Objective To evaluate the accuracy of chemical shift imaging (CSI) and MR spectroscopy (MRS) for fat quantification in phantom model. Methods Eleven phantoms were made according to the volume percentage of fat ranging from 0 to 100% with an interval of 10% . The fat concentration in the phantoms were measured respectively by CSI and MRS and compared using one-sample t test The correlation between the two methods was also analyzed. The concentration of saturated fatty acids ( FS), unsaturated fatty acids (FU) and the polyunsaturation degree (PUD) were calculated by using MRS. Results The fat concentration was (48.0 ±1.0)%, (57.0 ±0.5)%, (67.3±0.6)%, (77.3 ±0.6)%, (83.3±0.6)% and (91.0±1.0)% respectively with fat volume of 50% to 100% by CSI. The fat concentration was (8.3 ±0.6)%, (16.3 ±0.7)%, (27.7 ±0.6)%, (36.0 ±1.0)%, (43.5±0. 6)% and (56. 5 ±1. 0)% respectively with fat volume of 10% to 60% by MRS, the fat concentration were underestimated by CSI and MRS (P < 0.05 ), and had high linear correlation with the real concentration in phantoms ( CSI: r = 0. 998, MRS: r = 0.996, P < 0.01 ) . There was also a linear correlation between two methods (r = 0. 992, P < 0. 01 ) but no statistically significant difference ( pairedsamples t test, t = -0. 125 ,P = 0.903). By using MRS, the relative ratio of FS and FU in fat were 0. 15and 0. 85, the PUD was 0. 0325, respectively, and highly consistent with these in phantoms. Conclusion Both CSI and MRS are efficient and accurate methods in fat quantification at 7.0 T MR.

Objective To present some revision surgery for correcting short and bulky outward appearance of reconstructed finger pulp in toe-to-hand transfer. Methods Since Sep. 1998 to Dec. 2006,in a series of 33 patients, 39 fingers had been reconstructed with 2nd toe. In order to change the shape of bulbous distal toe segment into a normal tapering fingertip, revisional operations had been designed, i.e. (1)Excision of bulky skin and excessive soft tissue from one or both sides of the finger pulp. (2)Transfer and inlaid the excised lateral soft tissue flap to the central constricting part of the finger pulp. (3)Full thickness skin graft to palmar central narrow part of toe pulp. 4. Rotational transfer of local lateral "L" shape flap. Results All the patients healed by first intention with no skin necrosis occurred. The bulbous rectangular shaped toe pulp were corrected and outward appearance were much improved in most cases. Though the outward appearance in one simple skin graft case was not satisfactory in correcting flexion deformity of distal segment and increased its circumference. Conclusion In toe-to-hand transfer, the distal segment of reconstructed finger often shown to have an bulbous toe pulp appearance, which may bring psychological burden to the patient and their relatives. Simple revisional surgery recommended here may yield favorable improvement.

Objective To investigate the effects of surgery-induced menopause on neuropsychological symptoms in women with perimenopause. Methods Sixty-eight women with perimenopause who underwent bilateral oophorectomy for benign indications were evaluated by the modified Kupperman index on the perimenopause syndrome pre-and post-surgery,including the score in neuropsychological symptoms.Patients were further requested to remake a decision on the acceptance of surgery,and were divided into "accept the surgery" group(n=30) and "postpone the surgery" group(n=38).The neuropsychological symptoms were reevaluated and comparison was made between these two groups. Results The prevalence of perimenopause syndrome pre-surgery was 67.65%(22/68),and that of moderate and severe symptoms was 30.88%.The prevalence of perimenopause syndrome post-surery(97.06%)(66/68)was significantly increased,as well as that of moderate and severe symptoms(70.59%)(P

Objective Study the National Natural Science Foundation investment of traditional Chinese Medicine R&D investment in common illnesses to understand the total investment as well as researching areas, agency and disease. Methods Filtered research data of common illnesses from National Natural Science Foundation website database with keywords. Quantitative analysis was made with the obtained data. Results National Natural Science Foundation of China invested a total of more than 50 million RMB in common illness R&D, of which nearly 400 million RMB was invested to traditional Chinese medicine. Cancer R&D investment was the highest, bone diseases R&D investment was less than 0.1% of the total investment. Conclusion Total investment in common illness increased year by year, but the investment in traditional Chinese medicine ratio was still low.

Objective To investigate the anti-HBV constituents from Alternanthera philoxeroides.Methods The constituents were isolated with silica gel and gel permeation chromatography,and purified by HPLC.Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopy.The antivirus effects of the isolated compounds were tested by ELISA method in vitro.Results Ten compounds were isolated and elucidated as followings:oleanolic acid(Ⅰ),oleanolic acid 3-O-?-D-glucuronopyranoside(Ⅱ),oleanolic acid 28-O-?-D-glucopyranoside(Ⅲ),chikusetsusaponin Ⅳ a methyl ester(Ⅳ),4,5-dihydroblumenol(Ⅴ),N-trans-feruloyl 3-methyldopamine(Ⅵ),N-trans-feruloyl tyramine(Ⅶ),3?-hydroxystigmast-5-en-7-one(Ⅷ),24-methylenecycloartanol(Ⅸ),and cycloeucalenol(Ⅹ).The values of inhibition percent of compounds Ⅰ-Ⅲ,Ⅴ-Ⅶ revealed a significant distinction compared to the control group.Compounds Ⅱ and Ⅴ showed significant inhibition against HepG2 cells transected with cloned hepatitis B virus DNA,their inhibitive ratios were 85.38% and 87.37% at 50 ?g/mL,respectively.Conclusion Compounds Ⅳ-Ⅶ are isolated from this plant for the first time and phenolic amides have been determined as the new structure type from the plants of Alternanthera Forsk.Compounds Ⅱ and Ⅴ from A.philoxeroides show the more significant anti-HBV activities.

Objective To determine the role of nuclear factor-?B(NF-?B) in ischemic acute renal failure (ARF) rats. Methods Gel mobility shift assay was used to detect the DNA binding activity of NF-KB in ischemic ARF rats and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was used to study the expression of renal inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) . The relationship between DNA binding activity of NF-?B and expression of iNOS was also analyzed. Results The DNA binding activity of NF-?B in renal cortex increased from 1.00 ?0.17 of controls to 3. 67 ? 1. 94 of 6 hours after ischemia-reperfusion ( P

The present study is to establish Caco-2/HT29-MTX co-cultured cells and investigate the transport capability of PLGA nanoparticles with different surface chemical properties across Caco-2/HT29-MTX co-cultured cells. PLGA-NPs, mPEG-PLGA-NPs and chitosan coated PLGA-NPs were prepared by nanoprecipitation method using poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) as carrier material with surface modified by methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) and chitosan. The particle size and zeta potential of nanoparticles were measured by dynamic light scattering. Coumarin 6 was used as a fluorescent marker in the transport of nanoparticles investigated by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The transport of furanodiene (FDE) loaded nanoparticles was quantitively determined by high performance liquid chromatography. Colchicine and nocodazole were used in the transport study to explore the involved endocytosis mechanisms of nanoparticles. Distribution of the tight junction proteins ZO-1 was also analyzed by immunofluorescence staining. The results showed that the nanoparticles dispersed uniformly. The zeta potential of PLGA-NPs was negative, the mPEG-PLGA-NPs was close to neutral and the CS-PLGA-NPs was positive. The entrapment efficiency of FDE in all nanoparticles was higher than 75%. The transport capability of mPEG-PLGA-NPs across Caco-2/HT29-MTX co-cultured cells was higher than that of PLGA-NPs and CS-PLGA-NPs. Colchicine and nocodazole could significantly decrease the transport amount of nanoparticles. mPEG-PLGA-NPs could obviously reduce the distribution of ZO-1 protein than PLGA-NPs and CS-PLGA-NPs. The transport mechanism of PLGA-NPs and mPEG-PLGA-NPs were indicated to be a combination of endocytosis and paracellular way, while CS-PLGA-NPs mainly relied on the endocytosis way. PEG coating could shield the surface charge and enhance the hydrophilicity of PLGA nanoparticles, which leads mPEG-PLGA-NPs to possess higher anti-adhesion activity. As a result, mPEG-PLGA-NPs could penetrate the mucus layer rapidly and transport across Caco-2/HT29-MTX co-cultured cells.
Biological Transport ; Caco-2 Cells ; Chitosan ; chemistry ; Coated Materials, Biocompatible ; chemistry ; Coculture Techniques ; Drug Carriers ; Furans ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; metabolism ; HT29 Cells ; Heterocyclic Compounds, 2-Ring ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Humans ; Lactic Acid ; chemistry ; Nanoparticles ; Particle Size ; Polyethylene Glycols ; chemistry ; Polyglycolic Acid ; chemistry ; Zonula Occludens-1 Protein ; metabolism

Objective To investigate the incidence and risk factors of acute kidney injury(AKI)after different types of cardiac valve replacement surgery. Methods A single cohort of 1113 patients who received cardiac valve replacement surgery from April 2009 to March 2010 in Zhongshan Hospital,Fudan University were prospectively analyzed.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate possible risk factors associated with post-operative AKI.Akl was defined as a relative 50% increase or an absolute increment of 26.4 μmol/L in Scr within 48 hours and/or urine volume <0.5ml·kg-1·h-1 up to 6h.Results Of the 1113 patients, the incidence of AKI was 33.24%.In-hospital mortality of AKI patients was 6.49%,which was 5.373 times higher than that of non-AKI patients(P<0.01).The incidence of AKI in patients who simultaneously received cardiac valve replacement and coronary artery bypass grafting was 75.00%,which was significantly higher as compared to other types of valve replacement surgery(P<0.01).Unconditional multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that male,old age,long extracorpeal circulation (CPB)time(≥120 min)and combined with coronary artery bypass grafting surgery were the independent predictors of AKI episodes,and the corresponding OR values were 1.455,2.110,1.768 and 2.994 respectively. Conclusions AKI is a common and serious complication after cardiac valve replacement surgery.Patients who received combined cardiac surgery as valve replacement and coronary artery bypass grafting have higher incidence of AKI.Old age,male,long CPB time(≥120 min)and combined with coronary artery bypass grafting surgery are the independent risk factors of post-operative AKI for patients undergoing cardiac valve replacement surgery.

Background Primary open angle glaucoma(POAG) is a common type of glaucoma.It has been well known that a lot of factors are associated with the pathogenesis of POAG,but genetic factor plays a critical role.Optineurin (OPTN)gene is the second confirmed POAG-relevant gene,and screening its mutation in the population contribute to the deeply understanding of the pathogenesis of POAG.Objective The present study was to investigate the association between sequence variants of OPTN gene and POAG in Chinese patients.Methods DNA was isolated from peripheral blood of 100 POAG patients and 60 cataract individuals.The coding exons of OPTN gene were amplified by PCR.PCR products were then sequenced directly to assay the variants and contrasted to original sequence in GenBank.This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Shenzhen Eye Hospital.All the subjects signed the written inform consent.Results A case-controlled study was designed.The mean intraocular pressure (IOP)of the POAG patients was (29.0±6.5)mmHg,and that of the cataract patients was (13.7 ±2.4)mmHg.Variant of synonymous coding T34T was found in 60 POAG patients.Genetic type frequencies of AA,GA and GG were 10％,50％ and 40％ in the POAG patients,and those of cataract patients were 0,25％ and 75％ respectively,showing significant difference between them (x2 =20.416,P =0.000).The allele frequencies of A and G were 35％ and 65％ in the POAG patients,and those of cataract patients were 12.5％ and 87.5％,with a statistically significant difference (x2 ＝ 19.464,P =0.000).The sequence changes of non-synonymous coding variants (M98K,691-692insA G,R545Q,H486R) were also found in both POAG and cataract patients,but no significant difference was seen in the genetype and allele frequencies between two groups (P＞0.05).Conclusions No obvious association of OPTN gene variant with POAG is verified.The variant of T34T maybe increase the risk of POAG.

OBJECTIVETo investigate electrophysiological characteristics of the coronary sinus musculature and explore its role on electrical conduction between left atrium and right atrium in isolated canine heart.

METHODThe electrical connections between coronary sinus, left atrium and right atrium were detected by programmed stimulation delivered at coronary sinus ostium, distal coronary sinus and lateral wall of left atrium in a Langendorff model of canine.

RESULTSDuring stimulation delivered at coronary sinus ostium and distal coronary sinus, posterior wall of left atrium was firstly activated by electronic signal through coronary sinus musculature, the conduct time of coronary sinus ostium stimulation and distal coronary sinus stimulation were (44 +/- 21) ms and (41 +/- 15) ms, respectively. During stimulation delivered at lateral wall of left atrium, electronic signal was firstly observed in coronary sinus. During premature stimulation, conduction blockade of coronary sinus to left atrium was evidenced in parts of hearts, but electronic conduction of left atrium to right atrium remained stable. The ERP at the different stimulation sites of coronary sinus ostium and distal coronary sinus, posterior wall of left atrium were (122 +/- 19) ms, (114 +/- 12) ms (n = 3) and (107 +/- 17) ms (all P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONA conduction way connecting left and right atria exists in coronary sinus which might play an important role on inducing and maintaining atrial arrhythmias under certain pathological conditions.