ABSTRACT
Objective: By investigating the correlation between quantitative parameters of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and commonly used activity assessment indicators of Crohn's disease (CD), and comparing the predictive power of laboratory inflammatory indicators with CEUS on Crohn's disease (CD), the significance of CEUS was evaluated. Methods: A case-control study. From October 2019 to December 2021, the clinical data of 67 patients with CD who were diagnosed by endoscopy and underwent contrast-enhanced ultrasonography were retrospectively analyzed in the First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, and their routine ultrasound and CEUS parameters, C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), fecal calprotectin (FC), Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI) and simplified endoscopic score for Crohn's disease (SES-CD) were collected. Using SES-CD as the standard, the patients were divided into a remission group and an active group, and the correlation of laboratory inflammatory indexes and contrast-enhanced ultrasound parameters with CDAI and SES-CD were evaluated. Besides, the ROC curve was used to analyze the predictive efficacy of each index on CD endoscopic activity. Results: A total of 67 patients were included in this study. According to the SES-CD score, there were 17 patients in the remission group and 50 patients in the active group. Except for the coefficient of the enhancement wash in slope and time to peak (TTP), the peak intensity (PI), area under the angiography curve, and laboratory inflammatory indexes were significantly different between the two groups (P<0.05), which also showed a moderate positive correlation with CDAI and SES-CD (P<0.05). ROC analysis showed that among the non-invasive indicators, PI and area under the angiography curve had the highest AUCs for predicting CD endoscopic activity, which were 0.912 and 0.891, respectively; with SES-CD taking >3 as the cut-off value, the corresponding sensitivities were 78.0% and 72.0%, with specificities of 100.0% and 94.1%, respectively. Conclusion: CEUS can objectively and repeatedly evaluate the disease activity of CD patients, and has great clinical application value, which can be used as a reliable imaging method for diagnosis and follow-up of patients with Crohn's disease.
Subject(s)
Humans , Crohn Disease/diagnosis , Case-Control Studies , Retrospective Studies , Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal , C-Reactive Protein/analysis , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
Twenty-one lignans including three new ones (1, 2 and 13) were isolated from Justicia procumbens. The chemical structures of the new lignans were determined by spectroscopic means including 1D and 2D NMR analysis. These compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic and anti-HIV activities. The new secoisolariciresinol dimethyl ether acetate (13) exhibited anti-HIV-1 activity with an IC value of 5.27 μmol·L and a selective index (SI) value of 2.2. The known arylnaphthalene lignan procumbenoside A (3) and diphyllin (8) demonstrated inhibitory activity against HIV-1 with IC values of 4.95 (SI > 6.2) and 0.38 μmol·L (SI = 5.3), respectively.
ABSTRACT
In order to increase the SNR of the prostate image, we have designed a RF endorectal coil. Its properties have been evaluated using a network analyzer. Moreover the images got with a special phantom show that the coil has much higher SNR at the region of interest (ROI).
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Algorithms , Equipment Design , Image Enhancement , Methods , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Methods , Phantoms, Imaging , Prostate , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of erythromycin on the contractive activity of the isolated gastric antrum smooth muscle and somatostatin (SS), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), motilin (MTL), and substance P (SP) in plasma and isolated gastric antrum tissue of diabetes mellitus (DM) rat models.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: control group (n = 10), DM group (n = 10), and erythromycin group (DM models with erythromycin treatment, n = 10). A single dose of streptozotocin (100 mg/kg, dissolved in 0.1 mol/L citric acid buffer, pH4.5) was injected intraperitoneally. After 48 to 72 hours, rats with blood glucose above 16.7 mmol/L and urine glucose level to be (+++) to (++++) over one week were considered successful DM models. The resting tension, mean contractile amplitude and frequency of spontaneous change in isolated longitudinal and circular gastric antrum smooth muscle strips were measured. SS, VIP, MTL, and SP levels in plasma and gastric antrum tissue were measured using radioimmunoassay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) In the isolated gastric antrum smooth muscle strips, the gastric motility parameters were lower in DM group than those in control group except circular smooth muscle contractile amplitude and longitudinal smooth muscle contractile frequency. The gastric motility parameters were significantly strengthened in erythromycin group, compared with DM group except longitudinal smooth muscle resting tension (P < 0.01). (2) Plasma SS, VIP, and MTL concentrations in DM group were higher than those in control (P < 0.05), while the SP level decreased (P < 0.05). In the gastric antrum, SS of DM group was significantly higher than that of control group (P < 0.01), while SP and MTL levels were lower than those of control group (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). However, the level of VIP in gastric antrum tissue did not change among three groups. The plasma level of SS in erythromycin group was higher than that of DM group (P < 0.05). (3) The blood glucose was lower in erythromycin group than DM group (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Erythromycin has direct effects on contractive activity of gastric smooth muscle in diabetic rats, but there are few effects on neuroendocrine peptides. Gastric-motility disorders in diabetic rats have a correlation with the changes of neuroendocrine peptide levels in plasma and gastric antrum tissue.</p>