Objective To investigate the expression of Human leucocyte antigen(HLA)-DP, -DQ, -DR and CD40 in human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, to determine their molecule expression in immune response process, and their abilities to stimulate T lymphocyte activation. Methods Human RPE cells were cultured with or without (IFN respectively. Expression of HLA-DP, -DQ, -DR and CD40 was measured by immunohistochemical staining. Meanwhile, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were cocultured with RPE cells in vitro, and then the expression of activated lymphocytes CD69 was measured by fluorescence activated cell sorter(FACS). Results Expression of HLA-DP, -DQ, -DR and CD40 antigen were enhanced by gamma;-interferon inducement. Increasing amount of CD69 positive lymphocytes were found in the co-culture system of RPE cells and PBMC. Conclusion T-lymphocytes in the peripheral blood were activated by human RPE cells which is antigen presenting cells with immunological characteristics potential.
ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of doxazosin for ureterolithiasis.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library and CNKI databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of comparing doxazosin with conservative treatment or tamsulosin for ureterolithiasis from inception to October, 2018. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies, then, RevMan 5.3 software was used to perform meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 15 RCTs involving 1 062 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: compared with conservative treatment, doxazosin significantly facilitated ureteral stone expulsion (RR=1.62, 95%CI 1.45 to 1.81, P<0.000 01). No statistical significant difference was found in stone-free rate (RR=0.96, 95%CI 0.83 to 1.11, P=0.57), stone expulsion time (SMD=?0.17, 95%CI ?0.52 to 0.19, P=0.35) or pain episode frequency (SMD=0.21, 95%CI ?0.15 to 0.56, P=0.25) between doxazosin and tamsulosin. Treatment-associated serious side effects were rarely reported.ConclusionCurrent evidence shows that doxazosin is an efficient and safe medical expulsion agent for ureterolithiasis management. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are required to verify above conclusions.
With the development of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology and its translational application in clinical medicine, BCI medicine has emerged, ushering in profound changes to the practice of medicine, while also bringing forth a series of ethical issues related to BCI medicine. BCI medicine is progressively emerging as a new disciplinary focus, yet to date, there has been limited literature discussing it. Therefore, this paper focuses on BCI medicine, firstly providing an overview of the main potential medical applications of BCI technology. It then defines the discipline, outlines its objectives, methodologies, potential efficacy, and associated translational medical research. Additionally, it discusses the ethics associated with BCI medicine, and introduces the standardized operational procedures for BCI medical applications and the methods for evaluating the efficacy of BCI medical applications. Finally, it anticipates the challenges and future directions of BCI medicine. In the future, BCI medicine may become a new academic discipline or major in higher education. In summary, this article is hoped to provide thoughts and references for the development of the discipline of BCI medicine.
Implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have potentially important clinical applications due to the high spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio of electrodes that are closer to or implanted in the cerebral cortex. However, the surgery and electrodes of implantable BCIs carry safety risks of brain tissue damage, and their medical applications face ethical challenges, with little literature to date systematically considering ethical norms for the medical applications of implantable BCIs. In order to promote the clinical translation of this type of BCI, we considered the ethics of practice for the medical application of implantable BCIs, including: reducing the risk of brain tissue damage from implantable BCI surgery and electrodes, providing patients with customized and personalized implantable BCI treatments, ensuring multidisciplinary collaboration in the clinical application of implantable BCIs, and the responsible use of implantable BCIs, among others. It is expected that this article will provide thoughts and references for the research and development of ethics of the medical application of implantable BCI.
Artificial intelligence-enhanced brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are expected to significantly improve the performance of traditional BCIs in multiple aspects, including usability, user experience, and user satisfaction, particularly in terms of intelligence. However, such AI-integrated or AI-based BCI systems may introduce new ethical issues. This paper first evaluated the potential of AI technology, especially deep learning, in enhancing the performance of BCI systems, including improving decoding accuracy, information transfer rate, real-time performance, and adaptability. Building on this, it was considered that AI-enhanced BCI systems might introduce new or more severe ethical issues compared to traditional BCI systems. These include the possibility of making users’ intentions and behaviors more predictable and manipulable, as well as the increased likelihood of technological abuse. The discussion also addressed measures to mitigate the ethical risks associated with these issues. It is hoped that this paper will promote a deeper understanding and reflection on the ethical risks and corresponding regulations of AI-enhanced BCIs.
The bidirectional closed-loop motor imagery brain-computer interface (MI-BCI) is an emerging method for active rehabilitation training of motor dysfunction, extensively tested in both laboratory and clinical settings. However, no standardized method for evaluating its rehabilitation efficacy has been established, and relevant literature remains limited. To facilitate the clinical translation of bidirectional closed-loop MI-BCI, this article first introduced its fundamental principles, reviewed the rehabilitation training cycle and methods for evaluating rehabilitation efficacy, and summarized approaches for evaluating system usability, user satisfaction and usage. Finally, the challenges associated with evaluating the rehabilitation efficacy of bidirectional closed-loop MI-BCI were discussed, aiming to promote its broader adoption and standardization in clinical practice.
Motor imagery (MI) is an important paradigm of driving brain computer interface (BCI). However, MI is not easy to control or acquire, and the performance of MI-BCI depends heavily on the performance of the subjects’ MI. Therefore, the correct execution of MI mental activities, ability evaluation and improvement methods play important and even critical roles in the improvement and application of MI-BCI system’s performance. However, in the research and development of MI-BCI, the existing researches mainly focus on the decoding algorithm of MI, but do not pay enough attention to the above three aspects of MI mental activities. In this paper, these problems of MI-BCI are discussed in detail, and it is pointed out that the subjects tend to use visual motor imagery as kinesthetic motor imagery. In the future, we need to develop some objective, quantitatively visualized MI ability evaluation methods, and develop some effective and less time-consumption training methods to improve MI ability. It is also necessary to solve the differences and commonness of MI problems between and within individuals and MI-BCI illiteracy to a certain extent.
