Objective To investigate the status of anxiety-depression and the relevant factors in puerpera be- fore delivery.Methods The emotion of anxiety and depression in puerpera before delivery was evaluated by self-rat- ing anxiety scale(SAS)and self-rating depression scale(SDS)which had satisfactory validity and reliability.Results The values of anxiety and depression in puerpera were higher than those of general crowd(P

Background Congenital fibrosis of extraocular muscles (CFEOM) affects patient' s appearance and quality of life,and no effective treatment for this disease is available.Imaging study is helpful for exploring the pathogenesis of CFEOM.Objective This study was to describe the characteristics of CFEOM associated with limb movement disorder using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Methods A family with CFEOM associated with limb movement disorder was investigated in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University.Disease history was collected and the pedigree was investigated.Ophthalmologic examinations,including corrected visual acuity,refractive error,slitlamp examination,ophthalmoscopic examination,force of levator palpebrae superioris,ocular movement,eye position,forced duction test,and bell phenomenon examination,were performed.Ocular orbital and cranial MRI was performed in 4 CFEOM patients and 10 normal subjects to compare the structures of the extraocular muscles,motor nerve and cranium.Oral informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to any medical examination.Results A total of 1 1 members from 3 generations were investigated in this study,presenting with 4 cases of disease.The mode of inheritance of this family complied with the Mendelian autosomal dominant inheritance law.Clinical signs included disturbance of eye movement,deviation of eye position,ptosis,lack of Bell sign and positive reaction of passive pull test.In addition,unstable gait,improper body limb alignment,dysphasia and mental retardation were ohserved in 1 patient,which coincided with the diagnostic criteria of type 3 CFEOM.MRI results demonstrated that the levator palpebrae superioris,superior rectus and superior oblique muscle were clearly thinner,and the medial rectus,lateral rectus,inferior rectus muscle were thinning in the patients,showing significant differences in comparison with the normal controls(P＜O.05).The oculomotor and abducens nerves became thinner and even absent in the patients.Cranial MRI showed that Ⅲ-3 in the pedigree with callosum was shorter than that of the normal controls,suggesting that patient suffered from corpus callosum hypoplasia.Meanwhile,cranial MRI indicated the presence of cerebellar hypoplasia and the expansion of the fourth ventricle.Conclusions MRI demonstrates consistent abnormalities of the oculomotor nerves and abducens nerves in the affected individuals in this CFEOM 3 family,and some affected members exhibit two types of central nervous system abnormalities-corpus callosum and cerebellar hypoplasia.These findings suggest that CFEOM 3 is primarily a neuronal disease.

INTRODUCTIONHepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is endemic in Asia. Good public knowledge on disease transmission is one way of controlling spread of HBV. We aimed to study the general knowledge on HBV among the general public in Singapore, which is moderately prevalent with HBV.

MATERIALS AND METHODSBefore conducting a public education seminar on liver diseases, a 16-point questionnaire survey was conducted among the participants. Misperceptions (if any) were identified, and factors associated with knowledge score were analysed by multivariate analysis.

RESULTSOne hundred and ninety-two subjects completed the questionnaire. The mean age was 52 years, 78 (41%) were male, 183 (95%) were Chinese, 17 (9%) were known hepatitis B carriers and 73 (38%) had completed college education. The mean knowledge score was 10.7 (out of a maximum of 16). Most misperceptions were in the category of HBV transmission. At multivariate analysis, having college education was the only independent factor associated with a high knowledge score.

CONCLUSIONAlthough HBV infection is moderately prevalent in Singapore, many misperceptions existed among the general public, especially on the mode of transmission. Better education was related to better knowledge of HBV. Further public education should be targeted to clear the misperceptions identified, and be specifically targeted to the less educated.

Female ; Health Education ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Hepatitis B ; transmission ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Singapore ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo explore the metabolism-related risk factors of cholelithiasis among residents in Beijing.

METHODSThe clinical data including previous disease history, findings of physical examination, and results of cholecystosonography of 2270 patients with cholelithiasis identified in the Health Screening Center of Peking Union Medical College Hospital between August 2007 and August 2010 were retrospectively reviewed (the case group). Meanwhile, 4336 healthy individuals during the same period were randomly chosen as the control group.

RESULTSTotal cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, body mass index, and systolic blood pressure were positively correlated with the incidence of cholelithiasis (P < 0.05), while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was negatively correlated (P < 0.05). Diastolic blood pressure showed no association with cholelithiasis (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONCholelithiasis is resulted from multiple factors including elevated blood lipids, blood glucose, and systolic blood pressure among residents in Beijing.

Adult ; Aged ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Case-Control Studies ; China ; epidemiology ; Cholelithiasis ; epidemiology ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Lipids ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Risk Factors

Adult ; Aged ; Analgesics, Opioid ; administration & dosage ; pharmacology ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Female ; Humans ; Injections, Spinal ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pupil ; drug effects ; Sufentanil ; administration & dosage ; pharmacology

This study was purposed to investigate the possibility of differentiating the acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) cells into dendritic cells (DCs) induced by all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) combined with classic cytokines so as to provide a new approach for development of APL-DC vaccine. The bone marrow mononuclear cells from a new diagnosed patient with APL and HL-60 cells were separately cultured in complete culture medium. The cells were treated by ATRA, GM-CSF, IL-4 and TNFalpha in experimental groups and no ATRA was added in control and blank control groups. The cell morphology was observed by light microscopy, the phenotypes of DCs were detected by flow cytometry, the level of IL-12 was measured by using ELISA, the mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and effect of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) were assayed by MTT method. The results indicated that in experiment groups, the cells had dendritic appearance and cytogenetic characteristics of APL; expression of CD1a, CD83, CD80, CD86, HLA-DR and CD1d as well as level of IL-12 obviously increased; the MLR and CTL effects were significant, but increase of CD1a expression in HL60-DCs did not show statistical difference from control and blank control groups. It is concluded that ATRA can successfully induce APL cells to differentiate into functionally mature DSs which obviously mediate MLR and CTL effects. The APL-DCs derived by ATRA can notably express CD1d that may activate CD1d-restricted NKT cells and promote proliferation of NRT cells. The exact mechanism of which should be further studied.
Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; drug effects ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Dendritic Cells ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; HL-60 Cells ; Humans ; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute ; metabolism ; Tretinoin ; pharmacology

Objective To explore the effects of mild-warm moxibustion on PICC-related upper extremity deep vein thrombosis in gastrointestinal cancer patients.Methods Totally 117 patients with PICC were randomly assigned into the experimental group and the control group.All patients received routine PICC care,the control group was given normal saline for sealing tubes,the experimental group was given mild-warm moxibustion and normal saline.Incidence of thrombosis and indicators of hemorheology were compared between two groups.Results For incidence of thrombosis:7 days after placement,incidence of thrombosis in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group(P＜0.05).For indicators of hemorheology:the whole blood viscosity at low shear and high shear,erythrocyte aggregation index,whole blood viscosity,and hematocrit were significantly lower in the experimental group than the control group.Conclusion Mild-warm moxibustion can effectively prevent thrombotic formation in gastrointestinal cancer patients with PICC by influencing hemorheology.

Objective To evaluate contrast-enhanced fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) imaging in the detection of leptomeningeal lesions.Methods Seventeen patients with a variety of leptomeningeal lesions were analyzed.The MRI protocol included un-enhanced and contrast-enhanced FLAIR images and contrast-enhanced T_1WI,Comparisons between contrast-enhanced FLAIR images and T_1WI and between un-enhanced and contrast-enhanced FLAIR images were made to determine which sequence better depicted the lesions.Results Leptomeningeal lesions showed as either diffusely or locally abnormal hyper-intensity along sulci or cistern on three sequences.Comparison between contrast-enhanced FLAIR and T_1WI showed that only contrast-enhanced FLAIR revealed the abnormalities in 7,both revealed the abnormalities but the former was superior in 2 ,and both were conspicuous in 7. In 1 patient of tuberculous meningitis,diffuse abnormalities of sulci were shown only on contrast-enhanced FLAIR, abnormalities of cisterns were shown on both sequences but the former was superior.Comparison between un- enhanced and contrast-enhanced FLAIR showed that only contrast-enhanced FLAIR revealed the abnormalities in 9,both revealed the abnormalities but the former was superior in 3,and both were conspicuous in 4. In 1 patient of tuberculous meningitis,abnormalities of cisterns were shown only on contrast-enhanced FLAIR,diffuseabnormalities of sulci were shown on both sequences but the former was superior.Conclusions Contrast-enhanced FLAIR images were superior to un-enhanced FLAIR images and contrast-enhanced T_1WI in the detection of leptomeningeal lesions. Contrast-enhanced FLAIR images are helpful and should be considered when findings on un-enhanced FLAIR images and/or contrast-enhanced T,WI are inconclusive.

Recently many reports have described that recombinant baculovirus could serve as a new gene transfer vehicle for mammalian cells with many unique advantages. In this study, the constructed recombinant baculovirus BacV-CMV-EGFPA containing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene driven by CMV promoter was used to explore the feasibility of improving the efficiencies of transduction experiment in CV-1 cells by centrifugal method. Refer to the centrifugal transduction protocol of recombinant lentivirus, CV-1 cells were incubated with the culture supematant of Sf-21 cells infected by BacV-CMV-ECFPA (moi = 30) and then centrifuged at 600g for 1 h at RT, reporter gene transfer and expression efficiencies were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM) 48h post transduction. Results showed that centrifugal method can achieve higher gene delivery and expression efficiencies than transduction by simple virus-cell mixing for 4h at 27 t with least impairment to cell viability. The centrifugal transduction protocol was further optimized by testing different centrifugal times, post-centrifugation incubation times and surrounding solutions. We found that centrifugation at 600g for 1 h at RT is sufficient to achieve the highest transduction efficiencies in target cells and PBS is more suitable than other surrounding solutions. Compared with previous protocol in which tranduction occurs for 4 - 8h at 27 degrees C, centrifugal method developed in this study could achieve more higher transduction efficiencies in more shorter time. Nine different mammalian cell lines (CV-1, 293FT, HepG2, 293T, CHO, C127, MT4, H9, Molt-4) were used to investigate the feasibility of delivering exogenous genes into different mammalian cells with the BacV-CMV-EGFPA supernatant (moi = 30) at 600g for 1h in PBS surrounding solution at RT. Results showed that most mammalian cell lines used in this study could be effectively transduced with recombinant baculoviruses by centrifugal method, and more higher and satisfactory transduction efficiencies could be achieved in primate adherent culture cells than in suspended culture cells. These results show that the baculovirus centrifugal transduction protocol have notable advantages: more rapid, efficient and nontoxic, and could be easily used in daily common experiments.
Animals ; Baculoviridae ; genetics ; CHO Cells ; Cell Line ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Centrifugation ; methods ; Cricetinae ; Cricetulus ; Feasibility Studies ; Flow Cytometry ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Hep G2 Cells ; Humans ; Microscopy, Fluorescence ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Reproducibility of Results ; Spodoptera ; Transduction, Genetic ; methods

OBJECTIVETo explore the effects of long-term exposure to particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) from automobile exhaust on the reproductive function of Sprague Dawley (SD) rats.

METHODSForty-five male SD rats, weighing 80 - 94 g and aged 28 days, were randomly assigned to receive intra-tracheal administration of 0.9% normal saline (control group, n = 15), PM2. 5 at 2 μg per 100 g body weight per day (low-dose PM2.5 group, n = 15), and PM2.5 at 16 μg per 100 g body weight per day (high-dose PM2.5 group, n = 15), qd, for 60 successive days. After the last 24-hour exposure, 10 rats were taken from each group for copulation with normal female ones, while the others were sacrificed, their testes removed for sperm count and deformity, pathological examination, and determination of the Connexin43 expression.

RESULTSThe conception rate was significantly decreased in the low- and high-dose PM2.5 groups as compared with that of the control (70% and 50% vs 100%), and so were the sperm count and quality. The rats in the PM2.5-exposed groups showed significantly disordered histological structure of the seminiferous tubules, reduced sperm count in the testicular lumen, some exfoliated secondary spermatocytes, downregulated Connexin43 expression in the testis, and damaged blood-testis barrier.

CONCLUSIONLong-term exposure to PM2.5 from automobile exhaust damages the reproductive function of male SD rats.

Animals ; Blood-Testis Barrier ; Body Weight ; Connexin 43 ; metabolism ; Down-Regulation ; Fertilization ; Male ; Particulate Matter ; toxicity ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reproduction ; Seminiferous Tubules ; Sperm Count ; Spermatocytes ; Testis ; metabolism ; pathology ; Vehicle Emissions ; toxicity