Progress in Cocaine toxicology research,especially in i ts toxicological mechanisms on the central nervous and cardiac-cerebral vascular systems, was reviewed in the last 5 years.The main problems with the current resear ch work and the future research direction were pointed out.

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics,manifestation and management of adrenal ganglioneuromas. Methods The data of 15 cases of ganglioneuromas diagnosed by pathology were reviewed retrospectively.Of the 15 cases,5 was male,aged 24 to 45 with an average of 29 years,and other 10 was female,aged 25 to 69 with an average of 31.Ten tumors were located in the right side,which was twice as many as that of the left side.There were 8 patients discovered by B ultrasonograpgy during health check-up,4 patients were detected because of paroxysmal abdominal pain. Three cases mainly presented with paroxysmally hypertension,and one of them had a high level of aldosterone ( 112 pmol/L). One of them had a high level of epinephrine (210 nmol) and nor-epinephrine (496 nmol). The B-ultrasound showed low-echo in all cases.Five cases showed calcification,the border was legible.The border lines of the tumors are not clear with vana cava in two cases. On unenhanced CT scanning,all cases showed low density areas.Eleven of the 15 cases underwent the enhanced CT,but 10 cases showed no enhanced areas on CT scanning.One case underwent MRI and showed low signals in T1 WI and inhomogeneous high signals in T2WI. Results Twelve cases underwent adrenal glands tumorectomy with abdominal NO.11 intercostals incision while other 3 underwent adrenal glands tumorectomy through posterior abdominal laparoscope.The tumors were completely removed in 14 cases,partly removed in 1 case.All patients recovered soon without complications such as bleeding or adrenal crisis.All cases were followed-up 13 to 74 months.The blood pressure of 3 cases with hypertension decreased to normal.The tumors recurred in 1 case,but no metastasis 55 months later. Conclusions It is difficult to differentiate adrenal medullary tumor from ganglioneuromas.The imaging data of iconography before surgery can give helpful information in the diagnosis of ganglioneuroma.Complete surgical excision is the only method for curing and the outcome is satisfactory.

Objective To study the impact of beeswax removal on the content of total flavonoids separated from propolis. Methods Rutin was used as contrast calibre, and content of total flavonoids was determined by using UV spectrophotometric method. Results 8.5% of the total flavonoids lost after beeswax were removed from propolis,but the amount of total flavonoids in the process propolis and water containing was stiu much higher than that mentioned in the natural unprocessed condition. Conclusion There was little impact of beeswax removal on content of total flavonoids. Beeswax as impurity would be removed when propoli as medicine was used in complex Chinese patent medicine for treatment of cardio-cerebral vascular diseases.

Objective To explore the features of immune responsed activated by polysaccharides from herbal medicines and provide basis for immunomodulation of polysaccharides. Methods The mice were immuned by polysaccharides of Angelica, Atractylodes and Giant typhonium rhizome respectively, then the corresponeding antibodies and cross-reactive antibodies in serum were detected by ELISA. Results Three kinds of polysaccharides from herbal medicines could all activated the mice to produce not only the corresponding antibodies, but also the cross-reactive antibodies, the ranges of non-specific antibodies activated by distinct polysaccharide were different. Conclusions Polysaccharides from herbal medicines may be a kind of non-specific and broad-spectrum immunomodulators.

BACKGROUND: It is proposed that elevated serum homocysteine is an important independent risk factor for ischemic stroke (IS), and 5, 10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is the key enzyme for homocysteine metabolism. The relationship between genetic mutation of MTHFR and IS remains controversial.OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of hyperhomocysteinemia and two MTHFR gene polymorphisms with IS in Northwest Chinese population.DESIGN: Case-control study.SETTING: Department of Neurology, First Hospital Affiliated to Jilin University, and Department of Neurology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA.PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-seven consecutive patients with ischemic stroke (71 males and 26 females) treated between November 2001 and May 2002were recruited, who were diagnosed by CT scan or MRI in the Department of Neurology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA. The control group consisted of 94 subjects (58 males and 36 females) without history of ischemic stroke. All the subjects were free of intracranial hemorrhage, cancer, renal dysfunction, and none used multivitamins or estrogen.METHODS: Serum homocysteine was measured by fluorescence polarization immunoassay. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was employed to detect the genotype at the two sites of C677T and A1298C in MTHFR gene.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Serum homocysteine levels and the genotypic frequency frequencies of the two mutations of MTHFR.RESULTS: The 677T allele frequency was 59.3% in IS patients and 44.7% in the controls, showing significant differences (P=0.006), but no difference in 1298C allele frequency was detected between the two groups (22.7% vs 19.7%, P ＞ 0.05). Homozygous 677TT genotype was closely associated with hyperhomocysteinemie (P ＜ 0.01). In multivariate logistic regression analysis,677T gene mutation and hyperhomocysteinemie were all associated with the IS, with an OR of 1.870 and 1.031 (P＜ 0.05), respectively.CONCLUSION: Hyperhomocysteinemie is a risk factor of IS, and C677T mutation significantly increases homocysteine levels, and serves also as an independent genetic risk factor of IS.

This study was aimed to investigate structured approach of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) symptom information. Combining results of the Chinese Symptomatology Research and literature review, this study proposed a dual structure model of symptom. A total of 440 symptoms, which were screened out from the Chinese Terms in TCM and Pharmacy, were used for symptom structured attempt. The results showed that 9 symptoms and 9 attributes were identified, 201 main concept words of symptoms were extracted, and 420 symptoms with the dual structure model were structured. It was concluded that structural information model of TCM symptoms proposed in this study was feasible. However, the research methods and results are exploratory, which requires further verification.

BACKGROUND:Mesenchymal stem cels can secrete a variety of cytokines and growth factors that promote the survival of surrounding cels and play a paracrine role. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cels on the proliferation and apoptosis of ectopic endometrial cels. METHODS:After isolation and culture, human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cels and ectopic endometrial cels were co-cultured as observation group, and ectopic endometrial cels cultured alone served as control group. At 24, 48, 72 hours of culture, the proliferation and apoptosis of ectopic endometrial cels were detected by MTT and flow cytometry, respectively; RT-PCR was used to measure the expression ofPTEN gene in ectopic endometrial cels. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:At 24, 48 and 72 hours, the proliferation of ectopic endometrial cels in the observation was inhibited significantly as compared with the control group, and the hypodiploid peak ratio also increased significantly (P < 0.05). Over time, the cel inhibition rate was gradualy declined, and there were significant differences at different time points (alP < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the expression of PTEN gene was up-regulated significantly in the observation group (P < 0.05). In the observation group, the expression ofPTEN gene at 48 and 72 hours was significantly higher than that at 24 hours (P < 0.05). These findings indicate that in the human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cels can inhibit the proliferation of ectopic endometrial celsin vitro and promote their apoptosis by up-regulation ofPTEN mRNA expression.

The paper introduces the status of TCM symptoms information application,constructs the symptoms knowledge classification system by taking the TCM Diagnostics as the knowledge source,constructs the symptoms knowledge representation model based on the classification and coding technologies,and draws a conclusion that the data analysis result is consistent with the actual clinical situation based on collecting symptom data in the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and correlation analysis using this model.

Objective To obtain the recombinant protein LytA (rLytA) of Streptococcus pneumoniae strain (ATCC49619) through prokaryotic expression system and to investigate their diagnostic value for patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP).Methods The specific primers were designed according to LytA gene sequence of Streptococcus pneumoniae M66 strain recorded in Genbank.The recombinant plasmid pET32a(+)/LytA was constructed and transformed into BL21(DE3) to express LytA.The expressed protein LytA was purified by electroeluting of bag filter.Serum IgM of anti-LytA accordingly of patients with CAP were detected by ELISA.The results were evaluated by Chi-square test.Results The recombinant protein LytA was expressed and purified successfully with a relative molecular weight of 56 000.The IgM antibodies level of anti-LytA was significantly higher than the healthy control group (P=0.000).Diagnostic sensibility and specificity of LytA-IgM were 27.8% and 100.0%,while sensibility and specificity of sputum culture were 19.4% and 72.2%,respectively.The sensibility of LytA-IgM was equal to sputum culture(χ2=0.693,P=0.405),but the specificity was higher than it(χ2=14.316 P=0.000).Conclusions A rLytA-ELISA assay maybe has clinical value for diagnosis of pneumococcal infections.It is more rapid and objective than the culture method.

Objective To explore the effect of the teacher-student co-construction of skills training team in teaching of nursing skills for higher vocational nursing students. Methods About 129 students from grade 12 were enrolled in the control group, where the traditional teaching method was used. Another 136 nursing students from grade 13 were enrolled in the experiment group, where the teacher-student co-construction of skills training team was used. The two groups were compared in terms of test scores on nursing skills . Result The scores of the nursing skill in the experiment group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion The implementation of teacher-student co-construction of nursing skills training team can improve the nursing skills of the nursing students, motivate students' initiative and creativity and enhance their sense of responsibility and other comprehensive quality.