0.05).The major adverse effects were myelo-suppression,nausea,vomiting,phlebitis and alopecie.There were highest incidence of thrombocytopenia(51.1%) in GP regimen group compared with other groups,especially in the stage of Ⅲ? and Ⅳ?(totally accounting for 24.4%)(P

Objective To determine the level of peripheral CD4+CD25+ regulatory T lymphocytes in patients with vitiligo at different stages and to study its relationship with the development of vitiligo. Methods Blood samples were collected from 34 outpatients with vitiligo, including 19 cases of progressive vitiligo and 15 cases of stable vitiligo, as well as from 20 normal human controls. Flow cytometry was used to detect the levels of peripheral CD4+ and CD4+CD25+ T lymphocytes in these samples. Results Compared with the controls, the percentage of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T lymphoeytes in peripheral lymphocytes was significantly lower in patients with progressive vitiligo than those in patients with stable vitiligo and normal human con-trois [(2.43±0.30)% vs (3.49±0.39)% and (3.34±0.24)%, both P <0.05], but no significant difference was found between patients with stable vitiligo and normal human controls (P＞0.05). A significantly nega-tive correlation was observed between the percentage of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T lymphocytes and lesion area in patients with progressive vitiligo (r = -0.48, P <0.05), but not in patients with stable vitiligo (P ＞0.05). There was no significant correlation between the course of disease and the percentage of peripheral CD4+CD25+ regulatory T lymphocytes in patients with progressive vitiligo or stable vitiligo (both P ＞ 0.05). Conclusion There is an abnormal proportion of peripheral CD4+CD25+ regulatory T lymphocytes in patients with vitiligo, which may be related to the development of vitiligo.

Objective To investigate the impact of anatomical landmarks on registration in image?guided radiotherapy (IGRT) for central and peripheral lung cancer. Methods Twenty?five patients with central or peripheral lung cancer for IGRT were enrolled in this study. Kilo?voltage cone?beam CT ( kV?CBCT) scanning was acquired before irradiotion. Tumor coverage on CBCT was assessed using gross tumor volume (GTV), clinical target volume (CTV), and planning target volume (PTV) contours according to tumor alignment, carina registration, and spine registration, respectively. The grading analysiswas based on visual tumor assessment as follows:grade 0, tumor within GTV;grade 1, tumor outside GTV but inside CTV;grade 2, tumor outside CTV but inside PTV;and grade 3, tumor outside PTV. Results Totally 177 sets of kV?CBCT of 25 patients was collected. According to the registration landmarks of the tumor, carina and spine for central lung cancer, the percentages were 57?55%, 53?77% and 16?04% in grade 0, 39?62%, 45?28%and 58?49% in grade 1, and 1?89%, 0?94% and 25?47% in grade 2, respectively. For peripheral lung cancer, the percentages were 47?89%, 14?08% and 2?82% in grade 0, 43?66%, 29?58% and 45?07% in grade 1, and 8?45%, 40?85% and 35?21% in grade 2, respectively. Conclusions For central lung cancer,the tumor was recommended as the best registration landmark, and the carina was recommended as well, while the spine was not recommended. For peripheral lung cancer, the tumor was recommended as the best registration landmark, while the spine and the carina were not recommended.

Objective This study aims to investigate the clinical value of percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP)combined with strontium-89 (89 Sr)on patients with spinal malignant tumor.Methods Seventy four patients who were diagnosed as spinal malig-nant tumor were divided into two groups randomly.37 patients of the control group were treated by PVP only,and 37 patients of joint group were treated by PVP and 89 Sr together.Then the clinical effect of the joint group and control group was compared after treatment.Results After treatment,the quality of life,ratio of pain relief,clinical effect and survival time in joint group were dis-tinctly better than control group (P <0.05).Conclusion PVP combined with 89 Sr can be an effective and safe treatment for pa-tients with spinal malignant tumor.

Objective To determine plasma soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G) levels in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),and to analyze its association with the possibility of organs or systems involvement in lupus patients.Methods Plasma samples were collected from 96 SLE patients and 74 healthy controls,and sHLA-G levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.The sHLA-G levels in SLE patients and healthy controls were compared with students't-test.The difiefence of clinical and seroimmunological data among the SLE patients was assessed by chi-square test or students't-test.A value of P<0.05 was considered to be significant.Results Plasma concentration of sHLA-G was significanto higher in SLE patients than that in healthy controls[(230±192)U/ml vs(118±38)U/ml,P=0.0001].No relationship between plasma sHLA-G levels and SLE disease activity index(SLEDAI)was found(r=0.157,P=0.141).However,the patients with increased levels of sHLA-G had more severe disease activity (11±5 vs 8±5,P=0.027) and more central nervous system (CNS) involvement (24.2% vs 4.8%,P=0.007) in comparison with patients with normal plasma levels of sHLA-G.Conclusion The increased production sHLA-G,paralleled with more severe disease activity and higher CNS involvement,indicates that sHLA-G may play an important role in the pathogenesis of SLE.

Objective To characterize the effects of TPP1 knockdown on Pot1a and Pot1b localization at telomeres and on the telomere end protection.Methods Knockdown of endogenous TPP1 in mouse embryonic fibroblasts(MEFs) with the retrovirus vector encoding shRNA targeting TPP1,IF/PNA-FISH was performed to determine the localization of Pot1a and Pot1b at telomeres,and TdT-FITC was applied to characterize the effects on the function of telomere end protection,cellular senescence was analyzed by SA-beta gal staining,and phosphorylated p53ser18 and p21 were examined by Western blotting.Results Pot1a and Pot1b were unable to localize at telomeres in about 65% of MEFs with TPP1 knockdown,while that was found in less than 5% of MEFs without TPP1 knockdown(t=10.96,P

Cough is one of the most common symptoms of many respiratory diseases; the characteristics of intensity and frequency of cough sound offer important clinical messages. When using these messages, we have need to differentiate the cough sound from the other sounds such as speech voice, throat clearing sound and nose clearing sound. In this paper, based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM), we proposed a novel method to analyze and detect cough sound. Employing the property of adaptive dyadic filter banks of EMD, we gained the mean energy distribution in the frequency domain of the signals in order to analyze the statistical characteristics of cough sound and of other sounds not accompanied by cough, and then we found the optimal characteristics for the recognition using HMM. The experiments on clinical date showed that this optimal characteristic method effectively improved the detective rate of cough sound.
Cough ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Humans ; Markov Chains ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; methods ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; methods ; Sound ; Sound Spectrography ; methods

Objective To study the variation of gross tumor volume (GTV) and clinical target volume (CTV) definition for lung cancer between different doctors.Methods Ten lung cancer patients with PET-CT simulation were selected from January 2008 to December 2009.GTV and CTV of these patients were defined by four professors or associate professors of radiotherapy independently.Results The mean ratios of largest to smallest GTV and CTV were 1.66 and 1.65, respectively.The mean coefficients of variation for GTV and CTV were 0.20 and 0.17, respectively.System errors of CTV definition in three dimension were less than 5 mm, which was the largest in inferior and superior (0.48 cm,0.37 cm,0.32 cm;F=0.40,0.60,0.15,P=0.755,0.618,0.928).Conclusions The variation of GTV and CTV definition for lung cancer between different doctors exist.The mean ratios of largest to smallest GTV and CTV were less than 1.7.The variation was in hilar and mediastinum lymphanode regions.System error of CTV definition was the largest (<5 mm) in cranio-caudal direction.

0.05).However,the patients with increased levels of sHLA-G had higher incidence of central nervous system involvement(P=0.007) and more severe disease activity(P=0.027) in comparison with patients with normal plasma sHLA-G levels.Finally,the expression of plasma sHLA-G was not influenced by the treatment with glucocorticoids,immunosuppressive agents or antimalarials.Conclusion The increased production of sHLA-G indicates that sHLA-G may play an important role in the pathogenesis of SLE.The expression of sHLA-G may be associated with disease activity and severity of lupus patients,but be independence of HLA-G 14bp ins/del polymorphism and drug treatment.

ObjectiveTo determine the distribution of vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene Apa Ⅰ and Bsm Ⅰ polymorphism in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the association with SLE in Chinese Han patients.MethodsGenomic DNA from 244 Chinese SLE patients and 162 sex and ethnically matched controls were typed for VDR Apa Ⅰand Bsm Ⅰpolymorphism combination by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Clinical characteristics were analyzed between different Apa ] and Bsm Ⅰ genotypes.ResultsThere was no significant difference between the distribution frequencies of allelic gene A and a in SLE patients and the controls,but the distribution frequency of genotypes heterozygote Aa in SLE patients was higher than that in the controls ( 38.9％ vs 22.2％,x2 =12.442,P =0.000).There was no significant difference between the distribution frequency of allelic gene and genotypes of Bsm Ⅰin SLE patients and the controls ( P ＞ 0.05 ).However,there was significant difference between the distribution frequencies of Apa Ⅰ and Bsm Ⅰ genotypes combination in SLE patients and the controls (x2 =18.226,P =0.006).The distribution frequency of genotypes Aa-bb in SLE patients was higher than that in the controls ( 32.4％ vs 17.9％,x2 =10.449 P =0.001 ),while the distribution frequency of genotypes Aa-bb in SLE patients was lower than that in the controls (30.3％ vs 42.0％,x2 =5.808,P =0.016). Furthermore,analyzing the effect of VDR Apa Ⅰand Bsm Ⅰ polymorphism combination to the symptoms of SLE,significant difference was observed in SLE patients carrying Aa-bb genotypes involved in serositis ( P =0.003 ),hematological system disorder ( P =0.021 ),and anti-Sm antibodies ( P =0.01 ) compared with other genotypes.ConclusionThere is significant association between Apa Ⅰ and Bsm Ⅰ gene polymorphism Aa-bb genotypes and the incidence of SLE in the Han population of China,and genotype Aa-bb is more involved in serositis,hematological system disorder and has a positive effect on production of antibodies.