Search

Background: Different subtypes of dendritic cells (DCs) can induce different types of immune responses. Our previous study found that Echinococcus granulosus (E. granulosus) antigens (Eg.ferritin, Eg.mMDH and Eg.10) stimulated DC differentiation to different subtypes and produced different immune responses.Objective: To further understand whether Eg.ferritin, Eg.mMDH and Eg.10 affect the DC-mediated immune response by promoting the differentiation of monocytes to DCs.Methods: Bone marrow-derived monocytes were exposed to three antigens of E. granulosus on days 0, 3, 5, and 7. The percentage of monocyte-derived DCs (moDCs), DCs subsets, and the expression of surface molecules of DCs at different time points in different groups were assessed by flow cytometry. The levels of cytokines of IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-13, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-12p70, IL-18, IL-23, and IL-27 in the cell culture supernatant were detected by multi-factorial detection technology.Results: The percentage of moDCs revealed that none of the three antigens blocked monocyte differentiation to DCs. The monocytes of 7-day-old cultures showed increased sensitivity to these antigens. The Eg.ferritin induced more mature DCs, which expressed high levels of MHC II and costimulatory molecules, and secreted Th1 cytokines. Eg10 and Eg.mMDH induced lower degrees of DC maturation, however differentiated DCs were in a semi-mature state due to low expression of MHC II and costimulatory molecules and secretion of higher Th2 and lower Th1 cytokines.Conclusion: Eg.ferritin promotes full maturation of DCs and induces Th1 immune response, whereas Eg.10 and Eg.mMDH induce semi-mature DCs producing higher levels of Th2 cytokines.

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study was to introduce the surgical method of K-wire combined with screw in the treatment of Arbeitsgemeinschaftfür Osteosynthesefragen (AO) type B3.1 phalangeal fractures and to compare its clinical, radiological and functional outcomes with K-wire fixation. Methods This was a retrospective comparative study. From January 2015 to February 2022, we treated 86 patients with AO type B3.1 phalangeal fractures. A total of 71 patients were finally included in the statistical analysis. Thirty-nine patients received K-wires combined with screw, and 32 patients received simple K-wires. The follow-up time was at least 6 months. Outcome measures included general information, operative time, total active motion (TAM), pinch strength, radiological union time, pain assessed by visual analog scale (VAS), Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (QuickDASH) score, cost, and complications. Results The follow-up time was 6–12 months, with an average of 7.9 months. All patients achieved clinical and radiological union. Compared with the K-wire fixation group, the TAM, radiological union time and VAS score of the K-wire combined with screw group had obvious advantages. Compared with the opposite healthy hand, the grip strength of the two groups was similar, and there was no significant difference in the QuickDASH score. The incidence rate of complications in the K-wire combined with screw group (2/39) was lower than that in the K-wire fixation group (7/32). Conclusions Compared with simple K-wire fixation, K-wire combined with screw in the treatment of AO type B3.1 phalangeal fractures is a safer and reliable surgical method. K-wire controls the rotation and plays a role similar to a “lock”. The screw can exert pressure and fix it more firmly. It shortens the time of fracture healing and has a higher TAM and fewer postoperative complications.

Abstract Purpose This study aims to compare results after open lunate excision alone and in combination with palmaris longus tendon ball arthroplasty for the treatment of late-staged Kienböck’s disease (KD). Methods This is a retrospective study using the prospectively collected data, and patients who had a discharge diagnosis of KD (stage IIIB based on Lichtman staging criteria) and underwent surgical treatment by lunate excision alone or in combination with palmaris longus tendon ball arthroplasty between January 2011 and December 2020 were included in this study. Variables of interest involved demographics, disease condition, operative procedure, and the outcomes evaluated at the last follow-up. Within and between comparisons were performed. Results Thirty-five patients underwent lunate excision alone, and 40 patients underwent the combination procedure. At the final follow-up, patients in both groups exhibited significant improvements compared to pre-operation, such as wrist flexion, wrist extension, carpal height ratio, PRWE score, Cooney score, and grip strength (all P

Abstract Purpose This study aims to introduce the “tripod” technique using cannulated compression screw and two anti-rotational K-wires for treatment of unstable scaphoid waist fracture nonunion, and to compare it with the single cannulated screw fixation technique in term of scaphoid union and surgical outcomes. Methods It was a retrospective study. From January 2014 to March 2020, 103 consecutive patients with scaphoid waist fracture nonunion treated with the tripod fixation and bone grafting (n = 45) or with single cannulated compression screw and bone grafting (n = 58) were included. All the procedures were performed by the same hand surgery team, and autologous cortico-cancellous radius bone graft was used for bony reconstruction. The minimal follow-up period was 12 months. The union rate and the time to union, range of motion (ROM), grip strength, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score and modified Mayo Scores at the last visit were compared. Results In tripod fixation group, bony union was achieved in all patients at the mean of 14.8 ± 3.8 weeks, while in the single cannulated screw fixation group the bony union rate was 94.8% (55/58) and the time to union was 17.6 ± 3.6 weeks. The difference of time to union was statistically significant (p = 0.027), but not for bony union rate (p = 0.122). At the last visit, no significant difference was found with respect to any clinical and radiographic outcome measures (all p > 0.05). The overall rate of complications was not significantly different between two groups (15.6% vs 10.3%, p = 0.430). Conclusions Tripod fixation technique with headless compression screw and two K-wires is a safe and effective technique for treatment of scaphoid nonunion fixation and can be considered to use in practice, especially for those potentially rotationally unstable cases.

A brain-computer interface (BCI) based on motor imagery (MI) from the same limb can provide an intuitive control pathway but has received limited attention. It is still a challenge to classify multiple MI tasks from the same limb. The goal of this study is to propose a novel decoding method to classify the MI tasks of four joints of the same upper limb and the resting state. EEG signals were collected from 20 participants. A time-distributed attention network (TD-Atten) was proposed to adaptively assign different weights to different classes and frequency bands of the input multiband Common Spatial Pattern (CSP) features. The long short-term memory (LSTM) and dense layers were then used to learn sequential information from the reweight features and perform the classification. Our proposed method outperformed other baseline and deep learning-based methods and obtained the accuracies of 46.8% in the 5-class scenario and 53.4% in the 4-class scenario. The visualization results of attention weights indicated that the proposed framework can adaptively pay attention to alpha-band related features in MI tasks, which was consistent with the analysis of brain activation patterns. These results demonstrated the feasibility and interpretability of the attention mechanism in MI decoding and the potential of this fine MI paradigm to be applied for the control of a robotic arm or a neural prosthesis.

Abstract Background The aim of this cross-sectional study to assess the proportions of anxiety and depression in patients with CuTS, and to explore the associated demographic and clinical features. Methods From May 2011 to January 2017, 246 patients diagnosed with CuTS were recruited. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess the proportions of depression and anxiety. Patient demographic and clinical data were collected. Univariate analysis and multivariate regression were carried out to identify the variables that were independently associated with anxiety and depression. Results The proportions of depression and anxiety were 17.9% (n = 44) and 14.2% (n = 35), respectively. Five patients had both possible/probable anxiety and depression. Logistic regression analysis revealed that diabetes mellitus was independently associated with depression; and the modified McGowan grade was independently associated with anxiety. Conclusions In patients with CuTS, the proportions of depression and anxiety were 17.9% and 14.2%, respectively. Early screening for anxiety and depression is beneficial for patients with CuTS.