Objective To detect neuroendocrinal factor,and explore whether neurohormonal activation exists in children with conge-nital heart disease(CHD).Methods Concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptide(ANP),brain natriuretic peptide(BNP),angiotensionⅡ(AngⅡ),aldosterone(ALD),endothelin-1(ET-1),and norepinephrine(NE)were determined in 100 children with CHD and were assayed at 24 hours,1 month,3 months and 6 months after interventional therapy in 70 cases with CHD.Results Children with CHD heart disease had elevated levels of ANP(25.6?7.5) pmol/L,BNP(15.7?7.4) pmol/L,ET-1(1.12?0.31) pmol/L(all P=0.0001),(AngⅡ)(90.3?11.5) ng/L,NE(1.07?0.08) nmol/L and ALD(246.1?42.3) pmol/L(all P=0.001).There was a highly significant stepwise increase in ANP,BNP,ET-1,AngⅡ,ALD and NE according to New York Heart Association class,with even asymptomatic patients having evidence of significant neurohormonal activation.The neurohormonal function gradually returned to normal after interven-(tional) therapy.Conclusions Neurohormonal activation in children CHD bears the hallmarks of chronic heart failure,relating to symptom severity and ventricular dysfunction.

6.66 kPa),30 cases of light degree pulmonary artery hypertension group (3.99 kPa

Objective To compare MR,CT,and radiography in the detection of arthropathies in patients with hemophilia.Methods Forty-one symptomic joint images in the 14 patients with hemophilia, aged from 11 to 24 years,were used in this study.Each joint had the examinations of radiography,CT and MR within one day.The severity of each joint was staged using conventional radiographic classification. Severe HA patients with stage 5 were excluded from the study.Imaging findings of soft tissue swelling, osteoporosis,epiphyseal overgrowth,joint erosion,cyst,joint space narrowing,bone marrow,joint effusion, hemorrhage,synovial hypertrophy,widened intercondylar notch as well as anterior and posterior crueiate ligaments(only for knee joint)were used for the all imaging comparison.Results The 41 symptomatic joints in 14 patients with hemophilia were classified by radiographic criteria into stage 0(n=5),stage 1(n=7),stage 2(n=6),stage 3(n=8)and stage 4(n=15).Soft tissue swelling or joint effusion was observed in 33 joints by radiographs,in 34 joints by both CT and MR.Joint erosions were demonstrated in 34 joints by MR,in 33 joints by CT and 20 joints by radiographs.Joint cysts were shown in 21 joints by MR,in 18 joints by CT and 9 joints by radiographs.Significant differences in detection of erosion and cyst were found between radiography with either CT(P0.05).MR showed improvement for detecting nlore loci of both erosion and cyst than CT and radiography,and also CT showed the improvement than radiography.Bone marrow edema 14 joints, hemon'hage in 34 joints and synovial hypertrophy in 27 joints were revealed on MR images.Conclusion MRI is superior to CT and conventional radiography in detecting the abnormal changes and should be considered as the first choice among the imaging modafities in evaluating hemophilic arthropathies.

Objective To explore vascular smooth muscle cell(SMC) proliferation and cell apoptosis during the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm(AAA). Methods The animal model of AAA was established in Wistar rats and the specimens were harvested at the 3rd day,and 1、2、3 and 4 week after the model initiation. In situ end-labeling of DNA fragments (TUNEL) was used to detect SMC apoptosis and immunohistochemical staining was applied to investigate the expression of SMC apoptosis markers(bcl-2,bax),proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and ?-actin. Results TUNEL-positive and PCNA-positive SMC reached the maximum at 2～3 week and 1 week respectively;The count of TUNEL-positive SMC was less than PCNA-positive SMC during the period of day 3 to 1 week and that was vice versa from 2nd to 4th week with SMC amount significantly decreased;Bcl-2 and bax protein was strongly expressed at 1 week and 3 week after operation(all P

The parts of system automatically detecting the standard 12-synchronous-lead ECG (electrocardiograms) signal based on personal computer is introduced in this paper. The object-oriented programming method is adopted based on Windows System. We put forward methods to analyze QRS complex wave, P wave, T wave and ST fragment. In this paper the techniques such as ECG signal preprocessing, cardio wave parameters detecting and wave pattern cognizing are discussed too. Furthermore we use wavelet transform technique to analyze the wave pattern and get sound effect.
Algorithms ; Electrocardiography ; instrumentation ; methods ; Humans ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Software

Objective To explore the changes of the hippocampal formation and the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of aged female Long-Evans rat. Methods The hippocampal formation and the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of 5 young (6-month old), 5 middle-aged (18-month old) and 6 aged (28-month old) female Long-Evans rats were quantitatively investigated with the stereological techniques and transmission electronic microscope technique. Results There were no significant changes in the volume of hippocampal formation, the volume density, the total volume, the length density and the mean diameter of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation among young, middle-aged and aged rats. When compared to that of young rats, the total length of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of middle-aged rats was significantly increased by 63.6%. When compared to that of middle-aged rats, the total length of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of aged rats was significantly decreased by 47.5%. When compared to that of young rats, the total length of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of aged rats was non-significantly decreased by 13.8%. Conclusion Although the reason why the total length of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of middle-aged rats was longer than that of young rats needs further investigations, the present results together with our previous findings in white matter and cortex further suggest that there are age-related changes of the myelinated nerve fibers in the normal aged brains.

Objective To analyze the association of hyperuricemia with incidence of carotid plaque in general population and furthermore to explore the predictive value of serum uric acid in the early prevention of atherusclerotic disease. Methods The participants were selected from a part of Chinese Multiprovincial Cohort Study (CMCS). Two investigations on cardiovascular risk factors and two on carotid ultrasound detection were carried out in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Results (1) The standard prevalence of hyperurieemia on baseline was 5.4%, being 7.7% in male and 3.9% in female. (2) The standard incidence of carotid plaque was 45.3%, being 51.7% in male and 42. 7% in female. It was shown that the incidence of plaque in the bulb of common carotid arteries was the highest. (3) After adjusting for age, smoking, high triglyceride, high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, overweight and obesity,hyperurieemia in female was an independent risk factor associated with 5-year incidence of formation plaque in the bulb of common carotid; the odds ratio (OR) was 3.56 (P = 0.02, 95% CI = 1.21-10. 41).Conclusion Hyperuricemia in female was an independent risk factor associated with 5-year incidence of plaque formation in the bulb of common carotid, and hyperuricemia in male was not an independent factor associated with 5-year incidence plaque formation.

AIM: To explore whether carnosine can protect α -crys-tallin modification and decreased chaperone by a steroid,and whether carnosine could directly react with a steroid.METHODS: Bovine lens α L-crystallin was separated by size-exclusion chromatography on a Sephacyl S-300 HR column. α L-Crystallin was incubated with different concentrations of prednisolone-21-hemisuccinate (P-21-H)with or without carnosine for different times. The chaperone activity of α L-crystallin was monitored using the prevention thermal aggregation of α L-crystallin. The modified α L-crystallinwas examined by SDS-PAGE and fluorescence measurements. The absorbance spectra of solutions of carnosine and P-21-H were investigated.RESULTS: P-21-H decreased the chaperone activity ofα L-crystallin in a concentration- and time-dependent fashion. Carnosine only worsened this effect. The tryptophan fluorescence intensity of α L-crystallin modified by P-21-H was significantly decreased compared to unmodified crystallin, whereas its non-tryptophan fluorescence was increased with a shift to longer wavelengths in a time- and dose-dependent manner, suggesting that new fluorophores are possibly formed. Carnosine readily reacted with P-21-H thereby inhibiting steroid-mediated protein modification as revealed electrophoretically. The increased absorbance was time-dependent, suggesting adducts may be formed between carnosine and P-21-H.CONCLUSION: Carnosine reacts with P-21-H, which suggests carnosine's potential as a possible anti-seroid agent.