Association between emphysema and other pulmonary computed tomography patterns in primary varicella pneumonia: A retrospective cohort study.

This study aims to evaluate chest computed tomography (CT) findings in hospital patients with primary varicella pneumonia (PVP). We retrospectively analyzed CT images of 77 PVP patients using 3D Slicer, an open-source software, to model lesions and lungs. This retrospective cohort study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (Ethical Committee, Renmin Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China) and waived the requirement for written informed consent. The left lung was more frequently and severely affected in PVP, with significant differences between the 2 groups in CT involvement percentage of each lung region, except for total lung inflation. Group A showed higher median percentages of lung collapse compared to Group B. The extent of left lung involvement is a critical predictor of emphysema in PVP patients, highlighting the importance of also monitoring the right lung for more severe cases. Lower emphysema levels correspond to more collapsed and infiltrated lung segments, suggesting a more severe clinical presentation.

Effects of total hip arthroplasty and hemiarthroplasty on hip function in patients with traumatic femoral neck fracture.

OBJECTIVE: Traumatic femoral neck fracture is a common disease that can be treated by hip arthroplasty, which is divided into hemiarthroplasty (HA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA). The difference between HA and THA are incompletely understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of hip arthroplasty on hip function in patients with traumatic femoral neck fracture. METHODS: A total of 132 patients with traumatic femoral neck fracture admitted to our hospital from January 2019 to January 2021 were selected and divided into control group (HA group) and study group (THA group) with 66 cases in each group by random number table method. The duration of operation, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative drainage and length of hospital stay were compared between the two groups. The degree of pain before operation, 3 days after operation and 7 days after operation were observed, the hip joint function before operation, 6 months after operation and 12 months after operation was analyzed, and the occurrence of short-term and long-term complications was compared between the two groups. RESULT: Compared with the HA group, the operative time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative drainage and hospital stay were higher in the THA group. The degree of pain in THA group was higher than that in HA group on 3 and 7 days after operation; At 6 and 12 months after surgery, the scores of pain, range of motion, joint function and deformity in the THA group were higher than those in the HA group with statistically significant. Compared with HA group, IGF-1 and Leptin in THA group were increased significantly, while inflammatory cytokines TNF-α was decreased in THA group. The total incidence of short-term and long-term complications was lower in THA group. CONCLUSION: Total hip arthroplasty can effectively restore hip joint function in patients with traumatic femoral neck fracture, with low incidence of short-term and long-term complications, high safety, and worthy of clinical application.

Endometrium Derived Stem Cells as Potential Candidates in Nervous System Repair.

Limited cell division and lack of endogenous repair mechanisms in the central nervous system, hampers tissue repair following neurodegenerative diseases or tissue injuries. Unlike central nervous system; peripheral nervous system has some capacity to repair after injury, but in case of critical sized defects the use of supporting cells in the neural guidance channels seems inevitable to obtain a satisfactory functional recovery. Stem cell therapies have provided new frontiers in the repair of nervous system largely through paracrine secretion mechanisms. The therapeutic potential of stem cells differs according to their tissue of origin, mode of isolation, administration route, and passage number. During the past decades, studies have been focused on stem cells harvested from disposable tissues such as menstrual blood or biopsies from endometrium. These cells are characterized by their high differentiation and proliferation potential, ease of harvest, and lack of ethical concerns. In the current review, we will discuss the prospects and challenges of endometrial stem cells' application in nervous system repair.

Deep Learning in the Classification of Stage of Liver Fibrosis in Chronic Hepatitis B with Magnetic Resonance ADC Images.

Liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B is the pathological repair response of the liver to chronic injury, which is a key step in the development of various chronic liver diseases to cirrhosis and an important link affecting the prognosis of chronic liver diseases. The further development of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B can lead to the disorder of hepatic lobule structure, nodular regeneration of hepatocytes, formation of a pseudolobular structure, namely, cirrhosis, clinical manifestations of liver dysfunction, and portal hypertension. So far, the diagnosis of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B has been made manually by doctors. However, this is very subjective and boring for doctors. Doctors are likely to be interfered with by external factors, such as fatigue and lack of sleep. This paper proposed a 5-layer deep convolution neural network structure for the automatic classification of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B. In the 5-layer deep convolution neural network structure, there were three convolution layers and two fully connected layers, and each convolution layer was connected with a pooling layer. 123 ADC images were collected, and the following results were obtained: the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, F1, MCC, and FMI were 88.13% ± 1.47%, 81.45% ± 3.69%, 91.12% ± 1.72%, 80.49% ± 2.94%, 80.90% ± 2.39%, 72.36% ± 3.39%, and 80.94% ± 2.37%, respectively.

Casticin inhibits breast cancer cell migration and invasion by down-regulation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Casticin is one of the major active components isolated from Fructus viticis Increasing studies have revealed that casticin has potential anticancer activity in various cancer cells, but its effects on breast cancer cell migration and invasion are still not well known. Therefore, the ability of cell migration and invasion in the breast cancer MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 cells treated by casticin was investigated. The results indicated that casticin significantly inhibited cell migration and invasion in the cells exposed to 0.25 and 0.50 µM of casticin for 24 h. Casticin treatment reduced matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 9 (MMP-9) activity and down-regulated MMP-9 mRNA and protein expression, but not MMP-2. Casticin treatment suppressed the nuclear translocation of transcription factors c-Jun and c-Fos, but not nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), and decreased the phosphorylated level of Akt (p-Akt). Additionally, the transfection of Akt overexpression vector to MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 cells could up-regulate MMP-9 expression concomitantly with a marked increase in cell invasion, but casticin treatment reduced Akt, p-Akt, and MMP-9 protein levels and inhibited the ability of cell invasion in breast cancer cells. Additionally, casticin attenuated lung metastasis of mouse 4T1 breast cancer cells in the mice and down-regulated MMP-9 expression in the lung tissues of mice treated by casticin. These findings suggest that MMP-9 expression suppression by casticin may act through inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway, which in turn results in the inhibitory effects of casticin on cell migration and invasion in breast cancer cells. Therefore, casticin may have potential for use in the treatment of breast cancer invasion and metastasis.