Application of echocardiography in transcatheter aortic valve replacement in patients with severe aortic regurgitation and correlation analysis of postprocedural complications.

BACKGROUND: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is gradually becoming an alternative therapy for patients who cannot adapt to surgical treatment or have contraindications. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of echocardiography in the evaluation of severe AR patients treated with TAVR and to analyze the correlations with postprocedural complications to improve the evaluation and screening of patients. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed clinical and echocardiographic data of 70 patients with severe AR. Periaortic valve structures were carefully measured by esophageal echocardiography (TEE) and compared with the multilayer slice computed tomography (MSCT) findings. Real-time three-dimensional esophageal echocardiography (RT-3D TEE) was monitored during the operation, and a 30-day postprocedural follow-up was performed. The relationship between postprocedural complications and patients' clinical data or periaortic valve structures was analyzed by multifactorial analysis to identify relevant predictors of complications. RESULTS: The TEE measurements of periaortic valve structures were in good agreement with the MSCT measurements. Among the patients who underwent successful operations, both left atrial (LA) and left ventricular (LV) diameters were reduced, and the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was improved 30 days after TAVR compared with the preprocedural period (P < .05). Permanent pacemakers were implanted in 15 patients. The presence of preprocedural right bundle branch block (RBBB) (OR: 2.93; 95% CI: 1.18-12.70; P = .01) was an independent factor for permanent pacemaker implantation after TAVR. CONCLUSIONS: Echocardiography plays an extremely important role in TAVR procedures. The presence of preprocedural RBBB can be an independent predictor of postprocedural pacemaker implantation.

Quantitative Evaluation of the Lumbar Multifidus Muscle by Shear Wave Dispersion in Healthy Adults: A Preliminary Study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the application value of shear wave dispersion (SWD) in healthy adults with the lumbar multifidus muscle (LMM), to determine the range of normal reference values, and to analyze the influences of factors on the parameter. METHODS: Ninety-five healthy volunteers participated in the study, from whom 2-dimensional, shear wave elastography (SWE), and SWD images of the bilateral LMM were acquired in three positions (prone, standing, and anterior flexion). Subcutaneous fat thickness (SFH), SWE velocity, and SWD slope were measured accordingly for analyses. RESULTS: The mean SWD slope of the bilateral LMM in the prone position was as follows: left: 14.8 ± 3.1 (m/second)/kHz (female) and 13.0 ± 2.5 (m/second)/kHz (male); right: 14.8 ± 3.7 (m/second)/kHz (female) and 14.2 ± 3.4 (m/second)/kHz (male). In the prone position, there was a weak negative correlation between the bilateral LMM SWD slope of activity level 2 and level 1 (ß = -1.5 (2 versus 1, left), -1.9 (2 versus 1, right), all P < .05), and between the left SWD slope of activity level 3 and level 1 (ß = -2.3 [3 versus 1, left], P < .05). The correlation between SWE velocity and SWD slope value changed with the position: there was a weak positive correlation in the prone position (r = 0.3 [left], 0.37 [right], both P < .05), and a moderate positive correlation in the standing and anterior flexed positions (r = 0.49-0.74, both P < .001). SFH was moderately negatively correlated with bilateral SWD slope values in the anterior flexion (left: r = -0.4, P = .01; right: r = -0.7, P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: SWD imaging can be used as an adjunct tool to aid in the assessment of viscosity in LMM. Further, activity level, and position are influencing factors that should be considered in clinical practice.

Shear wave elastography: A noninvasive approach for assessing acute kidney injury in critically ill patients.

Traditional markers, such as serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen, frequently show delayed elevations following acute kidney injury (AKI), limiting their utility for prompt detection and timely intervention in AKI management. Shear wave elastography (SWE) exhibits potential for AKI diagnosis by measuring tissue stiffness. Our study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of SWE in detecting AKI by measuring the stiffness of kidney tissue. Between July 2022 and December 2022, a total of 103 consecutive participants who met the eligibility criteria were prospectively enrolled, underwent SWE measurements, and were classified into AKI or non-AKI groups based on the 2012 Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to examine the feasibility of differentiating between AKI and non-AKI patients and assessing diagnostic performance. The effects of tissue anisotropy on SWE measurements were also examined. Our results revealed that patients in the AKI group exhibited significantly increased stiffness values in specific kidney regions compared with those in the non-AKI group. For the diagnosis of AKI, the optimal cut-off values were identified as 9.9 kPa, 2.9 kPa, and 4.4 kPa for the upper pole medulla, middle cortex, and middle medulla, respectively, in the longitudinal plane. Correspondingly, the areas under the ROC curves for these regions were 0.737 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.637, 0.822), 0.736 (95% CI: 0.637, 0.821), and 0.784 (95% CI: 0.688, 0.861). Additionally, we observed a significant variability in stiffness values due to tissue anisotropy, specifically in the segments of the upper pole cortex, and medulla across both longitudinal and transverse planes. SWE serves as a noninvasive approach for the quantification of tissue stiffness and shows promise as an adjunctive tool for the assessment of AKI.

Model-Based Reinforcement Learning With Isolated Imaginations.

World models learn the consequences of actions in vision-based interactive systems. However, in practical scenarios like autonomous driving, noncontrollable dynamics that are independent or sparsely dependent on action signals often exist, making it challenging to learn effective world models. To address this issue, we propose Iso-Dream++, a model-based reinforcement learning approach that has two main contributions. First, we optimize the inverse dynamics to encourage the world model to isolate controllable state transitions from the mixed spatiotemporal variations of the environment. Second, we perform policy optimization based on the decoupled latent imaginations, where we roll out noncontrollable states into the future and adaptively associate them with the current controllable state. This enables long-horizon visuomotor control tasks to benefit from isolating mixed dynamics sources in the wild, such as self-driving cars that can anticipate the movement of other vehicles, thereby avoiding potential risks. On top of our previous work (Pan et al. 2022), we further consider the sparse dependencies between controllable and noncontrollable states, address the training collapse problem of state decoupling, and validate our approach in transfer learning setups. Our empirical study demonstrates that Iso-Dream++ outperforms existing reinforcement learning models significantly on CARLA and DeepMind Control.

Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction promotes PDGF-primed bone mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for myocardial protection in acute Myocardial Infarction in rats.

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) has emerged as a promising strategy for the targeted delivery of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to the ischemic myocardium. However, the limited migration capacity and poor survival of MSCs remains a major therapeutic barrier. The present study was performed to investigate the synergistic effect of UTMD with platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) on the homing of MSCs for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS: MSCs from male donor rats were treated with PDGF-BB, and a novel microbubble formulation was prepared using a thin-film hydration method. In vivo, MSCs with or without PDGF-BB pretreatment were transplanted by UTMD after inducing AMI in experimental rats. The therapeutic efficacy of PDGF-BB-primed MSCs on myocardial apoptosis, angiogenesis, cardiac function and scar repair was estimated. The effects and molecular mechanisms of PDGF-BB on MSC migration and survival were explored in vitro. RESULTS: The results showed that the biological effects of UTMD increased the local levels of stromal-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), which promoted the migration of transplanted MSCs to the ischemic region. Compared with UTMD alone, UTMD combined with PDGF-BB pretreatment significantly increased the cardiac homing of MSCs, which subsequently reduced myocardial apoptosis, promoted neovascularization and tissue repair, and increased cardiac function 30 days after MI. The vitro results demonstrated that PDGF-BB enhanced MSC migration and protected these cells from H2O2-induced apoptosis. Mechanistically, PDGF-BB pretreatment promoted MSC migration and inhibited H2O2-induced MSC apoptosis via activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/serine-threonine kinase (PI3K/Akt) pathway. Furthermore, crosstalk between PDGF-BB and stromal-derived factor-1/chemokine receptor 4 (SDF-1/CXCR4) is involved in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that UTMD combined with PDGF-BB treatment could enhance the homing ability of MSCs, thus alleviating AMI in rats. Therefore, UTMD combined with PDGF-BB pretreatment may offer exciting therapeutic opportunities for strengthening MSC therapy in ischemic diseases.

Development of a Clinical-Radiomics Nomogram That Used Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Images to Anticipate the Occurrence of Preoperative Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Patients.

Background and Objectives: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a prevalent histological type of thyroid cancer; however, noninvasive assessment of cervical lymph node metastasis (LNM) poses a challenge. This study aims to develop a novel clinical-radiomics nomogram that utilizes ultrasound (US) images to predict the presence of cervical LNM metastasis in patients with PTC. Methods: A total of 423 patients with PTC were recruited to participate in this study between January 2020 and December 2022, of which 282 were classified into the training group and 141 patients were classified into the validation set. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and B-mode ultrasound (BMUS) images were subjected to radiomic analysis, leading to the extraction of 912 radiomic features. Thereafter, a radiomics score (Radscore) was developed to effectively integrate the information derived from BMUS and CEUS modalities. Univariate and multivariate backward stepwise logistic regression analysis techniques were used to construct the clinical and clinical-radiomics models, respectively. Results: The findings revealed that the clinical-radiomics nomogram incorporated age, sex, CEUS Radscore, and US-reported LNM as risk factors. The nomogram demonstrated good performance using data from the training (AUC = 0.891) and validation (AUC = 0.870) sets. The decision curve analysis implied that this nomogram exhibited good clinical utility, which was further supported by the results of the calibration curves and Hosmer-Lemeshow test. Conclusion: The CEUS Radscore-based clinical radiomics nomogram could serve as a valuable tool for predicting cervical LNM metastasis in patients with PTC, thereby tailoring individualized treatment strategies for them.

Characteristics of spring maize sap flow and its environmental influencing factors in typical mollisol area.

Clarifying the variations of sap flow rate of spring maize in the typical mollisol area and its main control factors is of great significance to explore water consumption from transpiration and regulate field water management. In this study, we installed the wrapped sap flow sensors and TDR probes to continuously monitor the sap flow rate of spring maize during filling-maturity stage and soil water and heat conditions of topsoil. In combination with meteorological data collecting from a nearby automatic weather station, we analyzed the correlation between the sap flow rate of spring maize and environmental factors at different time scales. The results showed that the sap flow rate of spring maize in typical mollisol area had an obvious fluctuation of high diurnal and low nighttime. The instantaneous sap flow rate peaked at daytime, with a value of 139.9 g·h-1, but being weak at nighttime. The starting time, closing time, and peak values of spring maize sap flow were significantly inhibited in cloudy and rainy days, compared with that in sunny days. On hourly scale, the sap flow rate was significantly correlated to solar radiation, saturated vapor pressure deficit (VPD), relative humidity, air temperature, and wind speed. On daily scale, only solar radiation, VPD, and relative humidity were significantly correlated with sap flow rate, with the absolute values of correlation coefficient being all above 0.7. Due to high soil water content during the observation period, the sap flow rate was not significantly correlated with soil water content and soil temperature of 0-20 cm layer, with the absolute values of correlation coefficient being less than 0.1. Under the condition without water stress, solar radiation, VPD, and relative humidity were the top three influencing factors of sap flow rate in this region, on both hourly scale and daily scale.

Clinical Value of Three-Dimensional Transvaginal Ultrasound in Diagnosis of Endometrial Receptivity and Ovarian Function in Patients with Infertility.

Objective: A case-control study was conducted to explore the clinical value of three-dimensional transvaginal ultrasound in the diagnosis of endometrial receptivity (ER) and ovarian function in patients with infertility. Methods: A total of 308 infertile women treated in our hospital from March 2020 to June 2021 were enrolled as the observation group, and another 300 women of childbearing age who underwent physical examination in the same period were enrolled as the control group. The clinical value of three-dimensional transvaginal ultrasound in ER in patients with infertility was analyzed by comparing the classification of endometrial and subendometrial blood perfusion, endometrial AUC value and Pi value, and subendometrial AUC value and Pi value. According to the number of oocytes obtained, the patients were assigned into the normal response group (182 cases, ≥5 oocytes) and the low response group (126 cases, <5 oocytes). The levels of some hormones, such as follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), estradiol (E2), and FSH/LH, were measured. Transvaginal ultrasonography was performed to detect ovarian volume (OV), antral follicle count (AFC), and peak flow rate of the ovarian interstitial artery (PSV). The peak of end-diastolic flow velocity (EDV) and other indexes were analyzed. The correlation between FSH level, FSH/LH, and ultrasound indexes was analyzed, and the ROC curve was established to analyze the value of transvaginal Doppler ultrasound in evaluating ovarian reserve function and predicting ovulation. Results: There were significant differences in late proliferation type I and type III, ovulatory type II and type III (P < 0.05). There exhibited no significant difference in late proliferation type II, ovulation stage type I, and implantation window stage type I, type II, and type III (P > 0.05). Regarding the endometrial AUC and Pi values, the endometrial AUC and Pi values in the observation group were lower compared to the control group during late proliferation and ovulation (P < 0.05). There exhibited no significant difference in AUC and Pi (P > 0.05). Regarding the subintimal AUC and Pi values, the subintimal AUC and Pi values in the observation group were higher compared to the control group during late proliferation and ovulation (P < 0.05). There exhibited no significant difference in AUC and Pi during the implantation window (P > 0.05). There exhibited no significant difference in menarche age, age, body mass index, and menstrual cycle between the normal response group and the low response group (P > 0.05). The levels of EDV, OV, AFC, and PSV in the normal response group were higher compared to the low response group (P < 0.01). Compared with the low response group, the levels of FSH and FSH/LH in the normal response group were lower, but the levels of LH and E2 in the normal response group were higher (P < 0.05). The results of correlation analysis of FSH, FSH/LH, and ultrasound parameters between the normal response group and the low response group indicated that FSH was negatively correlated with E2, EDV, OV, AFC, and PSV in 308 infertile women (r = -0.817, -0.846, -0.707, -0.845, -0.911, P < 0.01), but it was positively correlated with FSH/LH (r = 0.714, P < 0.01). The ultrasound parameters of ovarian reserve function in the normal response group and the low response group were compared with the indexes that predicted ovulation. The results of ROC curve analysis indicated that the cutoff values of EDV, OV, AFC, and PSV were 4.141, 3.726, 4.106, and 13.944, respectively, the specificity of each index was higher than 90.00%, and the sensitivity was higher than 80.00% except PSV. Conclusion: Transvaginal ultrasound can not only accurately evaluate the ER of infertile women but also directly observe follicular development and monitor ovulation, which is of high value in evaluating ovarian reserve function and predicting ovulation.

Automatic Assessment of Mitral Regurgitation Severity Using the Mask R-CNN Algorithm with Color Doppler Echocardiography Images.

Accurate assessment of mitral regurgitation (MR) severity is critical in clinical diagnosis and treatment. No single echocardiographic method has been recommended for MR quantification thus far. We sought to define the feasibility and accuracy of the mask regions with a convolutional neural network (Mask R-CNN) algorithm in the automatic qualitative evaluation of MR using color Doppler echocardiography images. The authors collected 1132 cases of MR from hospital A and 295 cases of MR from hospital B and divided them into the following four types according to the 2017 American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) guidelines: grade I (mild), grade II (moderate), grade III (moderate), and grade IV (severe). Both grade II and grade III are moderate. After image marking with the LabelMe software, a method using the Mask R-CNN algorithm based on deep learning (DL) was used to evaluate MR severity. We used the data from hospital A to build the artificial intelligence (AI) model and conduct internal verification, and we used the data from hospital B for external verification. According to severity, the accuracy of classification was 0.90, 0.89, and 0.91 for mild, moderate, and severe MR, respectively. The Macro F1 and Micro F1 coefficients were 0.91 and 0.92, respectively. According to grading, the accuracy of classification was 0.90, 0.87, 0.81, and 0.91 for grade I, grade II, grade III, and grade IV, respectively. The Macro F1 and Micro F1 coefficients were 0.89 and 0.89, respectively. Automatic assessment of MR severity is feasible with the Mask R-CNN algorithm and color Doppler electrocardiography images collected in accordance with the 2017 ASE guidelines, and the model demonstrates reasonable performance and provides reliable qualitative results for MR severity.

Knockdown of ANXA10 inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma cells by down-regulating TSG101 thereby inactivating the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway.

Annexin A10 (ANXA10) is a member of annexin A and has been reported to highly express in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) tissues. Tumor susceptibility gene 101 (TSG101) also plays a role in PTC and is predicted to bind to ANXA10. This study intended to investigate whether ANXA10 could regulate PTC via binding to ANXA10. The expression of ANXA10 and TSG101 in normal thyroid follicular epithelial cell line and several PTC cell lines was analyzed using RT-qPCR and western blotting assays. Subsequently, PTC cell line BCPAP was silenced with ANXA10 followed by TSG101 overexpression or not, and then cell proliferation, apoptosis and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling expression were assessed via MTT, colony formation, immunofluorescence staining, Tunel staining and western blotting assays. Besides, the interaction between ANXA10 and TSG101 was validated using Co-immunoprecipitation assay. ANXA10 and TSG101 expressions were up-regulated in PTC cell lines. ANXA10 silence inhibited proliferation, promoted apoptosis and inactivated MAPK/ extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) signaling pathway of BCPAP cells. Additionally, ANXA10 could bind to TSG101 and regulate its expression. However, the above effects of ANXA10 silence on BCPAP cells were all blocked by TSG101 overexpression. ANXA10 inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis of PTC cells via binding to TSG101, and these actions may depend on down-regulating MAPK/ERK pathway expression.

Chemoselective activation of ethyl vs. phenyl thioglycosides: one-pot synthesis of oligosaccharides.

Ethyl and phenyl thioglycosides are the two most common types of thioglycoside donors in carbohydrate chemistry. However, the chemoselective activation of ethyl vs. phenyl thioglycosides is very rare in the literature. In this work, ethyl thioglycosides could be readily activated with an N-trifluoromethylthiosaccharin/TMSOTf system in the presence of phenyl thioglycosides carrying the same or even more armed protecting group pattern. Both armed and disarmed thioglycosides exhibited high chemoselectivity towards the promoter system. Chemoselective glycosylation was subsequently applied to one-pot synthesis, thus providing an efficient means to oligosaccharides.

The real cause of right lower abdominal pain: an analysis of ultrasonographic findings.

A pelvic accessory spleen is uncommon and most patients with this condition are asymptomatic. Ureteral calculus is a common disease and can cause acute abdominal pain. We report a 51-year-old male patient who presented at our hospital with acute right lower abdominal pain and gross hematuria. A large mass on the right side of the pelvis was detected on an ultrasound examination, as well as a calculus in the lower segment of the right ureter. Computed tomography angiography showed the presence of a long vascular pedicle with an artery originating from the splenic artery and a vein that joined with the splenic vein. Laparoscopy was carried out and it showed a solid mass covered with omentum on the right lower abdomen. The mass was then removed surgically. Histopathological examination of the resected specimens confirmed splenic tissue. We speculate that the accessory spleen and ureteral calculus caused right lower abdominal pain in our case. However, the ureteral calculus might have played a much more important role in causing acute right lower abdominal pain than the accessory spleen.

Novel Anticancer NHC*-Gold(I) Complexes Inspired by Lepidiline A.

N-Heterocyclic carbene gold(I) complexes derived from 1,3-dibenzyl-4,5-diphenylimidazol-2-ylidene (NHC*) represent a promising class of anticancer drugs. Complexes of the type NHC*-Au-L (L = Br-, I-, C≡C-R) and [NHC*-Au-L]+ (L = NHC*, PPh3) have been synthesised. The X-ray crystal structures of all gold(I) complexes are presented; aurophilic interactions were observed in five of the complexes. The anticancer activity was assessed via MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide)-based proliferation assays against the human colon carcinoma cell line HCT-116wt and the multidrug-resistant human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7topo. Most complexes showed good cytotoxicity with IC50 values in the low micromolar range, while excellent sub-micromolar activity was observed for 2c, 3a and 3b. Generally, the activity of the ligands studied was as follows: carbene > phosphine > alkyne > halide, with an exception for the highly active iodido derivative 2c.

In-vitro and in-vivo investigations into the carbene-gold anticancer drug candidates NHC*-Au-SCSNMe2 and NHC*-Au-S-GLUC against advanced prostate cancer PC3.

The anticancer drug candidates 1,3-dibenzyl-4,5-diphenyl-imidazol-2-ylidene gold(I) dimethylamino dithiocarbamate and 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-α-D-glucopyranosyl-1-thiolate derivative exhibited nanomolar in-vitro activity against prostate cancer cells advanced prostate cancer (PC3) and micromolar inhibition of mammalian thioredoxin reductase. Encouraging maximum tolerable dose experiments led to human prostate cancer subcutaneous xenograft experiments; 1,3-dibenzyl-4,5-diphenyl-imidazol-2-ylidene gold(I) dimethylamino dithiocarbamate and 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-α-D-glucopyranosyl-1-thiolate derivative were applied twelve times at two doses in groups of n = 5 PC3 to tumor-bearing NMRI:nu/nu mice. 1,3-dibenzyl-4,5-diphenyl-imidazol-2-ylidene gold(I) dimethylamino dithiocarbamate and 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-α-D-glucopyranosyl-1-thiolate derivative at the dose of 10 and 20 mg/kg showed good tolerability, while no significant body weight loss was seen in both groups. In particular, for the drug 1,3-dibenzyl-4,5-diphenyl-imidazol-2-ylidene gold(I) dimethylamino dithiocarbamate the tumor growth inhibition suggested to be dose dependent, reflected by the respective optimal T/C values of 0.45 at the dose of 10 mg/kg and of 0.31 at the dose of 20 mg/kg. By contrast, the 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-α-D-glucopyranosyl-1-thiolate derivative treated groups showed no indication for dose-dependent antitumoral activity, as reflected by the optimal T/C values of 0.44 for the 10 mg/kg and for the 20 mg/kg treated mice. Immunohistochemical experiments involving Ki67 staining of tumor tissue showed that both compounds reduced PC3 cell proliferation against the difficult to treat advanced human prostate tumors derived from PC3.

Ultrasonic-assisted electrochemical drill-grinding of small holes with high-quality.

Electrochemical drill-grinding (ECDG) is a compound machining technology, which combines Electrochemical machining (ECM) with mechanical drill-grinding process. On this basis, a new method of machining small holes which called ultrasonic-assisted electrochemical drill-grinding (UAECDG) is proposed. First, the principle of UAECDG is analyzed through analysis of UAECDG process and electrochemical passivation behavior of materials. Second, the simulation of electrochemical drill-grinding process was studied to illustrate the effect of ball-end electrode on reducing the hole taper and improving the machining accuracy. Afterwards, several groups of experiments are conducted to analyze the influence of electrical parameters, ultrasonic amplitude and matching degree between electrolysis and mechanical grinding on the machining quality of small holes. Finally, small holes with diameter of 1.1 ± 0.01 mm, surface roughness of 0.31 µm and taper of less than 0.6 degree were machined by UAECDG, which revealed UAECDG is a promising compound machining technology to fabricate small holes with high quality and high efficiency.

Six-Transmembrane Epithelial Antigen of the Prostate-1 (STEAP-1)-Targeted Ultrasound Imaging Microbubble Improves Detection of Prostate Cancer In Vivo.

PURPOSE: To investigate the feasibility of the 6-transmembrane epithelial antigen of the prostate-1 (STEAP-1)-targeted microbubbles for enhancing ultrasound imaging of prostate tumors in the nude mouse xenograft models. METHODS: Contrast agents were established by conjugating biotinylated STEAP-1 monoclonal antibodies with streptavidin coated SonoVue microbubbles. Then, ordinary SonoVue (Bracco, Milan, Italy) microbubble and STEAP-1-targeted SonoVue microbubble were used, respectively, for contrast-enhanced sonography to detect prostate tumors in the nude mouse xenograft models. The characteristics, including peak intensity, time to peak, area under the curve, and mean transit time, were measured. RESULTS: The biological characteristics of STEAP-1-targeted SonoVue microbubbles were stable. STEAP-1-targeted SonoVue microbubbles can successfully conjugate to prostate cancer cell lines in vitro. Enhancement of ultrasound signal intensity was determined after injection of STEAP-1-targeted SonoVue microbubble, compared with ordinary SonoVue microbubble. Higher intensities of ultrasound signals in xenograft tumor of prostate cancer were associated with increased levels of STEAP-1 expression. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that SonoVue microbubble carrying STEAP-1 monoclonal antibody could improve the ultrasound visualization of prostate cancer and identify the tumor more effectively in vivo. A prospective study is required to validate our finding in patients with prostate cancer.

The clinical application value of MR diffusion-weighted imaging in the diagnosis of rectal cancer: A retrospective study.

The present study evaluated the clinical potential of magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the diagnosis of rectal cancer.A total of 84 patients confirmed with rectal cancer were used as study subjects in the present study. All patients received conventional sequence MR T1WI, T2WI, and DWI examination as well as operative pathological examination. The differences between the MRI results and operative pathological results were analyzed.The diagnosis accordance rates of conventional sequence examination in stage T1, T2, T3, and T4 were 60.00%, 82.75%, 62.85%, and 80.00%, respectively. The diagnosis accordance rates of conventional sequence combined with DWI examination in stages T1, T2, T3, and T4 were 100.00%, 100.00%, 82.85%, and 100.00% respectively. The total diagnosis accordance rates in the T staging of rectal cancer with conventional (Routinely or generally applied) sequence examination and conventional sequence combined with DWI examination were 71.42% and 92.85%, respectively.The analysis on consistency of MR conventional sequence examination suggested that the conventional sequence combined with DWI examination is more consistent with pathological staging when compared with the convention sequence examination alone. MR DWI combined with conventional sequences reveals quite good accuracy in the T staging of rectal cancer.

Left ventricular noncompaction in patients with coronary artery disease: Preliminary analysis of echocardiographic findings.

We retrospectively analyzed the echocardiographic findings of eight patients with left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) and concurrent coronary artery disease. This study was conducted in Yijishan Hospital between January 2012 and May 2017. Of the eight patients, six were diagnosed with coronary arterial atherosclerosis, one patient with coronary pulmonary fistula, and one with coronary myocardial bridge. Regional wall motion abnormalities were detected in all patients. Echocardiography can provide significant information about LVNC in patients with coronary artery disease. However, whether regional wall motion abnormalities are caused by coronary artery disease or noncompaction of the myocardium remains unknown in most patients.

Synthesis and Cytotoxicity Studies of Novel NHC*-Gold(I) Complexes Derived from Lepidiline A.

Ten novel N-heterocyclic carbene gold(I) complexes derived from lepidiline A (1,3-dibenzyl-4,5-dimethylimidazolium chloride) are reported here with full characterisation and biological testing. (1,3-Dibenzyl-4,5-diphenylimidazol-2-ylidene)gold(I) chloride (NHC*-AuCl) (1) was modified by substituting the chloride for the following: cyanide (2), dithiocarbamates (3⁻5), p-mercaptobenzoate derivatives (12⁻14) and N-acetyl-l-cysteine derivatives (15⁻17). All complexes were synthesised in good yields of 57⁻78%. Complexes 2, 12, 13, and 14 were further characterised by X-ray crystallography. Initial evaluation of the biological activity was conducted on all ten complexes against the multidrug resistant MCF-7topo breast cancer, HCT-116wt, and p53 knockout mutant HCT-116-/- colon carcinoma cell lines. Across the three cell lines tested, mainly single-digit micromolar IC50 values were observed. Nanomolar activity was exhibited on the MCF-7topo cell line with 3 displaying an IC50 of 0.28 µM ± 0.03 µM. Complexes incorporating a Au⁻S bond resulted in higher cytotoxic activity when compared to complexes 1 and 2. Theoretical calculations, carried out at the MN15/6⁻311++G(2df,p) computational level, show that NHC* is the more favourable ligand for Au(I)-Cl when compared to PPh3.

Novel thioglycoside analogs of α-galactosylceramide stimulate cytotoxicity and preferential Th1 cytokine production by human invariant natural killer T cells.

Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells recognize glycolipid antigens bound to CD1d molecules on antigen-presenting cells. Therapeutic activation of iNKT cells with the xenogeneic glycolipid α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) can prevent and reverse tumor growth in murine models, but clinical trials using α-GalCer-stimulated human iNKT cells have shown limited efficacy. We synthesized a series of thioglycoside analogs of α-GalCer with different substituents to the galactose residue and found that two of these compounds, XZ7 and XZ11, bound to CD1d-transfected HeLa cells and activated lines of expanded human iNKT cells. Both compounds stimulated cytolytic degranulation by iNKT cells and while XZ7 preferentially stimulated the production of the antitumor cytokine interferon-γ (IFN-γ), XZ11 preferentially stimulated interleukin-4 (IL-4) production. This biased T helper type 1 effector profile of XZ7 was also evident when iNKT were stimulated with dendritic cells presenting this glycolipid. Separate analysis of the responses of CD4+, CD8α+ and CD4-CD8- iNKT cells indicated that XZ7 preferentially activated CD8α+ iNKT cells, and to a lesser degree, CD4-CD8- iNKT cells. The partial agonist effect of glycolipid XZ7, inducing cytotoxicity and IFN-γ production but not IL-4 production, indicates that specific protumour activities of iNKT cells can be abolished, while preserving their antitumor activities, by introducing structural modifications to α-GalCer. Since XZ7 was much less potent than α-GalCer as an iNKT cell agonist, it is unlikely to be superior to α-GalCer as a therapeutic agent for cancer, but may serve as a parent compound for developing more potent structural analogs.