ObjectiveTo observe the clinical effectiveness and potential mechanism of combined tongue three-needle acupuncture and acupoint application on Lianquan （CV 23） for patients with dysphagia after ischemic stroke. MethodsA prospective study was conducted on 160 patients with post-stroke dysphagia， who were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group， with 80 cases in each group. The control group received conventional rehabilitation training， while the treatment group received tongue three-needle acupuncture combined with acupoint application on Lianquan （CV 23） on the basis of conventional rehabilitation training， for 4 weeks in both groups. We compared the clinical effectivenss of both groups after treatment， and assessed the swallowing function including videofluoroscopic swallowing study （VFSS）， standardized swallowing assessment （SSA） and functional oral intake scale （FIOS）， swallowing contrast test including hyoid maximum displacement （HmaxD）， pharyngeal transit time （PTT）， and upper esophageal sphincter （UES） opening， surface electromyography （sEMG） test including maximum amplitude and swallowing duration as well as swallowing quality of life questionnaire （SWAL-QOL） score of the patients in both groups before treatment， after 2 weeks and 4 weeks of treatment， respectively. ResultsThe total effective rate in treatment group was 82.50% （66/80）， significantly higher than 66.25% （53/80） in control group （P＜0.05）. The VFSS， and FOIS scores， UES opening rate and HmaxD， sEMG maximal amplitude values， and SWAL-QOL scores were increased in both groups after 2 weeks and 4 weeks of treatment compared with the values before treatment （P＜0.05）， while SSA scores， PTT， and swallowing duration were decreased compared within group before treatment （P＜0.05）. VFSS and FOIS scores， UES opening rate and HmaxD， sEMG maximal amplitude values， and SWAL-QOL scores after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment in the treatment group were higher （P＜0.05）， while SSA scores， PTT， and swallowing duration were lower （P＜0.05） than those in the control group at the same time. ConclusionCombined tongue three-needle acupuncture and acupoint application on Lianquan （CV 23） for patients with dysphagia after ischemic stroke can significantly improve swallowing activities， and its mechanism of action may be related to the improvement of the contraction ability and coordination of swallowing-related muscle groups.

BACKGROUND:In most species,a bone defect that is longer than 1.5 or 2 times its diameter can be considered a critical bone defect,and when the bone defect volume reaches the critical value,it cannot heal on its own.Currently,there is no uniform standard for the size of critical-sized defects in the osteoporotic femoral condyle of rabbits.OBJECTIVE:To establish a rabbit model with different sizes of bone defects in the osteoporotic femoral condyle and to determine the critical-sized defects of osteoporotic femoral condyle in rabbits.METHODS:Thirty-six 3-month-old female New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into ovariectomy group(n=30)and sham operation group(n=6).Rabbits in the ovariectomy group underwent bilateral ovariectomy to establish an osteoporosis model,and then femoral condyle bone defect models of different diameters(diameters were 4,5,6,and 7 mm,and depths were 8 mm)were further established;rabbits in the sham operation group did not undergo ovariectomy.At 8 and 12 weeks after modeling,3 rats were randomly selected from each group for CT scanning and three-dimensional reconstruction to evaluate the healing of bone defects.Afterwards,samples were taken for gross observation and hematoxylin-eosin staining to observe the growth of new bone in the femoral condyle bone defect area.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)All rabbits survived and moved well after modeling of osteoporosis and femoral condyle bone defect.(2)At 12 weeks after osteoporosis modeling,dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry results showed that the bone mineral density of lumbar vertebrae in ovariectomy group was significantly lower than that in sham operation group(P＜0.05).Hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that the bone trabeculae in the ovariectomy group became thinner and sparse.The proportion of bone tissue area in the ovariectomy group was significantly lower than that in the sham operation group(P=0.00).Micro-CT results showed that the bone tissue parameters of the femoral condyle in the ovariectomy group were significantly different from those in the sham operation group(P＜0.05),and the ovariectomy group showed obvious characteristics of osteoporosis.(3)CT showed that the bone defect in the 4 mm and 5 mm diameter groups was basically completely repaired at 12 weeks after surgery.There was more new bone tissue in the 6 mm diameter group,but the central part of the bone defect was not completely repaired.A small amount of new bone tissue grew in the 7 mm diameter group,and the bone defect was obvious.(4)Gross observation at 12 weeks after surgery showed that the femoral condyle bone defect in the 4 mm and 5 mm diameter groups was completely repaired.Obvious depression was seen in the bone defect area of the 6 mm and 7 mm diameter groups,and the bone defect was not completely repaired.(5)Histological observation at 12 weeks after surgery showed that the bone defect area of the 4 mm and 5 mm diameter groups was completely filled with new bone,and the trabecular structure was irregular;while there were new trabeculae in the periphery of the 6 mm and 7 mm diameter groups,and the bone defect in the central area was still obvious.(6)The results showed that during the 12-week experimental observation period of osteoporotic femoral condyle defects in rabbits,under the condition of the same defect depth of 8 mm,femoral condyle defects with a diameter ≥ 6 mm could not heal on their own,while femoral condyle defects with a diameter＜6 mm were completely repaired.A diameter of 6 mm and a depth of 8 mm can be used as the critical bone defect value of osteoporotic femoral condyle in rabbits.

To further standardize the management of vaccination units, the Specifications for Vaccination (2023 version) proposes hierarchical management. However, guidelines for establishing, implementing, and evaluating such a framework remain underdeveloped. This paper systematically reviews the current status of hierarchical management in vaccination units, clarifies its feasibility and necessity, and proposes an implementation scheme.

Cemental tear is a rare and indetectable condition unless obvious clinical signs present with the involvement of surrounding periodontal and periapical tissues. Due to its clinical manifestations similar to common dental issues, such as vertical root fracture, primary endodontic diseases, and periodontal diseases, as well as the low awareness of cemental tear for clinicians, misdiagnosis often occurs. The critical principle for cemental tear treatment is to remove torn fragments, and overlooking fragments leads to futile therapy, which could deteriorate the conditions of the affected teeth. Therefore, accurate diagnosis and subsequent appropriate interventions are vital for managing cemental tear. Novel diagnostic tools, including cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), microscopes, and enamel matrix derivatives, have improved early detection and management, enhancing tooth retention. The implementation of standardized diagnostic criteria and treatment protocols, combined with improved clinical awareness among dental professionals, serves to mitigate risks of diagnostic errors and suboptimal therapeutic interventions. This expert consensus reviewed the epidemiology, pathogenesis, potential predisposing factors, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of cemental tear, aiming to provide a clinical guideline and facilitate clinicians to have a better understanding of cemental tear.
Humans ; Dental Cementum/injuries* ; Consensus ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Cone-Beam Computed Tomography ; Tooth Fractures/therapy*

Drug-drug interaction (DDI) refers to the interaction between two or more drugs in the body, altering their efficacy or pharmacokinetics. Fully considering and accurately predicting DDI has become an indispensable part of ensuring safe medication for patients. In recent years, many deep learning-based methods have been proposed to predict DDI. However, most existing computational models tend to oversimplify the fusion of drug structural and topological information, often relying on methods such as splicing or weighted summation, which fail to adequately capture the potential complementarity between structural and topological features. This loss of information may lead to models that do not fully leverage these features, thus limiting their performance in DDI prediction. To address these challenges, we propose a relation-aware cross adversarial network for predicting DDI, named RCAN-DDI, which combines a relationship-aware structure feature learning module and a topological feature learning module based on DDI networks to capture multimodal features of drugs. To explore the correlations and complementarities among different information sources, the cross-adversarial network is introduced to fully integrate features from various modalities, enhancing the predictive performance of the model. The experimental results demonstrate that the RCAN-DDI method outperforms other methods. Even in cases of labelled DDI scarcity, the method exhibits good robustness in the DDI prediction task. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the cross-adversarial module is validated through ablation experiments, demonstrating its superiority in learning multimodal complementary information.

Objective:To explore the feasibility of selecting appropriate respiratory motion management strategies for patients undergoing stereotactic radiotherapy for liver cancer using chi-square feature testing and machine learning techniques.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 95 liver cancer patients who underwent respiratory motion evaluation at Xiangya Hospital of Central South University between March 2022 and August 2024. Chi-square testing was used to screen features related to respiratory motion evaluation in liver cancer patients. Based on these features, predictive models were constructed using 4 machine learning classification algorithms: support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), and adaptive boosting (AdaBoost). The predictive performance of these models was evaluated using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1 value, and area under the curve (AUC).Results:The accuracy values for the SVM, RF, GBDT and AdaBoost models were 0.75, 0.75, 0.70, and 0.82, respectively. The sensitivity values were 0.82, 0.82, 0.64, and 0.82, respectively. The specificity values were 0.63, 0.63, 0.63, and 0.75, respectively. The F1 scores were 0.78, 0.78, 0.67, and 0.82, respectively. The AUC values were 0.85, 0.80, 0.76, and 0.85, respectively.Conclusions:The predictive models constructed by combining chi-square feature testing and machine learning methods can effectively predict the selection of respiratory motion management strategies. Among the models, the AdaBoost model demonstrated the best predictive performance for selecting respiratory motion management strategies.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a significant complication of sepsis, characterized by high morbidity, mortality, and poor prognosis. Neutrophils, as critical intrinsic immune cells in the lung, play a fundamental role in the development and progression of ALI. During ALI, neutrophils generate neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), and excessive NETs can intensify inflammatory injury. Research indicates that Taohe Chengqi decoction (THCQD) can ameliorate sepsis-induced lung inflammation and modulate immune function. This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms by which THCQD improves ALI and its relationship with NETs in sepsis patients, seeking to provide novel perspectives and interventions for clinical treatment. The findings demonstrate that THCQD enhanced survival rates and reduced lung injury in the cecum ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced ALI mouse model. Furthermore, THCQD diminished neutrophil and macrophage infiltration, inflammatory responses, and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α). Notably, subsequent experiments confirmed that THCQD inhibits NET formation both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, THCQD significantly decreased the expression of peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 (PAD4) protein, and molecular docking predicted that certain active compounds in THCQD could bind tightly to PAD4. PAD4 overexpression partially reversed THCQD's inhibitory effects on PAD4. These findings strongly indicate that THCQD mitigates CLP-induced ALI by inhibiting PAD4-mediated NETs.
Extracellular Traps/immunology* ; Acute Lung Injury/immunology* ; Animals ; Sepsis/immunology* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Mice ; Neutrophils/immunology* ; Male ; Protein-Arginine Deiminase Type 4/genetics* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Humans ; Disease Models, Animal ; Cytokines/metabolism*

This study investigates the clinical differentiation and treatment strategies for bipolar disorder （BD） by analyzing the relationship of its core pathomechanisms including qi stagnation， blood stasis， phlegm turbidity， and heat constraint with bile acid metabolism. The imbalance of "yin in form and yang in function" leads to qi stagnation， blood stasis， phlegm turbidity， and heat constraint， which are critical in the pathogenesis and progression of BD. Bile acids regulate neuroinflammation， neural plasticity， and intestinal flora homeostasis through receptor-mediated pathways. It is believed that the physiological functions of bile acids concretely embody the concept of the "liver is yin in form and yang in function" theory. Clinically， prescriptions such as Sini Powder （四逆散） with the function of venting pathogen and resolving constraint， Wendan Decoction （温胆汤） of drying dampness and resolving phlegm， Longdan Xiegan Decoction （龙胆泻肝汤） of clearing liver and draining fire， and Huanglian Ejiao Decoction （黄连阿胶汤） of nourishing yin and blood can be used to nourish liver yin and restore liver yang function. These strategies may improve BD prognosis by modulating bile acid synthesis and metabolism.

To further standardize the management of vaccination units, the Specifications for Vaccination (2023 version) proposes hierarchical management. However, guidelines for establishing, implementing, and evaluating such a framework remain underdeveloped. This paper systematically reviews the current status of hierarchical management in vaccination units, clarifies its feasibility and necessity, and proposes an implementation scheme.

Prostaglandin E2(PGE2)regulates a variety of cells in tumor microenvironment(TME)and plays an important role in tumor growth,metastasis and immunity.PGE2 activates different downstream signaling pathways through its key receptor prostaglandin E receptor(EP4),regulating inflammation,immune cell function and angiogenesis to promote or inhibit tumor development.EP4 shows potential application values in adjuvant chemotherapy and immunotherapy as an emerging anti-tumor target.However,future studies on the roles of EP4 in tumor microenvironment,develo-pment of safer and more effective EP4 drugs,and its application in personalized immunotherapy are needed.