The natural history of 383 patients of schistosomal cirrhosis, discovered from 1960-1990 in Donjing township Shanghai suburb, where schistosomiasis had been controlled for more than 10 years, was studied. The cumulative survival rate in 243 patients who had splenecto-my 11-30 years previously (group I ) was much higher than that of 140 patients without splenectomy (group II ), and the time for 75% survival rate of these 2 groups were 18 and 4 years respectively, being much longer in the splenectomized patients without ascites and those operated before age of 30 than those complicated with ascites and those operated between the age of 31 - 50 or after 51 years of age.The complications and mortality rate of group I were significantly lower than that of group I , indicating that splenectomy not only prevented the complication of portal hypertension but improved the general health and resistance of the patients against other pathogens as well.There was no significant difference between group I and group II in the ratio of the avarage death age of the deceased patients to the life expectancy of the general population, suggesting that the life span of a number of patients without splenectomy are not substantially shortened in an area where schistosomiasis had been controlled.

AIM: To investigate the potassium channel gene expression of myocardial sleeves of pulmonary vein and effects of amiodarone on rabbits with rapid atrial pacing.METHODS: Rabbits were divided into three groups(n=10),(1) the control group with sham operation and placebo;(2) the right atrial pacing(RAP) group at 600 beats/min with the placebo;(3) the amiodarone group treated for seven days with oral amiodarone at 100 mg ? kg-1 ? d-1.Based on RAP simultaneously,the messenger ribonucleic acid(mRNA) of specimen was measured by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.RESULTS: Compared with the control group,Kv4.3(transient outward K+ current,Ito1) mRNA expression in RAP group was reduced by 51%(P