Background and aims:Primary sclerosing cholangitis(PSC)is an autoimmune liver disease characterized by complex pathogenesis and limited available therapeutic options.The mechanisms underlying the development and progression of PSCs remain unclear.Liver X receptor beta(LXR-β)is recognized to modulate lipid metabolism and immune response,but its specific involvement in the PSC has not been elucidated.Here,we explored the role and mechanism of LXR-β in PSC induced by 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-1,4-dihydro-2,4,6-collidine(DDC).Methods:CRISPR-Cas9 technology was applied to generate Abcb4(coding MDR2,next named as Mdr2),Nr1h2(coding LXR-β,next named as Lxrβ),and Rag2(coding RAG2)knockout mice.DDC was used to induce PSC.Hematoxylin and eosin and Sirius red staining were used to assess the extent of hepatic injury and fibrosis.Flow cytometry was used to observe immune cell subsets.Results:We observed a declining trend in hepatic Lxrβ in the PSC model.Unexpectedly,Lxrβ knockout failed to modulate DDC-induced PSC pathogenesis.Concomitantly,assessment of the influence of Rag2 deficiency on PSC progression revealed the absence of aggravated or alleviated hepatic injury or fibrosis in the Rag2-/-DDC mice.However,Lxrβ depletion intensified DDC-induced PSC in the Rag2-/-mice,with more abundant infiltrative inflammatory cells and more severe liver fibrosis.Compared with Rag2-/-DDC mice,Lxrβ-/-Rag2-/-DDC mice had higher serum ALT and AST levels and mRNA expression of proinflammatory and profibrotic genes.Flow cytometry showed that LXR-β deficiency resulted in a diminished population of hepatic innate immune cells.Conclusion:This study indicated innate immune cell LXR-β deficiency can exacerbate hepatic injury and fibrosis in murine models of PSC suggesting that LXR-β may regulate the function of innate immunity in the fibrotic advancement of PSC.

Purpose To investigate the feasibility of CT-based feature tracking technology to quantify left ventricular myocardial strain(MS)and its significance in hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy(HOCM).Materials and Methods A total of 35 HOCM patients who underwent cardiac coronary angiography from March 2019 to December 2021 in the First Affiliated Hospital of the Air Force Military Medical University were retrospectively included,and a total of 60 cases who were negative for cardiac coronary angiography among those who visited the hospital with suspected coronary artery disease were randomly enrolled.Conventional cardiac functional parameters and MS parameters were quantified via post-processing software,and differences of parameters between the groups were analyzed.The diagnostic efficacy of MS parameters for HOCM was further evaluated.Results Compared to the control group,the HOCM group exhibited significant increases in various conventional left ventricular functional parameters,including left ventricular wall thickness,mass,mass index,end-diastolic volume and stroke volume(t=2.119 to 24.861,all P<0.05).However,there were no statistically significant differences in end-systolic volume and cardiac output between the two groups(P>0.05).The global longitudinal and radial strain values of HOCM group were significantly lower than those of control group(t=12.857,-6.427,P<0.01),while the endocardial global circumferential strain of HOCM group was significantly higher than that of control group(t=-2.369,P<0.05).Among MS parameters,global longitudinal strain exhibited the best diagnostic efficacy for HOCM,with an area under the curve of 0.997.A cutoff value of≤20.78%for global longitudinal strain showed that the sensitivity and specificity was 100%and 95%,respectively.Conclusion The MS parameters quantified by the CT-based feature tracking technique are superior to left ventricular ejection fraction in quantifying left ventricular function,with the highest sensitivity and specificity for early myocardial function impairment of longitudinal strain.In addition,the technique has good repeatability and is expected to become a new indicator for the assessment of myocardial function in HOCM.

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of modified Taohe Chengqitang on NOD-like receptor protein 3 （NLRP3） inflammasome activation in rats with diabetic cardiomyopathy. MethodSPF male SD rats aged 3-4 weeks were randomly divided into a normal group and an experimental group. The rats in the experimental group were fed on a high-fat diet for 4 weeks and then received intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin （STZ） at 35 mg·kg^-1 to induce the diabetes model. The rats in the experimental group were randomly divided into model group， low- and high-dose modified Taohe Chengqitang groups （11.7 g·kg^-1 and 23.4 g·kg^-1）， and metformin hydrochloride group （67.5 mg·kg^-1） according to the fast blood glucose （FBG）. The cardiac function and structure of rats were detected by ultrasonic imaging after 8 weeks of continuous intragastric administration. Blood samples from the femoral artery were collected to detect FBG， triglyceride （TC）， and total cholesterol （TG） of rats. Hematoxylin-eosin （HE） staining was used to observe the pathological changes in rat myocardium. Serum levels of interleukin-1β （IL-1β） and interleukin-18 （IL-18） were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. The protein expression of NLRP3， apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD （ASC）， cysteinyl aspartate-specific protease 1 （Caspase-1）， and phosphorylated nuclear factor kappa-B p65 （p-NF-κB p65） in the myocardium was detected by Western blot. ResultCompared with the normal group， the model group showed increased levels of FBG， TC， and TG （P<0.01）， decreased left ventricular ejection fraction （EF） and left ventricular fractional shortening （FS） （P<0.05）， myocardial hypertrophy and myocardial fibrosis as revealed by HE staining， increased serum levels of 1L-1β and 1L-18 and protein expression of NLRP3， ASC， Caspase-1， and p-NF-κB p65 in myocardial tissues （P<0.01）. Compared with the model group， the modified Taohe Chengqitang groups and the metformin group showed reduced levels of FBG， TC， and TG （P<0.05）， restored EF and FS （P<0.05）， improved pathological changes in myocardial tissues， and decreased serum levels of IL-1β and IL-18 and protein expression of NLRP3， ASC， Caspase-1， and p-NF-κB p65 in myocardial tissues （P<0.05）. The improvement was more significant in the high-dose modified Taohe Chengqitang group （P<0.05）. ConclusionModified Taohe Chengqitang can protect the myocardium by inhibiting the activation of NLRP3 inflammasomes.

Objective:To investigate the differences of white matter diffusion properties between vulnerable and resistant individuals to continuous attention after sleep deprivation.Methods:According to the psychomotor vigilance test performance before and after sleep deprivation, the participants were divided into the vulnerable group( n=24) and resistant group( n=25). All participants underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans.Tract based spatial statistics(TBSS) was used to compare fractional anisotropy(FA), mean diffusivity(MD), axial diffusivity(AD), radial diffusivity(RD) maps between the two groups.Spearman correlation analysis was conducted by SPSS 24.0 to investigate the relationships between the altered DTI metrics and PVT task performance. Results:(1) Compared with resistant group, FA value of vulnerable group decreased in the body of corpus callosum(x, y, z=-8, 9, 25, t=-7.855), right superior longitudinal fasciculus(x, y, z=-39, -7, 26, t=-6.252), bilateral anterior limb of internal capsule(x, y, z=-13, 8, 13, t=-5.235; x, y, z=12, 8, 3, t=-5.024) and right posterior thalamic radiation(x, y, z=-26, -56, 17, t=-5.469)(TFCE corrected, P<0.05, cluster size≥50 voxel). (2) Compared with resistant group, MD value of vulnerable group increased in the body of corpus callosum(x, y, z=-3, -6, 26, t=7.613), right superior longitudinal fasciculus(x, y, z=-31, -19, 38, t=5.314), bilateral anterior limb of internal capsule(x, y, z=-16, 7, 8, t=6.898; x, y, z=15, 5, 7, t=6.652), splenium of corpus callosum(x, y, z=27, -53, 17, t=6.541), and AD value increased in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus(x, y, z=-33, -19, 39, t=4.892), splenium of corpus callosum(x, y, z=-22, -49, 21, t=5.450), genu of corpus callosum(x, y, z=4, 26, 0, t=4.332), as well as RD value increased in the right superior corona radiata(x, y, z=-17, 1, 33, t=7.558), body of corpus callosum(x, y, z=4, -8, 26, t=6.699), right anterior limb of internal capsule(x, y, z=-12, 7, 3, t=5.212) (TFCE corrected, P<0.05, cluster size≥50 voxel). (3) Correlational analysis revealed that the negative correlations were found between PVT task performance and the FA value in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus( r=-0.492, P<0.001), right anterior limb of internal capsule( r=-0.510, P<0.001), right posterior thalamic radiation( r=-0.502, P<0.001) and body of corpus callosum( r=-0.464, P<0.001). The positive correlations were found between PVT task performance and the MD value in the body of corpus callosum( r=0.500, P<0.001), right superior longitudinal fasciculus( r=0.499, P<0.001), splenium of corpus callosum( r=0.462, P<0.001), right anterior limb of internal capsule( r=0.471, P<0.001), and AD value in right superior longitudinal fasciculus( r=0.643, P<0.001), as well as RD value in right superior corona radiate( r=0.498, P<0.001) (Bonferroni corrected, P<0.003). Conclusion:Differences in the microstructural characteristics of white matter fiber tracts in specific brain regions may constitute the potential neuropathological basis for the phenotypes of vulnerable and resistant individuals to continuous attention after sleep deprivation.

Affective brain-computer interfaces (aBCIs) has important application value in the field of human-computer interaction. Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been widely concerned in the field of emotion recognition due to its advantages in time resolution, reliability and accuracy. However, the non-stationary characteristics and individual differences of EEG limit the generalization of emotion recognition model in different time and different subjects. In this paper, in order to realize the recognition of emotional states across different subjects and sessions, we proposed a new domain adaptation method, the maximum classifier difference for domain adversarial neural networks (MCD_DA). By establishing a neural network emotion recognition model, the shallow feature extractor was used to resist the domain classifier and the emotion classifier, respectively, so that the feature extractor could produce domain invariant expression, and train the decision boundary of classifier learning task specificity while realizing approximate joint distribution adaptation. The experimental results showed that the average classification accuracy of this method was 88.33% compared with 58.23% of the traditional general classifier. It improves the generalization ability of emotion brain-computer interface in practical application, and provides a new method for aBCIs to be used in practice.
Algorithms ; Brain-Computer Interfaces ; Electroencephalography ; Emotions ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results

Objective To investigate the clinical features,pathogenesis and treatment of intracranial hemorrhage occurring after carotid artery stenting (CAS) angioplasty.Methods The clinical data and imaging materials of 5 patients with carotid artery stenosis,who were admitted to authors' hospital during the period from January 2008 to January 2017 to receive CAS and developed intracranial hemorrhage after CAS,were retrospectively analyzed.Results Of the 513 patients with carotid artery stenosis who received CAS angioplasty,5 patients (0.97％) developed intracranial hemorrhage,which was confirmed by postoperative cranial CT and/or DSA.The 5 patients included 3 males and 2 females,with an average age of (71.4±5.0) years.The stenosis rate of carotid artery ranged from 90％ to 99％.The intracranial hemorrhage occurred during CAS procedure or within 10 days after CAS.DSA examination demonstrated moyamoya vessels at ipsilateral basal ganglia region in one patient and perforating artery bleeding in another patient.Conservative medication was employed in 3 patients,one of them recovered well and the other two died.Two patients received hematoma puncture drainage and developed hemiplegia.Conclusion The incidence of intracranial hemorrhage after CAS is very low,but intracranial hemorrhage carries higher mortality and morbidity.Clinically,there are a lot of causes that can induce intracranial hemorrhage.Sufficient preoperative assessing and screening of the risk factors are helpful for reducing the occurrence of intracranial hemorrhage.Once intracranial hemorrhage after CAS occurs,active measures,including control of blood pressure,drug sedation,discontinuation of anticoagulant,reduction or discontinuation of antiplatelet drugs and surgical intervention,can improve the survival rate of patients.

One hundred and forty-two patients on maintenance hemodialysis were enrolled in the study.According to the guideline of American Society of Echocardiography 97 patients (68.3％) were classified as pulmonary artery hypertension [PAH,pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) ＞ 35 mmHg (1 mmHg =0.133 kPa)] and 45 patients (31.7％) as non-PAH (PASP ≤ 35 mmHg).High sensitivity Creactive protein (hs-CRP) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were measured by automatic analyzer and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA),respectively.There were significant differences in CRP and TNF-α levels between PAH and non-PAH patients (P ＜ 0.05).Multivariate linear regression showed that TNF-α and interdialytic weight gain were positively correlated with PAH and left ventricular ejection fraction was negatively correlated with PAH (P ＜ 0.01).In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards models,PAH and TNF-α level were independently associated with higher risk for all-cause death (HR =1.06,95％ CI:1.03-1.09 and HR =1.31,95％ CI:1.17-1.46,respectively).In Kaplan-Meier survival analysis,the risk of all-cause mortality increased in parallel with PASP.The risk of death in patients with PASP ＞45 mmHg was higher than that in patients with PASP ≤45 mmHg (log-rank test:x2 =6.58,P =0.010),the risk was 2.82-fold (HR =2.82,95％ CI:1.38-5.77,P =0.004).

Objective To discuss the application value,safety and feasibility of indwelling guidewire technique in performing mechanical thrombectomy for acute cerebral artery occlusion.Methods The clinical data of 15 patients with acute ischemic stroke,who were treated with mechanical thromnectomy at authors' hospital during the period from December 2015 to February 2016,were retrospectively analyzed.The diseases included middle cerebral artery occlusion (n=6),internal carotid artery and middle cerebral artery occlusion (n=5) and vertebral basilar artery occlusion (n=4).Indwelling guide-wire technique was adopted to quickly and accurately determine the vascular occlusion characteristics,then,endovascular mechanical thrombectomy was carried out.Results By using indwelling guide-wire technique,the occlusive features of the diseased arteries were successfully and precisely determined.Immediate recanalization of the occluded artery was obtained in 13 patients (87％).The blood flow classification score after thrombolysis in cerebral infarction (TICI) reached 3 points in 10 patients and 2b points in 5 patients.In 2 patients,the vascular recanalization procedure failed because the thrombus load was large,the length of occluded segment was long,and the effect of mechanical thromnectomy was poor.According to American National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS),the evaluation score was improved from preoperative (19.2±7.0) to postoperative (6.3±3.6),the difference was statistically significant (P＜0.05).Three months after the treatment,the score measured by modified Rankin scale(mRS) was ≤2 points in 10 patients.Conclusion Mechanical thrombectomy is safe and effective for the treatment of acute cerebral artery occlusion.The indwelling guide-wire technique can safely,conveniently,quickly and accurately determine the characteristics of the occluded blood vessels,which is very helpful in assisting surgical manipulation,reducing procedure-related complications,and improving vascular recanalization rate.(J Intervent Radiol,2017,26:202-205)

Objective To explore the application value of L VIS stetu in interventional treatment of intracranial wide-necked small aneurysms,and evaluate its safety and effectiveness.Methods A total of 11 patients with intracranial wide-necked small aneurysms,admitted to and received LVIS stent-assisted coil embolization in our hospital trom November 2014 to June 2015,were chosen in our study.Their clinical data and treatment effects were retrospectively analyzed.Results All operations were successful in 11 patients;11 LVIS stents were deployed;Raymond classification right after the surgery hinted grade Ⅰ in 4 aneurysms,grade Ⅱ in 5 aneurysms,and grade in in 2 aneurysms.There were 2 patients enjoying suboptimal opening ofLVIS stents.Raymond classification 6 months after the surgery hinted grade Ⅰ in 8 aneurysms and grade Ⅱ in one aneurysm.Modified Rankin scale 6 months after the surgery indicated that 10 patients had 0 point and one patient had 2 points.Conclusion The LVIS stent is safe and effective for treatment of intracranial wide-necked small aneurysms;short-term effect is good;the technique requirements of stetu releases are relatively high and require more attention of clinicians.

Objective To compare the perioperative complications of prophylactic use of three antiplatelet strategies in unruptured intracranial aneurysms treated by stent assisted coiling. Methods A total of 203 consecutive patients were brought into this retrospective study including the following three groups:the loading group (n=54), with a loading dose of 300 mg to 600 mg clopidogrel at 2 h to 24h before the stenting; tirofiban group (n=50), a loading dosage of tirofiban (8 μg/kg/min over 3 min) followed by a 0.1μg/kg/min maintenance dosage; dual antiplatelet group (n=99), dual oral antiplatelet drugs (clopidogrel 75 mg + aspirin 100 mg) pretreated for 3-5 days before the operation. Events of hemorrhage and thromboembolism were recorded and the complications were compared to assess the safety and efficacy of various antiplatelet strategies. Chi-square or Fisher exact tests were used for categorical variables. Results The hemorrhagic rates were 11.1% in loading group, 2.0% in dual antiplatelet group, and 0% in tirofiban group, respectively, while the thromboembolic rates were 7.4% in loading group, 4.0% in dual antiplatelet group, and 0% in tirofiban group, respectively. For total complications, significant difference (P<0.05) existed among the three groups, and the complication rate in loading group was significantly higher than that of the dual group (P=0.016) and tirofiban group (P=0.001), while there was no significant difference between tirofiban group and dual antiplatelet group(P>0.05). The hemorrhagic rate in loading group was significantly higher than that of the dual group (P=0.023) and tirofiban group (P=0.027), while there was no significant difference between tirofiban group and dual antiplatelet group (P>0.05). In subgroup analysis of the loading group, the postoperative thromboembolic rate was significantly higher in those exposed to low molecular weight heparin than those not (P=0.039) with no increase of hemorrhagic events (P>0.05). Conclusions When compared with the dual antiplatelet strategy, tirofiban strategy may be used as a new prophylactic protocol in unruptured intracranial aneurysms treated by stent assisted coiling. Those treated by low molecular weight heparin postoperatively after receiving dual antiplatelet therapy may increase the hemorrhagic risk, although there was a significant decrease in thromboembolic events postoperatively.