Objective To study the clinical value of vascular ultrasound examination in detection of carotid artery disease. Methods 53 cases of ischemic cerebrovascular disease who served as experimental group,tested 387 vessels; and used the same period 55 cases of healthy persons as control group, tested 394 blood vessels. Comparison of two blood flow parameters between groups with differences in plaque detection. Results The results of vascular ultrasound examination could detect the visual display and quantitative carotid artery lesions in the experimental group a significant thickening of carotid artery IMT,carotid artery plaque prevalence was significantly higher than control group (P ＜0.01). Conclusion Vascular ultrasound examination was an effective screening method to detect ischemic cerebrovascular disease.

The effects of high-intensity pulsed electromagnetic stimulation (HIPEMS) on proliferation and differentiation of neonatal rat neural stem cells in vitro were investigated. Neural stem cells derived from neonatal rats were exposed to 0.1 Hz, 0.5-10 Tesla (T) [8 groups of B-I, respectively], 5 stimuli of HIPEMF. The sham exposure controls were correspondingly established. Inverted phase contrast microscope was used to observe the cultured cells, MTT assay to detect the viability of the cells as expressed by absorbance (A) value, and flow cytometry to measure differentiation of neural stem cells. The results showed that A values of neural stem cells in both 3.0 T and 4.0 T groups were significantly higher than the other groups 24 to 168 h post HPEMS, indicating a strong promotion of the growth of neural stem cells (P<0.05). The A values of neural stem cells in the 6.0 T, 8.0 T, and 10.0 T groups were lower than the sham exposure control group, indicating a restraint of the growth of neural stem cells. The rate of neuron-specific enolase-positive neurons revealed by flow cytometry in HPEMS groups was the same as that in control group (P>0.05). It was suggested that 0.1 Hz, 5 pulses stimulation of HPEMS within certain scale of intensity (0.5-10.0 T), significantly promoted the growth of neural stem cells with the rational intensity being 4.0 T.

BACKGROUND: The clinical application of one-level osteotomy and multilevel osteotomy has been well documented, but currently few studies were reported to compare their biomechanical characteristics.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the biomechanical characteristics of one-level osteotomy with Dick screw fixation and multilevel osteotomy with Luque instrumentation in the treatment of kyphosis.DESIGN: Randomized comparative experiment.SETTING: Laboratory of the Department of Orthopedics, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University.MATERIALS: Fresh specimens of thoracic and lumbar spinal segments obtained from 12 3 or 4-year-old calves.METHODS: The experiment was conducted in the laboratory of the Department of Orthopedics, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University between September 2002 and September 2003. Fresh spinal segments T8-L5 from 12 calves were randomized into an intact group, Dick screw group with one-level osteotomy with Dick screw fixation and Luque group with multilevel osteotomy with Luque instrumentation, with 4 spesimens in each group. Lateral bending test of the specimens was performed to examine the physiological overload using an Instron 5 500 universal material testing machine at the constant speed of 10 mm/minute until fracture or dislocation was induced. Changes in the loading were recorded and the induced injuries observed to obtain the load-displacement curve of the injury test.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The load-displacement curve of the destructive right bending test in each group.RESULTS:All the data of 12 canines were involved in the result analysis.The spinal segments of the intact group yielded to the force of 3 600 N with a flat and smooth load-displacement curve, and those of Dick screw group yielded to a load of 2 800 N with also a relatively flat curve, while in Luque group, the segments did not yield until a load of 7 160 N, followed by drastic decrease of the resistance to less than 4 000 N, generating a flat and smooth curve afterwards.CONCLUSION: Luque instrumentation is a little more preferable than Dick screw in terms of the maximum resistance, but this difference does not justify the clinical decision of their superiority. Both techniques benefit postoperative recovery of spinal function with strong stability.

This study was aimed to assay the antibacterial activity of compounds from Rabdosia rubescens. Disc dif-fusion (K-B method) was used to screen the in vitro antibacterial activity. All kinds of chromatography were used to isolate the chemical constituent and structure was identified by MS and NMR spectroscopy. The results showed that six compounds were isolated and identified as oridonin (1), rosmarinic acid (2), caffeic acid (3), salicylic acid (4), ferulic acid (5), vanillic acid (6). Oridonin had activity against Staphylococcus aureus (SA), Methcillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), β-lactamase positive Staphylococcus aureus (ESBLs-SA), and showed the highest ac-tivity (MIC is 3.125, 6.25 and 6.25 μg·disc-1, respectively), but was still weaker than that of berberine as positive control (MIC is 0.156 μg·disc-1). Ferulic acid had activity against SA and MRSA (MIC is 50 and 50 μg·disc-1, re-spectively). Salicylic acid had only activity against SA (MIC 50 μg·disc-1). It was concluded that oridonin, ferulic acid and salicylic acid were the main antibacterial activity compounds from R. rubescens.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the influence on air quality in cleaning room of the supply department when the water/gas blast gun is used to clean endoscope,to give basis for valuable protective procedures. METHODS Bacterial number of the air in the supply department was sampled using flat plate settling process pre-and post-operation. Simultaneously,the air purification effect of the laminar purification equipment was evaluated. RESULTS The air bacterial content before the water/gas blast gun ran was significantly different from that when the gun stopped (P

Objective·To investigate and compare the clinical characteristic of non-organic dyspnea and asthma both with complaint of dyspnea.Methods·Seventy-four consecutive patients with non-organic dyspnea,and 74 age-,height-,weight and sex-matched patients with asthma were recruited for investigation in the study.The self-assessment surveys were conducted for the two groups by means of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale,Nijmegen Questionnaire and Athens Insomnia Scale.The words for describing dyspnea,clinical symptoms,effective sleep hours and items of pulmonary function test were collected and analyzed Results·Non-organic dyspnea patients tended to describe psychogenic aspects.Asthma patients tended to describe airflow limitation.Non-organic dyspnea group mainly performed psychogenic symptoms.The sleeping time in non-organic dyspnea group was significantly lower than that in asthma group(P＜0.05).The score of anxiety,depression,Nijmegen Questionnaire,Athens Insomnia Scale,FEV1,FEV1％Pred,FVC％Pred,FEV1/FVC in non-organic dyspnea group were significantly higher than those in asthma group (P＜0.05).There was no significant difference in FVC between two groups(P＞0.05).Conclusion·The non-organic group feel more anxiety,depressed and insomnic than the asthma group.Lung function test of asthma group is often abnormal.To discriminate non-organic dyspnea with asthma,clinicians should pay more attention to emotion,sleep,somatoform symptoms,medical history and so on,and do pulmonary function test,improve the understanding of the characteristics of the two diseases,decrease misdiagnosis and wrong diagnosis.

AIM: We have shown that intraperitoneal (IP) addition of hyaluronan could increase peritoneal fluid removal by decreasing peritoneal fluid absorption rate. In this study, we investigated the impact of chronic use of hyaluronan on peritoneal membrane transport characteristics. METHODS: Twenty male SD rats received daily IP injection of 25 mL 4.25% glucose dialysis solution without (HP, n=8) or with 0.025% hyaluronan (HA, n=6) for one week, another six rats did not receive any peritoneal injection. Twenty-four hours after the last injection, a 4h dwell study using 25 mL 4.25% glucose dialysis solution with IP volume marker and frequent dialysate and blood samplings were performed in each rat. RESULTS:IPV was significantly higher in the HA group as compared to the HP group (ANOVA repeated measurement, P

AIM: To study the effect of IL-12 on T lymphocytes apoptosis, the expression of Fas/FasL and TNFR/TNF?. METHODS: Terminal dUTP nick end labeling(TUNEL) and Annexin V assay were used. Anti-TNFR were labeled with FITC, anti-CD95 was labeled with PE and Anti-FasL with biotin. Three kinds of T cells (HTB176,TIB152 and human normal T cells) were analysed through flow cytometry. RESULTS: At 1st hour after being treated with IL-12, the expression of FasL protein and FasL mRNA in HTB176 and TIB152 began to increase and reached peak value in 24 hours. In the normal T cells, FasL just began to increase in 1 hour and maintained stability in 6, 12 and 24 hours through the later experiment period. All three kinds of T cells displayed no change in the expression of CD95 and TNFR/TNF? under the stimulation of IL-12. CONCLUSION: Expression of such apoptosis regulating factors were different in the apoptosis of T cells induced by IL-12.

Objective To study the relationship between TGF-?signaling pathway and pathogenesis of gastric carcinoma.Methods The expression of TGF-?RⅠ,TGF-?RⅡand Smad4 protein was deter- mined by immunohistochemistry in normal gastric mucosa(26 cases),intestinal metaplasia(22 cases),dysplasia (20 cases)and gastric carcinoma(43 cases).Results The positive expression rate of TGF-?RⅠ,TGF-?RⅡand Smad4 decreased following the malignant degree in gastric tissues(P

The fruit of Pandanus tectorius (PTF) has a long history of use as a folk medicine to treat hyperlipidemia in Hainan province, South China. Our previous studies have shown that the n-butanol extract of PTF is rich in caffeoylquinic acids and has an adequate therapeutic effect on dyslipidemic animals induced by high-fat diet. In this work, seven caffeoylquinic acids isolated from PTF were screened for the lipid-lowering activity in HepG2 hepatoma cells. Oil-Red O staining, microscopy and intracellular triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) quantification showed that 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3-CQA), 3, 5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3,5-CQA), and 3,4,5-tri-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3,4,5-CQA) significantly inhibited lipid accumulation induced by oleic acid and decreased intracellular levels of TC and TG in a dose-dependent manner. These three caffeoylquinic acids showed no significant cytotoxicity at concentrations of 1 -50 μmol x L(-1) as determined by MTT assay. Realtime quantitative PCR revealed that 3-CQA and 3, 5-CQA significantly increased the expression of lipid oxidation-related genes PPARα, CPT-1 and ACOX1 while 3-CQA, 3, 5-CQA and 3,4,5-CQA decreased the expression of lipogenic genes SREBP-1c, SREBP-2, HMGR, ACC, FAS. Overall, 3-CQA, 3, 5-CQA and 3, 4, 5-CQA may be the principal hypolipidemic components in PTF which can decrease intracellular lipid accumulation through up-regulating the expression of lipid oxidative genes and down-regulating the expression of lipogenic genes.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; metabolism ; China ; Cholesterol ; metabolism ; Gene Expression Regulation ; Hep G2 Cells ; Humans ; Lipid Metabolism ; Liver Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Oleic Acid ; Pandanaceae ; chemistry ; Quinic Acid ; analogs & derivatives ; chemistry ; Sterol Regulatory Element Binding Protein 1 ; Triglycerides ; metabolism