Objective To investigate the association of body mass index(BMI)with metabolic status and chronic complications in newly-diagnosed Chinese type 2 diabetic patients.Methods A total of 515 newly- diagnosed adults type 2 diabetic patients were categorized into underweight(BMI

A patented kinetic uricase method was evaluated for serum uric acid assay. Initial absorbance of the reaction mixture before uricase action (A(0)) was obtained by correcting the absorbance at 293 nm measured before the addition of uricase solution, and background absorbance (A(b)) was predicted by an integrated method. Uric acid concentration in reaction solution was calculated from A, the difference between A(0) and A(b), using the absorptivity preset for uric acid. This kinetic uricase method exhibited CV<4.3% and recovery of 100%. Lipids, bilirubin, hemoglobin, ascorbic acid, reduced glutathione and xanthine <0.32 mmol/L in serum had no significant effects. A linearly responded to 1.2 to 37.5 micromol/L uric acid in reaction solution containing 15 microl serum. The slope of linear response was consistent with the absorptivity preset for uric acid while the intercept was consistent with that for serum alone. Uric acid concentrations in clinic sera by different uricase methods positively correlated to each other. By Bland-Altman analysis, this kinetic uricase method accorded with that by quantifying the total change of UV absorbance on the completion of uricase reaction. These results demonstrated that this kinetic uricase method is reliable for serum uric acid assay with enhanced resistance to both xanthine and other common errors, wider range of linear response and much lower cost.
Humans ; Kinetics ; Reagent Kits, Diagnostic ; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet ; Urate Oxidase ; chemistry ; Uric Acid ; blood ; metabolism

OBJECTIVESTo evaluate the effects of the Chinese medicine (CM) five-element music on quality of life for senior and non-senior advanced cancer patients.

METHODSWith a randomized controlled trial, 170 advanced cancer patients were randomly assigned to three groups: the CM five-element music group (68 patients), the Western music therapy group (68 cases), and the no music therapy group (34 cases). All patients of 70 years old or older were considered seniors and the remaining patients younger than 70 years were considered nonseniors. Patients in the CM five-element music group listened to CM five-element music, the patients in the Western music group listened to Western music, and the patients in the no music group did not listen to music. A course of treatment was 3 weeks, with 30 min each day, 5 days a week. The Hospice Quality of Life Index-Revised (HQOLI-R) and Karnofsky performance score (KPS) were measured in the three groups before and after treatment. The symptom diary score was measured in the three groups every 3 days, 7 times in total.

RESULTSCM five-element music group showed a significant difference of HQOLI-R, KPS and symptom diary score with other groups (all P<0.01). There were significant differences of HQOLI-R, symptom diary score, and KPS after treatment in CM five-element music group and other groups in the non-senior subgroup (P<0.05). Additionally, there were significant differences in HQOLI-R and KPS after treatment among the three groups in the senior subgroup (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSCM five-element music therapy could improve the quality of life and KPS for senior and non senior advanced cancer patients, and it could improve subjective symptoms for non-senior advanced cancer patients.

Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Middle Aged ; Music ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neoplasms ; pathology ; therapy ; Quality of Life ; Treatment Outcome

Objective To evaluate the reliability and validity of the application of condensed Chinese version of the MOS 36-item short form health survey (SF-36) in assessment of quality of life among adult patients with Kashin-Beck disease,and to provide a scientific basis in rehabilitation of the patients.Methods Four hundred and twenty seven eases of adult patients with Kashin-Back disease and 419 healthy individuals randomly selected in Kashin-Beck disease endemic areas in 8 counties of Gansu province were surveyed with the SF-36.The reliability of the SF-36 was assessed by split-half reliability and Cronbach's α coefficient and the validity through principal component factor analysis and correlation analysis,etc.The dimension scores of different people were obtained by analysis of variance and univariate t-test.Results The split-half reliability of all the 8 dimensions was greater than 0.6 and the Cronbach's α coefficient was greater than 0.8; the pearson correlate coefficients of all the items to their dimensions were greater than 0.391.SF-36 contained 8 domains and 2 summary scales in the factor analysis.The score differences of quality of life in different ages of the patients,different stages of the disease were statistically significant (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The SF-36 is practical in studying the quality of life among adult patients with Kashin-Beck Disease.

The correlation of serum arylesterase (PON1) activity on phenylacetate determined by an integrated method to classical biochemical indexes of liver damage was investigated for the use of PON1 activity to evaluate liver damage. PON1 reaction curve as absorbance at 270 nm for 0.20 mmol/L phenylacetate hydrolysis was analyzed by the integrated method to determine maximal PON1 reaction rate. Classical biochemical indexes of liver damage were determined routinely. The 95% confidence threshold of PON1 activity in sera from healthy individuals was 2.12 mkat/L [(4.73+/-1.31) mkat/L, n=105]. PON1 activity in clinical sera was closely correlated to serum albumin, total protein and the ratio of albumin to globulins, but was weakly correlated to both direct and total bilirubin in serum. There were no correlations of PON1 activity to gamma-glutamyltransferase, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase. Among 127 clinical sera with PON1 activity>2.12 mkat/L, there were 92% healthy individuals examined by albumin, 90% healthy individuals examined by total protein, 88% healthy individuals examined by total bilirubin, 86% healthy individuals examined by direct bilirubin and 64% healthy individuals examined by the ratio of albumin to globulins, respectively. In each group of healthy individuals judged by classical biochemical indexes of close correlation to PON1 activity, percentage of healthy individuals examined by PON1 activity was always >80%. These results suggested PON1 activity on phenylacetate estimated by the integrated method was also suitable for the evaluation of liver damage.
Alanine Transaminase ; blood ; Aryldialkylphosphatase ; blood ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; blood ; Biomarkers ; Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases ; blood ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; Humans ; Liver Diseases ; blood ; enzymology ; Liver Function Tests ; Phenylacetates

OBJECTIVETo detect the mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 in sporadic breast cancer and study the relationship between BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and breast cancer.

METHODSBreast cancer tissues of 144 patients and breast tissues of 30 cases of healthy people who were treated from December 2000 to September 2005 were studied. DNA was extracted by the phenol-chloroform method. Fragments of exon 2, exon 3, exon 5, exon 6, exon 7, exon 8, exon 9, exon 10, exon 11, exon 12, exon 13, exon 14, exon 15, exon 16, exon 17, exon 18, exon 19, exon 20, exon 21, exon 22, exon 23 and exon 24 in the BRCA1 gene and exon 10 and exon 14 in the BRCA2 gene were amplified by polymerase chain reaction. Mutation screening was performed by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and alterations were confirmed by DNA sequencing.

RESULTSA total of 20 single nucleotide changes in BRCA1 were detected in the 144 cases of breast cancer patients. The total mutation rate was 13.9% and missense mutation rate was 11.1%. No mutation was detected in the BRCA2 and controls.

CONCLUSIONSMutations in BRCA1 may play an important role in evaluation of sick risk, earlier diagnosis and gene therapy of breast cancer in southern Chinese populations.

Adult ; Aged ; Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins ; BRCA1 Protein ; genetics ; metabolism ; BRCA2 Protein ; genetics ; metabolism ; Base Sequence ; Blotting, Western ; Breast Neoplasms ; genetics ; metabolism ; pathology ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Mutation ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational

Angiogenic gene therapy and cell-based therapy for peripheral arterial disease(PAD) have been studied intensively currently. This study aimed to investigate whether combining mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) transplantation with ex vivo human hepatocyte growth factor(HGF) gene transfer was more therapeutically efficient than the MSCs therapy alone in a rat model of hindlimb ischemia. One week after establishing hindlimb ischemia models, Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats were randomized to receive HGF gene-modified MSCs transplantation(HGF-MSC group), untreated MSCs transplantation (MSC group), or PBS injection(PBS group), respectively. Three weeks after injection, angiogenesis was significantly induced by both MSCs and HGF-MSCs transplantation, and capillary density was the highest in the HGF-MSC group. The number of transplanted cell-derived endothelial cells was greater in HGF-MSC group than in MSC group after one week treatment. The expression of angiogenic cytokines such as HGF and VEGF in local ischemic muscles was more abundant in HGF-MSC group than in the other two groups. In vitro, the conditioned media obtained from HGF-MSCs cultures exerted proproliferative and promigratory effects on endothelial cells. It is concluded that HGF gene-modified MSCs transplantation therapy may induce more potent angiogenesis than the MSCs therapy alone. Engraftment of MSCs combined with angiogenic gene delivery may be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of severe PAD.
Animals ; Bone Marrow ; metabolism ; pathology ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; Cells, Cultured ; Hepatocyte Growth Factor ; genetics ; Hindlimb ; pathology ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; metabolism ; pathology ; Neovascularization, Physiologic ; genetics ; Rats

OBJECTIVETo compare the clinical effect of postoperative arterial infusion chemotherapy and systemic chemotherapy in gastric cancer.

METHODSFrom July 1997 to July 2002, the patients undergoing radical gastric resection were randomly divided into two groups, and received systemic or arterial infusion chemotherapy three weeks after radical resection. Systemic chemotherapy was carried out for two courses with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), pirarubicin (THP), and mitomycin (MMC) administered according to FAM program, while arterial infusion chemotherapy for four courses with the same anticancer drugs infused via the celiac artery. The outcomes were compared.

RESULTSSystemic chemotherapy was carried out in 188 cases, and arterial infusion chemotherapy in 180 cases. There were no significant differences in sex, age, tumor location, histological type, TNM stage and surgical procedure between the two groups (P > 0.05). The 1, 3, 5 year survival rates were 87.2%, 53.7% and 43.1% in systemic chemotherapy, and 93.3%, 72.2% and 53.6% in arterial infusion chemotherapy respectively (P< 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe survival rate of the patients with arterial infusion chemotherapy is higher than that with systemic chemotherapy, which indicates that arterial infusion chemotherapy can remarkably improve the prognosis of the patients with gastric cancer.

Adult ; Aged ; Chemotherapy, Cancer, Regional Perfusion ; methods ; Female ; Humans ; Infusions, Intra-Arterial ; Infusions, Intravenous ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Period ; Stomach Neoplasms ; drug therapy

There was a slow-relaxing tail of skeletal muscles in vitro upon the inhibition of Ca(2+)-pump by cyclopiazonic acid (CPA). Herein, a new linearly-combined bi-exponential model to resolve this slow-relaxing tail from the fast-relaxing phase was investigated for kinetic analysis of the isometric relaxation process of Bufo gastrocnemius in vitro, in comparison to the single exponential model and the classical bi-exponential model. During repetitive stimulations at a 2-s interval by square pulses of a 2-ms duration at 12 V direct currency (DC), the isometric tension of Bufo gastrocnemius was recorded at 100 Hz. The relaxation curve with tensions falling from 90% of the peak to the 15th datum before next stimulation was analyzed by three exponential models using a program in MATLAB 6.5. Both the goodness of fit and the distribution of the residuals for the best fitting supported the comparable validity of this new bi-exponential model for kinetic analysis of the relaxation process of the control muscles. After CPA treatment, however, this new bi-exponential model showed an obvious statistical superiority for kinetic analysis of the muscle relaxation process, and it gave the estimated rest tension consistent to that by experimentation, whereas both the classical bi-exponential model and the single exponential model gave biased rest tensions. Moreover, after the treatment of muscles by CPA, both the single exponential model and the classical bi-exponential model yielded lowered relaxation rates, nevertheless, this new bi-exponential model had relaxation rates of negligible changes except much higher rest tensions. These results suggest that this novel linearly-combined bi-exponential model is desirable for kinetic analysis of the relaxation process of muscles with altered Ca(2+)-pumping activity.
Animals ; Bufonidae ; physiology ; Electric Stimulation ; Electrophysiology ; In Vitro Techniques ; Indoles ; pharmacology ; Kinetics ; Models, Animal ; Models, Biological ; Muscle Relaxation ; drug effects ; physiology ; Muscle Tonus ; drug effects

OBJECTIVETo observe the efficacy of polyglycoside of Tripterygium wilfordii(GTW) in preventing postoperative recurrence of Crohn disease(CD).

METHODSThirty-nine post-operative CD patients in whom all of the diseased gut had been removed from January 2005 to December 2006 were enrolled in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. The patients took GTW(21 cases) or SASP(18 cases) in two weeks after operation. Crohn disease activity index(CDAI), ESR and CRP were collected at week 0, 13, 26, 52 or at the onset of symptoms. Ileocolonoscopy was performed at the end of the trial or at the onset of symptoms.

RESULTSOne patient in GTW group and 2 patients in SASP group were lost and 2 patients in GTW were excluded from the trial for non-compliance. Clinical recurrence was ascertained in one patient (5.6%) received GTW and in four (25.0%) received SASP. Four of eighteen patients in GTW(22.2%) had endoscopic recurrence compared with nine of sixteen(56.2%) in SASP. There were significant differences between the two groups(P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONTripterygium wilfordii showed good efficacy in preventing recurrence of postoperative CD which can maintain remission and prevent recurrence.

Adult ; Crohn Disease ; drug therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Glycosides ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phytotherapy ; Postoperative Period ; Secondary Prevention ; Treatment Outcome ; Tripterygium