Objective To observe the value of noninvasive right ventricular pressure-strain loop(RVPSL)for quantitative evaluation on right ventricular myocardial function changes in liver cirrhosis patients after TIPS.Methods Totally 26 cases of liver cirrhosis who would undergo TIPS were prospectively recruited as liver cirrhosis group.Echocardiography was performed before and 1 week,1 month after TIPS,and parameters of right ventricular myocardial function,including routine right ventricular echocardiography,right ventricular strain and right ventricular myocardial work were acquired.Meanwhile,30 healthy adults were recruited as control group,and the above parameters were recorded.Then these parameters were compared between groups,also before and after TIPS within liver cirrhosis group,and the changes of right ventricular myocardial function after TIPS were evaluated.Results Right ventricular global work index(RVGWI),right ventricular global constructive work(RVGCW)and right ventricular global wasted work(RVGWW)in liver cirrhosis group were higher than those in control group at all time points(all P＜0.05).One weak and 1 month after TIPS,right ventricular global longitudinal strain(RVGLS)and right ventricular free wall longitudinal strain(RVFWLS)in liver cirrhosis group were all higher than those in control group(all P＜0.05).In liver cirrhosis group,RVGWI,RVGCW and RVGWW 1 week after TIPS were all higher than those before TIPS and 1 month after TIPS(all P＜0.05),while RVGLS 1 weak and RVGWI 1 month after TIPS were both higher than those before TIPS(both P＜0.05).Conclusion Noninvasive RVPSL could be used to sensitively and quantitatively evaluate right ventricular function changes in patients with liver cirrhosis after TIPS.

Henoch-Sch?nlein purpura(HSP)is a common vascular inflammatory disease in children,which is easy to recur and seriously affects the physical and mental health of children.Based on the cold climate and the characteristics of children's constitutions,Professor Wang Youpeng proposes that the pathogenesis is based on the invasion of external pathogens,and spleen deficiency and loss of circulation,yin-yang imbalance,and defensive qi instability are the key points of the pathogenesis.Professor Wang establishes the characteristic therapy of"three clear and one tonic",which includes the elimination and discharge method to clear dampness and heat,the dual solution method of external and internal to clear excessive heat,the method of cooling blood and dissipating blood stasis to clear stasis spots,and the method of strengthening the body and consolidating the essence to tonify deficiency.This therapy is based on"combining prescriptions to increase efficacy"and takes into account both deficiency in root and excess in superficiality.It not only focuses on the excessive syndromes of heat,blood stasis and dampness in the acute stage,but also focuses on the deficiency of healthy qi in the remission stage,which can provide references for the syndrome differentiation and treatment for HSP in children in cold regions.

A novel approach named hierarchical vascular morphology awareness and noisy label refine for hepatic vessel segmentation(HN-Seg)is proposed to achieve precise vessel segmentation while reducing dependency on high-quality labels.HN-Seg comprises of(1)hierarchical vascular morphology aware network which employs a multi-scale local morphology attention mechanism and a global morphology preservation loss function to ensure the integrity of overall vascular morphology,and(2)self-distillation noisy label refine module which leverages the uncertainty in model outputs to optimize noisy labels through uncertainty optimization and consistency regularization,thereby maximizing the knowledge extracted from images during training and refining noisy labels.Experimental results on the hepatic vessel dataset demonstrate that HN-Seg achieves superior segmentation performance,outperforming 6 methods(UNet,UNet++,UNETR,SwinUNetR,FRUNet,and MTCL).HN-Seg attains DSC and clDice scores of 0.727 and 0.773,showing improvements of 9.6%and 21.5%over the baseline method UNETR.

Objective:This study aimed to explore the serum levels of soluble programmed cell death protein 1 (sPD-1) and soluble programmed cell death-ligand 1 (sPD-L1) in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and their clinical value in the prognostic analysis.Methods:This prospective cohort study included patients aged ≥18 years admitted to the department of critical care medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University between January 2022 and October 2024 with a first episode of ICH presenting within 24 hours of onset. Patients with hemorrhage caused by other causes (e.g., tumor, medication and trauma) or incomplete data were excluded. Based on 28-day all-cause mortality, patients were divided into survival group and non-survival group. According to the 60-day neurological outcome, patients were divided into good neurological outcome group and poor neurological outcome group. Clinical and imaging data were collected, along with venous blood samples obtained within 24 hours of admission to measure serum levels of sPD-1 and sPD-L1. Predictive indicators were identified using LASSO-Logistic regression analysis was used to identify predictive indicators, and a nomogram was constructed to visualize the prediction model. Model performances were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves, decision curve analysis, calibration curves, and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test.Results:A total of 155 patients were included: 101 in the survival group and 54 in the death group; 56 in the favorable neurological outcome group and 99 in the poor neurological outcome group. Serum sPD-1 concentrations were significantly lower in the death group and poor neurological outcome group compared to the survival group and favorable neurological outcome group, respectively. Conversely, serum sPD-L1 concentrations were significantly higher in the death group and poor neurological outcome group compared to the survival group and favorable neurological outcome group (all P < 0.05). Serum sPD-1 and sPD-L1 were identified as predictors of 28-day mortality risk. A nomogram incorporating seven indicators—brainstem hemorrhage, hemorrhage volume, obstructive hydrocephalus, surgical intervention, admission NIHSS score, and admission serum sPD-1 and sPD-L1 levels—demonstrated superior predictive performance [AUC=0.984 (95% CI: 0.968-1.000)] compared to sPD-1 alone (AUC=0.712) or sPD-L1 alone (AUC=0.753). Serum sPD-1 was a predictor of poor 60-day neurological outcome. A nomogram incorporating obstructive hydrocephalus, admission NIHSS score, and admission serum sPD-1 level [AUC=0.818 (95% CI: 0.754-0.882)] outperformed sPD-1 alone (AUC=0.637) or sPD-L1 alone (AUC=0.602). Conclusions:Serum levels of sPD-1 were significantly lower in the non-survivors and the patients with poor neurological outcomes compared to the survivors and the patients with good neurological outcomes. However, serum levels of sPD-L1 were significantly higher in the non-survivors and the patients with poor neurological outcome. Serum sPD-1 was an independent predictor of 28-day mortality risk and 60-day poor neurological outcome; serum sPD-L1 was an independent predictor of 28-day mortality risk. A nomogram prediction model incorporating sPD-1 and sPD-L1 demonstrated good predictive performance for mortality risk and poor neurological outcome.

ObjectiveTo investigate the optimal ratio of goat horn replacing antelope horn in Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills and the blood pressure-lowering mechanism of this medicine. MethodsThe blood pressure-lowering efficacy of Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills with varying proportions of goat horn replacing antelope horn was evaluated on spontaneous hypertensive rats （SHR）. In this experiment， 50 SHR rats were randomly grouped as follows： model （n=8）， captopril （0.01 g·kg^-1） （n=6）， low-dose blank Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.342 g·kg^-1） （n=6）， high-dose blank Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.684 g·kg^-1） （n=6）， low-dose antelope horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.378 g·kg^-1） （n=6）， high-dose antelope horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.756 g·kg^-1） （n=6）， low-dose goat horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.378 g·kg^-1） （n=6）， and high-dose goat horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.756 g·kg^-1） （n=6）. Additionally， 8 WKY rats were used as the normal group. Drugs were administered by gavage for 4 weeks while an equal volume of distilled water was administered for the normal and model groups. Blood pressure was measured before administration， 3 h post administration， and biweekly thereafter. In the experiment for Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills with goat horn replacing antelope horn in different proportions， 48 SHR rats were randomly grouped as follows： model， blank Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.684 g·kg^-1）， antelope horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.756 g·kg^-1）， 2× goat horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.824 g·kg^-1）， 4× goat horn Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （0.969 g·kg^-1）， and 6× goat horn Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills （1.112 g·kg^-1）. The normal group included 8 WKY rats， and the normal group and model group received an equal volume of distilled water. The treatment lasted for 2 weeks， and blood pressure was recorded at various time points （pre-administration， 3 h post administration， and on days 4， 7， 10， and 14 of administration）. Serum levels of angiotensin-converting enzyme （ACE）， angiotensin Ⅱ（Ang Ⅱ）， renin， and interleukin-6 （IL-6） were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Histopathological changes in the heart， kidney， and thoracic aorta were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining. The protein levels of ACE2， angiotensin Ⅱ type 1 receptor （AT1R）， and angiotensinogen （AGT） in the kidney tissue were determined by Western blot， while the expression of nuclear factor （NF）-κB p65 and Toll-like receptor 4 （TLR4） in the thoracic aorta tissue was assessed by immunohistochemistry. ResultsCompared with the model group， all treatment groups showed lowered blood pressure （P<0.05， P<0.01）， and the 6× goat horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills group showed consistent blood pressure-lowering effect with the antelope horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills group. Compared with the normal group， the model group showed elevated serum levels of ACE， Ang Ⅱ， renin， and IL-6， while the elevations were declined in the Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills groups （P<0.05， P<0.01）. Pathological changes in the heart， kidney， and thoracic aorta were alleviated in all the treatment groups， with the 6× goat horn- and antelope horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills groups exhibited the best effect. Western blot and immunohistochemistry results showed that all the treatment groups exhibited down-regulated protein levels of AT1R， AGT， NF-κB p65， and TLR4 and up-regulated protein levels of ACE2 （P<0.05， P<0.01） compared with model group， with the 6×goat horn- and antelope horn-containing Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills groups showcasing the best effect. ConclusionReplacing antelope horn with 6×goat horn in Fufang Lingjiao Jiangya pills can achieve consistent blood pressure-lowering effect with the original prescription. The prescription may exert the effect by inhibiting the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system （RAAS） and TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathways.

Objective To observe the value of noninvasive right ventricular pressure-strain loop(RVPSL)for quantitative evaluation on right ventricular myocardial function changes in liver cirrhosis patients after TIPS.Methods Totally 26 cases of liver cirrhosis who would undergo TIPS were prospectively recruited as liver cirrhosis group.Echocardiography was performed before and 1 week,1 month after TIPS,and parameters of right ventricular myocardial function,including routine right ventricular echocardiography,right ventricular strain and right ventricular myocardial work were acquired.Meanwhile,30 healthy adults were recruited as control group,and the above parameters were recorded.Then these parameters were compared between groups,also before and after TIPS within liver cirrhosis group,and the changes of right ventricular myocardial function after TIPS were evaluated.Results Right ventricular global work index(RVGWI),right ventricular global constructive work(RVGCW)and right ventricular global wasted work(RVGWW)in liver cirrhosis group were higher than those in control group at all time points(all P＜0.05).One weak and 1 month after TIPS,right ventricular global longitudinal strain(RVGLS)and right ventricular free wall longitudinal strain(RVFWLS)in liver cirrhosis group were all higher than those in control group(all P＜0.05).In liver cirrhosis group,RVGWI,RVGCW and RVGWW 1 week after TIPS were all higher than those before TIPS and 1 month after TIPS(all P＜0.05),while RVGLS 1 weak and RVGWI 1 month after TIPS were both higher than those before TIPS(both P＜0.05).Conclusion Noninvasive RVPSL could be used to sensitively and quantitatively evaluate right ventricular function changes in patients with liver cirrhosis after TIPS.

Henoch-Sch?nlein purpura(HSP)is a common vascular inflammatory disease in children,which is easy to recur and seriously affects the physical and mental health of children.Based on the cold climate and the characteristics of children's constitutions,Professor Wang Youpeng proposes that the pathogenesis is based on the invasion of external pathogens,and spleen deficiency and loss of circulation,yin-yang imbalance,and defensive qi instability are the key points of the pathogenesis.Professor Wang establishes the characteristic therapy of"three clear and one tonic",which includes the elimination and discharge method to clear dampness and heat,the dual solution method of external and internal to clear excessive heat,the method of cooling blood and dissipating blood stasis to clear stasis spots,and the method of strengthening the body and consolidating the essence to tonify deficiency.This therapy is based on"combining prescriptions to increase efficacy"and takes into account both deficiency in root and excess in superficiality.It not only focuses on the excessive syndromes of heat,blood stasis and dampness in the acute stage,but also focuses on the deficiency of healthy qi in the remission stage,which can provide references for the syndrome differentiation and treatment for HSP in children in cold regions.

Objective To explore the value of intensity ratio(IR)of lesion to non-tumor liver parenchyma on contrast-enhanced ultrasound(CEUS)Kupffer phase for differentiating hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma(IHC)/metastatic liver carcinoma.Methods Totally 54 patients with HCC(HCC group),30 with IHC and 51 with liver metastatic carcinoma(non-HCC group)diagnosed by pathology were retrospectively enrolled.Quantitative parameters derived from CEUS time-intensity curves,including peak intensity(PI),time to peak(TTP),wash-in area under the curve(WiAUC),wash-out area under the curve(WoAUC),wash-in and wash-out area under the curve(WiWoAUC)of lesion in vascular phase and IR of lesion to non-tumor liver parenchyma in Kupffer phase were compared between groups,and a combined diagnostic model was established based on parameters being significantly different between groups using binary logistic regression analysis.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves were plotted,and the area under the curves(AUC)were calculated to evaluate the efficacy of each CEUS parameter alone and the combined model for differentiating HCC and IHC/liver metastatic carcinoma.Results In HCC group,PI,WoAUC and WiWoAUC were all higher(all P＜0.001),while IR was significantly lower than those in non-HCC group(P＜0.001).The AUC of PI,WoAUC,WiWoAUC and IR for differentiating HCC and IHC/metastatic liver carcinoma was 0.673,0.741,0.738 and 0.736,respectively,all lower than that of combined model(0.862,all P＜0.05).Conclusion IR of lesion to non-tumor liver parenchyma on CEUS Kupffer phase could be used to differentiate HCC and IHC/metastatic liver carcinoma.Combining with quantitative parameters on CEUS vascular phase could improve differentiating efficiency.

A novel approach named hierarchical vascular morphology awareness and noisy label refine for hepatic vessel segmentation(HN-Seg)is proposed to achieve precise vessel segmentation while reducing dependency on high-quality labels.HN-Seg comprises of(1)hierarchical vascular morphology aware network which employs a multi-scale local morphology attention mechanism and a global morphology preservation loss function to ensure the integrity of overall vascular morphology,and(2)self-distillation noisy label refine module which leverages the uncertainty in model outputs to optimize noisy labels through uncertainty optimization and consistency regularization,thereby maximizing the knowledge extracted from images during training and refining noisy labels.Experimental results on the hepatic vessel dataset demonstrate that HN-Seg achieves superior segmentation performance,outperforming 6 methods(UNet,UNet++,UNETR,SwinUNetR,FRUNet,and MTCL).HN-Seg attains DSC and clDice scores of 0.727 and 0.773,showing improvements of 9.6%and 21.5%over the baseline method UNETR.

Objective To explore the value of intensity ratio(IR)of lesion to non-tumor liver parenchyma on contrast-enhanced ultrasound(CEUS)Kupffer phase for differentiating hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma(IHC)/metastatic liver carcinoma.Methods Totally 54 patients with HCC(HCC group),30 with IHC and 51 with liver metastatic carcinoma(non-HCC group)diagnosed by pathology were retrospectively enrolled.Quantitative parameters derived from CEUS time-intensity curves,including peak intensity(PI),time to peak(TTP),wash-in area under the curve(WiAUC),wash-out area under the curve(WoAUC),wash-in and wash-out area under the curve(WiWoAUC)of lesion in vascular phase and IR of lesion to non-tumor liver parenchyma in Kupffer phase were compared between groups,and a combined diagnostic model was established based on parameters being significantly different between groups using binary logistic regression analysis.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves were plotted,and the area under the curves(AUC)were calculated to evaluate the efficacy of each CEUS parameter alone and the combined model for differentiating HCC and IHC/liver metastatic carcinoma.Results In HCC group,PI,WoAUC and WiWoAUC were all higher(all P＜0.001),while IR was significantly lower than those in non-HCC group(P＜0.001).The AUC of PI,WoAUC,WiWoAUC and IR for differentiating HCC and IHC/metastatic liver carcinoma was 0.673,0.741,0.738 and 0.736,respectively,all lower than that of combined model(0.862,all P＜0.05).Conclusion IR of lesion to non-tumor liver parenchyma on CEUS Kupffer phase could be used to differentiate HCC and IHC/metastatic liver carcinoma.Combining with quantitative parameters on CEUS vascular phase could improve differentiating efficiency.