Objective To evaluate the test -retest reliability of sentence materials, and to standardize Man_darin Speech Test Materials (MSTMs). Methods Forty normal-hearing subjects aged from 18 to 30 years old were recruited in this study. The sentence materials were tested at 9 dB HL to these subjects according to the prepare ex_periment. The retest was carried out in the same condition after an interval of 14~28 days. The difference between test and retest score was examined by t-test, and the critical difference (CD) was analyzed with 95% confidence in_terval (CI). ResuIts There was no significant difference between the test and retest scores about speech perception performance. The critical difference was 18. 93% at 95% confidence interval, and the number of the corresponding key words was 10. ConcIusion The results showed that sentence materials of MSTMs have good test-retest relia_bility except list 6. The interventions could be considered effective just when the difference of the same subject's score exceed 18. 93%, that means 10 key words are necessary to improve that the intervention is effective.

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the scoring formula and evaluate the lists equivalence of Mandarin Quick Speech-in-Noise (M-Quick SIN) test materials in mainland China, and for standardizing our research. METHOD: Double 39 subjects with normal hearing were participated in part one and part two of our experiments, respectively. 20, 18, 15, 13, 10, 8, 5, 3, 0, -2, -5, -7, -10 dB SNR were presented in part one; and 20, 15, 10, 5, 0, -5 dB SNR were presented in part two. The results were analyzed by SPSS 13.0. RESULT: SNR-50 was -2.24 dB SNR and "SNR loss = 24.5--correct words" was defined as the scoring formula. All the 13 lists had the e quivalent difficulty. CONCLUSION Defined "SNR loss = 24.5--correct words" as the scoring formula of M-Quick SIN, and the 13 lists had better difficulty equivalence, which could be used in our further clinical research.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Noise ; Speech ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; standards ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the short monosyllabic list of Mandarin speech test materials (MSTMs) which have been evaluated the equivalence of difficulty, and to establish the performance-intensity function (P-I function) for people with normal hearing as clinical reference of hearing recovery and individuals ability to perceive and process speech. METHOD: Thirty-seven subjects (the age ranged from 18 to 26 years old) who speak Mandarin well in their daily lives with normal hearing participated in this study. Eight lists of the Short Mandarin Monosyllabic materials (20 words per list) with equal difficulty were utilized. The results were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17.0. RESULT: P-I function for short monosyllabic word list was x = 98.557/(1 + 12.243 exp (-0.17(P-15, x(max) = 98.557. And the sound pressure level of speech corresponding to a 50% recognition score was 29.6 dB SPL or 9.6 dB HL. The results showed P-I function of 3.1 per dB for Mandarin materials. CONCLUSION The study established the P-I function of the Mandarin short monosyllabic word list materials with equal difficulty, which provides the normative data for identifying the normal hearing in a clinical setting.
Adult ; Auditory Perception ; Female ; Hearing Tests ; methods ; Humans ; Male ; Speech ; Speech Perception ; physiology

[Objective]The purpose of this study was to describe mid report the result of the ulnar nerve transfer to biceps muscle to restore elbow flexion after acute and delayed upper brachial plexus injuries.[Methods]Two patients with acute brachial plexus injury (the time between the injury and the operation were six and eight months) and three patients with delayed brachial plexus injury(the time between the injury and the operation were from twevle to eighteen months) underwent nerve transfer using fascicles of the ulnar nerve to the motor branch of the biceis muscle. The average age of the patients was twenty eight and the mean follow-up periods were nine months after the surgery. Patients were evaluated with regard to reinnervation of the biceps, ulnar nerve function, elbow flexion strength, and grip strength.[Results]For the two acute patients, the first sign of biceps muscle contraction were observed within 1 week, the average time required for reinnervation of the biceps after nerve fascicle transfer was within six months. For the three delayed patients, the first sign of bicep muscle contraction was observed in about three month, and the average time required for reinnervation of the biceps was ten months.Hypoesthesia of the ulnar nerve was clinically abserved in three patients, but this symptom disappeared within month with no treatment.Compared with those delayed cases, the acute patients had faster and better recovery of their olbow flexion function.However, all patients achieved grade-3 or better elbow flexion strength according to the grading system of the Medical Research Council.[Conclusion]The author recommend this safe, simple and effective Oberlin procedure for brachial plexus injuries involving the C5、6 or C5~7 nerve roots.

Objective To evaluate Mandarin disyllables recognition scores in noise for normal hearing people , and to establish a model for teaohing .The second goal is to get the spatial separated advantage while the noise chan‐ging its direction .Methods Percentage of correct word recognition was measured for each list by testing 50 Manda‐rin-speaking people aged from 18 to 30 with normal aural/oral communicational abilities And .6 of them joined the pilot study aimed to identify a presentation level that would be used in the formal test .The other 44 subjects partici‐pated in the formal speech test .Results When the noise was at 0 and 90 ,the speech recognition changed along with the change of signal-to-noise ratio levels .Despite of the speech recognition effect ,there was a strong relation be‐tween the signal-to-noise ratio of 0° and 90° .Conclusion The direction of speech and noise may strongly influence the speech recognition scores .When the noise and signal is separated ,the score will be better .

Objective The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between the development of audito‐ry and speech in infants with hearing loss after hearing aid fitting and discuss the development of speech with the a‐bility of auditory in infants with different degree of hearing loss and different stage of evaluation after hearing aid fit‐ting .Methods A total of 32 infants (17 boys and 15 girls) with prelingual hearing loss participated in this study . The age at hearing aid fitting ranged from 3 to 34 months with a mean of 15 .6 months .According to their hearing level ,all infants in this study were divided into three groups :group of profound hearing loss(16) ,group of severe hearing loss(11) ,group of moderate hearing loss(5) .CAP and SIR were used to evaluate their abilities of auditory and speech at pre -fitting ,1 ,3 ,6 ,9 and 12 months after hearing aid fitting respectively .A linear and regression a‐nalysis was done in the statistic procedure .Results There was a significant correlation between the scores of CAP and SIR for the three groups respectively .The correlation from low to high followed by the group of profound hear‐ing loss (R=0 .656 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,group of severe hearing loss (R=0 .758 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,group of mod‐erate hearing loss (R=0 .849 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) .There was also a significant correlation between the scores of CAP and SIR for the different evaluating stages respectively .The correlation from low to high followed by pre -fitting (R=0 .559 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,1 month after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .575 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,3 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .726 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,6 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .823 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) , 9 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .838 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,12 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .855 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) .Conclusion The development of auditory ability is closely related to speech ability which increases with the improvement of auditory ability .The less the infants have the hearing loss and the longer the infants use the hearing aids ,the higher the auditory ability is related to speech ability in infants after hearing aid fitting .

Aim To observe the influences of dexmen-detomidine on the spontaneous contraction of duodenal smooth muscle of rabbits in vitro and explore the mech-anisms.Methods The rabbits ( male or female ) were stunned and the duodenums were isolated .The sam-ples of duodenal segments were connected with tension transducer , which were then put into oxygen saturation Krebs-Henseleit ( K-H) solution .The influences of dex-mendetomidine on amplitude ( AM ) and frequency ( FR ) of duodenal smooth muscle were recorded by BL-420 F biological signal processing system .The cu-mulative dosing method was used to observe the differ-ent concentrations of dexmedetomidine on duodenal smooth muscle spontaneous contraction .Glibenclamide ( Gli) was added to K-H solution before dexmendeto-midine.In the calcium-free K-H solution, calcium chloride and rynodine were added before dexmendeto-midine.The mechanisms of dexmendetomidine were studied .Results ① Dexmendetomidine reduced the amplitude of spontaneous contraction of duodenal smooth muscle in rabbits in a dose-dependent manner ( P<0.05 or P<0.01 ) , while the frequency was not obviously influenced ( P >0.05 ) .② Gli ( P <0.05 ) partly abolished the inhibitory effects of dexmendetomi-dine on duodenal smooth muscle .③ Dexmendetomi-dine inhibited the contraction of duodenum smooth muscle induced by calcium chloride ( P <0.05 ) and rynodine ( P<0.05 ) application into calcium-free K-H solution.Conclusion Dexmendetomidine inhibits the spontaneous contraction of duodenal smooth muscle of rabbits in vitro.The mechanisms may be related to ac-tivating ATP sensitive potassium channels , inhibition of the extracellular calcium influx via cell membrane and intracellular calcium release via sarcoplasmic reticulum in duodenal smooth muscle .

Objective To summarize the characteristics of tremor peak frequency,power and harmonics occurrence rate between Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy-parkinsonism (MSA-P).Methods From January to December in 2016,48 PD patients and 22 MSA-P patients were enrolled in Beijing Tiantan Hospital.Upper limb tremor patients got tremor analysis test in rest,posture and holding 1 000 g states,while lower limb tremor patients in rest and posture states.Peak frequency,power and harmonics occurrence rate of tremor were compared between PD and MSA-P patients in different states.Results Peak frequency of PD and MSA-P patients in upper rest ((4.76± 0.82) Hz vs (6.03 ± 0.25)Hz,t=-2.161,P=0.037),posture ((5.25 ±0.88) Hz vs (7.66 ±1.90) Hz,t=-4.266,P=0.001),holding 1 000 g ((5.80 ± 1.28) Hz vs (8.32 ± 1.51) Hz,t =-6.436,P =0.000) and lower posture ((4.85 ±0.78) Hz vs (6.42 ± 1.13) Hz,t =-3.001,P =0.012) showed statistically significant difference.Half-width power of PD and MSA-P patients in upper rest (extensor:15.70 (5.82,32.96)mg2/μV2 vs 3.14 (1.69,4.60) mg2/μV2,Z =-2.008,P =0.037),in posture (extensor:33.14(20.46,64.27) mg2/μV2 vs 10.02 (7.11,14.60) mg2/μV2,Z =-3.627,P =0.000;flexor:27.49(9.48,41.74) mg2/μV2 vs 5.97 (4.41,15.59) mg2/μV2,Z =-2.336,P =0.019),in holding 1 000g (flexor:17.80 (9.40,36.60) mg2/μV2vs8.15 (5.32,17.65) mg2/μV2,Z=-2.494,P=0.013),and in lower posture (flexor:26.63(7.09,85.84) mg2/μV2 vs 3.78 (2.51,7.12) mg2/μμV2,Z=-2.049,P =0.045) showed statistically significant difference.Harmonics occurrence rate of PD and MSAP patients in rest (82.5％ vs 5.9％,χ2 =29.096,P =0.000),posture (80.0％ vs 5.9％,χ2 =26.884,P=0.000) and holding 1 000 g (65.0％ vs 0,χ2 =20.318,P=0.000) had statistically significant difference.Conclusions Tremor peak frequency in PD patients was lower than that in MSA-P patients,while power and harmonics occurrence rate in PD patients were higher than in MSA-P patients.

Objective To study the relationship between the development of auditory and speech in children with hearing loss after hearing aid fitting and discuss the development of speech with the ability of auditory in children at different stages of evaluation, with different degrees of hearing loss and different ages respectively.Methods A total of 19 children (14 boys and 5 girls) with hearing loss participated in this study.The age at hearing aid fitting ranged from 3 to 8 years old with a mean of 5.42±1.86 years old.According to their hearing levels, the children in this study were divided into two groups: the moderate hearing loss group (n=10) and the severe group (n=9).According to their ages at hearing aid fitting, all children in this study were divided into two groups: the less than or equal to six years old (n=11) and greater than six years old (n=8).MAIS and MUSS were used to evaluate their abilities of auditory and speech at pre-fitting, 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after hearing aids were worn respectively.A linear and regression analysis was done in the statistic procedure.Results There was a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS (R=0.774,P<0.05).There was also a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS for the different evaluating stages respectively.The correlations were pre-fitting (R=0.710,P<0.05), 1 month after hearing aid fitting (R=0.774,P<0.05), 3 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0.814,P<0.05), 6 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0.819,P<0.05), 9 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0.707,P<0.05), 12 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0.649,P<0.05).There was also a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS for MAIS (items 3~6) (Sound awareness) and MAIS (items 7~10) (Sound understanding).The correlations for MAIS (items 3~6) were (R=0.768,P<0.05), and for MAIS (items 7~10) (Sound understanding) (R=0.794,P<0.05).There was also a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS for different group of ages.The correlations for the group of <6years old were (R=0.808,P<0.05), and for the group of the ≥6 years old (R=0.775,P<0.05).There was also a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS for different groups of hearing loss levels.The correlation for the group of moderate hearing loss was (R=0.771,P<0.05), and the group of severe hearing loss (R=0.787,P<0.05).Conclusion The development of auditory ability is closely related to the speech ability.The speech abilities increase with the improvement of auditory abilities.The less severe the hearing loss is, the longer the use of hearing aids, the younger the children are, the better the speech ability improved with auditory ability development after hearing aid fitting.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy and safety of etanercept plus Tripterygium wilfordii polyglycoside (TWP) in elderly patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODSTotally 46 elderly patients with active RA were randomly assigned to the treatment group (22 cases) and the control group (24 cases). All patients received subcutaneous injection of etanercept, 25 mg each time, twice per week. The dosage was reduced to once per week 3 months later. Patients in the treatment group took TWP Tablet (10 mg each time, three times per day), while those in the control group took methotrexate (MTX), 10 mg each time, once per week. The whole course lasted for 24 weeks. Patients' rest pain, tender joint number, swollen joint number, health assessment questionnaire (HAQ), patients' global assessment, physicians' global assessment, erythrocyte sediment rate (ESR), C reactive protein (CRP), rheumatic factor were assessed at week 0, 4, 8, 12, and 24. The curative effect was statistically evaluated by the United States Institute of Rheumatology ACR20, ACR50, and ACR70 improvement criteria. Meanwhile, any adverse event was recorded and evaluated.

RESULTSTotally 41 completed the trial, and 5 dropped off (3 in the treatment group and 2 in the control group). Compared with the control group, there was no statistical difference in ACR20, ACR50, or ACR70 in the treatment group (P > 0.05). Compared with before treatment in the same group, there was some improvement in tender joint number, swollen joint number, visual analogue scale (VAS) for patients' global assessment, VAS for physicians' global assessment, ESR, CRP, and HAQ between the two groups, showing statistical difference (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group in the same phase, there was no statistical difference in the treatment group (P > 0.05). There was no statistical difference in the occurrence of adverse events between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONSEtanercept plus TWP could achieve equivalent therapeutic effect to that of Etanercept plus MTX. The two regimens could improve clinical signs, symptoms, and QOL related to RA. They were well tolerated in the treatment of elderly patients with active RA.

Aged ; Antirheumatic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; drug therapy ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Etanercept ; Female ; Glycosides ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor ; therapeutic use ; Treatment Outcome ; Tripterygium ; chemistry