SUMMARY Diffusion spectrum imaging ( DSI) , a newly developed MRI technique, affords the capacity to map complex fiber architectures in tissues with sufficient angular resolution by imaging the spectra of tissue water diffusion. By contrast, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) , the currently widely used technique based on the 2nd order tensor model, obtains an approximation of the complex diffusion, and provides only one global maximal direction corresponding to the primary eigenvector for each voxel. As a generalized model-free diffusion imaging technique, firstly, DSI employs the probability density function to describe the diffusion process in each voxel; secondly, a sufficient dense signal sample derived from repeated applications of diffusion-weighed gradients ensures its capability to resolve the diffusion probability density function; thirdly, specific computer visualization techniques are used to extract the diffusion information and reconstruct the geometrical properties of tissue microstructure. The capacity to unravel complex tissue architecture, recent improvements in hardware and ongoing optimization of sequence design and algorithm enable a rapid growth of DSI for research use and future incorporation into clinical protocols. This paper introduces the basic principles of DSI and then compares the characteristics of DSI and DTI schemes. Finally, the typical applications of DSI to date are reviewed.

Foundations of Oriental Medicine (FOM) is one of the mandatory examinations for the Diplomate of Oriental Medicine (Dipl.OM.), Chinese Herbology (Dipl.CH.), or Acupuncture (Dipl. Ac.) by American National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM). In the light of NCCAOM Certification Handbook, Foundations of Oriental Medicine Expanded Content Outline,and Foundations of Oriental Medicine Study Guide, the authors introduced the examination pattern and examination-related contents including: Clinical diagnostic methods; assessment, analysis, and pattern-differentiation based upon Oriental Medicine theory and treatment principle and strategy.

AIM and METHODS: To study the culture met ho d of human neural stem/progenitor cells, these cells derived from human fetal fo rebrains were maintained and expanded in serum-free defined medium containing ba sic fibroblast growth factors (bFGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and B27. Whe n they formed neurosphere, these three factors and supplemented FBS were removed to induce differentiation. Cell were cultured for 12-14 d, then fixed for immun ocytochemistry examination. RESULTS: This period of expansion resulted in a 107-fold incre ase in this heterogeneous population of cells. Upon differentiation, they form n eurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, the three main phenotypes in the CNS. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate the feasibility of long-t erm in vitro expansion of human neural progenitor cells. The advantages of s uch a population of neural precursors for allogeneic transplantation, including t he ability to provide an expandable, well-characterized, defined cell source, ca n form specific neuronal or glial subtypes.

Objective To investigate the change of serum Nogo-A protein in patients with acute closed brain injury, and explore its relationship with the severity of neuronal damage and prognosis. Methods Thirty-one patients with acute closed brain injury were enrolled. Venous blood samples (2 mL) were obtained 1, 3 and 5 d after injury. Serum concentrations of Nogo-A protein were determined by ELISA. Patients were divided into mild (n =7), moderate (n = 10) and severe (n = 14) injury groups according to Glasgow coma score (GCS), and were divided into favorable prognosis (n = 23) and poor prognosis (n = 8) groups according to Glasgow outcome score (GOS). Another 20 healthy adults were served as controls. Results The mass concentrations of serum Nogo-A protein in mild, moderate and severe injury groups 1, 3, 5 d after injury were significantly higher than those in control group (P < 0.01), and the mass concentrations of serum Nogo-A protein in moderate and severe injury groups 1, 3, 5 d after injury were significantly higher than those in mild injury group (P <0.05, P <0.01). The mass concentrations of serum Nogo-A protein 1, 3, 5 d after injury were significantly higher in poor prognosis group than those in favourable prognosis group (P < 0.01). Conclusion Serum Nogo-A protein level significantly increases after brain injury, and is related to the degree of injury and prognosis.

Objective To observe the effect ofGuanxin-Shutongcapsule in the treatment of arterial elasticity on patients with hypertension.Methods The hypertension patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into treatment group (50 cases) and control group (52 cases). The control group was treated with antihypertensive drugs to control blood pressure within the normal range. The treatment group was treated withGuanxin-Shutongcapsule on the basis of the control group. All were given 8 weeks treatment. The main artery elastic parameters were meansured by the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (C-FPWV) and cervical-dorsal arterial pulse wave velocity (C-DPWV). The immune turbidimetric method was employed to enhance for the determination of high sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP); and radioimmunoassay was used to assess the serum IL-6, TNF-a, triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC). The blood pressure was monitored during the treatment.Results After the treatment, the level of hs-CRP (2.83 ± 1.35 mg/Lvs. 3.65 ± 1.38 mg/L,t=6.357), TNF-α (0.16 ± 0.08 mg/Lvs. 0.28 ± 0.07 mg/L,t=18.213), C-FPWV (13.85 ± 1.86 m/svs. 15.34 ± 1.78 m/s,t=6.524), C-DPWV (11.98 ± 1.45 m/svs. 12.87 ± 1.48 m/s,t=7.152) in treatment group was significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.01).ConclusionGuanxin-Shutong capsule by inhibiting systemic inflammation, reducing and reversing atherosclerosis, and improving the arterial elasticity and blood pressure.

Objective:To search for a method for radical resection of pancreatic and duodenal malignancy involving the mesentery root and for the long post-operation survival of patients.Methods:From Jan.2004 to Aug.2006,a total of 26(16 male and 10 female. aged 27-70)patients with pancreatic and duodenal malignancy involving the mesentery root were treated in our department.The patients included 3 with duodenal malignancy and 23 with pancreatic malignancy.Curative resection was performed by the extended pancreaticoduodenetomy(Whipple procedure)combined with mesentery root resection(MRR)for all patients.The outcomes,safety and the post-operation survival rate were analyzed retrospectively.Results:Thirteen patients were treated with Whipple procedures combined with MRR,9 were treated with partial portal vein/superior mesenteric vein(PV/SMV)and reconstruction of the vessel,and 4 patients received pre-shunt between PV and SMV with artificial vessel graft before the extended Whipple and MRR procedures.The operation time was 2.5 to 7(4.4?1.1)hour,and blood loss was 300 to 5 000(1892?1414)ml with the blood transfusion of 0 to 5 600(2 100?1 586)ml.There was no death in our group and 7(27%)had post-operation complication.The post-operation hospital stay was 10 to 30 days.The pathologic examination showed negative surgical margins for all specimens.The tumor size was 4 to 10 (6.17?2.03)cm.After a follow-up of 9 to 38 months,the pain was relieved in all patients.One of the 3 patients with duodenal adenocarcinoma had liver metastasis at 10 months after operation,and the other 2 survived 10 months and 27 months without evidence of tumor reccurence.The patient with pancreatic micro-adenocarcinoma died of local reccurence 9 months after operation.The patient with neuroendocrine carcinoma died of organ failure 24 months after operation.The patient with lymphoma have survived for 24 months after operation.The 1-year and 2-year accumulated survival rates in the 20 cases with pancreatic ductal cancer were 86.6% and 45.6%. respectively.Conclusion:The extended Whipple procedure with MRR is safe and effective.It can obtain R0 resection in patients with malignant tumors(over 5 cm in diameter)in the head,neck and uncinate process of the pancreas and duodenal.

OBJECTIVE:To study the purification technology of 4 active components from Tripterygium wilfordii by macropo-rous resin. METHODS:The purification abilities of nine macroporous resins(ADS-5,ADS-8,HPD100,HPD300,HPD400, HPD450,HPD700,HPD722 and HPD750) were studied with the adsorption and desorption rates of triptolide,wilforlide,trip-tonide and tripterine as the index by static adsorption and desorption experiments for 4 active components from T. wilfordii,so as to screen optimal macroporous resins. Using transfer rate of active component as index,single factor test was used to investigate the effects of different sampling method,ratio of mixing sample to total resin quantity,ratio of resin to medicinal material,cleaning so-lution(type,amount and cleaning flow rate),diameter- height ratio of resins,eluant(volume,flow rate)on adsorption,so as to determine the optimal elution technology;validation test was also conducted. RESULTS:HPD722 macroporous resin was chosen as adsorption resin;ratio of diameter to height was 1∶10,resin-medicinal material ratio was 1∶2,and ratio of mixing sample to to-tal resin quantity was 1∶10;wet column installing and mixing resin for sample loading were adopted. The macroporous resin was washed with 12 BV 20%ethanol at the rate of 12 BV/h,and then eluted with 12 BV 95%ethanol at the rate of 6 BV/h. The verifi-cation test results showed that the total transfer rate of 4 active components from T. wilfordii was more than 90%(RSD=0.99%, n=3). CONCLUSIONS:The optimized technology is stable and feasible,and suitable for the purification of 4 active components from T. wilfordii.

The most toxic DNA damage is DNA double strand breaks (DSBs), which are mainly repaired by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) belongs to phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase-related protein kinase family (PIKK) and plays a key role in NHEJ. DNA-PK is overexpressed in a variety of cancer cells and is related to the occurrence, development and drug resistance of malignant tumors. In this article, the representative DNA-PK inhibitors with anticancer effects are reviewed, in order to provide a reference to discovery novel DNA-PK inhibitors.

Objective To study the bacteriological characteristics and the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) on eczema and atopic dermatitis (AD). Methods A multi-center randomized, double blind bacteriological study on the lesions and non-lesional skin of patients with eczema (207) and AD (119) were carried out. The antibiotic sensitivity and the bacteriophage typing were performed on all the S. aureus isolated from the patients. Results There were statistical differences in the positive rate of the culture, the ratio and the colonization of S. aureus between the lesion and the non-lesional skin in eczema (P

Objective To investigate the morphological abnormalities of the brain cortex in schizophrenic patients and their parents. Methods We recruited 33 schizophrenic patients, 63 their unaffected biological parents. Thirty well matched healthy controls served as control group 1 (for patients), and 28 well matched healthy controls as control group 2 (for parents). The high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Freesurfer software were used to measure the gray matter volume, cortical thickness, cortical surface area, curvature and volume of subcortical regions on all the sub-jects. Results The patients demonstrated significant reduction of cortical thickness in the left middle-anterior cingulate, middle occipital gyrus, inferior circular sulcus of the insula, lateral occipito-temporal sulcus, the right lateral occipito-temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, superior circular sulcus of the insula, inferior temporal sulcus, the bilateral poste-rior-dorsalcingulated gyrus and superior temporal sulcus (P<6.0×10-4,corrected by Bonferroni method). Compared with control group 2, the unaffected parents exhibited slight reduction of cortical in the left subcentral, triangular part of the in-ferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, superior circular sulcus of the insula, occipital pole, inferior frontal sulcus, mid-dle occipital sulcus and lunatus sulcus, lateral orbital sulcus, the right middle occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus, posterior lat- eral sulcus and inferior precentral sulcus, but the reduction was not significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Conclusions Our results indicate that cortical thickness can specifically reflect the brain morphological abnormalities of schizophrenia and the reduction of cortical thicknes may be a heritable phenotype of schizophrenia.