Objective To assess whether the T~ -786 →C mutation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene is associated with endothelial dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. Methods A total of 162 type 2 diabetic men without angiopathy were studied. PCR/alleles-specific oligonucleotide (ASO) probes were used to analyse the T~ -786 →C mutation of eNOS gene, and high resolution ultrasound was used to measure endothelium-dependent arterial dilation (EDD). Results The EDD among subjects with T/C or C/C was 3.73%?0.50%, which was significantly lower than that in subjects with T/T(4.15%?0.49%)(P

Objective To investigate the value of spleen stiffness measured by transient elastography (FibroScan,FS) for diagnosing esophageal-gastric varices in liver cirrhosis patients.Methods A total of 259 cirrhotic patients in Tianjin Third Central Hospital from Apr 2011 to Apr 2012,and 30 healthy controls were enrolled.All the patients and controls were evaluated for spleen and liver stiffness by FS and 201 cirrhotic patients also underwent gastroscopy for the diagnosis of esophageal-gastric varices.By using gastroscopy as the gold standard,the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of three parameters including spleen stiffness,liver stiffness and platelet/thickness of spleen were delineated for different disease stage.The areas under curves (AUC) were used to evaluate the value of these parameters in the diagnosis of esophageal-gastric varices.Results The spleen and liver stiffness values in cirrhotic patients were (44.64 ± 22.27) kPa and (24.27 ±18.89) kPa,respectively,while those in healthy controls were (20.94± 14.78) kPa and (6.12±5.77) kPa,respectively,which were both lower than cirrhotic patients (P＜0.05).The stiffness values of liver and spleen both increased with higher Child-Pugh scores.And the liver stiffness values were different among groups (F=0.068,P =0.000),while the spleen stiffness values in patients with Child-Pugh A and B were different from that in patients with Child-Pugh C (P＜0.05).In patients with moderate or serious esophageal-gastric varices,the spleen and liver stiffness values were significantly higher.The ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of spleen stiffness,liver stiffness and platelet/thickness of spleen in the patients with moderate to serious esophageal-gastric varices were 0.918,0.749 and 0.743,respectively.The corresponding optimal cut-off values were 50.7 kPa,20.1 kPa and 1.65.The AUC,sensitivity and specificity of spleen stiffness were all higher than liver stiffness and platelet/thickness of spleen.Conclusion Spleen stiffness measured by transient elastography is a valuable parameter for non-invasive diagnosis of esophageal-gastric varices in cirrhotic patients.

Objective To investigate the circadian change of autonomic nervous system in hyperthyroidism (HT) patients. Methods Recording 24 h dynamic electrocardiography from 33 HT patients( HT group) and 35 controls (control group). The cardiac autonomic nervous function was evaluated by the time domain and frequency domain analysis of heart rate variability( HRV). Results Comparing with control group, the SDNN, SDANN, ASDNN and rMSSD were significantly lower in HT group[ (82.3 ± 29.0)ms vs. (139.4±40.2 ) ms, ( 75.0 ± 27.4) ms vs. ( 130.3 ± 43.9) ms, (29.9 ± 14.9 ) ms vs. (57.3 ± 14.4) ms,( 19.8 ± 10.9 ) ms vs. (29.5 ± 9.4) ms ] (P ＜ 0.01 or ＜ 0.05 ), the long term total power (TP), high frequency (HF), low frequency (LF) and very low frequency (VLF) were significantly lower in HT group [ (566.1±573.2) ms2/Hz vs. ( 1894.2 ± 984.3)ms2/Hz, (68.1 ± 88.9 ) ms2/Hz vs. (232.7 ± 155.5 ) ms2/Hz, ( 127.4 ±163.0) ms2/Hz vs. (551.3 ± 390.6) ms2/Hz, (330.3 ± 300.6) ms2/Hz vs. (1073.2 ± 570.2) ms2/Hz] (P ＜0.01 ). Comparing with control group, short term VLF was higher in HT group during most time in 24 hours (P＜ 0.05 ). Short term LF was higher in HT group mainly in day time (P＜ 0.05 ). Short term HF was higher in HT group occasionally in the whole day (P＜0.05). Short term LF/HF didn't show significant difference between HT group and control group at most time points (P＞0.05).Conclusion In HT patients, cardiac chronotropic property is impaired, sympathetic activity increases in whole day, vagal activity increases correspondently but the increase in day is more marked than that in night.

Objective To retrospectively analyze the diagnostic value of a noninvasive score system based on transient elastography (TE),serological test and imaging examination on esophageal variceal bleeding (EVB) in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related cirrhosis.Methods Between April 2011 and December 2012,172 patients with HBV-related cirrhosis including 120 males and 52 females who visited clinic or hospitalized at the Department of Hepatology,Tianjin Third Central Hospital,were retrospectively enrolled.The mean age was (52.9 ± 10.6) years.Patients underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy to evaluate esophageal varices (EV) and were further categorized into three stages of mild,moderate and severe according to the morphology of EV and the risk of bleeding.Liver stiffness and spleen stiffness measurement were performed using Fibroscan.Portal vein width,splenic width and spleen thickness were measured using color Doppler ultrasound.All the patients were tested for white blood cell counts and platelet counts.With endoscopy as the gold standard,receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the areas under curves (AUC) were used to assess the performance of the noninvasive score system in predicting EV by liver stiffness,spleen stiffness,portal vein width,spleen thickness and platelet counts.Student's t-test was performed to determine differences between continuous variables.Pearson's correlation was used to evaluate the association between EVB and these parameters.Results All these 172 patients underwent endoscopy.Among them,41 were EVB patients and 131 with no bleeding of EV.Among 172 EV patients,39 without EV,30 were mild EV,47 were moderate EV and 56 were severe EV.EVB was all positively correlated with liver and spleen stiffness,portal vein width,spleen thickness,splenic vein width (r=0.224,0.771,0.214,0.425 and 0.364,respectively; all P＜0.05).EVB was negatively correlated with platelet counts (r=-0.408,P=0.000).Liver stiffness,spleen stiffness,portal vein width,spleen thickness and splenic vein width in EVB patients were significantly higher than those in EV patients (P＜0.05).In contrast,platelet counts level was lower in EVB patients with difference of statistical significance (P＜0.05).AUC of non-invasive score system for EV and EVB were 0.953 and 0.882,respectively (P＜0.05).The optimal cut-off level of noninvasive score system for prediction of EV and EBV were 7 (sensitivity:96 ％,specificity:85 ％) in EV patients and 10 (sensitivity:78％,specificity:89 ％) in EVB patients.Conclusion Non-invasive score system based on liver stiffness,spleen stiffness,spleen thickness,width of splenic and portal vein and platelet counts is of clinical importance in assessing the presence of EV in patients with HBV-related cirrhosis,which is higher clinically valuable in the diagnosis for EV.

AIM: To investigate the anticancer effect of manumycin on abdominal metastatic breast cancer cell line-SK-BR-3 and its relationship with p38 MAPK . METHODS: The test of anticancer effect was performed by the method of MTT, apoptosis induced by manumycin and affected by SB203580, a specific p38 MAPK inhibitor, were examined by caspase-3 activity assay kit, and the protein expression was detected by immunoblotting assay. RESULTS: The inhibition rates at 24 h after treatment with manumycin of 6 ?mol/L, 18 ?mol/L, 54 ?mol/L were (7.4?3.9)%, (21.0?4.4)% and (64.7?4.1)%, respectively and showed dosage-effect relationship. Compared with the control group, the survival rates of the last two treatment groups were decreased significantly (P

Objective To investigate the effects of prophylactic antiviral therapy for HBV DNA negative HBV-relat-ed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients undergoing hepatic arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods Fifty-four consecutive patients with HBV-related HCC and received TACE were enrolled in this study. Thirty patients received pre-emptive antiviral drugs before TACE were defined as the treatment group. Twenty-four patients, who did not use antiviral drugs until HBV reactivation after TACE, were included in control group. The incidence of HBV reactivation, duration from HBV DNA positive point to the last time of TACE, the occurrence of abnormal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) caused by HBV reactivation, the peak of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and the number of liver failure caused by HBV reactivation were observed after TACE in two groups. Results The incidence of HBV reactivation, the occurrence of abnormal ALT, the occurrence of abnormal ALT caused by HBV reactivation, the peak ALT and peak AST were significantly lower in treatment group than those of control group (P ＜ 0.05). No liver failure caused by HBV reactivation was found in treatment group. There were four patients with liver failure caused by HBV reactivation in control group. There was no significant difference in cumulative survival rate between two groups (P=0.071). Conclusion It is suggested that preemptive antiviral therapy can prevent the reactivation of hepatitis B virus, prevent the deterioration of liver function,and decrease the occurrence of liv-er failure caused by HBV reactivation in patients receiving TACE.

Objective We tried to explore the puerperal women's nature demand for management of health quotient,so as to provide theoretical basis for the health quotient management mode of puerperal women.Methods The phenomenological methodology was used in the research.Data of fifteen puerperal women were collected by semi-structured interview and analyzed by Colaizzi method.Results Four themes were summarized:health consciousness,health needs,in-hospital education status,social support needs.Conclusions The health quotient management of puerperal women is feasible.Therefore,the health quotient management model of maternal dominance and medical staff,family,peer support will be one of the maternal and infant health care research.

Hepatitis B virus infection is one of the primary causes of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. The use of antiviral drugs significantly reduces the risk of liver cancer in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but some of the patients who receive antiviral drugs for a long time still develop liver cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to early identify and predict the risk of liver cancer in such patients. Currently, several models for predicting the risk of liver cancer during antiviral therapy in CHB patients have been developed based on the risk factors such as liver cirrhosis, age, sex, liver stiffness, virology, serological markers, alcohol consumption, and history of diabetes, including REACH-B, PAGE-B, mPAGE-B, APA-B, CAMD, AASL, and REAL-B. This article reviews the research advances in the models for predicting the risk of liver cancer during antiviral therapy in CHB patients.

To observe the relationship between positive rate of β1-adrenergic and AT1 receptors autoantibodies with serum concentration of cystatin C in 371 patients with diabetic nephropathy patients,107 patients with type 2 diabetes,and 47 subjects as healthy control.In patients with diabetic nephropathy,the positive rates of the β1 and AT1 receptors autoantibodies were significantly higher than those in patients with type 2 diabetes and normal controls.The titers of β1 and AT1 receptors autoantibodies in diabetic nephropathy patients with abnormal cystatin C were significantly higher than those with normal cystatin C concentration.These findings suggested that β1 and AT1 receptors autoantibodie may play important roles in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy.

AIM:To investigate the efficiency of 2-methoxyestradiol (2-ME) as radiosensitizing agent for the treatment of lung cancer cells. METHODS:Cell line A549 and GLC-82 originated from human non-small cell lung cancer were cultured in vitro. Study group (2-ME in different concentrations) and control group without 2-ME were set up. Cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay that lung cancer cells were treated with 2-ME for 24 h,then the cells were exposed from 0 to 8Gy radiation,and the survival fraction was determined by clone forming test. Flow cytometry was used to measure the effects of 2-ME on cell cycle distribution. RESULTS:MTT assay showed minimum effective concentration value was 0.15625×10~(-6) mol/L in GLC-82 and 1.25×10~(-6) mol/L in A549 cells. Compared to control group,exposed GLC-82 cells or A549 cells to minimum effective concentration of 2-ME for 24 h before irradiation resulted in an enhancement of radiation. The protection enhancement factor was 1.98 and 2.06 in GLC-82 and A549 cells,respectively. Flow cytometry analysis of cell cycle progression demonstrated G_2/M phase arrest in both cells in a dose dependent manner. No obvious change of CDK2 activity in both GLC-82 cells and A549 cells was observed. CONCLUSION:2-ME enhances radiosensitivity by G_2/M phase arrest in the cell cycle.