OBJECTIVETo develop a new technique for assessing the risk of birth defects, which are a major cause of infant mortality and disability in many parts of the world.

METHODSThe region of interest in this study was Heshun County, the county in China with the highest rate of neural tube defects (NTDs). A hybrid particle swarm optimization/ant colony optimization (PSO/ACO) algorithm was used to quantify the probability of NTDs occurring at villages with no births. The hybrid PSO/ACO algorithm is a form of artificial intelligence adapted for hierarchical classification. It is a powerful technique for modeling complex problems involving impacts of causes.

RESULTSThe algorithm was easy to apply, with the accuracy of the results being 69.5%±7.02% at the 95% confidence level.

CONCLUSIONThe proposed method is simple to apply, has acceptable fault tolerance, and greatly enhances the accuracy of calculations.

Algorithms ; Artificial Intelligence ; China ; epidemiology ; Environmental Exposure ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Models, Biological ; Neural Tube Defects ; epidemiology ; Risk Factors

BACKGROUND:The most effective method for the treatment of acetabular fracture is open reduction and internal fixation, however, this treatment for some special types of acetabular fracture cannot get satisfactory prognosis, and is prone to complications, such as traumatic coxarthrosis and avascular necrosis of femoral head. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the curative effect of open reduction and internal fixation and total hip arthroplasty in the treatment of special acetabular fracture. METHODS:Twelve cases of acetabular fracture were included, including seven cases of traffic accident wound, three cases of crush injury, and two cases of fal ing injury. The type of bone fracture:two cases of posterior wal fracture, two cases of posterior column and posterior wal fracture, one case of T shaped fracture, five cases of transverse and posterior wal fracture, and two cases of acetabular roof sexual fracture. Complications:one case was femoral head centric dislocation, five cases were latter dislocation, and three cases were caput femoris fractures. Before injury, three cases had coxarthrosis, and two cases were avascular necrosis of femoral head. Al the cases were treated with open reduction internal fixation and total hip arthroplasty, of which nine cases were treated with biological prosthesis, and three cases were treated with bone cement prosthesis. The time from hospitalization to surgery was 3-15 days, and average was 6 days. The patients were fol owed-up once every 2 months in 1 year after replacement, and the Harris score was used to evaluate the hip function recovery. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:No surgical site and deep wound infection, joint dislocation, lower limb deep vein thrombosis, and death were found in these 12 cases. Among them, 11 cases were fol owed-up for a longtime;the fol ow-up was lasted for 6-82 months. The acetabular fracture was healed at 6-16 months after reduction without prosthesis loosening and sinking. The hip function was evaluated during final fol ow-up according to the Harris score:excellent in eight cases, good in two cases, poor in one case, and the excellent and good rate was 91%. Open reduction internal fixation and one-stage total hip arthroplasty can avoid long-term bed, get out of bed as soon as possible, and reduce complications, thus reconstruct the hip joint painlessly and good functional y.

Objective To evaluate and compare the effects of surgical and endoscopic therapy for common bile duct stenosis (CBDS) induced by chronic pancreatitis (CP). Methods A historical cohort study of CBDS subjects induced by CP, who underwent endoscopic or surgical treatments at Changhai Hospital from Januraryl997 to July 2007, was performed. Results Of 514 cases of CP, CBDS occurred in 51 (9.9%), in which complete follow-up data were available in 41 survived patients with a mean follow-up period of 42.9±28. 3 months. The mean ages of first onset and hospitalization were 46. 3±14.0 and 49. 8±11.9 years, respectively. Endoscopic therapy was applied in 13 patients, including bile duct stenting in 7, 6 of whom presented with cholangitis, cholestasis and/or jaundice. Surgery was performed in 26 patients, in which 7 also underwent endoscopic therapy, and occupying lesion in pancreatic head was found in 14. The other 2 patients were treated without endoscopy or surgery. At the end of the follow-up, all symptoms including cholangitis, cholestasis and jaundice were relieved and no recurrence or choler cirrhosis was recorded.Conclusion Surgical approach is the main treatment for CBDS induced by CP. Endoscopic therapy is an alternative for patients unfit for surgery, especially for those who had jaundice, cholestasis or cholangitis.

This study aimed to construct the dual expression vectors of wide type or N187D mutant P2X7 receptor and intracellular domain of Notch1 (ICN1) linked by 2A peptide to coexpress them in leukemia cells so as to lay a foundation for further investigating the role of P2X7 in development of leukemia. Overlap PCR was used to construct the dual expression vectors encoding wide type or N187D mutant type P2X7 receptor and ICN1 linked by the self-cleaving 2A sequence. The results showed that stable expressing cell lines were obtained by retroviral infection followed by cell sorting after DNA sequence analysis. RT-PCR, Western blot, intracellular free calcium concentration analysis were used to verify the functionally successful construction of K562 cell line expressing P2X7 receptor alone or with ICN1. DNA sequence analysis revealed that all construction were right. The infection efficiency of packaged constructed virus ranged from 40% to 70% for K562 cells. Stable infected cell line was obtained by cell sorting. RT-PCR analysis revealed that P2X7 receptor and/or ICN1 could be detected at high level in their stable infected cell lines, respectively. Western blot analysis also showed that P2X7 receptor was highly expressed in cell line infected by virus with P2X7 receptor. Sustained increase in intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca(2+)]i) could be observed in K562 cells overexpressing either type of P2X7 receptor upon stimulation with BzATP. It is concluded that the wide type or N187D mutant P2X7 receptor and ICN1 are simultaneously and functionally over-express in leukemia cells, which lay a foundation for further studying the role of P2X7 receptor in the development of leukemia.
Gene Expression ; Genetic Vectors ; Humans ; K562 Cells ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; Receptor, Notch1 ; genetics ; Receptors, Purinergic P2X7 ; genetics ; Retroviridae ; genetics

Objective To investigate the epidemiological features of back pain, spondyloarthritis (SPA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in Beijing Shougang district. Methods Set up Chinese version of questionnaire about incidence of spondyloarthro-pathy. Employees and retired ones were drawn out from subfactory units by non-randomized sampling. 15 357 subjects were investigated, of which 12 125 questionnaires were taken. Suspected cases were then screened with sacroiliac joint X ray and HLA-B27 testing. 2009 assessment in ankylosing spondylitis (ASAS) criteria were used for diagnosing SpA. Results Back pain is common with total incidence of 42.7%, and the most common pattern is mechanical pain. The incidence of SpA is 0.58% and that of AS is 0.36%, while only 28.9% AS patients had been diagnosed before and received treatment. Conclusion The AS incidence in Shougang district is similar with the epidemiological data got from other districts of China. And knowledge of SpA and AS is needed in China.

AIM: To screen and identify the differentially expressed genes in lymphocytes of patients with unstable angina in order to find the molecular mechanism of unstable angina. METHODS: Suppression subtractive hybridizations (SSH) and dot blot hybridizations were performed to screen the relatively differentially expressed genes in lymphocyte RNA between the patients with unstable angina pectoris and stable angina pectoris. The obtained expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were used as probes to perform Reverse Northern blot with forward and reverse suppression products. And the positive ESTs were performed RNA slot hybridization with unstable and stable angina group. The obtained ESTs were sequenced and analyzed using BLAST (nr) at NCBI. RESULTS: Three up-regulated ESTs in the unstable angina group, and one down-regulated EST in the stable angina group were obtained. All of them are sequences of known genes. CONCLUSION: All these ESTs may be associated with the unstablization of plaque of coronary artery in patients with unstable angina.

the process of malignant transformation of esophageal epithelial cells, and jointly promoting the occurrence and development of EC.

Objective To determine the efficacy of therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pan-creatography (ERCP) in treatment of pain of chronic pancreatitis (CP). Methods The data of CP patients accompanying with pain, who received therapeutic ERCP from 1997 to 2006, were retrospectively analyzed.The diagnosis of CP was made based on the criteria from 2002 Asia-Pacific Consensus, and the effect of ther-apy was evaluated. Results Of 253 patients who received therapeutic ERCP, follow-up data were obtained from 214 patients ( 144 males and 70 females, ages ranging from 6.5 to 78.0 years, mean age 40. 5 years).The mean follow-up period was 41.9 months (12～131 months). Twenty-eight patients (13. 1% ) under-went surgery after ERCP. Relief rates of pain in patients who underwent ERCP with or without operation were 71.4% and 83.9% (P >0. 05 ) respectively. The overall relief rate of ERCP was 73%. The incidence of major complications related to the procedure was 14.9% (71/476) in terms of ERCP sessions, including post-ERCP pancreatitis in 12. 6%, mild cholangitis in 2. 1% and hemorrhage in 0. 2%. All complications sub-sided with conservative medical managements in 2 to 20 days. No perforation or death related to the procedure occurred. Conclusion Therapeutic ERCP is a mean of effective management of pain in patients with CP.

In this study, the effects of apollon antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (ASODN) on the proliferation and apoptosis of human Lovo cells in vitro were investigated. Apollon ASODN was incubated with human colorectal Lovo cells for 48 h, the proliferation inhibition and the clone forming rates were detected by WST method and clone formation assay, respectively. The expression of apollon mRNA was analyzed by real time fluorescent quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The percentage of apoptotic cells and cell cycle distribution were determined by flow cytometry. The morphology of apoptotic cells was examined by fluorescence microscope. Lovo cells incubated with apollon ASODN combined with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cisplatin (DDP) or epirubicin (EPI) of different concentrations, cell proliferation inhibition rates were detected with WST method and IC50 was calculated. It was found that ASODN targeting apollon gene could all suppress the growth of Lovo cells and induce apoptosis of these cells significantly (P < 0.05). After Lovo cells treated with apollon ASODN for 48 hours, the expression of the apollon mRNA level was suppressed significantly. And a marked concentration-dependent decline of cell proliferation and clone forming, increasing of cell apoptosis levels were observed. The percentage of G0/G1 phage cells was abated and that of S phage cells was increased and the Lovo cells arrested at S phage of the cell cycle detected with flow cytometry. Many Lovo cells stained with Hoechst 33258 exhibited apoptotic morphology such as cell shrinkage, nuclear condensation and nuclear fragmentation. Cell proliferation inhibition was detected and their chemo-therapeutic effects of 5-FU, DDP and EPI on Lovo cells combined with apollon ASODN (0.08 micromol x L(-1)) were enhanced independently compared with single 5-FU, DDP and EPI groups, and the sensitivity enhanced about 2.58, 4.47, and 5.33 times respectively. It can be concluded that ASODN targeting apollon can suppress the expression of apollon mRNA, and inhibit the proliferation, induce apoptosis, arrest cell cycle at S phase of colorectal cancer Lovo cells in vitro and enhance the chemo-sensitivity to 5-FU, DDP and EPI.
Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cell Cycle ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Cisplatin ; pharmacology ; Colonic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Epirubicin ; pharmacology ; Fluorouracil ; pharmacology ; Gene Knockdown Techniques ; Humans ; Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Inhibitory Concentration 50 ; Oligodeoxyribonucleotides, Antisense ; genetics ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Transfection

Objective To investigate the changes of indications, degree of difficulty in procedure, complication and its severity in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in Changhai hospital from 2001 to 2007. Methods The clinical data, including demographic data, indications, degree of difficulty in procedure, success rate, complication rate and severity of complication, of 2374 patients who underwent ERCP in 2001 and 2007 (966 in 2001 and 1408 in 2007), were retrospectively reviewed. Results Indications of ERCP changed at an interval of 5 years. Operations due to bile duct stone decreased (59.0% vs. 49.3%, P=0.000), while operations due to pancreas disease, especially chronic pancreatitis (6.6% vs. 18.5%, P=0.000) and recurrent pancreatitis (0.2% vs.1.6%, P=0.001), increased. Patients with biliary duct problems after liver transplantation appeared in 2007. The procedures of ERCP performed in 2007 were more difficult (P=0.000), with an increased percentage of Degree 5 procedure (7.3% vs. 33.3%, P=0.000). The number of diagnostic ERCP significantly decreased (Degree 1 + Degree 3, 30.5% +2.8% vs. 5.9% +3.1%, P=0.000). There was no significant difference in the success rate between the two years (P=0.084). The complication rate of ERCP in 2007 was significantly higher than that in 2001 (3.73% vs. 7.88%, P=0.000), but the severity of complication showed no significant difference (P=0.820). Conclusion Cases of diagnostic ERCP decreased in 2007. Indications of ERCP have changed, with a decrease in bile duct diseases and an increase in pancreatic diseases. The procedures are more complicated, but it does not lead to lower success rate. The increase in complication rate is possibly due to increase of therapeutic ERCP.