OBJECTIVEThis study examines the impacts of an improved electrode placement on the electrocardiogram (ECG) results in order to determine a better electrode placement for ECG monitoring in children.

METHODSECG was recorded using the traditional electrode placement and the modified electrode placement (with shortened electrode distance) respectively in 50 pediatric patients. The amplitudes of P wave and QRS wave on ECG by the two measurements were compared. Furthermore, the impacts of different body positions on the amplitudes of P wave and QRS wave were studied after applying the modified electrode placement.

RESULTSThere were no significant differences in the amplitudes of P wave and QRS wave on ECG by the traditional electrode placement and the modified electrode placement (P>0.05). When modified electrode placement was utilized, the body position change did not lead to significant changes in the amplitudes of P wave and QRS wave (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONSA satisfactory ECG can be obtained with the modified electrode placement independent of patient's body position, suggesting that the modified electrode placement can be used instead of the traditional placement in children.

Child ; Child, Preschool ; Electrocardiography ; instrumentation ; Electrodes ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; Patient Positioning

BACKGROUNDPomegranate (punica granatum) belongs to the family Punicaceae, and its peel has been used as a traditional Chinese medicine because of its efficacy in restraining intestine, promoting hemostasis, and killing parasites. Pomegranate peel has been reported to possess wound-healing properties which are mainly attributed to its polyphenol extracts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of pomegranate peel polyphenols (PPP) gel on cutaneous wound healing in diabetic rats.

METHODSAlloxan-induced diabetic rats were given incisional wounds on each side of the mid-back and then treated daily with PPP gel (polyphenol mass fraction = 30%) post-wounding. Rats were sacrificed on days 4, 7, 14, and 21 post-wounding to assess the rates of wound closure, histological characteristics; and to detect the contents of hydroxyproline, production of nitric oxide (NO), and activities of NO synthase (NOS), as well as the expressions of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and epidermal growth factor (EGF) in wound tissue.

RESULTSWound closure was significantly shortened when PPP gel was applied to the wounds of diabetic rats. Histological examination showed the ability of PPP gel to increase fibroblast infiltration, collagen regeneration, vascularization, and epithelialization in the wound area of diabetic rats. In addition, PPP gel-treated diabetic rats showed increased contents of hydroxyproline, production of NO, and activities of NOS and increased expressions of TGF-β1, VEGF, and EGF in wound tissues.

CONCLUSIONPPP gel may be a beneficial method for treating wound disorders associated with diabetes.

Alloxan ; Animals ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Female ; Gels ; Hydroxyproline ; analysis ; Male ; Nitric Oxide ; biosynthesis ; Polyphenols ; pharmacology ; Punicaceae ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; physiology ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; physiology ; Wound Healing ; drug effects

OBJECTIVETo explore the effects of mTOR inhibitor rapamycin on proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis of Burkitt's lymphoma cell line Raji and CA46 cells and its mechanism, so as to provide the experimental evidence for a therapeutic target of Burkitt's lymphoma.

METHODS3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide(MTT) assay was performed to assess the inhibitory effect of rapamycin on proliferation of Burkitt's lymphoma cell line Raji and CA46 cells. The cell cycle distribution of Raji and CA46 cells was analyzed by flow cytometry with propidium iodide(PI) single staining. The cell apoptosis of Raji and CA46 cells was analyzed by flow cytometry with FITC Annexin V+PI double staining. The expressions of RPS6, p-RPS6, survivin and caspase-3 proteins were detected by Western blot after treating with rapamycin.

RESULTSRapamycin markedly inhibited the proliferation of both Raji and CA46 cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manners, showing good biological activity, the cell proliferation inhibition rate reached about 20% after treatment with 1 nmol/L rapamycin. After treatment with different concentrations of rapamycin for 24 and 48 hours, the proportion of both cells in G/Gphase in the treated groups was significantly increased in a time- and concentration-dependent manners in comparison with the solvent control group. With regard to the cells in S and G/M phase, the decreased population was accompanied by the increase of G/Gphase cells. After treatment with 100 nmol/L rapamycin for 48 hours, both Raji and CA46 cells demonstrated an apparent apoptosis,especially late apoptosis by flow cytometry with Annexin V+PI staining. After treatment with rapamycin, the expression of p-RPS6 and survivin of Raji and CA46 cells was obviously down-regulated, the expression of caspase-3 was obviously up-regulated in a time- and dose-dependent manners. However, rapamycin did not obviously affect the expression of RPS6.

CONCLUSIONThe rapamycin can effectively inhibit cell proliferation, arrest Raji and CA46 cells in G/Gphase, and this effect associates with inhibiting the activation of mTOR/RPS6 signal pathway through down-regulating the expression of phosphorylated RPS6, i.e. mTOR downstream signal pathway. It also can induce apoptosis by down-regulating the expression of anti-apoptotic protein survivin and activating the intrinsic pro-apoptotic protein caspase-3.

OBJECTIVE: To obtain the subtypes of the clinical hypertension population based on symptoms and to explore the relationship between hypertension and comorbidities. METHODS: The data set was collected from the Chinese medicine (CM) electronic medical records of 33,458 hypertension inpatients in the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine between July 2014 and May 2017. Then, a hypertension disease comorbidity network (HDCN) was built to investigate the complicated associations between hypertension and their comorbidities. Moreover, a hypertension patient similarity network (HPSN) was constructed with patients' shared symptoms, and 7 main hypertension patient subgroups were identified from HPSN with a community detection method to exhibit the characteristics of clinical phenotypes and molecular mechanisms. In addition, the significant symptoms, diseases, CM syndromes and pathways of each main patient subgroup were obtained by enrichment analysis. RESULTS: The significant symptoms and diseases of these patient subgroups were associated with different damaged target organs of hypertension. Additionally, the specific phenotypic features (symptoms, diseases, and CM syndromes) were consistent with specific molecular features (pathways) in the same patient subgroup. CONCLUSION The utility and comprehensiveness of disease classification based on community detection of patient networks using shared CM symptom phenotypes showed the importance of hypertension patient subgroups.