Retrospective study on the use of epinephrine in patients with drug-induced anaphylactic shock in Chongqing from 2015 to 2022 / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the rationality of epinephrine in the treatment of drug-induced anaphylactic shock， and to provide a reference for further standardizing the treatment measures of anaphylactic shock. METHODS According to the relevant data of the reports of severe adverse drug reaction （ADR） of drug-induced anaphylactic shock provided by Chongqing ADR Monitoring Center from 2015 to 2022， the selection of treatment drugs， and the application of epinephrine in anaphylactic shock were analyzed retrospectively； the clinical outcomes of anaphylactic shock with different epinephrine administration methods were investigated. RESULTS A total of 1 415 cases of severe ADR related to drug-induced anaphylactic shock were reported， with a male-to-female ratio of 1.04∶1； the drugs that caused allergic shock mainly included anti-infective drugs （47.92%）， TCM injections （9.12%）； the patients who suffered from drug-induced anaphylactic shock within 10 min after medication accounted for 43.96%； 97.24% of patients were cured or improved， and 2.76% of patients died or did not been improved. Among 1 415 patients， 63.39% of patients were treated with epinephrine， and the patients who preferred epinephrine treatment accounted for 53.14%； the intramuscular injection， subcutaneous injection， intravenous injection and intravenous drip accounted for 33.78%， 30.32%， 25.75% and 1.23%， respectively. The initial dose range of epinephrine was 0.01-10 mg， and the most frequent single dose was 1 mg （44.70%）. Excessive single doses of intramuscular injection， subcutaneous injection and intravenous injection accounted for 51.03% （148 cases）， 53.13% （136 cases） and 91.47% （193 cases） respectively， and the risk of overdose in intravenous injection was higher （P＜0.05）. The patients receiving initial treatment with epinephrine had a higher improvement rate/cure rate than those who did not use epinephrine （98.14% vs. 96.23%， P＝0.029）； the patients who preferred epinephrine had a higher improvement rate/cure rate than those who did not preferred epinephrine （98.14% vs. 95.17%， P＝0.031）； the improvement rate/cure rate of patients receiving intramuscular injection of epinephrine was higher than those without intramuscular injection （99.01% vs. 96.69%， P＝0.038）. CONCLUSIONS There are some unreasonable phenomena in the treatment of drug-induced anaphylactic shock， such as inappropriate selection of drugs， insufficient use of epinephrine， delay of administration， inappropriate route of administration and excessive single dose.

Effects of perimenopausal one-day outpatient multidisciplinary model on the cognition of women to menopause hormone therapy / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE To evalu ate the effects of perimenopausal one-day outpatient multidisciplinary model on the cognition of women to menopause hormone therapy （MHT）. METHODS The perimenopausal one-day outpatient service opened by the Third Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in 2017 was introduced ，which was participated by doctors ，pharmacists， nutritionists，music psychotherapists ，nurses and other multidisciplinary members to provide systematic ，all-round，humanistic and face-to-face group science popularization and education ，practical experience and Q&A for women in perimenopause or about to enter perimenopause （called“students”）. The students who participated in one-day outpatient service in 2020 were selected as the survey object ， and the questionnaire was CMEI2020KPYJ（ZAMM）00206] designed to analyze the understanding of perimenopausal syndrome，awareness rate of MHT ，willingness to use and concerns. RESULTS A total of 295 students completed the questionnaire. Compared with before participation ， after participated in one-day outpatient service ，the cognition level of the students were all improved significantly ，including perimenopausal age （96.61％ vs. 99.32％，P＝0.037），the importance of perimenopausal health care knowledge （91.19％ vs. 96.95％，P＜0.001），whether the perimenopausal syndrome needs treatment （88.47％ vs. 99.32％，P＜0.001），willingness to use MHT （70.59％ vs. 94.48％ ，P＜0.001），MHT treatment timing （60.50％ vs. 95.17％ ，P＜0.001），reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease （51.68％ vs. 96.55％ ，P＜0.001），delaying aging （69.75％ vs. 97.59％ ，P＜0.001），preventing osteoporosis（65.13％ vs. 97.59％），P＜0.001）；the medical staff were higher than the non-medical staff （P＜0.05）. Totally 90％ of the students said they had gained knowledge about the prevention and treatment of common diseases ，nutrition and guidance， psychological regulation guidance hormone therapy related knowledges and exercise methods ；the proportion of the students who were willing to use MHT for 1 to 5 years（31.09％ vs. 47.93％）increased significantly. The proportion of the students who concerned about the risk of thrombosis （60.24％ vs. 36.81％），weight gain （59.64％ vs. 14.84％）and life-long dependence （52.41％ vs. 18.13％）was significantly reduced ，but that of the students who concerned about cancer risk was not diminished. From 2017 to 2020，the utilization rate of MHT was increased from 2.22％ to 62.16％ in non-medical staff among the students. CONCLUSIONS The multidisciplinary model of perimenopausal one-day outpatient service can improve the awareness of MHT among perimenopausal women ，eliminate misunderstandings ，and increase the utilization rate of MHT.

Preliminary audiological evaluation of the SoundBite bone conduction devices in adults with single-sided deafness / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

Objective: The auditory deficits of single-sided deafness (SSD) can be treated with a novel intra-oral device, SoundBite, which delivers sound by applying vibratory signal to the teeth. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and benefit of the bone conduction device for Chinese adults with SSD. Methods: Eighteen patients aged 19-66 yrs with acquired, permanent sensorineural SSD and no current treatment by any other devices for SSD, were recruited in a prospective controlled, nonrandomized, unblinded study. They were requested the continually daily wear of the new device over a 30-day free trial period. The intra-oral hearing device was placed around two maxillary teeth and was similar to a small partial denture or retainer. The audiological tests included pure tone air conduction thresholds, monosyllable word recognition score (WRS) in quiet and sentence reception thresholds in noise (via CMNmatrix test). The benefit was determined with the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) and the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) questionnaire. Results: The monosyllable WRS and the 50% threshold of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR50) were significantly better in all aided conditions. The head shadow effect, assessed by the SNR50 via CMNmatrix test improved an average of 2.6 dB after 30 days' wearing compared with unaided condition (P<0.001). The APHAB scores improved (P<0.05) for all subjects for the Global and Ease of Communication, Reverberation, Background Noise subscales. The SSQ scores improved (P<0.05) for all subjects for Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing subscales. Conclusion: The SoundBite is a good alternative to the well-established implantable bone conduction devices in patients with SSD. An improvement in listening ability in noise and quiet as well as a decrease of the head shadow effect is validated as the expected.

Advance in Mechanism and Rehabilitation of Dysphagia after Laryngectomy (review) / 中国康复理论与实践

As a common complication after laryngectomy, dysphagia seriously impaired the quality of life of patients. Laryngectomy included total laryngectomy and partial laryngectomy. Swallowing resistance increasing, esophageal dysmotility and stenosis of new pharynx all resulted in dysphagia after total laryngectomy. The damage or absence of swallowing anatomy after partial laryngectomy led to sub glottal pressure reducing, and trachea protection mechanism and open/close of the glottis impairing, disturbing breathing and swallowing coordination, and result in choking, aspiration, and so on. Dysphagia was assessed subjectively and objectively. Subjective methods included beside examination and swallowing disorder scales. Objective methods included Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study, Fiberoptic Endoscopic Examination of Swallowing and High-resolution Manometry. Early swallowing rehabilitation training, psychological intervention and family members participating in rehabilitation nursing and continuing nursing after discharge could promote the recovery of swallowing function of patients after laryngectomy.

The current status and applications of implantable bone-conduction devices / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

Implantable bone-conduction devices are characterized by the fact that the vibration is transmitted through bone conduction. The technology and surgical techniques in the application of implantable bone-conduction devices have developed considerably in recent years, experiencing a transformation from percutaneous to transcutaneous implantation. This article reviewed current developments in the types, surgical indications, and complications, as well as compared between the various bone-conduction devices to provid references for clinical application.

Protective effects of exogenous HS to the recovery of hypoxia post-conditioning on aged H9C2 cells and the underling mechanisms / 中国应用生理学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the recovery of protective effects of exogenous hydrogen sulfide (HS) on hypoxia post-conditioning in aged H9C2 cells and its mechanism.@*METHODS@#H9C2 cells (cardiomyocytes line) were treated with 30 μmol/L hydrogen peroxide (HO) for 2 hours, then cultured for 3 days in order to induce cellular aging. Aged H9C2 cells were randomly divided into 5 groups (=8):Control group (Control), hypoxia/reoxygenation group (H/R), H/R + NaHS group, hypoxia post-conditioning (PC) group, PC+NaHS group. H/R model:the cells were exposed to hypoxic culture medium (serum and sugar free medium, pH=6.8) for 3 hours and then cultured at normal condition for 6 hours. PC model:at the end of hypoxia for 3 hours, the cells were exposed to normoxic culture solution for 5 minutes, then the cells were placed in hypoxic solution for 5 minutes, the cycle above-mentioned was repeated 3 times and followed by reoxygenation for 6 hours. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) content and caspase-3 activity were detected by ELISA. The cell viability was observed by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8). The reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were analyzed using 2, 7-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) staining. The apoptotic rate was determined through Hoechst 33342 staining. The mRNA levels of relative gene expression were detected by real-time PCR.@*RESULTS@#Thirty μmol/L HO induced H9C2 cell senescence while did not lead to apoptosis. Compared with control group, cell viability was decreased, the apoptotic rate、levels of ROS and the mRNA of caspase-3, caspase-9 and Bcl-2 were increased in H/R and PC groups (<0.01). There were no differences in the above indexes between PC group and H/R group. Supplementation of NaHS increased cell viability and decreased apoptotic rate and oxidative stress. The effects of PC + NaHS on the above indexes were better than those of H/R+NaHS group.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Exogenous HS can restore the protective effect of PC on the aged H9C2 cells, and its mechanism is related to the inhibition of oxidative stress and apoptosis.

Speech Recognition in Noise of the Unilateral Conductive or Mixed Hearing Impaired Patients using Sophonotron Bone Conduction Hearing Aid with Softband / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

Objective To investigate the speech recognition in noise in patients with unilateral conductive or mixed hearing impaired using Sophonotron Alpha 2 softband.Methods A total of 12 patients (12 ears) with unilateral conductive or mixed hearing loss participated in the survey and fitted with Sophonotron Alpha 2.The aided hearing threshold test and speech recognition test in noise were evaluated in both unaided and aided conditions.Results The average aided hearing threshold using Sophonotron Alpha 2 softband was 35.0±10.8 dB HL,showing significant improvement compared to that of unaided(P＜0.05).The average signal-to noise ratio loss was 5.9± 6.1 dB using Sophonotron Alpha 2 softband in noise,showing a more significant benefit than that of the unaided (13.6±10.9 dB).Conclusion The Sophonotron Alpha 2 softband can significantly improve speech recognition in noise for the patients with unilateral conductive or mixed hearing loss.

Open, multicenter, phase Ⅳ clinical trial of Shenbei Guchang capsules in treatment of diarrhea type irritable bowel syndrome / 中国中药杂志

To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Shenbei Guchang capsules in treatment of diarrhea type irritable bowel syndrome (yang deficiency of spleen and kidney) under widely used conditions, an open, multicenter, controlled, phase Ⅳ clinical trial was conducted in the drug clinical trial centers of 16 domestic hospitals. 2 123 patients from June 10, 2011 to November 29, 2012 were enrolled in the trial. Drug clinical trial was approved by Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital Ethics Committee before implementation. Before the start of trial, subjects were selected according to the research scheme and inclusion criteria, then they would step into the 14 d study after signing Informed Consent Form. All subjects were treated according to the research scheme, evaluated the conditions and filled in CFR sheet, to provide the evaluation data and information on safety and efficacy of Shenbei Guchang capsules. Shenbei Guchang capsules were used to treat diarrhea type irritable bowel syndrome in widely used conditions (2 123 cases), and 2 029 cases of them entered FAS set, cure+markedly effective in 1 921 cases, with a comprehensive curative effect rate of 94.68%; 2 010 cases of them entered PPS set, cure+markedly effective in 1 906 cases, with a comprehensive curative effect rate of 94.83%. The primary symptoms of IBS were abdominal pain and diarrhea. After treatment, both abdominal pain and diarrhea were improved, with significant differences (P<0.000 1). There were significant differences in traditional Chinese medicine symptom scores on both post-treatment day 7 and day 14 as compared with the conditions before treatment (P<0.000 1). 35 cases of adverse events occurred during the trial with an incidence of 1.65%, including 12 cases of drug-related adverse events (adverse reaction) with an incidence of 0.57%, mainly manifested as nausea, abdominal distension and dry mouth, most of which would be spontaneously relieved without any measures. No serious adverse events occurred. The commercially available Shenbei Guchang capsules are proved safe and effective for the treatment of diarrhea type irritable bowel syndrome (yang deficiency of spleen and kidney) under widely used conditions (2 123 cases), and can be continued for clinical promotion and application.

Multi-center comparative study of methylprednisolone and dexamethasone in treatment of all-frequency sudden hearing loss / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Through a prospective cohort study, to assess the clinical efficacy of methylprednisolone (MP) and dexamethasone (DXM) in treatment of all-frequency sudden hearing loss.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 76 cases of all-frequency sudden hearing loss were included in this study and divided into two groups. The MP group (n = 40) was treated with MP 40 mg qd, for 5 days, combined with conventional treatment. The DXM group (n = 36) was treated with DXM 10 mg qd, for 5 days, combined with conventional treatment. The total period of treatment was 14 days.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After the treatment for 14 days, in the MP group,17 cases were cured (42.5%), 7 cases were markedly improved (17.5%), 9 cases were effective (22.5%), and 7 cases were invalid (17.5%), the total effective rate was 82.5%. As for the patients in the DXM group, 13 cases were cured (36.1%), 6 cases were markedly improved (16.7%), 8 cases were effective (24.2%), and 9 cases were invalid (25%), the total effective rate was 75.0%. The pure tone audiometry in all-frequency was improved (31.5 ± 17.8) dB in the MP group, and (33.1 ± 24.2) dB in the DXM group. The speech recognition rate was improved (41.7 ± 29.8) %, and (42.0 ± 39.1) % in the DXM group. There were no significant differences between two groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There is no significant difference of therapeutic efficacy between the low-dose MP group and High-dose DXM group.</p>

Development of early auditory and speech perception skills within one year after cochlear implantion in prelingual deaf children / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the development of early auditory capability and speech perception in the prelingual deaf children after cochlear implantation, and to study the feasibility of currently available Chinese assessment instruments for the evaluation of early auditory skill and speech perception in hearing-impaired children.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 83 children with severe-to-profound prelingual hearing impairment participated in this study. Participants were divided into four groups according to the age for surgery: A (1-2 years), B (2-3 years), C (3-4 years) and D (4-5 years). The auditory skill and speech perception ability of CI children were evaluated by trained audiologists using the infant-toddler/meaningful auditory integration scale (IT-MAIS/MAIS) questionnaire, the Mandarin Early Speech Perception (MESP) test and the Mandarin Pediatric Speech Intelligibility (MPSI) test. The questionnaires were used in face to face interviews with the parents or guardians. Each child was assessed before the operation and 3 months, 6 months, 12 months after switch-on.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After cochlear implantation, early postoperative auditory development and speech perception gradually improved. All MAIS/IT-MAIS scores showed a similar increasing trend with the rehabilitation duration (F=5.743, P=0.007). Preoperative and post operative MAIS/IT-MAIS scores of children in age group C (3-4 years) was higher than that of other groups. Children who had longer hearing aid experience before operation demonstrated higher MAIS/IT-MAIS scores than those with little or no hearing aid experience (F=4.947, P=0.000). The MESP test showed that, children were not able to perceive speech as well as detecting speech signals. However as the duration of CI use increased, speech perception ability also improved substantially. However, only about 40% of the subjects could be evaluated using the most difficult subtest on the MPSI in quiet at 12 months after switch-on. As MCR decreased, the proportion of children who could be tested using the MPSI reduced.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Within one year after CI, children develop early auditory and speech perception capabilities with time. Chinese versions of the IT-MAIS/MAIS, MESP and MPSI are useful instruments to document early auditory and speech perception skills in children after CI implantation.</p>

The development of vocabulary capability at 2-year follow-up in the prelingual deaf children with cochlear implants / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the development of early vocabulary capability in the prelingual deaf children after cochlear implantation (CI) , and to study the feasibility of current Chinese assessment procedures about language development for hearing-impaired children.@*METHOD@#A total of 56 cases with severe-to-profound prelingual deaf children were participated in this study. The vocabulary development of CI children were evaluated by trained audiologists using the vocabulary assessment tools: Chinese communicative development inventory (CCDI) and mandarin expressive and receptive vocabulary test (MERVT). The questionnaire assessed by parents or guardians answered the questionnaire; vocabulary tests were evaluated by children accompanied with audiologists. Patients were assessed before operation and in 2 years after switch-on.@*RESULT@#With the rehabilitation, early post-operative vocabulary development gradually improved. The vocabulary increased with an increase in the duration of CI use, and the receptive vocabulary developed earlier than the expressive ones.@*CONCLUSION@#After 2 years of CI use, the child partly developed the vocabulary capability. Children's vocabulary test, CCDI and MERVT test, is an important index to evaluate the development of children's language ability after cochlear implantation. Vocabulary test, together with auditory and speech perception assessment procedures, constitute a more complete auditory-speech-language evaluation system for Chinese children after cochlear implants.

Study of ceiling effect of commonly used Chinese recognition materials in post-lingual deafened patients with cochlear implant / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To evaluate and compare outcomes effects of Chinese recognition materials in post-lingually deafened patients with cochlear implant.@*METHOD@#Thirty-two post-lingually deafened cochlear implant users participated in the study. Each one of them was given a series of speech recognition tests including the speech recognition score of monosyllable words, spondee words, Chinese BKB sentences and MHINT in quiet, as well as speech recognition threshold of HOPE corpus in babble noise. Speech recognition scores and thresholds were compared among these test materials using histograms , scatter diagrams and statistical methods.@*RESULT@#Recognition scores for spondee words, Chinese BKB sentences and MHINT were affected by ceiling effects, with 1,14 and 4 cases scored 100% respectivelty. Meanwhile, 17, 26 and 14 cases scored more than 85% correspondingly. On the other hand, speech recognition scores for monosyllable words in quiet and speech recognition threshold for HOPE corpus in babble noise were not affected.@*CONCLUSION@#For a considerable part of post-lingually deafened patients using cochlear implant, some Chinese speech recognition materials have demonstrated different degrees of ceiling effects. While speech recognition scores for monosyllable words in quiet and recognition threshold for HOPE corpus in noise can evaluate the performance of speech recognition abilitymore objectively.

Study of auditory brainstem response to speech sounds in sex differences / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To study the electrophysiological characteristics of the Auditory Brainstem Response to Speech Sounds (s-ABR) in healthy adults, and then analyze its relationship between noise speech recognition ability and sex.@*METHOD@#We accessed the auditory brainstem response to a synthesized stop-consonant speech syllable / da/in 40 native-Chinese speech adults. Timing components of the response were compared between males and females to determine which aspects of the response are affected by sex. The relationship of the slope between the onset peak (V) and though (A) (V/A slope) and the noise speech recognition ability was analyzed.@*RESULT@#A dissimilarity between males and females was observed in the response to the component that change rapidly over time(P 0.05). Noise speech recognition and the V/A slope was negatively correlated (r = 0.478, P < 0.05), which indicated that the greater slope of V/A, the lower of the speech recognition threshold under noise.@*CONCLUSION@#The verbal components change rapidly over time, and high-frequency consonants evoked neural response obviously affected by gender. In the slower changing, lower frequency information in the stimulus was minimally affected by sex. The subjects with better abilities of processing transient and rapid information can show lower noise speech recognition threshold.

Plasma microRNA profiling in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients reveals miR-548q and miR-483-5p as potential biomarkers / 癌症

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which play a role in tumorigenesis, may also serve as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers. However, studies on human miRNA profiles in plasma from nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients are in their infancy. Here, we used microarrays to perform systematic profiling of human miRNAs in plasma from NPC patients. We subsequently used real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) to validate miRNAs with aberrant expression that could serve as potential biomarkers. By comparing the plasma miRNA profiles of 31 NPC patients and 19 controls, 39 of 887 human miRNAs were found to be aberrantly expressed. Considering the fold change and P value, miR-548q and miR-483-5p were validated in 132 samples from 82 NPC patients and 50 controls. Moreover, high expression of miR-548q and miR-483-5p was further found in 3 NPC cell lines and clinical biopsy tissues from 54 NPC patients and 22 controls. Our results revealed that miR-548q and miR-483-5p are potential biomarkers of NPC. Combining the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses of these 2 miRNAs, an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.737 with 67.1% sensitivity and 68.0% specificity were obtained, showing the preliminary diagnostic value of plasma miRNAs. Moreover, most NPC patients with a poor outcome exhibited high expression (> median) of miR-548q (70.6%) and miR-483-5p (64.7%) in tissue samples, indicating their prognostic value. The high expression levels of miR-548q and miR-483-5p in plasma, cell lines, and clinical tissues of NPC patients indicate that their roles in NPC should be explored in the future.

The Impacts of Lip-Reading Information on Hearing Impaired Patients’ Sentence Recognition / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

Objective This experiment was to analyze the impacts of lip -reading information on hearing im-paired subjects'sentence recognition got in noisy environment in comparing with the results obtained from the listen-ing and audio -visual testing ways .Methods Fourteen moderate hearing impaired subjects with 55 .4 ± 9 .1 years old were postlingual deafness .Their sentence recognition ability were tested in noisy environments with speech and audio-visual information separately (speech intensity :30 dB SL ,SNR:5 dB) .Results Compared with the sentence recognition administered in the speech information condition 73 .79% ± 7 .95% ,the subjects sentence recognition un-der the audio -visual condition was 86 .57% ± 5 .42% ,which was significantly different (P<0 .05) .Conclusion In noisy environment ,lip-reading can improve hearing impaired patients’ sentence recognition obviously .

Speech and pitch perception with the new fine structure speech coding strategy / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To assess the performance of the new fine structure processing strategy(FS4) compared to the previous generation coding strategy HDCIS.@*METHOD@#Twelve post-lingual hearing-impaired cochlear implant users were included. FS4 and HDCIS were compared in music pitch perception and speech perception test.@*RESULT@#Acute comparison between FS4 and HDCIS showed that FS4 performed as well as HDCIS in speech perception tests, and outperformed HDCIS in music pitch perception.@*CONCLUSION@#Results indicate that FS4 performs better than HDCIS in music perception. Differences between the two strategies were not significant for speech test.

Centrifugation: an important pre-analytic procedure that influences plasma microRNA quantification during blood processing / 癌症

Circulating microRNAs are robustly present in plasma or serum and have become a research focus as biomarkers for tumor diagnosis and prognosis. Centrifugation is a necessary procedure for obtaining high-quality blood supernatant. Herein, we investigated one-step and two-step centrifugations, two centrifugal methods routinely used in microRNA study, to explore their effects on plasma microRNA quantification. The microRNAs obtained from one-step and two-step centrifugations were quantified by microarray and TaqMan-based real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR). Dynamic light scattering was performed to explore the difference underlying the two centrifugal methods. The results from the microarray containing 1,347 microRNAs showed that the signal detection rate was greatly decreased in the plasma sample prepared by two-step centrifugation. More importantly, the microRNAs missing in this plasma sample could be recovered and detected in the precipitate generated from the second centrifugation. Consistent with the results from microarray, a marked decrease of three representative microRNAs in two-step centrifugal plasma was validated by Q-PCR. According to the size distribution of all nanoparticles in plasma, there were fewer nanoparticles with size >1,000 nm in two-step centrifugal plasma. Our experiments directly demonstrated that different centrifugation methods produced distinct quantities of plasma microRNAs. Thus, exosomes or protein complexes containing microRNAs may be involved in large nanoparticle formation and may be precipitated after two-step centrifugation. Our results remind us that sample processing methods should be first considered in conducting research.

PIV experiment on flow fields of the real human upper respiratory tract gauge model / 医用生物力学

Objective To investigate the airflow distribution mode in human upper respiratory tract model for understanding the characteristics of the airflow in human upper respiratory tract, and provide scientific basis for analyzing the diffusion, transition and deposition patterns of aerosol in human upper respiratory tract. Methods PIV（particle image velocimetry）technology was adopted to study flow fields of the real human upper respiratory tract model. The airflow state in oral cavity，pharynx and trachea was analyzed. Results The flow velocity was relatively high at the upper tongue coating and in the middle of the oral cavity; when the airflow reached the pharynx, the velocity was increased rapidly due to the reduction of sectional area; the maximum velocity (10.24 m/s) appeared in the glottis, and the velocity in the anterior wall was higher than that in the posterior wall of the trachea; as the airflow injected at the glottis, the velocity gradient was increased, and the vorticity was concentrated at the anterior and posterior wall of the glottis, resulting in a significantly higher vorticity value at anterior wall of the trachea than that at the posterior wall. Conclusions PIV technology is an effective way to investigate the airflow distribution mode in human upper respiratory tract, and it is of great importance for exploring the harm of toxic aerosol to human body and the therapeutic effect of inhalation drug aerosol, as well as for researching the pathogenesis of respiratory system.

Vortex evolution induced by jets in realistic human mouth throat model / 医用生物力学

Objective To study the vortex structure and vortex evolution induced by jets in mouth-pharynx area, so as to deepen the understanding of jet motion characteristics and disease prevention in mouth-pharynx area. Methods CT scanning and 3D reconstruction were used to construct 3D model of realistic human mouth-throat model, and the method of large eddy numerical simulation was used to accurately simulate the process of vortex evolution in the model. ResultsIn the phase of inhalation, several vortex tubes were formed in mouth, and a turbulence jet appeared in the glottal region. In the phase of exhalation, the intense jet in the glottal region caused complex vortex structures in throat. Conclusions During inhalation, transition occurrs in the pharynx, and the “horseshoe vortexes” which are similar to the shape of horseshoe appeared on the anterior wall of the trachea. During exhalation, “arch vortex” are formed on the posterior wall of throat with the barrier of epiglottis.

Experimental apparatus for measuring flow field of human upper respiratory tract with PIV technology / 医用生物力学

Objective To develop a measurement device and provide a platform for researching the characteristics of human upper respiratory tract flow field based on PIV (particle image velocimetry) technology with respect to the characteristics that human upper respiratory tract flow may form the vortex structure, flow shunt and secondary flow. Methods A transparent physical model of human upper respiratory tract was prepared based on the completely scanned medical images. By means of selecting appropriate air pressure system, combined with two-dimensional PIV system, a complete experimental apparatus was established. Based on the apparatus, preliminary experiment on air velocity in human upper respiratory tract flow field was conducted, and the experiment result was compared with the numerical simulation result. Results Under the steady breathing pattern at respiratory flow of 30 L/min, respiratory air flow measured by the experimental apparatus led to the formation of vortex structure in the front part of oral cavity. Air velocity was relatively higher both in the lower part of oral cavity near the upper tongue and in the middle part of oral cavity, while the velocity was relatively lower in the other parts of oral cavity. The results were in accordance with numerical simulation. Conclusions The experimental apparatus for human upper respiratory tract flow measurement based on PIV technology is practical and reliable, which can be applied in the measurement of airflow organization patterns and vorticity distributions in human upper respiratory tract, and realize the verification of numerical simulation results.