BACKGROUND:Steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head is a common progressive,crippling and high incidence of non-traumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head,but its exact pathogenesis is not clear.Internal heat acupuncture therapy has a good clinical effect in the treatment of steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head,but its specific mechanism is not clear.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of internal heat acupuncture on osteoblast apoptosis and expression of Bcl-2-associated X protein(Bax)and B lymphocytoma-2(Bcl-2)in steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head in rabbits.METHODS:Totally 24 male New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into blank group,model group,and internal heat acupuncture group(n=8).The rabbit model of steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head was made in the last two groups by methylprednisolone sodium succinate combined with Escherichia coli endotoxin.After successful model establishment for 4 weeks,the rabbits in the internal heat acupuncture group received internal heat acupuncture intervention on the buttocks of rabbits,once a week for 20 minutes each time,while the other two groups did not receive any intervention.After 4 weeks of treatment,samples were harvested.Morphological changes of femoral head and osteoblast apoptosis were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining and TUNEL assay.Protein expression of Bcl-2 and Bax in rabbit femoral head tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry and western blot assay.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)In the blank group,there were abundant hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow cavity,clear and orderly trabecular structure,few adipocytes and few empty bone lacunae.In the model group,the number of adipocytes in the bone marrow cavity increased significantly,accompanied by hyperplasia,steatosis of some osteocytes and more empty bone lacunae.After the intervention of internal heat acupuncture,the number of adipocytes and hollow bone lacunae was less than that in the model group,but more obvious than that in the blank group.(2)Compared with the blank group,the apoptosis of osteoblasts in the model group was significantly increased,the expression of Bax was significantly increased(P＜0.001),and the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly decreased(P＜0.001).After the intervention of internal heat acupuncture,the apoptosis of osteoblasts was significantly decreased,the expression of Bax was significantly decreased(P＜0.001),and the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly increased(P＜0.001).(3)The results show that internal heat acupuncture can alleviate steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head by inhibiting osteoblast apoptosis in the femoral head.

BACKGROUND:Steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head is a common progressive,crippling and high incidence of non-traumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head,but its exact pathogenesis is not clear.Internal heat acupuncture therapy has a good clinical effect in the treatment of steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head,but its specific mechanism is not clear.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of internal heat acupuncture on osteoblast apoptosis and expression of Bcl-2-associated X protein(Bax)and B lymphocytoma-2(Bcl-2)in steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head in rabbits.METHODS:Totally 24 male New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into blank group,model group,and internal heat acupuncture group(n=8).The rabbit model of steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head was made in the last two groups by methylprednisolone sodium succinate combined with Escherichia coli endotoxin.After successful model establishment for 4 weeks,the rabbits in the internal heat acupuncture group received internal heat acupuncture intervention on the buttocks of rabbits,once a week for 20 minutes each time,while the other two groups did not receive any intervention.After 4 weeks of treatment,samples were harvested.Morphological changes of femoral head and osteoblast apoptosis were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining and TUNEL assay.Protein expression of Bcl-2 and Bax in rabbit femoral head tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry and western blot assay.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)In the blank group,there were abundant hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow cavity,clear and orderly trabecular structure,few adipocytes and few empty bone lacunae.In the model group,the number of adipocytes in the bone marrow cavity increased significantly,accompanied by hyperplasia,steatosis of some osteocytes and more empty bone lacunae.After the intervention of internal heat acupuncture,the number of adipocytes and hollow bone lacunae was less than that in the model group,but more obvious than that in the blank group.(2)Compared with the blank group,the apoptosis of osteoblasts in the model group was significantly increased,the expression of Bax was significantly increased(P＜0.001),and the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly decreased(P＜0.001).After the intervention of internal heat acupuncture,the apoptosis of osteoblasts was significantly decreased,the expression of Bax was significantly decreased(P＜0.001),and the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly increased(P＜0.001).(3)The results show that internal heat acupuncture can alleviate steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head by inhibiting osteoblast apoptosis in the femoral head.

BACKGROUND:Internal heat-type acupuncture therapy is a new treatment technique that combines acupuncture therapy with hyperthermia.It has good clinical effects on steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head,but the mechanism of action is still not fully clear. OBJECTIVE:To explore the possible mechanism of internal heat-type acupuncture therapy in treating steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head in rabbits. METHODS:Thirty-two New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into blank group,model group,internal heat-type acupuncture group and shock wave group using a random number table method,with 8 rabbits in each group.The model group,internal heat-type acupuncture group and shock wave group were modeled using methylprednisolone sodium succinate combined with Escherichia coli endotoxin.The internal heat-type acupuncture group received an internal heat-type acupuncture intervention on the buttocks of rabbits,once a week,for 20 minutes each time.The shock wave group received shock wave intervention on the buttocks of rabbits,once a week,with 2 000 beats per session.The blank group and model group were not given any treatment.After 4 weeks of intervention,blood samples and bilateral femoral head samples were collected from experimental rabbits.The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in serum were detected by ELISA;the histomorphology of the femoral head was observed using hematoxylin-eosin staining and the rate of empty lacunae was calculated;the protein expressions of matrix metalloproteinase 2,matrix metalloproteinase 9,matrix metalloproteinase tissue inhibitor 1,and matrix metalloproteinase tissue inhibitor 2 were detected by immunohistochemistry and western blot. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Compared with the blank group,the model rabbits showed reduced food intake,mental fatigue,and decreased activity;compared with the model group,the above performance of the experimental rabbits was significantly improved after internal heat-type acupuncture and shock wave treatment.Compared with the blank group,the histomorphology of the femoral head in the model group deteriorated significantly and the rate of empty bone lacuna increased(P<0.001),while the histomorphology of the femoral head in the internal heat-type acupuncture group and shock wave group was significantly improved compared with the model group,and the rate of empty bone lacuna was reduced(P<0.001).The serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in the model group were significantly higher than those in the blank group(P<0.05),while the serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in the internal heat-type acupuncture group and the shock wave group were significantly lower than those in the model group(P<0.05).Compared with the blank group,the expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase 2 and matrix metalloproteinase 9 in the femoral head of the model group were significantly increased,while the expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase tissue inhibitor 1 and matrix metalloproteinase tissue inhibitor 2 were significantly decreased(P<0.001);compared with the model group,the protein expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase 2 and matrix metalloproteinase 9 were significantly decreased,while the protein expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase tissue inhibitor 1 and matrix metalloproteinase tissue inhibitor 2 were significantly increased in the internal heat-type acupuncture group and the shock wave group(P<0.001).Overall,these findings indicate that internal heat-type acupuncture may promote the repair of the necrotic femoral head by regulating the levels of matrix metalloproteinases/matrix metalloproteinase tissue inhibitors and serum inflammatory factors,thus treating early steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head.

From November to December of 2018, twenty 65-year-old or older women patients with knee osteoarthritis were recruited from the Department of Physical Therapy, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. Meanwhile, twenty healthy 65-year-old or older women were recruited from the local community. The results showed that the knee contact angle of the patient group was more flexed ( P=0.040), and the minimum angle of the knee joint increased ( P=0.008) during the stance period compared to the healthy group. However, there was no significant difference in the maximum contact angle between the angle of hip and ankle joints. In addition, the tibialis anterior muscle of the patients was significantly smaller than the healthy group ( P=0.023). Therefore, knee osteoarthritis could change the gait and muscle activity of older women, especially the knee joint.

From November to December of 2018, twenty 65-year-old or older women patients with knee osteoarthritis were recruited from the Department of Physical Therapy, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. Meanwhile, twenty healthy 65-year-old or older women were recruited from the local community. The results showed that the knee contact angle of the patient group was more flexed ( P=0.040), and the minimum angle of the knee joint increased ( P=0.008) during the stance period compared to the healthy group. However, there was no significant difference in the maximum contact angle between the angle of hip and ankle joints. In addition, the tibialis anterior muscle of the patients was significantly smaller than the healthy group ( P=0.023). Therefore, knee osteoarthritis could change the gait and muscle activity of older women, especially the knee joint.

Objective:To analyze the clinical parameters of the patients with femoral neck fracture such as general condition,therapy method,hospitalized expense so as to provide more effective management plan for the clinical work.Methods:The patients with femoral neck fracture above 50 years who received in-patient treatment from 2008 January to 2012 December were admitted into this study.We collected and analyzed the information,such as age,chronic medical disease,therapy method,hospitalized duration and expense and so on.Results:There were 1 794 femoral neck fracture patients above 50 years (male/female=1/2.06)in our hospital in recent 5 years and the annual average rate of increase was 7.3%. The average age of the patients was (69.9 ±10.7)years and the annual average rate of increase was 0.6%.The chronic medical disease diagnosis ratio was 55.0%.The average waiting time for operation was (6.8 ±4.2)days and the average hospitalized duration was (12.9 ±4.9)days which showed down-ward trend in recent years. The most popular operations were cannulated screw internal fixation (41.8%)and artificial femoral head replacement (34.1%).In the study,146 cases (7.9%)received nonsurgical treatment which showed downward trend.The average hospitalized expense was (35 075 .7 ± 1 1 343.2)yuan which showed no obvious change in recent years.The cost for the females was more than that for the males.The expense for hemiarthroplasty and total hip arthroplasty increased while that for cannulated screw internal fixation decreased gradually.Conclusion:The cannulated screw internal fixa-tion and artificial femoral head replacement were the most important operations for the patients with femo-ral neck fracture.The number and the average age of the patients were on the rise while the expense showed no obvious change in recent years.

The non-stationary interference with the analysis parameters of short-term heart rate variability (HRV) has been studied. The results show that although all considered parameters fluctuate with the lapse of time, only HFnorm and sample entropy (SE) correlate significantly with non-stationary interference. Therefore, the low frequency fluctuations of HRV contain not only the non-stationary interference, but also the intrinsic cardiac dynamic characteristics. Specially, the results of the base-scale entropy (BE) analysis of three groups of people, and of three kinds of noises are contrasted. It is shown that, at the expense of outstanding anti-nonstationarity, BE fails to depict the long range correlation of HRV.
Algorithms ; Autonomic Nervous System ; physiology ; Electrocardiography ; methods ; Entropy ; Heart Rate ; physiology ; Humans ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

Image mosaicing can solve the problem that only very limited field of view is available when highly magnifying lens is used in microscope imaging. This paper puts forward an equation of the system's influence to the grayscale distribution of the medical microscopic images, based on the analysis of the influence. Then, by the system equation and the accurate registration equation, the least-squares optimization error function can be formulated. By these equations, a set of transcendental equations is formed. We can estimate the system's influence on the gray-level of the images by singular-value decomposition (SVD), based on the equations set, and compensating for it. This permits image mosaicing seamlessly, without lowering the speed.
Humans ; Image Enhancement ; methods ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Microscopy ; methods

In this paper is reported a method using joint entropy to analyze the nonlinear dynamical complexity of short-term heart rate variability(HRV) signal. This method can effectively pick up dynamical information from the short-term heartbeat time series, reflect the dynamical complexity of heart rate variability, and so improve the quality of being covenient in clinical application. At first, the joint entropy method is demonstrated by applying it to the low-dimensional nonlinear deterministic systems such as logistic map and henon map. Then, the proposition is applied to the short-term heartbeat time series. The result shows that the method could robustly discriminate the patterns generated from healthy and pathologic states, as well as aging. Furthermore, the authors point out that decreased nonlinear dynamical complexity in the heartbeat time series with physiological aging and pathologic states is probably due to self-adjusting ability depression with aging and disease. At last, using the joint entropy method,the authors uncover nonrandom patterns in the ventricular response to atrial fibrillation.
Adult ; Aged ; Electrocardiography ; methods ; Entropy ; Heart Rate ; physiology ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Nonlinear Dynamics ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Ventricular Fibrillation ; physiopathology ; Young Adult

Using the algorithm proposed by Costa M, et al., we studied the multiscale entropy (MSE) of electrocardiogram. The sample entropy (SampEn) of the healthy subjects was found to be higher than that of the subjects with coronary heart disease or myocardial infarction. The healthy subjects' complexity was found to be the highest. The SampEn of the subjects with coronary heart disease was noted to be only slightly higher than that of the subjects with myocardial infarction. These findings show that the complexity of the subjects with coronary heart disease or myocardial infarction is distinctly lower than the complexity of the healthy ones, and the subjects suffereing from coronary heart disease are liable to the onset of myocardial infarction.
Algorithms ; Coronary Disease ; physiopathology ; Electrocardiography ; methods ; Entropy ; Humans ; Myocardial Infarction ; physiopathology ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted