Objective: To review the pathological characteristics of the lungs in mitral stenosis with pulmonary hypertension, and provide evidence for clinical treatment. Methods: Pulmonary pathological changes in 37 patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis and secondary pulmonary hypertension received mitral valve replacement. Six patients of aortic valve disease without pulmonary hypertension received aortic valve replacement and were taken as control. The lung biopsies were obtained from the middle lobe of the right lung in operation. Pulmonary muscular arteries were studied quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: All patients with mitral stenosis showed various degrees of vascular and other associated parenchymal changes. The structural changes in the muscular arteries was graded according to the degree of MT/R. There was 81% of patients with mitral stenosis in mild to moderate degree. Conclusion: The pulmonary vascular pathological changes of patients who have rheumatic mitral stenosis with pulmonary hypertension are related to the level of preoperative pulmonary artery pressure. And in most of them the pulmonary vascular pathological changes are in mild to moderate degree.

The effect of high-dose glucocorticoid (GC) on plasma phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity, extravascular lung water (EVLW) and lung pathology during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) was studied on the CPB model in rabbits. The results showed that both plasma PLA2 activities and EVLW increased significantly during CPB, and there was a significant correlation between EVLW and plasma PLA2 activities at 90 min of CPB (r = 0. 8439, P

The relation between left atrial (LA) size and myocardial pathological changes, and clinical implications were studied in 25 patients with- rheumatic mitral stenosis. The results showed that LA size was significantly correlated with pathological severity of myocardium (P 100 ml/m2 and accompanied by moderate or severe pathological changes easily suffered from Af (P200ml/m2 and severe pathological changes. The results suggest that occurence of Af may be predicated based on the LA volume and Af cardioversion should be selectively performed to obtain better results.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the potential role of intestinal bifidobacteria in the pathogenesis of gut-origin bacteria/endotoxin translocation in scalded rats.

METHODSWistar rats inflicted with 30% III degree scalding on the back were employed as the model with the rats undergoing sham injury as the control. The intestinal bacteria/endotoxin translocation and the changes in cecal mucosal microflora were determined by routine methods. And the plasma IL-6 concentration was measured with ELISA.

RESULTSThe incident of bacterial translocation into internal organs increased markedly in scalded rats (P = 0.001). The plasma LPS levels on 1, 3 and 5 postburn days (PBDs) in scalded rat group were much higher than those in sham injury group. The number of bifidobacteria decreased sharply 20 - 250 fold, the fungi increased 5 - 60 fold and E. coli increased 0.5 - 30 fold in the caecal mucosal microflora in the scalding group. The ratio of bifidobacteria to E. coli in the scalding group (4 - 800:1) was much lower than that in the sham injury group (25000:1). Furthermore, the plasma IL-6 level increased evidently in the scalding group. It was indicated by further analysis that compared with the rats without bacterial translocation, the bifidobacteria decreased 120 fold, the fungal number increased 50 fold and the E. coli number increased 30 fold in the scalded rats. The bifidobacterial number in the caecal mucosal microflora was negatively correlated with the plasma concentrations of IL-6 and LPS (P < 0.01) in the scalding rat group, and the plasma concentration of IL-6 was significantly and positively correlated with that of LPS.

CONCLUSIONSevere scalding injury could lead to an the imbalance of intestinal microflora and the increased intestinal translocation of bacteria and LPS. The decrease of the ratio and number of bifidobacteria in the caecal mucosal microflora might be a contribute to the occurrence of postburn intestinal bacteria/endotoxin translocation.

Animals ; Bacterial Infections ; blood ; microbiology ; Bacterial Translocation ; physiology ; Bifidobacterium ; isolation & purification ; physiology ; Burns ; microbiology ; Colony Count, Microbial ; Escherichia coli ; isolation & purification ; physiology ; Female ; Interleukin-6 ; blood ; Intestines ; microbiology ; Kidney ; microbiology ; Lipopolysaccharides ; metabolism ; Liver ; microbiology ; Lymph Nodes ; microbiology ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Spleen ; microbiology ; Time Factors

Objective To study changes and significance of endothelin(ET) in rat cerebral concussion.Methods 80 Wistar male rats were used for animal model of cerebral concussion,which were sacrificed on 1,3,7,14 and 30 days after injury and the brain tissue were taken off. The expression of ET was studied in the course of cerebral concussion by means of immunohistochemistry.Results Typical clinical manifestation was observed in the 100 g group in which the pathological changes included cerebral vascular constriction and dilatation,congestion and edema of cerebral tissue,neuronal degeneration,necrosis,and obviously decreased even disappeared Nissl bodies.Increased expression of ET was observed on the first day,the positive area was seen in the plasma of endothelial cells in cerebral cortex,hippocampus,cerebellum and thalamus.ET expression peak occurred on the 7th day,the positive area was also found in the plasma of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum.Decreased ET expression was found on 14th day and returned to normal level on the 30th day.Conclusion The main pathological changes of cerebral concussion contained blood circulation disorder,and degeneration and necrosis of substantial cells.ET was involved in the brain tissue injury during the pathological process of cerebral concussion and might be related to regulation of cerebral vascular reaction,and neuron degeneration and necrosis.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of Matrine on apoptosis of fibroblasts and the expression of apoptotic modulation related protein in the hypertrophic scar.

METHODSHypertrophic scar was produced on the ear of 24 New Zealand white rabbits, which were employed as the model, and were randomly and equally divided into control (CC) and Matrine (M) groups (12 in each group). Matrine (50 g/L) was injected into the ear scar in M group and with normal saline in C group once every four days. At 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks after the injection, the apoptotic fibroblast count in the scar was determined by TUNEL method, and the expressions of apoptosis related modulation proteins p53, bcl-2, bax were detected by immunohistochemistry method.

RESULTSThe apoptotic fibroblast count was much larger in M group than that in C group at all test time points (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the bax expression was increased and that of p53 and bcl-2 was decreased significantly in M group. In adding, the scar became flat in M group.

CONCLUSIONMatrine might obviously enhance the fibroblast apoptosis in rabbit ear hypertrophic scar, and up-regulate the expression of apoptosis related modulation protein bax and down-regulate the expression of p53 and Bcl-2.

Alkaloids ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cicatrix, Hypertrophic ; metabolism ; pathology ; Female ; Fibroblasts ; drug effects ; Immunohistochemistry ; Male ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins ; analysis ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; analysis ; Quinolizines ; Rabbits ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 ; analysis ; bcl-2-Associated X Protein