Objective To evaluate the expression of serum vascular endothelial growth factor ( VEGF ) on recurrence and/or metastasis following surgery in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma,and to ana1yze the relationship between serum VEGF and serum thyroglobulin levels.Methods The serum samples were obtained from 25 patients with pulmonary metastasis, 43 cases with locoregional recurrence, 30 cases without recurrence and/or metastasis and 30 normal subjects were selected as control.The levels of serum VEGF were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay( ELISA) ,the levels of serum thyroglobulin were analyzed by chemiluminescence method. Results The level of serum VEGF[(864.3 ±200.3)ng/L] in patients with pulmonary metastasis were significantly higher than that in patients with locoregional recurrence[(393.3 ±96.3)ng/L],without recurrence and /or metasta-sis[(276.6 ±47.7)ng/L] and normal subjects[(268.6 ±36.9)ng/L](t=11.04,14.34,14.66,all P<0.05), while there was no significant difference of serum VEGF level between without recurrence and /or metastasis and normal subjects (t=0.73,P>0.05).It showed linear correlation between serum VEGF and thyroglobulin levels on recurrence and/or metastasis following surgery in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma ( r=0.902 2, P<0.001) .Conclusion The serum VEGF level was significantly elevated in patients with locoregional recurrence and pulmonary metastases, the serum VEGF can be used as a auxiliary index to predict recurrence and /or metastasis following surgery in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

Objective To evaluate the effect of duration of subcutaneous injection on the extent of bruising at injection sites among patients receiving low- molecular weight heparin. Methods Randomized clinical trials and quasi-experimental within-subject design that assessed the effect of subcutaneous duration on the bruising of injection sites were selected in Cochrane library, JBI evidence-based practice medical and nursing database, PubMed biomedical information retrieval platform, Medline general medical literature retrieval database. RevMan5.3 software was used to analyze the data after quality assessment, and data extraction were made for eligible trials. Results A total of 9 trials were included. The results of Meta-analysis supported the 30 s duration injection technique on reducing the rate of bruising of injection sites than 10 s duration injection technique (odds ratio was 0.34,95%confidence interval 0.25-0.47, P<0.01).While it was failed to support the effect on reducing the bruising area 48 and 72 hours after injection (P > 0.05). Conclusions Increasing the length of low-molecular weight heparin subcutaneous injection can reduce the rate of bruising. While it could not effectively reduce the area.

Objective: To explore the influence of mild extrapyramidal signs(EPS) on the ability of daily living(ADL) of aged people and the countermeasures in nursing.Methods: We recruited 131 aged people without overt neurologoical diseases,rated their EPS and ADL according to an abbreviated version of the motor portion of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale(UPDRS) and assessed the influence of EPS on ADL by logistic regression analysis.Results: Those with EPS were significantly more advanced in years(P

Objective To study the clinical significance for the establishment of diagnosis of small bowel obstruction by selective small bowel enterography through a nasointestinal decompression tube. Methods Tirty-five patients with small bowel obstruction, with no strangulation or other contraindications, were intubated with a 300 cm nasointestinal decompression tube till upper jejunum under X-ray monitoring. The patients firstly underwent intra-small-intestinal suction therapy. When the tube reached the diseased region, a selective small bowel enterography was performed. Under X-ray inspection, 20-100 ml of 76% meglumine diatrizoatis and 50-200 ml of air were slowly injected via the decompression tube to perform double contrast intestinal radiography. Results Intubation was successful in all the 35 patients. Mter the small intestinal decompression therapy. Obstruction was cured in 20 cases, alleviated in 15 cases, and 10 cases received operation. Small bowel enterography in this series was all of high quality, there were 6 cases in which no abnormal X-ray findings, adhesive small bowel obstruction was suggested in 15 cases, small bowel tumor was identified in 4 cases (3 metastatic tumor, 1 small bowel cancer), small bowel Crohn's disease in 3 cases, radioactive enteritis in 3 cases, enteric intussusception in 2, polyp of the small intestine in one, and carcinoma of the ascending colon in one. Conclusions The nasointestinal decompression intubation with X-ray monitoring serves a dual function for the patients with intestinal obstruction, it decompresses the small bowel and does small intestinal radiography, in this way the locale of obstruction was found and the cause of the obstruction identified.

Objective To explore the application of serum SELDI proteomic patterns to screen breast cancer biomarkers.Methods Serum protein profiles of 110 breast cancer patients and 100 healthy controls were analyzed with surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOFMS).The spectra were generated on weak cation exchange (WCX2) chips and protein peaks clustering and classification analyses were made using Biomaker Wizard software.Differences in protein intensity between breast cancer cases and controls were measured with the Mann-Whitney U test and adjusted for confounding in a multivariate logistic regression model.Results Forty-nine of these proteins were found to have statistically differential expression levels between breast cancer and normal control sera (P ＜ 0.05).Based on literatures reported,six protein biomarkers,with mass-to-charge ratio (M/Z) (4376,8126,8924,3264,3968,and 9180) were selected.Proteins with M/Z 4376,4126,and 8924 were statistically significantly decreased in breast cancer cases compared to those in healthy controls (P ＜ 0.05).Proteins with M/Z 3264,3968,and 9180 were significantly increased in breast cancer cases compared to those in healthy controls,Protein with M/Z 9180 was associated with TNM stage and Her-2 expression in breast cancer (P ＜ 0.05).Protein with M/Z 8926 was related with lymph node metastasis (P ＜0.05).Conclusion These results suggest that serum SELDI protein profiling can distinguish breast cancer patients from normal subjects with relatively high sensitivity and specificity.SELDI-TOF-MS plays a valuable role in the diagnosis of breast cancer and the discovery of new tumor-specific protein biomarkers.

The prevalence of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) associated with EV71 and the genetic variation in Fujian , China from 2003 to 2012 was investigated in this study .Descriptive epidemiology was used to analyze the epidemiologic and clinical features of AFP cases associated with EV 71 .Phylogenetic analysis was performed to explore the genetical characteris-tics of EV71 based on the complete VP1 nucleotide and amino acid sequences .Results showed that the mean incidence of EV71-associated AFP in children under 15 years old was 2 .24/10 000 000 in Fujian Province during 2003 and 2012 ,based on the number of EV71 isolates and the reported AFP cases .And the incidence has increased since 2008 .The EV71 strains isolated from the AFP cases or from the healthy contacts were distributed in 9 prefectures of Fujian Province ,most in the months of May and June .Of 76 .0% (19/25) of AFP cases associated with EV 71 were the children under 3 years and the male-to-female ratio was 1 .5 :1 .Twenty out of twenty-two cases (90 .91% ) had fevers before the onset of paralysis .Most cases had unilater-al limb paralysis (14/22 ,63 .6% ) .Typical manifestations of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) were observed in five cases before the onset of paralysis .Residual paralysis was observed in two cases during the follow-up visits .The strains isolated from 25 cases belonged to genotype C4 .All other strains belonged to subtype C4a except the subtype C4b strains isolated in 2003 .The homology among the strains was high in 2009-2011 ,and the homology among these strains and the representative strains in Fuyang ,Anhui Province was also in the high level .Therefore ,it was possible that the isolated strains had the same origin and might cause the epidemic .In conclusion ,an AFP surveillance system could be developed for analyzing the incidence of AFP associated with EV71 ,determining the features of the isolates ,and describing the intensity and trends of EV71 epidem-ics .

Objective To investigate the phenotype and function of CD8+T cells cultured with SK-OV-3. Methods Transwell coculture experiments were conducted in 24-well plates with inner wells to separate CD8+ T cells and SK-OV-3. After 5 days of culture, CD8+ T cells were washed, and 1 × 106 cells were collected for Foxp3, CD25, CD28, CTLA-4 and GITR mRNA analysis and 2 × 106 cells were collected to detect expression of Foxp3, CD25, CD28, CTLA-4 and GITR in CD8+ T cells by flow cytometry. CD8+T cells that cultured alone or with SK-OV-3 were added at ratios of 1∶0 , 1∶1 , 1∶5 , 1∶10 , and 0∶1 to na?ve CD4+ T cells in 96-well plates. All wells were cultured with the presence of irradiated PBMCs and anti-CD3 antibody. After 72 h, [3H]-thymidine was added for 16 h prior to the determination of proliferation by scintillation counting. Results Compared with CD8+ T cells cultured without SK-OV-3 , the expression of Foxp3 and CTLA-4 was increased and CD28 expression was decreased in CD8+ T cells cultured with SK-OV-3 (both P < 0.001). We found that CD8+T cells cultured with SK-OV-3 significantly suppressed the na?ve CD4+ T cell proliferation induced by the anti-CD3 stimulation in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, CD8+ T cells cultured without SK-OV-3 did not suppress na?ve CD4+ T cell proliferation. Conclusion Ovarian cancer cell can induce the suppressive CD8+Treg, which is an important link of the immunosuppressive microenvironment in ovarian cancer.

Objective To assess the empathy level of general practitioners (GPs) in the outpatient clinics of a general hospital,and to investigate the related factors.Methods Patients attending the Family Medicine Clinic of HKU-Shenzhen Hospital in September 2014 and met the inclusion criteria were asked to complete the questionnaire which included general characteristics,overall satisfaction and the Measure-Consultation and Relational Empathy Measure (CARE) Scale after the consultation.Results Of the 1 818 questionnaires retrieved,1 690 CARE scales were completed (intact rate was 92.96%).The overall satisfaction rate was 95.92% (1 621/1 690).And 97.28% (1 644/1 690) of the patients would recommend family medicine service to their friends or relatives.The total score of CARE scale was (45.47±6.26),and the scores of 4 CARE components were (4.63 ± 0.59),(4.43 ± 0.81),(4.54 ± 0.69) and (4.55 ± 0.66),which showed significant difference (P<0.01).The multivariate linear regression analysis showed that the mean CARE scores were not influenced by gender and education levels of the patients,gender of the consulting doctors,initial/follow up consultation,and the location of the consultation.The mean CARE scores were influenced by age of patients and the reasons for consulting (P<0.05).There was a moderate correlation of the CARE scores with the overall satisfaction of patients (r=0.613,P<0.001) and patient's recommendation of the clinic (r=0.466,P<0.001).Conclusion Doctors who were evaluated in this study have a higher empathy level than results from other countries.There is positive correlation between doctor's empathy level and patient's overall satisfaction.The result of doctor's empathy level may be influenced by patient's age and the reasons for consulting.

Obiective To screen serum biomarkers in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)by SELDI-TOF-MS technique.Methods SELDI-TOF-MS technique and CM10 Protein Chip were used to detect serum protein patterns of 46 patients with primary hepatic carcinoma and 64 healthy persons.The different proteins were obtained by the Biomarker Wizard software between the patients and healthy persons.The best biomarker of primary hepatic carcinoma was selected by evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of the protein.Results 16 protein peaks were obviously different between the patients and the healthy persons (P ＜0.05).The protein peaks of m/z 6845.70 had the highest diagnosis value with a sensitivity of 89.1％ (41/46)and specificity of 87.5 ％ (56/64).This protein was likely to be a part of the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region.Conclusion The protein of m/z 6845.70 is potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of HCC.SELDI-TOF-MS technique is a quick,simple,convenient and high through-put technology for diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

ObjectiveTo establish a database for direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) targeting hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3/4A protease and related resistance-associated variants, and to investigate its application in drug resistance analysis. MethodsThe published data and information of anti-NS3/4A DAAs and related drug resistance data were collected and mined. The in vitro data of viral drug-resistant mutations and resistance-associated variants identified in clinical treatment were entered into the database, and a statistical analysis was performed based on the type of drugs, HCV genotypes, positions of drug-resistant mutations, and type of substituted amino acids. Some of the results were available for online query on a website. Then the database was used to perform a multi-data analysis of the drug resistance of genotype 3 HCV, a well-known difficult-to-treat viral genotype. ResultsA database for anti-NS3/4A DAAs and their drug resistance data was established and some data were available for online query on a website (http://www.biosino.org/hcv/). This database consisted of the following four parts, with over ten thousands of pieces of information: the information of DAAs; the in vitro drug-resistance data of viral strains with different genotypes containing drug-resistant mutations; the prevalence of pre-existing resistance-associated variants and their detection rates in patients with treatment failure; the three-dimensional structures of the DAA-NS3/4A protease complex. This database was used to analyze drug resistance of all genotypes of HCV, and it was found that anti-NS3/4A DAAs had the poorest therapeutic effect in patients with genotype 3 HCV. Although the third-generation anti-NS3/4A DAAs had a good antiviral effect in patients with wild-type genotype 3 HCV, drug-resistant mutations might occur. ConclusionThis database is the first one in China for anti-NS3/4A DAAs and their drug-resistance data and provides an important resource of information and guidance for research on drug resistance and clinical treatment of HCV.