Tsutsugamushi disease is an acute infectious rickettsial disease caused by the intracellular parasite Orientia tsutsugamushi. Due to its variety of clinical signs, this disease is often misdiagnosed. This article examines a total of 4 patients who visited our clinics with fever and sore throat. 3 of them had body temperature of 39.5 Celsius degrees when admitted. The characteristic black eschar occurred on 4 of them. Lymphadenopathy occurred on 2 of them. Cough occurred on 1 of them. Lab tests showed that 3 of them had Leukocytosis, 1 of them had increased bronchovascular markings, and 3 of them had Weil-Felix test positive. After admission, all patients, who were confirmed of diagnosis of tsutsugamushi disease instead of tonsillitis, received the comprehensive treatment and cured afterwards.
Diagnostic Errors ; Humans ; Orientia tsutsugamushi ; Pharyngitis ; etiology ; Scrub Typhus ; complications ; diagnosis ; Tonsillitis ; diagnosis

The quality of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) has been mainly evaluated based on chemical ingredients, yet recently more attentions have been paid on biological ingredients, especially for pill-based preparations. It is a key approach to establish a fast, accurate and systematic method of biological ingredient analysis for realization of modernization, industrialization and internationalization of TCMs. The biological ingredient analysis of TCM preparations could be abstracted as the identification of multiple species from a biological mixture. The metagenomic approach based on high-throughput-sequencing (HTS) and big-data-mining has been considered as one of the most effective methods for multiple species analysis of a biological mixture, which would also be helpful for the analysis of biological ingredients in TCMs. Simultaneous identification of diverse species, including the prescribed species, adulterants, toxic species, protected species and even the biological impurities introduced through production process, could be achieved by selecting appropriate DNA biomarkers, as well as applying large-scale sequence comparison and data mining. By this approach, it is prospective to offer an evaluation basis for the effectiveness, safety and legality of TCM preparations.
Biological Products ; chemistry ; Data Mining ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Metagenomics ; methods

Objective To investigate the expression of CD158b in NK cells after allogeneic kidney transplantation.Methods In 62 patients with allogeneic kidney transplantation, blood samples were collected on the day before operation, first, 7th day after operation, the moment the graft (reco)-(vered) and the acute rejection occurred. The expression of CD158b was detected in peripheral blood NK cells. The ratio of CD3~-CD16/56~+CD158b~+ was measured.Results There were 38 patients without acute rejection during the whole transplantation period. The ratio of CD3~-CD16/56~+ cells and CD3~-CD16/56~+CD158b~+ cells were stable before and after the transplantation. Twenty-four patients experienced acute rejection post-transplantation. The ratio of CD3~-CD16/56~+ cells was increased significantly after acute rejection, the ratio of CD3~-CD16/56~+CD158b~+ cells decreased significantly, and the percentage of CD3~-CD16/56~+CD158b~+ cells of total NK cells decreased significantly.Conclusion There are not too much factors interfering with the expression of CD158b in NK cells, and the ratio of CD3~-CD16/56~+CD158b~+ cells had already decreased significantly before the clinical diagnosis of (acute) rejection. Monitoring of CD158b in NK cells is more accurate and sensitive for the evaluation of immune state.

Objective:To explore the influential factors of cognitive change among Chinese oldest-old.Method: Three waves of data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey(CLHLS)were analyzed with a two-level repeated measures model.Results:In baseline,the male had a higher mean MMSE score than the female(27.0?3.7/24.4?5.6,P

The quality of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) has been mainly evaluated based on chemical ingredients, yet recently more attentions have been paid on biological ingredients, especially for pill-based preparations. It is a key approach to establish a fast, accurate and systematic method of biological ingredient analysis for realization of modernization, industrialization and internationalization of TCMs. The biological ingredient analysis of TCM preparations could be abstracted as the identification of multiple species from a biological mixture. The metagenomic approach based on high-throughput-sequencing (HTS) and big-data-mining has been considered as one of the most effective methods for multiple species analysis of a biological mixture, which would also be helpful for the analysis of biological ingredients in TCMs. Simultaneous identification of diverse species, including the prescribed species, adulterants, toxic species, protected species and even the biological impurities introduced through production process, could be achieved by selecting appropriate DNA biomarkers, as well as applying large-scale sequence comparison and data mining. By this approach, it is prospective to offer an evaluation basis for the effectiveness, safety and legality of TCM preparations.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Disasters ; Earthquakes ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Sunburn ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo compare the tissue engineered cartilage constructed with chondrocytes derived from auricular and articular cartilage.

METHODSChondrocytes were isolated from porcine auricular and articular cartilage, and BMSCs were obtained from bone marrow aspirate and cultured. Each kind of chondrocytes were resuspended alone or mixed with BMSCs at a ratio of 1:1, and seeded onto PGA/PLA scaffolds to construct tissue engineered cartilage (n = 4). The constructs were cultured for 8 weeks in vitro and then subcutaneously implanted into nude mice for 6 weeks. The differences between chondrocytes monoculture from articular and auricular cartilage or between each of them co-cultured with BMSCs were evaluated by gross view, measurement of thickness and wet weight, histological examinations including H&E, Safranin O, type II collagen, and Ponceau's & Victoria blue staining, and gene expression analysis of cartilage related genes.

RESULTSNo obvious differences were found histologically among the complexes constructed in vitro 8 weeks except for few elastic fibers secreted in the auricular chondrocytes + BMSCs co-culture group. Neo-cartilage is thicker in the groups of articular chondrocytes (38. 1% than the group of auricular chondrocytes, P < 0.05) and articular chondrocytes + BMSCs co-culture (19.3% than the group of auricular chondrocytes + BMSCs, P < 0.05). However, after 6 weeks in vivo the elastic fibers were found positive in the complexes constructed by auricular chondrocytes, and its staining was even stronger and more homogenous in the group of auricular chondrocytes + BMSCs co-culture. The tissues generated by articular chondrocytes alone and co-cultured with BMSCs both formed the characteristic features of three-layer structure of hyaline cartilage and ossified in vivo with significant up-regulation of COL10A1 and MMP-13. To summarize, auricular chondrocytes formed the elastic cartilage while articular chondrocytes formed the hyaline cartilage during the development of tissue engineered cartilage either by monoculture or the co-culture with BMSCs.

CONCLUSIONSThe chondrogenic response of chondrocytes from different cartilage origins demonstrates that an initial chondrocyte and cartilage type recapitulates the same in later tissue-engineered development.

Animals ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; Cartilage, Articular ; cytology ; Cells, Cultured ; Chondrocytes ; Coculture Techniques ; Ear Auricle ; cytology ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology ; Mice, Nude ; Swine ; Tissue Engineering ; methods ; Tissue Scaffolds

Objective Establishment and characterization of healthy donor's ??T cell clones.Methods ??T cells were cloned by limiting dilution after positive sorting with 60Co irradiated allogeneic PBMC as feeder cells.Flow cytometry analysis and molecular biology technique were then used to identify ??T cell clones.MTT assay was used to verify their proliferation after incubated with epitope peptides recognized by ??T cells.Results A ??T cell clone had been established.The subtype of this clone was V ?9 V ?2 without expression of CD4 and CD8.Further studies indicated that epitope peptide EP6 could not only specifically bind to ??T cell clone but also trigger the proliferation of ??T cell clone.Conclusion A healthy donor's ??T cell clone was successfully established,which laid a solid foundation for further study on ??T cells.

Objective To explore the changes in serum plasminogen activator inhibitor 1(PAI-1),tissue factor(TF) and antithrombin Ⅲ(ATⅢ) in early period of severe limb injury,and their relationship with the occurrence of traumatic pre-DIC and DIC after trauma.Methods Thirty-five patients were divided into severe injury group(AIS score ≥3,20 cases),minor injury group(15 cases),and 10 healthy subjects served as control.The 35 patients with injury were divided again into pre-DIC group(10 cases),DIC group(3 cases),and others(22 cases).Fasting peripheral venous blood was collected on day 1,3,6 from the patients and healthy subjects.The changes in TF,ATⅢ and PAI-1 levels were detected and statistically analyzed.Results The PAI-1 levels were higher in minor injury group and severe injury group than that in control group on day 1(P

Objective To investigate the efficacy of Ganju Bingmei Pill combined with voice therapy in the treatment of vocal nodules .Methods A total of 72 patients with vocal nodules and 60 health people in our hospital were included .Patients were randomly divided into two groups :Group A (36 cases) with Ganju Bingmei Pill thera‐py ,group B (36 cases) with Ganju Bingmei Pill combined with voice therapy .Taking method of Ganju Bingmei Pill was three times a day ,2 tablets every time ,two weeks as one course of treatment with a total of four courses .Voice therapy in Group B was two weeks for one course with a total of four courses .The results were evaluated by voice handicap index ,voice acoustic analysis and laryngostroboscopy .Vocal nodules disappear or significantly reduce indi‐cated that the treatment was effective .Statistical analysis was performed using t - test and chi - square test .Results In group A ,the scores of T ,F ,P ,E were reduced compared with before treatment (P < 0 .05) ,however ,com‐pared with normal control group ,the score of F ,E ,T were still higher than those of normal group (P < 0 .05) .In group B ,the score of T ,F ,P ,E were reduced compared with before treatment (P< 0 .05) ,and compared with normal control group ,the score of F ,P ,E ,T were close to normal(P> 0 .05) .The VHI score in group B were significantly lower than those of in group A (P < 0 .05) .In Group A compared with before treatment ,jitter ,shimmer ,NHR were lower ,F0 was higher(P < 0 .05) ,however ,compared with the group of normal control ,F0 ,jitter ,shimmer , NHR were still statistically significant (P < 0 .05) .In group B with before treatment jitter ,shimmer ,NHR were lower ,F0 was higher (P< 0 .05) ,and jitter ,shimmer were already close to normal(P> 0 .05) .The F0 of group B after treatment was higher than group A ,jitter and shimmer were lower than group A after treatment (P< 0 .05) . After treatment ,there were 28 cases of group A (77 .78% )of patients with vocal nodules disappear or significantly reduce .There were 35 cases of group B(97 .22% ) of patients with vocal nodules disappear or significantly reduce , the effective rate between group A and group B was statistically significant (P< 0 .05) .Conclusion Ganju Bingmei Pill therapy and Ganju Bingmei Pill therapy combined with voice therapy all have curative effect for the treatment of vocal nodules however ,Ganju Bingmei Pill therapy combined with voice therapy is more efficient .