Objective To explore the clinical characteristics and surgical treatment of gastric cancer in elderly patients.Methods The clinical data of 431 patients older than 70 years with gastric cancer from 1984 to 1998 were analyzed retrospectively.Results The main clinical manifestations were upper abdominal pain,distension or upset,loss of appetite and weight.The patients with clinicalⅢ,Ⅳ stage accounted for 64.2 percent.Pathological findings showed no specificity.Radical gastrectomy was performed in 215 cases(49.9%),and palliative resection was done in 122 ones(28.3%).The operative mortality and postoperative complication rate were 5.1%and 25.5%in the patients respectively.The 5-year survival rate was 29.5%in the patients with surgery,53.2%with radical gastrectomy and 10.7%with palliative resection.There were significant differences in 5-year survival rate between the radical and palliative groups.Conclusions The majority of elderly patients are clinical Ⅲ,Ⅳ stages and their operative complication rate is high.The key to increase the survival rate and life quality of elderly patients with gastric cancer is early diagnoses,strong perioperative management and suitable radical surgery.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) risk in type Ⅱ diabetics is one of the hot topics in clinical research.OBJECTIVE: By using electron-beam tomography(EBT) technology, heart scans were performed to investigate coronary artery lesion in type Ⅱ diabetics and their CAD risks were evaluated as well.DESIGN: Comparative study based on type Ⅱ diabetics complicated with coronary artery lesion.SETTING: Gerontology department in a hospital affiliated to a military medical university of Chinese PLA.PARTICIPANTS: From January 2002 to June 2004, 93 inpatients between the ages of 36 and 78 in the Gerontology Department of Xijing Hospital, an affiliation to the Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA, were selected(male 80, female 13) . Totally 25 of all the patients proved normal by physical examinations were set as normal control(male 22, female 3) group; other inpatients were divided into the abnormal blood glucose group and the coronary heart disease (CHD) group respectively according to their examination results. Of the 57 patients in the abnormal blood glucose group,49 were male and 8 were female. This group was divided into two subgroups:the impaired glucose tolerance group(IGT) containing 29 patients and the diabetes group containing 28 patients. In this group, 44 patients have had heart symptom of different extent. Of the 11 patients in the CHD group, 9 were male and 2 were female. Inclusion criteria: patients with type Ⅱ diabetes were defined by American Diabetes Association in 1979; patients with CHD were defined in the report of the Joint International Society and Federation of Cardiology/World Health Organization Task Force on the standardization of clinical nomenclature and criteria for diagnosis of ischemic heart disease in 1979, and they were all confirmed by coronary angiography. Exclusion criteeases.METHODS: Both plain EBT heart scanning and contrast-enhanced heart scanning were performed on the 93 patients to evaluate the occurrence of coronary artery calcification(CAC), the number of stenosed coronary arterie,and the number of soft plaques. Additionally, other examination results including blood glucose, blood HbA1c and blood lipid were also collected for comparison between the conditions of coronary artery and assessment of the CHD risk among groups.MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: In all the groups, the occurrence of CAC, the number of stenosed coronary arteries and the number of plaques were compared, and the CHD risk was analyzed.RESULTS: The occurrence of coronary artery calcification was significantly increased in all the study groups as compared with the control group(x2 = 18.88, P < 0. 01 ). Increasing trend was also observed in the study groups when calculating the number of branches with coronary stenosis and plaques ( F = 10. 758, P < 0. 01; F = 9. 991, P < 0.01 ). CHD risk in diabetes was estimated to be 7. 514 (95% confidence interval, 1. 885 -63. 778).CONCLUSION: Coronary artery lesion can be easily observed in type Ⅱ diabetics,and high CHD risk is predicted in this population. Early diagnosis of CAD and early rehabilitation intervention in grade 2 are extremely important in improving the quality of life and reducing the disability ratio of type Ⅱ diabetics.Huang C, Gao JY, Wong XM, Li R, Yang AL, Zheng MW, Xue FB. Risk analysis of coronary artery disease in type Ⅱ diabetics.