This study examined the potential antilithic effects of a traditional Chinese medicine Urtica dentata Hand (UDH) in experimental rats and screened the optimal extract of UDH as a possible therapeutic agent for kidney stones. The rat model of urinary calcium oxalate stones was induced by intragastric (i.g.) administration of 2 mL of 1.25% ethylene glycol (EG) and 1% ammonium chloride (AC) for 28 days and was confirmed by Color Doppler ultrasound imaging. The rats in different experimental groups were then intragastrically given petroleum ether extract (PEE), N-butanol extract (NBE), aqueous extract (AqE) of UDH, Jieshitong (positive control drug), and saline, respectively. Treatment with NBE significantly reduced the elevated levels of urinary calcium, uric acid, phosphate, as well as increased urinary output. Accordingly, the increased calcium, oxalate levels and the number of calcium oxalate crystals deposits were remarkably reverted in the renal tissue of NBE-treated rats. In addition, NBE also prevented the impairment of renal function to decrease the contents of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine. Taken together, these data suggest that NBE of UDH has a beneficial effect on calcium oxalate urinary stones in rats by flushing the stones out and protecting renal function.

To facilitate noninvasive diagnosis of anemia, high-performance and portable near infrared (NIR) spectrometer for human blood constituents was designed and fabricated based on linear variable filter (LVF).Meanwhile, the performance of support vector regression (SVR) model for quantitative analysis of human hemoglobin (Hb) was investigated.Spectral data were collected noninvasively from 100 volunteers by self-designed LVF-NIR spectrometer, then divided into calibration set, validation set 1 and 2.To establish a robust SVR model, grid search method was applied to optimize the penalty parameter and kernel function parameter c=5.28, g=0.33.Then, Hb levels in the validation 1 and 2 sets were quantitatively analyzed.The results showed that the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were 10.20 g/L and 10.85 g/L, respectively, and the relative RMSEP (R-RMSEP) were 6.85% and 7.48%, respectively.The results indicated that the SVR model had high prediction accuracy to Hb level and adaptability to different samples, and could satisfy the requirements of clinical measurement.Based on the SVR algorithm, the self-designed LVF-NIR spectrometer has a wide application prospect in the field of non-invasive anemia diagnosis.

The aim of this study is to investigate the therapeutic effect of RegIII-proinsulin-pBudCE4.1 plasmid on streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetes mellitus and its underlying mechanisms. The model of type 1 diabetes mellitus was established by intraperitoneal injections of STZ (40 mg kg(-1)) to Balb/c mice for five consecutive days. Then, ten type 1 diabetic mice were intramuscularly injected with 100 microg RegIII-proinsulin-pBudCE4.1 plasmid for 4 weeks (one time/week) and the blood glucose levels were monitored every week; whereas another ten diabetic mice served as negative control group were injected with pBudCE4.1 vector at the same dose. Normal control and model control mice were treated with normal saline at identical volume under the same way. Western blotting, MTT assay, ELISA, HE staining and Tunel assay were applied to explore the underlying mechanisms. Results showed that RegIII-proinsulin-pBudCE4.1 plasmid ameliorated the hyperglycemia symptoms in diabetic mouse remarkably. It induced an immunological tolerance state in type 1 diabetic mice by inhibiting the proliferation of splenic lymphocytes and recovering Th1/Th2 balance evidenced by MTT and ELISA analysis. Furthermore, it elevated insulin concentration in the serum of type 1 diabetic mice and promoted the regeneration of beta cells supported by the results of HE staining and Tunel assay. In conclusion, RegIII-proinsulin-pBudCE4.1 plasmid possesses powerful anti-diabetic ability, which may be involved in the inducing of immunological tolerance and enhancing beta cells recovery.

ABSTRACT:To improve the ability of correct classification and identification of rodents in different kinds of foci of zoonosis in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China ,rodents samples from different habitats of Ningxia were collected .Sequences of COI gene were amplified and sequenced from 154 samples .Based on these sequences ,the pairwise genetic distance were calcu‐lated ,and a Neighbor Joining tree were constructed .According to the NJ tree ,20 clusters with high bootstrap support were found from 19 morphological species .The striped dwarf hamsters were divided into two clusters ,which suggested that there were two cryptic species with stripe on the back .The pika from Helan Mountain showed close relationship with Ochotona pal‐lasi ,and the genetic distance was as low as 3 .6% .Results show that DNA barcodes could be used to accurately identify speci‐mens of rodents and correct morphological identification errors .It could discover appearance indistinguishable implied species and could better study the classification and evolution of rodents .

Objective To evaluate the accuracy and value of measurement of left ventricular systolic function in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients with stereo three-dimensional echocardiography (S3 DE). Methods End-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV),stroke volume(SV) and ejection fraction(EF) of the left ventricle were measured with M-mode echocardiography(ME),two-dimensional echocardiography(2DE) and S3DE in DCM patientsC20 cases). HCM patients(20 cases),and normal controls(20 cases). The different results among the three groups or three methods were analyzed. Results (①In all the three groups,the results of EDV,ESV,and SV obtained with ME were significantly higher than those obtained with S3DE( P <0. 01). Only in normal group( P <0. 01) and HCM group ( P <0. 05) ,the results of EF obtained with ME and 2DE were significantly higher than that obtained with S3DE. ②By S3DE,compared with normal group,EDV,ESV were increased and EF was decreased obviously in DCM group (all P <0. 01); while in HCM group, only SV was significantly higher( P < 0. 01). ③EDV, ESV, and EF measured by S3DE were correlated and fit well with those measured by 2DE(r = 0.778,0.876, 0.932;R2 =0.605,0.767,0.869;all P <0.01). ④Within HCM group,excluding the impact of heart rate,cardiac output (CO) was highly correlated with SV( r = 0. 987,P < 0. 01). Conclusions S3DE can real-time display the stereo structure of the heart, and accurately and reliably assess the left ventricular systolic function, with a priority over traditional ME and 2DE methods. EDV,ESV, and EF are still effective indicators for the clinical assessment of left ventricular systolic function. SV obtained with S3DE will be expected to be the more sensitive and accurate value in assessing left ventricular systolic function in patients with early-stage cardiomyopathy.

Objective:To characterize the clinical and epidemiological changes, treatments, and prognoses of primary esophageal small cell carcinoma (PESC). Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted using the clinical epidemiology data of 529 PESC patients se-lected from the clinical databases of 500,000 esophageal and gastric cardiac carcinomas of the Henan Key Laboratory for Esophageal Cancer Research (1992-2015). Among these patients, 241 cases were included in the survival analysis. The five-year survival rate was calculated using Kaplan-Meier analysis, and the differences in survival rates were compared using the Log-rank analysis model. Re-sults:All 529 PESC cases were analyzed, which accounted for 0.2%of esophageal cancers diagnosed in the same period. The incidence of PESC increased annually (R2=0.574). The survival rates for 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year of 241 PESC patients were 55%, 40%, 29%, and 9%, respectively, and the median survival time was 21.9 months. On the basis of the VALSG criteria of lung small cell carcinoma, a statisti-cal difference was observed in the overall survival rates for limited and extensive diseases (P=0.003), with the median survival time of 24.3 and 17.5 months, respectively. Furthermore, significant differences were observed on survival with various treatment modalities (P=0.004). The median survival time of PESC patients treated with combined surgery and radiochemotherapies (28.8 months) was lon-ger than those with either chemotherapy (17.8 months, P=0.015) or chemoradiotherapy (14.5 months, P=0.004). In limited disease pa-tients, the median survival time was longer in patients treated with surgery (27.7 months) than in those without surgery (16.2 months, P=0.007). Notably, the biopsy diagnosis before surgery for PESC was only 40.8%. Conclusion:PESC is a rare malignant carcinoma with increasing incidence. PESC presents poor prognosis, and the survival rate can be improved through combined therapies based on sur-gery. A high misdiagnosis rate for PESC is observed before surgery with biopsy.

Objective To study the safety and efficacy of colistin monotherapy versus combination therapy against carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacteria infection.Methods CNKI, Wanfang database , PubMed, Embase and Cochrane library were systematically searched.Randomized controlled trials about colistin monotherapy versus combination therapy against carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacteria infection were enrolled.The Cochrane Reviewers′Handbook 5.2 was employed to evaluate the quality of the enrolled studies. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality.The secondary outcomes included infection-related mortality, clinical response, bacterial clearance, nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity.Meta-analysis was conducted by RevMan 5.3 software.Results Seven articles containing 859 patients were finally included.There were no significantly statistical differences in all-cause mortality rate (relative risk [RR]＝1.07, 95%CI:0.93-1.24, P＞0.05), infection-related mortality rate (RR＝1.35, 95%CI:0.98-1.87, P＞0.05), bacterial clearance rate (RR＝0.85, 95%CI:0.71-1.02, P＝0.08), hepatotoxicity development rate (RR＝0.68, 95%CI:0.41-1.13, P＝0.14), and nephrotoxicity development rate (RR＝1.01, 95%CI:0.85-1.22, P＞0.05) between colistin monotherapy and combination therapy.The clinical response rate was higher in combination therapy than that in colistin monotherapy ( RR ＝0.81, 95%CI:0.66 -0.98, P ＝0.03).In the subgroup analysis, no statistical differences were found in all-cause mortality rate between colistin monotherapy and combination therapy for carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infection (RR＝1.00, 95%CI:0.86-1.12, P＞0.05). The dosage of colistin with or without loading dose was not associated with the treatment response .Conclusions Although colistin-based combination therapy has a better clinical response against carbapenem -resistant bacteria infection, especially for Acinetobacter baumannii infection, the mortality rate dose not decline compared to colistin monotherapy.Large-scale randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate the effect in the future.

Objective To investigate the association of distinct myositis specific autoantibodies (MSAs) with long-term survival of patients with polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM).Methods We analyzed the clinical data and outcome of patients with PM and DM who were hospita-lized in the department of rheumatology of China-Japan Friendship hospital from 1994 to 2015,and evaluated the impact of MSAs on the prognosis of patients.Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to identify the prognostic risk factors for PM/DM patients.Results A total of 383 PM/DM patients were followed up for 1-333 months.Cumulative survival and 10-year survival rate of all patients were 68.6％ and 76.2％,respectively.The survival rate of 80.4％ and 77.1％ at 3 and 5 years in patients with MSAs,which were lower than those of patients with-out MSAs,who had the survival rate of 90.1％ and 87.4％ at 3 and 5 years,respectively(x2=3.90 and 3.98,P＜0.05).There was significant difference for long-term survival in all MSAs positive groups (x2=40.654,P=0.000).Anti-MDA5 positive patients who had the 10-year survival rate of 28.7％ had the worst prognosis,while anti-HMGCR positive patients who had the l0-year survival rate of 100％ had the best outcome in all groups.Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that independent risk factors associated with the long-term survival of patients were age of onset,complicated with malignancies,dysphagia,rapidly progress interstitial lung disease,antiMDA5 antibody positive,increased serum aspartate transferase and C reaction protein.Conclusion MSAs are strongly associated with the prognosis of patients with PM/DM.Patients with MSAs has worse 5-year overall survival than those without MSAs,which indicates that screening MSAs and aggressive treatment for PM/DM patients at very early stage of disease may improve the outcome.

Objective To investigate the basic clinical features in 371 cases of colorectal polyps and its relationship with fecal occult blood and carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA).Methods The retrospective analysis was performed on 371 inpatients with colo-rectal polyps.The relationship among gender,number of polyps and polyps anatomical site in different ages of patients was investi-gated,and the relationship between fecal occult blood and CEA with polyp canceration was analyzed by 1.5?3.0 years follow-up. Results Among 371 cases of colorectal polyps,the female patients were gradually increased and single polyp was gradually de-creased along with the age increase;due to different ages,there was the statistically significant difference in the polyp locations (χ2 =9.759,P=0.045);the distribution difference of the patients with polyp canceration among three age groups was statistically significant(χ2 =5.138,4.107,13.153,P<0.05).The cases of fecal occult blood positive and CEA abnormal increase were gradual-ly increased with age increasing(χ2 =15.544,11.959,P<0.01);with the number of polyps increasing,the cases of fecal occult blood positive showed the increasing trend(χ2 =14.043,P=0.001);the canceration rate in colorectal polyp cases of fecal occult blood positive and CEA abnormal increase was significantly higher than that in the cases of fecal occult blood negative and CEA normal range(χ2 =40.165,43.249,all of P< 0.001).Conclusion The fecal occult blood test and CEA detection results have a certain significance to the follow up for preventing colorectal polyps canceration.

In order to study the significance of CD276 and CD133 in the development and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC),the expression of CD276 and CD133 was detected by immunohistochemistry in CRC and precancerous lesions.The results showed that the intensity of CD276 and CD133 in CRC samples was higher than that in adenoma group and non-adenoma group.CD276 and CD133 single and double positive expression were significantly correlated with CRC lymph node metastasis,distant metastasis and survival.CD276 and CD133 are significantly correlated to the development and progression of CRC and associated with poor prognosis.