Objective To analyze clinical and radiological characteristics in 5 cases of neuromyelitisoptica (NMO) with tumefactive-like demyelinating lesions (TDLs).Methods Five NMO patients with TDLs hospitalized during November 2007 and March 2012 were retrospectively analyzed for clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features,as well as therapeutic efficiency and prognoses.Results The male-to-female ratio is 1∶4 and the range of onset ages is 15-44 years old.The median time when TDLs was developed was 36 months after the onset of NMO.The anti-aquaporin 4 was seropositive in all NMO patients with TDLs.Four patients had clinical manifestations of encephalopathy symptoms including coma (n =2),seizures (n =1),narcolepsy (n =1),homonymous hemianopia (n =1).All TDLs grew unilaterally.Two TDLs were located at parietal-occipital,1 at parietal,I at the cerebellum and 1 at the temporal.On MRI,there was no enhanced signal in 4 TDLs,and there was open-ring-like enhanced signals in 1 case.Three TDLs revealed mixed signals intensities on diffusion-weighted images and an increase in the apparent diffusion coeficient values.On the subsequent MRIs,the sizes of 5 TDLs were markedly reduced in 3 cases,disappeared in 1 and another 1 case remained the same.Meanwhile,3 lesions subsequently developed cavity forming.Five cases improved after treatment of high-dose corticosteroid and intravenous immune globulin.Conclusions TDLs is not uncommon in NMO.Encephalopathysymptoms are more frequently affected in NMO with TDLs.TDLs often accompany with extensive vasogenic edema,but without enhancement in acute stage.NMO-IgG antibody testing and brain MRI are important in the diagnosis of TDLs.The therapy of corticosteroid and intravenous immune globulin is recommended.

Objective To compare the clinical efficacy between continuous and intermittent androgen deprivation in high risk prostate cancer.Methods Sixty-four patients with high risk prostate cancer were treated from January 2008 to April 2009,36 cases who accepted goserelin and bicalutamide were taken as intermittent hormonal therapy (intermittent treatment group),while 28 cases who accepted bilateral orchiectomy in addition to flutamide were regarded as continuous hormonal therapy (continuous treatment group).The comparison of tumor specific mortality,time of prostate specific antigen (PSA) to nadir,tine to PSA recurrence,serum testerone and quality of life score were assessed between the two groups.Results In continuous treatment group and intermittent treatment group,follow-up period was (26.4 ± 10.3) and (28.1 ± 8.7) months,the time of PSA to nadir was (3.8 ± 2.1 ) and (4.0 ± 3.6) months,the time to PSA recurrence was (20.1 ± 12.3) and (24.5 ± 14.6) months,respectively.There was no significant difference between the two groups.At the time of 18,24 and 30 months after therapy,serum testerone was 0.85,0.88,0.89 μg/L in continuous treatment group,while 1.21,1.36,1.48 μg/L in intermittent treatment group,respectively (P ＜ 0.05 ).Similarly,quality of life score was 38.7,40.5,39.8 scores in continuous treatment group,while 49.2,51.4,52.3 scores in intermittent treatment group at the time of 12,18 and 30 months after therapy,respectively (P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusions Clinical efficacy could not been found between continuous and intermittent endocrinic therapy of prostate cancer.During intermittent,quality of life seems to be better and increases in accordance with serum testerone recurrence at given time.

Twelve compounds were isolated from the herb of Chenopodium ambrosioides, and their structures were identified by spectroscopic methods as kaempferol-7-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside (1), kaempferol-3,7-di-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside (2), patuletin (3), quercetin-7-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside (4), grasshopper ketone (5), 4-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one (6), syringaresinol (7), benzyl beta-D-glucopyranoside (8), dendranthemoside B (9), N-trans-feruloyl tyramine (10), N-trans-feruloyl 4'-O-methyldopamine (11), and 4-hydroxy-N-[2-(4-hydroxyphenyl) ethyl] benzamide (12). Among them,compounds 3, 6-8,10, and 12 were isolated from the genus Chenopodium for the first time, and compounds 2-12 were isolated from this plant for the first time.
Chenopodium ambrosioides ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification

In this paper,the background,present situation,problem and tactics of GAP(Good Agricultural Practice)of chinese materia medica are discussed.The main problems of the yielding of chinese materia medica are as followings:(1)Lack of close controlling standards and scientific detecting methods.(2)Decentralized management.low benefit and low controllability.(3)The pesticide residue and heavy metal content exceeding the provided standard.(4)Production and marketing disjointed,supervising and controlling intensity in the whole yielding process not enough.Thus,3 measures are put forward:(1)Strengthening the management of the quality of chinese materia medica,formulating strict and unitary quality controlling standards,setting up scientific checking methods.(2)Developing genuine drugs,establishing famous brands.(3)Establishing green chinese meateria medica yielding bases,to make the Chinese Materia Medica utilization sustainable.

This paper analyses the defects of bubble oxygen inhalators currently used, and investigates into their solutions for improvement.
Oxygen Inhalation Therapy ; instrumentation ; methods ; Oxygenators ; standards

Background Although Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) and optic neuritis have different causes and managements,their clinical manifestations are difficult to be distinguished.Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RTFQ-PCR) is a high flux,simple,rapid and specific detecting technology,so establishing a specific diagnosis method of LHON with RTFQ-PCR has a practical significance.Objective Purpose of the present study was to establish a real-time Taqman probe for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)11778G＞A mutation in LHON patients.Methods Primers and Taqman probe for mtDNA 11778G＞A mutation were designed based on mtDNA complete geneme.Eighty-four patients with LHON were selected from the LHON DNA bank of Molecular Biology Laboratory,Henan Eye Institute,and 40 normal physical examinees aged 18-20 years were from Henan People's Hospital.2 ml of periphery blood was collected from each individual.Based on the double-blindness principle,mtDNA 11778G＞A mutation was tested by both Taqman probe and sequencing to check the reliability of real-time Taqman probe.Results The mtDNA 11778G＞A mutation was found in 23 out of 84 patients,and 61 showed a negative result by the technique of real-time Taqman probe.The Ct values of 23 patients with mtDNA 11778G＞A mutation were 22.993 ±0.708,but those of 5 normal controls were 0.These findings showed a consistent rate of 100％ with the sequencing results.In addition,both the false positive rate and the false negative rate were zero.Conclusions Real-time Taqman probe technique is an accurate,convenient,sensitive,specific and intuitionistic method for the diagnosis of mtDNA 11778G＞A mutation in LHON patients.It is feasible and suitable to screen the LHON patients with mtDNA 11778G＞A mutation in a large scale.

Background The proliferation and migration of vascular endothelial cells is a primary link during angiogenesis.Studies showed that heat shock protein B6 (HspB6) promotes the secretion of multiple angiogenesis-related factors and therefore leads to neovascularization.Understanding the effects of neutralizing HspB6 antibody on the biological behavior of human choroidal vascular endothelial cells has an important significance in the target treatment of choroidal neovacularization diseases.Objective This study was to address the role and mechanism of neutralizing HspB6 antibody in tube formation of human choroidal vascular endothelial cells.Methods Human choroidal vascular endothelial cell line was normally cultured and harvested for total RNA extraction.Expressions of HspB6 mRNA and protein in human choroidal vascular endothelial cells were detected by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and flow cytometry (FCM).The cells were seeded on 96-well plate covered with matrigel at the density of 2×104/hole.Then the neutralizing HspB6 antibody at the concentration of 100 μg/Land 500 μg/L was added into the medium respectively,and the control cells were set without the addition of HspB6 antibody.The number of capillary tubes was calculated 12 hours after culture by three-dimensional matrigel assay.In addition,0,50,100,500 μg/L of neutralizing HspB6 antibody were added into the cell medium separately for 24hours,cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) method was employed to assay the inhibitory rate(IR) of the cells.Transwell test was used to count the cell number across chamber membrane for the evaluation of migration ability of the cells.The apoptosis of the cells was assayed by FCM.Results Both HspB6 mRNA and protein were expressed on human choroidal vascular endothelial cells.The number of capillary tube formation of human choroidal vascular endothelial cells was (67.25±5.75),(60.39±6.41) and (39.76±10.73) /field in the 0,100 and 500 μg/L neutralizing HspB6 antibody groups,with significant difference among them (F =10.210,P =0.012),and the tube number was significantly less in the 500 μg/L neutralizing HspB6 antibody group compared with 0 μg/L neutralizing HspB6 group (P =0.005).The IR of neutralizing HspB6 antibody to the cellular proliferation and migration was enhanced with the increases of concentration and time lapse(Fconcentration =7.485,P =0.002 ; Ftime =16.684,P =0.001).The number of the cells through Transwell chamber membrane was 14.0 ± 2.5,11.1 ± 0.8,6.6 ± 0.1,6.7 ± 0.2 in the 0,50,100,500 μg/L neutralizing HspB6 antibody group respectively,and that in the 100 μg/L and 500 μg/L neutralizing HspB6 antibody group was lessened in comparison with the 0 μg/L neutralizing HspB6 antibody group(both at P=0.000).The apoptosis rate of the cells was (22.73 ± 2.53)％ in the neutralizing HspB6 antibody group,which was significantly lower than (13.33±2.08) ％ of the control group (t=4.967,P=0.008).Conclusions Neutralizing HspB6 antibody inhibits capillary tube formation of human choroidal endothelial cells in vitro in dose-and timedependent manner,probably through suppressing the proliferation and migration and promoting the apoptosis of choroidal endothelial cells.

Objective To involve informatized measures into medical equipment maintenance to enhance their clinical quality and safety.Methods A medical equipment maintenance management system was developed with C/S and B/S to establish the architecture,PowerBuilder language for programming and SQL Server 2008 database for data storage and inquiry.Results 2-a clinical trial proved the system had high stability,which facilitated maintenance application as well as inquiry and statistical analysis on maintenance records through network.Concinsion The system realizes informatized medical equipment maintenance management and promotes medical equipment maintenance management.

BACKGROUNDTo evaluate the influence ultrasonic processing on the aggregation of PrP(Sc) in the brain extracts prepared from the scrapie-infected hamsters, and to seek for the way to prepare lower molecular PrP(Sc) polymer.

METHODSThe extracts of infected brains were prepared with a lysis solution, and treated with ultrasonics at various conditions during the different phases. The distribution and aggregation state of PrP(Sc) were analyzed by proteinase K treated. Western blot, and afterwards, quantitatively calculated with a commercially supplied software Image Totaltech.

RESULTSThe amount of PrP(Sc) in the supernatant of brain homogenates was 1.29-to 1.58-fold increased with appropriate sonication (15 s for 30 times). At the same conditions of ultrasound, the PrP amount in the supernatant prepared from the scrapie-infected hamster brain was significantly increased, whereas that prepared from healthy animal used as normal control showed little change. Comparative analyses of PrP(Sc) pellets prepared by high-speed centrifugation revealed that about 90% PrP(Sc) released into supernatant after ultrasound processing.

CONCLUSIONAppropriate sonication of homogenate of scrapie-infected brain increases the extracted amount of PrP(Sc), being favorable to laboratory diagnosis. Larger molecular PrP(Sc) aggregates can be crashed by ultrasonic processing, engendering lower molecular PrP(Sc) polymers.

Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Brain Chemistry ; Cricetinae ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; PrPSc Proteins ; analysis ; Scrapie ; metabolism ; Sonication

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effects of Huafenqinutang combined with vardenafil for the treatment of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) with erectile dysfunction.

METHODSOne hundred and thirty-eight cases diagnosed as CP/CPPS with erectile dysfunction were randomized into trial group (70 cases) and control group (68 cases) for treatment with Huafenqinutang for 8 weeks, and in the former group, vardenaffil was added since the fifth weeks. All the cases were evaluated according to NIH-CPSI and IIEF-5 scores at 4 weeks and 8 weeks, respectively.

RESULTSAt the end of the fourth weeks, NIH-CPSI score was 13.1-/+4.7 in the trial group and 13.3-/+4.5 in the control group, which were comparable between the two groups (P>0.05) but significantly decreased compared with the pre-treatment scores in both groups (P<0.01). IIEF-5 score was also similar between the two groups (14.1-/+3.3 vs 14.3-/+5.0, P>0.05) but significantly increased compared with the pre-treatment scores in both groups (P<0.01). At the end of the eighth week, NIH-CPSI score was 7.8-/+2.2 and IIEF-5 score 20.1-/+4.4 in the trial group, which were significantly different from those at the end of the fourth week (P<0.01). In the control group, NIH-CPSI score was 12.7-/+2.3 and IIEF-5 score 14.3-/+4.5 at the eighth week, similar to those at the end of the fourth week (P>0.05). There were significant differences in NIH-CPSI and IIEF-5 scores between the 2 groups (P<0.01), and the change of NIH-CPSI score was negatively correlated with IIEF-5 score in the trial group (r=-0.89, P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONFor patients with CP/CPPS with erectile dysfunction, Huafenqinutang treatment in combination with vardenafil can effectively improve the erectile functions and decrease the NIH-CPSI score to favor the recovery from CP/CPPS.

Adult ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Erectile Dysfunction ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Imidazoles ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pelvic Pain ; drug therapy ; Phytotherapy ; Piperazines ; therapeutic use ; Prostatitis ; drug therapy ; Sulfones ; therapeutic use ; Triazines ; therapeutic use ; Vardenafil Dihydrochloride