腹腔镜经脐单一部位幽门环肌切开术治疗小儿先天性肥厚性幽门狭窄的临床效果研究

目的研究腹腔镜经脐单一部位幽门环肌切开术治疗小儿先天性肥厚性幽门狭窄的临床效果。方法100例小儿先天性肥厚性幽门狭窄患儿作为研究对象,按照随机方式分为观察组和对照组,每组50例。对照组采用腹腔镜幽门环肌切开术治疗,观察组采用腹腔镜经脐单一部位幽门环肌切开术治疗。观察记录患儿的手术结果及随访结果,并比较两组患儿手术时间、术后住院时间。结果手术过程顺利,100例患儿均成功完成手术,无一例中转开腹手术,无并发症发生。观察组患儿术后6 h将胃管取下,少量喂入温水后逐渐过渡到喂糖水、喂奶;对照组患儿术后24 h开始逐渐进食。患儿术后进行6个月的延续性随访,观察组患儿切口恢复美观,已经无法观察到切口瘢痕,两组患儿的生长发育均显示正常状态。观察组患儿手术时间(21.23±1.65)min及术后住院时间(5.58±1.98)d均显著短于对照组的(38.44±1.23)min、(9.67±1.22)d,差异具有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论先天性肥厚性幽门狭窄患儿采用腹腔镜经脐单一部位幽门环肌切开术治疗,手术效果良好,手术创伤小而且安全。     

Development of an automated production process of [64Cu][Cu (ATSM)] for positron emission tomography imaging and theranostic applications

Cyclotron-produced copper-64 radioisotope tracers offer the possibility to perform both diagnostic investigation by positron emission tomography (PET) and radiotherapy by a theranostic approach with bifunctional chelators. The versatile chemical properties of copper add to the importance of this isotope in medicinal investigation. [⁶⁴Cu][Cu (ATSM)] has shown to be a viable candidate for imaging of tumor hypoxia; a critical tumor microenvironment characteristic that typically signifies tumor progression and resistance to chemo-radiotherapy. Various production and radiosynthesis methods of [⁶⁴Cu][Cu (ATSM)] exist in labs, but usually involved non-standardized equipment with varying production qualities and may not be easily implemented in wider hospital settings. [⁶⁴Cu][Cu (ATSM)] was synthesized on a modified GE TRACERlab FXN automated synthesis module. End-of-synthesis (EOS) molar activity of [⁶⁴Cu][Cu (ATSM)] was 2.2–5.5 Ci/μmol (HPLC), 2.2–2.6 Ci/μmol (ATSM-titration), and 3.0–4.4 Ci/μmol (ICP-MS). Radiochemical purity was determined to be >99% based on radio-HPLC. The final product maintained radiochemical purity after 20 h. We demonstrated a simple and feasible process development and quality control protocols for automated cyclotron production and synthesis of [⁶⁴Cu][Cu (ATSM)] based on commercially distributed standardized synthesis modules suitable for PET imaging and theranostic studies.     

Assessing perceived quality of primary care under hospital-township health centre integration: A cross-sectional study in China

Since the new round of health care reform in 2009, the vertical integration of hospitals and primary health institutions has become widely implemented in China as an efficient method for improving quality of primary care. This study aimed to answer the following questions: (a) What is the perceived quality of township health centres (THCs) under integration? (B) What differences could be observed among the three typical integration models, namely, private hospital-THC integration, public hospital-THC integration, and loose collaboration? Two rounds of cross-sectional surveys were conducted from November 2016 to June 2018. The Chinese version of the Primary Care Assessment Tool was used to evaluate perceived quality of sample THCs, and 1118 adult patients were interviewed in total. Multiple linear regressions were employed to compare the quality scores between two survey rounds and among different integration models after controlling for potential confounders. The results revealed that the quality of care significantly improved under private hospital-THC integration as observed by comparing two survey rounds, while no change or slight changes were observed in the other two models. The difference observed among the three models was that the perceived quality of THCs integrated with private hospitals was worse than that of THCs integrated with public hospitals and THCs under loose collaboration, while no significant difference was observed between public hospital-THC integration and loose collaboration. Increased attention should be given to highlighting the tight integration between hospitals and THCs and the different roles played by private and public hospitals in the current reform.     

Unconditional Positivity-Preserving and Energy Stable Schemes for a Reduced Poisson-Nernst-Planck System

The Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) system is a widely accepted model for simulation of ionic channels. In this paper, we design, analyze, and numerically validate a second order unconditional positivity-preserving scheme for solving a reduced PNP system, which can well approximate the three dimensional ion channel problem. Positivity of numerical solutions is proven to hold true independent of the size of time steps and the choice of the Poisson solver. The scheme is easy to implement without resorting to any iteration method. Several numerical examples further confirm the positivity-preserving property, and demonstrate the accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of the proposed scheme, as well as the fast approach to steady states.     

Hypocholesterolaemic mechanism of bitter melon aqueous extracts via inhibition of pancreatic cholesterol esterase and reduction of cholesterol micellar solubility

This study investigated the hypocholesterolaemic effects of bitter melon aqueous extracts (BMAE) in vitro, the inhibitory effects of BMAE on pancreatic cholesterol esterase (CEase) and incorporation of cholesterol into micelles were investigated. BMAE decreased the in vitro micellar solubility of cholesterol in a dose-dependent manner. The conformation of CEase was investigated by means of circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence. The result revealed the decrease of α-helix contents, increase of β-sheet and exposure of aromatic amino acid residuals. The incorporation of cholesterol into micelles was inhibited by BMAE. A complex was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which indicated interaction between cholesterol and BMAE. The result revealed that BMAE can play a role in decreased intestinal cholesterol absorption via inhibition of CEase, and of micelle formation.