[Clinical characteristics of 114 patients with iridocorneal endothelial syndrome].

Objective: To investigate the clinical features in patients with iridocorneal endothelial (ICE) syndrome. Methods: A retrospective case series study. Data of clinical manifestations of patients with ICE syndrome including clinical subtypes, presenting visual acuity, clinical features and secondary glaucoma were collected from January 2014 to May 2020 in the Eye Hospital, School of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University. The Wald's Chi-square test of generalized estimating equations was performed to analyze the differences in three clinical subtypes. Results: A total of 127 eyes of 114 subjects (64 females and 50 males) were included. Mean±SD age at presentation was (49±13) years. There were 53 patients (46.5%) with Chandler's syndrome (CS), 36 patients (31.6%) with progressive iris atrophy (PIA), 24 patients (21.0%) with Cogan-Reese syndrome (CRS) and one patient (0.9%) with an undetermined subtype. And 101 patients (88.6%) had uniocular ICE syndrome. Approximately 81.7% (49/60), 56.1% (23/41) and 41.7% (10/24) of eyes presented visual acuity <0.3 in patients with CS, PIA and CRS, respectively. Corneal edema was most common in CS (52.5%, 32/61), followed by PIA (29.3%, 12/41) and CRS (20.8%, 5/24). Corectopia was found in 95.8% (23/24) of eyes with CRS, 95.1% (39/41) of eyes with PIA and 78.7% (48/61) of eyes with CS. Polycoria was observed in 29.3% (12/41) of eyes with PIA, 3.3% (2/61) of eyes with CS and 8.3% (2/24) of eyes with CRS. Ectropion uvea was most common in CRS (54.2%, 13/24), followed by 16.4% (10/61) in CS and 12.2% (5/41) in PIA. Glaucoma was found in 94 eyes (74.0%, 94/127). Among them, 60.7% (37/61) of CS, 80.5% (33/41) of PIA and 95.8% (23/24) of CRS had secondary glaucoma. The difference of presenting visual acuity, corneal edema, corectopia, polycoria, ectropion uveae and secondary glaucoma in three clinical subtypes all had statistical significance (Wald χ2=13.87, 10.77, 965.78, 11.45, 15.00, 222.04; all P<0.05). And 86.2% of eyes (81/94) had glaucoma surgeries and 41 eyes (43.6%, 41/94) had the intraocular pressure well controlled with various interventions. Conclusions: ICE syndrome is mostly uniocular and more common in middle-aged patients. CS is the most common clinical subtype with poor presenting visual acuity. About 3/4 of eyes have secondary glaucoma, and the majority of them require surgical interventions, but prognoses are discouraging.

CD152 and PD-1 down-regulation on CD8 T cells is associated with human acute liver allograft rejection.

PURPOSE: To investigate CD152 and PD-1 expression on T lymphocytes and the function of CD152- and PD-1-positive CD8 T cells in human acute liver allograft rejection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-three patients undergoing liver transplantation were enrolled in this study, including 26 cases with acute allograft rejection (Gr-AR) and 37 cases with stable allograft liver function (Gr-SF). The expression of CD152 and PD-1 on T lymphocytes and the expression of granzyme and perforin on CD152- and PD-1-positive CD8 T cells in peripheral blood were analyzed using flow cytometry. RESULTS: The peripheral CD4/CD8 ratio in Gr-AR was significantly lower than that in Gr-SF (P < .01). The expression of CD152 and PD-1 on CD8 and CD4 T cells was significantly lower in Gr-AR than in Gr-SF (all P < .01). The expression of granzyme B and perforin was significantly higher in Gr-AR than in Gr-SF (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Down-regulation of the expression of negative costimulatory molecules such as CD152 and PD-1 on CD8 T cells may be associated with human acute liver allograft rejection.

Switching control of an R/C hovercraft: stabilization and smooth switching.

This paper presents stable switching control of an radio-controlled (R/C) hovercraft that is a nonholonomic (nonlinear) system. To exactly represent its nonlinear dynamics, more importantly, to maintain controllability of the system, we newly propose a switching fuzzy model that has locally Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy models and switches them according to states, external variables, and/or time. A switching fuzzy controller is constructed by mirroring the rule structure of the switching fuzzy model of an R/C hovercraft. We derive linear matrix inequality (LMI) conditions for ensuring the stability of the closed-loop system consisting of a switching fuzzy model and controller. Furthermore, to guarantee smooth switching of control input at switching boundaries, we also derive a smooth switching condition represented in terms of LMIs. A stable switching fuzzy controller satisfying the smooth switching condition is designed by simultaneously solving both of the LMIs. The simulation and experimental results for the trajectory control of an R/C hovercraft show the validity of the switching fuzzy model and controller design, particularly, the smooth switching condition.