AIM: To investigate the efficacy and safety of leflunomide (Lef) in long-term treatm ent of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).　METHODS: Twenty-one patients ［M 2,F 19; age (45±s 9)a］ with RA were s elected. Disease duration was (59±48) mo. All patients enrolled in double-blin d or single-blind trials with Lef 20 mg, po, qd for 6 mo at first. Doses of leflunomide in nine patients were reduced down to 10 mg, qd and all the others c ontinued the treatment with Lef at 20 mg, qd. 　RESULTS: All twenty-one patient s we re followed up for 1.5 a. The results showed that twenty patients had remarkable improvement and one patient had clinical remission. Ni neteen patients had been followed up for more than 2 a and twelve patients had r emarkable improvement while seven patients had clinical remission. Twelve pati ents had been followed up for 3 a and three of them had remarkable improvement while nine patients had clinical remission. Total rate of adverse reactions was 19 %( 4/21). 　CONCLUSION: This study shows that long-term treatment of RA with Lef is effec tive and safe.

Evidence based medicine (EBM) has drawn the attention of the medical community around the world and is rapidly becoming the standard in medical research. EBM requires both rigorous clinical trial research design, including adequate randomization and appropriate control, and accurate and thorough reporting of the findings of trials. Despite China's active research program, the majority of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical research in the Chinese literature fails to meet world standards of clinical research reporting, largely due to insufficient and inadequate reporting. Because of rising world demand for information on TCM research, enhancing the quality of research reporting in Chinese journals is imperative. Quality of reporting is important in all aspects of a manuscript, including the introduction/background, materials and methods, results, and discussion/conclusion sections. TCM journal editors, who serve as gatekeepers of quality, must encourage higher quality clinical research reporting by setting and upholding publication standards.

0.05). The DLCO, DLCO/VA, FEF25, FEF50, FEF75, which determines pulmonary gas exchange, revealed a statistically significant decline in patients with AP(P

This paper discusses the choice of textbook and reform of the teaching methods,as well as the issue of how to develop students’ practical and innovative ability the undergraduate teaching of pharmacoinformatics course.

Objective To investigate the effect of resveratrol on proliferation inhibition,cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of Jurkat cell line in acute T lymphoblast leukemia.Methods MTT assay was used to determine the cell vitality.Wright-Giemsa,Hoechest 33258/PI staining and transmission electron microscope technique were used to detect the apoptosis status of Jurkat cells.The cell cycle arrest was analyzed by flow cytometry.(Results Resveratrol) had 64.01% inhibitory rate on the growth of Jurkat cells at 0.2 mmol?L~(-1) and inhibited the growth of Jurkat cells in dose-and time-dependent manner.24 h after treated with resveratrol,the typical features of apoptosis were observed under light and electron microscope in all treatment groups.Some nuclei showed bright blue under fluorescence microscope in the resveratrol-treated Jurkat cells,and the number of cells with bright blue fluorescence increased with time.Nuclei condensation and fragmentation were observed.Cell shrinkage,chromatin condensation,and marginalization were found by Wrigh-Giemsa staining and transmission electron microscope technique.By flow cytometry,62.57% of the cells were arrested at the S phase after exposured to(0.05 mmol?L~(-1)) resveratrol for 48 h,the rate of apoptotic cells to total cells was 12.01% in 0.05 mmol?L~(-1) treatment groups,and that in the control groups was 2.05%. Conclusion Resveratrol can inhibit the proliferation,cause S-phage arrest and induce the apoptosis of Jurkat cells.

Objective To investigate the clinical value of the detection of serum procalcitonin (PCT) and plasma D-dimer (D-D) levels in the early diagnosis of infection in critically ill children.Methods Solid-phase immune chromatography and immune nephelometry were used to determine the levels of serum PCT,plasma D-D,plasma C reactive protein (CRP) and WBC count in 302 critically ill children.Results The positive rate of serum PCT and the level of plasma D-D in the infected group (208 children) were significantly higher than those in the non-infected group (94 children)[96.6％(201/208) vs.10.6％(10/94),(1.65 ± 0.73) mg/L vs.(0.45 ± 0.21) mg/L,P ＜ 0.05].But there was no significant difference of plasma CRP level and WBC count between the 2 groups (P ＞0.05).The levels of serum PCT and plasma D-D were positively correlated to the severity of the illness (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The levels of serum PCT and plasma D-D are between important sensitivity markers for early diagnosis of critically ill children,illness severity assessment and therapeutic evaluation.The detection of plasma D-D plays an important role in early diagnosis of the degree and the width of coagulation disorder,and also provides the theoretic basis to use anticoagulation drugs for treating the critically ill children with infection.

ObjectiveTo observe the effect of insulin detemir combined with acarbose in treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM).Methods32 T2DM patients whose blood glucose control was poor receiving twice daily isophane protamine biosynthetic human insulin( Novolin 30R) combined or not combined with oral hypoglycemic drugs,were switched to receive insulin detemir injection once daily and oral acarbose three times daily for 12 weeks.By self-contrasted method,observed blood glucose before and after three meals,before sleeping,glycated hemoglobin ( HbA1c),change of body mass index( BMI),incidence of hypoglycemia,compliance and satisfaction of patients (by questionnaire) before and after treatment.ResultsAfter treatment,the blood glucose before and after three meals,before sleeping and HbA1 c declined sigmifieatly ( t =11.212,14.997,10.863,17.950,11.108,14.034,12.422,22.764,all P ＜0.01 )compared to state before treatment.The rate of hypoglycemia in the day was 3.1％,without nocturnal symptoms of hypoglycemia.BMI had certain declining,but there was no statistical significance (P ＞ 0.05).The compliance and satisfaction of patients were in a higher rate (x2 =10.255,9.143,all P ＜ 0.01 ).ConclusionInsulin detemir combined with acarbose could effectively control the blood glucose,incidence of hypoglycemia,without increasing body mass,achieve good compliance and satisfaction of patients.

AIM: To investigate the efficacy and safety of low-dose leflunomide (Lef) combined with methotrexate (MTX) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Sixty-four RA patients were randomly divided into two groups, with 32 patients in each group. All the patients were required to stop the treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for 1 wk before entering the trial. Patients in the Lef+MTX group received Lef 20 mg, po, qd in the first 4 wk, followed by 10 mg,po, qd for next 20 wk. Patients also received MTX 7.5 mg,po, qw during the trial. Patients in the MTX group received MTX 15 mg,po, qw for 24 wk. Physical and laboratory examinations were performed at the beginning of the trial, after 12 wk treatment and 24 wk treatment. Entopic X-ray examination of both hands was performed before and after the treatment. RESULTS: The rate of remarkable improvement was 88% (28/32) in Lef+MTX group and 38% in MTX group (12/32). Adverse reactions were reported in 12% (4/32) patients in Lef+MTX group and 43% (14/32) patients in MTX group. The reported adverse reactions were rash and nausea in Lef+MTX group and nausea, vomiting, oral ulcer, alopecia, ALT elevation, palpitation and menoxenia in MTX group. CONCLUSION: Combination of Lef with MTX is safe and effective in treatment of RA with less adverse reactions.

Conventional treatments for osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of arthritis, are associated with unpleasant adverse effects and often ineffective. Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have been used for thousands of years to treat pain and other dysfunctions. However, the scientific evidence on the efficacy of acupuncture and TCM is equivocal, and adapting the Western biomedical model to assess them is a great challenge. By adopting a systematic, step-by-step approach, the research team at the University of Maryland has been carefully evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture on knee OA over the past 10 years. Their successful experience may be a useful model for future acupuncture and TCM research.