Background: Integrative traditional Chinese and western medicine may be a new approach to improve the eradication rate of Helicobacter pylori (Hp).Aims: To compare the efficacy and safety of Weifuchun tablet versus bismuth combined with standard triple regimen as the first-line therapy of Hp infection.Methods: A total of 141 patients with Hp infection and na(i)ve to treatment were randomly assigned into 3 groups receiving a 14-day eradication therapy.In standard triple therapy group, esomeprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin were given twice a day;while in Weifuchun group and bismuth group, Weifuchun tablet and bismuth potassium citrate were added, respectively, to the standard triple therapy.Hp eradication was assessed by 13C-urea breath test at least 6 weeks after the end of treatment.Hp isolates were tested for resistance to antibiotics.Results: One hundred and twenty-eight patients completed the study.Hp eradication rates in Weifuchun group, bismuth group and standard triple therapy group were 83.7%, 91.8% and 79.1%, respectively by ITT analysis and 88.4%, 97.8% and 84.6%, respectively by PP analysis.The eradication rate of Weifuchun group was lower than that of bismuth group and higher than that of standard triple therapy group, but the differences were not statistically significant (P>0.05).Only PP eradication rate of bismuth group was significantly higher than that of standard triple therapy group (P<0.05).The resistant rates of Hp to clarithromycin, amoxicillin and metronidazole were 33.3%, 2.9% and 70.5%, respectively.For eradication of clarithromycin resistant strains, bismuth group was superior to Weifuchun group and standard triple therapy group (100% vs.60.0% and 66.7%, P all <0.05).All three eradication regimens showed good compliance, and no significant difference in incidence of adverse events was found between the three regimens (P>0.05).Conclusions: Weifuchun tablet combined with standard triple regimen is safe and effective for use as first-line treatment for Hp infection, however, the eradication rate is relatively low in cases infected with clarithromycin resistant strains.Bismuth combined with standard triple regimen is a good alternative in areas with high clarithromycin resistance and regions where tetracycline is unavailable.

[ ABSTRACT] AIM: To determine the aberrant methylation status in the gene promoter regions of CDH13, RASSF1A, DLEC1, SEPT9 and RUNX3 by detecting the plasma specimens and the value of their combined detection for di-agnosis of lung cancers.METHODS:Nest methylation specific PCR ( nMSP) was used to detect the promoter methylation status of the 5 genes in the plasma from 106 normal controls, lung cancer tissues, lung benign tissues and the plasma from 106 patients with lung cancers.Multiple displacement amplification ( MDA) was used to amplify modified genomic DNA to solve the problem of insufficient of plasma DNA template.RESULTS: The positive rates of promoter methylation of CDH13, RASSF1A, DLEC1, SEPT9 and RUNX3 in the lung cancer tissues were 51.9%, 44.3%, 54.7%, 36.8%, 24.5%, respectively, and those in the plasma were 46.2%, 41.5%, 50.9%, 31.1%, 19.8%, respectively.The re-sults of the Kappa consistency check showed that the lung cancer tissues and the plasma had obviously coherence in the methylation status of the 5 gene promoter regions.Combination of DLEC1, CDH13, RASSF1A, and SEPT9 had a higher di-agnostic efficiency than the others, as their ACC value was 0.8208 and youden index was 0.6415 ( with the sensitivity of 81.13% and the specificity of 83.02%) .CONCLUSION:Combination detection of promoter methylation of lung cancer-related genes in the plasma is expected to apply to the early diagnosis of lung cancer.

ObjectiveTo explore the effect of metabolic syndrome (MS) on the occurrence and development of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH).Methods 101 elderly BPH patients were divided into two groups:BPH (n = 45) and BPH with MS (n= 56)group.The effects of metabolic indexes,including body mass index (BMI),waist,high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C),fasting blood glucose (FBS) and insuline resistance index (H()MA-IR),on prostate volume(PV),prostate-specific antigen (PSA),international prostate symptom score (IPSS) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) were surveyed in BPH patients.Results BPH with MS group showed significantly higher values of PV (t = 3.22,P= 0.003)and longer course of LUTS (t= 2.02,P =0.046) than BPH group.The BPH patients with overweight and obesity had significantly higher levels of PV(49.44±26.83 ml and 51.7±22.2 ml,P=0.021 and 0.043) than BPH patients with normal weight (38.10 ± 10.64 ml).Additionally,BPH patients with abdominal obesity had significantly higher levels of PV than BPH patients without abdominal obesity(50.26±26.51 ml vs.38.99± 11.25ml,P=0.005).BPH patients with low HDL-C had significantly higher PV than BPH patients with normal HDL-C[(54.23±28.92)ml vs.(40.40± 14.87) ml,P=0.009].The values of PV,PSA in the BPH patients with elevated FBS were significantly higher than in BPH patients with normal FBS (t=3.17 and 2.4I,P= 0.035 and 0.013).BPH patients with insuline resistance (IR) had higher values of PV and longer courses of LUTS than BPH patients without IR (t= 3.43 and 3.58,P-0.001).The PV was positively correlated with BMI(r= 0.459.P= O.OOO),FINS (r= 0.42,P=O.OOI),HOMA-IR (r= 0.49,P= 0.003) and gatively correlated with HDL-C (r= 0.38,P-0.000)- Multiple linear stepwise regression analysis showed that PV was closely correlated with HOMA-IR.ConclusionsMS has evident effects on the occurrence and development of BPH.