Objective To determine serum cytokine profiles and levels in patients with early diabetic retinopathy(DR)by using antibody array technology and analyze their clinical significances.Methods Among 32 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus,16 patients with mild to moderate non-proliferative DR were as DR group;and 16 patients without retinopathy,as diabetic control group.Eight healthy subjects were selected as normal control group.The profiles of 42 cytokines were detected by human cytokines antibody array(Raybiotech).Results Compared with diabetic control group,in DR group,levels of epithelial neutrophil-activating peptide-78(ENA-78),growth related gene(GRO),regulated upon activation normal T cell expressed and secreted(RANTES),angiogenin,vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)and platelet-derived growth factor(PDGF)increased significantly(P

Spontaneous locomotor activity is a widely used evaluation method in safety pharmacology of central nerve system and investigation of neuroscience.Spontaneous locomotor activity test is an important method that can investigate several animals' species and their associated indexes of spontaneous locomotor activity;it can also provide parameters for several pharmacological objectives including safety pharmacology of central nerve system.The new developed equipments and methods have many merits.This paper reviews the progress of methodology of spontaneous locomotor activity test in rats,pigs and monkeys.

Objective To analyze the MRI features of chordoid meningioma (CM),and to compare with other meningiomas. Methods Clinical and MRI features of 7 patients with CM confirmed by pathology were analyzed retrospectively.Featrues of every MRI sequence were investigated qualitatively.Meanwhile normalized signal ratios of each sequence were analyzed furtherly,including normalized T1 weighted image intensity ratios (NT1 ),normalized T2 weighted image intensity ratios(NT2 ),normalized ADC ratios (NADC)and normalized T1 WI contast enhancement intensity ratios (NCE).Fisher ’s exact test and Dunnett T 3 test were employed to analyze the difference of CM and nonchordoid meningiomas (34 cases of WHO grade Ⅰ meningioma,1 6 cases of nonchordoid WHO grade Ⅱ meningioma,and 5 case of WHO grade Ⅲ meningioma).Results The CM showed hyperintensity on T2 WI and meanwhile other nonchordoid meningiomas demonstrated isointensity,hypointensity or slight hyperintensity on T2 WI.Evaluations of DWI revealed variable signal intensities of CM.But all 7 cases had no obvious restricted diffusion,and increased signal was seen on the ADC map in each patient.The solid parts of CM enhanced markedly after contrast agent injection.Quantitative indicators NT2 , NADC and NCE of CM were higher than other meningiomas(P <0.01),but NT1 showed no statistic difference between CM and other meningiomas (P =0.889).Whether there was cyst,necrosis,orflow void sign on T2 WI,and no matter with or without perifocal edema,dural tail sign and a broader base among meningiomas had no significance in differentiating CM and other meningiomas.Conclusion CM has typical MRI features.The tumors show hyperintensity on T2 WI,especially have no obvious restricted diffusion and enhance markedly after contrast.The measurement of NT2 ,NADC and NCE enables reliable preoperative prediction of the atypical histopathologic diagnosis.

Objective To evaluate the value of united nerve electrophysiological tests in the diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DNP).Methods The quantitative temperature threshold (QTT), including the cold sensation threshold (CST) , thermal sensation threshold (WST), cold pain threshold (CPT) and thermal pain threshold (HPT), sympathetic skin response (SSR) and nerve conduction velocity (NCV) were measured for 85 diabetic patients.Results The abnormal rate of QTT was 84.71％ , significantly higher than that of SSR and NCV (56.47％ and 31.76％ respectively).However, no significant difference was found in the abnormal rate of QTT between the DPN asymptomatic group and DPN symptomatic group (78.85％ and 93.94％ respectively).There was significant difference in the abnormal rate of SSR (48.08％ and 69.70％ respectively) and the abnormal rate of NCV (19.23％ and 51.52％ respectively) between the above two groups(P ＜ 0.05).There was no difference in the abnormal rate of QTT for patients with short or long course of disease (77.77％ and 89.80％ respectively), but significant difference in the abnormal rate of SSR (44.44％ and 65.31％ respectively) and the abnormal rate of NCV (19.44％ and 40.82％ respectively) Conclusion The abnormal rate of QTT was highest in detecting the diabetic patients, and it is not related to clinical symptoms or disease course.However, the abnormal rates of SSR and NCV were related to clinical symptoms and course.It is more sensitive to diagnose DPN using united electrophysiological tests of QTT, SSR and NCV.

Objective: To analyze the ability of Chinese characters reading and characteristics of alexia among patients with mild, moderate and severe Alzheimer's Disease(AD). Methods: Chinese characters reading test was performed in 20 normal controls(average MMSE total score is 27.7), 20 mild AD(average MMSE is 21.2),20 moderate AD(average MMSE is 15.2) and 20 severe AD(average MMSE is 6.9). Chinese characters reading test consists of 22 mark-symbol characters, 17 phonetic symbol characters and 17 meaning-symbol characters. Results: No significant difference were found in scores of Chinese characters reading test among normal controls, patients with mild, moderate AD group. Compared with moderate AD, severe AD showed manifest decline for scores of phonetic symbol characters and meaning-symbol characters reading. There wasn't significant different visual paralexia among 4 groups. Surface alexia occurred at early stage of AD and advanced at late stage of AD. These wrong reading were seen frequently in meaning-symbol characters. Deep alexia occurred only at late stage of AD. Compound words phanomenon is the major class of deep alexia. Conclusion: Ability of Chinese characters reading was helpful to estimate premorbid intelligence of the patients with dementia. There are different classes of alexia between Chinese and western languages.

Objective To assess the value of exercise treadmill testing (bruce protocol) in diagnosing early atherosclerotic lesions of the lower limb. Methods Between March and September 2008, 173 outpatients with high risks of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) were enrolled randomly from the cardiology clinic of Chinese PLA General Hospital. The patients were subjected to exercise treadmill testing (Bruce protocol) and ankle-brachial index (ABI) determination, as well as lower limb artery ultrasonography within one week. Using ultrasonic findings as diagnostic criteria, the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio of exercise treadmill testing for early atherosclerotic lesions of the lower limb were analyzed, and the diagnostic value of exercise treadmill testing was assessed using the ROC curve. Results After exercise, ABI decrement (R value) increased in subjects with high risks for PAD with atherosclerotic lesions of the lower limb aggravating. Using the presence of large atherosclerotic plaques (area > 20 mm2 ), atherosclerotic plaques and atherosclerotic lesions in lower limb arteries as positive diagnostic criteria, the area under curve of ROC was 0. 80 (95% CI: 0.72-0.88), 0.78 (95% CI: 0.71-0.85) and 0. 60 (95% CI: 0.44-0.76), respectively. Using the presence of large atherosclerotic plaques in lower extremities as positive diagnosis, R value was 0.80, with a sensitivity of 54. 0%, a specificity of 96. 7%, a LR+ of 16. 4, and a LR- of 0. 58, meanwhile, R value was 0. 85, with a sensitivity of 70.0%, a specificity of 91.9%, a LR + of 8.64, and a LR- of 0.33. Conclusions Exercise treadmill testing (Bruce protocol) in combination with ABI determination is a safe, accurate, objective tool for detecting early atherosclerotic lesions of the lower limb. Immediately after exercise, 0.85 is the cut-off R value appropriate for diagnosing large atherosclerotic plaques of the lower limb (area > 20 mm2).

Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Kartagener Syndrome

BackgroundHigh myopia is one of leading causes of blindness,so far the pathogenesis remains unclear.Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of rs6885224 and rs12716080 in CTNND2 gene were recently found to be associated with high myopia in Singaporean Chinese.But whether these SNPs are related with the pathogenesis of high myopia in Han Chinese is worth studying,Objective This study was to investigate the relationship between the genetic variations of the CTNND2 gene and high myopia in Han Chinese.MethodsA case-controlled association study was designed.Nine hundred and thirty-three individuals with high myopia and 1227age- and gender-matched normal subjects were included in this study.The 5 ml of periphery blood was obtained from all subjects for the extraction of genomic DNA.The target DNA was amplified using PCR and purified by the SNaPshot method.Four SNPs rs12716080,rs917012,rs6885224 and rs16901340 in the CTNND2 gene were genotyped.This study was approved by the Ethic Committee of Sichuan Provincial People Hospital.Written informed consent was obtained from each subject before his/her enrollment.Results The frequencies of the genotypes rs6885224,rs12716080,rs917012,rs16901340 SNPs were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) ( P=0.181,0.085,0.732,0.313,0.264,0.663,0.084,0.196).There were no significant differences in genotypes frequency distribution ( in turn P =0.654,0.406,0.828,0.403 ) and allele frequency distribution of the CTNND2 gene ( in turn P =0.377,0.209,0.743,0.198) between the high myopia group and normal control group.The haplotypes (TA and GA)frequencies of rs12716080 and rs917012 in the high myopia group were significantly different from those of the normal control group(TA:0.784 vs.0.719;GA:0.087 vs.0.136) (x2 =6.115,P=0.013 ;x2 =6.634,P=0.010),but those of GG were similar between the high myopia group and normal control group ( 0.123 vs.0.143,x2 =0.889,P =0.346). ConclusionsThe SNPs rs12716080,rs917012,rs6885224 and rs16901340 in CTNND2 gene were not responsible for high myopia,however,the haplotypes of rs12716080 and rs917012 are susceptible for high myopia in Han Chinese.

The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory of "treating heart and brain diseases with same methods (Nao Xin Tong Zhi: NXTZ)" has great significance to the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It has been proven effective by a great deal of clinical researches. However, the underlying mechanism for this theory is still unclear. To provide insights into the potential mechanism of "NXTZ", this study attempts to deeply investigate the mechanism from two representative cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, coronary heart disease (CHD) and cerebral apoplexy. First, various data resources were integrated to obtain different types of biomedical entities including drugs, targets, pathways and diseases. Then, three different approaches including text mining, biological network and enrichment analysis were utilized to recognize the potential common features between CHD and cerebral apoplexy, and the corresponding functions of drugs which could treat both diseases, thus unveiling the mechanism of NXTZ.
Brain ; drug effects ; Coronary Artery Disease ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; Databases, Bibliographic ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Heart ; drug effects ; Humans ; Stroke ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective To investigate the effects of breviscapine on the expression of urine Kim‐1 and NGAL in the patients with septic shock complicating renal injury .Methods A total of 66 cases patients with septic shock complicating acute kidney inju‐ry(AKI) in our hospital from May 2013 to May 2015 were selected and randomly divided into the intervention group and control group according to the random number table ,33 cases in each group .All cases were given the standardized therapy of septic shock . On this basis the intervention group was given the intravenous drip of breviscapine .The clinical curative effects were compared be‐tween the two groups .Results The level of Kim‐1 and NAGL were risen after 1 d of treatment ,but began to gradually drop on 3 d of treatment ,the levels of Kim‐1 and NAGL on 3 ,5 ,7 ,9 d had statistical differences between the two groups (P<0 .05);in the in‐tervention group ,5 cases died ,while 6 cases in the control group died .The ICU stay time ,cases number needing dialysis ,dialysis times and dialysis curative time in the control group were more than those in the intervention group ,the differences were statistical‐ly significant(P< 0 .05) .Conclusion Breviscapine could reduce the expression of Kim‐1 and NGAL in the patients with septic shock complicating AKI and promote the recovery of renal function .