Value of radiomics features from adrenal gland and periadrenal fat CT images predicting COVID-19 progression

BackgroundValue of radiomics features from the adrenal gland and periadrenal fat CT images for predicting disease progression in patients with COVID-19 has not been studied. MethodsA total of 1,245 patients (685 moderate and 560 severe patients) were enrolled in a retrospective study. We proposed 3D V-Net to segment adrenal glands in onset CT images automatically, and periadrenal fat was obtained using inflation operation around the adrenal gland. Next, we built a clinical model (CM), three radiomics models (adrenal gland model [AM], periadrenal fat model [PM], and fusion of adrenal gland and periadrenal fat model [FM]), and radiomics nomogram (RN) after radiomics features extracted to predict disease progression in patients with COVID-19. ResultsThe auto-segmentation framework yielded a dice value of 0.79 in the training set. CM, AM, PM, FM, and RN obtained AUCs of 0.712, 0.692, 0.763, 0.791, and 0.806, respectively in the training set. FM and RN had better predictive efficacy than CM (P < 0.0001) in the training set. RN showed that there was no significant difference in the validation set (mean absolute error [MAE] = 0.04) and test set (MAE = 0.075) between predictive and actual results. Decision curve analysis showed that if the threshold probability was more than 0.3 in the validation set or between 0.4 and 0.8 in the test set, it could gain more net benefits using RN than FM and CM. ConclusionRadiomics features extracted from the adrenal gland and periadrenal fat CT images may predict progression in patients with COVID-19. FundingThis study was funded by Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province (QKHZC [2020]4Y002, QKHPTRC [2019]5803), the Guiyang Science and Technology Project (ZKXM [2020]4), Guizhou Science and Technology Department Key Lab. Project (QKF [2017]25), Beijing Medical and Health Foundation (YWJKJJHKYJJ-B20261CS) and the special fund for basic Research Operating Expenses of public welfare research institutes at the central level from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2019PT320003).

Analysis of the Quality of Prepared Slices of Herba Ephedrae / 中药新药与临床药理

Objective To compare the quality of prepared slices of Herba Ephedrae from different producing areas and to establish reference quality criterion of Herba Ephedrae.Methods Determined the content of Ephedrine and Pseudoephedrine in Herba Ephedra Prepared Herbal by HPLC.According to Chinese Pharmacopeia of 2000-year edition,extract,ash,water,impurity and foreign substance were detected; accelerated stability test was performed according to experience.Results The content of Ephedrine in Herba Ephedra is 0.995 %～1.589 %,honey-fried HerbaEphedra is 0.855 %～1.557 %;the content of Pseudoephedrine in Herba Ephedra is 0.560 %～2.087 %,honey-fried Herba Ephedra is 0.508 %～1.902 %; water-soluble extract was 8.83 %～18.30 %and 14.81%～27.45 %, alcohol-soluble extract was 7.74 %～18.83 %and 14.15 %～27.34 %, the total ash content was 6.49 %～10.29 %and 6.34 %～10.24 %and acid-insoluble ash was 0.19 %～0.42 %and 0.18 %～0.42 %in Herba Ephedrae and honey-prepared Herba Ephedrae respectively.The average water content was 8.10 %(s=0.3961)and 4.02 %(s=0.4674)and average content of impurity and foreign substance was 2.02 %(s=0.1954)and 2.01 %(s=0.2209)in Herba Ephedrae and honey-prepared Herba Ephedrae respectively.Conclusion This research will provide a reference criterion for the quality control of prepared slices of Herba Ephedrae.

Extraction of Volatile Oil from Naokangling Capsule and Processing Techniques of Its p-cyclodextrin Inclusion Compound / 广州中医药大学学报

[Objective] To screen an optimal method for the extraction of volatile oil from Naokangling Capsule (NC) and processing techniques of ?-cyclodextrin (?-CD) inclusion compound of NC. [Methods] The study was carried out with orthogonal design . Oil-extraction ratio, oil-bearing rate and inclusion rate of ?-CD inclusion compound of NC were used as indexes. [Results] The optimal process for oil extraction was adding 10-fold water in medicinal materials and then soaking for one hour and distilling for 5 hours. The optimal processing conditions for ?-CD inclusion compound of NC were: the proportion of ?-CD and volatile oil being 6:1, the inclusion compound being stirred for 2 hours at 40℃ . [Conclusion] This method is simple and practical and can increase the stability of preprations. It can be used for the production of ?-CD inclusion compound in a large scale.