Barium ; urine ; Spectrophotometry, Atomic ; methods

Objective To examine plasma levels of protease C1 inhibitor (SERPING1) in adult patients with latent autoimmune diabetes (LADA), and their clinical significance thereof. Methods The levels of SERPING1 were detected and compared between LADA, type 1 diabetes (T1DM), type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and healthy control groups. The correlation between plasma levels of SERPING1 and other clinical indicators such as age, disease course, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose (FPG), 2 h postprandial plasma glucose (2 hPG), fasting c-peptide (FCP) and 2 h postprandi-al C peptide (2 hCP) was analyzed. Multi-factor regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) were used to evaluate the predictive effect of SERPING1 in LADA at the early stage. Results The level of SERPING1 was significantly higher in LADA group than that of T2DM group and control group (P < 0.05). There was a negative correlation between SERPING1 and FCP, and a positive correlation between SERPING1 and HbA1c, FPG and 2 hPG (P<0.05). There were no significant correlation between SERPING1 and age, disease course and 2 hCP. FCP was analyzed by regression equation (P<0.05), and which was the main influence factor of the plasma level of SERPING1. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of SERPING1 was 0.613 (P<0.05), 95%CI 0.514-0.712. The optimal cut-point of SERPING1 for early prediction of LADA was 289.71 mg/L, and the sensitivity and specificity were 69%and 48%respectively. Conclusion SERPING1 combined with other indicators will be useful for identifying LADA from T2DM at the early stage.

Objective To establish an HPLC method for determination and comparison of the content of caffeic acid and rosmarinic acid in Prunella vulgaris from different habitat. Methods The determination was carried out with Waters Zorbax SunFire C18 (4.6 mm?150 mm, 5 ?m), gradient MeOH-0.1% acetic acid solution was taken as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, and the detection wavelength was at 330 nm. Results The linear range of caffeic acid was 0.099 2～0.496 0 ?g (r=0.999 9). The average recovery rate of caffeic acid was 99.75% (RSD=2.27%, n=5). The content of caffeic acid in Prunella vulgaris from different habitat ranged from 0.02% to 0.05%. The linear range of rosmarinic acid was 0.828 8～4.144 0 ?g (r=0.999 8), The average recovery rate of rosmarinic acid was 101.37% (RSD=1.19%, n=5). The content of rosmarinic acid in Prunella vulgaris from different habitat ranged from 0.09% to 0.20%. Conclusion The content of caffeic acid and rosmarinic acid in Prunella vulgaris from different habitat varied greatly.

Background and purpose: The prognosis of completely resected stage ⅢA(N2) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a significant concern. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rates range from 10% to 30%. This study aimed to analyze the patterns of first failure in completely resected stage ⅢA(N2) NSCLC and to assess the actuarial risk of developing metastasis at different sites and to guild standard clinical practice. Methods: Patients withⅢA(N2) NSCLC who had undergone radical surgery in our hospital from Jan. 2005 to Jul. 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. The progression-free survival (PFS), the OS, patterns of first failure, the actuarial risk were analyzed. The cumulative incidence of first failure was determined using the Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results: Among 357 patients who met the eligibility criteria with completely resected stage ⅢA(N2) NSCLC, 5-year OS was 36.9%. There were 284 (77.6%) patients experiencing disease failure: 61 with local failure, 197 with local and distant failures, and 26 patients with local recurrence as the first failure. Brain, bone and lung were the main sites of distant failure as the first failure, while brain was the most common site. There were 67 patients developing brain metastases (BM) as the first site of failure. The median time of local failure as the first site of failure was 13.6 months, and the time to develop distant recurrence was 15.1 months. 92.5% BM developed in 3 years after the complete resection. Conclusion: As the first failure, the rate of distant failure was much higher than that of local failure in completely resected stage ⅢA(N2) NSCLC. Brain was the most common site of distant failure as the first failure. These results can be helpful in guiding standard clinical practice and evaluating the outcome of comprehensive treatment.

A total of 1140 medical workers from 8 public hospitals of secondary and tertiary levels in Anhui were surveyed with questionnaire. Their knowledge of the reform, acknowledgement of key points of the reform, desire of participating in the reform and other factors that may influence the reform were investigated as categorized by their hospital, position, title and age. This study comes up with such recommendations as reinforcing communications on public hospital reform, reforming the compensation mechanism to clarify government responsibilities, probing into a better model for multi-institution practice of certified physicians, and encouraging private capital to participate in medical service while ensuring its non-profit nature, and improving the performance appraisal mechanism to ensure incentives of medical workers. These recommendations aim to enable the health administrators in their decision making.

Adult ; Carotid Artery, External ; anatomy & histology ; Humans ; Hypoglossal Nerve ; anatomy & histology ; Tongue ; anatomy & histology ; blood supply ; innervation

Objective To explore somatic symptoms of patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) and effects of combined anti somatisation therapy on the quality of life in patients with FD.Methods Two hundred and nineteen patients with FD were enrolled.Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) and Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI) were completed,and the relation between them was analyzed.Lansoprazole,mosapride and flupentixol melitracen (the anti-somatisation medication) were taken for four weeks by 131 FD patients who had poor response to four-week conventional treatment with proton pump inhibitors (PPI) and/or prokinetic medication and who got more than 4 scores in PHQ 15.And then therapeutic effects were observed and the changes of NDI before and after treatment were analyzed.The t test,chi-square test,Spearman's correlation and linear regression were performed for statistical analysis.Results The total PHQ-15 and NDI score of 219 patients with FD were 5.7±3.4 and 42.0± 10.4,and there was positive correlation between them (r=0.493,P＜0.05).Stomach pain,headache,chest pain,dizziness,shortness of breath,fatigue,sleeping disorder,thirst and so on were positively correlated with totalNDIscore (r=0.262,0.230,0.241,0.243,0.352,0.385,0.266,0.281,all P＜0.05).Chest pain,stomach pain,shortness of breath,dizziness and fatigue were the influence factors of NDI (t=2.340,2.488,5.278,2.167,2.443,all P＜0.05).Among 131 patients with FD who received anti somatisation combination therapy,six patients did not complete the therapy because of the side effects,and finally 125 patients were enrolled and analyzed.Before and four weeks after the treatment,the total PHQ-15 scores of 125 patients with FD were 7.3±3.2 and 2.9±2.2,respectively; and the difference was statistically significant (t =12.653,P＜0.01).There were significant differences in the influence of stomach pain,headache,chest pain,dizziness,shortness of breath,fatigue,sleeping disorder and thirst before and after the treatment (not bothered at all,bothered a little,bothered a lot) (x2=39.231,6.796,6.693,15.520,6.698,51.572,44.390 and 16.506,all P＜0.05).The total NDI score before and after the treatment were 44.3 ± 11.7 and 29.2 ± 6.9,and the difference was statistically significant (t=12.503,P＜0.01).Conclusions The quality of life in patients with FD is affected by somatic symptoms such as chest pain,stomach pain,shortness of breath,dizziness,fatigue and so on.For FD patients with poor response to conventional treatment,the quality of life could be improved by the combination of anti-somatisation therapy and the conventional therapy.

Objective To explore the feasibility of using clinical whole body MR scanners to investigate the intravital visibility of central nervous system (CNS) lesions in rats of multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods Ten Lewis rats were injected with the peptide 35-55 of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein to make the model of MS. On a Siemens Sonata 1.5T MR scanner equipped with a flexible surface coil, rats brain and spinal cord were examined using T2-weighted and T1-weighted imaging with slice thickness of 1-2 mm. On a Siemens Trio Tim 3.0T MR-scanner equipped with a quadrature wrist coil, rats were examined using T2WI, T1WI and Gd-DTPA enhanced T1WI 3-dimensional imaging with voxel size up to 0.06-0.08 mm~3. Rat brain and spinal cord images in multiple orientations were reconstituted with special software in workstation. Results T2WI and T1WI of the lesions in MS rat brain with high spatial and contrast resolution could be obtained with clinical 3.0T MR scanner, though the image resolution of spinal cord was relatively low. The resolution of 1.5T MR was lower than that of 3.0T. Plaques in CNS of MS rats presented as hyperintense areas on T2WI and hypointense areas on T1WI. Contrast enhancement was observed as hyperintense on T1WI. Conclusion High quality images of CNS lesions canbe obtained with clinical 3.0T MR-scanner in MS rat, which offers a noninvasive access for studying CNS diseases in the rats.

Objective To observe whether repetition time (TR) and field strengths have effects on diffusion indices of brain white matter. Methods Seven rhesuses underwent diffusion tensor MR imaging (DT-MRI) with a series of TRs (from 500 to 6000 ms) at 1.5T and 3.0T MR scanners, respectively. The mean diffusivity (MD), fractional anisotropy (FA), primary (λ1) and transverse eigenvalues (λ2, 3) were measured in region of interest (ROI) at the posterior limb of internal capsule. Pearson correlation analysis and two-way ANOVA were performed. Results None of the diffusion indices was correlated with TR (P＞0.05) when SNR was high enough (SNR>35). FA was significantly higher and the MD and λ2, 3 were significantly lower at 3.0T than those at 1.5T (P＜0.001). No significant difference of λ1 was found between the two field strengths (P＞0.05). Conclusion Field strength may influence diffusion quantification, but not for TR, which should be considered in multi-center studies.