BACKGROUND: It is necessary to keep a good cervical curvature for improving nerve symptom in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). It is verified that cervical anterior plate internal fixation implant is effective to restore the physiological curvature of cervical vertebra.OBJECTIVE: To assess the physiological lordosis of cervical vertebra in CSM patients after cervical anterior plate internal fixation implantation.DESIGN: Observational study.SETTING: First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University.PARTICIpANTS: Totally 72 CSM patients were enrolled at Department of Orthopaedics, First Affiliated Hospital,Nanchang University from February 2003 to January 2006, including 46 males and 26 females, aged 45-70 years,averagely 54 years, with the history of 2-6 years. Inclusive criteria included ①cervical spinal cord compression shown in MRI, and ②using autogenous iliac bone. The experiment was approved by Hospital Ethics Committee, and all patients signed the informed consent. Cervical anterior plate was Orion locking plate offered by Shufamo Company. There were single segmental discectomy group (n =32) and two-level segmental discectomy group (n =40) according to experimental requirement.METHODS: ①Anterior decompression plus autogenous iliac bone implant plus titanium plate internal fixation were utilized.The patients were in supine position; shoulder and back were blocked up; neck backward, and endotracheal tube was done under general anesthesia. Transverse or oblique incision was made at right anterior neck. Discectomy decompression was performed with Caspar vertebra ecarteur. Three-dimensional autogenous iliac bone was implanted in decompressed intervertebral space. Immediate stability was obtained after Orion locking titanium plate was fixed, with placement drainage, and then the incision was sutured. ②Postoperative daily activities were conducted with cervical gear, which was removed 8 weeks later. ③Lateral cervical vertebrae X-rays were taken before operation, immediately after operation, 6 and 12 months after operation. Lordosis of the fusion segment was measured with Cobb's angle, and lordosis of cervical vertebra was assessed with D value. These data were analysed by statistic software. ④Bone fusion of the patients was followed up for 12 months after operation. Vertebral fusion standards included no abnormity between two spinous processes of the fusion segment, no lucency between implant and vertebra, as well as bone trabecula across the interface between implant bone and vertebra. ⑤Biocompatibility between material and host was observed during follow-up.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ①Changes of Cobb's angle and D value at different time points before and after operation,and ②Bone fusion and rejection were followed up.RESULTS: Totally 72 patients were involved in the result analysis. ①Cobb's angle was larger and D value was higher immediately after operation, 6 and 12 months after operation than those before operation in the single segmental discectomy group and the two-level segmental discectomy group (P＜0.05). ②Findings of 12-month follow-up showed that bone fusion appeared in all patients of the two groups. ③No significant rejection was found after titanium plate internal fixation implantation. It was found that material and host had a good biocompatibility.CONCLUSION: It is satisfactory to restore physiological lordosis of cervical spine by using cervical anterior plate internal fixation plus autogenous iliac bone for CSM.

Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Diarrhea ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mouth ; Young Adult

Background and purpose:As a tumor suppressor gene, ribosomal S6 kinase 4 (RSK4) plays important roles in inhibiting cell proliferation, migration and inducing cell apoptosis. However, the proteins interacting with RSK4 are still unknown. This study aimed to screen proteins interacting with RSK4 in breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 by lfag-tag affnity puriifcation and LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry).Methods:The pcDNA3.1/EGFP-RSK4-Flag eukaryotic expression vector was constructed by inserting full lengthRSK4 gene into vector pcDNA3.1/EGFP-Flag. And then the recombinant plasmids were transferred into MDA-MB-231 cells. Real-timelfuorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RTFQ-PCR) and Western blot were used to detect the expression of RSK4 in MDA-MB-231 cells. Affnity puriifcation and LC-MS/MS were applied to screen proteins interacting with RSK4, and the related action mechanism of RSK4 with its interacted proteins was detected based on bioinformatics gene ontology (GO) and ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA).Results:Twenty-four proteins, such as serine/threonine-pro-tein kinase 38 (STK38)/serine/threonine-protein kinase 38-like (STK38L), MOB kinase activator 2 (MOB2) and protein arginineN-methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), were successfully identiifed by Flag-tag affnity puriifcation followed by LC-MS/MS analysis, which probably interacted with RSK4. Bioinformatics analysis of the identiifed proteins suggested the proteins interacting with RSK4 were involved in diverse biological pathways, such as apoptosis and cell migration. Conclusion:According to bioinformatics results of proteins interacting with RSK4 identiifed by affnity puriifcation and LC-MS/MS, biological networks of RSK4 are involved in apoptosis and migration in breast cancer cells.

Semisupervisedmakesfulluseoflargeamountsofunlabeledsamplestomakeuptheinsufficiency of labeled samples. Since it is difficult to obtain a large number of accurate labeled samples and it is a good way for modeling by using a small amount of labeled samples or a large number of inaccurate samples, we proposed a new method named as semi-supervised partial least squares ( SS-PLS) to optimize model based on semi supervised learning. We used 211 samples of tobacco near infrared spectrum and sensory evaluation for modeling and used SS-PLS method to optimize tobacco sensory evaluation model. In the optimized model, the coefficient of determination ( R2 ) can reach up to 90%, the ratio of performance to deviation ( RPD) can reach up to 3 . 0 , and the standard error of cross validation and the standard error of prediction ( SECV and SEP) are below 1. 0. We divided the original sensory evaluation and SS-PLS optimized data into three grades of excellent, medium and poor in accordance with the fixed threshold, the result using projection model of based on principal component and Fisher criterion ( PPF ) shows that the classification of SS-PLS optimized data is better than the original sensory evaluation data. The SS-PLS method can solve the data representation problem of using small sample set for modeling and provides a new chemometrics method for near infrared spectroscopy modeling in case of obtaining a large number of accurately labeled samples is difficult.

Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Scalp ; Young Adult

To screen and evaluate protein biomarkers for the detection of gliomas (Astrocytoma grade I-IV) from healthy individuals and gliomas from brain benign tumors by using surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) coupled with an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm. SELDI-TOF-MS protein fingerprinting of serum from 105 brain tumor patients and healthy individuals, included 28 patients with glioma (Astrocytoma I-IV), 37 patients with brain benign tumor, and 40 age-matched healthy individuals. Two thirds of the total samples of every compared pair as training set were used to set up discriminating patterns, and one third of total samples of every compared pair as test set were used to cross-validate; simultaneously, discriminate-cluster analysis derived SPSS 10.0 software was used to compare Astrocytoma grade I-II with grade III-IV ones. An accuracy of 95.7%, sensitivity of 88.9%, specificity of 100%, positive predictive value of 90% and negative predictive value of 100% were obtained in a blinded test set comparing gliomas patients with healthy individuals; an accuracy of 86.4%, sensitivity of 88.9%, specificity of 84.6%, positive predictive value of 90% and negative predictive value of 85.7% were obtained when patient's gliomas was compared with benign brain tumor. Total accuracy of 85.7%, accuracy of grade I-II Astrocytoma was 86.7%, accuracy of III-IV Astrocytoma was 84.6% were obtained when grade I-II Astrocytoma was compared with grade III-IV ones (discriminant analysis). SELDI-TOF-MS combined with bioinformatics tools, could greatly facilitate the discovery of better biomarkers. The high sensitivity and specificity achieved by the use of selected biomarkers showed great potential application for the discrimination of gliomas patients from healthy individuals and gliomas from brain benign tumors.
Adult ; Aged ; Algorithms ; Artificial Intelligence ; Astrocytoma ; blood ; classification ; diagnosis ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; blood ; Brain Neoplasms ; blood ; classification ; diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Proteins ; blood ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Peptide Mapping ; methods ; Protein Array Analysis ; methods ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization ; methods

OBJECTIVETo investigate the pathogenic infection and its drug resistance in expressed prostatic secretion (EPS) and its correlation with serum PSA, and provide some evidence for the systematic and normalized diagnosis and treatment of prostatitis.

METHODSThree EPS swabs were collected from each of the 320 prostatis patients following measurement of the serum PSA level, 1 for bacterial culture and identification, 1 for detection of Mycoplasma and drug sensitivity, and the other for examination of Chlamydia trachomatis antigen by colloidal gold immunoblot.

RESULTSTotally 244 strains were isolated from the 320 EPS samples, including 188 bacterial strains (dominated by Staphylococcus and sensitive to vancomycin or linezolid) and 44 Mycoplasma and Chlamydia strains (mainly Ureaplasma urealyticum and susceptible to josamycin or doxycycline). The serum PSA level was significantly higher in the pathogen-positive than in the pathogen-negative group ([6.98 +/- 0.56] microg/L vs [2.32 +/- 0.12] microg/L, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONProstatitis may lead to the elevation of the serum PSA level and the pathogens involved vary in their resistance to different antibacterial spectrums. Therefore, appropriate and individualized antibiotic therapy should be selected according to etiological diagnosis and the results of drug sensitivity test.

Adult ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prostate ; microbiology ; secretion ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; blood ; Prostatitis ; blood ; microbiology ; Young Adult

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of tuina manipulations in treating different types of tic disorders (TD). Methods: Eligible TD patients were classified into three types, transient tic disorders (TTD), chronic multiple tic disorders (CMTD) and Tourette syndrome (TS), according to their disease duration and severity. The three types of children were treated with the same tuina manipulations. Changes in the Yale global tic severity scale (YGTSS) score, effective rate for tic, and cervical spine imaging examination results (including asymmetry of the lateral atlanto-dental interval, broadened anterior atlanto-dental interval, C2 spinous process deviation, occipito-atlanto-axial flexion/ extension instability) were observed after 1-month and 3-month treatments respectively. Results: The YGTSS score changed significantly after 1-month and 3-month treatments compared with that before treatment (both P<0.01); the effective rate for TD was 46.6％ and 86.7％ respectively after 1-month and 3-month treatments; there were significant differences comparing the effective rate for tic between different types of TD after 1-month and 3-month treatments (all P<0.05); comparing the effective rate for tic after 1-month treatment with that after 3-month treatment for the same type, the intra-group differences were statistically significant [TTD group (P<0.01), CMTD group (P<0.01), TS group (P<0.05)]; the abnormal parameter rates in neck imaging examination after 3-month treatment were significantly different from those before treatment (all P<0.01). Conclusion: Tuina manipulation is effective for TTD, CMTD and TS. It can correct the abnormal alterations of patients' cervical vertebrae, and its efficacy for TTD is most significant.

Objective To analyze the influence of age on the diagnosis of acute heart failure (AHF) with amino terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT‐proBNP) ,and to explore the best cut‐off value of NT‐proBNP in the diagnosis of AHF .Methods Totally 457 inpatients suspected with AHF obtained a blood NT‐proBNP measurement within 24 hours when in charged ,including 194 patients with AHF .Patients were divided into three groups according to their age :≤50 years ,>50-70 years and >70 years . The relationship between NT‐proBNPand AHF was analyzed .The diagnostic value of NT‐proBNP was evaluated for AHF in differ‐ent age groups .Results The median NT‐proBNP levels of AHF in all age groups were significantly higher than those without (P<0 .01) .AUC of NT‐proBNP for AHF in ≤50 years ,>50-70 years and >70 years groups were 0 .95 ,0 .91 ,0 .88 ,the best diagnos‐tic cut‐off points were 1 100 ,1 800 ,3 000 pg/mL ,respectively .The diagnostic specificity was 88% ,76% and 73% ,respectively .O‐verall ,the specificity of NT‐proBNP cut‐off values for age group was higher than non‐age groups .Conclusion NT‐proBNP has a good value in the diagnosis of AHF in patients with different ages .According to the age group ,the different NT‐proBNP cut‐off values can be used to improve the specificity of diagnosis .

A total of 209 type 2 diabetic patients were divided into three groups:without,with mild to moderate,or severe diabetic lower extremity arterial disease based on the ankle brachial index value.60 healthy subjects were used as a control group.Retinol binding protein4 (RBP4),cystatin C,and biochemical parameters were determined in all subjects.The results showed that RBP4 and cystatin C levels were progressively raised with the increasing severity of lower extremity arterial disease in various groups,being significantly higher in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with mild to moderate and severe arterial disease compared with control group (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).RBP4 and cystatin C levels in groups with lower extremity arterial disease were significantly higher than those in the group without arterial disease (P＜0.01).Pearson correlation analysis showed that RBP4 level was positively correlated with total cholesterol,triglyceride,low density lipoprotein-cholesterol,fasting serum insulin,body mass index,cystatin C etc while negatively correlated with high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).Logistic regression analysis showed that serum RBP4 and cystatin C were significantly associated with lower extremity arterial disease in type 2 diabetes mellitus.