Objective To compare the dosimetric differences in the heart and its substructures between two hybrid plans for hypofractionated whole-breast radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in patients with early-stage left-sided breast cancer. Methods A total of 46 patients with early-stage left-sided breast cancer who underwent hypofractionated whole-breast radiotherapy were randomly selected. Two hybrid radiotherapy plans were used, including hybrid intensity-modulated radiotherapy (H_IMRT) and hybrid volumetric-modulated arc therapy (H_VMAT). The heart and its substructures were contoured, including left anterior descending (LAD), left ventricle (LV), right coronary artery (RCA), and right ventricle (RV). The heart and substructure doses, as well as monitor units, were compared between H_IMRT and H_VMAT. Results Both hybrid plans met the clinical requirements. H_IMRT significantly outperformed H_VMAT for the heart (V₁₀, V₃₀, and D_mean), LAD (V₃₀, V₄₀, D_max and D_mean), LV (V₁₀, V₂₀ and D_mean), RCA (D_max, D_mean), and RV (V₅, V₁₀, D_mean) (P < 0.001). Additionally, H_IMRT was significantly superior to H_VMAT for heart V₅, LAD V₂₀, and RV V₂₀ (P = 0.005, 0.035 and 0.037). For LAD (V₁₅, V₄₀) and LV (V₅, V₂₅), H_IMRT was slightly better than H_VMAT, and the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion Both H_IMRT and H_VMAT hybrid radiotherapy plans are suitable for hypofractionated whole-breast radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in patients with early-stage left-sided breast cancer. H_IMRT is slightly better than H_VMAT in dose sparing for the heart and its substructures.

With the acceleration of population aging and the continuous growth of the elderly population,frailty has become a global public health problem.At the same time,an increasing number of elderly people require surgical treatment,and people are paying more attention to the possible postoperative neurocognitive disorder.Frailty and neurocognitive disorder interact with each other,forming a vicious cycle.Improving one of them can improve the prognosis of the elderly.As one of the commonly used anesthetic drugs in clinical practice,dexmedeto-midine has neuroprotective effects.This article reviews the relationship between frailty and neurocognitive disorder,as well as the research progress of dexmedetomidine in improving perioperative neurocognitive disorder in frail elderly patients.

Objective To compare the precision and efficiency of computing the specific absorbed fraction (SAF) of a reference human with two grid methods in MCNP6.0. Methods Based on the adult female reference voxel phantom provided by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, assuming the liver as the source organ emitting single-energy photons (0.5 MeV), the SAF of each target organ/tissue was calculated by using the mesh method and repeated structure lattice method with the F4, F6, and *F8 tally cards in MCNP6.0. We compared the methods by assessing the relative deviation of SAF and computing time for 27 organs/tissues. Results Compared with reported data, the absolute values of relative deviations of SAF values for all the organs/tissues were less than 5%, except for the eye lens and skin. By using the repeated structure lattice-based *F8 tally, the relative deviations of SAF values of the organs/tissues were all smallest, but with the longest computing time. The computing time of the mesh-based F4 tally was slightly longer than that of the repeated structure lattice-based F6 tally, which was shortest. Conclusion The *F8 tally simultaneously simulating primary and secondary particle transport showed the highest precision. The mesh tally requireda longer computing time than the lattice tally when using the same tally card.

The progressive destruction of condylar cartilage is a hallmark of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osteoarthritis (OA); however, its mechanism is incompletely understood. Here, we show that Kindlin-2, a key focal adhesion protein, is strongly detected in cells of mandibular condylar cartilage in mice. We find that genetic ablation of Kindlin-2 in aggrecan-expressing condylar chondrocytes induces multiple spontaneous osteoarthritic lesions, including progressive cartilage loss and deformation, surface fissures, and ectopic cartilage and bone formation in TMJ. Kindlin-2 loss significantly downregulates the expression of aggrecan, Col2a1 and Proteoglycan 4 (Prg4), all anabolic extracellular matrix proteins, and promotes catabolic metabolism in TMJ cartilage by inducing expression of Runx2 and Mmp13 in condylar chondrocytes. Kindlin-2 loss decreases TMJ chondrocyte proliferation in condylar cartilages. Furthermore, Kindlin-2 loss promotes the release of cytochrome c as well as caspase 3 activation, and accelerates chondrocyte apoptosis in vitro and TMJ. Collectively, these findings reveal a crucial role of Kindlin-2 in condylar chondrocytes to maintain TMJ homeostasis.
Aggrecans/metabolism* ; Animals ; Cartilage, Articular/metabolism* ; Chondrocytes/pathology* ; Cytoskeletal Proteins/metabolism* ; Mice ; Muscle Proteins/metabolism* ; Osteoarthritis/pathology* ; Temporomandibular Joint/pathology*

Objective:To estimate the organ doses and effective doses to different-age children during cardiovascular interventional radiological procedures under some specific exposure conditions, and explore the main influencing factors on the doses.Methods:Based on the paediatric reference computational phantoms recommended in the ICRP Publication 143, several specific exposure models of cardiovascular intervention were built, and the Monte Carlocook MCNPX 2.7.0, was used to calculate the organ doses and effective doses for 1-, 5-, 10- and 15-year-old children. To validate the simulation result , an experiment was implemented by putting the thermoluminescent dosimeters in a 5-y old phantom (ATOM 705-D) manufactured by the CIRS Inc. in the USA.Results:Both the height and weight of the reference children for 1-, 5- and 10-year-old provided for by Chinese national standards are nearly in consistency with those recommended by ICRP, and even for the 15-year-old, the maximum relative deviations of the height and weight are only -1.9% and -5.7%, respectively. Under the exposure condition where the focal spot to image receptor distance (SID) was 90 cm, the length of square field of view (FOV) was 30 cm with a dose area product (DAP) of 45 Gy·cm 2, the relative deviations between simulated and measured doses to main organs/tissues within the irradiation filed were within ±6.7%. Under the same exposure conditions, the younger the children, the larger the organ doses and effective doses, and the effective doses could vary by a factor of about 5 among the 4 age groups. The conversion coefficient between the organ dose and the value of DAP was not only closely related to the age of children, but also affected by the FOV. Conclusions:In combination with the paediatric reference computational phantoms and the exposure models of cardiovascular intervention, the Monte Carlo method can be used to calculate the doses to children undergoing cardiovascular interventional radiological procedures. The information on the values of DAP and FOV as well as the directions of projection are needed for more accurate estimation of the exposure doses.

Objective:To explore the difference of high-risk factors between early-onset and late-onset pre-eclampsia, and to further understand high-risk factors of pre-eclampsia.Methods:Clinical data of pre-eclampsia pregnant women in 160 medical institutions in China in 2018 were retrospectively analyzed, including 8 031 cases of early-onset pre-eclampsia and 12 969 cases of late-onset pre-eclampsia. The proportion of high-risk factors, different body mass index (BMI) and age stratification between early-onset group and late-onset group were compared.Results:(1) Univariate analysis of high-risk factors: the proportions of high-risk factors in early-onset group and late-onset group were compared, and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). Among them, the proportions of primipara and multiple pregnancy in early-onset group were lower than those in late-onset group, while the proportions of pregnant women with advanced age, irregular antenatal examination, obesity, family history of hypertension, pre-eclampsia, diabetes, kidney diseases, immune system diseases and assisted reproductive technology were higher than those in late-onset group. (2) Hierarchical analysis of BMI: the proportion of pregnant women with BMI≥24 kg/m 2 in early-onset group [48.2% (2 828/5 872) vs 45.5% (4 177/9 181), respectively; P=0.001] and the proportion of pregnant women with BMI ≥28 kg/m 2 in early-onset group [19.5% (1 143/5 872) vs 18.0% (1 656/9 181), respectively; P=0.028] were significantly higher than those in late-onset group. (3) Age stratification analysis: the proportion of pregnant women aged 35-39 years in the early-onset group [21.8% (1 748/8 023) vs 17.5% (2 110/12 068), respectively; P<0.01], the proportion of pregnant women 40-44 years old [6.8% (544/8 023) vs 5.4% (648/12 068), respectively; P<0.01], and the proportion of pregnant women ≥45 years old [0.7% (58/8 023) vs 0.5% (57/12 068), respectively; P=0.021] were significantly higher than those in the late-onset group. (4) Multivariate analysis: advanced age (≥35 years old), multiple pregnancy, irregular antenatal examination or transfer from other hospitals, family history of hypertension (including paternal, maternal and parental lines), previous history of pre-eclampsia, kidney diseases, immune system diseases (systemic lupus erythematosus, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome) and assisted reproductive technology pregnancy were the risk factors affecting the severity of pre-eclampsia (all P<0.05). Conclusion:Pregnant women with high risk factors such as age ≥35 years old, BMI ≥24 kg/m 2 before pregnancy, family history of hypertension, history of pre-eclampsia, chronic kidney diseases, immune diseases (mainly including systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid syndrome) and assisted reproductive technology are more likely to have early-onset pre-eclampsia.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness in optimizing resources and shortening critical children′s waiting time in pediatric emergency department (PED) with five-level pediatric emergency triage system (PETS). Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University after PETS was applied. The data of patients who visited the pediatric emergency department from January 2015 to December 2017 were collected and analyzed, including age, sex, diseases, visiting time, triage rate and destination. Results: A total of 375 985 patients were included, among whom males were 225 308 (59.9%) and females were 150 677 (40.1%), all younger than 14 years of age. The number of critical cases (level Ⅰ, level Ⅱ and level Ⅲ) was increased from 4 719 (3.7%) in 2015, 12 209 (10.2%) in 2016 to 16 188 (12.7%) in 2017. The number of non-critical patients (level Ⅴ) decreased year by year, as from 98 213 (76.8%) in 2015 to 75 210 (62.6%) in 2016 and 78 857 (61.7%) in 2017. The patients who classified as level Ⅰ or levelⅡaccording to the PETS were seen immediately by physician (n=1855, 0.5%). Overall, 119 738 patients (98.3%) who were classified as level Ⅲ or level Ⅳ could be seen by physician in a timely manner according to triage guidelines, while 2 112 patients (1.7%) could not. The mean waiting time was 9.09 min in level Ⅲ, 17.7 min in level Ⅳ, and 55.76 min in level Ⅴ patients, respectively. The critical cases admitted to the intensive care units were 175 (36.2%) in 2015, 350 (62.8%) in 2016 and 374 (66.2%) in 2017. The etiologies were respiratory diseases (73.3%), gastrointestinal diseases (15.8%) and infectious diseases (3.1%). Conclusion The application of PETS could optimize emergency resources and shorten the waiting time of critically ill children.

Objective In this prospective study,the performance between high-resolution diffusion-weighted imaging ( DWI) and diffusion kurtosis imaging ( DKI) for prediction of radiotherapy response in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma was compared. Methods Forty-one patients pathologically diagnosed with NPC received IMRT. All patients underwent conventional MRI,high-resolution DWI and DKI before and after radiotherapy (1-2 d after the plan dose was administered).All patients received conventional MRI during follow-up at 3,6,9 and 12 months after radiotherapy. According to the RECIST 1. 1( response evaluation criteria in solid tumors),all patients were divided into the response group (RG;n＝36) and non-response group (NRG;n＝5). The mean kurtosis coefficient (Kmean) and the mean diffusion coefficient (Dmean) of DKI and apparent diffusion coefficient ( ADC) of DWI were analyzed before and after radiotherapy. Results Among 41 patients,36 cases were assigned into the RG group and 5 in the NRG group. Before and after radiotherapy, all parameters significantly differed between two groups ( P＝0. 000-0. 013) except for the Dmeanand ADC prior to radiotherapy. At the end of radiotherapy,the sensitivity of Kmeanwas calculated as 87. 5% and the specificity was 91. 3% for predicting local control (optimal threshold＝0. 30, AUC: 0. 924; 95%CI: 0. 83-1. 00 ). Conclusion Kmeanvalue after radiotherapy is a potential biomarker for the early evaluation of clinical efficacy of radiotherapy in NPC patients.

Objective To analyze the pathogens distribution and drug resistance of nosocomial infection in patients with end-stage diabetic nephropathy .Methods 96 cases of end-stage diabetic nephropathy were randomly selected in our hospital .The speci-mens of urine ,blood and sputum were collected .The pathogens were identified by the drug susceptibility testing .Results The in-fection rate was 27 .08% .A total of 103 strains of pathogens were isolated ,including 15 strains of fungi ,42 strains of gram-negative bacteria and 46 strains of gram-positive bacteria .The drugs susceptibility rates of the fungi to flucytosine ,amphotericin B and flu-conazole were 100% ,and it also showed that the fungi had higher sensitivity to other common antibiotics ;the drug susceptibility rates of gram-positive bacteria to vancomycin and teicoplanin were 100% ,while its drug susceptibility ability to penicillin ,strepto-mycin and others were weak ;the drug susceptibility rates of gram-negative bacteria to piperacillin and imipenem were high ,while its drug susceptibility ability to aztreonam and cephalosporin were weak .Conclusion The low resistance in the patients with end-stage diabetic nephropathy the abuse of clinical antiseptic drugs lead to the dysbacteriosis ,resulting in a significant increase of the inci-dence of nosocomial infection ,so the analysis of pathogens distribution and drug resistance of nosocomial infection has clinical sig-nificance .