Objective To investigate the effects of abnormal psychological factors on patients with different subtypes of gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD)and on their natural history.Methods Patients with GERD symptoms were underwent 24 hour esophageal pH monitoring and endoscopy.They were enquired about frequency and severity of reflex symptoms and other informations,and filled in the Symptom Checklist 90(SCL-90).Twelve months later,they were enquired again about their symptoms and medication.Results One hundred and fifteen patients were followed up for(18.0?6.1)months (ranged from 12 to 37 months).The values of psychosomatic parameters including somatic,anxious, depression,compulsory and psychiatric scores in patients with GERD and RE were higer than normal values(both P

With patients' general situation, medication use, occurrence time of adverse drug reaction/event (ADR/ADE), clinical manifestations and prognosis as reference items, a retrospective study was made for 315 cases with ADR/ADE induced by Gastrodin in Chongqing from January 2008 to June 2014, in order to analyze the characteristics of ADR/ADE and provide reference for rational clinical medication. The results showed that among the 315 cases with ADR/ADE, 143 cases (45.4%) were males and 172 cases (54.6%) were females, most of them (74.9%) were aged above 45; 60 cases (19.0%) with ADE were caused by off-label indications and 66 cases (21.0%) with ADE were caused by over dosage; ADR/ADE cases induced by intravenous drip mainly happened within 30 min (85.5%), ADR/ADE cases induced by oral administration mainly happened within 2 h (74.4%), and all of ADR/ ADE cases induced by intramuscular injection happened within 10 min. Totally 593 ADR/ADE cases were reported, which were mainly damages in gastrointestinal system, skin and its adnexa; And 61.9% of ADR/ADE cases were newly reported. It is suggested that medical workers shall learn about the regularity and characteristics of ADR/ADE induced by gastrodin, apply it in clinic with standards, pay close attention to changes of patients' situations and attach importance to the monitoring of ADR/ADE, so as to enhance the safety of medication.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Benzyl Alcohols ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; epidemiology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; drug effects ; Glucosides ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin ; drug effects ; Young Adult

AIM: To analyze the composition, distribution and characteristics of the elderly primary ocular tumors.
METHODS: This was a retrospective study and all 504 cases with primary ocular tumors aged 60 years or older were collected in Shanxi Eye Hospital, during the year 2000- 2012. The onset age, location and pathological pattern were analyzed.
RESULTS: There were 346 cases of benign ocular tumors (68. 7%), and 158 cases of malignancy (31. 3%). Papillomas was the most common type of the benign with 83 cases (16. 5%), followed by a variety of inflammatory cysts and lesions with 69 cases ( 13. 7%) and 64 cases (12-7%) respectively. Among malignant tumors cases, eyelid basal cell carcinoma originated from epithelial was the most common with 72 cases (14. 3%), followed by skin appendages sources malignant tumors with 39 cases (7. 7%). Concerning the location of ocular tumors, there were 282 cases of eyelid tumor (56. 0%) occupied the first position followed by conjunctival tumor with 157 cases (31. 2%).
CONCLUSION: The prevalence and type of primary ocular tumor in elderly people are significant differences from the general population and children's, and the proportion of malignant tumors tended to increase along with the increase of age.

The non-neuronal cholinergic system, widely exists in prokaryotic, eukarytic, and even plant cells, however, it has not been investigated in preadipocytes and adipocytes. To search for evidence its existence in preadipocytes and adipocytes, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) α7 subunit, acetyicholinesterase (ACHE) and choline acetyltransferase (CHAT) in 3T3-L1 cells were examined using immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting. The choline-regulated visfatin expression in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes was also tested by reverse transcriptase-PCR. Incubation with methyilycaconitine (10-6 to 10-4mol/L) for 12, 24 and 36 hours dose-dependently increased visfatin expression from 1.3- to 1.55-folds (P <0.01) with maximal induction at 24 hours with 10-4mol/L methyllycaconitine. Nicotine treatments (10-6 to 10-4 mol/L) for 12, 24 and 36 hours decreased visfatin expression; choline chloride (10-4 mol/L))suppressed visfatin expression in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes at 36 hours by 1.64 to 2.03 fold (P < 0.05) which was more effective as compared with nicotine. It was concluded that α7 nAChR was expressed in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and involved in visfatin expression.

Adult ; Embolism, Amniotic Fluid ; etiology ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy

OBJECTIVETo explore the mechanisms involved in the ligustrazine alleviation of the pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) in patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) associated with chronic cor pulmonale (CCP) during exacerbation.

METHODSSeventy patients of COPD and CCP with acute exacerbation were randomly and equally divided into control group and treatment group. The control group received standard treatment with antibiotics, antiasthmatic and expectorant medications, and oxygenation; and the ligustrazine treatment group received ligustrazine treatment (80 mg/d; i.v.; for 2 weeks) in addition to the standard treatment. Before and at the end of 2 week treatment, the clinic responses of the two regimens were evaluated, plasma levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and nitric oxide (NO) were determined; arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO2, mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP), outflow tract of right ventricle (RVOT), and internal diameter of right ventricle (RV) were measured.

RESULTSGood clinic benefits were achieved in both the standard and ligustrazine regimens, plasma level of ET-1, values of mPAP, RV and RVOT decreased significantly, plasma level of NO and PaO2 values decreased (all P < 0.01 vs pre-treatment to all parameters). Compared with the control group, ligustrazine greatly enhanced the clinic efficacy from 77.1% to 97.1% (P < 0.05), and also resulted in more significant changes of all these parameters (P < 0.01 vs control group for all parameters). For both groups, the levels of plasma ET-1 were positively correlated with values of mPAP, RVOT, and RV (r = 0.710, 0.853, and 0.766, respectively, all P = 0.000), and negatively correlated with plasma NO and PaO2 (r = - 0.823, and - 0.752, respectively, all P = 0.000).

CONCLUSIONLigustrazine is effective in treating pulmonary artery hypertension during acute exacerbation of COPD and CCP in patients from the plateau area. The observed changes in the plasma levels of NO and ET-1 in response to ligustrazine treatment suggest that ligustrazine may act through the selective effect on pulmonary blood vessels to enhance the synthesis and release of NO and suppress those of ET-1 from lung vascular endothelial cells, thus reducing pulmonary artery pressure and decreasing pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Altitude ; Blood Gas Analysis ; Chronic Disease ; Endothelin-1 ; blood ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; drug therapy ; Nitric Oxide ; blood ; Pulmonary Artery ; physiopathology ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; drug therapy ; Pyrazines ; therapeutic use ; Respiration

Thrombotic diseases in different forms become a great threat to human health. Such anti-platelet aggregation drugs as aspirin and clopidogrel are common drugs in clinic. However, along with the appearance of resistance and side effects of western anti-platelet aggregation drugs, anti-platelet aggregation traditional Chinese medicines promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis have gradually become an important study orientation. Platelet is one of major participant in thrombosis, and plays an important role as a bioactive material in studies on traditional Chinese medicines promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis, mainly involving two aspects--the evaluation for the anti-platelet aggregation activity of traditional Chinese medicines and the screening of their active components. This paper summarized the applications of platelets in studies on traditional Chinese medicines promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis, so as to provide basis for further studies.
Animals ; Blood Circulation ; drug effects ; Blood Platelets ; drug effects ; physiology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Thrombosis ; drug therapy ; physiopathology

This study examined the anti-hepatitis B virus (HBV) effect of wild-type (WT) vacuolar protein sorting 4B (VPS4B) and its dominant negative (DN) mutant VPS4B-K180Q in vivo in order to further explore the relationship between HBV and the host cellular factor VPS4. VPS4B gene was amplified from Huh7 cells by RT-PCR and cloned into the eukaryotic expression vector pXF3H. Then, the VPS4B plasmid and the VPS4B-K180Q mutation plasmid were constructed by using the overlap extension PCR site-directed mutagenesis technique. VPS4B and HBV vectors were co-delivered into mice by the hydrodynamic tail-vein injection to establish HBV vector-based models. Quantities of HBsAg and HBeAg in the mouse sera were determined by ElectroChemiLuminescence (ECL). HBV DNA in sera was measured by real-time quantitative PCR. Southern blot analysis was used to assay the intracellular HBV nuclear capsid-related DNA, real-time quantitative PCR to detect the HBV-related mRNA and immunohistochemical staining to observe the HBcAg expression in the mouse liver tissues. Our results showed that VPS4B and its mutant VPS4B-K180Q could decrease the levels of serum HBsAg, HBeAg and HBV-DNA. In addition, the HBV DNA replication and the mRNA level of HBV in the liver tissues of treated mice could be suppressed by VPS4B and VPS4B-K180Q. It was also found that VPS4B and VPS4B-K180Q had an ability to inhibit core antigen expression in the infected mouse liver. Furthermore, the anti-HBV effect of mutant VPS4B-K180Q was more potent than that of wild-type VPS4B. Taken together, it was concluded that VPS4B and its DN mutant VPS4B-K180Q have anti-HBV effect in vivo, which helps develop molecular therapeutic strategies for HBV infection.

Objective To observe the effects of chronic arsenic exposure on estrogen receptor-binding fragment-associated gene 9 (Ebag9) and estrogen-responsive finger protein (efp) mRNA expression in female rat' s myocardium.Methods Fifty female Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups according to arsenic (As2O3) concentrations in drinking-water:0.00(control),0.05,0.10,0.20,0.40 mg/L groups and RT-PCR was used to detect Ebag9 and efp mRNA expression of myocardium at the 32 weeks of experiment.Results Ebag9 and efp mRNA expression levels in 0.00,0.05,0.10,0.20,0.40 mg/L groups were respectively as follows:0.54 ±0.14,0.52 ± 0.10,0.48 ± 0.24,0.58 ± 0.13,0.45 ± 0.19 and 0.85 ± 0.14,0.86 ± 0.12,0.87 ± 0.09,0.99 ±0.10,0.86 ± 0.19.Compared to the control group,Ebag9 mRNA level of the 0.20 mg/L group was increased,and decreased in other groups,but the difference between two groups was not significant(all P ＞ 0.05).Compared to control group,the efp mRNA level of 0.20 mg/L group increased significantly(P ＜ 0.05),and showed increased tendency in other arsenic groups,but the difference between two groups was not significant (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Ebag9 and efp mRNA expression have changed in myocardium of rats exposed to chronic arsenic.Arsenic may has endocrine disruptor effect to female rat's myocardium.

Objective To explore the clinical characteristics,diagnosis,treatment and misdiagnosis matter of children with idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis(IPH).Methods The data of clinical characteristics,laboratory examination,treatment and follow-up of 21 children admitted from Jun.1993 to May 2007 were retrospectively analyzed,included 9 males,12 females,aged 1-14 years old,course of di-sease were 1-6 months.Twenty-one patients were diagnosed as IPH by chest X-ray radiography,CT scan,bone marrow biopsy,hemosiderin-laden macrophages in either sputum or gastric juice or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid.Then,therapy and prognosis of IPH were analyzed.Results All patients had varied degrees of anemia,11(52.38%) children had cough,9 (42.86%) children had fever,6(28.50%) cases had shortage of orexia,4( 19.05%) children had hemoptysis.Chest X-ray radiography and CT scan demonstrated diffuse patchy,nodular,reticulate pattern.Eighteen children received bone marrow biopsy and presented hyperplastic erythropoiesis,4(22.2%) cases were accompanied iron deficiency anemia.Nineteen (90.80%) cases shown the presence of hemosiderin-laden macrophages in either sputum or gastric juice or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid.Twenty-one misdiagnosed patients consisted of bronchopneumonia combined anemia(8 cases),lung tuberculosis combined anemia(5 cases),nulli-iron anemia(4 cases),hemolytic anemia(3 cases),myelodysplastic syndrome(1 case)and received corticosteroid therapy.Four cases of all patients were associatated with large-dose human-?-globulin and 3 cases were associatated with vincristine therapy.The therapeutic effect was significant.Eighteen patients were followed-up,3 patients were of which cured and had stopped treatment for over 2 years,11 patients presented clinically persistent remission,4 patients were recurred and aggravated.Conclusions Early diagnosis and long-term therapy of corticosteroid are very important for controlling acute onset,lessening the frequency of IPH recurrence and improving prognosis of the disease.