Adult ; Disease Susceptibility ; complications ; Female ; Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced ; complications ; Humans ; Hypertension ; etiology ; Linear Models ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Noise, Occupational ; adverse effects ; Occupational Exposure ; adverse effects

BACKGROUND: The pathological changes of osteoarthritis are similar to that of kaschin-beck disease, but the cause of the latter is still unclear,damage is more serious. From the comparison of pathology changes between them, we hope to find out an effective therapeutic method with the assistance of arthroscope basing on the experiences in osteoarthritis.OBJECTIVE: To make comparison of the histomorphological changes between osteoarthritis and kaschin-beck disease with knee arthroscope,which give clues to the diagnosis and selection of operative technique for kaschin-bock disease under arthroscope.DESIGN: Case control study.SETTING: Department of Orthopaedics, Shaanxi People's Hospital.PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-five patients who needed arthroscope surgery due to severer knee osteoarthritis were randomly selected from Department of Orthopaedics, Shaanxi People's Hospital between April 1998 and September 2000; Meanwhile 31 patients with knee joint functional obstacle caused by kaschin-beck disease (epidemic disease area) were randomly selected from Luochuan Hospital of Shaanxi Province in November 2001.METHODS: Japanese made OLYMPUS series color television arthroscope and surgery system were used to carry out knee joint operations in all participants. During the operation, video recording, postoperative editing, photographs, comparison and analysis were conducted, in order to find out the pathological changes of the two groups in knee joint synovium, patella, femur, tibia and meniscus with the assistance of arthroscope.RESULTS: Totally 66 patients were enrolled in this study and all endamage in Kaschin-beck disease and osteoarthritis: Injuries were graded into grade 0, 1, 2 and 3, there were 0,3,5,23 cases and 0,3,16,16cases correspondingly in kaschin-beck disease group and osteoarthritis cartilage damage was presented by big piece of cartilage peeled off, part of them came off leading to bone exposure, the exposed bone surface is uneven; while cartilage damage in osteoarthritis was presented by the wear of cartilage, moreover cartilage island was found remained in the exposed bone with the surface covered with fiber strips and the exposed observed in 24 patients with Kaschin-beck disease, 5 cases with coarse stress point and 19 cases with burr-like damage, amongst which there were 9 cases displayed both medial and lateral meniscus damages; in osteoarthritis group there were 16 cases showed meniscus damages including edge wears in11 cases and breakage in 5 cases.CONCLUSION: Cartilage damage in knee articular was obviously severer in Kaschin-beck disease than in osteoarthritis, although kaschin-beck disease is no matter resulting in serious knee joint damage, but its pathology changes are different from osteoarthritis, we should pay more attention to the peculiarity of big piece of cartilage peeling off during operations.

By using the pharmacophore model of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists as a starting point, the experiment stud- ies the method of traditional Chinese medicine formula design for anti-hypertensive. Pharmacophore models were generated by 3D-QSAR pharmacophore (Hypogen) program of the DS3.5, based on the training set composed of 33 mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. The best pharmacophore model consisted of two Hydrogen-bond acceptors, three Hydrophobic and four excluded volumes. Its correlation coefficient of training set and test set, N, and CAI value were 0.9534, 0.6748, 2.878, and 1.119. According to the database screening, 1700 active compounds from 86 source plant were obtained. Because of lacking of available anti-hypertensive medi cation strategy in traditional theory, this article takes advantage of patent retrieval in world traditional medicine patent database, in order to design drug formula. Finally, two formulae was obtained for antihypertensive.
Antihypertensive Agents ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Databases, Factual ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Models, Molecular

BACKGROUNDCataracts is considered be formed because of an abnormal glucose metabolic pathway or oxidative stress. We explored the damaging role of ONOO- and antagonism of cholecystokinin octapeptide-8 (CCK-8) in diabetic cataractal rat lenses.

METHODSA diabetic cataractal animal model was established by peritoneal injection of streptozotocine (STZ). Thirty-six normal SD rats were taken as control group; seventy-two were given STZ (45 mg/kg) and then divided into STZ group and CCK-8 group (peritoneal injection CCK-8). STZ induced diabetic rats were treated with CCK-8 for 60 days. Lenses were examined with slit lamp at 20, 40 and 60 days. Immunofluorescent staining and Western blot analysis were used for determining nitrotyrosine (NT, a marker for ONOO-). PT-PCR and gene array analysis were used for determining the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthetase mRNA (iNOS mRNA) in lens epithelium (LEC).

RESULTSSTZ group rats developed lens opacity by 20 days that reached a high level by 60 days after STZ injection. CCK-8 group rats delayed the cataract formation. CCK-8 group rats delayed the cataract formation. There was no distinct expression of NT and iNOS mRNA in control group. In STZ group, there were distinct expression of NT and upregulation of iNOS mRNA; however, CCK-8 group showed weak expression of NT and downregulation of iNOS mRNA.

CONCLUSIONSNT, which may be a new form of oxidative stress, was expressed in diabetic rat LEC although CCK-8 could reverse NT damage in LEC. The results suggested that CCK-8 might be a useful therapeutic agent against diabetic cataract. The antagonizing mechanism of CCK-8 may be related to direct antagonism of ONOO- as well as its inhibition of the expression of iNOS mRNA for production of NO and therefore decrease in the formation of ONOO-.

Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Cataract ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental ; complications ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Male ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II ; genetics ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Peroxynitrous Acid ; metabolism ; RNA, Messenger ; analysis ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sincalide ; pharmacology ; Streptozocin ; Tyrosine ; analogs & derivatives ; genetics

AlM: To investigate the association between the degree of anterioruveitis and related factors including inflammatory markers as well as sacroiliac joint imaging in patients with ankylosing spondylitis ( AS) .
METHODS: Anterior changes evaluated by slit lamp, erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( ESR ) , C - reactive protein ( CRP ) and magnetic resonance imaging of 55 cases with AS associateduveitis were retrospectively analyzed. A modified endotoxin-induced uveitis ( ElU ) clinical standard was used for uveitis grading. SPARCC sacroiliac scoring was used to evaluate bone edema of sacroiliac joint. The correlation between the degree of uveitis and sacroiliitis was assessed.
RESULTS: ln the 55 patients with AS, ElU grading scored 2-10, and SPARCC index scored 0-22. Further analysis showed that the severity of uveitis was significantly correlated with ESR (r=0. 869, P<0. 001) and CRP (r=0. 485, P<0. 001). The degree of anterior uveitis in AS patients was not correlated with inflammation of sacroiliac joint (r=0. 237, P=0. 081).
CONCLUSlON: Local autoimmunity of uveitis and sacroiliac joint inflammation with subsequent bone formation in AS might be mutually independent processes.

Plants in Ainsliaea genus, belongs to Compositae family, are traditional Chinese medicine and widely used in folk. These plants contain various types of chemical components, and main components are sesquiterpene lactone and its glycosides. In addition, there are triterpenoids, flavonoids, steroids, phenolic acid, long chain fatty acid and volatile oils. Recently, much attention has been payed to varlous research of A. fragrans. This paper reviewed and summarized the chemical components to provide the theoretical basis for the use of Ainsliaea.
Asteraceae ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Molecular Structure

Animals ; Antigens, CD ; metabolism ; Apoptosis ; B7-2 Antigen ; metabolism ; CD4-CD8 Ratio ; Dendritic Cells ; metabolism ; pathology ; Disease Models, Animal ; Lectins, C-Type ; metabolism ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Minor Histocompatibility Antigens ; Multiple Organ Failure ; metabolism ; pathology ; Receptors, Cell Surface ; metabolism ; Spleen ; metabolism ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo observe the relationship between the parameters of artery elasticity and coronary artery stenosis in normotensive and hypertensive patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).

METHODSSystemic vascular compliance (SVC), systemic vascular resistance (SVR), brachial artery compliance (BAC) and brachial artery resistance (BAR) were measured by Dynapulse 200M (Pulse Metric, Inc., USA) in 88 hypertensive and 41 normotensive patients with chest pain before coronary artery angiography.

RESULTS(1) The prevalence rate of severe coronary disease (> or = 2 coronary branches) was higher in hypertensives than in normotensives (64.7% vs. 27.1%, P < 0.05); (2) the peripheral artery buffering function was significantly lower in hypertensives than in normotensives [SVC: (0.85 +/- 0.10) ml/mm Hg (1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa) vs. (1.17 +/- 0.11) ml/mm Hg; BAC: (0.047 +/- 0.011) ml/mm Hg vs. (0.063 +/- 0.010) ml/mm Hg, all P < 0.05]; (3) Lower arterial elasticity was associated with severe coronary artery stenosis.

CONCLUSIONThe non-invasive obtained artery elasticity is associated with the degree of coronary artery stenosis in hypertensive patients with CAD.

Aged ; Blood Pressure ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Artery Disease ; complications ; diagnostic imaging ; physiopathology ; Coronary Stenosis ; complications ; diagnostic imaging ; physiopathology ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; complications ; diagnostic imaging ; physiopathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence ; Pulse

OBJECTIVETo observe clinical effect of integrated Chinese medical (CM) treatment (as maintenance therapy) on the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after first-line chemotherapy.

METHODSThe study was a prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial. Totally 69 non-progressive advanced NSCLC patients treated with first-line chemotherapy were randomly assigned to the test group (34 cases) and the control group (35 cases). Patients in the control group were treated with one Western drug chemotherapy (Gemcitabine or Alimta or docetaxel). Those in the test group were treated with integrated CM treatment (CM decoction, CM Intravenous preparation, and point application). Each cycle consisted of 21 days. Treatment lasted till the disease progressed, or intolerable toxic/adverse reactions occurred, or patients refused to continue the treatment. Patients' life spans were regularly followed-up.

RESULTS(1) The median cycle of maintenance therapy was 2 cycles for two groups with no statistical difference (P =0.274). The median PFS was 12.43 weeks in the test group and 10.00 weeks in the control group, showing statistical difference (P =0.025). The middle survival time (MST) was 18.8 months in the test group and 16.73 months in the control group, showing no statistical difference (P =0.437).

CONCLUSIONCM treatment (as maintenance therapy) showed quail effect to one Western drug chemotherapy in prolonging patients' life span.

Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; drug therapy ; Deoxycytidine ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Disease-Free Survival ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Pemetrexed ; therapeutic use ; Prospective Studies ; Taxoids ; therapeutic use

To study the genetic stability of Panax quinquefolium after introduced into China for 30 years, the samples of P. quinquefolium from 14 regions of China were studied. RAPD molecular marker technology was applied in this research, and POPGEN32 data analysis and NTSYS2. 10 cluster diagram were used to analyze the data. The results showed that there are abundant genetic diversity in the ginseng samples. There were 81 polymorphic bands based on the 13 random primers. The polymorphism was 83.51%, the effective number of alleles (N(e)) was 1.456 7; Nei's gene diversity index (H) was 0.274 8; Shannon's diversity index (H(o)) was 0.419 4. The clustering analyses indicated that P. quinquefolium and P. ginseng were classified into two obvious groups, especially, it was also found that the P. quinquefolium could be divided into two obvious groups based on whether the P. ginseng was cultivated in the same region or not, but it was thought that there was not genetically a qualitative difference. Thus it suggests that a good breeding field should be established in Jilin Province of China for the germplasm purification.
China ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; Genetic Variation ; Introduced Species ; Panax ; classification ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique ; United States