OBJECTIVETo explore the clinical effects of Dynesys system combined with posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) in treating multiple lumbar degenerative disease.

METHODSThe clinical data of 46 patients with multiple lumbar degenerative diseases treated by Dynesys system combined with PLIF from September 2010 to May 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 17 males and 29 females, aged from 38 to 68 years old with an average of (56.38±11.63) years. Operation section was in L2-L5 of 16 patients (6 with fusion of L4,5 and 10 with fusion of L4,5,L5S1) and in L3-S1 of 30 patients (11 with fusion of L5S1 and 19 with fusion of L4,5,L5S1). Patients were followed up for three times: postoperative 3 months, 1 year and final follow-up. Visual analogue scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were used to assess clinical symptoms preoperatively and postoperatively. All patients underwent flexion/extension radiographs examinations before surgery and at final follow-up. Range of motion (ROM) and disc height index (DHI) were recorded.

RESULTSAll patients were followed up from 16 to 48 months with the mean of (23.23±7.34) months. At third follow-up after operation, ODI and VAS of lumbago and leg pain were significant improved than that of preoperative (P<0.01). DHI of fusion segment was significantly increased than that of preoperative (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in adjacent non-fusion segment between preoperative and postoperative (P>0.05). Postoperative ROM of fusion and non-fusion segments were obviously decreased than that of preoperative. There was no significant difference in ROM of upper adjacent non-fusion segment between 3 months and 1 year after operation (P>0.05), but at final follow-up, the ROM was increased (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe preliminary clinical results of the Dynesys system combined with PLIF in the treatment of multiple lumbar degenerative diseases are satisfactory. It can be determined in fusion or non-fusion according to the individual needs and can reserve the some intervertebral motion, prevent the early degeneration of adjacent segments. However, its long-term clinical efficacy should be verified with long time.

Humans ; Lumbar Vertebrae ; surgery ; Range of Motion, Articular ; Retrospective Studies ; Spinal Diseases ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Spinal Fusion ; methods ; Visual Analog Scale

AIM: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of surgery for spontaneous subconjunctival orbital fat prolapse via bulbar conjunctiva under topical anesthesia.
●METHODS: A total of 22 eyes of 11 patients received surgery for spontaneous subconjunctival orbital fat prolapse via bulbar conjunctiva under topical anesthesia were included. Objective and subjective duration of the operation, degree of cooperation during surgery, postoperative recovery, recurrence and complications were observed.
●RESULTS: In the process of surgery, patients without pain and being-cooperated were recorded in 17 eyes. The patients who occasionally felt slight pain, but within endurance after adding topical anesthesia once and the operation was completed successfully were recorded in 5 eyes ( the second eye surgery ) . The operation was successfully completed in all the patients. Compared the coordination degree during surgery of Gradel with GradeⅡ, the difference was statistically significant ( t=-3. 123, P<0. 01). All eyes were healed well after operation.
● CONCLUSION: The surgery for spontaneous subconjunctival orbital fat prolapse via bulbar conjunctiva under topical anesthesia can ensure satisfactory anesthetic effect and get better quality of operation. It′s a simple, safe and effective anesthesia method for spontaneous subconjunctival orbital fat prolapse.

Objective To assess the left ventricular dyssynchrony in coronary artery disease(CAD) without visual segmental wall motion abnormalities using strain delay index (SDI).Methods A total of 135 patients under suspicion of CAD were recruited in this study.Two-dimensional cchocardiography was performed to collect dynamic images of left ventricular apical long axis views,tow-chamber views,four chamber views and parasternal short axis mitral views,papillary views and apical views.The time to minimal systolic longitudinal,radial,circumferential strain (Tssl,Tssr and Tssc) were measured from the start point of QRS wave in electrocardiogram.The left ventricular segmental standard deviation (Tssl-SD,Tssr-SD,Tssc-SD),maximal difference (Tssl-Dif,Tssr-Dif,Tssc-Dif) and longitudinal,radial,circumferential SDI (LSDI,RSDI,CSDI) of 18 left ventricular segments were calculated.Results According to coronary angiography results,patients were divided into three groups:severe stenosis group,mild stenosis group and control group.Compared with the other two groups,SDI and Tssl-SD,Tssl-Dif were decreased in severe stenosis group (P ＜0.001 or P ＜0.05).However,there were not significant differences between the mild stenosis group and the control group except Tssr-SD.The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis demonstrated that LSDI had the highest accuracy and Tssl-SD had the lowest accuracy for detecting severe CAD (areas under the curve were 0.891,0.797,0.666,0.580 and 0.556 respectively).High sensitivity and specificity (80.6％ and 86.7％,respectively) were shown when using-12.67％ as a cutoff point of LSDI to diagnose severe CAD.Conclusions SDI can be helpful for assessing the left ventricular dyssynchrony in patients without visual segmental wall motion abnormalities,and LSDI is the most effective parameter to detecting severe CAD.

Untargeted metabolomics analysis of rhubarb and stewed rhubarb samples shows that the determined samples clearly clustered in to two groups, indicating that the processing procedures caused changes in the composition and/or content of components in rhubarb. Ten components were identified by UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS and references, which intensity declined in rhubarb after processing. Targeted metabolomics analysis of rhubarb and stewed rhubarb samples indicated that aloe-emodin, rhein, emodin and physcion were detected with lower intensity in stewed rhubarb samples than in rhubarb samples. Metabolomics analysis of rhubarb and stewed rhubarb indicated the various components of rhubarb changed after processing.
Anthraquinones ; analysis ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Emodin ; analogs & derivatives ; analysis ; Food Handling ; methods ; Food Preservation ; methods ; Metabolomics ; methods ; Multivariate Analysis ; Principal Component Analysis ; Rheum ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry

This paper was focused on establishing a ICP-MS method with microwave digestion for simultaneous determination of lead, copper, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, magnesium, manganese, nickel, thallium in cassia tuckahoe capsule and its five raw herbal materials. Internal standard method was adopted to reduce matrix effect and other interference effects. The method established was shown to be simple with high sensitivity, strong specificity and good reproducibility. Linear relationship is good as R2 ≥ 0.999 3 while the average recovery was among 75.84% - 118.9%. The detection limit was 0.016 - 4.593 μg x L(-1). Data in this paper provided the basis for control of deleterious element in Guizhi Fuling capsules, and further more it was with referencing values for control of deleterious element in other crude drug.
Capsules ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; Reproducibility of Results

A method was established for the simultaneous analysis of 25 trace elements and heavy metals in polysccharides from Liuwei Dihuang prescription, including Li, Be, B, Ti, Mg, Al, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Sr, Cd, Sn, Sb, Ba, Hg, Tl, Pb, Bi. The different rate of elemental extraction in Al, Fe, Mg, B, Ti, Mn, Zn, Sr, Ba was made in water and different concentration of alcohol. The samples, digested via microwave, calibrated by internal standard elements such as Ge and In, with bush branches and leaves as the controlled reference standard, were inlet into ICP-MS to analyze the contents of the 24 trace elements and heavy metals. The detection limits of the 24 elements were in the range of 0.007-2.225 µg · L(-1), while the RSD was below ≤ 4. 0%, with their recovery ranging from 84. 1% to 116%. Big different of the elemental extraction rates could be found by using different ethanol solutions. The method is simple, rapid and accurate, and can be used for the quality control of trace elements and heavy metals in Liuwei Dihuang polysccharides. With the aid of the obtained result, we may increase the extraction of necessary element while making an attempt at multi-element speciation in polysccharides from Liuwei Dihuang.
Chemical Fractionation ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Mass Spectrometry ; methods ; Polysaccharides ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Trace Elements ; chemistry ; isolation & purification

The essential effect of vitamin A on immune function occurs through various mechanisms including direct effect on Th1-Th2 balance modulation. However, it is unclear whether or not vitamin A can regulate Th1-Th2 balance under a strong Th1-polarizing condition. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to examine the effect of vitamin A metabolite all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) on Th1-Th2 differentiation in CD4+ T cells under GATA-3 deficiency, which can induce Th1-polarizing condition. In the present study, GATA-3 deficiency T cells were induced by siRNA and checked by real-time quantitative PCR and western blot. GATA-3 deficiency CD4+ T cells and normal CD4+ T were treated for 48 h with or without ATRA. The expression of Th1 and Th2 cytokines were detected by qPCR and ELISA. The results would contribute to clarify the knowledge of the role of vitamin A in regulating Th1-Th2 balance under some special conditions, and help to explain the mechanism of immune regulatory function of vitamin A.
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes ; drug effects ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Cells, Cultured ; GATA3 Transcription Factor ; deficiency ; Humans ; Th1-Th2 Balance ; drug effects ; Tretinoin ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVENeonatal septicemia is a critical disease in neonatal period. Its incidence among live births is between 1 per thousand and 8 per thousand. Mortality of neonatal septicemia may be as high as 50% for infants who are not treated. The early signs of septicemia in the newborn are generally nonspecific. Blood culture and the other clinical diagnostic measures are not sufficiently sensitive. The present study aimed at evaluating potential use of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in diagnosis of septicemia.

METHODSThe experimental group consisted of 50 newborns with septicemia who were treated in Hebei Provincial Children's Hospital from April 1, 2002 to December 30, 2002. Thirty of the 50 cases had positive blood culture. The control group included 35 healthy newborns. Fasting blood samples were taken for bacterial cultures and sICAM-1, CRP, PCT determination. PCT and CRP contents were determined immediately after the specimens were collected. Analyses of sICAM-1 were done after inclusion of the last patient. Serum was separated from each specimen and stored at -20 degrees C within 2 hours. The analyses of sICAM-1 were performed by ELISA technique. CRP was analyzed by immunoturbidimetry assay (ITA). Immunochromatographic test was performed for detection of PCT from 200 ul serum. SPSS 10.0 was used to process the data. P values < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA), multiple comparison, chi-square test, paired-samples T test, linear correlation, Spearman correlation analysis, ROC curve were used for statistical analysis. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, accuracy, Youden's index for sICAM-1, PCT, CRP and WBC count were calculated. These values were compared with each other.

RESULTS(1) The content of sICAM-1 in control group varied widely from 79 to 1252 ng/ml. Comparison of the data indicated that there was significant difference among the three groups in the content of sICAM-1, CRP and PCT (P < 0.05), but not in WBC count. These markers are considered positive if sICAM-1 >or= 300 ng/ml, CRP >or= 8 mg/l, PCT >or= 2 ng/ml. Their sensitivity was higher than WBC (P < 0.05). Among these indices, PCT has the highest specificity (94.3%), positive predictive (95.6%), negative predictive (82.5%), accuracy (89.4%), and Youden's index (80.3%). (2) No significant difference was found in sICAM-1 between pre- and post-treatment (P > 0.05); however, there was significant difference in CRP and PCT. (3) sICAM-1 was in direct proportion to CRP (r = 0.339,P < 0.01). PCT is correlated with sICAM-1, CRP (the spearman correlation coefficient 0.569, 0.482, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONDifferent individual is in different immune status; The level of sICAM-1 is related with neonatal septicemia. sICAM-1 concentration may be used as a diagnostic tool with high sensitivity (85%) and moderate specificity (54.3%) in neonates suspected of infection. The sensitivity and specificity of CRP (>or= 8 mg/l) were accordingly 87.5% and 54.3%. WBC count had low sensitivity for diagnosis (30.0%); Among these indices, PCT had the highest specificity (94.3%), positive predictive (95.6%), negative predictive (82.5%) Values, accuracy (89.4%), Youden's index (80.3%); No correlation was found between sICAM-1 concentration and their ages in day accordingly. CRP, PCT may be used to estimate the effect of therapy. The correlation of the infectious indices indicates that the body may mobilize many organs at the same time to resist the invasion of organism.

C-Reactive Protein ; analysis ; Calcitonin ; blood ; Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 ; blood ; Protein Precursors ; blood ; Sepsis ; blood ; diagnosis

Objective:To explore the protective effect and underlying mechanism of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on delayed encephalopathy after carbon monoxide poisoning (DEACMP) in mice.Methods:Totally 225 adult male Kunming mice were selected to establish CO poisoning model via intraperitoneal injection carbon monoxide (CO), and were randomly divided into the air control group, CO poisoning group, and HBO group. Each group was further divided into five time points group, that was 1, 3, 7, 14 and 21 d. The mice in the air control group were injected intraperitoneally with the same amount of air, and the HBO group received HBO treatment at the same time every day. DEACMP mice model was screened by behaviors using the open field test, new object recognition test and nesting test, and the content of myelin basic protein (MBP) were assayed. The mouse brain tissue and mitochondrial were prepared and malonialdehyde (MDA) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content were measured with ultraviolet spectrophotometer. MBP content in brain tissue and cytochrome C (CytC) content in the mitochondrial were measured by ELISA. The mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) was measured by flow cytometry.Results:Compared with the air control group, the content of carboxyhemoglobin (COHB) in blood increased significantly and the content of MBP in brain tissue decreased significantly in CO poisoning mice. CO poisoning mice showed motor ability and cognitive dysfunction. Compared with the air control group, the contents of MMP, CytC and ATP were significantly decreased ( P<0.01) in the CO poisoning group; while the MDA content was significantly increased ( P<0.01). Compared with the CO poisoning group, mice behaviors were improved significantly ( P<0.05), the content of MBP, MMP, CytC and ATP were increased ( P<0.05), while the MDA content decreased significantly ( P<0.01) in the HBO group. Conclusions:The abnormal mitochondrial function might be closely related to the occurrence and development of DEACMP, and HBO therapy plays an effective role in preventing and treating the DEACMP mice model via the mitochondrial pathway.

Adult ; Coronary Restenosis ; surgery ; Drug-Eluting Stents ; Humans ; Male ; Sirolimus ; therapeutic use