OBJECTIVETo investigate the impact of long-time and short-time blood pressure variability (BPV) on glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in elderly population.

METHODSA total of 2 464 participants aged of ≥60 years old without history of stroke and coronary heart disease were selected with random sampling method from the individuals underwent health check up in Tangshan Kailuan Hospital, Kailuan Linxi Hospital, Kailuan Zhaogezhuang Hospital between 2006 and 2013. The study participants were asked to join a face-to-face interview every two years. Long-time BPV was defined as the standard deviation of all SBP values at the baseline visit and following visits, short-time BPV was defined as the standard deviation of day time blood pressure and night time blood pressure which was derived from 24 hours ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Multivariate linear regression models were used to test the impact of long- and short-time BPV on eGFR.

RESULTSThe study included 3 participants groups including the long-time SBPV group (2 279 participants), the short-time SBPV group (1 636 participants) and the long- plus short-time SBPV group (1 632 participants). Participants were further sub grouped by median value (NO.1median value). eGFR in the long-time SBPV NO.1 and NO.2 group was 83.19 and 81.49 ml·min(-1)·1.73 m(-2) respectively, in the short time SBPV NO.1 and NO.2 group was 83.53 and 80.81ml·min(-1)·1.73 m(-2) of the day time, and was 83.20 and 81.14 ml·min(-1)·1.73 m(-2) of the night time, respectively. eGFR in the long- plus short-time SBPV NO.1 and NO.2 group was 83.21 and 81.08 ml·min(-1)·1.73 m(-2) of the long-time SBPV, and was 83.53 and 80.75 ml·min(-1)·1.73 m(-2) of the day time, and was 83.18 and 81.11 ml·min(-1)·1.73 m(-2) of the night time. Significant linear relationship was found between higher day time SBPV and lower eGFR (P<0.05). After adjusting for confounding parameters including age, sex, body mass index, 1 mmHg(1 mmHg=0.133 kPa) of day time SBPV increase was related 0.21 ml·min(-1)·1.73 m(-2) eGFR decrease (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe higher day time SBPV is associated with reduced eGFR in the elderly population.Clinical Trail Registry Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR-TNC-11001489.

Aged ; Blood Pressure ; Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory ; Coronary Disease ; Glomerular Filtration Rate ; Humans ; Time Factors

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects and safety of clinical common symptoms of active Crohn's disease at the mild and moderate stages treated with acupuncture and moxibustion.

METHODSOne hundred and two patients were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, 51 cases in each one. Herb-partition moxibustion and acupuncture were used in the observation group. Herbal cakes with(),(),(),(),(),() and() as the main ingredients were used on Tianshu (ST 25), Qihai (CV 6) and Zhongwan (CV 12); acupuncture was used at Zusanli (ST 36), Shangjuxu (ST 37), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Taixi (KI 3), Gongsun (SP 4) and Taichong (LR 3). Bran-partition moxibustion and shallow acupuncture were applied in the control group. Wheat bran-partition moxibustion in the shape of cake was implemented on the same acupoints as the observation group; shallow acupuncture was used 1~2 cm next to the acupoints. Treatment was given three times a week for 12 weeks, 36 times totally. Clinical effects of eight symptoms were evaluated by TCM symptom score, and the symptoms included abdominal pain (degree, frequency, time), diarrhoea (number, shape and frequency), fatigue, anorexia, borborygmus andflatus, fear of cold, soreness and weakness of waist and knees, tenesmus.

RESULTSAfter 12-week treatment, the eight symptoms were improved apparently (all<0.05), with the scores of abdominal pain (degree, frequency, time), diarrhoea (shape and frequency), fatigue and anorexia in the observation group decreasing more obviously (all<0.01). There was no statistical significance about the other symptom scores between the two groups (all>0.05).

CONCLUSIONSHerb-partition moxibustion combined with acupuncture achieve safety and efficacy for mild and moderate Crohn's disease, and can improve the clinical common symptoms. Furthermore, their effects on abdominal pain (degree, frequency, time), diarrhoea (shape and frequency), fatigue and anorexia are better than those of bran-partition moxibustion and shallow acupuncture.

OBJECTIVETo explore the association of the polymorphism of homologue of dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3 (ICAM-3) grabbing nonintegrin (DC-SIGN related, DC-SIGNR) gene with the susceptibility to HIV-1 infection.

METHODSThe distribution of the DC-SIGNR variants in the tandem repeat region and their association with HIV-1 infection in a cohort composed of 345 HIV-1 seropositive and 468 high-risk HIV-1 seronegative individuals was examined.

RESULTSThere are 14 genotypes and 5 alleles in the DC-SIGNR repeat regions in the cohort. Although the most common DC-SIGNR allele among Chinese Han population and the Caucasian population is 7, it was found in a higher frequency in the Chinese than in Caucasians (67.1% vs.46.0%, P<0.01). HIV-1 seropositive individuals had a lower frequency of the genotype 7/7 than the high-risk seronegative individuals (38.55% vs. 48.29%, P=0.0057), but a higher frequency of genotype 9/5 (4.35% vs. 1.07%, P=0.0029).

CONCLUSIONThese results suggest that the tandem-repeat polymorphisms of the DC-SIGNR gene in the Chinese Han population exhibit unique genetic characteristics previously unrecognized in the Caucasian population. Genotype 9/5 seems to be a risk factor for HIV-1 infection in the Chinese population.

Adult ; Alleles ; Cell Adhesion Molecules ; genetics ; Cohort Studies ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genotype ; HIV Infections ; genetics ; transmission ; virology ; HIV-1 ; Humans ; Lectins, C-Type ; genetics ; Male ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Receptors, Cell Surface ; genetics

A rapid and robust segmentation system is the base of the research on the change process of neural stem cells. In order to improve this system, against the segmentation of the multiple connected and blurred border cells, we present an improved geometric active contour algorithm based on the level set method and the curve evolution theory. This method can solve the topological change by itself and obtain the more real edges of the cells. This method has been adopted in the segmentation of the sequence of neural stem cell. The results prove the validity and veracity.
Algorithms ; Cells, Cultured ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Microscopy ; methods ; Neurons ; cytology ; Stem Cells ; cytology

A novel method of feature extraction from protein primary structure has been proposed and applied to classify the protein homodimer, homotrimer, homotetramer and homohexamer, i. e. one protein sequence can be represented by a feature vector composed of amino acid compositions and a set of weighted auto-correlation function factors of amino acid residue index. As a result, high classification accuracies are obtained. For example, with the same support vector machine (SVM), the total accuracies of QIANA, AIANB, MEEJ, ROBB and SNEP sets based on this novel feature extraction method are 77.63, 77.16, 76.46, 76.70 and 75.06% respectively in Jackknife test, which are 6.39, 5.92, 5.22, 5.46 and 3.82 percent points respectively higher than that of COMP set based on the conventional method composed of amino acid compositions. With the same QIANA set, the total accuracy of SVM is 77.63%, which is 16.29 percent points higher than that of covariant discriminant algorithm. These results show: (1) The novel feature extraction method is effective and feasible, and the feature vectors based on this method may contain more protein quaternary structure information and appear to capture essential information about the composition and hydrophobicity of residues in the surface patches buried in the interfaces of associated subunits; (2) SVM can be referred as a powerful computational tool for classifying the homo-oligomers of proteins.
Algorithms ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Artificial Intelligence ; Cluster Analysis ; Humans ; Models, Molecular ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Protein Conformation ; Proteins ; chemistry ; classification ; Sequence Analysis, Protein ; methods