ObjectiveTo observe intervention effect of Shenlingcao oral liquid on asymptomatic chronic hepatitis B virus carriers (AsC). MethodsA self control before-after trial was conducted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Ninth People's Hospital of Nanchang City from November 2011 to May 2012. A total of 64 AsCs were treated by Shenlingcao oral liquid (1 bottle/d, 200 mL, once daily for 6 months). Serum HBV viral load, six specific serum markers of HBV and 11 liver function index were tested and recorded before and at the 1th, 3th, 6th months of the treatment. Analysis of variance of repeated data was conducted. ResultsAfter one month of the treatment, 35/57 (61.40%) AsCs' serum HBV-DNA loads decreased, 1 log decrease was observed in 15 cases, 2 log decrease was observed in 4 cases, and decrease under the detection limit was observed in 12 cases. 41/57 (71.93%) AsCs' serum HBV-DNA loads decreased after 3 months of treatment, 1 log decrease was observed in 21 cases, 2 log decrease was observed in 5 cases, and decrease under the detection limit was observed in 15 cases. 31/49 (63.26%) AsCs' serum HBV-DNA loads decreased after 6 months of the treatment, 1 log decrease was observed in 19 cases, decrease more than 2 log was observed in 7 cases, and decrease under the detection limit was observed in 12 cases. The serum HBV viral loads at different time points of the treatment were significantly different (P<0.001). As medication time went, AsCs' serum HBV viral loads presented a decrease trend after taking Shenlingcao oral liquid, especially obvious at the 3th month. ConclusionShenlingcao oral liquid could help promote AsCs' ability of clearing virus and controlling serum HBVDNA loads.
Objective To evaluate the three-dimensional acetabular orientation in asymptomatic population and patients of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) using a semi-automated measurement software, which provides data for the differential diagnosis, surgical planning, surgical instrument design, and postoperative evaluation of hip related diseases. MethodsEighty-four cases of CT data in asymptomatic population (asymptomatic group) and 47 cases of CT data in DDH patients (DDH group) were collected. There was no significant difference in gender and age (including age of male and female subgroups) between the two groups (P<0.05). MaxTHA, a semi-automatic measurement software, was used to measure acetabular inclination and anteversion, including operative inclination (OI), radiographic inclination (RI), anatomic inclination (AI), operative anteversion (OA), radiographic anteversion (RA), and anatomic anteversion (AA). Comparisons were made between the two populations, between different Crowe classification subgroups, between different gender subgroups, and between left and right sides of acetabula. Results The comparison between asymptomatic group, healthy side of DDH group, and affected side of DDH group showed that there was no significant difference in acetabular orientation between asymptomatic group and healthy side of DDH group (P>0.05). The OI, RI, and AI of affected side of DDH group were significantly higher than those in healthy side of DDH group and asymptomatic group, and AA was significantly lower than that in healthy side of DDH group and asymptomatic group (P<0.05). The comparison between the normal acetabula and DDH acetabula with different Crowe classifications showed that there was no significant difference in the acetabulum orientation between Crowe Ⅰ group and the normal group (P>0.05). The OI, RI, and AI of Crowe Ⅱ, Ⅲ, and Ⅳ groups were significantly higher than those of normal group (P<0.05), the OI of Crowe Ⅲ group, RI and AI of Crowe Ⅳ group were significantly higher than those of Crowe Ⅰ group (P<0.05), the AI of Crowe Ⅳ group was significantly higher than that of Crowe Ⅱ group (P<0.05), and the OA, RA, and AA of Crowe Ⅲ group were significantly lower than other subgroups (P<0.05) except Crowe Ⅰ group. The OA, RA, and AA in asymptomatic female group, and the OA and AI in DDH female group were significantly higher than those in all male groups (P<0.05). The OI, RI, AI, and OA of the right acetabula in asymptomatic male group, and the RI and AI of the right acetabula in asymptomatic female group were significantly higher than those on the left side (P<0.05). ConclusionThere were significant differences in acetabular orientation between asymptomatic and DDH populations, inter-group differences among Crowe classification subgroups, inter-gender differences among subgroups, and bilateral differences among asymptomatic individuals.
ObjectiveTo explore the utility of machine learning-based radiomics models for risk stratification of severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis (ACS). MethodsThe clinical data and head and neck CT angiography images of 188 patients with severe carotid artery stenosis at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, China-Japan Friendship Hospital from 2017 to 2021 were retrospectively collected. The patients were randomly divided into a training set (n=131, including 107 males and 24 females aged 68±8 years), and a validation set (n=57, including 50 males and 7 females aged 67±8 years). The volume of interest was manually outlined layer by layer along the edge of the carotid plaque on cross-section. Radiomics features were extracted using the Pyradiomics package of Python software. Intraclass and interclass correlation coefficient analysis, redundancy analysis, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression analysis were used for feature selection. The selected radiomics features were constructed into a predictive model using 6 different supervised machine learning algorithms: logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, support vector machine, naive Bayes, and K nearest neighbor. The diagnostic efficacy of each prediction model was compared using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC), which were validated in the validation set. Calibration and clinical usefulness of the prediction model were evaluated using calibration curve and decision curve analysis (DCA). ResultsFour radiomics features were finally selected based on the training set for the construction of a predictive model. Among the 6 machine learning models, the logistic regression model exhibited higher and more stable diagnostic efficacy, with an AUC of 0.872, a sensitivity of 100.0%, and a specificity of 66.2% in the training set; the AUC, sensitivity and specificity in the validation set were 0.867, 83.3% and 78.8%, respectively. The calibration curve and DCA showed that the logistic regression model had good calibration and clinical usefulness. ConclusionThe machine learning-based radiomics model shows application value in the risk stratification of patients with severe ACS.
ObjectiveTo systematically evaluate whether primary tumor resection (PTR) has a statistical survival benefit as compared with chemotherapy alone (CTA) for asymptomatic stage Ⅳ colorectal cancer patients with unresectable synchronous metastasis (ACRCUSR). MethodsThe PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Central, CNKI, Wanfang, and the other databases were searched systematically and the prospective or retrospective controlled studies of PTR versus CTA in treatment of ACRCUSR were collected. The outcomes included overall survival (OS) and overall 1–5-year survival rates. The Stata 12.0 and RevMan 5.3 softwares were used for the pooled-analysis of relative risk (RR) and hazard ratio (HR). The trial sequential analysis (TSA) software was used to analyze overall 5-year survival rate and calculate the sample size required to achieve stable results. ResultsA total of 35 studies involving 258 478 patients were included. The results of pooled-analysis showed that the OS of ACRCUSR with PTR was statistically better than that with CTA [HR=0.57, 95%CI (0.52, 0.61), P<0.001]; Meanwhile, it was found that the overall survival rates at 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year of ACRCUSR with PTR were statistically better than those with CTA [1-year: RR=1.30, 95%CI (1.21, 1.40), P<0.001; 2-year: RR=1.78, 95%CI (1.64, 1.93), P<0.001; 3-year: RR=2.10, 95%CI (1.65, 2.68), P<0.001; 4-year: RR=3.05, 95%CI (2.07, 3.44), P<0.001; 5-year: RR=3.43, 95%CI (3.00, 3.92), P<0.001]. The TSA showed the reliable outcome at overall 5-year survival rate and the sample size required to achieve stable result was 96 662 cases. ConclusionFrom analysis results of this study, for ACRCUSR with PTR can benefit survival as compared with CTA, which still needs to be verified by more randomized controlled trials.
ObjectiveTo analyze the perioperative outcomes of cardiac valve surgery in patients with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. MethodsThe perioperative clinical data of patients receiving heart valve replacement in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China from November 2022 to February 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. According to whether the patients were infected with SARS-CoV-2, they were divided into a non-infected group and an asymptomatic group. The perioperative data of the patients were compared between the two groups, and the effect of asymptomatic infection on the result of heart valve replacement surgery was analyzed. ResultsA total of 66 patients were enrolled including 36 males and 30 females with a mean age of 58.0±11.1 years. There were 51 patients in the non-infected group and 15 patients in the asymtomatic group. There were 2 patients of mitral valve replacement, 20 patients of aortic valve replacement, 1 patient of double valve replacement, 3 patients of aortic valve replacement with tricuspid valvoplasty, 22 patients of mitral valve replacement and tricuspid valvoplasty, 18 patients of double valve replacement and tricuspid valvoplasty. Asymptomatic infected patients received more emergency surgery than uninfected patients (26.7% vs. 0.0%, P<0.01). There was no statistical difference in the duration of extracorporeal circulation, aortic occlusion, mechanical ventilation time after the surgery, ICU stay, postoperative drainage volume, or postoperative complications between the two groups. ConclusionPerioperative results of cardiac valve surgery in patients with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and non-infection are almost the same.