BACKGROUND: Cervical orthosis is one of the non-surgical therapeutic methods for the remedy of cervical deformities. The introduction of cervical orthosis into the clinical remedy of cervical deformities resulted by burn can maximally restore the cervical function of the patients.OBJECTIVE: To analyse the clinical applicative mode and the effects of moulded cervical orthosis (MCO) on cervical burn.DESIGN: A before-and-after verification study by employing pateitns as subjects.SETTING: Prosthetics and orthotic department in a provincial artificial limb center.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 19 cases including 13 males and 6 females after skin-transplantation due to serious burn in head, neck and chest admitted by the outpatient department of prosthetics center between January and September 2003.METHODS: Nineteen patients with cervical burn wore MCO. Return visits were made afterwards for the evaluation of the treatment effects of MCO.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Resutls of therapeutic effectiveness evaluation.RESULTS: All nineteen patients with cervical deformities due to burn reached the effects of correcting cervical flexion and restoring cervical functions through wearing orthosis. The cervical functions restored entirely in seven cases, almost restored in eight cases and improved in four cases.CONCLUSION: MCO can be clinically used on cervical deformities resulted by burn and provide good effects on remedy and rehabilitation.

Objective To understand the current status of the serum lipids in the young and middle aged policemen,and to compare the detection rates of hypertension and hyperglycemia among individuals with different lipid levels.Methods Total cholesterol(TC),low density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C),high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C)and triglyceride(TG)were detected in 1 980 of the young and middle aged policemen by standard methods.Lipid levels and phenotypes of dyslipidemia were classified according to the'Recommended guidelines for prevention and treatment of dyslipidemia'of China(1997).Hypertension and hyperglycemia were defined according to the WHO's standard respectively.The relationship of dyslipidemia with hypertension and hyperglycemia were studied furthermore.Results There were 47.1% of the subjects whose TG and TC levels were in the optimal levels.The detection rates of hypertension and hyperglycemia were 8.4% and 3.6% respectively.The average levels of TC and TG in male aged 31 years old and over were beyond the optimal levels.The levels of fasting blood glucose and blood pressure of those with dyslipidemia were higher than of the normal individuals generally.The detection rates of hyperglycemia and hypertension in subjects with normal serum lipids were 1.5% and 4.2%,in subjects with hypertriglyceridemia were 6.5% and 8.8%,in hypercholesterolemia subjects were 1.7% and 16.1%,and in those subjects with mixed dyslipidemia were 4.7% and 18.7% respectively.Conclusion There was a trend of high prevalence of dyslipidemia,hypertension and hyperglycemia in young policemen.

Objective To evaluate the association of the 5'-end dinucleotide repeat polymorphisms of the aldose reductase gene and susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus by means of meta analysis. Methods Genetic association studies evaluating the 5'-end dinucleotide repeat polymorphism of the aldose reductase gene and susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients involving Chinese population published before April 2007 were collected from database of PubMed, EMBASE, and CNKI. All the literatures were abstracted based on the defined selection criteria by two independent investigators. Publication bias was tested by funnel plot and the odd ratios of all studies were combined depending on the result of heterogeneity test among the individual studies. The software Review Manager (version 4.2) was used for meta analysis. Results Eight studies involving 5'-end dinucleotide repeat polymorphism of the aldose reductase gene and susceptibility of diabetic nephropathy in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus met the selection criteria. There was no significant publication bias in selected studies. Heterogeneity test showed that there were significant statistic differences among the individual studies about the frequencies of Z-2 (χ2=18.20, P= 0.01) and Z + 2 (χ2 = 35.30, P < 0.01) allele in different groups. The combined OR of susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy in patients with Z-2 allele was 1.72 (95% CI 1.25-2.36, P < 0.01) and those of Z + 2 and Z + 6 were 0.73 (95% CI 0.47-1.12, P =0.15) and 0.66 (95%C10.45-0.98, P = 0.04) respectively. Conclusion The 5'-end dinucleotide repeat polymorphism of the aldose reductase gene was associated with the susceptibility of diabetic nephropathy in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The Z -2 allele is a genetic risk factor for diabetic nephropathy, while the Z + 6 allele has protective function for kidney mierovessels.

A simple and sensitive method was developed for the detection of mercury ions with quartz crystal microbalance(QCM), based on the specific thymine(T)-Hg2+-T structure and gold nanoparticles. The gold nanoparticles were prepared by the citrate reduction method. In a self-assembled way, the particle surface was modified with the probe oligonucleotides which were partially replaced by 6-Mercaptohexan-1-ol to reduce the steric hindrance of hybridization. The sensitivity was optimized by the oligonucleotide with a strand length of 9bp and a T number of 7. The linear range was 5.0-100 nmol/L with a detection limit of 2.0 nmol/L. And Ca2+, Mg2+ and other metal ions had no significant interferences. This method was successfully applied for the detection of Hg2+in environmental water samples, with RSD less than 2.9% and recoveries of 97.3%-101.2%.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the detect method of neopterin(Npt) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) and discuss the application of Npt in the viral encephalitis.METHODS The Npt was detected by ELISA.The methodology was investigated by sensitivity,precision,rate of recovery,interference and reference value.The npt was detected by ELISA assay in peripheral blood of 50 healthy people,30 cases of cerebrospinal fluid in children with viral encephalitis and 12 cases of cerebrospinal fluid in the control group.RESULTS In this method,within-run CVs were 4.94% and 5.55%;between-run CVs were 5.99% and 6.57%.The sensitivity was 1.08 nmol/L;the rate of recovery was 95.8-107.8%.Various indexes of the methodology coincided with the requirements of clinical laboratory.The reference value of serum Npt was 0-7.84 nmol/L.The Npt of cerebrospinal fluid was(34.09 ? 36.34) nmol/L in the viral encephalitis group,and(4.55 ? 2.89)nmol/L in the control group,and the Npt of cerebrospinal fluid in patient was significantly higher than that in control group(P

0.05). In the non-smoking group, the pulse pressures of patients with coronary heart disease were significantly higher than those of subjects with negative angiographic results. Among the three subgroups with different severity of coronary arterial lesion, the pulse pressure of 3-vessel diseases was higher than those of both 2-vessel and 1-vessel subgroup. The pulse pressure of subjects with negative angiographic results in smoking group was significantly higher than that in non-smoking group [(56.1?17.2) mm Hg vs (50.9?11.4) mm Hg,1 mm Hg=0.133 kPa P

Objective To investigate the differences of protein and mRNA expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) in osteoclasts (OC) and osteoclast-like cells (OLC) obtained by mechanical and inducement methods. Methods Mechanical separation method was used to separate mature osteoclasts from long bones of SD rats aged one-day;and inducement culture method was applied to induce OLC by using RANKL (100 ng/mL) and M-CSF (100 ng/mL) . The protein expression of MMP-9 was measured by immunocytochemistry and mRNA expression of MMP-9 was assayed by in situ hybridization. Results The integral optical density (IOD) and average optical density (AOD) of positive cells in the visual field were higher in the 12-d group of inducement method as compared with the 3 d-group of mechanical method. Conclusions It is suggested that the protein and mRNA expression of MMP-9 in OLC obtained by 12 d inducement method is much high than in OC obtained by 3 d mechanical method. OLC obtained by inducement method can be applied in the study of osteoporosis.

Objective To investigate the correlation among mammographic features、pathology and molecu-lar biology markers of breast infitrating ductal carcinoma(IDC) tissues.Methods The mammographic features of 93 cases with IDC confirmed by surgery and histopathology were analyzed retrospectively.The mastectomy specimens of the IDC were stained with immunohistochemistry,and the expression of ER、PR、C-erbB-2 were measured.The rela-tionship between the immunohistochemical pathologic results and mammographic features was analyzed.Results A-mong the 93 cases of IDC,ER positive expression was positively correlated with the spiculate margin of breast cancer (P<0.05);C-erbB-2 positive expression was positively correlated(P<0.05).Moreover,ER and PR positive expres-sion showed a significant inverse correlation with the calcifying of breast cancer(P>0.05);ER and PR positive ex-pression was positively correlated with the transfer of lymph(P<0.05);there existed correlation between the positive expression of C-erbB-2 and lymphatic metastasis and pathohistology grade(P<0.05).Conclusion There was a pos-itive correlation among IDC mammography、pathology and the abnormal value of ER、PR and C-erbB-2.The X-ray mammography could reflect the diagnosis value of ER、PR and C-erbB-2 roughly,and thadpractical value in determi-ning prognoses and endocrinotherapy.

AIM: To evaluate expression of the components of endothelin system in pulmonary tissue in a canine pacing-induced congestive heart failure model. METHODS: Twenty-one dogs were divided into 3 groups received 2 (pacing 2 group) or 4 weeks (pacing 4 group) rapid right ventricular pacing, respectively, whereas the other group consisted of 7 dogs received sham-operation as control group. Haemodynamic parameters were detected via left and right heart catheterization. Plasma endothelin-1 was determined by means of RIA. In addition, RT-PCR was used to quantify expression of mRNA of components of endothelin system using ?-actin as internal control. One-way ANOVA and linear regression analysis were used for statistical study. RESULTS:Plasma endothelin-1 increased significantly in heart failure animals. The ratio of preproET-1 to ? actin mRNA was significantly increased from 0.14?0.06 in control group to 0.35?0.08 in pacing 2 group and 0.53?0.08 in pacing 4 group ( P

AIM: To investigate the changes of intrarenal endothelin system in the course of congestive heart failure. METHODS: A canine congestive heart failure model induced by rapid right ventricular pacing was used in the present study. Twenty-one mongrel dogs divided randomly into 3 groups: control, congestive heart failure 2 weeks(CHF2) and congestive heart failure 4 weeks (CHF4). The severity of heart failure was evaluated by means of hemodynamic measurement. The concentration of plasma endothelin was detected via RIA, and the expression of endothelin was detected by RT-PCR. RESULTS: The concentration of plasma endothelin in both of CHF2 and CHF4 elevated significantly. In CHF2, the expression of endothelin receptor B(ETB) in renal medulla increased significantly. And in CHF4, the expression of preproendothelin, endothelin receptor A(ETA) and ETB increased both in renal cortex and medulla. Furthermore, in cortex, the expression of ETA increased more significantly than ETB, while in medulla, ETB expressed much more than ETA. CONCLUSION: The changes of renal endothelin system expression plays a role in the regulation of water and electrolyte balance during the progress of congestive heart failure.