Entrenador virtual de fibrobroncoscopia de bajo costo para enseñanza / Development of a virtual model of fibro-bronchoscopy

A virtual model of fibro-bronchoscopy is reported. The virtual model represents in 3D the trachea and the bronchi creating a virtual world of the bronchial tree. The bronchoscope is modeled to look over the bronchial tree imitating the displacement and rotation of the real bronchoscope. The parameters of the virtual model were gradually adjusted according to expert opinion and allowed the training of specialists with a virtual bronchoscope of great realism. The virtual bronchial tree provides clues of reality regarding the movement of the bronchoscope, creating the illusion that the virtual instrument is behaving as the real one with all the benefits in costs that this means.

Preparation of hematoporphyrin-loaded PLGA ultrasound microbubble and optimization of formulation / 中华超声影像学杂志

Objective To optimize the formulation of a new kind of ultrasound contrast agents carrying the sensitizer of hematoporphyrin(HP)with[Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid),PLGA]for material.Methods The technique of double emulsion was applied to produce HP loaded PLGA ultrasound microbubbles,which was optimized through orthogonal test using encapsulation efficiency for the detected index.Then morphology and distribution of HP-PLGA microbubbles were observed through light microscope and scaning electron microscope.The size,Zeta potential and the properties of releasing behavior and ultrasound imaging in vitro of Hp-PLGA contrast agents were detected.Results The optimization parameters were picked out as 10 mg/ml for concentration of HP,40 mg for PLGA,and 1/5 for volume ratio of water inside to dichloromethane.The optimized HP-PLGA contrast agents were spheric with the mean size of 602.3 nm,and Zeta potentiaI of-(17.1±1.6)mV.The drug loading and encapsulation efficiency of HP-PLGA were(2.15±0.15)%and(63.5±2.6)%,respectively.And the releasing behavior of HP-PLGA contrast agents in vitro was that after an obvious release of about 35.1%in former 24 h,there were 86.5%HP-PLGA released within 14 days.The ultrasound imaging of HP-PLGA could be enhanced obviously in vitro.Conclusions The self-made HP-PLGA ultrasound microbubble might be a useful tool for delivering sensitizer and thus provide a novel strategy for sonodynamic therapy on tumor.

A letter from the United States: The romance of medicine -voyages and heroes / Un mensaje desde Norteamerica: Lo romántico de la medicina -viajes y héroes

Becoming a physician is a lifelong journey, not merely the completion of medical school and postgraduate training. For those pedagogues that wish to train doctors as technicians the notion that there is something heroic and romantic in a physician's life is quaint, old fashioned, and out of date! In today's teaching hospitals virtual patients come via digital technology in computed x-ray and magnetic resonance images, automated laboratory test panels, electrophysiologic studies, and algorhythmic histories. Doctors have no need to leave their computer and increasingly doctors do not leave their computers for the bedside, the home, the neighborhood, or the country of their "patients". Contemporary doctors are in danger of losing their bedside clinical skills and with them go the role of physician as a wise, widely traveled human being knowledgeable about the rigors of inhospitable environs, the hardiness of the species, the despair of poverty, and the seductive dangers of wealth. There is similarity of this kind of physician to mythic heroes, and they still have stories to tell.

Convertirse en médico es una jornada de toda la vida, que no termina al graduarse de una escuela de medicina ni al completar una formación de postgrado. Para aquellos docentes que pretenden formar médicos como tecnólogos, la noción de que en la vida del médico haya algo romántico y heroico suena a arcaico, fuera de moda y de lugar. En los hospitales docentes de hoy los pacientes se convierten en entes virtuales mediante la tecnología digital con imágenes radiológicas computarizadas o de resonancia magnética, "perfiles" de laboratorio automatizados, estudios electrofisiológicos e historias clínicas forzadas por algoritmos. Los médicos no necesitan dejar de lado sus computadoras para atender a sus pacientes en sus camas, en sus hogares, sus barrios o países. Los médicos contemporáneos arriesgan perder las competencias clínicas y con ello se perdería el rol de aquellos médicos que sean seres humanos competentes en conocimientos, que viajen mucho conociendo los rigores de ambientes inhóspitos, las características complejas de nuestra especie, la desesperanza de la pobreza y la seducción peligrosa de la riqueza. Hay una similitud entre este tipo de médicos con los héroes mitológicos y los que aún quedan tienen muchas historias que relatar.

Study on the isolation,culture,cryopreservation,and thawing of rat hepatocyte in hepatocyte transplantation experimental research / 中华放射学杂志

Objective To study the effects of cryopreservation and two different cooling rates on rat hepatocytes. Methods Perfusion with collagenase digestion was used to isolate rat hepatocytes. Hepatocytes were incubated with a freezing medium consisting of RPMI 1640 with 20% calf serum and 10% DMSO. Two different freezing protocols were applied using a computer controlled freezer to freeze the medium to -80℃ before hepatocytes were plunged into liquid nitrogen and stored. The viability, morphology, and protein synthesis were measured at Day 3, Day 15, Day 30, respectively after thawing. Results Both viability and protein synthesis ability of group B and group C decreased significantly as compared with that of Group A ( P 0.05). Electron microscopy showed ultrastructural changes between fresh and thawed rat hepatocytes including injury of cell membrane, loss of cell content, alteration of nucleolus. The degree of injury in Group B is slighter than in Group C. Conclusion Cooling rate of cryopreservation correlates with the quality of thawed hepatocytes. The cryopreservation and thawing procedures are key factors to affect the quantity and quality of hepatocytes. The viability and protein synthesis ability are not influenced by the storage period in liquid nitrogen.

Thinking about High-tech Medical Equipment Dispose and Use on Sociology and Ethics / 中国医学伦理学

This paper analyzes social background and ethical problems of disposing and using unreasonably High-tech equipment, and puts forward relative proposals of contermeasure.

Medical Ethics Adjustments of ART & Ethics Committee of Medical Organizations / 中国医学伦理学

One of the important missions of modern medical ethics is to strengthen the adjustment of medical ethics and advance the infiltration of medical ethics spirits to medical science to solve the basic ethical problems caused by ART.The adjustment of Medical ethics on ART are affected through ethical regulation,exampling, leading, educating etc.Medical Ethics Committee is an important form of realizing this kind of function,and it is also the evidence of the system of medical ethics. It has been an international practice to set up ethics committee in order to carry on ethics supervision for relevant medical course.The application and development in a healthy way of ART in our country is calling for the ethics committee of medical organizations to play effective role.