Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; diagnosis ; therapy

Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; complications ; virology ; Humans ; Integrative Medicine ; Liver Cirrhosis ; drug therapy ; etiology

China ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Hepatitis B ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; drug therapy ; Liver Diseases, Alcoholic ; drug therapy ; Phytotherapy

China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; drug therapy

Objective To explore the expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2(TIMP-2) in peripheral blood lymphocytes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases(COPD) and the association of smoking and TIMP-2 mRNA. Methods The expression of TIMP-2 mRNA in peripheral blood lymphocytes was measured by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) in 44 patients with COPD and 42 healthy smokers.The correlation analysis was then conducted between TIMP-2 mRNA expression and smoking index. Results The expression of TIMP-2 mRNA was 0.753?0.154 and 1.170?0.196,respectively,in patients with COPD and healthy smokers(P

Adult ; Humans ; Lipids ; blood ; Male ; Occupational Exposure ; Vanadium ; toxicity

Objective To report our clinical outcomes of treating tibial defects combined with soft tissue defects using Ilizarov technique.Methods From May 2010 to February 2015,52 patients with combined bone and soft tissue defects of the tibia were treated at our department.They were 41 males and 11 females,aged from 19 to 65 years (average,37.7 years).By Gustilo classification,49 cases were type ⅢB and 3 type ⅢC.The areas of soft tissue defect ranged from 7 cm ×3 cm to 28 cm × 15 cm,and the tibial defects ranged from 5 cm to 15 cm in length (average,12.6 cm).The schemes of Ilizarov technique depended on the location and size of the tibial defects.Open wound dressing combined with bone transport was adopted in 21 cases,limb shortening followed by bone lengthening with compression at the fracture ends in 12 cases,and tissue flap transplantation combined with bone transport or lengthening in 19 cases.Results The follow-up time of the 52 patients ranged from 13 to 61 months (average,27.1 months).The distance of bone transport or lengthening ranged from 5.0 cm to 13.6 cm (average,10.8 cm);the bone transport speed averaged 0.81 mm/day.The tibiae united in all the 52 patients;the time for external fixation ranged from 13 to 21 months (average,15.3 months);the external fixation index was 2.3 months/cm.According to the Paley functional criteria,23 cases were excellent,19 good,9 fair,and one poor,yielding an excellent to good rate of 80.7％.Conclusion According to the location and size of the bone and soft tissue defects of the tibia,the 3 schemes of Ilizarov technique can be rationally chosen to obtain fine clinical outcomes.

Objective To evaluate the clinical effectiveness in screening asymptomatic diabetic peripheral neuropathy(ADPN) by the Michigan neuropathy screening instrument (MNSI) and the Toronto clinical scoring system(TCSS).Methods MNSI,TCSS and neural electrophysiological test (NET) were conducted in 232 neurologically asymptomatic type 2 diabetes patients.By using the results of NET as the golden criteria for diagnosis of ADPN,we evaluated the effectiveness of the two different scoring system by the receiver operator characteristic curve.The sensitivity,specificity,positive and negative predictive values,accuracy,Youden indexes and kappa values on different diagnostic cut-off points of MNSI and TCSS were analyzed.The correlation between the two different scoring system and the risk factors of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) were also analyzed.Results The area under the ROC curve of MNSI and TCSS were 0.792,0.704,respectively.The sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,Youden indexes and kappa values of MNSI over 2 and TCSS over 2 were 66.2％ vs 73.3％,90.4％ vs 63.7％,78.3％ vs 68.5％,0.566 vs 0.370,and 0.588 vs 0.345,respectively.MNSI was better than TCSS in the effectiveness of diagnosing ADPN and consistence with the result of NET.Moreover,MNSI was associated with the most related risk factors of DPN including age,glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c),HbA1c × disease duration,islet function and HDL-C.Conclusions MNSI could be used as a relatively simple and reliable method for clinical and epidemiological screening and assessment of ADPN.

Objective To investigate bone age of left-hand wrist in healthy adolescents of Shenyang and Beijing for assessing the process of skeletal development.Methods From 2008 to 2012,1333 adolescents (aged form 4.0 to 18.0 ys) of Shenyang and Beijing were enrolled in this study.Skeletal age was estimated by left hand and wrist X-ray using CHN atlas by 2 qualified radiologists.The correlation between skeletal and chronological age was analyzed using correlation analysis.Skeletal age and chronological age were compared using paired t test.The differences between skeletal and chronological age in genders and regions were compared using independent-samples t test.SPSS for Windows (version 13.0)was used for statistical analysis.P ＜ 0.05 was considered as significant difference.Results (1) Close correlation was found between skeletal age and chronological age (P ＜ 0.01) for both two genders and two regions.(2)Among 28 groups of investigation,16 groups (boys,11 groups) had higher skeletal ages than chronological ages with statistical significance,including Shenyang boys aged 6.0-18.0 ys,Shenyang girls aged 6.0-7.9 ys and 14.0-15.9 ys,Beijing boys at 6.0-15.9 ys and Beijing girls at 8.0-13.9 ys.(3) Comparison between boys and girls:5 groups showed significant difference,including 8.0-9.9 ys,10.0-11.9 ys and 16.0-18.0 ys groups in Shenyang and 6.0-7.9 ys,10.0-11.9 ys groups in Beijing.(4) Comparison between Shenyang and Beijing:6 groups showed statistical significance,including boys at 10.0-11.9 ys,12.0-13.9 ys and 16.0-17.9 ys and girls at 6.0-7.9 ys,8.0-9.9 ys and 10.0-11.9 ys.Conclusion Although CHN atlas method could reflect adolescent bone development,the skeletal age is higher than chronological age in many groups,and the difference between skeletal and chronological age is statistically different between genders and between two regions.This research can be used as a reference for the study of skeletal development and for further emendation of CHN atlas.

Objective To observe hypoxia-induced pulmonary arterial endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition and investigate the role of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) in the process. Methods Pulmonary arterial cells improved by adherence method were cultured in normoxia (containing 21%O2,5%CO2 and 74%N2) or hypoxia (containing 1%O2,5%CO2 and 94%N2) for 1,4,or 7 days,respectively. Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition was confirmed with morphological observation and expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) by immunocytochemistry. Expression of TGF-β1 was evaluated by RT-PCR and Western blot,and α-SMA by Western blot. Results Hypoxia-induced paving-stone-like pulmonary arterial endothelial cells transdifferentiating to polygonal cells with high-expression of α-SMA. TGF-β1 expression was increased significantly after 7 days of hypoxia. TGF-β1 stimulating alone increasedα-SMA expression of pulmonary arterial en-dothelial cells;while,SD-208,inhibitor of TGF-β1,abolished the above effect. Conclusion Hypoxia can induce endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition. And TGF-β1 plays an important role in the process.