Objective To evaluate the image quality of abdominal dual-energy CT virtual monoenergetic imaging (VMI) in patients with early gastric cancer using titanium alloy clips and assess its effectiveness on reducing metal artifacts. Methods A retrospective study was conducted, including 31 patients with gastric cancer who underwent abdominal dual-energy CT scans with titanium clips inserted in the gastric cavity. Each scan was reconstructed into mixed images (simulated 120 kVp CT) and VMIs with energy levels ranging from 40 keV to 140 keV. Metal artifacts were quantitatively evaluated by measuring the noise values in the lesion and perigastric regions. The contrast-noise ratio (CNR) of the lesion and the corresponding liver tissue was calculated to assess the image quality. Two radiologists independently evaluated the images, considering overall quality, artifact severity, lesion conspicuity, perigastric clarity, and vascular contrast. Results Quantitative analysis revealed that metal artifacts in both the lesion and perigastric regions decreased as the energy level increased. VMIs at 80-140 keV (lesion site) and 90-140 keV (perigastric space) showed significantly fewer artifacts compared to mixed images (P＜0.05). The CNR of lesions remained stable across VMIs at 50-140 keV, while the CNR of normal liver tissue decreased significantly with increasing energy (P＜0.05). In the subjective assessment, VMIs at 80-140 keV had higher artifact scores than mixed images (P＜0.05). VMIs at 70-90 keV provided better lesion conspicuity and perigastric clarity, although vascular contrast decreased significantly with increasing energy (P＜0.05). VMIs at 70-90 keV showed better overall quality (P＜0.05), though not significantly different from mixed images. Conclusions VMIs at 80 keV and 90 keV improve the visibility of lesions and perigastric regions affected by metallic clips, which combined with mixed images can enhance radiologists’ diagnostic accuracy.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the correlation of the peak blood concentration （cmax） of compound sulfamethoxazole （TMP/SMZ） and its metabolite N-acetyl sulfamethoxazole （NSMZ） with clinical efficacy and adverse reactions in critically ill patients. METHODS The data of critically ill patients treated with TMP/SMZ in various ICU of Hainan General Hospital from December 2023 to January 2025 were retrospectively collected. The patients were divided into success group and failure group based on the treatment outcome. Simple linear regression and Spearman correlation analysis were used to analyze the correlation of TMP cmax， SMZ cmax， and NSMZ cmax with clinical efficacy and adverse reactions. The receiver operating characteristic curve （ROC） was used to determine the cutoff values of cmax for predicting the occurrence of adverse reactions. RESULTS Among critically ill patients with an acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ （APACHE-Ⅱ） ≥15 points 24 h of check-in at ICU， SMZ cmax of success group was significantly higher than failure group （P＜0.05）. The daily total dose of TMP/SMZ was positively correlated with TMP cmax and SMZ cmax（ P＜0.05）. TMP cmax was significantly correlated with hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity， SMZ cmax with hepatotoxicity， and NSMZ cmax with nephrotoxicity （P＜0.05）. The cutoff values of TMP cmax for predicting nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity were 7.25 μg/mL and 6.63 μg/mL， respectively. The cutoff value of SMZ cmax for predicting hepatotoxicity was 138.00 μg/mL， and that of NSMZ cmax for predicting nephrotoxicity was 60.76 μg/mL. CONCLUSIONS Among critically ill patients with an APACHE-Ⅱ ≥15 points 24 h of check-in at ICU， SMZ cmax is associated with treatment success. Hepatotoxicity risk significantly increases when TMP cmax ≥6.63 μg/mL or SMZ cmax ≥138.00 μg/mL； nephrotoxicity risk significantly increases when TMP cmax ≥7.25 μg/mL or NSMZ cmax ≥60.76 μg/mL.

AIM: To investigate timing of glucocorticoids use in the treatment of syphilitic uveitis.METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in 110 patients(134 eyes)with syphilitic uveitis diagnosed from January 2008 to January 2021, of whom 24 were binocular. The time from onset to treatment was 1 d to 3 mo. They were divided into three groups according to the treatment, including 98 eyes with completed clearely fundus lesions and no abnormalities in fundus fluorescein angiography(FFA)+ indocyanine green angiography(ICGA)+ optical coherence tomography(OCT)after treated with antibiotics alone for 1 to 2 wk in single antibiotics group, 26 eyes with in completely cleared fundus lesions and retinal vessels wall staining observed by FFA or choroidal weak fluorescence observed by ICGA after standard antisyphilitic treatments for 1 to 2 wk in first antibiotics followed by hormones group, and 10 eyes treated according to uveitis at other hospital in the absence of a clear cause of disease, that was intravenously dripped with 250 mL of normal saline and 10 mg of dexamethasone once a day for 7 to 10 d in total, then clearly diagnosed as syphilitic uveitis by Treponema pallidum particle agglutination(TPPA)test after receiving treatment for 10 to 14 d in hormones followed by antibiotics group. The best corrected visual acuity, slit-lamp examination, fundus photography, OCT, FFA, ICGA and prognosis of the three groups of patients were compared.RESULTS: There were statistically significant difference in the best corrected visual acuity, optic disc, retinal vasculitis, choroidal weak fluorescence, and RPR titer before and after treatment of the three groups of patients. The prognosis of the hormones followed by antibiotics group was lower than that in the single antibiotics group and antibiotics followed by hormones group, and the proportion of “good” prognosis in the antibiotics followed by hormones group was larger than that in other groups.CONCLUSION: Early diagnosis and regular treatment of syphilitic uveitis has a good overall prognosis, and giving large doses of glucocorticoids before thorough antisyphilitic treatments is not conducive to the recovery of disease. In patients with residual lesions after standard antisyphilitic, the application of small doses of glucocorticoids is helpful for the recovery of the disease.

Objective To assess the value of magnetic resonance imaging compilation(MAGiC)sequence in predicting lympho-vascular space invasion(LVSI)in early cervical cancer.Methods The data of 48 patients with cervical cancer confirmed by pathology were collected retrospectively,and classified into LVSI-positive group(n=29)and LVSI-negative group(n=19)according to postop-erative pathological results.MAGiC sequence images of patients were obtained before injecting contrast agents,then the region of interest(ROI)was delineated along the largest dimension edge of the lesion,and T1,T2 and proton density(PD)values were automatically generated by the software.Predictors were screened by univariate analysis and receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves were drawn to assess their diagnostic efficacy for predicting LVSI in cervical cancer.Results Significant differences were found in T1 and PD values between LVSI-positive and LVSI-negative groups(P=0.003,P=0.017).There were no significant differences in T2 values between the two groups(P=0.414).The area under the curve(AUC)for T1 and PD values to predict LVSI status were 0.73 and 0.721,respectively.Conclusion LVSI-positive group of cervical cancer has lower T1 and PD values than LVSI-negative group based on MAGiC sequence.The MAGiC sequence has a certain application value for predicting LVSI status in early cervical cancer.

Objective:To investigate atrial fibrillation patients′illness perception during the blanking period after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) and to analyze its influencing factors, so as to provide a reference for improving patients′cognition of the disease and speeding up the rehabilitation process.Methods:This study was a cross-sectional survey. Convenience sampling method was adopted to select 320 patients with atrial fibrillation who were reexamined in the outpatient department during the blanking period after PVI from Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from Auguest 2022 to May 2023 as the research subjects. The General Information Questionnaire, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ), and the Control Attitudes Scale-Revised (CAS-R) were used for on-site investigation.Results:Totally 320 patients were included in this study, including 177 males and 143 females, aged (61.64 ± 10.74) years old. The total score of BIPQ was (42.98 ± 10.49) points, the total score of CAS-R was (27.20 ± 5.65) points. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, resting heart rate, postoperative course, and perceived control were the influencing factors of illness perception ( F = 25.24, P<0.05). Conclusions:The illness perception of atrial fibrillation patients during the blanking period after PVI needs to be improved urgently. Medical staff should pay more attention to patients with old age, fast resting heart rate, short postoperative course, and low perceived control, and take effective measures to reduce negative illness perception and promote postoperative rehabilitation.

AIM: To investigate the onset of age, gender, profession, marital characteristics, clinical symptoms, signs, image characteristics of fundus and laser scanning features of syphilitic chorioretinitis.METHODS: Retrospective case series study. A total of 114 patients(138 eyes), 24 of whom were double eyes diagnosed with syphilitic chorioretinitis from January 2006 to January 2023 were included in this study. All of the data were collected from eye examination including the best corrected visual acuity(BCVA), intraocular pressure(IOP), fundus photography, optical coherence tomography(OCT), fundus fluorescein angiography(FFA), indocyanine green angiography(ICGA), visual field, visual evoked response; and blood tests including rapid plasma reagin(RPR)test and treponema pallidum hemagglutination(TPPA)test, tuberculin test, tuberculosis spot test, human immunodeficiency virus, human leukocyte antigen-B27, rheumatism series examination.RESULTS: All patients tested positive for RPR and TPPA, while other laboratory tests were negative, confirming the diagnosis of syphilitic chorioretinopathy. The average age of onset was 44±13.1 years old, with 59 males(51.8%), 55 females(48.2%), 90 monocular cases(78.9%), and 24 binocular cases(21.1%), and there were no significant differences in gender, marriage, or occupation. The main clinical features were visual loss, hyperemia of the optic disc, grayish-yellow opacity of the central retina; FFA mainly showed early dot weak background fluorescence in the peripheral region of the macula, retinal blood vessel fluorescence leakage staining, retinal pigment epithelium(RPE)fluorescence accumulation and optic disc staining or strong fluorescence; ICGA and OCT were mainly manifested by squamous weak fluorescence of the posterior retina; and the manifestations of FFA and ICGA were symmetrical; OCT revealed hyperreflective dots and pinpoint projection of RPE.CONCLUSION: The median age of onset in patients with syphilitic chorioretinitis is 44 years old, and monocular onset is more common. The patient's gender, marriage, and occupation have no significant characteristics. The clinical manifestations mainly include decreased vision, gray white cells in the vitreous body, thickening of the posterior pole retina, and grayish yellow changes. Correctly identifying OCT, FFA, and ICGA features can reduce missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis, and make an early and correct diagnosis and treatment of patients.

This study summarized the nursing experience of 2 pediatric heart transplant surgeries.Perioperative care included preoperative maintenance of cardiac function,volume management,infection prevention measures,and psychological preparation.Early postoperative care involved circulatory monitoring,management of right heart dysfunction,use of immunosuppressants,observation of rejection reactions,control of postoperative infections,nutritional support,psychological care,and home continuity care.The postoperative rehabilitation effect of the children is satisfactory after multi-team special treatment and nursing care.The postoperative hospitalization time for the 2 patients were 20 and 30 days.After discharge,2 patients showed good recovery during follow-up.

Objective To construct a deep learning-based artificial intelligence model to automatically quantify left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) using static views of echocardiography. Methods The study included data of 1, 902 adults with left ventricular multi-slice echocardiographic views at end-systole and end-diastole. The collected dataset was divided into development set (1, 610 cases, with 1, 252 cases for model training and 358 cases for parameter adjustment), internal test set (177 cases for internal validation), and external test set (115 cases for external validation and generalization testing). The model achieved left ventricular segmentation and automatic quantification of LVEF through precise identification of the left ventricular endocardial boundary and inspection of key points. The Dice coefficient was employed to evaluate the performance of the left ventricular segmentation model, while the Pearson correlation coefficient and the intraclass correlation coefficient were used to assess the correlation and consistency between the automatically measured LVEF and the reference standard. Results The left ventricular segmentation model performed well, with Dice coefficients ≥ 0.90 for both the internal and external independent test sets; the agreement between the automatically measured LVEF and the cardiologists' manual measurements was moderate, with Pearson correlation coefficients ranging from 0.46 to 0.71 and intragroup correlation analysis agreements from 0.39 to 0.57 for the internal test set; and Pearson correlation coefficients for the independent external test set were 0.26 to 0.54 and intra-group correlation analysis agreement of 0.23 to 0.50. Conclusion In this study, a left ventricular segmentation model with better performance is constructed, and initial application of the model for automatic quantification of LVEF for two-dimensional echocardiography has general performance, which requires further optimisation of the algorithm to improve the model generalisation.

Objective:To analyze regional differences in MMACHC gene variations among patients with cblC-type methylmalonic acidemia (MMA) in China and to explore the relationship between these variations and neonatal screening, biochemical markers and prognosis.Methods:Retrospective case summary. Clinical and laboratory data, including general condition, biochemical markers and genetic analysis, were collected from 1 859 cblC MMA patients from 2005 to 2023. Patients were divided into 7 groups according to their regions: north China, northeast China, east China, central China, south China, southwest China and northwest China. They were also classified into neonatal screening and non-neonatal screening groups. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare biochemical marker levels. In contrast, the Chi-square test was applied to compare MMACHC gene variant frequencies, neonatal screening proportion, onset age and prognosis between groups. Results:Among 1 859 cases of cblC MMA, 1 019 were male and 840 were female, with a consultation age of 1.0 (0.1, 5.0) month. A total of 1 787 cases carried compound heterozygous or homozygous variants and only 1 variant site was identified in 72 cases. The 10 most frequent variants were c.609G>A (1 238 cases), c.658_660delAAG (343 cases), c.80A>G (284 cases), c.482G>A (239 cases), c.567dupT (191 cases), c.656_658delAGA (131 cases), c.217C>T (109 cases), c.394C>T (105 cases), c.445_446delTG (51 cases) and c.1A>G (50 cases). The frequency of the c.609G>A was the lowest in northwest China (28.8% (44/154), χ2=-18.42, P<0.05). The frequency of the c.567dupT was the most common in southwest China (25.0% (20/80), χ2=71.70, P<0.001) and c.656_658delAGA had the highest frequency in northeast China (9.3% (19/205), χ2=32.08, P<0.001). Non-missense variants (91.2% (62/68), 88.5% (46/52)) and early-onset patients (90.0% (36/40), 94.4% (34/36)) were both more prevalent in southwest and south China ( χ2=14.95, 31.69, both P<0.05). The proportion of neonatal screening was the lowest in south China (22.2% (8/36), χ2=98.48, P<0.05), where the mortality rate was the highest (19.1% (4/21), χ2=38.98, P<0.001). East China exhibited the highest frequency of missense variants (21.5% (339/1 579)), the highest proportion of patients identified through neonatal screening (54.5% (465/853)), and a more significant proportion of patients with good prognosis (36.6% (227/621), χ2=14.57, 93.49, 38.98, all P<0.05). In addition, the c.482G>A variant was more frequent in patients diagnosed by neonatal screening compared to those diagnosed by other methods (8.3% (132/1 586) vs. 5.9% (122/2 060), χ2=7.97, P<0.05). Conclusions:The frequency of MMACHC gene variation varies across different regions. The c.609G>A was least frequent in northwest China, c.567dupT was most common in southwest China, and c.656_658delAGA was most prevalent in northeast China. South China had the lowest neonatal screening rate and the highest mortality. At the same time, east China exhibited the highest frequency of missense variants, the highest proportion of patients identified through neonatal screening and the best prognosis. The c.482G>A variant was more frequent in patients diagnosed by neonatal screening compared to those diagnosed by other methods.

N-acetyltransferase10(NAT10)is a protein widely expressed in a variety of tissues and cells.The high expression of NAT10 is closely related to tumor invasion,metastasis and drug resistance.The mechanism of NAT10 promoting tumor genesis and development involves the regulation of cell cycle,mRNA stability,translation efficien-cy and related pathways due to the changes in the expression or location of NAT10,thus affecting the occurrence,development and prognosis of tumors.