Objective To evaluate the clinical, endocrinologieal and pathological characteristics of adrenal incidentaloma. Methods Ninety-seven patients (53 males and 44 females) diagnosed with adrenal incidentaloma confirmed by pathology were retrospectively analyzed in this study. The mean patient age was 45 years old. Thirty-eight cases had left adrenal lesions, 52 cases had right adrenal le-sions and 7 cases had bilateral adrenal tumors. Of these patients, 74 cases had accepted full range en-docrinological investigations. The tumor size was measured by uhrasonography (US) in 8 cases, CT scanning in 54 cases and MRI in 35 cases, respectively. Results Of these 97 adrenal incidentalomas, 20 cases(20.6%) were malignant tumors (12 adrenoeortical carcinomas, 3 malignant pheochromocyto-mas, 2 metastatic cancers, 1 sarcoma, 1 neuroblastoma and 1 malignant sehwannoma), 21 cases (21.6%) were benign pheochromocytomas, 26 cases (26.8%7 were adrenal adenomas, 9 cases (9.3%) were myelolipomas,13 cases(13.4%) were adrenal cysts, 5 cases(5.2%) were ganglioneuro-ma and 3 cases(3.1%) were neurofibroma. Endoerinological study showed that 21 (28. 4%) of the in-cidentalomas were functional. Forty patients(41.2%) had hypertension. Tumor size less than 4 cm in diameter were found in 25.8%cases,tumor size ranged from 4 to 6 em were found in 34.0% cases and tumors larger than 6 em were found in 40.2% cases. The average diameter of malignant tumors was 9.9±4.6 cm which was significantly larger than the average diameter of benign tumors, 5.6±3.2 cm (P=0.01). Tumor size greater than 6 cm was more frequently found in patients with malignant tumor (75.0% vs 35.1%, P=0.001). Only 4% of the ineidentalomas less than 4 cm selected surgery were malignant tumors. Weight loss was more frequently found in patients with malignant tumor than that in benign tunor(25.0% vs 2.6%, P =0.004). Conclusions Adrenal adenomas, benign pheochro- mocytomas and malignant tumors are the main types of adrenal incidentaloma. The endocrinological evaluation should be performed in all adrenal incidentalomas. In patients with normal endoerinologieal study, tumor size less than 4 cm is an important eharaeteristie for benign tumors.

Objective To investigate toe-brachial index ( TBI) in the diagnosis of peripheral artery disease ( PAD) and its risk factors in the patients with type 2 diabetes.Methods TBI was examined in the 238 patients with type 2 diabetes.The patients were divided into the group with low TBI ( TBI≤0.7 ) and the group with normal ABI ( TBI>0.7 ) .The two groups were compared for clinical parameters.Results Thirty two patients (13.4%)with abnormal ABI (TBI≤0.7) showed older age [(63.8 ±9.9) yrs vs (54.9 ±10.8) yrs, P =0.000] , lower diastolic blood pressure [(70.5 ±6.9) mmHg vs (74.9 ±9.1) mmHg, P =0.003], more frequency of hypertension (56.3%vs 38.3%, P =0.043), coronary artery heart disease (28.7%vs 10.7%, P =0.020) and cere-bral vascular disease (15.6%vs 4.4%, P =0.025).Step-wise analysis screened that age and diastolic blood pressure were the inde-pendent risk factors for TBI .Conclusions Aging and hypertension were the risk factors in the patients with abnormal TBI in type 2 di-abetes.TBI was an easy and economical method for diagnosing PAD in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Objective To investigate the relationship between waist-to-height ratio and metabolic syndrome,in order to identify the optimal cut-off point of waist-to-height ratio for predicting metabolic syndrome.Methods In this cross-sectional study,we recruited 343 people who received physical examination in First Hospital of Quanzhou between January 2012 and June 2014,and collected the information of their waist circumference,height,weight,blood pressure,laboratory test results (including fasting blood glucose,2-hour glucose after oral glucose tolerance test,triglyceride,high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) and visceral fat area assessed by computed tomography.Then a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to estimate the optimal cut-off points of waist-to-height ratio for the prediction of metabolic syndrome.Results Among the 343 people,there were 195 metabolic syndrome patients,the prevalence rate was 56.8％,which was 70.2％ in men (127/181) and 42.0％ in women (68/162).In ROC curve analysis,the area under the curve of waist-to-height ratio for the prediction of metabolic syndrome was 0.664 for men,and 0.673 for women.The optimal cut-off point of waist-to-height ratio for predicting metabolic syndrome was 0.543 0 (sensitivity 88.2％,specificity 44.4％) for men,and 0.568 3 (sensitivity 86.8％,specificity 46.8％).Conclusion The optimal cut-off point of waist-to-height ratio for predicting metabolic syndrome in Quanzhou population is 0.543 0 for men and 0.568 3 for women.

Objective To verify whether the periodic or continuous exposure to high glucose may have different effects on human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC)apoptosis, and to explore the effect of NF-κB pathway on apoptosis of HUVEC induced by high glucose using the RNAi adenovirus vector. Methods RNAi combinant adenovirus vector which targeted 1566 site of NF-κB p65 mRNA was constructed and the effect of p65 gene knockdown in HUVEC was detected by Western blot analysis. Then, the RNAi adenovirus was transducted to explore the role of NF-κB pathway on the regulation of apoptosis in HUVEC induced by high glucose. The apoptosis of HUVEC was tested by flow cytometry and TUNEL assay. Results High glucose could induce apoptosis of HUVEC. p65 protein expression of nuclear extracts was significantly increased in high glucose culture as compared to control group, but only slightly increased in NF-κB-specific knockdown group, which maintained at basal state. Compared with normal glucose group, the number of TUNEL-positive cells in high glucose group was significantly increased (25.81%±1.77% vs 8.20%±0.63%, P<0.05). The number of TUNEL-positive cells was decreased in 30.5 rmnol/L glucose plus Ad-1566 than that in 30.5 mmol/L glucose plus Ad-DEST (11.49%±0.92% vs 26.10%±0.98%, P<0.01). Flow cytometry and TUNEL assay showed that the apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells induced by high glucose was inhibited by the RNAi adenovirus. Conclusion High glucose induces apoptosis of HUVEC. Knockdown of NF-κB p65 may protect HUVEC from apoptosis by preventing high glucose-induced NF-κB nuclear translocation.