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General paresis of the insane (GPI) remains the form of neurosyphilis most closely associated with dementia, even after the advent of penicillin. Penicillin remains the top treatment choice for syphilis, but treatment failure is not rare. Although the neurological symptoms of GPI can be alleviated by antibiotic treatment, mental symptoms may continue. A 60-year-old man was admitted to hospital due to rapidly progressive dementia. He was diagnosed as GPI. With the patient’s informed consent, we treated him with a large dose of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) (0.4 g/kg/day) for 5 days, as well as penicillin (24 million units daily divided into six doses) for 14 days. A near-immediate improvement in his emotions and orientation occurred on the 17th day in hospital. The patient made an excellent recovery 6 weeks after treatment, his psychotic and mood symptoms improved significantly. Therefore, we hypothesize that patients with GPI treated with IVIG and penicillin G would have better outcomes than those treated with penicillin G alone. IVIG may be introduced as a necessary treatment for GPI.

The heart valve is crucial for the human body, which directly affects the efficiency of blood transport and the normal functioning of all organs. Generally, decellularization is one method of tissue-engineered heart valve (TEHV), which can deteriorate the mechanical properties and eliminate allograft immunogenicity. In this study, removable polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is used to encapsulate decellularized porcine heart valves (DHVs) as a dynamic template to improve the processability of DHVs, such as suturing. Mechanical tests show that the strength and elastic modulus of DHVs treated with different concentrations of PVA significantly improve. Without the PVA layer, the valve would shift during suture puncture and not achieve the desired suture result. The in vitro results indicate that decellularized valves treated with PVA can sustain the adhesion and growth of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). All results above show that the DHVs treated with water-soluble PVA have good mechanical properties and cytocompatibility to ensure post-treatment. On this basis, the improved processability of DHV treated with PVA enables a new paradigm for the manufacturing of scaffolds, making it easy to apply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vessels encapsulating tumor cluster (VETC) is a critical prognostic factor and therapeutic predictor of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, noninvasive evaluation of VETC remains challenging. Purpose: To develop and validate a deep learning radiomic (DLR) model of dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI (DCE‐MRI) for the preoperative discrimination of VETC and prognosis of HCC. Study type: Retrospective. Population: A total of 221 patients with histologically confirmed HCC and stratified this cohort into training set (n = 154) and time‐independent validation set (n = 67). Field Strength/Sequence: A 1.5 T and 3.0 T; DCE imaging with T1‐weighted three‐dimensional fast spoiled gradient echo. Assessment: Histological specimens were used to evaluate VETC status. VETC+ cases had a visible pattern (≥5% tumor area), while cases without any pattern were VETC−. The regions of intratumor and peritumor were segmented manually in the arterial, portal‐venous and delayed phase (AP, PP, and DP, respectively) of DCE‐MRI and reproducibility of segmentation was evaluated. Deep neural network and machine learning (ML) classifiers (logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, SVM, KNN, and Bayes) were used to develop nine DLR, 54 ML and clinical–radiological (CR) models based on AP, PP, and DP of DCE‐MRI for evaluating VETC status and association with recurrence. Statistical Tests: The Fleiss kappa, intraclass correlation coefficient, receiver operating characteristic curve, area under the curve (AUC), Delong test and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. P value <0.05 was considered as statistical significance. Results: Pathological VETC+ were confirmed in 68 patients (training set: 46, validation set: 22). In the validation set, DLR model based on peritumor PP (peri‐PP) phase had the best performance (AUC: 0.844) in comparison to CR (AUC: 0.591) and ML (AUC: 0.672) models. Significant differences in recurrence rates between peri‐PP DLR model‐predicted VETC+ and VETC− status were found. Data Conclusions: The DLR model provides a noninvasive method to discriminate VETC status and prognosis of HCC patients preoperatively. Evidence Level: 4. Technical Efficacy: Stage 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]