Brain ; growth & development ; Child Development ; Humans ; Infant Behavior ; Infant, Newborn ; physiology ; Motor Activity ; Neonatal Screening ; Nerve Net ; Neurologic Examination

The effects of pioglitazone (PIO) and tumor necrosis faetor-?(TNF-?) on two kinds of adiponectin receptor (AdipoR) mRNA expression were observed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by RT-PCR.AdipoR mRNA expression was up-regulated during 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiation;PIO could increase the AdipoR mRNA level expressed in undifferentiated and differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes in a time-and dose-dependent manner,and TNF-?had no influence on the expression of AdipoR mRNA.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of disease with diverse clinical manifestations and strong heterogeneity; thus early diagnosis is difficult. Patients at stable period often suffer from poor life quality. Frequent hospitalization induced by acute exacerbations has high social and economic burdens. COPD is predicted to be the third leading cause of death in the world by 2020 and the fifth leading cause of disability. At present, there is a lack of accurate quantitative technology. Our research team, in bearing of the Public Welfare Special Industry of National Health Commission "Diagnostic and Evaluation System of Respiratory Diseases Based on Digital Lung" and on the basis of CT quantitative technology, investigated the morphological changes of pulmonary parenchyma, bronchi and pulmonary vessels as well as their correlations. We provide an individualized, standardized and comprehensive evaluation for COPD patients. In this paper we also discuss the hot issues of COPD and point out the future research direction.

ObjectiveTo examine the prognostic value of 99mTC-MIBI single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in patients with suspected or diagnosed coronary artery disease (CAD).Methods116 patients with suspected or diagnosed CAD were examined with 99m TC-MIBI SPECT exercise and rest myocardial imagings, and followed by investigation of cardiac events.Results Follow-up information was complete in 106 patients. Over an average follow-up of 25±8 months, cardiac events occurred in 11 patients. Univariate analyses showed that age, old myocardial infarction, exercise peak heart rate, the change in heart rate from rest to exercise peak, exercise peak systolic blood pressure, the change in systolic blood pressure from rest to exercise peak, abnormal myocardial imaging, the number of myocardial perfusion defect and ischemic volume rate (IVR) were the effective predictors of subsequent cardiac events. Multivariate stepwise Logistic regression analyses revealed that the size of IVR was the only variable with independent predictive value for occurrence of subsequent cardiac events. IVR more than 25% was associated with a significantly increased frequency of subsequent cardiac events (relative risk ratio was 5.9, P<0.005). IVR less than 25% or even normal myocardial perfusion imaging was associated with a very low-risk of cardiac event and a very good prognosis.Conclusion 99mTC-MIBI SPECT myocardial imaging is the most effective noninvasive technique that predicted the occurrence of cardiac event in patients with suspected or diagnosed CAD. According to the size of IVR, high-risk and low-risk patients can be effectively identified.

A 57-year-old man was admitted to hospital with diarrhea for 10 months and dizziness for 4 months. The patient had 1-2 liters watery stool per day, without pyogenic blood or abnormality in gastroenteroscopy examination. The level of hemoglobin and albumin was generally normal, and fasting test was positive. At the same time, he was accompanied with hyperalgesia of lower limbs and orthostatic hypotension. After the discussion of multiple disciplinary teams, the patient was diagnosed with amyloidosis by sural nerve biopsy, myocardial MRI, and the assays of urine immunoelectrophoresis and serum free light chain. Light chain amyloidosis was confirmed after excluded the diagnosis of familial amyloidosis. The patient was improved after courses of chemotherapy with melphalan and dexamethasone.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged

Cardiovascular diseases are characterized by cardiac and vascular dysfunction. Prokineticin 2 ( PK2 ) is a newly found secretory peptide which plays a key role in the physiology homeostasis via prokineticin receptor 1 and 2 ( PKR1 and 2). Furthermore, PK2/PKR1 signaling pathway plays an important role in protecting cardiovascular diseases. Here we discuss the effect of PK2/PKR1 signaling in myocardial infarction, conges-tive heart failure and vascular endothelial dysfunction.

Objective To investigate the clinical features,diagnostic modalities and treatment of duodenal Brunner′gland adenoma(BGA).Methods Fifteen patients with duodenal BGA were evaluated base on clinical presentations,the results of serologic test,barium meal examination,gastroscopy and endoscopic ultrasonography(EUS)as well as treatment.The post-operative histological results were compared with pre-operation EUS findings.Results Eight out of 15 patients with duodenal BGA had presentations,including duodenal ulcer(4 patients),upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (4 patients). The serologic tests of all patients were within the normal limits.Six patients underwent barium meal examination and 13 patients received gastroscopy.Seven patients underwent surgical treatment and 8 patients received endoscopic resection.The post-operative histological results were compatible with the pre-operative EUS findings.Conclusions Duodenal BGA is a benign tumor.EUS was helpful in making the diagnosis and determination of treatment methods(surgical operation or endoscopic resection).

OBJECTIVETo assess the application of IS6110-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), Spoligotyping and mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit (MIRU) in epidemiological studies of tuberculosis and to discuss the characteristics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in different regions in China.

METHODSMycobacterium tuberculosis strains, with a total number of 158 isolates, were subjected to IS6110-RFLP, Spoligotyping and MIRU.

RESULTSThe numbers of patterns produced by IS6110-RFLP, Spoligotyping, and MIRU typing were 118, 20 and 105 respectively. The discriminatory power of IS6110-RFLP was higher than that of Spoligotyping. However, when the copies of IS6110 were lower than 10, the discriminatory power of Spoligotyping improved obviously. The discriminatory power of MIRU typing was close to that of IS6110-RFLP for typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In MIRU loci, there were four loci (loci 4, 10, 26, 40) with higher diversity. Significant differences among the Mycobacterium tuberculosis between Guangdong and other regions in clustered rate and the proportion of Beijing genotype (P < 0.05) were found. The clustered rates and the proportion of Beijing genotype in Guangdong were lower than that in other regions.

CONCLUSIONThe results of this study indicated that either IS6110-RFLP, Spoligotyping or MIRU technique was useful for epidemiological studies on tuberculosis in China and the strains in different regions had different characterishes in China.

China ; epidemiology ; DNA Fingerprinting ; methods ; DNA, Bacterial ; genetics ; Humans ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Tuberculosis ; epidemiology ; microbiology

Undifferentiated and differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes were treated with 100 ng/ml tumor necrosis factor-?(TNF-?),and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-?2 (PPAR-?2) mRNA expression and adiponectin secretion in cultured cells were measured.The results showed that TNF-?suppressed PPAR-?2 mRNA expression and adiponeetin secretion in 3T3-L1 adipocytes (P