Objective To investigate the MRI appearances of postpartum posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). Methods The clinical and radiological data of 8 patients with postpartum PRES were analyzed retrospectively, 5 cases were 1 week after postpartum,2 cases were 2 weeks afterpostpartum, 1 case was 4 weeks after postpartum. All cases underwent MRI examination, checking sequence included T,WI,T2WI,FLAIR,DWI,SWI, and 4 of them underwent MR venography (MRV). Results MRI showed basal bilaterally symmetrical distributions of lesions, mainly located in subcortex and cortex of cerebral hemisphere and predominantly in the occipital lobe,the lesions appeared as hyperintensity on FLAIR and T2WI,isointensity or mildly hypointensity on T1WI,hyperintensity on DWI. MRI in 8 patients demonstrated multiple lesions located in bilateral parietal lobe (8 cases),bilateral occipital lobe (8 cases), bilateral frontal lobe ( 4 cases ), bilateral temporal lobe (6 cases ), bilateral tempura-occipital lobe ( 8 cases),splenium of corpus callosum(l case), bilateral basal ganglia (l case), bilateral oval center( 1 case), bilateral cerebellar hemisphere (1 case), left frontal lobe hemorrhage (l case). Five patients' follow-up scan showed decreased or disappeared abnormal signals. Conclusion MRI examination scan identify the location, quality and degree, meanwhile, analyze the pathological foundation of postpartum PRES, which conduces to guiding treatment and preventing complication.

0.75).Conclusions The method of single-slice and multi-slice TSE sequence in T_2 measurement is feasible.For bone marrow and extremely long T_2 tissue(for instance,cerebrospinal fluid),however,there may be considerable discrepancy on T_2 values obtained by TSE sequence.

The blood concentrations of the pharmacodynamic substances of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) are usually very low. How can they exert pharmacological actions, in which forms (original form, metabolite or the both) do they exert the actions. To answer these questions, we proposed a new concept ofEffective Formsof pharmacodynamic substances of TCMs and a hypothesis of additive effect of multiple constituents of TCMs. The hypothesis includes that the aggregate or summation of Effective Forms of pharmacodynamic substances of TCMs is the core material base of the effi-cacy of TCMs, and the additive effect of the blood concentrations of different Effective Forms is one part of the action mechanism. The additive effect of the different Effective Forms of a TCMs means an additive effect of numerous con-stituents or/and metabolites on a same target, and therefore the efficacy brought by the addition of the concentrations of all these compounds, which different from the synergy effect of multi-constituents on multi-targets. Studies on the disposition of TCMs showed that a constituent can be biotransformed to many metabolites (up to more than 50 metabolites);different constituents can produce the same metabolites;many metabolites (up to 10 compounds for each metabolite) are isomers or homologues; some constituents can be converted to each other in vivo; and some metabolites are bioactive. These com-pounds having the similar structure are likely to have the same pharmacological effects on the same target, which could provide experimental evidences for the concept ofEffective Formsand the hypothesis ofAdditive Effect. We suggest that the Effective Forms and Additive Effects of the pharmacodynamic substances of TCMs should be extensively investi-gated in the future, and the results of such researches will help us further understand the pharmacodynamic substances and action mechanism of TCMs, and give a new explanation 'Toxicities Scattering Effect' for 'Why the toxicities of TCMs are low', and propose a new strategy for quality control of TCMs.

Adult ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage ; methods ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pneumoconiosis ; therapy ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome

Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Occupational Diseases ; Organometallic Compounds ; poisoning

Objective To study the gene mutations and clinical features of mandibuloacral dysplasia with type A lipodystrophy (MADA) in a Chinese family. Methods The information of 5 family members including 2 siblings suspected atyp-ical progeria was assembled. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood of 5 family members, the 12 exons of LMNA gene were ampliifed by PCR and then the PCR products were directly sequenced and analyzed by using Blast software online. The SIFT and PolyPhen-2 software were used to predict the harmfulness of mutations. Results The 2 siblings were clinically diagnosed as MADA. Heterozygous c.1579C>T (p.Arg527Cys) and c.1583C>T (p.Thr528Met) mutations were detected in this family. The father carried c.1583C>T (p.Thr528Met) mutation, the mother carried c.1579C>T (p.Arg527Cys) mutation, and their normal daughter were all heterozygous carriers with c.1583C>T (p.Thr528Met) mutation. Compound heterozygous c.1579C>T (p.Arg527Cys) and c.1583C>T (p.Thr528Met) mutations in 2 siblings led to MADA. The MADA showed an autosomal re-cessive inheritance pattern in this family. Conclusions The 2 siblings with MADA in this family were caused by compound heterozygous mutations in LMNA gene.

To study the chemical constituents of Asarum himalaicum, fifteen compounds were isolated from a 70% ethanol extract by using a combination of various chromatographic techniques including column chromatography over silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, and semi-preparative HPLC. By spectroscopic techniques including 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and HR-ESI-MS, these compounds were identified as 4-demethoxyaristolochic acid BII (1), aristolochic acid I (2), aristolochic acid Ia (3), 7-hydroxyaristolochic acid I (4), aristolochic acid IV (5), aristolic acid II (6), debilic acid (7), aristololactam I (8), 9-hydroxyaristololactam I (9), 7-methoxyaristololactam IV (10), (2S)-narigenin-5, 7-di-O-beta-D-pyranosylglucoside (11), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (12), 3, 4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (13), 4-hydroxycinnamic acid (14), and beta-sitosterol (15). All of these compounds (1-15) were obtained from A. himalaicum for the first time. Among them, 1 was identified as a new compound, and compounds 3-6, 9, 12-14 were isolated from Asarum genus for the first time. Since the kidney toxicity of aristolochic acids and aristololactams has been reported, the result of this investigation suggests that it should be cautioned to use A. himalaicum as a medicine.

This article proposes the "Efficacy Theory" hypothesis of the traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs): TCMs take effects and weaken toxicities through the additive effects of numerous effective forms (including their constituents or/and metabolites) on a same target, the synergistic effects based on the overall action of the additive effects on individual targets and their toxicities scattering effects. A TCM may include approximately 1000 constituents and each constituent may produce about 100 metabolites in vivo after oral administration. Numerous effective forms of incalculable constituents and their metabolites could work like a "army group" together. When the quantity of a specific target molecule is larger than the pharmaceutical molecules, the molecules of different kinds of effective forms could combine with the target molecules successively, to exert the additive effects. When the target molecules are mostly occupied ("target most spaces occupied"), this TCM begins to work. The additive effects maybe exert not only in concentration but also in a time order way, which gives a sustained efficacy of TCM. The additive effects and the toxicities scattering effects are resulted from the same effective groups and not identical toxic groups among different effective form molecules. The "toxicities scattering effect" can be used to explain the non-toxic TCMs, but not fit for toxic TCMs. The efficacy theory showed that the variety of constituents and metabolites may participate in the process of pharmacodynamic actions, including the additive effects, synergy effects and toxicities scattering effects, which may be useful for explaining and developing the characteristic advantage of the TCMs. The questions we need to study or confirm are as follows: What are the TCMs' pharmacodynamic substance basis and mechanism made up of Why are toxicities of most TCMs' smaller How is the TCMs' "Efficacy Theory" which reflects characteristic advantage of TCMs applied in the research and development of new drugs.
Animals ; Drug Therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Pharmaceutical Preparations ; chemistry