Correlation between paraspinal muscle fat infiltration and thoracic vertebral degeneration based on phantom-less QCT: a novel insight into thoracic vertebral degeneration.

Purpose: This study aimed to elucidate the correlation between the degree of fat infiltration (FI) in thoracic paraspinal muscles and thoracic vertebral degeneration (TVD).

Methods: This cross-sectional study comprised 474 patients who underwent standard thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans. The FI was quantified as the percentage of adipose tissues within the cross-sectional area of thoracic paraspinal muscles.

A Multisynergistic Strategy for Bone Tumor Treatment: Orchestrating Oxidative Stress and Autophagic Flux Inhibition by Environmental-Response Nanoparticle.

Tumor therapy has advanced significantly in recent years, but tumor cells can still evade and survive the treatment through various mechanisms. Notably, tumor cells use autophagy to sustain viability by removing impaired mitochondria and clearing excess reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, the aim is to amplify intracellular oxidative stress by inhibiting mitochondrial autophagic flux.

A Programmable Handheld Extrusion-Based Bioprinting Platform for In Situ Skin Wounds Dressing: Balance Mobility and Customizability.

Bioprinting technology plays a crucial role for constructing tissue substitutes. However, the mismatched scaffold shapes and the poor treatment timeliness limit its clinical translational application. In situ printing technology that prints bioregenerants directly inside patient's body can meet the needs of specific tissue repair.

Correlation Between Osteoporosis and Endplate Damage in Degenerative Disc Disease Patients: A Study Based on Phantom-Less Quantitative Computed Tomography and Total Endplate Scores.

Background: Osteoporosis and degenerative disc disease (DDD) are prevalent in the elderly population. Damage to the vertebral endplate, which impairs nutrient supply to the disc, serves as both a significant initiator and a hallmark of DDD. This study was aimed to explore the association between osteoporosis and endplate damage.

Brain tumor segmentation by combining MultiEncoder UNet with wavelet fusion.

Background And Objective: Accurate segmentation of brain tumors from multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) holds significant importance in clinical diagnosis and surgical intervention, while current deep learning methods cope with situations of multimodal MRI by an early fusion strategy that implicitly assumes that the modal relationships are linear, which tends to ignore the complementary information between modalities, negatively impacting the model's performance. Meanwhile, long-range relationships between voxels cannot be captured due to the localized character of the convolution procedure.

Method: Aiming at this problem, we propose a multimodal segmentation network based on a late fusion strategy that employs multiple encoders and a decoder for the segmentation of brain tumors.

After 50 Years of Hepatic Clearance Models, Where Should We Go from Here? Improvements and Implications for Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling.

There is overwhelming preference for application of the unphysiologic, well-stirred model (WSM) over the parallel tube model (PTM) and dispersion model (DM) to predict hepatic drug clearance, , despite that liver blood flow is dispersive and closer to the DM in nature. The reasoning is the ease in computation relating the hepatic intrinsic clearance ( ), hepatic blood flow ( ), unbound fraction in blood ( ) and the transmembrane clearances ( and ) to for the WSM. However, the WSM, being the least efficient liver model, predicts a lower that is associated with the in vitro ( / ), therefore requiring scale-up to predict in vivo.

Semi-automatic proximal humeral trabecular bone density assessment tool: technique application and clinical validation.

Purpose: This study aimed to apply a newly developed semi-automatic phantom-less QCT (PL-QCT) to measure proximal humerus trabecular bone density based on chest CT and verify its accuracy and precision.

Methods: Subcutaneous fat of the shoulder joint and trapezius muscle were used as calibration references for PL-QCT BMD measurement. A self-developed algorithm based on a convolution map was utilized in PL-QCT for semi-automatic BMD measurements.

Cortical Endplate Bone Density Measured by Novel Phantomless Quantitative Computed Tomography May Predict Cage Subsidence more Conveniently and Accurately.

Objective: Previous studies have shown that bone mineral density (BMD) is a predictor of cage subsidence. Phantom-less quantitative computed tomography (PL-QCT) can measure volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) of lumbar trabecular and cortical bone. The study of endplate vBMD (EP-vBMD) is important in predicting cage settlement after extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF).

Application of Entity-BERT model based on neuroscience and brain-like cognition in electronic medical record entity recognition.

Introduction: In the medical field, electronic medical records contain a large amount of textual information, and the unstructured nature of this information makes data extraction and analysis challenging. Therefore, automatic extraction of entity information from electronic medical records has become a significant issue in the healthcare domain.

Methods: To address this problem, this paper proposes a deep learning-based entity information extraction model called Entity-BERT.

Performance evaluation of an AI-based preoperative planning software application for automatic selection of pedicle screws based on computed tomography images.

Introduction: Recent neurosurgical applications based on artificial intelligence (AI) have demonstrated its potential in surgical planning and anatomical measurement. We aimed to evaluate the performance of an AI planning software application on screw length/diameter selection and insertion accuracy in comparison with freehand surgery.

Methods: A total of 45 patients with 208 pedicle screw placements on thoracolumbar segments were included in this analysis.

[Near-infrared excited graphene oxide/silver nitrate/chitosan coating for improving antibacterial properties of titanium implants].

Objective: To design and construct a graphene oxide (GO)/silver nitrate (AgPO)/chitosan (CS) composite coating for rapidly killing bacteria and preventing postoperative infection in implant surgery.

Methods: GO/AgPO composites were prepared by ion exchange method, and CS and GO/AgPO composites were deposited on medical titanium (Ti) sheets successively. The morphology, physical image, photothermal and photocatalytic ability, antibacterial ability, and adhesion to the matrix of the materials were characterized.

Genomic and Transcriptional Profiles of () Gene Family in Polyploid Complex.

Genome duplication supplies raw genetic materials and has been thought to be essential for evolutionary innovation and ecological adaptation. Here, we select () genes to study the evolution of the duplicated genes in the polyploid complex, including amphidiploid and amphitriploid . Phylogenetic, chromosomal location and read coverage analyses indicate that most of genes exhibit a 2:1 relationship with zebrafish orthologs and confirm two rounds of polyploidy, an allotetraploidy followed by an autotriploidy, occurred during evolution.

Digital light processing-bioprinted poly-NAGA-GelMA-based hydrogel lenticule for precise refractive errors correction.

Refractive disorder is the most prevalent cause of visual impairment worldwide. While treatment of refractive errors can bring improvement to quality of life and socio-economic benefits, there is a need for individualization, precision, convenience, and safety with the chosen method. Herein, we propose using pre-designed refractive lenticules based on poly-NAGA-GelMA (PNG) bio-inks photo-initiated by digital light processing (DLP)-bioprinting for correcting refractive errors.

Advances in 3D bioprinting technology for functional corneal reconstruction and regeneration.

Corneal transplantation constitutes one of the major treatments in severe cases of corneal diseases. The lack of cornea donors as well as other limitations of corneal transplantation necessitate the development of artificial corneal substitutes. Biosynthetic cornea model using 3D printing technique is promising to generate artificial corneal structure that can resemble the structure of the native human cornea and is applicable for regenerative medicine.

Endplate volumetric bone mineral density biomechanically matched interbody cage.

Disc degenerative problems affect the aging population, globally, and interbody fusion is a crucial surgical treatment. The interbody cage is the critical implant in interbody fusion surgery; however, its subsidence risk becomes a remarkable clinical complication. Cage subsidence is caused due to a mismatch of material properties between the bone and implant, specifically, the higher elastic modulus of the cage relative to that of the spinal segments, inducing subsidence.

Diverse polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols with anti-neuroinflammatory activity from Hypericum beanii.

A phytochemical investigation on the roots of Hypericum beanii resulted in the isolation of six new polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols (PPAPs), hyperberlones A-F, along with fourteen known analogues. The structural characterization of these compounds was carried out by analyzing the HRESIMS data, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic data, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations, and gauge-independent atomic orbital (GIAO) NMR calculations. Hyperberlone A (1) was a caged PPAP with a rare tricyclo[4.

Comparative genome anatomy reveals evolutionary insights into a unique amphitriploid fish.

Triploids are rare in nature because of difficulties in meiotic and gametogenic processes, especially in vertebrates. The Carassius complex of cyprinid teleosts contains sexual tetraploid crucian carp/goldfish (C. auratus) and unisexual hexaploid gibel carp/Prussian carp (C.

RNA helicase DEAD-box protein 5 alleviates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis progression via tethering TSC complex and suppressing mTORC1 signaling.

Background And Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and its progressive form, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), are rapidly becoming the top causes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Currently, there are no approved therapies for the treatment of NASH. DEAD-box protein 5 (DDX5) plays important roles in different cellular processes.

Oral delivery of decanoic acid conjugated plant protein shell incorporating hybrid nanosystem leverage intestinal absorption of polyphenols.

Polyphenols are potent antioxidants, but their poor oral bioavailability owing to intrinsic insolubility and low permeability significantly hampers their effectiveness for clinical translation. Herein, upper intestinal absorptive polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticles (PLN) was designed by exploiting the lipidic core for drug encapsulation and the decanoic acid conjugated rapeseed protein as the biopolymeric shell for gastrointestinal stability, retention and permeability. Polyphenol ellagic acid loaded core-shell PLN (EA-PLN(C/S)) was characterized of favorable physicochemical properties in simulated gastric- and intestinal fluids, including high drug loading capacity, slow drug release and prolonged stability.

Microsurgical Skills of Establishing Permanent Jugular Vein Cannulation in Rats for Serial Blood Sampling of Orally Administered Drug.

Blood sampling in small laboratory animals is necessary for pharmaceutical lead optimization but can cause great harm and stress to experimental animals, which could potentially affect results. The jugular vein cannulation (JVC) in rats is a widely used model for repeated blood collection but requires adequate training of surgery skills and animal care. This article details the microsurgical procedures for establishing and maintaining a permanent JVC rat model with specific focus on the placement and sealing of the jugular cannula.

Nanoparticulate Drug Delivery Strategies to Address Intestinal Cytochrome P450 CYP3A4 Metabolism towards Personalized Medicine.

Drug dosing in clinical practice, which determines optimal efficacy, toxicity or ineffectiveness, is critical to patients' outcomes. However, many orally administered therapeutic drugs are susceptible to biotransformation by a group of important oxidative enzymes, known as cytochrome P450s (CYPs). In particular, CYP3A4 is a low specificity isoenzyme of the CYPs family, which contributes to the metabolism of approximately 50% of all marketed drugs.