Dental Pulp Cavity ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; Humans ; Radiography ; Root Canal Therapy

The temperature and salinity ranges for growth of twelve strains of marine Bdellovibrio-and-like organisms (BALOs) which affiliated with four different phylogenetic clusters in the family Bacteriovoracaceae and the lytic ability of them to six kinds of common shrimp pathogen vibrios were studied. The morphological characteristics of four representative strains were examined with transmission electron microscope. The results showed that the strains within the same cluster or sub-cluster had identical growth temperature or salinity. The growth temperature ranges of clusters IV, VI, IX and X strains were 20?C～35?C, 15?C～35?C, 15?C～40?C, 10?C～40?C, respectively, and the optimum growth temperature was about 30?C or 35?C. The growth salinity ranges of clusters IV, VI, IX and X strains were 5‰～40‰, 2.5‰～30‰, 5‰～60‰ and 5‰～60‰, and the optimum salinities were about 10‰, 5‰, 20‰ and 20‰, respectively. Three of the six kinds of vibrios tested were lysed by all the BALOs, while the others could only be lysed by some of the BALOs. However, differential lysis to some of the vibrios was also observed among BALOs within the same cluster. The four strains of different clusters all exhibited typical BALOs morphology, hav-ing vibrioid cell with a single polar flagellum.

Objective To observe the characterization of fat emboli in cardiac chamber in pig model and the patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty(THA) by transesophageal echocardiography(TEE). Methods Different dose of fatty liquid was injected slowly via the internal jugular vein. The changes of the image were observed by continuous TEE. The lethal dose of fat embolism was recorded. Twenty-two patients underwent TEE during THA. Gray scale and echo intensity of fat embolism in right atrium were studied quantitatively in varied periods of the operation. Results With the increase of fat liquid injected in pig model, the strong- echo particles in right atrium and ventricle became more and more, the imaging of the particles was from “moving star”, “shower-like” to “snow fluffy”, at last paradoxical fat embolism occurred when the dose of fat liquid was over 4 ml. The accumulated lethal dose of fat embolism was 15.8 ～ 27.8 ml.②Fat emboli appeared as strong- echo particles in right atrium were found in different period of THA. Average gray scale and echo intensity of emboli in right atrium were significantly higher in period B than in other periods during THA. Conclusions Fat emboli in cardiac chamber can be found sensitively by TEE. Intra-operative monitoring and quantitative analysis is helpful to identifying fat embolism syndrome.Paradoxical embolism is a reliable evidence of fat embolism syndrome.

Objective: To study the chemical constituents from the leaves of Rhodomyrtus tomentosa and its antibacterial activities. Methods: The compounds were isolated and purified by various column chromatographies. Their structures were elucidated by means of spectral analyses (MS and NMR). The antibacterial activity of the compounds was tested by micro dilution method Results: A total of 21 compounds were isolated from the 95% ethanol extract in the leaves of R. tomentosa and identified as (2R,4'R,8'R)-α-tocopherol (1), (2R,4'R,8'R)-β-tocopherol (2), α-tocopherol-quinone (3), α-tocopherol A (4), (-)-a-tocospirone (5), rhodomyrtosone F (6), rhodomyrtosone C (7), watsonianone A (8), rhodomyrtone (9), verimol K (10), methyl cinnamate (11), naringenin (12), quercetin (13), myricetin (14), 3,7,3'-trimethoxy-5,4',5'-trihydroxy flavone (15), 5,7,3',5'- tetrahydroxyflavanone (16), blumeatin (17), dihydroquercetin-7,4'-dimethylether (18), dihydroquercetin-4'-dimethoxy (19), 2,4,7,8,9,10-hexahydroxy-3-methoxyanthracene-6-O-β-L-rhamnopyranoside (20), and 4,8,9,10-tetrahydroxy-2,3,7-trimethoxyanthracene-6-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (21). Conclusion: Compound 6 is a new natural product and compounds 2-5, 10-13, and 15-19 are isolated from the plants of Rhodomyrtus (DC.) Reich for the first time. Compounds 3 and 6-9 exhibit the antibacterial activities.

ObjectiveTo analyze the characteristics of top of the basilar syndrome (TOBS) in clinic and imaging.MethodsData of 31 TOBS cases were analyzed retrospectively.ResultsThe clinical features of TOBS patients were sudden unconsciousness or vertigo and dyskinesia of the limbs, the dismovement of the eyeballs, abnormality of the pupils, partial blindness or cortical blindness, hypesthesia, disturbance of memory and counting. CT and MRI showed multi-infarction included thalami, occipital lobe, cerebellum, midbrain, temporal lobe.ConclusionTOBS can be diagnosed accurately according to clinical features and imaging signs.

The research of sleep staging is an important basis of evaluating sleep quality and diagnosing diseases. In order to achieve automatic sleep staging, we proposed a new method which combines with principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM) for automatic sleep staging. Firstly, we used PCA to reduce dimension of time-frequency-space domains and nonlinear dynamical characteristics of sleep EEG from 5 subjects to reduce data redundancy. Secondly, we used 1-a-1 SVM to classify sleep stages. The results showed that the correct rate can reach 89.9%, which was better than those of many other similar studies.
Electroencephalography ; Humans ; Nonlinear Dynamics ; Principal Component Analysis ; Sleep Stages ; Support Vector Machine

We applied Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC) combined with brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM) to study the change of alertness under sleep deprivation in our research. Ten subjects were involved in 36 hours sleep deprivation (SD), during which spontaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) experiments and auditory evoked EEG experiments-Oddball were recorded once every 6 hours. Spontaneous and evoked EEG data were calculated and BEAMs were structured. Results showed that during the 36 hours of SD, alertness could be divided into three stages, i. e. the first 12 hours as the high stage, the middle 12 hours as the rapid decline stage and the last 12 hours as the low stage. During the period SD, LZC of Spontaneous EEG decreased over the whole brain to some extent, but remained consistent with the subjective scales. By BEAMs of event related potential, LZC on frontal cortex decreased, but kept consistent with the behavioral responses. Therefore, LZC can be effective to reflect the change of brain alertness. At the same time LZC could be used as a practical index to monitor real-time alertness because of its simple computation and fast calculation.
Attention ; physiology ; Brain Mapping ; Electroencephalography ; Evoked Potentials ; Humans ; Nonlinear Dynamics ; Sleep Deprivation

Rupture of unstable atherosclerotic plaque is an essential pathogenetic mechanism of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), thereby, to stabilize the vulnerable plaque is of great importance for prevention and treatment of ACS. Recent study has shown the multi-target effects of traditional Chiese medicine intervention in stabilizing unstable atherosclerotic plaque is promising. The literatures involving this topic in recent years were reviewed in this paper.
Acute Coronary Syndrome ; complications ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Animals ; Coronary Artery Disease ; complications ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Coronary Vessels ; pathology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Phytotherapy

Objective To investigate the relationship between N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) derived cardiac function index (Tei index) in patients with acute coronary syndrome under different plasma glucose levels and to evaluate the influence of hyperglycemia on the preciseness of cardiac function assessment with NT-proBNP.Methods Consecutive patients with acute coronary syndrome admitted to the department of cardiology in Guangdong General Hospital were prospectively enrolled.Based on their plasma fasting glucose level,patients were divided into hyperglycemia group (fasting plasma glucose ≥ 6.1 mmol/L) and euglycemia group (fasting plasma glucose ＜ 6.1 mmol/L).All the patients underwent transthoracic echocardiagraphy and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) investigations.Blood samples were obtained within 24 hours of hospitalization for measurment of NT-proBNP level.Relationship between TDI-Tei index and the level of NT-proBNP in the two groups were analyzed respectively.Results The TDI-Tei index,the systolic index and the diastolic index were all significant higher in the hyperglycemia group (n =27) than those in the euglycemia group (n =35)(0.68±0.14) vs.(0.61 ±0.10),P =0.03; (0.29±0.07) vs.(0.26±0.05),P =0.045; (0.38±0.08) vs.(0.35 ±0.050,P =0.03,respectively.In both groups,TDI-Tei and In NT-proBNP showed significant linear regression.In the hyperglycemia group,TDI-Tei =0.175 + 0.068 In NT-proBNP,R2 =0.702,P ＜ 0.01.In the euglycemia group,TDI-Tei =0.185 + 0.060 In NT-proBNP,R2 =0.405,P ＜ 0.01.Conclusions (1) Compared with patients suffering from an acute coronary syndrome with euglycemia,the global cardiac function of patients with hyperglycemia is poorer; (2) NT-proBNP correlates significantly with TDI-Tei in both hyperglycemia and euglycemia patients with acute heart syndrome.It is appropriate to assess global cardiac function with NT-proBNP in patients suffering from ACS complicated with hyperglycemia.

Objective To evaluate the safety of surgical procedures for patients after heart valve prosthesis implantation.Methods Clinical data of 12 cases with heart valve prosthesis implantation undergone other surgical treatment from November 1996 to December 2005 were retrospectively analyzed.All the cases had routine oral warfarin with prothrombin time (PT) of 20.0—28.3 s averaged 23.5 s, international normalized ratio (INR) for prothrombin of 1.79—2.23 averaged 1.95 and heart functional class Ⅰ—Ⅲ.Among them,appendectomy was performed in three cases with acute appendicitis,reposition and repair in one with inguinal hernia,radical gastrectomy in two with gastric carcinoma,left hemicolectomy in one,cholecystectomy in three,left femoral head replacement in one,and bilateral high ligation and ablation of great saphenous vein in one.Elective surgical operation was performed in seven cases,and emergency operation in five.In those with elective surgery,warfarin was stopped 2—3 days before operation,while 5—10 mg vitamin K_1 was injected intramuscularly 6—8 hours before emergency surgery with preoperative median PT of 15.1 and 15.3 s and median INR of 1.24 and 1.30,respectively.In operation,5—10 mg vitamin K_1 were injected intravenously into the patients by drip depending on their bleeding on the surface of wound.ECG,blood pressure,hemoglobin and oxygen saturation were routinely monitored for all the cases intraoperatively and postoperatively.For the cases with heart function above class Ⅱ,fluid infusion was adjusted based on intubated central venous pressure,and for those with general anesthesia,analyses of blood gases and electrolyte were monitored routinely in operation.Results OPeration time averaged 20—160 rain in all the 12 patients,with blood loss 5—280 ml in average and without complications of massive hemorrhage,thrombosis and heart failure.Conclusions Surgical operation was safe for patients with heart valve prosthesis implantation,if preoperative PT and INR were adjusted to about 15 s and 1.30,respectively by cessation of warfarin or application of vitamin K_1,combined with careful manipulation and strengthened perioperative management.