OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of domestic versus imported acarbose tablets in the treatment of type 2 diabetic mellitus.METHODS:Based on the published medication data for type 2 diabetic mellitus,patients with type 2 diabetic mellitus were assigned to receive domestic acarbose tablets(Group A) or imported acarbose tablets(Group B).The cost-effectiveness of the two groups were compared applying the theory in pharmacoeconomics.RESULTS:Domestic and imported acarbose showed the same effectiveness for type 2 diabetic mellitus,while the costs in the two groups were significantly different.CONCLUSION:As compared with imported acarbose,the domestic acarbose has higher cost-effectiveness ratio.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the effects of selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor nimesulide lone and combined with cisplatin on tumor growth,and Ki67 and Caspase-3 expression in lung cancer xenografts in nude mice. Methods The mice were randomly divided into 4 groups:the control group,the nimesulide group,the cisplatin group and the nimesulide combined with cisplatin group. A549 cells were injected into BALB/c nude mice subcutaneously.On the 21st day after treatment tumor tissues were collected,and the xenografts growth were observed. The expression of Ki67 and Caspase-3 were detected by immunohistochemical method.ResultsNimesulide combined with cisplatin could significantly inhibited the xenografts growth compared with nimesulide or cisplatin.The tumor inhibition rate was 44.33％ in the nimesulide group,53.61％ in the cisplatin group and 80.41％ in the nimesulide combined with cisplatin group (P ＜ 0.05).Immunohistochemical analysis showed that the expression rates of Caspase-3 was significantly increased in the nimesulide combined with cisplatin group (67.43 ± 23.57 ) ％,the cisplatin group (48.40 ± 20.37 ) ％,and the nimesulide group (38.65 ± 15.37)％,compared with the control group (27.63 ± 13.03)％ (P ＜ 0.05).The expression rate of Caspase-3 was significantly increased in the nimesulide combined with cisplatin group compared with the nimesulide group or the cisplatin group (P ＜ 0.05 ).The expression rate of Ki67 was significantly decreased in the nimesulide group combined with cisplatin group (24.34 ± 15.90)％,the cisplatin group (40.85 ± 22.47)％ and the nimesulide group (53.33 ± 19.67)％ compared with the control group ( 80.43 ± 16.88 ) ％ ( P ＜ 0.05 ).The expression of Ki67 was significantly decreased in the nimesulide combined with cisplatin group compared with the nimesulide group or the cisplatin group ( P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusion Nimesulide can inhibit human lung cancer A549 cells xenografts in nude mice growth,Nimesulide enhanced the inhibitory effects of cisplatin.The mechanism may be related to inhibition of tumor cell Ki-67 expression,increased expression of Caspase-3,inhibition of tumor cell proliferation,and inducing tumor cell apoptosis.

Objective To analyze the reasons and therapeutic effects for revision of spinal fractures.Method Ninteen patients with revised internal fixation on spinal fractures were reviewed in average of 3.5 years follow-up. Neurological function, pain and daily life quality of patients with revision surgery were evaluated by questionnaire.ResultIncomplete spinal canal decompression as well as improper application of instrumentation were the main reasons of failed internal fixation for spinal fractures.All patients with incomplete spinal cord injury had improvement on neurological function to some extent after re-operation, and 17 of 19 patients (89%) indicated improved daily life quality. However, revision surgery failed to have motor recovery in patients with complete spinal cord injury.ConclusionCorrect surgical technique and selection of internal fixation are very important in the treatment of spinal cord injury.

Objective To build a normal value of serum sex hormone in the healthy children in favour of the diagnosis of children precocious puberty and the evaluation of the growth of the children.Method Serum of 462 healthy children(aged from 1 month to 14 years;205 females,257 males)was collected,and the level of testosterone(T) and 17-estradiol(E2).Results There were no significant deviation in the levels of E2 of deferent genders between 1-12 months,but the level of T in boys and girls were obviously different.The puberty of boys was la-ter than girls.There was no significant deviation in the level of E2 of the boys in different periods,but the levels of T in boys at different ages were obviously different.Conclusions With the improvement the detection methods,the normal values of the serum sex hormone in healthy children have been changing.It is helpful for diagnosis of children precocious puberty by rebuilding normal values of T and E2 .

Objective To investigate the clinical features and characteristics of imaging,cerebral hemodynamics and electrophysiology of septic encephalopathy in children.Methods The clinical data and examination result of computerized tomography(CT),ultrasound and electroencephalogram(EEG) on encephalon of the 44 consecutive children with septic encephalopathy from Jan.2003 to Jun.2006 were reviewed retrospectively.According to the prognosis and the etiology,the totally 44 patients were divided into survival group,death group and pneumonia group,enteritis group,septicemia group,appendicular perforation group,skin gangrene group as well as EBV infection group,respectively.Fi-sher′s exact test was used to compare the differences of ratio.Results 1.Clinical manifestations:loss of consciousness was observed in all 44 cases,convulsions in 29 cases,upper-right-limb paralysis in 1 case,cerebral hernia in 1 case,and 14 cases resulted in death.2.Forteen cases were detected by CT scanning.Multiple local and diffuse lower density in cerebral parenchyma was observed in 3 cases and 2 cases respectively.Intracranial hemorrhage was found in the latter 2 cases.3.Color doppler ultrasound was detected in 11 cases.Diffuse brain edema was found in 5 cases,and among them intracranial hemorrhage was found in 1 case.4.EEG was detected in 10 cases.Flat-to-isoelectric EEG was found in 3 cases.Diffuse slow wave activities and sharp wave with sharp-slow wave complex were found in 5 cases and 2 cases,respectively.5.Between the sharp wave group and the flat-to-isoelectric EEG group,the number of cases who was less than 7 with Glasgow coma scale was significant(P

Objective To study the electrophysiological properties of rat skeletal muscle within the frequency from 100Hz to 100MHz.Methods The AC impedance of rat sural muscle tissues was measured using the Agilent 4294A impedance analyzer, then the electrophysiological properties of the normal rat sural muscle cells were established in the respect of cell dielectric spectroscopy, Cole-Cole plots, spectrum of loss factor and loss tangent.Results (1) The dielectric response of rat sural muscle cells was frequency-dependent, such as increase in frequency caused decrease in permittivity. At the same time the conductivity trended to arise; (2) The dielectric parameters(?_L,?_h,?_L,?_h,△?″_ max,△tg?_ max,f_ C1,f_ C2) cell fiber parallel to the applied electric field differed from that cell fiber perpendicular to the applied electric field; (3) The effect of alternating current electric field on rat sural muscle cells showed a dielectric dispersion phenomenon, representing two characteristic frequency: the 1 st frequency(f_ C1(∥)=f_ C1(⊥)=1.02 kHz) and 2 nd frequency(f_ C2(∥)=59.31 kHz,f_ C2(⊥)=380.04kHz). Conclusion The method for studying the electrophysiological properties of rat skeletal muscle cells was established in the respect of the frequency domain,providing a possibility for investigating muscle fatigue in the future.

Objective To study changes of dielectric properties of gastrocnemius caused by simulated weightlessness.Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats tail suspended for 10 wk were observed together with its normal control.AC impedance of isolated gastrocnemius was measured with an impedance analyzer(Agilent 4294A).Effects of simulated weightlessness on electric properties of cells in isolated rat sural muscle were also observed by analyzing the dielectric numerical characters of the dielectric spectra,the Cole-Cole plots,spectrum of loss factor and loss tangent,as well as spectrum of conductivity imaginary part.Results It was found that simulated weightlessness could induce certain changes:both relative permittivity at low frequency ?L and relative permittivity increment ??,as well as conductivity at high frequency ?h and conductivity increment ?? were all reduced.The first characteristic frequency fC1 decreased,while the second characteristic frequency fC2 increased.Peak of loss factor,peak of loss tangent and the maximum of conductivity imaginary part were also reduced.Conclusion Changes of dielectric property of gastrocnemius induced by simulated weightlessness can be observed effectively by frequency domain impedance technique.

[Objective]To compare the clinical results,advantages and disadvantages of the mono-segment lateral lumbar disc herniated patients with the treatment of micro-endoscopic discectomy(MED) and fenestration discectomy(FD).[Methods]Sixty-nine cases operated with mono-segment discectomy were analyzed from July 2003 to July 2005,among them,32 cases operated with microendoscopic discectomy and 37 cases operated with fenestration discectomy.The operating time,blood loss,time stay-in-bed,duration of hospitalization after operation were compared.[Results]The rate of excellent and good outcomes was 93.7% in MED group,and 91.9% in FD group.No significant difference was found between them,and the same with the postoperative sciatica relief significant differences ould be observed in the operation time,blood loss,duration of hospitalization after operation and postoperative visual analog scales.[Conclusion]The symptoms of the lumbar disc herniation can be reliefed effectively by both methods,but micro-endoscopic discectomy has more advantages of less trauma,less blood loss,earlier rehabilitation,less postoperative low back pain.

Hepatitis B is a serious infectious disease worldwide, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the direct cause of this disease. In recent years, as an essential part of its evolutionary process, HBV mutation has been extensively studied domestically and globally. However, the study on the conserved sequences in HBV sequences is still in its infancy. In this study, we applied multiple EM for motif elicitation (MEME) algorithm to discover HBV motif and proposed a new metric, conservative index (CI), to carry out phylogenetic analysis based on HBV sequences. Then, the constructed phylogenetic tree was subjected to reliability assessment. The results demonstrated that the new metric CI combined with the MEME algorithm can effectively help to discover motifs in HBV sequences and construct a phylogenetic tree based on them and to analyze the evolutionary relationship between HBV sequences; in addition, the possible ancestral sequences of samples may be obtained by conservative analysis. The proposed method is valuable for the exploratory study on large HBV sequence data sets.
Computational Biology ; Conserved Sequence ; Evolution, Molecular ; Hepatitis B virus ; genetics ; Humans ; Nucleotide Motifs ; Phylogeny ; Reproducibility of Results

AIM: Although the evidence indicates that extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN) is closely associated with matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression in tumor cells, tumor invasion and metastasis, no direct proof that EMMPRIN regulates MMPs in monocytes, especially in the atherogenic milieu is observed. Here we tested this hypothesis by examining MMP-9 expression in macrophages/foam cells and monocyte migration through EMMPRIN knockdown by siRNA. METHODS: The methods of qPCR and Western blotting were used to detect the suppressions of EMMPRIN mRNA and protein expression in macrophages and foam cells transfected with EMMPRIN-specific siRNA. The protein expression of MMP-9 in macrophages and foam cells was also determined. Monocyte migration after EMMPRIN knockdown was observed by a Transwell assay. RESULTS: EMMPRIN knockdown by siRNA markedly abolished the MMP-9 expression by 50% and 40% in macrophages and foam cells, respectively. Migration induced by chemotactic factor MCP-1 and VEGF was significantly attenuated (P<0.05) in monocytes treated with EMMPRIN-siRNA. CONCLUSION: The protein expression and secretion of MMP-9 are down-regulated by EMMPRIN knockdown during monocyte differentiation into macrophages and foam cells. Moreover, EMMPRIN siRNA treatment also prevents monocyte migration. Thus, EMMPRIN plays a key regulatory role for MMP activity and monocyte migration, making it a potential target for pharmacological intervention of atherosclerosis.