Objective To explore the components of passive movement resistance in the wrist flexor in subjects after stroke, and investigate the correlations between these components and clinical scales such as Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) and Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA). Methods From March to August 2017, a cross-sectional study was performed in 15 stroke survivors in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University. MAS and FMA were assessed by an experienced physical therapist. Components of passive movement resistance in the flexors of wrist and finger were recorded by NeuroFlexor (Aggro MedTech AB, Solna, Sweden), then the average resisting force in one second ensued the passive stretch at 5°/s was took as peak resisting force (PRF). The PRF between paretic side and non-paretic side was compared. Spearman’s rank correlation was used to test the relation between the components and clinical scales. Results The PRF of the paretic side during the slow passive stretch (5°/s) was significantly higher than that of the non-paretic side [(10.49±1.65) vs. (8.98±1.11) N, P<0.05]. Correlations between MAS and the components/PRF were insignificant (P>0.05). FMA had a significant correlation with neural component of the paretic side (rs=–0.645, P=0.009). Conclusions The higher PRF of slow passive stretch in the paretic side may be attributed to the higher muscle stiffness. Neural component of the paretic wrist is correlated with FMA. These findings could be applied in clinical evaluation of functional performance of the wrist muscle of stroke survivors.
ObjectiveTo explore the status of common comorbidities in adult epilepsy patients in western China, and to explore the related risk factors.MethodsThe Chinese version of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7, neurological disorders depression inventory for epilepsy (NDDI-E) scales, pittsburgh sleep quality index scale (PSQI) and epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) were used to evaluate the 199 epilepsy patients between April 2017 and March 2018 in the Epilepsy Center of Neurology Department of Sichuan People's Hospital. Logistic regression analysis was performed on the risk factors of epilepsy comorbidity.ResultsIn the 199 adult epilepsy patients, 28.1% had anxiety, 17.1% had depression, 33.2% had sleep disorder, and 2.5% had migraine. 140 patients received monotherapy, including 15 patients with carbamazepine (CBZ), 20 patients with lamotrigine (LTG), 26 patients with levetiracetam (LEV), 31 patients with topiramate (TPM), 25 patients with oxcarbazepine (OXC), and 23 patients with Valproate (VPA).Multivariate logistic regression analysis of epilepsy patients treated with monotherapy showed that seizure occurring more than once a month, LEV, TPM, sleep disorders were independent risk factors for anxiety in patients with epilepsy (P<0.05). Unemployment, seizure occurrence in the last three months, sleep disorders were independent risk factors for comorbid depression (P<0.05). Anxiety, depression, daytime sleepiness, CBZ, LTG were independent risk factors for comorbid sleep disorders (P<0.05).ConclusionsAnxiety, depression and sleep disorder are common comorbidities in adults with epilepsy in westChina. For patients with affective disorder and sleep disorder, early identification and intervention may be important to improve the quality of life and prognosis of patients. In addition, patients treated with LEV or TPM monotherapy had a higher risk of anxiety than other drugs. Patients with LTG and CBZ monotherapy are more likely to comorbid sleep disorders.
ObjectiveTo summarize the research progress of functional surgery in upper and middle gastric cancer.Method" functional gastric surgery” " pylorus-preserving gastrectomy” and " proximal gastrectomy” were used as search terms to retrieve the literatures, and various surgical methods and their application status were reviewed.ResultsFunctional gastric surgery can effectively improve the postoperative quality of life of patients with early gastric cancer in the upper and middle stomach.ConclusionFunctional gastric surgery is a feasible surgical method for early gastric cancer.
ObjectiveTo explore the advantages and disadvantages of preoperative biliary drainage, the timing of preoperative biliary drainage, and the characteristics of various drainage methods for resectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma.MethodsBy reviewing relevant literatures at home and abroad in the past 20 years, the controversies related to the preoperative biliary drainage, surgical biliary drainage, and various drainage methods for resectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma were reviewed.ResultsThere is still a great deal of controversy about whether preoperative bile duct drainage is required for resectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma routinely, but there is a consensus on the timing of preoperative biliary drainage, and various drainage methods have their own characteristics.ConclusionsThe main treatment for hilar cholangiocarcinoma is radical surgical resection, but cholestasis is often caused by malignant biliary obstruction, which makes it difficult to manage perioperatively. A large number of prospective studies are needed to provide more evidence for the need for routine preoperative biliary drainage in patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma who can undergo resection.
ObjectiveTo determine the expressions of Lgr5 protein and Ki-67 protein in gastric cancer tissues, and to analyze the possible function in the carcinogenesis and development of gastric cancer.MethodsThe SABC immunohistochemical method was adopted to examine the expressions of Lgr5 protein and Ki-67 protein in the 69 paraffin slices of gastric cancer from the patients, with the adjacent normal gastric tissue as the control group. The statistical relationship between the expressions of these two kinds of proteins and clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer was examined respectively.ResultsIn the gastric cancer tissue group, the expressions of Lgr5 protein and Ki-67 protein upregulated in comparison to the adjacent normal gastric tissue group [Lgr5 protein: 87.0% (60/69) versus 16.7% (5/30), χ2=45.81, P<0.001; Ki-67 protein: 79.7% (55/69) versus 36.7% (11/30), χ2=17.43, P<0.001]. The expressions of Lgr5 protein and Ki-67 protein all upregulated in the N1–N3 stage groups, lowly differentiated+undifferentiated groups and positive Helicobacter pylori (HP) groups. The expression of Lgr5 protein upregulated in the T3+T4 stage groups in comparison to T1+T2 stage groups, while, no significant relationship was found in the expression of Ki-67 protein and tumor T staging. No significant relationship was found between the gender or metastasis and the expression of these two proteins. There was a positive correlation between the Lgr5 protein expression and the Ki-67 protein expression in the gastric cancer (rs=0.340, P=0.004).ConclusionsIn the development progress of gastric cancer, the Lgr5 protein might get involved in the mechanism of tumor invasion, lymph nodal metastasis, and low differentiation. Ki-67 protein might get involved in the mechanism of lymph nodal metastasis and low differentiation. The two proteins, together with the HP infection, might play a synergistic role in tumorigenesis and development.
As a standard of care, lymph node dissection is an indispensible step in lung cancer surgery. The quality of dissection determines completeness of surgery and the accuracy of N staging. Hereby, we suggest labeling all surgically resected nodes according to the new lymph node map in the 8th TNM classification for lung cancer. As systematic lymph node dissection remains the gold standard of lymphadenectomy, at least three mediastinal stations and ten nodes should be removed in an en-bloc fashion, if possible. For patients with stage Ⅰ lung cancer, lymph node dissection via video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) or open thoracotomy may has similar oncological outcome. Besides, limited lymph node sampling in selected patients with early staged lung cancer to minimize unnecessary surgical damage still need further investigation.
ObjectiveTo compare clinical effects of extended thymectomy for the treatment of thymic abnormalities with myasthenia gravis (MG) between subxiphoid and subcostal arch thoracoscopic resection (SR) and the unilateral thoracoscopic resection (UR) by a propensity-score matching analysis.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 612 patients who presented with MG and were admitted to Tangdu Hospital of Air Force Military Medical University between December 2011 and December 2018. Of these patients, 520 patients underwent subxiphoid and subcostal arch thoracoscopic extended thymectomy (a SR group) and 92 unilateral thoracoscopic extended thymectomy (a UR group). Ninety-two patients in the SR group were matched with the UR group by propensity-score matching analysis. There were 52 males and 40 females with an average age of 26-70 (50.2±10.3) years in the SR group, and 47 males and 45 females with an average age of 20-73 (51.5±12.1) years in the UR group. The operation time, intraoperative blood loss, thoracic drainage time, postoperative hospital stay, thorough adipose tissue removal, postoperative remission of MG, patients’ satisfaction score, pain and complications were compared and analyzed between the two groups.ResultsAll operations were accomplished successfully, without conversion to thoracotomy of the two groups. There were statistical differences between the two groups in operation time (46.2±19.5 min vs. 53.4±23.5 min), chest drainage duration (0 d vs. 3.4±1.2 d), hospital stay (2.9±1.9 d vs. 3.6±1.7 d), patients’ satisfaction score (7.9±2.1 points vs. 6.7±1.2 points) and pain scores (all P<0.05). There were no statistical differences between the two groups in intraoperative blood loss (52.2±12.7 mL vs. 51.2±10.3 mL), peripheral adipose tissue removal (8.1±0.6 vs. 7.9±0.9), remission rate of MG (89.1% vs. 85.9%) and rate of postoperative complications (10.9% vs. 6.5%) (all P>0.05). ConclusionSubxiphoid and subcostal arch thoracoscopic extended thymectomy is a safe and feasible minimally invasive procedure for the management of MG with thymic abnormalities.
Objective Using the evidence-based management to manage the flexible endoscope based on the data collected by information means, to reduce the rate of serious faults and control maintenance costs. Methods From January 2017 to December 2018, we collected and analyzed the flexible endoscope data of the use, leak detection, washing and disinfection, and maintenance between 2015 and 2018 from the Gastroenterology Department of our hospital. Three main causes of flexible endoscope faults were found: delayed leak detection, irregular operation, and physical/chemical wastage. Management schemes (i.e., leak detection supervision, fault tracing, and reliability maintenance) were enacted according to these reasons. These schemes were improved continuously in the implementation. Finally, we calculated the changes of the fault rate of each grade and the maintenance cost. Results By two years management practice, compared with those from 2015 to 2016, the annual rates of grade A and grade C faults of flexible endoscope from 2017 to 2018 decreased by 10.3% and 16.7% respectively, and the annual average maintenance cost fell by 53.2%. Conclusions The maintenance costs of flexible endoscope could be effectively controlled by enacting and implementing a series of targeted management schemes based on the data from the root causes of faults applying the evidence-based management. Evidence-based management based on data has a broad application prospect in the management of medical equipment faults.
Integrins is a family of multi-functional cell-adhesion molecules, heterodimeric receptors that connect extracellular matrix to actin cytoskeleton in the cell cortex, thus regulating various physiological and pathological processes. Risuteganib (Luminate®) is a novel broad-spectrum integrin inhibitor. Based on multiple biological functions of anti-angiogenesis, vitreolysis, and neuroprotection, risuteganib is hopeful in treating several fundus diseases such as diabetic macular edema, vitreomacular traction, and non-exudative age-related macular degeneration. By far, risuteganib has successfully met the endpoints for three phase 2 studies and is preparing to enter the phase 3 of diabetic macular edema clinical trials. Overall the risuteganib is safe with no serious ocular or systemic adverse events. Given the unique mechanism of action and longer duration of efficacy, intravitreal injection of risuteganib has the potential to serve as a primary therapy, or adjunctive therapy to anti-VEGF agents.
Lung cancer has brought tough challenges to human health due to its high incidence and mortality rate in the current practice. Nowadays, computed tomography (CT) imaging is still the most preferred diagnostic tool for early screening of lung cancer. However, a great challenge brought from accumulative CT imaging data can not meet the demand of the current clinical practice. As a novel kind of artificial intelligence technique aimed to deal with medical images, a computer-aided diagnosis has been found to provide useful auxiliary information, attenuate the workload of doctors, and significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy for clinical diagnosis of lung cancer. Therefore, an effective combination of computer-aided techniques and CT imaging has increasingly become an active area of investigation in early diagnosis of lung cancer. This review aims to summarize the latest progress on the diagnostic value of computer-aided technology with regard to early stage lung cancer from the perspectives of machine learning and deep learning.