Animals ; Forecasting ; Herpesvirus 2, Gallid ; genetics ; physiology ; Marek Disease ; genetics ; metabolism ; virology ; MicroRNAs ; metabolism

Animals ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Guinea Pigs ; Heart Ventricles ; Ion Channels ; antagonists & inhibitors ; physiology ; Male ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; drug effects ; physiology ; Promethazine ; pharmacology ; Terfenadine ; pharmacology ; Time Factors

OBJECTIVETo assess the efficacy and safety of Saw Palmetto Extract Capsules in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

METHODSWe conducted a multi-centered open clinical study on 165 BPH patients treated with Saw Palmetto Extract Capsules at a dose of 160 mg qd for 12 weeks. At the baseline and after 6 and 12 weeks of medication, we compared the International Prostate Symptom Scores (IPSS), prostate volume, postvoid residual urine volume, urinary flow rate, quality of life scores (QOL), and adverse events between the two groups of patients.

RESULTSCompared with the baseline, both IPSS and QOL were improved after 6 weeks of medication, and at 12 weeks, significant improvement was found in IPSS, QOL, urinary flow rate, and postvoid residual urine. Mild stomachache occurred in 1 case, which necessitated no treatment.

CONCLUSIONSaw Palmetto Extract Capsules were safe and effective for the treatment of BPH.

Capsules ; Humans ; Male ; Plant Extracts ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; drug therapy ; Quality of Life

OBJECTIVETo determine the expression of Na+/H+ exchanger 1(NHE1) in human gastric carcinoma tissue and to investigate the association between NHE1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics.

METHODSThe expressions of NHE1 mRNA and protein were detected in both gastric carcinoma tissue (n=60) and adjacent gastric mucosa tissue (n=30) by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot. The association between the expression and the clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed.

RESULTSThe relative expression levels of NHE1 mRNA and protein in gastric carcinoma tissue were 0.786+/-0.291 and 1.442+/-0.175, which were significantly higher than those in adjacent gastric mucosa tissue (0.369+/-0.052 and 0.348+/-0.029) (P<0.01). The expression of NHE1 mRNA was positively correlated with NHE1 protein in the gastric carcinoma tissue (r=0.264, P<0.05). The expressions of NHE1 mRNA and protein were associated with the depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and TNM staging (P<0.05). However, no statistical difference was found in age, gender, and tumor differentiation (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe expression levels of NHE1 mRNA and protein are significantly up-regulated in gastric carcinoma tissue, which may be involved in the development of gastric carcinoma.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cation Transport Proteins ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Sodium-Hydrogen Exchanger 1 ; Sodium-Hydrogen Exchangers ; metabolism ; Stomach ; metabolism ; pathology ; Stomach Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo detect the Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) in post-treatment endodontic disease, and to analyze the relationship between the occurrence of E. faecalis and clinical symptom.

METHODS108 teeth which need root canal retreatment were collected, and the clinical symptoms and physical signs were recorded. Bacterium samples from root canal were taken, and genome DNA from bacterial samples were extracted. The occurrence of E. faecalis by means of the polymerase chain reaction was investigated.

RESULTSThe detection rate of E. faecalis in cases of root canal retreatment was 47.2%, while in cases with symptoms or signs, or cases with both symptoms and signs, the root canal E. faecalis detection rates were 52.6%, 57.9%, 62.5%. The detection rates of E. faecalis between cases with clinical symptom and without clinical symptom demonstrated statistical significance (P < 0.05). The detection rates between cases with both clinical symptom and manifestly aneretic root and cases without clinical symptom and manifestly aneretic root had statistical significance (P < 0.05). In the group of clinical symptom, the detection rate of E. faecalis in cases with biting pain was 66.7%, clearly higher than those without biting pain (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe occurrence of E. faecalis in cases of root canal retreatment correlates with clinical symptoms.

Bacteria ; Dental Pulp Cavity ; Enterococcus faecalis ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Retreatment ; Root Canal Therapy ; Tooth

BACKGROUNDAlthough some certain infectious pathogens could be detected in the patients with coronary artery disease, the roles of these infectious factors in the development of coronary artery diseases remain largely unknown. Since the number of infectious pathogens has been argued to be relative to the coronary artery diseases, we therefore examined whether there is a link between the number of infections and the incidence of in-stent restenosis after stent implantation.

METHODSOne hundred and eighty-one patients were enrolled in this study. Infectious pathogens including serum anti-Chlymydia pneumoniae, cytomegalovirus, Helico pylori, human herpes simplex virus-1, human herpes simplex virus-2 antibodies and hepatitis B virus antigen were measured in all patients before coronary stent implantation. Coronary angiography was performed before, immediately after and 6 months after stent implantation.

RESULTSRestenosis rate 6 months post stent implantation was similar in patients with low pathogen burden (< 3 pathogens, 33.3%) to those with high pathogen burden (> or = 3 pathogens, 29.1%).

CONCLUSIONSPrevious infections with Chlymydia pneumoniae, cytomegalovirus, Helico pylori, human herpes simplex virus-1, human herpes simplex virus-2 and hepatitis B virus do not contribute to the incidence of restenosis after stent implantation.

Adult ; Aged ; Coronary Disease ; therapy ; Coronary Restenosis ; etiology ; Female ; Humans ; Infection ; complications ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Stents ; adverse effects

PURPOSE: To compare the diagnostic efficiency of ⁶⁸Gallium labelled prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography (⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for staging the lymph node metastases (LNMs) in the prostate cancer.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A broad search of scientific databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Database, and Chinese Biomedicine Literature Database (updated prior to November 1st, 2018) was conducted systematically by two reviewers. In this paper, we evaluated the methodological quality of each included article independently and performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to reveal the summary of the diagnostic performance of ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET and MRI in properly identifying LNMs of intermediate- and/or high-risk prostate cancer.RESULTS: Thirteen eligible articles comprising 1,597 patients were included. For LNMs detection, the pooled sensitivity and specificity of ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET were 0.65 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.49–0.79) and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.88–0.97), respectively, while the corresponding values of MRI were 0.41 (95% CI: 0.26–0.57) and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.86–0.95). The area under the symmetric receiver-operating characteristic (SROC) curve for ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET and MRI were 0.92 and 0.83, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: In intermediate- or high-risk pre-treatment prostate cancer, ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET had a higher sensitivity and a slightly different specificity in probing the LNMs when comparing with MRI. Moreover, the area under the SROC curve indicated that ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET was a more effective weapon for predicting the LNMs prior to radical surgery.

Objective To explore the changes of functional connectivity of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in online game addicts during the resting state,and to analyze the function of ACC in the pathogenesis of online game addiction from a perspective of resting-state functional connectivity.Methods Seventeen online game addicts treated in our hospital from March 2011 to October 2011 were recruited as addiction group and 17 healthy controls at the same period were recruited as HC group.The baseline characteristics of all 34 subjects were investigated and compared between the addiction group and the HC group.All fMRI data were preprocessed after a resting-state fMRI scan,and then,the left and right anterior cingulate cortexes were selected as regions of interest (ROIs) to calculate the linear correlation between the ACC and the entire brain to compare the differences between the online game addicts and normal controls.Results Obvious differences between the addiction group and HC group were noted in hours and days of online game using and degree of thirst to play online games (P＜0.05);within the functional connectivity of ACC during the resting state,in contrast to the controls,the online game addicts showed increased connectivity with posterior cingulate,medium cingulate,midbrain,nucleus accumbens and supplementary motor area,but reduced connectivity with prefrontal cortex,temporal lobe and occipital lobe (P＜0.05).Conclusion Altered functional connectivity of the ACC reflects the dysfunction in ACC of online game addicts,which may be linked to the forming and maintaining of the online game addiction.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between two polymorphisms (Intronic VNTR and 5-HTTLPR) of the serotonin transporter gene and schizophrenia.

METHODSA set of 314 schizophrenic trio samples collected from Shanghai, Xi'an and Jilin regions of China independently was subjected to analysis of the polymorphisms by transmission/disequilibrium test(TDT).

RESULTSNo significantly preferential transmission of any allele was detected from both polymorphisms investigated.

CONCLUSIONThe results suggest that the serotonin transporter gene is unlikely to have a major contribution to susceptibility to schizophrenia in Han Chinese population.

Adult ; Female ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; genetics ; Humans ; Male ; Minisatellite Repeats ; genetics ; Nuclear Family ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Schizophrenia ; genetics ; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins ; genetics

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is an unusual vascular tumor associated with human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) infection, which is common in immunosuppressors. Although extremely rare, iatrogenic (drug-related) KS can occur in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative patients under immunosuppressive therapy. We report a 64-year-old male diagnosed with ulcerative colitis for 1 year. He was treated with methylprednisolone because of an acute severe disease flare. He presented with several popular violet lesions on the body 4 months after steroid therapy. Histological examination of skin biopsies showed Kaposi's sarcoma associated with HHV-8. The skin lesions regressed after steroid withdrawal and chemotherapy. Two key words "Kaposi's sarcoma" and "inflammatory bowel disease" were searched in Wanfang data and CNKI, but no relevant articles were found. Thirty-eight articles in English were retrieved on PubMed with the key words of ("ulcerative colitis" OR "Crohn's disease" OR "inflammatory bowel disease") AND (Kaposi sarcoma). Twenty-five cases of Kaposi's sarcoma related to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) were reported. Including this case, the majority of 26 Kaposi's sarcoma related IBD patients were male (80.8%, 21/26). The average age was (51.1 ± 16.4) years. Twenty cases were ulcerative colitis and 6 were Crohn's disease. All the patients received immunomodulatory therapy, including glucocorticoid, azathioprine/mercaptopurine, methotrexate, cyclosporin and anti tumor necrosis factor α antibody. Thirteen cases were positive for HHV-8. There were 18 cases involving the distal ileum and colorectum only, 3 cases involving skin only, and 5 cases involving both skin and colorectum at the same time. Overall, the prognosis was good. Three patients only stopped immunosuppressive therapy, 1 received radiotherapy, 1 received chemotherapy, and 20 received surgery. Kaposi's sarcoma could be seen in IBD patients with immunomodulatory therapy. It is very important to distinguish from the skin lesions related to IBD or drug treatment. The adverse reactions of immunomodulatory therapy should not be ignored. In addition, attention should be paid to the cooperation of multi-disciplinary team, which can diagnose and treat rare cases earlier and more accurately.
Adult ; Aged ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; Crohn Disease ; Herpesvirus 8, Human ; Humans ; Immunosuppression Therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Sarcoma, Kaposi