AIM: To investigate the action of diltiazem (a calcium antagonist) on the expression of heme oxygenase (HO) -1 and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in the small pulmonary arteries (SPA) of rat in chronic hypoxia. METHODS: Chronic pulmonary arterial hypertension models were established by treating the rats in hypoxic environment[(10%?1%)O 2] for 6 weeks. After 2 weeks of hypoxia, rats were treated with diltiazem (15 mg/kg/day). Right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) and right ventricular hypertrophy index (RVHI) were measured. Pathological changes in the lungs were observed under the light microscope and transmission electron microscope. The expression and distribution of heme oxygenase (HO) -1, endothelial NOS (eNOS) and inducible NOS (iNOS) were tested by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. Guanosine-3', 5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) of lung tissues were detected with radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: Diltiazem significantly decreased abnormal RVSP, and RVHI in model rats, attenuated the SPA media thickeness, and recovered abnormal eNOS and iNOS expression in SPA. Whereas diltiazem had little effect on the increased HO-1 expression in SPA caused by hypoxia and ultrastructure injury in endothelium. cGMP levels were corresponded with HO-1. CONCLUSION: Diltiazem has a significant effect on inhibiting hypoxic pulmonary hypertension structural remodeling. These effects might be partly attributed to the suppression of iNOS, promotion of eNOS, and not attenuation HO-1 expression in the lung of hypoxic rats.

Objective To study the characteristics and its risk fastors of brain development of the preterm infant early after birth in amplitude-integrated electroencephalography(aEEG). Methods The 153 preterm infants who had seen a doctor in Peking University First Hospital from April 2009 to August 2013 accepted the aEEG check at term of corrected gestational age ( ≥ 38 weeks but < 42 weeks of corrected gestational age). The risk factors of brain development, such as gestational age ( < 30, 30 ≤ - ≤ 33+6 and 34≤-≤36+6 weeks), clinical informations [relatively stable group including 104 cases without any serious complications or brain injury, the group only suffering from a serious brain injury (19 cases), and the group only suffering from severe systemic disease (30 cases)] and nutrition (good or malnutrition), were analyzed. Also the relationship between the aEEG and the cranial ultrasound detected at the same time and the Gesell Developmental Scale at six months of corrected gestational age. Theχ2 test, two independent samples t-test and Logistic regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results The aEEG of 52%(79/153) cases reached the level of normal full-term newborn at term of corrected gestational age, only 48% (74/153) were abnormal. The abnormal rate of aEEG results in relatively stable preterm infants decreased from 3/6 (<30 weeks) to 35%(13/37) at 34 ≤ - ≤ 36+6 weeks, but the difference was not statistically significant (χ2=1.998, P=0.353). The abnormal rate of aEEG results in the group suffering from a serious brain injury was higher than the relatively stable preterm infants [14/19 vs 44%(46/104) ,χ2=5.578, P=0.024]. In relatively stable preterm infants, there was no difference of the abnormal rate of the aEEG results between intrauterine malnutrition group and good nutrition group [46%(19/41) vs 43%(27/63),χ2=0.122, P=0.727]. Neither was between extrauterine malnutrition group and good nutrition group [52%(13/25) vs 42%(33/79),χ2=0.805, P=0.369]. Serious brain injury was independent risk factor of abnormal aEEG (OR=3.453, 95%CI: 1.177-10.132, P=0.024). The coincidence rate of aEEG and the cranial ultrasound examination or the scores of Gesell Developmental Scale was 57%(56/98) and 50%(10/20), respectively. Conclusions The brain catch-up development may appears early after birth in preterm infants, which are impaired by lower gestational age and the severe brain injury. It is more effective of aEEG for evaluating the brain development of preterm infants when combines with other methods.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of Salvia miltiorrhiza (SM) extracts on the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in small pulmonary arteries (SPAs) of rats with chronic hypoxia.

METHODSAfter two weeks of hypoxia, rats were treated with diltiazem, and small, median, and large doses of SM extracts. The lungs were tested for the expression and distribution of HO-1, endothelial NOS (eNOS) and inducible NOS (iNOS) by using immunohistochemistry and Western blot method.

RESULTSMedian and large doses of SM extracts significantly reduced hypoxia-induced media thickening in the SPAs (similar with diltiazem), recovered repaired ultrastructure injury, decreased HO-1 and iNOS levels, and increased eNOS expression in the SPAs.

CONCLUSIONSMedian and large doses of SM extracts play significant roles in inhibiting structural remodeling in rats with hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. These effects might attribute to the suppression of HO-1 and iNOS, and the promotion of eNOS expression under the conditions of hypoxia.

Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Heme Oxygenase (Decyclizing) ; metabolism ; Heme Oxygenase-1 ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; drug therapy ; enzymology ; Hypoxia ; complications ; Nitric Oxide Synthase ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; chemistry

OBJECTIVEBenign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTs) is a common idiopathic partial epileptic syndrome in childhood, which often affect the pre-school and school-age children and a considerable proportion have comorbidity including lower academic achievement and cognitive impairment. Few studies involved the psychocognitive assessment in such a drug-treatable epileptic syndrome especially in the newly diagnosed and medications-naive group. This study aimed to investigate the cognitive characteristics of children with newly onset BECTs before treatment.

METHODForty-one outpatients with newly diagnosed BECTs who visited the Clinic during the periods from October 2012 to May 2014 before the medications against epilepsy and 41 healthy controls recruited from regular school in Beijing during the period from July 2013 to March 2014, who matched in age and gender underwent battery testing by computerized cognitive testing in epilepsy (CCTE). The BECTs group included 41 children, 20 boys and 21 girls, mean age (8.2 ± 1.7) years, the age of onset of epilepsy 4.5-11.5 years (the age of onset <8 years in 25 cases, ≥ 8 years in 16 cases). The cognitive characteristics and associated factors were analyzed. The primary data including correct answer numbers and reaction times were analyzed by independent sample t-test between the two groups of children with BECTs and healthy controls based on SPSS 18.0 statistical software.

RESULTRaw data of 9 tasks' scores collected from BECTs and healthy control children were continuous variables in accordance with normal distribution. BECTs children performed significantly worse than controls in choice reaction time ((618+158) vs. (524+254) ms), three-dimensional mental rotation (11 ± 10 vs. 18 ± 12) and visual tracing (10 ± 6 vs.15 ± 6), t=2.01, 3.03 and 3.47, P<0.05, <0.01 and <0.001, respectively.While other 6 tasks showed no significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05 for all comparisons). BECTs boys performed significantly worse than girls on simple substraction tasks compared with standard nine score ((4.7 ± 1.5) vs. (5.6 ± 1.2), t=-2.24, P<0.05). Other 8 tasks showed no significant difference between boys and girls (P>0.05 for all comparisons). Other 9 tasks showed no significant differences between the two groups of BECTs children whose age of onset was before 8 years and those who started seizure ≥ 8 years (P all >0.05). The standard nine scores of simple substraction from the three BECTs groups of dominance sides of spikes and waves during NREM showed significant difference (P<0.05). BECTs children with bilateral discharges performed significantly worse than the other two groups dominantly right or left discharges (4.7 ± 1.2 vs. 6.0 ± 1.2 vs. 4.9 ± 1.4, P all <0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups with right and left side dominance discharges (P>0.05). Other 8 tasks showed no significant differences among the three groups (P>0.05 for all comparisons).

CONCLUSIONAlthough EEG discharges index below 50% during NREM period, while newly diagnosed BECTs children before treatment with medications against epilepsy performed poorer on tasks of choice reaction time, three-dimensional mental rotation, and visual tracing. The two factors of male and bilateral discharges during NREM period correlate with dysfunction of simple subtraction, the mechanism needs further study and the cognitive function of epilepsy children should be evaluated and followed up, in order to provide psychologic baseline data for persistent cognitive disturbance.

Beijing ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cognition ; Cognition Disorders ; diagnosis ; Comorbidity ; Epilepsy, Rolandic ; physiopathology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Reaction Time ; Seizures ; physiopathology

Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effect of computerized online cognitive training for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).Methods Fifteen children with ADHD recruited from Department of Neurology in the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Institute of Pediatrics received computerized online cognitive training including attention training,visual spatial training and memory training.Cognitive neuropsychological test battery (choice reaction time,mental rotation,word semantic,simple subtraction,working memory and visual tracing) was used to assess the cognitive function in pre-training and post-training stages,such as basic response ability,reaction speed,visuo-spatial cognitive ability,semantic comprehension,calculation fluency,working memory and attention ability.Paired-samples t test was used to make comparison of the cognitive test results between pre-training condition and post-training condition.Results All the correction scores of cognitive tests were transformed to percentile scores.Paired-samples t test results showed that the ADHD children got higher scores in the post-training condition than in the pre-training condition in working memory test [(52.00 ± 20.77) ％ vs (39.73 ± 23.64) ％,t =2.72,P ＜ 0.05].There was no significant training effect in choice reaction time,mental rotation,sentence completion,simple subtraction and visual tracing(all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Computerized online cognitive training can significantly improve the working memory of children with ADHD,and has no side effects on other cognitive functions.It need to further expand the sample size and follow up the training effect for a long-term.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between serum insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), degree of insulin resistance and thyroid nodule imaging reporting and data system (TI-RADS) grading in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Methods:The clinical data of 120 patients with T2DM from February 2020 to November 2021 in Kunshan Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 56 patients had no thyroid nodules (non-thyroid nodule group), all patients were TI-RADS grade 1; 64 patients had thyroid nodules (thyroid nodule group), including 7 cases of TI-RADS grade 2, 12 cases of TI-RADS grade 3, 20 cases of TI-RADS grade 4, and 25 cases of TI-RADS grade 5. The levels of IGF-1 and TSH were measured by automated biochemical analyzer, the homeostatic model assessment insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) was calculated. Spearman method was used for correlation analysis; multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze the independent risk factors of TI-RADS grading in patients with T2DM combined with thyroid nodules; the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to analyze the efficacy of IGF-1, TSH and HOMA-IR in predicting TI-RADS grading in patients with T2DM combined with thyroid nodules.Results:The IGF-1, TSH and HOMA-IR in thyroid nodule group were significantly higher than those in non-thyroid nodule group: (185.35 ± 45.08) ng/L vs. (168.36 ± 30.25) ng/L, (2.98 ± 0.85) mU/L vs. (2.69 ± 0.35) mU/L and 3.25 ± 0.75 vs. 2.95 ± 0.44, and there were statistical differences ( P<0.05 or <0.01). In patients with T2DM combined with thyroid nodules, with the increase of TI-RADS classification, the IGF-1, TSH and HOMA-IR gradually increased, and there were statistical differences ( P<0.05). Spearman correlation analysis result showed that the levels of IGF-1, TSH and HOMA-IR were positive correlation with TI-RADS grading ( r = 0.918, 0.906 and 0.920; P<0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis result showed that the IGF-1, TSH and HOMA-IR were independent risk factors for TI-RADS grading in patients with T2DM combined with thyroid nodule ( OR = 1.684, 1.044 and 1.851; 95% CI 0.674 to 6.665, 0.032 to 0.055 and 1.212 to 2.298; P<0.01 or <0.05). ROC curve analysis result show that the area under the curve of IGF-1, TSH and HOMA-IR for predicting the TI-RADS grading patients with T2DM combined with thyroid nodule were 0.946, 0.983 and 0.975, with all sensitivity of 100.00%, and specificity of 82.14%, 91.07% and 89.29%. Conclusions:There is a correlation between IGF-1, TSH, HOMA-IR and TI-RADS grading in patients with T2DM combined with thyroid nodule, which has some guiding value for clinical monitoring of thyroid nodule changes.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of antibacterial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) as an adjunct to subgingival scaling and root planning in the treatment of chronic periodontitis. Methods: This study followed medical ethics guidelines, and informed consent was obtained from all patients. Sixteen patients were recruited for this randomized split-mouth controlled trial. The control group underwent subgingival scaling and root planning (SRP), while the experimental group received subgingival scaling and root planing plus aPDT treatment using Perowave® with a toluidine blue O solution photosensitizer. The probing pocket depth (PD), recession, plaque index (PLI), bleeding index (BI) and proportion of positive sites of bleeding on probing (BOP) (BOP%) at all sites were examined at baseline (before treatment) and at 1, 3 and 6 months after treatment. Results: Follow-up was completed for 13 patients. On the control side, 356 teeth were tested at 2 136 sites. A total of 360 teeth on the test side and 2 160 sites were included in the study. Before treatment, there was no significant difference in the baseline indicators between the two groups. After treatment, both groups showed significant improvement in clinical parameters, including PD, PLI, BI, and BOP%,compared with baseline. At 3 months, the BOP% and PLI in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). The improvement in BOP% and PLI in the experimental group was significantly greater than that in the control group 3 months after treatment (P<0.05). Conclusion aPDT, as an adjuvant treatment to SRP for chronic periodontitis, can improve gingival bleeding and control periodontal inflammation in the early stage.