Sixteen compounds were isolated from the ethanol extract of Illigera rhodantha by silica gel, ODS, and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatographies. These compounds were identified as (2R,3R)-2,3-dihydroxy-2-methylbutane-1,4-diyldibenzoate (1), p-hydroxyphenethyl trans-ferulate (2), 4-O-benzoyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol (3), N-trans feruloyl-3-methyldopamine (4), tribulusamide A (5), cryptomeridiol (6), teuclatriol (7), oleanolic acid (8), icario A₂ (9), vanillic acid (10), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (11), gallic acid (12), ethyl gallate (13), chrysophanol (14), D-1-O-methyl-inositol (15), and hexadecanoic acid (16) based on their spectral data and physico-chemical properties. Compound 1 is an undescribed compound, of which its absolute configurations were determined by Mosher and ROESY methods; all the compounds except 10, 11 and 14 were isolated from Illigera genus for the first time. Compared with the positive control indomethacin, compounds 4-6, 8 and 9 inhibited significantly against the NO production in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells.

OBJECTIVETo examine whether acupuncture treatment would improve outcome in chronic Achilles tendinopathy.

METHODSA randomized, controlled trial at two centers of 64 randomized patients aged 18 to 70 years with chronic Achilles tendinopathy was conducted from July 2007 to April 2010, with follow-up until October, 2010. These patients were randomly allocated into an acupuncture treatment group (acupuncture group) and an eccentric exercises group (control group). The validated Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment-Achilles (VISA-A) questionnaire was completed at baseline and 8, 16, and 24 weeks. The pain at rest and after activity was accessed at baseline and 8 weeks with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).

RESULTSAfter randomization into the acupuncture group or control group, one patient was loss of follow-up. The mean VISA-A score improved signifificantly after 8 weeks in the acupuncture group to 67.1 points [95% confifidence interval (CI), 64.1-70.2] and in the control group to 48.5 points (95% CI, 45.5-51.6) with an additional 18.6 points increase in acupuncture treatment patients (P=0.0000). Acupuncture treatment resulted in a significant increase from baseline in VISA-A of 25.8 after 16 weeks and 28.4 after 24 weeks. Whereas, in the control group the increase from baseline in VISA-A were 10.0 and 16.6 after 16 and 24 weeks, respectively (P=0.0000). The VAS diminished by 2.0 cm after activity, and by 1.5 cm at rest after 8 weeks in the control group. In the acupuncture group, the pain scores diminished significantly more than in the control group, with pain reduction of 3.7 cm after activity (P=0.0000) and 3.2 cm at rest (P =0.0000).

CONCLUSIONAcupuncture intervention could improve pain and activity in patients with chronic Achilles tendinopathy compared with eccentric exercises.

Achilles Tendon ; pathology ; Acupuncture ; Chronic Disease ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Tendinopathy ; therapy ; Treatment Outcome ; Visual Analog Scale

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to clarify the morphology of the Martin-Gruber anastomosis (MGA) in Chinese. METHODS: One hundred and five Chinese upper limbs (36 males and 20 femalese) were dissected to find the connections between medial nerve and ulnar nerve. The MGA was classified as previously described by Lee. RESULTS: MGA was found in 24 cases (22.9%), in 11 of the 36 male and 5 of the 20 female. There was no obvious difference in the frequency of MGA in both upper limbs. Most MGA ulnar position was located at the medial and distal segment of the forearm. CONCLUSION MGA anatomy could play important role in forensic diagnosis of ulnar nerve injury in Chinese population.
Cadaver ; China/epidemiology* ; Expert Testimony/legislation & jurisprudence* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Median Nerve/pathology* ; Muscle, Skeletal/innervation* ; Nervous System Malformations/physiopathology* ; Ulnar Nerve/pathology* ; Upper Extremity/innervation*

OBJECTIVETo explore the association of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with environmental factors through analyzing birth order data from pedigree sibships.

METHODSA birth order study was conducted based on the methods of Greenwood and Haldane for 100 probands and 22 affected siblings from 100 pedigrees in a cohort which was followed up for 8 years in Haimen, Jiangsu, China.

RESULTSThe findings from the Greenwood method suggested that there was a tendency for cases of HCC to concentrate at lower birth orders of 1 to 3. With the effects of hepatitis B virus on the birth orders being controlled, the same tendency was also observed. The results from Haldane method showed that difference between actual value and expected value of 6A was more than the double standard deviation. Sigma 6A(actual value) = 1,806, Sigma 6A(expected value) = 1,988, the absolute value of (Sigma 6A(actual value) - Sigma 6A(expected value))/the square root of Sigma V6A = 2.1657 (0.02 < P < 0.05). The actual value of 6A was lower than the expected value of 6A suggesting that individuals at lower birth orders were at a higher risk of suffering from HCC. In addition, through data from ecologic research, there was a decreasing tendency of mortality of HCC within 10 years after the prevalence of tap water in Haimen city. The correlation coefficient by Spearman test was -0.818 (P < 0.01). The contribution of the quality of drinking water in the locality to the onset of HCC was found among people born in earlier period.

CONCLUSIONSThere was a tendency that the onset of HCC cases concentrating was at lower birth orders in this research, which was inconsistent with several reports of foreign authors' which showed a reverse tendency. According to the ecological results, it was suggested that long-term drinking of ditch-water was responsible for the tendency of cases of HCC concentrating at lower birth orders. There were also certain effects of environmental factors exerted on the onset of HCC being discovered.

Adult ; Birth Order ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; epidemiology ; etiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Cohort Studies ; Family Health ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Water Pollutants, Chemical ; adverse effects ; Water Supply

BACKGROUNDAngiotensin type 1 receptor (AT 1 R) antagonists are extensively used for blood pressure control in elderly patients with hypertension. This study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effects of AT 1 R antagonist valsartan on platelet aggregation and the occurrence of cardio-cerebral thrombotic events in elderly patients with hypertension.

METHODSTwo-hundred and ten patients with hypertension and aged > 60 years were randomized to valsartan (n = 140) or amlodipine (n = 70) on admission. The primary endpoint was platelet aggregation rate (PAR) induced by arachidonic acid at discharge, and the secondary endpoint was the rate of thrombotic events including brain infarction and myocardial infarction during follow-up. Human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) were stimulated by angiotensin II (Ang II, 100 nmol/L) with or without pretreatment of valsartan (100 nmol/L), and relative expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and thromboxane B 2 (TXB 2 ) and both p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK) and nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) activities were assessed. Statistical analyses were performed by GraphPad Prism 5.0 software (GraphPad Software, Inc., California, USA).

RESULTSPAR was lower after treatment with valsartan (11.49 ± 0.69% vs. 18.71 ± 2.47%, P < 0.001), associated with more reduced plasma levels of COX-2 (76.94 ± 7.07 U/L vs. 116.4 ± 15.89 U/L, P < 0.001) and TXB 2 (1667 ± 56.50 pg/ml vs. 2207 ± 180.20 pg/ml) (all P < 0.001). Plasma COX-2 and TXB 2 levels correlated significantly with PAR in overall patients (r = 0.109, P < 0.001). During follow-up (median, 18 months), there was a significantly lower thrombotic event rate in patients treated with valsartan (14.3% vs. 32.8%, P = 0.002). Relative expression of COX-2 and secretion of TXB 2 with concordant phosphorylation of p38MAPK and NF-kB were increased in HAECs when stimulated by Ang II (100 nmol/L) but were significantly decreased by valsartan pretreatment (100 nmol/L).

CONCLUSIONSAT 1 R antagonist valsartan decreases platelet activity by attenuating COX-2/TXA 2 expression through p38MAPK and NF-kB pathways and reduces the occurrence of cardio-cerebral thrombotic events in elderly patients with hypertension.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists ; therapeutic use ; Blood Platelets ; drug effects ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Line ; Cyclooxygenase 2 ; blood ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; drug therapy ; Male ; Platelet Aggregation ; drug effects ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Tetrazoles ; therapeutic use ; Thrombosis ; blood ; drug therapy ; Thromboxane B2 ; blood ; Valine ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Valsartan

OBJECTIVETo observe the clinical effect of low-dose testosterone undecanoate capsules combined with tadalafil on late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) accompanied with ED.

METHODSNinety cases of LOH accompanied with ED who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into a control group and a combination therapy group, the former treated with tadalafil and the latter with low-dose testosterone undecanoate capsules combined with tadalafil. The LOH symptoms, IIEF-5 scores, sexual encounter profile (SEP) scores, prostate volumes, and the levels of total testosterone (TT), free testosterone (FT) and prostatic specific antigen (PSA) were recorded and compared between the two groups before and after treatment.

RESULTSThe IIEF-5 and SEP scores and the TT and FT levels were 20.6 +/- 3.8, 4.02 +/- 1.08, (15.4 +/- 3.4) nmol/L and (0.391 +/- 0.062) nmol/L, respectively, in the combination therapy group after treatment, significantly higher both than 15.7 +/- 3.9, 1.49 +/- 0.82, (10.1 +/- 1.2) nmol/L and (0.200 +/- 0.045) nmol/L before treatment (P < 0.01) and than 8.6 +/- 3.6, 3.50 +/- 1.21, (10.2 +/- 1.2) nmol/L and (0.210 +/- 0.051) nmol/L in the control group after treatment (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONLow-dose testosterone undecanoate capsules combined with tadalafil has a definite clinical effect and no obvious adverse reactions in the treatment of LOH accompanied with ED.

Adult ; Carbolines ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Erectile Dysfunction ; complications ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; complications ; drug therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Tadalafil ; Testosterone ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo assess the efficacy and safety of the Osbon ErecAid Vacuum Therapy System in the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) that fails to respond to PDE-5i.

METHODSThis study included 70 cases of ED not responding to the medication of PDE-5i. The patients were aged 25 -66 (38.9 +/- 9.1) years. Under our direction, the patients used the Osbon ErecAid Vacuum Therapy System for a month to increase blood oxygenation to the corpora cavernosa, and then employed the vacuum constriction device (VCD) to maintain penile erection for sexual intercourse. We compared their IIEF-5 scores and their and their partners' sexual satisfaction before and 3 months after treatment, and evaluated the safety and effect of the vacuum therapy.

RESULTSThe mean IIEF-5 scores of the patients were significantly increased from 10.2 +/- 4.0 before treatment to 13.3 +/- 4.7 at 3 months after the vacuum therapy (P < 0.05). The rate of therapeutic effectiveness was 77.1% (54/70), and the rates of sexual satisfaction of the patients and their partners were 64.3% (45/70) and 65.7% (46/70),

CONCLUSIONVacuum therapy for ED that does not respond to PDE-5i can significantly improve the patients' erectile function as well as their and their partners'sexual satisfaction, and therefore deserves clinical application.

Adult ; Aged ; Erectile Dysfunction ; drug therapy ; therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Penis ; Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors ; therapeutic use ; Treatment Failure ; Treatment Outcome ; Vacuum

BACKGROUND: Youzhi artificial intelligence (AI) software is the AI-assisted decision-making system for diagnosing skin tumors. The high diagnostic accuracy of Youzhi AI software was previously validated in specific datasets. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of diagnostic capacity between Youzhi AI software and dermatologists in real-world clinical settings. METHODS: A total of 106 patients who underwent skin tumor resection in the Dermatology Department of China-Japan Friendship Hospital from July 2017 to June 2019 and were confirmed as skin tumors by pathological biopsy were selected. Dermoscopy and clinical images of 106 patients were diagnosed by Youzhi AI software and dermatologists at different dermoscopy diagnostic levels. The primary outcome was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the Youzhi AI software with that of dermatologists and that measured in the laboratory using specific data sets. The secondary results included the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, F-measure, and Matthews correlation coefficient of Youzhi AI software in the real-world. RESULTS: The diagnostic accuracy of Youzhi AI software in real-world clinical settings was lower than that of the laboratory data (P < 0.001). The output result of Youzhi AI software has good stability after several tests. Youzhi AI software diagnosed benign and malignant diseases by recognizing dermoscopic images and diagnosed disease types with higher diagnostic accuracy than by recognizing clinical images (P = 0.008, P = 0.016, respectively). Compared with dermatologists, Youzhi AI software was more accurate in the diagnosis of skin tumor types through the recognition of dermoscopic images (P = 0.01). By evaluating the diagnostic performance of dermatologists under different modes, the diagnostic accuracy of dermatologists in diagnosing disease types by matching dermoscopic and clinical images was significantly higher than that by identifying dermoscopic and clinical images in random sequence (P = 0.022). The diagnostic accuracy of dermatologists in the diagnosis of benign and malignant diseases by recognizing dermoscopic images was significantly higher than that by recognizing clinical images (P = 0.010). CONCLUSION The diagnostic accuracy of Youzhi AI software for skin tumors in real-world clinical settings was not as high as that of using special data sets in the laboratory. However, there was no significant difference between the diagnostic capacity of Youzhi AI software and the average diagnostic capacity of dermatologists. It can provide assistant diagnostic decisions for dermatologists in the current state.

Foods can be contaminated with foodborne pathogens through a variety of pathways, including water, air and soil. Food safety events caused by foodborne pathogens show a serious impact on human health. However, due to the diversity of foodborne pathogens and the complexity of food matrices, the rapid detection of foodborne pathogens was difficult. The conventional microbial culture and physiological and biochemical identification can hardly meet the need of rapid detection of foodborne pathogens in the field. It is necessary to develop rapid detection technologies for foodborne pathogens. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and associated protein (Cas) are an adaptive immune systems of prokaryotes with specific recognition and cleavage of nucleic acid sequences, which shows good potential for development of nucleic acid detection and biosensing in the field. According to different forms of application, paper-based analytical devices can be categorized into test paper, lateral flow assay and microfluidic paper-based chips, etc. As a good simplicity and low-cost analytical testing tools, they show good prospects in the field of rapid testing. Therefore, the rapid and sensitive detection of foodborne pathogens can be realized by combining the efficient recognition ability of CRISPR/Cas system and the simplicity of paper-based analytical devices. In this paper, we briefly introduce an overview of the CRISPR/Cas system for nucleic acid detection, and this section focuses on an overview of the features and principles of the class 2 system, including types II, V and VI, which uses a single effector. The application of CRISPR/Cas system based test paper analysis, lateral flow assay and microfluidic paper-based chips for the detection of foodborne pathogens are highlighted in the paper, and finally the advantages, current challenges and future prospects of CRISPR/Cas system in combination with paper-based analytical devices to establish detection methods are discussed.

This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effect of IR-61, a novel mitochondrial heptamethine cyanine dye with antioxidant effects, on diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction (DMED). Eight-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were intraperitoneally injected with streptozotocin (STZ) to induce type 1 diabetes. Eight weeks after STZ injection, all rats were divided into three groups: the control group, DM group, and DM + IR-61 group. In the DM + IR-61 group, the rats were administered IR-61 (1.6 mg kg