Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of talc poudrage pleurodesis via semi-rigid medical thoracoscopy in the treatment of malignant pleural effusions,as well as the factors that may influence the outcomes.Methods:A series of 27 patients with malignant pleural effusion underwent medical thoracoscopic talc poudrage pleurodesis between July 2005 and September 2007 in Peking University First Hospital.Results:There were 16 male and 11 female patients in the series,the average age being 65.2 years.All the patients had documented malignant pleural effusions,including 16 cases of adenocarcinoma,6 of malignant mesothelioma,2 of squamous cell carcinoma,1 of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma,1of small cell carcinoma and 1 of undifferentiated lung cancer.Thirty days after the procedures,complete successful pleurodesis was achieved in 22 cases,and partial successful in 4 cases.Pleurodesis was not successful in one case.Overall successful rate was 96.3%(26/27).The average duration of thoracic tubing was 6.85 days.Chest pain,fever and an increase in peripheral WBC after the procedure occurred in 19(70.4%,19/27),21(77.8%,21/27),and 12(44.4%,12/27)cases respectively.No respiratory failure occurred.Conclusion:Medical thoracoscopic talc poudrage pleurodesis is a safe and effective method for the treatment of malignant pleural effusion.

40 years old in 6 Uygur communities of Urumqi. The multi-phasic stratified cluster sampling method was adopted. Finally 191 men with high risk were selected as samples in the study and classified into two groups according to oral glucose tolerance test(OGTT)results, anthropometric and biochemical indicators. Results The prevalence of type 2 diabetes and IGR was 17.39% and 7.56% respecfively in the Uygur nationality. Waist-hip ratio, abdominal and waist circumference,the level of HbA1c and serum insulin of male diabetic patients were significantly higher than those of male IGR potieuts. But another four indicators of blood lipid and three indicators of renal function were not significantly different between two groups. Conclusion The indicators releted to abdominal obesity may be sensitive to diabetes and valuable to screen diabetic patients for giving effective health education and behavioral intervention in high risk population.

·AIM: To detect the effect of CTGF on the apoptosis in the diabetic retina with small interfering RNAs (siRNA) targeting with CTGF. ·METHODS: A total of 60 rats were divided into six groups including control group, diabetic 4,8,12,16 weeks group, and interference group. Diabetic rats were induced by STZ intra-peritoneal. At 4, 8, 12, 16 weeks after diabetic setting up, retinas were obtained from control, diabetic rats and diabetic animals treated by intravitreal injection of CTGFsiRNA to suppress the expression of CTGF mRNA. Retinal cells apoptosis was detected by Tunnel staining and mRNA expression of CTGF was analyzed by RT-PCR.·RESULTS: The levels of CTGF and the apoptosis in the retinas of diabetic rats were significantly higher than those in the controls. Apoptosis occurred at 4 weeks after a diabetic model setting up, became serious with the diabetes developing, while CTGF elevated at 8 weeks. The cell apoptosis counts increased to 25.8cells/mm2 at 24 weeks of diabetes. SiRNA-mediated inhibition of CTGF mRNA resulted in a significant decrease in apoptosis. Significant correlations were found between CTGF and apoptosis in the retina.·CONCLUSION: These results suggest that CTGF might be involved in retinal cells apoptosis which is a characteristic of early diabetic retina. siRNA targeting CTGF seems to have the advantage of ameliorating retinal cells lost.

Objective To improve the diagnosis and treatment of ureteral cancer. Methods A retrospective analysis of 24 cases of primary ureteral cancer treated from January 1990 to March 2005 was performed.The diagnostic value of ultrasound,IVU,CT,MRU and the patients' outcomes were reviewed. There were 19 males and 5 females aged 38-72 years(mean,59 years).The tumors were on the left side in 16 cases and on the right in 8.Of the 24 cases,17(71%)had gross hematuria and 7(29%)had micro- scopic hematuria.Urine cytology was performed in 16 cases with a positive rate of 6.3%.B-ultrasonic exami- nation showed hydronephrosis in 19 cases(79%)and low-echo space-occupying disease of middle-inferior ureter in 3(12%).IVU demonstrated hydronephrosis in 20 cases(83%)and filling defect of the diseased ureter in 3(12%).Retrograde pyelography showed filling defect of the diseased ureter in 16(76%)of 21 cases(5 cases had failure of intubation).CT scan was performed in 20 cases,indicating thickening of the ureteral wall and infiltration of the cancer in 14(70%).In 3 cases who had undergone spiral CT thin layer scan and 1 of 3 cases who had undergone MRU,the definite diagnosis was made.Results All the 24 pa- tients underwent surgical treatment.Among them,nephroureterectomy and bladder cuff or partial resection were performed in 18 cases,and nephrectomy and partial ureterectomy in 6 cases.Postoperative pathology showed transitional cell carcinoma in 23 cases,and adenoma in 1.Of the 14 cases during 1990-1999 peri- od,1,5,3,2,2 and 1 cases had survival time of 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 years,respectively.Of the 10 cases during 2000-2005 period,3 were lost to follow-up;2 survived for 3 years and 2,for 1 year;the other 3 who have survived near 5 years have been followed till now.Conclusions IVU and retrograde urography are the most common diagnostic measures for primary ureteral cancer.They can be used in combination with other imaging study to reduce missed diagnosis rate.The 5-year survival rate was lower because of late pathologic stage of the tumors in the patients of this series.

To develop a LC-MS/MS method for the determination of five kinds of trace ginkgolic acids in diterpene ginkgolides meglumine injection materials, the column was Agilent ZORBAX Eclipse plus C18 (3.0 mm x 50 mm, 1.8 µm), and the mobile phase consisted of methanol-water (containing 0.2% formic acid) (95:5) at a flow rate of 0.5 mL · min(-1). The multiple reaction ion monitoring (MRM) with an ESI interface in the negative ion mode was selected. The results showed that the linear ranges of five kinds of ginkgolic acids were in the range of 0.2-36.0 µg · L(-1) (r ≥ 0.999 5). The lowest limit of quantification (LOQ) of ginkgo acid C13: 0, C15:1, C17:2, C15:0 and C17:1 were 0.18, 0.18, 0.21, 0.10 and 0.20 µg · L(-1), respectively. The average recovery was between 73.28% and 87.56%, and the average content of total ginkgolic acids in three batches of samples was in the range of 0.023-0.028 µg · g(-1), which was much lower than 2 µg · g(-1) prescribed in drug registration standards. This method is simple and rapid with high sensitivity, which can be used for the determination of five kinds of trace ginkgolic acids in diterpene ginkgolides meglumine injection materials.
Chromatography, Liquid ; methods ; Ginkgolides ; analysis ; Injections ; Limit of Detection ; Salicylates ; analysis ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry ; methods

Objective To investigate the effect of cell death by HIV-1 infection on gene 90K/Mac-2BP by RNA interference (RNAi) in U937 cell line.Methods We used human monocyte-macrophage cell line U937 as the cell model.Cells were infected by HIV-1 ( R5-tropic) 5 days, and then stained by PE-Annexin V and PerCP-7-AAD.90K/Mac-2BP in U937 cell line was knocked down , and these cells were infected by HIV-1 for 5 days.Then, cells were stained by PE-AnnexinV and PerCP-7-AAD.Apoptosis were examined upon flow cytometry .Results The percentages of Annexin V+cells without 90K/Mac-2BP knock-down were (16.27 ±0.30)% by HIV-1 infection.The percentages of them with 90K/Mac-2BP knock-down were (31.26 ±0.35)%, (25.76 ±0.30)%, (23.69 ±0.33)% respectively.The increase of cell apoptosis rate for HIV-1-infected U937 cells by 90K/Mac-2BP siRNA transfection was significantly greater than that for HIV-1-infected untreated cells (P﹤0.01).Conclusion The apoptosis of HIV-1-infected U937 cells was regulated by the expression of 90K/Mac-2BP.

Objective To investigate the effects of levofloxacin,ciprofloxacin,ceftazidime,pip-eracillin,cefoperazone/sulbactam,erythromycin,sulfamethoxazole and gentamycin on the bacterial biofilms of Stenotrophomonas mahophilia.Methotis Biofilm and conventional susceptibilities were determined for S.maltophilia isolates from 42 patients.The model of S.maltophilia biofflms in vitro was developed in the Mueller-Hinton broth--micmtiter inoculator or silica films.After antibiotic challenge plate 20 h,each plate was sonicated and the absorbance value at 620 nm(A620)was measured on a microtiter plate colorimeter be-fore and after incubation for 6 h.Then the biofilm inhibitory concentrations were calculated.Finally,based on the acquired data.the experiments of combinafion effects of erythromycin with the 3 antibiotic agents on the formed biofilms of 5 picked strains were designed and worked out.Results The sensitive rate of 42 S.maltaphilia to levofloxacin.sulfamethoxazole and piperacillin were 83.33%,66.67%and 54.76%,re-spectively.The bilfilm inhibitory concentrations were much higher than the corresponding minimal inhibitory concentrateion after formed biofflms.Conclusion Forty-two S.maltophilia are multi-resistant to antibiotic agent.And levofioxacin may have a better effect against biofilms compared with others.The inhibition effect of combination erythromycin with levofloxacin is more obvious among all the 3 antibiotic agents.

ObjectiveTo clarify the influence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoprotein 120 V4 region with mutations at amino acid locuses on its abilities to enter target cells.Methods Based on the facts that ADA strains was a CCR5-tropic strain,only had the ability to infect CCR5 cells; that HXB2 strains was a CXCR4-tropic strain,only had the ability to infect CXCR4 cells,serial glycoprotein 120 mutants with alanine substitution in V4 region of ADA and HXB2 strains,were constructed by overlaping PCR.Eukaryotic expression vectors of mutants and expression vectors of HIV framework gene with luciferase reporter gene were cotransfected into eukaryotic cells to produce pseudoviruse.Concentration of HIV-1 gag P24 in pseudoviruses was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).U87.CD4.CCR5 and U87.CD4.CXCR4 cells were infected with 20 and 40 ng pseudoviruses,with wild ADA and HXB2 strains as control groups,respectively.The ability to infect cells of pseudovirus of each mutant with HIV-1 V4- region mutated at amine acid locuses 386-417 was measured by detecting the luciferase activity (relative light unit,RLU).ResultsTen mutants with alanine substitution in V4 region of HIV-1 ADA and HXB2 strains were successfully constructed,respectively.Mutants of pseudoviruse with 20 ng and 40 ng at locuses 389-391 and 414-417 with alanine substitution of V4 region in both ADA and HXB2 strains lost completely the abilities to enter CCR5 and CXCR4 expressing cells[ (0 ± 0)％].It was found that introduction of alanine to ADAs 400-403 and ADAs 408-410 increased the ability to infect cells to (124 ± 35)％,(182 ± 29)％ and (127 ± 8)％,( 134 ± 16)％ with pseudoviruse of 20 ng and 40 ng,respectively.Likewise,the ability to infect CXCR4 expressing cells also increased to (144 ± 42 )％ and (121 ± 18 )％ with pseudoviruse of 20 ng and 40 ng,respectively by introduction of alanine to HXB2s 395-397.However,other mutants in V4 region of ADA and HXB2 only maintained partial entry abilities( 15％- 84％).ConclusionsMutants of V4 region of HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein 120 with alanine substitution at locuses 389-391 and 414-417 in both ADA and HXB2 strains have been constructed successfully.They completely lost the ability to enter target cells.

In the criminal cases of driving under the influence (DUI), DNA evidence can be collected from the deployed airbag of the motor vehicle and submitted to the crime lab for touch DNA analysis. The evidence can be acquired when the skin cells are observed on the surface of the airbag in a traffic accident. However, the low quantity or quality of the evidence collected from a crime scene prevents further identification analysis in many cases. In the current study, we reported a case of identifying touch DNA extraction from the shed skin cells from the deployed airbag of a motor vehicle. We managed to collect DNA evidence from the shed skin cells in an airbag using a proper approach of collection and extraction. The 5.87 ng of extracted DNA was sufficient for genotyping and forensic identification, which helped to identify the driver of the car in collision with a pier in the street. In DUI cases and other traffic accidents, therefore, the amount of touch DNA extracted from the deployed airbag can be sufficient for DNA marker genotyping and further analysis.
Accidents, Traffic ; Air Bags ; Alcoholic Intoxication ; Crime ; DNA/analysis* ; Genotype ; Humans ; Motor Vehicles ; Skin/cytology* ; Touch