Objective To study the clinical and imaging features of patients with bone metastases from breast cancer and identify the factors related to the incidence of bone metastases. Methods Three hundred and thirty-four patients with breast cancer were recruited into this study. Whole-body 99Tcm-methylene disphosphonate (MDP) bone scan, clinical staging, pathological, immunohistochemical and serological test results were analyzed retrospectively. χ2 test was used for statistical analysis. Results The incidence rate of bone metastases for patients with and without lymph node metastases was 71% (152/214) and 22. 5% (27/120), respectively (χ2 =72.80, P =0.000). The incidence rate of bone metastases from infiltrated non-specified and specified breast cancer was 69% (203/294) and 41.7% (5/12), respectively (χ2 =3. 97, P=0.046). Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was elevated in 28.5% (51/179) and 14.9%(11/74) of patients with and without bone metastases, respectively (χ2 = 5. 25, P = 0.022 ). Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA) 15-3, CA125, CA19-9 increased in 68.7% ( 123/179) and 27.0% (20/74) of patients with and without bone metastases, respectively (χ2 = 37. 03, P =0. 000). Conclusions The incidence of bone metastases from breast cancer is correlated to pathological types of primary tumor and lymph node metastases. Bone metastases occurs more frequently in patients with infiltrated, non-specified, primary cancer and with lymph node metastases. Serum ALP, CEA, CA15-3,CA125, CA19-9 might be the tumor makers for early diagnosis of bone metastases from breast cancer.

Objective To investigate the process of electrical activities when human brain deals with the facial sexual information. Methods Forty healthy college students in March 2005 were selected from Southern Medical University. All subjects participating in the experiment vohmtarily were right-handed with normal or corrected sight and never suffered from family history of mental disorder. 360 pictures of real human face (balf females and half males) strange to all participants, were used as the stimulus presented once one by one in randomized order on the screen with a stimulus duration of 800 ms and a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 1200 ms. Half subjects were asked to press the left button of a game-pad immediately after female face presentation and the right for male, the other half reversed. Event-related electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded by 19 channels of international 10-20 system with linked earlobes as reference. EEG epochs from 100 ms before to 800 ms after stimulus were amplified by means of an ERPs system developed in our lab, digitized with sampling frequency of 1000 Hz, bandwidth of [0.1, 30] Hz and a notch of 50 Hz. Electrode impedance was less than 5 kΩ. Trial contaminated with ocular, muscular or any other type of artifacts were inspected visually and rejected. Each 60 stimuli of the same gender faces worked as an overlaying unit (the real overlay number was about 45-50 with bad epochs rejected). Three female and 3 male subjects were excluded owing to the bad ERP record quality and thus 34x6 epochs came from the rest ones. Results (1) The possible difference trend (but P>0.05) between male and female facial stimuli appeared at the frontal area in 40-100 ms after stimuli; (2) The significant difference between male and female appeared at the occipital in 140-160 ms after stimuli (P<0.05); (3) The significant difference between male and female appeared at the large frontal and occipital area in 200-260 ms after stimuli (P<0.05); (4) The significant difference between male and female appeared at the large central parietal in 280-300 ms after stimuli (P<0.05); (5) The significant difference or trend between male and female appeared at several areas in different time after 360 ms. Conclusion In different stage, different brain areas are activated for the facial sexual feature processing. Thus, our brain works as a network.

Background Bone morphogenetic protein-6 (BMP-6) is closely correlated with tumor differentiation and skeletal metastasis. Estrogen is considered as a stimulant for the initiation and promotion of breast cancer. Previous studies demonstrated that 17β-estadiol (E2) can selectively increase the expression of BMP-6. This experiment is designed to detect the molecular mechanism of estrogen activating BMP-6 gene transcription in human estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Methods After the treatment of MCF-7 cells with E2 at different concentrations (10-11 mol/L, 10-9 mol/L, 10-7 mol/L), the BMP-6 expression level was examined through real-time polymerase chain reaction. Through restriction enzyme digestion, human BMP-6 1.2 kb long promoter, BMP-6 0.7 kb long promoter was cloned into pGL-3 basic vector; after the treatment with 10-7 mol/L E2, luciferase activities of the two promoters were detected. Site-directed mutagenesis was performed to obtain the mutant forms of estrogen response element half-site (1/2 ERE) element and Sp1 sites in the BMP-6 promoter, the activities of these mutant form promoters were detected following the methods mentioned above. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay was also used to confirm the binding of estrogen receptor α (Erα) on BMP-6 promoter in the presence of E2. Results E2 dose dependently increased BMP-6 mRNA expression in human ER+ breast cancer cell line MCF-7. At a dose of 10-7 mol/L E2, human BMP-6 1.2 kb promoter activity was increased by 90% compared with the control group treated with ethanol (P<0.05). Both the 1/2 ERE response element mutant form and the Sp1 site mutant form of the BMP-6 promoter abolished the activation of the BMP-6 promoter's response to E2. Through ChIP assay, the binding of Erα on 1/2 ERE response element in BMP-6 promoter was further validated. Conclusion Estrogen induces BMP-6 expression in human ER+ breast cancer cell line MCF-7 through its receptor Erα binding on 1/2 ERE element in the BMP-6 promoter.

Objective To evaluate the predictive value of admission plasma amino-terminal pro-B type natriuretic peptide(NT-proBNP)on in-hospital mortality in patients with decompensated heart failure.Methods Plasma NT-proBNP levels were measured in patients with decompensated heart failure within 24 hours after admission with ELISA method.The NT-proBNP levels were compared between survivals and dying patients in hospital.ROC analyses were performed to evaluate the predictive value of admission plasma NT-proBNP on in-hospital mortality and to identify the optimal NT-proBNP cut-point for predicting in hospital mortality.A binary logistic regress analyses was used to evaluate if NT-proBNP was an independent predictor for in-hospital mortality.Results A total of 804 patients with decompensated heart failure were enrolled in his study(293 valvular heart diseases,219 ischemic cardiomyopathy,141 dilated cardiomyopathy,14 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,21 restrictive cardiomyopathy,39 hypertensive heart disease,41 chronic pulmonary heart disease and 36 adult congenital heart disease)and 96 patients were in class Ⅱ,450 in classⅢand 258 in cases Ⅳ according to NYHA Classification.During hospitalization,64 deaths were recorded and the on admission plasma NT-proBNP levels of patients died during hospitalization were significantly higher than those of survivals[4321.1(3063.8,6606.5)pmol/L VS.1921.6(873.9,3739.2)pmol/L,P＜0.01].Area under receiver operating characteristic curve(AUC)of NT-proBNP to predict in-hospital death was 0.772(95%CI:0.718-0.825,P＜0.01),the optimal plasma NT-proBNP cut-point for predicting in-hospital mortality Was 3500 pmol/L,with a sensitivity of 70.3%,a specificity of 72.0%,an accuracy of 71.9%.a positive predictive value of 17.8%and a negative predictive value of 96.6%.Patients whose NT-proBNP levels were equal or more than 3500 pmol/L had a much higher in hospital mortality(17.8%)compared with those with NT-proBNP levels of less than 3500 pmol/L (3.4%),P＜0.01.Binary logistic regress analyses demonstrated that admission plasma NT-proBNP,pneumonia,heart rate and NYHA class were independent predictors for in-hospital mortality in patients with decompensated heart failure(P＜0.05 or 0.01)and admission plasma NT-proBNP Was the strongest predictor for in-hospital mortality.Conclusions Admission plasma NT-proBNP level was an independent predictor for in-hospital mortality in patients with decompensated heart failure.The optimal NT-proBNP cut point for predicting in-hospital mortality was 3500 pmol/L in this patient cohort.