[Effect and complication among different kinds of spinal endoscopic surgery for lumbar disc herniation].

OBJECTIVE: To compare clinical efficacy and complication rate of percutaneous endoscopic transforaminal discectomy(PETD),percutaneous endoscopic interlaminar discectomy (PEID) and unilateral biportal endoscopic (UBE) in treating single-segment lumbar disc herniation(LDH). METHODS: From October 2019 to August 2021,121 LDH patients with single-segment treated by spinal endoscopy were retrospectively analyzed and divided into three groups. In PETD group,there were 48 patients,including 19 males and 29 females,aged from 18 to 72 years old with an average of (44.0±13.9) years old;3 patients with L3,4 segments,27 patients with L4,5 segments,and 18 patients with L5S1 segments. In PEID group,there were 43 patients,including 23 males and 20 females,aged from 20 to 69 years old with an average of (40.1±12.1) years old;1 patient with L3,4 segments,15 patients with L4,5 segments,and 27 patients with L5S1 segments. In UBE group,there were 30 patients,including 12 males and 18 females,aged from 29 to 72 years old with an average of (41.2±15.0) years old;1 patient with L3,4 segments,18 patients with L4,5 segments,and 11 patients with L5S1 segments. Operation time,blood loss,fluoroscopy times and complications among three groups were observed and compared. Before opertaion,3 months after operation and at the latest follow-up,visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate low back pain and lower extremity pain,Oswestry disfunction index (ODI) was used to evaluate lumbar function,and modified MacNab was used to evaluate clinical efficacy at the latest follow-up. RESULTS: All patients were performed endoscopic spinal surgery completly and were followed up for at least 12 months. One patient occurred dural sac rupture both in PETD and PEID group,and dural sac rupture was small,and there was no obvious discomfort after operation. Two patients were occurred intraoperative rupture of dural sac in UBE group. One patient was occurred cerebrospinal fluid leakage after operation,and was improved after rest in supine position and fluid rehydration. One patient without no significant postoperative discomfort. (1)There were no significant difference in operating time,blood loss and hospital stay between PETD and PEID group (P>0.05),while UBE group was higher than those of PETD and PEID group (P<0.05). There was no statistical significance in fluoroscopy times between PEID and UBE group (P>0.05),but PETD group was higher than that of PEID and UBE group (P<0.05). (2)VAS of low back pain at 3 months after operation in UBE group was higher than that in PETD and PEID group (P<0.05),but there was no significant difference between PETD and PEID group (P>0.05). At the latest follow-up,there was no significant difference in VAS of low back pain among three groups (P>0.05). (3)Lower extremity pain of VAS and ODI among 3 groups after operation were significantly improved at all time points compared with those before opertaion(P<0.05),and there were no statistical significance between groups (P>0.05),and there were no statistical significance in interaction between different time points and operation groups (P>0.05). (4) At the latest follow-up,according to the modified MacNab standard,the results of PETD group were excellent in 27 patients,good in 16 patients,moderate in 4 patients,poor in 1 patient;in PEID group,27 patients got excellent result,12 good,3 moderate,and 1 poor;in UBE group,16 patients got excellent,10 good,2 moderate,and 2 poor. There was no significant difference among three groups (χ2=0.308,P>0.05). Recurrence of lumbar disc herniation occurred in 1 patient among each three groups,symptoms were improved in 2 patients after symptomatic treatment,and 1 patient was treated in other hospitals. CONCLUSION: PETD,PEID and UBE techniques could achieve good early clinical effects in treating lumbar disc herniation with similar complication rates. Both of PETD and PEID are single-channel minimally invasive surgery,with mild intraoperative tissue damage and quick postoperative recovery; while intraoperative fluoroscopy of PETD was relatively more frequent, and PEID was more suitable for L5S1 segment;UBE is a two-channel surgery,in which the intraoperative soft tissue damage is more severe,but exposure is broad,which is more suitable for complex cases.

High-flow nasal oxygenation versus face mask oxygenation for preoxygenation in patients undergoing double-lumen endobronchial intubation: protocol of a randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: With the growing emphasis on swift recovery, minimally invasive thoracic surgery has advanced significantly. Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) has seen rapid development, and the double-lumen tube (DLT) remains the most dependable method for tracheal intubation in VATS. However, hypoxaemia during DLT intubation poses a threat to the perioperative safety of thoracic surgery patients. Recently, transnasal high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) has shown promise in anaesthesia, particularly in handling short-duration hypoxic airway emergencies. Yet, its application in the perioperative period for patients undergoing pulmonary surgery with compromised cardiopulmonary function lacks evidence, and there are limited reliable clinical data. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A prospective, randomised, controlled, single-blind design will be employed in this study. 112 patients aged 18-60 years undergoing elective VATS-assisted pulmonary surgery will be enrolled and randomly divided into two groups: the nasal high-flow oxygen group (H group) and the traditional mask transnasal oxygen group (M group) in a 1:1 ratio. HFNO will be used during DLT intubation for the prevention of asphyxia in group H, while conventional intubation procedures will be followed by group M. Comparison will be made between the two groups in terms of minimum oxygen saturation during intubation, hypoxaemia incidence during intubation, perioperative complications and postoperative hospital days. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Approval for this study has been granted by the local ethics committee at Shenzhen Second People's Hospital. The trial results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05666908.

Contact Piezoresistive Sensors Based on Electro-Polymerized Polypyrrole and a Regulated Conductive Pathway.

The performance of contact resistive pressure sensors heavily relies on the intrinsic characteristics of the active layers, including the mechanical surface structure, conductivity, and elastic properties. However, efficiently and simply regulating the conductivity, morphology, and modulus of the active layers has remained a challenge. In this study, we introduced electro-polymerized polypyrrole (ePPy) to design flexible contact piezoresistive sensors with tailored intrinsic properties. The customizable intrinsic property of ePPy was comprehensively illustrated on the chemical and electronic structure scale, and the impact of ePPy's intrinsic properties on the sensing performance of the device was investigated by determining the correlation between resistivity, roughness, and device sensitivity. Due to the synergistic effects of roughness, conductivity, and elastic properties of the active layers, the flexible ePPy-based pressure sensor exhibited high sensitivity (3.19 kPa-1, 1-10 kPa, R2 = 0.97), fast response time, good durability, and low power consumption. These advantages allowed the sensor to offer an immediate response to human motion such as finger-bending and grasping movements, demonstrating the promising potential of tailorable ePPy-based contact piezoresistive sensors for wearable electronic applications.

Selective Ethylene Glycol Oxidation to Formate on Nickel Selenide with Simultaneous Evolution of Hydrogen.

There is an urgent need for cost-effective strategies to produce hydrogen from renewable net-zero carbon sources using renewable energies. In this context, the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction can be boosted by replacing the oxygen evolution reaction with the oxidation of small organic molecules, such as ethylene glycol (EG). EG is a particularly interesting organic liquid with two hydroxyl groups that can be transformed into a variety of C1 and C2 chemicals, depending on the catalyst and reaction conditions. Here, a catalyst is demonstrated for the selective EG oxidation reaction (EGOR) to formate on nickel selenide. The catalyst nanoparticle (NP) morphology and crystallographic phase are tuned to maximize its performance. The optimized NiS electrocatalyst requires just 1.395 V to drive a current density of 50 mA cm-2 in 1 m potassium hydroxide (KOH) and 1 m EG. A combination of in situ electrochemical infrared absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) to monitor the electrocatalytic process and ex situ analysis of the electrolyte composition shows the main EGOR product is formate, with a Faradaic efficiency above 80%. Additionally, C2 chemicals such as glycolate and oxalate are detected and quantified as minor products. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the reaction process show the glycol-to-oxalate pathway to be favored via the glycolate formation, where the CC bond is broken and further electro-oxidized to formate.

Comparison of ARIMA model, DNN model and LSTM model in predicting disease burden of occupational pneumoconiosis in Tianjin, China.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore appropriate model for predicting the disease burden of pneumoconiosis in Tianjin by comparing the prediction effects of Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model, Deep Neural Networks (DNN) model and multivariate Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM) models. METHODS: Disability adjusted life year (DALY) was used to evaluate the disease burden of occupational pneumoconiosis. ARIMA model, DNN model and multivariate LSTM model were used to establish prediction model. Three performance evaluation metrics including Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) were used to compare the prediction effects of the three models. RESULTS: From 1990 to 2021, there were 10,694 cases of pneumoconiosis patients in Tianjin, resulting in a total of 112,725.52 person-years of DALY. During this period, the annual DALY showed a fluctuating trend, but it had a strong correlation with the number of pneumoconiosis patients, the average age of onset, the average age of receiving dust and the gross industrial product, and had a significant nonlinear relationship with them. The comparison of prediction results showed that the performance of multivariate LSTM model and DNN model is much better than that of traditional ARIMA model. Compared with the DNN model, the multivariate LSTM model performed better in the training set, showing lower RMES (42.30 vs. 380.96), MAE (29.53 vs. 231.20) and MAPE (1.63% vs. 2.93%), but performed less stable than the DNN on the test set, showing slightly higher RMSE (1309.14 vs. 656.44), MAE (886.98 vs. 594.47) and MAPE (36.86% vs. 22.43%). CONCLUSION: The machine learning techniques of DNN and LSTM are an innovative method to accurately and efficiently predict the burden of pneumoconiosis with the simplest data. It has great application prospects in the monitoring and early warning system of occupational disease burden.

The influence of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on endogenous estrogen in patients with disorders of consciousness.

BACKGROUND: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been proposed as a promising therapeutic intervention for neurological disorders. However, the precise mechanisms of rTMS in neural excitability remains poorly understood. Estradiol is known to have strong influence on cortical excitability. This study aimed to determine whether high-frequency (HF) rTMS influences endogenous estradiol in male patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC). METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with a total of 57 male patients with DOC. Eventually, 50 patients completed the study. Twenty-five patients underwent real rTMS, and 25 patients underwent sham rTMS, which were delivered over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The primary outcome measure was the change in serum estradiol from baseline to after 10 sessions of HF-rTMS. The improvement in the total score of the JFK Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) was also assessed. RESULTS: Changes in estradiol levels and CRS-R scores from pre-to post-treatment were significantly different between the active rTMS and sham stimulation conditions. A significant enhancement of CRS-R scores in the patients receiving rTMS stimulation was observed compared to the sham group. Serum estradiol levels in patients following HF-rTMS were significantly higher than their baseline levels, whereas no significant changes were found in the sham group from pre-to post-stimulation. The rise in estradiol levels was greater in responders than in non-responders. The changes in estradiol levels were significantly positively correlated with the improvement in CRS-R scores. CONCLUSION: These preliminary findings indicate that serum estradiol levels are affected by HF-rTMS and positively related to clinical responses in male patients with DOC. The elevation of estradiol levels may lay a physiological foundation for successful rTMS treatment for DOC patients by increasing cortical excitability.

Synthesis and antiproliferative evaluation of novel 8-cyclopentyl-7,8-dihydropteridin-6(5H)-one derivatives as potential anticancer agents.

Based on our previous work, a novel class of 8-cyclopentyl-7,8-dihydropteridin-6(5H)-one derivatives were synthesized and evaluated as antiproliferative agents. Structure-activity relationship analysis revealed that the greatest activities were achieved with a 4-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)aniline group at C-2 position of dihydropteridin-6(5H)-one core, and the most promising compound 6k demonstrated comparable antiproliferative activity with Palbociclib and more potent than our parent derivative 4 toward four cell lines including HCT-116, HeLa, HT-29, and MDA-MB-231 with IC50 values of 3.29, 6.75, 7.56, and 10.30 µM, respectively. Moreover, the mechanism studies revealed that compound 6k could induce cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase via a concentration-dependent manner. In general, these preliminary observations suggested that these compounds could serve as promising scaffolds for further modification to develop novel and highly potent cancer therapy agents.

The study of multiple diagnosis models of human prostate cancer based on Taylor database by artificial neural networks.

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common malignancy seen in men and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in males. The incidence and mortality associated with PCa has been rapidly increasing in China recently. METHODS: Multiple diagnostic models of human PCa were developed based on Taylor database by combining the artificial neural networks (ANNs) to enhance the ability of PCa diagnosis. Genetic algorithm (GA) is used to select feature genes as numerical encoded parameters that reflect cancer, metastatic, or normal samples. Back propagation (BP) neural network and learning vector quantization (LVQ) neural network were used to build different Cancer/Normal, Primary/Metastatic, and Gleason Grade diagnostic models. RESULTS: The performance of these modeling approaches was evaluated by predictive accuracy (ACC) and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). By observing the statistically significant parameters of the three training sets, our Cancer/Normal, Primary/Metastatic, and Gleason Grade models' with ACC and AUC can be drawn (97.33%, 0.9832), (99.17%, 0.9952), and (90.48%, 0.8742), respectively. CONCLUSION: These results indicated that our diagnostic models of human PCa based on Taylor database combining the feature gene expression profiling data and artificial intelligence algorithms might act as a powerful tool for diagnosing PCa. Gleason Grade diagnostic models were used as novel prognostic diagnosis models for biochemical recurrence-free survival and overall survival, which might be helpful in the prognostic diagnosis of PCa in patients.

Molecular simulations of gas transport in hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber and ethylene-propylene-diene rubber.

Diffusion and sorption of five gases (H2, N2, O2, CO2, CH4) in hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) and ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) have been investigated by molecular dynamics (MD) and grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations. The diffusion coefficients of gas molecules in HNBR and EPDM are well correlated with the effective penetrant diameter except for CO2. CO2 shows a lower diffusion coefficient due to its linear shape. Additionally, the favorable interaction between CO2 and HNBR is another factor for its lower diffusion coefficient in HNBR. HNBR shows lower diffusion coefficients than EPDM. This is because the polar -CN groups in HNBR chains increase interchain cohesion and result in tight intermolecular packing, low free volume and poor chain mobility, which decreases the diffusion coefficients of HNBR. The solubility coefficients of CH4, O2, N2 and H2 in HNBR are lower than those in EPDM, which is a result of the weak HNBR-penetrant interactions and low free volume of HNBR. However, the solubility coefficient of CO2 in HNBR is higher than in EPDM. This is attributed to the strong interaction between CO2 and HNBR. H2, O2, N2 and CH4 show lower permeability coefficients in HNBR than in EPDM, while CO2 has higher permeability coefficients in HNBR. These molecular details provide critical information for the understanding of structures and gas transport between HNBR and EPDM.

Serum androgen profiles in women with premature ovarian insufficiency: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis aims to investigate serum androgen profiles (testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, androstenedione, and sex hormone-binding globulin) in women with premature ovarian failure and to establish if there is evidence of diminished androgen levels in these women. METHODS: Various Internet sources of PubMed, Cochrane library, and Medline were searched systematically until February, 2018. Out of a pool of 2,461 studies, after applying the inclusion/exclusion criterion, 14, 8, 10, and 9 studies were chosen for testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, androstenedione, and sex hormone-binding globulin, respectively, for this meta-analysis. The effect measure was the standardized mean difference with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) in a random-effects model. RESULTS: The testosterone concentrations in premature ovarian insufficiency were compared with fertile controls: stamdard mean difference (IV, random, 95% CI) -0.73 [-0.99, -0.46], P value < 0.05. The dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate concentrations in premature ovarian insufficiency compared to fertile controls: standard mean difference (IV, random, 95% CI) -0.65 [-0.92, -0.37], P value < 0.05. Androstenedione in premature ovarian insufficiency were compared with fertile controls: standard mean difference (IV, random, 95% CI) -1.09 [-1.71, -0.48], P value < 0.05. Sex hormone-binding globulin levels did not show statistical significance. The dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels were reduced in premature ovarian insufficiency cases, but still showed a higher level than in postmenopausal women. CONCLUSIONS: Women with premature ovarian insufficiency are at risk for decreased concentrations of testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and androstenedione. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels were more reduced in postmenopausal controls when compared with premature ovarian insufficiency cases.

Synergistic toughening of polypropylene with ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene and elastomer-olefin block copolymers.

Blends of polypropylene (PP) and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) with elastomer-olefin block copolymers (OBC) were prepared using an ultrasonic twin-screw extruder, and the mechanical, thermal, and rheological properties of the blends were investigated. The interfacial interactions among PP, OBC, and UHMWPE showed that the PP/OBC/UHMWPE blends formed a core-shell structure with UHMWPE as the core and OBC as the shell. The crystallization temperature and the crystallinity of the blends were improved for the heterogeneous nucleation between PP- and OBC-covered UHMWPE particles. Moreover, the mechanical and thermal properties of PP/UHMWPE blends have also been greatly improved by adding OBC. Furthermore, it was evident that the OBC-covered HHMWPE particles became smaller under the application of ultrasonic irradiation, so the interfacial interactions between the particles and the PP matrix were enhanced and the impact strength of the blends was improved.

Radiation dose for pediatric scoliosis patients undergoing whole spine radiography: Effect of the radiographic length in an auto-stitching digital radiography system.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the influence of spatial overlap and radiographic length (RL) on the effective dose (ED) and organ dose for pediatric patients undergoing whole spine radiography using an auto-stitching digital radiography (DR) system. METHODS: First, the system parameters were tested on a 10-year-old pediatric anthropomorphic phantom with a Shimadzu DR system, and the effects of the spatial overlap and RL on radiation doses were validated. The ED and organ dose were calculated on the basis of a Monte Carlo simulation program. Subsequently, 82 patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis were recruited. The spatial overlap and RL for each patient were modified to further investigate the dose reduction feasibility. RESULTS: RL and ED were appropriately correlated on the basis of patients' height. For a patient measuring 158 cm, the Shimadzu DR system was equipped with a 17-inch detector with a cut-off RL of 75 cm. The phantom simulations indicated that ED was reduced to a minimum value of 0.188 ± 0.001 mSv with a high RL for RL < 75 cm. The minimum value increased to 0.300 ± 0.002 mSv for an RL of 75 cm and dropped to 0.222 ± 0.001 mSv for the maximum RL. By employing optimized RLs for patients, EDs were significantly reduced (p < 0.05). Moreover, ED reductions were higher when longer RLs were employed. CONCLUSION: A decrease in the spatial overlap and number of radiographic acquisitions by adjusting RLs when possible could reduce ED and almost all organ doses. This study emphasized the effects of RL on the radiation dose and provided useful guidance for modifying the RL for patients to reduce the whole spine radiography dose using a modern auto-stitching DR system.

Facility characteristics and quality of lung cancer care in an integrated health care system.

INTRODUCTION: In a national, integrated health care system, we sought to identify facility-level attributes associated with better quality of lung cancer care. METHODS: Adherence to 23 quality indicators across four domains (Diagnosis and Staging, Treatment, Supportive Care, End-of-Life Care) was assessed through abstraction of electronic records from 4804 lung cancer patients diagnosed in 2007 at 131 Veterans Health Administration facilities. Performance was reported as proportions of eligible patients fulfilling adherence criteria. With stratification of patients by stage, generalized estimating equations identified facility-level characteristics associated with performance by domain. RESULTS: Overall performance was high for the older (mean age 67.7 years, SD 9.4 years), predominantly male (98%) veterans. However, no facility did well on every measure, and range of adherence across facilities was large; 9% of facilities were in the highest quartile for one or more domain of care, more than 30% for two, and 65% for three. No facility performed consistently well across all domains. Less than 1% performed in the lowest quartile for all. Few facility-level characteristics were associated with care quality. For End-of-Life Care, diagnosis and treatment within the same facility, availability of cancer psychiatry/psychology consultation services, and availability of both inpatient and outpatient palliative care consultation services were associated with better adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Quality of Veterans Health Administration lung cancer care is generally high, though substantial variation exists across facilities. With the exception of the salutary impact of palliative care consultation services on end-of-life quality of care, observed facility-level characteristics did not consistently predict adherence to indicators, suggesting quality may be determined by complex local factors that are difficult to measure.

Quality of supportive care for patients with advanced lung cancer in the Veterans Health Administration.

BACKGROUND: Morbidity related to cancer and its treatment remains a significant source of human suffering and a challenge to the delivery of high-quality care. OBJECTIVES: To develop and apply quality indicators to evaluate quality of supportive care for advanced lung cancer in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and examine facility-level predictors of quality. METHODS: We evaluated supportive care quality using 12 quality indicators. Data were taken from VHA electronic health records for incident lung cancer cases occurring during 2007. Organizational characteristics of 111 VHA facilities were examined for association with receipt of care. LIMITATIONS: Not all supportive care was evaluated. Care processes identified as present at facilities may not have been applied to cohort patients. Facility-level results may be influenced by errors in attributing a patient's care to the correct facility. CONCLUSIONS: Quality indicators for supportive cancer care can be developed and applied in large evaluations using electronic health record review. This study confirmed high-quality supportive care, while identifying significant facility-level variation in VHA.

Effects of matrine on the proliferation of HT29 human colon cancer cells and its antitumor mechanism.

Matrine is one of the main active components that is extracted from the dry roots of Sophora flavescens. The compound has potent antitumor activity in various cancer cell lines. However, the anticancer activity of matrine in colon cancer cells remains unclear. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of matrine on the growth of human colon cancer cells and the expression of the associated proteins. Cancer cell proliferation was measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). The activation of the caspases and the expression of pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic factors were examined using western blot analysis. Matrine was shown to significantly inhibit the proliferation of HT29 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner, and also to reduce the percentage of cells in the G2/M phase, which was most frequently associated with an increase of cells arrested in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. Western blot analysis revealed that matrine induced the activation of caspase-3 and -9 and the release of cytochrome C (Cyto C) from the mitochondria to the cytosol. Furthermore, the pro-apoptotic factor, Bax, was upregulated and the anti-apoptotic factor, Bcl-2, was downregulated, eventually leading to a reduction in the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax proteins. The results demonstrated that matrine inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis of HT29 human cells in vitro. The induction of apoptosis appears to occur through the upregulation of Bax, the downregulation of Bcl-2, the release of Cyto C from the mitochondria to the cytosol and the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, which subsequently trigger major apoptotic cascades. Matrine has potent antitumor activity in HT29 cells and may be used as a novel effective reagent in the treatment of colon cancer.

Clinical implications of fibroblast activation protein-α in non-small cell lung cancer after curative resection: a new predictor for prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Fibroblast activation protein-α (FAP-α), which is a serine protease specially expressed on the surface of the cancer stromal cells, plays an important role in the progression and prognosis in diverse malignancies. However, the role of FAP-α in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We enrolled 59 NSCLC patients who received complete resection. Sections of paraffin-embedded primary NSCLC specimens of all the patients were stained with antibody directed against FAP-α. Overall, percentage (Grade 0-3) and intensity (0-3+) of stromal FAP-α staining of the tumor were assessed. RESULTS: FAP-α was detected in >76 % of the specimens examined, and its high expression seemed to be correlated with poor tumor differentiation (P = 0.06). Furthermore, both increased FAP-α staining percentage and intensity were associated with worse overall survival of the patients (percentage, P = 0.0087; intensity, P = 0.05). Higher FAP-α staining percentage was observed in those patients with increased peripheral neutrophil and lymphocyte count ratio (P = 0.034). CONCLUSIONS: FAP-α is highly expressed in cancer stroma and also a predictor of poor survival of NSCLC patients. Elevated FAP-α expression may be associated with inflammation and suppressed lymphocyte-dependent immune response, which then result in the tumor progression. Therefore, FAP-α plays an important role in the progression of NSCLC, and its high expression is a predictor of poor survival. Targeting FAP-α may be a novel strategy for NSCLC therapy.

[Biological relativity of imaging of CT perfusion for pancreases to pancreatic cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationships between perfusion values of pancreatic cancers and the microvessel density of tumors (MVD) and vessel endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and the clinical value of multiple-slice spiral CT perfusion imaging in diagnosing pancreatic cancers. METHODS: Forty-two people with normal pancreas and eighteen patients with pancreatic cancers underwent multiple-slice spiral CT perfusion examinations. The time-density curve (TDC) of the region of interest (ROI) was drawn with the software equipped in the spiral CT. The CT perfusion parameters of the ROI peak reinforcement values were calculated, including blood flow (BF), blood volume (BV), time to start (TTS), time to peak (TTP), permeability, and mean of the patlak blood volume (pBV). Twenty patients (11 with pancreatic cancers and 9 with chronic pancreatitis) were chosen for CD34 and VGEF antibody immunohistochemistry staining on the same layers of pancreatic tissues as the CT perfusion targeted. The associations between the imaging of CT perfusion and MVD and VFGF were examined. RESULTS: The patients with pancreatic cancers had lower BF, VB, and pBV, and higher permeability than the normal controls (P<0.01). No differences appeared between the two groups in time to start and time to peak (P>0.05). The difference in average MVD of the 9 patients with chronic pancreatitis (13.8 +/- 9.6), and the 11 patients with pancreatic cancers (30.5 +/- 14.8) was statistically significant. Eight patients with pancreatic cancers showed strong positive VEGF and three showed weak positive VEGF. Only one patient with chronic pancreatitis showed strong positive VEGF while eight showed weak positive VEGF. The difference in positive rate of VEGF between the two groups of patients was statistically significant (P<0.01). The MVD in patients with pancreatic cancers (median 40.2) was correlated with BF (median 26.9), TTS (median 14.8), and TTP (median 145.3) (r=0.42, 0.63, and 0.45, respectively). The expression of VGEF (median 4.3) was negatively correlated with BV (r=-0.39). CONCLUSION: Imaging of CT perfusion has certain clinical value for diagnosing pancreatic cancers. The imaging of CT perfusion reflects the MVD and VEFG in the tumor tissues.

[Effects of chlorine ion and EDTA on cadmium availability to plants].

In a water culture experiment with rice and rape, different concentrations of chloride or EDTA were added to study the effects of chlorine ion and EDTA complexation on the uptake of cadmium by the plants. The results showed that the cadmium concentration in the shoots and roots of test plants decreased with increasing concentration of chloride or EDTA. With the increase of Cl- concentration, the cadmium content in rice shoot and root decreased from 212.2 mg x kg (-1) and 345. 1 mg x kg - to 34.1 mg x kg(-1) and 209.1 mg x kg(-1) , respectively. EDTA addition decreased the cadmium content in rice shoot and root from 212.2 mg x kg (-1) and 345.2 mg x kg(-1) to 50.0 mg x kg(-1) and 4.2 mg x kg(-1) , and that in rape shoot and root from 86.7 mg x kg(-1) and 149. 2 mg x kg(-1) to 22.2 mg x kg (-1) and 12. 3 mg x kg(-1 ), respectively. EDTA also affected the cadmium translocation from root to shoot. The complexation of Cl- or EDTA with cadmium reduced the uptake of Cd by plants, and the effect of EDTA was more obvious than that of Cl -.