Aristolochia ; adverse effects ; chemistry ; Aristolochic Acids ; adverse effects ; Belgium ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Kidney Neoplasms ; chemically induced ; Nephritis ; chemically induced

Whether traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) could be categorized as a kind of science or not has been a controversial issue over last century. Part of the confusion is caused by the indistinguishable usage of Chinese words "science" and "scientific" during discussion. According to western academic standards, TCM cannot be considered as pure or conventional science. However, in author's view, the foundation of a majority part of TCM practice is probably scientific, while many TCM theories remain unproved. In this article, medical theories and practices are classified based on scientific content into eight levels: medical science, scientific medicine, medical system, medical theory, medical opinion, medical belief, medical cultism, and medical fraud. Both Western medicine and TCM are positioned in this system accordingly. Currently, the scientific level of TCM is much lower than that of Western medicine, and more research is needed for its improvement.
Biomedical Research ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; standards

Humans ; Immune System Diseases ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Wound Infection ; immunology

As an advanced quantitative technology for cells, flow cytometry, which can make multi-paramter quantitative analysis and sorting of individual cells or biological particles, has been widely used in immunology, oncology, hematology and other fields of medical research and clinical diagnosis in recent years.It can quantitatively detect the expression levels of cytokines and the distribution characteristics of cell subsets in the intraocular fluid.Compared with traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, cell morphology and immunohistochemistry, it has the advantages of simple operation, smaller sample size, higher sensitivity and higher throughput.Flow cytometry has been widely used in the detection and subgroup analysis of cytokines related to eye diseases, such as intraocular angiogenesis, intraocular lymphoma, retinopathy, cataract, uveitis, sarcoidotic uveitis, infectious intraocular inflammation, etc.Flow cytometry plays an increasingly important role in the pathogenesis research and targeted therapy of eye diseases.In this article, the application of flow cytometry in the examination of cytokines and cytology in ocular fluid for ocular diseases were reviewed.

Objective To summarize the clinical experience in repair of aortic arch obstruction associated with intracardiac anomalies in children retrospectively.Methods From March 2010 to March 2014,73 children diagnosed as coarctation of the aorta (CoA,n =68),interrupted aortic arch (IAA,n =3),and double aortic arch with CoA (n =2) underwent surgical management.Six of them were complicated with complex intracardiac anmalies,including tetralogy of Fallot (TOF,n =2),transposition of great arteries (TGA,n =1),total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC,n =1),double outlet of right ventricle (DORV,n =1),and Shone's syndrome (n =1) ; the rest 67 patients were associated with ventricular septal defect (VSD) and other simple anomalies.Twenty eight cases had hypoplasia of the aortic arch.All the patients had one-stage repair except for one.The aortic arch reconstruction was end to end anastomosis between the descending aorta and the arch in 42 patients,end to side anastomosis in 22,and the aortic arch were enlarged using autologous pulmonary artery patch in 9.The associated intracardiac anomalies were repaired in the same stage.Results There were 2 deaths.The operative mortality was 2.7％.Renal failure was occurred in 2 cases who were cured afterwards by peritoneal dialysis.All survivors were followed up for 3 ～ 36 months,anastomotic restenosis was found in 1 case who underwent reoperation 14 months after the first operation.No neurological complications were occurred.Conclusions One-stage complete correction of CoA and IAA with intracardiac anomalies through median sternotomy can achieve excellent short-and mid-term surgical results.

Cerebrovascular reserve is an important parameter for evaluating cerebrovascular disease,and it has great clinical significance.There are a number of determination methods for cerebrovascular reserve,such as position emission tomography(PET),single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT),Xenon-133 inhalation technique,Xenon CT,perfusion CT, magnetic resonance imaging(MRI),transcranial Doppler(TCD),transcranial harmonic perfusion imaging(HPI),near infrared spectroscopy(NIR),and Laser Doppler vibrometry(LDV), however,there have been no unified criteria up to now.The provocation test that makes cerebral blood flow increase includes CO_2 inhalation test,breath holding test,and acetazolamide test,etc. The article focuses the discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the above determination methods.

Curcumin is a principal polyphenolic curcuminoid extracted from turmeric rhizome, which has been used for treating inflammation of joints, ulcers, jaundice and other disorders in Asian traditional medicine. In recent years, many studies have indicated that curcumin plays important roles in treatment of liver diseases. Curcumin attenuates liver injury and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by lowering the release of inflammation cytokines, minimizing oxidative stress, enhancing the sensitivity of insulin and altering lipid metabolism. Curcumin shows potent anti-fibrosis activity, contributing to inhibit the activation of hepatic stellate cells and reduce the deposition of extracellular matrix by its regulation of PPAR-γ, NF-ΚB and TGF-β signaling pathways. Moreover, curcumin exhibits anti-cancer effect by inducing G2/M phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in several hepatoma cell lines. However, poor water solubility and low bioavailability of curcumin limit its clinical applications. To overcome its limited systemic bioavailability, many new approaches have been explored to deliver curcumin effectively. This article focuses on advances in the effects of curcumin and its derivatives for treatment of liver injury, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis and hepatocarcinoma.
Apoptosis ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Curcumin ; pharmacology ; Hepatic Stellate Cells ; drug effects ; Humans ; Inflammation ; drug therapy ; Liver Diseases ; drug therapy ; NF-kappa B ; metabolism ; Oxidative Stress ; drug effects ; PPAR gamma ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; Transforming Growth Factor beta ; metabolism

According to the requirements of ptobiotics, we have separated 13 strains of Lactobacillus from the content in gut of lactating piglet. Among them 3strains are L. acidophilus, one is L. casei, one is L. atenaforme and 8 strains are L. fermentum. They can resist 1.0% bile salt and the acidity of pH3.0, can inhibit pathogenic Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. They are safe and non-toxic to mice.

Anticoagulants ; classification ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Humans ; Sepsis ; drug therapy ; physiopathology ; Treatment Outcome

Cervical Vertebrae ; Dura Mater ; Epidural Space ; Humans ; Spinal Cord Neoplasms ; surgery