The microinjection of brain nuclei and potassium iontophresis induced tail flick were used to investigate the effect of injecting oxytocin (OT) or anti-oxytocin serum (AOTS) into locus ceruleus (LC) on the pain threshold (PT) and morphine analgesia. The result showed that OT injection into LC could enhance PT, while ATOS injection could reduce PT. The OT injection could strengthen morphine analgesia, but AOTS injection could antagonize this action. These results suggest that the OT analgesia and OT-enhanced morphine analgesia were related with the locus ceruleus.

OBJECTIVETo observe the efficacy of He-wei Jie-gu (Chinese characters) decoction on femoral intertrochanteric fractures after internal fixation in elderly.

METHODSFrom January 2010 to January 2012, 90 elderly patients with osteoporotic intertrochanteric fracture were randomly divided into two groups. The patients in experimental group were treated with open reduction and internal fixation, He-wei Jie-gu decoction and Caltrate D in oral, including 18 males and 27 females with an average age of (77.8±11.3) years old ranging from 65 to 89 years old;the time from injured to operation was 2 to 9 days with an average of (6.6±2.1) days; according to Evans-Jensen classification, 17 cases were in type I, 8 in type II, 15 in type III, 3 in type IV, 2 in type V. Meanwhile, the patients in control group were treated with open reduction and internal fixation, Caltrate D in oral, including 16 males and 29 females with an average age of (81.2±9.6) years old ranging from 67 to 91 years old; the time from injury to operation was 2 to 10 days with an average of (6.8±2.6) days; according to Evans-Jensen classification, 15 cases were in type I, 10 in type II, 14 in type III, 4 in type W, 2 in type V. The VAS score, hip BMD value before and after treatment, fracture healing and the Harris function score after operation were recorded and compared.

RESULTSAll patients were followed up from 3 to 9 months with an average of (5.6±2.8) months. Compared with the control group, the VAS score of the experimental group had an obviously reduction (F=98.138, P<0.01) after treatment; the hip BMD value at 3 months after treatment in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (P<0.05); the fracture healing rate of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (P<0.05); Harris score in 3 months of follow-up in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (t=2.542, P<0.05); all the differences between two groups were statistically significant (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONHe-wei Jie-gu decoction can reduce postoperative pain and increase bone mineral density after internal fixation of femoral intertrochanteric fracture in elderly, promote the fracture healing and functional recovery in the hip joint.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Bone Density ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; Female ; Femur ; injuries ; surgery ; Fracture Fixation, Internal ; Hip Fractures ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Osteoporotic Fractures ; drug therapy ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Pain, Postoperative ; drug therapy ; physiopathology

Objective To investigate the relationship between low serum calcium concentration and hematoma volume in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage.Methods Between January 2012 and October 2014,870 consecutive patients with intracerebral hemorrhage admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery,West China Hospital,Sichuan University were enrolled prospectively.The patients completed laboratory serum calcium concentration and head CT examinations within 24 h after attack,and the baseline data and laboratory findings were collected.According to the normal reference value of laboratory serum calcium concentration,the patients were divided into a hypocalcemia calcium group (<2.1 mmol/L;n=193) and a normal calcium group (2.1-2.7 mmol/L;n=677).Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the blood serum calcium concentration and the hematoma volume on admission.Results (1) The hypocalcemia group compared with normal calcium group,the proportion of male patients was high (73.6% [n=142] vs.66.0% [n=447]),the median score for Glasgow coma scale was lower (9 vs.11),and the median hematoma volume was larger (33.86 cm3 vs.21.69 cm3).The differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05).(2) Spearman correlation analysis showed that the lower serum calcium level on admission was weakly negatively correlated with the volume of hematoma in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (r=-0.113,P<0.01).Conclusion The study suggested that the hypocalcemia on admission was mostly males in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage,the condition was serious,the volume of hematoma was larger,and the lower serum calcium concentration was negatively correlated with the hematoma volume.

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous laser disk decompression(PLDD) is a new interventional therapy of lumbar disk herniation recently. Posterior lateral route is often employed. Puncture route was investigated by the application of anatomic methods previously. However, there are relative fewer reports regarding the observation of the route of lumbar nerve root in intervertebral plane and triangle working area from thin section anatomy and CT section anatomy.OBJECTIVE: To clarify the intervertebral route and its adjacent relationship of lumbar nerve root on thin section and CT section to provide a anatomic gist for puncture route in PLDD.DESIGN: An observational study based on corpus and normal individual.SETTING: Department of radiology of a military medical university of Chinese PLA affiliated hospital and the department of anatomy of a military medical university of Chinese PLA.PARTICIPANTS: The collection of the first Chinese visible human was completed in the Department of Anatomy(laboratory of computer medicine) the Faculty of Medicine, Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA in October 2002. Totally 53 subjects without confirmed vertebral and intervertebral disc diseases and other diseases of the adjacent organs received CT examination and measurement in the Department of Radiology of the Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA Affiliated Southwest Hospital between january and March 2000.INTERVENTIONS: The intervertebral route of lumbar nerve root in the first Chinese visible human was observed descriptively. The route, morphology, size, adjacent structure, and the distance between puncture line and lumbar nerve in 53 normal individuals were observed and measured by CT.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: To describe the intervertebral route of lumbar nerve root in the first CVH and normal individual, to measure the intervertebral length and width of lumbar nerve, and the distance between puncture line and lumbar nerve.RESULTS: The first Chinese visible human lumbar has 48 layers of intervertebral space with a thickness of each layer of 1.0 mm. The route and adjacent structure of lumbar nerve displayed in each section were clear. CT image clearly showed the intervertebral route, size and adjacent structure of lumbar nerve root.CONCLUSION: The first Chinese visible human lumbar nerve root intervertebral route is a continuous and intact thin section specimen. The intervertebral route and morphology of lumbar root nerve have great alterations. The relationship between puncture route and its adjacent lumbar nerve root, anterior articular process, ilium wing and vessels is very close.

OBJECTIVEThe best approach for blood pressure (BP) measurement in children remains controversial, especially on the choice of Korotkoff phase 4 (K4) vs. Korotkoff phase 5 (K5) for diastolic BP (DBP) and to compare the differences between K4 and K5 in school-aged children and their predictions to hypertension in adult.

METHODSThe "Beijing children and adolescents BP study" cohort population consisted 2505 school-aged children aged 6 to 17 at baseline survey in 1987, when datum of systolic BP (SBP), DBP measured using K4 and K5, were collected respectively. Among them, 412 individuals with 220 males and 192 females at age of 23-37 years old, were successfully followed up and invited to take part in a clinical examination including anthropometric measurements, SBP and DBP recordings, and a questionnaires in 2005. Method for the BP measurements at both baseline and followed-up was by auscultation with a standard sphygmomanometer. Child hypertension at baseline was diagnosed according to the age-specific cutoffs recommended by the World Health Organization in 1996 (WHO 1996). Adult hypertension was diagnosed according to the China Guideline for Hypertension Prevention and Control issued in 2005. Partial correlation coefficients were calculated to describe the association of K4 and K5 in childhood with SBP and DBP level in adulthood. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the impact of choice of K5 and K4 as DBP in childhood on prediction to the hypertension in adulthood. Potential confounders such as gender and adult-height were controlled for.

RESULTSAt baseline, the prevalence rates of hypertension were 5.0% with DBP measured using K4, and 2.4% with DBP measured using K5, respectively. The geometric mean difference value of K4 minus K5 (K4 - K5) was (10.1 +/- 1.7 mm Hg) (1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa) for the 2505 school-aged children, and decreased as age increased. There was no significant difference regarding the values of K4 - K5 between males and females in all age groups except for children who at pubertal stage. The distribution of K4 - K5 value across age groups was statistically significant (P < 0.001), 59.6%, 60.5%, 56.3% and 45.1% of children who aged 6-9 years, 10-12 years, 13-15 years, and 16-17 years with their K4 - K5 value over 10 mm Hg. K4 in childhood was better correlated to both SBP and DBP in adulthood than K5. In general, K4 seemed to be superior to K5 in predicting hypertension in adulthood. The odds ratios of hypertension in adulthood were 1.69 (95% CI: 1.11-2.00), 1.45 (1.05-2.02), 2.18 (1.37-3.47), and 1.66 (1.07-2.59) with each 5 mmHg increasing of K4 measured in children aged 6-9 years, 10-12 years, 13-15 years, and 16-17 years, respectively. The agreement diagnosis between child hypertension and adult hypertension was higher for childhood DBP measured using K4 (20.2%) than that using K5 (12.8%).

CONCLUSIONThere was significant difference between K4 and K5 in Chinese children and adolescents. Choice of diastolic Korotkoff blood pressure could affect DBP tracking from childhood into adulthood. K4 seemed superior to K5 when using auscultator technique to measure DBP.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Blood Pressure ; physiology ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; epidemiology ; Male

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of metoprolol on cardiomyocyte apoptosis and caspase-8 activation after coronary microembolization(CME) in rats.

METHODSAdult rats were randomly assigned into CME group (intraventricular injection of 3000 microspheres with 42 µm in diameter), sham-operated group (0.1 ml saline) and CME plus metoprolol group (pretreatment with 3 bolus metoprolol 2.5 mg/kg intravenous injection at 10 minutes interval at 30 minutes before microspheres injection, n = 15, each group). Cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography at 6 hours post various treatments. Cardiomyocyte apoptosis was detected with TUNEL staining and the expression of caspase-3 and caspase-8 was detected with Western blot analysis.

RESULTSCompared with sham-operated group, LVEF (72.68% ± 3.26% vs. 82.64% ± 3.43%, P < 0.05), fractional shortening (FS) (37.46% ± 2.38% vs. 42.85% ± 3.25%) and cardiac output (CO) [(0.101 ± 0.006) L/min vs. (0.162 ± 0.008) L/min] were significantly reduced while left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd) [(6.22 ± 0.17) mm vs. (5.18 ± 0.43) mm] was significantly increased in CME group (all P < 0.05). Cardiac function [LVEF:73.94% ± 4.22%, FS:38.53% ± 2.03%, CO:(0.120 ± 0.012) L/min, LVEDd:(6.18 ± 0.27) mm] was similar in CME plus metoprolol group compared to CME group (all P > 0.05). The cardiomyocytes apoptosis rates (3.19% ± 1.23% vs. 0.18% ± 0.10%) and the levels of activated caspase-3 and caspase-8 proteins were significantly increased in CME group than in sham-operated group (all P < 0.05). The cardiomyocyte apoptosis rate (1.32% ± 0.28%) and the levels of activated caspase-3 and caspase-8 proteins were significantly lower in CME plus metoprolol group than in CME group (all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSMetoprolol pretreatment reduced post-CME myocardial apoptosis possibly through downregulating death receptor-mediated apoptotic pathway.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Caspase 8 ; metabolism ; Coronary Occlusion ; drug therapy ; Disease Models, Animal ; Embolism ; drug therapy ; Ischemic Preconditioning, Myocardial ; Male ; Metoprolol ; therapeutic use ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; drug effects ; metabolism ; pathology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

AIMTo study the effect of lidocaine-dodecanol binary eutectic system on the transdermal permeation of lidocaine.

METHODSBinary eutectic mixture of different proportions of lidocaine and dodecanol were prepared and the patch containing the binary eutectic mixture was developed. The solubilities of pure lidocaine and lidocaine from the binary eutectic system were determined in pH 7.9 phosphate buffer. The transdermal flux of lidocaine from the patches containing the binary eutectic system and pure lidocaine were measured using Franz-type single diffusion cell.

RESULTSThe melting point of the lidocaine-dodecanol binary eutectic system was markedly lower than that of pure lidocaine. The steady state transdermal flux of lidocaine from the patch of the binary eutectic system was six times as much as that of pure lidocaine patch.

CONCLUSIONThe lidocaine-dodecanol binary eutectic system could produce high thermodynamic activity of the drug and the high driving force for transdermal permeation of lidocaine.

Administration, Cutaneous ; Anesthetics, Local ; administration & dosage ; pharmacokinetics ; Animals ; Dodecanol ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Drug Combinations ; Drug Stability ; Guinea Pigs ; Lidocaine ; administration & dosage ; pharmacokinetics ; Skin Absorption ; Solubility

Objective To investigate the effects of selective cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitor on the hyperplasia of parathyroid glands from uremic rats. Methods Sixty-five 5/6-nephrectomized (Nx) and fifteen sham operated rats were assigned to 4 groups: (1)Sham group (n=14):shamoperated +normal phosphate diet (P 0.8％,Ca 1.2％)； (2) Nx-HP group (n=17):Nx+high phosphate(HP) diet (P 1.2％,Ca 1.2％)； (3)Prophylactic COX2 inhibition group (Prey group,n=18):Nx+HP+celecoxib 100 mg· kg-1·d-1 for 3 months； (4)Therapeutic group (Ther group,n=18):Nx+HP+celecoxib 100 mg·kg-1·d-1 starting at the second month of the 5/6 nephrectomy.At the end of 3 month,blood,urine and parathyroid samples were collected.The expressions of COX2 and PCNA were determined by immunohistochemistry,Western blotting and real-time PCR. Results All of the Nx rats fed with high phosphate diet for 3 months manifested progressively increasing serum creatinine,serum iPTH as well as augmentation of parathyroid gland volume,suggesting that secondary parathyroid hyperplasia animal model was established successfully.Celecoxib significantly decreased serum iPTH levels [Sham (34.77±0.83),Nx-HP(100.73±4.35),Prey (87.36±2.18),Ther (87.47±1.76) ng/L,P＜0.05],the size of the parathyroid glands in Nx rats [Sham (0.461±0.089),Nx-HP (2.436±0.372),Prey (0.987±0.254),Ther (1.27±0.305) mm2/kg,P＜0.05] and PCNA expression in PG determined by Western blotting (decreased to 52.91％ in Prev group and 34.68％ in Ther group respectively,P＜0.05).No significant difference was observed between the two COX2 inhibition groups.The levels of COX2 expression in parathyroid gland were greatly increased in three Nx groups compared with that in sham group (2.47-fold in Nx-HP,2.34-fold in Prey group,3.04-fold in Ther group,P＜0.05).COX2 inhibitor had no effects on COX2 expression in PGs.Real-time PCR analysis demonstrated the same trends of mRNA expression of COX2 and PCNA in PGs of rats. Conclusion Selective inhibition of COX2 may help to suppress the hyperplasia of parathyroid glands in uremic rats.

BACKGROUNDThyroid peroxidase (TPO) is an important autoantigen in Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), and almost all epitopes are located in TPO ectodomain. The glycosylation of TPO might contribute to breaking self-tolerance, therefore, purified glycosylated recombinant TPO ectodomain is prerequisite of elucidating its role in the pathogenesis of HT. The aim of our study was to investigate whether the glycosylation has influence on the antigenic determinants of recombinant TPO.

METHODSBac-to-Bac baculovirus expression system was used to generate recombinant human TPO ectodomain. The antigenicity was analyzed by antigen specific enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays (ELISAs). The glycosylation of recombinant human TPO ectodomain of High Five insect cell origin was detected by lectin-ELISAs.

RESULTSTPO ectodomain was recovered from the culture media as a soluble protein, and it was fused with a hexahistidine tag which allowed purification by nickel-affinity chromatography. The recombinant TPO ectodomain could be recognized by all the 54 HT patients and three TPO monoclonal antibodies. Fucose, sialic acid and galactose were all detected on the recombinant TPO ectodomain. Sera TPOAb binding decreased slightly after non-specific deglycosylation of TPO by periodic acid.

CONCLUSIONSHigh Five insect cells derived recombinant human TPO ectodomain had N-glycosylation sites, which might have little effect on recognition by serum TPOAb.

Animals ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; immunology ; Baculoviridae ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Epitopes ; Glycosylation ; Humans ; Insecta ; cytology ; Iodide Peroxidase ; immunology ; Recombinant Proteins

OBJECTIVEHypertension is one of the most common disorders in adults. Although it may be already present in children and adolescents, it does not often have clinical pictures. There is a lack of data on the blood pressure in children in Beijing area. This study was conducted to investigate the present situation of blood pressure of children and adolescents in Beijing area.

METHODSChildren and adolescents aged 3 to 18 years in 4 urban and 3 rural areas of Beijing were involved in the study at random. Blood pressure (BP) was measured three times with the use of mercury sphygmomanometery, and the means of the last two BP value were recorded. Systolic BP (SBP) was determined by the first Korotkoff sound, and diastolic BP (DBP) by the fourth Korotkoff sound.

RESULTSAltogether, 20 780 (99.6%) individuals with complete records were studied, including 10 582 from urban and 10 198 from rural areas; 10 398 were males and 10 382 were females. BP of boys was higher than that of girls [SBP: (106 +/- 12) mm Hg vs. (101 +/- 11) mm Hg, u = 27.14, P < 0.01; DBP: (67 +/- 9) mm Hg vs. (65 +/- 8) mm Hg, u = 14.14, P < 0.01]. BP of both boys and girls increased with age. However, SBP had a larger magnitude of increase than that of DBP. Both SBP and DBP of urban children were lower than those of rural children [SBP: (103 +/- 12) mm Hg vs. (104 +/- 12) mm Hg, u = 2.55, P < 0.05; DBP: (66 +/- 8) mm Hg vs. (67 +/- 9) mm Hg, u = 6.73, P < 0.01]. There was a positive correlation between BP and age, height, weight and BMI. SBP had a stronger relationship with each variable than DBP did. Among children aged 6 - 18 years, about 8.1% were found to have hypertension according to the criteria of blood pressure of children and adolescents by age and by gender of 1987 in Beijing.

CONCLUSIONSThe present study provided with the current information and characteristics of blood pressure of children and adolescents in Beijing area. The blood pressure was correlated with sex, age, body height, body weight and BMI of children and adolescents.

Adolescent ; Blood Pressure ; physiology ; Body Height ; Body Mass Index ; Body Weight ; Child ; Diastole ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; physiopathology ; Hypotension ; physiopathology ; Male ; Rural Population