Objective To investigate the correlation between the characteristics of intracranial lesions and the level of cognitive function in patients with an initial diagnosis of brain metastases.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed in 51 patients with an initial diagnosis of brain metastases who were admitted to The Second Hospital Affiliated to Suzhou University from January 2015 to April 2016.CT and (or) MRI were used to determine the characteristics of intracranial lesions and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment was used to evaluate the cognitive function of patients.Comparison between groups was made by Mann-Whitney U test.The correlation between ranked data was analyzed by Spearman rank correlation test.Results Of the 51 patients with an initial diagnosis of brain metastases,47(92%) had cognitive impairment,including mild cognitive impairment in 31(61%) and dementia in 16(31%).There was no significant difference in level of cognitive function between the patients with involvement of the left hemisphere alone and those with involvement of the right hemisphere alone (P=0.425).The patients with involvement of both hemispheres had a significantly lower level of cognitive function than those with involvement of the left hemisphere alone (P=0.042).The patients with involvement of three or more brain lobes had a significantly lower level of cognitive function than those with involvement of one or two brain lobes (P=0.015,0.024).The intracranial lesion volume and edema volume had no significant effect on the overall cognitive function of patients (P=0.077,0.178).The patients with>3 intracranial lesions had a significantly lower level of cognitive function than those with 1-3 intracranial lesions (P=0.010).Conclusions More than 90% of patients with an initial diagnosis of brain metastases have cognitive impairment.Cognitive impairment is mainly associated with lesion site,involvement of brain lobes,and number of lesions,but not with lesion volume and edema volume.

Objective To evaluate the impact of the project diverting the Yangtze River water to the Northern Jiangsu on transmission towards the north of Oncomelania hupensis snails, in order to provide the scientific basis for the South-North Water Diversion Project (east route). Methods The running situation of the water diversion project, the data on hydrology of the waterway and the distribution of snails and schistosomiasis were investigated with the methods of epidemiology、hydrology and field test. Results There was no significant correlation between the region of waterhead and water supply on the change of snail areas. There was no significant correlation between the snail areas of the region of water supply and the volume of water diversion, either. The snail habitat was stable at the Gaoyou segment along the Grand Canal. The snail habitat in the natural place of the north of 33?15′ north latitude on the east route has not been discovered yet. Conclusion There is no sign of transmission towards north on the snail habitat at the Gaoyou segment along the Grand Canal since the project was constructed in 1961. There is no evidence that the project leads to the spread of snails and schistosomiasis, either.

BACKGROUND: Autogenous bone has been used in cervical vertebra graft bone fusion in earliest stage and at most. However, its source is limited, simultaneously, induced many complications such as infection, hemorrhage and postoperative pain in the donor bone region. Recently, above-mentioned complications were avoided or reduced with the usage of new graft bone fusion material. OBJECTIVE: To compare clinical efficacy using MC+~R combination of autogenous bone or calcium sulfate artificial bone in antador cervical fusion.METHODS: A total of 26 patients (34 levels) with cervical spondylotic myelopathy underwent anterior cervical discectomy and cervical intervertebral fusion from January to December 2008. Anterior cervical oblique cut was 3.0-4.0 cm. The endplate were preserved after the cervical intervertebral disc and the posterior longitudinal ligament were removed. Autogenous bone group was filled with autogenous bone. Calcium sulfate artificial bone group was filled with Wdght's Osteoset artificial bone. Anchoring clip was implanted between the cervical vertebrae. Every patient had a short neck incision was assessed with X-ray, JOA grade and Odom's evaluation scale.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The two groups of 26 patients (34 segments)were followed up. The JOA score of postoperation was no significant difference between the two groups. According to the Odom's evaluation scale, the excellent and good rate of calcium sulfate group was higher than autogenous bone group, but there was not statistical significance (P>0.05). The fusion rate of autogenous bone group was higher than calcium sulfate group at 3 and 6 months, but the fusion rate of two groups were 100% at 12 months. Although the calcium sulfate group at 6 months, lordosis angle lost more than 0.4°than the autogenous bone group,but no significant statistically between the two groups (P>0.05). MC+ combination of autogenous bone or Calcium sulfate had the same clinical efficacy in the treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy, but the calcium sulfate artificial bone could be effectively avoided the complications of donor site.

In order to clarify material basis of effective parts of liangxue tongyu prescription, blood-heat and blood-stasis rat model induced by dry yeast was established. The changes of rectal temperature, blood viscosity and plasma viscosity were used to evaluate the cooling-blood and activating-blood effects of liangxue tongyu prescription and its parts. Compared with the model group, the extract from liangxue tongyu prescription, its volatile oil and n-butanol part could significantly reduce rectal temperature (P<0.01), and also reduce blood viscosity and plasma viscosity to various degrees (P<0.01 or P<0.05). So volatile oil and n-butanol part were primarily identified as effective parts of liangxue tongyu prescription. By using GC-MS with normalization method of area to analyze volatile oil of liangxue tongyu prescription, 70 compounds were identified, accounting for about 92.54%, mainly as β-asarone, paeonol, α-asarone and shyobunone. 42 compounds such as peony glycosides, tannins, and iridoid glycosides were identified by HPLC-MS techniques and standard comparison. The study determined the effective parts of liangxue tongyu prescription and clarified the chemical composition providing the foundation for further studies on material basis of liangxue tongyu prescription.