Colon cancer with colovesical fistula: A report of four cases and a literature review.

Colon cancer with colovesical fistula (CVF) is a rare complication of colon cancer that possesses an extremely poor prognosis. Surgical treatment can improve the prognosis. The current study presents four cases of CVF, in which the first two cases were treated conservatively and the other two were treated surgically. The first case presented with intestinal obstruction for 3 days, and computed tomography (CT) was performed. The patient refused surgery and still exhibited lower abdominal pain 11 months later. The second case presented with urinary frequency and urgency that lasted for 2 days, and CT was performed. The patient refused surgery and died 2 months later. The third case presented with fecaluria that lasted for 1 month, and CT, endoscopy and one-stage palliative surgery were performed. The patient was lost to follow-up 5 months later. The fourth case presented with acute urinary tract symptoms for 4 months, and CT, endoscopy and one-stage radical surgery were performed. The patient remained disease-free 10 months later. The four cases reported in the present study not only represent excellent examples of the disease spectrum, but also act as a reminder of the possibility of detecting CVF at an early stage of the disease. The present study discusses the epidemiology of CVF, and presents the pattern of CVF in terms of signs, symptoms and imaging examinations, including CT, cystoscopy and colonoscopy, as well as treatment in the early stage of the disease.

Image Semantic Segmentation of Underwater Garbage with Modified U-Net Architecture Model.

Autonomous underwater garbage grasping and collection pose a great challenge to underwater robots. To assist underwater robots in locating and recognizing underwater garbage objects efficiently, a modified U-Net-based architecture consisting of a deeper contracting path and an expansive path is proposed to accomplish end-to-end image semantic segmentation. In addition, a dataset for underwater garbage semantic segmentation is established. The proposed architecture is further verified in the underwater garbage dataset and the effects of different hyperparameters, loss functions, and optimizers on the performance of refining the predicted segmented mask are examined. It is confirmed that the focal loss function will lead to a boost in solving the target-background unbalance problem. Eventually, the obtained results offer a solid foundation for fast and precise underwater target recognition and operations.

[Summary on WEI Li-fu's experience in clinical treatment of spasmodic torticollis].

The thinking and experience of professor WEI Li-fu in the treatment of spasmodic torticollis under the guidance of ZHU Lian's academic thoughts are introduced. In pathogenesis, spasmodic torticollis is related to the obstruction of yang qi circulation and malnutrition of tendons and vessels. "Promoting yang and benefiting qi" is considered as the main treating principle. In the affected local area, the acupoints are selected from yangming meridians, shaoyang meridians and taiyang meridians of hand and foot. The acupoints of the governor vessel, the he-sea points of the involved yang meridians on the four limbs as well as "four-gate" points are selected as the distal acupoints. During treatment, the "restricting" needling technique invited by ZHU Lian is combined, deqi (qi arrival) is emphasized particularly. Besides, the ironing moxibustion technique is commonly adopted in combination in the affected area.

Establishment and verification of a nomogram for predicting the risk of lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has been widely recognized by patients and doctors due to its advantages in early gastric cancer (EGC). The accurate prediction of the risk of lymph node metastasis (LNM) in EGC is important to select suitable treatments with this procedure for patients. Unfortunately, the accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound and computed tomography in the diagnosis of EGC lymph node status is extremely limited. The purpose of the present study was to establish an LNM nomogram risk model of early gastric cancer patients based on clinical data, to guide treatment for clinicians. METHODS: a retrospective examination of the records of EGC patients undergoing radical gastrectomy from August 2012 to August 2019 in the Gastrointestinal Center of Subei People's Hospital was performed. The clinicopathological data were classified into a training set and validation set according to the time. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify risk factors related to LNM. A risk model for predicting the occurrence of LNM in EGC was established and validated. RESULTS: of the 503 EGC patients, 78 (15.5 %) had lymph node metastasis. Logistic stepwise regression analysis showed that the predictive factors included sex, tumor location, tumor diameter, differentiation, ulcer and lymphatic vascular invasion. The discrimination of the LNM prediction model was satisfactory with an AUC of 0.8033 (internal validation) and 0.7353 (external validation). The correction effect of the calibration was satisfactory and the DCA decision curve analysis showed a strong clinical practicability. CONCLUSION: the nomogram risk prediction model of LNM has been established for EGC patients to assist in formulating personalized treatment plans.

Oridonin inhibits growth and induces apoptosis of human neurocytoma cells via the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway.

Central neurocytoma (CN) is a rare periventricular tumor of the central nervous system in young adults. Typically, patients with CN exhibit a favorable prognosis, but in certain cases the clinical course is more aggressive. Therefore, investigating effective therapeutic approaches is important. Oridonin has attracted attention due to its antitumor activities. However, the role of oridonin in tumorigenesis and progression remains unknown. The present study examined the antitumor function of oridonin in CN cells, and investigated the underlying molecular mechanism. An MTT assay suggested that treatment with oridonin was able to significantly inhibit the proliferation of CN cells. The annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide assay and western blot analysis demonstrated that oridonin was able to induce apoptosis and alter the expression of apoptosis-associated proteins by downregulating anti-apoptotic protein, B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), and upregulating pro-apoptosis proteins, Bcl-2-like protein 4, cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1. Subsequently, the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway was examined. Western blot analysis indicated that oridonin markedly decreased the expression of ß-catenin, cyclin D1 and v-myc avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog. Furthermore, ß-catenin was silenced by small interference RNA or overexpressed in CN cells, and the effect on cell proliferation was examined. The results indicated that silencing of ß-catenin enhanced the inhibitory effect of oridonin on cell growth, whereas the overexpression of ß-catenin attenuated this effect. These data indicated that oridonin inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis to exert its antitumor activity in CN cells by repressing Wnt/ß-catenin signaling. Therefore, the present study suggested that oridonin might be an effective adjuvant agent, and that the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway may be a potent target for the therapy in CN.

[Brief introduction of academic thought of ZHU Lian, an expert in modern acup-moxibustion science].

ZHU Lian studied medicine from 17 years old and studied acup-moxibustion from October 1944. She raised the principle of acupuncture and moxibustion treating diseases in the middle period of the last century, "Acupuncture-moxibustion mainly stimulates and regulates human nerve system, particularly, regulative function and control function of high central nerve system including the cerebral cortex, so as to cure diseases". Also, she first put forward 3 keys of acupuncture-moxibustion treating diseases, stressed aseptic manipulation, and originated a safe needle-retaining method, finger-pressure therapy and maxo roll moxibustion; she found 19 new acupoints. Her academic thought of acupuncture and moxibustion will become a bridge of integrated Chinese medicine and western medicine and will produce inestimable influence on acupuncture and moxibustion sciences.