Objective To evaluate the value of ultrasonic elastography for diagnosis of chronic nonspecific low back pain. Methods From March to September, 2016, 32 patients diagnosed as chronic nonspecific low back pain and other 32 healthy people (controls) were measured lumbar erector spinae with ultrasonic elastography, and calculated Yang's modulus. The correlation between Yang's modulus and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) or Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score in the patients were investigated with Pearson's analysis. Re-sults There was no significant difference in Yang's modulus between bilateral lumbar erector spinae in both the patients and the controls (t<1.849, P>0.05), but it was more in the patients than in the controls (t=9.931, P<0.001). The Yang's modulus was positively correlated with VAS score in the patients (r=0.614, P<0.001), but not with the JOA score (r=-0.243, P=0.180). Conclusion Ultrasonic elastography can be applied to differentiate low back pain from the healthy, and measure the intensity of pain.

Objective To observe toxic symptoms and signs , toxic damage extents and reversibility in rats after oral administration of Tangwang Mingmu granules .Methods Four dose groups with 40 rats in each group were designed in this study, including control group fed with distilled water and three groups at different dosages of the test drug .Tangwang Mingmu granules were orally administered to SD rats at the dosage of 8.4, 4.2 and 2.1 g/kg for 3 weeks and 14.0, 8.4 and 4.2 g/kg for 23 weeks, for 26 consecutive weeks .The general state of the rats was observed every day , while body mass and food consumption were calculated once a week .Halfway through and at the end of the administration (13 and 26 weeks) and after four weeks of recovery, parameters of body mass, hematology, hematological biochemistry, organ/body mass ratio and histopathology were measured .Results Compared with the control group at the same time-point, body mass of male rats in the other three groups was slightly reduced .Food consumption in high and medium dose groups was reduced (P<0.05), MCHC, ALT, TBIL and Na +in high dose group were decreased (P<0.05), TP, ALB and D-BIL were increased (P<0.05), the mean body mass and relative organ weight of thymus in medium dose male rats were decreased (P<0.05), relative organ weight of the liver and kidney in high dose male rats was increased (P<0.05), and focal chronic inflammation to different extent was observed in the liver , kidney and prostate gland .No dose-effect relationship was found in these perturbations that were all within the normal range of animals .No significant drug-related pathological changes were found.Conclusion The NOAEL of Tangwang Mingmu granules is considered to be 14.0 g/kg body mass/day (equal to 50 times the proposed clinical adult dosage ) for the 26-week repeated dose oral toxicity study in male andfemale rats.