OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical efficacy and safety of automatic pressure-controlled pressure cupping in patients with lumbar disc herniation, and compare it with traditional cupping. METHODS: A total of 100 patients diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation from January 2022 to August 2024 were selected and divided into two groups:the automatic pressure-controlled pressure cupping group (controlled pressure cupping group) and the traditional cupping group (control group), 50 cases in each group. In the controlled pressure cupping group, there were 18 males and 32 females, with an age of (51.98±12.69) years;in the control group, there were 16 males and 34 females, with an age of (51.32±12.05) years. The visual analogue scale(VAS), comfort score, and lumbar range of motion were observed before treatment and after the 1st, 3rd, and 7th treatments to evaluate the efficacy and safety. RESULTS: All patients completed the treatment intervention, with complete follow-up data collected. No adverse reactions or complications occurred during treatment and follow-up. After the 3rd treatment, the VAS score of the controlled pressure cupping group was (2.38±0.49), which was lower than that of the control group (2.94±0.68), with a statistically significant difference (P<0.001). In the controlled pressure cupping group, the VAS scores after the 1st, 3rd, and 7th treatments were significantly better than those before treatment (P=0.026);in the control group, the VAS scores after the 3rd and 7th treatments were better than those before treatment, but the difference was not statistically significant(P=0.182). Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) on VAS scores at different time points in both groups showed that there were statistically significant differences in inter-group, time, and interaction effects (P<0.05). After the 1st treatment, in the controlled pressure cupping group, 0 patients felt comfortable, 42 patients (84%) felt mild discomfort, and 8 patients (16%) felt moderate discomfort;in the control group, 0 patients felt comfortable, 28 patients (56%) felt mild discomfort, and 22 patients(44%) felt moderate discomfort;the difference between the two groups was statistically significant(P=0.005). After the 3rd treatment, in the controlled pressure cupping group, 30 patients(60%) felt comfortable, 20 patients (40%) felt mild discomfort, and 0 patients felt moderate discomfort; in the control group, 9 patients (18%) felt comfortable, 41 patients (82%) felt mild discomfort, and 0 patients felt moderate discomfort;the difference between the two groups was statistically significant(P<0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in comfort between the two groups after the 7th treatment(P>0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in lumbar range of motion between the two groups before and after treatment(P>0.05);compared with before treatment, the lumbar range of motion of both groups after treatment was significantly improved, with statistically significant differences (P<0.001). CONCLUSION Automatic pressure-controlled pressure cupping can effectively relieve symptoms in patients with lumbar disc herniation, with excellent safety.
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Intervertebral Disc Displacement/physiopathology* ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Lumbar Vertebrae/physiopathology* ; Cupping Therapy/methods* ; Pressure ; Aged ; Treatment Outcome

Adipose Tissue ; Adipose Tissue, Brown ; Adipose Tissue, White ; Animals ; Iodine ; Norepinephrine ; Rats ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current status of antibiotic use for very and extremely low birth weight (VLBW/ELBW) infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of Hunan Province. METHODS: The use of antibiotics was investigated in multiple level 3 NICUs of Hunan Province for VLBW and ELBW infants born between January, 2017 and December, 2017. RESULTS: The clinical data of 1 442 VLBW/ELBW infants were collected from 24 NICUs in 2017. The median antibiotic use duration was 17 days (range: 0-86 days), accounting for 53.0% of the total length of hospital stay. The highest duration of antibiotic use was up to 91.4% of the total length of hospital stay, with the lowest at 14.6%. In 16 out of 24 NICUs, the antibiotic use duration was accounted for more than 50.0% of the hospitalization days. There were 113 cases with positive bacterial culture grown in blood or cerebrospinal fluid, making the positive rate of overall bacterial culture as 7.84%. The positive rate of bacterial culture in different NICUs was significantly different from 0% to 14.9%. The common isolated bacterial pathogens Klebsiella pneumoniae was 29 cases (25.7%); Escherichia coli 12 cases (10.6%); Staphylococcus aureus 3 cases (2.7%). The most commonly used antibiotics were third-generation of cephalosporins, accounting for 41.00% of the total antibiotics, followed by penicillins, accounting for 32.10%, and followed by carbapenems, accounting for 13.15%. The proportion of antibiotic use time was negatively correlated with birth weight Z-score and the change in weight Z-score between birth and hospital discharge (r=-0.095, -0.151 respectively, P<0.01), positively correlated with death/withdrawal of care (r=0.196, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Antibiotics used for VLBW/ELBW infants in NICUs of Hunan Province are obviously prolonged in many NICUs. The proportion of routine use of third-generation of cephalosporins and carbapenems antibiotics is high among the NICUs.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Birth Weight ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Extremely Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Background:Clinical outcomes of undifferentiated arthritis (UA) are diverse,and only 40 ％ of patients with UA develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA) after 3 years.Discovering predictive markers at disease onset for further intervention is critical.Therefore,our objective was to analyze the clinical outcomes of UA and ascertain the predictors for RA development.Methods:We performed a prospective,multi-center study from January 2013 to October 2016 among Chinese patients diagnosed with UA in 22 tertiary-care hospitals.Clinical and serological parameters were obtained at recruitment.Follow-up was undertaken in all patients every 12 weeks for 2 years.Predictive factors of disease progression were identified using multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression.Results:A total of 234 patients were recruited in this study,and 17 (7.3％) patients failed to follow up during the study.Among the 217 patients who completed the study,83 (38.2％) patients went into remission.UA patients who developed RA had a higher rheumatoid factor (RF)-positivity (42.9％ vs.16.8％,x2=8.228,P=0.008),anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibodypositivity (66.7％ vs.10.7％,x2 =43.897,P ＜ 0.001),and double-positivity rate of RF and anti-CCP antibody (38.1％ vs.4.1％,x2 =32.131,P ＜ 0.001) than those who did not.Anti-CCP antibody but not RF was an independent predictor for RA development (hazard ratio 18.017,95％ confidence interval:5.803-55.938;P ＜ 0.001).Conclusion:As an independent predictor of RA,anti-CCP antibody should be tested at disease onset in all patients with UA.

Objective To investigate the characteristics of lesions of acute guttate psoriasis induced by upper respiratory tract infection, and to compare the difference in the different species between patients and healthy controls. Methods A total of 11 cases of acute guttate psoriasis induced by upper respiratory tract infection and 11 cases of healthy control without skin lesions of any dermatosis were included in this study. The 16SrDNA sequencing technology was used for analyzing data. The aseptic cotton swabs were used for sampling. DNA extraction and quality inspection were then performed. PCR amplification, library construction, microbial gene extraction, purification and recovery process were also performed. Then the gene samples were sent to be sequenced and to annotate the species. Finally, the data were analyzed by α and β diversity analysis to find the differences in microbial species and the diversity of microbial community. LEfSe analysis was used to find the species with significant difference, and the results were verified by the rank test. Results There was no significant difference in α diversity analysis between the two groups. There was a trend of difference in β diversity analysis between the two groups. However, LEfSe analysis (LED Score was 4) and rank test (P＜0.05) found that acinetobacter was a statistically significant different species and played a major role in the lesions of acute guttate psoriasis. Conclusion The skin lesions of microbiota is developing from one steady state to another one in the primary or recurrent acute guttate psoriasis patients with the history of upper respiratory infection. The different species of acinetobacter may play a key role in this change. However there is no significant difference in the overall microbial community between two groups.

To study the protective effect of Wuzi Yanzong recipe on testicular DNA damage and apoptosis in natural ageing rats, SPF grade 16-month-old SD male rats were randomly divided into three groups: ageing model group, low and high dose Wuzi Yanzong recipe groups (WZ, 1， 4 g·kg⁻¹). In addition, 2-month-old SD rats were used as adult control group (10 rats in each group). The ageing model group and the adult control group were fed with normal diet for 4 months. Wuzi Yanzong groups received medicated feed for 4 months. After fasting for 12 hours, the rats were sacrificed. Then testis tissues were taken and weighed to calculate the testis index. The change of testicular tissue morphology was observed by HE staining. Expression and localization of DNA damage-associated protein ATR were observed by immunofluorescence. The expressions of DNA damage-related proteins γ-H2AX, Chk1, p-p53 and apoptosis-related proteins Bcl-2 and Bax in testes were detected by Western blot. The apoptosis of testis tissue in rats was detected by using TUNEL. The results showed that as compared with the youth control group, the protein expression levels of γ-H2AX, Chk1, p-p53 and Bax were significantly increased while Bcl-2 protein expression level was significantly decreased intestis tissues of ageing model group. Wuzi Yanzong recipe significantly decreased protein expression levels of γ-H2AX, Chk1, p-p53 and Bax and increased Bcl-2 protein expression level as well as Bcl-2/Bax ratio. Immunofluorescence results showed that Wuzi Yanzong recipe could significantly decrease the ageing-induced ATR, increase in testis tissues. TUNEL results showed that Wuzi Yanzong recipe could significantly attenuate the germ cell apoptosis in testicular tissues. All the above results suggest that Wuzi Yanzong recipe could protect the germ cell in testicular tissues of natural ageing rates from DNA damage and apoptosis, and the mechanism may be associated with regulating p53 signaling pathway.

Aim To investigate the effects of morphine preconditioning (MPC) on transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel current in rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons and the phosphorylation (p) of TRPV1 and extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) in PC12 cells that sensitized by nerve growth factor (NGF). Methods DRG neurons isolated from T2-T8 segments of 10 days old SD rat or pheochromo-cytoma (PC12) cells were seeded into 24-well plates or 6-well plates, respectively, and randomly divided into 5 groups:control group (group C), NGF sensiti-zation group (group NGF), and morphine precondi-tioning groups (group MPC 0.3, group MPC 1.0 and group MPC 3.0). DRG neurons were identified by im-munofluorescent method with neuronal specific enolase (NSE). Cells were treated by morphine, NGF and capsaicin to simulate the effects of MPC on DRG neu-rons in T2-T8 segments during myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI). Afterwards, the inward cur-rent of DRG neurons induced by capsaicin in all groups were detected by whole cell recording; the expression and phosphorylation of TRPV 1 and ERK in PC12 cells were detected by Western blot. Results DRG neu-rons survived and grew nicely,and the staining of neu-ronal specific markers,NSE,was positive. In compar-ison with group C, the inward current of group NGF was enhanced (P <0.05), while MPC inhibited the enhancement (P <0.05). The relative expression of TRPV1,p-TRPV1 and p-ERK in group NGF was up-regulated when compared with group C (P <0.05).Moreover, the up-regulation was also suppressed by MPC (P <0.05). Conclusions MPC inhibits TR-PV1 channel current sensitized by NGF in neurocytes, and the mechanism might be associated with the down-regulation of TRPV1 p-TRPV1 and p-ERK expression.

Objective To analyze the safety and consistency of domestic live attenuated varicella vaccines (LAVVs) at gene level.Methods The key genes (ORF38,ORF54,and ORF62) of LAVVs produced by four Chinese manufacturers were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced.The sequencing results were compared with the sequences of Dumas,P-Oka,and V-Oka strains in GenBank and with the sequences of Varilrix (GSK) and Varivax (Merck).Results The ORF38 and ORF54 gene sequences of four domestic LAVVs were the same as each other and completely consistent with the sequences of V-Oka and Varilrix;however,it was different from Varivax (Merck) at one site.The ORF62 gene sequences of four domestic LAVVs were similar,and had individual nucleotide differences with V-Oka,Varilrix(GSK),and Varivax (Merck).Conclusions The sequences of ORF38,ORF54,and ORF62 of four domestic LAVVs are almost the same,showing good stability.They have small differences with V-Oka,Varilrix(GSK),and Varivax (Merck),without introducing new mutations.

Coronavirus ; chemistry ; ultrastructure ; Microscopy, Electron ; Models, Molecular ; Ribonucleoproteins ; chemistry ; ultrastructure

Dyslipidemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in patients with diabetes, and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) is a better predictor of CVDs than low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in patients with diabetes. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the distribution of non-HDL-C and the prevalence of high non-HDL-C level in Chinese patients with diabetes mellitus and identify the associated risk factors. Non-HDL-C concentration positively correlated with total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-C concentrations. Although both non-HDL-C and LDL-C concentration both related positively with TC concentration, the magnitude of correlation was relatively higher for non-HDL-C. The prevalence of high non-HDL-C (⋝4.14 mmol/L) was higher in two age groups (55-64 years: 46.7%; 65-79 years: 47.3%) than other age groups (18-24 years: 4.2%; 25-34 years: 43.6%; 35-44 years: 38.1%; 45-54 years: 41.0%). It was also higher among overweight (45.1%), generally obese (50.9%), or abdominally obese (47.3%) subjects, compared with normal weight subjects (34.5%). The risk of high non-HDL-C increased with advancing age. Both general obesity [odds ratio (OR)=1.488, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.003-2.209] and abdominal obesity (OR=1.561, 95% CI: 1.101-2.214) were significantly associated with high non-HDL-C levels.
Adolescent ; Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diabetes Mellitus ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Female ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Young Adult