Objective:To analyze the failure factors in root canal therapy(RCT)by analysis of the failed cases.Methods:215 teeth of 206 patients were analyzed according to former treatment records,clinical examination,pretreatment radiographs,and root canal exploration during endodontic retreatment.Results:67.9% of failed teeth showed apical radiolucency,12.6% showed under-filled canal material without apical radiolucent area,and 8.4% involved coronal leakage.When examined with X ray,84.2% of teeth indicated under-filling,and most canals of premolars and molars had poor taper.Most missed root canals were found in maxillary first molars and premolars.18.1% of teeth had complications such as ledge and apical transportation.Conclusions:The factors associated with RCT failure involve cleaning,obturation and poor seal of root canal system resulted from inadequate shaping.Coronal leakage and missed canals also contribute to the endodontic treatment failure.

To discuss the distribution of patents' holders for Chinese herbal compounds in treating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular, the patents' holders for Chinese herbal compounds in treating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular were cluster analyzed by means of simple statistics and cluster analysis. Clustering variables were composed of patent applications, patent maintained number, related papers' quantity, etc. Chinese herbal compound patents' holders were divided into four categories according to their different scientific research and patent strength. It is the magic weapon for Chinese herbal compound patents' holders that have scientific research patents' transforming and make coordination of patent protection and scientific innovation.
Biometry ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; drug therapy ; Cerebrovascular Disorders ; drug therapy ; Cluster Analysis ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; economics ; therapeutic use ; Herbal Medicine ; economics ; legislation & jurisprudence ; manpower ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; economics ; Patents as Topic

Objective To investigate the relationship among the proliferation of CD4+T cells, the intracellular levels of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and transforming growth factor-?1(TGF-?1), and allergic bronchial asthma. Methods Dermatophagoides farinae antigen were prepared as allergen. Twenty-five patients with asthma and 15 healthy individuals were enrolled and divided into blank control group, allergen group and self control group, respectively, after venous blood sample collection. The proliferation of CD4+T cells and the distributions of CD4+/IL-10+, CD4+/TGF-?+1 and CD4+/IL-10+/TGF-?+1 were measuredby flow cytometry (FCM). Results The distributions of CD4+/IL-10+, CD4+/TGF-?+1 and CD4+/IL-10+/TGF-?+1 could hardly be detected in the peripheral blood samples of the blank controls of the patients with asthma and healthy ones. In the allergen group of the healthy individuals, the peripheral blood CD4+T cells were significantly proliferated, and the proportions of CD4+T cells andCD4+/IL-10+ cells were much higher than the self control group, while there was no significantly increase in the proportions of CD4+/TGF-?+1 and CD4+/IL-10+/TGF-?+1 subgroups. In the allergen group of those with asthma, the proportions of peripheral blood CD4+, CD4+/IL-10+, CD4+/TGF-?+1 and CD4+/IL-10+/TGF-?+1 cells were not found significantly increased compared with those self controls. After being activated by allergen, the proportion of peripheral blood CD4+/IL-10+ cells was significantly lower in the patients with asthma than the healthy individuals(P

In this paper, a colorimetric method with high sensitivity, reproducibility and low cost for determining glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) activity was developed based on Berthelot reaction. The optimum substrate system is 0.2 mol/L MacIlvaine buffer pH4.7, containing 0.1 mmol/L pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) and 10 mmol/L L-monosodium glutamate (L-MSG). The reaction mixture consisted of 200 ?L substrate solution and 1～100 ?L enzyme preparation from lactic acid bacteria and was incubated at 30℃. The enzymatic reaction was terminated by immersion in ice-water and addition of 200 ?L 0.2 mol/L sodium borate buffer, pH9.0, then 1 mL 6% phenol solution and 400 ?L sodium hypochloride were added. Color development was carried out in boiling water for 10 min then immediately put in ice-water bath for 20 min. The optical density is read at 630 nm. ?-aminobutyric acid (GABA) produced was calculated using the standard curve. Applications of the method in GAD studies were discussed.

ObjectiveTo investigate the correlation between disease severity,prognosis and blood serum thyroxine level in patients with severe pneumonia. MethodsBlood was obtained from 69 severe pneumonia patients to detect serum thyroxine level( T3 、FT3 、T4 、FT4 、rT3 and TSH),and patients were grouped according to APACHE Ⅱ score.Results APACHE Ⅱ score exhibits positive correlation with serum T3 ( r =0.46,P ＜ 0.01 ),FT3 ( r =0.44,P ＜ 0.01 ) and T4 ( r =0.29,P ＜ 0.05 ) levels,but have no correlation with FT4 and rT3 levels.Conclusion The changes of T3,FT3,T4 levels have correlation with disease severity in patients with severe pneumonia,the lower serum T3,T4,the more severe disease and more mortality.

Objective To compare the efficacy and survival of patients with malignant obstructive jaundice using either endoscopic self-expandable metallic stents or surgery,and to evaluate the compounding factors influencing prognosis.Methods 56 patients with malignant obstructive jaundice treated with endoscopic self-expandable metallic stents (the endoscopic group) were compared with 90 patients who received surgery (the surgery group) during the same study period.Clinical data and survival of the 2 groups of patients were retrospectively analyzed.Results The success rate was 100％ in the endoscopic group.The serum bilirubin,alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and γ-glutamyl transferase (γ-GT) decreased significantly by using either therapeutic endoscopy or surgery (P＜0.01).There was no significant difference between the two groups in the reduction of serum total bilirubin.The mean survival of the endoscopic and surgery groups were 340 d and 795 d respectively.The accumulative survivals of the endoscopic group at 3,6 and 12 months as evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method were 82.6 ％,61.1％ and 46.6 ％,respectively,and for the surgery group were 97.0％,90.9 ％ and 65.4％ respectively. There was a significant difference in survival between the two groups (P＜0.01).Survival after therapeutic endoscopy was similar to surgery for patients with metastasis and hilar biliary obstruction.Conclusions Self-expandable metallic stents gave similar palliation in the relief of jaundice in patients with malignant biliary obstruction.The stents had no effect on the primary tumor.Therapeutic endoscopy with self-expandable metallic stents is a safe and effective method for the relief of jaundice in patients with obstructive jaundice caused by non-resectable malignant tumors.

Objective To evaluate the colon cleaning efficacy and safety of prucalopride combined with polyethylene glycol electrollytes powder in bowel preparation for colonoscopy examination and treatment under colonoscopy in elderly patients.Methods Elderly patients who prepared for colonoscopy were enrolled from October 2014 to January 2015.They were divided into group A,B and C.Patients of group A only took polyethylene glycol electrolyte powder (137.12 g dissolved in 2 000 mL warm water,stired until completely dissolved),patients of group B took polyethylene glycol electrolyte powder (same usage as group A) combined with prucalopride 2 mg/d for one day,patients of group C took polyethylene glycol electrolyte powder (same usage as group A) combined with prucalopride 2 mg/d for three days.The bowel preparation effects,especially ascending colon and ileocecal junction and cardiovascular adverse effects in all the patients and constipation patients of three groups were compared.Student t test,chisquare test and analysis of variance were performed for statistical analysis.Results A total of 124 elderly patients were divided into group A (64 cases),group B (23 cases) and group C (37 cases).Bowel preparation scores of total colon and ascending colon-ileocecal junction of group A,B,C were 8.34±0.90 and 2.56±0.56,8.96±0.21 and 2.96±0.21,8.86±0.35 and 2.86±0.35,respectively.The cleaning effects in total colon and ascending colon-ileocecal junction of group B were better than those of group A (t=5.52 and 5.15,both P＜0.05).The cleaning effects in total colon and ascending colon-ileocecal junction of groupCwere better than those of group A (t=4.69,3.65,both P＜0.05).There was no statistically significant difference between group B and group C in cleaning effects in total colon and ascending colon-ileocecal junction (both P＞0.05).There were 33,11 and 29 constipation cases in group A,B and C,respectively.The bowel preparation scores for total colon and ascending colon and ileocecal junction of group A,B,C were 7.85±0.94 and 2.24±0.56,8.91±0.30 and 2.91±0.30,8.83±0.38 and 2.83 ± 0.38,respectively.The cleaning effects in total colon and ascending colon-ileocecal junction of group B were better than those of group A (t=6.72 and 5.49,both P＜0.05).The cleaning effects in total colon and ascending colon-ileocecal junction of group C were better than those of group A (t=104.04 and 59.65,both P＜0.05).There was no significant difference between group B and group C in cleaning effects in total colon and ascending colon ileocecal junction (both P＞ 0.05).No obvious cardiovascular adverse events were observed in the patients of three groups.Conclusions The cleaning effects of prucalopride combined with polyethylene glycol electrolytes powder are good for colonoscopy examination in elderly patients,including elderly patients with constipation,especially in ascending colon and ilecocecal junction.No obvious cardiovascular adverse events are observed.

Objectives To study the expression patterns of steroid receptor coactivators (SRC) and steroid-induced stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) in endometriosis,and to explore the roles of SRC in the steroid-induced SDF-1 expression endometriosis.Methods From May 2010 to October 2012,16 endometriosis cases at stages Ⅲ or Ⅳ according to the revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine classification undergoing surgery in the First Affiliated Hospital to Nanjing Medical University were enrolled in this study.Their ectopic endometrium were from ovarian endometriomata which were identified pathologically with 9 cases at proliferative phase and 7 cases at secretory phase.The normal endometrium were acquired from the healthy women with normal menstrual cycle (n =10,proliferative phase =5,secretory phase =5).The mnRNA levels of SRC and SDF-1α during the menstrual cycle were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.Ectopic endometrium stromal cells were purified and cultured in medium containing 17β-estradiol (10-8mol/L) or 17β-estradiol (10-8 mol/L) + progesterone (10-6 mol/L).At 24,48,72 and 96 hours,the supernatants were collected to measure SDF-1α expression by ELISA.Ectopic endometrium stromal cells were transfected respectively with siRNA of SRC-1 and SRC-2 using lipofectamine.Two days after transfection,17β-estradiol (10-8 moL/L) or 17β-estradiol (10-8 mol/L) + progesterone (10-6 mol/L) were added into the media.On the third day after the steroid hormones treatment,the media were collected to quantify SDF-1α expression with ELISA.Results (1) Cyclical changes: the SRC-1,SRC-2 and SDF-1 α showed marked cyclic differences in normal endometrium (P ＜ 0.05).In proliferative phase and secretory phase,the SRC-1,SRC-2 and SDF-1 α were 5.6 ± 1.2,3.8 ± 1.1,2.7 ± 0.5 and 2.6 ± 1.0,2.1 ± 1.0,1.6-± 0.5,respectively.There was no periodic variation in the expression of SRC-1,SRC-2 and SDF-1α in ectopic endometrium throughout the menstrual cycle.(2) Steroid-induced SDF-1α expression in ectopic endometrium stromal cells: the 17β-estradiol-induced SDF-1α expression was (1 803 ± 196),(2 272 ± 261) and (2 162 ± 258) ng/L at 48,72 and 96 hours.At the same time points,the SDF-1α expression induced by 17β-estradiol and progesterone was (1 307 ± 150),(1 518 ± 301) and (1 550 ± 144) ng/L,respectively.There was significant difference between two groups (P ＜0.05).(3) The effects of SRC silencing on steroid hormones-induced SDF-1 α expression in ectopic endometrium stromal cells: the expression of 17β-estradiol-induced SDF-1α at 72 hours was significantly decreased from (2 313 ± 357) ng/L to (1 155 ± 244) ng/L after the silencing of SRC-1 (P ＜ 0.05).After the silencing of SRC-2,the 17β-estradiol-induced SDF-1 α at 72 hours was (1 958 ±324) ng/L.There was no significant difference compared with the before the silencing (P ＞ 0.05).The expression of SDF-1 α at 72 hours induced by 17β-estradiol + progesterone was (1 534 ± 449) ng/L and (2 051 ± 380) ng/L respectively before and after the silencing of SRC-2 and showed the significant difference (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion During the expression of SDF-1 α regulated by steroids in ectopic endometrium cells,SRC-1 is the major coactivator of 17β-estradiol and SRC-2 is the major coactivator of progesterone.

Objective To investigate the effects of ciprofloxacin on dermal collagen synthesis and profibrotic gene expressions in an experimental mouse model of scleroderma induced by bleomycin. Methods Experimental mouse models of scleroderma were established by subcutaneous injection of bleomycin into the dorsal skin of 15 BALB/c mice for 4 consecutive weeks. Then, the mouse models were randomly and equally divided into 3 groups to be topically treated with 1% ciprofloxacin cream (ciprofloxacin group), 2.5% asiaticoside cream (asiaticoside group)and cream vehicle (model group)respectively for 5 consecutive weeks. Five mice firstly injected with sterile phosphate buffered saline (PBS)for 4 weeks then topically treated with cream vehicle for 5 weeks served as the blank control group. After the 5-week topical treatment, all the mice were sacrificed, skin specimens were resected from the dorsal skin of them, and subjected to HE staining and Masson staining. Further more, an immunohistochemical assay was performed to measure the expressions of type I collagen (COL-1), matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP1) and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP1), semi-quantitative reverse transcription PCR to quantify the expressions of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1)and Smad3 genes, and alkaline hydrolysis-spectrophotometry to determine the level of hydroxyproline in skin. Statistical analysis was carried out by one-way analysis of variance and the least significant difference(LSD)test with the SPSS 17.0 software. Results Compared with the blank control group, the model group showed increased dermal thickness at injection sites (432.76 ± 93.74 μm vs. 301.69 ± 79.47 μm, P < 0.01). Masson staining revealed thick and dense collagen bundles in an irregular arrangement in the dermis in the model group, which was consistent with dermal fibrosis in scleroderma. The total content of collagen and staining intensity of COL-1, MMP1 and TIMP1 were all significantly decreased in the ciprofloxacin group and asiaticoside group compared with the model group (F = 1628.54, 33.29, 84.82, 224.81, respectively, all P < 0.01), while no significant changes were observed in dermal thickness (both P > 0.05). Moreover, compared with cream vehicle, asiaticoside down-regulated the expressions of the three profibrotic genes(CTGF, TGFβ1 and Smad3)to different extents (all P < 0.05), while ciprofloxacin only inhibited the expressions of TGFβ1 and Smad3 genes (both P < 0.05)with no significant effect on CTGF gene expression (P > 0.05). Conclusion Ciprofloxacin may counteract dermal fibrosis by inhibiting the TGFβ1/Smad3 pathway and modulating the unbalanced expressions of MMP1 and TIMP1.

Objective To evaluate the role of 5-HT5A receptors (5-HT5A R) in activation of astroglia in the spinal dorsal horn in a rat model of neuropathic pain induced by vincristine. Methods Forty adult male SD rats weighing 180-200 g were randomly divided into 4 groups ( n = 10 each): control group (group C);neuropathic pain group (group P);Ad-X-HK group (group B) and Ad-5-HT5A-siRNA group (group S). Neuropathic pain was induced by repeated intraperitoneal (IP) injection of vincristine 0.1 mg/kg according to the method described by Weng et al in group P, B and S. On the 2nd day after the last IP injection, the animals received artificial cerebrospinal fluid, Ad-X-HK and Ad-5-HT5A-siRNA 25 μl administered intrathecally (IT) in group P, B and S respectively. Paw withdrawal threshold to mechanical stimulus was measured before and on the 7th day after IT administration. The animals were then sacrificed. The lumbar segment ( L4.5 ) of the spinal cord was removed for determination of 5-HT5A R and GFAP expression. Results Body weight and paw withdrawal threshold were significantly decreased after repeated IP vincristine administration in group P compared with group C. IT Ad-5-HT5A-siRNA reduced pain threshold further in group S compared with group P. Repeated IP vincristine significantly increased the expression of 5-HT5A R and GFAP in spinal dorsal horn, and IT Ad-5-HT5A-siRNA significantly decreased the expression of 5-HT5A R while increased the expression of GFAP in spinal dorsal horn in group S compared with group P. Conclusion 5-HT5AR is involved in the inhibition of astrocyte activation, resulting in reduction of vincristineinduced neuropathic pain.