Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic airway diseases,which leads to heavy social and economic burden to our country.We can use serum biomarkers to evaluate diagnosis,classification,treatment and prognosis of COPD.The change of biomarkers provides lots of valuable clinical information.A variety of biomarkers are associated with the severity of lung function,which can be used to judge disease severity.Some indicators are related to the diagnosis of acute exacerbation or hospitalization risk.Some serum markers would guide therapy and can be effectively applied to clinical work.Study of COPD serum biomarkers would provide more reference information for clinical physicians in diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of COPD.

Objective To observe the protective effect of asiatic acid on hyperlipidemia golden hamsters induced by high fat diet and explore its mechanism.Methods Hyperlipidemic golden hamsters fed with high-fat diet were administered orally with asiatic acid (8,16,32 mg/kg)for 4 weeks.Levels of serum lipid content,liver histology,hepatic GSH-PX and SOD levels,serum ALT and AST activities were evaluated in golden hamsters,fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)is using to examine the liver lecithin cholesterol fatty acyl transferase(LCAT) and class B typeⅠscavenger receptor(SR-BⅠ)mRNA expression. Results Compared with model group,the levels of TC,TG,LDL-C,TC/HDL,ALT and AST in low and mediate asiatic acid groups were all significantly decreased but the levels of SOD and GSH-PX were significantly increased(P<0.01).HE staining results showed that fat deposition in the liver were improved by administration of asiatic acid,and the expression of LCAT and SR-BⅠmRNA were increased.Conclusion Asiatic acid can effectively reduce blood lipid levels,and alleviate liver damage of the hyperlipidemia golden hamsters by lipid regulation and antioxidative ability augmentation.The increased levels of LCAT and SR-BⅠmRNA expression maybe involved in the mechanism of hypolipidaemic effect of asiatic acid.

This study was aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Self Rate Health Assessment Questionnaire (TCM-SRHAQ). A total of 859 middle age and aged cases were enrolled in a cross-sectional study, which were evaluated by the questionnaire. The salivary level of ɑ-amylase was tested at the same time. The results showed that the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.91, which can highly differentiate the health level of the crowd. The spearman correlation coefficients between items in the “spleen deficiency” sub-scale were all higher than 0.3. While the correlation coefficients between items were less than 0.25. Salivary level of ɑ-amylase was used as indicator. The “spleen deficiency” sub-scale showed high validity in identifying spleen-qi deficiency people from healthy people. It was concluded that TCM-SRHAQ showed good reliability and validity in this study, which indicated it can be used as a valuable measurement for assessing different types of health status, especially the spleen-qi deficiency type.

To observe a PPAR-alpha agonist effect of N-oleoylethanolamine (OEA) on CB2 (cannabinoid receptor 2), an anti-inflammatory receptor in vascular endothelial cell, healthy HUVECs and TNF-alpha induced HUVECs were used to establish a human vascular endothelial cell inflammatory model. Different doses of OEA (10, 50 and 100 micromol x L(-1)) had been given to HUVECs, cultured at 37 degrees C for 7 h and then collected the total protein and total mRNA. CB2 protein expression was detected by Western blotting and CB2 mRNA expression was assayed by real-time PCR. As the results shown, OEA (10 and 50 micromol x L(-1)) could induce the CB2 protein and mRNA expression, but not 100 micromol x L(-1). To detect if anti-inflammation effect of OEA is partly through CB2, CB2 inhibitor AM630 was used to inhibit HUVEC CB2 expression, then the VCAM-1 expression induced by TNF-alpha was detected, or THP-1 adhere to TNF-alpha induced HUVECs was examined. OEA (50 micromol x L(-1)) could inhibit TNF-alpha induced VCAM-1 expression and THP-1 adhere to HUVECs, these effects could be partly inhibited by a CB2 inhibitor AM630. The anti-inflammation effect of OEA is induced by PPAR-alpha and CB2, suggesting that CB2 signaling could be a target for anti-atherosclerosis, OEA have wide effect in anti-inflammation, it may have better therapeutic potential in anti-inflammation in HUVECs, thus achieving anti-atherosclerosis effect.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical characteristics, causes of pre-operative misdiagnosis and therapy of pulmonary cryptococcosis. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 28 patients suffering from pulmonary cryptococcosis from 2008 to 2013 in the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. All patients were diagnosed pathologically. RESULTS: Of the 28 patients, 19 had no clear host factors. No patient was exposed to pigeons recently. The imaging findings showed that most patients had solitary, multiple nodules, masses, and patches. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) showed abnormal accumulation of fluorodeoxyglucose. Seven patients demonstrated malignancy and 1 demonstrated tuberculosis. None was considered as pulmonary fungus diseases. Microscopically, cryptococcosis granuloma formation was found in all patients and cryptococcosis neoformans were detected by Periodic acid-schiff and Grocott methenamine silver staining methods in the histopathological examination, respectively. Twenty-seven patients underwent lobectomy, and 1 had the medical antifungal drugs treatment. During the follow-up, symptoms in only 1 patient were not controlled. CONCLUSION Most pulmonary cryptococcosis patients have no evident immunocompromise. Clinical presentation of pulmonary cryptococcosis varies and is often related to the immune status of patients. Radiological manifestation of pulmonary cryptococcosis is indistinguishable from malignant tumor, and even 18F-FDG-PET imaging does not help to get a clear diagnosis. After surgical resection of the lung, systemic antifungal treatment is still necessary for special population. Systemic therapy of both fluconazole and itraconazole is classic choice for pulmonary cryptococcosis.
Cryptococcosis ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 ; Humans ; Lung ; microbiology ; pathology ; Lung Diseases, Fungal ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common disease that can be prevented and treated with persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation.Emphysema and small airway disease are important pathological features.Lung imaging technology can assess the patient's airway disease,and evaluate the prognosis.Chest CT examination can provide more information for early diagnosis in patients with COPD,and can objectively evaluate emphysema,small airway,pulmonary function,pulmonary blood vessels,and classify the patients into subgroup and make individual assessment of drug treatment;MRI examination can assess pulmonary microvascular blood flow (PMBF).Making full use of lung imaging examination could provide a reliable theoretical basis of the early diagnosis of COPD,disease assessment,and prognosis evaluation.This article made a review of the latest progress imaging based on the literature.

Vigilance is defined as the ability to maintain attention or alertness over prolonged periods of time. Since Mid-20th century, following the increasing man-machine communication, high level of vigilance has been demanded in many areas including driving safety, medical care and therapy, aerospace and military affairs, etc. Therefore, finding quick methods to improve the level of vigilance has become a key issue in medical study. Based on physical regulation, chemical regulation and physiological regulation, the research progress has been summarized in this paper. We, furthermore, also try to predict the future trend in this academic area and develop some tentative ideas about seeking more effective and convenient ways to improve the level of brain vigilance.
Arousal ; physiology ; Attention ; Brain ; physiology ; Coffee ; Humans ; Light ; Rest ; physiology ; Sound

Objective: To explore deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurrence in patients after right heart catheterization and the effect of anticoagulant therapy. Methods: A total of 171 consecutive patients with electrophysiological study (EPS) and/or radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) in our hospital from 2015-01 to 2016-05 were enrolled. All patients had supra-ventricular tachycardia and completed a venous surgery, they were randomly divided into 2 groups: Anticoagulation group,n=87 and Non-anticoagulation group,n=84. Lower extremity vascular Doppler ultrasonography was performed at (24-48) h post-operation to compare the incidence of DVT between 2 groups. Results: There were 13/171 patients were excluded for not completing post-operative lower extremity vascular Doppler ultrasonography including 9 patients in Anticoagulation group and 4 in Non-anticoagulation group. 158 patients finished post-operative examination and follow-up study. Anticoagulation group had 7/78 (8.97%) patients suffered from DVT, Non-anticoagulation group had 41/80 (51.3%) patients suffered from DVT,P<0.001. Conclusion: The incidence of DVT was higher after right heart catheterization without anticoagulation; heparin treatment may reduce DVT occurrence in relevant patients.

Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), formerly known as autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia, are a group of hereditary heterogeneous neurodegenerative disease that contains many subtypes. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 23 (SCA23), one type of SCAs, is caused by mutant prodynorphin (PDYN) gene. A 22-year-old patient was diagnosed with sporadic SCA23 due to gene detection, with a novel identified mutation, PDYN c.647C>T (p.P216L). Located in the dynorphin A-coding-region of PDYN gene, the pathogenic mechanism of the mutation may be relevant to the pathological changes caused by the variant including neurological dysfunction and death of cells. Mild improvement with the patient has been witnessed after active balance and speaking exercise.

Objectives:Compare the differences between the intervention and control groups in changes of primary outcomes(body mass index[BMI]and waist-to-height ratio[WHtR])and secondary outcomes(nutrition knowledge of children and parents),from baseline to the 6-and 12-month follow-ups;examine the associations of changes in nutrition knowledge of children and their parents with children's changes in BMI and WHtR.Data sources:Data collected from four schools in two poverty-stricken counties in northern Shaanxi Province in 2020-2021.Methods:A multifaced intervention program targeted children(promoting healthy diet and nutrition education)and their parents(promoting nutrition knowledge)was conducted in the interventional group.Four schools,with two in each group,were randomly allocated to the intervention or control group,with 814 eligible children aged 7.1 to 12.8 years.The control group conducted myopia promotion.Differences in changes of BMI and WHtR between groups were compared with t-test.Mixed-effects model was used to examine the associations between changes in nutrition knowledge of children and parents with changes in children's BMI and WHtR.Results:At the 6-month follow-up,the difference in changes in BMI between the intervention and control groups was 0.4 kg/m 2(P＜0.001).At the 12-month follow-up,the difference in changes in BMI and WHtR between intervention and control groups was 0.1 kg/m2(P＜0.001)and 0.01 kg/m2(P＜0.001).In the intervention group,the nutrition knowledge awareness rate of children increased from 16.9％(69/409)at baseline to 21.3％(87/409)at 6-month,and 22.7％(93/409)at 12-month.The awareness rate of nutrition knowledge of parents also fluctuated,from 5.6％(23/409)to 6.6％(27/409)and 5.4％(22/409).However,the difference in changes in nu-trition knowledge between intervention and control groups was non-significant.The 6-month follow-up changes in children's nutrition knowledge scores were negatively associated with changes in BMI in girls(β=-0.26,95％confidence interval[CI]:-0.38 to-0.14,P＜0.001),while positively associated with changes in WHtR in boys(β=0.003,95％CI:-0.0002 to 0.005,P=0.035).The 12-month follow-up changes in children's nutrition knowledge scores were positively associated with changes in children's WHtR(β=0.003,95％CI:0.0004 to 0.01,P=0.018).Conclusions:The intervention strategies did not reduce the BMI and WHtR of children,and the nutrition knowl-edge of children and parents increased after the intervention in intervention group.Changes in nutrition knowl-edge of children and their parents are associated with changes in children's BMI or WHtR.Interventions with a new focus on obesity are needed to help improve children's nutritional status in poverty-stricken areas in Shaanxi Province of China.