Objective To investigate the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MS) and female subclinical carotid atherosclerosis. Methods A total of 835 female subjects were enrolled in this study. MS was defined based on the ATP Ⅲ criteria. Age groups were ＜45,45 to 65,and ≥65 years. The participants were evaluated by the number of components of MS and clusters of MS components. Measurement of carotid arteries with B-mode ultrasound imaging was performed. Intima-media thickness and plague of the carotid arteries were regarded as the indicators of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis. Results The prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis, MS components and MS was significantly increased with the increased age. After age was adjusted, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that every component of MS was independently associated with carotid atherosclerosis; the increased waist circumstance and blood pressure and reduced HLD showed stronger effect. The prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis was increased with increasing number of components of MS. When compared to the 0 MS component group,the odds ratio (OR)of carotid atherosclerosis of the groups with 1, 2,3,4, or 5 components were 1.4,2. 0,3.4,5. 7 and 7. 1,respectively. The altered cluster components of MS impacted differently on carotid atherosclerosis. The clusters of components of MS with increased waist circumstance were more frequent than without ones. Conclusion Every component of MS may be an independent risk factor of carotid atherosclerosis;increased components of MS could contribute higher odd risk to carotid atherosclerosis; clusters of MS components might show different impacts on carotid atherosclerosis.

Objective To study the relationship between pedometer-based daily physical activity and obesity measurements in adult male leaders living in countryside.Methods A total of 136 men who received routine health screening were measured for body weight,body mass index (BMI),waist circumstance,and total body fat.Daily walking activities were determined by pedometer for 7 days.Results Ⅰ to Ⅱ grade walking activities was found in 58% participants.Daily physical activities were negatively correlated with body weight,waist circumference,BMI and total body fat.Body weight,waist circumference,BMI and total body fat were almost normal when walking activities increased to Ⅲ grade.Only 7% of the subjects participated in exercises.Conclusion Pedometer-based daily physical activities may be significantly correlated with obesity arameters.Increased walking activities will help to loss weight.

To clarify the effect of the sympathetic nerves on the body's physiopathological changes and acupuncture effect by the alphal-AR mediation in the past 30 years.The paper has referred to the database of CNKI and Pubmed,and systematically reviewed the publications in the past 30 years about the research of the alphal-AR mediation of the sympathetic nerves to the body's physiological andpathological changes and acupuncture effect.Alphal-AR not only mediated the sympathetic nerves on the inotropic change of the heart,and the contraction of the vascular smooth muscles,bladder sphincter,and uterine smooth muscles and other physiological effect,but also mediated cardiac arrhythmia,myocardial hypertrophy and other pathological process.In addition,Alphal-AR also mediated the acupuncture signal transmission,and acupuncture was able to adjust the sympathetic nervous tension.The body's physiopathological changes are closely related to alpha1-AR and subtype alteration.The in-depth study of alphal-AR helps to explain physiopathological mechanism of the body,as well as provide theoretical basis and the corresponding pharmacological models for better selective drugs.Studying Alpha1-AR on meridians contributes to the discovery of meridian essence and the substantial basis of acupuncture effects.

Objective To evaluate the image quality and radiation dose of prospective electrocardiography-triggered coronary 320-slice volume CT angiography with different kV, and the feasibility of coronary scan with ＜ 1 mSv radiation dose.Methods Eighty consecutive patients were randomly divided into two groups equally.The tube voltage according to paradigm was 100 kV in group A and 120 kV in group B.All raw data in group A was reconstructed by the software AIDR in CT system to create a new group named as A1. Such parameters as the mean intraluminal attenuation (SI),noise (SD),signal-to-noise ratio (SNR),contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR),effective radiation dose(E) and image quality score measured in group A were compared with those in group B.The values such as SI,SD,SNR,CNR,image quality scores were compared between group A and group A1.The significance of group B and group A1 was compared in SI,SD,SNR,CNR,image quality scores as well.Results E in group A was significantly lower than that in group B[ E =(0.67 ± 0.18) mSv in group A vs.E =(3.08 ± 1.04) mSv in group B].The value of E in group A was decreased by 78％ compared to group B(t =- 14.30,P＜0.05 ).There was no significant difference in mean image quality scores between two groups(4.57 ± 0.57in groupA vs.4.59 ± 0.59 in group B,t=-1.17,P＞0.05).The values of SI,SD,SNR,CNR in group A were (570.8 ±131.5)HU,25.1 ±6.9,24.5 ±9.1,19.8 ±6.1.And the values of SI,SD,SNR,CNR in group B were (460.6 ± 14.3) HU,15.1 ±3.6,31.7 ±7.7,29.3 ±6.8.The values of SI and SD in group A were significantly higher than those in group B(t =4.49,8.18,P ＜0.05). The values of SNR and CNR in group A were lower than those in group B (t =-4.24,-6.19,P＜0.05).The valuesofS1,SD,SNR,CNR,image quality scores in group Al were (557.9 ±24.5) HU,21.1 ±6.0,27.7±10.0,23.4±7.8,4.60 ± 0.56.There was no difference in the SI and the image quality scores between group A and group A1 ( t =1.09,- 1.90,P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions 320-slice volume CT with 100 kV tube voltage and prospective ECG-triggered technique can reduce the radiation dose to less than 1 mSv and obtain optimal images in diagnosis of coronary arterial diseases.

Objective To analyze gene expression profiles of biopsy specimens from breast cancer patients who were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy(NAC) after biopsies, and to identify the genes which are closely associated with the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with T/FAC [docetaxel(Taxotere), 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide] or T/FEC (Taxotere, 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide) regimen.Methods We retrieved and collected gene expression profiles from publicly available databases.Four datasets, a total of 844 samples, were finally retained because all the patients had received a uniform neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen.Response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy was categorized as a pathological complete response (pCR) or residual invasive cancer (RD).The differentially expressed genes (adjusted P-value<0.05) and therapeutic efficacy were analyzed and explored.Results After differential analysis, genes whose expressions were higher or lower in pCR group than in RD group were identified in each of the four datasets, respectively.There were 34 and 42 genes which were simultaneously more highly expressed or more lowly expressed in pCR group than in RD group in the four datasets.The unsupervised clustering, based on the 76 intersection genes, showed that the pCR specimens tended to form one cluster and the RD tended to form the other.Conclusion The seventy-six differentially expressed genes are associated with the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and are likely to be novel predictive biomarkers for the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

We investigated the third-generation cephalosporins-resistant Shigella and its genotype in Ningbo,China,providing a basis for disease prevention and control.Pathogenic bacteria were analyzed by direct isolation combined with enrichment culture isolation.Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by K-B disk diffusion method and PCR was used for detecting multidrug resistance genes like CTX-M,OXA,TEM and SHV.BLAST analysis was used to determine the genotype.Results showed that 69 strains of third-generation cephalosporins-resistant Shigella were detected by drug sensitivity screening,accounting for 74.19％ of ESBLs Shigella.Drug resistance gene CTX-M(CTM-M-1 and CTM-M-9),OXA and TEM were detected.The detection rate were 79.71％,79.01％ and 26.09％ respectively.With no CTX-M-2 and SHV,DNA sequence alignment showed CTX-M-1 group were mainly of CTX-M-15 type besides seven other types;CTX-M-9 group were mainly of CTX-M-14 type besides six other types;49 strains of OXA and 18 strains of TEM were sequenced to be type 1 (OXA-1 and TEM-1 type).The 21 Shigella strains carrying more than two drug resistance genes accounts for 30.43 ％.Shigella in Ningbo has high third-generation cephalosporins-resistance rate and many kinds of ESBLs enzymes were detected.The mainstream enzyme type was CTX-M,meanwhile they also carried a variety of drug resistance genes,which could bring difficulties to disease prevention and control.The high carrying rate of OXA-1 type suggests that we should pay more attention.The detection rate of group B was higher than that of group D,including not only the phenotype resistance but also the drug-resistance genes;these findings will be useful in the study of the drug resistance prevalence of Shigella.

BACKGROUND:Donor selection for high-risk acute leukemia is still controversial.OBJECTIVE:To compare the therapeutic efficacy of the unrelated donor peripheral blood and matched sibling allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for high-risk acute leukemia.METHODS:Total 65 patients with high-risk acute leukemia treated during January 2008 to January 2016 were included,in which 30 patients chose the unrelated donor peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (UD), and other 35 chose the matched sibling allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (MS) according to the wishes of patients and their own situation. After treatment, the chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis method, and other methods were used to compare the implanted and hematopoietic reconstitution, the occurrence of graft-versus-host disease, relapse mortality and long-term survival between the two groups.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The implantation rate, platelet hematopoietic reconstitution time, the incidence of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease, and its type exhibited no significant differences between the two groups (P > 0.05).The relapse rate, total death rate, and transplant-related mortality rates were 10.0%, 50.0%, and 40.0% in the UD group and 20.0%, 48.6%, and 25.7% in the MS groups, respectively, and the intergroup difference was insignificant (P > 0.05).The expected 2-year cumulative disease-free free survival and overall survival rates were (49.4±9.2)% and (52.6±9.2)% in the UD group and (53.9±8.5)% and (53.9±8.5)% in the MS group, respectively, and the intergroup difference was also insignificant (P > 0.05). Our experimental findings show that unrelated donor peripheral blood stem cell transplantation can be used as an effective alternative in the absence of sibling donors.

Objective To explore the feasibility of coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) for obese patients with lower tube voltage (100 kV) and lower contrast media concentration (270 mgI/ml) using iterative reconstruction.Methods A total of 48 patients with body mass index greater than 30 kg/m2 were included and randomly divided into 2 groups according to random number table method.The images of the control group were obtained using iodine 370 mgI/ml, a tube voltage of 120 kV, and traditional filtered back projection (FBP) image reconstruction.Patients in the test group were injected with isotonic low concentration contrast media (270 mgI/ml), scanned with a lower tube voltage (100 kV), and adaptive iterative noise reduction image reconstruction algorithm (AIDR-3D) was used.Two experienced physicians scored the image quality in a double-blind way.Independent sample t-test was used to compare the effective dose (E), average CT values, signal to noise ratio (SNR), contrast to noise ratio (CNR), the figure of merit (FOM), image quality scores and the total iodine intake.Side effect was also evaluated.Results The subjective scores for control group and test group were not significantly different (P ＞ 0.05).The scores of two physicians were consistency (Kappa =0.88, P ＜ 0.05).The average CT values, SNR and CNR for the two groups were not significantly different (P ＞ 0.05), but the FOM of the test group was significantly higher than that of the control group (t =-9.250,-8.604,-9.158,-5.341, P ＜ 0.05).Effective dose in the test group was (1.61 ± 0.41) mSv, lower than that of the control group (t =8.373, P ＜ 0.01).The total iodine and iodine injection rate in the test group were both lower than in the control group (t =7.628, 8.480, P ＜ 0.01).The incidence of contrast mediarelated discomfort in the test group was lower than control group (x2 =18.70, 6.25, P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions For obese patients, isotonic low concentration of contrast media and low-dose CCTA could be feasible, which substantially reduce the radiation dose and iodine intake without sacrificing image quality.Trial registration Chinese clinical trial registry, ChiCTR-DPD-15007510.

This study was aimed to compare the antioxidant activity of puerarin and 3 other flavonoid compounds, and to investigate their structure-activity relationship. The intragastric administration of 4 kinds of typical flavonoids compounds (soybean element, puerarin, quercetin and rutin) were given to mice, respectively. The model mice of acute hepatic injury were established with intraperitoneal injection of 0.1% carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) after 7 days. After 18 h fasting, liver tissues were removed. The histomorphology was observed after paraffin sectioning and hematoxylin-eosin staining. The activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in serum were detected with automatic biochemical analyzer. The content of malondialdehyde (MDA), the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in liver tissues were detected with homogenization. The pathological results of liver tissues showed that hepatic damages were decreased in all 4 medicine treatment groups compared with the model group, but there were no significant differences among these treatment groups. The results of blood serum bio-chemical analysis showed that compared with the model group, puerarin and quercetin could decrease the activities of ALT, AST and GGT in serum significantly (P < 0.05, orP < 0.01). There were no content changes of ALP. In the soybean element group, only the activities of ALT and AST decreased obviously (P < 0.05, orP < 0.01). There was no obvious change in the serum of mice in the rutin treatment group. The homogenate detection results of liver tissues showed that compared with the model group, quercetin and rutin significantly lowered MDA (P < 0.05), increased SOD and GSH-Px (P < 0.05, orP < 0.01); while soybean element and puerarin only improved GSH-Px levels (P < 0.05, orP < 0.01). It was concluded that the antioxidant capacity of quercetin was better than that of soybean element, puerarin and rutin, which may be related to its structure. Compared with 3 other chemical compounds, quercetin had more polyhydroxies and its polyhydroxies were not glycosylated, which suggested that the structure of quercetin may be closely related to its antioxidation activity.