OBJECTIVEThe effect of Kou Yan Qing Ke Li on the prevention and treatment of radiation-induced oral mucositis was investigated in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

METHODSSixty patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma to be treated with radiotherapy were randomized into two groups: the experimental and control groups. The experimental group (30 patients) was treated with Kou Yan Qing Ke Li during the full course of radiotherapy. The control group (30 patients) rinsed their mouths in the same way with mouth washes containing 0.9% sodium chloride injection, lidocaine, dexamethasone, vitamin B2 and B2 gargle liquid mixture, when grade 2 and above radiation-induced oral mucositis appeared in the process of radiation. Radiation-induced oral mucositis was assessed according to the radiation therapy oncology group criteria. The time of occurrence and degree of pain grade were compared between the two groups.

RESULTSThe first onset of oral mucositis in the experimental group (12.40 d ± 2.74 d) was later than that in the control group (9.46 d ± 1.39 d) (t = 5.241, P < 0.001), whereas the grade of pain and acute radiation mucositis was lower in the experimental group than that in the control group. The difference was statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONKou Yan Qing Ke Li could delay the time of occurrence of radiation-induced oral mucositis, reduce the severity of radiation stomatitis, alleviate the pain of patients, improve the clinical symptoms of patients, and effectively prevent and treat radiation-induced oral mucositis in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Carcinoma ; Humans ; Lidocaine ; Mouth Mucosa ; Mouthwashes ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Pain ; Radiation Injuries ; Stomatitis

Objective To evaluate the effect of low-dose colonic CT scanning in image quality and lesion revealing with different noise idex.Methods Model group:in order to find the optimal scanning parameter range,small simulated polyps in pig colon was prepared and mA was modulated by regulating noise index.Images were reprocessed with CT colonography and Raysum reconstructions.Image quality and the lesion revealing situation were evaluated and scored based on both reconstructive and axial images.The study of patient group was prospective and continuous.All positive cases were comfirmed by biopsy or surgery pathology.Two groups of patients were enrolled.First group(39 cases from January 2007 to June 2007):patients were divided into three sub-groups randomly(15 cages with NI=10,13 cases with NI:13,11 cases with NI=16),while NI was not changed with position.Second group(32 cases from Jury 2007 to January 2008):patients were scanned and NI was changed with different position(NI=10,20).The average X-ray radiation values of two patient groups were compared with standard values.All data were processed with rank sum tesL Results First group:when NI=10,the average scores of axial and constructive images were 4.2 and 2.4 respectively,when NI=13,those were 3.2 and 2.5 respectively,When NI=16.those were 2.9 and 2.7 respectively.and the average CTDlw were 17.51,12.90 and 5.94 mGy respectively.When NI increased,the average scores of axial decreased(H=20.01,P＜0.01),the average scores of constructive images did not changed(H=0.81,P＞0.05).Second group:when NI=10,the average scores of axial and constructive images were respectively 3.6 and 2.3,when NI=20,those were 2.2 and 2.3 respectively,and the average CTDIw was 11.63 mGy.When NI increased from 10 to 20,the average scores of axial decreased(H=20.84,P＜0.01),the average scores of constructive images did not decreased(H=0.29,P＞0.05).In the first group,the average CTDIw wag reduced by 35.0%,52.1%and 77.9%respectively when NI was 10,13 and 16.In the second group,the average CTDIw Was reduced by 56.8%.Conclusions Auto-mA low-dose CT scanning could reduce X-ray radiation obviously,while not affecting image quality.

Objective To investigate the changes of serum apolipoprotein A-I and its clinical significance to acute respiratory infection.Method Totally 44 patients with acute respiratory infection were divided into three groups according to various concentration of Serum apolipoprotein A-I.They were procaleitonin(PCT)＜0.5 ng/ml group,0.5 ng/ml≤PCT＜2 ng/ml group and PCT≥2 ng/ml group.We measured apolipoprotein A-I,C-reactive protein,procalcitonin and albumin within 24 hours after admission.Results With the increase of serumPCT,the production of ApoA-I and albumin were down-regulated,while CRP up-regulated.Conclusions Apolipoprotein A-I has a sound relationship with the acute respiratory infection.It can be used as one of the diagnostic criteria in severe infection patients who have disorders of lipometabolism.

OBJECTIVETo observe clinical curative effect of cake-separated moxibustion on impaired glucose regulation (IGR) and explore its action mechanism.

METHODSSixty cases were randomly divided into a simple lifestyle intervention group (control group) and a cake-separated moxibustion combined with lifestyle intervention group (observation group), 30 cases in each one. The control group was treated with lifestyle intervention. Based on lifestyle intervention, cake-separated moxibustion at Pishu (BL 20), Weishu (BL 21) and Yishu (EX-B 3) was applied to the observation group. Fast plasma glucose (FPG), two hours plasma glucose after oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT2hPG), fasting insulin (FINS), homa insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), blood lipid, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were observed in the two groups before and after treatment.

RESULTSAfter treatment, the OGTT2hPG and FPG were both decreased significantly (both P<0.05) in the two groups, compared between the two groups, the differences of FPG [(0.41 +/- 0.42) mmol/L vs (0.05 +/- 0.08)mmol/L] and OGTT2hPG [(0.85 +/- 0.53)mmol/L vs (0.17 +/- 0.19)mmol/L] were both statistically significant. There were no significant changes in FINS, HOMA-IR, blood lipid, BMI and WC in the control group before and after treatment (all P>0.05), but FINS, HOMA-IR levels, triglycerides (TG), total cholest-erol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C), BMI and WC in the observation group were decreased obviously after treatment (all P<0.05), which had statistical differences between the two groups (all P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe cake-separated moxibustion combined with lifestyle intervention can obviously control blood glucose levels, improve insulin resistance and blood lipid levels, decrease BMI and WC.

Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Glucose ; metabolism ; Glucose Intolerance ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Humans ; Insulin ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Moxibustion ; Waist Circumference

For medical image volume rendering, it is very difficult to simultaneously visualize interior and exterior structures while preserving clear shape cues. Highly transparent transfer functions produce cluttered images with many overlapping structures, while clipping techniques completely remove possibly important contextual information. To address this issue, A gradient adaptive shading based illumination model is proposed and implemented in CUDA architecture. The coefficients of ambient, diffuse and specular lighting are tuned adaptively according to gradient. The experiments show that our method is capable of preserving 3-D contextual information in medical image dataset while still show clear boundaries with real-time interactive speed.
Algorithms ; Artifacts ; Computer Graphics ; Computer Simulation ; Humans ; Image Enhancement ; methods ; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Models, Theoretical ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; methods

Through analysis on sequencing of meridians and their muscle regions, their pertaining organs, run ning courses, linking and indications described in Zubi Shiyimai (Eleven Meridian of Foot and Hand), Yinyang Shiyimai (Eleven Meridian of Yinyang), Lingshu: Jingmai (Miraculous Pivot: Meridian) and Lingshu: Jinjing (Miraculous Pivot: Muscle Meridian), it is found that most of the indications of acupuncture in ancient time are symptoms of the muscle regions. 62.59% points of the national standard acupoints location close to tender points of the muscle regions, which indicates that the origin of early acupoints are tender points along the running courses of the muscle regions. Thus, it is concluded that meridians and their muscle regions have the same origin, which provides new train of thinking for a better comprehension of origin of meridians and collaterals.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; China ; History, Ancient ; Humans ; Meridians ; Muscles ; pathology ; Pain ; pathology ; Pain Management

A rapid and accurate method of DNA typing for HLA was established to compensate the unsatisfactory serological typing for HLA before transplantation. DNA typing for HLA using by reverse polymerase chain reaction with sequence-spcific oligo probe (reverse PCR-SSOP) could detect HLA-A(*0101 - 8001) and B(*07021 - 8201). The results showed that HLA-AB alleles were successfully analysed in 60 matching subjects and 16 control DNAs from UCLA by reverse PCR-SSOP without false negtive and false positive results. The results were concordance with those of UCLA. The error rate of serological typing was 6.4% for HLA-A and 7.4% for HLA-B. The serological typing missed HLA-A24 and HLA-B46 for two patients with leukemia respectively. Our results suggest that DNA typing for HLA by reverse PCR-SSOP has proved to be a high-resolution, high-specificity, rapid and accurate technique, suitable for clinical application with a greater precision than serological typing.

OBJECTIVELamiophlomis rotata is a common wild herb in Tibetan traditional medicine with important medicinal and economic value. The paper examines the wild distributions, exploitation regime, and situations.

METHODA variety of research methods, such as literature survey, specimens inspection, market information collection in major Chinese herbal markets, questionnaire of herbalists and employers of local governments and institutions, and field quadrat survey and AcrGIS as well, have been used for this work.

RESULTTotal stock of wild resources of L. rotata is ranging from 3 713.49 tons to 6 896.56 tons (2 519-3 314 t in Qinghai, 490-1 414 t in Gansu, 641-1 167 t in Sichuan, and 422-999 t in Tibet, respectively), acceptable harvest quantity of the herb is ranging from 908-1 675 t per year, and actual harvest quantity is 2 520 t annually far beyond the acceptable harvest quantity.

CONCLUSIONHarvesting quantity of L. rotata is far more than that of acceptable, suggesting that utilization pattern of this wild resource plant is unsustainable. L. rotata seems to act as an indicating plant of degraded ecosystem of high-altitude grassland, shrub grassland, and wetland, and distributes in those degraded and degrading plateau ecosystems, and the plant is facing with pressure of ecological protection and wild resource population degradation. Wild population monitoring and standard cultivation are of importance for although they are far from implementation due to shortage of related basic studies.

China ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Ecosystem ; Lamiaceae ; growth & development ; Plants, Medicinal ; growth & development

Objective To investigate the expression and aberrant methylation of Ptchl gene in hedgehog signal pathway in carcinogenesis of human gastric cancer.Methods The total RNA and genomic DNA were extracted from 10 human gastric carcinoma tissues,adjacent tissues(＞3 cm from cancerous tissue)and gastric cancer eell line AGS.Ptchl mRNA expression was detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR.The pattern of CpG island in Ptchl gene 5'regulation sequence was analyzed by software and its methylation extent was tested by bisulfite sequencing PCR.Results The analysis of CpG island(starting-3950 bases upstream of the Ptchl mRNAla transcription start site and ending 2050 bases downstream)revealed that there were two CpG islands in Ptchl gene 5' regulation sequence(first CpG:-1139 bp～+860 bp;second CpG:+875 bp～+1692 bp).Bisulfite sequencing PCR analysis of 19 CpG sites included in the first CpG island(-870 bp～+229 bp)showed that there was methylation present in all cell lines and the average extent of the methylation of these CpG sites was significantly higher in cancerous tissues(64%±32%,ranged 16%～100%)than that in adjacent tissues(13%±14%,ranged 0%～42%,P＜0.05).There was a negative correlation of the Ptchl methylation with its expression.Conclusion The high methylation of Ptchl gene that involves in the carcinogenesis of human gastric carcer will be a new biomarker for gastric carcer.

Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 9 (Ubc9), the sole conjugating enzyme for sumoylation, regulates protein function and plays an important role in tumorigenesis. Whether Ubc9 is involved in the chemoresistance of breast cancer remains unknown. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the contribution of Ubc9 in the chemoresistance of breast cancer. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to examine the expression level of Ubc9. Chi-square test, Wilcoxon test, and one-way ANOVA were applied to analyze the relationship between Ubc9 expression, clinicopathologic features, and clinical response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The significance of variables for survival was analyzed by the Cox proportional hazards model in a multivariate analysis. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted and log-rank test was performed. The proportion of Ubc9-positive cells was higher in invasive ductal carcinoma than in normal breast tissues [(48.48 ± 17.94)% vs. (5.82 ± 2.80)%, P < 0.001]. High Ubc9 expression was associated with poor differentiation (Χ² = 6.538, P = 0.038), larger tumor size (Χ² = 4.701, P = 0.030), advanced clinical stage (Χ² = 4.651, P = 0.031), lymph node metastasis (Χ² = 9.913, P = 0.010), basal-like phenotype (Χ² = 8.660, P = 0.034), and poor clinical response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (Χ² = 11.09, P = 0.001). The expected 6-year cumulative disease-free survival rate was 87.32% in patients with low Ubc9 expression compared to 68.78% in those with high Ubc9 expression (Χ² = 4.289, P = 0.038). These data indicate that high Ubc9 expression correlates with poor response to chemotherapy and poor clinical prognosis.
Adult ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; enzymology ; pathology ; surgery ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast ; drug therapy ; enzymology ; pathology ; surgery ; Cyclophosphamide ; therapeutic use ; Disease Progression ; Disease-Free Survival ; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm ; Epirubicin ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Mastectomy ; methods ; Middle Aged ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Neoplasm Staging ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Remission Induction ; Tumor Burden ; Ubiquitin-Conjugating Enzymes ; metabolism ; Up-Regulation