Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of prucalopride two mg once daily in the treatment of chronic constipation (CC) in China.Methods In this multicentre,randomised,placebo controlled,parallel-group,phase Ⅲ study,patients with CC received either two mg prucalopride or placebo,once daily,for 12 weeks.The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients reaching an average of three or more spontaneous complete bowel movements (SCBM) per week during the 12 week treatment.The key secondary efficacy endpoint was the percentage of patients reaching three or more SCBM/week during the first four weeks of treatment.Other efficacy assessments included the average number of SCBM/week; the median time to onset of first SCBM after intake of the first dose of trial medication and the average number of bisacodyl tablets or enemas used per week.Furthermore,the symptoms of constipation were assessed by patient assessment of constipation symptom (PAC-SYM) questionnaire.The quality of life was evaluated by patient assessment of constipation-quality of life (PAC-QOL) questionnaire.Safety assessments included adverse events,laboratory values and cardiovascular events.Results Four hundred and forty-six patients from China were screened,313 were treated and 295 completed 12-week study treatment.Averaged over 12 weeks,significantly higher proportion of patients on prucalopride two mg (39.4％,P＜0.01) had three or more SCBM/week compared with placebo (12.7％,x2 =29.50,P＜0.01).Over four weeks,significantly higher proportion of responders was also found in patients on prucalopride (40.0 ％vs 13.3 ％,x2 =28.58,P＜0.01).Prucalopride also significantly improved associated symptoms and quality of life (QOL).The most frequent treatment emergent adverse events were diarrhoea,nausea,abdominal pain,and headache,which were mild to moderate and transient,spontaneously resolved in a few days.Conclusion Prucalopride two mg once daily significantly improved bowel function,associated symptoms and satisfaction in CC over a 12-week treatment period,and was safe and well tolerated in Chinese patients.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of propofol on brain regions at different sedation levels and the association between changes in brain region activity and loss of consciousness using blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) and bispectral index (BIS) monitoring.

METHODSForty-eight participants were enrolled at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from October 2011 to March 2012 and randomly assigned to a mild or a deep sedation group using computer- generated random numbers. Preliminary tests were performed a week prior to scanning to determine target effect site concentrations based on BIS and concomitant Observer's Assessment of Alertness/Sedation scores while under propofol. Within one week of the preliminary tests where propofol dose-response was established, BOLD-fMRI was conducted to examine brain activation with the subject awake, and with propofol infusion at the sedation level.

RESULTSMild propofol sedation inhibited left inferior parietal lobe activation. Deep sedation inhibited activation of the left insula, left superior temporal gyrus, and right middle temporal gyrus. Compared with mild sedation, deep propofol sedation inhibited activation of the left thalamus, precentral gyrus, anterior cingulate, and right basal nuclei.

CONCLUSIONMild and deep propofol sedation are associated with inhibition of different brain regions, possibly explaining differences in the respective loss of consciousness processes.

Adult ; Brain ; drug effects ; Consciousness Monitors ; Deep Sedation ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Humans ; Hypnotics and Sedatives ; pharmacology ; Male ; Propofol ; pharmacology

γ-glutamyltranspeptidase was detected from the cultured mycelia of Cordyceps sinensis (CSGT). Km and Vmax of CSGT was 2.54×10-4 mol/L and 0.1808 mol/L·min respectively when L-glutamic acid 5-(4-nitroanilide) (GpNA) and glycyglycine was used as its substrate. CSGT was stable from pH 8.0 to 11.0 and at or below 20℃. It was optimally active at pH 9.0～10.0 and 30℃. A series of reducing reagents could activate CSGT, and metal cations such as Zn2+, Cu2+, Hg2+ , Mn2+ inhibited strongly activity of the enzyme, but K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Na+ at high concentrations had no effect on its activity, indicating that its active center could contain -SH.

BACKGROUND:Procolagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide (P1NP) and β-colagen special sequence(β-CrossLaps) are two bone metabolic markers that are closely related to osteoporosis. Combined detection of bone metabolic markers and bone mineral density is of clinical significance for the diagnosis of osteoporosis. Bone metabolic markers are ideal indicators to predict fractures, which can compensate for the lack of bone density test. OBJECTIVE:To introduce the application of bone metabolic markers in the monitoring of drug efficacy on the treatment of osteoporosis as wel as in the prediction of fracture risks in recent 20 years and to explore the clinical values of P1NP and β-CrossLaps to assess the therapeutic efficacy on osteoporosis and risks for osteoporotic fractures. METHODS:A computer-based search of CNKI and SCI databases were performed for relevant articles published from 2000 to 2014 using the keywords of “serum bone metabolic markers; osteoporosis; bone mineral density” in Chinese and English, respectively. Finaly, 44 articles meeting the inclusive criteria were reviewed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:This paper analyzes the source and detection mechanisms of P1NPand β-CrossLaps and then compares their advantages in the therapeutic effect assessment of osteoporosis. Serum bone metabolic markers cannot only reflect the dynamic changes of bone metabolism, but also have earlier changes than the bone mineral density. Both P1NPand β-CrossLaps are very important for assessing the early diagnosis of osteoporosis as wel as anti-osteoporosis drug efficacy.

[Objective] To investigate the clinical characteristics and blood transfusion status of patients of liver cirrhosis and analyze its rationality.[Methods] We designed questionnaires to collect the data of patients admitted with liver cirrhosis including clinical features,blood transfusion,smoking,drinking and other living habits.We follow up the patients and analyze the blood transfusion rationality.[Results] Data on 198 patients was collected.34.8％ (69/198) of all patients were transfused at least one blood component.Total blood transfusion was 371 times,of which 52.2％ of the blood transfusion cases (36/69) were transfused with two or more blood during hospitalization.Among the 69 cases of blood transfusion,11 cases were treated with the first blood transfusion for the purpose of treatment and 58 cases for prevention.18 of those cases were infused with red blood cells of 90.5 units.54.55 ％ (60/110) and 60.91％ (67/110) of patients who had a pre-transfusion INR＞1.3 did not receive plasma.2.27％ (2/88) of patients who had a pre-transfusion INR≤1.3 received plasma.29.41％ (5/17)who had a pre-transfusion fib≤1.0 received cryoprecipitate.3.87％(7/181) who had a pre-transfusion fib＞1.0 received cryoprecipitate.[Conclusions] Blood transfusion is common in patients with liver cirrhosis.Empirical and preventive blood transfusion is common also.We should take a more scientific restrictive blood transfusion strategy.

The clinical characteristics of painless aortic dissection were investigated in order to improve the awareness of diagnosis and treatment of atypical aortic dissection. The 482 cases of aortic dissection were divided into painless group and pain group, and the data of the two groups were retrospectively analyzed. The major clinical symptom was pain in 447 cases (92.74%), while 35 patients (7.26%) had no typical pain. The gender, age, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, smoking and drinking history had no statistically significant differences between the two groups (P>0.05). The proportion of Stanford type A in painless group was significantly higher than that in pain group (48.57% vs. 21.03%, P=0.006). The incidence of unconsciousness in the painless group was significantly higher than that in the pain group (14.29% vs. 3.58%, P=0.011). The incidence of hypotension in painless group was significantly higher than that in pain group for 4.26 folds (P=0.01). Computed tomography angiography (CTA) examination revealed that the incidence of aortic arch involved in the painless group was significantly higher than that in the pain group (19.23% vs. 5.52%, P=0.019). It was concluded that the incidence of painless aortic dissection was higher in Stanford A type patients, commonly seen in the patients complicated with hypotension and unconsciousness. CTA examination revealed higher incidence of aortic arch involvement.

BACKGROUND: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is the gold standard for degenerative cervical disease,which would be replaced by cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) with the wide application of CDA. But, the mid- and long-term outcomes of ACDF versus CDA remain controversial.OBJECTIVE: To compare the mid- and long-term outcomes of ACDF and CDA in the treatment of single-level cervical spondylosis.METHODS: PubMed, Medline, EMbase, Cochrane, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang databases were searched for randomized controlled trials addressing CDA versus ACDF for single-level cervical spondylosis published before August 2016. The quality of trails was strictly evaluated, the data were extracted and a meta-analysis was performed on ReviewManager5.3 software.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) Totally 15 randomized controlled trials involving 2781 patients were included, with 4-10 years of follow-up. (2) Meta-analysis results showed that compared with ACDF, CDA had better SF-36 scores,larger range of motion at operation level, lower the Neck Disability Index, and Visual Analogue Scale scores for arm pain,lower reoperation rate at operation level and adjacent level at mid- and long-term follow-up. (3) The Visual Analogue Scale scores for neck pain, neurologic success and all-complication rate did not differ significantly between two groups.(4) These results manifest that CDA is superior to ACDF in the mid- and long-term outcomes for single-level cervical spondylosis; however, further large-scale, multi-center and high-quality randomized controlled trials will be necessary.

OBJECTIVETo investigate a new method for the analysis of IR fingerprint spectra of Radix Glycyrrhizae.

METHODTwo indexes, common peak ratio and variation peak ratio, are used to compare the IR spectra of various Radix Glycyrrhizae samples, and the values are calculated by means of sequent analysis.

RESULT AND CONCLUSIONThe dual-index sequence method provides a good approach to discriminate Radix Glycyrrhizae samples of different species and geographical origins.

China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; isolation & purification ; Ecosystem ; Glycyrrhiza ; chemistry ; classification ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Quality Control ; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared ; methods

AIM:To investigate the role of B7 homologue 6 (B7-H6) over-expression in natural killer (NK) cell-mediated hepatocyte apoptosis. METHODS:The full-length fragment of B7-H6 gene was amplified by PCR and sub-cloned into linearized eukaryotic expression vector pIRES2-EGFP to construct recombinant B7-H6 over-expression vector pIRES2-EGFP-B7-H6. The recombinant plasmid was identified by double digestion, PCR and sequencing, and was then transfected into L02 cells. The expression of EGFP was observed by fluorescence microscopy and the transfection efficiency was evaluated by flow cytometry. B7-H6 expression was confirmed by qRT-PCR and Western blot. The L02 cells transfect-ed with pIRES2-EGFP-B7-H6 recombinant plasmid were co-cultured with NK-92 cells at different effector/target ratios,and the cytotoxicity of NK-92 cells was evaluated by CCK-8 assay.RESULTS:The strong green fluorescence in the L02 cells was observed under fluorescence microscope 48 h after transfection. The transfection efficiency reached 92.6%. The ex-pression of B7-H6 at mRNA and protein levels was remarkably increased 48 h after transfection. The cytotoxicity of NK-92 cells against L02 cells transfected with pIRES2-EGFP-B7-H6 plasmid was significantly higher than that of the null vector transfection group (P<0.05).CONCLUSION:The recombinant eukaryotic expression vector pIRES2-EGFP-B7-H6 was constructed successfully. The cytotoxic effect of NK-92 cells against L02 cells can be enhanced by transfecting L02 cells with pIRES2-EGFP-B7-H6 plasmid.

OBJECTIVETo study the epidemiological features of tic disorders (TD) among schoolchildren in Wenzhou area.

METHODSStratified cluster sampling was carried out to investigate TD in 9742 schoolchildren aged 7 to 16 years old in Wenzhou.

RESULTSThe average prevalence rate of TD among school-age children was 104/10 000 (166/10 000 for males, 29/10 000 for females). There was a significantly higher prevalence rate for males than that for females (chi(2) = 43.96, P < 0.001, prevalence ratio = 5.7, prevalence ratio 95% CI: 3.20 - 10.30). The prevalence rates of clinical subtypes in males was significantly higher than that of females while pupils was significantly higher than that in high school students (chi(2) = 11.33, P < 0.01, prevalence ratio = 2.2, prevalence ratio 95% CI: 1.37 - 3.43). Prevalence rate of transient tic disorders (TTD), chronic motor vocal tic disorder (CMVTD), tourette syndrome (TS) were 34/10 000, 27/10 000 and 43/10 000 respectively with the highest among 9-10 years old group. The mean onset age of TD was 8.5 +/- 2.8 years. The peak of onset was among 6-10 year olds. The rate of delayed diagnosis of the disorders was 69.3% and the median in delayed diagnosis was 1.0 year.

CONCLUSIONTD is a common disease with high rate of misdiagnoses among schoolchildren in Wenzhou area. Physicians and population should be trained to identify the syndromes and to practice correct diagnosis and effective treatment as early as possible.

Adolescent ; Child ; China ; epidemiology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Prevalence ; Sex Factors ; Tic Disorders ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Tourette Syndrome ; epidemiology ; prevention & control