Objective To investigate the correlations between the occurrence of carotid artery atherosclerosis and chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn) and cytomegalovirus (CMV).Methods Carotid color ultrasonography showed that the patients with intima-media thickness (IMT) ＞ 1.5 mm were enrolled and were used as a carotid atherosclerosis group,and the healthy subjects (IMT ＜ 1.0 mm) were used as a control group.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the antibody levels and positive rates of the serum anti-Cpn and anti-CMV IgG.The demography,vascular risk factors,anti-Cpn and anti-CMV IgG antibody positive rates of the carotid atherosclerosis group and the control group were compared.Results A total of 92 patients of the carotid atherosclerosis group were enrolled,including 30 patients with stable plaque and 62 with unstable plaque; a total of 49 healthy subjects of the control group were enrolled.There were no significant differences in the proportions of age,male,hypertension,diabetes,hyperlipidemia,and smoking patients between the carotid atherosclerosis group and the control group (all P ＞0.05).The anti-Cpn IgG (69.5％ vs.26.5％ ; x2 =23.887,P ＜ 0.001),anti-CMV IgG positive rate (75.0％ vs.30.6％ ; x2 =26.156,P ＜ 0.001),and anti-Cpn IgG + anti-CMV positive rate (51.2％ vs.10.2％ ;x2 =24.006,P ＜0.001) of the carotid atherosclerosis group were significantly higher than those of the control group.In the atherosclerosis group,there were no significant difference in the proportions of age,male,hypertension,diabetes,hyperlipidemia,and smoking patients between the unstable plaque subgroup and the stable plaque subgroup (all P＞ 0.05).The anti-Cpn IgG (80.6％ vs.46.7％; x2=11.025,P=0.001),anti-CMV IgG positive rate (83.9％ vs.56.7％;x2 =7.980,P=0.005) and anti-Cpn IgG + anti-CMV positive IgG rate (44.6％ vs.7.6％ ; x2 =10.210,P =0.006) of the unstable plaque subgroup were significantly higher than those of stable plaque subgroup.Conelusions The occurrence of carotid atherosclerosis and the stability of plaque are associated with the Cpn and CMV infection.The Cpn and CMV infection may be the important factors for the occurrence of carotid atherosclerosis plaques and unstable plaques.

Antigens, Neoplasm ; immunology ; Cancer Vaccines ; therapeutic use ; Dendritic Cells ; immunology ; Humans ; Immunotherapy ; methods ; Liver Neoplasms ; therapy

Objective To investigate the prevalence of small intestinal bacteria overgrowth (SIBO)in patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE). Methods Ninety patients with cirrhosis and 20 healthy volunteers were studied. All of them were assessed with glucose hydrogen breath test (GHBT) to detect SIBO. And number connection test (NCT-A, NCT-BC) and digit symbol test (DST) were used to diagnose MHE. Results One case (5.0%) out of 20 healthy volunteers was SIBO and none was MHE,and 28 cases (31.1%) out of 90 cirrhosis patients were SIBO and 38 cases (42.2%) were MHE. Twenty-one (55.3%,21/38) cases were diagnosed as SIBO among these patients with MHE,and 7 cases (13.5%,7/52)were diagnosed as SIBO among these patients without MHE. There was significant difference between cirrhosis with MHE and cirrhosis without MHE (x2 = 17.90,P＜ 0.01 ). Conclusions Patients with cirrhosis have a higher prevalence of SIBO. The incidence rate of SIBO in cirrhosis patients with MHE is more than that without MHE.

Identification of the histotype of the Wilms' tumor(WT) before operation, application of normative staging rules for WT and individualized combined therapy schedule are the main studying contents of WT' s diagnosis and therapy. Present article will review the overseas and domestic advancements of WT' s diagnosis and therapy, and provide some references for domestic doctors.

Objective To optimize the extraction process of Euphorbia hirta L.by Central composite design/response surface methodology with ethanol by the ultrasonic extraction technology.Methods Based on the single factor experiment and central composite design-response surface methodology,the content of quercitroside was regarded as evaluation index,select ethanol concentration,extraction time,and solid-liquid ratio as three evaluation factors to achieve the purpose. Results The results indicated that the optimal extraction process was obtained as follows:10 times the amount of 60% ethanol under ultrasound for 2 times,50 min each;the average content of the quercitroside was 2.39 mg/g.Conclusion The method to optimize the extraction process is simple and reasonable.

Objective To investigate the changes of right ventricular(RV) volume and function in patients with atrial septal de-fect(ASD) .Methods 31 patients with ASD-type secundum(ASD group) and 30 age-matched controls(control group) were includ-ed .Single beat real-time three dimensional echocardiography (sbRT3DE) were performed in all to evaluate right ventricular volume and function ,then right venrtricular cardiac output(RVCO) were calculated with heart rate .Further correlative analysis was calcu-lated between right ventricular volume and function parameters of the ASD group and ASD size and the patient′s age .Results Right ventricular end-systolic volume(RVESV) ,right ventricular end-diastolic volume(RVEDV) ,right ventricular stroke volume (RVSV) ,right ventricular ejection fraction(RVEF) ,RVCO of the ASD group were significantly higher than that of control group (P<0 .001) .The maximum diameter of ASD had positive relation with RVESV ,RVEDV ,RVSV ,RVCO(r=0 .55 ,P<0 .01 ;r=0 .61 ,P<0 .01 ;r=0 .63 ,P<0 .01;r=0 .61 ,P<0 .01 ,respectively ) ,and was best correlation with RVSV .But ,there was no signifi-cant correlation between the maximum diameter of ASD and RVEF (r=0 .00 ,P>0 .05) .The patients′age had positive relation with RVESV ,RVEDV ,RVSV(r=0 .53 ,P<0 .01 ;r=0 .48 ,P<0 .01 ;r=0 .41 ,P<0 .01 ,respectively) ,had negtive relation with RVEF (r= -0 .44 ,P<0 .05) ,while there was no significant correlation between the patient′s age and RVCO(r=0 .26 ,P>0 .05) .Conclu-sion sbRT3DE is a fast and accurate new technology in evaluating RV volume and function .Atrial level left-to-right shunt leading to an increase in RV volume ,RV enlargement produces myocardial contractility .RV volume increases with ASD size ,then RV func-tion was enhanced .RV volume increases with patient′s age ,RV function is relatively lower .

In this experiment, the murine melanoma cell B16-F10 oncolysates transfected by recombinant vaccinia viruses encoding human IL-2(IL-2VBO) were used as vaccine. When the tumor-bearing mice were treated by following injection of IL-2VBO into tumor site, the tumor growth was inhibited and the survival time prolonged. The PBL from IL-2VBO treated mice showed higher cytotoxicity to the wild type B16-F10 but not to YAC-1 cells than that from control groups. The results showed the active specific immunity was induced by the IL-2VBO. On accout of its stronger immuogenicity and some advantages in preparing and storing, the IL-2VBO might be used as a kind of effective vaccine in the cancer active specific immunotherapy.

It was an important strategy in cancer gene therapy that transferring foreign gene to fibroblasts to express synthetic protein to exert antitumor effect. But most of studies regarded the foreign gene-modified fibroblasts as a by-stander, only a delivery source of synthetic protein, and neglected their irnmunological characters. In this paper, human primary dermal fibroblasts were modified by human IL-2 gene by retrovirus vector and induced by human IFN-?. The results showed that the MHC- I , MHC- II and CD40 expression on the surface of IFN-? induced fibroblasts were up-regulated significantly in comparison with those of non-induced cells. The IL-2, IL-1, IL-6 secretion were detected as a increased level in supematants of the IFN-?-induced, IL-2 gene modified fibroblasts. Because these molecules and cytokines play important roles in antigen presentation and effector activation, it can be inferred that the IFN-y induced, IL-2 gene modified fibroblasts could be used as antigen presenting cells in addition to delivery cells to activated the effector cells.

Objective To summarize the efficacy of epirubicin chemotherapy by intra-iliac arteral infusion for the high risk patients of postoperative bladder cancer. Methods Eighty-six patients with the bladder cancer at high risk of recurrence who had undergone the bladder-sparing surgery were divided into two groups.Thirty-one patients were treated by intra-iliac arterial infusion chemotherapy of epirubicin and the remaining 55 patients had no chemotherapy.An analysis on recurrence related factors was made by multivariate Cox regression analysis models.And Kaplan-Meier curves were compared using the log-rank test on the disease-free between the two groups. Results Multi-recurrence associated with a higher grade and postoperative intra-iliac arterial infusion chemotherapy of epirubicin were significantly important factors,the former being risk factor and the latter being protective factor of cancer recurrence in bladder respectively.The recurrence of 9 in 31 patients (29%) with intra-iliac arterial infusion chemotherapy of epirubicin was significantly lower than that of 30 in 55 patients (54%) without chemotherapy ( P

BACKGROUND: Dysfunction of vascular endothelium is the initial event of atherosclerosis. Although there are many approaches to evaluate the function of vascular endothelium, few are widely used in clinic. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the brachial and superficial femoral endothelium-dependent dilation, i.e. flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and endothelium-independent dilation, i.e. nitroglycerin-mediated dilation (NMD), of elderly patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), and to investigate the correlation and characteristics between brachial and superficial femoral FMD and NMD.DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: Non-randomized concurrent control trial was performed at Department of Geriatric Cardiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital from October 2000 to May 2002.PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-three PAD patients were selected as PAD group, including 27 male and 6 female, aged (79±6)years, who had more than one focus of plaque and arterial stenosis more than 50% in artery of lower extremity by Doppler ultrasound. Accorded with the standard for Health of China Academy of Geriatrics in 1995, 40 healthy retired cadres undergoing health examination were selected as control, including 29 male and 11 female. In addition, 30 patients with coronary arteriosclerotic heart disease or cardiovascular risk factors (excluding age and sex) were selected as risk factor group.METHODS: Using non-invasive approach, high resolution color Doppler ultrasound diagnosis system was applied to detect the basic caliber of upper and lower extremtity arteries in all participants, then the blood flow of the tested artery was blocked and the vascular caliber was detected again after the blood flow was restored to evaluate the endothelium-dependent dilation. The tested subjects took 0.6 mg nitroglycerin to induce vasodilatation after detecting the basic caliber of upper and lower extremtity arteries, then the difference between the two detections was regarded as the endothelium-independent dilation.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The endothelium-dependent dilation and endothelium-independent dilation of upper and lower extremtity arteries.RESULTS: Both FMD and NMD of the brachial artery and the superficial femoral artery in 33 PAD patients were significantly lower than those of healthy controls and non-PAD patients with cardiovascular risk factors (t=-11.82-10.91, P <0.05). In old PAD patients, the superficial femoral FMD and NMD were significantly lower than brachial FMD (t=3.535,3.315, P < 0.01); There was close relationship between the brachial and superficial femoral FMD (r=0.931 4, P < 0.01), so was the NMD (r=0.919 1, P < 0.01).CONCLUSION: The superficial femoral FMD and NMD may reflect the vasoreactivity of PAD patients more directly and sensitively than those of brachial artery. There is close relationship between brachial and superficial femoral arteries.