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.

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 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.

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 risky factors related to postoperative mortality after surgical intervention for intra-ventricular hemorrhage (IVH).Methods The clinical data of 142 IVH patients aged from 19 to 86 years with 77 male and 65 female were collected from 2007 to 2010 for retrospective analysis with SPSS version 13.0 package.Multi-factorial Logistic regression analysis and mono-factorial x2 analysis were used to find out the risk factors related to post-operative death. Results Of 142 patients,48 (33.8％) died.Mono-factorial analysis demonstrated that the risk factors of death after surgical intervention to IVH were elderly age ( ＞ 65 years),history of hypertension,low GGS score,intra-ventricular diffuse bleeding,preoperative obstructive hydrocephalus and coagulation abnormality,postoperative central high pyrexia and central diabetes insipidus,postoperative hemorrhage of alimentary tract,pulmonary infection,and drainage after operation ≥7 days ( P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01 ).Multi-factorial Logistic regression analysis,on the other hand,revealed the independent factors associated with postoperative IVH mortality were postoperative central high fever,preoperative obstructive hydrocephalus (P ＜ 0.01 ); drainage after operation ≥7 days,postoperative pulmonary infection,elderly age,low GCS score,intra-ventricular diffuse bleeding and history of hypertension ( P ＜ 0.05 ). Conclusions General condition of patients with IVH and CT findings are likely related to mortality,and active prevention against various complications is the crucial approach to lowering postoperative mortality and improving prognosis.

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.

Objective To explore the diagnostic value of magnetization transfer imaging (MTI) and DWI for detecting intestinal wall property of crohn's disease (CD). Methods Forty four patients with CD were prospectively enrolled in the study, and MR enterography (MRE), MTI and DWI were performed. According to MRE findings, patients were divided into three subgroups:acute inflammatory group, chronic fibrotic group and combined inflammatory with fibrotic group. Intestinal wall T2WI signal, magnetization transmisson rate (MTR) and ADC value were measured on MRE, MRI and DWI imagings, respectively. The differences of MTR and ADC among the three groups were analyzed by one-way ANOVA;the differences of T2WI scores were analysed by Kruskal Wallis;the differences of MTR and ADC values between normal and pathological intestinal wall were analyzed by paired t test;ROC curve were used to evaluate the CD fibrosis and inflammation diagnostic efficiency of MTI ana DWI based on MRE signs. Results Among the 44 cases, 11 cases were in the acute inflammatory group, 18 cases were in the chronic fibrotic group and other 15 cases were in the combination group. The T2WI score, MTR and ADC among the three groups showed significant differences (all P<0.01).The mean MTR and ADC of pathological intestinal wall of the 44 cases were (40.77±6.05)%and (1.04±0.18)× 10-3mm2/s, and the adjacent normal bowel were (21.75±4.17)%and (1.97 ± 0.23) × 10- 3mm2/s, respectively. Moreover, the difference of the above values showed significant differences (t=19.12,-21.80 respectively, all P<0.01). There was a negative correlation between MTR and T2WI score (r=-0.71,P<0.01). While ADC value was positively correlated with T2WI score (r=0.80, P<0.01). Using ROC curve analysis to differentiate the CD fibrosis from acute inflammation, the area under the curve (AUC) of MTR and ADC were 0.97 and 0.96 ,respectively. Conclusions Both MTI and DWI can be used to assess the properties of intestinal wall, which has the same diagnostic efficacy to identify the acute inflammation and fibrosis.