Objective To uncover the possible factors of rapid increasing incidence of syphilis. Methods The clinical data of 100 patients firstly diagnosed as syphilis and their spouses were analyzed. Results There were 65 couples (130 cases) both were infected with syphilis, accounting for 65%. Among these cases, 25 males firstly diagnosed, 15 of them were primary syphilis; and 40 females firstly diagnosed as syphilis, 32 of them were secondary syphilis. Among 65 syphilis couples, 48 spouses were quickly diagnosed as syphilis through contact tracing, but the other 17 spouses were not diagnosed as syphilis until 1~3 months later, and most of them were latent syphilis, accounting for 83.2%(54/65). Chancre, which may be noticed by the patients themselves, was not so common in this group of patients, accounted for only 28.5%(37/130), and mainly in males. Conclusions The infections rate of syphilis between spoused is high, especially latent syphilis, and chancre is low, which might be one of the factors for the rapid spreading of the disease.

Objective To explore the accuracy and security of introcavitary-ECG guiding peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) tip positioning.Methods The observation group was defined as the 50 preterm infants who was cathetered PICC between June 2014 to May 2015 while the control group as the other 50 cases was cathetered between August 2012 to May 2014 to review.The latter group was cathetered traditionally and positioned by X-ray while the former was cathered by ECG-monitoring and positioned by the change of P wave on ECG-Ⅱ.X-ray was also used to confirm the PICC tip positioning when the cathere was fixed in the control group.Results The success rate of first puncture in control group was 74％(37/50),significatly lower than the observation group,which was 94％(47/50) (x2=7.440,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The technology of ECG makes benefits in increasing the success rate of first puncture,reducing cathetering time,improving work efficiency,reducing the risk of nursing operation and garanteeing security of nurses and patients.

Sphingolipids as an important regulator play a critical role in the cell biological functions. Among them, ceramide (Cer) and sphingosine (Sph) induce apoptosis and inhibit cell proliferation; on the contrary sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) promotes cell survival and proliferation. The balance between ceramide/sphingosine and S1P forms a so-called "sphingolipid-rheostat", which decides the cell fate. Sphingosine kinases, which catalyze the phosphorylation of sphingosine to S1P, are critical regulators of this balance. Here, we review the role of sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) in regulating fundamental biological processes and tumorigenesis and the potential of SphK1 as a new target for cancer therapeutics.

Liver fibrosis is a pathological process of the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix, especially collagen al (I) in liver. Ultimately, hepatic fibrosis leads to cirrhosis or hepatic failure. Liver fibrosis and early cirrhosis can be reversed, thus control of the development of liver fibrosis is very important for preventive treatment of cirrhosis and hepatic failure. This is a review of potential targets for anti-hepatic fibrosis based on plenty of publications, including TGF-β1 and integrin α(v) and so on, aimed at providing novel therapeutic targets in liver fibrosis.

Backgroud Numerous studies have confirmed the effectiveness of slowing the progression of atherosclerosis by blood pressure (Bp)control in patients with hypertension and several studies also showed the efficacy of intensive glycemic control in decreasing progression of carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. However, few studies have compared the relative importance of glycemic vs. Bp control in patients with diabetes and hypertension. We aimed to investigate the association between Bp and glycemic control and subclinical carotid atherosclerosis in older patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Methods In a cross-sectional study, B-mode high-resolution ultrasonography of the carotid artery was performed in 670 subjects (508 males and 162 females) aged 60 years or over who had self-reported hypertension and diabetes but no history of coronary heart disease or stroke. Subjects were categorized by their systolic blood pressure: tight control, < 130 mmHg; usual control, 130-139 mmHg; or uncontrolled, > 140 mmHg, and by their hemoglobin Alc (HbAlc) level: tight control, < 6.5%; usual control, 6.5%-7.5%; or uncontrolled, > 7.5%, respectively. Results The mean CIMT was 8.20±0.11 mm, and carotid plaque was found in 52.5% (352/670) subjects. Overall, 62.1% of the subjects had subclinical carotid atherosclerosis, defined as having either carotid plaque or elevated CIMT (≥ 1.1 mm). The mean CIMT was significantly different between Bp control categories (7.60 ± 0.09 mm, 7.90 ± 0.08 mm, and 8.60±0.12 nun, respectively, P = 0.03) but not between glycemic control categories (8.20 ± 0.10 ram, 8.1 ± 0.08 mm, and 8.40 ± 0.14 mm, respectively, P = 0.13) using ANCOVA analysis. Multivariable logistic regression adjusting for potential confounding factors showed that usual or uncontrolled Bp control were associated with having carotid plaque (OR = 1.08 and OR = 1.42, respectively), or elevated CIMT [Odd ratio (OR) = 1.17, 95% confidence interval (CI)1.04-2.24, and OR = 1.54, 95% CI 1.36-2.96, respectively compared to tight Bp control; but did not show glycemic control as independent predictor of either having carotid plaque or elevated CIMT. Conclusions In older patients with hypertension and diabetes, blood pressure control, but not glycemic control is associated with subclinical carotid atherosclerosis.

In this paper, we propose a new active contour algorithm, i. e. hierarchical contextual active contour (HCAC), and apply it to automatic liver segmentation from three-dimensional CT (3D-CT) images. HCAC is a learning-based method and can be divided into two stages. At the first stage, i.e. the training stage, given a set of abdominal 3D-CT training images and the corresponding manual liver labels, we tried to establish a mapping between automatic segmentations (in each round) and manual reference segmentations via context features, and obtained a series of self-correcting classifiers. At the second stage, i.e. the segmentation stage, we firstly used the basic active contour to segment the image and subsequently used the contextual active contour (CAC) iteratively, which combines the image information and the current shape model, to improve the segmentation result. The current shape model is produced by the corresponding self-correcting classifier (the input is the previous automatic segmentation result). The proposed method was evaluated on the datasets of MICCAI 2007 liver segmentation challenge. The experimental results showed that we would get more and more accurate segmentation results by the iterative steps and the satisfied results would be obtained after about six rounds of iterations.
Algorithms ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Liver ; diagnostic imaging ; Models, Theoretical ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

This study is to investigate the inhibitory effect of lidamycin (LDM) and its combination with methotrexate (MTX) on lung metastasis of fibrosarcoma by bioluminescence imaging in athymic mice. A stable luciferase transfected HT-1080 cell line was constructed and the capability to establish experimental lung metastasis in athymic mice was confirmed. The optical imaging system was applied to evaluate the formation of lung metastasis in vivo. In addition, metastatic nodules were counted for the evaluation of inhibition rates. As shown, the fluorescent intensity of luciferase-transfected HT-1080 cells was colinear with the cell population and the minimal detected cell population was 100 cells/well. Optical imaging showed that the fluorescent intensity of treated group was apparently lower than that of the control. The inhibition rates of lung metastasis by LDM alone at 0.025 mg x kg(-1) and 0.05 mg x kg(-1) were 53.9% and 75.9%, respectively, while that of MTX alone at 0.5 mg x kg(-1) was 70.2%. The combination of LDM at 0.025 mg x kg(-1) and MTX at 0.5 mg x kg(-1) showed an inhibition rate of 88.7%. The coefficient of drug interaction (CDI) was 0.82. The results herein demonstrated that LDM alone had strong anti-metastasis effect on human fibrosarcoma HT-1080 and the inhibition efficacy is strengthened when combined with MTX.

AIM: To study the dissolution of ginsenoside Rb1,cinnamic acid and borneol in traditional Chinese medicine Shexiang Baoxin Pill(Moschus,extract of Radix et Rhizoma ginseng,Calculus Bovis artifactus,Cortex Cinnamomi,Styrax,Venenum Bufonis and Borneolum syntheticum). METHODS: The in vitro dissolution of active components in Shexiang Baoxin Pill was performed with paddle method. HPLC was used for determination of ginsenoside Rb1 and cinnamic acid,and GC for borneol. RESULTS: The analytic method above was easy to carry out,the requirement of the specificity,accuracy,precision and stability could meet the needs of experiment well; the dissolution time T50 and Td of ginsenoside Rb1,cinnamic acid and borneol were 30. 90,33. 79 min,29. 73, 37. 11 min and 42. 38,48. 51 min respectively. CONCLUSION: The dissolution rate of three active components from Shexiang Baoxin Pills was fast and the analytic methods established in this study could be used to evaluate the quality of the preparation.

Objective To observe the ultrastructural change of intestinal mucosa in mice infected with Blastocystis hominis, and to study the pathogenic mechanism of B.hominis infection. Methods 20 Kunming mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: group A treated with immunosuppressant (dexamethasone), group B without immunosuppressant, group C as normal control and group D as immunosuppressant control. Groups A and B were then orally infected with 204 cysts of B. hominis. Groups C and D were treated as control by infusing same volume of Locke′s solution. Six days after inoculation, mice in each group were killed and mucosa of ileocecum was observed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Results Under SEM, B. hominis located in enteric cavity and on the surface of ileocecum mucosa. Individual parasites also invaded into mucosa and its fold. Partial destruction of microvilli on the mucosa was observed. TEM observation indicated a reduction of microvilli on the surface of absorptive cells. Mitochondrial edema, rough endoplasmic reticulum dilatation and degranulation were found on absorptive cells and goblet cells. Lymphocyte infiltration and eosinophilia were found in intercellular stroma. Pathological changes in group A were more serious than that of group B. No abnormal change on the mucosal ultrastructure was found in groups C and D. Conclusions B. hominis infection causes significant ultrastructural lesion on the ileocecal mucosa in mice. Immune status of the mice can affect the degree of the lesion due to infection.