An initial screening strategy based on epidemiologic information in esophageal cancer screening: a prospective evaluation in a community-based cancer screening cohort in rural China.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In China, regional organized esophageal cancer screening programs have been implemented since 2005. However, the implementation of these screening programs is still facing some urgent challenges, especially concerning identifying high-risk individuals. This study aimed to evaluate the risk stratification potential of the current initial assessment strategy used in a mass esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) screening program in China. METHODS: A total of 43,875 participants without a previous cancer history enrolled in a mass ESCC screening program in China from 2007 to 2010 who had initial assessment results were included in this study and were followed until December 31, 2015. Eight potential risk factors for ESCC were evaluated in the initial assessment strategy. A comprehensive evaluation of the association of the initial assessment results with ESCC risk was performed by propensity score matching and Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 5.5 years, 272 individuals developed ESCC. The high-risk population assessed at baseline had a higher risk of ESCC than the non-high-risk population, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 3.11 (95% confidence interval (CI), 2.33-4.14) after adjustment for sex, age, education level, income level, and body mass index. In addition, the initial assessment results of the high-risk population were significantly associated with the risk of all esophageal cancers (HR, 3.30; 95% CI, 2.51-4.33) and upper gastrointestinal cancers (HR, 3.03; 95% CI, 2.43-3.76). CONCLUSIONS: The initial screening tool in a mass ESCC screening program in China, consisting of 8 accessible variables in epidemiologic surveys, could be helpful for the selection of asymptomatic individuals for priority ESCC screening.

Endometrial stem cell-derived granulocyte-colony stimulating factor attenuates endometrial fibrosis via sonic hedgehog transcriptional activator Gli2.

Intrauterine adhesion (IUA) is characterized by endometrial fibrosis, which ultimately leads to menstrual abnormalities, infertility, and recurrent miscarriages. The Shh/Gli2 pathway plays a critical role in tissue fibrogenesis and regeneration; Gli2 activation induces profibrogenic effects in various tissues, such as the liver and kidney. However, the role of Gli2 in endometrial fibrosis remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that activated Gli2 promotes endometrial fibrosis. Endometrial samples from moderate and severe IUA patients exhibited significantly enhanced expression of Gli2 compared with normal endometrial samples and mild IUA samples. Transfection with overactive Gli2 plasmids induced higher fibrosis-related protein expression, while blocking Gli2 signaling with cyclopamine caused the opposite effect in endometriotic stromal cells (ESCs), including inducing cell-cycle arrest. Menstrual-derived stem cell conditioned medium (MenSCs-CM) reduced endometrial fibrosis by reducing Gli2 protein levels and causing cell-cycle arrest in ESCs through granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). The effect was weakened after neutralization with a G-CSF antibody. Gli2 overexpression reduced the effects of MenSC-CM and G-CSF on fibrosis and cell-cycle progression in vitro. The antifibrotic effect of G-CSF was also observed in murine model. These findings demonstrate that Gli2 signaling promotes endometrial fibrosis, and the inhibition of Gli2 through MenSCs-secreted G-CSF may be of therapeutic value for managing endometrial fibrosis.

[Effect of simulated microgravity on peripheral oxygen saturation in rats].

To study the effect of microgravity on peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO 2) in rats, tail-suspended rats were applied to simulate microgravity environment. SpO 2 and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO 2) were measured by pulse oximeter and arterial blood gas analyzer (ABGA) respectively on the 14th day, 21st day and 28th day in tail-suspended group and control group. Paired t-test shows that SpO 2 was significantly lower than SaO 2 in tail-suspended group on the 14th day ( P < 0.05), the 21st day ( P < 0.05) and the 28th day ( P < 0.01). The ANOVA results shows that modeling time had significant effect on SpO 2 value but no effect on SaO 2 value in tail-suspended group. These results indicate that pulse oximeter may be not suitable for oxygen saturation test in microgravity environment.

[A case-crossover analysis of heat wave and hospital emergency department visits for cardiovascular diseases in 3 hospitals in Beijing].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the acute health effect of heat wave on cardiovascular emergency department visits ( EDVs ) in Beijing. METHODS: The bidirectional symmetric cases-crossover design was used to analyze the association between heat wave and EDVs for cardiovascular diseases in three hospitals of Beijing from 2009 to 2011. RESULTS: During the study period, the heat wave occurred five times, including 33 days with high temperature above 35 degrees C and 23 days heat wave. In the bidirectional symmetric cases-crossover design with 1 : 6 matched pairs, the heat wave at the current day has the highest effect on cardiovascular EDVs. The OR values in EDVs for cardiovascular diseases was 1.834 (95% CI 1.767 - 1.922) along with 1 degrees C increase in the maximum temperature. For the hypertension, ischemia heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, the corresponding OR values were 1.912 (95% CI 1.758 - 2.080), 1.770 (95% CI 1.627 - 1.926) and 1.846 (95% CI 1.725 - 1.976), respectively. The people aged 65 years and older were associated slightly stronger with heat wave than the people under the age of 65 years statistically. After being adjusted the other meteorological factors and air pollutants, the significant associations were also found between the heat wave and cardiovascular EDVs, and all adjusted ORs were positively increased. CONCLUSION: The acute health effect of heat wave is significantly associated with EDVs for cardiovascular diseases in Beijing.

[Chemical constituents from Crepis crocea].

Thirteen compounds were isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of Crepis crocea by column chromatographies on silica gel, Sephadex LH-20 and semi-preparative HPLC. The structures were elucidated on the basis of spectral analysis as tectorone I (1), 8ß- (2-methyl- 2-hydroxy-3-oxobutanoyloxy) -glucozaluzanin C (2), tectoroside (3), luteolin-7-O-glucoside (4), cosmosiin (5), esculetin (6), 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde (7), trans-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (8), Caffeic acid (9), methyl p-hydroxyphenyllactate (10), ethylp- hydroxyphenyllactate (11), cis-3,4-dihydroxy-ß-ionion (12). All the compounds, except for compounds 4 and 9, were isolated from this plant for the first time, and tectorone I (1) is a new natural product.

[Treatment of unexpected gallbladder carcinoma after laparoscopic cholecystectomy].

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the clinical features and diagnostic and therapeutic experiences of unexpected gallbladder carcinoma (UGC) during or after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) to boost radical resection rate and long-term efficacy. METHODS: The clinical data of 64 UGC patients undergoing LC were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The procedures included LC (n = 28) and LC plus radical resection (n = 36). The follow-up period was 2-132 months. The inter-group differences were statistically significant in post-operative survival rate (35 vs 46 months, P < 0.05). According to the TNM staging system, the post-operative survival rate between two groups for pTis+pT1a grade was not statistically significant (84 vs 132 months, P > 0.05).However the differences for pT1b, pT2 and pT3 grades were statistically significant (43 vs 86 months; 31 vs 52 months; 18 vs 36 months, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Identification of high-risk factors and intraoperative rapid pathologic examination improve radical resection rate.Radical cure via LC may be achieved for pTis and pT1a stages of UGC.For pT1b stage of UGC, optimal surgical procedures need further explorations.For stages pT2 and pT3 of UGC, radical surgery should be added for improved long-term efficacies.

An Investigation into the Potential Therapeutic Effects of the Qigu Zhushui Decoction on Mouse Models of Malignant Ascites.

AIM: To determine whether or not a decoction made from Qigu Zhushui has a suppressive impact on malignant ascites in mice. BACKGROUND: Malignant ascites are one of the common complications of advanced malignant tumors. Patients with malignant ascites typically have a poor prognosis, with only 12 to 20 weeks of survival. Currently, the standard treatments for malignant ascites are systemic chemotherapy, which is ineffective in eradicating the disease and is associated with issues such as safety, short duration of sustained high-level drug concentration in localised regions, and drug resistance. OBJECTIVE: To clarify the effect of Qigu Zhushui decoction on inhibiting malignant ascites in mice and provide the experimental basis for further research. METHODS: The ascites model of liver cancer in mice was established by intraperitoneal injection of the H22-H8D8 cell line of liver cancer. ELISA detected the content of CEA, VEGF and TNF-α in ascites. RESULTS: Qigu Zhushui decoction combined with cisplatin group and Qigu Zhushui decoction highdose group could significantly reduce the weight, abdominal circumference and ascites volume of mice, and their survival days and survival rate were also greatly improved; The levels of CEA and VEGF in the combination group decreased significantly, while the level of TNF-α increased; The level of TNF-a in the high dose group of Qigu Zhushui decoction was significantly increased, while the level of CEA and VEGF in the moderate dose group was decreased. CONCLUSION: Qigu Zhushui decoction can reduce the malignant ascites in mice, and the combination of Qigu Zhushui decoction and cisplatin has a significant anti-malignant ascites effect, which can significantly prolong the survival time and improve the survival rate.

Automatic ICD-10 coding: Deep semantic matching based on analogical reasoning.

Background: ICD-10 has been widely used in statistical analysis of mortality rates and medical reimbursement. Automatic ICD-10 coding is desperately needed because manually assigning codes is expensive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. Diagnoses described in medical records differ significantly from those used in ICD-10 classification, making it impossible for existing automatic coding techniques to perform well enough to support medical billing, resource allocation, and research requirements. Meanwhile, most of the current automatic coding approaches are oriented toward English ICD-10. This method for automatically assigning ICD-10 codes to diagnoses extracted from Chinese discharge records was provided in this paper. Method: First, BERT creates word representations of the two texts. Second, the context representation layer incorporates contextual information into the representation of each time step of the word representations using a bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory. Third, the matching layer compares each contextual embedding of the uncoded diagnosis record against a weighted version of all contextual character embeddings of the manually coded diagnosis record. The matching strategy is element-wise subtraction and element-wise multiplication and then through a neural network layer. Fourth, the matching vectors are combined using a one-layer convolutional neural network. A sigmoid is then used to output matching results. Results: To evaluate the proposed method, 1,003,558 manually coded primary diagnoses were gathered from the homepage of the discharge medical records. The experimental results showed that the proposed method outperformed popular deep semantic matching algorithms, such as DSSM, ConvNet, ESIM, and ABCNN, and demonstrated state-of-the-art results in a single text matching with an accuracy of 0.986, a precision of 0.979, a recall of 0.983, and an F1-score of 0.981. Conclusion: The automatic ICD-10 coding of Chinese diagnoses is successful when using the proposed deep semantic matching approach based on analogical reasoning.

Laparoscopic vs open radical resection in management of gallbladder carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Radical resection offers the only hope for the long-term survival of patients with gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) above the T1b stage. However, whether it should be performed under laparoscopy for GBC is still controversial. AIM: To compare laparoscopic radical resection (LRR) with traditional open radical resection (ORR) in managing GBC. METHODS: A comprehensive search of online databases, including Medline (PubMed), Cochrane Library, and Web of Science, was conducted to identify comparative studies involving LRR and ORR in GBCs till March 2023. A meta-analysis was subsequently performed. RESULTS: A total of 18 retrospective studies were identified. In the long-term prognosis, the LRR group was comparable with the ORR group in terms of overall survival and tumor-free survival (TFS). LRR showed superiority in terms of TFS in the T2/tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) Ⅱ stage subgroup vs the ORR group (P = 0.04). In the short-term prognosis, the LRR group had superiority over the ORR group in the postoperative length of stay (POLS) (P < 0.001). The sensitivity analysis showed that all pooled results were robust. CONCLUSION: The meta-analysis results show that LRR is not inferior to ORR in all measured outcomes and is even superior in the TFS of patients with stage T2/TNM Ⅱ disease and POLS. Surgeons with sufficient laparoscopic experience can perform LRR as an alternative surgical strategy to ORR.

Design and application of a novel telemedicine system jointly driven by multinetwork integration and remote control: Practical experience from PLAGH, China.

In China, several problems were common in the telemedicine systems, such as the poor network stability and difficult interconnection. A new telemedicine system jointly driven by multinetwork integration and remote control has been designed to address these problems. A multilink aggregation algorithm and an overlay network for telemedicine system (ONTMS) were developed to improve network stability, and a non-intervention remote control method was designed for Internet of Things (IoT) devices/systems. The authors monitored the network parameters, and distributed the questionnaire to participants, for evaluating the telemedicine system and services. Under a detection bandwidth of 8 Mbps, the aggregation parameters of Unicom 4G, Telecom 4G, and China Mobile 4G were optimal, with an uplink bandwidth, delay, and packet loss ratio (PLR) of 7.93 Mbps, 58.80 ms, and 0.06%, respectively. These parameters were significantly superior to those of China Mobile 4G, the best single network (p < 0.001). Through the ONTMS, the mean round-trip transporting delay from Beijing to Sanya was 76 ms, and the PLR was 0 at vast majority of time. A total of 1988 participants, including 1920 patients and 68 doctors, completed the questionnaires. More than 97% of participants felt that the audio and video transmission and remote control were fluent and convenient. 96% of patients rated the telemedicine services with scores of 4 or 5. This system has shown robust network property and excellent interaction ability, and satisfied the needs of patients and doctors.

Behaviour change techniques that constitute effective planning interventions to improve physical activity and diet behaviour for people with chronic conditions: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: Action planning is a brief and effective behaviour change technique (BCT) to improve physical activity (PA) and diet behaviour (DB). This study aimed to identify critical BCTs and mechanisms of action (MoAs) to interpret the effectiveness of planning interventions based on the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) model. DESIGN: Systematic review. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL (EBSCO), PsycINFO (EBSCO), Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection (EBSCO), psyARTICLES and Medline were searched for studies from January 1990 to September 2021 published in English. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Experiment involving action planning intervention to improve PA or DB in community-dwelling adult patients with chronic conditions. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two reviewers independently coded the planning interventions into BCT combinations and MoA assemblies. Outcome was dichotomised according to the statistical power and Cohen's d. The Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool and the Risk of Bias in Nonrandomized Studies-of Interventions assessment tool were used to assess the quality of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs, respectively. RESULTS: From the 52 included studies, 46 BCTs were identified and linked to 21 MoAs. Long-term facilitators for planning intervention included 'self-monitoring of behaviour', 'problem solving', 'instruction on how to perform the behaviour' and 'adding objects to the environments'. The three most frequently occurring MoAs were 'intention', 'behavioural regulation', 'beliefs about capabilities'. The effective intervention groups had higher MoA scores that corresponded to the HAPA model constructs than the ineffective groups. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this review may inform scientific and effective planning intervention designs for community-dwelling people with chronic conditions in the future. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42021241227.

Structural analysis and antidiabetic activity study of three acidic-type polysaccharides from Crepis crocea (Lam.) Babc.

In this article, we analyzed the structures of three acidic hetero-chain polysaccharides (CTP3-B, CTP3-C, and CTP3-D) fractionated from the herb Crepis crocea (Lam.) Babc. by a combination of ethanol precipitation, dialysis and gel permeation chromatography. Three polysaccharides were all highly branched polysaccharide. KK-Ay mice were chosen to determine the hypoglycemic effect of CTP3. The anti-diabetic activity of CTP3 was explored in detail from the aspects of body weight, daily dietary intake, blood glucose level and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). It was found that the body weight and daily food intake of the high dose group were significantly decreased compared with the diabetic control group. In addition, there was significant decrease in the levels of blood glucose in the middle and high dose group. These results suggest that CTP3 had a regulative role in blood glucose level. CTP3 may be useful in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Medicinal herb research: serum pharmacological method and plasma pharmacological method.

Serum pharmacological method has generally been used in herb studies. However, preparation of test serum for ex vivo experiment is an intricate process: besides pretreatment (heat or chemicals), it involves the proteolytic cascades of coagulation along with fibrinolysis, complement and kinin systems, as well as platelet and leukocyte activation resulting in release reactions. These processes deviate serum sample components away from the original in vivo state, and possibly also have effects on the absorbed herbal components and their downstream effectors in blood. The conclusions drawn from serum pharmacological method are at least partially uncertain in its validity. These processes can be avoided by anticoagulation. Compared to those of the serum, constituents of plasma are better reflectors of the in vivo physiological/pathological state and medicinal herb-induced changes. Therefore, we have advocated the adoption of plasma pharmacological method in ex vivo experiments of herb studies. Recent studies including our work demonstrated that the constituents and biological activities are partially different between absorbed medicinal herbs in plasma and serum. This review summarizes the experimental evidence supporting the feasibility of plasma pharmacological method and discusses the reasons and facts that flaw the serum pharmacological method. But serum pharmacological method can be used if anticoagulants interfere with experiments. It should be emphasized that the domination between plasma and serum pharmacological methods is different depending on the usage. Indeed, the pros and cons of both methods as well as the appropriate choices of coagulants in different ex vivo experimental settings remain to be further elucidated.

Robot-Assisted Partial Splenectomy for Splenic Epidermoid Cyst.

The splenic cyst is a rare disease with unknown etiology. The inner wall of the cyst has lining epithelium. The cyst can be unilocular or multilocular. According to pathology, it can be divided into four types: epidermoid cyst, dermoid cyst, cystic lymphangioma, and cystic hemangioma. Ultrasound examination is often the first choice for splenic cysts because of its nonradiation, low cost, and convenient examination. The images are mostly cystic masses with clear borders and dark areas without echoes, after the detection of splenic space-occupying lesions by ultrasonography, CT, and MRI. Here, we report robot-assisted partial splenectomy for a splenic cyst. Imaging diagnosis of abdominal CT enhancement: the cystic space-occupying of the spleen is considered. We should improve the preoperative examination and exclude operative contraindications. During the operation, there was about 8 cm of the upper pole of the spleen, and the boundary was clear. There was no obvious abnormality in the exploration of the abdominal viscera. The operation was successful. The operative time was 115 minutes, and the blood loss was 20 ml. On the first day after the operation, the patient took a liquid diet. The time of first anal exhaust was on the second day after operation. The patient was discharged at the fourth day. Postoperative pathology revealed epidermoid cyst. The therapy strategy of the splenic cyst is ambiguous. Better understanding of the splenic segmental anatomy and surgical skills has made minimally invasive partial splenectomy a preferred treatment for splenic cysts. In this paper, we report a case of splenic epidermoid cyst managed successfully by robot-assisted partial splenectomy.

A Comparison Between the Prognosis of Simultaneous and Salvage Radical Resection in Incidental Gallbladder Cancer.

PURPOSE: Incidental gallbladder cancer (IGBC) is defined as gallbladder cancer (GBC) that is accidentally discovered during cholecystectomy to treat benign lesions. We aimed to compare the prognosis of IGBC patients who underwent simultaneous radical resection (SIR) vs salvage radical resection (SAR). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed data for IGBC patients admitted to Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital from January 2000 to May 2016. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier (univariate) and COX regression (multivariate) analyses. RESULTS: Eighty-four patients with IGBC underwent radical resection; 43/84 underwent SIR, and 41/84 underwent SAR. Compared with SIR, the SAR group was more likely to receive comprehensive preoperative radiographic evaluation, port-site excision, and have more lymph nodes excised (all P < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that the prognosis in the SAR group was better than that in SIR (overall survival: P = 0.050, recurrence-free survival: P = 0.028). Regression analysis indicated that the type of radical resection (SIR/SAR) was not an independent prognostic factor (overall survival: P = 0.737, recurrence-free survival: P = 0.957). CONCLUSION: Patients undergoing SAR had non-inferior survival compared with SIR. It is possible that patients in SAR underwent preoperative radiographical evaluations more comprehensively and the surgical operations were more well performed.

Functional changes of the lateral pterygoid muscle in patients with temporomandibular disorders: a pilot magnetic resonance images texture study.

BACKGROUND: Texture features were the intrinsic properties of the human tissues and could efficiently detect the subtle functional changes of involved tissue. The pathologic changes of the lateral pterygoid muscle (LPM) were significantly correlated with the temporomandibular disc displacement. However, the occult functional changes of LPM could not be detected by the naked eye on the medical images. The current study was aimed to evaluate the functional changes of the LPM in the patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) using texture analysis. METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with TMD were performed with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging on a 3.0T MR scanner, who were consecutively recruited from the TMD clinic of Hainan Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital from February 2019 to September 2019. The patients were classified into three groups according to the disc displacement: disc without displacement (DWoD), disc displacement with reduction (DDWR) and disc displacement without reduction (DDWoR). The gray-level co-occurrence matrix method was applied with the texture analysis of LPM on the axial T2-weighted imaging. The texture features included angular second moment, contrast, correlation, inverse different moment, and entropy. One-way analysis of variance was used for grouped comparisons and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was applied to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the texture parameters. RESULTS: Texture contrast of LPM presented significantly lower in DDWoR (46.30 [35.03, 94.48]) than that in DWoD (123.85 [105.06, 143.23]; test statistic = 23.05; P < 0.001). Texture entropy of LPM showed significant differences among DWoD (7.62 ±â€Š0.33), DDWR (6.76 ±â€Š0.35), and DDWoR (6.46 ±â€Š0.39) (PDWoD-DDWR < 0.001, PDWoD-DDWoR < 0.001, and PDDWR-DDWoR = 0.014). Area under the ROC curve (AUC) demonstrated that texture entropy had an excellent diagnostic accuracy for DWoD-DDWR (AUC = 0.96) and DWoD-DDWoR (AUC = 0.98). CONCLUSION: The texture contrast and entropy could identify the altered functional status of LPM in patients with TMD and could be considered as the effective imaging biomarker to evaluate the functional changes of LPM in TMD.

[Effect of Dahuangzhechong pill on the gene expression spectra of preventing arterial thrombosis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of Dahuangzhechong pill on the gene expression spectra of preventing arterial thrombosis, and reveal its mechanism on molecule level. METHODS: Mononuclear cell and blood platelet of the arterial thrombosis patients were separated before and after treatment by Dahuangzhechong pill. Their RNA was extracted respectively and the genes expressions were detected using gene array containing 14,000 gene. RESULTS: 44 genes up-expressed and 299 genes down-expressed in blood platelet, 252 genes expression increased and 299 genes expression decreased in mononuclear cell genes after treated with Dahuangzhechong pill. The cluster analysis showed that the genes contained ion channel and transport protein, apoptosis related protein, DNA synthesis, repair and transcription factor, cell receptor, cell signal and transducin, and protein translation and synthesis, etc. CONCLUSION: Dahuangzhechong pill may prevent arterial thrombosis through genes containing ion channel and transport protein, apoptosis related protein, DNA synthesis, repair and transcription factor, cell receptor, cell signal and transducin, and protein translation and synthesis, etc.

[Effect of Dahuang Zhechong pills on arterial thrombosis in rabbits].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of Dahuang Zhechong pills (DZ) on arterial thrombotic model in vivo. METHODS: Sixty-five rabbits were randomly divided into 7 groups: normal, model (collagen encapsulated thread-drawing),model+aspirin (ASA), model+clopidogrel (CP),model+ASA+CP, model+ low dosage DZ (DZL), and model+high dosage DZ (DZH). All rabbits except the normal group were fed with the drugs repectively for 8 days,and sacrificed at 2 hours after the last feeding, obtained aortae. The pathological changes in the aortae were observed under microscope,and the level of FDP, D-dimer and tissue factor (TF) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: The vascular vessels were filled with thrombi in the model group and the elastic membranes of the vessel wall were seriously injured. The arterial thrombi were observed around the vascular wall in the DZL group, but some of the thrombi were dissolved. The number of thrombi was remarkably decreased in the DZH group, and most thrombi were dissolved and the vascular intimal membranes were intact. Compared with the model group, the dry and wet weight of the thrombi and the level of D-dimer, FDP, and TF in the plasma were significantly attenuated (P<0.01) in all the treatment groups. There were no significant difference between the DZL group and the ASA group in the dry weight, D-Dimer, and FDP (P>0.05). The pathological changes in the vascular vessel and the elevation of plasma parameters in the DZL group were similar to those in the ASA and CP groups (P>0.05). The dry and wet weight, D-dimer, FDP, and TF in the plasma in the DZH group were significantly lower than those in the DZL group (P<0.01 or P<0.05, separatively), and closed to those in the ASA+CP group. CONCLUSION: Dahuang Zhechong pills are potential novel anti-thromobotic agent for arterial thrombosis.

[Development of a digital EEG signal acquiring system based on virtual instrument technology].

This paper introduces an 16-lead digital EEG signal acquisition system, which applies MCU MSP430 as central control unit with high performance analog devices and high speed multi-channel, multi-bit analog-to-digital converter as peripheral to retrench analog circuit. Data is transferred to PC by USART interface. Software on PC based on virtual instrument technology realizes real-time detection, display and storage. The system has many advantages such as high precision, stable performance, small volume and low power dissipation, thus provides a new means for digital EEG signal acquisition.

N-Acetyltransferase 10 Enhances Doxorubicin Resistance in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Lines by Promoting the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition.

BACKGROUND: N-Acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10) has been reported to be expressed at high levels in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, its role in chemoresistance is unclear. This study is aimed at investigating whether NAT10 regulates the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and chemoresistance in HCC. METHODS: HCC cell lines (Huh-7, Bel-7402, SNU387, and SNU449) were treated with remodelin, an inhibitor of NAT10, or transfected with small inhibitory RNAs (siRNAs) targeting NAT10 or Twist. The EMT was induced by hypoxia. The CCK-8 assay was used to quantify cell viability, the EdU incorporation assay to assess cell proliferation. siRNA knockdown efficiency and epithelial/mesenchymal marker expression were assessed by western blotting. RESULTS: Knockdown of NAT10 using siRNA or inhibition of NAT10 using remodelin increased the sensitivity of HCC cell lines to doxorubicin; similar effects were observed in cells transfected with the Twist siRNA. Inhibition of NAT10 using remodelin also reversed the ability of doxorubicin to induce the EMT in HCC cells. Furthermore, inhibiting NAT10 reversed the hypoxia-induced EMT. Finally, we confirmed that combining doxorubicin with remodelin delayed tumor growth and reduced tumor cell proliferation in a mouse xenograft model of HCC. CONCLUSIONS: NAT10 may contribute to chemoresistance in HCC by regulating the EMT. The mechanism by which NAT10 regulates the EMT and doxorubicin sensitivity in HCC cells merits further investigation.