Dynamics of oxidative stress and immune responses in neonatal calves during diarrhea.

Oxidative stress is the imbalanced redox status between oxidant production and their scavengers leading to intestinal physiological dysfunction. However, the role of systemic and local oxidative status during neonatal calf diarrhea is not known. This study assessed systemic (serum) and local (fecal) oxidative status when calves either naturally developed diarrhea or naturally recovered. Healthy calves were enrolled in the study at d 18 of age, and their health status was monitored from the enrollment. Based on their enteric health status on d 21 and 28, calves were grouped as continuous diarrhea from d 21 to 28 (n = 14), diarrhea at d 21 but recovered at d 28 (DH group, n = 19), healthy at d 21 but developed diarrhea at d 28 (HD group, n = 15), and healthy throughout the study (HH group, n = 16). Serum and fecal samples were collected at d 21 and 28 from all calves in the morning 2 h after feeding. Dynamics of oxidative stress indicators including reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde (MDA), H2O2, 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHDG), glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, catalase (CAT), and total antioxidant capacity and inflammatory indicators TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and IFN-γ were evaluated using serum samples. In addition, fecal oxidative stress indicators ROS and MDA were measured. Serum ROS, MDA, 8-OHDG, as well as fecal ROS and MDA, were higher, whereas serum CAT and H2O2 were lower in diarrheic calves than those of healthy calves. Serum ROS, MDA, and 8OHDG and fecal ROS and MDA increased in the HD group from d 21 to 28 as they developed diarrhea. In contrast, all these oxidative stress markers decreased in the DH group from d 21 to 28 as they recovered. However, serum H2O2 had an opposite changing trend, which became lower in the HD group and higher in the DH group at d 28. In conclusion, both systemic and local oxidative stress markers and cytokine profiles altered as calves moved from being healthy to having diarrhea or vice versa. Serum ROS, MDA, and 8-OHDG can be used to develop biomarkers to screen calves prone to enteric infections during the preweaning period.

[Clinical study of exploring new axillary zone in sentinel lymph node biopsy of breast cancer].

Objective: To explore the application of axillary reverse mapping (ARM) in breast cancer sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), and to collect and record patient's data during operation. Through the specific experimental data, the anatomical location and morphology of the intercostal brachial nerve (ICBN) and the anatomic relationship of the axillary lymph nodes were analyzed to accurately locate the anatomical division of the axillary fossa of sentinel lymph node (SLN) and ARM lymph nodes. Methods: The technique of methylene blue staining for SLN combined with indocyanine green fluorescent staining for axillary reverse mapping was used to analyze the patients of Tianjin Central Hospital of Gynecology Obstetrics from June 2017 to June 2018. The clinical data of 35 patients with T1-2N0M0 breast cancer were analyzed. Results: Of the 35 patients, two cases were excluded from metastatic carcinoma of the SLN. Thirty-three cases were included in the data analysis. Three cases of ICBN were located 0-2.0 cm (9.09%) from the lower edge of the iliac vein, 27 cases were located at 2.0-4.0 cm (81.82%), and 3 cases of ICBN were located greater than 4.0 cm (9.09%). In the region of 0-2.0 cm from the lower edge of the iliac vein, 1-2 ARM lymph nodes were found in 5 cases; in the 2.0-4.0 cm area, SLN was found in 33 cases, 4 of which found 1 coincident lymph node; at>4.0 cm ARM lymph nodes and overlapping lymph nodes were not found in the cm region, and 1-2 SLNs were found in 3 cases. Conclusions: Individual ICBNs vary greatly, with different shapes and distances from the lower edge of the axillary vein. The axillary region below the iliac vein can be divided into three regions: ARM region (0-2.0 cm); SLN region (2.0-4.0 cm); and sentinel gate region (>4.0 cm). The position 2.0 cm from the lower edge of the iliac vein can be used as the boundary between the ARM lymph node and the SLN. 4. There is a certain proportion of coincidence rate between SLN and ARM lymph nodes.

[Diagnostic value of 18F-FDG PET/CT and tumor markers (CEA, CA19-9, CA24-2) in recurrence and metastasis of postoperative colorectal moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of 18F-FDG PET/CT and tumor markers (CEA,CA19-9,CA24-2) in detection for recurrence and metastasis of postoperative colorectal moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Fifty-five patients were enrolled in this study. All of the patients were tested with serum CEA within 2 weeks when they underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT scan, and some patients were tested with serum CA19-9 and CA24-2 simultaneously. According to the pathology and clinical results of their follow-up, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT and tumor markers were calculated based on different divided groups, respectively. RESULTS: According to the pathology and the results of their clinical follow-up, the sensitivity of 18F-FDG PET/CT, CEA, CA19-9, CA24-2 and the combination of those three tumor markers were 95.74%, 68.09%, 28.57%, 40.00% and 74.47%, respectively. The specificity of 18F-FDG PET/CT, CEA, CA19-9, CA24-2 and the combination of those three tumor markers were 75.00%, 50.00%, 66.67%, 71.43% and 50.00%, respectively. The positive predictive valueof 18F-FDG PET/CT, CEA, CA19-9, CA24-2 and the combination of those three tumor markers were 95.74%, 88.89%, 85.71%, 88.89% and 89.74%, respectively. The negative predictive value of 18F-FDG PET/CT, CEA, CA19-9, CA24-2 and the combination of those three tumor markers were 75.00%, 26.67%, 11.42%, 17.24%, 25.00%, respectively. The accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT, CEA, CA19-9, CA24-2 and the combination of those three tumor markers were 92.73%, 65.47%, 32.65%, 44.68% and 70.91%, respectively. There were 2 cases of false positive and 2 cases of false negative in 18F-FDG PET/CT. CONCLUSION: 18F-FDG PET/CT has high value in detecting recurrence and metastasis of postoperative colorectal carcinoma. Tumor markers have the positive value to imply the recurrence and metastasis of postoperative colorectal carcinoma and are useful to indicate when to perform the 18F-FDG PET/CT. The combination of tumor markers could improve the diagnostic efficiency to some extent.

Frequency Up-Conversion Photon-Type Terahertz Imager.

Terahertz imaging has many important potential applications. Due to the failure of Si readout integrated circuits (ROICs) and the thermal mismatch between the photo-detector arrays and the ROICs at temperatures below 40 K, there are big technical challenges to construct terahertz photo-type focal plane arrays. In this work, we report pixel-less photo-type terahertz imagers based on the frequency up-conversion technique. The devices are composed of terahertz quantum-well photo-detectors (QWPs) and near-infrared (NIR) light emitting diodes (LEDs) which are grown in sequence on the same substrates using molecular beam epitaxy. In such an integrated QWP-LED device, photocurrent in the QWP drives the LED to emit NIR light. By optimizing the structural parameters of the QWP-LED, the QWP part and the LED part both work well. The maximum values of the internal and external energy up-conversion efficiencies are around 20% and 0.5%. A laser spot of a homemade terahertz quantum cascade laser is imaged by the QWP-LED together with a commercial Si camera. The pixel-less imaging results show that the image blurring induced by the transverse spreading of photocurrent is negligible. The demonstrated pixel-less imaging opens a new way to realize high performance terahertz imaging devices.