Objective:To investigate the relationship between mandibular second molar calcification stage and cervical vertebrae maturity.Methods:Samples were derived from panoramic radiographs and lateral cephalograms of 500 subjects (223 males and 277 females)aged 9 to 18 years.Demirjian Index(DI)and cervical vertebrae maturation indicators(CVMI)were used for the evaluation of dental and skeletal maturity.Results:A significantly association was found between DI and CVMI(P <0.001).DI stage E was associated with CVMI Ⅱ(pre-peak of pubertal growth spurt).DI stages F and G was associated with CVMI Ⅲ and Ⅳ(peak of pu-bertal growth spurt).DI stage H was associated with CVMI Ⅴ and Ⅵ(end of pubertal growth spurt).Conclusion:DI and CVMI are significantly associated.Mandibular second molar DI stage is a reliable indicator of skeletal maturity.

Objective To investigate the state of Th1/Th2 cytokine imbalance in patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and its role in the pathogenesis. Methods Plasma level of interleukin-18 and interleukin-13 in 18 patients with active LN and 16 normal controls were measured by enzyme-linked immunoadsordent assay (ELISA). IL-18 and IL-13 expression in the renal tissues from 18 patients and 6 normal renal tissues were also detected by immunohistochemical assay. The ratio of plasma and renal IL-18/IL-13 was then calculated. Results Plasma levels and renal expression of IL-13 and IL-18 in patients with LN were increased significantly compared to those of normal controls (P0.05). The ratio of renal IL-18/IL-13 was not significantly different among all types of LN and normal controls. The ratio of plasma IL-18/IL-13 was positively correlated with LN renal tissue activity index (AI), but no correlationship could be found in renal IL-18/IL-13 ratio. Conclusion It seems that the immune disturbance in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) can not be simply divided into Th1 predominant and Th2 predominant. It seems far complicated than this Th1/Th2 paradigm. It may be affected by the state of disease activity, the lesion location and the type of pathology.

Objective To assess whether highly cross-linked polyethylene liners are superior to conventional polyethylene liners in total hip arthroplasty (THA).Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of highly cross-linked and conventional polyethylene liners in THA were retrieved from MEDLINE,PubMed,EMBASE,Cochrane Central,CBMdisc,CBM,and VIP.Until April 2012,reference lists of the included articles and related reviews were manually searched as supplements.Meta analysis was performed with RevMan 5.1.Mean difference (MD) was used to assess the linear wear rate in highly cross-linked group versus conventional group.Odds ratio (OR) was used to estimate the osteolysis and revision incidence in the two groups.Results Meta analysis indicated that the two-dimensional linear wear rate [MD =-0.08,95％ CI (-0.1,0.06),P ＜ 0.05],three-dimensional linear wear rate [MD=-0.15,95％CI (-0.22,0.08),P＜0.05],volumetric wear rate [MD=-53.03,95％ CI (-84.39,-21.67,P＜0.05],total linear wear [MD=-0.19,95％CI (-0.23,-0.15),P＜0.05],and osteolysis incidence [OR =0.23,95％ C1 (0.13,0.39),P ＜ 0.05] were significantly reduced in highly cross-linked group than in conventional group.There were no statistical differences between the two groups concerning the creep value of the polyethylene liners and revision incidence.Conclusions Highly cross-linked polyethylene liners for primary THA present a low incidence of wear and osteolysis.As the number and quality of the included studies are limited,a long-term follow-up of more large-sample and high-quality RCTs are needed to evidence the outcome.