Newer retinal imaging technologies help us in understanding the pathogenesis of many retinal pathologies,such as diabetic retinopathy,age related macular degeneration,glaucoma and uveitis.Early detection of these retinal diseases can prevent the onset of progressive vision loss,and aid in the development of new treatment options.Retinal functional imager (RFI) is an unique and noninvasive functional imaging system.Unlike most of the available newer retinal imaging tools,the RFI not only shows retinal structural changes,but can directly monitor functional changes and measure hemodynamic parameters,such as retinal bloodflow velocity,oximetric state,etc.This article reviews the utility progress of RFI in various retinal diseases.

Objective The paper described a convenient and sensitive radioirnmunoassav method which can be used to measure the amount of morphine in a single hair. Method Succinvl-eggalbumin-morphine was used as immunogen to immunize New Zealand rabbits for obtaining high quality antiserum. The morphine- labeled with Iodine-125 was purified by HPLC. The radioimmunoassay method was established and the amount of morphine in a single hair was detected. Results The affinity constant of antibody is 3.25 ? 10~11L/M. The radiochemical purity of I-mophine is 95% and the specific radioactivity is 112?Ci/?g. The detection limit for morphine (3SD from zero-dose binding) is 0.01ng/ml. Five normai person's single hair and five addict's were detected . The length of these specimens is 9-24cm and the weight of them 0.7- 2. 1mg. The amount of morphine in the hair of normai person is 1. 75 ? 0.37ng/mg (x ? 5) and that of the addictos'is 471 ?204ng/mg (x ? s). Conclusion This method can be employed for accurate mea-surement of the amount of morphine in a single hair and the result can be adopted to indicate the probability of illicit-drug use.

Based on the software of Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System (TCMISS), the article made analysis on the composition rules of prescriptions dealing with syndrome of deficiency of both qi and blood from National Standard for Chinese Patent Drugs (NSCPD) enacted by Ministry of Public Health of China. First, prescriptions were collected from NSCPD. Second, used integrated data mining methods in TCMISS, including association rules, improved mutual information method, et al. to analyze the medication rules. At last, irregular menstruation, insomnia, consumptive diseases with the same syndrome of deficiency of both qi and blood, were chosen to make comparative analysis on frequency of medicines used, core drug combinations, et al. to better find the similarities and differences of medications rules when confronted with the same syndrome while different diseases. And the similar core drug combinations directly reflected the characters of clinical practices of traditional Chinese medicine, which emphasizes on the treatment based on the syndromes of differentiation, and treating different diseases with the same methods.
Blood Circulation ; drug effects ; Drug Combinations ; Drug Prescriptions ; standards ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Phytotherapy ; standards ; Qi

Objective To explore influence of long-term inhaled glucocoticoids(IGS) on soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1(sICAM-1)) in children with bronchial asthma.Methods Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) method was used to detect the serum sICAM-1 level in 36 healthy children and 29 children with bronchial asthma(untreated and post-treated for 3,6 and 12 months).Results 1.Serum sICAM-1 level was significantly elevated in children with asthma and significantly higher than that in normal control group(P

Objective:To investigate the predictive value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT metabolic parameters for occult lymph node metastasis (OLM) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods:A total of 183 patients (72 males, 111 females; age (61.5±8.4) years) who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT and preoperatively diagnosed with clinical N0 stage (cN0) in Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from January 2013 to December 2018 were retrospectively enrolled. All patients underwent anatomical pulmonary resection with systematic lymph node dissections within 3 weeks after 18F-FDG PET/CT examinations. According to the presence or absence of lymph node metastasis, patients were divided into OLM positive (OLM+ ) group and OLM negative (OLM-) group. Parameters of primary lesions, such as the maximum diameter (D max), tumor sites, morphological features, maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max), mean standardized uptake value (SUV mean), metabolic total volume (MTV), total lesion glycolysis (TLG), tumor SUV max to liver SUV mean (TLR max), tumor TLG to liver SUV mean (TLR TLG) were analyzed. Mann-Whitney U test and χ2 test were used to compare the parameters between groups. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyze the independent risk factors for OLM. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of different parameters. Results:Among 183 patients, 25 (13.7%, 25/183) of them were diagnosed as OLM. In OLM+ group, 46 lymph nodes were pathologically positive for metastasis, including 15 N1 disease and 31 N2 disease. D max (2.9(2.3, 3.7) vs 2.3(1.7, 2.8) cm), lobulation ((76.0%(19/25) vs 37.3%(59/158)), SUV max (11.1(7.9, 17.7) vs 4.7(2.3, 9.2)), TLG (41.5(10.2, 91.1) vs 15.6(6.5, 23.8) ml), TLR max (4.7(3.5, 7.6) vs 2.1(0.9, 4.0)) and TLR TLG (18.1(5.0, 44.3) vs 6.1(3.0, 11.4) ml) of the primary lesions in OLM+ group were significantly higher than those in OLM-group ( z values: from -4.709 to -3.247, χ2=13.190, all P<0.05). Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that TLR max (odds ratio ( OR)=15.145, 95% CI: 3.381-67.830, P<0.001) and D max ( OR=3.220, 95% CI: 1.192-8.701, P=0.021) were independent risk factors for OLM. TLR max yielded the highest area under curve (AUC; AUC=0.794) with the threshold of 3.12, and the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for predicting OLM were 92.0%(23/25), 63.3%(100/158), 67.2%(123/183), 28.4%(23/81) and 98.0%(100/102), respectively. Conclusions:TLR max of tumor is the independent risk factor for OLM in NSCLC patients. TLR max can sensitively predict OLM preoperatively in patients with NSCLC.

ObjectiveTo explore the best treatment method of cerebral artery dissection.Methods This study included eight patients who were definitely diagnosed as cerebral artery dissection by the cerebral angiography in our department of neurology during Oct.2009 and Nov.2011.They were all treated by the anticoagulation or anti-platelet methods.Some patients received the stent therapy.All patients' were followed for at least three months. The treatment effect was assessed by NIHSS,mRS and by the cerebral angiography.ResultsSix patients had carotid artery dissection,2 had vertebral artery dissection.Four patients were given anticoagulant therapy and the other 4 were given anti-platelet therapy. The reexamination by angiography 10-14 days after admission showed that in 3 patients,the stenosis was aggravated or the infarction occurred.They were diagnosed as having repeated transient ischemic attack (TIA) during pharmacotherapy and received stents for treatment.There was no TIA and cerebral infarction in the follow-up period after individualized therapy.Mean NIHSS scores of 8 patients between pre and post treatment were 5.9,1.6 respectively. Mean mRS scores pre and post treatment were 2.5,0.9respectively.Conclusion The treatment for patients with cerebral artery dissection should be individuated.The patients in acute stage should get anticoagulation,anti-platelet therapy and angiography re-examination.According to the clinical manifestation and cerebral angiography,the next step for the treatment should be done.

Objective To evaluate the the effect of microalbuminuria of combined treatment with fosinopril and losartan,or fosinopril,losartan monotherapy in patients with hypertension.Methods In this double-blind, intention to treat study,136 patients with hypertension were randomly assigned to receive fosinopril 10 mg/d(n= 50),losartan 50 mg/d(n=41),or a combination of fosinopril 5 mg and losartan 25 mg (n=45) qd for 4 weeks, followed by titrating to the maximum recommended doses for another 4 weeks.The primary endpoint was the difference of mean sitting blood pressure and microalbuminuria excretion at baseline and week 8.Results At week 8,the combination of fosinopril and losartan therapy lowered mean mieroalbuminuria from baseline by 26.1?10~(-8) mol/L,significantly more than either monotherapy approaches (fosinopril 20 mg,18.3?10~(-8)mol/L,P

To study the chemical constituents from the the deep-sea fungus Alternaria sp. F49. Seven compounds were isolated from the EtOAc extract by using silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, ODS and HPLC methods. Based on the spectroscopic analysis, their structures were identified as (8R)-5-O-methyl-orcinotriol (1), orcinotriol (2), α-acetylorcinol (3), 3'-hydroxyalternariol 5-O-methyl ether (4), altenusiol (5), altenusin (6), and 5'-methoxy-6-methyl-biphenyl-3,4,3'-triol (7). (8R)-5-O-Methyl-orcinotriol (1) is a new phenolic compound which has never been reported in the literature. Compounds 4-7 showed strong DPPH free radical scavenging activity; whereas compounds 1-7 showed strong ABTS free radical scavenging activity.

ITS2 sequence was used as a barcode to identify herbal tea ingredient Plumeria rubra and its adulterants. Genomic DNAs from forty eight samples were extracted, the ITS2 sequences were amplified and sequenced bi-direstionlly, and then assembled and obtained using CodonCode Aligner. The sequences were aligned using ClustalW, the genetic distances were computed by kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model and the Neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic trees were constructed using MEGA5.0. Results showed that the length of ITS2 sequence of P. rubra were 244 bp. The intra-specific genetic distances (0-0. 016 6) were much smaller than inter-specific ones between P. rubra and its adulterants(0.320 8-0.650 4). The NJ tree indicated that P. rubra and its adulterants could be distinguished clearly. Therefore, Using ITS2 barcode can accurately andeffectively distinguish herbal tea ingredient P. rubra from its adulterants, which providesa new molecular method to identify P. rubra and ensure its safety in use.
Apocynaceae ; classification ; genetics ; DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic ; methods ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; DNA, Ribosomal Spacer ; genetics ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; classification ; Flowers ; chemistry ; classification ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Quality Control

The objective of this study was to investigate the expressions of TPO receptor (c-mpl) proteins on CD34 positive bone marrow cells (CD34+ BMCs), platelets and the expression of c-mpl mRNA in bone marrow cells of the patients with polycythemia vera (PV). The expressions of c-mpl proteins on CD34+ bone marrow hematopoietic cells of 13 PV patients and 15 normal controls were assessed by bicolor flow cytometry and the expressions of c-mpl proteins on platelets of 15 PV patients and 15 normal controls were assessed by monocolor flow cytometry, and the expressions of c-mpl mRNA in bone marrow hematopoietic cells (BMHCs) were assessed by RT-PCR. The results showed that no difference was found between the expression of c-mpl proteins on CD34+ BMHCs of PV patients (0.99% +/- 0.14%) and that of normal controls (0.92% +/- 0.12%) (p > 0.05). There was no difference too between the expression of c-mpl protein on platelets in PV patients (20.33% +/- 4.84%) and that in normal controls (23.50% +/- 3.64%) (p > 0.05). No difference between the expression of c-mpl mRNA in BMHCs of PV patients and that in normal controls was seen. In conclusion, the expressions of c-mpl proteins on CD34+ BMHCs, platelets and c-mpl mRNA in BMHCs of PV patients were not obviously abnormal.
Antigens, CD34 ; analysis ; Blood Platelets ; metabolism ; Bone Marrow Cells ; metabolism ; pathology ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; metabolism ; pathology ; Humans ; Polycythemia Vera ; genetics ; metabolism ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Receptors, Thrombopoietin ; metabolism