Objective　To study the diagnostic value of pleural fluid telomerase activity in distinguishing a malignant from a benign pleural effusion. Methods　Using a PCR-based assay, telomerase activity was examined in the pleural fluid cells obstained from 69 patients with pleural effusions (37 malignant, 32 benign). Results were compared with cytologic evaluation and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Results　Of the 37 malignant specimens，26（70.27%）contained detectable telomerase activity. The positive rate in malignant pleural effusions was significantly higher than that in benign origin (2/32). Detection of telomerase in effusions was more sensitive than CEA level evaluation for the identification of pleural malignancy (telomerase assay: sensitivity=70.27%, specificity=93.75%; CEA: sensitivity=51.35%, specificity=96.87%). The consistant rate of telomerase with cytology was 54.05%. Conclusion　The detection of telomerase activity may be a useful adjunct to cytopathologic methods in the diagnosis of malignant pleural effusions. It may be useful in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant pleural effusions.

Objective:To investigate the influence of concanavalin A(Con A) pretreatment on the development of the fulminant murine hepatitis induced by an adequate dose of Con A.Methods:An adequate dose of Con A(15 ?g/g.body.wt) was injected intravenously into C57BL/6 mice to provoke severe liver damage,an extensively-used murine hepatitis model.A low dose of Con A(3 ?g/g.body.wt) was administrated intravenously 12 h before injection with an adequate dose of Con A.Liver injury was evaluated by serum transaminase assay and H&E staining.Hepatic lymphocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry and the absolute amount of lymphocytes per liver was calculated.Results:Pretreatment with a low dose of Con A significantly inhibited Con A-induced liver injury.Both the percentage and the absolute number of liver CD3~+T cells in Con A-pretreated mice were lower than those of PBS-pretreated mice.The activation of liver CD3~+T cells in Con A-pretreated mice was also prominently inhibited.Conclusion:Con A pretreatment exerted the negative effect on the development of Con A-induced hepatitis,which may be result from the decreased recruitment of T cells into the liver.The underlying mechanisms are under investigation.

Objective To summarize the experience of modified mini-cholecystectomy. Methods A total of 128 patients underwent mini-cholecystectomy by using a modified Bookwalter retractor, a self-made deep-site tying tool and an L-shape electrotome from September 1998 to June 2003. Results That the length of incision ≤ 6 cm was regarded as a surgical success. Out of the 128 patients, the surgical success was achieved in 110 patients (85 9%). Conclusions In mini-cholecystectomy, the use of the modified Bookwalter retractor greatly improves the visualization of operation field, and the use of the self-made tying tool facilitates deep-site manual knot tying.

Objective To investigate the myocardial protective effect of adenosine preconditioning against ischemia-reperfusion injury in patients who were undergone valve replacement during cardiac pulmonary bypass.Methods 42 patients scheduling for valve replacement operation were divided randomly into two groups:experiment group(n=23) and control group(n=19).Adenosine preconditioning were performed in experiment group before cardiac pulmonary bypass.To estimate the plasma level of cardiotroponin I (cTnI),creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB ),radialis arterial blood was drown at following time points respectively: before operation,30 minutes before and after aortic clamp,1 hour and 3 hours after aortic opened.Meanwhile the rate of heart spontaneous rebeating,defibrillation,arrhythmia and cardiac inotropic agents used and its duration were recorded.Results The elevated range of plasm cTnI and CK-MB in experiment group were obviously lower than that in control group.In experiment group,the rate of heart spontaneous rebeating were higher,but the frequency of defibrillation,arrhythmia and the cardiac inotropic agents used and its duration were lower than those of control group.Conclusion Adenosine preconditioning has notable clinical protective effects on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in patients undergone valve replacement during cardiac pulmonary bypass.

Electric and electronic products are required to pass through the certification on electrical safety performance before entering into the market in order to reduce electrical shock and electrical fire so as to protect the safety of people and property. The leakage current is the most important factor in testing the electrical safety performance and the test theory is based on the perception current effect and threshold. The traditional method testing the current threshold for perception only depends on the sensing of the human body and is affected by psychological factors. Some authors filter the effect of subjective sensation by using physiological and psychological statistical algorithm in recent years and the reliability and consistency of the experiment data are improved. We established an experiment system of testing the human hody's current threshold for perception based on EEG feature analysis, and obtained 967 groups of data. We used wavelet packet analysis to detect a wave from EEG, and used FFT to do spectral analysis on alpha wave before and after the current flew through the human body. The study has shown that about 97.72% alpha wave energy changes significantly when electrical stimulation occurs. It is well proved that when the EEG feature identification is applied to test the human body current threshold for perception, and meanwhile alpha wave energy change and human body sensing are used together to confirm if the current flowing through the human body reaches the perception threshold, the measurement of the human body current threshold for perception could be carried out objectively and accurately.
Algorithms ; Electric Stimulation ; Electroencephalography ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensory Thresholds ; physiology ; Wavelet Analysis

Objective To explore the influence of salinomycin in the growth, apoptosis and invasion of human bladder cancer 5637 cells,and to clarify its possible mechanism.Methods The human bladder cancer 5637 cells cultured invitro at logarithmic growth phase were divided into control group and different doses of salinomycin(15, 30 and 60μmol·L-1 )groups.The inhibitory rate of the growth of 5637 cells in various groups was measured by MTT assay. Flow cytometry was used to detect the apoptotic rates of 5637 cells in various groups. The invasiveness of 5637 cells was tested by Matrigel Invasion Assay.The expression levels ofβ-catenin protein in 5637 cells in various groups were determined by Western blotting method. Results Compared with control group,the inhibitory rates of growth of human bladder cancer 5637 cells in different doses of salinomycin groups were increased significantly(P<0.05);the apoptotic rates were increased(P<0.05).the number of cells passed the Matrigel was decreased(P<0.05),and the expression level ofβ-catenin protein was decreased (P<0.05).Compared with low dose of salinomycin group,the inhibitory rate of growth of 5637 cells in high dose of salinomycin group was increased(P<0.05);the apoptotic rate was increased(P<0.05),the number of cells passed the Matrigel was decreased (P < 0.05 ), and the expression levels of β-catenin protein was decreased (P<0.05). Conclusion Salinomycin can inhibit the growth of 5637 cells significantly,increase the apoptosis,and decrease the cell invasion;the inhibitory effect may act by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

Objective To investigate the correlation between acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ (APACHEⅡ) scores and delirium probability of senile severe pneumonia patients undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation (MV).Methods A retrospective study was conducted. Eighty-nine senile severe pneumonia patients undergoing invasive MV admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) of Hunan Provincial People's Hospital from January 2015 to March 2017 were enrolled. APACHE Ⅱ scores were collected 24 hours before invasive MV. Consciousness assessment method-ICU (CAM-ICU) was used to diagnose delirium, and the patients were divided into delirium group and non-delirium group. The first delirium occurrence time, duration of MV and the length of ICU stay were recorded. The patients were divided into ≤15, 16-20, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35, 36-40 groups according to APACHEⅡ score, and the incidence of delirium in all groups were observed. The linear regression and Pearson correlation were used to analyze the correlation between APACHE Ⅱ scores and delirium probability. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to analyze the predictive effect of APACHEⅡ score on delirium.Results Eighty-nine patients were enrolled in the final analysis, of which 35 had delirium, and 54 had no delirium, with delirium incidence of 39.33%, and the first delirium occurrence time of (1.85±1.30) days. The duration of MV and the length of ICU stay of delirium group were significantly higher than those of non-delirium group [duration of MV (days): 9.43±4.77 vs. 6.08±3.30, length of ICU stay (days): 14.60±6.59 vs. 9.69±4.61, bothP < 0.01]. The APACHE Ⅱ score in delirium group was significantly higher than that in non-delirium group (29.89±5.45 vs. 21.48±4.76,P < 0.01). With the increase in APACHE Ⅱ scores, the delirium incidence was gradually increased. Correlation analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between APACHE Ⅱ scores and first delirium occurrence time (r = -0.411,P = 0.014), and a significant linear positive correlation between APACHE Ⅱ scores and delirium incidence in all patients was found (r = 0.982, P = 0.000), which indicated the higher APACHE Ⅱ scores, the higher delirium incidences and the earlier first delirium occurrence time was. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under ROC curve (AUC) of APACHE Ⅱ scores on predicting delirium occurrence was 0.877, when the cut-off value of APACHE Ⅱ score was over 27, the sensitivity was 92.59%, the specificity was 71.43%, the positive predictive value was 83.33%, and the negative predictive value was 86.21%.Conclusions With the increase in APACHE Ⅱ score, the incidence of delirium was increased gradually in senile severe pneumonia patients receiving invasive MV. APACHE Ⅱ score played an important clinical value in evaluating the delirium probability of these patients

Objective To analyze the incidence and risk factors of contralateral radiculopathy in patients after unilateral transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) surgery.Methods A retrospective study was conducted within 587 patients (average age 57.1 years,range 19-71 years) who underwent unilateral TILF from January 2010 to January 2014 in our hospital,including 334 males and 253 females.Patients were divided into a symptomatic group and an asymptomatic group.The causes of contralateral neurological symptom were evaluated according to the radiological data.The difference of pre-and post-operative contralateral foramen area (CFA),segmental angle (SA) and the clinical treatment outcomes (VAS,JOA score) were compared between two groups.Results Patients were followed up for 9-21 months,average 15.1 months.Post-operative contralateral radiculopathy occurred in 28 (4.8％) of the patients who underwent unilateral TLIF,including contralateral foraminal stenosis in 16 (57.1％,16/28),screw malposition in 5 (17.9％,5/28),contralateral lateral recess stenosis and/or newly developed disc herniation in 3 (10.7％,3/28),hematoma in 1 (3.6％,1/28),cement compression in 1 (3.6％,1/28),and unknown origin in 2 patients (7.1％,2/28).Nineteen (3.2％,19/587) of the 28 patients received revision surgery because of ineffective conservative treatment.Compared with the asymptomatic group,the difference of pre-and post-operative CFA was significantly smaller (-13.8±13.2 mm2) in symptomatic group,while the SA was significantly greater (7.0°±9.8°) in symptomatic group.The JOA score at 3 months after the surgery was significantly improved in asymptomatic group (63.0％±18.1％,P＜0.05).Conclusion The incidence rate of contralateral neurological symptom was 4.8％ in the present study.The potential risk factors associated with contralateral radiculopathy were predominantly contralateral foraminal stenosis and screw malposition.The excessive restoration of SA might have an effect on contralateral nerve compression,which should arouse the attention of the surgeon.

Objective To explore the clinical correlation of the variation of plasma homocysteine (HCY), melatonin (MLT) and ulceative colitis (UC). Methods The clinical data of 112 UC patients was collected, and 110 normal healthy persons as control. The level of plasma HCY and MLT was detected by high pressure liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (HPLC-FD) method. The level of plasma folate ( FA) and vitamin B12 was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. The correlation of these four indexes and UC was analyzed. Results The serum level of HCY in UC patients was significantly higher than that in normal healthy persons [(11. 27± 7.26) μmol/L vs (8. 19±4. 81) μmol/L, P = 0. 000]. The serum level of MLT in UC patients was significantly lower than that in normal healthy persons [(49. 06 + 31. 40) pg/ml vs (64. 28±41. 16) pg/ml,P=0. 008]. The serum level of FA in UC patients was significantly lower than that in normal healthy persons [(7. 64 + 1.95) nmol/L vs (9. 14 + 1.23) nmol/L, P = 0. 005]. The serum level of vitamin B12 in UC patients was significantly lower than that in normal healthy persons [(108. 64 ±32. 22) pmol/L vs (112. 64±33. 33) pmol/L, P = 0. 004]. There was no correlation between plasma HCY, MLT and UC disease activity degree, range, disease duration, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), or C reactive protein (CRP) in UC patients. There was no significant correlation between MLT and HCY in UC patients. Conclusions The serum level of HCY is higher in UC patients than that in normal control, and MLT is lower than that in normal control. However there is no significant correlation between them.