A Novel Single-arm Single-port Micro-traumatic Laparoscopic Robotic Surgical System / 中国医疗器械杂志

As the robotic assisted single port surgery arousing attention, a novel single-arm single-port micro-traumatic laparoscopic robotic surgical system is proposed in this study. From the perspective of the mechanics, joints with high rigidity and high reliability were utilized to realize the remote center of motion (RCM). Besides, the cost of consumables was reduced by adding the support of the rigid endoscope. From the perspective of the algorithm, high-precision motion control method and feedback force protection mechanism were implemented. The effectiveness of the aforementioned characteristics were verified by five clinical experiments of cholecystectomy. The results showed that the system is able to reduce the amount of bleeding, accelerate the patient recovery, reduce the infection risk and shorten the learning period. The robotic surgical system had significant clinical application value.

Safety and efficacy between endoscopic resection and esophagectomy for T1N0 esophageal neoplasm: A systematic review and meta-analysis / 中国胸心血管外科临床杂志

@#Objective    To compare the short- and long-term efficacy of surgery and endoscopy in the treatment of early esophageal cancer by a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods    We extracted data independently from The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science for studies comparing surgery with endoscopy from 2010 to 2020. The primary outcomes including R0 resection rate, long-term overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), major complications, recurrence, hospital stay and cost. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 and Engauge Digitizer was used to extract survival curves from relevant literature, and relevant data were calculated based on statistical methods. Results    A total of 17 studies involving 3 705 patients were included. It was found that patients in the surgery group had a higher R0 resection rate compared with the endoscopic group (OR=0.13, 95%CI 0.07 to 0.27, P<0.001, I2=6%). The total complications rate of resection of esophageal cancer was higher than that of the endoscopic group (OR=0.28, 95%CI 0.16 to 0.50, P<0.001, I2=68%). The length of hospitalization in the endoscopic group was obviously shorter than that in the surgery group (MD=–8.28, 95%CI –12.44 to –4.13, P<0.001, I2=96%). The distant recurrence rate (OR=0.58, 95%CI 0.24 to 1.41, P=0.230, I2=0%) and the local recurrence rate after resection (OR=1.74, 95%CI 0.66 to 4.59, P=0.260, I2=40%) in the endoscopic group was similar to those of the surgery group. There was no significant difference in 5 year-OS rate between the two groups (HR=0.86, 95%CI 0.67 to 1.11, P=0.25, I2=0%), which was subdivided into two groups: adenocarcinoma (HR=0.55, 95%CI 0.15 to 2.05, P=0.37, I2=0%) and squamous cell carcinoma (HR=0.68, 95%CI 0.46 to 1.01, P=0.06, I2=0%), showing that there was no difference between the two subgroups. There was no significant difference in the DSS rate (HR=0.72, 95%CI 0.49 to 1.05, P=0.090, I2=0%) between the two groups. The cost of the surgery group was significantly higher than that of the endoscopic group (MD=–12.97, 95%CI –18.02 to –7.92, P<0.001, I2=93%). Conclusion    The evidence shows that endotherapy may be an effective treatment for early esophageal neoplasm when considering the long-term outcomes whether it is squamous or adenocarcinoma, even though it is not as effective as surgery in the short-term efficacy.

The value of CT based radiomics in predicting progression of early acute pancreatitis / 中华放射学杂志

Objection To investigate the value of CT based radiomics in predicting progression of early acute pancreatitis (AP). Methods:From November 2013 to February 2021, 109 patients diagnosed with AP according to the new revised Atlanta classification in Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into progressive group (40 cases) and non-progressive group (69 cases) according to the follow-up results. All patients underwent plain and enhanced abdominal CT scan within a week of onset. The patients were divided into training set (77 cases, including 28 cases in progressive group and 49 cases in non-progressive group) and validation set (32 cases, including 12 cases in progressive group and 20 cases in non-progressive group) in a ratio of 7∶3 using a computer completely random method. Manual region of interest mapping was performed on all levels of pancreas on the plain scan, arterial phase, venous phase and delayed phase CT images, then performed 3D fusion. AK software was used to extract texture features. The minimum redundancy maximum relevance and minimum absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression analysis were used to select features and establish radiomics labels of the plain scan, arterial phase, venous phase, delayed phase and combining the 4 sequences. The multiple logistic regression analysis was used to establish the clinical model by combining clinical features and CT features, and the comprehensive model was established by combining clinical features, CT features and imaging radiomics label. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the efficacy of each model in predicting early AP progression and the decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to evaluate the clinical application value of each model.Results:In the training set, logistic regression results showed that edge was an independent predictor (OR=0.16, P=0.033). The clinical model was established using edge and serum calcium level, and its areas under the ROC curve (AUC) in the training set and validation set were 0.69 and 0.70, respectively. Totally 14, 11, 13, 13 and 9 optimal texture features were extracted from the plain scan, arterial phase, venous phase, delayed phase and combined sequence images, respectively. The delay phase image radiomics label had relatively better predictive performance in training set and validation set, and the AUC were both 0.85. The comprehensive model was established based on the delayed phase image radiomics label (OR=2.22, P<0.001) and edge (OR=0.02, P=0.042), and the AUC in the training set and validation set was 0.90 and 0.86, respectively. DCA showed that both the comprehensive model and the delayed phase radiomics label had better benefits. Conclusions:CT radiomics model has high value for predicting progression of AP, and its clinical benefits exhibited superior performance of clinical model.

Application of machine learning models to survival risk stratification after radical surgery for thoracic squamous esophageal cancer / 中国胸心血管外科临床杂志

@#Objective    To explore the application value of machine learning models in predicting postoperative survival of patients with thoracic squamous esophageal cancer. Methods    The clinical data of 369 patients with thoracic esophageal squamous carcinoma who underwent radical esophageal cancer surgery at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital from January 2014 to September 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 279 (75.6%) males and 90 (24.4%) females aged 41-78 years. The patients were randomly divided into a training set (259 patients) and a test set (110 patients) with a ratio of 7 : 3. Variable screening was performed by selecting the best subset of features. Six machine learning models were constructed on this basis and validated in an independent test set. The  performance of the models' predictions was evaluated by area under the curve (AUC), accuracy and logarithmic loss, and the fit of the models was reflected by calibration curves. The best model was selected as the final model. Risk stratification was performed using X-tile, and survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method with log-rank test. Results    The 5-year postoperative survival rate of the patients was 67.5%. All clinicopathological characteristics of patients between the two groups in the training and test sets were not statistically different (P>0.05). A total of seven variables, including hypertension, history of smoking, history of alcohol consumption, degree of tissue differentiation, pN stage, vascular invasion and nerve invasion, were included for modelling. The AUC values for each model in the independent test set were: decision tree (AUC=0.796), support vector machine (AUC=0.829), random forest (AUC=0.831), logistic regression (AUC=0.838), gradient boosting machine (AUC=0.846), and XGBoost (AUC=0.853). The XGBoost model was finally selected as the best model, and risk stratification was performed on the training and test sets. Patients in the training and test sets were divided into a low risk group, an intermediate risk group and a high risk group, respectively. In both data sets, the differences in surgical prognosis among three groups were statistically significant (P<0.001). Conclusion    Machine learning models have high value in predicting postoperative prognosis of thoracic squamous esophageal cancer. The XGBoost model outperforms common machine learning methods in predicting 5-year survival of patients with thoracic squamous esophageal cancer, and it has high utility and reliability.

Rituximab therapy for adult patients with idiopathic focal segmental glomerulosclerosis / 中华肾脏病杂志

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of rituximab in the treatment of adult primary focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS).Methods:Adult FSGS patients treated with rituximab in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University College of Medicine were retrospectively enrolled. One or two doses of rituximab (375 mg/m 2) were used aiming to achieve B cell depletion (defined as<5 B cells per microliter in peripheral blood) and the interval between the two doses was 2 weeks. The evaluated major outcomes were remission and relapse of nephropathy, and the secondary outcome measures were adverse events and renal outcomes. Results:A total of 14 patients (9 males) were enrolled, among whom 7 cases were steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS) or frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome (FRNS), 6 cases were steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) and one patient was new onset FSGS with contraindication to steroid. After treatment with rituximab, 7 patients with SDNS/FRNS achieved complete remission. At 6 months, the daily oral steroid dose reduced significantly compared with the baseline [(33.3±5.2) mg/d vs (6.7±6.6) mg/d, P<0.01]; while one patient still received tacrolimus 1.0 mg/d, the other 6 patients stopped using immunosuppressants; and the total number of relapse/total follow-up months decreased from 0.257 times/month to 0.058 times/month after the use of rituximab. For the other 6 SRNS patients and one patient with contraindication to steroid, three SRNS patients achieved partial remission and one patient with contraindication to steroid achieved complete remission at 34.50(20.25, 95.25) days after use of rituximab, and the other 3 SRNS patients failed to achieve remission, of whom one patient developed end stage renal disease at 23 months. Conclusions:Rituximab may reduce the risk of relapse and help steroid or immunosuppressant-tapering in adult steroid-dependent/frequently relapsing idiopathic FSGS. However, it is not effective in SRNS patients.

Self-assembly in the transparent droplets formed during the screening of protein self-assembly conditions / 生物工程学报

Protein self-assemblies at the micro- and nano-scale are of great interest because of their morphological diversity and good biocompatibility. High-throughput screening of protein self-assembly at different scales and morphologies using protein crystallization screening conditions is an emerging method. When using this method to screen protein self-assembly conditions, some apparently transparent droplets are often observed, in which it is not clear whether self-assembly occurs. We explored the interaction between β-lactoglobulin and the protein crystallization kit Index™ C10 and observed the presence of micro- and nano-scale protein self-assemblies in the transparent droplets. The diverse morphology of the micro- and nano-scale self-assemblies in the transparent droplets formed by mixing different initial concentrations of β-lactoglobulin and Index™ C10 was further investigated by scanning electron microscope. Self-assembly process of fluorescence-labelled β-lactoglobulin was monitored continuously by laser confocal microscope, allowing real-time observation of the liquid-liquid phase separation phenomenon and the morphology of the final self-assemblies. The internal structure of the self-assemblies was gradually ordered over time by in-situ X-ray diffraction. This indicates that the self-assembly phenomenon within transparent droplets, observed in protein self-assembly condition screening experiments, is worthy of further in-depth exploration.

Clinical significance of glomerular IgG4 deposition in primary membranous nephropathy / 中华肾脏病杂志

Objective@#To analyze the distribution of glomerular immunofluorescence IgG4 subtypes in primary membranous nephropathy, and to explore the relationship between IgG4 deposit intensity and renal pathology, clinical manifestations and prognosis.@*Methods@#All the patients of biopsy-proven primary membranous nephropathy with IgG staining and at least one IgG subtype staining 1+ or higher on capillary loops from September 2015 to April 2017 were retrospectively enrolled. The distribution of IgG4 deposits were analyzed, and the relationship between IgG4 positive intensity and clinical manifestations, pathological indexes and clinical remission was investigated.@*Results@#A total of 250 cases were enrolled, including 157 males (62.8%) and 93 females (37.2%), and age was (54.4 ± 14.6) years. There were 40 patients in IgG4-negative group, and 210 patients in IgG4-positive group. The IgG4-positive group was divided into subgroups as 114 cases of the mild positive subgroup (1+) and 62 cases of the moderate positive subgroup (2+), and 34 cases of the strong positive subgroup (3+, 4+). The IgG4-positive group had higher 24-hour urine protein and higher positive rate of phospholipase A2 receptor staining than those in the negative group (both P<0.05), while the strong positive subgroup had lower serum albumin and higher IgG1 staining than those in the mild positive subgroup (both P<0.05). There was no difference in the ratio of glomerular sclerosis, tubular atrophy, IgG2, IgG3 or other immunofluorescence between the groups. After a median follow-up of 180(122, 209) days, 32 individuals were lost to follow-up. Among the rest 218 patients, 45 patients (20.6%) got complete remission, 104 patients (47.7%) got partial remission, and 69 patients (31.7%) showed no response. For no response as the outcome event, multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that higher IgG4 staining intensity (HR=1.371, 95%CI 1.068-1.759, P=0.013), male (HR=1.818, 95%CI 1.028-3.214, P=0.040), higher 24-hour urine protein level (HR=1.108, 95%CI 1.003-1.225, P=0.043) were independent risk factors for disease remission.@*Conclusions@#The glomerular IgG4 positivity and intensity are related to the severity of primary membranous nephropathy. The glomerular IgG4 deposit degree may be an effective prognostic marker for the treatment response of primary membranous nephropathy.

Clinical significance of glomerular IgG4 deposition in primary membranous nephropathy / 中华肾脏病杂志

Objective:To analyze the distribution of glomerular immunofluorescence IgG4 subtypes in primary membranous nephropathy, and to explore the relationship between IgG4 deposit intensity and renal pathology, clinical manifestations and prognosis.Methods:All the patients of biopsy-proven primary membranous nephropathy with IgG staining and at least one IgG subtype staining 1+ or higher on capillary loops from September 2015 to April 2017 were retrospectively enrolled. The distribution of IgG4 deposits were analyzed, and the relationship between IgG4 positive intensity and clinical manifestations, pathological indexes and clinical remission was investigated.Results:A total of 250 cases were enrolled, including 157 males (62.8%) and 93 females (37.2%), and age was (54.4 ± 14.6) years. There were 40 patients in IgG4-negative group, and 210 patients in IgG4-positive group. The IgG4-positive group was divided into subgroups as 114 cases of the mild positive subgroup (1+) and 62 cases of the moderate positive subgroup (2+), and 34 cases of the strong positive subgroup (3+, 4+). The IgG4-positive group had higher 24-hour urine protein and higher positive rate of phospholipase A2 receptor staining than those in the negative group (both P<0.05), while the strong positive subgroup had lower serum albumin and higher IgG1 staining than those in the mild positive subgroup (both P<0.05). There was no difference in the ratio of glomerular sclerosis, tubular atrophy, IgG2, IgG3 or other immunofluorescence between the groups. After a median follow-up of 180(122, 209) days, 32 individuals were lost to follow-up. Among the rest 218 patients, 45 patients (20.6%) got complete remission, 104 patients (47.7%) got partial remission, and 69 patients (31.7%) showed no response. For no response as the outcome event, multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that higher IgG4 staining intensity ( HR=1.371, 95% CI 1.068-1.759, P=0.013), male ( HR=1.818, 95% CI 1.028-3.214, P=0.040), higher 24-hour urine protein level ( HR=1.108, 95% CI 1.003-1.225, P=0.043) were independent risk factors for disease remission. Conclusions:The glomerular IgG4 positivity and intensity are related to the severity of primary membranous nephropathy. The glomerular IgG4 deposit degree may be an effective prognostic marker for the treatment response of primary membranous nephropathy.

Recent research advances in the relationship between competing endogenous RNA and lung neoplasma / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

Non-coding RNAs can be constructed into a complex network of ceRNA by competitive combination of common microRNA recognition sequences(MREs). At present, abnormal expression of non-coding RNAs has been found in many human cancers, including lung cancer. More over, many kinds of ceRNA-microRNA-RNA have been found, which have been proved to be involved in the biological processes of lung cancer, such as occurrence, invasion, metastasis, drug resistance and prognosis. This review focuses on the differential expression of ceRNA network members in lung cancer cells and the effects of their specific changes on lung cancer.

The predictive value of crescents in adult Henoch-Sch(o)lein purpura nephritis / 中华肾脏病杂志

Objective To study the renal prognosis with the type and proportion of crescentic in adult Henoch Schonlein purpura nephritis (HSPN).Methods A total of 275 HSPN cases diagnosed in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University were retrospectively analyzed.According to the pathological results,they were divided into four groups:99 patients in none crescent group (NC),35 patients in segmental crescents group (SC),122 patients with circumferential crescent ＜25％ (C1),and 19 patients with circumferential crescent≥25％ (C2).Renal prognostic events were defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decreased by 30％ over baseline within 2 years,doubling of serum creatinine or end-stage renal disease during follow-up.Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to compare the renal survival rate of each group.Univariate and multivariate Cox regression model was used to recognize the risk factor of poor renal outcome.Results There was no significant difference in age,extra renal organ performance and mean arterial pressure among groups.Among NC group,SC group,C1 group and C2 group,difference in serum creatinine (P=0.001),eGFR (P=0.003) and proteinuria levels (P ＜ 0.001) were statistically significant.There was no significant difference in the ratio of global sclerosis,mesangial hypercellularity and interstitial inflammation/fibrosis among the groups.The patients were followed up for 86(58,116) months.The renal survival rates of NC group,SC group,C1 group and C2 group were 96％,100％,83.6％ and 68.4％ respectively.Kaplan-meier survival analysis showed significant differences (Log Rank=23.24,P＜ 0.001).Cox multivariate regression analysis indicated that presence of circumferential crescent (HR=3.59,95％CI 1.34-9.62,P=0.008) and low eGFR (HR=0.979,95％ CI 0.968-0.989,P ＜ 0.001) were independent prognostic factors.Conclusion The presence of circumferential crescent and low eGFR level are independent risk factors for poor renal prognosis in HSPN patients.

Pathological classification and prognosis of renal damage caused by antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody associated vasculitis / 中华肾脏病杂志

Objective To analyze the pathological characteristics and prognostic factors of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV).Methods A retrospective analysis of AAV patients with renal biopsy results admitted to Kidney Disease Center of the First Affiliated Hospital from January 2004 to February 2017 was performed.The patients were divided into 4 types according to Berden classification,and their clinical,pathological characteristics and prognosis were compared.The survival curves of each type of patients were plotted by Kaplan-Meier method,and the difference of survival curves was compared using Log-rank test.With entering the maintenance dialysis as the endpoint,Cox regression was used to analyze the prognostic factors.Results A total of 175 patients with AAV,including 59 cases (33.7％) of focal type,39 cases (22.3％) of crescent type,32 cases (18.3％) of sclerosis type,45 cases (25.7％) of mixed type.The basal serum creatinine levels in crescent type group and sclerosis type group were significantly higher than those in the focal type group or mixed type group (all P ＜ 0.05),and loop necrosis rate in sclerosis type group was significantly lower than chat in the focal type group or crescent type group (both P ＜ 0.05).The median follow-up period was 11.8 (0.5-86.7) months.The event-free survival rates were 83.1％,77.8％,64.1％ and 50.0％ in the focal type,mixed type,crescent type and sclerotic type groups (Log-rank x2=11.537,P=0.009).Cox regression analysis showed higher parathyroid hormone (HR=1.013,95％ CI 1.007-1.019,P ＜ 0.001),glomerular sclerosis ≥50％ (HR=10.532,95％CI 2.903-38.203,P ＜ 0.001) were independent risk factors for AAV patients entering maintenance dialysis,and higher estimated glomerular filtration rate (HR=0.943,95％ CI 0.896-0.993,P=0.025) was protective factor.Conclusion The prognosis of AAV renal damage is worsened according to focal,mixed,crescent and sclerosis types.Lower estimated glomerular filtration rate,higher parathyroid hormone and glomerular sclerosis ≥ 50％ are independent risk factors for AAV patients entering maintenance dialysis.

Clinicopathological features of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies associated vasculitis with glomerular IgA deposits / 中华肾脏病杂志

Objective To investigate the clinical manifestations,renal pathology and prognosis of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated small-vessel vasculitis (AAV) accompanied with renal glomerular IgA deposition.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University College of Medicine.Patients diagnosed with AAV associated renal injury by renal biopsy from February 2004 to February 2017 were enrolled.Patients with antiglomerular basement membrane antibody-mediated nephritis,systemic lupus erythematosus nephritis,Henoch Schonlein purpura nephritis,hepatitis B virus associated nephritis and other known etiology were excluded.According to immunofluorescence examination,the patients were divided into IgA deposition group and pauci-immune complex deposition group.The differences in clinical manifestation,pathological features and prognosis were compared between groups.Results A total of 150 AAV cases were included,among which 25 cases were with IgA deposition and 125 cases with pauci-immune complex deposition.The level of serum albumin in IgA deposition group was higher than that in pauci-immune complex deposition group [(35.0±6.2) g/L vs (32.6±5.3) g/L,P=0.049],but the titer of MPO-ANCA was lower [24.8(10.4,71.8) U/ml vs 63.0(21.9,100.0) U/ml,P=0.044] in IgA deposition group.There was no significant difference between two groups in other laboratory indexes and renal pathological findings.The median follow-up time was 15.2 months in IgA deposition group and 8.9 months in pauci immune complex deposition group.During the follow-up there were 8 patients (32.0％) in IgA deposition group and 29 patients (23.2％) in pauci immune complex deposition group on maintaining dialysis;2 patients (8.0％) in IgA deposition group and 7 patients (5.6％) in pauci immune complex deposition group died.There was no significant difference between two groups in patients' outcomes.Conclusions AAV patients with glomerular IgA deposition and AAV patients with typical glomerular immunoglobulin complex deposition are similar as regards clinical appearance and prognosis.

Prognosis and risk factors of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis patients on maintaining dialysis / 中华肾脏病杂志

Objective To analyze the prognosis and risk factors for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody?associated vasculitis (AAV) patients on maintaining dialysis. Methods AAV patients on maintaining peritoneal dialysis (PD) or hemodialysis (HD) in First Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University from June 2007 to June 2015 were included, and were followed up until death, kidney transplant, changed dialysis modalities or January 31, 2016. Patients were divided into PD group and HD group for comparison. Their survival rates and risk factors were analyzed by Kaplan?Meier analysis and COX regression model respectively. Results A total of 123 cases were chosen, with a median duration of dialysis for 854 (388, 1573) days, and with 88 cases (71.5%) on HD and 35 cases (28.5%) on PD. Fifty?two patients (42.3%) were more than 65 years old. At the median follow?up time of 36 months, 39 patients (31.7%) died. The main causes of death were cardiovascular events (30.8%) and infection (23.1%). COX regression analysis showed that patients older than 65 years old (HR=3.289, P=0.001), with cardiovascular disease (HR=3.241, P=0.003) and interstitial pneumonia (HR=2.173, P=0.048) at the dialysis onset were independent risk factors affecting survival. Conclusions Factors including age (older than 65 years), pre?dialysis cardiovascular disease and interstitial pneumonia were independent risk factors affecting survival of AAV patients on maintaining dialysis, then infections and cardiovascular events were the main causes of death.