Value of liver-muscle signal intensity and serum markers in diagnosis of chronic hepatitis B liver fibrosis / 临床肝胆病杂志

Objective To investigate the value of liver/muscle ratio (LMR) on susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) and serum markers in the diagnosis of the severity of chronic hepatitis B liver fibrosis after grouping based on alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for 255 patients with chronic hepatitis B who attended Affiliated Hospital of Yan'an University from October 2018 to September 2021, and the patients were divided into severe liver fibrosis group (SLF group) and non-severe liver fibrosis group (non-SLF group). The SLF group was defined as liver stiffness measurement (LSM) > 9.0 kPa and ALT level within the normal range or LSM > 12.0 kPa and ALT level greater than 1-5 times of the upper limit of normal. LMR was calculated by measuring the mean SWI value of the liver (SWI liver ) and the signal intensity of the erector spinae. The t -test was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between two groups, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between two group; the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between two groups. The binary logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the influencing factors for SLF. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the diagnostic performance of LMR and its combination with serum markers, and the DeLong test was used to compare the difference in the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Results Compared with the non-SLF group, the SLF group had significantly higher ALT ( Z =-3.569, P < 0.001), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) ( Z =-5.495, P < 0.001), hyaluronic acid (HA) ( Z =-6.746, P < 0.001), laminin (LN) ( Z =-5.459, P < 0.001), type Ⅳ collagen (Ⅳ-C)( Z =-8.470, P < 0.001), type Ⅲ procollagen (PCⅢ) ( Z =-6.326, P < 0.001), aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index ( Z =-9.004, P < 0.001), and FIB-4 ( Z =-8.357, P < 0.001) and significantly lower prothrombin time activity (PTA) ( t =10.088, P < 0.001), platelet count ( t =9.163, P < 0.001), SWI liver ( t =2.347, P =0.02), and LMR×10 ( Z =-4.447, P < 0.001). PTA, HA, Ⅳ-C, and LMR×10 were independent influencing factors for SLF. LMR×10 had an AUC of 0.675 (95% confidence interval [ CI ]: 0.614-0.732) in the diagnosis of SLF, which was significantly higher than that of SWI liver (AUC=0.594, 95% CI : 0.531-0.655) ( Z =3.984, P < 0.001). PTA+HA+Ⅳ-C+LMR×10 and PTA+HA+Ⅳ-C had an AUC of 0.937 (95% CI : 0.896-0.966) and 0.905 (95% CI : 0.858-0.941), respectively, suggesting that PTA+HA+Ⅳ-C+LMR×10 had a better diagnostic performance than PTA+HA+Ⅳ-C ( Z =2.228, P =0.026). Conclusion LMR and serum markers can accurately distinguish SLF after grouping based on ALT level. LMR is a quantitative and objective imaging indicator and is better than SWI liver , and it can also improve the diagnostic performance of serum markers for SLF in clinical practice.

Quantitative study on the degree of small airway disease and emphysema injury in pulmonary lobes of patients with smoking combined with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease based on biphasic CT / 中华放射学杂志

Objective:To explore the value of biphasic quantitative CT on small airway disease and emphysema injury in patients with smoking combined with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Methods:A total of 186 male physical examination subjects who underwent biphasic CT and pulmonary function (PFT) examinations in the Affiliated Hospital of Yan′an University from July 2018 to September 2020 were enrolled in this retrospective study. These subjects were divided into 121 smokers with COPD (COPD group), aged 34 to 84 (64±8) years old and 65 smokers without COPD (non-COPD group) aged 34 to 72 (61±5) years old. According to the guidelines of the COPD global initiative, patients in COPD group were divided into Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (GOLD) Ⅰ-Ⅳ grades. The original DICOM data of CT were imported into the "Digital Lung" test and analysis platform. Quantitative parameters of functional small airway disease percentage (fSAD%) and emphysema area percentage (Emph%) of each lobe were calculated. The differences of CT quantitative parameters among non-COPD group and each grade in COPD group were analyzed by One-Way ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis H test. The correlation between the smoking index and CT quantitative parameters was analyzed by Spearman correlation analysis. Results:There were significant differences in fSAD% and Emph% of each lobe among non-COPD group and COPD group GOLD Ⅰ-Ⅳ ( P<0.001). Except that the Emph% in right middle lobe of GOLD grade Ⅰ was higher than that of GOLD grade Ⅱ in COPD group, the fSAD% and Emph% in other lobes increased gradually with the increase of GOLD grade in COPD group. The fSAD% and Emph% were larger in the right middle lobe and both upper lobes of COPD group GOLD Ⅰ-Ⅳ. The comparison among each lobe showed that the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.01), except for the fSAD% and Emph% of GOLD Ⅳ ( P=0.395, 0.840). The smoking index was positively correlated with fSAD% and Emph% in each lung lobe. Among them, smoking index was highly correlated with fSAD% in the lower right lobe and Emph% in the lower left lobe ( r=0.474, 0.619, P<0.001). Conclusion:The biphasic quantitative CT can early and sensitively reflect the degree of small airway disease and emphysema injury in smoking combined with COPD, which is of great significance for the early diagnosis and evolution of COPD.

MRI study of white matter microstructural alterations in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder / 四川精神卫生

The development of cerebral white matter is essential for the establishment of normal behavior and cognitive functions， and several studies have shown that the alterations in white matter microstructure are associated with core symptoms and cognitive deficits in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder （ADHD）， suggesting that the abnormalities in cerebral white matter may be one of the neurological underpinnings of the disease. This article aims to review and summarize the magnetic resonance imaging studies of the white matter microstructure in children and adolescents with ADHD， to summarize the characteristics of the alterations in the white matter fiber tracts of ADHD， and to analyze the relationships with the clinical manifestations of the disease. Thereafter， the potential pathogenesis of ADHD is explored， thus providing a guidance for the future studies.

Translational application of neuroimaging in major depressive disorder: a review of psychoradiological studies / 医学前沿

Major depressive disorder (MDD) causes great decrements in health and quality of life with increments in healthcare costs, but the causes and pathogenesis of depression remain largely unknown, which greatly prevent its early detection and effective treatment. With the advancement of neuroimaging approaches, numerous functional and structural alterations in the brain have been detected in MDD and more recently attempts have been made to apply these findings to clinical practice. In this review, we provide an updated summary of the progress in translational application of psychoradiological findings in MDD with a specified focus on potential clinical usage. The foreseeable clinical applications for different MRI modalities were introduced according to their role in disorder classification, subtyping, and prediction. While evidence of cerebral structural and functional changes associated with MDD classification and subtyping was heterogeneous and/or sparse, the ACC and hippocampus have been consistently suggested to be important biomarkers in predicting treatment selection and treatment response. These findings underlined the potential utility of brain biomarkers for clinical practice.

Analysis of relationship between the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pulmonary function based on different threshold analysis of expiratory phase / 中国医学影像技术

Objective: To analyze the impact of the percentage of low attenuation area (LAA) in total lung volume (LAA%-950, LAA%-910, LAA%-856) with threshold lower than -856 HU, -910 HU and -950 HU on the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in deep end expiratory CT scan, and to explore the correlations between quantitative indicators and pulmonary function. Methods: CT images in deep expiratory and clinical lung function data of 104 COPD patients were collected. The patients were divided into 4 groups according to global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) guidelines. Then data were imported into the "digital lung" detection and analysis platform, and the mean lung density in expiratory phase (MLDex) and LAA%-950, LAA%-910, LAA%-856 were calculated. Pulmonary function indicators, including forced vital capacity (FVC), forced vital capacity expressed as percent predicted (FVC%), forced expiratory volume in 1 second expressed as percent predicted (FEV1%), FEV1/FVC, carbon monoxide diffusion capacity expressed as percent predicted (DLCO%), carbon monoxide diffusion capacity corrected for alveolar volume (DLCO/VA) and residual volume to total lung capacity ratio (RV/TLC) were obtained. CT quantitative parameters and pulmonary function indexes were compared among 4 groups, and correlations of CT quantitative parameters and lung function were analyzed. Multiple stepwise regression analysis was performed to observe the relationships of LAA%-950, LAA%-910, LAA%-856 and MLDex. Results: LAA%-950, LAA%-910 and MLDex were statistically significant among 4 groups (all P<0.01). LAA%-910 was negatively correlated with FVC, FVC%, FEV1%, FEV1/FVC, DLCO% and DLCO/VA, and positively correlated with RV/TLV. MLDex was negatively correlated with LAA%-950, LAA%-910 and Using LAA%-856. LAA%-950, LAA%-910 and MLDex could introduce a regression equation with R2=0.917 (P<0.01). Conclusion: Expiratory CT quantitative index LAA%-910 be used to accurately assess the severity of COPD and has good correlation with pulmonary function.

Hippocampal subfield volume alteration in post-traumatic stress disorder: a magnetic resonance imaging study / 生物医学工程学杂志

In the current study, we aim to investigate whether post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with structural alterations in specific subfields of hippocampus comparing with trauma-exposed control (TC) in a relatively large sample. We included 67 PTSD patients who were diagnosed under Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th Edition) (DSM-Ⅳ) criteria and 78 age- and sex-matched non-PTSD adult survivors who experienced similar stressors. High resolution T1 weighted images were obtained via a GE 3.0 T scanner. The structural data was automatically segmented using FreeSurfer software, and volume of whole hippocampus and subfield including CA1, CA2-3, CA4-DG, fimbria, presubiculum, subiculum and fissure were extracted. Volume differences between the two groups were statistically compared with age, years of education, duration from the events and intracranial volume (ICV) as covariates. Hemisphere, sex and diagnosis were entered as fixed factors. Relationship between morphometric measurements with Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) score and illness duration were performed using Pearson's correlation with SPSS. Comparing to TC, PTSD patients showed no statistically significant alteration in volumes of the whole hippocampus and all the subfields ( > 0.05). In male patients, there were significant correlations between CAPS score and volume of right CA2-3 ( = 0.197, = 0.034), right subiculum ( = 0.245, = 0.016), and duration statistically correlated with right fissure ( = 0.247, = 0.016). In female patients, CAPS scores significant correlated with volume of left presubiculum ( = 0.095, = 0.042), left subiculum ( = 0.090, = 0.048), and left CA4-DG ( = 0.099, = 0.037). The main findings of the current study suggest that stress event causes non-selective damage to hippocampus in both PTSD patients and TC, and gender-specific lateralization may underlie PTSD pathology.

A multi-parameter resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study of brain intrinsic activity in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children / 生物医学工程学杂志

A great number of studies have demonstrated functional abnormalities in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), although conflicting results have also been reported. And few studies analyzed homotopic functional connectivity between hemispheres. In this study, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were recorded from 45 medication-naïve ADHD children and 26 healthy controls. The regional homogeneity (ReHo), degree centrality (DC) and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) values were compared between the two groups to depict the intrinsic brain activities. We found that ADHD children exhibited significantly lower ReHo and DC values in the right middle frontal gyrus and the two values correlated with each other; moreover, lower VMHC values were found in the bilateral occipital lobes of ADHD children, which was negatively related with anxiety scores of Conners' Parent Rating Scale (CPRS-R) and positively related with completed categories of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Our results might suggest that less spontaneous neuronal activities of the right middle frontal gyrus and the bilateral occipital lobes in ADHD children.

Lipid-lowering effect of propolis in mice with Triton-WR1339-induced hyperlipidemia and its mechanism for regulating lipid metabolism / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the therapeutic effect of propolis against Triton-WR1339-induced hyperlipidemia in mice and explore the underlying mechanism.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into 7 groups (=10), including the control group, hyperlipidemia model group, fenofibrate (30 mg/kg) treatment group, and 4 treatment groups treated with low- (30 mg/kg) or high-dose (60 mg/kg) propolis HB01 or HB02. In all but the control group, acute hyperlipidemia models were established by intramuscular injection of Triton WR-1339, and corresponding treatments were administered via gastric lavage for 7 days. After the treatments, blood samples were collected for testing the levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), highdensity lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), alanine aminotransferase (GPT), and aspartate aminotransferase (GOT); Western blotting was used to detect the expressions of the proteins involved in lipid metabolism in the liver tissues including ABCA1, ABCG8, LDLR, and SR-B1.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the normal control group, the mice with Triton-WR1339-induced hyperlipidemia showed significantly increased levels of TC, TG, LDL, MDA, GPT, and GOT and lowered HDL-C levels and SOD activity ( < 0.05). Treatments with fenofibrate and the 2 propolis at either low or high dose significantly reversed Triton-WR1339-induced changes in blood lipids ( < 0.05), and the effects of propolis were more potent. Triton-WR1339 injection also significantly decreased the expressions levels of ABCA1, ABCG8, LDLR, and SR-B1 in the liver ( < 0.05), and these changes were obviously reversed by treatments with fenofibrate and propolis ( < 0.05), especially by the latter.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The lipid-lowering effects of propolis are mediated by improving lipid metabolism and regulating the expressions of lipid transport proteins in the liver tissue.</p>

The diagnostic and prognostic value of CT scans in patients with acute pancreatitis complications / 实用放射学杂志

Objective To analyze the diagnosis and prognosis value of abdominal CT scans in patients with acute pancreatitis complications.Methods 151 cases with acute pancreatitis were selected.The relationship between abdominal CT performances and the common complications and death in patients was analyzed.The prognosis of patients with different Balthazar CT severity index (CTSI) grade was compared.Results The complication rate of patients with CT signs of fatty liver, pleural effusion, liver gap effusion, adrenal gland involvement (AGI), penirenal space involvement (PSI) and gastric bare area involvement (GBAI) was significantly higher than that of patients with negative CT findings above (P<0.05).With CTSI grading increasing, the patient''s fasting time, heating time, hospital stay, recovery time of blood amylase were extended, and the incidence of pseudo cyst, transit surgery, organ failure and death was gradually increasing (P<0.05).Conclusion Severe fatty liver, AGI, GBAI, PSI and liver gap effusion are risk factors for acute complications and death in patients with pancreatitis.

Diagnostic Value of Spiral CT Head and Neck Angiography on Carotid Artery Stenosis in Patients with Acute Cerebral Infarction / 现代生物医学进展

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic value of spiral CT head and neck angiography on carotid artery stenosis in patients with acute cerebral infarction.Methods:A total of 60 patients with acute cerebral infarction(ACI),who were treated in Affiliated Hospital of Yan'an University from January 2014 to January 2016,were selected as observation group,and 60 patients with non-acute cerebral infarction,as control group.The two groups of patients underwent spiral CT head and neck angiography.The degrees of carotid artery stenosis and the distribution of vascular plaques were compared between the two groups.The diagnostic value of spiral CT head and neck angiography in the diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis of the patients with ACI was evaluated.Results:The detection rates of mild and moderate stenosis in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P＜0.05),while the detection rates of severe stenosis and occlusion had no significant difference compared with the control group (P＞0.05).The total detection rate of stenosis in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (P＜0.05).There were plaques detected in the carotid bifurcation,common carotid artery,internal carotid artery and external carotid artery in the two groups.The total detection rate (69.4％) of the observation group was significantly higher than that (41.2％) of the control group (P＜0.05).Conclusion:Application of 128-slice spiral CT can effectively assess the head and neck angiography on carotid artery stenosis in patients with acute cerebral infarction.This method has a higher detection rate from mild to moderate stenosis and bilateral carotid artery plaques in the patients with ACI,and it has application value in the clinical diagnosis and prognosis.

Analysis of Altered Baseline Brain Activity in Drug-Naive Adult Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder Using Resting-State Functional MRI

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesize that the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) is involved in the altered regional baseline brain function in social anxiety disorder (SAD). The aim of the study was to analyze the altered baseline brain activity in drug-naive adult patients with SAD. METHODS: We investigated spontaneous and baseline brain activities by obtaining the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 20 drug-naive adult SAD patients and 19 healthy controls. Voxels were used to analyze the ALFF values using one- and two-sample t-tests. A post-hoc correlation of clinical symptoms was also performed. RESULTS: Our findings show decreased ALFF in the bilateral insula, left medial superior frontal gyrus, left precuneus, left middle temporal gyrus, right middle temporal pole, and left fusiform gyrus of the SAD group. The SAD patients exhibited significantly increased ALFF in the right inferior temporal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, bilateral middle occipital gyrus, orbital superior frontal gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, right medial superior frontal gyrus, and left parahippocampal gyrus. Moreover, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale results for the SAD patients were positively correlated with the mean Z values of the right middle occipital and right inferior occipital but showed a negative correlation with the mean Z values of the right superior temporal gyrus and right medial superior frontal gyrus. CONCLUSION: These results of the altered regional baseline brain function in SAD suggest that the regions with abnormal spontaneous activities are involved in the underlying pathophysiology of SAD patients.

Whole brain diffusion tensor imaging in diagnosing social anxiety disorder based on support vector machine / 中华放射学杂志

Objective To evaluate the clinical value of whole-brain diffusion tensor imaging(DTI) in diagnosing patients with social anxiety disorder(SAD) using an automated method based on support vector machine(SVM) classification.Methods Whole brain DTI data were collected from 19 patients with SAD and 19 age-,gender-and education-matched healthy control(HC) subjects.Fractional anisotropy(FA) of whole brain was obtained by input all tensor images into Diffusion Toolkit software.Based upon the characteristics of brain FA,the pattern recognition of brain image data(PROBID) toolbox on the grounds of SVM algorithm was employed to classify the subjects,evaluate the diagnostic value of whole-brain FA data based SVM in diagnosing SAD patients and verify the robustness of the diagnostic results using permutation test with the threshold at P≤0.001.The weight vector score of each voxel was calculated according to the ratio between this voxel and whole brain in FA differences of the two groups.The white matter regions identified by setting the threshold to the top 30％ of the weight vector scores with at least 10 contiguous voxels were demonstrated by MRIcro software.Results Diagnostic accuracy of whole-brain FA based SVM in diagnosing SAD was 92.11％ (35/38) in which the specificity was 94.44％ (17/18),the sensitivity was 90.00％(18/20),the positive likelihood ratio was 17.01,the negative likelihood ratio was 0.11 and the diagnostic index was 184.22％.Permutation test suggested that the diagnostic results were significantly reliable.White matter regions showing major contributions favoring SAD over HC were located in the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum,the left uncinate fasciculus,the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus,the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus,bilateral frontal gyri and the left occipital lobe.Whereas,white matter in bilateral anterior cingula,the left middle cerebellar peduncle and the left inferior parietal lobule showed more contributions to diagnose HC than to diagnose SAD.Conclusions As whole brain FA data based on SVM showing a high accuracy in diagnosing SAD,brain DTI characteristics have the potential to be the specific indicators in the diagnosis of SAD.SVM might be used as a tool to verify the reliability of white matter abnormalities and provide regions of interest in DTI study of neurological and psychiatric diseases.

The blood and chest fluid expression levels and significance of Th17 cell and IL-17 in patients with tuberculous pleural effusion / 中国基层医药

Objective To investigate the blood and chest fluid level of Th17 cell and IL-17 in patients with tuberculous pleural effusion and its pathological role.Methods Flow cytometry and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to measure the blood and chest fluid level of Th17 cell and IL-17 from 30 patients with tuberculous pleural effusion,20 patients without tuberculous pleural effusion,and 20 healthy persons.Results The blood level of Th17 cell and IL-17 wwere higher in tuberculous pleural effusion than in the other two groups(P ＜0.05).The chest fluid level of Th17 cell and IL-17 in patients with tuberculous pleural effusion were significantly higher than those in patients without tuberculous pleural effusion (P ＜ 0.05 ).The chest fluid level of Th17 cell and IL-17 in patients with and without tuberculous pleural effusion were significantly higher than that of the blood serum level.After treatment for 1,3,7 and 14 days,tbe blood serum and chest fluid level of Th17 cell and IL-17 were obviously lower.( P ＜ 0.01 ).After treatment for 1 day,the blood level of Th17 cell was obviously lower than before treatment( P ＜ 0.01 ).After treatment for 3 days,the chest fluid level of Th17 cell was obviously lower than before treatment( P ＜0.01 ).After treatment for 3 days,the blood serum level of IL-17 was obviously lower than before treatment (P ＜ 0.01 ).After treatment for 7 days,the chest fluid level of IL-17 was obviously lower than before treatment ( P ＜0.01 ).Conclusion Th17 cell and IL-17 might play an important role in the pathogenesis of tuberculous pleural effusion and they were correlated with disease progression and the therapeutic effect.

An optimized voxel-based morphometry study of gray matter abnormalities in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder / 中华放射学杂志

Objective To explore changes of gray matter volume in patients with obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD) in Chinese Han population using optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) ,and investigate its relationship with clinical symptoms. Methods Twenty patients with OCD and 20 age,sex and handedness matched healthy controls were scanned using 3D-T1 images on a 3.0 T MR system. The high resolution T1WI was preprocessed according to the optimized VBM protocol in Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM5). Two-sample t test was performed to characterize the differences of the gray matter volume (GMV) between the OCD patients and healthy controls, and the correlations between the GMV and symptom severity and cumulative illness duration were examined using Pearson correlation in SPSS 16. 0, respectively.Results Compared to controls, OCD patients demonstrated increased GMV in left thalamus, right thalamus and left cerebellum after false discovery rate (FDR) correction. No areas of significantly decreased GMV was observed in OCD patients in relative to healthy controls. The mean eigenvalue ranged from 0. 5782 to 0. 889 representing the left thalamus volume of OCD patients was 0. 6813 ± 0. 0718, and that ranged from 0. 5546 to 0. 9062 was 0. 6869 ± 0. 0808 tor right thalamus. The mean eigenvalues were positively correlated in bilateral thalamus (r = 0. 94, P ＜ 0. 01). Conclusion Using optimized VBM, the current research indicates that the pathophysiology of OCD is associated with GMV abnormalities not only in corticostriato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) circuit, but also in the cerebellum.

Current progress in researches on depression with suicidal behavior in neurobiology / 生物医学工程学杂志

Suicide rate in depression is higher than that in general population, therefore, it is a major topic how to prevent the suicide in depression in clinic. In this paper, we review the risk factors in depression with suicidal behaviors and also the latest progress in neuroimaging, neuroendocrinology and molecular genetics, which may reveal the potential neurobiological mechanism of suicide in depression, and thus help the prevention of suicidality and further research.

Chinese brain template built on 3D high resolution MR imaging at 3.0T / 生物医学工程学杂志

Brain atlas provides a spatial reference system on which other images can be interpreted in a consistent way, and it is essential for the brain imaging research. However, because of the differences in structure between occidental and oriental brains, the brain atlas based on Western populations, e. g., the International Consortium for Brain Mapping's 154 T1 Weighted Average Atlas, may not be appropriate for other ethnic groups. Therefore, in the present study, we produce an average brain atlas which is based on the data collected from 100 healthy Chinese volunteers. The differences in brains between the Chinese population and the Western population were also investigated. Comparatively,Chinese brains are wider and shorter in size, and smaller in volume.

Brain functions in major depressive disorder: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study / 生物医学工程学杂志

This study sought to reveal the difference in resting-state brain functions between subjects with major depressive disorder and normal controls. Fifty-three depressed patients diagnosed with DSM-IV and 38 normal controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and the data were analyzed using a new method called Regional Homogeneity (ReHo). Then voxel wised comparison was made to derive the resting-state brain function differences between groups. Compared with normal controls, depressed subjects showed decreased ReHo in bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left medial frontal gyrus, and left middle temporal gyrus. Significant decreased ReHo in ACC might suggest less spontaneous neuronal activities or lower baseline brain activities of ACC in depressed subjects in comparison with normal controls.

Non-invasive MR perfusion study in patients with depression / 中华放射学杂志

Objective To investigate the brain perfusion changes in patients with refractory depressive disorder (RDD) and non-refractory depressive disorder (NDD) using arterial spin labeling (ASL).Methods Present study included 12 patients with RDD, 37 patients with NDD and 42 controls,and their age, sex and handedness were matched among the three groups.FAIR sequences were performed using a 3 T MR imaging system with an 8 channel phase array head coiL The labelled and controled images were subtracted and then averaged to obtain perfusion-weighted images.The first 2 images were excluded to avoid T, equilibrium effects and then voxel based analysis was performed using SPM2. One way ANOVA analysis using age as covariance ( thresholded at P ＜ 0.01 uncorrected) was performed.Results Patients with NDD showed regional alteration of the brain perfusion, mainly involved in two frontal subcortical circuits, i.e. significantly decreased perfusion in the left frontal and thalamus (the limbic thalamo-cortical circuit) whereas significantly increased perfusion in bilateral hippocampi, fight lentiform and left anterior cingulated gyros (the limbic-striatal-pallidal-thalamic circuit).In contrast, patients with RDD presented significantly decreased perfusion involving bilateral frontal areas (the limbic-thalamo-cortieal circuit) whereby no significantly increased perfusion areas were observed.Conclusion In addition to the reported experimental evidences, our results suggest that the RDD is associated with inactivity of bilateral frontal areas, while the NDD is associated with inactivity of left frontal areas and overactivity of bilateral limbic system.

Effect of Liuweidihuang Granula Cooperating with Flixotide Aerosol on IFN-? and IL-4 of Asthma Rat Models / 中华中医药杂志

Objective: To observe the effect of representative formula of nourishing yin and invigorating the kidney(Liuweidihuang Granula) cooperating with Flixotide aerosol inhalation on the allergic airway inflammation of asthma rat models.Methods: Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups.Except the norma1 control group,all the other 5 groups were sensitized by injecting into the abdominal cavity of the ovalbumin(OVA) together with aluminum hydroxide as adjuvants,2 weeks later followed by aerosolized OVA challenge to prepare the asthma models.From the eighth day of the experiment,in medication administration teams, rats were sprayed with Flixotide aerosol and given intragastric administration with Liuweidihuang Granula.The normal control group and the asthma model group were drenched with normal saline.Results: There was no difference between the groups given Liuweidihuang Granula and different dosages of Flixotide aerosol but the amount of IFN-? and IFN-?/IL-4 in BALF in the Liuweidihuang Granula cooperating with Flixotide aerosol group were higher than that in the model group(P

Studies on Quality Standard for Kangtai Capsule / 中药新药与临床药理

Objective To establish a quality standard for Kangtai Capsule. Methods Kangtai Capsule was identified by TLC; the effective components in Kangtai Capsule were determined by HPLC. Results The relevant spots in Radix Paeoniae Alba, Radix Saposhnikoviae and Radix Aucklandlae were identified by TLC. the content of Paeoniflorin showed a good linearity in the range of 0.204～ 2.040 ? g, the average recovery rate was 97.9 % and RSD was 0.88 % . Conclusion This method is simple, feasible and repeatable, and can be used for quality control of Kangtai Capsule.