Low back pain: Influence of early MR imaging or CT on treatment and outcome - a randomized controlled study protocol

Objective:To establish whether early use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) influences treatment and outcome of patients with low back pain.Methods:This study will be implemented from March 2021 to March 2022 at Huzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang Chinese Medical University. The experiment was granted through the Research Ethics Committee of Huzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (R609320987). Patients who have symptomatic lumbar spine disorders at presentation are eligible for the trial if there is clinical uncertainty about the need for imaging (MRI or CT). Patients are excluded who required immediate referral for imaging (those who had signs suggestive of serious abnormalities or disease or who required surgical intervention), who have undergone MR imaging or CT of the spine within 1 year, who do not need imaging, and who have pain of a nonspinal origin. The primary outcome measure is the Aberdeen Low Back Pain (ALBP) score. Other principal outcome measure is the Short Form 36.Results:Table 1 will show the quality of life outcome measures between groups.Conclusion:This study may guide the policy makers to develop an evidence-based protocol to assess the effect of early use of MRI or CT in the treatment of patients with low back pain.     

Plasma dilution improves cognition and attenuates neuroinflammation in old mice

Our recent study has established that young blood factors are not causal, nor necessary, for the systemic rejuvenation of mammalian tissues. Instead, a procedure referred to as neutral blood exchange (NBE) that resets signaling milieu to a pro-regenerative state through dilution of old plasma, enhanced the health and repair of the muscle and liver, and promoted better hippocampal neurogenesis in 2-year-old mice (Mehdipour et al., Aging 12:8790–8819, 2020). Here we expand the rejuvenative phenotypes of NBE, focusing on the brain. Namely, our results demonstrate that old mice perform much better in novel object and novel texture (whisker discrimination) tests after a single NBE, which is accompanied by reduced neuroinflammation (less-activated CD68⁺ microglia). Evidence against attenuation/dilution of peripheral senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) as the main mechanism behind NBE was that the senolytic ABT 263 had limited effects on neuroinflammation and did not enhance hippocampal neurogenesis in the old mice. Interestingly, peripherally acting ABT 263 and NBE both diminished SA-βGal signal in the old brain, demonstrating that peripheral senescence propagates to the brain, but NBE was more robustly rejuvenative than ABT 263, suggesting that rejuvenation was not simply by reducing senescence. Explaining the mechanism of the positive effects of NBE on the brain, our comparative proteomics analysis demonstrated that dilution of old blood plasma yields an increase in the determinants of brain maintenance and repair in mice and in people. These findings confirm the paradigm of rejuvenation through dilution of age-elevated systemic factors and extrapolate it to brain health and function.

     

Long-term renal outcomes of mesangial proliferative lupus nephritis in Chinese patients

Clinical Rheumatology - This study aimed to explore the long-term outcomes of mesangial proliferative lupus nephritis (LN class II) and the factors associated with its relapse and histological...     

Evaluation of adalimumab biosimilar candidate (HS016) in Chinese patients with active ankylosing spondylitis based on a health survey: sub-analysis of a phase 3 study

Clinical Rheumatology - The equivalence of the biosimilar HS016 to adalimumab (Humira) for the treatment of active ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients has been previously validated. The aim was to...     

Comparison and correlation study of synovial ultrasound indices and serum VEGF in rheumatoid wrist arthritis before and after treatment

Clinical Rheumatology - Rheumatoid wrist arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease, resulting in joint deformity and functional impairment. We aimed to compare the wrist synovial ultrasound indices...     

Sturge–Weber Syndrome Is Associated with Cortical Dysplasia ILAE Type IIIc and Excessive Hypertrophic Pyramidal Neurons in Brain Resections for Intractable Epilepsy

Sturge–Weber syndrome (SWS) is a rare syndrome characterized by capillary‐venous malformations involving skin and brain. Many patients with SWS also suffer from drug‐resistant epilepsy. We retrospectively studied a series of six SWS patients with epilepsy and extensive neurosurgical resections. At time of surgery, the patients' age ranged from 11 to 35 years (with a mean of 20.2 years). All surgical specimens were well preserved, which allowed a systematic microscopical inspection utilizing the 2011 ILAE classification for focal cortical dysplasia (FCD). Neuropathology revealed dysmorphic‐like neurons with hypertrophic cell bodies reminiscent to those described for FCD type IIa in all cases. However, gross architectural abnormalities of neocortical layering typical for FCD type IIa were missing, and we propose to classify this pattern as FCD ILAE type IIIc. In addition, our patients with earliest seizure onset also showed polymicrogyria (PMG; n = 4). The ictal onset zones were identified in all patients by subdural electrodes, and these areas always showed histopathological evidence for FCD type IIIc. Four out of five patients had favorable seizure control after surgery with a mean follow‐up period of 1.7 years. We concluded from our study that FCD type IIIc and PMG are frequently associated findings in SWS. FCD type IIIc may play a major epileptogenic role in SWS and complete resection of the associated FCD should be considered a prognostic key factor to achieve seizure control.     

Anisotropic tough poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphene oxide nanocomposite hydrogels for potential biomedical applications

Hydrogels, one of the most important bioinspired materials, are receiving increasing attention because of their potential applications as scaffolds for artificial tissue engineering and vehicles for drug delivery, etc. However, these applications are always severely limited by their microstructure and mechanical behavior. Here we report the fabrication of a tough polyvinyl alcohol/graphene oxide (PVA/GO) nanocomposite hydrogel through a simple and effective directional freezing–thawing (DFT) technique. The resulting hydrogels show well-developed anisotropic microstructure and excellent mechanical properties with the assistance of DFT method and lamellar graphene. The hydrogels with anisotropic porous structures that consisted of micro-sized fibers and lamellas exhibit high tensile strengths, up to 1.85 MPa with a water content of 90%. More interestingly, the PVA/GO composite hydrogels exhibit the better thermostability, which can maintain the original shape when swollen in hot water (65 °C). In addition, the hydrogels with biocompatibility show good drug release efficiency due to the unique hierarchical structure. The successful synthesis of such hydrogel materials might pave the way to explore applications in biomedical and soft robotics fields.

Tough PVA/GO nanocomposite hydrogel with well-developed anisotropic microstructure and excellent mechanical properties.     

The history of interventional therapy for liver cancer in China

In China interventional therapy of liver cancer started in the 1980s. It is well-known that Professor Lin Gui is the founding father of Interventional radiology. Under the leadership of Lin Gui and other professors, interventional therapy of liver cancer has swiftly progressed in China. Indeed, TAI, TAE, TACE and ablation therapy have witnessed great innovations in hardware facilities, technical means, and therapeutic philosophy, while incorporating Chinese characteristics. As with the development of combined interventional therapy in China, interventional treatment of liver cancer has gradually started the process of precision and individualization. Actually, multidisciplinary, multimodal, and polymorphic treatments will be the most suitable pattern for liver cancer in the future, among which combination of interventional therapy with targeted, immunological treatments and information technology (IT) tools may bring a revolutionary breakthrough in liver cancer treatment.     

高校女教师情绪智力与教学效能感的关系研究

目的:了解高校女教师情绪智力与教学效能感之间的关系,为高校女教师教学效能感及能力的提高提供科学依据。方法 :采用情绪智力量表(EIS)和教学效能感量表(UTES),对整群随机抽取的成都中医药大学88名在职女教师进行问卷调查。结果 :高校女教师教龄组各年龄段在情绪智力的差异有统计学意义。情绪智力总分与教学效能感总分、个人教学效能感和专业教学效能感有显著正相关,其中个人教学效能感与情绪感知、他人情绪管理有显著正相关;专业教学效能感与情绪感知、他人情绪管理和情绪表达有显著正相关。他人情绪管理这个维度进入教学效能感的回归方程,情绪智力主要通过理解他人情绪这个维度对教师教学效能感进行影响。结论 :情绪感知及他人情绪管理是高校女教师教学效能感的重要预测指标。     

Combining early post-resuscitation EEG and HRV features improves the prognostic performance in cardiac arrest model of rats

Objective

Early and reliable prediction of neurological outcome remains a challenge for comatose survivors of cardiac arrest (CA). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive ability of EEG, heart rate variability (HRV) features and the combination of them for outcome prognostication in CA model of rats.