Assessment of Early Response to Lung Cancer Chemotherapy by Semiquantitative Analysis of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI.

Objective: To evaluate the early chemotherapy response in patients with lung cancer using semiquantitative analysis of dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: Twenty-two patients with lung cancer treated with chemotherapy were subjected to DCE-MRI at two time points: before starting treatment and after one week of therapy. The image data were collected by DCE-MRI, and the semiquantitative parameters including positive enhancement integral (PEI), signal enhancement ratio (SER), maximum slope of increase (MSI), and time to peak (TTP) were calculated. After chemotherapy, the parameters and relevant variations between the responders and nonresponders were compared with Mann-Whitney U tests. Student's t-test for paired samples was used to evaluate the temporal changes between pre- and posttreatment images. Results: The patients were categorized as 13 responders and 9 nonresponders based on the tumor response evaluation. After chemotherapy, the PEI, SER, and MSI were significantly increased in responders compared with the pretreatment values (P < 0.05), while no obvious decrease in TTP was observed (P > 0.05). However, 9 nonresponders showed no significant changes in PEI, SER, MSI, and TTP values, as compared with those of pretreatment (P > 0.05). Moreover, the increase of PEI was more dramatically in responders than in nonresponders (P < 0.05), but no significantly differences were observed in SER, MSI, and TTP (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Semiquantitative analysis of DCE-MRI could provide a reliable noninvasive method for assessing early chemotherapy response in lung cancer patients.

The study of functional connectivity of attention cognitive impairment in children with nocturnal enuresis.

We aimed to explore the brain functional connectivity mechanism of attention cognitive impairment in children with nocturnal enuresis (NE). Children with NE often show attention cognitive deficit, but its brain mechanism remains unclear. Most previous studies have only focused on a single brain region, without involving the association among brain regions. In this study, 26 NE and 26 normal children were selected. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and integrated visual and auditory continuous performance test (IVA-CPT) were performed. The 12 key brain regions of the dorsal attention network (DAN), default mode network (DMN) and ventral attention network (VAN) were selected as areas of interest, and 66 groups of functional connectivity (FC) were analysed among these 12 brain regions. The correlation between FC and IVA-CPT in the two groups was analysed. The FC values showed that the groups with significant differences between NE and normal children were lFEF-aMPFC, rFEF-lIFG, rFEF-rIPS and lAG-VFC (P < 0.05), and the FC value of lAG-VFC was positively correlated with the Full-Scale Attention Quotient (FAQ). Our results showed that attention deficit in children with NE was associated with all three networks and was relative to the FC among the three attention networks. DAN was the brain network most related to attention cognition in children with NE, and most of the brain regions with abnormal connectivity in NE were related to the prefrontal lobe. The lAG was also an important brain region in attention impairment in NE.

[Quality grading of artificial tuber seed of Pinellia ternata].

OBJECTIVE: To establish the seed quality grading standard of artificial tuber of Pinellia ternata. METHOD: Hundred-grain weight, moisture content, germination rate, viability, single-grain diameter, purity and visual form of mature artificial tuber seed from tissue culture of P. ternate were determined. The key indicator and reference indicators for artificial tubers quality grading were defined statistically by SPSS analysis. RESULT: Germination rate and viability were the primary indicators, hundred-grain weight, moisture content and purity were important reference indicators. CONCLUSION: The quality of each grade should reach the following requirements: for first grade, hundred-grain weight > 10 g, moisture content > 70%-80% , germination rate > 80%, viability > 85%, single-grain diameter > 0.7 cm, purity > 80%; for second grade, hundred-grain weight 8-10 g, moisture content > 70%-80%, germination rate 60%-80%, viability 70%-85%, single-grain diameter 0.3-0.7 cm, purity 75%-80%; moisture content > 70%-80%, and the others don't reach second grade was the third grade.