Objective To investigate the effect oflevecamitine on nutrition,microinflammation status in ma-intenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. Methods Forty two MHD patients were selected, who had undergone he-modialysis for at least two months before the study. One gram of levoeamitine was injecfed to the patients at the end of each dialysis treatment for six months. The parameters of inflammation stress were studied. Results After treatment with levocarnitine for six months, the average levels of dry body weight decreased markedly. ( P<0.05 ), The aver-age serum levels of C2reaetive protein (CRP),interleuldn26 (IL26) ,tumor necrosis factor2α(TNF2α), (P<0.01 ). Difference was not significant between serum lipid parameters before and after the treatment. Conclusion Intravenous supplement with levocamitine in MHD patients, appears to be associated with an improvement of nutrition and mieroinflammation status.

Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness of exfoliative cytology in chronic oral ulcers diagnosis.Methods To examined 107 cases of chronic oral ulcers which were difficult to determine the nature of the ulcer in exfoliaticve cytology,and compared postoperative histopathological results or clinical results,and made the final diagnosis with cytology.Results The qualitative diagnostic accuracy of cytology was 95.3％.The sensitivity and specificity for benign and malignant lesions was 94.6％ and 100％,respectively.False positive rate was 0,and false negative rate was 5.4％,and the coincidence rate of cytological examination with the final pathology was 67.0％.Conclusion Exfoliative cytology has important reference value in chronic oral ulcer diagnosis.It is characterized by simple,rapid procedure and less trauma.Doctors can develop next treatment plan based on the results of exfoliative cytology.

Objective: To explore the pattem of lymphatic metastasis and influencing factors of thoracic esophageal carcinoma. Methods: We reviewed the pathological specimens from 229 esophageal carcinoma patients who underwent radical esophagectomy with two-field lymphadenectomy. A total of 2,458 lymph nodes were dissected. We analyzed the lymph node metastasis pattern of the primary tumor in different loca-tions and the corresponding influencing factors such as pathological T stage, tumor length, pathological mor-phology and tumor differentiation. Results: Lymph node metastasis rates were 44.5% (102/229) and 10.5% (258/2458), respectively. For patients with upper thoracic esophageal carcinomas, lymphatic metastasis rates in the superior mediastinum, the middle mediastinum, the inferior mediastinum and the abdominal cavity were 19.0%, 6.7%, 9.8% and 12.2%, respectively. For patients with middle thoracic esophageal carcinomas, the rates were 26.1%, 7.4%, 11.8% and 11.9%, respectively. For patietns with lower thoracic esophageal carcino-mas, the rates were 0, 1.6%, 5.3%, and 10.0%, respectively. Lymphatic metastasis rate in T_1, T_2, T_3, T_4, stage cancer were 28.6%, 43.8%, 47.6%, and 31.3%, respectively; the rate of positive lymph nodes were 7.9%, 10.8%, 10.7%, and 10.8%, respectively, with no significant differences among the four stages (x~2=2.733, P=0.435 and x~2=0.686, P=0.876). Lymphatic metastasis rate and rate of positive lymph nodes in patients with tu-mor ≤3cm, 3 to 5cm, and >5cm were 45.2% and 43.4%, 46.2% and 9.1%, and 11.6% and 11.7%, respective-ly, with no significant differences (x~2=0.094, P=0.954 and x~2=3.933, P=0.140). Lymphatic metastasis ratios of the pathological morphology in medullary, ulcerative, mushroom and stenotic types were 14.0%, 9.6%, 4.3% and 18.3%, respectively (x~2=19.292, P=0.000). Lymphatic metastasis rate and rate of positive lymph nodes of squamous cell carcinoma of moderately and poorly differentiation were 42.5%, 75.0% and 9.5%, 18.6%, re-spectively (x~2=4.852, P=0.028 and x~2=11.323, P=0.001). Patients with squamous cell carcinoma of poorly dif-ferentiation had a higher rate of lymph node metastasis. Conclusion: Lymphatic metastasis of esophageal car-cinoma metastasize widely even if in early T stage. Pathological morphology and tumor differentiation are re-lating facors of lymph node metastasis of thoracic esophageal carcinoma.

Objective To analyze the prognosis of 225 patients according with clinical staging of esophageal carcinoma treated with non-surgical methods, and investigate the practicality and predictive value of the clinical staging. Methods From March 2001 to July 2007, 225 patients with esophageal carcinoma received 3DCRT treatment. The prescribed doses were ranged from 5000 -7000 cGy with the median dose of 6400 cGy, 25 patients received accelerative radiation of 300 cGy per fraction after conventional radiotherapy of 3000 -4000 cGy, 57 patients received concurrent chemotherapy with or without consolidation chemotherapy. All the patients were divided into subgroups of different T stages, different N stages and different TNM stages. Local control rates, survival rates were observed and Cox regression analysis were performed to search valuable prognostic factors. Results The following-up rate was 99. 6%. The 3-and 5-years following-up number were 116 and 33 patients, respectively. The 1 -,3-,and 5-year local control rates were 77. 2% ,48.2% and 34. 5%, respectively. The 1-,3-,and 5-year overall survival rates were 68.4% ,33.7% and 20. 8%, respectively. The median survival time was 20 months. There were significant difference between survival curves for T1-4 stages, N0-2 stages and Ⅰ - Ⅲ stages with x2 value of 13.07,20. 49 and 17.16, with P value of 0. 004,0. 000 and 0. 000, respectively. For the group of stage Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ, the 1-,3-,and 5-year survival rates were 89.4% ,56. 1% ,and 37.8% ;69.6% ,32. 4% ,and 18.0%and 47. 2%, 19. 5%, and 13. 0%, respectively. According to the result of Cox regression analysis, the tumor length of CT scan, clinical N stage, short term restlt were most valuable predictive factors.Conclusions The clinical staging of esophageal carcinoma treated with non-surgical methods could predict the prognosis accurately, clinical N stage may have more closely association with prognosis, however, some details of the staging program need more consummate.

0.05). Significant difference in diffused carbon monoxide percentage and change of heart rates before and after stair climbing test was found in LPF group (P0.05).Conclusions Patients of lung cancer intolerable for lobectomy by static pulmonary function test can be screened by stair climbing test before surgical operation,which can make some of them regain opportunity of surgical operation.

Microarray has become a popular biotechnology in biological and medical research.However, systematic and stochastic variabilities in microarray data are expected and unavoidable, resulting in the problem that the raw measurements have inherent "noise" within microarray experiments. Currently, logarithmic ratios are usually analyzed by various clustering methods directly, which may introduce bias interpretation in identifying groups of genes or samples. In this paper, a statistical method based on mixed model approaches was proposed for microarray data cluster analysis. The underlying rationale of this method is to partition the observed total gene expression level into various variations caused by different factors using an ANOVA model, and to predict the differential effects of G V (gene by variety)interaction using the adjusted unbiased prediction (AUP) method. The predicted G V interaction effects can then be used as the inputs of cluster analysis. We illustrated the application of our method with a gene expression dataset and elucidated the utility of our approach using an external validation.

Objective To compare the prevalence of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in young and middle-aged patients with cryptogenic ischemic stroke (CS) and in normal population.Methods The casecontrol study included consecutive 318 young and middle-aged patients with CS and 336 normal control subjects with matched age and sex for group comparisons.Stroke risk factors including hypertension,diabetes mellitus,hyperlipidemia,ischemic heart disease,atrial fibrillation,carotid atherosclerosis plagues and smoking,etc.were studied.Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) were performed to detect the presence of PFO.The prevalence of PFO and difference of risk factor levels between the groups was compared.Then the odds ratios (OR) of a PFO was estimated in CS patients versus control subjects.Results The prevalence of PFO was significant higher in patients with CS than in control subjects (145/318,45.6 ％ versus 46/336,13.7％,P ＜0.001).The odds ratio(OR) for PFO in CS for patients versus control subjects was 5.3 (confidence interval,3.6 to 7.8).The mean size of PFO was larger in stroke group than that in control group (P ＜ 0.001).There were no significant differences in levels of other stroke risk factors between two groups.Conclusions PFO may play an important role in etiology of CS in young and middleaged adults.Larger and longer PFOs may be more concomitant with ischemic attacks.More efforts should be employed in patients with CS to detect PFO for further treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the antitumor activities of kushen (Sophora flavescens) flavonoids (KS-Fs) in vivo and in vitro. METHODS: Cell proliferation was assayed by using methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) method. H22 hepatocellular carcinoma and S180 sarcoma were induced in ICR mice. Lewis lung carcinoma was induced in C57BL/6 mice. H460 and Eca-109 tumor were induced in Balb/c nude mice by injecting 5x10(5) or 5x10(6) tumor cells in the right flank, respectively. RESULTS: KS-Fs could inhibit the growth of a variety of human tumor cell lines (A549, SPC-A-1, NCI-H460, etc.) in vitro. The antitumor efficacies were confirmed in the mice models of H22, S180 and Lewis lung tumors and the nude mice models of human H460 and Eca-109 xenografted tumors. The oral or intravenous maximum tolerated dose of KS-Fs was more than 2.8 g/kg or 750 mg/kg respectively, far more than the oral medial lethal dose of kushen alkaloids (< or = 1.18 g/kg). No adverse reactions were observed. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that KS-Fs or kurarinone may be developed as a novel antitumor agent.

Objective To observe the effects of intermittent hypoxic preconditioning on the expression of apoptosis-related Bcl-2 and Bax protein after 70％ hepatectomy combined with ischemia-reperfusion injury.Methods A total of fifty-four SD rats were randomly divided into three groups (n =18).Partial hepatectomy hroup (PH Group):Rats underwent the left and middle lobectomy of liver(70％ hepatectomy).Ischemia reperfusion group (IR group):The left and middle lobes of liver were resected during the occlusion of the hepatoduodenal ligament for 20 minutes.Residual liver underwent the process of ischemia-reperfusion.Intermittent hypoxia preconditioning group (IHP group):rats were exposed to hypoxic environment of 10％ oxygen for 1 h/d.After 7 consecutive days,the left and middle lobes of liver were resected under the portal triad clamping.At 12,24 and 48 hours after the operation,the rats were killed and detected.The serum levels of ALT and AST were determined by automatic biochemical analyzer.The expression of Bcl-2 and Bax protein in liver tissue were measured by immunohistochemistry.Results At each time point after surgery,the serum levels of ALT and AST in IR group and IHP group were higher than that of PH group,and IHP group were lower than in IR group.Compared with IR group,the expression of Bcl2 protein significantly increased and Bax protein expression significantly decreased in IHP group.All these differences were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Intermittent hypoxic preconditioning might protect residual liver against ischemia reperfusion injury,through increasing the expression of Bcl-2 protein and reducing the expression of Bcl-2 protein to decrease liver cell apoptosis.

Objective To investigate the effects of intermittent hypoxic preconditioning on residual liver regeneration after parital hepatectomy in rats.Methods Fifty-four Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (each group contained eighteen animals):sham operation group (SO group),parital hepatectomy group (PH group)and intermittent hypoxic preconditioning group (IHP group).The rats in PH group underwent the left and middle lobectomy of liver(70％ hepatectomy).The rats in IHP group were exposed to hypoxic environment of 10％ oxygen for 1 h/d.And after a week,the rats underwent parital hepatectomy.Six rats in each group were sacrificed respectively on postoperative day 1,3 and 5 (POD 1,3 and 5).The resected liver and the regenerated liver were weighed to calculate liver regeneration degree and regeneration index.The values of alaninea minotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in the inferior vena venous blood were examined by automatic biochemical analyzer.The positive ratio of hepatocellular proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in the residual liver was investigated immunohistochemically.Results The degree and index of liver regeneration in IHP group were respectively higher than those in PH group on POD 1 and 3(P ＜0.05),but there were no statistical differences between the two groups on POD 5.The levels of ALT and AST in PH and IHP group began to decline after surgery,but they remined higher than those in SO group.Moreover,the ALT and AST levels in IHP group were significantly lower than those in PH group on POD 1 (P ＜0.05).The positive ratios of hepatocellular PCNA were respectively higher than those in SO and PH group on POD 1,3 and 5 (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions To some extent,preoperative intermittent hypoxic preconditioning could prevent hepatocellular damage after parital hepatectomy,what is more,it also could promote the remnant liver regeneration.But the mechanism still needs to be studied furter.