Objective To examine the impact of different numbers of microsatellite markers on the analysis of population genetic diversity of Schistosoma japonicum, so as to provide insights into studies on the population genetic diversity of S. japonicum. Methods Oncomelania hupensis snails were collected from a wasteland in Gong’an County, Hubei Province, and 37 S. japonicum-infected O. hupensis snails were identified using the cercarial shedding method. A single cercaria released from each S. japonicum-infected O. hupensis snail was collected, and 10 cercariae were randomly collected from DNA extraction. Nine previously validated microsatellite loci and 15 additional microsatellite loci screened from literature review and the GenBank database and confirmed with stable amplification efficiency were selected as molecular markers. Genomic DNA from cercariae was subjected to three multiplex PCR amplifications of microsatellite markers with the Type-it Microsatellite PCR kit, and genotyped using capillary electrophoresis. The population genetic diversity of S. japonicum cercariae DNA was analyzed with observed number of alleles (Na), effective number of alleles (Ae), observed heterozygosity (Ho), expected heterozygosity (He), and polymorphism information content (PIC), and tested for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) and linkage disequilibrium (LD). To further investigate the impact of the number of microsatellite loci on the population genetic diversity of S. japonicum, the number of microsatellite markers was sequentially assigned from 1 to 24, and the mean and standard deviation of Na were calculated for S. japonicum populations at different locus numbers. In addition, the coefficient of variation (CV) of allelic number (defined as the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean) was determined, and the variation in Na with increasing microsatellite locus numbers was analyzed. Results Genomic DNA from 345 S. japonicum cercariae was selected for genotyping of 24 microsatellite markers, and all 24 microsatellite loci met linkage equilibrium (standardized linkage disequilibrium coefficient D′ < 0.7, r² < 0.3) and deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P < 0.001). The mean Na, Ae, Ho and He were 27.46 ± 2.18, 12.46 ± 0.95, 0.46 ± 0.03, and 0.91 ± 0.01 for 24 microsatellite loci in S. japonicum cercarial populations, respectively, and PIC ranged from 0.85 to 0.96, indicating high genome-wide representativeness of 24 microsatellite loci. The mean value of Na-Ae was higher in genotyping with 9 previously validated microsatellite loci (19.88 ± 8.43) than with all 24 loci (14.99 ± 8.09). As the number of microsatellite loci increased, the mean Na showed no significant variation; however, the standard deviation gradually decreased. Notably, if the locus number reached 18 or more, the variation in the standard deviation of Na remarkably reduced. In addition, the standard deviation of Na at 18 loci was less than 5% of the mean Na at 24 loci, with a CV of 4.6%. Conclusions The number of microsatellite loci significantly affects the population genetic diversity analysis of S. japonicum. Eighteen or more microsatellite loci are recommended for analysis of the population genetic diversity of S. japonicum under the current conditions of low-prevalence infection and unbalanced genetic distribution of S. japonicum.

AIM:To explore the effects of moderate-altitude exposure on intestinal flora in healthy individuals.METHODS:The aid-Tibet cadres,who were sent to work from Guangdong(average altitude<50 m)to Nyingchi(average altitude of 2 900 m),were recruited.A total of 76 samples were collected,including 42 samples from healthy adults with plateau living for 0 day and 34 samples from healthy adults with plateau living for 6 months.Fecal samples DNA were ex-tracted,sequenced by the 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing technology and analyzed bioinformatically.RESULTS:Compared with the base group,α diversity was increased(P=4.00×10-4)and β diversity was decreased(P=1.00×10-3).After moderate altitude exposure,the relative abundance of phylum Proteobacteria(|LDA|>4,P<0.05),genus Escherich-ia-Shigella,species Enterococcus_faecalis,Haemophilus_influenzae and Helicobacter_sp._UNSW1.7sp decreased(adjust-ed P<0.05),wheras the relative abundance of phylum Bacteroidetes(|LDA|>4,P<0.05),genus Butyricimona,species Lactobacillus_sp._RA2113(s)and Butyricimonas_sp._Marseille-P2440(s)increased(adjusted P<0.05).The function-al prediction by PICRUSt showed a decrease in the relative abundance of pathway related to xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism,membrane transport and amino acid metabolism(adjusted P<0.05).Conversely,the relative abundance of pathway related to biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites and nucleotide metabolism was increased(adjusted P<0.05).Finally,the results of microbiome phenotype prediction by BugBase showed that moderate altitude exposure im-proves the gut microbiota functions involving anaerobic oxygen tolerance and gram positive(adjusted P<0.05).And bacte-ria containing facultatively anaerobic oxygen tolerance,oxidative stress tolerance,gram negative and biofilm formation in the six-group decreased significantly compared with those in base group(adjusted P<0.05).CONCLUSION:Moderate altitude exposure impacts the diversity,abundance and function of intestinal flora in healthy population,suggesting that al-titude factors may have some influence on gut microbiota.

BACKGROUND:Distal tibial tuberosity-high tibial osteotomy is a surgical treatment for knee osteoarthritis,but there is still a lack of clinical studies on its effect on ankle joints. OBJECTIVE:To observe the effects of distal tibial tuberosity-high tibial osteotomy on ankle angle on coronal plane of the radiography of the full length of lower limb in weight loading. METHODS:Data of 40 patients(41 knees)with distal tibial tuberosity-high tibial osteotomy from March 2021 to March 2022 were retrospectively analyzed,including 31 females and 9 males,20 left knees and 21 right knees,aged 49-75 years,mean(63.44±6.57)years.The radiographic data of the full length of the lower limb in weight loading were collected before,week 2 and week 48 postoperatively.Hip-knee-ankle angle,talar tilt angle,tilt angle of the ankle,tibiocrural angle,and tibial articular surface angle were measured before and after surgery. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Hip-knee-ankle angle improved from(-6.24±3.69)° before operation to(2.59±3.49)° week 2 postoperatively and(2.15±3.49)° week 48 postoperatively.The tilt angle of the ankle changed from(-7.90±3.11)° before operation to(-2.51±2.59)° week 2 postoperatively and(-2.46±2.42)° week 48 postoperatively,with statistically significant difference(P<0.001).(2)There was no significant difference in talar tilt angle,tibiocrural angle,and tibial articular surface angle before and week 2 postoperatively.(3)No significant difference in the angle changes was detected between week 2 and week 48 postoperatively.(4)It is indicated that distal tibial tuberosity-high tibial osteotomy can not only correct genu varus but also improve ankle angle.This result remains stable after 48 weeks of weight-bearing activities.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease whose main characteristic is the destruction of articular cartilage, causing pain and disability in patients and seriously affecting their quality of life. OA can be induced by a variety of causes, and pathological changes in articular cartilage are considered to be one of the key driving factors for the occurrence of OA. High mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1), as a non-histone protein in eukaryotic cells, can participate in regulating the inflammation and apoptosis process of OA chondrocytes, thus leading to the occurrence of OA. This article reviews the research on the mechanism of HMGB1 in OA chondrocytes, with a view to providing new ideas for the clinical prevention and treatment of OA.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the clinicopathological features of laryngeal squamous carcinoma tumors and their correlation with prognosis in order to improve the understanding and diagnosis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.METHODS The clinical and pathological data(including gender,age,stage,differentiation,immunohistochemistry,etc.)of 179 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma[171 males,8 females,aged 30-84(61.53±8.02)years]who were treated in Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery,The First and Second Clinical Medical Schools of Ningxia Medical University from January 2015 to December 2022 were retrospectively studied,and the effects of various factors on prognosis were analyzed.RESULTS Among the 179 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma,the male-to-female ratio was 21.4:1,and the incidence was high in the age group of 60-79 years old(58.7%),and the youngest age of onset was 30 years old.The main clinical manifestations were hoarseness 138 cases(77.1%),sore throat 16 cases(8.9%)and pharyngeal foreign body sensation 13 cases(7.3%).Glottic type was more common in the primary site 135 cases(75.4%),and 31 cases were accompanied by cervical lymph node metastasis(17.3%).The degree of differentiation was more common in the moderately differentiated type 80 cases(44.7%).The positive rates of immunohistochemistry markers p16,EGFR(epidermal growth factor receptor),PD-1/PD-L1 and VEGF(vascular endothelial growth factor)were 20.3%,96.4%,36.4%and 77.3%,respectively.Univariate Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the site of disease,lymph node metastasis,and tumor stage were significantly correlated with disease recurrence.Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the clinical stage of the tumor was an independent risk factor for the prognosis of the disease(HR=3.715,95%CI:1.519-9.088,P=0.04).CONCLUSION The stage of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma,the site of the disease,and the metastasis of the lymph nodes are the main factors affecting the prognosis.The high positive expression rate of immunohistochemistry markers EGFR and VEGF is worth paying attention to Targeted therapy for patients with positive PD-1/PD-L1 testing is a promising research direction.

OBJECTIVE: Current mainstream PET scattering correction methods are introduced and evaluated horizontally, and finally, the existing problems and development direction of scattering correction are discussed. METHODS: Based on NeuWise Pro PET/CT products of Neusoft Medical System Co. Ltd. , the simulation experiment is carried out to evaluate the influence of radionuclide distribution out of FOV (field of view) on the scattering estimation accuracy of each method. RESULTS: The scattering events produced by radionuclide out of FOV have an obvious impact on the spatial distribution of scattering, which should be considered in the model. The scattering estimation accuracy of Monte Carlo method is higher than single scatter simulation (SSS). CONCLUSIONS Clinically, if the activity of the adjacent parts out of the FOV is high, such as brain, liver, kidney and bladder, it is likely to lead to the deviation of scattering estimation. Considering the Monte Carlo scattering estimation of the distribution of radionuclide out of FOV, it's helpful to improve the accuracy of scattering distribution estimation.
Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography ; Scattering, Radiation ; Computer Simulation ; Brain ; Monte Carlo Method ; Phantoms, Imaging ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted

Humans ; Phosphorylation ; Serine/metabolism* ; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction ; Neovascularization, Pathologic

Objective:To explore the classification performance of combined model constructed from CT signs combined with radiomics for discriminating COVID-19 pneumonia and other viral pneumonia.Methods:The clinical and CT imaging data of 181 patients with viral pneumonia confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in 15 hospitals of Yunnan Province from March 2015 to March 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. The 181 patients were divided into COVID-19 group (89 cases) and non-COVID-19 group (92 cases), which were further divided into training cohort (126 cases) and test cohort (55 cases) at a ratio of 7∶3 using random stratified sampling. The CT signs of pneumonia were determined and the radiomics features were extracted from the initial unenhanced chest CT images to build independent and combined models for predicting COVID-19 pneumonia. The diagnostic performance of the models were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, continuous net reclassification index (NRI) calibration curve and decision curve analysis.Results:The combined models consisted of 3 significant CT signs and 14 selected radiomics features. For the radiomics model alone, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) were 0.904 (sensitivity was 85.5%, specificity was 84.4%, accuracy was 84.9%) in the training cohort and 0.866 (sensitivity was 77.8%, specificity was 78.6%, accuracy 78.2%) in the test cohort. After combining CT signs and radiomics features, AUC of the combined model for the training cohort was 0.956 (sensitivity was 91.9%, specificity was 85.9%, accuracy was 88.9%), while that for the test cohort was 0.943 (sensitivity was 88.9%, specificity was 85.7%, accuracy was 87.3%). The AUC values of the combined model and the radiomics model in the differentiation of COVID-19 group and the non-COVID-19 group were significantly different in the training cohort ( Z=-2.43, P=0.015), but difference had no statistical significance in the test cohort ( Z=-1.73, P=0.083), and further analysis using the NRI showed that the combined model in both the training cohort and the test cohort had a positive improvement ability compared with radiomics model alone (training cohort: continuous NRI 1.077, 95 %CI 0.783-1.370; test cohort: continuous NRI 1.421, 95 %CI 1.051-1.790). The calibration curve showed that the prediction probability of COVID-19 predicted by the combined model was in good agreement with the observed value in the training and test cohorts; the decision curve showed that a net benefit greater than 0.6 could be obtained when the threshold probability of the combined model was 0-0.75. Conclusion:The combination of CT signs and radiomics might be a potential method for distinguishing COVID-19 and other viral pneumonia with good performance.

Objective:To evaluate radiofrequency ablation-assisted liver resection on early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) with microvascular invasion (MVI).Methods:A total of 82 HCC patients from Jun 2015 to Jun 2020 were divided into assisted group ( n=41) and control group ( n=41) after local hepatectomy.And by pathology,both groups were further substratified into with or without MVI subgroups. Results:There was no statistically significant difference in the baseline data between two groups,nor there was difference in recurrence-free survival rate between the two groups ( χ 2=0.177, P=0.674). However, by subgroup analysis, the recurrence-free survival rate of ablation assisted group was higher than that of the simple local hepatectomy group among MVI positive patients ( χ 2=5.096, P = 0.024).Multivariate analysis showed that only tumor diameter ( HR=1.32, 95% CI: 1.02-1.72, P=0.036) was an independent risk factor for local recurrence at the incisal margin, while mode of operation ( HR=0.15 ,95% CI: 0.04-0.52 ,P=0.003) and MVI ( HR=8.65 ,95% CI: 2.19-34.19 ,P=0.002) were independent risk factors for intrahepatic distant metastasis. Conclusion:Local hepatectomy assisted by intraoperative radiofrequency ablation on hepatic cross section could effectively reduce the postoperative early recurrence rate for hepatocellular carcinoma patients with MVI.

【Objective】 To evaluate the performance of electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) in detecting HIV antigen/antibody in blood screening. 【Methods】 A total of 128 donors, reactive to anti-HIV(ELISA)testing, from September 2016 to September 2020 were enrolled, and seven samples were reactive to double anti-HIV reagents, among which 6 were confirmed by WB, 1 confirmed by NAT as negative.Two group of donors, reactive to solo anti-HIV reagent but being confirmed negative by WB(n=121) vs.randomly selected donors non-reactive to ELISA + NAT(June to September 2020, n=1360), were subjected to HIV antigen/antibody testing using ECLIA to compare the testing results, including concordance rate, sensitivity and specificity. 【Results】 The ECLIA results remained non-reactive for 1360 samples initially non-reactive to both ELISA and NAT.The concordance rate of anti-HIV reactivity by ECLIA and ELISA+ WB were 100%(6/6). For 122 samples, reactive to ELISA anti-HIV testing but nonreactive to confirmatory testing, 4(3.28%)of them were reactive to HIV antigen/antibody testing and 118(96.72%) nonreactive, with the concordance rate of ECLIA and ELISA at 96.88%(124/128). The sensitivity, specificity and false positive rate of ECLIA and ELISA were 100% vs 100%, 99.73% vs 91.77%, and 0.27% vs 8.23%, respectively. 【Conclusion】 ECLIA for HIV antigen/antibody detection has good sensitivity and specificity, which can meet the requirements of blood screening, and the false positive rate is lower than that of ELISA, adopted commonly in blood bank at present.