Vacuum bell therapy for pectus excavatum: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Pectus excavatum, the most common chest wall deformity, is frequently treated with Nuss procedure. Here we will describe non-invasive procedure and analyze the variables associated vacuum bell therapy for patients with pectus excavatum. METHODS: Retrospective case-control study in a single center between July 2018 and February 2022, including patients with pectus excavatum treated with vacuum bell. Follow-up was continued to September 2022. The Haller index and Correction index was calculated before and after treatment to analysis the effectiveness of vacuum bell therapy. RESULTS: There were 98 patients enrolled in the treatment group, with 72 available for analysis, and the follow-up period ranged from 1.1 to 4.4 years (mean 3.3 years). When analyzing with the Haller Index, 18 patients (25.0%) showed excellent correction, 13 patients (18.1%) achieved good correction, and 4 patients (5.6%) had fair correction. The remaining patients had a poor outcome. Characteristics predicting a non-poor prognosis included initial age ≤ 11 years (OR = 3.94, p = 0.013) and patients with use over 24 consecutive months (OR = 3.95, p = 0.013). A total of 9 patients (12.5%) achieved a CI reduction below 10. Patients who started vacuum bell therapy at age > 11 had significantly less change compared to those who started at age ≤ 11 (P < 0.05). Complications included chest pain (5.6%), swollen skin (6.9%), chest tightness (1.4%) and erythema (15.3%). CONCLUSIONS: A certain percentage of patients with pectus excavatum can achieve excellent correction when treated with pectus excavatum therapy. Variables predicting better outcome including initial age ≤ 11 years both in HI and CI and vacuum bell use over 24 consecutive months in HI. In summary, pectus excavatum is an emerging non-invasive therapy for pectus excavatum and will be widely performed in a certain group of patients.

Mussel-inspired polydopamine: a biocompatible and ultrastable coating for nanoparticles in vivo.

Bioinspired polydopamine (PDA) has served as a universal coating to nanoparticles (NPs) for various biomedical applications. However, one remaining critical question is whether the PDA shell on NPs is stable in vivo. In this study, we modified gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with finely controlled PDA nanolayers to form uniform core/shell nanostructures (GNP@PDA). In vitro study showed that the PDA-coated GNPs had low cytotoxicity and could smoothly translocate to cancer cells. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis demonstrated that the PDA nanoshells were intact within cells after 24 h incubation. Notably, we found the GNP@PDA could partially escape from the endosomes/lysosomes to cytosol and locate close to the nucleus. Furthermore, we observed that the PDA-coated NPs have very different uptake behavior in two important organs of the liver and spleen: GNP@PDA in the liver were mainly uptaken by the Kupffer cells, while the GNP@PDA in the spleen were uptaken by a variety of cells. Importantly, we proved the PDA nanoshells were stable within cells of the liver and spleen for at least six weeks, and GNP@PDA did not show notable histological toxicity to main organs of mice in a long time. These results provided the direct evidence to support that the PDA surface modification can serve as an effective strategy to form ultrastable coatings on NPs in vivo, which can improve the intracellular delivery capacity and biocompatibility of NPs for biomedical application.

High-rate lithium-sulfur batteries promoted by reduced graphene oxide coating.

Lithium-sulfur batteries have a poor rate performance and low cycle stability due to the shuttling loss of intermediate lithium polysulfides. To address this issue, a carbon-sulfur nanocomposite coated with reduced graphene oxide was designed to confine the polysulfides.

Template synthesis of carbon nanofibers containing linear mesocage arrays.

Carbon nanofibers containing linear mesocage arrays were prepared via evaporation induced self-assembly method within AAO template with an average channel diameter of about 25 nm. The TEM results show that the mesocages have an elongated shape in the transversal direction. The results of N2 adsorption-desorption analysis indicate that the sample possesses a cage-like mesoporous structure and the average mesopore size of the sample is about 18 nm.

A new restriction effect of hard templates for the shrinkage of mesoporous polymer during carbonization.

A new restriction effect of hard templates for the shrinkage of mesoporous polymer results in anomalous increase of the mesopore size during carbonization.

Synthesis of Novel Flower-Like Zn(OH)F via a Microwave-Assisted Ionic Liquid Route and Transformation into Nanoporous ZnO by Heat Treatment.

Zinc hydroxide fluoride (Zn(OH)F) with novel flower-like morphology has been prepared via a microwave-assisted ionic liquid route. The flower-like Zn(OH)F particle has six petals and every petal is composed of lots of acicular nano-structure. Nanoporous ZnO is obtained by thermal decomposition of as-prepared Zn(OH)F in air, and the flower-like morphology is well retained. In the process of synthesis, ionic liquid 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate is used as both the reactant and the template.

Template synthesis of three-dimensional cubic ordered mesoporous carbon with tunable pore sizes.

Three-dimensional cubic ordered mesoporous carbons with tunable pore sizes have been synthesized by using cubic Ia3d mesoporous KIT-6 silica as the hard template and boric acid as the pore expanding agent. The prepared ordered mesoporous carbons were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis. The results show that the pore sizes of the prepared ordered mesoporous carbons with three-dimensional cubic structure can be regulated in the range of 3.9-9.4 nm. A simplified model was proposed to analyze the tailored pore sizes of the prepared ordered mesoporous carbons on the basis of the structural parameters of the silica template.

Facile fabrication of magnetic nanocomposites of ordered mesoporous carbon decorated with nNickel nanoparticles.

A magnetic nanocomposite of ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) decorated with nickel nanoparticles was synthesized successfully by a simple chemistry method. Nickel nanoparticles were prepared and uniformly supported on ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-3 by reduction route with CMK-3 as a reducing agent at 673 K. The Ni/CMK-3 composite materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen sorption, and transmission electron microscopy. As-prepared nickel nanoparticles supported on CMK-3 were crystalline with a face-center-cubic phase and a size distribution ranging from 10 to 60 nm. The BET special surface area and pore volume of Ni/CMK-3 were as high as 797 m2 g(-1) and 0.72 cm3 g(-1), respectively. The formation mechanism of the nickel nanoparticles outside the surface of CMK-3 was preliminarily discussed. The hysteresis loops of the CMK-3 decorated with nickel nanoparticles were measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and the results showed that the composite was ferromagnetism with the saturated magnetization of 15 emu/g, and the coercivity value of 214 Oe. Furthermore, the application of Ni/CMK-3 as magnetically separable adsorbent for vitamin B2 was primarily examined in this study.

Encapsulation and photoluminescent property of [Eu(bpy)2]3+ in mesoporous material HMS.

The photoluminescence properties of europium (III) ions and its complex with 2,2'-bipyridine, [Eu(bpy)2]3+, encapsulated in the hexagonal mesoporous material HMS are reported. X-ray diffraction spectra, ICP analysis, IR spectra, N2 adsorption measurements, and the photoluminescence spectra were used to characterize the corresponding impregnated samples. All the impregnated HMS samples exhibit the typical photoluminescence properties of Eu3+ when excited with a xenon lamp. These results show that HMS is an efficient host lattice for the photoluminescence of the europium (III) ions bound to an appropriate ligand.

NixPb1-x nanowire arrays: effects of annealing.

Ni(x)Pb(1-x) nanowire arrays were successfully fabricated by AC electrodeposition within the nanopores of ordered porous alumina films prepared by a two-step anodization. Transmission electron microscopy analyses showed that the Ni-Pb nanoarrays are polycrystalline with dimension uniformity around 20 nm in diameter and lengths up to several micrometers. X-ray diffraction results revealed that the face-centered-cubic (fcc) Ni and fcc Pb peaks are detected when the Ni component (x) is below 0.71, indicating that the Ni(x)Pb(1-x) nanoarrays do not form metastable phase alloy. Hysteresis loops determined by vibrating sample magnetometer indicated that the Ni(x)Pb(1-x) nanoarrays obtained possess obvious magnetic anisotropy, and the perpendicular coercivity was lower than that of pure Ni nanowries before and after annealing. Annealing under magnetic field was carried out to examine the effect of a magnetic field on magnetic properties using an electromagnet field up to 0.3 T.