OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effect of Shexiang Baoxin Pill (SBP) on coronary vasodilation by analysis of coronary angiography (CAG).

METHODSA consecutive cohort of 300 patients who underwent CAG between January 2013 and July 2013 were recruited and randomly assigned to 2 groups before operation. Patients in the SBP group sublingually took SBP, while those in the control group sublingually took placebos. All patients repeatedly underwent CAG 5 min after administration. The vascular diameter was calculated by quantitative angiography analysis method. The diameter of the left anterior descending coronary artery was measured in patients whose coronary arteries had no stenosis. The narrowest vascular diameter was measured in patients whose coronary arteries had stenosis. The heart rate, blood pressure, and the vascular diameter were compared between before and after administration in the two groups.

RESULTSIn the two groups, there was no significant difference in changes of heart rate, systolic pressure, or diastolic pressure between before and after administration (all P > 0.05). There were 64 patients with normal CAG in the two groups, 30 in the control group and 34 in the SBP group. CAG showed there were 236 patients with stenotic coronary artery, 110 in the control group and 126 in the SBP group. The vascular diameter was obviously larger in patients in the SBP group with normal or abnormal CAG after administration (all P < 0.01). It was also obviously larger than that of the control group after administration (P < 0.05, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSBP could dilate both normal coronary artery and lesioned coronary arteries, but did not lead to fastened heart rate and decreased blood pressure.

Blood Pressure ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Vessels ; drug effects ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Tablets ; Vasodilation ; drug effects

Acoustic Stimulation ; adverse effects ; Animals ; Calcium ; metabolism ; Female ; Hypothalamus ; metabolism ; Neurons ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical outcomes rating scale for heart failure (HF) based on patients' report.

METHODSTCM clinical outcomes rating scale for HF (TCM-HF-PRO) were evaluated based on 340 HF patients' report from multiple centers. The completion of the investigation was recorded. Cronbach's α coefficient and split-half reliability were used for reliability analysis, and factor analysis was used to assess the construct validity of the rating scale. Pearson correlation analysis was then used for criterion validity analysis. Discriminant analysis was used to assess the responsiveness of the scale. All 340 HF patients having complete TCM-HF-PRO data were assigned to the treatment group and the control group by central randomization. The total TCM-HF-PRO scores of the two groups were compared using paired t-test to reflect the longitude responsiveness of the scale before treatment and at week 2 after treatment.

RESULTS(1) The recycling rate of the scale was 100.0%. One of them was not filled completely, which was rejected thereby. So the completion rate was 99.7%. The completion time for TCM-HF-PRO scale ranged 15 to 25 min. (2) The Cronbach's α coefficient of rating scale was 0.903, split-half reliability was 0.844 and 0.849. (3) Confirmatory factor analysis showed that 7 factors and items formed according to maximum load factor basically coincided with the construct of the rating scale, 7 factors accumulated contribution rate was 43.8%. TCM clinical outcomes rating scale for HF based on patients' report was relatively better correlated with the Minnesota living with HF questionnaire (r = 0.726, P < 0.01). (4) Discriminant analysis showed that the rating scale correctly classified more than 78.8% of case studies having confirmed initial differential diagnosis by experts. The total scale of the rating scale decreased more in the two group after treatment, with significant difference as compared with before treatment (P < 0.01.

CONCLUSIONTCM clinical outcomes rating scale for HF based on patients' report had good reliability, validity and responsiveness, hence it could be used to assess clinical efficacy for HF patients.

Diagnosis, Differential ; Discriminant Analysis ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Heart Failure ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; standards ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Lactoferrin (Lf) is one of the food protein belonged to the innate immune system. Apart from its main biological function of binding and transport of iron ions, lactoferrin also has many other functions and properties such as antibacterial, antiviral, antiparasitic, catalytic, anti-cancer, anti-allergic and radioprotecting. Lf is usually used as additives of food and cosmetics. The research of lactoferrin has been increasingly reported, and the application of lactoferrin as a drug carrier has drawn extensive attention over the recent year. In this paper, researches of lactoferrin as drug carriers are classified and summarized in brain targeting, liver tumor targeting, lung tumor targeting and oral delivery systems according to their different characteristics.
Administration, Oral ; Brain ; Drug Carriers ; Humans ; Lactoferrin ; chemistry ; Neoplasms

Objective To explore a reasonable,accuracy and effectual proposition model for medical imaging examination.Methods Mean scores and their standard deviation and distribution as well as the difficulty,discrimination,reliability and validity of the test paper were analyzed for the 2005 grade 7-year program students by using SPSS 13.0 statistic software.Results The scores of the 67 copies of test paper displayed a normal distribution,with the mean score of 73.76 and standard deviation of 11.88.The difficulty,reliability and validity indexes of the test paper were 0.74,0.78 and 0.25 respectively.The difficulty,discrimination,reliability and validity indexes of subjective items were higher than those of objective items(0.76 vs.0.73,0.94 vs.0.90,0.71 vs.0.68,0.32 vs.0.22,respectively).Conclusions We should keep quite high proportion of subjective items and make detailed scoring standard in medical imaging examination.Furthermore,as a supplement,objectively items such as multiple choice questions can expand the scope of knowledge examined.

To investigate the epidemic and evolutionary trends of enterovirus (EV) in the external environment of Yunnan Province, China, molecular typing was performed on 4 EV strains that were isolated from environmental sewage in Yunnan. The VP1 region of isolates was amplified by RT-PCR using universal enterovirus primers, and the amplified VP1 region was sequenced for GenBank BLAST search and genotype analysis. The 4 EV strains were identified as ECHO7. Their nucleotide and amino acid homologies with the VP1 sequences of 68 ECHO7 strains retrieved from GenBank were measured by Mega software analysis. Our findings showed that ECHO7 strains from environmental sewage and population samples were in different evolutionary branches. These strains showed typical geographical and temporal differences; In addition, there were different transmission chains at the same time and in the same area. ECHO7 strains isolated from sewage water and patients with acute flaccid paralysis during the same period in Yunnan belonged to different clusters and evolved at different speeds. Special concerns are needed for this problem. Continuous molecular biological surveillance of human EV in the external environment of Yunnan will provide strong support for early warning of EV diseases.
China ; Databases, Genetic ; Enterovirus ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Evolution, Molecular ; Humans ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Sequence Analysis ; Sewage ; virology

UNLABELLEDOBJECTIVE To study the in vitro effect and mechanism of Ginkgo biloba Extract 50 (GBE50) for inhibiting beta-amyloid (Abeta)-induced oxidative stress in rats' hippocampal neurons.

METHODSThe primary hippocampal neurons were cultured in vitro and divided into 4 groups, i. e. the normal control group (Ctrl), the Abeta group, the propanediol control group (PDO), and the six GBE50 concentrations groups (5, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 microg/mL). Excepted the Ctrl group, neurons were induced to oxidative stress by 20 gmolLAbeta25-35. The MTT and fluorescent probes labeling were used to observe the effect of GBE50 with different concentrations on the cell viability and the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in neurons. Furthermore, Western blot was used to detect the cytoplasmic/total cytochrome C (Cyto C) ratio and total intracytoplasmal Cyto C, and the effect of the expression of oxidative stress-related protein Cyto C and activated Caspase-3 in three GBE50 concentrations groups (25, 50, and 100 microg/mL).

RESULTSCompared with the Ctrl group, the cell vitality was obviously lowered and intracellular ROS generation significantly increased after induction of 20 micromol/L Abeta25-35 (both P < 0.05). Compared with the Abeta group, the cell vitality was evidently improved after treated with different GBE50 doses. Except for 10 microg/mL, the cell vitality could be obviously elevated along with increased drug concentrations (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the intracellular ROS generation decreased significantly in each GBE50 dose groups (P < 0.05). Abeta could increase the cytoplasmic/total Cyto C ratio and enhance the activated Caspase-3 expression significantly (P < 0.05). Compared with the Abeta group, among the three concentrations of GBE50, the Cyto C ratio was obviously lowered in the 100 microg/mL GBE50 group (P < 0.05), and the expression of activated Caspase-3 significantly decreased in 50 microg/mL and 100 microg/mL GBE50 groups (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS20 micromol/L Abeta25-35 could induce the generation of intracellular ROS in hippocampal neurons. GBE50 could inhibit Abeta induced intracellular oxidative stress of neurons through lowering the cytoplasmic/total Cyto C ratio and inhibiting the activation of apoptosis protein Caspase-3 expression.

Amyloid beta-Peptides ; toxicity ; Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Cytochromes c ; metabolism ; Hippocampus ; metabolism ; Neurons ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Oxidative Stress ; drug effects ; Peptide Fragments ; toxicity ; Plant Extracts ; pharmacology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

China ; Enterovirus ; classification ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; RNA, Viral ; genetics

Objective To study the antigenicity of human thyrotropin receptor(hTSHR)amino terminus (amino acid 29～280)and its association with Graves' disease.Methods Total thyroid RNA was prepared from human normal thyroid tissue.RNA was then reversely transcripted and cDNA was subjected to PCR amplification.PCR product was cloned into pcDNA3.1 and the recombinant plasmid was named pcDNA3.1/hTSHR188～940bp. Balb/c mice were immunized with peDNA3.1/hTSHR188～940bp. The levels of serum thyroxin,anti-TSHR antibody(TRAb)and thyroid stimulating antibody(TSAb)were measured,and the pathological changes of thyroid tissue were also observed.Results A 753 bp fragment encoding hTSHR ectodomain amino end was obtained after PCR amplification.Confirmed by Hind Ⅲ restriction enzyme digestion and DNA sequencing,pcDNA3.1/hTSHR188～940bphad been constructed successfully,with the correct sequence and direction of hTSHR188～940bp.In the Balb/c mice treated with pcDNA3.1/hTSHR188～940bp,elevated TRAb in week 6(0.148±0.018)were observed compared with those at week o(0.106±0.006,P＜0.01),and kept a higher level till week 10(0.134±0.011,P＜0.01).T4 and TSAb index values were significantly increased in week 10.Serum T4 concentration increased from(41.02±7.97)μg/L in week 0 to(62.20±12.77)μg/L in week 10(P＜0.01);TSAb index values rose from 0.864±0.076 at week 0 to 1.392±0.615(P＜0.01).Thyroid pathological examination showed that proliferated thyroid follicular epithelial cells and foll icular eapacity increased.Inflammatory cells were occasionally found.Conclusions There are antigen epitopes in hTSHR ectodomain amino acid 29～280,which can stimulate the production of TSAb.And the latter induces hyperthyroidism and Graves' disease like manifestations.It suggests that hTSHR ectodomain amino acid 29～280 is closely associated with Graves' disease,and maybe one of important etiological factors leading to the disease.

Humans ; Genetic Markers ; Family ; DNA Fingerprinting ; Microsatellite Repeats/genetics*