ObjectiveBased on the clinical data of patients with foot and ankle deformities in the QIN Sihe Orthopaedic Surgery Database, to analyze the characteristics and treatment strategies of foot and ankle deformities, and provide a basis for clinical decision-making. Methods A total of 22 062 patients with foot and ankle deformities who received orthopedic surgery between May 25, 1978 and December 31, 2020 were searched in the QIN Sihe Orthopedic Surgery Database. The gender, age at operation, regional distribution, etiology, type of deformity, operation method, postoperative fixation method, and other information were collected. Results Among the 22 062 patients, there were 13 046 males (59.13%) and 9 016 females (40.87%); the age at operation ranged from 1 to 77 years, with a median of 17 years, and 20 026 cases (90.77%) were aged 5 to 40 years. The patients came from 32 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the China and 5 countries including India and the United States, et al. The etiology and diseases type covered 154 kinds (of which sequelae of poliomyelitis, cerebral palsy, spina bifida and tethered spinal cord, congenital equinovarus foot, post-traumatic foot and ankle deformity, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease accounted for the highest proportion). The types of deformities included varus foot, equinus foot, valgus foot, talipes calcaneus, equinocavus, high arched foot, claw toe, and flail foot. Surgical methods included tendon lengthening, soft tissue release, tendon transposition, osteotomy orthopedics, and ankle arthrodesis. The 36 620 operations were performed, including 11 561 cases of hip, knee, and lower leg operations to correct the foot and ankle deformities. Postoperative fixation methods included Ilizarov external fixator in 2 709 cases (12.28%), combined external fixator in 3 966 cases (17.98%), and plaster or brace fixation in 15 387 cases (69.74%). ConclusionMale patients with foot and ankle deformities account for a large proportion, and the population distribution is mainly adolescents, with a wide distribution of regions, causes and diseases, and talipes equinovarus and varus foot are the main types of deformities. Foot and ankle deformities are often combined with deformities of other parts of the lower limb, which requires a holistic treatment concept. The application of foot soft tissue and bone surgery combined with Ilizarov external fixator and combined external fixators provides a guarantee for the correction of complex foot and ankle deformities.
In computer-aided medical diagnosis, obtaining labeled medical image data is expensive, while there is a high demand for model interpretability. However, most deep learning models currently require a large amount of data and lack interpretability. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel data augmentation method for medical image segmentation. The uniqueness and advantages of this method lie in the utilization of gradient-weighted class activation mapping to extract data efficient features, which are then fused with the original image. Subsequently, a new channel weight feature extractor is constructed to learn the weights between different channels. This approach achieves non-destructive data augmentation effects, enhancing the model's performance, data efficiency, and interpretability. Applying the method of this paper to the Hyper-Kvasir dataset, the intersection over union (IoU) and Dice of the U-net were improved, respectively; and on the ISIC-Archive dataset, the IoU and Dice of the DeepLabV3+ were also improved respectively. Furthermore, even when the training data is reduced to 70 %, the proposed method can still achieve performance that is 95 % of that achieved with the entire dataset, indicating its good data efficiency. Moreover, the data-efficient features used in the method have interpretable information built-in, which enhances the interpretability of the model. The method has excellent universality, is plug-and-play, applicable to various segmentation methods, and does not require modification of the network structure, thus it is easy to integrate into existing medical image segmentation method, enhancing the convenience of future research and applications.
As an important auxiliary means of pharmacoeconomics evaluation, budget impact analysis can effectively measure the affordability of medical insurance fund, and plays a significant role in the process of medical insurance access negotiation, adjustment of medical insurance reimbursement directory and establishment of payment price. The quality of budget impact analysis data has a great impact on the analysis results and the scientific decision-making. When the existing data cannot meet the requirements of the paper, relevant software is needed to carry out Delphi method to ensure the data accuracy. Infopoll is a powerful, easy-to-use application that designs consultation questionnaires by providing multiple question choices and multiple forms of answer settings, as well as detailed statistical charts for results analysis. This paper introduces how to obtain the data of budget impact analysis based on Delphi method using Infopoll software, and analyzes the main results in detail.
ObjectiveTo explore the influencing factors of cancer-specific survival of patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma, and draw a nomogram to predict the cancer-specific survival rate of large hepatocellular carcinoma patients.MethodsThe clinicopathological data of patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma during the period from 1975 to 2017 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database were searched and randomly divided into training group and validation group at 1∶1. Using the training data, the Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to explore the influencing factors of cancer-specific survival and construct the nomogram; finally, the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) and the calibration curve were drawn to verify the nomogram internally and externally.ResultsThe results of the multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model showed that the degree of liver cirrhosis, tumor differentiation, tumor diameter, T stage, M stage, surgery, and chemotherapy were independent influencing factors that affect the specific survival of patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma (P<0.05), and then these factors were enrolled into the nomogram of the prediction model. The areas under the 1, 3, and 5-year curves of the training group were 0.800, 0.827, and 0.814, respectively; the areas under the 1, 3, and 5-year curves of the validation group were 0.800, 0.824, and 0.801, respectively. The C index of the training group was 0.779, and the verification group was 0.777. The calibration curve of the training group and the verification group was close to the ideal curve of the actual situation.ConclusionThe nomogram of the prediction model drawn in this study can be used to predict the specific survival of patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma in the clinic.
ObjectiveTo understand the relation between the occupation and long-term prognosis of the patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) based on the Database from Colorectal Cancer (DACCA). MethodsThe selected updated DACCA database as of June 29, 2022 was used for this study. The included patients were assigned into intellectual occupations group (intellectual group) and manual occupations group (manual group) referring to relevant regulatory documents in China. The survival status of the intellectual group and the manual group was compared, and then were stratified by pTNM stage. ResultsA total of 1 974 patients were included from the DACCA database according to the selection criteria, 349 of whom in the intellectual group and 1 625 of whom in the manual group. The intellectual group had higher 5-year cumulative overall survival rate (92.1% vs. 84.5%, P<0.001) and disease-specific survival rate (92.1% vs. 85.8%, P=0.002), as well as higher 10-year cumulative overall survival rate (72.4% vs. 55.2%, P<0.001) and disease-specific survival rate (75.4% vs. 59.1%, P<0.001) compared to the manual group. The stratified analysis by pTNM stage found that, for the patients with pTNM Ⅲ stage, the 5- and 10-year cumulative overall survival rates of the intellectual group were higher than those of the manual group (94.0% vs. 82.3%, P<0.001; 67.1% vs. 43.7%, P=0.014), simultaneous the 5- and 10-year cumulative disease-specific survival rates were the same as the overall survival rate (94.0% vs. 83.5%, P=0.001; 69.5% vs. 47.9%, P=0.026). Furthermore for the the patients with pTNM Ⅱ stage , it was found that the the 10-year cumulative disease-specific survival rate of the intellectual group was higher than that of the manual group (93.5% vs. 78.7%, P=0.009).ConclusionsFrom the analysis results of this study, occupation might be related to long-term prognosis in CRC cancer patients. A general trend is that the long-term prognosis of patients with intellectual occupations might be better than that of patients with manual occupations, and this difference might be relatively marked in the patients with pTNM Ⅱ and Ⅲ stages, but it needs to be autious and objective.
ObjectiveBy mining data from the Database of Colorectal Cancer (DACCA) at West China Hospital of Sichuan University, this study aims to evaluate the relationship between nutritional risk screening (NRS) 2002 scores at initial diagnosis and long-term survival in patients. MethodsThe DACCA database version from November 24, 2023, was selected to compare the clinicopathological data of patients with NRS2002 scores <3 and ≥3, and to explore the impact of NRS2002 scores on survival. ResultsA total of 723 patients were screened, with 585 (80.9%) had NRS2002 scores <3 and 138 (19.1%) had NRS2002 scores ≥3. All 723 patients were followed up, with a follow-up period ranging from 1 to 78 months and a median follow-up time of 34 months. The median survival time for patients with NRS2002 scores <3 was 35 months, while it was 31 months for those with NRS scores ≥3. During the follow-up period, 589 patients (81.5%) survived, including 515 (71.2%) tumor-free survivors and 74 (10.2%) survivors with tumors. There were 134 deaths (18.5%), including 126 cancer-related deaths (17.4%) and 8 non-cancer-related deaths (1.1%). Multivariate logistic regression results showed that after controlling for 6 factors including age, radical surgery, adjuvant therapy, hypertension, differentation, and TNM staging, NRS2002 score was not a factor affecting the survival of colorectal cancer patients (RR=0.98, P=0.875). ConclusionNRS2002 score is not a predictive factor for the survival of colorectal cancer patients, possibly because although patients may have nutritional risks preoperatively, the long-term impact on survival is minimal following surgery and postoperative recovery.
In order to promote the openness, transparency and standardization of clinical trials, improve the scientific and reliability of results, and reserve the manpower, material, and financial resources in the process of clinical trials, this study constructed an integrated intelligent management platform for clinical trials, which could carry out various types of clinical trials such as randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, and cross-sectional studies simultaneously. The platform covers the whole process of scheme design, recruitment, follow-up, data analysis, and quality control. This paper mainly introduced the practical needs, design concept, basic framework and technical highlights to provide auxiliary tools for promoting the standardization and intelligence of clinical trials with energy saving and optimal efficiency.
With the increasing improvement of real-world evidence as a research system and guideline specification for pre-market registration and post-market regulatory decision support of clinically urgent drug and mechanical products, identifying an approach to ensure the high quality and standards of real-world data and establishing a basis for the generation of real-world evidence is receiving increasing attention and concern from regulatory authorities. Based on the experience of Boao hope city real-world data research pattern and ophthalmic data platform construction, this paper discussed the "source data-database-evidence chain" generation process, data management, and data governance in real-world study from the special features and necessity of multiple sources and heterogeneity of data, multiple research designs, and standardized regulatory requirements, and provided references for further construction of comprehensive research data platforms in the future.
This paper mainly introduces the design, advantages, disadvantages and its application of single case of randomized controlled trials (N-of-1 trials), and also introduces the commonly used data analysis methods of N-of-1 trials including nonparametric test and parameter test methods (t-test, paired t-test, analysis of variance), mixed-effects model, and meta-analysis. N-of-1 trials are suitable for individualized treatment, and could be expected to be widely used in the research of modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine.
In order to fully explore the neural oscillatory coupling characteristics of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), this paper analyzed and compared the strength of the coupling characteristics for 28 MCI patients and 21 normal subjects under six different-frequency combinations. The results showed that the difference in the global phase synchronization index of cross-frequency coupling under δ-θ rhythm combination was statistically significant in the MCI group compared with the normal control group (P = 0.025, d = 0.398). To further validate this coupling feature, this paper proposed an optimized convolutional neural network model that incorporated a time-frequency data enhancement module and batch normalization layers to prevent overfitting while enhancing the robustness of the model. Based on this optimized model, with the phase locking value matrix of δ-θ rhythm combination as the single input feature, the diagnostic accuracy of MCI patients was (95.49 ± 4.15)%, sensitivity and specificity were (93.71 ± 7.21)% and (97.50 ± 5.34)%, respectively. The results showed that the characteristics of the phase locking value matrix under the combination of δ-θ rhythms can adequately reflect the cognitive status of MCI patients, which is helpful to assist the diagnosis of MCI.
