Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of domestic human recombinant FSH (rhFSH) in women with anovulation of WHO groupⅡ. Methods A randomized, blind, parallel-controlled, non-inferiority and multicenter study was performed. A total of 534 admitted to 13 hospitals from May 2008 to August 2009. There were 531 women with ovulatory disorder was included in the statistical analysis, were randomly divided into test group (domestic rhFSH, n=352) and control group (imported rhFSH, n=179). Percentage of cycle with mature follicle, ovulation rate, clinical pregnancy rate, multiple pregnancy rate, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and adverse events were observed. Results No statistical significant differences (P>0.05) were observed between the two groups in terms of the efficiency on mature follicle [91.8%(323/352) versus 88.8%(159/179)], ovulation rate [91.3%(295/323) verus 90.6%(144/159)], clinical pregnancy rate [19.2%(62/323) verus 18.2%(29/159)], the number of the follicles<14 mm, the level of serum LH and progesterone, the thickness of endometrium on the day of hCG administration. The number of follicle≥18 mm and 14 mm≤follicle<18 mm and the level of serum estradiol on the day of hCG in the test group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). The number of days of rhFSH administration in the test group was significantly less than that in the control group [(9.8±2.2) versus (11.4± 0.6) days, P<0.05], the dosage of rhFSH was significantly lower than that in the control group [(879 ± 419) versus (1 043 ± 663) U, P<0.05]. The multiple pregnancy rate in the test group was significantly higher than that in the control group [21% (13/62) versu 10% (3/29), P<0.05]. The incidence of OHSS and adverse events were similar between the two groups (P>0.05), and no other adverse events were observed in test group during treatment. Conclusion Ovarian stimulation with domestic rhFSH is effective, safe and economical in women with anovulation of WHO groupⅡ.

BACKGROUNDBone damage around the joints is one of the major pathophysiological mechanisms that leads to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) chronic disability. Serum tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRACP-5b) is secreted by osteoclasts, its activity can be used as a clinically relevant bone resorption marker. The aim of this study was to test whether the measurement of serum levels of TRACP-5b in patients with RA would correlate with measures of disease activity and with responses to therapy.

METHODSFifty-six patients were randomly assigned to receive recombinant human cytotoxic tlymphocyte-associated antigen-4 immunoglobulin (RhCTLA4-Ig), infliximab or methotrexate (MTX). The clinical and serologic indicators of RA activity were evaluated at baseline and at 24 weeks. Serum TRACP-5b was measured by Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) at 0, 12 and 24 weeks. Hand X-rays were obtained at baseline.

RESULTSAt baseline, the levels of TRACP-5b correlated with the severity of X-ray damage, disease duration (r = 0.332, P = 0.012), and tender joint count (r = 0.408, P = 0.002). The 24 weeks values of TRACP-5b for RhCTLA4-Ig group and infliximab group differed significantly from the baseline values in each group (P < 0.05; P < 0.05), whereas only the value for RhCTLA4-Ig group differed significantly from the 24 weeks value for the MTX group (P < 0.01). Considering the two biologics-treated groups together, the TRACP-5b levels at 24 weeks differed significantly from the baseline values only in those patients who reached an ACR70 level (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSMeasurement of serum TRACP-5b in RA patients reflects clinical and radiological measures of disease activity, treatment with certain biologics, and degree of response to therapy. TRACP-5b should be investigated further as a potential biomarker to predict response to therapy, including slowing of radiographic progression.

Acid Phosphatase ; blood ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; therapeutic use ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; blood ; drug therapy ; Biomarkers ; blood ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Humans ; Infliximab ; Isoenzymes ; blood ; Male ; Methotrexate ; therapeutic use ; Middle Aged ; Osteoclasts ; metabolism ; Pilot Projects ; Tartrate-Resistant Acid Phosphatase ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: We propose a sparse-view helical CT iterative reconstruction algorithm based on projection of convex set tensor total generalized variation minimization (TTGV-POCS) to reduce the X-ray dose of helical CT scanning. METHODS: The three-dimensional volume data of helical CT reconstruction was viewed as the third-order tensor. The tensor generalized total variation (TTGV) was used to describe the structural sparsity of the three-dimensional image. The POCS iterative reconstruction framework was adopted to achieve a robust result of sparse-view helical CT reconstruction. The TTGV-POCS algorithm fully used the structural sparsity of first-order and second-order derivation and the correlation between the slices of helical CT image data to effectively suppress artifacts and noise in the image of sparse-view reconstruction and better preserve image edge information. RESULTS: The experimental results of XCAT phantom and patient scan data showed that the TTGVPOCS algorithm had better performance in reducing noise, removing artifacts and maintaining edges than the existing reconstruction algorithms. Comparison of the sparse-view reconstruction results of XCAT phantom data with 144 exposure views showed that the TTGV-POCS algorithm proposed herein increased the PSNR quantitative index by 9.17%-15.24% compared with the experimental comparison algorithm; the FSIM quantitative index was increased by 1.27%-9.30%. CONCLUSIONS The TTGV-POCS algorithm can effectively improve the image quality of helical CT sparse-view reconstruction and reduce the radiation dose of helical CT examination to improve the clinical imaging diagnosis.