BACKGROUND: There are many drawbacks with hormone replacement therapy for menopausal syndrome. The blood levels of 5-HT and norepinephrine are lower. Fluoxetine hydrochlorde(ProzacR) is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor which is widely used in treating anxiety and depression,OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of combined antidepressant and estrogen therapy compared to estrogen alone in the treatment of perimenopausal syndrome in this prospective open study.DESIGN: Randomized comparative study.SETTING: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University PARTICIPANTS: From November 2003 to December 2004, 60 female patients with diagnosed menopausal syndrome of 3-12 month duration, aged (46±3) years, from Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University were enrolled into the study after giving their informed consents. The patients were randomly divided into two equal groups with Group 1 (n=30) receiving a combination of antidepressant + estrogen and Group 2 (n=30) receiving estrogen only.METHODS: Patients in Grgup 1 received fluoxetine hydrochloride (ProzacR) 20 mg orally every morning plus oral estradiol 1 mg once every two weeks for 2 months. Patients in Group 2 received only oral estradiol 1 mg once every two weeks for two months. Patients were not taking any other drug during the treatment period. At the end of two month treatment all patients were evaluated with the following 3 assessment tools: ①female menopausal symptom evaluation with the following 4 categories: Complete symptom relief, markedly improved, improved and no effect. Overall efficacy was defined as 50% symptom improvement. ② Hamilton Depression Scale which reflects energy level and psychosomatic factor of sleep and anxiety. ③Menopause index: Which are description of clinical evaluation and adverse effects; this would help to assess the safety of using both drugs in treating the menopausal syndrome.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: female menopausal symptom assessment, hamilton depression scale, and menopause index.RESULTS: ① In female menopausal symptom assessment group 1 showed better results in the complete relief and markedly improved scores. ②Hamilton Depression Scale group 1 also showed better scores than Group2(In Groupl, the scores at week 1 to 8 were 25,18,15,10,8,5,5,4 respectively ,in Group 2, the scores at week 1 to 8 were 25,17,15,14,13,12,13,13 respectively). ③ Group 3 showed a significant better score in the menopausal index with improvement in sleep disorder, anxiety and depression than Group 2 (In Group 1 the scores at week 1-8 were 32,22.5,15,15,14,15,15,14 respectively,In group 2, the scores at week 1 to 8were 33,21,16,14,13,12,13,13 respectively) ,there was no significant difference of incidence of adverse events as compared with Group 3 .CONCLUSION: Combined therapy of fluoxetire hydrochlarde(PROZAC)plus estrogen showed better efficacy in the treatment of menopausal syndrome than estrogen alone.

Objective: To study the alkaloid constituents of Huperzia serrata (Thunb.) Trev.. Methods: Various chromatographies were used for separation and purification of the alkaloids and spectroscopic analysis was used for determination of the chemical structure. Results: An alkaloid constituent(alkaloid A) was isolated from H. serrata . Conclusion: Alkaloid A was a new compound, named huperzinine B.

Orally disintegrating tablets (ODT), a kind of new solid tablet that rapidly disintegrates to work in the mouth, has became the hot form of new drug research in recent years with many advantages, such as the convenient taking, a widely applicable people, fast acting, high bioavailability, good compliance, and so on. ODT has been widely used in chemical medicines, while the application of it in traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) is still in the stage of development The development of TCMs ODT provides a new direction for the research of Chinese medicine new dosage, accelerates the pace of connecting to the world and modernization of Chinese medicine. This dosage has a broad market prospect, and its quality control and assessment standards, taste, the disintegration time in vitro and evaluation method are the key factors that affect the industrialization, standardization of Chinese medicine ODT. Therefore, this paper reviewed the characteristics, preparation, taste masking technology and quality evaluation with new technology of ODT. Meantime, numerous application examples of ODT used in traditional Chinese medicine were described. We expect to provide the reference and utilization for the development of traditional Chinese medicine orally disinteeratine tablets.
Administration, Oral ; Drug Compounding ; methods ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Solubility ; Tablets ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Taste

Re-evaluation of bioequivalence of generic drugs is one of the key research focus currently. As a means to ensure consistency of the therapeutic effectiveness of drug products, clinical bioequivalence has been widely accepted as a gold standard test. In vitro dissolution testing based on the theory of the BCS is the best alternative to in vivo bioequivalence study. In this article, the conventional dissolution method and flow-through cell method were used to investigate the dissolution profiles of domestic amoxicillin capsules in different dissolution media, and the absorption behavior of the drugs with different release rates (t85% = 15-180 min) in the gastrointestinal tract was predicted by Gastro Plus. The flow-through cell method was thought better to reflect the release characteristics in vivo, and amoxicillin capsules with regard to the release rates up to 45 min (t85% = 45 min) were having a satisfied bioequivalence with the oral solution according to the C(max) and AUC. Although two different dissolution profiles of domestic amoxicillin capsules were found by flow-through cell methods, prediction results revealed that domestic capsules were probably bioequivalent to each other.
Amoxicillin ; pharmacokinetics ; Capsules ; Computer Simulation ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Software ; Solubility ; Therapeutic Equivalency

Objective To analyze the clinical features of infantile cytomegalovirus(CMV) hepatitis with cholestasis and investigate intrahepatic cholestasis due to hepatocytic impairment caused by CMV infection.Methods Forty-seven children with CMV cholestatic he-patitis were divided into 2 groups according to the level of total bilirubin(TB):22 cases with serum TB lower than 136.8 ?mol/L(groupⅠ),and 25 cases with serum TB higher than 136.8 ?mol/L(groupⅡ).All children were treated with both gangciclovir and routine met-hods,and serum biochemistry were checked before and after treatment.SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the data.Results Forty-seven cases of infantile CMV cholestatic hepatitis had different degrees of jaundice,hepatosplenomegaly and abnormal liver functions.The differences of serum ALT and AST between the 2 groups had statistical significance,the levels of serum gamma glutamy transferase(GGT) and alkaline phosphatase(ALP) were lightly higher in groupⅡcompared with those in groupⅠ,but there were no statistical significance.TB,direct bilirubin(DB),ALT and AST were decreased in the 2 groups after treatment,GGT and ALP hadn′t decreased significantly after treatment.Conclusions CMV infection can injure hepatocytes and epithelials on each grade of bile duct,thus CMV hepatitis causes intrahepatic cholestasis.Cholestasis due to hepatocytic impairment deserves emphasis and intervention should be done as early as possible.Gangciclovir therapy for CMV infection manifest effective and safe in short-term.

OBJECTIVETo compare therapeutic effects of different needle retaining time in scalp acupuncture on motor function in the infant of cerebral palsy.

METHODSRandomized controlled design and Jin three needle therapy were used, and the therapeutic effects of needle retaining time of 1 h and 30 min on cerebral palsy were compared.

RESULTSAfter treatment for 2 months, the improvement of motor function in the group of retaining needle of lh was better than that in the 30 min group.

CONCLUSIONProlonging the retaining needle time for sufficient stimulation amountis an important factor for achieving a better therapeutic effect in scalp acupuncture treatment of infant cerebral palsy.

Acupuncture Therapy ; Cerebral Palsy ; therapy ; Humans ; Infant ; Needles ; Scalp

Twenty-one compounds were isolated from the rhizomes of Iris germanica by various chromatographic techniques such as silica gel, ODS and Sephadex LH-20 chromatography. Their structures were established on basis of physical properties, MS and NMR spectroscopic data Their structures were identified as ombuin (1), 5, 3, 3'-trihydroxy-7, 4'-dimethoxyflavanone (2), naringenin (3), cirsiliol-4'-glucoside (4), 3beta, 4'-dihydroxy-7,3'-dimethoxyflavonone-5-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (5), genistein (6), irilin D (7), muningin (8), 5, 7, 4'-trihydroxy-6, 3', 5'-trimethoxyisoflavone (9), tectorigenin (10), irigenin (11), tectoridin (12), iridin (13), mangiferin (14), irisxanthone (15), pyroglutamic acid (16), 2, 4', 6-trihydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone-2-O-beta-D-glucoside (17), apocynin (18), androsin (19), beta-sitosterol (20), and daucosterol (21). Among them, compounds 1-9, 16, 17 were obtained from this plant for the first time, compounds 8 and 9 were separated from Iris species for the first time, compounds 1, 4, and 17 were obtained from the family for the first time.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Iris Plant ; chemistry ; Molecular Structure ; Rhizome ; chemistry ; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization

OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinicopathological features of infantile cytomegalovirus hepatitis.

METHODLiver biopsies from 30 cases of infantile cytomegalovirus hepatitis were observed under optical microscope and electronic microscope.

RESULTThe main clinical manifestations were jaundice, splenohepatomegaly and hypohepatia. Laboratory test showed dysfunction of liver, high level of CMV DNA, and high titer of anti-CMV antibody. Imaging examination demonstrated hepatomegaly. The histological changes were hepatocellular degeneration, necrosis, apoptosis, and fibrosis. The histological characteristics of cytomegalovirus hepatitis, including intranuclear inclusions in multinucleated giant cells and pseudo-lumens, were also observed under optical microscope. In addition, virion was observed in the nuclei and cytoplasm of hepatocytes under electronic microscope.

CONCLUSIONThe viral DNA and serological tests have limited utility for the diagnosis of infantile cytomegalovirus hepatitis, and the final diagnosis depends on histopathology.

Biopsy, Needle ; Cytomegalovirus Infections ; pathology ; Female ; Hepatitis, Viral, Human ; pathology ; Hepatocytes ; pathology ; ultrastructure ; Humans ; Inclusion Bodies, Viral ; pathology ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Liver ; pathology ; Male ; Mitochondria, Liver ; pathology ; ultrastructure

AIMTo study the alkaloid constituents of Huperzia serrata (Thunb.) Trev..

METHODSChromatographic methods were used for the isolation and purification. Structure was elucidated on the basis of chemical analysis and spectroscopic data.

RESULTSAn alkaloid constituent was isolated from H. serrata (Thunb.) Trev..

CONCLUSIONThe compound was found to be a novel lycodine type alkaloid with tricyclic structure named huperzinine C.

Huperzia ; chemistry ; Molecular Conformation ; Molecular Structure ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Pyridines ; chemistry ; isolation & purification

OBJECTIVE Oxidative sress is one of the key factor responsible for occurrence and development of hepatic fibrosis, a common consequence of chronic liver injury of multiple etiology. Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) serves as a major regulator of a celular defense system against oxidative stress. Xiaochaihutang (XCHT), a compound of seven botanical extracts used for liver diseases traditionally in East Asia. However, few studies have investigated its anti-hepatic fibrosis effects and pathophysiological mechanism of action. The present study was designed to confirm the anti-hepatic fibrosis effects and explore its potential mechanism of action by investigating the intervention of Nrf2 pathway. METHODS Liver fibrosis was induced by repeated injection of Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) over a period of 9 weeks. Starting from the 6th week, the animals in treatment groups were given the appropriate dose of XCHT granules and silybin. Biochemical parameters, histological changes of the liver and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) were determined. The expressions of Nrf2, Keap1, Nqo1, HO-1, Gclc and Gclm were assessed by RT-PCR and Western blot. RESULTS CCl4 caused a significant fibrosis damage in the rat liver and the liver functions and fibrosis degree were significantly improved by XCHT (5 g·kg- 1 and 10 g·kg- 1). XCHT (5 g·kg- 1 and 10 g·kg- 1) treatment significantly decreased the number of cells labeled with α-SMA antibodies. Moreover, XCHT (5 g·kg-1 and 10 g·kg-1) significantly increase Nqo1, HO-1, Gclc and Gclm expressions in the liver. CONCLUSION These studies establish XCHT is a potentially useful therapeutic agent for treatment of hepatic fibrosis and it might be via regulation of Nrf2 pathway in rats against oxidative stress, making further efforts to inhibiting the activated HSCs. Activation or up-regulation of Nrf2 pathway may be an alternative treatment strategy for liver fibrosis.