【Abstract】Objective To explore the differential diagnostic value of major fibrinolytic parameters in pleural fluid. Methods Tissue-type plasminogen activator( t-PA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1( PAI-1) in pleural fluid at the first thoracentesis were measured with ELISA and D-dimer was measured with immunoturbidimetry. Results Eighty-four patients with pleural effusion were enrolled, among which 40 with malignant effusion, 33 with infectious effusion and 11 with transudative effusion. t-PA level was higher in malignant and transudative pleural fluid than that in infectious pleural fluid[ ( 52. 49 ±31. 46) ng /mL and ( 58. 12 ±23. 14) ng /mL vs ( 37. 39 ±22. 44) ng /mL, P lt; 0. 05] , but was not statistically different between malignant pleural fluid and transudative ( P gt; 0. 05) . PAI-1 level was higher in malignant and infectious pleural fluid than that in transudative [ ( 164. 86 ±150. 22) ng/mL and ( 232. 42 ±175. 77) ng/mL vs ( 46. 38 ±16. 13) ng/mL, P lt; 0. 01] , but was not statistically different between malignant and infectious pleural fluid( P gt;0. 05) . D-dimer levels in the three types of pleural fluid were significantly different, which was ( 23. 66 ±25. 18) mg/L, ( 6. 36 ±10. 87) mg/L and ( 66. 90 ±42. 17) mg/L in malignant, transudative and infectious pleural fluid, respectively. As single-item detection for malignant pleural fluid, the cutoff of t-PA was gt; 38. 7 ng/mL( area under ROC curve was 64. 0 ) , with sensitivity of 60. 0% , specificity of 63. 6%, positive predictive value of 66. 7%, negative predictive value of 56. 8% and accuracy of 61. 6% .The cutoff of D-dimer was lt; 27. 0 mg/L( area under ROC curve was 85. 5) , with sensitivity of 84. 8% ,specificity of 72. 5% , positive predictive value of 85. 3% , negative predictive value of 71. 8% and accuracy of78.1%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of combined examination( t-PA + D-dimer) were 92. 5% , 60. 6% , 74. 0% , 87. 0% , 78. 1% , respectively.Conclusions The t-PA, PAI-1 and D-dimer levels are significantly different in the three types of pleural fluid. The detection of fibrinolytic parameters in pleural fluid, especially the value of D-dimer,may be helpful in the differential diagnosis of pleural effusion.
Objective To investigate the effect of the sagittal alignment of the spine and pelvis after surgical posterior intervertebral fusion combined with pedicle screw fixation for low-grade isthmic lumbar spondylolisthesis, and to assess the effectiveness. Methods Between October 2009 and October 2011, 30 patients with low-grade isthmic spondylolisthesis underwent surgical posterior intervertebral fusion combined with pedicle screw fixation, and the clinical data were retrospectively reviewed. There were 14 males and 16 females with an average age of 56.7 years (range, 48-67 years). The pre- and post-operative radiographic parameters, such as percentage of slipping (PS), intervertebral space height, angle of slip (AS), thoracic kyphosis (TK), thoracolumbar junction angle (TLJ), sagittal vertical axis (SVA), lumbar lordosis (LL), spino-sacral angle (SSA), sacral slope (SS), pelvic tilt (PT), and pelvic incidence (PI) were measured. The functional evaluation was made using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Pearson correlation were used to investigate the association between all parameters and ODI score. Results PS, intervertebral space height, AS, and ODI were improved significantly compared with properative ones (P lt; 0.05). Significant differences were found in the other parameters between pre- and post-operation (P lt; 0.05) except TLJ and TK. The alteration of SVA showed significant correlation with the changes of PS, PI, PT, LL, SS, AS, SSA, and ODI. The alteration of SSA showed significant correlation with the changes of PS, PI, LL, SS, AS, PT, and ODI. Conclusion Surgical posterior intervertebral fusion combined with pedicle screw fixation for low-grade isthmic spondylolisthesis can effectively improve and maintain the spinal sagittal parameters. SVA and SSA are adequate to evaluate pre-and post-operative balance. The good clinical outcome is closely related with the improved of SVA and SSA.
Objective To establish amedical reference for adult pulmonary function parameters and a normal FEV1 /FVC% pred in population of Shanghai. Methods Subjects who underwent routine physical examination were initially screened and those who met enrollment criteria with age over 18 years old were required to underwent pulmonary function tests in Zhongshan Hospital from June 2009 to February 2010. After screening of 450 subjects, a total of 240 subjects with normal pulmonary function and 120 subjects with mild small airway abnormalities were enrolled in this study according to the prediction equations established in1988. All subjects were assigned into 6 groups according to their age with30 males amd 30 females in each group. Pulmonary function parameters including VC, FVC, FEV1 , FEV1 /FVC, PEF, FEF25% , FEF50% , FEF75% , RV, FRC, TLC, RV /TLC, DLCO, and KCO were collected for analysis. New prediction equations for the above 14 parameters were established by parameters of anthropometry. The medical reference ranges of 14 parameters were calculated according to the newprediction equations. The normal FEV1 /FVC%pred was also calculated. Results New prediction equations for normal adult pulmonary function parameters in Shanghai were established. DLCO =5.206 +4. 314 ×gender ( “male”= 1, “female”=0) - 0. 144 ×age( y) +0. 098 × height( cm) +0. 082 ×weight( kg) , KCO =9. 346 - 0. 026 ×age( y) - 0. 031 ×height( cm) +0. 025 ×weight( kg) .The LLN( P5) of VC, FVC, FEV1 , FEV1 /FVC, the LLN( P2. 5 ) and the upper limit of normal value ( P97. 5) of FRC, TLC, RV, RV/TLC were calculated. The LLN( P5) of FEV1 /FVC = 101. 924 - 0. 144 × age ( y) - 0. 118 ×high( cm) . The lower normal limit of FEV1 /FVC% pred was 92% . Conclusions This is the first time to have the medical reference of FEV1 /FVC% pred in China, and new prediction equations for DLCO in Shanghai. The LLN of FEV1 /FVC or FEV1 /FVC% pred lt;92% can be used as diagnostic criteria for obstructive ventilation disorder. Instead of using FEV1% pred lt; 80% , FEV1 lt; LLN can be used as diagnostic criteria for mild ventilation disorder.
In order to study the variation of complex impedance and characteristic parameters on human normal and tumor lung tissue during the extracorporeal time, we established a real part-imaginary part chart of complex impedance on lung tissue which provided the basic theory and the reference data for research on elementary medicine and clinical diagnosis of lung cancer and meanwhile provided prior information for electrical impedance tomography (EIT) research. In the experiment carried out in our laboratory, when operation was finished, we kept the lung cancer tissue and normal tissue neatly separated into the cylindrical testing cavities and kept the temperature and humidity at expected values. Then the measurements of complex impedance property are performed at frequency from 1 000 Hz to 30 MHz using 4294A impedance analyzer of Aglient Company. With time changing, the results showed that there was a significant change occurring on the complex impedance of human normal and tumor lung tissue. However, the impedance of normal lung tissue is greater than that of tumor lung tissue. We consider that this change should be related to the change in extracellular fluid, intracellular fluid and cell membrane.
The link between micro- and macro-parameters for radiation interactions that take place in living biological systems is described in this paper. Meanwhile recent progress and development in microdosimetry and nanodosimetry are introduced, including the methods to measure and calculate these micro- or nano-parameters. The relationship between radiobiology and physical quantities in microdosimetry and nanodosimetry was presented. Both the current problems on their applications in radiation protection and radiotherapy and the future development direction are proposed.
This study was aimed to estimate the effect of different ProDisc-C arthroplasty designs after it was implanted to C5-C6 cervicalspine. Finite element (FE) model of intact C5-C6 segments including the vertebrae and disc was developed and validated. Ball-and-socket artificial disc prosthesis model (ProDisc-C, Synthes) was implanted into the validated FE model and the curvature of the ProDisc-C prosthesis was varied. All models were loaded with compressed force 74 N and the pure moment of 1.8 Nm along flexion-extension and bilateral bending and axial torsion separately. The results indicated that the variation in the curvature of ball and socket configuration would influence the range of motion in flexion/extension, while there were not apparently differences under other conditions of loads. The method increasing the curvature will solve the stress concentration of the polyethylene, but it will also bring adverse outcomes, such as facet joint force increasing and ligament tension increasing. Therefore, the design of artificial discs should be considered comprehensively to reserve the range of motion as well as to avoid the adverse problems, so as not to affect the long-term clinical results.
There have been problems in the existing multiple physiological parameter real-time monitoring system, such as insufficient server capacity for physiological data storage and analysis so that data consistency can not be guaranteed, poor performance in real-time, and other issues caused by the growing scale of data. We therefore proposed a new solution which was with multiple physiological parameters and could calculate clustered background data storage and processing based on cloud computing. Through our studies, a batch processing for longitudinal analysis of patients' historical data was introduced. The process included the resource virtualization of IaaS layer for cloud platform, the construction of real-time computing platform of PaaS layer, the reception and analysis of data stream of SaaS layer, and the bottleneck problem of multi-parameter data transmission, etc. The results were to achieve in real-time physiological information transmission, storage and analysis of a large amount of data. The simulation test results showed that the remote multiple physiological parameter monitoring system based on cloud platform had obvious advantages in processing time and load balancing over the traditional server model. This architecture solved the problems including long turnaround time, poor performance of real-time analysis, lack of extensibility and other issues, which exist in the traditional remote medical services. Technical support was provided in order to facilitate a "wearable wireless sensor plus mobile wireless transmission plus cloud computing service" mode moving towards home health monitoring for multiple physiological parameter wireless monitoring.
According to the working principle of vertical ultrasonic vial washing machine, receiving respective force of small water droplets on the inside wall of vials and the minimum air velocity of blowing off water droplets can be obtained based on the analysis of water-droplet-related parameters. The inside wall model of 7 mL vial created by GAMBIT was divided into fine grids. Then the Realizable k-epsilon Two Equation Turbulence Model was adopted and the flow field of vial by FLUENT software was simulated when air was flushing inside the wall. In that case, the optimal position, inner diameter and the corresponding minimum air velocity of needle can be acquired to meet the needs of vial washing machine applied to 7 mL vial.
Currently, monitoring system of awareness of the depth of anesthesia has been more and more widely used in clinical practices. The intelligent evaluation algorithm is the key technology of this type of equipment. On the basis of studies about changes of electroencephalography (EEG) features during anesthesia, a discussion about how to select reasonable EEG parameters and classification algorithm to monitor the depth of anesthesia has taken place. A scheme which combines time domain analysis, frequency domain analysis and the variability of EEG and decision tree as classifier and least squares to compute Depth of anesthesia Index (DOAI) is proposed in this paper. Using the EEG of 40 patients who underwent general anesthesia with propofol, and the classification and the score of the EEG annotated by anesthesiologist, we verified this scheme with experiments. Classification and scoring was based on a combination of modified observer assessment of alertness/sedation (MOAA/S), and the changes of EEG parameters of patients during anesthesia. Then we used the BIS index to testify the validation of the DOAI. Results showed that Pearson's correlation coefficient between the DOAI and the BIS over the test set was 0.89. It is demonstrated that the method is feasible and has good accuracy.
The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of anterior segment optical coherence tomography to assess the anterior segment morphology of hyperopia in school-aged children. 320 eyes of 160 school-aged children, 6-12 years of age, were examined with anterior segment optical coherence tomography and were divided into four groups according to the cycloplegic spherical equivalence of refractive error. The mentioned four groups were: emmetropia group, low hyperopia group, moderate hyperopia group and high hyperopia group. The measurements of central corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth, angle opening distance, trabecular iris space area and scleral angle were compared in pairs among objects in the four groups. The results showed that high hyperopia and moderate hyperopia had shallower anterior chamber depth and narrower anterior chamber angle compared to those in emmetropia group. The study also showed that anterior segment optical coherence tomography as a non-contact technology could become a new technology for accessing the anterior segment morphology of hyperopia in school-aged children.