Objective To characterize the systolic torsion in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) by velocity vector imaging(VVI).Methods Eighty-seven subjects were studied using VVI:27 patients with DCM and 60 healthy control subjects.Left ventricular short-axis acoustic images were acquired at base and apex levels.The rotation angle and rotation velocity of endocardium and epicardium were measured.Results LVEF of DCM group was significantly lower than that of control group ( P＜0.01).The basal and apical rotation angle, rotation velocity were significantly lower in DCM group.The endocardial and epicardial rotation angle, rotation velocity were also significantly lower in DCM group than those in control group (P＜0.01).Conclusions VVI is a rapid and noninvasive tool to quantitatively assess cardiac torsional deformation in DCM patients,which providing another useful modality for evaluating cardiac function.

Objective To investigate strain and strain rate of right ventricular(RV)based on twodimensional image by velocity vector imaging in normal subjects.Methods Thirty-two healthy adults were rolled in this study.Echocardiographic images in 4 chamber view were analyzed by conventional manual tracing for volumes and ejection fractions,which were also measured by velocity vector imaging.Myocardial velocity,strain rate,and strain were determined at the basal,mid,and apical segments of the RV free wall and ventricular septum by velocity vector imaging.Results RV ejection fractions obtained with manual tracing correlated strongly with the same indexes obtained by velocity vector imaging method in all subjects(r=0.91,P＜0.01).The strain and strain rate value of middle segment and basal segment in RV free wall were higher than those of apical segment.There were same trend in ventricular septal.The strain and strain rate of middle segment and basal segment in RV free wall were higher than those of homologous segments in ventricular septal,but the indexes of apical segment in free wail and septal had no difference.The strain and strain rate in RV were not correlated with age.Conclusions Velocity vector imaging could accurately and quantitatively assess the strain and strain rate of RV.

Objectives: To analyze the strategies of the diagnosis and treatment in patients with the pulmonary infection after renal transplantation. Methods: A retrospective analysis was made on 28 cases of pulmonary infections among 285 patients undergoing renal transplantation. Results: The morbidity of pulmonary infection was 9.82%(28/285). The majority pathogens of pulmonary infection in this study were pseudomonas, staphylococcus epidermidis, canadida and cytomegalovirus. Chest X ray was important in the diagnosis, but there was no specificity to determine the pathogens. The mortality in 28 pulmonary infection patients was 32.1%(9/28). Most of the patients suffered from pulmonary infection within 4 months after the operation, and the postoperative period from 2 months to 4 months was a high risk time window for death caused by pulmonary infections. Conclusions: The morbidity and mortality of pulmonary infections, especially severe pneumonia, in patients with renal transplantation, are higher than healthy people. Treatment following clinical epidemiology and strategy of microbiology play a very important role to reduce the mortality in those patients.

The endophytic microorganisms found widely in many kinds of plants mediate various effects to theirs hosts. In this study, seven different dominant endophytes (SDE01 to 07) isolated from a Hy-peraccumulator-Solanum nigrum L. were resistant to Cd2+, and the strain SDE06 survived even in the medium containing 80 mg/L of Cd2+. Bacteria strain SDE06 was identified as Bacillus sp.. The removal of Cd2+ of SDE06 in different conditions were studied. Under the optimal conditions, the incubating time was 36 h, the solution pH 6.0, the temperature was 37?C and the Cd2+ concentration of medium was 20 mg/L, the highest removal rate was up to 80.2% at this condition.

Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; methods ; Breast ; pathology ; Breast Neoplasms ; pathology ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; methods ; Lymph Nodes ; pathology ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Paraffin Embedding ; methods ; Receptor, ErbB-2 ; metabolism

Objective To explore a more reasonable and effective therapeutic regimen and evaluate prognostic factors in hepatoblastoma patients after combined therapy.Methods Sixteen patients diagnosed on hepatoblastoma between Jan.2000 and Nov.2007 were reviewed and followed-up.Resection with chemotherapy was taken among 16 cases.Chemotherapy included pre-operation and post-operation.Five cases were cured by transcatheter arterial chemombolization(TACE).Six cases were cured by single chemotherapy(both TACE and single chemotherapy were taken in 2 cases).Five cases weren't cured by pre-operation chemotherapy.Nine cases were subjected to curative resection,3 cases to alleviative resection,2 cases with single chemotherapy,1 case with single TACE,and 1 case refused operation and left hospital.Their mean survival duration was 13.5 months(3-98 months).SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the data.Results The total survival rate of cases as stage Ⅳ as lower than cases as stage Ⅰ,Ⅱand Ⅲ.Both alpha-fetoprotein(AFP)100 000 ?g/L cases had worse survival rate.The prognosis of mixed type was better than fetal type,embryonal type and anaplasia type.The survival rate of cases with standard chemotherapy was higher than cases with unstandard chemotherapy.And the surgical resection cases had better survival chance than non-surgical resection cases.The survival rate of surgical residual cases was worse than non-surgical residual cases.Conclusions Chemotherapy can improve the total survival rate and long-term survival rate of hepatoblastoma patients.TACE is a safe and effective choice for hepatoblastoma patients.We need to be alert and make the diagnosis as early as possibe,and treat it early and properly.

Objective To analyze the impact of multiple factors on the incidence of pneumothorax associated with CT-guided transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy.Methods The sign of pneumothorax after 162 cases(lesion diameter from 1cm to 6cm)CT-guided transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy was observed and its relationship with multivariate factors were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression model.Results Thirty-two cases presented pneumothorax accounting for 19.8%.Single variate analysis showed that the sign of pneumothorax ralated to intercurrent COPD,distance from lesion and chest wall,needle dwelling time and lesion diameter.67 patients of intercurrent COPD with postoperative pneumothorax occurred in 22 cases (32.8%);With respect to those having lesions close to the chest wall(48 cases),and the cases with the distance between the chest wall and lesions less than 2cm(55 cases)and greater than 2cm(59 cases), the postoperative pneumothorax occurred in 0,14(25.5%),18(30.5%)cases respectively;For those patients with needle in the chest residence time of less than 10 minutes(82 cases),10—20 minutes (51 cases),more than 20 minutes(28 cases)after the occurrence of pneumothorax were 8(9.6%), 10(19.6%),14(50%)cases respectively;In contrast,those with lesion diameter less than 2 cm (65 cases),2—4cm(52 cases),more than 4cm(45 cases)were 19(29.2%),8(15.4%) and 5(11.1%)respectively.The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the prior three factors were risk factors of pneumothorax(OR=4.652,4.030,2.855 respectively).Conclusions To avoid the pneumothorax,caution must be taken with respect to CT-guided transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy, patients with intercurrent COPD,long distance between lesion and chest wall,and smaller lesion diameter. For operation the needle dwell time within thorax should be minimized.

Background Ultraviolet radiation is one of factors of the formation of age-related cataract.Indole-3-carbinol(I3C) is a plant chemical material with inhibitory effect on oxidative-induced cell damage and formation of amyloid fibrils,and the oxidative damage and amyloid fibrils are associated with cataract.However,the relationship between I3C and α-crystallin is in study. Objective This study was to evaluate the effects of ultraviolet-B laser irradiation on the secondary structure of α-crystallin and to explore the protection of I3C to chaperone activity of α-crystallin. Methods The fresh eyeballs were obtained from 1-year-old cattle to prepare the purified lens α-crystallin by gel chromatography.α-Crystallin was isolated from cattle lenses using gel chromatography.The purified α-crystallin was collected using fast protein liquid chromatography ( FPLC ) and exposed to 1:308 nmultraviolet-B at different irradiation intensities ( 23.75,118.75,475.00,1187.50,2375.00,4750.00,11 875.00,23 750.00 mJ/cm2 ) and then to ultraviolet-B 2:308 nm with irradiation intensities of 28 535.00,6730.00,3435.00,1910.00,1040.00 mJ/cm2.Ultraviolet-absorbance spectra,tryptophan fluorescence and N-formylkynurenine (N-FK)fluorescence spectra of both irradiated and non-irradiated α-crystallin were measured.I3C at the concentrations of 50 μmol/L and 100 μmoL/L were added to the α-crystallin solution to perform a catalase (CAT) thermal aggregation to confirm the chaperone activity of the α-crystallin,and the α-crystallin solution without any I3C was used as control.The ratios of A360 between various intervene groups with control group were calculated using spectrophotometry.Results The A280 values of the α-crystallin declined to 10％ at the ultraviolet-B irradiation intensity of 1187.5 mJ/cm2 and that at the intensity of 23.75 J/cm2 lowed to 2％.A negative correlation was seen between the ultraviolet-B irradiation intensity and the A280 value of the α-crystallin (R2=0.925 ) and a positive correlation was found between ultraviolet-B with N-FK ( R2 =0.949 ).Ultraviolet-B irradiation intensity showed a negative correlation with Trp fluorescence intensity (R2 =0.996 ).CAT hot condensed experiment revealed that after addition of different concentrations of indole-3-carbinol,the relative A360 values at various ultraviolet-B irradiation group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P =0.000),and the decreasing degree of chaperone activity of α-crystallin was lower than that of the control group ( P =0.000 ). Conclusions The study suggests that I3C can protect the chaperone activity of α-crystallin from photooxidation,and the ultraviolet-B laser may be a good exposure source compared with ultraviolet lamp.The ultraviolet-B laser irradiation causes the alteration of structure and chaperone activity of α-crystallin.

Objective In our previous study,we established DNA microarray technology for identification of medical viruses on genus levels and arboviruses on species levels.In this study,we employed these microarrays to determine the pathogen of newly isolated unknown virus in July,2006 from pig brain in Shanxi province.Methods The pathogen isolated from pig brains were inoculated in BHK21 cells.After CPE were observed,the supernatants were collected and RNA was extracted.After reverse transcription and random PCR amplification,the labeled nucleic acids were hybridized with DNA microarrays.Results The hybridization results with medical viruses DNA microarray indicated that the unknown virus belonged to Flavivirus.Combined with epidemiological investigation,we presumed that it might be a kind of arbovirus. Then the labeled specimen were further hybridized with arbovirus DNA microarray and the results confirmed that it was Japanese encephalitis virus(JBV).This coincided with PCR and sequencing analysis.Conclusions The DNA microarray we established previously could be employed to identify unknown viruses.This method provides a new method for determining new viral pathogens.

OBJECTIVETo analyze the efficiency of cervical lymph node metastasis dissection and postoperative morbidity after selective three-field lymph node dissection (3FLND) for thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and explore the proper selection conditions.

METHODSAccording to the conditions as follows: systemic evaluation, tumor T staging, tumor location, cervical CT and ultrasonography and the number of lymph nodes metastases, 85 patients with thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were selected and received 3FLND.

RESULTSIn the same period 45.5% (85/187) of the patients received 3FLND selectively based on the conditions. The rate of the cervical lymph nodes metastasis was 40.0% (34/85). The rate of the cervical positive lymph nodes of the upper, middle and lower thoracic esophageal carcinomas with enlarged lymph nodes suggested by cervical CT and ultrasonography was 68.4% (13/19), 41.7% (20/48) and 16.7% (1/6), respectively. Twelve patients with upper thoracic esophageal carcinoma with enlarged lymph nodes unrevealed by cervical CT and ultrasonography showed no histopathological lymph node metastasis. In the same period 17.1% (32/187) of the patients were selectively not undergone three-field lymph node dissection. The cervical lymph node metastasis rates in patients with upper and middle mediastinal lymph node metastasis were 79.3% (23/29) and 58.6% (17/29), significantly higher than 8.9% (5/56) and 7.1% (4/56) in the patients without upper and middle mediastinal lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). There was no in-hospital mortality in the group. The incidence of pulmonary complications and over-all postoperative morbidity was 24.7% and 42.4%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONSSelective 3FLND based on certain conditions can reduce the risk of postoperative morbidity and improve the efficiency of metastatic cervical lymph node dissection in thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The thoracic tracheoesophageal groove positve lymph node indicated by CT scans should be one of selective conditions for 3FLND. The upper thoracic esophageal carcinoma should selectively receive 3FLND. The selection standards should be more strict for the lower thoracic esophageal carcinoma.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; pathology ; surgery ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; pathology ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Lymph Node Excision ; methods ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Survival Rate ; Treatment Outcome