Objective To investigate the characteristics of peripheral lymphocytic subsets and cytokines in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis( PBC) and their changes after therapy. Methods Eighty two patients with untreated PBC were divided randomly into three groups. Group U (28 patients) were treated with ursodeoxycholic acid ( UDCA) , group UP (27 patients) were treated with UDCA and prednisonlone, while group UA (27 patients) were treated with UDCA and azatharaprine. Levels of peripheral lymphocytic subsets and cytokines were monitored at 0, 3, 6 months after therapy. Twenty healthy people were included as healthy control ( HC). Results Compared with HC, the percentage of CD/ T cell (P = 0. 044) increased in PBC; the levels of IFNγ(P = 0. 001), IL-2 (P =0. 000) , IL-4 (P =0. 010) , IL-6 (P = 0. 029) , tumor necrosis factora ( TNFα ) ( P = 0. 000) , IL-1β ( P = 0. 008 ) and transforming growth factorβ(TGFβ) (P =0. 069) increased in PBC. The level of TNFa in peripheral was correlated with those of ALT (P=0.005), AST (P=0.002), total bilirubin(Tbil) (P=0.001), direct bilirubin( Dbil) (P=0. 002) , and mayo risk score(MRS) (P=0. 020). The percentage of CD_4~+T cell decreased in group U. In group U, the levels of IFNγ,IL-4,IL-6 all decreased after therapy at the third month, but rebounded thereafter. In group of UP and UA, the levels of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-6 were suppressed below the levels of baseline after therapy.Levels of TNFa and IL-2 decreased in all three groups after therapy. Conclusions Levels of both Thl and Th2 related cytokines are abnormal in the peripheral blood of patients with PBC. The abnormal levels of Thl related cytokine indicated that PBC is a cell immunity based autoimmune disease. IFNγ,TNFα are directly related to the disease. The three treatments have different effects on the adjustment of the immune system.

Objective To explore the clinical manifestations and recovery from neuroimaging abnormalities of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM),in order to improve the understanding of ADEM.Methods A total of 47 children with ADEM in Department of Neurology,Children′s Hospital of Soochow University were followed up for 1 year.The clinical manifestations,auxiliary examination (especially neuroimaging),treatment and prognosis were analyzed.The recovery conditions from clinical and neuroimaging abnormalities were summarized.Results Among 47 cases,37 cases (78.72%) had prodromic infection history,and 5 cases (10.64%) had the history of vaccination.The clinical manifestations were varied,including 36 cases (76.60%) with somatic discomfort,30 cases (63.83%) with fever,30 cases (63.83%) with disturbance of consciousness,28 cases (59.57%) with epileptic seizure,24 cases (51.06%) with headache and dizziness,22 cases (46.81%) with nausea and vomiting,15 cases (31.91%) with dyskinesia,15 cases (31.91%) with cranial nerve injury,9 cases (19.14%) with incoordination,and 8 cases (17.02%) with mental and behavior disorders.Abnormal lesions presented multiple,asymmetric patchy and large patchy signal image showed by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),and 7 cases (14.89%) involved the spinal cord.All patients received the treatment of Methylprednisolone [15-20 mg/(kg·d)] combined with intravenous gamma globulin (total 2 g/kg,3 to 5 days).The dose of Methylprednisolone gradually decreased after it had been used for 3 days.In the end,it was replaced by an oral administration of Prednisone [1.0-2.0 mg/(kg·d)],and the total treatment period was for 2-3 months.The follow-ups of 47 children with ADEM showed that the MRI lesions of all the children were reduced and the MRI lesions in 4 (8.51%) of them disappeared completely after 0.5 month of follow-up;the lesions disappeared completely in 13 cases (27.66%) after 1 month of follow-up;the lesions disappeared completely in 23 cases (48.94%) after 3 months of follow-up;the lesions disappeared completely in 32 cases (68.09%) after 6 months of follow-up;the lesions disappeared completely in 43 cases (91.49%) after 1 year of follow-up;and finally there were 4 cases (8.51%) with residual lesions.Conclusion The clinical manifestations of children with ADEM are varied.Most children with ADEM have a favorable prognosis.Imaging lesions of 68.09% of the cases completely disappeared after the onset of 6 months.Imaging lesions in 91.49% of the cases completely disa-ppeared at the onset of 1 year.Only a small fraction of patients present permanent lesions.

The effect of paper publication time on knowledge discovery in biomedical literature was studied by analyzing the role of time factor in indirect link mining and tested using the PubMed-covered data set,which showed that recently published papers played a better role than early published papers in knowledge discovery,indicating that the time factor plays a certain role in knowledge discovery in biomedical literature and can thus improve the efficiency of knowledge discovery in biomedical literature.

Adolescent ; Female ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; congenital ; Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Anaplastic ; physiopathology

A biomedical entity association evolution network was constructed by mining the implicit associations in PubMed-covered literature, which can help scientific researchers to form new scientific hypotheses, to analyze the topological features of associated network, to study the scientific literature-enriched knowledge structure, associa-tions, development rules, to introduce new visual angles and methods for literature-based knowledge discovery, and to improve the knowledge discovery efficiency.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; adverse effects ; Female ; Graft vs Host Disease ; therapy ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive ; therapy ; Male ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; therapy ; Transplantation, Homologous

Objective: To explore the factors affecting the prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) among HIV/AIDS patients, so as to provide insights into developing HAND prevention measures. Methods: HIV/AIDS patients aged 18 years and above in the Infection Department of Nanjing Second Hospital were selected.Demographic data, treatment regimen and blood biochemical indicators were collected. Depression was evaluated using Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale, frailty was evaluated using Chinese version of Tilburg Frailty Indicator, and HAND was evaluated by Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale. Factors affecting HAND were analyzed using a multivariable logistic regression model. Results: Totally 440 questionnaires were allocated and 426 valid questionnaires were recovered, with an effective rate of 96.82%. The median age of patients investigated was 33.00 (interquartile range, 10.00) year. There were 407 males, accounting for 95.54%; 232 patients with bachelor degree or above, accounting for 54.46%; 171 patients with HAND, accounting for 40.14%. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that educational level (bachelor degree or above, OR=0.291, 95%CI: 0.157-0.541), depression (OR=2.499, 95%CI: 1.530-4.083), frailty (OR=2.121, 95%CI: 1.307-3.441) and treatment regimen including efavirenz (OR=2.223, 95%CI: 1.367-3.615) were the influencing factors for HAND among HIV/AIDS patients. Conclusion Educational level, depression, frailty and use of efavirenz may be associated with HAND risk.

Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Flow Cytometry ; methods ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Thrombasthenia ; classification ; diagnosis

Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; C-Reactive Protein ; analysis ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cytarabine ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Fever ; blood ; chemically induced ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; blood ; drug therapy ; Teniposide ; therapeutic use

Objective To investigate the pathogen culturing of the catheter related infection(CRI),cathe-ter related bloodstram infection(CRB)and risk factors after central venous catheter(CVC)of cardiovascular surgery in order to provide the beneficial reference.Methods From Jan 2005 to Dec 2005,a total of 300 cases central ve-nous cathers were determined,and the cusp of the catheters was determined by bacteria cultivation,and blood bacte-ria cultivation.Results The infection happened in 35 of 300 patients with inserted central venous catheter.The cusps of CRI rate was 11.7%.CRB rate was 1.7%.54.3%pathogens were gram-positive cocci,34.3% were gram-negative bacilli,11.4% were fungi.The most common strain were Staphylococcus epidermis,Staphylococcus aureus,Klebsiella pneumoniae,Pseudomonas aeruginose,and Candiadia albicans.The infection rate increased obviously when the dwelling time>6 d.Conclusion CRI and CRB are the most severe complication of CVC,and it is important to cut down the death with the early diagnosis and applying antibiotics rationally.