Objective To explore the characteristics of MRI images and pathological features of demyelinating pseudotumor (DPT).Methods Five patients with demyelinating pseudotumor were histologically confirmed.Their MR imaging were re-viewed and the enhancement patterns were analyzed.Results Among the five cases with demyelinating pseudotumor,single le-sion was found in 4 cases,and multiple lesions in 1 case.Most lesions had a clear boundary and these space occupying lesions were irregular (3 cases).The signal intensity on T1 WI was lower than edema,and it had a specific “core and halo”feature,du-al-high signal with different intensity on T2 WI,slightly higher signal intensity on DWI,and on enhanced MRI,nodular or patch-y enhancement and open ring enhancement with edema around the lesions were observed.The pathological results showed that the demyelination occurred but the neuraxon survived,lymphocytes were infiltrated,glial cells were proliferated,megakaryo-cytes also could be found,and multiple monocyte-macrophages were all around the lesions.Conclusion The MRI of DPT has some characteristic features.

Objective:To study the anatomical correlation between dental arch and the volume of upper airway in patients with obstruc-tive sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome(OSAHS). Methods: Dental arch architecture and upper airway volume were measured by cone beam CT(CBCT) in the subjects with OSAHS(n=22) and without OSAHS(n=19). The correlation between dental arch and the supper airway volume in OSAHS patients was analyzed. Results:The length of the upper dental arch and the height of palate in OSAHS patients were larger than those of the controls(All, P<0. 05). Cross-sectional area of nasopharynx and retropalatal and the total volume of upper airway were negatively correlated with the palatal height and upper dental arch length(P<0. 05), while positively correlated with upper dental arch of molar regions(P<0. 05). Conclusion:The abnormal shape of upper dental arch is related to the airway vol-ume of nasopharynx and retropalatal region in patients with OSAHS.

Atrophy ; Disability Evaluation ; Humans ; Kidney

In order to investigate the prevalence and track genetic and antigenic evolutions of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and their prevalence in Guangxi, China since 1985, gene amplification and sequencing and virus neutralization (VN) test on chicken embryo tracheal organ cultures were used in genotyping and serotyping of 28 IBV isolates during 2009-2011 in Guangxi. The results of N gene sequencing and comparison showed that the 28 isolates and reference strains were classified into three groups, and most isolates belonged to group Ill, while the isolates in 1985-2008 belonged to groups IV and II. The data of VN test indicated that the 28 isolates belonged to 6 serotypes; among them, 71. 4% belonged to serotypes 1, 2, and 3, and 11 (39.3%) shared the same serotype with the current vaccine strains. Given the data of our previous study, it is found that prevalent serotypes and their proportions varied in different areas of Guangxi and during different periods. These data lay a good foundation for developing an oil-emulsified inactivated polyvalent vaccine containing local dominant serotypes for the effective prevention and control of infectious bronchitis.
Animals ; Antibodies, Viral ; immunology ; Chick Embryo ; Chickens ; China ; epidemiology ; Coronavirus Infections ; epidemiology ; immunology ; veterinary ; virology ; Infectious bronchitis virus ; classification ; genetics ; immunology ; isolation & purification ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Poultry Diseases ; epidemiology ; immunology ; virology

Smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer and is linked to 85% of lung cancer cases. However, how lung cancer develops in patients with smoking history remains unclear. Systems approaches that combine human protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and gene expression data are superior to traditional methods. We performed these systems to determine the role that smoking plays in lung cancer development and used the support vector machine (SVM) model to predict PPIs. By defining expression variance (EV), we found 520 dynamic proteins (EV>0.4) using data from the Human Protein Reference Database and Gene Expression Omnibus Database, and built 7 dynamic PPI subnetworks of lung cancer in patients with smoking history. We also determined the primary functions of each subnetwork: signal transduction, apoptosis, and cell migration and adhesion for subnetwork A; cell-sustained angiogenesis for subnetwork B; apoptosis for subnetwork C; and, finally, signal transduction and cell replication and proliferation for subnetworks D-G. The probability distribution of the degree of dynamic protein and static protein differed, clearly showing that the dynamic proteins were not the core proteins which widely connected with their neighbor proteins. There were high correlations among the dynamic proteins, suggesting that the dynamic proteins tend to form specific dynamic modules. We also found that the dynamic proteins were only correlated with the expression of selected proteins but not all neighbor proteins when cancer occurred.
Databases, Genetic ; Databases, Protein ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; etiology ; metabolism ; pathology ; Protein Interaction Mapping ; Protein Interaction Maps ; Smoking ; adverse effects ; Support Vector Machine

OBJECTIVETo study the anatomical measurement of goat lumbar vertebrae and to compare with human lumbar vertebrae, so as to build the foundation for establishing animal models of lumbar prosthesis.

METHODSThe anatomical parameters of the vertebral body, pedicle and intervertebral disc in the fresh lumbar vertebrae of Boer goat and the lumbar vertebrae of healthy adults were collected by computer aided software Mimics16.0, and the anatomical characteristics of the two lumbar vertebrae were compared with the statistical software.

RESULTSThe anterior vertebral body height(VBHa) of goat lumbar was less than the middle vertebral body height(VBHm), which was less than the posterior vertebral body height(VBHp), and the maximum values were (38.7±2.9), (40.1±2.6) and (40.7±2.7) mm respectively. Its endplate width was greater than its depth, with the whole shaped like a heart or a kidney. The cranial endplate of goats was convex while the caudal endplate was depressed and the depression was small, with a maximum value of (1.6±0.6) mm. The pedicle height of goats increased from L₁1 to L̀ with the maximum of (30.5±1.9) mm; its pedicle width and angle increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of vertebra level and the minimum values were (6.7±0.4) mm and(45.9±2.6)° respectively. The anterior intervertebral disc height was larger than the middle which was larger than the posterior and all varied slightly with the changes of intervertebral spaces; the height and width of intervertebral foramen separately waved at (12.9±0.3) to (14.3±1.0) mm and (5.7±1.0) to (6.7±0.9) mm. The comparative results showed that the vertebral body height, pedicle height and angle of goats were greater than those of humans (<0.05) while the width and depth of the endplate, the intervertebral disc height, and etc. were significantly smaller than those of humans (<0.05). In addition, some structures, such as the height of pedicle and intervertebral disc, also showed different changing laws with the increase of vertebra level.

CONCLUSIONSAlthough there are similarities in goat lumbar spine in some aspects, such as endplate and foramen foramen, there are still many differences in many aspects. Understanding the anatomical characteristics of goat lumbar vertebrae and the difference between goat and human is of great guiding significance for the research of goat prosthesis and related technology.

With the wide application of electronic data management (EDC), the data management is shifting to a new mode. In order to recognize the advantages of EDC, we choose 20 representative registered clinical trials, which involve 5 404 subjects and 321 sites. We found that EDC has many beneficial impacts on the course of clinical trial data management, including the process of data collection, data cleaning, data quality control and clinical trial decision-making. The result also provides a reference for the adoption of EDC in clinical trials.
Clinical Trials as Topic ; Data Collection ; standards ; Information Storage and Retrieval ; standards ; Quality Control

BACKGROUNDMutations of transthyretin (TTR) cause the most common type of autosomal-dominant hereditary systemic amyloidosis, which occurs worldwide. To date, more and more mutations in the TTR gene have been reported. Some variations in the clinical presentation are often observed in patients with the same mutation or the patients in the same family. The purpose of this study was to find out the clinicopathologic and genetic features of Chinese patients with hereditary TTR amyloidosis.

METHODSClinical and necessary examination materials were collected from nine patients of eight families with hereditary TTR amyloidosis at Peking University First Hospital from January 2007 to November 2014. Sural nerve biopsies were taken for eight patients and skin biopsies were taken in the calf/upper arm for two patients, for light and electron microscopy examination. The TTR genes from the nine patients were analyzed.

RESULTSThe onset age varied from 23 to 68 years. The main manifestations were paresthesia, proximal and/or distal weakness, autonomic dysfunction, cardiomyopathy, vitreous opacity, hearing loss, and glossohypertrophia. Nerve biopsy demonstrated severe loss of myelinated fibers in seven cases and amyloid deposits in three. One patient had skin amyloid deposits which were revealed from electron microscopic examination. Genetic analysis showed six kinds of mutations of TTR gene, including Val30Met, Phe33Leu, Ala36Pro, Val30Ala, Phe33Val, and Glu42Gly in exon 2.

CONCLUSIONSSince the pathological examinations of sural nerve were negative for amyloid deposition in most patients, the screening for TTR mutations should be performed in all the adult patients, who are clinically suspected with hereditary TTR amyloidosis.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Amyloid Neuropathies, Familial ; diagnosis ; genetics ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mutation ; genetics ; Pedigree ; Prealbumin ; genetics

BackgroundThe relationship between lipids and coronary artery disease has been well established. However, this is not the case between lipids and heart failure. Ironically, high lipid levels are associated with better outcomes in heart failure, but the mechan-isms underlying the phenomenon are not fully understood. This study was performed to test the hypothesis that reduced intestinal lipid absorption due to venous congestion may lead to low lipid levels.MethodsWe collected data of clinical characteristics, echocardio-graph, and lipid profile in 442 unselected patients with congestive heart failure. Correlations between lipid levels[including total cho-lesterol(TCL), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), and triglycerides(TG)]and right ventricle end diastolic diameter (RVEDD), left ventricle end diastolic diameter (LVEDD), right atrium diameter (RA), left atrium diameter (LA), or left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) were analyzed using Pearson correlation and partial correlation. RVEDD, LVEDD, RA, and LA were indexed to the body surface area.ResultsThere was a significantly inverse correlation between TCL le-vels and RVEDD (r=-0.34,P<0.001) and RA (r=-0.36,P<0.001). Other lipids such as LDL-C, HDL-C, and TG had asimilar inverse correlation with RVEDD and RA. All these correlations remained unchanged after adjusting for age, gender, smoking status, physical activity levels, comorbidities, and medication use.ConclusionsLipid levels were inversely correlated to RVEDD in patients with congestive heart failure; however, because this was an observational study, further investigation is needed to verify our results as wellas identify a causal relationship, if any.

To prepare composite phospholipid liposomes containing total alkaloids of Strychnos nux-vomica with hydrogenated soybean phosphatidylcholine (HSPC) and 1, 2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphacholine (DPPC), and compare with normal DPPC thermosensitive liposomes for thermosensitive release property. Total alkaloids were extracted from S. nux-vomica with the impregnation method and further purified. Liposomes containing total alkaloids, thermosensitive liposomes and conventional thermosensitive liposomes without thermosensitive release property were prepared by ammonium sulfate transmembrane gradients and stealth liposome technique. Their encapsulation efficiency (EE), grain size, zeta potential and drug release behavior were compared. Their EEs and zeta potentials were almost identical; but the grain sizes of composite phospholipid liposomes and thermosensitive liposomes were significantly smaller than conventional liposomes. After comparing release behaviors of the three liposomes at 37, 43 degrees C, we found that the release of composite phospholipid liposomes was significantly lower than that of thermosensitive liposomes at 37 degrees C, but higher than that of thermosensitive liposomes at 43 degrees C. Meanwhile, conventional liposomes, with a very high phase-transition temperature, showed only slight release behavior at both temperatures. The study results showed that composite phospholipid liposomes had a better thermosensitive release behavior when the dosage of lysophosphatidic was reduced by 2. 5 times.
Alkaloids ; chemistry ; Liposomes ; chemistry ; Phospholipids ; chemistry ; Strychnos nux-vomica ; chemistry