Salivary gland obstruction is a commonly disorder affecting this organ usually due to the development of salivary calculi, ductul srictures, or both. Imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis of the cause, extent, and effects of the obstruction. Up to date, the micro-invasive interventional treatment is always be taken as the first method of choice for dislodgment of calculi and sacculus salivary sialodochoplasty through buccal cavity. This article gives a comprehensive review of the indications and technical procedure.

Licorice root has been frequently used as antitode in traditional Chinese medicine. As the main active component of Licorice root, glycyrrhetic acid (GA) is mainly metabolized in liver. This study was designed to investigate the in vitro metabolism of GA by human liver microsomes (HLM) and human recombinant cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms. The results indicated that GA was metabolized mainly by CYP3A4. The K(m), V(max) and CL(int) of GA in HLM were 18.6 micromol x L(-1), 4.4 nmol x mg(-1) (protein) x min(-1) and 0.237 mL x mg(-1) (protein) x min(-1), respectively. At concentration up to 50 micromol x L(-1), GA inhibited CYP2C19, CYP2C9 and CYP3A4 enzyme activities with the inhibitory potencies up to 50%.

Objective To investigate the clinical value of the combined detection of Golgi protein 73 (GP73),alpha-fetoprotein variant-L3 (AFP-L3)and transforming growth factorβ1(TGFβ1)in the early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Meth-ods 48 cases of healthy control,42 cases of hepatitis B,50 cases of posthepatitic cirrhosis and 58 cases of HCC were selected and detected GP73,AFP-L3 and TGFβ1.The detection results were compared among 4 groups.Results (1)The levels of GP73,AFP-L3 and TGFβ1 had statistical differences among 4 groups(P <0.05 );(2 )The positive rate of the 3-marker combined detection reached 96.55%,which was higher than that of the 2-marker combined detection and the single marker detection.Conclusion (1) GP73,AFP-L3 and TGFβ1 may be used as the serum indicators for the early diagnosis of HCC;(2)Compared with the traditional HCC marker AFP,AFP-L3 has relatively high sensitivity and specificity and has the important role in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant diseases of the liver,which is considered as a better serum marker in the HCC diagnosis;(3)The 3-indicator combined detection can significantly improve the positive detection rate of HCC and has better application value.

BACKGROUND: The degree of neurofilament (NF) phosphorylation is closely correlated with the occurrence of Alzheimer disease (AD), and apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) is a generally acknowledged liability factor for AD, but the effect and mechanism of apoE4 on the NF phosphorylation in neurons are not very clear. It has been reported that in the neurons cultured in vitro and in brain tissue of AD patients, the amino acid residues of apoE4 protein C terminal (272-299) could be truncated by hydrolysis,and produce truncated-apoE4 fragment. The latter interacts with the NF phosphorylation in neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), which are the characteristic pathological changes of AD.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of truncated-apoE4 overexpression on the NF phosphorylation in the cultured neurons.DESIGN: A non-randomized controlled observation.SETTING: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.MATERIALS: The experiment was carried out in the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in December 2005. The mice neuroma cell strain N2a was provided by Dr. Xu.METHODS: The truncated-apoE4(△272-299) cDNA was subcloned into pEGFP-c3 to form pEGFP-T-apoE4 recombinant. Then pEGFP-c3, pEGFP-apoE4 and pEGFP-T-apoE4 were transfected into N2a cells by lipofectamine2000 respectively. NF phosphorylation was detected by Western blot assay. The activities of glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) and cyclin-dependent kinase 5(CDK-5) were measured.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The degree of NF phosphorylation and the activities of GSK-3 and CDK-5 were mainly observed.RESULTS: In the transfected groups, the contents of phosphorylated NF were significantly increased, the GSK-3 activities were significantly increased, which were the most significant in the pEGFP-T-apoE4 transfected group (P＜0.05), but the CDK-5 activities were not significantly different from that in th e control group (P＞0.05).CONCLUSION: These results indicate that in vitro overexpression of truncated-apoE4(△272-299) can lead to NF hyperphosphorylation by activating of GSK-3 but not CDK-5, which may be the underline mechanism of AD induced by truncated-apoE4(△272-299).

The etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was identified as a new coronavirus, termed SARS-CoV. Establishment of an efficient and sensitive diagnostic system of SARS-CoV genetic materials is crucial for SARS control. In this study, we quantified SARS-CoV mRNAs in both infected cell culture lysate and in supernatant by using Real-time quantitative revere transcription-PCR based on EvaGreen鈩?dye and Taqman-MGB probes. For extensive evaluation of sensitivities and specificities, 13 pairs of primers and 4 probes were designed based on different genes of SARS-CoV. Glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was selected as the internal control gene. Results showed that S-gene-specific PCR was the most sensitive for detection, but because of its sequence variability in the different viral strains, primers and a probe based on the N gene were suitable substitutions. Meanwhile, we found the mRNA concentrations in cell culture lysates were much higher than in cell supernatant and facilited more sensitive detection of the SARS-CoV.

Objective To study the effect of cervical disc replacement in the treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy(CSM).Methods 21 patients with CSM(17 cases of spondylotic myelopathy,2 cases of radiculopathy and 2 cases of acute soft disc herniation)were treated by anterior decompression and replaced by the Bryan cervical disc prosthesis. Results All cases were: followed for 4～12 months, average 8 months. The pre-operative JOA score was 8.5 and post-operative score was 15.5 on average. There were no prosthesis, curve was good. Replaced segment achieved stability and restored partial of normal ROM. There was no subsidence of implant and no worsening of pre-operative symptoms, post-operative 21 cases remained flexion/extension movement at replaced segments at latest follow up. There was no neck stiffness and restriction of movement complained by the patients. Conclusion The Bryan cervical disc replacement for the treatment of CSM has offered an excellent early clinical outcome.

BACKGROUND:Due to the higher modulus of elasticity, titanium cages are prone to have the folowing shortcomings: adjacent vertebral sinking and delayed fusion resulting from stress shielding; therefore, in recent years, it has been gradualy replaced by polyetheretherketone cages. OBJECTIVE:To compare the clinical and radiographic outcomes of patients undergoing posterior lumbar interbody fusion with pedicle screw fixation in which either a polyetheretherketone cage or a titanium cage was implanted. METHODS: The pre- and postoperative data of 104 patients who underwent single-level posterior lumbar interbody fusion were colected and analyzed, including 57 males and 47 females, aged (41.2±10.5) years. The 58 of 104 patients received the titanium cage and the remaining 52 patients received the polyetheretherketone cage. Visual analog scale scores and Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scores of the lumbar and lower limbs were recorded at 24 hours of postoperative folow-up; CT scan was used to detect bone fusion and cage subsidence. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:After 12 and 24 months of folow-up, the visual analog scale scores and Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scores of the lumbar and lower limbs were al improved in the two groups compared with the previous (P < 0.05), but there was no difference between the two groups. At 12 and 24 months of folow-up, the fusion rates were 94% and 100% in the titanium cage group as wel as 74% and 84% in the polyetheretherketone cage group, respectively, and a significant difference was found between the two groups (P=0.012 andP=0.016). At 24 months of folow-up, the subsidence rate was 36% in the titanium cage group and 30% in the polyetheretherketone cage group, and there was no difference between the two groups. These findings indicate that the superiority of polyetheretherketone cages over titanium cages has not been demonstrated.

Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic diseases of the central nervous system,many epilepsy patients need lifelong medication.Epidemiological studies have shown that 3‰-5‰ neonates born by women suffering from epilepsy.Treatment become more challenging because not only the patients themselves but also the breastfed in fants should be taken into consideration.This paper reviewed how to choose lactation antiepileptic drug.In short,choosing drugs which transport less to milk and have less side effects to infants,using the lowest effective dose and avoiding combination if possible can ensure the safety of breastfeeding.

The clinical data of a child with perianal necrotizing fasciitis admitted to the Department of Pedia-trics of Guangzhou First People′s Hospital were retrospectively analyzed.The child, girl, more than 5 months old, the clinical features of the onset of fever and diarrhea, only 10 days after the onset, the child′s skin progressed from redness and swelling to perianal skin and soft tissue ulcers, fat liquefaction, visible rectum exposure.After surgical incision, thorough debridement and drainage and selection of sensitive antibiotics, the child recovered and was discharged.Perianal necrotizing fasciitis is a rare necrotizing soft tissue infection caused by a variety of bacterial infections.Because its early performance is difficult to distinguish, the symptoms are serious, and the mortality rate is high.It should been pain attention in clinical work.

We pretreated sawdust (Castanopsis fissa Rehd.et Wils) by solid state fermentation (SSF) with Phanerochaete chrysosporium, and then compressed it into pellets with the moisture content of 15% and the pressure of 98 MPa, to solve the problem of low density, low Meyer hardness, high water uptake, and short storage period of pellet in the woody pellet industry. We studied the effects of fermentation time on pelletization and pellets's characteristics (including energy consumption, density, Meyer hardness, and hydrophobicity). SSF affected the heating values of pellet. Compared with fresh sawdust, SSF consumed more energy at the maximal value by 6.98% but saved extrusion energy by 32.19% at the maximum. Meanwhile, SSF could improve the density, Meyer hardness and hydrophobicity of pellet. Pellet made of sawdust pretreated by SSF for 48 d had best quality, beneficial for long-term transportation and storage of pellets.
Biofuels ; Fermentation ; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions ; Phanerochaete ; Water ; Wood