Objective:To analyze the risk factors affecting regional lymph node metastasis in salivary gland mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) and to establish a nomogram model for individually predicting lymph node metastasis in salivary gland MEC.Methods:The clinical data of 2 152 patients with salivary gland MEC from 1975 to 2020 were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database of the National Cancer Institute. The collected data were divided into training cohort (1 506 cases) and validation cohort (646 cases) according to the ratio of 7∶3. Single-factor regression and multi-factor logistic regression were used to screen factors related to local lymph node metastasis in salivary gland MEC, with constructing of a nomogram. Calibration curve, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, area under the ROC curve (AUC) and decision curve analysis were used to evaluate model performance in the validation cohort and the total cohort. Statistical tests were performed using SPSS (26.0) and R (4.3.0) software.Results:Multivariate logistic regression results showed that M stage [ OR(95% CI):12.360(3.295-46.365), P=0.014], pathological grade Ⅱ、Ⅲ、Ⅳ[ OR(95% CI): 1.956(1.329-2.879), 9.654(6.309-14.772), 9.298(6.072-14.238), P<0.001], T staging T2, T3, T4[ OR(95% CI): 1.706(0.932-3.124), 3.021(1.790-5.096), 3.311(1.925-5.695), P<0.001], and gender [ OR(95% CI):0.759(0.593-0.972), P=0.029] were independent factors affecting local lymph node metastasis in salivary gland MEC. Through verification in the validation cohort and the total cohort, the AUC values were greater than 0.8, and the calibration curve was close to the perfect reference line, proving that the constructed nomogram model had good specificity and sensitivity for predicting local lymph node metastasis in salivary gland MEC. Conclusion:M stage, pathological grade, T stage, and gender are risk factors for predicting regional lymph node metastasis and the established-nomogram has good predictive performance for local lymph node metastasis in salivary gland MEC.

Blood brain barrier (BBB) injury is the main pathological manifestation of many neurological diseases. Glycocalyx is the gel layer covering the lumen side of vascular endothelial cells, which plays an important role in regulating BBB function. However, glycocalyx is very fragile and easily damaged in various neurological diseases, leading to BBB destruction. This article focuses on the potential role of glycocalyx in cerebrovascular disease, the possible mechanisms related to glycocalyx and BBB injury, and explores the potential therapeutic strategies for protecting and restoring endothelial glycocalyx.

Objective:To explore the morphological characteristics of the pectoralis major muscle and the anatomical relationship of adjacent structures .Methods:A total of 156 patients undergoing thyroid surgery at the First Hospital of Anhui University of Science & Technology and the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China from Dec 2020 to Sep 2022 were includeed. Those adopting routine endoscopic thyroidectomy by gasless unilateral axillary approach were assigned to group A,and searching for the sternocleidomastoid muscle through the pectoralis major muscle gap on this basis to group B.Results:Among the 78 patients in group B, a total of 71 (91%) cases were found to have a typical sternocleidomastoid muscle gap, and in 7 (9%) cases were not found. The morphology phenotypes of the gap between the clavicular part and thoracic ribs part of the pectoralis major muscle was found in 3 types: obvious separation type (typeⅠ), inconspicuous separation-partially overlapped type (typeⅡa), and inconspicuous separation-completely anastomosed type (type Ⅱb). The mean duration of surgery in group B was less (105±15) min than that in group A (156±27) min ( t=14.523, P<0.01); postoperative one day drainage in group B was less (49±6) ml than that in group A (51±6) ml ( t=2.273, P=0.024). There was no statistically significant difference in intraoperative bleeding, postoperative hospital stay and complication rate between the two groups ( t=0.557, P=0.578; t=0.134, P=0.894; χ2=1.844, P=0.174). Conclusion:The search for the sternocleidomastoid muscle through the pectoralis major muscle gap in the endoscopic thyroidectomy by gasless unilateral axillary approach can shorten the duration of surgery and improve the efficiency of surgery.

Objective    To explore the predictive value of a simple prediction model for patients with acute myocardial infarction. Methods    Clinical data of 280 patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in the Department of Emergence Medicine, West China Hospital of Sichuan University from January 2019 to January 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into a death group (n=34) and a survival group (n=246). Results    Age, heart rate, body mass index (BMI), global registry of acute coronary events (GRACE), thrombolysis in myocardial infarction trial (TIMI) score, blood urea nitrogen, serum cystatin C and D-dimer in the survival group were less or lower than those in the death group (P<0.05). Left ventricle ejection fraction and the level of albumin, triglyceride, total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol were higher and the incidence of Killip class≥Ⅲ was lower in the survival group compared to the death group (P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, BMI, heart rate, diastolic blood pressure, and systolic blood pressure were independent risk factors for all-cause death in STEMI patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the area under the curve of simple prediction model for predicting death was 0.802, and similar to that of GRACE (0.816). The H-L test showed that the simple model had high accuracy in predicting death (χ2=3.77, P=0.877). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the simple prediction model was significantly correlated with the GRACE (r=0.651, P<0.001) and coronary artery stenosis score (r=0.210, P=0.001). Conclusion    The simple prediction model may be used to predict the hospitalization and long-term outcomes of STEMI patients, which is helpful to stratify high risk patients and to guide treatment.

Objective    To analyze prognostic ability of inflammation-based Glasgow prognostic score (GPS) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods    We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 289 patients with STEMI admitted to the Department of Emergency in West China Hospital from April 2015 to January 2016. All study subjects were divided into three groups: a group of GPS 0 (190 patients including 150 males and 40 females aged 62.63±12.98 years), a group of GPS 1 (78 patients including 58 males and 20 females aged 66.57±15.25 years), and a group of GPS 2 (21 patients including 16 males and 5 females aged 70.95±9.58 years). Cox regression analysis was conducted to analyze the independent risk factors of predicting long-term mortality of patients with STEMI. Results    There was a statistical difference in long-term mortality (9.5% vs. 23.1% vs. 61.9%, P<0.001) and in-hospital mortality (3.7% vs. 7.7% vs. 23.8%, P<0.001) among the three groups. The Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) scores and Gensini scores increased in patients with higher GPS scores, and the differences were statistically different (P<0.001). Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that the GPS was independently associated with STEMI long-term all-cause mortality (1 vs. 0, HR: 2.212, P=0.037; 2 vs. 0, HR: 8.286, P<0.001). Conclusion    GPS score is helpful in predicting the long-term and in-hospital prognosis of STEMI patients, and thus may guide clinical precise intervention by early risk stratification.

Objective: To excavate the mechanism of the combination of Radix Ophiopogonis and Schisandra chinensis to treatatherosclerosisbased on network pharmacology to discuss its mechnism. Methods: This paper excavated the associated proteins with Radix Ophiopogonis and Schisandra chinensis from the TCMGeneDIT database, and constructed the multicomponent protein network of Radix Ophiopogonis, Schisandra chinensis and proteins ApoE-/- mice were randomly divided into control group, model group, low, medium, high dose group and atorvastatin calcium group. Except the control group, other groups were fed with H10540 high fat diet for 12 weeks. From the 4th week, the atrovastatin calcium group was given atrovastatin calcium liquid 6 mg/kg by gavage. The low, medium and high dose groups were administed 4.68, 2.34 and 1.17 g/kg, respectively, once a day by gavage for 8 weeks. The oil red staining was applied to observe the pathological changes of atherosclerotic aortic wall. Western blot was subjected to detect the expression change of mitogen activated protein kinases p38 (p38), ATP binding cassette subfamily G member 1 (ABCG1), Toll like receptor 4 (TLR4), heat shock protein 90 alpha family class a member 1 (HSP90AA1), MMP-9 and arachidonate 5-lipoxygenase (ALOX5) in liver tissue, as well as nuclear factor related factor 2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) in brain tissue. Results: It was found that eleven components were interacted with 37 proteins, forming a protein interaction network with 48 nodes and 190 boundaries without isolated nodes. Compared to the model group, the level of p-p38/p38 (2.12 ± 0.12, 1.76 ± 0.11, 1.69 ± 0.10 vs. 2.45 ± 0.16), TLR4 (1.98 ± 0.10, 1.64 ± 0.11, 1.55 ± 0.12 vs. 2.68 ± 0.06), HSP90AA1 (1.79 ± 0.10, 1.66 ± 0.09, 1.59 ± 0.11 vs. 2.06 ± 0.07), MMP9 (1.84 ± 0.11, 1.75 ± 0.12, 1.66 ± 0.08 vs. 2.68 ± 0.10) in liver tissue of low, medium and high dose groups significantly decreased, the level of ABCG1 (0.53 ± 0.08, 0.78 ± 0.09, 0.81 ± 0.10 vs. 0.45 ± 0.04), ALOX5 (0.59 ± 0.04, 0.67 ± 0.09, 0.88 ± 0.07 vs. 0.47 ± 0.02) in liver tissue of low, medium and high dose groups significantly increased (P<0.05). The expression of Nrf2 (1.62 ± 0.12, 1.32 ± 0.09, 1.14 ± 0.06 vs. 2.12 ± 0.08) in cytoplasm of brain tissue significantly decreased, and Nrf2 (1.12 ± 0.09, 1.61 ± 0.07, 1.68 ± 0.11 vs. 1.07 ± 0.08) in cell nucleus of brain tissue significantly increased. The expression of HO-1 (1.16 ± 0.09, 1.73 ± 0.11, 1.82 ± 0.08 vs. 1.05 ± 0.04) in brain tissue significantly increased. Conclusions Network pharmacology and molecular biology were used to elucidate the molecular mechanism of the combination of Schisandra chinensis and Ophiopogon japonicus in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis, also to validate the related mechanism via Nrf2 pathway, which provided a reference for the further study of the combined prescription.

Compared with the previous automatic segmentation neural network for the target area which considered the target area as an independent area, a stacked neural network which uses the position and shape information of the organs around the target area to regulate the shape and position of the target area through the superposition of multiple networks and fusion of spatial position information to improve the segmentation accuracy on medical images was proposed in this paper. Taking the Graves' ophthalmopathy disease as an example, the left and right radiotherapy target areas were segmented by the stacked neural network based on the fully convolutional neural network. The volume Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and bidirectional Hausdorff distance (HD) were calculated based on the target area manually drawn by the doctor. Compared with the full convolutional neural network, the stacked neural network segmentation results can increase the volume DSC on the left and right sides by 1.7% and 3.4% respectively, while the two-way HD on the left and right sides decrease by 0.6. The results show that the stacked neural network improves the degree of coincidence between the automatic segmentation result and the doctor's delineation of the target area, while reducing the segmentation error of small areas. The stacked neural network can effectively improve the accuracy of the automatic delineation of the radiotherapy target area of Graves' ophthalmopathy.
Algorithms ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Objective: The objective of this study was to verify the lipid-lowering effect of Juhe Fang extract (JHFE) and to determine its characteristic chemical profile in vitro and in vivo. Methods: A hyperlipidemia model was established by feeding mice a high-fat diet (HFD). After treatment for 30 days, serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels were measured with an automatic biochemistry analyzer. The components from JHFE obtained from in vivo and in vitro experiments were investigated using an UPLC-Q Exactive-Orbitrap MS/MS. Results: The TC, TG, and LDL-C in the serum significantly decreased and the HDL-C significantly increased after JHFE treatment. A total of 95 compounds from JHEF including 15 phenolic acids (PA), 4 phenyl-ethanoid glycosides (PG), 24 flavonoids (F), 14 triterpenoids (T), 10 diterpenoid glycosides (D), 18 alka-loids (A) and 10 others (O) were identified. Trigonelline was discovered for the first time in a herbal medicine of Juhe Fang. Furthermore, 68 compounds were identified in vivo including 28 prototype compounds and 40 metabolites. The metabolic characteristics of these components were revealed including identification of new metabolites of 4-hydroxyphenyl ethyl-8-O-[α-L- arabinopyranosyl-(1→6)]-β-D-glucopyranoside (PEG) and lirinidine. A total of 43 components from JHFE were absorbed and/or metabolized. The contribution rate of each type of chemical component from JHFE to its lipid-lowering effect from high to low were A, F, PG, PA, D and T. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that JHFE demonstrated a significant lipid-lowering effect in a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced hyperlipidemia mouse model. Specific types of PA, PG, F, D, T and A formed the pharmaceutical architecture of the lipid-lowering effect of JHFE. This study should prove useful for clarifying the components responsible for the lipid-lowering effect of JHFE and provide a basis for precision quality control research.

Objective To detect the number of peripheral blood Treg cells and secreted IL-35 expression level in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA) and to explore their correlation with RA occurrence.Methods Peripheral blood was collected from 45 cases of RA,22 cases of osteoarthritis(OA) and 26 persons undergoing healthy physical examination(control group).The number of CD4+ CD25+ foxp3+ regulatory T cells was determined by flow cytometry,while plasma IL-35 level was determined by ELISA.Then the relationship between Treg and expressed IL-35 with clinical indicators was analyzed.Results The percentage of peripheral blood Treg ceils to total CD4+T cells in the RA group was (5.65 ± 2.33)％,which was significantly increased compared with (4.12 ± 1.75) ％ in the control group(P＜0.05);the difference between the OA group and RA group was not statistically significant(P=0.086).The average fluorescence intensity of foxp3 had no statistical difference among 3 groups(P＞0.05).The higher the DAS28 score,the lower the peripheral blood Treg cells number and foxp3 fluorescence intensity.The plasma IL-35 level in the RA group [(34.22± 14.35)ng/L] was significantly lower than that in the OA group[(78.63± 24.58)ng/L] and control group [(67.56±25.43)ng/L],the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).The Treg number in RA patients was negatively correlated with ESR and DAS28 score(r=-0.223,-0.343,P=0.023,0.011),but had no correlation with rheumatoid factor,C-reactive protein and anti-CCP antibody.Conclusion The peripheral blood Treg cells number in RA patients is elevated,while the IL-35 level is decreased,the negative regulation ability in the patients with Treg cell function deficit is attenuated.

Trichuris suis infection in pigs is ubiquitous in intensive and extensive farms, which causes potential threat to human health. The objective of this research was to investigate the prevalence of T. suis in pigs in Hunan province. Total 2,267 fresh fecal samples distributed in 28 pig farms from 7 different administrative regions (Hunan province) were evaluated for the existence of T. suis eggs using saturated NaCl floating method. The average infection rate of T. suis in pigs was 8.91% in Hunan province. To determine genetic variation of the gained T. suis isolates in the present study, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions from nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of 7 T. suis isolates were cloned and analyzed. Nucleotide diversities were 1.0–3.5% and 0–3.8% for ITS-1 and ITS-2, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that all isolates collected in the present study and T. suis available in Genbank generated a monophyletic clade. The present investigation revealed high infection rates of T. suis in pigs in Hunan province, which shed light on making effective measures to prevent and control T. suis infection in pigs in Hunan province.
Agriculture ; China ; Clone Cells ; Databases, Nucleic Acid ; DNA, Ribosomal ; Eggs ; Genetic Variation ; Humans ; Methods ; Ovum ; Prevalence ; Swine ; Trichuris