China ; Curriculum ; Education, Dental ; Oral Medicine ; education

Adult ; Esophagus ; surgery ; Female ; Foreign Bodies ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neck ; surgery

Humans ; Organometallic Compounds ; chemistry ; metabolism ; toxicity

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value and limitation of multichannel intraluminal esophageal impedance and pH (MII-pH) monitoring on the diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux-related chronic cough (GERC).Methods The patients with suspicious GERC consecutively referred to our respiratory clinic between May 2010 and July 2011 underwent a MII-pH monitoring,and received anti-reflux drug therapy,irrespective of the laboratory findings.Chronic cough due to gastroesophageal reflux was determined when there was a favorable response to anti-reflux therapy.Then,the sensitivity,specificity,false positive and negative rate,total consistence,positively and negatively predictive value,the area under the curve of ROC and the Kappa value of the laboratory investigation were calculated for the diagnosis of GERC.Results During the research period,56 patients completed MII-pH monitoring.Among them,the abnormal reflux was found in 35 patients,and GERC was finally confirmed in 30 patients (85.7％) including 25 patients (83.3％) due to acid reflux and 5 patients (16.7％) due to non-acid reflux.In the remaining 21 patients with normal reflux episodes,6 patients (28.6％) could be explained by non-acid reflux for their cough because of a relatively predominant weakly acid reflux and favorable response to empirical anti-reflux therapy.For the diagnosis of GERC,MII-pH monitoring had the sensitivity of 83.3％,the specificity of 75.0％,false positive rate of 25.0％,false negative rate of 16.7％,total consistence of 80.4％,positive predictive value of 85.7％,negative predictive value of 71.4％,the area under the curve of ROC of 0.792 and Kappa value of 0.577 respectively.Conclusion MII-pH is a sensitive and reliable tool for the diagnosis of GERC due to its ability to detect both acid and non-acid reflux.

Objective To investigate the correlation factors for hot flashes in climacteric women so as to improve their quality of life. Methods A questionnaire was distributed among 792 climacteric women. The questionnaire items included general information, characteristics of menstruation, reproduction history, information of hot flashes, lifestyle and sexual life. Weight, height, blood pressure, waist and hip circumferences were measured. Logistic regression analysis was made to find out the correlation factors for hot flashes. Results Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, education, income, present characteristics of menstruation, dietary habit, soy products intake, physical exercise, satisfaction of sexual life, body mass index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure were significantly associated with hot flashes. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that irregular menstruation or menopause, frequent exercise and higher systolic blood pressure were risk factors for hot flashes in climacteric women. However, higher education, soy products intake and satisfaction of sexual life were protection factors. Conclusion Guiding climacteric women to take moderate physical exercise, knowing more about climacterium, consuming more soy products and controlling diastolic blood pressure are likely to decrease the incidence of hot flashes.

OBJECTIVETo explore the detoxication and tissue generation effect of Astragalus (As) in wound healing and its relation with inflammatory reaction, through observing the effect of Astragalus polysaccharides (AP) on neutrophil-endothelial cell adhesion and expression of related adhesive molecules.

METHODSHuman polymorphonuclear leucocyte (PMN) or human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) was treated separately with AP, AP plus interleukin 1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) to study the effect of AP on PMN adhesion with HUVEC by rose bengal staining, and that on expression of superficial adhesive factor by means of Cell-ELISA and APAAP method.

RESULTSWhen AP acted on HUVEC, it could significantly promote the adhesion of HUVEC with PMN, while when AP acted on PMN, the adhesion would not increase. When HUVEC was treated by AP plus IL-1, the IL-1 induced PMN adhesion with HUVEC could be strengthened, and the expression of HUVEC superficial adhesive factor ICAM-1 induced by IL-1 and TNF was strengthened also, but when PMN treated with AP, it showed no effect on the expression of adhesive factor CD18.

CONCLUSIONAP promotes the adhesion between neutrophil and endothelial cell by way of promoting the expression of superficial I-CAM-1 on surface of endothelial cells, so as to improve the inflammatory reaction in the wound healing course, it possibly is one of the biological bases of the detoxication and tissue generation effects of AP.

Astragalus membranaceus ; chemistry ; Cell Adhesion ; drug effects ; Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Humans ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 ; biosynthesis ; Interleukin-1 ; biosynthesis ; Neutrophils ; cytology ; metabolism ; Polysaccharides ; pharmacology ; Umbilical Veins ; cytology ; Wound Healing ; drug effects

OBJECTIVETo find out whether tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-308 and TNF-alpha-238 locus (G-->A) mutation within the TNF-alpha gene promoter region is associated with susceptibility to occupational stress.

METHODS169 pipelining workers were investigated using the occupational stress measuring instrument. The subjects were divided into high and low strain groups according to the job strain score of the questionnaire. By means of polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphisms (PCR-RFLP) techniques, TNF-alpha gene polymorphisms of all subjects were analyzed.

RESULTSThere were 34 workers with genotype -308G/G and 4 with -308G/A genotype in the low strain group while in the high strain group, there were 117 workers with genotype -308G/G and 10 with -308G/A genotype and 1 with -308A/A. No significant difference in -308 genotype was found between the two groups (chi2 = 0.0001, P > 0.05). There were 30 workers with genotype -238G/G and 7 with -238G/A genotype and 1 with -238A/A in the low strain group while there were 118 workers with genotype -238G/G and 10 with -238G/A genotype in high strain group. The frequencies of TNF-alpha-238A in the low strain groups were significantly higher than that in high strain groups (chi2 = 5.45, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONTNF-alpha promoter G238A polymorphism is associated with occupational stress. There is no evident relationship between TNF-alpha promoter G308A polymorphism and susceptibility to occupational stress.

Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Occupational Diseases ; psychology ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Stress, Psychological ; genetics ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; genetics

Aged ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Receptors, Interleukin-2 ; blood ; Silicosis ; blood ; classification ; T-Lymphocyte Subsets ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo observe the efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy on moderate and severe allergic rhinitis via the comparison evaluation of western medicine.

METHODSSixty cases of moderate and severe allergic rhinitis were divided into an acupuncture group (30 cases) and a western medicine group (30 cases). In the acupuncture group, the main acupoints included Yingxiang (LI 20), Shangxing (GV 23), Fengchi (GB 20), Quchi (LI 11), Xuehai (SP 10), Feishu (BL 13), Geshu (BL 17), Pishu (BL 20), etc. The supplementary points were selected according to syndrome differentiation. In the western medicine group, budesonide nasal spray and cetirizine tablets were prescribed. All the cases were treated for 8 weeks in the two groups. Separately, before treatment, in 4 weeks and 8 weeks of treatment, the scores of clinical symptoms and physical signs were observed and the clinical efficacy and safety were compared between the two groups.

RESULTSIn 4 weeks and 8 weeks of treatment, the scores of symptoms such as sneezing, nasal discharge, nasal obstruction, nasal itching, eye itching and turbinate hypertrophy, the score of physical signs and total score were all reduced apparently as compared with those before treatment (all P<0. 05). The differences were not significant between the acupuncture group and the western medicine group (all P>0. 05). The total effective rates were 90. 0% (27/30) and 93. 4% (28/30) in the acupuncture group after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment, and were 76. 6% (23/30) and 80. 0% (24/30) in the western medicine group separately, without significant difference in comparison (all P>0. 05).

CONCLUSIONAcupuncture achieves the similar efficacy on moderate and severe allergic rhinitis as western medicine. It is the safe therapy and has no apparent adverse reactions.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Rhinitis, Allergic ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Sneezing ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is synthesized and secreted by the anterior pituitary, which binds to its receptors expressed on the membrane of Sertoli cells in the testis to bring about spermatogenesis. With the development of DNA sequencing technology, FSH SNPs rs10835638 and FSHR SNPs rs6165, rs6166, and rs1394205 were detected, which might directly affect the expression of FSH and activity of FSHR, resulting in male spermatogenic dysfunction. This review focuses on the relationship of FSH and FSHR gene polymorphisms with male infertility.
Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; genetics ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; genetics ; Male ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Receptors, FSH ; genetics ; Sertoli Cells ; Spermatogenesis ; Testis