BACKGROUND:Achilles tendon adhesion after Achilles tendon injury can lead to decreased biomechanical properties,weakened healing ability,and ultrastructural changes of Achilles tendon,which further affects patients'daily life and work ability.Therefore,how to effectively deal with and prevent Achilles tendon adhesion has become a hot and difficult problem in clinical treatment. OBJECTIVE:To analyze the effects of biological amniotic membranes on postoperative Achilles tendon adhesion,biomechanics,and ultrastructural changes in rats with Achilles tendon rupture. METHODS:Sixty 6-week-old SD rats were selected to establish bilateral Achilles tendon rupture models and divided into two groups(n=30 per group)by the random number table method.In the model group,the severed end of the tendon was sutured directly.In the amniotic membrane group,the biological amniotic membrane was wrapped around the broken anastomosis and fixed by a suture.The adhesion,biomechanics,morphology,and structure of the Achilles tendon and the expression of p38 and ERK1/2 protein were evaluated 1,2,and 4 weeks after surgery. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)1 week after operation,the Achilles tendon and peritendinous tissues of the two groups were mildly edema,and the adhesion of the Achilles tendon tissues in the model group was more obvious.2 weeks after the intervention,the Achilles tendon and peritendinous tissues of the model group still had edema,and the adhesion degree between the Achilles tendon and the surrounding tissues was heavier than that of the amniotic membrane group.4 weeks after operation,there was no edema around the Achilles tendon in both groups,and the healing was well.The adhesion degree of the Achilles tendon in the amniotic membrane group was less than that in the model group.The maximum tension of Achilles tendons in the amniotic membrane group was higher than that in the model group at 2 and 4 weeks after operation(P<0.001).(2)Hematoxylin-eosin staining and transmission electron microscopy revealed that 1 week after operation,the tendon structure of rats of the two groups was disordered and the collagen fibers were sparsely arranged,in which the model group demonstrated obvious inflammatory reaction and adhesion to the Achilles tendon.Two weeks after operation,the model group still demonstrated obvious inflammatory response,adhesion of Achilles tendon,and irregular ordering of collagen fibers.The amniotic membrane group exhibited an orderly arrangement of collagen fibers and expansion of the endoplasmic reticulum of fibroblasts.At 4 weeks after operation,the collagen fibers of the Achilles tendon in the model group were thickened and disordered,and the rough endoplasmic reticulum was less in the fibroblasts,while the collagen fibers in the amniotic membrane group were ordered and thin,and the fibroblasts contained a large number of rough endoplasmic reticulum.(3)Four weeks after operation,western blot assay exhibited that the expressions of p38 and ERK1/2 protein in the Achilles tendon tissue of rats in the amniotic membrane group were lower than those in the model group(P<0.05).(4)The results confirm that the biologic amniotic membrane can promote the healing and inhibit the adhesion of Achilles tendon after the operation of the ruptured Achilles tendon,which may be associated with the regulation of the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway.

Sleep is an important activity of daily life for individuals,and sleep disorders can seriously affect their physical and mental health.This article summarizes the impact of vestibular stimulation on sleep,and reviews feasible and effective intervention methods from swing movement,galvanic vestibular stimulation,and weighted blankets stimulation,in order to provide new ideas and methods for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders.

Objective Toinvestigatestatistically significant peptide peaks as biomarkersto diagnose osteoarticular tuberculosis, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) was applied to identify the characteristic fingerprint among the serum of patients with osteoarticular tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis and healthy adults.Methods Clinical Study. Serum samples of untreatedpatients with osteoarticular tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis were collected from August 2018 to December 2018, and serum samples of healthy adults from physical examination were collected as control. After analysis with MALDI-TOF MS, the serum peptide fingerprint datawas imported into software, and protein polypeptide peaks with obvious differences were screened to establish diagnostic models.Results Established the diagnostic model of osteoarticular tuberculosis and healthy adults with m/z 2943.9, 5929.6, 7615.4 and 9033.8 as differential protein polypeptides, the diagnostic model of osteoarticular tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis with m/z 4195.6, 5847.6, 5929.6 and 7748.6 as differential protein polypeptides. To these two models, the sensitivity were 95.00％ and 97.50％, respectively. The specificity were 85.71％ and 88.46％, respectively. The accuracy rates were 89.58％ and 92.39％, respectively. The AUC value of ROC curves were 0.8859 and 0.8709, respectively. Conclusions By mass spectrometry and software analysis, the serum protein polypeptides with statistical difference were found successfully. The related diagnostic modelsarealso established, which has certain reference value for auxiliary diagnosis of osteoarticular tuberculosis.

Objective To establish a novel method by integrating immunomagnetic bead enrich-ment with immunochromatography for the detection of influenza A virus. Methods The immunomagnetic beads were prepared by using EDC/NHS method and then coupled with monoclonal antibodies against influ-enza A virus. A direct immunomagnetic beads-based immunochromatography for the detection of influenza A virus was developed by using double-antibody sandwich method and immunochromatography, which was fur-ther combined with immunomagnetic separation to establish the novel integrated method of immunomagnectic bead enrichment and immunochromatography. Clinical throat swab samples collected from patients with influ-enza A virus infection and healthy subjects were analyzed by the novel method and the results were compared with those by using the conventional colloidal gold immunochromatography to evaluate the specificity, sensi-tivity and positive coincidence rate of this established method. Results The direct immunomagnetic beads-based immunochromatography and the colloidal gold immunochromatography showed no significant differences in specificity and sensitivity and could be used to identify influenza A virus-positive samples with cycle threshold ( Ct) values less than or equal to 22 obtained by real-time PCR assay. The integrated method could identify positive samples with Ct values less than or equal to 28, indicating that the novel method was more sensitive. Conclusion The novel method by integrating immunomagnetic bead enrichment with immunochroma-tography was successfully established and suitable for the rapid and on-site detection of influenza A virus.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility and safety of percutaneous ¹²⁵I seed permanent implantation for advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma from toxicity, tumor response, and short-term outcome. METHODS: ¹²⁵I seeds implant procedures were performed under computed tomography for 34 patients with advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma. We observed the local control rate, overall survival, and acute or late toxicity rate. RESULTS: In the 34 patients (stage III, n=6; stage IV, n=28), the sites of origin were pyriform sinus (n=29) and postcricoid area (n=5). All patients also received one to four cycles of chemotherapy after seed implantation. The post-plan showed that the actuarial D90 of ¹²⁵I seeds ranged from 90 to 158 Gy (median, 127 Gy). The mean follow-up was 12.3 months (range, 3.4 to 43.2 months). The local control was 2.1–31.0 months with a median of 17.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 13.4 to 22.0 months). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year local controls were 65.3%, 28.6%, and 9.5% respectively. Twelve patients (35%) died of local recurrence, fourteen patients (41%) died of distant metastases, and three patients (9%) died of recurrence and metastases at the same time. Five patients (15%) still survived to follow-up. At the time of analysis, the median survival time was 12.5 months (95% CI, 9.5 to 15.4 months). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival rates were 55.2%, 20.3%, and 10.9%, respectively. Five patients (15%) experienced grade 3 toxic events and nine patients (26%) have experienced grade 2 toxic events. CONCLUSION: This review shows relatively low toxicity for interstitial ¹²⁵I seed implantation in the patients with advanced stage hypopharyngeal cancer. The high local control results suggest that ¹²⁵I seed brachytherapy implant as a salvage or palliative treatment for advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma merit further investigation.
Brachytherapy ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Palliative Care* ; Pyriform Sinus ; Recurrence ; Survival Rate

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether clinical test values from different laboratories in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES) can be integrated through a statistical adjustment algorithm with appropriate intra- and inter-laboratory reliability. METHODS: External quality control data were obtained from the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine and quadruplicated standardized serological samples (N=3,200) were manufactured in order to check the intra- and inter-laboratory reliability for aspartic acid transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GTP), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, uric acid (UA), fasting blood sugar (FBS), cholesterol, and triglyceride (TG). As an index of inter- and intra-rater reliability, Pearson's correlation coefficient, intraclass correlation coefficients and kappa statistics were estimated. In addition, to detect the potential for data integration, we constructed statistical compensation models using linear regression analysis with residual analysis, and presented the R-square values. RESULTS: All correlation coefficient values indicated good intra- and inter-laboratory reliability, which ranged from 0.842 to 1.000. Kappa coefficients were greater than 0.75 (0.75-1.00). All of the regression models based on the trial results had strong R-square values and zero sums of residuals. These results were consistent in the regression models using external quality control data. CONCLUSION: The two laboratories in the KoGES have good intra- and inter-laboratory reliability for ten chemical test values, and data can be integrated through algorithmic statistical adjustment using regression equations.
Alanine Transaminase ; Aspartic Acid ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; Cholesterol ; Compensation and Redress ; Creatinine ; Fasting ; gamma-Glutamyltransferase ; Genome ; Linear Models ; Quality Control ; Uric Acid

OBJECTIVE To discuss the gentamycin-induced ototoxity and mechanism on cochlear outer hair cells. METHODS All the guinea pigs were randomly divided into 3 groups. Gentamycin, gentimycin plus furosemide and normal saline were intraperitoneally injected for 6 days respectively. The amplititude of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE)urface prepration of cochlear basilar membrane, hair cells’ apoptosis and expression of caspase-3 after injection were analyzed. RESULTS Reduction of the DPOAE amplitude, hair cell damage, apoptosis and Caspase-3 expression were observed in group injected with gentamycin as well as in group injected with gentamycin plus furosemide. CONCLUSION Gentamycin should induce hair cell damage in the cochlea of guinea pigs and Caspase-3 plays an important role in the process of hair cell apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the expression of transcription factors Snail,Slug and cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin in nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC)and evaluate their relationship with clinical pathological features and metastases.METHODS Immunohistochemistry and quantitative polymerase chain reaction were carried out to detect the expression of Snail,Slug and E-cadherin in 65 NPC samples and normal nasopharyngeal mucosa(18 cases).The expression of Snail and Ecadherin in distinct differentiation nasopharyngeal carcinoma was analyzed and the relationship of them with clinical pathological features was discussed.RESULTS Real-time PCR analysis and immunohistochemistry showed that Slug was elevated with increasing tumor grade.E-cadherin expression was reduced corresponding with prognostic indices and tumor.Snail showed no obvious change.The relative expression levels of E-cadherin mRNA were significantly different between lymph node metastasis group and nometastasis group(P

OBJECTIVE To investigate the location and degree of pharyngeal narrowing in patients with ob-structive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome(OSAHS). METHODS Fifty patients with OSAHS were divided into two groups. The first group was examined with single layer helix CT at an awaken state. The second group was examined with single and 16 layer helix CT at an asleep state. Control group was 225 healthy adults. RESULTS The average minimum diameter of pharynx at soft palate level was 5.85 mm and the aver-age minimum section proportion was 50.3 mm2 in the first group. The average minimum diameter and the av-erage minimum section proportion of pharynx at soft palate level were 2.88 mm and 31.5 mm2, and 1.62 mm and 6.3 mm2 as examined with single layer and 16 lay-ers helix CT scan respectively in the second group. CONCLUSION CT can be used as a method for esti-mating the degree of pharyngeal narrowing in patients with OSAHS. 16 layer helix CT scan can reflect the actual pharyngeal narrowing in OSAHS patients while sleeping more accurately.

Using the new negative pressure biopsy technology, the automatic negative pressure gun and the specific puncture needle for the biopsy have been developed. Renal biopsies were conducted in 1136 cases, with the success rate being 99.9%, and 29 cases gross hematuria while the hepatic biopsies were conducted in 16 cases, mass biopsies in 3 cases with the success rates being 100% respectively. The biopsy gun has the advantages of easy manipulation, higher success rate and lower incidence of complications.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Biopsy, Needle ; instrumentation ; methods ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Equipment Design ; Humans ; Kidney ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; Liver ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; Middle Aged ; Needles ; Ultrasonography