BACKGROUND:Osteoarthritis and osteoporosis are two aging-related degenerative diseases. There are a lot of studies on their correlation, but no consensus has been reached yet. OBJECTIVE: To examine the cross-sectional association between phalangeal bone mineral density and radiographic knee osteoarthritis. METHODS:A total of 2 855 participants were included in this study. Phalangeal bone mineral density and anteroposterior films of the bilateral knees were detected. A multivariable logistic analysis model was applied to test the relationship between phalangeal bone mineral density and radiographic knee osteoarthritis after adjusting a number of potential confounding factors. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:A positive association was observed between phalangeal bone mineral density and radiographic knee osteoarthritis in the model that was adjusted for sex, age, bone mass index, smoking status, alcohol drinking status, total energy intake, mean calcium intake, as wel as vitamin and Ca supplementation. This association existed in the total sample and the female subgroup, but not in the male. These findings suggest a positive relationship between phalangeal bone mineral density and radiographic knee osteoarthritis in the female subgroup, which means that bone mineral density is a protective factor to knee osteoarthritis.

BACKGROUND:Ultrasonic therapy is one of several physical therapy modalities suggested for the management of pain and loss of function due to osteoarthritis. However, its effectiveness stil remains controversial in the previous studies.
OBJECTIVE:To analyze the effect of ultrasonic therapy for the treatment of relieving knee osteoarthritis pain.
METHODS:A retrieval of Pubmed, Ovid/Medline, Ovid/EMBASE, and Cochranee database was performed. The relevant literatures were manual y retrieved. The retrieval deadline was set on March 31, 2014. Randomized control ed trials on ultrasonic therapy of knee osteoarthritis were col ected.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:A total of eight studies of meta-analysis were accumulated. Among them, six studies adopted visual analog scale and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index, one study adopted visual analog scale only, and one study adopted Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index. Then the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index scores were transformed into visual analog scale scores for data analysis. There was a statistical difference between the groups in the visual analog scale pain score (standardized standard deviation:-0.51;95%confidence interval:-0.68,-0.33;P=0.05). Ultrasonic therapy is an effective method for knee osteoarthritis pain.

Objective To observe the effects of comprehensive measures of changing grain,selenium supplementation,off-site education and resettlement on prevention of children's Kashin-Beck disease in Aba state.Methods Fifty eight villages in Aba Kashin-Beck disease areas were chosen as intervention points in Aba state Sichuan province from 2007 to 2011.Based on the implementation of prevention and control measures,the villages were divided into off-site education + changing grain + selenium supplementation group and resettlement + off-site education + changing grain + selenium supplementation group,Geletuo town of Seda county,Ganzi state was selected as a control point,and right-hand anteroposterior X-ray examination(including the wrist) was carried out on children aged 6-13 from 2007 to 2011 annually.Clinical and X-ray diagnosis of Kashin-Beck disease was made in accordance with the Diagnostic Criteria of Kaschin-Beck Disease(GB 16003-1995).The effects of prevention and control measures were evaluated by comparing the child X-ray detection rate before and after the implementation of the measures.Results The average X-ray positive detectable rate of children in the intervention points was 2.07％(66/3181),2.72％ (69/2540),1.16％ (35/3017),0.56％ (19/3397) and 0.56％ (24/4273),respectively from 2007 to 2011,with a downward trend (x2trend =66.74,P ＜ 0.01).There was a downward trend in the average X-ray positive detectable rate of children in off-site education + changing grain + selenium supplementation group [1.60％(29/1809),2.63％ (39/1484),1.29％ (25/1941),0.64％ (15/2332),0.42％ (10/2379)] and resettlement + off-site education + changing grain + selenium supplementation group [2.70％ (37/1372),2.84％ (30/1056),0.93％(10/1076),0.38％ (4/1065),0.74％(14/1894)] (x2trend=30.97,35.19,all P ＜ 0.01).The average X-ray positive detectable rate of children in the intervention group was 0 from 2007 to 2010,and was 1.61％ (1/62) in 2011.The difference of X-ray positive detectable rate was not statistically significant in the control group in the 5 years from 2007 to 2011.The difference of children's X-ray positive detectable rate was not statistically significant between control group and intervention group.Conclusions The effect of taking changing grain,selenium supplementation,off-site education and resettlement comprehensive measures to prevent children's Kashin-Beck disease is not significant in those places where the state of Kaschin-Beck disease is not active.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the development and maturation competence of oocytes retrieved from cryopreserved and transplanted human fetal ovarian tissue by techniques of tissue culture, inducing ovary, oocyte retrieval, and in vitro maturation (IVM).

METHODSFetal ovaries of 20 weeks were frozen-thawed and cultured for 6 days in vitro, then xenografted into kidney capsules of immunodeficient mice. All mice were stimulated with follicle stimulating hormone every second day for 23 weeks, starting 1 week after grafting. Then oocytes were retrieved from antral follicles 13 hours after human chorionic gonadotrophin injection. IVM was performed to evaluate the maturation competence of the oocytes from ovarian grafts. Human fetal ovarian tissues were examined with histological and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) evaluation.

RESULTSThere was no difference between fresh ovarian tissues and frozen-thawed ovarian tissues in the percentage of follicles at different growth stages (P > 0.05). The proportion of the primary follicles and preantral follicles in the cultured ovarian tissues was significantly larger than that of fresh ovarian tissues and frozen-thawed ovarian tissues (P < 0.05). The proportion of the primary follicles, preantral follicles, and antral follicles in the transplanted ovarian tissues was significantly higher than that of cultured ovarian tissues, fresh ovarian tissues, and frozen-thawed ovarian tissues (P < 0.05). No significant signals of PCNA in the primordial follicles in all ovarian tissues were observed. PCNA immunoreactivity first appeared in primary follicles. However, the obviously positive signals of PCNA were seen in the oocytes and/or the granular cells of cultured ovarian tissues and transplanted ovarian tissues. Oocytes from antral follicles were collected and matured in vitro, and 21.43% of the oocytes reached to MII within 48 hours IVM.

CONCLUSIONSHuman ovarian follicles can survive and develop well after cryopreservation, tissue culture, and xenotransplantation. Furthermore, oocytes recovered from grafts have normal maturation competence.

Animals ; Cryopreservation ; Female ; Humans ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Oocytes ; cytology ; Oogenesis ; Ovarian Follicle ; cytology ; growth & development ; transplantation ; Pregnancy ; Transplantation, Heterologous

Host genetic factors, such as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, are important in Human immunod-eficiency virus (HIV) infection and its progression to AIDS. HLA class I genes, especially highly polymorphicHLA-B genes, are involved in the activation of HLA-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) against HIV, andthus control susceptibility to or protect against this virus. The present study was aimed to determine the distributionof HLA-B alleles in the Chinese Uygur ethnic group and its association with HIV infection. One hundred ten healthycontrol (HIV negative) and 128 HIV positive Chinese Xinjiang Uygur ethnic individuals were used in this study.HLA typing for B allele was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with sequence-specific primers (SSP).Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was calculated using POPGENE software for the healthy control group. The HLA-Bfrequency of each allele was compared between the patients and the controls using the chi-square test. In HIV-1-pos-itive group, gene frequency of allele B * 4901 was significantly higher compared to the healthy control subjects (P=0.02, OR=3.06, 95%CI=1.16～8.10 forB*4901). In contrast, the gene frequency of B * 40 in healthy controlswas significantly higher than in the HIV-positive patients (P=0.02, OR=0.39, 95%CI=0.07～0. 92 for B* 40).In this study, HLA allele B * 4901 may be associated with increased susceptibility to HIV-1 infection, whereas the B* 40 allele may be associated with resistance to H HIV-1 infection.

OBJECTIVETo study the clinical features, diagnosis and therapy of thyroid neoplasm in children.

METHODSA retrospective study was performed on 32 children with thyroid nodular who were underwent operation in Xiangya Hospital between January 2002 and December 2010.

RESULTSOf the 32 cases, there were 23 girls and 9 boys. Six cases were diagnosed as nodular Goiter adenoma and 26 cases were diagnosed as thyroid papillary carcinoma. B-ultrasonic examination showed a 100% accurate rate for the diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma. Fourteen children (44%) were proven to have concurrent Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Twenty-two (69%) children with thyroid carcinoma were found to have lymph metastasis in the lateral neck. The children younger than 10 years showed a high rate of metastasis than those older one (94% vs 56%, P<0.05). All 32 children received a surgical therapy. Subtotal thyroidectomy was performed on the 6 children with nodular Goiter adenoma. Total thyroidectomy (17 cases) or ipsilateral thyroidectomy (9 cases) was performed according to the stage of thyroid carcinoma. The surgical outcomes were followed up for 3 months to 9 years and no recurrence or death occurred. The development and growth were normal in the children.

CONCLUSIONSChildhood thyroid nodular attacks girls more than boys, and the frequency of malignancy is high. Hashimoto's thyroiditis is a common concurrent disease. The incidence of local lymph metastasis is high in those younger than 10 years. The surgical therapy for thyroid neoplasm may lead satisfactory outcomes in children.

Adolescent ; Child ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; pathology ; surgery

OBJECTIVEEndoscopic sclerotherapy has emerged as an effective treatment for bleeding esophageal varices in adults and children but the long-term outcome is poorly defined in children. The present study aimed to study the long-term effect of endoscopic sclerotherapy in children with portal hypertension.

METHODSFifteen patients (age 3 to 14 years) with esophageal variceal bleeding underwent endoscopic injection treatments with 1% Aethoxy-sclerol since 1996. All subjects continued to receive the therapy by repeated intra and extravariceal endoscopic sclerotherapy at intervals of 3 - 4 weeks until the varices disappeared, and received regular endoscopic follow-up.

RESULTSFifteen patients had totally 43 injections, and were followed up from 40 to 86 months (mean 66 months) by endoscopy. Two patients received 2 injections and 5 received 3 before eradication of varices. The mean time needed for varices eradication was 3 to 6 months. Recurrence of varices and bleeding was seen in 3 patients who had duodenal ulcer.

CONCLUSIONEndoscopic sclerotherapy is a safe and effective treatment for pediatric esophageal varices.

Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Duodenal Ulcer ; complications ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices ; etiology ; therapy ; Esophagoscopy ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; etiology ; therapy ; Humans ; Hypertension, Portal ; complications ; Injections, Intralesional ; Polyethylene Glycols ; administration & dosage ; Recurrence ; Reoperation ; Sclerosing Solutions ; administration & dosage ; Sclerotherapy ; Time Factors ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVEDouble-balloon enteroscopy is a new method that allows complete visualization of the lumen of small bowel. This study was conducted to evaluate safety, extent of observation and clinical efficacy of double-balloon push enteroscopy in diagnosis of patients with small bowel disease in children.

METHODSFourteen cases suspected of small bowel diseases with negative findings on examinations with various routine diagnostic modalities underwent double-balloon push enteroscopy from June, 2003 to May, 2005. Of the 14 cases, 13 had gastrointestinal bleeding and iron deficient anemia and 1 case had chronic diarrhea, the causes of these conditions were unknown.

RESULTSThe enteroscopy reached jejunal-ileum transitional area, middle or lower portion of ileum and terminal ileum in 2, 10 and 2 cases, and the examination time was 40-50 min, 55-70 min and 78-89 min, respectively. Lesions were detected in 12 of 14 the cases. The positive diagnostic rate was 85.7%. There were no relevant technical problems or severe complications.

CONCLUSIONDouble-balloon push enteroscopy is a safe, reliable diagnostic modality of high clinical value for small bowel diseases in children.

Adolescent ; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Catheterization ; instrumentation ; methods ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diarrhea ; etiology ; Endoscopes, Gastrointestinal ; adverse effects ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; adverse effects ; methods ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Humans ; Intestinal Diseases ; complications ; diagnosis ; etiology ; pathology ; Intestine, Small ; pathology ; Male

OBJECTIVETo explore the method of rapid detection of skin fungi and the significance of conventional diagnosis liquor worker tinea corporis and tinea cruris using arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction AP-PCR.

METHODSAmong liquor workers who were 50 tinea corporis patients, 58 tinea cruris patients and 50 health persons, we amplified the DNAs of the dermatophytes were amplified using AP-PCR and random primers OPD18 5'-GAGAGCCAAC-3' and OPAA11 5'-ACCCGACCTG-3', at the same time, the dermatophytes with microscope were detected and cultured.

RESULTSAP-PCR analysis detected fungal DNA in 45 patients(90.00%) among 50 liquor worker patients with tinea corporis, 31 patients(62.00%) had the positive results of microscope detection, and 41 patients(82.00%) had the positive results of standard culture. Among these workers who suffered from tinea corporis, T.rubrum, T.mentagrophyte, M. canis and E.floccosum were detected by AP-PCR. T.rubrum, T.mentagrophyte and M.canis were detected by standard culture. AP-PCR analysis detected fungal DNA in 53 patients(91.38%) among 58 liquor worker patients with tinea cruris, 37 patients(63.79%) had the positive results of microscope detection, and 48(82.76%) had the positive results of standard culture. Among the 58 workers who had tinea cruris, T.rubrum, E.floccosum and T.mentagrophyte were detected by AP-PCR and standard culture. Among 50 health persons, AP-PCR analysis detected fungal DNA in 3 persons(6.00%). The detection result with AP-PCR indicated that the kinds of fungi were T.rubrum and T.mentagrophyte. No one health person had the positive result in detection of fungi using microscope detection. Only one(2.00%) health person was detected to be infected by fungus with cultural way. The kind of fungus was T.rubrum.

CONCLUSIONAP-PCR is a rapid, sensitive and specific detection method for occupational dermatophyte patients. It can be used to detect and diagnose professional dermatophytosis.

Adolescent ; Adult ; DNA Primers ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Occupational Diseases ; diagnosis ; microbiology ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tinea ; diagnosis ; etiology ; microbiology ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo study the genetic polymorphism and intraspecific genetic differentiation of different populations of Pogostemon cablin, and find out the effective method to distinguish DNA fingerprint of different populations of P. cablin.

METHODFive plant populations of P. cablin were analyzed by RAPD markers. PopGen 32 software for clustering analysis and calculating. Fourteen of the 80 random primers were tested to possess the stronger detecting effect of polymorphous character.

RESULTA total of 84 bands was amplified by the 10 primers, among them 17 bands were monomorphic. 67 of them were polymorphic. The results indicated that the genetic variations existed within the different plant populations of the same species.

CONCLUSIONIt is feasible by RAPD technique with specifically primer to analyze the genetic diversity and identify 5 plant populations of P. cablin. RAPD technique has provided a new path for identification and classification of P. cablin genetic germplasm.

China ; Cluster Analysis ; DNA Fingerprinting ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; Ecosystem ; Lamiaceae ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; Plants, Medicinal ; genetics ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique