Objective This study aims to investigate the role of gap junction mediated by connexin 43(Cx43)in renal injury induced by periodontitis in rats.Methods Twelve SPF-grade Wistar male rats were divided into a control group and a periodontitis group by using a completely random number table method,with six rats in each group.The control group rats were not treated,while the periodontitis group rats were subjected to wire ligation of the neck of their bilateral maxillary first molars to construct a periodontitis model.After 8 weeks of modeling,the rats were examined for clinical indicators of the periodontium.micro-CT scanning of the maxilla reconstructed its 3D structure and analyzed the absorption of alveolar bone.Histopathological changes in periodontal and renal tissues were detected.MitoSOX red reagent was used to determine reactive oxygen species(ROS)content in renal tissues.A biochemical reagent kit was used to detect serum oxidative stress biomarkers.Real-time fluo-rescent quantitative-polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR)was employed to determine Cx43,nuclear factor kappa-B(NF-κB),interleukin(IL)-1β,IL-6,BCL2-Associated X(Bax),B-lymphomatoma-2 gene(Bcl-2),and Caspase-3 mRNA were determined.Western blot analysis was used to detect Cx43,NF-κB,IL-1β,Bax,Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 protein.Re-sults micro-CT 3D reconstruction showed significant bone resorption of the first molar alveolar bone in the periodonti-tis group rats and decreased height of the alveolar ridge.The distance from the enamel cementum boundary to the top of the alveolar ridge in the periodontitis group was significantly higher than that inthe control group.The histopathological results showed a large number of inflammatory cells that infiltrated the periodontal tissue of the periodontitis group,and the alveolar bone was significantly absorbed.Rats in the periodontitis group also exhibited mild thickening of the glomer-ular basement membrane,dilation of the Bowman's capsule,and destruction of the brush-like edge of the renal tubules in the renal tissue.The MitoSOX red staining results showed a significant increase in ROS content in the renal tissue of the periodontitis group.The biochemical test results showed that the levels of superoxide dismutase and glutathione in the serum of rats with periodontitis decreased,while that of malondialdehyde increased.The results of qRT-PCR and Western blot showed that the expression levels of Cx43,IL-1β,IL-6,Bax,Caspase-3 mRNA and Cx43,IL-1β,NF-κB,Bax,Caspase-3 proteins in the periodontitis group significantly increased compared with those in the control group,while the expression levels of Bcl-2 mRNA and protein decreased.Conclusion Periodontitis may activate NF-κB sig-naling molecules by upregulating the expression of Cx43 in rat kidney tissues,leading to increased levels of inflamma-tion and apoptosis and ultimately inducing kidney injury.

Objective     To evaluate the early clinical outcomes of the Renatus® balloon-expandable valve in the treatment of severe aortic stenosis. Methods    From November 2021 to April 2022, a total of 38 patients who received Renatus® balloon-expandable valve for severe aortic stenosis in Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital were included. There were 22 males and 16 females, with an average age of 73.7±5.3 years. Mean aortic gradient and peak aortic jet velocity at baseline, post-procedure, and follow-up were compared. Clinical outcomes including all-cause mortality, perivalvular leakage, serious adverse cardiovascular events and the occurrence of permanent pacemaker implantation were assessed. Results    All patients completed the procedure successfully without conversion to thoracotomy or perioperative death. The post-implant mean aortic pressure gradient was decreased from 41.5 (27.8, 58.8) mm Hg to 6.0 (3.0, 8.0) mm Hg, and the peak aortic jet velocity was also decreased from 4.1±0.9 m/s to 1.7±0.4 m/s (P<0.001). Pacemakers were required in 2 (5.3%) patients. The median follow-up time was 27.5 (23.0, 87.5) d, with a follow-up rate of 100.0%. The mean aortic gradient was 8.0 (7.0, 10.8) mm Hg and peak aortic jet velocity was 2.0±0.3 m/s, showing significant improvement compared with those in the preoperative period (P<0.001). No severe aortic regurgitation or paravalvular leak was observed. There was no serious cardiovascular adverse event or reoperative event during the study period. Conclusion    Transcatheter aortic valve replacement with the domestic Renatus® balloon-expandable valve system is a safe and effective procedure for selected patients with severe aortic stenosis who are at high risk or not candidates for surgical aortic valve replacement.

Objective:To explore the efficacy of remote programming after vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in patients with refractory epilepsy.Methods:Thirty-four patients who received VNS in our hospital from October 2019 to October 2020 were chosen in our study. Among them, 19 patients accepted remote programming (remote programming group) and 15 patients regularly came to the outpatient clinic for regulation (outpatient regulation group). The seizure frequency, response rate (seizure frequency decreased by≥50%), McHugh grading, and incidence of postoperative complications between the 2 groups were compared 6 months after VNS.Results:The seizure frequency in the remote programming group and outpatient regulation group was 2 (0, 4) times/month and 4(1, 24) times/month, without significant difference ( Z=-1.602, P=0.105). The proportion of patients enjoying effective treatment in the two groups was 13/19 and 8/15, without significant difference ( P=0.781). Results of McHugh grading showed no significant difference between the two groups ( Z=-0.728, P=0.467). The proportion of patients with postoperative complications in the two groups was 3/19 and 2/15, without significant difference ( P=0.625). Conclusion:The remote programming after VNS is safe and effective, which can become an important complementary approach for outpatient regulation.

Objective Transient brain function inhibition is a common symptom after mild brain injury,but some patients show persistent post-concussional syndrome (PCS).The aims of this study are to assess functional and causal connectivity of attention and default mode network using resting-state functional MR imaging (fMRI) to investigate the abnormal connectivity and its significance in PCS patients.Methods Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 23 PCS patients with attention disorders,admitted to our hospital from November 2015 to October 2016 and 21 age-,gender,and education-matched healthy controls recruited at the same period.The fMRI data were analyzed by group independent component analysis (ICA) toolbox to attention networks and default mode network (DMN).The components of the selected networks were compared in PCS and healthy controls to explore the changes of functional connectivity (FC).Granger causality analysis (GCA) was performed by taking the above significant brain areas as regions of interest (ROIs) to calculate bivariate coefficient of each pair of ROIs.Comparisons were performed to find the significant different causal connectivity of the two groups.Results In attention networks,the FC value of left frontal eye field (FEF),bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS),bilateral ventral prefrontal cortex (vPFC) and bilateral temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) was decreased.In DMN,the FC value of bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was reduced and bilateral precuneus (PCUN) was enhanced.Correlating GCA value,it was increased significantly from left FEF to left PCUN and IPS,while it was reduced from left PCUN and IPS to left FEF;and it was decreased from left IPS to left vPFC and increased from left TPJ to left PCUN.Conclusion The attention networks are restrained in resting state,which may influence the attention function in PCS patients;and the causal connection is altered in the above ROIs,and these changes may be related to inhibition of activation of default network to compensate for the loss of attention function by antagonistic effects in PCS patients.

ObjectiveTo explore the changes of degree attribute values and its significance of post-concussion syndrome (PCS) patients with tinnitus by the brain network research method based on graph theory.Methods34 PCS patients were chosen,including 17 PCS patients with bilateral tinnitus (PCS tinnitus group) and 17 PCS patients without tinnitus (PCS non-tinnitus group).Meanwhile,17 healthy individuals with the matched age,gender and educational background were recruited as the control.Degree attribute values of PCS patients with tinnitus were figured out with the brain network research method based on graph theory.Results(1)The degree attribute values of PCS patients without tinnitus at left orbital middle frontal gyrus (3.13±1.07),left thalamus (2.51±1.03),left superior temporal gyrus (3.67±1.31),right anterior cingulate cortex (3.13±1.25),right posterior cingulate cortex (2.13±1.08) and right supramarginal gyrus (4.46±1.35) were reduced compared with the control group (4.41±1.47,3.71±1.08,5.27±2.13,5.51±0.67,5.63±2.16 and 5.64±1.30) (P<0.05).The degree attribute values of PCS patients without tinnitus at left posterior cingulate cortex (5.87±1.06) and left gyrus lingualis (4.67±1.48) increased compared with the control group (4.41±1.46,3.21±1.27) (P<0.05).(2) The degree attribute values of PCS patients with tinnitus at left posterior cingulate cortex (3.37±1.54),left parahippocampal gyrus (3.41±1.62),left amygdala (2.25±1.43),left angular gyrus (4.17±1.02),left superior temporal gyrus (3.25±1.02),right thalamus (2.35±1.34),right Heschl gyri (3.97±1.62),right superior temporal gyrus (3.26±1.22),right cuneus (3.18±1.32) and right lingular lobe (3.26±1.42) were decreased,compared with the control group (4.41±1.46,5.27±2.13,3.71±1.08,5.63±2.61,5.64±1.30,3.43±1.33,5.63±2.16,5.13±1.64,5.51±0.67,4.24±0.63) (P<0.05).The degree attribute values of PCS patients with tinnitus at right posterior cingulate cortex (5.76±1.83),left MPFC (6.08±1.62) and right precuneus (6.08±1.06) were increased,compared with the control group (4.47±1.26,4.41±1.47,4.81±0.62) (P<0.05).(3)The degree attribute values of PCS patients with tinnitus at left MPFC,left amygdale,left parahippocampal gyrus,right Heschl gyri,right superior temporal gyrus,right cuneus and right lingular lobe were decreased,compared with PCS patients without tinnitus (P<0.05).The degree attribute values of PCS patients with tinnitus at right posterior cingulate cortex and left insular lobe increased,compared with PCS patients without tinnitus (P<0.05).ConclusionsPCS patients with tinnitus present the alteration of degree attribute in related brain network structure.The alteration in degree attribute of relevant brain zones in auditory system,limbic system and default network system may be important factors which result in tinnitus of PCS patients.

Objective To explore the functional imaging alteration of dorsal attention network (DAN) between heroin addicts and heroin abstainers and probe into its influence on attentional function.Methods Attention-related neuropsychological assessments were applied to evaluate the difference of attentional function between heroin addicts and heroin abstainers.With the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data obtained from 17 heroin addicts and 15 heroin abstainers at resting state,we extracted the DANs of heroin withdrawal group and heroin dependence group respectively by using independent component analysis (ICA) and analysed the differences of intra-group and inter-group,then correlation analysis was performed among brain areas which have significant difference between groups and Stroop interference effect test.Results Compared with the heroin dependence group,there was a better result of attentional function in the heroin withdrawal group (P＜0.05),especially at the digit span test(backward) (P=0.0363),digit symbol test (writing) (P =0.0195),Stroop test C (reaction) (P =0.0379),Stroop test C (error) (P=0.0014) and Stroop interference effect test (P=0.0002).Neuroimaging findings demonstrated that there was a similar DAN in the heroin withdrawal group and heroin dependence group which mainly included the bilateral intraparietal suleus,postcentral gyrus and frontal eye field.Compared with the DAN of heroin addicts,significantly enhanced functional connectivity within the DAN of heroin abstainers was observed in the left superior parietal lobule (MIN:-24,-75,48),right inferior parietal lobule (MIN:39,-54,45) and left inferior parietal lobule (MIN:-33,-51,57).Significant negative correlations were observed between these brain areas and Stroop interference effect test in the heroin dependence group (r=-0.79,-0.69,-0.64,P＜0.01),but not in the heroin withdrawal group.Conclusions Heroin addiction can impair attentional function,compared with the DAN of heroin addicts,significantly enhanced functional connectivity in the left superior parietal lobule as well as bilateral inferior parietal lobule are observed in the heroin abstainers at resting state,which may be one of the neural mechanisms of attentional function improvement.

Objective To investigate the relationship between impulsive behaviors and the errorrelated negativity (ERN) component of event-related potentials of error processing in heroin addicts.Methods Using the paradigms for psychological experiment,the Iowa gambling task (IGT) was performed both in heroin addiction group (HA group,20 cases) and healthy control group (HC group,20 cases),and the inspection of electroencephalography was underwent in all subjects concurrently.Following the collection of data,the amplitude and latency of ERN were compared between the two groups,and then the relationship between the amplitude of ERN and the scores of Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) was analyzed separately.Results Decision-making course had no effect on the net score remarkably in HA group (F =1.21,P ＞0.05).Compared with HC group(64.3 ±8.4,73.8 ± 16.4),BIS score as well as the numbers of high frequency loss cards were significantly higher in HA group(75.2 ±7.6,105.5 ±22.2; t =-5.39,-9.24 ; P ＜ 0.05),while both the two groups had visible waveforms of ERN,and the amplitude was markedly lower in HA group(HA:(4.23 ±0.87) μV,HC:(6.11 ± 1.09) μV; t =5.96,P ＜0.05),but no statistical difference was found in latency of these two groups(HC:(102.1 ±28.2) ms,HA:(107.8 ±24.2) ms;t =-0.62,P =0.54),and the amplitude of the two groups was negatively associated with BIS score respectively in both two groups (HC:r =-0.66,HA:r =-0.78 ; both P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The reduced capability of error processing maybe partly contribute to both addiction and relapse to heroin addict,and the ERN event-related potential could be regarded as an indicator of impulsive behaviors and the capability error processing.

Objective To investigate the characteristic of P30o event-related potentials(ERP) of impulsive behavior in heroin addicts.Methods The Iowa gambling task (IGT) were performed by using the paradigm for psychological experiment both in heroin addiction group (HA group) and health control group (HC group),the inspection of electroencephalography were underwent in all the subjects concurrently.Following the collection of data of ERP,amplitude and latency of P300 were compared between the two groups,and then the relationship betweenamplitude or latency of P300 and the results of Barratt impulsiveness scale were analyzed separately.Results Compared to HC group,BIS score as well as the numbers of high frequency loss cards were significantly higher in HA group ( HA:75.12 ± 12.49,91.14 ± 21.35 ; HC:66.54 ± 8.61,73.71 ± 18.91 ; P ＜ 0.05 ),while the both two groups had visible waveforms of P30o,and the amplitude and latency were markedly lower ( HA:4.92 ± 1.14,293.43 ± 36.21 ; HC:7.65 ± 1.59,332.68 ± 40.15 ; P ＜ 0.05 ) and were negatively associated with BIS score in HA group( r =-0.76,-0.52,P＜ 0.05).Logistic regression results showed that the scores of BIS-11 were related to amplitude of P30o merely( P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusion Impulsive behavior can be observed from the abnormal characteristic of the P300 event-related potential of impulsive behavior in heroin addicts,which may partly contribute to both addiction and relapse of heroin addict.

Objective To discuss the reoperation method for recurrent pituitary apoplexy after the successful initial transnasal-sphenoidal surgery.Methods Twenty-one patients with pituitary apoplexy were found recurrence after previous tumor resection via transsphenoidal surgery in 9 months to 5 years.In the reoperation,transsphenoidal approach would be still used.The anterior wall of sphenoid sinus and the sellar floor were located accurately,and then the remnants of them were removed as large as possible to expand the range of bone window.Next,the intrasellar hematoma was cleared away gently,and the residual tumor was removed progressively and thoroughly to make sure the sellar diaphragm subsiding fully and finally removed the whole tumor.Results Most of recurrent tumors were found to be of soft texture with rich blood supply,and 17 cases were still apoplexy.In 18 cases of the 21 patients,total resection was achieved.However,for the other 3 cases with tumor aggressive growth,only massive resection was achieved,and underwent stereotactic radiosurgery postoperatively.Postoperative clinical symptoms were alleviated in 15 cases,whose hormones were also decreased.Temporary diabetes insipidus and hypopituitarism appeared in 5 and 3 cases respectively,but all of these postoperative complications were relieved after symptomatic treatment.Two cases of intraoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage were resolved by packing the cavity with muscle and fat flaps.All cases were followed up for 3 months- 5 years,residual tumor enlarged in only 1 case of massive resection,which umderwent transsphenoidal surgery for the third time,no other cases recurred.Conclusion Operation via the transsphenoidal approach of recurrent pituitary apoplexy after successful initial transsphenoidal surgery could achieve high total resection rate.While the accurate locating,full expansion of the saddle bone window,and repeatedly scraping the apoplexy tumor to get a full subsidence for the sellar diaphragm,are the key points to remove tumors totally as well as to improve the symptoms.

Objective To explore surgical techniques and curative effects of microsurgical treatment for neurilemmoma in upper cervical spinal canal. Methods From Jan. 2004 to Nov. 2007, 59 cases of schwannoma was resected through microoperation, the operation was conducted through a posteromedial approach, using German Laika microscope resection of the tumor, large tumors cannot complete resection,block or sac, resection postoperative neck activity conventional neck restrictions, with following observation of 6 months-2 years. Results A complete recovery was achieved in 54 cases, an improvement of symptoms was achieved in 5 cases, no death was encountered. Follow-up observations were carried out in 55 cases from 3 months-2 years (6.5 ± 1.5 months). MRI examinations 3-12 months after operation in 35 cases found no residual or recurrent tumor. X-ray radiography under anteroposterior, lateral, and open-mouth view 6 months after operation in 42 cases showed no spinal deformation and good vertebral stability. Conclusions As long as neurilemmoma in upper cervical spinal canal are diagnosed, a microsurgical treatment should be given as early as possible. Appropriate selection of surgical approach, skillful microsurgical techniques in accordance with pathological types of lesions, and principles of minimal invasion are critical for the operation safety.