[Objective] To investigate the effect of Biejia Jian Decoction on serum transforming growth factor ?1 (TGF-pl) , tumor necrosis factor a (TNF-?), lipid peroxidation ( LPO) and superoxide dismutase ( SOD) in patients with hepatic fibrosis (HF) induced by chronic hepatitis B. Its effect was compared with lamivudine. [Methods] Fifty-three cases of HF were randomized to two groups: group A (n = 27) was treated with Biejia Jian Decoction and group B ( n -26) with lamivudine for oral use. Twenty volunteers served as the normal controls (group C) . Serum levels of TGF-?1, TNF-?, LPO and SOD were observed before and after treatment. [Results] After treatment, serum levels of TGF-?1 and TNF-a were decreased markedly in group A (P 0.05) . Serum LPO level was lower and SOD level higher in groups A and B than those in group C before treatment ( P 0.05) but the level in group B differed from that of groups A and C (P 0.05) but the level in group B did not decrease and differed from that of groups A and C ( P

Objective To observe the effects of Biejia Jian (BJ) in preventing rat hepatic fibrosis. Methods Rat models with hepatic fibrosis were established by abdominal subcutaneous injection of 45 %carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and olive oil. Fifty Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: model group (treated with normal saline),small-dosage BJ group (6.25 g/kg BJ), moderate-dosage BJ group (12.5 g/kg BJ) and large-dosage BJ group (25.0 g/kg BJ). The treatment lasted 10 weeks. On the 11th week, rats eyes were removed to get blood sample. The biochemical parameters of blood were detected and HE staining was applied for the pathological examination of liver. Results BJ decreased the serum levels of ALT,AST,HA, LN and PC III in rats, no pseudo-lobules found in the BJ groups. Proliferation of fibrous tissue was mild and Limited and fatty degeneration of hepatocytes were slight in moderate-dosage and high-dosage BJ groups as compared with the small-dosage BJ group.Pathological changes in BJ groups were significantly improved (P

【Objective】To observe the effect of Jianzhong Yuyang Tablets(JYT) on prostaglandin E2(PGE2) content in gastric mucosa of rats with gastrointestinal injury induced by indomethacin.【Methods】One hundred and seven SD rats were randomized into 7 groups: blank control group,model group,famotidine(7.14 mg?kg-1?d-1)group,two Radix Codonopsis(RC,0.71 and 2.84 g?kg-1?d-1 respectively) groups,two JYT(0.27 and 1.08 g?kg-1?d-1 respectively) groups.Except the blank control group,the rats in other groups were given subcutaneous injection of indomethacin 20 mg/kg to induce gastrointestinal injury.PGE2 content in gastric mucosa of rats were detected with radioimmunoassay 7 hours and 7 days after modeling respectively.【Results】PGE2 content in gastric mucosa of model rats was lower than that in the blank control group 7 hours and 7 days after modeling(P

Objective: To explore the depression stares of the elderly experienced the Wenchuan earthquake and to know the related factors. Methods: Using the convenient sampling method, 390 elderly living in Chengdu and Deyang City were included in this investigation. Demographic data was recorded and the Center for Epidemiolog-ic Studies Depression (CES-D) was applied individually. Results: In this sample, 9.8% of the elderly had sus-pected depression symptom and 30.3% had depression symptom. Depression status was related to sex, education,habitual residence, occupation and experiences in earthquake. Compared with the elderly who were males, with middle school education degree, without horrible experiences in the past, with less fearful/helpless/horrible feel-ings in earthquake, the elderly who were females (OR=2.03), with education degree below primary school (OR =2.59), with horrible experiences in the past (OR=2.06), and with strong fearful/helpless/horrible feeling in earthquake (OR=1.59), had more serious depression. Conclusion: After 8 months of Wenchuan earthquake, lo-cal elderly victims are still in severe depression. The elderly who are female, with low education level, engaged in farm work, suffered great loss should be paid special attention.

Objective To study the features of hippocampal atrophy (HA) by MRI in mild Alzheimer's disease(AD) patients. Methods Fifteen mild AD patients and 30 healthy controls were included in this study and all subjects were examined by both MRI and MMSE. The differences in the hippocampal volume between the mild AD and the control were analysed, and relationships between the hippocampal volume and age, MMSE scores were evaluated. Results The hippocampal volume of the mild AD was decreased significantly than that of the controls 〔(2 08?0 46)cm 3 vs (3 11?0 19)cm 3, t =2 71, P 0 05). Conclusions MRI-based HA could be used to differentiate the mild AD patients effectively from the healthy subjects and could also be regarded as a status marker for the early clinical diagnosis of AD.

Objective:To examine factors that may have impact on the Mini-Mental State Examination ( MMSE) screening validity, which could lead to further establishing the general model of the MMSE score in Chinese health elderly and to improve the screening accuracy of the existing MMSE reference. Methods:Based on the data of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey ( CLHLS ) , the MMSE scores of 19 117 normal elderly and 137 dementia patients who met the inclusion criteria were used for the analysis. The area under the curve ( AUC) and validity indexes were used to compare the screening accuracy of various criteria. Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors that had impact on the MMSE score for both the normal and dementia elderly. Descriptive analysis was performed for differences in the MMSE scores by age trends and gender between the normal and dementia elderly. Results:The AUC of MMSE was≥0 . 75 ( P<0 . 05 ) . The MMSE score of the normal elderly declined nonlinearly as the age grew older(male:R2 =0. 924, P<0. 05; female: R2 =0. 951, P<0. 05), and increased nonlinearly as the education level rose(male: R2 =0. 948, P <0. 05; female: R2 =0. 859, P<0. 05). The females had significantly lower MMSE scores than the males, with a faster decline trend with age than the males (95%CI of female partial regression coefficient was not overlapped with 95%CI of male partial regression coefficient) . The dementia elderly showed a much lower MMSE score ( male:difference of Z score:-1 . 573 , P<0 . 05;female:difference of Z score:-1 . 222 , P<0 . 05 ) and ten-ded to with a faster decline speed than that of the normal elderly (95%CI of dementia partial regression coefficient included 95%CI of normal partial regression coefficient) . Conclusion:The screening validity of MMSE in CLHLS is not affected by educational level. The analysis of factors that may impact on the MMSE screening validity are gender, age, vision and residence which with validity identification. These four fac-tors can be used as assist tool of MMSE in the screening of dementia to improve the screening accuracy.

BACKGROUND: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is one kind of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) with stimulating and hallucinogenic properties, and its damage to human is extremely serious and complicated. It has become a research hot in the field of addiction behavior abroad. OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of long-term neurotoxicity of MDMA on cognitive function. DESIGN: A randomized control animal experiment. SETTING: Laboratory of Psychopharmacology, Mental Health Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University. MATERIALS: The experiment was carried out in the Laboratory of Psychopharmacology of the Mental Health Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University from July 2003 to February 2004. Sixteen male adult Wistar rats, provided by the animal center of Sichuan university, were randomly assigned to study group (n=10) and control group (n= 6). INTERVENTIONS: Rats in study group were administrated with MDMA (10 mg/kg), once per hour for four times, and the total amount was 40 mg/kg, and those in the control group were treated with saline of the same volume. The Morris water-maze test was performed at 2, 8, 26 and 32 weeks after the last administration respectively to observe the spatial learning and memory function. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The escape latencies and the times of crossing the exact position of the former platform were observed at 2, 8, 26 and 32 weeks after the last administration respectively. RESULTS: Four rats in the study group died within 12 hours during the experiment, 1 in the study group and 1 in the control group died at 6 and 17 weeks respectively, finally 5 rats in the study group and control group left till 32 weeks respectively. At 2, 8, 26 and 32 weeks after the last administration, there were no .significant differences in the escape latencies between the two group (P ＞ 0.05), and the times of crossing the exact position of the former platform also had no significant differences [(7.67±2.16), (7.50±2.95) times; (6.60±1.14), (7.0±1.67) times;(7.40±1.52), (6.60±2.61) times; (6.80±4.55), (5.80±1.79) times; P ＞ 0.05]. CONCLUSION: The long-term neurotoxicity of MDMA has no obvious effect on the spatial learning and memory function.

Objective To understand the depressive status of patients with HIV/AIDS and their family members in order to provide objective information for conducting psychological interventions among them. Method The Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) questionnaires were used for assessing the depressive status and the SPSS software was applied for data analysis. Results The SDS values among the patients with HIV/AIDS and the family members of died AIDS patients were significantly higher than those of healthy controls. The proportion of HIV/AIDS patients with medium to severe degree of depression was 15.5%, which was higher than that of healthy controls. The SDS values among female family members of HIV/AIDS patients were higher than those in male ones. Conclusion The depression is a negative psychological status usually occurred among the patients with HIV/AIDS and their family members, and the psychological interventions should be conducted based on the characteristics of different populations.

Systemic lupus erythematosus （SLE） is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks multiple tissues and organs of the body. The comorbid anxiety and depression are highly prevalent conditions among SLE， thereby worsening the prognosis of patients and posing a serious diagnostic challenge to the clinicians. The purpose of this article is to review the literature available for the influencing factors of comorbid anxiety and depression in SLE， and to provide references for optimizing treatment strategies for SLE patients with comorbid anxiety and depression. A total of 25 original research articles are included to provide a systematic and quantitative review， in which the genetic， immune， central nervous system and socio-psychological factors affecting the comorbid anxiety and depression in SLE are explored.