OBJECTIVETo investigate the predictive value of HCV RNA in PBMC of patients with chronic hepatitis C to IFN treatment.

METHODSThe HCV RNAs in PBMC were detected at the end of treatment, and 24 week and 1 year follow up after end treatment, in 16 patients who acquired complete response to IFN in 12 weeks of 24 weeks therapy.

RESULTS9 patients were HCV RNA positive in their PBMC at the end of treatment, the serum HCV RNA of 8 turned positive after 24 weeks and 1 year follow-up. In 7 patients with negative HCV RNA in PBMC, only two patients relapsed in serum HCV RNA after 1 year follow-up, and others remained viral response after 3.5 years.

CONCLUSIONHCV RNA in PBMC at the end of treatment was a predictor of the durable response to antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis C.

Adult ; Female ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; drug therapy ; virology ; Humans ; Interferon-alpha ; therapeutic use ; Leukocytes, Mononuclear ; virology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; RNA, Viral ; blood ; Recombinant Proteins

OBJECTIVETo investigate surgical outcomes of strip nail internal fixation with bone graft in treating tibial plateau fracture.

METHODSFrom May 2012 to May 2014,36 patients with tibial plateau fracture were retrospectively analyzed, including 25 males and 11 females with an average age of 43.5 (ranged from 17 to 65) years old. The time from injury to operation ranged from 3 to 10 days with an average of 5.8 days. All patients were treated with L-shaped and T-shaped strip nail internal fixation with bone graft. It was evaluated by the Knee Functional therapy assessment method of the Special Surgical Hospital of American at final following-up. Varus angle, caster angle and femorotibial angle were recorded and compared at 3 days and 1 year.

RESULTSOperative time was (2.2 ± 0.6) h on average, blood loss was (310.5 ± 36.2) ml on average, hospital stay was (14.8 ± 2.7) days on average. Thirty-six patients were followed up from 12 to 30 months with an average of 18.2 months. Fracture healing time ranged from 4 to 8 months with an average of 6.2 months. The difference is not significant among varus angle, caster angle and femorotibial angle at 3 days and 1 year. According to the knee functional therapy assessment method of the Specialized Surgical Hospital of American, 18 cases got excellent results, 13 good, 4 moderate and 1 poor.

CONCLUSIONStrip nail internal fixation with bone graft for the treatment of tibial plateau fracture could effectively prevent the joint surface from secondary collapse, and achieve anatomic reduction, stable fixation and earlier functional exercise in further to get satisfied clinical effects.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Bone Nails ; Bone Transplantation ; Female ; Fracture Fixation, Internal ; methods ; Fracture Healing ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Tibial Fractures ; physiopathology ; surgery

Objective To investigate the antitumor therapeutic effect of combined therapy of magnetic induction heating by nano-magnetic particles, herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene(HSV-tk suicide gene) and internal radiation in mice bearing MCF-7 breast carcinoma. Methods The transfection reagents, plasmids heat shock protein-HSV-tk (pHSP-HSV-tk), ferroso-ferric oxide nano-magnetic fluid flow and 188Re-ganciclovir-bovine serum albumin-nanopaticles (GCV-BSA-NP) were prepared. The heating experiments in vivo were carried out using ferroso-ferric oxide nano-magnetic fluid flow. Sixty mice tumor models bearing MCF-7 breast carcinoma were established and randomly divided into six groups. Group A was the control group, B was gene transfection therapy group, C was hyperthermia group, D was gene transfection therapy combined with radionuclide brachytherapy group, E was gene therapy combined with hyperthermia group, and F was gene therapy, hyperthermia combined with radionuclide brachytherapy group. The tumor growth, tumor mass and histopathological changes were evaluated. The expression of HSV-tk in the groups of B, D, E and F was detected by RT-PCR. Poisson distribution and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for statistical analysis by SPSS 10.0 software. Results In the animal heating experiments, the temperature of tumor increased up to 39.6 ℃, 43.2 ℃, and 48.1 ℃ quickly with different injected doses (2, 4 and 6 mg respectively) of nano-magnetic particles and maintained for 40 min. The temperature of tumor tissue reduced to 36.8 ℃, 37.5 ℃ and 37.8 ℃ in 10 min when alternating magnetic field (AMF) stopped. The tumor mass in Groups C ((452.50 ±30.29) mg), D ((240.98 ±35.32)mg), E((231.87 ±27.41) mg) and F ((141.55 ±23.78) mg) were much lower than that in Group A ((719.12±22.65) mg) (F=800.07, P＜0. 01), with the most significant treatment effect in Group F.The tumor mass in Group B((684.05 ±24.02) mg) was higher than that in Group D (t =32. 805, P ＜0. 05). Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of HSV-tk in Groups B and D (0.33 ±0. 13 and 0. 46 ±0.12) was significantly different from that in Groups E and F (0.66 ±0.13 and 0.74 ±0. 11)(F = 21. 573, P ＜ 0.05). Conclusion Combined use of hyperthermia, gene therapy and radionuclide brachytherapy could effectively depress the growth of MCF-7 breast carcinoma, thus possessing treatment potential for this tumor.

Drug Therapy, Combination ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; blood ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Lamivudine ; administration & dosage ; Thymus Hormones ; administration & dosage ; Vidarabine Phosphate ; administration & dosage

OBJECTIVETo investigate the influence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) serotype on the interferon (IFN) treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C.

METHODSNinety-eight patients with chronic hepatitis C were divided into two groups: patients in group 1 (n=53) were treated with Pegasys, 180 ug injected subcutaneously once a week for 24 weeks, and those in group 2 (n=45) were injected with Roferon-A 3 MU three times a week for 24 weeks and then patients in both groups were followed up for another 24 weeks. The virological response at the end of follow up was the primary endpoint for evaluating the effects of IFN treatment. The HCV RNA levels of the chronic hepatitis C patients were determined with COBAS AMPLICOR MONITOR Test, version 2.0, and the HCV serotypes were examined by the means of ELISA using Murex HCV Serotyping 1-6 Assay.

RESULTSOf the 98 cases, HCV in 44 cases was serotype 1, in 23 was serotype 2, in 10 was serotype 3, in 1 was serotype 4, 1 was serotype 5 and in 2 was serotype 6; HCV serotypes in the remaining 17 patients could not determined. In Pegasys treatment group, the biochemical and virological response was not significantly different at the end of treatment between the patients with serotype 1 and non serotype 1 or serotype undetermined patients, but the sustained virological response rate of HCV serotype undetermined group (66.7 percent) was significantly higher than that of serotype 1 patients (27.3 percent) (p=0.035). In Roferon-A treatment group, the virological response rate at 24 weeks and sustained viral response rate at the end of follow-up was not significantly different between serotype 1 and non serotype 1 patients or serotype undetermined patients.

CONCLUSIONAfter the six months treatment course, the HCV serotype had some effects on the treatment response to Pegasys treatment for chronic hepatitic C.

Adult ; Antiviral Agents ; administration & dosage ; Drug Administration Schedule ; Female ; Hepacivirus ; drug effects ; immunology ; Hepatitis C Antibodies ; blood ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; drug therapy ; immunology ; Humans ; Interferons ; administration & dosage ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the significance of detecting specific serum IgG antibodies in clinical diagnosis of SARS as well as affecting factors.

METHODSEnzyme-linked immunoassay kit for SARS coronavirus antibodies developed by HuaDa Biological Company was applied to detect specific serum IgG from SARS patients and the production of SARS specific antibodies among patients of different age groups, sex and with or without steroid treatment were statistically compared.

RESULTSOut of 121 patients studied, 71.1% were SARS specific IgG positive. Patients younger than 15 years, between 15 to 59 years, older than 59 years had positive rates of 60.0%, 70.2%, and 85.7%, respectively with no statistically significance (P=0.766); patients with or without steroid treatment showed positive rates of 70.6% and 72.4%, respectively (P=0.84); patients exhibiting either severe or light syndromes showed positive rates of 78.1% and 67.4%, respectively (P=0.493); both male and female patients showed the same positive rate of 71.1%.

CONCLUSIONThe sensitivity of the SARS specific IgG kit utilized needs to be further improved. The production of SARS IgG is not notably correlated with sex, age, seriousness of symptoms, and steroid treatment.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Antibodies, Viral ; blood ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; immunology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; SARS Virus ; immunology ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; diagnosis ; immunology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression and distribution of intrahepatic CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells in immuno-tolerant and immuno-clearance phase of patients with chronic hepatitis B.

METHODSThe expression of FoxP3 was detected in 19 cases of immuno-tolerant phase and 12 cases of immuno-clearance phase by immunohistochemistry. The relation between the intrahepatic expression of FoxP3 and the clinicopathological features were analyzed.

RESULTSThe positive signal of FoxP3 is located in nuclear of lymphocyte and mainly aggregated in portal areas as well as occasionally scattered in hepatic sinusoids. The expression of intrahepatic FoxP3 in the group of immuno-tolerant phase was significantly increased than those in normal control (P < 0.01), and greatly decreased than those in immuno-clearance phase (P < 0.01). No correlation was observed among the expression of intrahepatic FoxP3, ALT, levels of HBV DNA, HBeAg positive, in patients of immuno-clearance phase, respectively. There were significant differences between immuno-tolerant phase and immuno-clearance phase age, ALT, TBIL, PTA, HBV-DNA and detection of HBeAg but not in sex and family history of HBV infection.

CONCLUSIONCD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells may play important roles in the clearance of HBV as well as in liver inflammation and injury during chronic HBV infection.

Adolescent ; Adult ; CD4 Antigens ; immunology ; Female ; Forkhead Transcription Factors ; genetics ; immunology ; Gene Expression ; Hepatitis B virus ; immunology ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; genetics ; immunology ; virology ; Humans ; Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit ; immunology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory ; immunology ; Young Adult

Adult ; Aged ; Biopsy, Needle ; Female ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; Liver ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Liver Cirrhosis ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Spectrometry, Fluorescence ; methods

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship of hepatitis C virus (HCV) serotype with genotype.

METHODSThe serotypes of HCV in the serum of 104 patients with chronic hepatitis C from 14 cities in China for which HCV genotypes were available, were determined by ELISA using Murex HCV Serotyping 1-6 Assay.

RESULTSThe serotypes of 86 (82.69 percent) of the 104 serum specimens were determined, and HCV serotypes were determined for 91 strains. Overall the concordance between hepatitis C virus serotype and genotype was 62.1 percent, and the concordance of serotype, with genotypes 1, 2 and 3 were 69.4 percent, 51.2 percent and 70.0 percent, respectively. The false-negative rate and concordance of genotype 2b was lower (54.5 percent).

CONCLUSIONThe specificity of HCV serotyping was affected by HCV strains' genotype and sometimes HCV serotype was not in concordance with genotype.

Genotype ; Hepacivirus ; classification ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; virology ; Humans ; Serotyping

OBJECTIVETo investigate the HCV genotypes distribution in northern and southern cities in China and the difference between patients infected with HCV by transfusion and non-transfusion routes.

METHODSThe HCV genotypes of the patients with chronic hepatitis C from 9 cities belonging to different regions were genotyped by the PCR products of 5 prime untranslated region NTR digested with restriction endonucleases, and the HCV genotypes distribution among different cities or between the patients infected with HCV through transfusion and other routes was analyzed.

RESULTSThe HCV genotypes of 214 in 219 cases were determined; 197 patients were infected with monogenotype HCV. The major epidemic genotypes of HCV isolates in China were 1b (76.64%) and 2a (18.22%), but 5.14% of patients were infected with HCV belonging to genotype 3b and this was the first report that there is genotype 4a in China. The HCV genotype distribution was not different in northern and southern areas, but was significantly different between patients infected with HCV through transfusion and non-transfusion routes (P=0.036). In patients infected trough transfusion, the rates of monogenotype HCV infection and genotype 1b were 93.88% and 76.87%, respectively, which were higher than those (86.57% and 58.21%) in the patients infected with HCV through non-transfusion routes. The rate of patient infected with mixed genotype HCV strains in non-transfusion group was 13.43%, which was higher than that (6.12%) of patients in transfusion group.

CONCLUSIONThe HCV genotype distribution in northern and southern regions were similar, but was significantly different between the patients infected through transfusion and other routes.

5' Untranslated Regions ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; China ; Female ; Genotype ; Hepacivirus ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; etiology ; genetics ; transmission ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Transfusion Reaction