Animals ; Hydroxy Acids ; toxicity ; Lacquer ; toxicity ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Superoxide Dismutase ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo predict part of medicinal properties of traditional Chinese medicine components and traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces by using the traditional Chinese medicinal property data prediction platform, in order to establish the relationship between properties of traditional Chinese medicine components and traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces.

METHODThe properties of traditional Chinese medicine components were predicted by using the medicinal property data prediction platform based on the pharmacological effects of the components.

RESULTThe total sum of identical or similar results of the prediction for the properties of traditional Chinese medicine components and traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces accounted for over 75%.

CONCLUSIONThe self-similarity exists between properties of traditional Chinese medicine components and traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces, which reflects the inheritance, additivity and emergence among different properties of traditional Chinese medicines.

Drug Combinations ; Drug Prescriptions ; Drug Therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

The commodity specification and grade of Chinese medicinal materials is a measure of the quality of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), which directly impacts on the safety and effectiveness of clinical medicines. It is an urgent problem to establish a set of standards which can both interpret the scientific connotation of the commodity specification and grade of Chinese medicinal materials and play a significant role on clinical medicines as well as markets. This paper reviews the research methods of the commodity specification and grade of Chinese medicinal materials such as sensory evaluation, chemical assessment, biological evaluation, and cited the applications of various methods for the classification of TCMs. It provides technical support for establishing standards of the commodity specification and grade of Chinese medicinal materials, and also constructs scientific basis for clinical rational drug use.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; economics ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; economics ; standards ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Quality Control ; Research Design

OBJECTIVETo study the effects of dexamethasone on intracellular expression of Th17 cytokine interleukin 17 and the mechanisms in asthmatic mice.

METHODSExperimental asthma was induced by ovalbumin (OVA) sensitization in 20 in female Balb/c mice with (dexamethasone group, n=10) or without dexamethasone treatment (model group, n=10), with another 10 serving as the control group. The levels of IL-17 in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and serum of the mice were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the airway inflammation was evaluated by HE staining. The expressions of IL-17 and RORgammat mRNA were measured by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and the expression of RORgammat protein was measured by immunohistochemical staining.

RESULTSThe levels of RORgammat and IL-17 mRNA and protein in the asthmatic model group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.01), and the increased expressions of RORgammat and IL-17 mRNA and protein in the asthmatic mice were significantly reduced by dexamethasone treatment (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONDexamethasone can inhibit the release of IL-17 probably by inhibiting RORgammat expression and blocking Th17 differentiation in asthmatic mice.

Animals ; Asthma ; chemically induced ; immunology ; metabolism ; Dexamethasone ; pharmacology ; Female ; Interleukin-17 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 1, Group F, Member 3 ; metabolism ; Ovalbumin ; RNA, Messenger ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; T-Lymphocyte Subsets ; immunology ; metabolism ; T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer ; immunology ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect of perioperative nutrition support on nutritional condition and complications of the patients with postoperative pancreatic head cancer.

METHODSThirty four patients received perioperative nutrition support, including enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition (treatment group). Forty eight patients received routine postoperative parenteral nutrition (control group). According to the operative method, these two groups were further divided into two sub-groups: (1) pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) subgroup, including 13 cases from treatment group, and 24 cases from control group; (2) palliative operation subgroup, including 21 cases from treatment group, and 24 cases from control group. Body weight, total protein (TP), serum albumin (ALB), and the complications after operation were compared.

RESULTSThe concentrations of ALB and TP in the treatment group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P< 0.05). Body weight and TP of the patients received PD in the treatment group were significantly better than those of the control group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPerioperative nutrition support can improve postoperative nutritional condition and reduce the postoperative complications in patients with pancreatic head cancer.

Adult ; Aged ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Enteral Nutrition ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nutritional Support ; methods ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; surgery ; therapy ; Pancreaticoduodenectomy ; Parenteral Nutrition ; Postoperative Complications ; prevention & control

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a hereditary disease that is also strongly dependent on environmental factors, lifestyles, and dietary habits. This study explored the relationship between lifestyle habits and glycosylated hemoglobin management in T2DM patients to provide empirical outcomes to improve T2DM management and patient health literacy. SUBJECTS/METHODS: This study enrolled 349 diabetic patients with more than 5 care visits to a Diabetes Mellitus care network under the Health Management Plan led by Taiwan Department of Health (DOH). Based on relevant literature, an Outpatient Record Form of Diabetes Mellitus Care was designed and lipid profile tests were conducted for data collection and analysis. RESULTS: When modeling the data, the results showed that the odds for HbA1c > 7.5% in T2DM patients duration over 10 years was 3.785 (P = 0.002) times that in patients with disease duration of fewer than 3 years. The odds of HbA1c > 7.5% in illiterate patients was 3.128 (P = 0.039) times that in patients with senior high school education or above. The odds of HbA1c > 7.5% in patients with other chronic illness was 2.207 (P = 0.019) times that in participants without chronic illness. Among 5 beneficial lifestyle habits, the odds of HbA1c > 7.5% in patients with 2 or 3 good habits were 3.243 (P = 0.003) and 3.424 (P = 0.001) times that in patients with more than 3 good habits, respectively. CONCLUSION This empirical outcome shows that maintaining a good lifestyle improves T2DM management and patients' knowledge, motivation, and ability to use health information. Patients with longer disease duration, education, or good lifestyle habits had optimal HbA1c management than those in patients who did not. Thus, effective selfmanagement and precaution in daily life and improved health literacy of diabetic patients are necessary to increase the quality of T2DM care.

Background:The prognostic significance of ABO blood type for lymphoma is largely unknown.We evaluated the prognostic role of ABO blood type in patients with extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL).Methods:We retrospectively analyzed clinical data of 697 patients with newly diagnosed ENKTL from three cancer centers.The prognostic value of ABO blood type was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard models.The prognostic values of the International Prognostic Index (IPI) and the Korean Prognostic Index (KPI) were also evaluated.Results:Compared with patients with blood type O,those with blood type non-O tended to display elevated baseline serum C-reactive protein levels (P =0.038),lower rate of complete remission (P =0.005),shorter progression-free survival (PFS,P ＜ 0.001),and shorter overall survival (OS,P =0.001).Patients with blood type O/AB had longer PFS (P ＜ 0.001) and OS (P =0.001) compared with those with blood type A/B.Multivariate analysis demonstrated that age ＞60 years (P ＜ 0.001),mass ＞5 cm (P =0.001),stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ (P ＜ 0.001),elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels (P =0.001),and blood type non-O were independent adverse predictors of OS (P =0.001).ABO blood type was found to be superior to both the IPI in discriminating patients with different outcomes in the IPI low-risk group and the KPI in distinguishing between the intermediate-to-low-and high-to-intermediate-risk groups.Conclusions:ABO blood type was an independent predictor of clinical outcome for patients with ENKTL.

Previous studies have reported that some important loci are missed in single-locus genome-wide association studies (GWAS), especially because of the large phenotypic error in field experiments. To solve this issue, multi-locus GWAS methods have been recommended. However, only a few software packages for multi-locus GWAS are available. Therefore, we developed an R software named mrMLM v4.0.2. This software integrates mrMLM, FASTmrMLM, FAS-TmrEMMA, pLARmEB, pKWmEB, and ISIS EM-BLASSO methods developed by our lab. There are four components in mrMLM v4.0.2, including dataset input, parameter setting, software run-ning, and result output. The fread function in data.table is used to quickly read datasets, especially big datasets, and the doParallel package is used to conduct parallel computation using multiple CPUs. In addition, the graphical user interface software mrMLM.GUI v4.0.2, built upon Shiny, is also available. To confirm the correctness of the aforementioned programs, all the methods in mrMLM v4.0.2 and three widely-used methods were used to analyze real and simulated datasets. The results confirm the superior performance of mrMLM v4.0.2 to other methods currently avail-able. False positive rates are effectively controlled, albeit with a less stringent significance threshold. mrMLM v4.0.2 is publicly available at BioCode (https://bigd.big.ac.cn/biocode/tools/BT007077) or R (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/mrMLM.GUI/index.html) as an open-source software.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the value of in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the assessment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and monitor its metabolic change shortly after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).

METHODSIn this prospective study, 28 consecutive patients with large HCC (> or = 3 cm in diameter) confirmed by fine needle aspiration biopsy were recruited. The 1H MRS of all hepatic lesions and some uninvolved liver parenchyma were performed with 1. 5T whole body MR scanner. Among them, 15 cases were evaluated again about one week after TACE. The main metabolites such as choline and lipid before and after interventional therapy were measured to assess the early response of the tumor.

RESULTSThe technical success rate of 1H MRS in liver was high (33/41, 80%), closely related to breath motion, location of lesion, and size of voxel. In spectra, the choline compound peak of HCC elevated compared with uninvolved liver parenchyma. After TACE, both the amplitude and the area of choline resonance peak significantly descended (choline-to-lipid ratios from 0.352 +/- 0.080 to 0.167 +/- 0.030, P = 0.026; from 0.205 +/- 0.060 to 0.070 +/-0.020, P = 0.042, respectively); yet lipid resonance peak ascended.

CONCLUSIONSIn vivo 1H MRS is technically feasible for the evaluation of large focal hepatic lesions, however, the reproducibility and stability are not as good as routine MR scan. 1H MRS can monitor the early stage metabolic changes of HCC after TACE but limitation like quantification still exists.

Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; administration & dosage ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Chemoembolization, Therapeutic ; Cisplatin ; administration & dosage ; Doxorubicin ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Female ; Humans ; Liver ; pathology ; Liver Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; methods ; Male ; Middle Aged

OBJECTIVETo assess the value of color Doppler ultrasound in evaluating the mesenteric lymph nodes in healthy children.

METHODSThe mesenteric lymph nodes were examined with color Doppler ultrasonography for 730 randomly selected healthy children under 14 years of age, including 410 boys and 298 girls who did not report any recent medical conditions.

RESULTSAbdominal lymph node detection rate was higher in boys than in girls. Abdominal lymph nodes were detected most often in children between the ages of 1 and 4 years, and the lymph node size decreased gradually with age.

CONCLUSIONColor Doppler ultrasonography is valuable for evaluating abdominal lymph nodes in children.

Child ; Female ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; diagnostic imaging ; Male ; Mesentery ; diagnostic imaging ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color