Objective To evaluate the role of transeso phageal echocardiography(TEE) before chemical or electric cardioversion for non-vulvular atrial fibrillation. Methods Forty-three patients, confirmed non-vulvular atrial fibrillation, undertook anticoagulation or anti-platelet therapy and transthoracic echocardiography and TEE less than 24-48 hours prior to cardioversion. Results Two thrombi in the left atrial appendage and three spontaneous echo contrasts in the left atrium were evidenced. After anticoagulation or anti-platelet therapy, 39 patients undertook cardioversion therapy. Among them,31 patients received drug cardioversion,success in 19,and failure in 12;8 patients received electric cardioversion,success in 6,and failure in 2. There were no thromboembolic events during the hospitalization. Conclusions TEE performed before cardioversion for atrial fibrillation is necessary to reduce the risks of thromboembolic events and to guide for anticoagulation therapy.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of a new micro-bubble contrast agent of C_3F_8 in the opacification of the left ventricle. Methods Seven pigs received a bolus injection of C_3F_8 (0.002) and (0.02) (ml/kg) intravenously. Left ventricular opacification grades and number of endocardial border delineation segments were observed and left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) were measured using modified Simpson method after each intravenous contrast injection. Heart rate and respiration rate were recorded before and after each injection. Results There was a significant improvement for every measurement of contrast enhancement in each intravenous injection. In addition, part of myocardial tissue could be enhanced after contrast injection. There was no difference in heart rate and respiration rate between pre- and post-injection. Conclusions This new contrast agent is safe and helpful in delineating endocardial border of the left ventricle.

Objective To determine the accuracy and usefulness of dobutamine stress echocardiography(DSE) in detecting restenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods DSE was conducted in 47 patients before coronary angiography, 6 months to 18 months after PCI. The standard protocol of DSE was 5,10,20,30 ?g?kg~(-1)?min~(-1) with subsequent incremental increases every 3 minutes to a maximum dose of 40 ?g?kg~(-1)?min~(-1). Consistency of the results was compared between DSE and coronary angiography.Results Compared with coronary angiographic results, DSE had a low sensitivity(64%) but high specificity(86%) for detection of restenosis after PCI. The total accuracy was 72%. Conclusions DSE can assess restenosis after PCI with lower cost and safety.

The most radiation exposure for children arises from the medical process, and due to their characteristics such as relatively immature,organ development,they are more sensitive to the radiation than a-dults,and have higher risk of radiation related diseases,so medical radiation exposure should not be ignored.

Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) has been implicated as an important regulator of many cellular processes and signaling pathways,including chromatin remodeling,RNA splicing,DNA transcription,and cell proliferation.Therefore,structural and functional studies on PRMT5 are quite important.The full length ofPRMT5 gene was cloned into vector pGEX-4T-1,resulting in only low expression levels in Escherichia coli (E.colO.Here,it was showed that the several N-terminal amino acids deletions could result in a significant increase in the amount of soluble ft"action,while one of them did not affect the protein-arginine methyltransferase activity.And it was also found that the N-terminal 15 amino acids region of PRMT5 may be important for the catalytic activity.

Objective To study the effect of fund support on cited times of Chinese papers on AIDS by controlling the influence of confounding factors.Methods The effect of publication time of fund-supported papers and non fund-supported papers, h-index of authors, IF of journals on accumulated cited times of each academic paper was controlled by propensity score matching.The cited times of matched fund-supported papers and non fund-supported papers were compared by paired t test.Results The balance of confounding factors which were unbalanced before matching was achieved between fund-supported papers and non fund-supported papers after matching.No significant difference was found between fund-supported papers and non fund-supported papers after matching.Conclusion Fund support does not affect the cited times of Chinese papers on AIDS, which shows that fund support can not noticeably improve the academic level and impact of Chinese papers on AIDS.

Objective To evaluate the protective effect of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) against interleukin (IL)-17-induced injury to keratinocytes,and to explore its mechanism.Methods Some cultured HaCaT cells were divided into 3 groups to be treated with IL-17 alone at concentrations of 50,70,90 μg/L,respectively,with those receiving no treatment as the blank control group.Some HaCaT cells were divided into 5 groups:IL-17 group treated with 90 μg/L IL-17 alone,IL-17 + EGCG group treated with 90 μg/L IL-17 and 60 μmol/L EGCG,IL-17 + SP600125 group treated with 90 μg/L IL-17 and SP600125 (a JAK signaling pathway inhibitor),IL-17+ EGCG + anisomycin group treated with 90μg/L IL-17,60xmol/L EGCG and anisomycin (a Janus kinase signaling pathway activator),and blank control group receiving no treatment.After different durations of treatment,CCK-8 assay was performed to evaluate cellular proliferative activity,flow cytometry to detect cell apoptosis,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to measure expression levels of IL-6,IL-23 and IL-8,and Western-blot analysis to determine protein expressions of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and phosphorylated JNK (P-JNK).Results IL-17 promoted cellular proliferation of HaCaT cells,and the proliferation rate,which was correlated with the concentration of IL-17,reached the maximum in the 90-μg/L IL-17 group (P ＜ 0.05).EGCG at 60 μmol/L significantly inhibited cellular proliferation of,promoted apoptosis in,and reduced IL-6,IL-23 and IL-8 expressions in,HaCaT cells induced by 90 μg/L IL-17 (all P ＜ 0.05).Compared with the IL-17 group,the IL-17 + EGCG group and IL-17 + SP600125 group both showed significantly decreased P-JNK expression,cell proliferation rate and IL-6,IL-23 and IL-8 expression levels (all P ＜ 0.05).However,compared with the IL-17 + EGCG group,the IL-17 + EGCG + anisomycin group showed significantly increased protein expression of P-JNK,cell proliferation rate and IL-6,IL-23 and IL-8 expression levels (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion EGCG protected against IL-17-induced injury to HaCaT cells,such as abnormal cell proliferation,apoptosis and inflammatory response,likely by inhibiting the JNK signaling pathway.

Objective To investigate the effects of synuclein-γ (SNCG) gene silencing on the proliferation and apoptosis of glioma U87-MG cells.Methods Five small hairpin RNA templates targeting SNCG and a negative control were synthesized and cloned into the lentiviral vector system and all the constructs were sequenced.Then the recombinant lentiviral vectors were used to infect U87-MG cells.The lentiviruses which can effectively inhibit protein expression levels of SNCG were selected by RT-PCR for further study.Colony formation and flow cytometry assay were used to investigate the effects of SNCG downregulation by RNA interference on the clony formation,proliferation,and apoptosis of U87-MG cells,respectively.Results The lentiviral vectors carrying 5 shRNAs targeting the SNCG gene were successfully constructed,and SNCG siRNA3 and siRNA5 showed higher interfering efficiency than other vectors.In comparison with the group of negative control,SNCG siRNA3 and siRNA5 were observed to significantly inhibit SNCG expression at the mRNA levels (the relative mRNA levels:siRNA3 (0.17± 0.01)％,siRNA5 (0.13±0.01)％ vs (1.00±0.10)％,P＜0.05).Also,SNCG suppression mediated by RNAi significantly inhibited the clone formation (colony number:siRNA3 (66± 12),siRNA5 (1 ± 1) vs (80± 5),P＜0.05),and the proliferation (ratio of cells in S phase:siRNA3 (41.2±0.7) ％,siRNA5 (39.9±0.5) ％ vs (47.6±2.2) ％,P ＜0.05),but promoted the apoptosis (cell apoptosis:siRNA3 (22.9± 0.4) ％,siRNA5 (28.6± 0.9) ％ vs (1.1 ± 0.1) ％,P＜0.01) of transfected U87-MG cells.Conclusion SNCG suppression at the mRNA level mediated by RNAi can inhibit the proliferation and the clony formation,but induce the apoptosis of glioma U87-MG cells in vitro,suggesting that SNCG suppression mediated by an RNAi strategy may become a novel approach for treating human gliomas.

Objective:To study the effectiveness of inferior pole fracture of patella treating by the new tension band.Methods:From Dec.2011 to Dec.2013, 21 patients with inferior pole fracture of patella were treated with the new tension band which consisted of cannulated screw, titanium cable and shims. There were 21 patients[10 males, 11 females, the average age was 54 years(21 to 79)],of whom,all were“fell on knees”.Results:The average operation time was 89 min (57-197 min),the follow-up visits were done from 7-31 months ( average 18 months) , the bone healing time was from 8-12 weeks (average 10.5 weeks).The post operation assessment was done by Bostman score, from 20 -30 (average 27),10 excellent,and 11 good.No complication occurred.Conclusion:The new tension band is the effective treatment for inferior pole fracture of patella.The internal fixation is reliable, it is simple to operate, and patients can take exercises as early as possible.Therefore, the new tension band has a bet-ter clinical value.

The association between serum fetuin A and diabetic nephropathy (DN) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) was investigated.Serum levels of fetuin-A and adiponectin were measured by ELISA and the clinical data were collected in 101 T2DM patients with normal albuminuria (NA group),87 patients with microalbuminuria (MA group),44 patients with overt albuminuria (OA group),and 130 normal control subjects (NC group).Fetuin-A levels increased progressively from NC,NA,MA,to OA groups,and there were significant differences among groups(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).Fetuin-A level in patients was positively associated with duration of illness,urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR),fasting blood glucose,2-hour postprandial blood glucose,and C-reactive protein(CRP,P＜0.05 or P＜0.01),but was negatively associated with age and adiponectin (all P＜ 0.01).Multiple stepwise regression analysis indicated that duration of diabetes,fetuin-A,CRP,and adiponectin were independent determinants for ACR (all P ＜ 0.01).Fetuin-A may be involved in the development and pathogenesis of DN by proinflammatory effects and repressing adiponectin production.