Differentiating benign from malignant cardiac tumors with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

Background

The purpose of this analysis is to describe the differences in cardiac magnetic resonance characteristics between benign and malignant tumors, which would be helpful for surgical planning.

Preservation of Bile Ductules Mitigates Bile Duct Loss

The finer branches of the biliary tree (FBBT) contain a regenerative compartment. We hypothesized that preservation of the FBBT together with its microvasculature will lead to recovery of biliary damage and prolonged preservation of bile ductules during the development of chronic liver allograft rejection. The interlobular bile ducts, portal bile ductules and extraportal biliary cells with and without microvessels were studied in sequential biopsies in five patients who fulfilled the Banff criteria of early chronic rejection (CR) (imminence group). Biopsies of CR patients (n = 12) served as controls. Biopsies were double immunostained with CD34 (microvessels) and cytokeratin 7 (biliary structures). Proliferation and proangiogenic activity were assessed with Ki67 and VEGF-A immunostaining. Severe damage of bile ducts in the imminence group did not progress to significant bile duct loss. This was associated with a high proliferative activity in all biliary structures and preservation of the microvascular compartment. VEGF-A expression was increased in all but the reperfusion biopsies. In conclusion, both regenerative activity of the FBBT and an intact microvascular compartment are associated with less damage of the biliary tree and could therefore be prerequisites for biliary regeneration.     

Decision analysis model of incisional hernia after open abdominal surgery

Background The incidence rate of incisional hernias after open surgery has been reported to be higher than that of port site hernias after laparoscopic surgery. No studies have compared the costs for the health care system in treating those two types of hernia. Methods A systematic review was conducted to obtain the baseline data, and a decision analysis model was created to simulate the occurrence and recurrence of incisional and port site hernias. Results The overall risk of having incisional hernias was eight-times higher than that of having port site hernias (7.4% vs 0.9%). A cost savings of ￡93 per patient can be generated for the health care system in the UK. Similar results were obtained for Germany, Italy and France. Conclusions The additional treatment costs for incisional hernia should be taken into account when the costs of a surgery performed by open approach are compared with by laparoscopy.     

胸部气道的CT研究

作者采用自己设计的两种扫描方法与常规扫描方法对照对６７例患者的正常气道的ＣＴ表现进行分析，比较不同扫描方法在显示气道方面的优劣。结果显示：常规ＣＴ扫描方法能显示大部分支气管分枝，最远可分辨亚段支气管，但对右侧Ｂ４、Ｂ５，左侧Ｂ２、ＬＢ、Ｂ４、Ｂ５及两侧Ｂ７、Ｂ８显示差；扫描架向头侧倾斜２５°能明显改善右侧Ｂ４、Ｂ５，左侧ＬＢ、Ｂ４、Ｂ５的显示情况。     

An estimate of phylogenetic relationships among culicine mosquitoes using a restriction map of the rDNA cistron

Restriction maps of the rDNA cistron of twelve species of mosquitoes in six genera of the subfamily Culicinae were constructed using eight 6 bp recognition restriction enzymes. Anopheles albimanus was used as an outgroup. The size of the rDNA cistron ranged from 8.5 kb in Aedes katherinensis to 12.9 kb in Ae. polynesiensis. A total of twenty-six sites were scored; eighteen were polymorphic among ingroup taxa. The proportion of polymorphic nucleotide sites (Pnuc) was 0.059 and the heterozygosity per nucleotide site (Hnuc) was 0.028. Wagner and Fitch Parsimony, Dollo Parsimony and Nei-Li distance/neighbour-joining methods were used to construct phylogenetic trees. The rDNA RFLP dataset did not provide a well-supported phylogeny among culicine taxa. The RFLP phylogenies are incongruent with the morphology character based and molecular phylogenies and derived relationships did not correspond with current taxonomic classifications. The lack of resolution was due to homoplasy arising from frequent independent loss or gain of restriction sites among unrelated taxa.     

Decision making in diagnostic radiology

Radiology can be more interesting if the principles of decision making are understood and used to the advantage of the radiologist, referring clinician and patient. This article seeks to revise the principles that radiologists use intuitively. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of the pre-test probability, as it can be shown to: (i) vary with the referral pool of patients; (ii) be a major determinant of the amount of additional information gained from the test; (iii) alter the sensitivity and specificity of the test; and (iv) determine largely the significance of a positive or negative test result. An investigation helps a clinician by providing information that will move the probability of disease above an action threshold or below its exclusion threshold. If this does not occur as a result of one study, another is selected. This article also describes the factors involved in such a decision tree analysis, as well as discussing the reasons for both selecting a particular examination and deciding when a test should not be performed.     

颈前部皮神经构筑研究

目的　为研究皮肤疾病和损伤提供皮神经构筑资料。方法　用S 10 0蛋白免疫组化染色法研究正常成人颈前部胸锁乳突肌前、后缘皮肤各层内皮神经的数量、分布及构筑特点。结果　 ( 1)皮肤乳头层内皮神经的小分支多分布在皮突下和乳头内血管丛附近。 ( 2 )真皮网状层内神经多位于小血管附近和汗腺、皮脂腺以及毛囊周围 ,神经分支呈串珠状或波纹形。 ( 3 )皮下组织内神经干和神经网同时存在。结论　皮肤内感觉神经树的分布及构筑特点与血管树相似。     

三种方案治疗小儿肺炎的药物经济学研究

目的：比较三种方案治疗小儿细菌性肺炎的效率（即费用－效果）。方法：2001年－2002年采用前瞻性随性临床试验A组50例，B组50例，C组50例作为分析模型，以深圳市二级甲等医院收费为标准，采用决策树的分析方法，进行费用一效果分析。结果：每治疗1例有效病人，A、B、C三组方案的期望成本分别为4707．45元，3052．51元，结论：同时考虑临床疗效及医疗费用，C组有最好的费用－效果，值得临床推广应用。     

Ancient,highly polymorphic human major histocompatibility complex DQA1 intron sequences

A 438 basepair intron 1 sequence adjacent to exon 2 in the human major histocompatibility complex DQA1 gene defined 16 allelic variants in 69 individuals from wide ethnic backgrounds. In contrast, the most variable coding region spanned by the 247 basepair exon 2 defined 11 allelic variants. Our phylogenetic human intron 1 tree derived by the Bootstrap algorithm reflects the same relative allelic relationships as the reported DQA1 exon 2 tree [Gyllensten and Erlich, Hum Immunol 36:1–10, 1989]. Thus 3′ DQA1 intron 1 and exon 2 have cosegregated since divergence of the human races. Comparison of human alleles to a Rhesus monkey DQA1 first intron sequence found only 10 nucleotide substitutions unique to Rhesus, with the other 428 positions (98%) found in at least one human allele. This high degree of homology reflects the evolutionary stability of intron sequences since these two species diverged over 20 million years ago. Because more intron 1 alleles exist than exon 2 alleles, these polymorphic introns can be used to improve tissue typing for transplantation, paternity testing, and forensics and to derive more complete phylogenetic trees. These results suggest that introns represent a previously underutilized polymorphic resource. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

树鼩中脑腹侧被盖区向尾状核的DOPA能和AChE阳性纤维投射研究

应用荧光逆行标记分别与荧光组化(FAGLU)和AChE-药理组化相结合技术,研究了树鼩中脑腹侧被盖区向尾状核头部的DOPA能和ACHE-阳性纤维投射。结果表明:树鼩中脑腹侧被盖区除分别向同侧和对侧尾状核头部发出DOPA能纤维投射外,还向同侧尾状核头部发出AChE阳性投村纤维;此外,腹侧被盖区存在着向双侧尾核头部发出分叉投射纤维的DOPA能细胞。