Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Fasciitis ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Objective To probe the value of 3.0T MRI in the preoperative assessment of rectal carcinoma.Methods The study recruited 41 patients who were confirmed by biopsy of rectal carcinoma and underwent conventional MRI, high-resolution MRI and diffusion weighted imaging(DWI), the distance from the inferior part of tumor to transitional skin and the percentage of circumferential invasion were measured, the tumor's T staging, N staging,and the status of circumferential resection margin(CRM) and extramural vascular invasion(EMVI) were assessed.MRI findings were compared with endoscope and postoperative pathological results.Results MRI could accurately show the distance from the inferior part of tumor to transitional skin(P>0.05);The mean percentage of circumferential invasion for the tumor with T1-T2 and T3 were 61%,83% respectively (P>0.05);The total accuracy of T,N staging diagnose were 80.5%,75.6% respectively, which had a better consistent with pathological T,N staging(Kappa=0.564,0.634);The total accuracy of CRM and EMVI diagnose were 90.2%,73.2% respectively,which had a better or moderate consistent with pathological diagnose(Kappa=0.765,0.461).Conclusion 3.0T MRI has the unique application in the preoperative assessment of rectal carcinoma, which can provide more comprehensive information for clinic.

Background A virtual reality simulator provides a novel training model for improving surgical skills in a variety of fields.They can simulate a variety of surgical scenarios to improve the overall skills required for endoscopic operations,and also record the operative process of trainees in real-time and allow for objective evaluation.At present,some simulators for transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) are available.The utility of virtual reality simulators in training of transurethral prostatectomy was investigated.Methods Thirty-eight urologists were randomly selected to take part in a simulation based training of TURP using the TURPSimTM system.Pre and post-training global rate scale (GRS) scores and objective parameters recorded by the simulator were assessed.Then,questionnaires were filled out.Results Compared with baseline levels,the GRS scores of trainees increased (18.0±4.0 vs.12.4±4.2,P＜0.001),while the rate of capsule resection (26.3％±0.6％ vs.21.2％±0.4％,P ＜0.001),amount of blood loss ((125.8±86.3) ml vs.(83.7±41.6) ml,P ＜0.001),external sphincter injury (3.6±2.9 vs.2.0±2.0,P ＜0.001)decreased significantly after training.Most trainees were satisfied with the simulator based training and believed that the simulator accurately mimicked actual surgical procedures and could help improve their surgical skills.Conclusions As a new method of training on transurethral prostatectomy skills,training of TURP using a virtual simulator can help urologists improve their surgical skills and safety.Therefore,the application of the TURPSimTM system in education and training of urologic surgery is warranted.

OBJECTIVETo probe into the current situation and problems of establishing control group in clinical studies of acupuncture and moxibustion for treatment of periarthritis of shoulder at home.

METHODSTo retrieve the literatures of establishing control groups in clinical studies of acupuncture and moxibustion for treatment of periarthritis of shoulder in magazines at home, and based on key problems in establishment of control group, make a Excel form to take out relative contents in the literatures and classify, summarize and statistically analyze.

RESULTSIn establishing control group in clinical studies of acupuncture and moxibustion for treatment of periarthritis of shoulder, a lot of problems exist, most studies do not have the basis of establishing control group, and also do not establish control group for the purpose of the study, making the whole test have error in the stage of program design, and leading to unreliable for the results of clinical control studies.

CONCLUSIONIn clinical researches of acupuncture and moxibustion, a standard for guiding establishment of control group is eagerly needed.

Acupuncture Therapy ; Control Groups ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; Periarthritis ; therapy ; Research Design ; Shoulder Joint ; Shoulder Pain ; therapy

OBJECTIVETo explore the correction for shortened and broaden prolabium deformity following bilateral cleft lip repair.

METHODSWe designed the upper lip double flag-shaped flaps. The quadrilateral original surgical scar (flap flag pole part) was resected and the incision was made along the direction of nasolabial groove at the nostrils bottom to form two flag-shaped flaps (the section of the flag face). Lip tubercle were tracted and blunt dissection of upper philtrum were performed to form a wound, 4-6 mm in width. The flag-shaped flaps on both sides were rotated to the central, in order to form a new nasal base and new prolabium, followed by V-Y or Z plasty procedure to correct the defect of tubercle and vermilion.

RESULTS10 cases were enrolled for the clinical application from January 2008 to December 2012. The height of the prolabium was lengthened by 4-6 mm after operation, which fundamentally corrected shortened and broaden prolabium deformity after bilateral cleft lip operation. The procedure can also correct the depression or defect of tubercle, too wide philtrum, philtrum column scar and the deformity of vermilion border continuity. The patients were followed up for a period of 3 months to 3 years with satisfactory results.

CONCLUSIONDouble flag-shaped flaps of the upper lip at the nostrils bottom is a simple and good surgery method to correct the shortened and broaden prolabium deformity following bilateral cleft lip repair.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Cleft Lip ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Lip ; abnormalities ; surgery ; Male ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures ; methods ; Skin Transplantation ; Surgical Flaps ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

BACKGROUNDThe need to develop new methods of surgical training combined with advances in computing has led to the development of virtual reality surgical simulators. The PERC Mentor(TM) is designed to train the user in percutaneous renal collecting system access puncture. This study aimed to validate the use of this kind of simulator, in percutaneous renal access training.

METHODSTwenty-one urologists were enrolled as trainees to learn a fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous renal accessing technique. An assigned percutaneous renal access procedure was immediately performed on the PERC Mentor(TM) after watching instruction video and an analog operation. Objective parameters were recorded by the simulator and subjective global rating scale (GRS) score were determined. Simulation training followed and consisted of 2 hours daily training sessions for 2 consecutive days. Twenty-four hours after the training session, trainees were evaluated performing the same procedure. The post-training evaluation was compared to the evaluation of the initial attempt.

RESULTSDuring the initial attempt, none of the trainees could complete the appointed procedure due to the lack of experience in fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous renal access. After the short-term training, all trainees were able to independently complete the procedure. Of the 21 trainees, 10 had primitive experience in ultrasound-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Trainees were thus categorized into the group of primitive experience and inexperience. The total operating time and amount of contrast material used were significantly lower in the group of primitive experience versus the inexperience group (P = 0.03 and 0.02, respectively).

CONCLUSIONSThe training on the virtual reality simulator, PERC Mentor(TM), can help trainees with no previous experience of fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous renal access to complete the virtual manipulation of the procedure independently. This virtual reality simulator may become an important training and evaluation tool in teaching fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous renal access.

Adult ; Computer Simulation ; Computer-Assisted Instruction ; Fluoroscopy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Urologic Surgical Procedures ; education ; Urology ; education ; User-Computer Interface

OBJECTIVETo observe clinical therapeutic effect of head point-through-point electroacupuncture (EA) on poststroke depression (PSD) and to study the mechanism.

METHODSOne hundred and eight cases of PSD were randomly divided into a point-through-point EA group (n = 38), a non point-through-point group (n = 36) and a western medicine group (n = 34). After treatment of 28 days, their therapeutic effects, scores of HAMD depression scale and SDS self-rating scale, and plasma 5-HT contents were compared before and after treatment among the 3 groups.

RESULTSThe effective rate of 86.84% in the point-through-point EA group was better than 63.89% in the non point-through-point group and 67.65% in the western medicine group (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). Plasma 5-HT content in the point-through-point EA group increased significantly, with a very significant difference as compared with that of the non point-through-point group (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONHead point-through-point therapy can obviously increase plasma 5-HT content of the patient with PSD, so as to cure poststroke depression, with a better therapeutic effect than other two groups.

Adult ; Aged ; Depression ; therapy ; Electroacupuncture ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Scalp ; Serotonin ; blood ; Stroke ; complications

OBJECTIVETo study the expression and clinical significance of ribosomal S6 kinase-4 (RSK-4) in breast cancer and explore the role of RSK-4 in the genesis and development of breast cancer.

METHODThe expression levels of RSK-4 mRNA and protein were detected in 56 cases of breast cancer and the normal breast tissues, as well as in 20 cases of breast benign lesions, by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry.

RESULTSThe expression rates of RSK-4 mRNA in breast cancer, the normal breast tissues and breast benign lesions were 48.2%, 76.8% and 75.0%, respectively. The expression level of RSK-4 mRNA in breast cancer was significantly lower than those in normal breast tissues and breast benign lesions tissues (P < 0.05). The expression level of RSK-4 significantly correlated with tumor size and clinical stage (P < 0.05).The expression rate of RSK-4 protein was 39.3% in breast cancer tissues, which was significantly lower than that of normal breast tissues (71.4%) and breast benign lesions (75.0%, P < 0.01). The expression level of RSK-4 protein was lower in breast cancer with large tumor, high clinical stage and lymph node metastasis. In 56 cases of breast cancer samples, the consistency rate of RSK-4 mRNA and protein was 73.2%. A significant correlation was found between RSK-4 mRNA and protein (χ² = 10.254, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe down-regulation of RSK-4 expression in breast caner suggests that it is a breast cancer suppressor gene, and the lack or down-regulation of RSK-4 expression is involved in the genesis and progression of breast cancer.

Adult ; Aged ; Breast ; metabolism ; Breast Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast ; metabolism ; pathology ; Down-Regulation ; Female ; Fibroadenoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; Humans ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases, 90-kDa ; genetics ; metabolism ; Tumor Burden ; Young Adult

BACKGROUNDA virtual reality simulator provides a novel training model for improving surgical skills in a variety of fields. They can simulate a variety of surgical scenarios to improve the overall skills required for endoscopic operations, and also record the operative process of trainees in real-time and allow for objective evaluation. At present, some simulators for transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) are available. The utility of virtual reality simulators in training of transurethral prostatectomy was investigated.

METHODSThirty-eight urologists were randomly selected to take part in a simulation based training of TURP using the TURPSim(TM) system. Pre and post-training global rate scale (GRS) scores and objective parameters recorded by the simulator were assessed. Then, questionnaires were filled out.

RESULTSCompared with baseline levels, the GRS scores of trainees increased (18.0 ± 4.0 vs. 12.4 ± 4.2, P < 0.001), while the rate of capsule resection (26.3% ± 0.6% vs. 21.2% ± 0.4%, P < 0.001), amount of blood loss ((125.8 ± 86.3) ml vs. (83.7 ± 41.6) ml, P < 0.001), external sphincter injury (3.6 ± 2.9 vs. 2.0 ± 2.0, P < 0.001) decreased significantly after training. Most trainees were satisfied with the simulator based training and believed that the simulator accurately mimicked actual surgical procedures and could help improve their surgical skills.

CONCLUSIONSAs a new method of training on transurethral prostatectomy skills, training of TURP using a virtual simulator can help urologists improve their surgical skills and safety. Therefore, the application of the TURPSim(TM) system in education and training of urologic surgery is warranted.

Adult ; Computer Simulation ; Humans ; Male ; Transurethral Resection of Prostate ; education ; Urologic Surgical Procedures ; education ; Urology ; education

AIMTo study the effect of Angelica sinsensis polysaccharides on lymphocyte proliferation and induction of IFN-gamma.

METHODSAngelica sinensis polysaccharides(AP) were separated into AP-I, AP-II, AP-III and AP-IV by alcohol deposition with different concentration. The radioactivities of [3H]-TdR uptake by lymphocyte were used to determine the ability of lymphocyte. The bioactivity of IFN-gamma was measured by violet crystalline dying.

RESULTSAP-IV was found to be composed of Ara and Glu in the ratio of 0.99:6.47, the molecular weight was estimated to be 5,600. AP-I and AP-II 100 mg.kg-1 i.p. were found to significantly augment mice splenocyte proliferation, release IFN-gamma and increase IFN-gamma bioactivity. 50 micrograms.mL-1 AP-I, AP-II and AP-III were shown to enhance the proliferative response of the mouse spleen lymphocytes in vitro.

CONCLUSIONAP-I and AP-II showed higher immunoactivity than AP-III, AP-IV had no effect.

Angelica sinensis ; chemistry ; Animals ; Cell Division ; drug effects ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Immunity ; drug effects ; Interferon-gamma ; biosynthesis ; Lymphocytes ; cytology ; drug effects ; immunology ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Polysaccharides ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Random Allocation ; Spleen ; cytology ; Tumor Cells, Cultured