Search

Purpose: To compare the accuracy of a Kinect-Optical navigation system with an electromagnetic (EM) navigation system for percutaneous liver needle intervention., Materials and Methods: Five beagles with nine artificial tumors were used for validation. The Veran IG4 EM navigation system and a custom-made Kinect-Optical navigation system were used. Needle insertions into each tumor were conducted with these two guidance methods. The target positioning error (TPE) and the time cost of the puncture procedures were evaluated., Results: A total of 18 needle insertions were performed to evaluate the navigation accuracy of the two guidance approaches. The targeting error was 6.78 ± 3.22 mm and 8.72 ± 3.5 mm for the Kinect-Optical navigation system and the EM navigation system, respectively. There is no statistically significant difference in the TPE between the Kinect-Optical navigation system and the EM navigation system (p = 0.229). The processing time with the Kinect-Optical system (10 min) is similar to that of the Veran IG4 system (12 min)., Conclusions: The accuracy of the Kinect-Optical navigation system is comparable to that of the EM navigation system.

People may choose non-cooperation in social dilemmas either out of fear (if others choose to defect) or out of greed (when others choose to cooperate). Previous studies have shown that exogenous oxytocin motivates a "tend and defend" pattern in inter-group conflict in which oxytocin stimulates in-group cooperation and out-group defense. Using a double-blind placebo-controlled design combined with a modified Prisoner's dilemma game (PDG), we examined the effect of oxytocin on social motivations in inter-individual conflict in men. Results showed that compared with the placebo group, oxytocin-exposed participants were less cooperative in general. Specifically, oxytocin amplified the effect of fear on defection but did not influence the effect of greed. Another non-social control study confirmed participants' decisions were sensitive to social factors. Our findings suggest that even when social group conflict is removed, oxytocin promotes distrust of strangers in "me and you" inter-individual conflict by elevating social fear in men., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Percutaneous abdominal puncture is a popular interventional method for the management of abdominal tumors. Image-guided puncture can help interventional radiologists improve targeting accuracy. The second generation of Kinect(™) was released recently, we developed an optical navigation system to investigate its feasibility for guiding percutaneous abdominal puncture, and compare its performance on needle insertion guidance with that of the first-generation Kinect(™). For physical-to-image registration in this system, two surfaces extracted from preoperative CT and intraoperative Kinect(™) depth images were matched using an iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm. A 2D shape image-based correspondence searching algorithm was proposed for generating a close initial position before ICP matching. Evaluation experiments were conducted on an abdominal phantom and six beagles in vivo. For phantom study, a two-factor experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of the operator's skill and trajectory on target positioning error (TPE). A total of 36 needle punctures were tested on a Kinect(™) for Windows version 2 (Kinect(™) V2). The target registration error (TRE), user error, and TPE are 4.26  ±  1.94 mm, 2.92  ±  1.67 mm, and 5.23  ±  2.29 mm, respectively. No statistically significant differences in TPE regarding operator's skill and trajectory are observed. Additionally, a Kinect(™) for Windows version 1 (Kinect(™) V1) was tested with 12 insertions, and the TRE evaluated with the Kinect(™) V1 is statistically significantly larger than that with the Kinect(™) V2. For the animal experiment, fifteen artificial liver tumors were inserted guided by the navigation system. The TPE was evaluated as 6.40  ±  2.72 mm, and its lateral and longitudinal component were 4.30  ±  2.51 mm and 3.80  ±  3.11 mm, respectively. This study demonstrates that the navigation accuracy of the proposed system is acceptable, and that the second generation Kinect(™)-based navigation is superior to the first-generation Kinect(™), and has potential of clinical application in percutaneous abdominal puncture.

Purpose: Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is the most common type of inherited peripheral neuropathy and has a high degree of genetic heterogeneity. CMT with concurrent diabetes mellitus (DM) is rare. The purpose of this study is to explore the genetic, clinical and pathological characteristics of the patients with CMT and concurrent DM., Methods: We investigated gene mutations (the peripheral myelin protein 22 gene, myelin protein zero gene, lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor-α factor gene, early growth response gene and the neurofilament light chain gene loci) of a relatively large and typical Chinese family with CMT1 and concurrent DM2. From the literature, we also retrieved all reported families and single cases with CMT and concurrent DM. We comprehensively analyzed the characteristics of total 33 patients with CMT and concurrent DM, and further compared these characteristics with those of patients of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN)., Results: Patients with CMT and concurrent DM had some relatively independent characteristics and pathogenic mechanisms. So we designated that kind of characteristic demyelinating CMT which accompanies DM as Yu-Xie syndrome (YXS), a new specific clinical subtype of CMT., Conclusion: CMT is an etiologic factor of DM, even though the intrinsic association between CMT and DM still remains further exploration.

Objective: To observe trinucleotide repeat number, (CTG)n in the 3'-untranslated region of the myotonic protein kinase (MTPK) gene in a clinically suspected woman with myotonic dystrophy (DM) family history and her abortus, in order to confirm the necessity of exerting antenatal examination in patients or suspected individuals with DM family history., Methods: Long Expand Template polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system was used to analyze CTG trinucleotide repeat numbers located in the 3' untranslated region of MTPK on chromosome 19q13.2-3 in both peripheral white cells and muscles of the suspected mother and the other two DM patients in the family. The tissues of her abortus and blood of a health woman were detected, too., Results: CTG repeats in both peripheral white cells and muscles of the suspected mother and the tissue of abortus were higher than normal range of CTG repeat number. There is no significant difference between blood and muscle samples. High CTG repeats were detected in blood and muscles of the typical DM members in the family, but in the blood sample of control, CTG repeats is normal., Conclusion: CTG trinucleotide analyses and antenatal examination should be done in pregnant with a DM family history, in order to reduce the birth rate of DM offspring.