Application of Mimics Medical 21.0 Software in thoracoscopic anatomical sublobectomy.

BACKGROUND: The anatomical structure of pulmonary segments is complex, and there are many anatomical variations, making the operation more difficult, so we used Mimics Medical 21.0 software for three-dimensional computed tomography bronchography and angiography (3D-CTBA), carefully formulated the surgical plan and on this basis completed the video-assisted thoracoscopic anatomical sublobectomy. METHODS: A total of 38 patients with pulmonary nodules were selected and received video-assisted thoracoscopic anatomical sublobectomy after using Mimics Medica 21.0 software for 3D-CTBA. RESULTS: The mean operative duration was 158.42±20.21 minutes, and the operative hemorrhage was 97.66±22.37 mL. In pathological diagnoses, there were 5 benign cases (13.2%), 9 cases with atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (23.7%), 12 cases with adenocarcinoma in situ (31.6%), 11 cases with minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (28.9%) and 1 case with invasive adenocarcinoma (2.6%); 8.29±0.98 lymph nodes sampled had no metastasis. The chest tube drainage duration and postoperative hospital stay were 2.47±0.73 days and 5.47±0.73 days, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Using Mimics Medical 21.0 software can quickly and accurately complete 3D-CTBA, which is beneficial to formulate a personalized anatomical sublobectomy surgical plan.

Icariside II ameliorates myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury by attenuating inflammation and apoptosis through the regulation of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

Icariside II (ICAII) is a bioflavonoid compound which has demonstrated anti­oxidative, anti­inflammatory and anti­apoptotic biological activities. However, to the best of our knowledge, whether ICAII can alleviate myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury (MIRI) remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to determine whether ICAII exerted a protective effect on MIRI and to investigate the potential underlying mechanism of action. A rat MIRI model was established by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery for 30 min, followed by a 24 h reperfusion. Pretreatment with ICAII with or without a PI3K/AKT inhibitor was administered at the beginning of reperfusion. Morphological and histological analyses were detected using hematoxylin and eosin staining; the infarct size was measured using Evans blue and 2,3,5­triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining; and plasma levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase­myocardial band (CK­MB) were analyzed using commercialized assay kits. In addition, the cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography and the levels of cardiomyocyte apoptosis were determined using a TUNEL staining. The protein expression levels of Bax, Bcl­2, cleaved caspase­3, interleukin­6, tumor necrosis factor­α, PI3K, phosphorylated (p)­PI3K, AKT and p­AKT were analyzed using western blotting analysis. ICAII significantly reduced the infarct size, decreased the release of LDH and CK­MB and improved the cardiac function induced by IR injury. Moreover, ICAII pretreatment significantly inhibited myocardial apoptosis and the inflammatory response. ICAII also upregulated the expression levels of p­PI3K and p­AKT. However, the protective effects of ICAII were abolished by an inhibitor (LY294002) of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. In conclusion, the findings of the present study suggested that ICAII may mitigate MIRI by activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

Gonadotropin treatment for male partial congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in Chinese patients.

Partial congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (PCHH) is caused by an insufficiency in, but not a complete lack of, gonadotropin secretion. This leads to reduced testosterone production, mild testicular enlargement, and partial pubertal development. No studies have shown the productivity of spermatogenesis in patients with PCHH. We compared the outcomes of gonadotropin-induced spermatogenesis between patients with PCHH and those with complete congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CCHH). This retrospective study included 587 patients with CHH who were treated in Peking Union Medical College Hospital (Beijing, China) from January 2008 to September 2016. A total of 465 cases were excluded from data analysis for testosterone or gonadotropin-releasing hormone treatment, cryptorchidism, poor compliance, or incomplete medical data. We defined male patients with PCHH as those with a testicular volume of ≥4 ml and patients with a testicular volume of <4 ml as CCHH. A total of 122 compliant, noncryptorchid patients with PCHH or CCHH received combined human chorionic gonadotropin and human menopausal gonadotropin and were monitored for 24 months. Testicular size, serum luteinizing hormone levels, follicle-stimulating hormone levels, serum total testosterone levels, and sperm count were recorded at each visit. After gonadotropin therapy, patients with PCHH had a higher spermatogenesis rate (92.3%) than did patients with CCHH (74.7%). During 24-month combined gonadotropin treatment, the PCHH group took significantly less time to begin producing sperm compared with the CCHH group (median time: 11.7 vs 17.8 months, P < 0.05). In conclusion, after combined gonadotropin treatment, patients with PCHH have a higher spermatogenesis success rate and sperm concentrations and require shorter treatment periods for sperm production.

[An integrated on-line processing method for spectrometric data based on wavelet transform and Gaussian fitting].

Miniature mobile field spectrometry is pivotal equipment for qualitative and quantitative in-situ analysis of chemical substances. To solve the problem of spectrum signal interfered by complicated noise, overlapped and irregular peak shape recognition, and quick monitoring, an integrated on-line processing method for spectrometric data based on wavelet transform and Gaussian fitting was developed. In this way, toluene and perfluorotributylamine were processed, and the results shows that the integrated method can powerfully and effectively eliminate the noise, retain the original feature, and correct the overlapped and asymmetrical peaks, which can improve the analysis accuracy of instrument, and also achieve data compression. In addition, the method satisfies the requirement of on-site analysis for mobile field spectrometry. For the processing of mass spectra of toluene, at the characteristic peaks of 91 and 92, the SNR increased 1.3 times compared to that of moving average smoothing method, while the error between original peaks and theoretic peaks decreased 3.6 times. In addition, Gaussian fitting described the multipoint mass spectra data by three Gaussian parameters, and achieved data compression. For the processing of mass spectrogram of perfluorotributylamine, the ratio of compression was 197 : 1.