In recent years, much attention has been paid to arterial stiffness detection,but the relation between arterial stiffness and cerebrovascular disease has not been fully elucidated.This article reviews the detective methods of arterial stiffness and its relationship between the risk factors for cerebrovascular disease, ischemic stroke (including asymptomatic cerebral infarction) and cerebral hemorrhage.

Objective To study effect of Tongbiling (TBL) on VEGF mRNA expression in RA synovlcytes cultured in vitro and explore its mechanism. Method Synovial cells from the knee joint in patient with RA were digested, divided and separately cultured after arthroscopy. Blank controls:DMEM culture containing 10% FBS in saline;Low-dose admission group of TBL:DMEM culture containing 10% FBS in 50 mg/L TBL;High-dose admission of TBL:DMEM culture containing 10% FBS in 200 mg/L TBL. RNA were distilled. Expression of VEGF mRNA were detected with RT-PCR. Result Compared with control group, expression of VEGF mRNA in low and high-dose admission groups of TBL both decreased (P

Objective To explore the value cerebral blood flow in prediction of motor recovery of stroke patients. Methods After evaluating the cerebral blood flow velocities of bilateral middle cerebral arteries with TCD during passive elbow movement, 68 patients with cerebral infarction were treated by rehabilitation therapy. The motor function of upper limbs was evaluated with Fugl Meyer before and after 6,12 weeks of treatment. The patients were divided into groups A and B according to the Fugl Meyer scales score of the paralytic upper limb at 12 weeks and the changes of cerebral blood velocities were compared between the two groups. Results The score of upper limb motor function were not different between group B and A before the treatment, but the score of group B was significantly higher than that of group A ( P

Objective To probe into the treatment effect of Sibelium to hypertensive cerebral vascular lesion and its mechanism.Methods After preparing the model of renovascular hypertensive rats (RHR), we observed the changes of the arterial blood pressure, the cerebral blood velocity, and the pathology of cerebral vascular with treatment of Sibelium. Results The arterial blood pressure of the rats taking medicine 2 to 4 weeks later was lower obviously than RHR of no taking medicine at the same stage, The pathological changes of basal cerebral arteries in the rats were milder than RHR of no taking medicine after treating 4 to 6 weeks. These effects may keep 2 to 4 weeks.Conclusion At early stage of hypertension,Sibelium can reduce the arterial blood pressure of RHR, and stop the progress of cerebral vascular lesion.

BACKGROUND: Critical closing pressure (CCP) is recently thought to play a key role in cerebral blood flow autoregulation as an effective downstream pressure of cerebral circulation and can objectively reflect the cerebrovascular tone, namely the vascular smooth muscle contraction and diastole, which is subjected to dynamic modulation.OBJECTIVE: To dynamically assess the hypertension-induced damage of the contraction function of cerebral microvascular smooth muscles and its correlation with morphological changes based on CCP evaluation.DESIGN: Randomized controlled experiment.SETTING: Institute of Neural Science of Second Hospital Affiliated to Guangzhou Medical College and Department of Neurology, First Hospital Affiliated to Sun Yet-san University.MATERIALS: The experiment was carried out at the Laboratory of Physiological Science of Sun Yet-san University between July 2002 and August 2003. Totally 160 health male SD rats were randomized into control group and hypertension group with 80 rats in each group. METHODS: Stroke-prone renovas cular hyp ortonsive rats were established in rats of the hypertension group by bilateral renal artery occlusion with two clips. The rats in the control group were not subjected to the occlusion with other treatments identical to those of the hypertension group. At the time points of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 weeks after operation, respectively, 10 rats were randomly selected from each of the two groups for determination of arterial pressure and CCP. After the measurements the frontal-parietal lobe was obtained from the anaesthetized rats and cut into slices for quantitative analysis of the morphological changes in cerebral microvessels.different postoperative time points.mean arterial pressure in hypertension group obviously increased from the 6th postoperative week with significant difference from that of the control after operation to a level significantly higher than that of the control group at postoperative 14 and 16 weeks [(63.75±7.43) vs (37.28±3.68) mm Hg and (67.37±15.57) vs (38.39t7.41) mm Hg, respectively, P ＜ 0.05].significance from that of the control group at the 8th postoperative week (Paverage arterial pressure and cerebral arteriole tunica media (r=0.906 93,0.811 36, respectively, P ＜ 0.05). The changes in CCP was more obvious in the early and advanced stages of blood pressure elevation, but not so manifest during obvious blood pressure increment, displaying an inverted S-shaped curve of changes (R2=0.996 2, P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: Contraction of the cerebrovascular smooth muscles is enhanced with the dynamic increment of arterial pressure after the development of hypertension. Vascular tone increase is more manifest during the early and advanced stages of hypertension.

Vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) is a kind of protein facilitating the angiogenesis,which can combine with its special receptor. The 2 major functions of VEGF are:(1) accelerate the proliferation of endothelial cells,leading to the formation of new vessels;(2) up regulation of the vessels permeability.The activity of the VEGF is regulated by various factors at different levels,such as: hypoxia, oncogene,the cytokine, the intercellular matrix, etc .The biological character and role of VEGF were summarized in this article with special emphasis on VEGF function and regulation.

Objective To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of HPV16 E7 peptide pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) in recurrent condyloma acuminate (CA). Methods A total of 32 cases of recurrent CA (more than 3 times) were divided into the treatment group and the control group. Patients (11 cases, HPV16 +and HLA A2 +) in the treatment group received treatment with DCs, while the other 21 cases in the control group were treated with interferon. A follow up of 6 months was conducted in all patients. The pathological lesions, the peripheral T cell subpopulations of the patients, and the therapeutic efficacy before and after treatment were observed. Results The size of the lesions became smaller or disappeared in the treatment group. The infiltrated lymphocytes increased, but the koilocytotic cells decreased in the lesions. No significant change in the peripheral T cell subpopulations was found before and after therapy. The recurrence rates in the treatment group and the control group were 18.2% and 61.9%, respectively. Conclusion The therapy by E7 peptide pulsed dendritic cells can improve the local immune status in the skin and reduce the recurrence rate significantly in patients with recurrent CA.

The technology of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy(MRS) is a newly-developed mean for analyzing some specific nucleus and their compounds making use of the principles of magnetic resonance and the effects of chemical shift. Currently, among MRS applications, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1HMRS) is the most widely applied one developed from single voxel to three-dimensional multi-voxel scanning technique. It provides a lot of important information for clinical studies. This article mainly reviews the methods for absolute quantification measurement of brain metabolites using multi-voxel MRS.

Objective An analysis was carried out for the reports of traditional Chinese medical syndrome patterns of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients in related reports issued in the recent 35 years, thus to explore the characteristics of syndrome patterns of PsA patients and to supply evidence for the syndrome classification. Methods Electronic retrieval was performed in the reports of PsA syndrome analysis issued in the Chinese medical journals from the year of 1979 to 2013. Traditional Chinese medical syndrome information of PsA patients was extracted from the reports, and then was standardized and classified. SPSS 17.0 software was applied for the analysis of occurrence frequency of syndromes, syndrome elements, tongue and pulse states. Results A total of 84 reports were obtained, and 26 reports met the inclusion criteria. In the 26 included reports, 10 kinds of tongue texture, 15 kinds of tongue fur and 22 kinds of pulse states were present. After the standardization of the syndromes, a total of 39 syndrome patterns were obtained. After combination of the similar syndromes, 14 syndromes were included into the analysis. In the 14 included syndrome patterns, the leading 5 patterns were wind-damp heat arthralgia, wind-heat with blood dryness, excessive heat toxin, wind-cold damp arthralgia, and liver-kidney deficiency. Fourteen syndrome elements were extracted from the syndromes, and 9 were included into the analysis after combination of the similar syndrome elements. The top syndrome elements were heat, phlegm-dampness, wind, dryness, deficiency, and blood stasis. Conclusion The syndrome patterns of PsA patients are various, and the syndrome elements of cold, heat, phlegm-dampness, wind, dryness, and blood stasis play an important role in the pathogenesis of PsA.

AIM:To examine the effects of thromboxane A 2 receptor ( TXA2 R) , the downstream product of cy-clooxygenase-2 (COX-2), on the proliferative ability and COX-2 expression in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial cells. METHODS:The effects of TXA2 R antagonist SQ29548 and agonist U46619 on the proliferation of RA synovial cell line MH7A were detected by MTS cell proliferation assay , and their effects on COX-2 mRNA expression in MH7A cells were al-so examined by real-time PCR.In addition, the possible effect of U46619 on the proliferation of MH7A cells, when COX-2 was knocked down by siRNA , was determined by BrdU cell proliferation assay .RESULTS:SQ29548 inhibited the cell proliferation and the mRNA level of COX-2 while U46619 enhanced them.Moreover, U46619 reconstitute the proliferative ability of MH7A cells to some extent that inhibited by COX-2 siRNA.CONCLUSION: In RA synovial cells, TXA2R is able to control COX-2 expression, while it also mediates the effects of COX-2, suggesting that TXA2R might be an ideal candidate for RA treatment .