Objective To observe the effect of yang-supplementing moxibustion in improving the muscular spasm, motor function, and activities of daily living (ADL) of patients with post-stroke hemiplegia.Method Totally 120 patients with post-stroke limb spasm due to qi deficiency and blood stagnation were randomized into group A, B, and C, 40 cases in each group. Group C was intervened by conventional treatment, group A was by yang-supplementing moxibustion in addition to the conventional treatment, and group B was by fire therapy in addition to the conventional treatment. The modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), Fugl-Meyer Scale (FMS), and Barthel Index (BI) were observed before and after intervention.Result Respectively after 1-month and 2-month treatment, the MAS, FMS, and BI scores were significantly different from that before intervention in the 3 groups (P<0.01). After 1-month and 2-month treatment, the MAS, FMS, and BI scores in group A were significantly different from that in group B and group C (P<0.05), and the scores in group B were significantly different from that in group C (P<0.05).Conclusion Yang-supplementing moxibustion can effectively improve the post-stroke limb spasm, and can promote the recovery of motor function.

Objective:To develop a qualitative analysis model for the fast identification of Dens Draconis and its adulterants by NIR correlation coefficient method. Methods:On the basis of the traditional morphological identification, the spectra were collected u-sing the fiber accessory of a near-infrared spectroradiometer. The reference spectra were set up using the NIR spectra of certified Dens Draconis. The characteristic spectral section was chosen and the appropriate threshold was set to establish a qualitative analysis model for the rapid identification of Dens Draconis and its adulterant. Results:The spectral section of 5 000-4 200 cm-1 was selected as the characteristic spectral section, the correlation coefficient of Dens Draconis and its adulterant was calculated in training set samples, and 92. 67% was used as the threshold. Totally 10 batches of validation set samples were validated the qualitative analysis model, and the prediction accuracy was 90%. Conclusion:The method has good prediction ability, and can be used in the rapid identification of Dens Draconis and its adulterant.

This study was aimed to establish a qualitative model of near-infrared spectroscopy in order to accurately and rapidly identify several mineral Chinese medicinals from fossil including Os Draconis, Dens Draconis, Fossil Shell of Spirifer, and Fossil Crabs. The near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy combined with OPUS software was used to analyze the spectral characteristics of these samples. The pattern recognition method was explored through cluster analysis. And the accuracy of the model was verified. The results showed that these mineral Chinese medicinals from fossil had their characteristics absorption so that they can be quickly and accurately differentiated from each other through pattern recognition method. It was concluded that based on near-infrared spectroscopic mod-eling, these mineral Chinese medicinals from fossil including Os Draconis, Dens Draconis, Fossil Shell of Spirifer, and Fossil Crabs can be quickly and accurately identified.

Objective To modify the method of gavage administration in guinea pigs. Methods Fourty awake guinea pigs were kept rearing on the hind legs and leaning on a vertical fixture to avoid their escaping forward. A 1 mL injector was inserted into the mouth to the depth when the molar teeth were passed. Another fourty guinea pigs under general anesthesia were reversed at trendelenburg position and a children suction tube with an outer diameter of 2 mm was inserted into the stomach. Results All of the 80 guinea pigs were administered by modified gavage smoothly for seven consecutive days by one operator each time. None endured much pain or digestive tract injury, or died from air way perfusion by mistake. Conclusions We successfully modified the gavage method in guinea pigs, which would definitely take guinea pigs involved in intragastical pharmacal experiments besides the routine of rats and mice.

Objective:To examine metastatic gastric cancer patients who underwent surgery after chemotherapy and to determine the factors affecting survival. Methods:Clinical data on metastatic gastric cancer patients who underwent surgery after chemotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. The overall survival data were evaluated through the Kaplan-Meier method, Log-rank test, and Cox haz-ards regression. Results:The median age was 46 (22~74), and the median overall survival rate (OS) was 19 months (4~59 months). Response to chemotherapy (23.0 m for PR and 14.5 m for SD, P=0.045) and resection of the primary tumor (23.0 and 5.5 m, respective-ly, P=0.017) affected OS. No single factor was related to OS according to Cox regression. Conclusion:Surgical removal of the primary tumor is recommended for metastatic gastric cancer patients with positive response to chemotherapy and with a primary tumor that can be resected.

The aim of this paper is to apply near infrared spectroscopy techniques to construct a rapid identification method for 8 kinds of mineral Chinese Medicines containing carbonates. The qualitative model using clustering analysis method in OPUS software can identify accurately 8 kinds of carbonate-containing mineral Chinese medicines. The near-infrared quantitative model was established by using partial least squares method (PLS) for 7 mineral Chinese Medicines in which main component is calcium carbonate. Compared with the results by EDTA titration, the established quantitative analysis model for calcium carbonate content showed a good prediction result that when the content is between 47.61% -99.17%, the average relative deviation of the prediction result is 0.24% and the average recovery rate was 100.3%. The results also showed that the model using near infrared spectroscopy can get not only a rapid identification of the 8 mineral Chinese medicines containing carbonates, but also an accurate and reliabe content determination of calcium carbonate for the 7 mineral Chinese medicines which contain the component.
Carbonates ; analysis ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Minerals ; chemistry ; Software ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared ; methods ; Time Factors

OBJECTIVETo introduce the diagnosis and the treatment of the long-segment bowel stenosis above the anastomosis and bowel obstruction caused by the radiation-induced pelvic wall and bowel fibrosis.

METHODSBetween January 2008 and June 2014, 468 patients with rectal carcinoma underwent sphincter-preserving operation after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in Fujian Medical University Union Hospital. Among 241 patients without postoperative anastomotic leakage, anastomosis stenosis, local recurrence and small bowel obstruction, severe pelvic and bowel fibrosis with obstruction during follow-up was found in 14 patients(SFO group). Associated data of these 14 patients were retrospectively collected. Clinical and image characteristics, and treatment outcomes of these 14 patients were analyzed and compared to those of other 227 patients without fibrosis and obstruction (control group).

RESULTSCompared to control group, SFO group had lower BMI(19.7±2.3 vs. 22.5±3.2, P=0.000), higher ratio of male (92.9% vs. 63.9%, P=0.039) and smoking patients(78.6% vs. 32.2%, P=0.001), shorter preoperative distance from lower edge of tumor to anal verge [(4.9±0.7) cm vs. (5.7±1.4) cm, P=0.043), and longer time from the end of radiation to operation [(9.4±2.3) week vs. (8.1±1.7) week, P=0.024). The largest thickness of the bilateral obturator internus increased significantly after chemoradiotherapy (left side: P=0.030, right side: P=0.020) as compared to pre-chemoradiotherapy on MR image. Patients of SFO group received corresponding treatments according to the status of bowel stricture, and the outcomes were all satisfactory.

CONCLUSIONSReconstructed rectum stricture can be caused by the radiation-induced fibrosis of pelvic wall soft tissue and proximal colon. Severe stricture can be treated with corresponding methods to relieve symptoms.

Protein succinylation is a biochemical reaction in which a succinyl group (-CO-CH2-CH2-CO-) is attached to the lysine residue of a protein molecule. Lysine succinylation plays important regulatory roles in living cells. However, studies in this field are limited by the difficulty in experi-mentally identifying the substrate site specificity of lysine succinylation. To facilitate this process, several tools have been proposed for the computational identification of succinylated lysine sites. In this study, we developed an approach to investigate the substrate specificity of lysine succinylated sites based on amino acid composition. Using experimentally verified lysine succinylated sites col-lected from public resources, the significant differences in position-specific amino acid composition between succinylated and non-succinylated sites were represented using the Two Sample Logo pro-gram. These findings enabled the adoption of an effective machine learning method, support vector machine, to train a predictive model with not only the amino acid composition, but also the com-position of k-spaced amino acid pairs. After the selection of the best model using a ten-fold cross-validation approach, the selected model significantly outperformed existing tools based on an inde-pendent dataset manually extracted from published research articles. Finally, the selected model was used to develop a web-based tool, SuccSite, to aid the study of protein succinylation. Two pro-teins were used as case studies on the website to demonstrate the effective prediction of succinyla-tion sites. We will regularly update SuccSite by integrating more experimental datasets. SuccSite is freely accessible at http://csb.cse.yzu.edu.tw/SuccSite/.

Objective: To understand the longitudinal changes of refractive errors in adolescent myopia screening in the suburb of Shanghai, and to provide reference for targeted measures of myopia prevention and intervention. Methods: By using the cluster sampling method, 1 346 students were selected from two primary schools in a town in the suburb of Shanghai. Physical development indicators and refractive examination parameters of non ciliary muscle paralysis, and uncorrected visual acuity in 2017 and 2020 were collected from the Shanghai adolescent refractive development file. Longitudinal change of spherical equivalent (SE) refractive were assessed. A linear regression model was used to examine the relationship between the rate of SE change with characteristics of the students. Results: The average annual incidence of myopia was 16.36%, and the SE degrees of the left and right eyes of myopia students decreased by 225 degrees for three years. Girls (right eye Z=-4.33; left eye Z=-3.75, P<0.01), newly-onset myopia and persistent myopia (right eye Z=634.45; left eye Z=638.85, P<0.01) was a key for the rapid progress of refractive power. Conclusion The proportion of students with severe low vision is relatively high, and the apparent shifts toward more hyperopia in myopia students call for effective prevention and control programs based on changes in refractive to slow the progression of adolescent myopia.

OBJECTIVETo study the epidemiological and clinical characteristics and risk factors of cirrhosis-related hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

METHODSEighty-nine compensated and decompensated HCV cirrhosis patients were analyzed and followed-up. The main clinical and laboratory variables were analyzed as incidence factors of HCC with univariate analysis and multivariate analysis regression models.

RESULTSThe patients were followed-up for 86 months. Thirty-five of the 89 patients had HCC during the 86 months follow-up. Their five and ten-year cumulative incidences were 16.9% and 40.4% respectively. Of the 35 HCC patients, 4 had a family history of hepatitis C, 12 had a familial history of HCC, and 7 had a history of alcohol ingestion. Five and ten-year cumulative incidences of HCC in patients with hepatic steatosis were 24.6% and 51.0% respectively. Five-year and ten-year cumulative incidences of HCC in patients with non-hepatic steatosis were 8.7% and 26.2% respectively, and the difference in the cumulative incidences between them was significant (P < 0.05). Hepatic steatosis severity was associated with the severity of the cirrhosis. ALT and TBil levels were higher in the HCC group than in the non-HCC group, ALB was lower in the HCC group than in the non-HCC group, and the differences between them were significant (P < 0.05). Child-Pugh score and the severity of the hepatic steatosis during follow-up were independently correlated with HCC.

CONCLUSIONHCC is the most important and frequent outcome of chronic hepatitis C cirrhosis. Child-Pugh score and the severity of the hepatic steatosis are related to the risk factors. History of alcohol ingestion and family history of hepatitis C are also related to liver cancer.

Aged ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; etiology ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; complications ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; complications ; Liver Neoplasms ; etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Risk Factors