Hospitals ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Population Surveillance ; Quality Control ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

Acclimatization ; physiology ; Adolescent ; Altitude ; Humans ; Male ; Nitric Oxide ; blood ; Nitric Oxide Synthase ; blood ; Oxygen ; physiology ; Pulmonary Gas Exchange ; Young Adult

Adolescent ; Adult ; Altitude ; Extremities ; physiology ; Humans ; Male ; Memory ; physiology ; Motor Activity ; physiology ; Movement ; physiology ; Young Adult

Objective To investigate the diffusion tensor imaging(DTI)and magnetic resonance spectroscopy(MRS)changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS)and to study on the physiopathology of ALS.Methods Thirty-eight AIS patients,8 patients with pure lower motor neuron involvement and 5 patients with mixed-type cervical spondylosis and 34 healthy controls were enrolled and examined with the conventional brain MRI,DTI and 1H-MRS.Results T2-weighted and T2 FLAIR images revealed abnormal high signals in bilateral pyramidal tract positions in 21%(8/38)of ALS patients,which was higher than that in the coaex When compared with the control group,the values of FA in the precentral gyms(0.492±0.059 vs 0.552±0.045,F=17.150,P<0.01),the posterior limb of the internal capsule(0.679±0.048 vs 0.727 4-0.031.F=19.481.P<0.01)and the cerebral peduncle(1eft:0.740 4-0.038 vs 0.761 4±0.024.F=4.290;right:0.720 ±0.044 vs 0.746 ±0.034,F=3.264,both P<0.01)of the ALS group were decreased significantly.so were the values of NAA/Cr.And the FA reduction rate was 10.9%,6.6% and 2.8%-3.5% respectively.There was also a significant decrease in FA in the anterior limb of the internal capsule and the occipital lobe in the ALS group.Conclusion Not only does the application of DTI and MRS help to demonstrate upper motor neuron involvement in the brain and facilitate the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of ALS,but also increases the understanding of the lesion distribution and physiopathology in ALS.

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of corticospinal tract in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and find optimal testing strategies and optimal cutoff values of DTI indices for individual patient discrimination.Methods Thirty-three ALS patients and 34 healthy controls,collected at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from June 2004 through July 2005,undergoing brain DTI studies and fractional anisotropy (FA) examinations along the corticospinal tract,were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.Results Compared with the controls,ALS group had significantly decreased FA values in subcortical white matter of the precentral gyrus,the posterior limb of the internal capsule and the cerebral peduncle.In ROC analysis,the average FA value of the former two positions showed the best performance with an area under the curve of 0.917,an optimal cut-off value of 0.604,a sensitivity of 0.759 and a specificity of 0.912.The corresponding data for the average FA of all the three positions and each single position were listed as follows:average of three 0.914,0.648,0.759,0.912; precentral gyrus 0.875,0.509,0.733,0.824; internal capsule 0.845,0.692,0.656,0.941 ; and cerebral peduncle 0.752,0.742,0.656,0.735.Conclusions FA values of the corticospinal tract have a good accuracy in detecting upper motor neuron involvement in ALS.Precentral gyrus and posterior limb of the internal capsule and the average FA values of these two positions were suggested as the preferred testing places and DTI indices for clinical use.

Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cell Membrane ; metabolism ; Cell Nucleus ; metabolism ; Cytoplasm ; metabolism ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Signal Transduction ; TCF Transcription Factors ; metabolism ; Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein ; Wnt Proteins ; physiology ; beta Catenin ; metabolism

Adult ; Aged ; Elbow ; innervation ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nerve Compression Syndromes ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Recovery of Function ; Ulnar Nerve ; physiopathology ; surgery

Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T_RFLP) analysis is a culture- independent approach for analyzing microbial community in environment. It bases on PCR technology, and its process includes DNA extraction of environmental samples, amplification of genes encoding the 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA or enzymes with fluorescently labeled primers, the restriction enzyme digestion of PCR products, cap- illary electrophoresis and the analysis of T_RFLP profile. It has been proved to be powerful applied on mi- crobial community in environment since developed in 1997. Currently, T_RFLP rarely applied in China, and it has no applications on microbial community analysis of nitrifying bacteria. In this article, the fundamental principle of this technique and the recent applications of T_RFLP on microbial community are summarized; in addition, it illustrates the confinements of conventional culture-dependent of nitrifying bacteria and the foreground of T_RFLP applying on microbial community structure analysis of nitrifying bacteria.

Objective To investigate blood gas analysis and lactic acid evaluation in aerobic forearm exercise and the significance of aerobic forearm exercise for the auxiliary diagnosis of mitochondrial myopathy and encephalopathy patients.Methods Forty-two patients with mitochondrial myopathy and encephalopathy patients, 40 healthy control, and 40 patients control were studied.They performed a protocol under aerobic exercise conditions, consisting of intermittent forearm exercise for 4 minutes at 40% of intented maximal voluntary contraction force.Blood samples were collected to monitor blood gas and plasma lactate before, during arid after exercise.Results During exercise venous PO_2(mm Hg, 1 mm Hg=0.133 kPa)decreased in mitochondrial myopathy and encephalopathy patients from 41.2?12.6 to 39.5?16.2, whereas PO_2 fell from 50.5?14.4 to 30.8?13.1 in healthy control and from 50.1?7.9 to 44.3?35.5 in patient control.Venous PO_2 decreased much more in healthy control group than the other 2 groups(F= 6.34,P

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of serum vascular endothelial growth factor(S-VEGF)in patients of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with the end-point of progress-free survival rate.Methods Sera from 89 patients with esophageal squamous carcinoma,who presented and treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy or surgical resection in Cancer Center d Sun Yat-Sen University from December 2002 to May 2004,were sampled at the time of pre-treatment.30 cases of health individuals without any evidence of disease were selected as control group.For patients with surgical resection were performed with esophagectomy and extended lymphadenectomy.For patients with concurrent chemoradiotherapy comprised of cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil.The radiotherapy dose of 2 Gy per day was initiated on Day 1 of chemotherapy and continued daily for 5 days per week for 6 weeks,for a total close of 60 Gy.Two courses of chemotherapy were given during radiotherapy at 6-week intervals.The serum vascular endothelial growth factor(S- VEGF)levels were measured with a solid phase enzyme Human VEGF Immunoassay ELISA kit.The end point of this study was progress-free survival,and time was calculated from the date of diagnosis to date of relapse or last follow evaluation.Results S-VEGF level of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma was significantly higher than that of heahhy controls(475.93?44.76 pg/ml vs.294.20?23.40 pg/ml;P=0.020).S-VEGF levels in patients with StageⅢand StageⅣdisease were significantly higher than those in patients with Stage I and StageⅡdisease.The 1-year progress-free survival rate d high S-VEGF group(≥475 pg/ml)was significantly lower than that of the low S-VEGF group(＜475 pg/ml)(24% vs.66%;P=0.0004).The 1-year progress-free survival rate of the patients with StageⅠand StageⅡdisease was significantly higher than that of patients with StageⅢand StageⅣdisease(71% vs.29%;P=0.0015).The variables were assessed by multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model,and the results revealed that the clinical stage and the S-VEGF were first and second independent prognosis factor,respectively.Conclusions In the current study,a high S-VEGF was found to be associated with tumor progression,poor treatment response,and poor survival in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus.