Objective Epicardial fat volume ( EFV) was a risk factor for coronary heart disease ( CHD) , but there is little research regarding the relationship of EFV with insulin resistance ( IR) and CHD in patients with metabolic syndrome ( MS) .The aim of the article was to explore the effect of EFV in patients with MS on CHD and IR . Methods Patients with MS treated by percutane-ous coronary angiography ( CAG) in our hospital from February 2013 to August 2013 were recruited in this study .The data of height , weight, waist circumference(WC) and hip circumference(HP) were recorded.EFV were measured by MSCT.Fasting blood samples were collected for blood biochemical test . Results EFV in patients with MS was in positive relation with IR index (IRI)(r=0.335, P<0.001) and CHD (r=0.321, P<0.05), and the correlation still remained when the influences of WC and body mass index (BMI) were excluded.Logistic regression analysis showed that EFV was an independent risk factor for CHD (P<0.05), while linear regression analysis indicated EFV , BMI and LDL-C were the risk factors for IRI .ROC curves analysis proved EFV and BMI had diag-nosis value for IRI, and the areas under curve of EFV were 0.755 and 0.679 (P<0.05) respectively. Conclusion EFV is an in-dependent risk factor for CHD and IRI in patients with MS , and EFV has an advantage over BMI in the diagnosis value of IRI .

Objective:To master the information of the communication between undergraduate students and parents,so as to provide basis for strengthening university student's psychology work.Methods:We used the investigation questionnaire designed by ourselves,investigated 841 undergraduate students in ShanXi Medical University and established SPSS 11.5 database carrying on statistical analysis.Results:62.2% students ring up their parents once a week,5% students call once a day,22.7% students call once a month,and 10.1% students wait for their parents to call them.8.4% students think that they have generation gap of communication with their parents,10.3% students fully obey their parents,81.3% students use parental words to encourage themselves.Conclusion:Family is an important factor for students' psychological development.

Chronic Disease ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis/therapy* ; Liver Diseases/therapy*

Objective To study the clinical effect of Longniu Bubi Granule on prevention and treatment of bone loss caused by premenopausal ovarian function suppression (OFS) combined with breast cancer aromatase inhibitor (AIs).Methods Forty patients with postmenopausal and high risk of breast cancer treated with OFS combined with aromatase inhibitors were divided into treatment group (n=23) and control group (n=17).The two groups were treated with calcium VitD3125IU,1 tablet per day.The treatment group received the additional of Longniu Bugu Decoction,2 doses daily,with continuous medication for 6 months.The bone mineral density (BMD) level,bone mineral density (T) and serum bone alkaline phosphatase (BALP) were measured before and 6 months after treatment.Results There were significant differences in lumbar (L2-4) and femoral neck bone mineral density,bone mineral density (T) and serum bone alkaline phosphatase (P＜0.05) between the two groups after treatment,and the treatment group was superior to the control group.Conclusion Longniu Bugu Decoction can reduce bone loss in patients with premenopausal breast cancer caused by OFS combined with AIs therapy and improve patients' life quality.

Objective To learn the smoke-free environment and smoking status at or below county-level governments of Zhejiang Province, and to promote a smoke-free government.Methods By multi-stage random sampling method, 4 cities were selected in Zhejiang Province, then 4 counties were selected in 4 cities, finally12 governments were selected in 4 counties.With the methods of field observation,interview and questionnaire survey,smoke-free environment and smoking behavior , tobacco related knowledge of civil servants were investigated.Results A total of 12 governments and 405 civil servants were investigated.The smoke-free environment of 12 governments were relatively well.The total smoking rate of civil servants was 17.78%, and the highest was 26.67% in Jiande City, and the lowest were 9.00% in Zhuji City.For the civil servants ,male(26.62%), aged 50-(40.74%),divorced or widowed(40.00%),graduation of technical secondary school (33.33%),cadre of section rank(57.14%),above 20 years' work(28.81%),smoking anywhere at home(50.00%), smoking in certain areas at work(22.95%)were significantly higher.The rate of cognition on the hazards of smoking was lower among the smokers than that of non-smokers (P<0.05).The rate of agreement on MPOWER tobacco control strategies and smoking bans in public places were lower among the smokers than that of non-smokers (P<0.05).Non-conditional logistic regression analysis showed that age of 30-39(OR=9.87,95%CI:1.45-67.29),50-(OR=9.87,95%CI:1.45-67.29), smoking anywhere at home(OR=12.28,95%CI:2.95-51.18),and smoking in certain areas at home(OR=6.57,95%CI:3.07-14.08) may be the risk factors about smoking behavior.Conclusion The situation of smoking control at or below county-level governments in Zhejiang Province was good, and smoking rates has declined.But tobacco related knowledge and behavior of civil servants were relatively insufficient.Aiming at the problems found in the investigation, it is necessary to strengthen education on smoking control among civil servants, and to promote a smoke-free government.

BACKGROUNDPulmonary embolism (PE) can be difficult to diagnose in elderly patients because of the coexistent diseases and the combination of drugs that they have taken. We aimed to compare the clinical diagnostic values of the Wells score, the revised Geneva score and each of them combined with D-dimer for suspected PE in elderly patients.

METHODSThree hundred and thirty-six patients who were admitted for suspected PE were enrolled retrospectively and divided into two groups based on age (≥65 or <65 years old). The Wells and revised Geneva scores were applied to evaluate the clinical probability of PE, and the positive predictive values of both scores were calculated using computed tomography pulmonary arteriography as a gold standard; overall accuracy was evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operator characteristic curve; the negative predictive values of D-dimer, the Wells score combined with D-dimer, and the revised Geneva score combined with D-dimer were calculated.

RESULTSNinety-six cases (28.6%) were definitely diagnosed as PE among 336 cases, among them 56 cases (58.3%) were ≥65 years old. The positive predictive values of Wells and revised Geneva scores were 65.8% and 32.4%, respectively (P < 0.05) in the elderly patients; the AUC for the Wells score and the revised Geneva score in elderly was 0.682 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.612-0.746) and 0.655 (95% CI: 0.584-0.722), respectively (P = 0.389). The negative predictive values of D-dimer, the Wells score combined with D-dimer, and the revised Geneva score combined with D-dimer were 93.7%, 100%, and 100% in the elderly, respectively.

CONCLUSIONSThe diagnostic value of the Wells score was higher than the revised Geneva score for the elderly cases with suspected PE. The combination of either the Wells score or the revised Geneva score with a normal D-dimer concentration is a safe strategy to rule out PE.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Angiography ; Female ; Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products ; metabolism ; Humans ; Male ; Pulmonary Embolism ; diagnosis ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy and safety of entecavir (ETV) maleate versus ETV in Chinese patients with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB).

METHODSThis was a randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, controlled, multicenter study. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 48 weeks of treatment with 0.5 mg/day ETV (group A; n = 26) or 0.5 mg/day ETV maleate (n = 31). Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA levels were measured at weeks 12, 24, and 48 by the Roche Cobas Ampliprep/Taqman PCR assay. Adverse events (AE) were recorded.

RESULTSBaseline characteristics were similar between the two groups. At weeks 12, 24, and 48, the mean HBV DNA level had similarly decreased from baseline in both groups (A: by 4.24, 4.61 and 4.88 log10 IU/mL vs. B: 4.01, 4.50 and 4.99 log10 IU/mL, respectively; all P more than 0.05). Patients who achieved undetectable levels of serum HBV DNA (less than 20 IU/mL) at week 48 were similar in the two groups (A: 69.23% vs. B: 80.65%; P more than 0.05). Both groups achieved similar normalization of ALT at week 48 (A: 96.00% vs. B: 83.87%; P more than 0.05). The overall AE incidence was similar for the two groups (A: 22.22% vs. B: 9.38%; P more than 0.05).

CONCLUSIONEntecavir maleate and entecavir showed similar efficacy and safety in patients with HBeAg-negative CHB.

Adult ; Antiviral Agents ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Double-Blind Method ; Female ; Guanine ; adverse effects ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; blood ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Maleates ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVESTo evaluate the inhibitory effect mediated by combination of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting different sites of hepatitis B virus (HBV) transcripts on the viral replication and antigen expression in vitro.

METHODS(1) Seven siRNAs targeting surface (S), polymerase (P) or precore (PreC) region of HBV genome were designed and chemically synthesized. (2) HBV-producing HepG2.2.15 cells were treated with or without siRNAs for 72 h. (3) HBsAg and HBeAg in the cell culture medium were detected by enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay. (4) Intracellular viral DNA was quantified by real-time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). (5) HBV viral mRNA was reverse transcribed and quantified by real-time PCR. (6) The change of cell cycle and apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry.

RESULTSOur data demonstrated that synthetic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting S and PreC gene could efficiently and specifically inhibit HBV replication and antigen expression. The expression of HBsAg and HBeAg and the replication of HBV could be specifically inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by siRNAs. Furthermore, our results showed that the combination of siRNAs targeting various regions could inhibit HBV replication and antigen expression in a more efficient way than the use of single siRNA at the same final concentration. No apoptotic change was observed in the cell after siRNA treatment.

CONCLUSIONOur results demonstrated that siRNAs exerted robust and specific inhibition on HBV replication and antigen expression in a cell culture system and combination of siRNAs targeting different regions exhibited more potency.

Apoptosis ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Line, Tumor ; DNA, Viral ; biosynthesis ; Flow Cytometry ; Gene Expression Regulation, Viral ; genetics ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; metabolism ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; metabolism ; Hepatitis B virus ; genetics ; physiology ; Humans ; RNA, Small Interfering ; genetics ; metabolism ; Virus Replication ; genetics

Tumor angiogenesis is a complicated process in which VEGF and the members of Ang family have been proposed to play an important role. Ang family is the only vascular growth factor family including activators and inhibitors. They can all bind with specific tyrosine kinase receptor Tie-2 and participate in angiogenesis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is secreted by tumor cells and coordinates with Ang to promote angiogenesis. Further research on the structure and functional mechanism of VEGF and Ang will contribute to develop a new type of antiangiogenesis medicine, which might have good perspect in clinical practice. In this paper, the structure and action mechanism of Ang family and its receptor Tie-2, the application of Ang family and Tie in tumor therapy, and the synergic mechanism between Ang and VEGF were summarized.
Angiogenesis Inhibitors ; pharmacology ; Angiopoietin-2 ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Drug Synergism ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; blood supply ; Neovascularization, Pathologic ; prevention & control ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors ; pharmacology