BACKGROUND: Homocysteine(HCY) is emerging as an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis. Its damage to the structure and function of endothelial cell(EC) is seemingly an important mechanism that leads to atherosclerosis.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of HCY on fibrinolysis in elderly patients with coronary heart disease(CHD).DESIGN: A case-controlled study based on CHD patients and normal people as control group.SETTING: Department of general internal medicine and department of cardiology in a university hospital.PARTICIPANTS: The study was completed in the Department of Gerontology Internal Medicine and Department of Cardiology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital University of Medical Science. Altogether 177 inpatients and outpatients from this hospital during December 2001 to August 2003 were selected and divided into three groups according to the results of coronary angiography(CAG): CHD group( n = 91 ) with 50 males and 41 females with the mean age of(66 ± 6) years, negative CAG group( n = 86) with 43 males and 43 females with the mean age of(60 ± 6) years, and normal control group( n = 85) with 43 healthy males and 42 healthy females with the mean age of(55± 5) years.METHODS: Peripheral blood samples were collected. ELISA double antibody method was applied to test tissue-type plasminogen activator(t-PA), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and yon Willebrand factor(vWF). HCY was assayed with EIA method and the ratio of PAI-1 to t-PA was calculated.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: HCY level, t-PA, PAI-1 and vWF activities, and the ratio of PAI-1 to t-PA.RESULTS: The levels of HCY, PAI-1, PAI-1/t-PA and vWF in CHD group were significantly higher than those in negative CAG group and normal control group( P ＜ 0.01 ); however, the level of t-PA was significantly lower than that in control group( P ＜ 0. 01) . HCY was positively correlated with PAI-1,PAI-1 / t-PA and vWF, while it was negatively correlated with t-PA.CONCLUSION: The increase of serum HCY is accompanied with fibrinolytic dysfunction. HCY is positively correlated with PAI-1 and vWF but negatively correlated with t-PA. Therefore, HCY is a predictor for early coronary lesions,and can provide related laboratory data for the primary prevention and early treatment of CHD.

The principle of human respiratory function test is decleared. The innovative testing parameters is proposed to optimize traditional calculation parameters based on a respiratory function test of one-time max respiratory flow and pressure. The parameters of respiratory function evaluation was preliminarily verified, and we have already got the expected experimental result. The research can be a valuable reference for the following respiratory function test in future.
Algorithms ; Humans ; Respiratory Function Tests

Objective To measure the content of trace heavy metal in the medicinal leech and provide references for quality control.Methods In this study, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the content of 6 heavy metal elements in different parts of the medicinal leeches from various places of origin.Results Content of mercury, lead and cadmium of leeches from different habitats met the current national standards, arsenic in some samples is beyond the current national standard, while the content of cuprum and chromium in medicinal leeches exceeded the current national standards.There were significant differences in trace heavy metal amount in different parts of the leeches.Most heavy metal accumulated at tail, some at middle part, and less at head.Conclusion The results suggest there are significant differences in heavy mental content among medicinal leeches from different places of origin and different parts of leeches.This study provides important references for quality control of medicinal leeches.

This study explores the application of animation in medical teaching. On the one hand, the status quo of the application of animation in medical teaching was analyzed by conducting questionnaire survey for the effect of animation-enhanced teaching of the biology course; on the other hand, new animations were made by the researchers to analyze its effect on the students' self-study. The results showed that the scores of the students receiving text and teaching animation resources were significantly higher than that of students receiving only textual information in the learning process (P<0.01), and the same goes for the number of the students that complete the >75％ of the learning content. The results showed that the teaching animation can improve the students' self-study performance and raise their interest in self-study.