Objective To investigate the effects and adverse reactions of high-dose glucocorticoid on early active rheumatoid arthritis patients.Methods The early active rheumatoid arthritis patients were randomly divided into three groups:high dose group (16 patients,with large doses of glucocorticoid therapy),low dose group (17 patients,with small doses of glucocorticoid therapy),and control group (41 patients,with no glucocorticoid therapy).Compared the differences among the three groups.Results The changes in the three groups were different in joint pain,joint swelling,morning stiffness,erythrocyte sedimentation rate,rheumatoid factor and C-reactive protein (P ＜ 0.05).The high dose group was significantly better than the other two groups in the above variables alleviating,in the 1 week after the treatment.The changes in the three groups had no significant difference of bone mineral density,Larsen hip score (P＞ 0.05).The NSAIDs days in the control group was significantly longer than the high dose group,low dose group [(51.17 ± 2.56) d vs.(14.16 ± 0.71) d,(26.50 ± 1.59) d],the difference was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).Rate of weight gain in the high dose group,low dose group was significantly higher than the control group [5/16,4/17 vs.4.9％ (2/41)],the difference was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).Body weight increased in the high dose group and low dose group occurred mainly in the following 1.5 months of therapy,with the discontinuation of cortices-teroids,weight gradually fell to normal.Gastrointestinal discomfort incidence in the control group was significandy higher than that in the high dose group,low dose group [51.2％ (21/41) vs.2/16,3/17],the difference was statistically significant (P＜ 0.05).Conclusions High-dose glucocorticoid can rapidly relieve clinical symptoms and inflammation in early active rheumatoid arthritis patients.High-dose corticosteroids do not bring too many side effects to patients but weight gain,and it reduces the patients' gastrointestinal discomfort greatly,because of the decrease use of NSAIDs.

Objective To explore the clinical effiicacy and effect on cytokines of invigorating the kidney and activating blood fomula on treating osteoarthritis patients in the pattern of kidney deficiency. Methods 113 patients with knee osteoarthritis were randomly divided into two groups including 56 cases of treatment group and 57 cases of control group, which were treated by invigorating the kidney and activating blood fomula and combinaton of Celecoxib and Glucosamine respectively. The clinical effiicacy of two groups were investigated by Womac osteoarthritis index and the average severity of OA index. The changes of serum inflammatory cytokines TNF-? and IL-6 were detected by ELISA. Results The total efficiency of the treatment group was 89.3% and better than the control group (P 0.05) compared with control group. The serum TNF-?, IL-6 levels of treatment group significantly decreased after treatment in treatment group (P

Purpose: To study the effect of personality on the mental adjustment of breast cancer patients during operation. Methods: Forty three breast cancer patients were examined by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) for their personality before operation, and by the Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale ( MAC) for their mental adjustment reaction before and after operation. Results: ANOVA repeated analysis revealed that the patients characterized by high Psychoticism showed higher scores on Fatalism, and the patients characterized by low Lie showed higher Hopelessness during operation. Conclusions: In the treatment of breast cancer patients, it is necessary to give appropriate psychological treatment according to the patients's individual characteristics.

OBJECTIVEThis study aims to compare and determine a kind of nano-hydroxyapatite composite material with good antibacterial efficacy on Enterococcusfaecalis (E. faecalis) in vitro.

METHODSWe investigated the antimicrobial activity of four kinds of nano-hydroxyapatite composites, namely, silver/hydroxyapatite composite nanoparticles (Ag/nHA), yttrium/hydroxyapatite composite nanoparticles (Yi/nHA), cerium/hydroxyapatite composite nanoparticles (Ce/nHA), and hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHA), against E. faecalis in vitro using the agar diffusion and broth dilution method by measuring the growth inhibition zone and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), respectively.

RESULTSThe agar diffusion test results showed that Ag/nHA displayed an obvious growth inhibition zone, whereas Yi/nHA, Ce/nHA, and nHA showed no influence on E. faecalis. The MIC value of Ag/nHA was 1.0 g.L-1, and the three other materials had no effect on E.faecalis even at the high concentration of 32.0 g.L-1.

CONCLUSIONAg/nHA display a potential antimicrobial efficacy to planktonic E.faecalis. Whereas, the three other kinds of nano-hydroxyapatite composites (Yi/nHA, Ce/nHA, nHA) show no influence.

Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Anti-Infective Agents ; Durapatite ; pharmacology ; Enterococcus faecalis ; drug effects ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Nanocomposites ; toxicity ; Silver

Cardiac enlargement is an important symptom of vascular and heart disease. The cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) is an important index used to measure the size of heart. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between aging and cardiothoracic ratio. This paper also presents an improved C-V level set method to segment lung tissue based on X-ray image, which used to automatically compute CTR. In the investigation carried out in our school, we got more than 3 120 chest radiographs from medical examination of the working population in Beijing, and we systematically studied the effects of age and gender on the CTR to obtain reference values for each group. The reference values established in this study can be useful for recording and quantifying the cardiac enlargement, so that it may be useful for calling attention to the cardiovascular diseases and the heart diseases.
Aging ; Algorithms ; Cardiomegaly ; pathology ; Heart ; diagnostic imaging ; Heart Diseases ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Lung ; diagnostic imaging ; Myocardium ; pathology ; Radiography, Thoracic ; methods ; Reference Values

With the advancement of the health reform and development of medical services,and performance evaluation of fine management,have become a major means to regulate medical services, improve quality of medical services, and promote healthy functioning of hospitals. The Hospital Authority worked out the performance evaluation standards for municipal hospitals. Setup of such financial evaluation indices as cost control rate,basic operation and healthcare materials for 10 000 yuan medical revenue,per-capita income and expenditure balance,implementation of fiscal input,and asset turnover.Finance and asset management of municipal public hospitals were subject to a general assessment and comparative analysis. Assessment results were linked to the hospital ’s annual performance bonuses.This enables the financial indicators and assessment to play a key role for hospitals to reduce costs,improve efficiency and strengthen fine management. Hospitals were encouraged to achieve balanced income and expenditure, surpluses, asset efficiency, performance budgeting, cost controls,decent financial operations.

Objective To investigate the actual pollution status of heating-ventilating-air conditioning(HVAC) systems in five-star grade hotels in Beijing. Methods Seven sets of centralized HVAC system from five five-star grade hotels in Beijing were selected for sampling monitoring and videotaping in situ from August 2003 to October 2003. Results There were six sets HVAC systems seriously polluted and one set was in moderately polluted according collected dust weight. The total counts of bacteria in the dust were in medium pollution grade in four sets of HVAC systems; The total quantity of fungus in the dust were in medium pollution grade in five sets of HVAC systems; The video materials showed that inside the air duct there were fungus, construction rubbish and deposit of large quantity of dust. Conclusion The HVAC systems of those five hotels were seriously polluted.

Objective To understand the current situation and motives of patients xeroxing medical records and the various factors affecting patients' right to know. Methods A cross-sectional survey was made on people who xeroxed medical records with self-made questionnaires and methods of descriptive analysis and stepwise regression analysis were then used to analyze 306 returned questionnaires. Results 98.37% of those surveyed showed approval for the procedures regarding the xeroxing of medical records; 98.04% felt satisfied with the hospital's medical records control; and the chief motives of patients xeroxing medical records were data keeping (28.57%) and medical insurance(27.12%). The current state of knowledge possessed by people xeroxing medical records about patients' rights was unsatisfying. Conclusion Patients' awareness of their right to xerox medical records and their satisfaction towards the hospital's medical records control are fairly high, and yet efforts still need to be made to step up propaganda among rural and elderly people.

Aim To investigate the effects of CP1 54526,a corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) receptor 1 antagonist,on the hippocampal neuron ap-optosis.Methods Rat hippocampal neurons were primarily cultured.Cell viability was estimated using MTT assays.Neurons were randomly divided into four groups:Normal cultures (Control);CRH-exposed cul-tures (CRH);CRH and CP1 54526 co-exposed cul-tures (CRH + CP ); CP1 54526-exposed cultures (CP).Cell apoptosis was examined by TUNEL or flow cytometry Annexin Ⅴ-PI staining.The protein levels of Bax,Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 were investigated by West-ern Blotting.Results 1 0 -8 mol·L -1 CRH decreased cell viability of cultured hippocampal neuron (P <0.05),while 50 mmol ·L -1 CP1 54526 significantly increased neuron viability (P <0.05).Compared with Control group,cell apoptotic rate,the ratio of Bax and Bcl-2 and the protein level of Caspase-3 were elevated in hippocampal neuron induced by CRH.Combined with CP1 54526 reversed the effects of CRH.Applica-tion of CP1 54526 alone had no obvious effects on cell apoptosis.Conclusions A certain concentration of CRH can induce hippocampal neuron apoptosis,and its receptor 1 antagonist CP1 54526 can effectively re-duce the apoptosis and play a neuroprotective role.

AIM: To investigate the enhancement of ethanol on percutaneous permeation and topical anaesthesia of tetracaine gel. METHODS: Tetracaine (4%, w/w) gels were prepared by using 20% and 70% ethanol as penetration enhancers. Franz diffusion chamber and UV spectrophotometry were adopted in the transdermal osmotic test of isolated mouse skin. Von Frey test was used to evaluate the topical anesthetic effect of tetracaine gels. RESULTS: 20% and 70% ethanol greatly improved the percutaneous permeation of tetracaine gel (P