Statins have pleiotropic effects in lowering the lipid, stabilizing plaque, antiinflammation, neural protection , and preventing thrombosis. The author highlights the latest progress of cholesterol-independent effects of statins on preventing stroke.

Total knee arthroplasty has become one of the effective operation methods on end-stage knee osteoarthritis. However,the postoperative pain has been plaguing the clinicians. The cause of postoperative pain can be divided into iatrogenic, prosthesis and patient. Pain treatment in perioperative period includes preoperative education, analgesia in advance, and the selection and design of reinforcement; during operation mainly includes the appropriate surgical approach, keep the balance of soft tissue around the knee joint, cocktail analgesia pain around the knee joint; after operation mainly includes oral analgesic drugs, femoral nerve tissue and patient controlled analgesia. And the multimodal analgesi.a which is the analgesic methods combined application in perioperative period raised in resent years fully intervene the pain in perioperative period,so that it can effectively reduce the pain of patients after knee replacement, promote the patients do functional exercise more better and get better operation result.
Analgesia, Patient-Controlled ; Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee ; Humans ; Nerve Block ; Pain Management ; Pain, Postoperative ; drug therapy ; etiology

Objective To evaluate the clinic effectiveness and safety of transcatheter closure of ventricular septal defect using homemade Amplatzer VSD occluder. Methods From Jan 2003 to April 2005,16 patients (11 males,5 femles) with VSD underwent an attempt of catheter closure using homemade Amplatzer occluder.The mean age of patients was (13.98 ?11.05) years (ranged from 3.5 to 41 years);the mean weight of patients was (32. 1 ?17.59) kg (ranged from 12.5 to 59 kg);the mean diameter ofVSD measured by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) was(5.34?1.75)mm(ranged from 3.7 to 9mm). All patients underwent closure under TTE or transthoracic echocardiography(TEE)guidance. Results The devices were deployed successfully in 12patients.There was complete closure in 11patients immediatelly,and residual sbunt in 1 patients.After proccdure, bundle branch block(right and left bundle) were occurred in 7patients.Hemolysis was in 1patients.There were no other servere complications.Conclusions Transcatheter closure of VSD using this new occluder is safe and effective. Early results are good.Further clinical trials are underway to assess the long-term results.

OBJECTIVETo find out an appraisal method of temperature on the first appearance date of Culex tritaeniorhynchus in spring.

METHODSWhole night collection of mosquitoes mosquitoes (from 18:00 hours to 06:00 hours of the following day) with light traps had been carried out in pig sties every night since 1 March in 1982 - 1992 and 2001 - 2002 in Fengxian area Shanghai. The adult mosquitoes caught were anaesthetized, then identified and counted. The density of mosquitoes was calculated by the average number of mosquitos per one trap and one night. Comparative analysis of the mean daily air temperature at 7 days before, the first appearance date and 1 day after, the first appearance date of Culex tritaeniorhynchus.

RESULTSData of the first appearance data of Culex tritaeniorhynchus were judged to mean daily air temperature and cumulative temperature on the day of the first appearance of Culex tritaeniorhynchus and the day before appearance, or 3 days on the day of the first appearance of Culex tritaeniorhynchus and the two days before appearance and the day since appearance with a difference less than 1 - 2 day (91.7%).

CONCLUSIONThe first appearance of Culex tritaeniorhynchus in spring accompanied with a course of influence by the severe warm air advection from south of China, and lowest mean daily air temperature of the first appearance was 11 degrees. Thus the first appearance data of Culex tritaeniorhynchus could be deduced and rehabilitated from observed values of mean daily air temperature or its forecasting values.

Animals ; China ; Circadian Rhythm ; physiology ; Culex ; physiology ; Seasons ; Temperature

Objective To study the early diagnostic predictors and key follow-up parameters for girls with rapidly progressive central precocious puberty (RP-CPP). Methods A total of 260 girls with CPP participated in a prospective, nonrandomized, multi-center, nested case control study. After follow-up six months without any therapy, 114 girls were divided into RP-CPP (n=70) and slowly progressive CPP (SP-CPP) (n=44) groups. Results The basal serum LH and insulin-like growth factor Ⅰstandard deviation score (IGF-ⅠSDS) were the important risk factors of RP-CPP (OR 4.04, 1.578), especially the former. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve revealed that the areas under the ROC curve of basal LH and IGF-ⅠSDS were 0.83 and 0.807, respectively. The levels of basal LH and IGF-ⅠSDS were at 0.52 mIU/ml and 0.35 respectively for the accuracy diagnosis of RP-CPP with the maximum Youden indexs. After follow-up for six months, the change levels of height, breast stages, bone age/chronological age ratio, serum LH, uterine and ovarian volume in RP-CPP group were significantly higher than those in SP-CPP group (all P<0.05). Conclusions The level of basal serum LH and IGF-ⅠSDS may be used as the risk predictors for early diagnosis for girls with RP-CPP. The change levels of basal LH, progress rates of gonad and sex character, height, and impaired growth potential seem to be the key follow-up parameters for CPP progress.

UNLABELLEDobjective: To investigate effects of buyang huanwu decoction (BYHWD) on the rats' myocardial hypertrophic model induced by abdominal aortic constriction, and to clarify the molecular regulatory mechanisms for sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium uptake.

METHODSHypertrophic myocardium rat model was induced by abdominal aorta constriction (AAC). Four weeks after modeling, rats were randomly divided into the sham-operation group (Group S), the AAC model group (Group M), the Enalapril group (Group E), and the BYHWD treatment group (Group BYHWD), respectively. The left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), + dp/dtmax,-dp/dtmax, cardiac output (CO), heart mass index (HMI), and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) were observed in each group after 12-week medication. The serum contents of the atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) were detected using ELISA. The SERCA2a activity, the ex- pressions of SERCA2a, phospholamban (PLN), and PLN phosphorylation were observed finally.

RESULTSCompared with Group S, LVSP and LVEDP significantly increased,-dp/dtmax and CO obviously decreased, the myocardial tissue was obviously thickened, the serum contents of ANP and BNP increased, the activity and expression of SERCA2a decreased, the SERCA2a/PLN ratio and PLN phosphorylation degree decreased in Group M (all P <0.05). Compared with Group M, LVEDP obviously decreased, -dp/dtmax and CO obviously increased, the hypertrophy myocardial tissue was obviously lessened, the serum contents of ANP and BNP decreased, the activity of SERCA2a increased, the relative expression contents of SERCA2a, Ser16, and Thrl7 were elevated in Group BYHWD (all P <0.05). BYHWD had significant roles in elevating the SERCA2a/PLN ratio and PLN phosphorylation degree (P <0.05).

CONCLUSIONBYHWD could significantly improve hemodynamics of heart failure rats, elevate CO, lessen cardiac hypertrophy, and improve the capabilities for sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium uptake.

Animals ; Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal ; metabolism ; pathology ; Calcium ; metabolism ; Constriction, Pathologic ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular ; metabolism ; pathology ; Male ; Myocardium ; pathology ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Sarcoplasmic Reticulum ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo study on growth characteristics of Curcuma wenyujin, and provide theoretical basis for the development of high-quality and high-yield medical material.

METHODThe morphological change of the plant was observed periodically, the content of volatile oil and dry matter in leaves, rhizome, root tuber was determine.

RESULTThe growth of C. wenyujin could be divided into 5 stages, i. e. seed germination, seedling, leaf growth, rhizome expansion, accumulation of dry matter, respectively. Before the stage of rhizome expansion, over 70% dry matter was accumulated in the aerial part of the plant, and during the stage of leaf growth, the maximum increase rate of dry matter in aerial part was 3.90 g/p/d. During the stage of rhizome expansion, the ratio of dry matter of rhizome increased quickly and reached above 33% , and the increase rate of dry matter of rhizome rise up to 3.83 g/p/d, in the end of the stage, the content of volatile oil in the rhizome also rose up to 1.20 mL x 100 g(-1).

CONCLUSIONDuring the whole growth stage, there are two growth centers, when the two curves of dry matter increase of aerial part and rhizome intersect, it is regarded as a signal that the growth transformed form the aerial part to rhizome. When the rate of dry matter from rhizome rise, the content of volatile oil in rhizome rises quickly with the increase of dry matter in rhizome. The optimal harvest time is in mid-December.

Curcuma ; anatomy & histology ; chemistry ; growth & development ; Germination ; Oils, Volatile ; analysis ; Plant Components, Aerial ; chemistry ; growth & development ; Plant Leaves ; chemistry ; growth & development ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; growth & development ; Plants, Medicinal ; anatomy & histology ; chemistry ; growth & development ; Rhizome ; chemistry ; growth & development ; Seasons ; Seedlings ; chemistry ; growth & development ; Seeds ; growth & development

OBJECTIVETo investigate the value of in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the assessment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and monitor its metabolic change shortly after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).

METHODSIn this prospective study, 28 consecutive patients with large HCC (> or = 3 cm in diameter) confirmed by fine needle aspiration biopsy were recruited. The 1H MRS of all hepatic lesions and some uninvolved liver parenchyma were performed with 1. 5T whole body MR scanner. Among them, 15 cases were evaluated again about one week after TACE. The main metabolites such as choline and lipid before and after interventional therapy were measured to assess the early response of the tumor.

RESULTSThe technical success rate of 1H MRS in liver was high (33/41, 80%), closely related to breath motion, location of lesion, and size of voxel. In spectra, the choline compound peak of HCC elevated compared with uninvolved liver parenchyma. After TACE, both the amplitude and the area of choline resonance peak significantly descended (choline-to-lipid ratios from 0.352 +/- 0.080 to 0.167 +/- 0.030, P = 0.026; from 0.205 +/- 0.060 to 0.070 +/-0.020, P = 0.042, respectively); yet lipid resonance peak ascended.

CONCLUSIONSIn vivo 1H MRS is technically feasible for the evaluation of large focal hepatic lesions, however, the reproducibility and stability are not as good as routine MR scan. 1H MRS can monitor the early stage metabolic changes of HCC after TACE but limitation like quantification still exists.

Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; administration & dosage ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Chemoembolization, Therapeutic ; Cisplatin ; administration & dosage ; Doxorubicin ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Female ; Humans ; Liver ; pathology ; Liver Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; methods ; Male ; Middle Aged

OBJECTIVETo explore the association of polymorphisms of metabolizing enzyme genes with chronic benzene poisoning (CBP) comprehensively by case-control design.

METHODS152 CBP patients and 152 workers occupationally exposed to benzene without poisoning manifestations were investigated. 30 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 13 genes such as CYP2E1 were tested by PCR-RFLP, sequencing approaches. Logistic regression model was used to detect main effects and 2-order interaction effects of gene and/or environment. Multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) was used to detect high-order gene-gene or gene-environment interactions.

RESULTSBased on logistic regression, the main effects of GSTP1 rs947894, EPHX1 rs1051740, CYP1A1 rs4646903, CYP2D6 rs1065852 and rs1135840 were found to be significant (P < 0.05) while the confounding factors of sex, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and the intensity of benzene exposure were controlled. EPHX1 rs1051740 might be associated with CBP (P = 0.06). There existed 3 types of interactions were as followed: interactions of GSTP1 rs947894 with alcohol consumption, CYP2E1 rs3813867 with EPHX1 rs3738047, EPHX1 rs3738047 with alcohol consumption(P < 0.05), while the main effects of CYP2E1 rs3813867 and EPHX1 rs3738047 were not significant (P > 0.05). The other SNPs did not show any significant associations with CBP. According to MDR, a 3-order interaction with the strongest combined effect was found, i.e. the 3-factor combination of CYP1A1 rs4646903, CYP2D6 rs1065852 and CYP2D6 rs1135840.

CONCLUSIONGene-gene, gene-environment interactions are important mechanism to genetic susceptibility of CBP.

Adult ; Benzene ; poisoning ; Case-Control Studies ; Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1 ; genetics ; Cytochrome P-450 CYP2D6 ; genetics ; Cytochrome P-450 CYP2E1 ; genetics ; Epoxide Hydrolases ; genetics ; Female ; Gene-Environment Interaction ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genotype ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction ; Occupational Exposure ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Young Adult

With the rising detection rate of strains with extensive drug resistance clinically, there is an increasingly urgent need of novel anti-microbial agents. More and more researchers put emphasis on bacteriophage therapy and have made great progress in this field. A large number of studies showed that some bacteriophages could produce enzymes which killed the host bacteria by degrading polysaccharides in their extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). This review introduces the classification of phage polysaccharide depolymerases and their action mode, the methods to determine whether the phage produces depolymerases, and their applications in anti-bacterial treatment, biofilm degradation and bacterial capsule typing.