BACKGROUND: How to evaluate the cervical curvature correctly has been a greatly concern of spine surgeons. In recent studies, cervical curvature index(CCI) and cervical spine angle(C2-7) were often used by foreign researchers.OBJECTIVE: Ishihara method and spine angle(C2-7) method were applied to measure the cervical curvature, and the correlation between the two methods was compared as well.DESIGN: An observational controlled trial based on the patients.SETTING: Department of Orthopaedics of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.PARTICIPANIS: Totally 63 cases including 34 male and 29 female patients with cervical spondylopathy were involved in the Department of Orthopaedics of Peking Union Medical Clooefe Hospital from July 2002 to July 2003.METHODS: The 63 cervical spondylopathy patients' cervical spine lateral X-ray films were evaluated.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Main outcomes: ① The patients' CCI and the cervical spine angle; ② Relationship between their CCI and the cervical spine angle. Secondary outcomes: ① Regressive equation derived from their CCI and the cervical spine angle; ② Comparison of CCI and the cervical spine angle between male and female. RESULTS: The CCI(Ishihara method) was averaged 10. 1 (SD, 11.6), and the cervical spine angle(C2 -7) 17. 5 °(SD, 13.5). A highly significant correlation was found between the two indexes( P＜0.01). Sex and age factors were found to be irrelevant to them.CONCLUSION: The CCI (Ishihara method) and the cervical spine angle (C2-7) are significantly correlated with each other.

Acute Disease ; Humans ; Paraquat ; poisoning

Objective To investigate the present situation and to analyze related factors of nursing practice environment among 22 public hospitals in Shanghai area.Methods We investigated 1 600 nurses from the 22 hospitals with general information questionnaire and the Chinese version of Practice Environment Scale,and also analyzed related factors by single and multiple factor analysis.Results 1 582questionnaires were taken back.49％ were dissatisfied with their working environment,and 28.1％ were evaluated to have nice practice conditions.Nurse concerned with workforce management and adequate resources were widespread.Logistic analysis indicated that hospital's level,the nurse's age,educational background and seniority were main factors influencing nurses' satisfaction.Nurse work in tertiary hospitals reported lower satisfaction.Conclusions More attention should be paid on improving nursing practice environment.

OBJECTIVE: To introduce the method of analyzing repeated data measured by water maze with SPSS 11.0, and offer a reference statistical method to clinical and basic medicine researchers who take the design of repeated measures. METHODS: Using repeated measures and multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) process of the general linear model in SPSS and giving comparison among different groups and different measure time pairwise. RESULTS: Firstly, Mauchly's test of sphericity should be used to judge whether there were relations among the repeatedly measured data. If any (P

Objective To explore the age-and sex-specific body composition of normal children in Beijing area.Metheds The subjects were a total of 587 children of 6-14 years old,who were recruited from Beijing schools.All of them had relative weight within normal range(80%～120%),and no chronic disease.The relative weight was obtained,according to standard weight,using the follo-(wing) formula: relative weight(%)=(body weight/standard weight) ?100.Body compositions were estimated with a bioelectrical impedance analyser,which had been proved to be reliable and valid for determining the percentage of body fat.Results Not only fat free mass(FFM) but also fat mass(FM) increased monotonically with age in both sexes.FFM was higher in boys than that in girls at all ages.FM was significantly higher in girls than that in boys aged 6 to 8 years old;however,there was no significant difference for FM between sexes aged 9-14 years old.Patterns of change in mean ratio of body fat(%BF),with age differed by sex.Percent age of BF was significantly higher in girls than that in boys at all ages except at 10 and 11 years old. In boys,%BF increased with age,while in girls it remained nearly constant from age 6 to 10 years old,and gradually increased from age 10 to 14 years old.Body mass index(BMI) increased steadily with age in both sexes,and boys had consistently higher BMI than girls.In boys,the increase in BMI was steeper from age 10 to 14 years old.Even in the subjects with BMI

Objective To investigate the effect of lean management on emergency biochemistry test turnaround time(TAT) in clinical laboratories.Methods Based on the approaches of standardized operations,5S on-site management,the efficiency evaluation of batch processing and one piece flow,and visual management,the median time of each workflow,the qualified rate of emergency biochemistry test TAT,the unqualified rate in a relatively concentrated period of TAT timeout and the unqualified rate of collected samples were compared before and after optimization.Results The median times (interquartile ranges) of each workflow including sample receipt and storage,result audit and sample storage-result report before and after lean management were 30 (35) min,7 (13) min,17 (8) min and 16(19) min,5(9) min,16(7) min,respectively,and there were significant differences in the former two(all P ＜0.01) but not the third (P ＞ 0.05).The median times (interquartile ranges) of TAT before and after lean management were 63 (51) min and 46 (33) min,respectively(P ＜ 0.05).The qualified rate of TAT increased from 86.00％ to 95.37％ after lean management(P ＜ 0.01).The unqualified rates in a relatively concentrated period of TAT timeout and collected samples decreased from 3.42％ to 1.00％ (P ＜0.01) and from 0.24％ to 0.17％ (P ＜ 0.01),respectively.Conclusion Lean management may improve process efficiency,reduce errors,and shorten emergency biochemistry test TAT in clinical laboratories.

OBJECTIVE To select the superior one from two skin-cleaning disinfection methods so as to reduce the possibility of hospital infection.METHODS The water plus soaps(control group) and Daniel disinfectants(test group) were used separately to clean and disinfect the skin of patients in intensive care unit(ICU).The degree of skin-cleaning of patients and hand pollution of nurses were observed and analyzed.RESULTS The number of bacteria on the skin of patients of the test group was remarkably lower than that of the control group with a statistically significant difference(t=7.94,P

Objective To study the influence of high-fluoride on thyroid function and brain damage. Methods Thirty-six Wistar rats were randondy divided, according to weight and gender into 3 groups(12 rats each), i.e. control group, high fluoride group, and high fluoride plus thyroid tablet treatment group. The rats were fed with normal tap water containing no more than 5 mg/L NaF and the tap water added 100,100 mg/L NaF, respectively. After 7 months of experiment, the rats in high fluoride plus thyroid tablet treatment group were given with 0.04% thyroid tablet( 1.8 ml·kg~(-1)·d~(-1)) by gastric perfusion for three weeks. The contents of TT_3 and TT_4 in serum were detected by radio-immunological assay; the histomorphology in thyroids and brains were observed under microscopy; and the protein level of NMDAR2B subunit of glutamate receptor in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 was measured by immunohistochemistry. Results As compared to the values of TT_3 and TT_4 in serum of rats in control group[ (0.97 ± 0.15), (84.03 ± 12.45)nmol/L], TT_3 and TT_4 in high fluoride group were obviously lower [(0.24 ± 0.07), (15.16 ± 2.08)nmol/L, all P < 0.01]; while no changes in TT_3 and TT_4 were detected in high fluoride plus thyroid tablet treatment group[ (1.02 ± 0.19), (85.63 ± 9.55)nmol/L, all P < 0.05] as compared to controls, but higher than those in high fluoride group(all P < 0.01 ). The pathological changes including partial hyperplasy, arrangement disorder, atrophy, and decreased colloid of the thyroid follicular epithelial cells in high fluoride group were observed under microscopy. In high fluoride plus thyroid tablet treatment group, the degree of the thyroid cellular hyperplasy was relatively slight as compared to high fluoride group. The swelling and disarrangement of neurons in the hippocampus were observed in high fluoride group, whereas the changes of the neurons were not so obvious in high fluoride plus thyroid tablet treatment group. The grey values of NMDAR2B positive cells in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 in high fluoride group(167.05 ± 7.31 ) were significantly increased as compared to controls (92.53 ± 9.67 ) or high fluoride plus thyroid tablet treatment group( 101.66 ± 12.21, all P < 0.01 ). Conclusions High fluoride can induce the decreased function and changed histomorphology in thyroid and result in pathological damages in the brains of rats. However, treated with thyroid tablet to those having damages induced by high fluoride, the thyroid function and morphology can be normal, and the brain damages can be alleviated. The results indicate that hypothyroidism caused by high fluoride might be an important participating factor in brain damages caused by fluorosis.

The ability to induce hypersensity on leaves of tomato and the stability of double-plasmid of an harpin-producing, nitrogen-fixing engineered strain E4 were tested. Hypelsensitivity-inducing experiment indicated that the time and density of hypersensitivity-induction of E4 was similar to those of DH5, the positive control of pCPP430. Although E4 took the same time to induce hypersensitivity as 308R, another positive control of pCPP430, it induced weaker hypersen- sitivity on tobacco leaves. On tomato leaves, there was no difference in time and density of hypersensitivity between E4 and 308R (pCPP430). Results revealed that the two plasmids, pCPP430 and pMC73A, were unstable in host bacteria, with the losing rate of 100% at the 48th generation. The emergence probability of bacteria with either pCPP430 or pMC73A was almost the same.

Objective To assess the relationship between reconstruction of coronal trunk shift and changes of unfused segments after selective posterior thoracolumbar/lumbar curves fusion for idiopathic scoliosis.Methods Radiographic data of patients with thoracolumbar/lumbar idiopathic scoliosis who underwent selective posterior correction at our hospital from October 2005 to October 2011 with a minimum of 2 year follow-up period was retrospectively analyzed.Posteroanterior and lateral radiographs of the whole spine before surgery,after surgery and at the last follow-up were performed.Changes of coronal trunk shift during follow-up period were observed and multiple linear regression analysis was performed to determine its relationship with changes of upper thoracic curve,main thoracic curve,lumbar curve,distal unfused segments and coronal sacral inclination.Results Thirty-seven patients with 4 males and 33 females were included in this study.The average age was 14.6±2.0 years (range,12-20 years).The mean follow-up period was 3.6 years (range,2-8.9 years).The mean preoperative Cobb angles of lumbar and thoracic curve were 44.2° and 25.2°,respectively.At the last follow-up,they were corrected to 10.3° and 13.6°,indicating 75.7％ and 44.9％ correction rate,respectively.The pre-and post-operative mean trunk shifts were 2.2 cm and 2.0 cm with no significant differences.At the last follow-up,it compensated to 0.9 cm,which showed significant differences compared with that of postoperation.Linear regression analysis suggested that trunk shift changes during follow-up period were only correlated with changes of distal unfused segments.The regression equation could be described as Changes of trunk shift (cm) =1.248 7+0.137 8×Changes of distal unfused segments (°).Conclusion The reconstruction of coronal trunk balance is mainly compensated by distal unfused segments after selective posterior correction for thoracolumbar/lumbar idiopathic scoliosis.Although preserved most of its levels,unfused thoracic segments do not play an important role in the reconstruction of trunk shift.