Commercialization of the doctors sector and lawyers sector, and that of medical services, sharp rise of medical disputes and its impact on healthcare services have grown into major challenges for the healthcare system in the United States where litigation is the legal way out of medical disputes at large.Anglo-American law system depends heavily on precedence as the criteria and the majority of such disputes trials are held in state courts, there is also a complete system of laws and decrees on medical disputes on the federation level.In an effort to handle medical disputes that are rising sharply in a piling-up amount, American lawyers, social organizations of arbitration and medicine, and many state courts are seeking alternative dispute resolution as a better way out for medical dispute mediation and resolution.Given the gaps between China and USA in social systems, legal systems, ,economic development, cultural background, healthcare systems and heahhcare security systems, these experiences will prove their value of reference for medical disputes resolution in China.

Objective To investigate the immunoregulatory effects of immunonutrient ?-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and its applications in organ transplantation. Methods Relevant literatures of recent years were reviewed. Results The immunoregulatory effects of ?-3 PUFA can inhibit proliferation and activation of the immunocompetent cells including T cell and B cell, reduce cytokine production, modulate immunologic response, improve graft function, pro-long survival, reduce episodes of rejection, and lessen adverse reactions of immunosuppressor.Conclusion ?-3 PUFA should have wide applications in organ transplantation due to its immunoregulatory effects. However, this research should be further studied.

Objective To evaluate the estrogen activity of DDE by using MCF-7 cell proliferation bioassay.Methods The estrogen activity of DDE was tested by using the MCF-7 cell multiplication experiment in vitro and the mechanism was explored preliminarily through growth curve analysis.Results DDE showed an obvious estrogenic activity in the MCF-7 cell proliferation and the cell cycle analysis indicated that cell proliferation index in DDE group was significantly higher than that in the control group.Conclusion DDE has the estrogenic activity and the mechanism may be the same as that of E2,that is,binding with the estrogen receptor is the first step of the following biological effects.

Purpose To evaluate ultrasonography in diagnosis of high recurrence risk gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) by retrospective studying the ultrasound (US) imaging features of GITS. Materials and Methods US features of 72 GIST cases confirmed histopathologically were retrospectively studied. The tumor size, shape, boundary, echogenicity and blood flow of GITS were observed and compared with the results of histopathology. Results Of all the 72 tumors, 34 were originated in the stomach, 14 in the intestine, 2 in the colon, 8 in the rectum, 9 in the mesentery, 1 in the posterior peritoneum, 1 in the omentum and 3 huge masses of non definite origin. There were 7 cases with very low recurrence risk, 14 cases with low risk, 11 cases with intermediate risk and 40 cases with high risk. High recurrence risk group showed no statistical difference in heterogeneous hypoechoes and blood flow (P>0.05), but showed significantly higher rates in following US features:size larger than 5.0 cm, irregular shape, obscure boundary and cyst-solid echogenecity (P<0.001), which showed the sensitivity of 95.0% (32/40), 72.5% (29/40), 25.0% (10/40), and 55.0% (22/40), respectively; and the specificity of 59.4% (19/32), 81.3% (26/32), 90.6% (29/32), and 87.5% (28/32), respectively. Conclusion US can serve as a mean of screening GIST. The recurrence risk can be evaluated based on the tumor size, shape, boundary and echogenecity to guide clinical decisions and prognosis evaluation.

0.05). The stained neuronal cells were seen at spinal cord anterior horn under the reverse tracing by horse radish peroxidase (HRP). Conclusions There is no significant difference in repair of peripheral nerve defects between embryonic spinal cord transplantation and nerve allograft in the aspects of immunology, electrophysiology, muscular humidity and density, and histology.

Literatures of study on acupoint functional effect of encephalic region with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are collected from the database of China National Knowledge Information (CNKI) and Wan fang database. Analysis and comments are made respectively from the status quo of studies on combination of single acupoint, two acupoints and multiple acupoints under both physiological and pathological conditions. The results show that the corresponding encephalic regions can be specifically activated by acupuncture. And different regions can be activated by different acupoints. However, studies on single acupoint, two acupoints and three acupoints are the major researches carried out at present. It is still lack of observation on effect of commonly-used combinations in clinic. Moreover, the reliability of the research results are also affected by disunity of operations protocol, reinforcing or reducing manipulations, intensity or depth of stimulation and duration of needling retention. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a unified and standard operation protocol to strictly control the bias factors which may affect the result of research in the future, and take patients as the study target as much as possible, so as to further explore the central effect mechanism.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Brain ; diagnostic imaging ; physiology ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Radiography

Fatal Outcome ; Female ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Pulmonary Artery ; abnormalities ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Objective: To investigate the effects of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) peptide on ultramicrostructure and extracellular matrix secretion of human mesangial cells cultured in vitro. Methods: Human mesangial cells (HMC) were incubated at the presence of SPARC peptide (50 μg/ml)for 48 h and 96 h separately; HMC cultured without SPARC peptide was taken as control. The cell ultramicrostructure was observed by transmission electron microscope. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) was used to detect mRNA levels of collagen type I (Col I), collagen type IV (Col IV), fibronectin (FN), and laminin (LN) 96 hours after culture, and the results were compared between the 2 groups. The secreted levels of Col I, Col IV, FN, and LN protein were measured and compared by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the 2 groups. Results: There was no obvious change in HMC in the control group. After cultured for 48 hours, a few HMC in experimental group showed initial appearance of apoptosis; after cultured for 96 h, a great number of HMC had a typical apoptotic appearance and there were typical apoptotic bodies under electron microscope. RT-PCR showed that, compared with the control group, the experimental group had significantly decreased levels of Col I, Col IV and FN mRNA (P<0.05, P<0.0l); ELISA results showed that the secretions of Col I, ColIV, and FN protein in the experimental group were greatly lower than those in the control garoup (P<.05, P<0.01). Conclusion: SPARC peptide can effectively induce apoptosis of human mesangial cells and down regulate the secretion of extracellular matrix in vitro.

AimTo study the effect of extracts of ginkgo biloba leaves(GbE) on apoptosis in neuronal cells. Methods Primary cerebral cultures from rat fetus were used to observe the activity of neuronal cells and to determine the release of LDH and DNA gel electrophoresis. Results Gb E enhanced the activity of neuronal cells, decresed the release of LDH,and relieved the structural changes of nucleus and DNA fragmentation. Conclusion GbE can inhibit apoptosis in neuronal cells.

Aim To study the effect of extracts of ginkgo biloba leaves(GbE) on apoptosis in neuronal cells. Methods Primary cerebral cultures from rat fetus were used to observe the activity of neuronal cells and to determine the release of LDH and DNA gel electrophoresis.Results GbE enhanced the activity of neuronal cells, decresed the release of LDH,and relieved the structural changes of nucleus and DNA fragmentation. Conclusion GbE can inhibit apoptosis in neuronal cells.