OBJECTIVEThe sex therapy is not yet popularized at present. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the combination of the improved sex therapy and oral sildenafil on erectile dysfunction (ED).

METHODSA total of 3130 Uigur cases of ED received in Xinjiang Bogda Hospital were divided into a control group (n=625) and a trial group (n=2505), the former treated with oral sildenafil alone, and the latter by the combination of the improved genital therapy and sildenafil, both for 3 months and followed up at 6 and 12 months after the treatment. The therapeutic effects were evaluated and compared using IIEF-5.

RESULTSThe IIEF-5 scores of the control group were 12.80 +/- 3.76 and 18.10 +/- 2.61 before and after the treatment, and 17.35 +/- 2.73 and 16.64 +/- 2.63 at 6 and 12 months, respectively, while those of the trial group were 12.73 +/- 3.52 and 19.06 +/- 4.07 before and af- ter the treatment, and 19.86 +/- 2.42 and 20.47 +/- 2.38 at 6 and 12 months, respectively, with statistically significant differences either between pre- and post-treatment (P < 0.05) or between the control and trial groups at 6 and 12 months (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe combination of the improved sex therapy and oral sildenafil is superior to sildenafil alone in the treatment of ED, and its efficacy is relatively stable at 12 months.

Adult ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Erectile Dysfunction ; drug therapy ; ethnology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Piperazines ; therapeutic use ; Purines ; therapeutic use ; Retrospective Studies ; Sildenafil Citrate ; Sulfones ; therapeutic use ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo evaluate an enzymatic method for determining serum beta-hydroxybutyrate (beta-HB) with the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) projects, and to discuss its clinical values in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).

METHODSThe precision, accuracy, specificity, linearity and interference of the enzymatic method were analyzed. This method was used to determine serum beta-HB in 60 cases of normals, 50 cases of diabetes, and 34 cases of DKA by autochemistry analyzer.

RESULTSEnzymatic beta-HB assay was precise (within-run CV, day-to-day CV, and total CV < 5%). The linearity studies showed the method was linear up to 4 mmol/L. Recovery rate was 98.5%-104.1%. Hemolysis (Hemoglobin up to 18.2 g/L), icteric samples with total bilirubin up to 224 mumol/L, and lipemia up to triglyceride concentration of 2.28 mmol/L did not interfere with the beta-HB results in this method. Serum beta-HB levels were significantly elevated in DKA patients compared with DM patients and controls (P < 0.01). Positive rate of serum beta-HB in DKA patients was significantly higher than that of urinary ketone (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSEnzymatic method is convenient and reliable, allows full automation, and is rapid enough to be used for both routine and urgent determinations of serum beta-HB. It can be used in diagnosing and monitoring treatment of DKA.

3-Hydroxybutyric Acid ; blood ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Autoanalysis ; Diabetes Mellitus ; blood ; Diabetic Ketoacidosis ; blood ; Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) on the progress of dental research from 1986 to 2010.

METHODSThe data regarding the NSFC allocated to dental and craniofacial research from 1986 to 2010 were collected. Total expenses and numbers of the majority of programs and the situation of completed program finished in recent 7 years were provided.

RESULTSFrom 1986 to 2010, a total of 922 projects and 204 401 thousands Chinese Yuan supported by NSFC were allocated to dental research. The detailed allocations were as follows: general program (564), young scientists fund (258), regional fund (40), key program (11), national science fund for distinguished young scholars (5), major international (regional) joint research program (1), others (43). The grants of talent training increased dramatically. Taking the projects (307) completed between 2003 and 2009 for example, 307 papers were published in Science Citation Index (SCI) included journals and 1049 papers were published on Chinese journals. By the time of completion of the projects, 39 post-doctoral students, 590 students for PhD degree and 670 students for Master degree had been trained.

CONCLUSIONSOver the past 25 years, the continuous increase of NSF on dental research has led to substantial achievement, resulting in great progress of dental oral-cranio-facial research.

China ; Economics, Dental ; Financial Support ; Financing, Organized ; Foundations ; economics ; Oral Medicine ; economics ; Research Support as Topic ; economics ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: To determine the genetic diversity of X-TR loci, and to evaluate the genetic structure X chromosome's of Ewenki nationality and its affinity with other nationalities. METHODS: We chose 9 X-TR (DXS6804, DXS7133, DXS101, DXS6789, DXS6799, DXS7423, HPRTB, DXS8378, DXS7132) as genetic markers from 99 irrelative individules to determine the genetic diversity of Ewenki in Inner Mongolian. Cluster analysis and phylogenic trees was applied to show the genetic distance among the nationalities. RESULTS: We got 51 alleles in the studied population, with the frequency diverse between 0.0109 and 0.6863. Genotype frequency was from 0.0217 to 0.3778. Heterozygosity(H),the power of discrimination(PD) and the polymorphism information conten (PIC) were consistent with the forensic application. Cluster analysis and phylogenic trees revealed that Ewenki nationality had estrangement genetic affinity with the other 3 major nationalities in inner mongolia and Han nationality in Xi'an. CONCLUSION The genetic information demonstrates that the 9 chosen gene makers were highly informative loci and are suitable for population genetics research and forensic application.
China ; Chromosomes, Human, X ; genetics ; Cluster Analysis ; Ethnic Groups ; classification ; genetics ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Markers ; genetics ; Genetic Variation ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Microsatellite Repeats ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; Polymorphism, Genetic

Background/Aims: The accuracy of endosonographers in diagnosing gastric subepithelial lesions (SELs) using endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is influenced by experience and subjectivity. Artificial intelligence (AI) has achieved remarkable development in this field. This study aimed to develop an AI-based EUS diagnostic model for the diagnosis of SELs, and evaluated its efficacy with external validation. Methods: We developed the EUS-AI model with ResNeSt50 using EUS images from two hospitals to predict the histopathology of the gastric SELs originating from muscularis propria. The diagnostic performance of the model was also validated using EUS images obtained from four other hospitals. Results: A total of 2,057 images from 367 patients (375 SELs) were chosen to build the models, and 914 images from 106 patients (108 SELs) were chosen for external validation. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of the model for differentiating gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) and non-GISTs in the external validation sets by images were 82.01%, 68.22%, 86.77%, 59.86%, and 78.12%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy in the external validation set by tumors were 83.75%, 71.43%, 89.33%, 60.61%, and 80.56%, respectively. The EUS-AI model showed better performance (especially specificity) than some endosonographers.The model helped improve the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of certain endosonographers. Conclusions We developed an EUS-AI model to classify gastric SELs originating from muscularis propria into GISTs and non-GISTs with good accuracy. The model may help improve the diagnostic performance of endosonographers. Further work is required to develop a multi-modal EUS-AI system.