Alzheimer′s disease (AD) is a degenerative neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. The disease is concealed. Patients often experienced several years or even more than ten years of course evolution from the beginning of pathological changes to clinical symptoms. Once entering the stage of dementia, there is no ideal drug to reverse the disease. In order to improve the efficiency of early diagnosis, the research on early biomarkers of the disease has become a hot topic in recent years. In addition to the Aβ and tau, microRNAs have been discovered as potential biomarkers of AD.

Surface electromyography (sEMG) has been widely used in the study of clinical medicine, rehabilitation medicine, sports, etc., and its endpoints should be detected accurately before analyzing. However, endpoint detection is vulnerable to electrocardiogram (ECG) interference when the sEMG recorders are placed near the heart. In this paper, an endpoint-detection algorithm which is insensitive to ECG interference is proposed. In the algorithm, endpoints of sEMG are detected based on the short-time energy and short-time zero-crossing rates of sEMG. The thresholds of short-time energy and short-time zero-crossing rate are set according to the statistical difference of short-time zero-crossing rate between sEMG and ECG, and the statistical difference of short-time energy between sEMG and the background noise. Experiment results on the sEMG of rectus abdominis muscle demonstrate that the algorithm detects the endpoints of the sEMG with a high accuracy rate of 95.6%.

Objective To explore the diagnostic value of digital breast tomosynthesis technique (DBT) in breast suspicious calcified lesions.Methods Clinical data of 135 patients using DBT and FFDM (Full field digital mammography) was respectively analyzed.Results Of the 135 cases,43 cases were malignant,and 92 cases were benign.The diagnostic sensitivity DBT and FFDM were 93.0％ (40/43)and 88.4％ (38/43),specificity were 88.0％ (81/92) and 75.0％ (69/92),accuracy were 89.6％ (121/135) and 79.3％ (107/135),the differences were statistically significant (P ＜0.05).The ROC curve area (AUC) of DBT and FFDM were 0.905 ± 0.026 and 0.817 ± 0.034 (P =0.000 2).In premenopausal,postmenopausal and breast density ACR3-4 cases,DBT accuracy is higher than FFDM (P ＜ 0.05).The BI-RADS classification difference of the benign calcified lesions was statistically significant (x2 =11.740,P =0.038 5).Conclusions Compared with the traditional FFDM,DBT has a higher value in the diagnosis of breast suspicious calcified lesions,especially for benign calcified lesions.

Objective To investigate clinical value of high sensitive-cardiac troponin T(hs-cTnT) combined with creatine kinase isoenzyme MB(CK-MB) in the diagnosis of children with myocarditis.Methods From Nov.2014 to Nov.2015,a total of 102 cases of myocarditis,suspected with myocardial damage and without myocardial damage(pneumonia and capillary bronchitis),and 50 healthy children were enrolled.Plasma levels of hs-cTnT and CK-MB were detected and compared.Results The levels of plasma hs-cTnT and CK-MB in children with myocarditis were significantly higher than those without myocarditis and healthy subjects(P<0.05).Hs-cTnT and CK-MB levels in children with myocarditis,less than one month old,were significantly higher than those with age of 1 month to 3 years old(P<0.05).Conclusion Combined detection of hs-cTnT and CK-MB could be with high sensitive and specificity in diagnosis of children with myocarditis,accurately assess the disease condition and improve the therapeutic effect and prognosis,which might be worthy of clinical application.

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of breast mass-like lesions by digital breast tomosynthesis technique (DBT) versus full field digital mammography (FFDM).Methods 182 breast mass cases undergoing respectively DBT and FFDM diagnosis were reviewed to evaluate the the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy,breast BI-RADS classification and differences of edge character.Results Of the 182 cases,101 cases were malignant,81 cases were benign.DBT and FFDM in malignant mass detection rate were 95.0％ and 95.0％ respectively,the benign tumor detection rate were 80.2％ and 80.2％ respectively,the difference was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).The diagnostic sensitivity was 93.1％ (94/101) and 82.2％ (83/101),specificity was 66.7％ (54/81) and 53.1％ (43/81),accuracy was 81.3％ (148/182) and 69.2％ (126/182),all the differences were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).The BI-RADS classification difference of the malignant mass was statistically significant (x2 =12.912,P =0.044 5),and the benign mass was also statistically significant (x2 =12.739,P =0.026 0).The clear edge benign tumors detected by DBT and FFDM respectively were 65 and 45 cases (x2 =10.224,P =0.001 4).The spicule sign detected by DBT and FFDM respectively in malignant tumors were 71 and 50 cases (x2 =8.244,P =0.004 1).Conclusion DBT compared to traditional FFDM photography improves the lesion visibility,increases the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity,conducing to the identification of benign and malignant lesions.

How to accurately identify mini-nodules in a large amount of high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images is always a significant and difficult issue in lung nodule computer-aided detection (CAD). This paper describes a new mini-nodules detection method which is based on a multi-feature tracking algorithm. Our detection method began after running the Da-Jing algorithm and morphological operation to extract the lung region of every HRCT image in a sequence. Once the lung had been extracted, a hybrid algorithm, combining gray threshold and improved template matching, was used to obtain the regions of interest (ROD). Next, several characteristics of each ROI were calculated to identify the final results by using multi-feature tracking throughout the whole HRCT image sequence. The results showed that the proposed method would be of high accuracy with a low occurrence of false positives.
Algorithms ; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; methods ; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; Solitary Pulmonary Nodule ; diagnostic imaging ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Objective To compare the stability effect of the fixation segment using the new test system based robotics to simulate the complex human movement at natural state about the three-level fixa-tion by using four, five or six pedicle screws in treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures. Methods Six human cadaveric spines were dissected from T_(11)-L_3. The inferior half part of L_1 vertebral bodies and L_1-L_2 dises were resected to mimie an unstable L_1 burst fracture with loss of anterior column support. Specimens were tested in accordance with the following order:intact, 4,5 and 6 pedicle screws fixation at the three-level fixation. The range of motion (ROM) of the fixation segment (T_(11)-L_3) was measured with the six-freedom degree robotics system controlled by mixed force and displacement during flexion, exten-sion, lateral bending and axial torsion, when the stiffness was calculated. One-way statistieal analysis was used for analyzing the collected data. Results With increased number of screws, the ROM of the fixa-tion segment (T_(11)-L_3) was gradually decreased and the stiffness gradually increased. The ROM under ax-ial rotation of six and five screws group became smaller than four screws group (P < 0.05). The stiffness under axial rotation of six screws group was higher than four screws group (P < 0.05). There was no sta-tistical difference between five screws group and four screws group in regard of the stiffness in axial rota-tion (P > 0.05). There were no significant differences in ROM and stiffness under six different loading directions between six screws group and five screws group (P > 0.05). No statistical difference was observed for three fixation modes in aspects of ROMs and stiffness under flexion-extension or lateral ben-ding (P > 0.05). Conclusions Three-level fixation of burst fractures with five or six screws offers im-proved biomechanical stability compared with traditional four screws fixation. But the difference is insig-nificant between six and five screws fixations.

This is a report on how we use the hybrid force-displacement control method to load the human knee and analyze the effect and value of our robot experimental system through the biomechanical experiments of total meniscal resection of human knee. The whole robot control system can load continuously on the specimens, thus overcoming the shortcomings of the traditional loading methods which can only load discretely. In the meantime, by using the robot-based testing system, the force (torque) of the specimens and the spatial position under the force can be measured in real-time, which overcomes the shortcomings caused by the separation of force (torque) measurement from displacement measurement and so greatly improves the measurement accuracy.
Adult ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Cadaver ; Female ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; physiology ; Male ; Menisci, Tibial ; surgery ; Middle Aged ; Robotics ; methods ; Torque ; Weight-Bearing ; physiology

Multi-modal medical image fusion has important value in clinical diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, the multi-resolution analysis of Daubechies 9/7 Biorthogonal Wavelet Transform is introduced for anatomical and functional image fusion, then a new fusion algorithm with the combination of local standard deviation and energy as texture measurement is presented. At last, a set of quantitative evaluation criteria is given. Experiments show that both anatomical and metabolism information can be obtained effectively, and both the edge and texture features can be reserved successfully. The presented algorithm is more effective than the traditional algorithms.
Algorithms ; Artificial Intelligence ; Diagnostic Imaging ; methods ; Humans ; Image Enhancement ; methods ; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; methods ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; methods ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; methods

This paper introduces the hardware and software of a biomechanical robot-based testing device. The bottom control orders, posture and torque data transmission, and the control algorithms are integrated in a unified visual control platform by Visual C+ +, with easy control and management. By using hybrid force-displacement control method to load the human spine, we can test the organizational structure and the force state of the FSU (Functional spinal unit) well, which overcomes the shortcomings due to the separation of the force and displacement measurement, thus greatly improves the measurement accuracy. Also it is esay to identify the spinal degeneration and the load-bearing impact on the organizational structure of the FSU after various types of surgery.
Algorithms ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Equipment Design ; Humans ; Joints ; physiology ; Robotics ; instrumentation ; methods ; Software ; Spine ; physiology