Objective To explore the effects of botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) on the F-waves of the tibial nerve and the walking ability of stroke patients.Methods Twenty stroke patients with spastic hemiplegia of a lower limb were randomly divided into experimental and control groups with 10 patients in each group.All received four weeks of conventional rehabilitation,including walking training,balance training and muscle strength training.In the experimental group,a total of 300 IU of BTX-A was injected into the gastrocnemius (200 IU) and soleus muscles (100 IU)before the start of routine rehabilitation,guided by using the electrical stimulation.Muscle tone was assessed using the modified Ashworth scale(MAS).Walking ability was assessed with the timed up and go test (TUGT) and a 10 m free walking test.F-wave parameters were recorded in the tibial nerve before,two weeks and four weeks after the injection.Results In the experimental group there was a significant difference in F-wave amplitude between those recorded before treatment and after two weeks of treatment.The control group showed no statistically significant difference.In experimental group there was also a statistically significant difference in triceps muscle tension before and after treatment which was not observed in the control group.Walking ability improved significantly in both groups.Conclusions Local injection of BTX-A into the lower limbs can reduce the F-wave amplitudes of spinal cord motor neurons.BTX-A injection combined with rehabilitation training can significantly improve the walking ability of stroke patients.

Objective To summarize the diagnostic efficacy of ADC value for differentiation of benign and malignant lymph nodes on diffusion MRI with Meta-analysis. Methods Published papers on differentiation of benign and malignant lymph nodes with ADC value were searched and reviewed.Quality evaluation was performed for the eligible papers before data extraction.Test for heterogeneity was performed first,then appropriate model was selected to calculate the weighted mean difference,sensitivity,specificity,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio,diagnostic odds ratio,pretest and posttest probability.The potential of ADC value for differentiation of benign and malignant lymph nodes was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively.Results Fifteen papers including 735 cases and 1963 lymph nodes were selected.According to Meta-regression analysis,subgroup analysis and robust analysis,two studies with benign lymph nodes in patients with benign lesion and one study using chemical shift saturation technique were excluded because of their impact on the robustness of the pooled results. The weighted mean difference (WMD) between malignant and benign lymph nodes was -0.355 × 10-3mm2/s[95％ confidence interval (CI):-0.423 ×10-3- -0.288 × 10-3 mm2/s].Although the cutoff of ADC value for differentiation in each study was different,the diagnostic efficacy was stable,the pooled sensitivity,specificity,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio,diagnostic odds ratio and area under summarized receiver operator's curve were 0.87 (95％ CI:0.79-0.92),0.87 (95％ CI:0.82-0.90),6.5 (95％ CI:4.7-9.2),0.15 (95％ CI:0.09-0.25 ),43 ( 95％ CI:21-87 ),0.93 ( 95 ％ CI:0.90-0.95 ).The posttest malignancy probability of benign lymph node indicated by ADC was 6％,while that of malignant lymph node was 72％.Conclusion The ADC value can be used to differentiate benign and malignant lymph nodes with good sensitivity and specificity noninvasively.

Objective To investigate the risk factors for childhood acute leukemia complicated with streptococcus mitis bacteriaemia and to explore a better therapeutic regimen of antibiotics.Methods Seventy-eight cases of childhood acute leukemia complicated with bacteriaemia hospitalized in Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University from January 2012 to December 2016 were collected,among them there were 8 cases (10.26％) caused by streptococcus mitis.The susceptible factors,clinical manifestations,drug susceptibility,treatments and outcomes of 8 cases of streptococcus mitis bacteriaemia were summarized and analyzed.Results All of 8 cases were attacked during the agranulocytosis phase lasting for more than 1 week after chemotherapy for acute leukemia.Four cases of them had been exposed to the third-generation cephalosporins for more than 7 days,and 5 cases exposed to proton pump inhibitor (PPI) for more than 10 days.The incidence of remittent fever,shiver,stomatitis and pneumonia was 100.0％ (8/8 cases),62.5％ (5/8 cases),62.5％ (5/8 cases) and 62.5％ (5/8 cases),respectively.And severe pneumonia occurred at a rate of 37.5％ (3/8 cases).The sensitivity to Linezolid,Vancomycin,Penicillin and Cefotaxime was 100.0％,100.0％,37.5％ and 25.0％,respectively.Five of the 7 cases treated with Meropenem had a fever 3 days later and then they took Linezolid as a replacement according to the drug sensitivity.One case was treated with Cefoperazone-Sulbactam.The duration time of fever,positive blood culture,agranulocytosis and course of antibiotics therapy was 1-19 d(10.4 d on average),4-22 d(13.4 d on average),10-30 d (21.6 d on average),9-26 d (18.3 d on average),respectively.Among 3 patients with severe pneumonia,1 patient received the respirator assisted ventilation for 1 week.Conclusions Streptococcus mitis is one of the major causes of severe infection among children with acute leukemia.Agranulocytosis after chemotherapy,stomatitis,exposure to PPI and antibiotics may be the risk factors for streptococcus mitis infection.Fever,stomatitis,respiratory and digestive symptoms are the common clinical manifestations.Streptococcus mitis is resistant to Penicillin and Cefotaxime,but sensitive to Linezolid,which can shorten the course of infection and improve the outcomes.Thus,Linezolid may serve as an optional therapy for streptococcemia mitis bacteriaemia.

Objective To explore the relationship between the MRI enhancement ratios of liver parenchyma in hepatobiliary phase with gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA)and liver function.Methods Fifty-nine patients who underwent Gd-BOPTA-enhanced MRI were retrospectively enrolled in the study.The enhancement ratio of signal to noise ratio and enhancement ratio of the contrast ratio were calculated.The relationships between the enhancement ratio and CTP grading and MELD score were analyzed.Results The signal enhancement ratios in hepatobiliary phase in patients with CTP A classification were higher than those with CTP B classi-fication (P <0.01).Meanwhile,the ratios in patients with MELD scores less than 10 points were higher than those with MELD scores more than 10 points (P <0.01).Conclusion The MR enhancement degree of liver parenchyma in the hepatobiliary phase with Gd-BOPTA may reflect the liver function.

Objective To systematically evaluate the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) in the investigation of bile duct anatomy of liver transplantation living donors.Methods A search in Cochrane library,MEDLINE,EMBASE,CBMdisc (China Biology Medicine disc) was performed to identify relevant English and Chinese-language abstracts,supplemented by Springer,OVID,Sciencedirect full text database,etc.Criteria for inclusion were based on validity criteria for diagnostic research published by the Cochrane collaboration.With Meta analysis package for Stata10.1,heterogeneity of the included articles was tested,which was used to select proper effect model to calculate pooled weighted sensitivity and specificity,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio. Summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was performed and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. Finally,sensitivity analysis was performed.Results Seventeen articles with 34 studies were included.Heterogeneity analysis revealed heterogeneity between studies and the source was MRCP imaging methods spotted by meta-regression analysis. Subgroup analysis according to MRCP imaging methods showed homogeneity within subgroups.The pooled sensitivity,specificity,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio,diagnostic odd ratio of breath-holding thick slice MRCP,3D MRCP,the combination of the prior two methods,contrast enhance MRCP were 0.89,0.78,4.1,0.14,29; 0.92,0.80,4.5,0.10,45;0.95,0.82,5.2,0.06,85; and 1.00,0.76,4.1,0,1228,respectively with fixed effect model analysis.The area under the SROC curve was 0.83,0.92,0.96 and 0.99 respectively.Conclusion The combination of thick slice and 3D MRCP is a practical and effective method with good sensitivity and specificity to investigate bile duct anatomy of living liver transplantation donors,which fully meets the requirements of the preoperative assessment of bile duct structure.

Objective To quantify sjTREC using a modified method in patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem transplantation (all-HSCT),and determine the level of thymic output function and analyse the influencing factors in post-allo-HSCT patients.Methods Real time quantitative PCR was used to detect sjTREC levels from the peripheral blood DNA of pre-transplantation,14 d,28 d,3 m,6 m,9 m,1 y,1.5 y,2 y,2.5 y,and above 2.5 y after HSCT,and analyse thymic output function and related factors after HSCT.sjTREC levels in 24 normal individuals were also determined to use as the normal range.Results The mean of Log (sjTREC copies/ml) in normal individuals was 3.74±0.26.Negative correlation existed between thte Log sjTREC and the age (r =-0.65,P ＜ 0.01).There was no clear association between the TREC and the gender.Log sjTREC in pre-transplantation patients was 3.09±0.52,and the levels of sjTREC in 14 d,28 d,6 m,1 y after HSCT were 1.18±0.22,2.16±0.31,1.31±0.2,1.83±0.31,respectively.There was no significant difference between normal individuals and patients 1.5 years after HSCT.The post-transplantation level of sjTREC was not related to the age,but was negatively correlated to the acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD) 1 year after HSCT.There was no difference between patients with or without aGVHD 1.5 years post-HSCT.Conclusion The modified method for detecting sjTREC is applicable to allo-HSCT.The recovery of thymic output function after allo-HSCT is slow,in which aGVHD may have a negative effect.

AIM: To construct human Egr-1 promoter luciferase reporter system and study its activity induced by i-onizing radiation. METHODS: Egr-1 promoter was obtained by human genomic PCR and cloned into pGL3-basic vector. After transfection of recombinant plasmid into human tumor cells, the Egr-1 promoter activity induced by ionizing radiation was detected by luciferase reporter assay. RESULTS: The luciferasy reporter system of Egr-1 promoter was successfully constructed. The activity of Egr-1 promoter was substantially increased after different doses of IR and reached to the peak at the time point of 48h after IR. CONCLUSION: The Egr-1 promoter was constructed in this study showed IR inducible activity in tumor cells, laying foundation for the research of radiation, mediated gene therapy.

Objective To explore the effect of auricular plaster therapy on associated symptoms and quality of life in patients with constipation induced by strong opioid drugs for pain.Methods A total of 60 patients selected were randomly divided into the intervention group and the control group with 30 cases in each group.The intervention group was treated with auriculotherapy based on the pattern/syndrome differentiation after detecting the auricular sensitive acupoints' distribution in patients with opioid-induced constipation after receiving opioid therapy.BFI,self-made scale on symptoms accompanied by constipation and PAC-QOL were used to collect data about constipation symptoms and the level of quality of life before or after the intervention,and still with a subset of the intervention group followed for more than two weeks.Results The BFI and PAC-QOL scores of the intervention and control group were lower after intervention,and the decline score of the two groups showed significant difference.But for the self-made scale,the score of each item was slightly lower compared with that before treatment,which showed no statistically significant difference between groups.A follow-up of 2 weeks showed that the long-term efficacy of auricular plaster therapy was significantly lower than before,but was less desirable than short-term.Conclusions Scientific and reasonable choice of acupoint prescription according to syndrome differentiation can effectively improve symptoms accompanied by constipation and patients' quality of life.

Objective To develop the Quality of Life Questionnaire with traditional Chinese medicine characteristics for patients with ulcerative colitis.Methods The pool of entries were initially formed by using literature review,theoretical analysis and interviews.Delphi technique was used to formulate.quality of life questionnaire for patients with ulcerative colitis through a two-round expert consultation among 22 experts in 9 provinces.Results In two-round surveys,the rates of questionnaire retrieve were 95.7％ and 100.0％,respectively.The authoritative coefficients was 0.85,the coordination coefficients were 0.288 and 0.290,respectively,P＜ 0.01.The preparation of the primary scale consisted of physical,psychological,independence and social function of 4 dimensions and 48 items.Conclusions A reliable and valid questionnaire with traditional Chinese medicine characteristics for evaluation of quality of life for patients with ulcerative colitis was developed.It can be used to provide reference for the evaluation of the quality of life for patients with ulcerative colitis in China.

Ultrasound-guided serratus anterior plane block is one of the ways to provide analgesia to post thoractomy.It appears to be more easily performed compared with other techniques and is applied to be a postoperative analgesia for chest surgery such as breast cancer,ribs fracture and lung cancer.The review studies the using of serratus anterior plane block in clinical pain management.