Objective: To learn anxiety, depression, sleep quality and quality of life among patients with primary pruritus ani, and to analyze their correlation with anal itching symptom, so as to provide insights into the prevention and treatment of primary pruritus ani. Methods: Patients with primary pruritus ani were selected from anorectal department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University. The Visual Analogue Scale, pruritus frequency score, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Dermatology Life Quality Index (Chinese version) were used in the survey. Spearman rank correlation analysis was employed to analyze the correlation between the degree and frequency of pruritus ani with, anxiety, depression, sleep quality and quality of life. Results: Sixty patients with primary pruritus ani were investigated, including of 7 males and 53 females, with an average age of (34.37±10.30) years. The patients with mild, moderate and severe pruritus accounted for 28.33%, 48.33% and 23.34%, respectively. The patients with pruritus frequency of grade 1, 2 and 3 accounted for 51.67%, 38.33% and 10.00%, respectively. The patients with anxiety, depression, and coexistence of anxiety and depression accounted for 18.33%, 13.33% and 10.00%, respectively. The patients with very good, good, average and poor sleep quality accounted for 15.00%, 46.66%, 30.00% and 8.34%, respectively. No, mild, moderate and severe impacts on quality of life among the patients accounted for 10.00%, 46.66%, 33.34% and 10.00%, respectively. The degree of pruritus was positively correlated with anxiety (rs=0.405, P=0.001), depression (rs=0.343, P=0.007), sleep quality (rs=0.293, P=0.037) and quality of life (rs=0.338, P=0.008). However, there was no significant correlation between the frequency of pruritus with the above factors (all P>0.05). Conclusion The degree of pruritus in patients with primary pruritus ani is related to anxiety, depression, sleep quality and quality of life.

Animals ; Cholestasis ; complications ; Fibrosis ; etiology ; Gallbladder ; pathology ; Humans ; Kidney ; pathology ; Lipid Metabolism ; Liver Cirrhosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Myocardium ; pathology ; Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear ; physiology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinical application of the ureteral dilation catheter combined with the balloon catheter under the ureteroscope in the treatment of urethral stricture in men.

METHODSUnder the ureteroscope, 45 male patients with urethral stricture received placement of a zebra guide wire through the strictured urethra into the bladder and then a ureteral dilation catheter along the guide wire, followed by dilation of the urethra from F8 initially to F14 and F16. Again, the ureteroscope was used to determine the length of the strictured urethra, its distance to the external urethral orifice, and whether it was normally located. An F24 balloon catheter and then a metal urethral calibrator was used for the dilation of the strictured urethra. After removal of the F18-F22 urethral catheter at 8 weeks, the urinary flow rate was measured immediately and again at 3 months.

RESULTSAll the operations were successfully performed without serious complications. The maximum urinary flow rate was (13.3-29.9) ml/s (mean [17.7 ± 3.2] ml/s) at the removal of the catheter and (15.2-30.8) ml/s (mean [19.8 ± 3.9] ml/s) at 3 months after it. Smooth urination was found in all the patients during the 6-24 months follow-up.

CONCLUSIONThe application of the ureteral dilation catheter combined with, the balloon catheter under the ureteroscope is a good option for the treatment of male urethral stricture for its advantages of uncomplicatedness, safety, effectiveness, few complications, less pain, high success rate, and repeatable operation.

Catheterization ; Humans ; Male ; Ureteroscopes ; Urethra ; Urethral Stricture ; therapy ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Catheters ; Urination

Objective To investigate the accuracy of careful clinical evaluation in hemodynamic status and guidance of PiCCO monitor in clinical treatment.Methods A total of 96 hemodynamic unstable cases were evaluated prior to the insertion of the PiCCO catheter.The attending physician in charge of the patient was required to complete a questionnaire to predict the range of key hemodynamic variables for CI,GEDI,SVRI and EVLWI.Additionally,the attending was also asked to indicate a plan for therapy based on the predicted hemodynamic profile and decide if the predicted therapy plan was altered after the the first measurement of hemodynamic variables.Results The accurate prediction of hemodynamic variables was CI (55.2％),GEDI(60.4％),SVRI(63.5％) 和 EVLWI (78.1％),among which EVLWI had a higher accuracy(P ＜ 0.05).49％ doctors altered their planned therapy according to the result of the PiCCO information.Doctors had more difficulty in accurately predicting hemodynamic values in critical patients which APACHE Ⅱ scored 15 ～25 (42.3％ vs 67.9％ and 42.3 ％ vs 75.0％,x2 =4.755,5.231,P ＜ 0.05).The prediction of patients with acute myocardial infarction was more accurate than those of without acute myocardial infarction,and less to alter the planned therapy(21.1％ vs 55.8％,x2 =7.382,P =0.007).The patients of impaired oxygenation had less accurate predictions and less therapy alterations(32.3％ vs 56.9％,x2 =5.110,P =0.024).Attending was able to predict the hemodynamic status more accurately(63.9％ vs 40％,x2 =5.152,P =0.023) and alter the predicted therapy less(39.3％ vs 65.7％,x2 =6.189,P =0.013) in patients who were enrolled later.Conclusions Clinical evaluation in hemodynamic status of critically ill patients had a lower accuracy,the information obtained by PiCCO often instruct clinical doctors to choose the optimal treatment.

Aim To investigate the role of GC in indu-cing apoptosis of amygdaloid neurons.Methods Cul-turing primary neurons of amygdala,the neurons were identified by immunefluorescence techniques with anti-body against microtubule associated protein-2 (MAP2 ) and antibody against GC receptor.Using flow cytome-try to detect the effects of different concentrations of dexamethasone on the amygdala neuron apoptosis. Then the experiment was divided into four groups:CON ,DEX ,DEX +MIF and MIF .The rate of apopto-sis of the four groups was detected by TUNEL tech-nique and the expressions of BAX mRNA of four groups by Real-time PCR technique.Results (1 )Compared with the control group, the percentage of apoptotic cells increased significantly with DEX(10 -8 mol·L-1~10 -6 mol · L-1 )treatment in a concentration-de-pendent manner.(2)the TUNEL test showed that the percentage of apoptotic cells of DEX group increased significantly,compared with control group.While it decreased significantly in DEX+MIF group,compared with DEX group.There was no difference between MIF group and control group.(3 )Compared with control group,the expressions of BAX mRNA of DEX group increased significantly.While the expressions of BAX mRNA of DEX +MIF group decreased significantly, compared with the DEX group.There was no difference between MIF group and control group.Conclusion GC can independently induce the apoptosis of primary cultured neurons in the amygdala by combining with GC receptor.

Objective To investigate the clinical features and disease-causing mutations of familial hypomagnesaemia with hypercalciuria and nephrocalcinosis.Methods In February 2016,a 24 year old female patient with left kidney stone and nephrocalcinosis in bilateral kidneys was admitted to our hospital.One month prior to this admission,she had been treated by PCNL to remove the most part of left kidney stone in otherhospital.Mter admission,She was found hypomagnesaemia (serum magnesium 0.65 mmol/ L) and hypercalciuria (24h urine calcium 364.0 mg) but with normal renal function (serum creatinine 101.5μmol/L).And the remained part of left kidney stone was removed by flexible ureteroscope.As she was considered probably with an autosomal recessive FHHNC,an analysis of CLDN16 and CLDN19 gene mutations was performed using her and her parents'peripheral white blood cells.Results Mutation analysis revealed this patient had two heterozygous mutations in the CLDN16.One is an one-base deletion mutation in the 123th codon in exon 2:368delA.The other is a missense mutation in the 139th codon in exon 2:416C →T which resulted in an amino acid change Ala139Val.Her parents respectively had one of each heterozygous mutation.In the six months follow-up,an oral administration with hvdrochlorothiazide,potassium citrate,and calcium magesium supplements significantly reduced her hypomagnesaemia (serum magnesiun 1.0 mmol/L) and hypercalciuria (24-h urine calcium 156.0 mg),and no stone recurrence and aggravation of nephrocalcinosis and renal dysfunction occurred.Conclusions We diagnosed a patient with FHHNC who had a novel compound heterozygous mutation of CLDN16.This rare disease should be suspected if there are three constant clinical features of hypomagnesaemia,hypercalciuria and nephrocalcinosis,and verified with CLDN16 and CLDN19 gene test.Currently the option for treatment of FHHNC is symptomatic treatment until severe deterioration of renal function.The hydrochlorothiazide,potassium citrate,and calcium magesium supplements may have considerable effects on hypomagnesaemia and hypercalciuria.

Objective To set up a system in vitro to rapidly recover plasma proteins lost during artificial-liver treatment.Methods The polyprotein precipitation was obtained by all proteins whose isoelectric point pH value were between 7.3 and 5.1,which collided with each other and aggregated using gradient pH co-precipitation(adding 1 mol/L citric acid slowly in the plasma solution to change the pH values gradually from 7.3 to 5.1 in 5 h)combined with salting out(degree of saturation of NaCl is 33%,reacted for 5.5 h at 4℃)or low-temperature ethanol precipitation(40% ethanol, reacted for 5.5 h at -7℃)so that to get rid of toxicants by discarding the supernatant.Results In the range of pH 5.1-7.3,50%(29g/57g)of the total plasma proteins had been recovered by the gradient pH salting out and 41%(25 g/61g)by the gradient pH low-temperature ethanol co-precipi- tation.The protein remained in the supernatant was mostly albumin and its combined bilirubin.The levels of total bilirubin decreased to 0.07% and 0.06% of the original levels by these two methods respectively and the serum HBV DNA level decreased to be undetected(quantitative PCR).Conclu- sions The proteins with close isoelectric point can co-precipitated with the presence of high concen- tration of NaCl or low-temperature ethanol and by changing the pH value gradually.The total protein in the discarded plasma during artificial-liver treatment can be recovered rapidly using the gradient pH coprecipitation.

Objective:To explore the application value of conventional ultrasound(US) in detecting occult bleeding lesions in joints of patients with hemophilia.Methods:Twenty-seven children with severe hemophilia A who received factor Ⅷ prophylactic treatment from March 2017 to April 2018 in Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University were enrolled. Clinical data were collected from routine practice accompanied with US examination, hemophilia joint health score (HJHS) 2.1 assessment and the history of hemarthrosis of both ankles, elbows and knees at baseline and at 1 year follow-up.Results:A total of 157 joints of 27 patients were followed up for one year. During the treatments, 74 joints were found without history of hemarthrosis, among which the total US score of 14(14/74, 18.9%) joints increased, and HJHS 2.1 score of 11(11/74, 14.9%) joints developed. There was no significant change in the HJHS 2.1 score of 108 joints, among which 25 joints (25/108, 23.1%) had an increase in the total US score.However, there was no significant change in the total US score for 93 joints, of which 9(9/93, 9.7%) had an increase in HJHS 2.1 score.Conclusions:US examination can sensitively detect hemophilia arthropathy in joints without history of hemarthrosis and without obvious progression of arthropathy by HJHS 2.1 examination, and provide clinicians with more accurate joint information.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has advanced rapidly and has been widely applied in various fields such as medicine and pharmacy, accelerating the drug development process. Focusing on the application of AI in the discovery and optimization of lead compounds, this review provides a detailed introduction to AI-assisted virtual screening and molecular generation methods for discovering lead compounds, while particularly highlighting the cases of AI-drived drugs into clinical trials. Additionally, we briefly outline the application of AI basic algorithm models in quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) and drug repurposing, offering insights for AI-based drug discovery.

Copy number aberrations (CNAs) in chromosome arm 8q have been associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes of several cancers and progressive tumor characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).This study was to identify correlation of CNAs in 8q with clinical outcomes of HCC patients,and further screen for differentially expressed genes in outcome-related CNAs.Array comparative genomic hybridization and expression arrays were performed to detect CNAs and expression levels,respectively.The correlations between CNAs in 8q and outcomes were analyzed in 66 patients,with a median follow-up time of 45.0 months (range,2.6-108.6 months).One hundred and nine cases were further evaluated to identify differentially expressed genes in the potential outcome-related CNAs.Copy number gain in 8q was observed in 22 (33.3 ％) of the 66 HCC cases.The most recurrent gains (with frequencies ＞20％) were 8q13.3-21.3,8q21.3-23.3,8q23.3-24.13,8q24.13-24.3,and 8q24.3.Survival analysis showed that 8q24.13-24.3 gain was significantly associated with reduced overall survival (P=0.010).Multivariate Cox analysis identified 8q24.13-24.3 gain as an independent prognostic factor for poor overall survival (HR=2.47;95％CI=1.16-5.26;P=0.019).A panel of 17 genes within the 8q24.13-24.3 region,including ATAD2,SQLE,PVT1,ASAP1,and NDRG1 were significantly upregulated in HCCs with 8q24.13-24.3 gain compared to those without.These results suggest that copy number gain at 8q24.13-24.3 is an unfavorable prognostic marker for HCC patients,and the potential oncogenes ATAD2,SQLE,PVT1,ASAP1,and NDRG1 within the regional gain,may contribute coordinately to the 8q24.13-24.3 gain-related poor prognosis.