OBJECTIVETo observe therapeutic effect and analgesic eJfect of needling at Ashi point for treatment of piriformis syndrome.

METHODSEighty cases were randomly divided into an inhibitory-needling method group (INM) and a routine-needling method group (RNM), forty cases in each group. The acupuncture at Ashi point as major point with inhibitory-needling munipulation was applied in the INM group, the acupuncture at Huantiao (GB 30) ,Zhibian (BL 54) ,Yanglingquan (GB 34) with routine-needling method in the RNM group. The therapeutic effect, the instant analgesic effect and score of Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were observed.

RESULTSAfter treatment, the effective rate of 92.5% in the INM group was better than that of 82.5% in the RNM group (P < 0.05); the instant analgesic effect rate of 75.0% in the INM group was better than that of 52.5% in the RNM group (P < 0.01); the score of VAS in both groups had decreased with a significant difference between two groups (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe treatment of inserting the needle at Ashi point as major point with inhibitory-needling method has excellent effectiveness and good instant analgesic effect, with fewer points selection and rapid effect.

Acupuncture Analgesia ; Acupuncture Points ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Sciatica ; therapy ; Young Adult

Objective To investigate the clinical,neuroimaging and myopathological features of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes(MELAS).Methods The clinical manifestations,neuroimaging and myopathological features of 31 patients with MELAS diagnosed in our Neuromuscular Center in the recent 7 years were retrospectively analyzed.A3243G point mutations were analyzed by RFLP method in 10 patients.Results ①Clinical features:There were 18 male patients and 13 female patients.The age of onset ranged from 3 to 43 years,averaging 21.9 years.The averaged duration was 4.9 years.Thirteen patients in this group had family history of maternal inheritance pattern.The main clinical manifestations included short stature(26 patients),recurrent headache and vomiting(24 patients), muscle weakness(22 patients),epileptic seizure(21 patients),cognitive decline(19 patients),visual disturbance(17 patients),sensorineural deafness(16 patients),ataxia(6 patients),psychiatric symptom (8 patients),external ophathalmoplegia(2 patients)and diabetes mellitus(9 patients).The serum CK level was slightly elevated in 6 patients,and the fasting blood lactic acid was increased in 15 of the 18 detected patients.②Neuroimaging features:The stroke-like lesions were mostly confined to cerebral cortex, including temporal lobe(24 patients),occipital lobe(21 patients),parietal lobe(12 patients)and frontal lobe(4 patients).Three patients had deep white matter involvement.Migrating stroke-like lesions were confirmed in 4 patients by repeated cranial CT/MRI examination.In addition,cerebral atrophy(17 patients)and bilateral basilar ganglion calcification(11 patients)were found.③Myopathological features: Scattered ragged red fibers(RRF)in various number were found in all the patients by MGT staining.Other founding included strongly SDH-reactive blood vessel(27 patients),COX enzyme deficiency(19 patients), and mild to moderate lipid storage in RRF(20 patients).④MtDNA analysis showed 9 patients with A3243G point mutation in all the detected 13 patients.Conclusion The clinical and neuroimaging features may offer important clue to the diagnosis of MELAS,but a definite diagnosis of MELAS relies on the myopathology and mtDNA mutation analysis.

OBJECTIVETo observe the therapeutic effect of type II early diabetic nephropathies intervened by acupoint thread embedding for strengthening spleen and benefiting kidney.

METHODSSixty cases of type II early diabetic nephropathies were randomly divided into an acupoint thread embedding group and a routine therapy group, 30 cases in each group. In routine therapy group, western medicine routine therapy was applied to control blood sugar, blood pressure and blood lipid. In acupoint thread embedding group, besides the western medicine routine therapy, thread embedding intervention was given at Pishu (BL 20), Zusanli (ST 36), Shenshu (BL 23) and Yishu (Extra) on both sides as main acupints, and the treatment course was 3 months. Urinary micro-albumin excretion (UAER), total score of TCM syndrome and monitor control indices (blood sugar, blood pressure, blood lipid, urea nitrogen and serum creatinine) in both groups were observed before and after treatment, and the therapeutic effects in both groups were compared.

RESULTSAfter treatment, the indices of UAER and total score of TCM syndrome were all reduced (P < 0.001, P < 0.01); the reduction in acupoint thread embedding group was more obvious (P < 0.01, P < 0.05); the total effective rate in acupoint thread embedding group was 76.7% (23/30), superior to that of 63.3% (19/30) in routine therapy group (P < 0.05). The blood sugar, blood pressure and blood lipid in both groups were remarkably improved (all P < 0.001) after treatment; the urea nitrogen and creatinine had no notable variation.

CONCLUSIONAcupoint thread embedding combined with western medicine routine therapy can not only reduce the urinary micro-albumin excretion of type II early diabetic nephropathies, but also improve the Chinese medicine symptoms and the therapeutic effect is superior to that of simple western medicine routine therapy.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Aged ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; complications ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome

In this study the effects of red orpiment on NB4 and HL-60 cells were tried to determine. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR to determine the PML mRNA expression, immuno-fluorcscence study, together with the fluorescence stain and morphological observations were used. The results showed that: (1) red orpiment induces apoptosis morphologically in NB4 and HL-60 cells, the morphology of typical apoptosis can be seen in NB4 and HL-60 cells after 12 hours of treatment with red orpiment. Through the Wright's stain, we can see the extensive membrane blebbing, condensation of heterochromatin, and cell fragmentation, apoptotic body appearing. Many dead cells can be found on the second day. (2) in NB4 cells, red orpiment is shown to induce the PML-RARalpha chimera disappearance and to reorganize then to degradation of PML nuclear bodies which also seen in HL-60 cells, indirect immunofluorescence staining of PML with a specific monoclonal antibody was performed in control and treated cells. In NB4 cells, the control was diffusely microspeckled pattern of immunoreactivity. Upon red orpiment treatment, the microspeckled pattern disappeared, PML protein reversed into normal location. and the the size and the brightness of the particles were increased obviously. The normal nuclear distribution of PML protein was seen in untreated HL-60 cells. After treatment with red orpiment, in the nuclei of HL-60 cells, the size and the brightness of the particles were also increased. After two days of treatment with red orpiment, the immunofluorescent particles in cells almost disappeared. (3) the expression of PML mRNA is not changed in red orpiment-treated cells, RT-PCR to determine the PML mRNA expression in NB4 and HL-60 cells treated with red orpiment, the expression results are similar to the controls, that to say, the PML mRNA lever is unaffected. It was concluded that, red orpiment induced PML to play the effects of induce apoptosis in leukemia cells at the translational level and inhibited the proliferation of leukemia cells.

BACKGROUND: Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) that are manufactured in good manufacturing practice (GMP) clean rooms should be made into stem cell preparations before administration. Low-temperature preparation has many advantages over cryopreservation preparation; however, little is reported on the effect of short-term low-temperature storage on the biological characteristics of stem cells. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of 24-hour low-temperature storage using multiple electrolytes containing 5% human serum albumin on the biological characteristics of ADSCs.METHODS: ADSCs at passages 3-6 at a concentration of 5×109/L were suspended in multiple electrolytes containing 5% human serum albumin. Cell suspension was transferred into cryogenic vials, and then these vials were placed in a cold chain shipping box for 2-8 ℃ low-temperature storage for 24 hours. Cell morphology, adhesion ability, cell viability, cell diameters and cell immunophenotyping before and after the storage were observed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) After low-temperature storage of ADSCs for 24 hours, the number of dead cells increased. Although cell viability decreased significantly, it was still higher than 80%. Cell diameters of living cells increased significantly. (2) After low-temperature storage of ADSCs for 24 hours, few cells which were circle-shaped lost adhesion ability, and most cells could adherently grow, with the spindle-shaped morphology similar to the cells before preservation. (3) After low-temperature storage of ADSCs for 24 hours, HLA-DR, CD34 and CD45 were negatively expressed with a positive rate lower than 2%; CD29, CD73 and CD105 were positively expressed with a positive rate higher than 95%. However, the cell cluster was clearly divided into two parts after the preservation. Cells with enlarged diameters moved right in the FSC/SSC dot-plot. These results show that low-temperature preparation storage has no significant effect on the stemness of ADSCs, such as adhesion ability, cell viability and cell immunophenotype.

Objective To investigate the safety and effectiveness of open radical prostatectomy (ORP) for locally advanced prostate cancer (LAPC).Methods From January 2012 to April 2017,132 cases underwent ORP were included.The mean age was 65.1 years old (ranged 41 to 83 years old),median PSA was 28.9 ng/ml (ranged 1.2 to 319.7 ng/ml) and mean Glcason score was 8.0(ranged 6.0 to 10.0).The number of clinical stage T3aN0,T3bN0,T4N0 and T1 ～4N1 were 92 cases(69.7％),20 cases (15.2％),8 cases (6.1％) and 12 cases (9.0％),respectively.Results The median length of hospital day,mean operative time and median blood loss were 9 d,180 min and 350 ml respectively.The intraoperative complication rate was 3.0％ (4/132),including 2 rectum injury and 2 iliac vessel injury.Pathological tumor stage revealed that ≤ pT2 N0 7 cases (5.3％),pT3a N0 61 cases (46.2％),pT3b N0 38 cases (28.8％),pT4N0 12 cases (9.1％) and pT1～4N1 14 cases (10.6％).The mean Gleason score was 8.0 (ranged 6 tol0).The numbers of patients with perineural invasion,seminal vesicle invasion and positive surgical margin were 81 cases (61.4％),49 cases (37.1％) and 41 cases (31.1％) respectively.The median follow-up duration was 24.1 (ranged 1.8 to 62.2) months.The rate of postoperative complications was 3.0％ (4/132) including 1 urethral stricture,1 wound infection,1 intestinal fistula and 1 lymphatic fistula.The rates of patients with urinary continence 1,3,6 and 12 months after surgery were 30.4％ (38/125)、63.9％ (76/119)、72.6％ (82/112)、89.1％ (90/101).The rates of adjuvant hormonal therapy and radiotherapy were 34.1％ (45/132) and 38.6％ (51/132).One patient (0.8％) died of lung cancer.The rate of biochemical recurrence(BCR) was 25.8％ (34/132).The 5-year BCRfree survival rate was 57.2％ (95％ CI 41.9％ ～ 70.6％).Conclusion The oncological control and functional recovery outcomes of ORP for locally advanced prostate cancer were reliable.

OBJECTIVETo discuss the value of pre-operative semen analysis of patients with varicocele as a predictive restore index of sperm motility and fertilizing capacity after varicocelectomy.

METHODSSemen analysis was carried out with computer-aided sperm analyzer in 107 patients with varicocele and all patients were referred to the clinic with diagnosis of male infertility. Stratification of patients as group A (n = 32), B ( n = 36) and C (n = 39) was based on pre-operative total motile sperm count (TMSC). Follow-up included semen analysis and pregnancy data after three months following left or bilateral varicocelectomy.

RESULTSThe average post-operative TMSC increased significantly when compared with the pre-operative. However, a mean absolute increase in group A and B was better than that in group C (P < 0.05). Of the 68 patients in groups A and B based on pre-operative TMSC, 56 patients' TMSC (82.4%) was > or =20 x 10(6) after varicocelectomy, and that of only 8 (20.5%) patients in group C was > or =20 x 10(6) following varicocelectomy. Of the 98 patients wives, 36 had natural conception. Pregnancy rates in groups A and B were higher than that in group C (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONVaricocelectomy may be the most effective method to patients with varicocele with pre-operative TMSC > or = 5 x 10(6), but it may be not the best method for patients with severe oligoasthenospermia (pre-operative TMSC < 5 x 10(6)).

Adult ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Ligation ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Rate ; Semen ; physiology ; Sperm Count ; Sperm Motility ; Varicocele ; physiopathology ; surgery

Objective To analyze the literature on artificial intelligence in forensic research from 2012 to 2022 in the Web of Science Core Collection Database,to explore research hotspots and developmen-tal trends.Methods A total of 736 articles on artificial intelligence in forensic medicine in the Web of Science Core Collection Database from 2012 to 2022 were visualized and analyzed through the litera-ture measuring tool CiteSpace.The authors,institution,country(region),title,journal,keywords,cited references and other information of relevant literatures were analyzed.Results A total of 736 articles published in 220 journals by 355 authors from 289 institutions in 69 countries(regions)were identi-fied,with the number of articles published showing an increasing trend year by year.Among them,the United States had the highest number of publications and China ranked the second.Academy of Forensic Science had the highest number of publications among the institutions.Forensic Science Inter-national,Journal of Forensic Sciences,International Journal of Legal Medicine ranked high in publica-tion and citation frequency.Through the analysis of keywords,it was found that the research hotspots of artificial intelligence in the forensic field mainly focused on the use of artificial intelligence technol-ogy for sex and age estimation,cause of death analysis,postmortem interval estimation,individual identification and so on.Conclusion It is necessary to pay attention to international and institutional cooperation and to strengthen the cross-disciplinary research.Exploring the combination of advanced ar-tificial intelligence technologies with forensic research will be a hotspot and direction for future re-search.

OBJECTIVETo investigate COX-2 expression in patients with gastric cancer and its relationship with angiogenesis and clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer.

METHODSCOX-2 expression and CD34-stained microvessel density (MVD) were detected by immunohistochemical methods in specimens from 96 patients with gastric cancer. The correlations among COX-2 expression, MVD and clinicopathologic features were analyzed.

RESULTSThe COX-2 positive rate and MVD in gastric cancer were significantly higher than those in the normal gastric mucosa (80.2% vs. 13.3%; 32.5+/- 8.3 vs. 13.1+/- 2.4, all P< 0.01). The COX-2 positive rate and MVD in the patients with stage III and IV were significantly higher (91.4% and 34.9+/- 8.7 respectively, P< 0.01), than that in the patients with stage I and II. The COX-2 positive rate and MVD in the cases with lymph node metastasis were 87.9% and (35.0+/- 8.5) respectively, higher than those in the cases without lymph node metastasis (P< 0.05). The Spearman rank correlation test showed a significant correlation between COX-2 expression and tumor MVD (r=0.311, P< 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSCOX-2 plays an important role in gastric cancer angiogenesis. COX-2 and angiogenesis induced by COX-2 contribute to tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis.

Adult ; Aged ; Cyclooxygenase 2 ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neovascularization, Pathologic ; metabolism ; pathology ; Stomach Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo study the immunoregulatory effect of hepatitis B virus (HBV) e antigen (HBeAg) on peripheral blood monocytes (PBMCs).

METHODSPBMCs were isolated from patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB; both HBeAg- and HBeAg+) and healthy controls, and cultured with recombinant HBeAg. The HBeAg-induced changes in expression of PD-1/PD-L1 were measured by flow cytometry of the cells and in secreted cytokines were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of the supernatants. Comparisons between two groups were made by the independent-samples t-test; the relationship between PD-1/B7-H1 level and HBV DNA copy number was evaluated by Spearman's correlation analysis.

RESULTSExposure to HBeAg led to a significant decrease in CD3+CD4+ T lymphocyte-specific expression of IFNa for both the CHB patients' and healthy controls' samples (t = 2.382 and -4.190 respectively, P less than 0.01). For the HBeAg- CHB patients' and healthy controls' samples, the HBeAg exposure led to increased levels of secreted cytokines IL-6, IL-10 and TNFa (t = 2.504, 3.583 and 4.324, P less than 0.01 and t = 3.542, 6.246 and 5.273, P less than 0.01 respectively) and of CD14+ PBMC-specific expression of PD-L1 (t = 4.815 and 3.454, P less than 0.05 respectively). Compared to the HBeAg-negative CHB patients' and healthy controls' samples, the HBeAg+ CHB patients' samples had significantly lower CD3+CD4+ T cell-specific expression of IFNa (t = -3.177 and -4.541, P less than 0.01 respectively), but significantly higher levels of secreted IL-4 (t = 3.382 and 4.393, P less than 0.01 respectively), of CD3+ T cells-specific expression of PD-1/PD-L1 (t = 4.755, 2.942 and 4.518, 4.595, P less than 0.01 respectively), and of CD14+ T cells-specific expression of PD-L1 (t = 5.092 and 5.473, P less than 0.01 respectively). The CD3+ T cells-specific expression of PD-L1 was significantly higher in the samples from HBeAg- CHB patients than from the healthy controls (t = 3.214, P less than 0.01).

CONCLUSIONHBeAg was able to down-regulate the production of Th1-type cytokines (IFNgamma), and up-regulate the secretion of Th2-type cytokines (IL-6, IL-10) and the expression of PD-1/PD-L1on monocytes. These changes are conducive to the formation of immune tolerance to HBV. Therefore, HBeAg may play an important role in immune tolerance to chronic HBV infection.

Adult ; Case-Control Studies ; Cells, Cultured ; Female ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; genetics ; immunology ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; immunology ; Humans ; Interferon-gamma ; immunology ; Interleukin-10 ; immunology ; Interleukin-6 ; immunology ; Leukocytes, Mononuclear ; immunology ; metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Recombinant Proteins ; immunology ; Th1 Cells ; immunology ; Th1-Th2 Balance ; Th2 Cells ; immunology