In vitro hemolysis testing for blood pumps currently faces several challenges, including randomness in control group selection, and numerous sources of uncertainty in the testing methods. These issues lead to high uncertainty, insufficient result credibility, and limited comparability, which hinders the effective evaluation of blood damage induced by blood pumps. This study aims to address these limitations by developing a magnetically-levitated blood pump benchmark model and optimizing the hemolysis testing protocol to reduce result uncertainty. A magnetic bearing was utilized to minimize blood damage, and the injection molding was employed to enhance the machining precision of the pump. The experimental procedures, including blood collection, test loop setup, and the testing process, were optimized to effectively control experimental uncertainty. The results showed that the performance curve of the benchmark pump model was flat, and the coefficient of variation for the hydraulic experimental results was less than 5%. The secondary flow path exhibited good blood washout with no thrombus formation. Under low-flow condition, the average normalized index of hemolysis (NIH) was 0.014 g/100L, with a coefficient of variation of 19.50%. Under high-flow condition, the average NIH was 0.045 g/100L, with a coefficient of variation of 16.45%. The hemolysis values under both conditions were lower than the Abbott CentriMag. In conclusion, we designed a benchmark blood pump model with excellent hemocompatibility and optimized hemolysis testing protocol, which led to low uncertainty in experimental results. The benchmark and optimized hemolysis protocol help to improve the credibility and comparability of in vitro hemolysis testing data, providing a reliable solution for both the industry and regulatory agencies to assess hemocompatibility.
Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effects of percutaneous microwave ablation (MWA) for metastatic liver cancer. Methods Ultrasound-guided percutaneous MWA technique was used to treat 27 cases of hepatic metastases with 69 nodules 〔0.9-13.2 (3.0±2.0) cm in diameter〕. Local therapeutic effect, local and distant recurrence rate and survival rate were evaluated respectively. Results The complete ablation (CA) rate which was used to evaluate the local therapeutic effects was 92.8% (64/69), with 100% (34/34), 92.3%(24/26) and 66.7% (6/9) in a diameter of nodules lt;3.0 cm, 3.0-5.0 cm and ≥5.0 cm respectively. The CA rate was lower in the group of a diameter of nodules ≥5.0 cm as compared with other two groups (Plt;0.05). The local recurrence rate was 9.4% (6/64), with 2.9% (1/34), 16.7% (4/24) and 16.7% (1/6) in a diameter of nodules lt;3.0 cm, 3.0-5.0 cm and ≥5.0 cm respectively. The intrahepatic distant recurrence rate was 44.4% (12/27). The follow-up time after MWA was 3－34 (17.0±8.7) months. During the follow-up period, 6 months, 1 and 2-year cumulative survival rate was 88.9%, 63.0% and 34.4% respectively, with a mean survival time of 17.8 months, and with a median survival time of 19.0 months.Conclusion Percutaneous MWA treatment offers satisfactory local tumoricidal efficacy to metastatic liver cancer and the patients with recurrence and new metastases can be therapy repeatedly to improve long-term survival.
Objective
To summarize manifestation, imaging characteristics, and treatment of hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH).
Methods
From January 2007 to December 2016, the patients pathologically confirmed hepatic FNH were included in this study. The clinical features and imaging characteristics were analyzed retrospectively.
Results
Twenty-two cases were pathologically diagnosed as hepatic FNH with an age of (36.8±11.2) years (range from 20 to 61 years). Ten were males and 12 were females. Three patients had abdominal pain and 19 patients had no symptoms. The diameter of the lesions was (4.16±1.92) cm (range from 1.0 to 7.8 cm) and approximately 9 (40.9%) lesions were more than 5.0 cm. The diagnosis rates of CT and MRI were 64.70% (11/17) and 84.21% (16/19), respectively. All the patients underwent hepatectomy successfully and recovered without severe complications. No recurrence and metastasis happened during following-up of 1–103 months.
Conclusions
Hepatic FNH is more common in young patients and has no typical symptoms. MRI is useful in diagnosis of hepatic FNH.
