Objective To investigate the relationship between the G20210A mutation of prothrombin gene and cerebral infarclion(CI) in young patients. Methods The frequency of G20210A gene mutation of prothrombin in 40 young CI patients and 48 controls were studied by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by Mnl- I and Hind-Ⅲ restriction enzyme analysis. Results No prothrombin gene G20210A mutation was found in both patients and controls. Conclusion The G20210A gene mutation of prothrombin was not the risk factor of this group of young CI patients.

Objective To investigate the clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of polymyositis patients with cardiac involvement.Methods Clinical data of 41 polymyositis patients with cardiac involvement were analyzed retrospectively.Results In our group, the percentage of polymyositis with cardiac involvement was 38.3%, and 25 (60.1%) out of the 41 patients were asymptomatic. Their average age was older than the cases without cardiac involvement ( P

This is to study the clinical features of thyrotoxic periodic paralysis (TPP) caused by Graves′ disease. Fifty-nine patients, accounting for 25.4% of 232 patients with Graves′ disease, were found to be suffering from TPP. Among them, 58 were male and one was female. 54 patients were young men (age 19～45) (91.5%). Hypokalemia was found in 53 cases (89.8%) during episodes of paralysis. The results indicate that the rate of TPP caused by Graves′ disease is 25.4%, and it occurs mainly in young men(98.3%). Hypokalemic periodic paralysis was the most common type of TPP.

Objective To investigate myostatin gene mRNA expression in the muscle tissue from patients with muscle weakness suffering from different illness.Methods The clinical data of our patients were all from the Muscular Disease Center,Department of Neurology,People' s Liberation Army General Hospital.A total of 75 patients suffered from muscular weakness were included consecutively.Skeletal muscle biopsies were obtained with informed consent from all 75 patients.The diagnosis was confirmed by two senior doctors for muscular disease according to the clinical feature,the results of electromyography,serum creatine kinase activity and histopathological examination.Among of them,21 cases were diagnosed as polymyositis,15 cases progressive muscular dystrophy,5 cases neurogenic amyotrophy,4 cases chronic muscle fiber damage,4 cases mitochondrial myopathy,4 cases lipid storage myopathy,4 cases myotonic dystrophy,3 cases muscular dystrophy in adults,2 cases dermatomyositis,and 2 cases inclusion body myositis.There were 2 cases characterized by pure high activity of creatine kinase.And the other 9 cases were diagnosed as non-neuromuscular disease.The expression of myostatin gene mRNA in muscle tissue was evaluated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method,with glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase as internal reference.Results The expression of myostatin gene mRNA was detected in 63 patients,but not in other 12 cases,and the percentage of positive expression was 84％.The expression index was with great variation,from 0 to 3.52.In positive cohort,the index was correlated positively with the duration of disease (r =0.236,P =0.041).The activities of creatine kinase in positive expression cohort were higher than that of negative one,but nonsignificantly.Conclusion The expression of myostatin gene mRNA in muscle tissue may not correlate to the entity of atrophic muscular disease because of its great variation.

Diabetic neuropathy is the most common neuropathy. Pathology and electrophysiology are important for early diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy. This article would review the newest progress of the pathology and electrophysiology of diabetic neuropathy.

Though affected by the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, the Chinese Journal ofNeurology successfully overcame the difficulties and successfully completed the annual editing and publishing work. In 2020, editorial board meetings were held monthly to decide whether or not to publish a manuscript, 12 theme issues were published, nine guidelines and consensuses by the Chinese Society of Neurology were published, 10 continuing medical education articles by famous experts were published, and several COVID-19 related articles were quickly published. In 2021, efforts will be made to make the journal to a higher level.

Tumor markers (TMs) in blood are important tools for the diagnosis, prognosis prediction and monitoring therapeutic efficacy of malignant tumor. Measurement of TMs in pleural and peritoneal fluid has been widely used. However, the significance of common TMs associated with systemic solid tumors in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been overlooked to some extent. TMs in CSF are within extremely low limits in patients without intracranial malignant diseases. Slightly elevated TMs in CSF usually indicate abnormal intrathecal synthesis. Measurement of TMs in CSF is a useful and feasible ancillary diagnostic tool for intracranial metastasis, especially for leptomeningeal metastasis.

Objective To explore the characteristics of neuroimaging and electroencephalogram (EEG) features of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD). Methods CT scan was performed at the 6th week, MRI was performed at the 7th, 9th, 17th and 64th week, regular EEG recording was performed at the 9th week, contineous 24-hour EEG recording was performed at the 11th, 14th, 16th, 37th and 64th week after onset in a patient with the pathological diagnosis of CJD. Regular pattern was analyzed according to the neuroimaging results and EEG. Results a) Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) was more sensitive in diagnosis of sCJD than cranial CT, T1-weighted MRI (T1WI), T2-weighted MRI (T2WI), fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MRI or contrast-enhanced MRI. Abnormalities would not be found in the early stage of CJD in CT, T1-weighted MRI, T2-weighted MRI, FLAIR or contrast-enhanced MRI, but they could be found in the middle stage of CJD. The CT scan and routine MRI might not show any specific feature for the sCJD. b) DWI abnormalities appeared in bilateral cortex and basal ganglia, and changed along with the progression of disease. In late stage of the disease, abnormal aignals in the cortex would disappear, but it was still present in basal ganglia. c) The appearance of periodic discharge of sharp wave complexes (PSD), which could be mathematically described by a sine curve, might be absent in the early and late stage of the disease. Along with the progression of CJD, PSD would be present in a part of a lobe at first and then involve more lobes, and finally the whole brain would be involved. Conclusion Repeated monitoring of DWI and EEG is significant for early diagnosis of CJD.

Objective To explore the reliable method for primary cultivation and identification of satellite cells of mice skeletal muscles in vitro.Methods Cell suspension was obtained from posterior limb skeletal muscles of newborn mice by mixed enzymatic digestion,and the muscle satellite cells were separated by Percoll-density gradient centrifugation and purified with differential adherence method.Cells growth was observed under an inverted microscope and the growth curve was drawn.Satellite cells were identified with monoclonal antibody against desmin and ?-actin.Results The primary satellite cells were round in shape,and began on adherence one day after cultivation,and the cells distributed uniformly,most of the cells were roundish.After cultured for 48 hours,the cells began on proliferation,and then became bigger and started to division,bubble cell arrangements with 2-3 or more cells were observed.At the third or fourth day of cultivation,the cells were in exponential phase of growth,and the round cells predominated,many clusters of cell clones were found.The satellite cells formed monolayer sheet(50%-70%) 7-10 days after cultivation,the fusiform cells predominated,but there were still some round cells in this phase.The cell proliferation decreased after cultured for 10-12 days.Immunocytochemical staining showed that the obtained cells expressed myogenic marker desmin and skeletal muscle-specific protein ?-actin.Conclusions High purity muscle satellite cells could be obtained by mixed enzymatic digestion,Percoll-density gradient centrifugation and differential adherence method.Immunocytochemical staining of desmin and ?-actin is the effective method to identify muscle satellite cells.

Objective To study the prognosis of polymyositis(PM) and dermatomyositis(DM) patients and its influence factors.Methods Sixty DM and 30 PM patients diagnosed according to the diagnostic criteria of Bohan and Peter in our hospital during 2000-2008 were used as study subjects.The patients were followed up till their death or to August 2009.Gender,age of disease onset,disease course,serum creatine kinase,interstitial lung disease,heart involvement,connective tissue disease(CTD),malignancies,and treatment with corticosteroids,immunoglobulin and immunosuppressive agents were assessed as predictive factors for the prognosis of patients.Characteristics of muscular biopsy from 20 cases were analyzed.Results The median age of the 90 patients(29 males and 61 females) was 51 years(range 6-74 years).The male and female ratio was 1∶2.The most commonly involved muscles were the proximal muscles of limbs(83.3%),followed by neck muscles(25.6%),laryngea pharyngeal muscles(12.2%) and masticatory muscles(2.2%).Among the 42 patients(46.7%)with lung disease,interstitial lung disease and hear involvement were found in 29(32.2%)and 13(14.4%)patients,respectively.Of the 13 patients complicated by connective tissue disease,DM and PM accompanying connective tissue disease were diagnosed in 9 and 4,respectively,and DM and PM accompanying malignancies were observed in 2 patients.Muscular or skin biopsy was performed for 23 patients,which showed typical inflammatory infiltration in 13,dermatomyositis in 3,and no significant lesion in 2 patients,respectively.Of the 18 patients who died during the follow-up,5(16.67%) and 13(21.67%) died of PM and DM,respectively.Seventy-two patients survived.Their 1-,5-,and 9-year survival rate was 90%,84.4%,and 80%,respectively.The complete and partial remission rate was 22.2% and 36.7%,respectively,with a relapse rate of 20%.Advanced age of disease onset(P=0.003 8),interstitial lung disease(P=0.011 3) and malignancies(P=0.004 9) were main causes of death.Malignancy(RR=6.34,P=0.001 2)was the factor for poor prognosis and long-term treatment with hormones and immunosuppressive agents is the protective factor for PM and DM.Conclusion Complete and partial remission can be achieved in 58.9% patients with DM and PM.Advanced age of disease onset,interstitial lung disease and malignancy are the factors for poor prognosis of such patients.Long-term treatment with corticosteroids and immunosuppressive agents are the protective factors.