Objective To evaluate the prognostic value of radiation-induced lymphocytopenia in the survival of patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma receiving radiation therapy. Methods The clinical data of 98 patients with unresectable primary hepatocellular carcinoma who received radiotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. The minimum absolute lymphocyte count (min ALC) was graded in accordance with CTCAE V4.0. The optimal threshold of min ALC for prognosis was calculated by using the receiver operating characteristic curve, and the correlation of min ALC with clinical characteristics and dosimetry parameters was analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier method was employed to analyze the survival of patients with different levels of min ALC. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional regression models were applied to analyze prognostic factors. Results The baseline and min ALC of 98 patients during radiotherapy were 1.52×10⁹/L and 0.45×10⁹/L, respectively(P<0.001). The optimal cut-off value of min ALC for the prediction of the one-year survival rate was 0.38×10⁹/L. GTV, the mean dose of the liver and spleen, the V5 and V10 of the liver and spleen, and the V15 of the spleen were correlated with min ALC, and the V5 of the liver was an independent predictor of min ALC. The overall survival of patients with high min ALC was higher than that of patients with low min ALC. Independent prognostic factors were min ALC≤0.38×10⁹/L (HR=0.515, P=0.024), min ALC≥grade 3 (HR=0.576, P=0.032), tumor thrombus in the portal/vena cava, Child-Pugh grade A, increase of ≥2 points in the Child-Pugh score after radiotherapy, and received more than two other therapies. Conclusion Min ALC≤0.38×10⁹/L and min ALC≥grade 3 have independent prognostic value in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma receiving radiotherapy.

A simple, fast, and visual method for detecting antibodies against peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) using colloidal gold strips was developed. In this study, the pET-32a-N was transformed into Escherichia coli Rosetta (DE3) for expression. Hybridoma cell lines were generated by fusing SP2/0 myeloma cells with splenocytes from immunized mice with the expressed and purified N protein of PPRV. The PPRV N protein was labeled with colloidal gold particles as the gold-labeled antigen. The N protein served as the gold standard antigen and as the test (T) line-coated antigen, while the monoclonal antibody served as the quality control (C) line-coated antibody to assemble the colloidal gold immunochromatographic test strips for detecting antibodies against the N protein of PPRV. Hybridoma cell line designated as 1F1 was able to stably secrete the monoclonal antibody against the N protein of PPRV. The titer of 1F1 monoclonal antibody in ascites was 1:128 000 determined by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), and the immunoglobulin subtype of the monoclonal antibody was IgG1, with kappa chain. The obtained monoclonal antibody was able to specifically recognize the N protein of PPRV, as shown by Western blotting and indirect immunofluorescent assay (IFA). The developed colloidal gold test strip method was able to detect PPRV antibodies specifically, and there was no difference between different batches of the test strips. Testing of a total of 122 clinical sera showed that the compliance rate of the test strip with ELISA test was 97.6%.The test strip assay developed in this study has good specificity, reproducibility, and sensitivity, and it can be used for the rapid detection of PPRV antibodies.
Animals ; Mice ; Peste-des-Petits-Ruminants/prevention & control* ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Reproducibility of Results ; Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus ; Antibodies, Viral ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Goats

Accurate segmentation of pediatric echocardiograms is a challenging task, because significant heart-size changes with age and faster heart rate lead to more blurred boundaries on cardiac ultrasound images compared with adults. To address these problems, a dual decoder network model combining channel attention and scale attention is proposed in this paper. Firstly, an attention-guided decoder with deep supervision strategy is used to obtain attention maps for the ventricular regions. Then, the generated ventricular attention is fed back to multiple layers of the network through skip connections to adjust the feature weights generated by the encoder and highlight the left and right ventricular areas. Finally, a scale attention module and a channel attention module are utilized to enhance the edge features of the left and right ventricles. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method in this paper achieves an average Dice coefficient of 90.63% in acquired bilateral ventricular segmentation dataset, which is better than some conventional and state-of-the-art methods in the field of medical image segmentation. More importantly, the method has a more accurate effect in segmenting the edge of the ventricle. The results of this paper can provide a new solution for pediatric echocardiographic bilateral ventricular segmentation and subsequent auxiliary diagnosis of congenital heart disease.
Adult ; Humans ; Child ; Heart Ventricles/diagnostic imaging* ; Echocardiography ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted

Objective To investigate the effects of banding width on hemodynamic characteristics of pulmonary artery (PA) by constructing pulmonary artery banding (PAB) models with different widths. Methods Based on clinical practice, with the same banding position and degree, computer-aided design (CAD) was utilized to reconstruct three-dimensional PAB models with different banding widths (2, 3, 4, 5 mm). Hemodynamic characteristics of the models with different banding widths, including pressure, streamlines, energy loss, energy efficiency and blood flow distribution ratio, were compared and analyzed through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Results The pressure of PA decreased significantly, while the change of banding width had no significant effects on the pressure drop level at banding position. With the increase of banding width, the energy loss decreased, and the energy efficiency showed an upward trend. The blood flow of the left PA raised, and the ratio of blood flow distribution between the left PA and right PA increased, with the maximum reaching up to 2.28 : 1. Conclusions The increase of banding width can reduce the energy loss of PA and improve the energy efficiency of blood flow, but it will lead to the imbalance of blood flow distributions between the left and right lungs. Both the balance of blood flow distribution and the energy loss should be considered in choice for banding width of PAB. The virtual design of PAB surgery based on CAD and CFD will assist individualized banding width selection in future.

Objective To evaluate the short-term efficacy and quality of life of primary hepatocellular carcinoma patients after radiotherapy and pregabalin treatment for neuropathic pain with bone metastasis. Methods 32 patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma bone metastases were treated with radiotherapy combined with pregabalin treatment.Then, we prospectively studied the analgesic efficacy for neuropathic pain and quality of life, used the brief pain inventory and douleur neuropathique 4 questionnaire (DN4) to evaluate pain at baseline, one and two months after radiotherapy, assessed pain response using the international consensus endpoint definition of bone metastasis, and used European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Research and Treatment Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and bone metastasis module (QLQ-BM22) for quality of life assessment. Results One and two months after radiotherapy, the average DN4 score of neuropathic pain decreased, and the objective pain relief rates were 62.8% and 68.6%, respectively.The physical, emotional, social, and role functional scores of EORTC QLQ-C30 functional scale significantly increased in the first month after radiotherapy.Symptom scale of pain (P=0.015), insomnia (P=0.035), and loss of appetite (P=0.022) improved, and fatigue was aggravated (P < 0.05).Two months after radiotherapy, the mean overall health score and all functional scale scores significantly increased than those at baseline.The scores of all symptom scales decreased, except fatigue, constipation, and financial difficulties (P < 0.05).In addition, pain responders showed significant improvement in emotional function (P=0.025) and physical function (P=0.029) in the functional scale and in pain (P=0.014) and fatigue (P=0.035) in the symptom scale.The QLQ-BM22 score showed that the painful sites (P=0.021) and pain characteristics (P=0.04) of the responders significantly improved compared with those of nonresponders two months after radiotherapy. Conclusion Radiotherapy combined with pregabalin can relieve neuropathic pain caused by bone metastasis from primary hepatocellular carcinoma and greatly improve the quality of life, particularly in pain responders.

Objective:To investigate the application of serum creatinine to prealbumin ratio (Scr/PA) in the diagnosis of patients with heart failure complicated with renal failure.Methods:This was a case-control study. Patients with chronic heart failure and heart failure complicated with renal failure admitted to Dalian Central Hospital from January 5, 2020 to April 23, 2023 were retrospectively analyzed, and Scr/PA was calculated. The general data and laboratory examination indexes of the two groups were compared. According to the data type, t test, Wilcoxon rank sum test and χ 2 test were used for comparison between the two groups. The risk factors of heart failure complicated with renal failure were analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis, and Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between Scr/PA and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and hemoglobin (HGB). ROC curve was used to determine the predictive value of Scr/PA and NT-proBNP for heart failure complicated with renal failure. Results:Compared with the heart failure group, Triglyceride [1.25 (0.94, 1.81) mmol/L vs. 1.07 (0.76, 1.46) mmol/L, Z=-2.159, P=0.031], D-dimer [2.30 (1.53, 4.67) mg/L vs. 1.63 (0.64, 2.96) mg/L, Z=-2.339, P=0.02],NT-proBNP [18 500 (9 575, 30 000) pg/ml vs. 4 865 (1 600, 9 800) pg/ml, Z=-5.637, P<0.001], Scr/PA [0.233 (0.188, 0.351) mg/mg vs 0.064 (0.044, 0.103) mg/mg, Z=-8.197, P<0.001] were higher in heart failure complicated with renal failure group. While albumin [(33.9±5.2) g/L vs. (36.3±4.3) g/L, t=-2.173, P=0.008], estimated glomerular filtration rate[12.86 (7.88, 17.40) ml/(1 min×1.73 m 2) vs. 65.82 (48.66, 86.32) ml/(1 min×1.73 m 2), Z=-9.794, P<0.001], and HGB [(91±24) g/L vs. (123±23) g/L, t=-7.489, P<0.001] were lower. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that albumin ( OR=0.900, 95% CI 0.830-0.975, P=0.010), HGB ( OR=0.948, 95% CI 0.930-0.966, P<0.001), Scr/PA ( OR=1.639, 95% CI 1.346-1.957, P<0.001) were associated with heart failure complicated with renal failure. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only Scr/PA was an independent risk factor for heart failure complicated with renal failure. The correlation coefficients of Scr/PA with NT-proBNP and HGB were r=0.578 and r=-0.559, respectively (all P<0.001). The area under the AUC curve of Scr/PA and NT-proBNP for predicting heart failure complicated with renal failure was 0.927 (95% CI: 0.881-0.973, P<0.001) and 0.797 (95% CI: 0.717-0.877, P<0.001), respectively. Conclusions:Scr/PA is an independent risk factor for heart failure complicated with renal failure, and it has a good correlation with NT-proBNP and HGB. Scr/PA is superior to NT-proBNP in predicting heart failure complicated with renal failure.

Objective:To explore the correlation of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of magnetic resonance diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) examination before radiotherapy in patients with advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma with clinicopathological characteristics and radiotherapy efficacy.Methods:The clinical data of 80 patients with advanced cervical cancer who were admitted to the Second Hospital of Nanjing from September 2019 to March 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) DWI examination. The differences in ADC values among cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients with different clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. The patients were divided into the effective group (complete remission+partial remission) and the ineffective group (stable disease+progressive disease) based on the radiotherapy effect, and the differences in ADC values between the two groups were compared. The logistic regression model was used to analyze the factors affecting the radiotherapy efficacy of patients with advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma.Results:Among 80 patients with advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma, 21 achieved complete remission, 31 achieved partial remission, 25 achieved stable disease, and 3 achieved progressive disease after radiotherapy; there were 52 cases in the effective group and 28 cases in the ineffective group. The ADC value of the effective group before radiotherapy was higher than that of the ineffective group [(0.99±0.14)×10 -3mm 2/s vs. (0.76±0.20)×10 -3mm 2/s], and the difference was statistically significant ( t = 6.01, P < 0.001); after radiotherapy, the ADC value of the effective group was also higher than that of the ineffective group [(1.43±0.25)×10 -3mm 2/s vs. (1.11±0.23)×10 -3mm 2/s), and the difference was statistically significant ( t = 5.61, P < 0.001); the ADC values of both the effective and ineffective groups increased after radiotherapy compared to before radiotherapy (both P < 0.05). The ADC values of patients with different International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO) stage, degree of pathological differentiation, depth of lesion infiltration, Ki-67 expression, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that ≥FIGO stage Ⅲ, low differentiation, lymph node metastasis, lymphatic vessel infiltration, distant metastasis, and low ADC value before radiotherapy were independent risk factors for efficacy of radiotherapy in patients with advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma (all P < 0.05). Conclusions:The ADC value before radiotherapy is a factor that affects the radiotherapy effect of patients with advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma. The lower the ADC value before radiotherapy is, the worse the radiotherapy effect of patients will be.

Background and Objectives: Quantitative flow ratio (QFR) is an angiography-based technique for functional assessment of coronary artery stenosis. This study investigated the response of QFR to different degree of stenosis severity and its ability to predict the positron emission tomography (PET)-defined myocardial ischemia. Methods: From 109 patients with 185 vessels who underwent both 13 N-ammonia PET and invasive physiological measurement, we compared QFR, fractional flow reserve (FFR) and instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) for the responses to the different degree of anatomical (percent diameter stenosis [%DS]) and hemodynamic (relative flow reserve [RFR], coronary flow reserve, hyperemic stenosis resistance, and stress myocardial flow) stenosis severity and diagnostic performance against PET-derived parameters. Results: QFR, FFR, and iFR showed similar responses to both anatomic and hemodynamic stenosis severity. Regarding RFR, the diagnostic accuracy of QFR was lower than FFR (76.2% vs. 83.2%, p=0.021) and iFR (76.2% vs. 84.3%, p=0.031). For coronary flow capacity (CFC), QFR showed a lower accuracy than iFR (74.1% vs. 82%, p=0.031) and lower discriminant function than FFR (area under curve: 0.74 vs. 0.79, p=0.044). Discordance between QFR and FFR or iFR was shown in 14.6% of cases and was driven by the difference in %DS and heterogeneous distribution of PET-derived RFR and stress myocardial blood flow. Conclusions QFR demonstrated a similar response to different anatomic and hemodynamic stenosis severity as FFR or iFR. However, its diagnostic performance was inferior to FFR and iFR when PET-derived RFR and CFC were used as a reference.

Objective:To investigate hemodynamic characteristics of the modified Blalock-Taussig shunt (MBTS) with the preservation or ligation of ductus arteriosus (DA) based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), thus to help preoperative surgery design and postoperative prediction.Methods:A patient with pulmonary atresia and patent ductus arteriosus was included. Patient-specific three-dimensional model was reconstructed and virtual surgeries of shunt insertion and ductus ligation or preservation were performed via computer-aided design (CAD). CFD was utilized to analyze hemodynamic parameters preoperatively and postoperatively based on patient-specific anatomy and physiologic data.Results:The preservation of DA competitively reduced the shunt flow but increased total pulmonary perfusion. The shunt flow and ductal flow collided with each other, causing large and complicated turbulence in pulmonary artery where lower wall shear stress and higher oscillatory shear index were distributed, as well as higher energy loss.Conclusion:The preservation of DA is riskier in hemodynamics which may lead to pulmonary over-perfusion, inadequate systemic perfusion and heavier cardiac burden, thus increasing the risk of heart failure and it seems to bring no benefit in terms of reducing risks of thrombosis.

Background and Objectives: Quantitative flow ratio (QFR) is an angiography-based technique for functional assessment of coronary artery stenosis. This study investigated the response of QFR to different degree of stenosis severity and its ability to predict the positron emission tomography (PET)-defined myocardial ischemia. Methods: From 109 patients with 185 vessels who underwent both 13 N-ammonia PET and invasive physiological measurement, we compared QFR, fractional flow reserve (FFR) and instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) for the responses to the different degree of anatomical (percent diameter stenosis [%DS]) and hemodynamic (relative flow reserve [RFR], coronary flow reserve, hyperemic stenosis resistance, and stress myocardial flow) stenosis severity and diagnostic performance against PET-derived parameters. Results: QFR, FFR, and iFR showed similar responses to both anatomic and hemodynamic stenosis severity. Regarding RFR, the diagnostic accuracy of QFR was lower than FFR (76.2% vs. 83.2%, p=0.021) and iFR (76.2% vs. 84.3%, p=0.031). For coronary flow capacity (CFC), QFR showed a lower accuracy than iFR (74.1% vs. 82%, p=0.031) and lower discriminant function than FFR (area under curve: 0.74 vs. 0.79, p=0.044). Discordance between QFR and FFR or iFR was shown in 14.6% of cases and was driven by the difference in %DS and heterogeneous distribution of PET-derived RFR and stress myocardial blood flow. Conclusions QFR demonstrated a similar response to different anatomic and hemodynamic stenosis severity as FFR or iFR. However, its diagnostic performance was inferior to FFR and iFR when PET-derived RFR and CFC were used as a reference.