Objective To evaluate the value of peak time(PT) and corrected peak time(PTc) in the assessment of left ventricular long axis systolic function in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM).Methods Thirty-one DCM cases and thirty-six healthy cases were investigated using echocardiography.To obtain image of apical four-chamber view and apical two-chamber view, PT was measured by the technique of tissue motion annular displacement.The value of PTc was corrected by R-R interval.The critical value of PT and PTc was obtained by ROC curves.Results Compared with the PT of control group, the PT of DCM group at the site of septal and lateral were significantly increased ( P ＜0.05), but the PT at the site of anterior and inferior were no significantly increased ( P ＞0.05).The PTc at the four sites were significantly increased compared with control group ( P ＜0.05).The areas of under the ROC curve of PTc was 0.849 (95 % CI 0.699～0.929, P = 0.000), sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis cardiac dysfunction were 80.6 % and 66.7% respectively.Conclusions The PTc was significantly increased in patients with DCM.PTc was useful to evaluate left ventricular dysfunction in DCM patients.

OBJECTIVE:To explore the content variation rule and influencing factors of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural(5-HMF)in the extraction process of the herbs Schisandra chinensis and improve the quality of monitoring the extract of Schisandra chinensis. METHODS:High performance liquid chromatography was adopted to determine the contents of 5-HMF in the extracts during the extraction process (decoction,vacuum concentration,alcohol precipitation,vacuum drying,alkali adjustment),and the content variation rule was found out. For vacuum drying during which the content of 5-HMF reduced obviously,the effects of the tempera-ture and time of drying on the content of 5-HMF were studied,and the effects of vacuum drying and freeze drying on the 5-HMF contents were compared. RESULTS:The content variation trend in the extraction process of Schisandra chinensis was as follows as a large amount of 5-HMF was produced in the herbs decoction process;the content of 5-HMF increased during concentration,re-duced during the alcohol precipitation and the vacuum drying of the extracts by three times concentrate,and maintained substantial-ly unchanged during alkali adjustment. In the process of vacuum drying,the content of 5-HMF decreased with temperature rise and time extension. Freeze drying had no effect as good as that of vacuum drying in the reduction in the content of 5-HMF. CON-CLUSIONS:It is suggested that the vacuum drying of the extracts by three times concentrate at higher temperature,which may pro-duce the extract of Schisandra chinensis with lower content of 5-HMF and thus improve the quality of Schisandra chinensis extract.