OBJECTIVE:To analyze the medico-ethical problems of epilepsy from Medi-ethics and its effect on improving the quality of life of the persons with epilepsy.DATA SOURCES:Articles were computer-searched from Chinese Journal of Medico-ethics, Chinese Journal of Clinical Neurology, Chinese Medical Journal, Chinese Journal of NeuroMed, Chinese Journal of Nerval Mental Disorder from January 1989 to December 2004 with the key words of "epilepsy, medico-ethics and social discrimination". And the language was restricted to Chinese. And we also selected two books, which were Bioethics written by Shen Ming-xian, and The Prevention and Therapy of Epilepsy written by Zhou Zheng-xin for reference.STUDY SELECTION: From all the preliminarily screened papers, 98 papers were obtained related to epidemiology, sociology and ethics.DATA EXTRACTION: Repeated and similar papers were excluded. 10 papers and books were selected from the 98 papers, which touched upon the problems of the epileptics and their life quality. The 10 papers have involved many cross discipline subjects, such as Bioethics, Medico-ethics,and Socio-ethics, which provided more concern about the epileptics from multiple directions.DATA SYNTHESIS: Ethics indicate the principles and guidelines for relationships between people. The ethics explored here refer to normative ethics. Generally, the basic ethical principles are: respect, beneficialness,balance and justice. Since some epileptic patients lack in the knowledge of epilepsy and proper treatment and suffer from discrimination in the health care, more untreated and non-proper treatment, doctors and nursing persons should take the attitude of being beneficial to the patients. Medication for the epileptics, especially the female patients at the first period of pregnancy, the incidence of the deformed children was high. Should the principle of beneficence be applied to mothers or children? The number of the operative treatment was more and more in patients with epilepsy, while surgery itself is a risk behavior .If there is no better method to choose, and all the available choices have their advantage and disadvantages. Physicians can only choose the better one from the two kinds of harm, trying to make the patientssuffer the least harm with the largest effect. Aggressive behaviors can be observed during seizure or unconsciousness state. Controlling the moving range of the patients with epilepsy consciously is in accord with the general ethical behavior, on the contrary, confinement disobeys the morals and the curative effect is not good. The extreme behavior of the patients with epilepsy is suicide and occurred more in unemployed, unmarried and living alone, male, and patients with mental disorders in epilepsy. The direct reasons of suicide are unemployment, low social status, and little understanding and care from their communities, families and friends.The sensible ethical principle for epileptics is to treat the patients as normal people in the society.CONCLUSION: Epileptic crowd need care from the society, family and other factors. Proper considering ethical principle in treating the population is the humane solicitude and to help the patients regain health and improve the life quality.

Objective To investigate the potential effects of rosuvastatin on white matter lesion and spatial memo?ry function in chronic hypertensive rats. Methods Fourty-nine male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham-operation group, vehicle-treated group, and rosuvastatin-treated group (10 mg/kg).A model of stroke-prone reno?vascular hypertensive rat (RHRSP) was induced by using the two-kidney two clip method in the vehicle-treated group and the rosuvastatin-treated group. Blood pressure was monitored regularly. Morris water maze experiment was conduct?ed to assess spatial memory function. Luxol fast blue stanning was used to examine the degree of leukoaraiosis. Immuno?fluorescence and electron microscopy was used to detectβ-amyloid deposits. TUNEL staining was used to assess apopto?sis. Results The blood pressure of RHRSP increased progressively after operation.Blood pressure was significantly high?er in RHRSP than in sham-operation group (P<0.01). The escape latencies of the rosuvastatin-treated group were mark?edly shorter in RHRSP than in sham-operation group (P<0.01). The numbers of crossing hidden platform in the 3 groups of rats were 4.55±1.23, 1.00±0.80 and 3.79±0.95 times. There were significantly differences in numbers of crossing hid? den platform among three groups (P<0.01). Luxol fast blue stanning showed that the grading scores for WML were lower in the rosuvastatin-treated than in the vehicle-treated group (P<0.01). Rosuvastatin significantly decreased the burden of Aβdeposits(17.47±3.59 vs. 4.42±1.57,P<0.01)and the TUNEL+cells(37.84±4.73 vs. 14.42±2.43,P<0.01)in the fron?tal cortex when compared with the vehicle-treated group. Conclusions Rosuvastatin may ameliorate spatial memory func?tion through attenuation of white matter lesion, Aβdeposits and apoptosis .

ObjectiveTo explore the relationship among 25-hydroxyvitamin D,serum calcium,calcium-sensing receptor,and breast cancer. Methods The expressions of calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) in primary breast cancer,breast benign tumors,and normal breast tissue beside tumors were determined by immunohistochemistry S-P method as well as the concentration of serum 25 (OH) D and serum calcium in breast cancer and breast benign tumors by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA),Tribromoarsenazo Ⅲ method.ResultsSerum 25 (OH) D level of breast cancer was significantly lower than the breast benign tumors [ (34.13 ± 14.14) nmol/L vs (50.29 ± 25.65 ) nmol/L,t =2.870,P =0.001 ].Serum level of 25 ( OH ) D in lymph node metastasis positive patient was lower than that in negative group [ (30.8 ± 9.71 ) nmol/L vs (43.7 ± 23.59) nmol/L,t =2.467,P =0.021 ].The positive expression of CaSR in breast cancer(88.9％ )was higher than breast benign tumors(60％,x2 =6.717,P ＜ 0.01 ) and normal breast tissue beside tumors (60％,x2 =5.628,P ＜ 0.05 ).ConclusionsConcentration of serum 25 (OH)D and expression of calcium-sensing receptor in the tissues may be associated with occurrence,development and prognosis of breast cancer.

Objective To investigate the effects of locomotor training on improving locomotor function after spinal cord injury(SCI)and the mechanism of spinal cord plasticity.Methods A model of complete thoracic cord transection was established using 84 adult female rats divided into sham,SCI and treadmill training(BWSTT) groups.The hind limb locomotor function of all the rats was evaluated.The fluorescence intensities due to (EphA4),vesicular glutamate transporter 2(VGluT2)and EphA4/VGluT2 double-positive neurons in the ventromedial area of the anterior horn of the lumbar COrd were detected using immunofluorescence double labeling and laser confocal microscopy.Results The rats in the BWSTT group showed better functional recovery in their hind limbs than those in the SCI group.BWSTT was correlated with markedly increased EphA4.VGIuT2 and EphA4/VGluT2 intensities in the ventromedial area.Conclusion BWSTT improves hind limb locomotor function in rats with thoracic cord transections by elevating the expression of EphA4/VGluT2,promoting neuronal plasticity in the lumbar anterior horn.

OBJECTIVETo compare the difference in the clinical efficacy on posterior circulation ischemia between acupuncture at stellate ganglion and conventional acupuncture as well as the impacts on blood pressure.

METHODSEighty cases of posterior circulation ischemia were randomized into an observation group (40 cases) and a control group (40 cases). In the observation group, acupuncture was applied to the bilateral stellate ganglions on the neck, stimulated with reinforcing technique by rotating the needles. In the control group, the acupuncture of reducing technique was applied to Fengchi (GB 20), Baihui (GV 20), Neiguan (PC 6) and Taichong (LR 3) in the excess syndrome. The even needling or reinforcing technique was applied to Fengchi (GB 20), Baihui (GV 20), Ganshu (BL 18), Shenshu (BL 23) and Zusanli (ST 36) for the deficiency syndrome. The treatment was given once every 3 days and 4 treatments were required totally in the two groups. The changes in total syndrome score, peak Systolic blood flow velocity (Vp) of vertebral artery and basilar artery, systolic and diastolic blood pressures were compared before and after treatment in the two groups. The clinical efficacy was compared between the two groups.

RESULTSThe total syndrome score was reduced apparently after treatment compared with that before treatment in the two groups (P < 0.01), and the reducing was more obvious in the observation group as compared with that in the control group (P < 0.01). The total effective rate was 87.5% (35/40) in the observation group, higher than 67.5% (27/40, P < 0.05) in the control group. After treatment, the reduced Vp of vertebral artery was not improved apparently as compared with that before treatment in the control group, Vp in blood velocity abnormality (including vascular spasm, stenosis or reduced velocity) of vertebral artery and basilar artery was all improved as compared with that before treatment in the two groups (P < 0.01), and the improvements in the observation group were more obvious than those in the control group (P < 0.01). After treatment, the systolic and diastolic pressures were reduced as compared with those before treatment in the two groups, and the reduced systolic and diastolic pressures in the observation group were more apparent than those in the control group (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONAcupuncture at stellate ganglion achieves the satisfactory efficacy in the treatment of posterior circulation ischemia and the significant efficacy of reducing blood pressure, more advanced than the conventional acupuncture.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Aged ; Blood Pressure ; Brain Infarction ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Stellate Ganglion ; physiopathology ; Treatment Outcome

Dietary Proteins ; administration & dosage ; Energy Intake ; Female ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Parenteral Nutrition ; Weight Gain

Background The evaluation of visual function after laser in situ keratomileusis(LASIK) mainly focuses on the study of contrast sensitivity funetion (CSF).However,CSF measurement is a subjective method and therefore has a limiting in application.A point spread function (PSF) is becoming a study topic because of its objectivity in assessing visual quality.Objective Present study was to evaluate the change of the modulation transfer function (MTF) of eyes and compare the optical and visual quality of human eyes after LASIK.Methods Thirty-six patients(72 eyes) were included in this study.The patients were divided into low myopia(-2.72±0.52 D),moderate myopia (-4.89+0.80 D) and high myopia (-8.00+0.98 D) groups according to the spherical equivalent (SE)diopter before the sugery.The uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA),best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were examined before and after operation,and PSF data was obtained with Topoeon PSF-1000 analyzer under the 3.0 mm and 6.0 mm pupil size conditions.The follow-up visits of the patients were scheduled at the 7th days,1 st and 3rd months.Written informed consent was obtained from each patient before this study. ResuIts The MTF values among the three refractive groups were significantly different between 3 mm and 6 mm pupil preoperatively (P＜0.05).Under the condition of 3 mm pupil size,the MTF values in the spatial frequencies of 2.98 cpd and 14.88 cpd were significantly declined in different time points after operation in comparison with preoperative ones (P＜0.05).However,the MTF changes had no statistical significance in the spatial frequencies from 18.85-37.70 cpd among various time points(P＞0.05).Under the condition of the 6 mm pupil size,MTF values in low and moderate myopia groups were reduced after operation in comparison with before operation at the spatial frequencies from 2.98-7.44 cpd(P＜0.05),however,there were no obvious difference was found in the spatial frequencies of 9.42-37.70 cpd(P＞0.05).The MTF values of high myopia group was decreased significantly at all spatial frequencies(P＜0.05).The MTF values improved gradually as the prolong of time after operation but was still lower at the 3rd postoperative month than that of preoperation. Conclusion The postoperative visual quality is associated with refractive power and pupil diameter.PSF is a feasible method in assessing the early visual quality after LASIK.

Objective To investigate the neuroprotective effect and possible mechanism of Compound Porcine Cerebroside and Ganglio-side Injection (CPCGI) on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats. Methods Healthy adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into sham group (n=10), model group (n=10), CPCGI low dosage group (n=10) and high dosage group (n=10), and control group (Ginkgo biloba extract, n=10). All the rats was subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for two hours and reperfusion except sham group, and received treatment for fourteen days once reperfusion started. They were tested with modified Neurological Severity Score one, three, seven and fourteen days after MCAO, and adhesive-removal test and beam-walking test fourteen days after MCAO. The expression of Beclin1, PINK1 and Parkin were detected with Western blotting. Results Compared with the model group, the Neurological Severity Score reduced (P<0.05) and the time crossing the beam reduced (P<0.01) in all the medical groups fourteen days after MCAO, and the time removing the adhesive paper reduced in the CPCGI groups (P<0.01). The expression of Beclin1 and Parkin decreased and the PINK1 level increased in the model group (P<0.01), and it was reversed in all the CPCGI groups (P<0.05). Conclusion CPCGI could relieve the cerebral ischemia-re-perfusion injury in rats through the regulation in mitophagy.

OBJECTIVETo observe effects of phytoestrogens quercetin (QC), Genistein (GEN), coumestrol (COM), and enterolactone (ENL) on gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) in HaCaT cells.

METHODSHaCaT cells were exposed to QC, GEN, COM, and ENL at 0.1, 1.0, 10.0 and 100.0 micromol/L for 24 hours. The effects of phytoestrogens on GJIC were determined by fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching (FRAP) technique of using a laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM).

RESULTSQC did not affect the GJIC at 0.1-10.0 micromol/L, whereas, GEN, COM, and ENL exhibited inhibition on the GJIC in some extent at 0.1-10.0 micromol/L without showing significant cytotoxicity. The ratio of fluorescence recovery were between 31.77% to 37.06%, which were significantly decreased compared the vehicle control (44.74%).

CONCLUSIONThe phytoestrogens GEN, COM, and ENL, but not QC, could inhibit the GJIC function in HaCaT cells at concentrations could be reached in human serum in some instance, indicating they could, under certain conditions, be cancer promoters. Therefore, it should be prudent to use these chemicals as pharmaceuticals or dietary supplements.

Cell Communication ; drug effects ; physiology ; Cell Line ; Coumestrol ; pharmacology ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Gap Junctions ; drug effects ; physiology ; Genistein ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Microscopy, Confocal ; Phytoestrogens ; pharmacology ; Quercetin ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Danning Tablet (DNT) in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) of damp-heat syndrome type. METHODS: A multicenter, randomized, double-blinded and positive drug parallel controlled trial was performed. One hundred and thirty-five patients were enrolled into the study and divided into two groups: DNT-treated group (n=102) and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA)-treated group (n=33). Body mass index (BMI), principal symptoms, liver function, blood lipids, iconographic, and compositional parameters were measured before and after treatment, respectively. RESULTS: In the two groups, BMI, distress in hepatic region, fatigue, anorexia, liver function, blood lipids and iconographic parameters were significantly improved, and the improvements of BMI, distress in hepatic region were better in DNT-treated group than in UDCA-treated group. The histological study also showed that DNT had positive effect in treatment of NAFLD. CONCLUSION: DNT is an effective drug to treat patients with NAFLD of damp-heat syndrome type and is more effective than UDCA.