Using virtual reality (VR)-based technology in motor rehabilitation for stroke patients is a new field. The researchers developed different kinds of VR-based training systems and used those existed. They found some possible variables that influenced outcome, including optic flow, different output device and feedback type that provided. The data from the stroke patients with hemiparesis in different stages demonstrated that training with VR-based training paradigms contributed in motor function and activities of daily living. Moreover, they also proved that training with VR-based training systems combined with robot and/or partial body weight-supported treadmill training was safe and effective. It also presented some evidences that supported VR-based technology in the neuroimaging studies. Overall, these studies had important clinical implications for the development of future VR training protocols.

Objective To investigate the effect of American cockroach extract on the expression of NF-κB andα-SMA in experi-mental liver fibrosis tissue,and to observe its antifibrotic efficacy.Methods The rat model of hepatic fibrosis was duplicated by car-bon tetrachloride and simultaneously given with American cockoach extract 0.5 g/kg by lavage.The level of serum alanine amin-otransferase enzyme (ALT),aspartate aminotransferase (AST)and albumin (Alb)were determined.The expression levels of NF-κB and a-SMA in liver tissue were determined by the immunohistochemical method and the liver histological changes were observed by light microscopy for conducting the grading of inflammatory activity and the fibrosis classification.Results American cockroach extract could reduce serum ALT,AST and liver tissue NF-κB andα-SMA levels.The serum Alb level had significant difference a-mong the APA group,Pseudo-ginseng Danshen group and the model group.The degeneration and necrosis of liver cells and the fi-brosis degree after medication were significantly reduced.Conclusion The American cockroach extract has certain anti-fibrosis effect,its mechanism may be related with the inhibition of expression of NF-κB andα-SMA.

Objective To investigate the effect of patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) with dexmedetomidine mixed with sufentanil on the sleep quality after spinal surgery.Methods Eighty patients of both sexes, aged 21-72 yr, weighing 48-100 kg, of American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status Ⅰ or Ⅱ , scheduled for elective spinal surgery, were randomly assigned into sufentanil group (group S) and dexmedetomidine mixed with sufentanil group (group DS) with 40 cases in each group.In group S, PCIA solution contained sufentanil 2 μg/kg and tropisetron 6 mg in 100 ml of normal saline.In group DS, PCIA solution contained sufentanil 2 μg/kg, dexmedetomidine 3 μg/kg and tropisetron 6 mg in 100 ml of normal saline.The PCA pump was set up with a 0.5 ml bolus dose, a 15 min lockout interval and background infusion at a rate of 2 ml/h.Sufentanil 5 μg injected intravenously and celecoxib 200 mg given orally were used as rescue analgesics, and numeric rating scale (NRS) score at rest was maintained ≤4 within 48 h after surgery.Ramsay sedation scores were recorded at 1, 2, 6, 12, 24 and 48 h after surgery.Sleep quality was evaluated using the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS-SS), and the average time of daily sleep and Sleep Problems Index (SPI) were recorded at week 1 before and after surgery.Patient's satisfaction with sleep was assessed on the night of surgery and 1st day after surgery.The requirement for rescue analgesics was recorded.Results There was no significant difference in the requirement for rescue analgesics between group S and group DS (P＞0.05).Compared with the value before surgery, the average time of daily sleep was significantly shortened, and SPI was increased at week 1 after surgery in group S (P＜0.05 or 0.01), and no significant change was found in group DS (P＞0.05).Compared with group S, the Ramsay sedation scores were significantly increased at 1, 2, and 6 h after surgery, the average time of daily sleep was prolonged at week 1 after surgery, the SPI was decreased at week 1 after surgery, and the degree of satisfaction with sleep was increased on 1st day after surgery in group DS (P＜0.05 or 0.01).Conclusion PCIA with dexmedetomidine mixed with sufentanil is helpful in improving the sleep quality after spinal surgery in the patients.

Objective:To investigate the inhibition control characteristics in college students with mobile phone addiction,then to design tactics to enhance their inhibition control ability.Methods:Totally 150 college students were surveyed with the Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI)to filter out the high and low mobile phone addiction.Thirty students with more than eight affirmative answers to the seventeen MPAI items were selected as the mobile phone addiction group while another 30 students with less than eight affirmative answers were selected as non addicts group of MPAI.All participants were asked to complete task of stop signal.Results:In college students with mobile phone addiction,the stop-signal reaction times were longer than that in the students without mobile phone addiction [(292.0 ±89.4)ms vs.(241.1 ±95.7)ms,P <0.05],while the non-signal reaction times were shorter than that in those without mobile phone addiction [(494.2 ±103.8)ms vs.(597.6 ±108.9 )ms,P<0.01].Conclusion:It suggests that the college students with mobile phone addiction may have poorer inhibitory control.

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of Huxinkang Pills in treating patients with unstable angina pectoris (UAP) and its effects on the tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). Methods Sixty patients with UAP were randomly divided into the treatment group and the control group, 30 cases in each group. Patients in the treatment group were treated with Huxinkang Pills based on the basic western medicine, while the patients in the control group were treated with Tongxinluo Capsules based on the basic western medicine. The treatment course was 4 weeks. Clinical efficacy and the change of the TNF-α and NT-proBNP levels before and after treatment were observed. Results The general efficacy, electrocardiograph efficacy, angina pectoris efficacy, TCM syndrome efficacy and glonoine reduction of the two groups had statistically difference (P<0.05) respectively, and the efficacy of the treatment group was superior to that of the control group (P<0.05). The TNF-α and NT-proBNP levels in both groups before and after treatment had statistically difference (P<0.05) respectively. The differences in TNF-α and NT-proBNP levels between both groups after treatment were all statistically significant (P<0.05), and these indexes of treatment group were superior to those of the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion Huxinkang Pills are remarkable in treating patients with UAP, and able to restrain the levels of TNF-α and NT-proBNP.

Objective To investigate the effect of cognitive intervention on language function and quality of life (QOL) in elderly patients with post-stroke aphasia.Methods Fifty-five elderly patients with post-stroke aphasia were randomly divided into the control group (n =27) and the experimental group (n=28).The control group received comprehensive treatment including speech-language therapy (SLT),while the experimental group was subjected to additional cognitive intervention.All patients were enrolled in an eight-week rehabilitation program.The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) was used to assess cognitive function,a device for diagnosis and treatment of language disorders,ZM 2.1,was used to evaluate language function,and the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) (Chinese version) was used to assess quality of life (QOL),before and after treatment.Results After treatment,MMSE scores,language function scores in all categories and QOL scores in all dimensions improved in both groups (P＜0.05 for both).Furthermore,after treatment,there were significant differences between the two groups in MMSE scores of orientation,recall,attention and calculation,and in scores of overall language ability and the individual categories (P＜0.05 for all).Scores of the experimental group vs.the control group for the individual categories of language function were as follows:simple instructions (76.6 ± 14.1 vs.67.4± 19.3),complex instructions (66.1±12.8 vs.58.2±14.9),yes or no (72.5±12.1 vs.63.0±14.1),naming (55.0 19.5 vs.43.3±22.2),simple comprehension (67.5±21.4 vs.55.620.6),complex comprehension (44.8±17.0 vs.35.0±18.9),listening and reading words (65.4±16.7 vs.53.7±19.3),calculation (39.3±25.8 vs.25.9±19.2),memory (36.4±18.7 vs.26.3±17.8),matching (75.9±18.6 vs.65.3±17.1),simple general knowledge (68.3±18.2 vs.58.0±19.5),complex general knowledge (58.7±17.4 vs.50.0±13.3),orientation (70.7±19.6 vs.60.5±17.2) and comparison (59.9± 14.6 vs.50.2±17.5) (P＜0.05 for all).There were significant differences between the two groups in emotional function (66.7±18.2 vs.53.1±21.2),general health (67.2±12.6 vs.60.7±9.8),mental health (71.0±5.6 vs.63.1±4.2),social functioning (64.7±9.0 vs.59.3±10.2) and vitality (55.4±14.8 vs.46.9±15.6) (P＜0.05 for all).Conclusions Cognitive intervention combined with SLT can contribute to the recovery of language function and the improvement of QOL in elderly patients with post-stroke aphasia.

Objective To observe the effects of early rehabilitation on the motor function of post-stroke hemiplegic patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis.Methods Thirty-six post-stroke hemiplegic patients after intravenous thrombolysis with rtPA were recruited in this study.They were randomly divided into the early rehabilitation group (with the course less than three days) and the control group (with the course between three and seven days),18 cases in each group.Both group received a two-week rehabilitation programme.They were assessed using the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA) of up extremity,FMA of lower extremity and ADL score (modified Barthel index,MBI) before and after treatment,as well as at the 3rd month after treatment (during the following-up).Results After treatment and at the following-up,FMA scores of up extremity,FMA scores of lower extremity and MBI scores had improved significantly compared with before treatment in both groups.Furthermore,after treatment,in the early rehabilitation group the average FMA score of lower extremity and MBI score reached (23.33 ± 4.37) and (56.11 ± 22.27) respectively,significantly higher than those of the control group [(17.06 ± 4.70) and (40.00 ± 15.81) respectively].Conclusion Early rehabilitation contributes to short-term recovery of lower extremity motor function and ability in the activities of daily living in post-stroke hemiplegic patients after intravenous thrombolysis.

The aim of this study is to develop a synthetic medium suitable for 13C metabolic flux analysis (13C-MFA) of Streptomyces rimosus. The cell growth rate and oxytetracycline production by S. rimosus M4018 were compared when M4018 cells were growth on the optimized chemically defined media with organic nitrogen sources or inorganic nitrogen sources. First, a synthetic medium contained KNO3 as the main nitrogen source was screened, then optimized by a response surface method. Using this new medium, the oxytetracycline yield was increased from 75.2 to 145.6 mg/L. Furthermore, based on the 13C-MFA, we identified that Entner-Doudoroff pathway does not exist in S. rimosus cells cultured in a chemically defined medium with feed of 100% 1-13C labeled glucose. This study is helpful for subsequent 13C-MFA application of S. rimosus.
Carbon Isotopes ; analysis ; Culture Media ; chemistry ; Metabolic Flux Analysis ; Nitrogen ; chemistry ; Oxytetracycline ; biosynthesis ; Streptomyces rimosus ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo screen the relative genes associated with the genesis of kindling epilepsy and the effect of caoguo zhimu decoction (CZD) on these genes.

METHODSmRNA differential display reverse transcription PCR was used to screen differential gene bind, and Northern blotting hybridization was applied to exclude the false positive reaction.

RESULTSThere were as more as 110 differential expression bindings in the normal group, model group and the treated group, among them 11 binds with differential expression only appeared in the model group but not in the normal group and disappeared in the treated group. It indicated that the 11 genes are correlated with the genesis and treatment of kindling epilepsy. By searching in the Gene-bank of NCBI, 7 bindings of the 11 were homologous genes and 4 gene fragments are novel genes with unknown function, which have been registered at the Gene-bank, with the registered numbers of CK325391, CK325392, CK325393, CK325394, respectively, and false positive possibility of 3 novel genes was excluded.

CONCLUSIONCZD has effect in treating kindling epilepsy may be through influencing the expression of partial gene fragments in the hippocampus.

Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Epilepsy ; genetics ; Female ; Gene Expression ; Gene Expression Profiling ; methods ; Hippocampus ; metabolism ; Kindling, Neurologic ; genetics ; Male ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Half of the heart failure patients are the diastolic heart failure (DHF) patients, and the occurrence of DHF increases as the patients’ age increases, which has seriously affected the quality of life of the elderly. However, there is presently no valid medication of DHF, thus the treatment of DHF is one of the hotspot of the medicine research. This article reviewsed the TCM in the cognition and treatment of DHF these years, in order to provide references for TCM in treating DHF.