Clinical value of acoustic radiation force impulse imaging for quantitative evaluation of degree of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C patients / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the diagnostic value of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging technology for the assessment of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One-hundred-and-eight CHC patients were examined by real-time ultrasound elastography using the Acuson S2000 ARFI instrument (Siemens Healthcare) and underwent liver biopsy for pathohistological analysis. The correlation between liver fibrosis grades determined by the two approaches was analyzed. The cut-off values for diagnosis by ARFI (S more than 2, S more than 3 and S = 4) were determined by generating a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The spectrum of liver stiffness detected by ARFI sonoelastography included S1 at (1.26+/-0.27) m/s (n = 36), S2 at (1.45+/-0.51) m/s (n = 31), S3 at (2.01+/-0.54) m/s (n = 27), and S4 at (2.28+/-0.82) m/s (n = 14). The ARFI values were significantly different among the four different stages of liver fibrosis (P less than 0.001). The liver stiffness detected by ARFI sonoelastography was significantly correlated with the liver fibrosis stage determined by the gold standard pathohistological analysis (Spearman's rank coefficient: 0.61, P less than 0.001). Using the ARFI technology for assessment of liver fibrosis gave areas under the ROC curve of 0.779 for S more than 2 patients, of 0.863 for S more than 3 patients, and of 0.0880 for S = 4 patients.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The real-time ultrasound elastography ARFI technology can show the elasticity modulus of liver, and its data values positively correlate with the patho-histology grade of liver fibrosis in CHC patients. ARFI technology is easy to operate, non-invasive, and quantitative, and has potential clinical value for assessing liver fibrosis in CHC.</p>

Association of 45, X/46, XY mosaicism with disorders of sex development: the clinical analysis of 5 cases / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze clinical characteristics of children with 45, X/46, XY mosaicism and explore effective managements for them.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Five children with 45, X/46, XY mosaicism were all in puberty period, of whom, three were female and two male. The standing height, weight and sexual development were measured. The levels of sex hormones, other endocrine parameters were also determined, and imaging examinations were performed.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>All the patients had disorders of sex development, of whom, 4 had short stature, and the HtSDs was -2.8 ± 1.1. The results of laboratory indexes suggested that 4 had hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, with the average level of LH (13.5 ± 5.8) IU/L and FSH (56.8 ± 37.4) IU/L. Imaging examinations revealed that 2 cases had cryptorchidism, 1 had immature uterus, 1 had testicular dysgenesis and 1 had normal testis. Three patients received rhGH treatment and 1 took gender assignment into account.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Patients with mosaic 45, X/46, XY karyotypes had a wide range of phenotypic manifestations, and disorders of sex development and short stature were the main clinical features. However, the disorders of sex development varied among these patients. And the management for them depends upon many factors and needs to be individualized based on the cooperation with different clinical departments.</p>

Study on growth law of Glycyrrhiza uralensis under different planting density / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the growth of Glycyrrhiza uralensis under different planting density for providing theoretic evidence for reasonable planting density.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The field experiment was designed by single factor randomized block.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The plant height, root diameter, main root length and branches of main stem were all decreased with increasing planting density of G. uralensis. Meanwhile, dry matter accumulation on root, leaf, aerial part and rhizome were all decreased with increasing planting density.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Two hundred and seventy thousand plants/hm2 was feasible planting density.</p>