Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in December 2019, an epidemic has spread rapidly worldwide. COVID-19 is caused by the highly infectious severe acute respiratory syndrome ...coronavirus-2. A 42-year-old woman presented to hospital who was suffering from epigastric discomfort and dyspepsia for the past 5 days. Before the onset of symptoms, she was healthy, and had no travel history to Wuhan or contact with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases. An examination showed chronic superficial gastritis with erosion and esophagitis. Enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen showed a lesion in the right lower lobe of the lungs. Chest computed tomography showed multiple ground-glass opacity in the lungs. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. There was no improvement after antibiotic treatment. Polymerase chain reaction performed 2 days later was positive and she was diagnosed with COVID-19. After several days of antiviral and symptomatic treatments, her symptoms improved and she was discharged. None of the medical staff were infected. Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are nonspecific, making differentiating it from other diseases difficult. This case shows the sequence in which symptoms developed in a patient with COVID-19 with gastrointestinal symptoms as initial manifestations.
Atomic magnetometers operated in the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) regime are the promising sensor to replace superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) in the biomagnetism field. ...The SERF magnetometer with compact size and good performance is crucial to the new generation of wearable magnetoencephalography (MEG) system. In this paper, we developed a compact and closed-loop SERF magnetometer with the dimensions of 15.0×22.0×30.0 mm
3
based on a single-beam configuration. The bandwidth of the magnetometer was extended to 675 Hz while the sensitivity was maintained at 22 fT/Hz
1/2
. A nearly 3-fold enhancement of the bandwidth was obtained in comparison with the open-loop control. The implementation of the closed-loop control also greatly improved the dynamic range, enabling the magnetometer to be robust against the disturbance of the ambient field. Moreover, the magnetometer was successfully applied for the detection of human
α
-rhythm and auditory evoked fields (AEFs), which demonstrated the potential to be extended to multi-channel MEG measurements for future neuroscience studies.
Background
Pneumonia caused by the 2019 novel Coronavirus (COVID‐2019) shares overlapping signs and symptoms, laboratory findings, imaging features with influenza A pneumonia. We aimed to identify ...their clinical characteristics to help early diagnosis.
Methods
We retrospectively retrieved data for laboratory‐confirmed patients admitted with COVID‐19–induced or influenza A–induced pneumonia from electronic medical records in Ningbo First Hospital, China. We recorded patients' epidemiological and clinical features, as well as radiologic and laboratory findings.
Results
The median age of influenza A cohort was higher and it exhibited higher temperature and higher proportion of pleural effusion. COVID‐19 cohort exhibited higher proportions of fatigue, diarrhea and ground‐glass opacity and higher levels of lymphocyte percentage, absolute lymphocyte count, red‐cell count, hemoglobin and albumin and presented lower levels of monocytes, c‐reactive protein, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, serum creatinine. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that fatigue, ground‐glass opacity, and higher level of albumin were independent risk factors for COVID‐19 pneumonia, while older age, higher temperature, and higher level of monocyte count were independent risk factors for influenza A pneumonia.
Conclusions
In terms of COVID‐19 pneumonia and influenza A pneumonia, fatigue, ground‐glass opacity, and higher level of albumin tend to be helpful for diagnosis of COVID‐19 pneumonia, while older age, higher temperature, and higher level of monocyte count tend to be helpful for the diagnosis of influenza A pneumonia.
Fatigue, ground‐glass opacity and higher level of albumin tend to be helpful for diagnosis of COVID‐19 pneumonia, while older age, higher temperature, and higher level of monocytes count tend to be helpful for the diagnosis of influenza A pneumonia.
Full text
Available for:
FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Display omitted
•Alpha-blocking of human responds significantly to photic stimulation.•The minimum OPM-MEG system can detect alpha rhythm with different light stimulations.•The detection distance ...from OPM sensor to the scalp can be adjusted without SNR loss.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) has high temporal and spatial resolution and good spatial accuracy in determining the locations of source activity among most non-invasive imaging. The recently developed technology of optically-pumped magnetometer (OPM) has sensitivity comparable to that of the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) used in commercial MEG system.
Double-channel OPM-MEG system detects human photic blocking of alpha rhythm at the occipital region of skull in the magnetically shielded environment via a wearable whole-cortex 3D-printed helmet.
The alpha rhythm can be detected by the OPM-MEG system, the MEG signals are undoubtedly caused by photic blocking and similar with the results measured by SQUID magnetometer.
Due to the dependency of current commercial whole-cortex SQUID-MEG system on the liquid helium, the separation from the liquid helium space to the human head is usually at least a few centimeters. The wearable OPM-MEG system, however, can significantly improve the detection efficiency since its sensors can be mounted close to scalp, normally less than 1 cm.
OPM-MEG system successfully detects alpha rhythm blocked by light stimulation and works well in the home-made magnetically shielded environment. OPM-MEG system shows a substitute for the traditional MEG system.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
6.
Role of the extracellular matrix in COVID-19 Huang, Jia-Jia; Wang, Chu-Wen; Liu, Ying ...
World journal of clinical cases,
2023-Jan-06, 2023-1-6, 20230106, Volume:
11, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Open access
An outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread globally, with over 500 million cases and 6 million deaths to date. COVID-19 is associated with a systemic inflammatory response and ...abnormalities of the extracellular matrix (ECM), which is also involved in inflammatory storms. Upon viral infection, ECM proteins are involved in the recruitment of inflammatory cells and interference with target organ metabolism, including in the lungs. Additionally, serum biomarkers of ECM turnover are associated with the severity of COVID-19 and may serve as potential targets. Consequently, understanding the expression and function of ECM, particularly of the lung, during severe acute respiratory syndrome of the coronavirus 2 infection would provide valuable insights into the mechanisms of COVID-19 progression. In this review, we summarize the current findings on ECM, such as hyaluronic acid, matrix metalloproteinases, and collagen, which are linked to the severity and inflammation of COVID-19. Some drugs targeting the extracellular surface have been effective. In the future, these ECM findings could provide novel perspectives on the pathogenesis and treatment of COVID-19.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a non-invasive imaging technique for directly measuring the external magnetic field generated from synchronously activated pyramidal neurons in the brain. The ...optically pumped magnetometer (OPM) is known for its less expensive, non-cryogenic, movable and user-friendly custom-design provides the potential for a change in functional neuroimaging based on MEG.
An array of OPMs covering the opposite sides of a subject's head is placed inside a magnetically shielded room (MSR) and responses evoked from the auditory cortices are measured.
High signal-to-noise ratio auditory evoked response fields (AEFs) were detected by a wearable OPM-MEG system in a MSR, for which a flexible helmet was specially designed to minimize the sensor-to-head distance, along with a set of bi-planar coils developed for background field and gradient nulling. Neuronal current sources activated in AEF experiments were localized and the auditory cortices showed the highest activities. Performance of the hybrid optically pumped magnetometer-magnetoencephalography/electroencephalography (OPM-MEG/EEG) system was also assessed.
The multi-channel OPM-MEG system performs well in a custom built MSR equipped with bi-planar coils and detects human AEFs with a flexible helmet. Moreover, the similarities and differences of auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) and AEFs are discussed, while the operation of OPM-MEG sensors in conjunction with EEG electrodes provides an encouraging combination for the exploration of hybrid OPM-MEG/EEG systems.
Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension （PAH） is characterized by suppressing apoptosis and enhancing cell proliferation in the vascular wall. Inducing pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells （PASMC） ...apoptosis had been regarded as a therapeutic approach for PAH. Oridonin can cause apoptosis in many cell lines, while little has been done to evaluate its effect on PASMC. Methods Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to three groups： normal control （NC）; hypoxia-hypercapnia （HH）; Hypoxia-hypercapnia ＋ oridonin （HHO）. Rats were exposed to hypoxia-hypercapnia for four weeks. Cultured human PASMC （HPASMC） were assigned to three groups： normoxia （NO）; hypoxia （HY）; hypoxia ＋ oridonin （HO）. The mean pulmonary artery pressure, mass ratio of right ventricle over left ventricle plus septum （RV/（LV＋S））, the ratio of thickness of the pulmonary arteriole wall to vascular external diameter （WT%） and the ratio of the vessel wall area to the total area （WA%） were measured. Morphologic changes of pulmonary arteries were observed under light and electron microscopes. The apoptotic characteristics in vitro and in vivo were detected. Results The mPAP, RW（LV＋S）, WT%, and WA% in the HH group were significantly greater than those in the NC （P 〈0.01） and HHO groups （P 〈0.01）; the activities of caspase-3 and caspase-9, and the expressions of Bax, cyt-C and apoptotic index （AI） in the group HH were less than those in the NC and HHO groups; and the expression of Bcl-2 in group HH was greater than that in the NC and HHO groups. HPASMC mitochondrial membrane potentials in group HO was lower than in group HY （P 〈0.01）, and cyt-C in the cytoplasm, AI, and caspase-9 in the HO group were greater than that in the HY group （P 〈0.01）, but the expression of Bcl-2 in the HO group was less than that in the HY group （P 〈0.05）. Conclusions The results suggest that oridonin can lower pulmonary artery pressure effectively, and inhibit pulmonary artery structural remodeling by inducing smooth cell apoptosis via a mitochondria-dependent pathway.
To study the effect and mechanism of chimonin on pulmonary arterioles I and III type collagen metabolism in pulmonary hypertension rats induced by chronic hypoxic hypercapnia.
Thirty-six ...Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: normal control group(A), hypoxic hypercapnic group(B), hypoxic hypercapnia + chimonin group(C). Collagen I, III and their mRNA, Blood CO concentration (COHb%), activity of HO-1 in blood serum and lung homogenate, content of hydroxyproline in lung homogenate, pulmonary arteriole micromorphometric index were observed.
Hypoxic hypercapnic rats's mPAP, Hyr of lung homogenate, content of I type collagen and I type collagen mRNA in pulmonary arterioles, were significantly higher than those in control group, pulmonary vessel remodeling of hypoxic hypercapnic rats was significant, those changes in hypercapnia + chimonin group were significantly lower than those in hypoxic hypercapnic group. Blood CO concentration, activity of HO-1 in blood serum and lung homogenate in rats
PDF
