OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy and safety of percutaneous pedicle screw fixation (PPSF) and open pedicle screw fixation (OPSF) in the treatment of single level of thoracolumbar fracture.

METHODSDatabases including Pubmed, Embasem, CNKI were searched to collect clinical trials of the clinical safety and efficiency of PPSF and OPSF for single level of thoracolumbar unstable fracture, relevant proceedings and references were also retrieved manually. Studies from 1990 to 2014 that met the inclusion and exclusion standards were researched. The data were extracted and the methods from the studies were also evaluated. Data analysis was conducted with the Review Manager 5.3 software. Observation targets included operation time, intraoperative bleeding, postoperative bleeding, hospitalization time, the bed time, postoperative vertebral Cobb angle, vertebral body height, pain score and the length of incision operation.

RESULTSFifteen papers were finally studied, including 2 randomized controlled trials (RCT) and 13 case-control studies, involving 789 patients. Compared with OPSF, the PPSF in treating thoracolumbar fracture had shorter operation time, smaller operation incision, less intraoperative and postoperation bleeding, shorter hospitalization days, fewer pain (P<0.00001), the less improvement in the change of Cobb angle (P=0.0006). There was no significant difference in the improvement of vertebral body height (P=0.36), the bed time from operation to exercise (P=0.38) between OPSF and PPSF.

CONCLUSIONCompared with OPSF, PPSF is better, safer, and has fewer pain. But there is no evidence that the PPSF is better in the recovery of the spinal height, and they have the same effect in the long-term follow-up for thoracolumbar fractures. PPSF brines minimally invasive to patients with better effect. It is worth further study and clinical research.

Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Fracture Fixation, Internal ; methods ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures ; methods ; Pedicle Screws ; Spinal Fractures ; surgery ; Thoracic Vertebrae ; surgery ; Treatment Outcome

Based on vector auto-regression (VAR) model, this paper takes advantage of Granger causality test, variance decomposition and impulse response analysis techniques to carry out a comprehensive study of the factors influencing the price of Chinese herbal, including herbal cultivation costs, acreage, natural disasters, the residents' needs and inflation. The study found that there is Granger causality relationship between inflation and herbal prices, cultivation costs and herbal prices. And in the total variance analysis of Chinese herbal and medicine price index, the largest contribution to it is from its own fluctuations, followed by the cultivation costs and inflation.
Agriculture ; economics ; Commerce ; Costs and Cost Analysis ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; economics ; Humans ; Models, Statistical ; Plants, Medicinal ; growth & development ; Regression Analysis

Aged ; Humans ; Male ; Palatal Neoplasms ; pathology ; Uvula ; pathology

Sepsis remains the leading cause of death in intensive care unit.The pathogenesis of sepsis is extremely complex.Immune dysfunction plays an important role in the occurrence and development of sepsis.Many mechanisms are responsible for sepsis induced immune-suppression,including apoptotic depletion of immune cells,increased T regulatory and myeloid-derived suppressor cells,and cellular exhaustion.The article provided a brief review on the advance of immunologic mechanisms underlying sepsis.

Objective To evaluate the efficiency and safety of transurethral plasmakinetic enucleation of prostate(PKEP) in the treatment of patients with benign prostate hyperplasia(BPH) after transrectal prostate biopsy(TRPB).Methods A total of 88 BPH patients who underwent PKEP in our hospital during Jan.2012 to May 2015 were retrospectively analyzed and followedup.38 patients underwent TRPB before PKEP were defined as TRPB group,and 50 patients underwent PKEP with no TRPB were defined as control group.The baseline data,perioperative data and postoperative follow-up outcomes were recorded and compared between the two groups.Results The mean age of the 88 patients were 69.7 years.Compared with control group,TRPB group showed that age was younger(t=2.62,P＜ 0.05)and prostate specific antigen(PSA) level was higher(t=13.64,P＜0.01).Operation duration was longer in TRPB group than in control group (93.6 ± 31.0) min vs.(77.9 ± 17.3) min (t =2.6 4,P ＜ 0.05).There were no significant differences in the preoperative data,blood loss,continuous bladder irrigation duration after operation and period of catheterization between two groups (all P ＞ 0.05).Trans-operative time was significantly shortened when the time interval between TRPB and PKEP is more than 4 weeks(P＜ 0.01),while blood loss was similar in the two groups(P＞ 0.0 5).There were no adverse events of blood transfusion,transurethral resection syndrome and injury of bladder or rectal in both two groups.There were no significant differences in maximum flow rate(Qmax),international prostate symptom score(IPSS) or quality of life(QOL) scores between the two groups at 3,6 and 12 months of follow up(all P＞ 0.05).Conclusions PKEP after TRPB is a safe and effective treatment for BPH patient.When the time interval between TRPB and PKEP is more than 4 weeks,the performing of PKEP operation would reduce the difficulty of operative procedure and increase the safety.

Objective Increased renal mast cells have been found in significant correlation with clinicopathological features of diabetic nephropathy ( DN) .However, the exact pathological significance of mast cells still remained to be elucidated.As one of the most abundant serine proteases, tryptase is specifically expressed by mast cells.The study was to observe the expression of tryptase in the urine of patients with diabetic nephropathy and realize the pathological significance of urinary tryptase and renal mast cells in the development of diabetic nephropathy. Methods Urine samples from 103 patients with diabetic nephropathy who were hospitalized at the clinical unit of the nephrology centre of Jingling Hospital from January 2012 to June 2013 were collected.According to concentra-tion of urinary albumin excretion rate, the patients were conducted to early-stage DN group (microalbuminuria,n=10), middle-stage DN group (proteinuria stage, n=31) and end-stage DN group (renal insufficiency stage,n=62).Meanwhile, urine samples from 20 normal persons were taken as the normal control group.Tryptase level in each urine sample was measured by using an ELISA kit.The average tryptase levels were compared among different groups and the correlation between urinary tryptase level and clinical indices was analyzed. Results ①In most cases, tryptase was not detected in the urine samples from normal persons(0.7 ±1.4 ng/mg creati-nine).However, the urinary trypatse level increased significantly with the development of diabetic nephropathy (11.6 ±10.5 ng/mg creatinine for early stage, 29.7 ±19.2 ng/mg creatinine for middle stage, and 44.6 ±43.4 ng/mg creatinine for late stage group).②The urinary tryptase level was found in significant correlation with ser-um creatinine (r=0.325, P<0.01), serum cystatin C (r=0.391, P<0.01), serum urea nitrogen (r=0.27, P<0.01), 24 hour uri-nary protein (r=0.389, P<0.01), urine C3 (r=0.276, P<0.05), urine retinol-binding protein (r=0.365, P<0.01), urine lysozyme (r=0.461, P<0.01), urine N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase level (r=0.568, P<0.01), urinary kidney injury molecule-1 (r=0.434, P<0.05) and interleukin-18 level (r=0.375, P<0.05).No significant correlation was found between urinary tryptase level and age, gender, fasting blood sugar, postprandial blood sugar, HbA1c, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein or low density lipo-protein. Conclusion Mast cells play an important role in the development of diabetic nephropathy and might be a novel and effective target for the treatment of DN.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Qinggan Huoxue Recipe (QGHXR), a compound Chinese herbal medicine, and its decomposed formulas Qinggan Recipe (QGR) and Huoxue Recipe (HXR) on expressions of CD14, Toll like receptor 4 (TLR(4)) and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in Kupffer cells. METHODS: The isolated primary rat Kupffer cells were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for a certain period of time, a series of concentrations of drug-containing serums of QGHXR and its decomposed formulas were added, the expressions of NF-kappaB, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), CD14, and TLR(4) of the Kupffer cells were detected in different culture conditions by using Western blot, real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and ELISA methods respectively. RESULTS: QGR could down-regulate the expression of membrane receptor CD14, but the expression of NF-kappaB and TNF-alpha were not significantly decreased after QGR treatment. HXR could down-regulate the expression of membrane receptor TLR4 and inhibit the expressions of NF-kappaB and TNF-alpha. QGHXR could down regulate the expressions of membrane receptors CD14 and TLR(4) and inhibit the expressions of NF-kappaB and TNF-alpha. CONCLUSION: QGHXR can protect liver cells by down regulating the expressions of CD14, TLR(4) and NF-kappaB and inhibiting TNF-alpha expression.

Objective To evaluate the value of cholangiography for early diagnosis of ischemic-type biliary lasions(ITBL) after liver transplantation. Methods Two hundred and fifty-three patients with liver transplantaion between Jan 2004 and Oct 2006 were recruited. Initial cholangiography was compared with terminal cholangiography to evaluate the value of initial cholangiography of ITBL. The t test, Chi-square test, sum rank test were used for statistics. Results Based on initial cholangiography, 189 patients were diagnosed with normal appearance, while 64 patients were diagnosed with abnormal appearance. The abnormal initial cholangiography appearances included poor filling in 33 patients and irregularity in 31 patients. Based on terminal cholangiogruphy, 199 patients were diagnosed with normal appearance and 54 patients with ITBL In patients with abnormal initial cholangiography, ITBL was occurred in 39 of 64 patients including 10 of 33 poor frlling patients and 29 of 31 irregularity patients. In patients with normal initial appearance, ITBL was only occurred in 15 of 189 patients. The abnormal initial cholangiography was associated with ITBL significantly (X2 = 79.999, P = 0.000, r = 0.490). Initial cholangiography had an overall sensitivity of 72.22%, and specificity of 87.44%, with positive and negative predictive values of 60.94% and 92.06%, respectively. The abnormal initial cholangiogruphy was a risk factor of ITBL by logistic regression analyses(OR=15.193, P=0.000). Conclusion The abnormal initial cholangiography is associated with ITBL Initial cholangiography, especially minimal irregular of intrabepatic biliary tract, is a sensitive and specific method for the detection of ITBL after liver transplantation.

Objective To Validate the prognostic significance of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) risk tables in Chinese patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Methods According to the scoring standard of the EORTC system, 225 NMIBC patients were reviewed and divided into 3 groups: low, intermediate and high risk groups for recurrence and progression respectively. The probabilities of recurrence and progression at 1 year and 5 year for each group were calculated using life-table analysis and then compared with the EORTC risk tables. Log-Rank test and multivariable analysis were used to analyze the possible differences between risk groups and to find independent prognostic factors. Results For low (n= 32, 25), intermediate (n=109, 128) and high (n=84, 72) risk groups, the probabilities of recurrence and progression at 1 year were 15. 1%, 31.2%, 55.5% and 0. 3%, 2. 0%, 15.5% respectively. The probabilities at 5 year were 28. 2%, 55.2%, 75.0% and 1.4%, 12.9%, 54. 7%. All the results were similar to that of EORTC tables except the probability of progression at 5 year for the high progression risk group.The differences between different risk groups were significant (P＜0.01). In a multivariable analysis for recurrence and progression, the EORTC scores had independent significance (P＜0.01). Conclusions EORTC risk tables could stratify NMIBC patients effectively according to the risk of recurrence and progression. It could be a useful tool for Chinese urologists.

Objective: The purpose of this tudy was to dynamicly observe the weight and the bone mineral density (BMD) of the unsexed rabbits with a few self-made standardized phantoms. Methods:The eighteen healthy adult female rabbits were measured for their weight and BMD in preunsexed and postunsexed 5 months, 10 months with quantitative CT(QCT). Results:There were 61.1% of rabbits whose weight and BMD decreased after 5 months of the postunsexed and 100% of rabbits whose weight and BMD decreased after 10 months of the operation. Conclusion:QCT can be used to dynamicly observe curative effect of drugs in various periods as well,and it is a good method to study osteoporosis.