Moxibustion therapy is a commonly used external treatment method for numerous conditions and general health care. Besides the effects of the drugs, infrared-heat and radiation spectrum are also the manner of action. By collecting the literature about thermal radiation and infrared spectrum features of moxibustion, the author reported the novel studies on the thermal effect of moxibustion including factors that impacted the temperature, infrared spectrum features, apparatus based on infrared technology employed in clinic for moxibusiton and characteristics of temperature sensitivity. The author also identified some existing problems and provided advice for future application and research.

China ; Female ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; prevention & control ; therapy

New investigations indicated that half of the people in the world had the risk of vitamin D deficiency.The main reasons for vitamin D deficiency was that people ignored the importance of using vitamin D supplement in special ages and seasons.Children were potentially at high risk for vitamin D deficiency.Vitamin D deficiency during childhood could cause rickets,growth retardation,skeletal deformities and might increase the risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture in later life.Vitamin D deficiency were also related with cancer,autoimmune disease,endocrine system disease,nervous system disease,hypertension and infection.

OBJECTIVETo compare the clinical effective differences between shallow needling and medication for the sleep disorder of schizophrenia.

METHODSNinety-six patients with the sleep disorder of schizophrenia were randomly divided into a shallow needling group and a medication group, 48 cases in each one (one case dropping in the shallow needling group and two cases dropping in the medication group). The same dose paliperidone tablets were adopted in the two groups. In the shallow needling group, the main acupoints were Baihui (GV 20), Shangenxue (Extra) and Ezhongxian (MS 1), and the acupoints based on syndrome differentiation were selected. The shallow needling manipulation was used once a day, 5 times a week. In the medication group, 3 mg eszopiclone tablets were prescribed orally before sleep once every night. The patients were treated for 6 weeks in the two groups. Sleep condition was evaluated by Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) before and after treatment, and the clinical efficacy and the adverse reaction were assessed by positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS) and treatment emergent symptom scale (TESS) before and after 2-week, 4-week and 6-week treatment. The clinical effects between the two groups were compared.

RESULTSAfter treatment in the two groups, both the total scores and the each factor score of the PSQI and the PANSS were apparently decreased (P<0. 05, P<0. 01). As for the PSQI scale, after treatment the daytime dysfunctional score of the shallow needling group was reduced more obviously than that of the medication group (P<0. 05), and the falling asleep time in the medication group was declined more markedly compared with that in the shallow needling group (P<0. 05). Regarding the PANSS, the improvement of the pathological factor in the shallow needling group was better than that in the medication group after treatment (P<0. 05), and the improvement of the positive factor in the medication group was superior to that in the shallow needling group after treatment (P<0. 05). The total scores and each factor score of the PSQI and the PANSS were not statistically different between the two groups after treatment (P>0. 05). At the end of the 6th week, the curative and effective rate was 63. 9% (30/47) and the total effective rate was 95. 8% (45/47) in the shallow needling group;the curative and effective rate was 58. 7% (27/46) and the total effective rate was 91. 3% (42/46) in the medication group. The difference of the effect was not statistically significant between the two groups (P>0. 05). The scores of TESS in the shallow needling group were lower than those in the medication group (P<0. 01, P<0. 05).

CONCLUSIONThe effect of shallow needling for assisting the sleeping disorder of schizophrenia is reliable and it is similar with the efficacy of eszopiclone. Also, the shallow needling can improve the daytime dysfunction and the pathological factor apparently without adverse reaction and pain. Its safety is obviously better than that of eszopiclone.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Schizophrenia ; complications ; Sleep ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; etiology ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Objective To observe MRI features of the localized intra-articular form of pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) within the knee joint. Methods Fifteen patients with pathologically proved localized intra-articular form of PVNS were retrospectively reviewed, and the MRI appearances were observed. Results Solitary nodule or mass within the knee joint was detected in all 15 patients. The lesion located in the infra-patellar fat pads in 11 patients. Most lesions were round or oval, with a well-defined margin. The maximum diameters ranged from 2.0 cm to 6.0 cm, with a mean value of 3.1 cm. The signal intensity of these lesions was characteristically heterogeneous on SE T1WI, TSE PDWI, and TSE T2WI, and the whole signal was similar to that of muscles on SE T1WI and TSE PDWI, but a little higher on TSE T2WI. Prominent low signal intensity on T2WI because of deposition of hemosiderin was found within 14 lesions, and 9 of 15 lesions showed characteristically low signal marginal rim. Conclusion MRI features of the localized intra-articular form of PVNS include a well-defined solitary nodule or mass locating in the infra-patellar fat pad, heterogeneous signal intensity, and prominent interior focal low signal or peripheral low signal rim on T2WI.

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is thickening retina with two disc diameter,which is the leading cause of blindness in diabetic retinopathy patients.The initial studies demonstrated that laser treatment of DME prevented further visual deterioration but did not improve visual acuity.Although glucocorticoid slow-release system can extend the time of effective drug concentration,to help glucocorticoid better carry out its biological effect,further studies are needed to warrant their safety due to increasing intraocular pressure and cataract progression.Novel studies identifying the presence of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the eye with DME allowed for the development of an alternative anti-VEGF therapy,which revolutionized the management of DME by not only preventing vision loss,but also improving overall vision.Anti-VEGF therapy is becoming the first-line treatment of DME.However,present treatment modalities including anti-VEGF for DME had limitations,which build on the current understanding of DME pathogenesis.Further in-depth study of the development and outcome of DME is needed to optimize the therapeutic schemes,based on objective and scientific observation of treatment response.Finally we need to fully utilize the public health services and clinical management resources for diabetic patients,to prevent the visual impairment of DME before its occurrence.

The incidence of open-angle glaucoma has been rising year after year in China, which has caught much at-tention from ophthalmologists.There are various methods to evaluate the disease progression of an open-angle glaucoma pa-tient.These methods can be divided into two classes:functional assessment and structural assessment.We survey these two classes of methods in this paper.

AIM:To determine whether imperatorin would enhance the effect of doxorubicin therapy on cervi -cal cancer in vitro.METHODS:The viability of HeLa cells treated with imperatorin and doxorubicin was determined by MTT assay in vitro.The expression of Bcl-2 protein family ( Mcl-1, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, Bad and Bax ) in HeLa cells treated with imperatorin and doxorubicin was evaluated by Western blot analysis .The apoptosis and mitochondrial membrane poten-tial (ΔΨm ) in the HeLa cells treated with imperatorin and doxorubicin were analyzed by flow cytometry .A Mcl-1 expres-sion vector was constructed , and its role in the cytotoxicity of imperatorin plus doxorubicin to HeLa cells was detected by MTT assay.RESULTS: Addition of imperatorin significantly enhanced the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin to HeLa cells in vitro.Mcl-1 expression was down-regulated by imperatorin but was not influenced by doxorubicin in the HeLa cells .A com-bination of imperatorin and doxorubicin induced apoptosis and ΔΨm collapse more significantly compared with the treatment with imperatorin or doxorubicin alone .Furthermore, the imperatorin-induced sensitization for doxorubicin cytotoxicity to HeLa cells was abolished by the transfection with Mcl-1 expression plasmid .CONCLUSION:The combination of doxoru-bicin with imperatorin enhances the antitumor effect of doxorubicin on cervical cancer cells via targeting Mcl -1.

Objective:To lay foundation for the functional studies of programmed cell death 5 ( PDCD5 ) and develop new technical pathway for bioinformatics analysis of human functional genes. Methods:Using PDCD5 as the target molecule, intensive bioinformatics analysis of the nucleic acid and protein sequences were conducted. Data mining and comprehensive analysis by sequence against database similarity searching, ortholog structure comparison, expression profile analysis and gene “neighbor” listing were performed. Results: Two human putative pseudogenes on chromosomes 12 and 5, and one mouse putative pseudogene on chromosome 1 were identified. The methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum ortholog was classified as the same fold as ubiquitin and ribosomal protein S13. The C. elegans ortholog, ubiquitin and IAP (inhibitor of apoptosis proteins) belonged to the same expression profile cluster. This cluster was related to biosynthesis and protein synthesis. PDCD5 orthologs in various genomes were adjacent to various ribosomal proteins on the chromosome. Conclusion: The human genome contains at least two processed pseudogenes of PDCD5 . Besides the relationship with cell apoptosis, PDCD5 is predicted to have functional relationship with ubiquitin and participate in the translation regulation.

Background and purpose:To study the expression of PTEN and P53 and analyse their roles in HGC oncogenesis,and to discover a good marker for diagnosis and prognosis of HGC.Methods:The expression of PTEN mRNA,PTEN protein and P53 protein were detected by in situ hybridization(DNA-RNA) and immunohistochemistry(SP method) in 64 cases of HGC.We took 22 cases of gallbladder adenoma and 10 cases of chronic cholecystitis as controls.Results:① The positive expression rates of PTEN mRNA and protein in HGC(56.3%,59.4%) were significantly lower than that in gallbladder adenoma(81.8%,90.8%) and chronic cholecystitis(100%,100%)(P