BACKGROUND: Thoracic outlet syndrome can be divided into nervous system type and vascular type according to different compressed structure. Nervous system type has typical clinic manifestations,physical signs,radiological evidence and electromyogram variation. So,there is wide prospect for clinic application about evaluation of compression of nerve in patients with thoracic outlet syndrome by electrophysiological examination.OBJECTIVE: To study diagnostic significance of electrophysiological examination to thoracic outlet syndrome.DESIGN: A completed and randomized research based on patients.SETTING: An electrophysiological department in a municipal hospital.PARTICIPANTS: Twenty patients diagnosed as thoracic outlet syndrome were collected in Neurology and Neurosurgery Department,Hand Surgery Department and Clinic of Dalian Central Hospital from April 1998 to July2002,in which there were 5 males and 15 females,aged 31 -67,average46.0 years,with course of 2 - 7 years,average 4.5 years.METHODS: Nerve conduction velocity,wave amplitude and corresponding muscular needle electrode electromyogram(EMG) of median nerve,ulnar nerve,interior and exterior cutaneous nerve in forearm,suprascapular nerve,axillary nerve,musculocutaneous nerve,radial nerve were tested by keypoint myoelectricity evoked potential equipment made in Denmark.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The results of nerve electrophysiological examination.RESULTS: The type of compression of nerve trunk manifested as slower sensory and motor conduction velocity of nerve dominated by corresponding trunk across axillary section,lower wave amplitude and loss of nerve of corresponding muscle.CONCLUSION: Nerve electrophysiological examination is of important significance to diagnose thoracic outlet syndrome.

Population aging is a problem confronting many countries around the world and poses grim challenges to the conventional healthcare model.The measure proposal by WHO,the establishment of age-friendly community-based primary healthcare centers and medical institutions,is both practical and feasible,based on which many countries have formulated implementation frameworks.In China,it is of paramount importance to promote the development of age-friendly hospitals,especially geriatric specialty hospitals,rehabilitation hospitals and nursing homes,in the healthcare sector.Integrated care services offered by age-friendly hospitals can help reduce complications,improve care quality and patient satisfaction,and cut costs,benefiting elderly patients and their families and ultimately moving the healthcare reform forward.

Objective To investigate the effect of cardiopulmonary bypass cardiac surgery on postoperative cognitive function of patients who wre undergoing selective cardiac surgery.Methods Fifty children patients who were scheduled for cardiac surgery were investigated with C-WISC (Chinese revised Wechsler Intelligence Scales for children) preoperative.The children patients were tested at the 7th day and 1 month postoperative by C-WISC and digital span.It could be defined postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) if the C-WISC score decreased 1 SD (standard deviation).Results The incidence of POCD at the 7th day and in the first month postoperative was 40％,and 20％ in pediatric patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.It shows that ascending aorta clip time and cardiopulmonary bypass (CBP)time had negative correlation with intelligence quotient (IQ) (P ＜0.05),but age and education had not any correlation with intelligence quotient in pediatric patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass surgery (IQ) (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions The occurrence of POCD in cardiac surgery children underwent CPB tend to be high,with long time CPB and aortic clip were more likely to have postoperative dysfunction.It shows a close relationship between CPB and aortic clip with POCD.Age and education had no significant influence on postoperative cognitive dysfunction in CPB cardiac surgery children.

The nerve tissue engineering (NTE) has been applied in the treatment of central nerve system injury or disease to restore its anatomic structure and function, in which the nervous scaffolds played important roles in supporting and nourishing the nerve tissues. Development, challenge confronted and foreground of research on scaffolds material in the nerve tissue engineering are reviewed in this article.

Objective To explore potential synergetic effects of interleukin-2(IL-2) with IL-18 on induction of natural killer(NK) cell activity against myeloma cells in vitro.Methods CD69 expression on NK cells were defined by Flow Cytometry;IFN-? level in supernatants of NK cell culture was measured by ELISA;pure NK cell population was obtained from peripheral blood by using cell purification kit;standard Cr51 release method was used to test NK cell cytotoxicity against myeloma cells in vitro.Results The combined application of IL-18 with low dose of IL-2(10u/mL) significantly enhanced NK cell activation,IFN-? secretion and NK cell cytolytic activity against myeloma cells(U266 and RPMI-8226) as compared to IL-18 alone,respectively.Conclusion IL-2 synergized with IL-18 to induce NK cells activates anti-myeloma cell in vitro and combined use of IL-18 and low dose IL-2 could be an alterative immuno-therapy approach for cancers including myeloma.

Calmodulin,as an important signaling regulatory protein,widely exists in eukaryotic cells and participates in a variety of physiological activities.Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a typical neurodegenerative diseasemostly affecting the old people.Senile plaques (SP) caused by amyloid protein deposition and neurofibrillary tangles (NTF) caused by over-phosphorylation of Tau protein in the brain are the two major neuropathological hallmarks of AD.Neuronal apoptosis induced by dysregulation of calcium homeostasis also plays a significant role during this pathological process.Recent studies have found that calcium and its downstream receptor,calmodulin,are closely associated with the pathogenesis and progress of Alzheimer's disease.This article reviews the current development and the latest research progress on the effects of calmodulin on β-amyloid protein generation and deposition,neurofibrillary tangle formation,synaptic plasticity in AD around the world,comprehensively discusses the role of calmodulin in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE: The latency-intensity function (LIF) of wave V from click ABR of some deaf children showed great variation. We attempted to find out the intrinsic reasons. METHOD: The children recieved tone-burst ABR test. RESULT: Frequencies from 0.5-4.0 kHz have been tested and the thresholds of tone-burst ABR were recorded. The average thresholds of steeply LIF children at 0.5-4.0 kHz were (93.13 ± 7.04), (79.37 ± 7.72), (69.38 ± 8.54) (66.25 ± 8.06) dB respectively, while the average thresholds of shallower LIF children at these 4 frequencies were (65.00 ± 7.32) (68.13 ± 6.55) (70.63 ± 6.80) (78.12 ± 8.34) dB respectively. CONCLUSION The results imply that the child with steeply LIF may have more hearing loss at frequencies 0.5 and 1 kHz than those with shallower LIF. LIF may predict the audiogram configuration.
Audiometry, Pure-Tone ; Auditory Threshold ; Child ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem ; Hearing Loss ; diagnosis ; Humans

This article classified children asthma by constitution as deficiency-cold, phlegm-dampness, phlegm-heat, yin-deficiency and yang-deficiency. We categorized children asthma at acute stage by syndrome differentiation as cold, heat, defi ciency and excess; and children asthma at remittent stage was categorized by syndrome differentiation as lung qi defi ciency, spleen yang deficiency and kidney yin deficiency. Patients with the same constitution were treated differently at different stage; and the opposite was true for patients at the same stage but with different constitution. The constitution and the syndrome had a great relationship. It was important for preventing and treating the children asthma that accurate and reasonable constitution differentiation combines syndrome differentiation in clinical treatment.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the distribution and resistantce of three commonly encountered Gram-negative bacilli in our hospital,and provide doctors with the laboratory evidence of guiding antibiotic therapy.METHODS Bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests of isolates between Jan 2005 and Dec 2006 were performed by MicroScan WalkAway-40.RESULTS Totally 2024 common Gram-negative bacilli strains were isolated,807 of which were Escherichia coli,737 were Klebsiella pneumoniae,480 were Pseudomonas aeruginosa.The antimicrobial resistant rate of E.coli and K.pneumoniae to imipenem(2.2%) was lower than to the other antibiotics(2.7%).While 14.0% of P.aeruginosa isolates were resistant to imipenem.The antimicrobial resistant rate of all the isolated bacteria to piperacillin/tazobactam and amikacin was low,accounted less than 15%.CONCLUSIONS The resistant rate of three commonly encounted Gram-negative bacilli is increasing year by year.Therefore,monitoring bacterial drug resistance is very important for the rational use of antibiotics and the containment of multi-drug bacteria.

Objective To develop a set of portable equipment for telemedicine audio and video acquision-wireless portable helmet terminal.Methods The telemedicine images were acquired rapidly in high precision by using micro-camera with automatic focus.Voice analog signals input from microphone were performed A/D conversion by using UDA1344 to form serial digital audio stream.Compressed by helmet master operating system in uCos multitask real-time operating system,the acquired audio and video data were connected with local network by short-distance wireless transmission and then with Internet.Results Wireless portable helmet for telemedicine had such functions as images acquisition,audio transmission,automatic focus,video tape and both-way interphone.The wireless connection with telemedicine server could transmit audio and video in long distance.Conclusion Wireless portable helmet for telemedicine can be applied in remote emergency care,operation and transmission,which will greatly promote the application of tele-medicine.