3 was obtained by molecular docking based mutation. Peptide VS3 could bind VISTA with high affinity and block its interaction with ligand PSGL-1 under acidic condition, and elicit anti-tumor activity in vivo. The peptide DVS3-Pal was further designed by d-amino acid substitution and fatty acid modification, which exhibited strong proteolytic stability and significant anti-tumor activity through enhancing CD8⁺ T cell function and decreasing MDSCs infiltration. This is the first study to develop peptides to block VISTA/PSGL-1 interaction, which could act as promising candidates for cancer immunotherapy.

Objective:To investigate the value of serum C -reactive protein/prealbumin ratio (CRP/PA) in predicting the disease progression of adult patients with traumatic brain injury. Methods:A prospective study was conducted. Patients with traumatic brain injury who were over 18 years old and were followed up for more than 72 hours admitted to the department of emergency of Huashan North Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University from May 2018 to December 2019 were enrolled. The levels of serum CRP, PA were measured immediately after injury and at 6, 24, 48 and 72 hours after injury, and the CRP/PA ratio was calculated. Glasgow coma score (GCS) was dynamically measured and head CT was reviewed regularly. If the GCS decreased by more than 3 and/or the intracranial injury was aggravated by CT scan within 72 hours after injury, the patients were included in the aggravating group. If there were no above changes, they were included in the stable group. The differences of each index between the two groups were compared, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the predictive value of each index at different time points on the patient's disease progress.Results:A total of 106 patients were selected, including 89 patients in the stable group and 17 patients in the aggravating group, and the baseline data of the two groups were balanced. CRP, CRP/PA increased and PA decreased in brain trauma patients 6 hours after injury, and reached the peak value or valley value at 48 hours. Compared with the stable group, CRP/PA significantly increased at 24, 48 and 72 hours in the aggravating group [24 hours: 34.18 (20.19, 67.10) vs. 13.98 (4.36, 38.30), 48 hours: 71.10 (45.55, 96.97) vs. 16.02 (5.05, 41.76), 72 hours: 23.25 (4.46, 38.61) vs. 4.72 (2.38, 12.95), all P < 0.05]. ROC curve analysis showed that CRP/PA ratio at 24 hours and 48 hours after injury could be used as a predictor of disease progression. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 24 hours CRP/PA was 0.71, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was 0.58-0.84, the cut -off value was 28.29, the sensitivity was 76.5%, and the specificity was 73.0%. The AUC of 48 hours CRP/PA was 0.76, 95% CI was 0.62-0.90, and the cut -off value was 37.18, the sensitivity was 88.2%, and the specificity was 70.8%. Conclusion:The dynamic monitoring of CRP/PA ratio in adult after traumatic brain injury can evaluate the disease condition, and the CRP/PA ratio of 24 hours and 48 hours can predict the progress of the disease.

Objective To establish a "patient-centered" integrated information platform for emergency interconnection. Methods Based on the existing software, hardware and network systems of the hospital, design ideas of the modularization, process and standardized were used to reshape the process of emergency diagnosis and treatment in department of emergency-critical care medicine of Huashan North Hospital,Fudan University, and develop integrated information platform for emergency interconnection, including triage, emergency physician workstation, electronic medical records, clinical pathways of key diseases, medical integration, electronic handover classes, imaging, testing, ultrasound, drug counseling and medication safety, performance appraisal and management systems of scientific research, etc. Results The information platform for emergency interconnection was successfully developed. The functional logic of each system was clear and concise. It had strong compatibility, stable performance and powerful processing capability. It could quickly query the target content and support free and fast switching of each window. At present, daily diagnosis and treatment of emergency patients were realized by informationization, which completely liberated the manual labor of medical staff, shortened the processing time of unit patient, and significantly improved efficiency of the work. At the peak of the patients' visit, the overall operation of the emergency department was stable, and all the work was carried out in an orderly manner. There was no delay of the diagnosis and treatment for critically ill patients in the emergency department. Emergency access to patients with key diseases was smooth, and waiting time was significantly shortened. Clinical decision-making of medical staff had been effectively regulated. The success rates of the patients with acute trauma or acute respiratory failure were significantly improved, the time of the critical treatment were significantly shortened in patients with emergency respiratory cardiac arrest or acute ST-segment elevation myocardial, and compliance rate of the door-to-balloon time met the requirements of the Emergency Room to Balloon Expansion Time (DTB) Alliance. Conclusion The integrated information platform for emergency interconnection ran through the whole process of emergency diagnosis and treatment, based on emergency clinical practice, which could meet the needs of daily work in emergency department and help improve the quality of emergency medical and department management.

Objective To investigate the accuracy of sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scoring in emergency physicians in Beijing. Methods Emergency physicians from 8 hospitals in Beijing in January 2018 were demanded to complete a SOFA questionnaire which was developed on ''wenjuanxing'' website and submit via cell phone. All participants were divided into urban center group (UC group) and no-urban center group (NUC group) based on the hospital's location. The accuracy rate of components and total score of SOFA along with the mistakes were evaluated, and the results of the two groups were compared. Results ① The questionnaire was sent to 217 emergency physicians of the 8 hospitals, and 197 qualified questionnaires were received with 109 of NUC group and 88 of UC group, respectively, the total response rate was 90.8%. Compared with those from NUC group, UC physicians had older ages [years:37 (32, 42) vs. 34 (29, 40), Z = -2.554, P = 0.011] and higher education level [postgraduate degree 76.1% (67/88) vs. 40.4% (44/109), χ2= 25.327, P < 0.001], and more of them experienced SOFA scoring [62.5% (55/88) vs. 45.9% (50/109), χ2= 5.409, P = 0.020]. Other baseline characteristics such as gender, working years, professional title and training experience were not different between the two groups. ② The accuracy rate of total SOFA score was 62.4% (123/197) in the whole cohort, and UC group was lower than that of NUC group, but the difference was not significant [56.8% (50/88) vs. 67.0% (73/109), χ2= 2.141, P = 0.143]. While comparing the accuracy of individual variable/system of SOFA, the accuracy rate of norepinephrine of UC group was much higher than NUC group [80.7% (71/88) vs. 66.1% (72/109), χ2= 5.235, P = 0.022], but the accuracy of Glasgow coma scale (GCS) was much lower in NUC group [38.6% (27/70) vs. 81.6% (71/87), χ2= 30.629, P < 0.001]. Other variables of SOFA were not different between the two groups. ③Based upon the results of all submitted questionnaires, 566 mistakes were identified. It was indicated that the mistakes per capital was 2.9 in the whole cohort and in the two groups. The first type mistakes which caused by carelessness (including calculating error, filling error, choosing error) were 233 times. The calculating error in norepinephrine from NUC physicians was higher than the UC group [33.9% (37/109) vs. 19.3% (17/88), χ2= 5.235, P =0.022], there was no significant difference in any other first type mistakes between the two groups. The total second type mistakes caused by misunderstanding of SOFA (including using wrong variables, not using the worst value within 24 hours, and incorrect GCS score) were 333 times in the whole cohort. GCS error [61.8% (42/88) vs. 16.9% (14/109), χ2=32.292, P<0.001], and using urine output per hour instead of urine output per 24 hours [15.9% (14/88) vs. 4.6% (5/109), χ2= 7.162, P = 0.007] were much higher in UC group than NUC group. Conclusions The total accuracy of SOFA scoring in the investigated emergency physicians of 8 hospitals in Beijing was not good. Mistakes causing by carelessness or misunderstanding of score rules were similar. It is necessary to apply strict training in SOFA scoring.

Objective To analyze the clinical efficacy,toxicity and survival prognosis of patients diagnosed with Siewert type Ⅱ and Ⅲ locally advanced adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction (AEG) undergoing preoperative involved-field irradiation with concurrent chemotherapy. Methods A total of 45 cases were recruited in this prospective clinical trial. Prior to surgery, patients received 2 cycles of chemotherapy with XELOX and concurrent radiotherapy ( a total of 45 Gy in 25 fractions,5 times weekly). After 6-8 weeks,they underwent surgical resection. After the surgery,patients received 6 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy. The completion of preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, postoperative pathological status,TNM down-staging effect and adverse reactions were observed. Kaplan-Meier method was applied to estimate survival analysis. Results All 45 patients completed preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Among them, 39 patients completed 2 cycles of chemotherapy, and 6 patients completed 1 cycle of chemotherapy. The median time of surgical interval was 6 weeks. The R0resection rate was 96%.The pathological complete response (pCR) rate was 22%. The TNM down-staging rate was 69%.The incidence of acute radiation-induced esophagitis or gastritis was 44% and the incidence of radiation-induced pneumonitis was 7%. The incidence of grade 1-3 leukocytopenia,thrombocytopenia and neutropenia was 78%,47% and 44%,respectively. In terms of gastrointestinal reactions,the incidence of nausea,vomiting and loss of appetite was 62%,24% and 71%,respectively. No hematologic or nonhematologic adverse effects was observed at grade 4 or 5.The median follow-up time was 30 months. 11 patients died of cancer,1 patient was treatment-related death in the perioperative period and 1 patient died of pneumonia. The 1-,2-and 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 90%,70% and 67%,respectively. The 1-,2-and 3-year overall survival rates were 95%,80% and 75%,respectively. The 1-,2-and 3-year local control rates were 95%,84% and 84%, respectively. The 1-, 2-and 3-year distant metastasis rates were 7%, 25% and 25%, respectively. Conclusions Preoperative involved-field irradiation with concurrent chemotherapy yields relatively high clinical efficacy and is well tolerated by patients with Siewert typeⅡandⅢlocally advanced AEG.Patients are recommended to receive 4 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery.

Objective To examine the effects of different pre-treatment nutritional status and inflammatory markers on acute adverse reactions in esophageal cancer patients during concurrent intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and chemotherapy.Methods The acute adverse reactions of 338 eligible esophageal cancer patients who received concurrent IMRT and chemotherapy in our hospital from 2006 to 2014 were reviewed.The effects of different pre-treatment nutritional status, such as body mass index level (BMI), albumin level (ALB), total lymphocyte count (TLC), the presence or absence of anemia, and inflammatory indicators including neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR), on acute adverse reactions in the patients were examined.Data were analyzed using the chi-square test with continuity correction and logistic regression analysis.Results The incidence rate of malnutrition in the patients based on their nutritional status was 5.62%-54.14%.The incidence rate of grade≥2 acute radiation esophagitis (RE) was significantly higher in the low ALB group than in the normal ALB group (P=0.000).The incidence rate of adverse reactions in the hematologic system increased as TLC decreased (P=0.006), but the incidence rate of acute radiation pneumonitis (RP) was reduced as TLC decreased (P=0.001).In addition, the incidence rate of grade ≥2 acute RE was significantly higher in the anemia group than in the non-anemia group.Inflammatory marker analysis demonstrated that the incidence rate of acute RE was significantly higher in the high NLR group and high PLR group than in the low NLR group and low PLR group (P=0.000 and P=0.024, respectively).Logistic regression analysis of nutritional status and inflammatory markers showed that TLC was an independent risk factor for acute adverse reactions in the hematologic system (P=0.001), and ALB and PLR were independent risk factors for acute RE (P=0.017 and P=0.011,respectively).Conclusions Nutritional status and inflammatory markers are associated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy-induced acute adverse reactions in esophageal carcinoma patients, and hence may be valuable indicators of acute adverse reactions during treatment.In addition, nutritional treatment and support care should be actively provided to the patients to prevent the development of acute adverse reactions during treatment.

Objective To investigate the clinical effect of induction chemotherapy plus concurrent radiochemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) through a meta-analysis.Methods CBM, CNKI, Cochrane Library, PubMed, and EMbase were searched for the articles on comparison between induction chemotherapy plus concurrent radiochemotherapy and concurrent radiochemotherapy for patients with locally advanced NSCLC.According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the data on short-term outcome and survival were collected.A Meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the clinical effect of induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent radiochemotherapy.Results A total of 5 articles were included, which involved 845 patients.The results showed that the short-term outcome and the 2-and 3-year survival rates were similar between patients receiving induction chemotherapy plus concurrent radiochemotherapy and those receiving concurrent radiochemotherapy ( OR=0.875, 95% CI 0.507-1.510, P=0.631;HR=0.770, 95% CI 0.515-1.151, P=0.203;HR=0.809, 95% CI 0.559-1.172, P=0.262), but the patients receiving induction chemotherapy plus concurrent radiochemotherapy showed a significantly higher incidence rate of grade ≥ 3 leukopenia than those receiving concurrent radiochemotherapy alone ( OR=0.637, 95% CI 0.435-0.931, P=0.020).Conclusions Induction chemotherapy plus concurrent radiochemotherapy shows no significant advantages over concurrent radiochemotherapy alone in the short-term outcome and 2-and 3-year survival rates, but it significantly increases myelosuppression.Since there are few studies involving a limited number of cases included in this analysis, more multicenter randomized trials are needed to provide more detailed data and further clarify the clinical value of induction chemotherapy plus concurrent radiochemotherapy.

Objective To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics, patterns of lymph node metastasis and the influencing factors in esophageal adenocarcinoma. Methods A total of 201 cases of esophageal adenocarcinoma were selected for this study, including 89 cases of pure adenocarcinoma, 57 cases of adenoacanthoma cell carcinoma, 33 cases of mucoepidermoid carcinoma and 22 cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma. A total of 2026 lymph nodes were dissected with an average of 10 lymph nodes. The rule of lymph node metastasis in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma was analyzed, and the risk factors for lymph node metastasis were identified. Results Esophageal adenocarcinoma in the middle thoracic esophagus accounted for 50.7% of all patients, and 43.8% in the lower thoracic esophagus. Ninety out of 201 cases (44.8%) had lymph node metastasis. 322 lymph nodes were positive for metastatic adenocarcioma with a metastatic ratio of 15.9% (322/2026).Among the patients with upper?thoracic esophageal carcinoma, 9.1% (1/11) of the cases had lymph node metastasis in the superior mediastinum but no lymph node metastasis was found in the middle mediastinum, lower mediastinal and abdominal lymph nodes. The middle?thoracic esophageal adenocarcinoma showed more extensive lymph node metastasis. Lower mediastinal and abdominal lymph node metastases were common in lower?thoracic esophageal cancer. Multivariate analysis showed that gender, length of lesion, depth of invasion and vascular invasion were independent risk factors for lymph node metastasis in esophageal adenocarcinoma ( P=0. 010, P=0. 006, P=0. 000, P=0. 019, respectively) . Male patients had more lymph node metastasis than female patients ( 49. 1% vs 26. 3%, P=0.011). The rates of lymph node metastasis in the tumor length ≤3 cm group, 3.1?5 cm group and >5 cm group were 20.4%, 42.9% and 65.7%, respectively. Lymphatic metastasis rates in the T1, T2, T3, T4 stage cancers were 7.1%, 36.8%, 38.1% and 69.4%, respectively, (P<0.001). Patients with vascular invasion had a higher rate of lymph node metastasis ( 73. 9%) than the patients without vascular invasion (41.0%) (P=0.003). Conclusions Most of the esophageal adenocarcinoma are distributed in the middle thoracic esophagus, followed by that in the lower thoracic segment. The lymph node metastasis rate, lymph node metastasis ratio and pattern of lymph node metastasis are similar to those of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Male, tumor length, depth of invasion and vascular invasion are risk factors of lymph node metastasis for patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Objective To explore the patterns and influencing factors of lymph node metastasis of adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction ( AEG ) . Methods Clinicopathological data of 393 AEG patients who underwent radical resection and lymphadenectomy in the thoracic or abdominal cavity were collected. We analyzed the metastatic patterns of 5 119 excised lymph nodes with an average of 13 nodes per patient according to Siewert classification, and the associations between lymphatic metastasis and clinicopathological factors, such as tumor invasion, differentiation, maximum diameter, or pathological type were analyzed. Results The lymph node metastasis rate and ratio ( LNR) were 70. 0% ( 275/393) and 29.1% (1 492/5 119), respectively. All the Siewert subtypes of AEG mainly metastasize downwards to the abdominal lymph nodes, while also spread upwards to the mediastinal lymph nodes. Among them, the lymph node metastasis rate was highest in Siewert type Ⅰ and lowest in Siewert type Ⅲ AEG. The lymph node metastasis rate and ratio in T1, T2, T3, T4 AEGs were 0%, 29. 4%, 75. 0%, 74. 6% and 0%, 10. 1%, 14.2%, 32.0%,respectively (χ2=35.305,P<0.001 andχ2=134.034,P<0.001) . The lymph node metastasis rate and ratio of the poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma were 36.0% and 79.3%, respectively, significantly higher than 22.1% and 61.7% of the well?differentiated adenocarcinoma (χ2=14.468, P<0.001 and χ2=120.009, P<0.001). The lymph node metastasis rate and ratio of patients with a tumor in maximum diameter≥4 cm were 73.1% and 30.9%, significantly higher than 46.8% and 14.6%, respectively, in the patients with a tumor in maximum diameter of<4 cm (χ2=13.636, P<0.001 andχ2=64.767, P<0.001) . The group of vascular tumor thrombus showed significantly higher lymph node metastasis rate and ratio than those in the group with no vascular tumor thrombus ( 84. 6% versus 67. 1%, χ2=7. 946, P=0. 005; and 45. 0% versus 26.0%, χ2 = 112. 723, P<0. 001 ) . The lymph node metastasis ratio of mucinous and signet ring cell adenocarcinoma was 34.9%, significantly higher than 28.5% of the adenocarcinoma (χ2=8.710, P<0.001) The depth of tumor invasion and degree of tumor differentiation were independent factors affecting lymph node metastasis (P=0.001 and P<0.001). Conclusions The lymph node metastasis rate and ratio of AEG are high and influenced by many clinicopathological factors. The patterns of lymph node metastasis are different among different Siewert subtype AEGs.The depth of tumor invasion and differentiation degree are independent factors affecting lymphatic metastasis.