Objective To investigate the correlation between microalbuminuria (MAU) and obesity and its indexes, including BMI, waist circumference(WC), and waist-to-hip ratio(WHR) , among partial community population in Beijing. Methods A total of 2080 subjects who took physical examination in Beijing, including 810 men and 1270 women with a mean age of(50. 9 ± 13. 1 )years, were enrolled. The informed consent has been achieved from each patients. BMI and WHR were calculated based on collected data of height, weight, WC, and hipline. Urine albumin-creatinine ratio(ACR) within the range of 30-300mg/g was classified as MAU. The subjects were divided into normal albuminuria ( NAU ) group and MAU group. The correlations between MAU and different obesity indexes including BMI, WC and WHR, were analyzed. Results Among the 2080 subjects, there was a positive correlation between BMI (r = 0. 1276,P＜0.01) and ACR, and WC (r = 0.0840, P ＜0.01) and ACR. WHR and ACR was irrelevant ( P ＞ 0. 05 ). In univariate analysis, there was significant difference in BMI ≥ 28 kg/m2 ( OR = 2. 02 ) and WC ≥85 cm (male) or≥80 cm (female) (OR = 1.69 ) between NAU group and MAU group (P ＜ 0. 05 ).There was no significant difference in BMI 24-＜ 28 kg/m2, and WHR ≥0. 90 (male) or ≥0. 85 (female)between NAU group and MAU group( P≥0. 05 ). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that BMI ( OR = 1.06) was an isolated independent risk factor of MAU from age ( OR = 1.01 ), female ( OR = 1.42),systolic blood pressure (OR=1.01), TC (OR=1.93) and HDL-C (OR=0.54). Conclusions Obesity is an independent risk factor of MAU among partial community population in Beijing. The correlation between different obesity indexes and MAU also differs.

Objective To investigate whether radial augmentation index (AI) associates with cardiovascular risk as well as arterial stiffness.MethodsA total of 4985 subjects, 2417 men and 2568 women, aged 18-96 (50.9 ± 14.7)years,were recruited.AI was measured in the left radial artery using tonometry Colin HEM-9000AI.Carotid-femoral PWV (CFPWV) and carotid-radial PWV (CRPWV) were examined by automatic pulse wave velocity (PWV) measuring system.Framingham risk score and Chinese ischemic cardiovascular disease risk score were applied upon subjects without cardiovascular disease to calculate individual cardiovascular risk respectively.ResultsRadial AI (rAI) was significantly higher in women than in men[(83.18 ± 12.36)％ vs (71.93 ± 15.22)％, P ＜0.01].Simple correlation analysis showed rAI was significantly correlated to two cardiovascular risk scores or CFPWV and CRPWV.After adjusted for multi-factors, rAI was still significantly correlated to Framing, ham risk score or Chinese ischemic cardiovascular disease risk score (r = 0.17 and 0.12) in men respectively (P ＜ 0.05), while r were 0.09 and 0.08 in women respectively (P ＜ 0.05).In multivariate analysis, there was a significant association between CFPWV and rAI (r = 0.14 in men, r = 0.10 in women, P ＜ 0.01), whereas the relation ship between CRPWV and rAI was not found.The relationship between rAI and cardiovascular risk or PWV became weaker for those aged above 50 years.ConclusionAugmentation index might be a useful marker of cardiovascular risk and arterial stiffness, which could be more feasible for younger subjects as a tool for risk differentiation.

BACKGROUND:Impaired balance between osteogenesis and adipogenesis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels is a crucial pathological mechanism of osteoporosis. Mechanical loads applied to bone tissue can increase bone formation and improve bone strength, and meanwhile lead to the release of extracelular nucleotides, such as adenosine triphosphate.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of adenosine triphosphate on the osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels and to investigate the underlying mechanisms.
METHODS:The effect of adenosine triphosphate (10, 50, 250 μmol/L) on differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels were measured by osteogenic and adipogenic related genes expression, alizarin red staining and oil red O staining. The activation of ERK1/2 signaling pathway by adenosine triphosphate was tested using western blot assay.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Incubation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels with adenosine triphosphate resulted in the dose-dependent increase of osteogenic genes expression and calcium deposition, and inhibition of adipogenic genes expression and lipid droplet formation, but had no effects on cel proliferation. Adenosine triphosphate activated ERK1/2 signaling pathway, and U0126 as an ERK1/2 inhibitor restrained the effect of adenosine triphosphate on the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels.

Objectives To investigate the associations of the plasma homocysteine levels with the alterations in arterial stiffness in a commu-nity-based cohort. The gender differences in these associations were examined. Methods We evaluated the relationship between plasma homocysteine levels to three measures of vascular function [carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV), carotid-ankle PWV (CA-PWV) and heart rate corrected augmentation index (AI)] in 1680 participants (mean age:61.5 years;709 men, 971 women) from communities of Beijing, China. Results In univariate analysis, plasma homocysteine levels was positively related to the CF-PWV (r=0.211, P<0.0001) and CA-PWV (r=0.148, P<0.0001), whereas inversely associated with AI (r=?0.052, P=0.016). In multiple linear regression models adjusting for covariants, plasma homocysteine remained positively related to the CF-PWV (standardizedβ=0.065, P=0.007) in total cases. When the groups of men and women were examined separately, plasma homocysteine remained positively associated with the CF-PWV (standardizedβ=0.082, P=0.023) in men, whereas the relations between homocysteine and any of the arterial stiffness indices were not further present in women. Conclusions In Chinese population, plasma homocysteine levels are independently associated with alterations of large artery stiffness in men but not in women.

Objective:To study urine albumin excretion (UAE) and its related factors in patients with essential hyper‐tension (EH) .Methods :A total of 113 EH patients without significant target organ damage were enrolled as EH group ,while another 92 healthy subjects were regarded as healthy control group .Ratio of morning urinary albumin to creatinine was measured and regarded as UAE index .Plasma homocysteine (Hcy) ,serum uric acid ,creatinine , blood urea nitrogen ,blood glucose ,blood lipids etc .levels were measured ,and compared between two groups Re‐sults:Compared with healthy control group ,there were significant rise in UAE ,body mass index (BMI) ,waist hip ratio ,blood pressure ,pulse pressure ,heart rate ,plasma levels of triglyceride (TG) ,low density lipoprotein choles‐terol (LDL‐C) ,serum uric acid and Hcy (P<0.05 or <0.01) ,and significant reduction in level of high density lip‐oprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C) in EH group ( P=0.001) .Pearson correlation analysis indicated that lgUAE was pos‐itively correlated with lgTG (r=0.257 ,P=0.015) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR ,r=0.284 ,P=0.007) ,and inversely correlated with lg creatinine (r= -0.277 ,P=0.008) in healthy control group ,while in EH group ,lgUAE was positively correlated BMI (r=0.231 ,P=0.014) ,lgTG (r=0.200 ,P=0.034) and lgHcy (r=0.244 , P=0.009) .Muti-factor gradual regression analysis indicated that lg TG (β=0.265 ,P=0.001) and lg Hcy (β=0.170 , P=0.012) were independently positively correlated with lg UAE , R2 =0.112.Conclusion:UAE level significantly rises in EH patients ,and it′s significantly positively correlated with plasma levels of TG and Hcy .

Objective To investigate the partial safety of the recombinant adenovirus containing the triple-point mutants HIF-1αgene (Ad-HIF-1α-Trip)transfection in a rabbit model of hind limb ischemia. Methods After ligation of left femoral artery, 22 New Zealand whites rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups: saline group(n=6), Ad-Null group(n=6) and Ad-HIF-1α-Trip group(n=10). After operation, saline, Ad-Null and Ad-HIF-1αwere injected intramuscularly respectively. The expression of transferred HIF-1αat mRNA level in the ischemic skeletal muscle and other important organs were detected by Real-time PCR 10 days after gene transfection. The body temperature, weight, blood, liver and renal function, as well as the myocardial enzymes were detected before operation, and on the 3th, 7th, 14th and 28th day after gene transfection, so that pathological changes could be observed. Results On the 10th day after gene transfection, obvious expressions of HIF-1αat mRNA level in the ischemic limb were found, but no expression in other important organs was detected in Ad-HIF-1α-Trip group. The blood routine, liver and renal function were all in the normal range (P > 0.05). No abnormalities were found in heart, liver, kidney, and lung HE transfection in Ad-HIF-1α-Trip group. Conclusion Single intramuscular injection of Ad-HIF-1α-Trip can be expressed obviously in the ischemic limb without detected damage of liver , cardiac and kidney.

Objective Both decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and arterial stiffness were considered as risk factors for atherosclerosis. Previous studies have suggested the association between central arterial stiffness and the degree of GFR loss. Whether decreased GFR contributes to peripheral artery stiffness remains controversial. Moreover, data analyzed from a cohort of Chinese women are rare. Our aim was to explore the relationship between GFR and regional arterial stiffness in Chinese women. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we randomly recruited 1131 adult women residents with GFR ≥ 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2 estimated by the Chinese Modification of Diet in Renal Disease equation from three large communities. Central and peripheral arterial stiffness were estimated simultaneously by measuring carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWVcf) and carotid-radial PWV (PWVcr) using a validated automatic device. Augmentation Index at heart rate 75 beats/minutes (AIx-75) was measured by pulse wave analysis as a composite parameter reflecting both large and distal arterial properties. Results The mean estimated GFR (eGFR) of the study group was 100.05 ± 23.26 mL/minute per 1.73 m2. Subjects were grouped by tertiles of eGFR level. PWVcf and AIx-75 increased ongoing from the top to the bottom eGFR tertile, while the values of PWVcr were comparable. Both univariate Pearson correlations and multiple stepwise regression analyses showed that eGFR significantly correlated to PWVcf, but not to PWVcr and AIx-75. Conclusions In Chinese women with normal to mildly impaired renal function, decreased eGFR affected carotid-to-femoral rather than carotid-to-radial stiffening. This provides rational to conduct future prospective studies to investigate predictors of atherosclerosis in this population.

Objective : To observe the clearance of smear layer on the root canal wall in different action time by scanning electron microscope (SEM), and to determine the optimal amount of time using sonically activated irrigation to wash root canal in clinic. Methods: Fifty-six ex vivo human anterior teeth with single straight root canal were selected. After routine mechanical preparation, they were divided into two experimental groups according to different irrigating agents: saline group and EDTA group. Each group was assisted by VDW sonic activation EDDY. The saline group was divided into three subgroups according to the irrigating time: 5 s, 30 s and 50 s; EDTA group was divided into six subgroups according to the irrigating time: 5 s, 10 s, 20 s, 30 s, 40 s and 50 s. The control group did not undergo root canal irrigation. After irrigation, the root was cut longitudinally. The smear layer of crown, middle and apical of root canal wall was observed by SEM. Results: After irrigating for 30 seconds, there was a significant difference between the normal saline group and the control group and the 5 second group (P<0.05), and there was no difference in the middle and apical part (P>0.05). After 50 seconds, there was a significant difference in the score of the smear layer between the apical area and the other groups (P<0.05). After irrigating for 5 seconds or 10 seconds in EDTA group, there was a significant difference between the scores of the crown and middle area of the root canal and the control group (P<0.05), and there was no significant difference in the apical area (P>0.05). There was a significant difference between the 20-40 second group and the first two groups (P<0.05). There was a significant difference between the 50 second group and the other groups (P<0.05). Comparing the cleaning effect on the smear layer after 50 seconds of irrigating between the two experimental groups, the whole root canal showed significant statistical difference (P<0.05). Conclusion The EDTA-assisted sonic activated device used for 50 seconds has the best cleaning effect.

Maximization of mutual information is a powerful criterion for 3D medical image registration, allowing robust and fully accurate automated rigid registration of multi-modal images in a various applications. In this paper, a method based on normalized mutual information for 3D image registration was presented on the images of CT, MR and PET. Powell's direction set method and Brent's one-dimensional optimization algorithm were used as optimization strategy. A multi-resolution approach is applied to speedup the matching process. For PET images, pre-procession of segmentation was performed to reduce the background artefacts. According to the evaluation by the Vanderbilt University, Sub-voxel accuracy in multi-modality registration had been achieved with this algorithm.
Algorithms ; Brain ; anatomy & histology ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional

Objective To investigate the relationship between serum secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) and the severity of the disease in cobra bite patients. Methods Fifty-two cobra bite patients admitted to our hospital from January 2015 to December 2015 were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. According to the degree of disease, patients were divided into the light and heavy risk groups. According to the degree of swelling of the affected limbs, patients were divided into the mild swelling group and moderate-severe swelling group. According to the time difference between visits, patients were divided into: visit time <8 h group and visit time ≥ 8 h group. Twenty healthy adult volunteers served as the control group. The levels of serum sPLA2, C reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer (DD), lactic acid (LAC) and peripheral blood leukocyte count (WBC) were measured and compared in different groups. Quantitative data were analyzed using t test and rank sum test. Results The levels of serum sPLA2 in the light and heavy risk group were statistically different from those in the control group (P<0.05), and were statistically significant between the light and heavy risk groups (P<0.01) and between the mild swelling group and moderate-severe swelling group (P<0.05). The serum sPLA2 levels in group A and group B were also significantly different from those in the control group (P<0.05). The level of sPLA2 was positively correlated with the level of LAC, DD and WBC, and the correlation coefficients were 0.3142, 0.2752 and 0.6534, respectively. Conclusions The higher the level of serum sPLA2, the more serious the patient's poisoning symptoms. It is of certain clinical value to evaluate the condition of cobra.