Exhalation ; Humans ; Nitric Oxide ; analysis ; Nose

BACKGROUND: Studies of spinal biomechanics are conducted based on three-dimensional finite element model. The biomechanics of lower thoracic vertebra requires accurate and precise finite element models due to its structural characteristics. Currently, cervical and lumbar finite element models have been explored, but the studies of lower thoracic vertebra remains unclear.OBJECTIVE: Using reverse engineering software to reconstruct three-dimensional finite element model of lower thoracic vertebra, to lay a foundation for further biomechanical research. METHODS: imaging samples of one case with no spinal disease or osteoporosis were selected from Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical College. Informed content was obtained. Using non-spinal-disease CT data, three-dimensional finite element model Of lower thoracic vertebrae and intervertebral discs were reconstructed with Mimics, Gomagic and Ansys softwares. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Using reverse engineering software in combination with CT technique, the three-dimensional finite element model of lower thoracic vertebrae was reconstructed. The model accurately showed their anatomic characteristics and discrimination of inner structure. The lower thoracic vertebrae was divided into 112 540 tetrahedron elements. Results show that using reverse engineering software, a three-dimensional finite element model of lower thoracic vertebrae was successfully reconstructed, with high efficiency of establishment and simple operation.

Objective: To analyze the efficiency characteristics and trend of tertiary general public hospitals from both static and dynamic perspectives. Methods: After collecting data of personnel, equipment, assets, health services and other inputs-output indicators from 50 tertiary public hospitals from 2006 to 2012 , this paper uses C2 R-DEA and BC2-DEA models, as well as Malmquist Index model to build suitable analysis model. Results:About 10%~12% of the sample hospitals are in a relatively effective operational state, and the mean values of allocation effi-ciency and scale efficiency are 0. 956 and 0. 943, respectively, which are close to the efficient frontier. The mean values of pure technical efficiency, technical efficiency, cost efficiency and overall efficiency are 0. 796, 0. 784, 0. 714 and 0. 714, respectively, which are relatively poor compared with the efficiency frontier. Moreover, the number of hospitals that are in the state of diminishing returns to scale increased from 7 . 69% to 26 . 31%, while the number of hospitals that are in the state of increasing returns to scale decreased from 80. 77% to 58. 34%. The changes in techno-logical progress, Malmquist productivity index, technical efficiency index, pure technical efficiency index and scale effi-ciency index remained a relatively stable consistency, and showed continuous improvement and steady development trend. Conclusion:Tertiary general public hospitals are facing the transformation of driving force for development and incentive mechanisms. This needs not only to change the management concept and development mode of the hospitals, but also to build evaluation standards of optimum efficiency that are relevant to the structure, process and outcome, in order to pro-mote the transformation of hospital governance and development model that includes the functions of government.

Objective To observe the curative effect of pure 1 25 I treatment to non-small cell lung cancer combined obstructive pneumonia.Methods 28 cases with non-small cell lung cancer combined obstructive pneumonia were enrolled.Treatment planning system was used to calculate the dosage of tumor and make up the therapeutic plan.CT-guided radiation treatment of particle im-plantation was then conducted.Follow-up was done to evaluate the curative effect one to two months after treatment.Results The total effective rate of therapeutic evaluation was 89.3%.Clinical symptoms including chest distress,hard breathing and fever were ameliorated remarkedly.Life quality score of appetite and fatigue was also improved.White blood cell reduced significantly in blood routine examination.Conclusion There is a definite curative effect of pure 1 25 I treatment to non-small cell lung cancer combined ob-structive pneumonia.

OBJECTIVETo explore a step-by-step exclusive diagnosis and analyze the clinical characters of non-allergic rhinitis (NAR).

METHODSPatients with symptoms (nasal itching, sneezing, rhinorrhea, nasal congestion) were selected to take four-step exclusive diagnosis for NAR and we tried to eliminate the false NAR and retain the true NAR. First step was to exclude the patients who were not suitable for skin prick test (SPT, such as during pregnancy, breastfeeding, asthma, oral antihistamine medication in 7 day, severe skin diseases). The second step was to exclude the patients with positive SPT and the third step was to exclude the patients with 1 level or above of specific sero-immunoglobulin E (sIgE). The fourth step was to exclude the patients with infection rhinitis, clear abnormal nasal structure, drug-induced rhinitis, nasal neoplasm. The remained patients were finally diagnosed as NAR and who were further differential diagnosed as vasomotor rhinitis (VMR) or non-allergic rhinitis with eosinophilia syndrome (NARES) according to the eosinophilia counts in nasal secretion and venous blood. The common characters of patients with NAR were analyzed and their symptoms and quality of life were evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS) and rhino-conjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ) separately.

RESULTSOne thousand four hundred and thirty-seven patients were included after first step exclusion and 735 cases with negative SPT were remained after second step exclusion. Of 735 patients, 302 were tested in vitro for sIgE and 93 cases with 0 level of sIgE and total IgE were remained after third step exclusion. Sixty-two patients were finally diagnosed as NAR after fourth step exclusion. The NAR diagnosis rate was 51.15% (735/1 437) with negative SPT alone and the NAR diagnosis rate was 29.06% (93/302) with combination of negative SPT and sIgE. Of 62 patients with NAR, 47 patients (75.81%) were diagnosed as VMR and 15 cases (24.19%) as NARES. There were 23 males and 39 females in the 62 patients aged 11 - 77 years. The history was 11-47 months. The biggest numbers of patients with VMR or NARES were among 41-50 years. Their onset ages were among 21-30 years in both two groups. VAS scores of nasal congestion in VMR patients were the highest with significant difference among nasal symptoms (F = 3.958 0, P = 0.009 1). VAS scores of sneezing in NARES patients were the highest but without significant difference among nasal symptoms. There were no difference in seven domain scores of RQLQ and the total mean scores between VMR group and NARES group but the nasal symptoms got the highest scores with significant difference among the seven domains in each group (VMR group, F = 9.771 2, P = 0.000 0;NRAES group, F = 3.226 9, P = 0.006 2).

CONCLUSIONSSPT combined with sIgE may exclude much more patients with AR. Females with NAR are much more than males. Patients with NAR aged 21-30 years. The characters of NAR are helpful to improve our knowledge about NAR. VAS and RQLQ may be a suitable tool in assessment of NAR.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Asthma ; diagnosis ; Child ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Quality of Life ; Rhinitis ; diagnosis ; Rhinitis, Allergic ; diagnosis ; Rhinitis, Vasomotor ; diagnosis ; Skin Tests ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To study the early gene diagnosis of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) induced severe nosebleed. METHOD: Clinical features of 23 family members in two HHT pedigrees were examined. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples. PCR amplification was conducted to screen ENG and ACVRL-1 genes with their specific primers. Direct sequencing was performed to detect the mutation. Mutation analysis was carried out to evaluate its significance. RESULT: A heterozygous c. 263A > G mutation was identified in exon 3 of ACVRL-1 in 6 out of 11 members in NMG-1 pedigree. In GD-2 pedigree, 5 of 11 members carried c. 199C > G mutation. Mutation detection rate was 100% in subjects with nosebleed history and 25% in family members without epistaxis. CONCLUSION Gene diagnosis characterized by high sensitivity and specificity is of great practi-cal significance and early genetic screening should be a clinical routine test for HHT induced severe nosebleed.
Activin Receptors, Type II ; genetics ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Antigens, CD ; genetics ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Endoglin ; Epistaxis ; diagnosis ; etiology ; genetics ; Exons ; Female ; Genetic Testing ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pedigree ; Receptors, Cell Surface ; genetics ; Telangiectasia, Hereditary Hemorrhagic ; complications ; diagnosis ; genetics ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo measure the nasal nitric oxide (NNO) and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) in healthy people and patients with allergic rhinitis (AR), and to discuss the clinical significance of the results.

METHODSNinety-six healthy volunteers and 51 patients with moderate-severe persistent AR, but without asthma, were enrolled. NNO and FENO concentrations were measured noninvasively by using of NIOX MINO (Aerocrine AB, Solna, Sweden).SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the data.

RESULTSThe concentration of NNO in healthy people was 245.0 [189.8;331.3] ppb (median [25th percentile; 75th percentile], the followings were same as). The concentration of FENO was 14.0 [10.0; 18.0] ppb. The concentration of NNO in patients with AR was 304.0[179.5; 397.5]ppb. The concentration of FENO was 21.0 [16.0; 40.5] ppb. The concentration of NNO in the AR patients was higher than that in the healthy persons, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (Z = 1.349, P = 0.177).On the other hand, FENO concentrations were significantly increased in patients compared with concentrations in healthy persons (Z = 5.555, P = 0.000).

CONCLUSIONSFENO concentrations of patients with moderate-severe persistent AR are increased significantly even though the patients do not have typical symptoms of asthma. This finding suggests that AR patients should be treated actively in order to prevent asthma from developing in them.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Breath Tests ; Case-Control Studies ; Exhalation ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nitric Oxide ; analysis ; Rhinitis, Allergic ; physiopathology ; Young Adult

BACKGROUNDOuabain is a mammalian adrenocortical hormone that is involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension by inhibiting Na-K ATPase activity. It also participates in a variety of kinase-mediated signaling pathways associated with Na-K ATPase. Previous studies have shown that ouabain can cause cardiac remodeling independent of elevated blood pressure and that proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) plays a coordinating role for numerous proteins involved in multiple processes associated with DNA synthesis. Therefore, we hypothesized that ouabain might play a role in the cerebral cortex through signaling pathways independent of hypertension. And PCNA might be involved in this process.

METHODSMale Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with ouabain or with 0.9% nitric sodium as the control group. Systolic blood pressure was recorded weekly. After four weeks of treatment, morphological changes in the cerebral cortex were analyzed using light and transmission electron microscopy. The expression of PCNA in the cerebral cortex was evaluated by immunohistochemistry, real time quantitative PCR, and Western blotting.

RESULTSAfter 4-week treatment, there was no significant difference in systolic blood pressure compared with the control group, but both structural deterioration and up-regulated expression of PCNA in the brain was induced by ouabain treatment.

CONCLUSIONSThese results suggest that ouabain induces alterations in the brain structure, and this effect is independent of blood pressure. PCNA might be involved in the repair process of ouabain-induced brain damage.

Animals ; Blood Pressure ; drug effects ; Hypertension ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; Immunohistochemistry ; Male ; Ouabain ; therapeutic use ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sodium-Potassium-Exchanging ATPase ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo analyze the clinical characteristics of primary ciliary dyskinesia(PCD) so as to improve the diagnostic level of this rarely seen disease.

METHODSTen patients with PCD were retrospectively reviewed, the medical history, symptoms, signs, lung CT or chest X-ray, rhino-sinus CT scan, nasal nitric oxide (NO) levels, nasal ciliary ultrastructure, DNAH5 and DNAH11 genetic mutation, as well as treatment outcome were analyzed.

RESULTSAll 10 patients had recurrent chronic sinusitis, otitis media, bronchitis/bronchiectasis since childhood. Nine cases with translocation of heart and big vessels were diagnosed as Kartagener syndrome. One woman was suffering from barrenness and one man sterility after marriage for long time without birth control. Nasal NO levels were significantly lower in 2 patients with PCD but it was almost normal in one patient. Ciliary ultrastructure investigated by transmission electron microscope were almost normal in 4 cases without missing of inner or outer dynein arms. Two cases taking exome capture sequencing showed that mutations happened in DNAH5 and DNAH11. Five subjects underwenting sanger sequencing on 6 common exon fragments of DNAH5 and DNAH11 did not show any abnormality. Ten cases took medication therapy, while 5 patients once underwent functional endoscope sinus surgery. All of the 10 patients had improvement of their symptoms and signs after treatment.

CONCLUSIONSThe PCD is so rare in clinic that it is easily misdiagnosed. Clinical characteristics, nasal NO levels, ciliary ultrastructure and genetic testing are significant for clinical diagnosis.

Adult ; Axonemal Dyneins ; genetics ; Child ; Cilia ; ultrastructure ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Female ; Humans ; Kartagener Syndrome ; diagnosis ; genetics ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nasal Cavity ; chemistry ; Nitric Oxide ; analysis ; Retrospective Studies