BACKGROUND: Osteophyte caused by degenerative osteoarthropathy of the cervical vertebrae may compress the vertebral artery, resulting in vertebrobasilar insufficiency, especially when the patients' head postures change, making them adapt forced head position.OBJECTIVE: To investigate successively the relationship between the change of flow velocity of the posterior circulation and the symptom of vertebrobasilar insufficiency during various head postures with transcranial Doppler ultrasound.DESIGN: Randomized grouping controlled, auto-control observation.SETTING: Department of Neurology, Guangxi Minzu Hospital and Department of Neurology, First Hospital, Peking University.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 20 patients with vertebrobasilar insufficiency and 10 normal persons were enrolled from Department of Neurology,Guangxi Minzu Hospital between March 2003 and May 2004.METHODS: Regard blood flow velocity in natural position of anterior segment of posterior cerebral artery as baseline values. Blood flow velocity was compared at left rotation, right rotation, anterior inflexion and posterior inflexion. Symptoms of vertebrobasilar insufficiency were observed. The data were collected and compared in individuals, within group, and between groups.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Blood flow velocity difference of various head postures in each group; Symptoms of vertebrobasilar insufficiency were observed.RESULTS:During monitoring, there were 9 cases complained of ischemic symptoms and 11 cases without symptoms. There was no significant difference in blood flow change of left rotation, right rotation and posterior inflexion in the normal control group with natural position. The reduction of flow velocity was significant in anterior inflexion (P ＜ 0.05 ), and none appeared clinical symptom. There was significant difference in reduction of blood flow at anterior inflexion and at natural position in patients with symptom (P ＜ 0.05), and there was significant difference in reduction of blood flow at posterior inflexion and natural position (P ＜ 0.001 ). There was significant difference in reduction of blood flow at left rotation and posterior inflexion in those without symptom during monitoring as compared with that at natural position (P ＜ 0.05 ).CONCLUSION: Continuously observing the blood flow in posterior cerebral artery at different head position can objectively assess the relationship between decrease of blood flow velocity of vertebral arteries induced by neck movements and clinical symptoms.

Objective To investigate the Allelic and haplotype frequency distribution of seventeen short tandem repeat loci of Y chromosome in Heiyi Zhuang ethnic groups in Guangxi province.Methods Seventeen Y-STR loci,of which the template DNAs were extracted from blood samples of 184 unrelated male individuals in Heiyi Zhuang population,were amplified by using the AmpFlSTR YfilerTM.The PCR products were genotyped with ABI PRISM 310 genetic analyzer.Results The Gene diversity ranged from 0.4910 to 0.9727 at DYS456、DYS389Ⅰ、DYS390、DYS389Ⅱ、DYS458、DYS19、DYS385a\b、DYS393、DYS391、DYS439、DYS635、DYS392、Y-GATA-H4、DYS437、DYS438、DYS448.A total of 180 different haplotypes were observed,The haplotype diversity value calculated from all 17 loci was 0.99976.The significant difference of the allelic frequency distribution in Y-STR loci was found between Heiyi Zhuang population and other observed populations.Conclusion The 17th Y-STR loci in Heiyi Zhuang population of Guangxi province are highly affluent genetic polymorphic and can offer valuable genetic datas for paternity testing and paternal genetic lineages evolution.

Objective To analyze the correlation of traditional Chinese medical constitution types withcardiovascular risk factors in community hypertension patients. Methods We defined the constitution types of 1108 community hypertension patients, created personal health archives and provided routine examination for the subjects. After that, we input and analyzed the relevant data and results by computer. Results In 1108 cases of hypertension patients, 229 (20.67%) were defined as harmony physique, 879 (79.33%) as biased physique. In patients with biased physique, phlegm-dampness physique accounted for 25.54% (283 cases) , and then came yin deficiency physique and Qi deficiency physique, which accounted for 15.16% (168 cases) and 13.18% (146 cases) , respectively. The biased physique was dominated by single biased physique with a total of 590 cases ( 67.12%) , but the complex physique was also in large quantity, with a total of 289 cases ( 32.88%) . The complex physique consisting of two kinds of single physique was commonly seen in the patients with complex physique, accounting for 15.70%. The complex physique consisting of more kinds of single physique had less percentage. Phlegm-dampness physique was a kind of physique involving the most cardiovascular risk factors. Patients with phlegm-dampness physique had higher incidence of overweight, abnormal lipid level, family history of cardiovascular disease, lack of physical exercise and electrocardiographic abnormality, and the difference was statistically significant compared with other physique types ( P<0.05 or P<0.01) . Conclusion Phlegm-dampness, yin deficiency and Qi deficiency physique are the three commonly-seen constitution types in hypertension patients. Phlegm-dampness physique is the most commonly-seen biased physique and is also a kind of physique involving the most cardiovascular risk factors. Prevention and management in consideration with the constitution characteristics and cardiovascular risk factors will be a new prospective method for the treatment of hypertension patients in community.