Conventional CT plays an important role in the diagnosis, staging, radiotherapy target delineation, and prognosis of NSCLC, but it still has many limitations.PET/CT has been widely used in the diagnosis and treamtent of lung cancer.In particular, PET/CT metabolic parameters have great guiding significance in the prognosis of NSCLC patients undergoing radiotherapy, and may be superior to many clinical indices.This review summarizes the advances in the application of PET/CT in the prognostic evaluation of NSCLC patients undergoing radiotherapy.

Drug abuse and addiction are increasingly severe, which is both a serious social problem and an important medical research work. It is very significant to evaluate dependence potential of centrally acting drugs. Several lines of evidence have shown that there is a close relationship between drug sensitization and drug abuse and addiction. More attention has been directed to sensitization of abused drugs. We introduce the establishment of behavioral sensitization animal model, review neurobiological mechanisms underlying development and expression of behavioral sensitization, and further discuss the role of behavioral sensitization animal model in evaluation of drug dependence.

Adult ; China ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Occupational Exposure ; Personnel, Hospital ; Protective Devices ; Young Adult

Basal Ganglia ; Brain Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Germinoma ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Humans ; Thalamus

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic value of serum Golgi protein-73 (GP73) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: The peripheral serum samples from 504 individuals were collected, including 144 HCC patients, 50 cirrhotic patients, 100 hepatitis B patients, 84 hepatitis B virus carriers, 50 patients with other malignancies, 26 patients with benign liver tumor, and 50 healthy volunteers. The expression levels of serum GP73 and alpha-fetal protein (AFP) were detected by double antibody sandwich ELISA and electrochemiluminescence assay, respectvely. Results: The expression level of serum GP73 from the HCC patients was significantly higher than those from the other patient groups (P <0.05). When the cut-off value was determined as 64 ng/mL by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the sensitivity and specificity of GP73 for the diagnosis of HCC were both higher than those of AFP (83.3% vs 72.2%; 88.3% vs 76.7%; both P <0.05). The sensitivity of GP73 in combination with serum AFP for the diagnosis of HCC was 94.4%. Conclusion: The sensitivity and specificity of serum GP73 for the diagnosis of HCC are higher than those of serum AFP. The rate of HCC diagnosis is increased by combined examination of serum GP73 and AFP. Copyright © 2012 by TUMOR.

Objective: To investigate the anti-fungal activities of 20 tetralin compounds in vitro. Methods: We adopted the M27-A project recommended by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standard (NCCLS). Tetralin compounds were tested and selected with several candidal strains and non-candidal strains with different susceptibilities to fluconazole. After obtaining the susceptibility results, we plotted the time-growth curves of several typical tetralin compounds, including compound 22-1, 31-1 and their muriate 22, 31, as well as compound 34-1, 26-1 and their bromate 34, 26. The combination effects of compound 22, 26, 34, 31-1 with other anti-fungal agents (with different structures) were also determined. Results: The 20 tetralin compounds were proven to have different degrees of anti-fungal activities. Compound 31-1 had a stronger anti-fungal activity to FLC-susceptible strains than fluconazole did, and its effect lasted for over 54 h at the concentration of 6 μg/ml. Compounds 22-1 and 22 markedly suppressed the growth of Candida albicans, Candida parapsilosis, and Trichophyton rubrum, with all the MIC50 values less than 0.125 μg/ml. Time-growth curves indicated that the anti-fungal activity of 22-1 on fluconazole-resistant strain was more powerful than that of ketoconazole. Furthermore, tetralin compounds had a synergistic effect with terbinafine and berberine on fluconazole-resistant strains. Conclusion: Tetralin compounds have powerful anti-fungal activities and their structures are different from those of other anti-fungal agents currently used, which provide a basis for developing new anti-fungal agents.

With the wide use of azoles, drug tolerance and cross tolerance of Candida albicands has seriously hampered the clinical treatments of Candida albicands. New antifungal agents (potent and effective) have been developed over the past years based on the discovery of many new target sites of Candida albicands. For example, Echinocandins (caspofungin and micafungin), aiming at the cell wall of Candida albicands, showed strong antifungal activities to fluconazole resistant candidas and fungal biofilm. Moreover, because β-glucan synthase does not exist on the cell membrane of mammalian cells, Echinocandins has a low toxicity and a promising clinical future. Though the mechanism of Histatin (targeting fungal membrane) is not clear, it has strong activity not only on candida resistant of polyene and azole, but also to Candida parapsilosis, Candida krusei and Cryptococcus neoformans. Berberine and Ocimum gratissimum L. were also found to have prominent anti-fungi activities. Berberine extract can intensively inhibit 24-SMT in a dose-depended manner; besides, it has more potent inhibitory activity against the growth of mycelia than against that of yeast. Various new methods can be used to increase the susceptibility of Candida albicands to antifungal agents, such as altering fungi membrane composition, changing some genes, adopting the photodynamic inactivation method, employing hypersensitization agents and combining antifungal agents. This article reviews the newly-developed antifungal agents and newly-proposed target sites of Candida albicands.

Objective To investigate the technical feasibility and oncological safety of EPMR for early esophageal cancer and precancerous lesions. Methods Clinicopathological data, procedure quality and complications of 70 patients with early esophageal cancer or precancerous lesions were retrospectively ana?lysed. The technical safety and feasibility were assessed, and the complications were investigated through postoperative surveillance. The results were compared with published data from two high?quality meta?analysis studies on ESD. Results In a total of 70 patients who underwent EPMR, 35?7%( 25/70) were diagnosed as having early esophageal cancer and 64?3%( 45/70) atypical hyperplasia. And tumor size greater than 2 cm was 78?6%(55/70). The mean EPMR time was(28?31±9?49) minutes. The R0 resection rate of EPMR was 88?6%(62/70) and no perforation occurred. The bleeding rate was 21?4%(15/70). The esoph?ageal stricture rate was 1?4%( 1/70) . The recurrence rate was 2?9%( 2/70) . Compared with published ESD data from the two studies, EPMR showed shorter procedure time, lower curative rate and lower rates of stric?ture and perforation, but slightly higher rates of bleeding and recurrence. Conclusion Both EPMR and ESD are feasible and effective for early esophageal cancer and precancerous lesions. The curative results of EPMR are similar to ESD, with shorter procedure time, but higher bleeding and recurrence rates.

Humans ; Hypertension ; complications ; Metabolic Syndrome ; complications ; physiopathology

Objective:To explore the effectiveness and safety of levosimendan treating severe decompensated heart failure (SDHF) .Methods :A total of 80 patients with SDHF caused by various caused were selected ,randomly and equally divided into levosimendan group and dobutamine group .Both groups received intravenous drip of corre‐sponding drug based on routine treatment ,and the course was 24h .After two weeks ,therapeutic effects were com‐pared between two groups .Results:After two weeks ,total effective rate of levosimendan group was significantly higher than that of dobutamine group (95.0% vs .72.5% , P= 0.005) .Compared with dobutamine group ,after two weeks , there were significant reductions in dyspnea status score [ (2.57 ± 0.80 ) scores vs . (1.89 ± 0.70 ) scores] ,general status score [(3.23 ± 0.65) scores vs .(2.95 ± 1.29) scores] ,respiratory frequency [(24.32 ± 0.98) times/min vs .(20.6 ± 1.58) times/min] and level of brain natriuretic peptide [(1584 ± 325.63) mg/ml vs .(1011.92 ± 302.31) mg/ml] ,and significant rise in left ventricular ejection fraction [(40.16 ± 4.85)% vs .(46.53 ± 3.37)% ] in levosimendan group , P<0.05 or <0.01. Conclusion:In short-term therapeutic effect on severe decompensated heart failure ,levosimendan is superior to dobutamine ,it possesses good safety and tolerance ,which can be used as an effective drug for severe decompensated heart failure .