ObjectiveThis paper proposes a novel real-time bedside pulmonary ventilation monitoring method for the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), based on electrical impedance tomography (EIT). Four indicators—center of ventilation (CoV), global inhomogeneity index (GI), regional ventilation delay inhomogeneity (RVDI), and the ratio of forced expiratory volume in one second to forced vital capacity (FEV₁/FVC)—are calculated to enable the spatiotemporal assessment of COPD. MethodsA simulation of the respiratory cycles of COPD patients was first conducted, revealing significant differences in certain indicators compared to healthy individuals. The effectiveness of these indicators was then validated through experiments. A total of 93 subjects underwent multiple pulmonary function tests (PFTs) alongside simultaneous EIT measurements. Ventilation heterogeneity under different breathing patterns—including forced exhalation, forced inhalation, and quiet tidal breathing—was compared. EIT images and related indicators were analyzed to distinguish healthy individuals across different age groups from COPD patients. ResultsSimulation results demonstrated significant differences in CoV, GI, FEV₁/FVC, and RVDI between COPD patients and healthy individuals. Experimental findings indicated that, in terms of spatial heterogeneity, the GI values of COPD patients were significantly higher than those of the other two groups, while no significant differences were observed among healthy individuals. Regarding temporal heterogeneity, COPD patients exhibited significantly higher RVDI values than the other groups during both quiet breathing and forced inhalation. Moreover, during forced exhalation, the distribution of FEV₁/FVC values further highlighted the temporal delay heterogeneity of regional lung function in COPD patients, distinguishing them from healthy individuals of various ages. ConclusionEIT technology effectively reveals the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of regional lung function, which holds great promise for the diagnosis and management of COPD.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease. At present, levodopa and other drugs are mainly used for dopamine supplementation therapy. However, the absorption of levodopa in the gastrointestinal tract is unstable and its half-life is short, and long-term use of levodopa will lead to the end-of-dose deterioration, dyskinesia, the "ON-OFF" phenomenon and other symptoms. Therefore, new preparations need to be developed to improve drug efficacy, reduce side effects or improve compliance of patients. Based on the above clinical needs, this review briefly introduced the preparation modification strategies for the treatment of PD through case analysis, in order to provide references for the research and development of related preparations.

An intensive breast array sensor was designed based on three-dimensional electrical impedance tomography in this work.Firstly,an electrical impedance sensor for detection of breast cancer was developed.The sensor adopted the integrated design of excitation electrode array and ground electrode to achieve structural simplification.It realized electric field densification through conical matrix and double-layer circumferentially arranged electrode array and improved the detection accuracy of target object through taper optimization.Secondly,the imaging system was designed,and the sensor was optimized by numerical simulation.The simulation results showed that halving the number of electrodes did not affect imaging accuracy of the sensor,but could improve the imaging speed.Finally,the performance of the sensor was verified by experiment.The signal-to-noise ratio and channel consistency of the system were at a good level.The sensor was used to reconstruct three-dimensional image of the experimental model with relative volume of the detection field of 0.4%.The image correlation coefficient of the single target imaging was above 0.6 and the position of the double target object could be clearly identified,and thus the visual detection of breast cancer was realized.

Objective To explore the relevant factors of new-onset conduction disturbance(NOCD)after transcatheter aortic valve replacement(TAVR),such as anatomical structure,device type,surgical strategies,etc.,discover relevant predictive factors,and establish a predictive model to assess the risk of conduction blockages.Methods From January 2016 to March 2022,clinical data of symptomatic patients with severe aortic valve stenosis or severe regurgitation who underwent TAVR at Xiangya Second Hospital of Central South University were collected through the hospital information system and imaging database.ECG,echocardiography,CTA,surgical materials,etc.,were extracted and analyzed by specialists.SPSS software was used for statistical analysis,and a multi-factor regression prediction model for NOCDwas built.Results A total of 184 patients were included,the occurrence rate of NOCD after TAVR was 31.0%,pure regurgitation patients'NOCD occurrence rate was 63.6%(7/11).The NOCD group had a larger aortic angles[(57.7±10.3)°vs.(52.0±9.0)°,P＜0.001],larger Oversizing[(129±28)%vs.(120±21)%,P=0.018],deeper implantation depth[(7.2±5.1)mm vs.(4.8±4.2)mm,P=0.001],and higher pure regurgitation patients'proportion[12.3%vs.3.1%,P=0.037]than the non-NOCD group.Multifactorial Logistic regression analysis indicated that an aorta angle＞54.5°(OR 3.78,95%CI 1.86-7.63,P＜0.001)or implantation depth＞5.7 mm(OR 3.39,95%CI 1.68-6.85,P＜0.001)are independent risk factors for new onset conduction disturbances after TAVR,and a predictive model was established with aortic angle,implantation depth,and Oversizing ratio as variables.The receiver operating characteristics curve showed area under ROC curve 0.709,95%CI 0.623-0.795,predicting NOCD after TAVR.Conclusions A retrospective analysis carried out at a single center discovered that the aortic angle in the NOCD group was larger than that in the non-NOCD group,the Oversizing ratio was higher,the implantation location was deeper,and there was a higher proportion of patients with pure regurgitation lesions.An aortic angle greater than 54.5°or an implantation depth more than 5.7 mm were identified as independent risk factors for NOCD after TAVR.

G protein-coupled receptor (GPR) 40, as one of GPRs family, plays a potential role in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism. To study the effect of GPR40 novel agonist SZZ15-11 on hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia and its potential mechanism, spontaneous type 2 diabetic KKA^y mice, human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells and murine mature adipocyte 3T3-L1 cells were used. KKA^y mice were divided into four groups, vehicle group, TAK group, SZZ (50 mg·kg^-1) group and SZZ (100 mg·kg^-1) group, with oral gavage of 0.5% sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), 50 mg·kg^-1 TAK875, 50 and 100 mg·kg^-1 SZZ15-11 respectively for 45 days. Fasting blood glucose, blood triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC), non-fasting blood glucose were tested. Oral glucose tolerance test and insulin tolerance test were executed. Blood insulin and glucagon were measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). After mice′s execution, liver tissue was harvested to test TG and TC content. Then pathological morphology of liver was observed through hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, and the lipid metabolism relative signal pathway was analyzed by Western blot and RT-PCR. The experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. At the same time, Akt phosphorylation level in HepG2 cells and adiponectin in 3T3-L1 cells treated with TNFα were measured with Western blot. The results show that SZZ15-11 not only decreased blood glucose and lipid, improved insulin sensitivity, but also increased fasting blood glucagon and promoted insulin secretion after glucose loading in KKA^y mice. Additionally, SZZ15-11 alleviated hepatic steatosis and liver dysfunction in KKA^y mice. In liver tissue, SZZ15-11 increased AMPKα phosphorylation level and cholesterol metabolism relative gene Abcg8 transcription. In HepG2 cells, SZZ15-11 increased Akt phosphorylation level. In adipocyte 3T3-L1, SZZ15-11 recovered the decreased adiponectin expression by TNFα. This study proved that GPR40 agonist SZZ15-11 could be a candidate compound for regulating glucolipid metabolic disorder.

Influenza virus causes serious threat to human life and health. Due to the inherent high variability of influenza virus, clinically resistant mutant strains of currently approved anti-influenza virus drugs have emerged. Therefore, it is urgent to develop antiviral drugs with new targets or mechanisms of action. RNA-dependent RNA polymerase is directly responsible for viral RNA transcription and replication, and plays key roles in the viral life cycle, which is considered an important target of anti-influenza drug design. From the point of view of medicinal chemistry, this review summarizes current advances in diverse small-molecule inhibitors targeting influenza virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, hoping to provide valuable reference for development of novel antiviral drugs.

Objective:To explore the role of mechanical hemodynamic support (MHS) in mapping and catheter ablation of patients with hemodynamically unstable ventricular tachycardia (VT), report single-center experience in a cohort of consecutive patients receiving VT ablation during MHS therapy, and provide evidence-based medical evidence for clinical practice.Methods:This was a retrospective cohort study. Patients with hemodynamically unstable VT who underwent catheter ablation with MHS at Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University between August 2021 and December 2023 were included. Patients were divided into rescue group and preventive group according to the purpose of treatment. Their demographic data, periprocedural details, and clinical outcomes were collected and analyzed.Results:A total of 15 patients with hemodynamically unstable VT were included (8 patients in the rescue group and 7 patients in the preventive group). The acute procedure was successful in all patients. One patient in the rescue group had surgical left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation, remaining 14 patients received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for circulation support. ECMO decannulation was performed in 12 patients due to clinical and hemodynamic stability, of which 6 patients were decannulation immediately after surgery and the remaining patients were decannulation at 2.0 (2.5) d after surgery. Two patients in the rescue group died during the index admission due to refractory heart failure and cerebral hemorrhage. During a median follow-up of 30 d (1 d to 12 months), one patient with LVAD had one episode of ventricular fibrillation at 6 months after discharge, and no further episodes of ventricular fibrillation and/or VT occurred after treatment with antiarrhythmic drugs. No malignant ventricular arrhythmia occurred in the remaining 12 patients who were followed up.Conclusions:MHS contributes to the successful completion of mapping and catheter ablation in patients with hemodynamically unstable VT, providing desirable hemodynamic status for emergency and elective conditions.

Objective To analyze the effects of three sterilization methods,namely,pressure steam,low-temperature plasma and ethylene oxide,on the magnetic flux of magnetic surgical devices and their sterilization costs.Methods A total of 234 magnetic surgical devices of different specifications and models(magnetic rings)were randomly divided into Group A,Group B and Group C after the paired number was labelled,and each group consisted of 78 pieces(39 pairs).After packaging each pair of devices according to sterilization specifications,Group A was sterilized by pressure steam,Group B was sterilized by low-temperature plasma,and Group C was sterilized by ethylene oxide.We measured the magnetic flux of three sets of magnetic rings before and after sterilization,and comparatively analyzed the sterilization cost and sterilization time of the single package.Results There was no statistically significant difference in the impact of the three sterilization methods on the magnetic flux of the magnetic surgical devices(P＞0.05),but there was a significant difference in the magnetic flux before and after sterilization for each sterilization method(P＜0.001);the sterilization cost was(1.96±0.16)yuan for Group A,(23.17±0.32)yuan for Group B,and(8.16±0.18)yuan for Group C,showing statistically significant differences among the three groups(P＜0.01).The sterilization time was(65.21±3.36)min for Group A,(45.46±1.39)min for Group B,and(1020.38±12.21)min for Group C,with statistically significant differences among the three groups(P＜0.01).Conclusion None of the three sterilization methods affects the magnetic flux of the magnetic surgical devices.Pressure steam method shows the lowest cost of single package,low-temperature plasma method shows the highest cost of single package,while ethylene oxide method shows the highest sterilization time.Pressure steam should be the preferred sterilization method for magnetic surgical devices.

Objective To observe the efficacy and safety of Morinda officinalis oligosaccharides in the continuation treatment of mild and moderate depression.Methods An open,single-arm,multi-center design was adopted in our study.Adult patients with mild and moderate depression who had received acute treatment of Morinda officinalis oligosaccharides were enrolled and continue to receive Morinda officinalis oligosaccharides capsules for 24 weeks,the dose remained unchanged during continuation treatment.The remission rate,recurrence rate,recurrence time,and the change from baseline to endpoint of Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD),Hamilton Anxiety Scale(HAMA),Clinical Global Impression-Severity(CGI-S)and Arizona Sexual Experience Scale(ASEX)were evaluated.The incidence of treatment-related adverse events was reported.Results The scores of HAMD-17 at baseline and after treatment were 6.60±1.87 and 5.85±4.18,scores of HAMA were 6.36±3.02 and 4.93±3.09,scores of CGI-S were 1.49±0.56 and 1.29±0.81,scores of ASEX were 15.92±4.72 and 15.57±5.26,with significant difference(P＜0.05).After continuation treatment,the remission rate was 54.59％(202 cases/370 cases),and the recurrence rate was 6.49％(24 cases/370 cases),the recurrence time was(64.67±42.47)days.The incidence of treatment-related adverse events was 15.35％(64 cases/417 cases).Conclusion Morinda officinalis oligosaccharides capsules can be effectively used for the continuation treatment of mild and moderate depression,and are well tolerated and safe.

Objective To investigate the relationship and potential pathways between metal(loid)exposure and the risk of polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS)in women of childbearing age. Methods This case-control study included 200 patients with PCOS(cases)and 896 non-PCOS controls with the age of 25-37 years.The concentrations of 29 metal(loid)s in the follicular fluid(FF)and clinical indicators in the serum were measured in all participants.Logistic regression analysis and mediation analysis were conducted to evaluate the associations between metal(loid)exposure and PCOS risk and investigate the possible roles of clinical indicators,respectively. Results Logistic regression analysis revealed an association between high copper levels in FF and increased PCOS risk(highest vs.lowest quartile:adjusted odds ratio=2.94,95%confidence interval:1.83-4.72).A high luteinizing hormone/follicle-stimulating hormone ratio and elevated levels of testosterone and anti-Müllerian hormone(AMH)were strongly associated with increased PCOS risk induced by high copper exposure.The mediation analysis indicated a mediating effect of AMH in the association between copper exposure and PCOS risk. Conclusion Copper may affect PCOS risk through the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis,mediated by AMH.Copper exposure and internal AMH levels are important indicators for early warning of PCOS development.