Objective To compare and analyze the clinical characteristics of acute central cervical spinal cord injury with only upper extremity involvement and with both upper and lower extremity involvement.Methods A retrospective case control study was made on clinical data of 76 patients with acute central cervical spinal cord injury hospitalized from January 2010 to December 2013.Nerve injury involved was only upper extremity in 39 patients (upper extremity group),but both upper and lower extremities in 37 patients (upper-and lower-extremity group).In upper extremity group,there were 35 males and four females,age was 21-80 years [(52.5 ± 13.4) years],injury resulted from traffic accidents in 24 patients,ground-level falls in eight,high-level falls in six and heavy-object hit in one,and level of injury was C3/4 in 16 patients,C4/5 in 14 and C5/6 in nine.In upper-and lower-extremity group,there were 30 males and seven females,age was 36-78 years [(59.6 ± 9.7) years],injury resulted from traffic accidents in 16 patients,ground-level falls in 11,high-level falls in seven and heavyobject hit in three,and level of injury was C3/4in nine patients,C4/sin 18 and C5/6in 10.Sagittal diameter of the cervical spinal canal,maximal canal compromise,maximal spinal cord compression,degenerating factors of the cervical spine and treatment protocols were determined.Upper extremity function was assessed with the American spinal injury association (ASIA) score.Results There were significant differences between upper extremity group and upper-and lower-extremity group in sagittal diameter of the cervical spinal canal [(7.5 ± 1.5)mm ∶ (6.8 ± 1.2)mm],maximal canal compromise [(28.9 ±9.6)％ ∶ (34.9 ± 10.6)％],ASIA score at admission[(31.6 ± 11.8)points ∶ (22.7± 11.3)points)] and ASIA score at last follow-up [(46.2 ± 4.2) points ∶ (40.2 ± 4.0) points] (P ＜ 0.05),while the maximal spinal cord compression in upper extremity group [(15.7 ± 11.9)％] had no significant difference from that in upper-and lowerextremity group [(17.0 ± 10.6) ％] (P ＞ 0.05).Lower prevalence of posterior osteophyte of the vertebral body was noted in upper extremity group than upper-and lower-extremity group (15％ ∶ 51％) (P ＜0.01).Twenty patients (49％) in upper extremity group were surgically treated,while 31 patients (84％) in upperand lower-extremity group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Compared to acute central cervical spinal cord injury with both upper and lower extremity involvement,the injury with only upper extremity involvement is much common in younger patients and is characterized by lowered frequency of osteophyte,large buffer space,mild nerve damage,preferred non-operation treatment and good prognosis.

In order to investigate the rationality of formulation, the absorption behavior of volatile oil from rhizome of ligusticum chuanxiong (VOC) was compared with that of beta-cyclodextrin inclusion complex and self-microemulsifying soft capsule (SMESC). To study the properties of intestinal absorption in situ of SMESC, a series of studies were carried out including the absorption at different concentrations, at different intestinal regions and under different bile secretion conditions. The samples of the perfusion solution were collected at certain intervals. Ligustilide (LD) was chosen as marker component of VOC and the concentrations of which in the perfusion samples were determined by HPLC method. The results demonstrated that the absorption of LD in SMESC was the best and the absorption of VOC increased apparently (P < 0.001). The absorption of LD at concentration of 400 microg x mL(-1) was better than that at 200 microg x mL(-1) and 100 microg x mL(-1) (P < 0.001), while there was no significant difference between the absorption at concentrations of 200 microg x mL(-1) and 100 microg x mL(-1). The absorption of SMESC was not apparently influenced by bile secretion. SMESC could be absorbed in whole intestinal segments. The absorption rate constants (Ka) or apparent permeability coefficients (Papp) of SMESC showed duodenum > jejunum > colon = ileum. Ka and Papp of SMESC at duodenum were significantly higher than that at the other regions of intestine (P < 0.001).
4-Butyrolactone ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; isolation & purification ; pharmacokinetics ; Animals ; Capsules ; Duodenum ; metabolism ; Emulsions ; Female ; Intestinal Absorption ; Ligusticum ; chemistry ; Oils, Volatile ; administration & dosage ; isolation & purification ; pharmacokinetics ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Rhizome ; chemistry ; beta-Cyclodextrins ; chemistry

A large number of experimental and clinical data indicates that tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) were involved in the whole process of tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. Like macrophages in other tissues, TAMs originate from blood monocytes, which are recruited to the tumor tissues by cytokines and then differentiated into TAMs. It is interesting that the monocytes overexpress siglec receptor in their surface, which has a high binding specificity to sialic acid (SA). From this point of view, we hypothesize that if SA was used as a ligand in the surfaces of drug delivery systems, SA would enhance the targeting efficiency to monocytes, and thus to achieve a higher specificity to TAMs. In our previous study, an SA derivative of SA-octadecylamine (SA-18) was synthesized and was found to enhance cytotoxicity on TAMs in vitro. The chain length is a critical factor for SA efficiency in liposomes and it has a significant influence on the TAM targeting effects of the carriers. So in this study, four kinds of different chain length of SA fatty amine derivatives were synthesized, including SA-18, SA-hexadecylamine (SA-16), SA-tetradecylamine (SA-14) and SA-dodecylamine (SA-12), and were modified on the surfaces of blank liposomes (BLK-SnL, n=18, 16, 14, 12) and pixantrone maleate-loaded liposomes (Pix-SnL, n=18, 16, 14, 12). TAM targeting effects of these SA derivatives were evaluated by acute toxicity and antitumor efficacy in vivo. The results of acute toxicity experiments showed that the toxicities of the SA derivatives deceased gradually with the reduction in the length of lipophilic chain. The in vivo antitumor efficacies of SA-modified blank liposomes showed that these blank formulations had no effect on the tumor inhibition except BLK-S14L (61.4%±18.8%), and BLK-S16L even promoted the tumor growth (-31.7%±13.1%, the 18th day). The in vivo antitumor efficacies of SA-modified Pix liposomes showed that the tumor inhibition effects were Pix-S18L (97.4%±2.1%) > Pix-S14L (73.1%±21.1%) > Pix-S12L (53.9%±17.8%) > Pix-S16L (32.9%). Because of the relatively strong binding ability of SA-18, it was hard to fall off from the liposomes in the transport process, leading to a good TAM targeting ability and less toxicity to the normal tissues. Meanwhile, 50% of the mice in Pix-S18L group showed "tumor shedding" and "wound healing" phenomena without recurrence in two months following the treatment. Therefore, SA-18 is the most potential TAM targeting material among these SA fatty amine derivatives.