AIM:To observe the changes of Th17 related cytokines in tears of conjunctivochalasis(CCH)patients with liver-kidney yin deficiency treated with traditional Chinese medicine Qi Jing Mingmu decoction combined with artificial tears.METHODS:A total of 56 CCH patients(56 eyes)with liver-kidney yin deficiency of grade Ⅱ to Ⅲ were collected and randomly divided into treatment group(treated with Qi Jing Mingmu decoction combined with artificial tears)of 26 cases(26 eyes)and control group(treated with pure artificial tears)of 30 cases(30 eyes). The treatment course was 1 mo, and international ocular surface disease index(OSDI), tear film break-up time(BUT), tear meniscus height(TMH)and conjunctival congestion index of the patients were observed before and after treatment. The patients' tears were collected before and after treatment, and Th17 related cytokines in tears were detected using flow cytometry immunofluorescence luminescence method.RESULTS:After treatment, the OSDI, BUT and conjunctival congestion index of CCH patients in the treatment group and control group were significantly improved(all P<0.01). After treatment, the TMH of CCH patients in the treatment group was significantly reduced(P<0.01), while there was no statistically significant difference in TMH of the control group before and after treatment(P=0.41). After treatment, the levels of Th17 related cytokines IL-17A, IL-22, IFN-γ, IL-17F, and IL-1β in tears of CCH patients in the treatment group were significantly reduced after treatment(all P<0.01), and the changes in the treatment group were more significant(all P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the control group before and after treatment(all P>0.05). After treatment, the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in the tears of both groups of CCH patients decreased compared to those before treatment(both P<0.05), but the changes in the treatment group were more significant(both P<0.01).CONCLUSION:Qi Jing Mingmu decoction combined with artificial tears can effectively improve the ocular surface microenvironment, enhance tear film stability, and inhibit ocular surface inflammation in CCH patients with liver-kidney yin deficiency. This may be related to its reduction in the secretion of Th17 related cytokines in tears.

Dry eye is an age-related disease characterized by tear film instability and ocular discomfort.Its onset is closely related to various factors such as age and environment.Studies have shown that oxidative stress plays a key role in the pathogenesis of dry eyes.This review mainly describes the mechanism of oxidative stress by activating autophagy,in-flammation and aging to induce dry eyes,and the application progress of the antioxidants from natural foods in relieving the oxidative stress state of the ocular surface and treating dry eyes.

Cataract is a common eye disease caused by metabolic disorders of the lens, which can lead to visual impairment or blindness. Its occurrence and development are affected by various factors, among which age is the most important factor. At present, drug therapy only has a delaying effect on early cataracts, but surgical treatment is still needed for cataracts that affect vision in the middle and late stages. Therefore, it is crucial to establish an experimental cataract model and explore appropriate drugs for preventing and treating cataracts. D-galactose has been widely used in the study of aging animal models, and is often used in the models of diabetes cataract and age-related cataract. This article elaborates on the pathogenesis, modeling methods, and evaluation criteria for successful modeling of D-galactose-induced cataract models, in order to guide experimental researches related to cataract prevention and treatment.

Objective To study the relationship between the development of auditory and speech in children with hearing loss after hearing aid fitting and discuss the development of speech with the ability of auditory in children at different stages of evaluation, with different degrees of hearing loss and different ages respectively.Methods A total of 19 children (14 boys and 5 girls) with hearing loss participated in this study.The age at hearing aid fitting ranged from 3 to 8 years old with a mean of 5.42±1.86 years old.According to their hearing levels, the children in this study were divided into two groups: the moderate hearing loss group (n=10) and the severe group (n=9).According to their ages at hearing aid fitting, all children in this study were divided into two groups: the less than or equal to six years old (n=11) and greater than six years old (n=8).MAIS and MUSS were used to evaluate their abilities of auditory and speech at pre-fitting, 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after hearing aids were worn respectively.A linear and regression analysis was done in the statistic procedure.Results There was a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS (R=0.774,P<0.05).There was also a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS for the different evaluating stages respectively.The correlations were pre-fitting (R=0.710,P<0.05), 1 month after hearing aid fitting (R=0.774,P<0.05), 3 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0.814,P<0.05), 6 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0.819,P<0.05), 9 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0.707,P<0.05), 12 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0.649,P<0.05).There was also a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS for MAIS (items 3~6) (Sound awareness) and MAIS (items 7~10) (Sound understanding).The correlations for MAIS (items 3~6) were (R=0.768,P<0.05), and for MAIS (items 7~10) (Sound understanding) (R=0.794,P<0.05).There was also a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS for different group of ages.The correlations for the group of <6years old were (R=0.808,P<0.05), and for the group of the ≥6 years old (R=0.775,P<0.05).There was also a significant correlation between the scores of MAIS and MUSS for different groups of hearing loss levels.The correlation for the group of moderate hearing loss was (R=0.771,P<0.05), and the group of severe hearing loss (R=0.787,P<0.05).Conclusion The development of auditory ability is closely related to the speech ability.The speech abilities increase with the improvement of auditory abilities.The less severe the hearing loss is, the longer the use of hearing aids, the younger the children are, the better the speech ability improved with auditory ability development after hearing aid fitting.

Objective The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between the development of audito‐ry and speech in infants with hearing loss after hearing aid fitting and discuss the development of speech with the a‐bility of auditory in infants with different degree of hearing loss and different stage of evaluation after hearing aid fit‐ting .Methods A total of 32 infants (17 boys and 15 girls) with prelingual hearing loss participated in this study . The age at hearing aid fitting ranged from 3 to 34 months with a mean of 15 .6 months .According to their hearing level ,all infants in this study were divided into three groups :group of profound hearing loss(16) ,group of severe hearing loss(11) ,group of moderate hearing loss(5) .CAP and SIR were used to evaluate their abilities of auditory and speech at pre -fitting ,1 ,3 ,6 ,9 and 12 months after hearing aid fitting respectively .A linear and regression a‐nalysis was done in the statistic procedure .Results There was a significant correlation between the scores of CAP and SIR for the three groups respectively .The correlation from low to high followed by the group of profound hear‐ing loss (R=0 .656 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,group of severe hearing loss (R=0 .758 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,group of mod‐erate hearing loss (R=0 .849 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) .There was also a significant correlation between the scores of CAP and SIR for the different evaluating stages respectively .The correlation from low to high followed by pre -fitting (R=0 .559 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,1 month after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .575 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,3 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .726 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,6 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .823 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) , 9 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .838 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) ,12 months after hearing aid fitting (R=0 .855 ,P=0 .000<0 .05) .Conclusion The development of auditory ability is closely related to speech ability which increases with the improvement of auditory ability .The less the infants have the hearing loss and the longer the infants use the hearing aids ,the higher the auditory ability is related to speech ability in infants after hearing aid fitting .

Objective To analyse the mental health of adolescents with cochlear implants and provide the ref‐erence for programming the personalize rehabilitation schedule of audio - speech -psychological .Methods The mental health test(MHT) was used to evaluate the mental health status of 60 adolescent with cochlear implants ,and compared with those of adolescent with normal hearing .Results The incidence of psychological problems was 3 .33% in adolescent with cochlear implants .The hypersusceptilility scores of the group of cochlear implants (5 .63 ± 2 .22) was higher than that of in normal hearing group(4 .05) in ,which was significantly different(P<0 .01) . The body syndrome scores in the cochlear implants group (4 .03 ± 2 .72) was lower than that of in normal hearing group(4 .99) ,which was significantly different(P<0 .01) .The phobic tendency scores in cochlear implants group (1 .95 ± 2 .01)was significantly lower than that of in normal hearing group (3 .06)(P<0 .01) .Conclusion The over‐all mental health of adolescent with cochlear implants is good .Cochlear implants can help them improve hearing and speech function ,and improve quality of life ,but they still need parents ,teachers and the community to pay more at‐tention and care to help them get through adolescence ,and return to mainstream society .

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the development of auditory performance and speech intelligibility within the first year after hearing aid fitting in children with moderate or severe hearing loss, investigate the effects of hearing level on auditory performance and speech intelligibility and provide a clinical database for their hearing and speech habilitation. METHOD: Twenty-nine children participated in this study, ranging in age at hearing aid fitting from 3 to 8 years old with a mean of 5. 6 years old. 19 were boys and 10 were girls. According to their hearing level, they were divided into two groups. 14 children were in group of moderate hearing loss (41-60 dB HL). 15 children were in group of severe hearing loss (61-80 dB HL). The categories of auditory performance (CAP) and speech intelligibility rating (SIR) were used to evaluate their auditory performance and speech intelligibility. The evaluation was performed before hearing aid fitting and 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months after fitting. RESULT: There was significant difference in mean score of CAP between group of moderate hearing loss and severe hearing loss before hearing aid fitting (P < 0.05). However, no significant differences were observed between these two groups at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months after fitting (P > 0.05). There was also significant difference in mean score of SIR between group of moderate hearing loss and severe hearing loss before hearing aid fitting (P < 0.05). How ever, no significant differences were also observed between these two groups at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months after fitting (P > 0.05). The mean scores of CAP for group of moderate hearing loss at 6, 9, 12 months after fitting were significantly superior in comparison with the score before hearing aid fitting (P < 0.05). The mean scores of SIR for group of moderate hearing loss at 6, 9, 12 months after fitting were significantly superior in comparison with the score before hearing aid fitting (P < 0.05); the mean score at 12 months after fitting was also significantly superior in comparison with the score at 1 month after fitting (P < 0.05). The mean scores of CAP for group of severe hearing loss at 3, 6, 9, 12 months after fitting were significantly superior in comparison with the score before hearing aid fitting (P < 0.05); the mean scores at 9,12 months after fitting were significantly superior in comparison with the score at 1 month after fitting (P < 0.05). The mean scores of SIR for group of severe hearing loss at 3, 6, 9, 12 months after fitting were significantly superior in comparison with the score before hearing aid fitting (P < 0.05); the mean scores at 6, 9, 12 months after fitting were also significantly superior in comparison with the score at 1 month after fitting (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Auditory performance and speech intelligibility in children with moderate or severe hearing loss improved significantly within the first year after hearing aid fitting. The development followed different trajectory.
Child ; Child, Preschool ; Deafness ; psychology ; rehabilitation ; Female ; Hearing Aids ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Male ; Speech Perception

The envelope protein(Env) of lentiviruses such as HIV,SIV,FIV and EIAV is larger than that of other retroviruses.The Chinese EIAV attenuated vaccine is based on Env and has helped to successfully control this virus,demonstrating that envelope is crucial for vaccine.We compared Env variation of the four kinds of lentiviruses.Phylogenetic analysis showed that the evolutionary relationship of Env between HIV and SIV was the closest and they appeared to descend from a common ancestor,and the relationship of HIV and EIAV was the furthest.EIAV had the shortest Env length and the least number of potential N-linked glycosylation sites(PNGS) as well as glycosylation density compared to various immunodeficiency viruses.However,HIV had the longest Env length and the most PNGS.Moreover,the alignment of HIV and SIV showed that PNGS were primarily distributed within extracellular membrane protein gp120 rather than transmembrane gp41.It implies that the size difference among these viruses is associated with a lentivirus specific function and also the diversity of env.There are low levels of modification of glycosylation sites of Env and selection of optimal protective epitopes might be useful for development of an effective vaccine against HIV/AIDS.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the auditory performance of infants with cochlear implants at the early stage after surgery, summarize the development of auditory ability, investigate the effect of age at cochlear implantation on auditory performance within the first year after surgery and provide a reference for their habilitation program. METHOD: A total of 272 infants with prelingually profound hearing loss participated in this study, ranging in age at cochlear implantation from 18 to 36 months. The mean age was 21 months with a standard deviation of 7 months. Infants with cochlear implants were divided into three groups according to their age at implantation. Infants in group A were implanted under 18 months of age. Infants in group B were implanted between 18 and 24 months of age. Infants in group C were implanted between 25 and 36 months of age. Categories of auditory performance (CAP) was used to evaluate the auditory performance, which rates auditory abilities in eight categories for a scale of 0 to 7. RESULT: The mean scores of CAP for all infants at each interval were significantly different after implantation. Significant differences were observed in mean scores of CAP among these three groups in 1 and 3 months after switch-on. However there were no significant differences in pre-operation, 6, 9 and 12 months after switch-on. CONCLUSION There is a significant improvement in auditory performance of infants with prelingually profound hearing loss within the first year after cochlear implantation. The age at cochlear implantation has no critical influence on the development of auditory capabilities at the early stage after surgery. CAP is a practical tool which can be used in clinic in China.
Age Factors ; Child, Preschool ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Deafness ; surgery ; Female ; Hearing ; Humans ; Infant

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of hearing level on auditory performance in infants with hearing aids and provide a clinical database for their hearing and speech habilitation. METHOD: A total of 32 infants with prelingual hearing loss participated in this study, ranging in age at hearing aid fitting from 3 to 34 months with a mean of 16 months. According to their hearing level, they were divided into three groups. Infants in group A were with moderate hearing loss (41-60 dB HL). Infants in group B were with severe hearing loss (61-80 dB HL). Infants in group C were with profound hearing loss (>81 dB HL). The infant-toddler meaningful auditory integration scale (IT-MAIS) was used to evaluate their auditory performance. The evaluation was performed before hearing aid fitting and 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months after fitting. RESULT: The mean scores of auditory performance showed significant improvements with time of hearing aid use for the three groups of infants (P < 0.05). The mean score of auditory performance for group A at 3 months after fitting was significantly superior in comparison with the scores before hearing aid fitting and at 1 month after fitting (P < 0.05). The mean score of auditory performance for group B at 6 months after fitting was significantly superior in comparison with the scores before hearing aid fitting and at 1, 3 months after fitting (P < 0.05). The mean score of auditory performance for group C at 9 months after fitting was significantly superior in comparison with the scores before hearing aid fitting and at 1, 3, 6 months after fitting (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in mean scores between group A and B at each evaluating interval (P > 0.05). However, significant differences were observed between group A and C at 3, 6, 9, 12 months after fitting (P < 0.05). Significant differences were also shown between group B and C at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months after fitting (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Auditory performance of infants with prelingual hearing loss developed significantly with the use of hearing aids within the first year after fitting. The degree of hearing loss in infants had significant influence on the development of auditory performance.
Child, Preschool ; Deafness ; rehabilitation ; Female ; Hearing ; Hearing Aids ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Infant ; Male