Ketamine is a noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist and comes into being a new problem of drug abuse. It can cause a certain extent of hallucination, which makes ketamine be abused in the casinos. The paper reviews the pharmacological and toxicology characteristic of Ketamine, the possible physiological mechanism and the methods for detecting Ketamine abuse.
Anesthetics, Dissociative/toxicity* ; Cerebral Cortex/drug effects* ; Humans ; Illicit Drugs ; Ketamine/toxicity* ; Mental Disorders/chemically induced* ; Receptors, Dopamine/drug effects* ; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate/drug effects* ; Substance Abuse Detection/methods* ; Substance-Related Disorders/prevention & control*

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of caspase-3 in different posttraumatic intervals and severity of brain injury. METHODS: The study examined brain tissue samples of slight (n = 24), severe (n = 24) brain injury and control (n = 6) of rat, using immunohistochemical staining, western-blot and RT-PCR method. RESULTS: Up-regulating of caspase-3 expression was found in tissue from traumatic brain injury compared with controls in early 1 hour after TBI, and lasted for 14 days. The gray degree and threshold area of caspase-3 positive cells is different in different severity of brain injury. CONCLUSION The increasing of caspase-3 expression indicates that TBI exists. The gray degree, threshold area of caspase-3 positive cells and the cleavage degree of pro-caspase-3 have association with the severity of brain injury.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Blotting, Western ; Brain Injuries/pathology* ; Caspase 3 ; Caspases/genetics* ; Immunohistochemistry ; RNA, Messenger/biosynthesis* ; Rats ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Time Factors

Dental age plays an important role in age estimation. It has often been used together with skeletal age to improve the accuracy of age estimation abroad, but seldom performed in China. As a noninvasive technology, dental radiological imaging has been widely used in age estimation. By observing the age-related changes such as the pulp cavity and development of crown and root on radiographs. Gleiser and Hunt, as well as Demirjian have developed different methods to determine the age of human. Demirjian's method has been proved to be more accurate but with limitation when used in persons of eighteen and above. The accuracy and reliability of the measurements on pulp cavity could be improved as the development of computed tomography with its high resolution and intelligent software. As a convenient and accurate method, age estimation from dental computed tomographs would be more promising in the future for forensic scientists and anthropologists.
Age Determination by Teeth/methods* ; Dental Pulp/diagnostic imaging* ; Forensic Dentistry ; Humans ; Radiography, Panoramic/methods* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods*

Ketamine is a phencyclidine derivative acting primarily as a noncompetitive antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) excitatory glutamate receptors. As a common intravenous anaesthetic in clinic, it is also increasingly abused because of its hallucination and addiction effects. Based on the pharmacological and toxicologic characteristics of ketamine and the acknowledged addiction mechanism of other abused drugs, this article reviews the possible addiction mechanism of the ketamine in the aspects of its enhanced effects and reward systems, the anatomic structures, the related receptors and the individual differences.
Anesthetics, Dissociative/adverse effects* ; Animals ; Brain/drug effects* ; Humans ; Illicit Drugs ; Ketamine/adverse effects* ; Mental Disorders/chemically induced* ; Rats ; Receptors, Dopamine/drug effects* ; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate/drug effects* ; Substance-Related Disorders

Schizophrenia is one of the common mental diseases. Because the mechanism of the schizophrenia is significantly complicated, the cause is still unknown. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist can simulate the positive and negative symptoms, as well as the cognitive disorder of schizophrenia. Thus it has been widely used to establish the animal models of schizophrenia. The relationship of the three blocking agents of ion channels (phencyclidine, MK-801, ketamine) and the establishment of schizophrenia animal models is reviewed in this article.
Animals ; Behavior, Animal/drug effects* ; Brain/physiopathology* ; Consciousness Disorders/physiopathology* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Dizocilpine Maleate/pharmacology* ; Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists/pharmacology* ; Humans ; Ketamine/pharmacology* ; Mice ; Phencyclidine/pharmacology* ; Rats ; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate/antagonists & inhibitors* ; Schizophrenia/physiopathology*

OBJECTIVE: To obtain the genetic polymorphism data of two STR loci D2S1399 and D5S2500 in Eastern Chinese Han population. METHODS: Blood samples or buccal swabs of unrelated Han individuals living in eastern China were analyzed using PCR-nature polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis-sliver staining method. RESULTS: 11 alleles of D2S1399 and 9 alleles of D5S2500 were observed in the samples respectively, the observed heterozygosity (Ho) values, the discrimination power (DP) values and the power of exclusion (PE) values of D2S1399 and D5S2500 is 0.745 and 0.807, 0.958 and 0.917, 0.554 and 0.643, respectively. CONCLUSION The result showed that D2S1399 and D5S2500 were highly informative loci and suitable for forensic application.
Alleles ; Asian People/genetics* ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Forensic Medicine ; Gene Frequency ; Genetics, Population ; Genotype ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Silver Staining ; Tandem Repeat Sequences

OBJECTIVETo analyze the complete remission (CR) rate, disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients treated with HA based three drugs induction chemotherapy and to explore the impact of cytogenetic abnormalities on the prognosis.

METHODSTwo hundred and forty-three untreated de novo AML patients were treated with HA based three drugs induction therapy. CR rate, DFS and OS were calculated. One hundred and eighty-four patients who had karyotype results were divided into four or three groups according to SWOG or MRC criteria respectively. Differences in CR rate, DFS and OS among different groups were evaluated.

RESULTSThe CR rate of all the 243 cases was 77.4%. The median DFS of the 188 CR patients was 28.5 (ranged from 1.0 to 153.0) months, DFS rates at 3 and 5 years were 45.4% and 40.2% respectively. The median OS of the 243 patients was 18.4 (range from 0.5 to 154.0) months. OS rates at 3 and 5 years were 36.9% and 31.4% respectively. According to SWOG criteria, CR rate, median DFS and OS were 97.8%, 87.4 months and 89.0 months for the favorable group; 81.9%, 17.6 months and 22.3 months for the intermediate group; 61.5%, 9 months and 11.5 months for the adverse group; and 79.3%, 29.0 months, 19.9 months for the unknown group, respectively. The differences among the four groups were statistically significant (P < 0.001). According to MRC criteria, CR rate, median DFS and OS were 96.1%, 79.9 months, 72.2 months for the favorable group; 80%, 17.6 months, 19.7 months for the intermediate group; and 43.8%, 16.5 months, 12 months for the adverse group, respectively. The differences among the three groups were statistically significant excepting for DFS between intermediate and adverse groups.

CONCLUSIONSHA based triple-drug induction regimens are highly effective in obtaining higher CR rate and longer survival time. Cytogenetics is the important prognostic factor for AML patients and SWOG karyotype subtyping criteria is more appropriate than that of MRC, the differences among the three groups being statistically significant.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Cytarabine ; administration & dosage ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Harringtonines ; administration & dosage ; Humans ; Karyotyping ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; drug therapy ; genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Remission Induction ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome

Objective　To explore the effect of nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) on the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor, kinase-inserted domain containing receptor(KDR) and the possible mechanism. Methods　The expression of VEGF in human malignant glioma cell line SHG-44 and that of KDR in human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) line ECV-304 were observed 1～3 d after NDGA treatment with immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and image analysis. Results　The expression of VEGF was declined at protein or mRNA levels in SHG-44 cells after treated with 100 μmol/L NDGA for 1 to 3 d. The expression of KDR in endothelial cells with 100 μmol/L NDGA treatment for 1 to 3 d was decreased too, in a more obvious way compared with the decline of VEGF expression in SHG-44 cells. Conclusion　The results suggest that NDGA inhibits the expression of VEGF in glioma cells as well as that of VEGF receptor KDR in endothelial cells, which may be the important molecular mechanism of anti-angiogenesis of NDGA.

The traditional methods of skeletal age estimation mainly include Numeration, Atlas, and Counting scores. In recent years, other new methods were proposed by several scholars. Utilizing image logical characteristics of X-ray film to extrapolate skeletal age is a key means by present forensic medicine workers in evaluating skeletal age. However, there exist some variations when we present the conclusion of skeletal age as an "evidence" directly to the Justice Trial Authority. In order to enhance the accuracy of skeletal age determination, further investigation for appropriate methodology should be undertaken. After a collective study of pertinent domestic and international literatures, we present this review of the research and advancement on skeletal age evaluation methods of X-ray film.
Age Determination by Skeleton/trends* ; Carpal Bones/diagnostic imaging* ; Elbow/diagnostic imaging* ; Female ; Forensic Medicine/methods* ; Hand Bones/diagnostic imaging* ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods* ; Male ; Radius/diagnostic imaging* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods* ; X-Ray Film

There are irreversible eyeball structural changes in high myopic patients. These changes include axial length, corneal radius, anterior chamber depth, fundus degeneration, macula thickness, etc. There is a close relationship between the damage degree of visual function and these changes. The incidence of complications, such as vitreous opacity, posterior vitreous detachment, cataract, glaucoma, posterior staphyloma and retina detachment, is also highly related to the myopia diopter. More and more researches have indicated that the myopia diopter and the level of visual function are affected by multiple factors. It is promising to detect all of these changes by different kinds of methods, and to assess visual function through these changes. By clarifying these changes, it is also useful to distinguish traumatic damage from disease to provide evidence for forensic assessment of eye injuries.
Eye/physiopathology* ; Forensic Medicine ; Humans ; Myopia/pathology* ; Vision, Ocular/physiology*