Cardiac enlargement is an important symptom of vascular and heart disease. The cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) is an important index used to measure the size of heart. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between aging and cardiothoracic ratio. This paper also presents an improved C-V level set method to segment lung tissue based on X-ray image, which used to automatically compute CTR. In the investigation carried out in our school, we got more than 3 120 chest radiographs from medical examination of the working population in Beijing, and we systematically studied the effects of age and gender on the CTR to obtain reference values for each group. The reference values established in this study can be useful for recording and quantifying the cardiac enlargement, so that it may be useful for calling attention to the cardiovascular diseases and the heart diseases.
Aging ; Algorithms ; Cardiomegaly ; pathology ; Heart ; diagnostic imaging ; Heart Diseases ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Lung ; diagnostic imaging ; Myocardium ; pathology ; Radiography, Thoracic ; methods ; Reference Values

Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin ; diagnosis ; pathology ; therapy ; Male ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies

Carcinoma, Renal Cell ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Carcinoma, Transitional Cell ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Carcinosarcoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Keratins ; metabolism ; Kidney Neoplasms ; pathology ; surgery ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Male ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Ureteral Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Urologic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Vimentin ; metabolism

BACKGROUND:Behavioral problems among preschool children affect the quality of life in childhood, and it may predict psychiatric disorders in adulthood.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the correlation of behavioral problem occurrence with gender and breastfeeding in children aged 4-5 years old.DESIGN: A stratified random cluster sampling investigation.SETTING:Department of Child Health Care,Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Qingdao University,and Department of Preventive Medicine, Medical College of Qingdao University.PARTICIPANTS:Totally 600 children (301 boys and 299 girls) aged4-5 years old from 10 kindergartens in 4 districts in Qingdao city were chosen by stratified random cluster sampling during May in 2004.They. all used to be full-term infants of natural labor.METHODS:Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for parents and self-made inventory scale influencing children's behavior were adopted. Behavioral problems were dependent variables whereas feeding category and breastfeeding duration were independent variables. The effects of feeding category in the first 4 months of life and breastfeeding duration on children's behavior were examined by single factor and multiple factors logistic regression (backward selection).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Breastfeeding condition, breastfeeding duration and behavioral development.RESULTS:According to intention-processing analysis, 600 children 14.2% (85/600) among the 600 children investigated. It was 17.94%(54/301) in males and 10.4% (31/299) in females,with a significant indicated that boys who had been fed on "more infant formula than problem occurrence (OR=2.72,4.29). Breastfeeding duration ≥9months was a protective factor for males (OR=0.43) Girls who feeding duration ＜ 1 month had a risk of behavioral problem ocfeeding duration were set as independent variables and with or without behavioral problems was set as dependent variable to perform multiand breastfeeding duration ≥ 9 months were the risk factors and protective factors of behavioral problem occurrence for males (OR=3.76,ioral problem occurrence for females (OR=2.55,7.79,7.79), which were tective factors of behavioral problem occurrence for males (OR=3.48,behavioral problem occurrence for females ( OR=2.49,9.81,12.89).CONCLUSION:Male is a risk factor of behavioral problems;less breastfeeding and shorter breastfeeding duration are the risk factors of behavioral problem occurrence in children aged 4 to 5 years.

Animals ; Area Postrema ; physiology ; Blood Pressure ; Electric Stimulation ; Electrocardiography ; Male ; Neurotransmitter Agents ; Peroneal Nerve ; physiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Asthma ; prevention & control ; therapy ; Child ; Disease Management ; Family ; Humans

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are a kind of pluripotent stem cells derived from bone marrows, which can not only support hematopoiesis, but also have capabilities of multidifferentiation, high-proliferation and self-renewing. They have become one of hotspots in stem cell studies. Studies on in vitro intervention with BMSCs with TCMs have made remarkable progress in recent years. According to the findings, some traditional Chinese medicines can promote proliferation of BMSCs, some can inhibit the apoptosis of BMSCs, while others can induce BMSCs to differentiate into multiple cell types, such as osteoblast. Furthermore, some studies also involved relevant action mechanisms. The authors summarized the advance in relevant studies by reference to relevant literatures of this field.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology ; drug effects

Objective To explore the curative mechanism of Jieyuan (JY) Capsule on rats renal failure induced by 5/ 6 nephrectomy. Methods Chronic renal failure (CRF) rat models induced by 5/6 nephrectomy were administered with JY Capsule. The serum levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (Scr),hematological and biochemical indexes,and renal histological features were observed. Results JY Capsule reduced levels of BUN and Scr,ameliorated the electrolyte,increased the number of red blood cell and hemoglobin content,and alleviated pathological changes of the kidney tissue. Conclusion JY Capsule can relieve the rat CRF symptoms and postpone the progress of CRF.

0.05) before and after treatment in linezolid group. Conclusions Vancomycin and linezolid treatment against MRSA bloodstream infection appears to have equal efficacy, and both drugs were safe and well-tolerable.

Objective To investigate factors influencing islet isolation and purification in dogs and to explore how to obtain massive purified viable islets from canine pancreas.To provide experimental evidence for pancreatic islet transplantation in clinical practice.Methods Islets were isolated from pancreas of 22 dogs by modified automated techniques,followed by purification using continuous density gradients.The purity of islets was determined by dithizone (DTZ) staining,and the function of islets was evaluated by glucose stimulating insulin release test.Results The crude islets yield was ( 155 040 ±310) IEQ/pancreas while the yield was (74 200 ±185) IEQ/pancreas after purification.The average purity was (89.4 ±2.6) ％.The recovery rate was(47.8 ±1.3) ％.Islet viability was(93.0 ± 1.7)％.The modified techniques improved both the yield and the quality in islet isolation and purification.The islets were morphologically intact after purification.Glucose stimulating insulin release test showed that the difference of the secreted insulin concentration had statistical significance ( P ＜0.001 ) between low concentration glucose group and high concentration glucose group.Conclusion It is of great value for clinical research to obtain enough islets through islet isolation and purification in dogs.