China ; Manganese/toxicity* ; Stainless Steel

Aged ; Cognitive Dysfunction/epidemiology* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Geriatric Assessment ; Humans ; Independent Living ; Sarcopenia/epidemiology*

Derris eriocarpa, a traditional Chinese medicine belonging to the family of Leguminosae, is widely distributed mainly over Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou of China. Modern pharmacological researches on this herb showed that it had extensive bioactivities, such as promoting urination, removing dampness and cough and reducing inspissated mucus and other biological activities. The extensive studies on the chemical constituents of this plant have resulted in the isolation of triterpenoids, steroids, fatty acid and others, but the flavone compounds haven't reported before. In our further research on the ethyl acetate of this plant, nine flavone compounds were obtained by column chromatography on silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, semi-prep HPLC, polyamide column chromatography and recrystallization for separation and purification. The structures were determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, including MS, NMR experiments and comparison with spectroscopic data in the literature, respectively, as diosmetin (1), 3, 3'-di-O-methylquercetin (2), afromosin (3), 6, 3'-dihydroxy-7, 4'-dimethoxyisoflavone (4), odoratin (5), 7, 3'-dihydroxy-8, 4'-dimethoxyisoflavone (6), 6, 4'-dihydroxy-7, 3'-dimethoxyisoflavone (7), 5, 7, 4'-trihydroxy-3, 3', 5'-trimethoxyflavone (8), and alpinumisoflavone (9). All these compounds were isolated from Derris eriocarpa How for the first time. And the in vitro assays showed that compound 2 possessed moderate inhibitory activity against human cancer cells K562 and HEL.
Derris ; chemistry ; Flavonoids ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Humans ; K562 Cells

INTRODUCTIONThis study aimed to determine the early growth patterns of preterm infants who required prolonged hospitalisation in terms of body weight Z-score, and to explore the influencing factors and predictors of their growth.

METHODSThe criteria of enrolment included preterm birth, singleton pregnancy, hospitalisation within the first 24 hours of life, hospital stay ≥ 28 days and clinical follow-up beyond 91 days of corrected age. Body weight Z-scores and the incidence of underweight infants were reviewed periodically, and the influencing factors and possible predictors of growth analysed.

RESULTSBody weight Z-scores of all infants of gestational age (GA) groups kept decreasing, with a trough seen at 36 weeks corrected gestational age (CGA). At corrected full-term, body weight Z-scores for all birth weight groups achieved birth level and were higher than that at 36 weeks CGA. Body weight Z-scores at 61 days corrected age was (-0.300 × GA [weeks] + 0.210 × birth weight [g] + 0.682 × body weight Z-score) at 40 weeks CGA. The cut-off values for body weight Z-score at birth (cut-off, -1.79; sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 91.3%) and 61 days corrected age (cut-off, -1.95; sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 97.1%) were selected to predict the risk of being underweight at 183 days corrected age.

CONCLUSIONEarly growth restriction is a practical problem in preterm infants with prolonged hospitalisation. Body weight Z-scores at 40 weeks CGA and 61 days corrected age can be used to predict body weight gain prior to 183 days corrected age in these infants.

Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gestational Age ; Growth Disorders ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; growth & development ; Infant, Premature, Diseases ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Length of Stay ; trends ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Retrospective Studies ; Singapore ; epidemiology

Objective To study the clinical characteristics, the surgical treatments and the prognostic factors of medullary thyroid carcinoma. Methods Eighty-two cases of medullary thyroid carcinoma undergoing surgeries between January 1999 and December 2004 were reviewed. There were 39 males and 43 females. Age ranged from 16 to 77 years old, with a median of 46 years old. The calcitonin, chronogranin A and neuron-specific enolase were analysed by immunohistochemistry in samples,and calcitonin was detected in 24 cases. Of them, 28 cases underwent lobectomy with isthmectomy, 24 for remained lobe dissection, 16 for total thyroidectomy, and 14 only for neck and upper mediastinal lymph node dissection. Of the 82 cases, 68 cases underwent trachea esophageal ditch dissection, 53 for unilateral neck dissection, 11 for bilateral neck dissection, 13 for upper mediastinal lymph node dissecion through transcervical approach, and 5 for mediastinal lymph node dissecion through inverted T-shaped incision. Results Immunohistochemical examination revealed that the expression rates of calcitonin, chronogranin A and neuron-specific enolase were 95.8%, 88.9% and 80. 0% respectively. Total metastasis rate of neck lymph nodes was 68.8%, and the rates in level Ⅱ, Ⅲ, Ⅳ, Ⅴ andⅥ were 27.3%, 47.7%, 59.1%, 11.4% and 52.3% respectively. The overall five-year survival rate was 87.8%. The recurrent rate of contralateral lobes was 5.8% and local recurrent rate was 7.3% respectively. Univariate analysis showed that gender, age and TNM stage were significant prognostic factors. Multivariate analysis revealed that distant metastasis was an independent prognostic factor. Conclusions Standard radical surgery of the primary and metastatic lesion is key to the treatment of medullary thyroid carcinoma. Lobectomy with isthmectomy should be applied to sporadic medullary thyroid carcinoma, with regular postoperative follow-up, and total thyroidectomy to familial or bilateral medullary thyroid carcinoma. Therefore. detecting the calcitonin is very imoortant for medullary thyroid carcinoma patients' prognosis.

OBJECTIVESTo investigate the incidence of intra- and extrauterine growth retardation (EUGR) and growth restriction in premature infants, and to illustrate the growth pattern of them in postnatal and infantile period.

METHODSAll premature infants were admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during the recent 7 years. The criteria for enrollment were (1) gestational age < 37 weeks; (2) single fetus; (3) admitted within the first 24 hours of life; (4) hospitalization period ≥ 14 days; (5) clinical follow-up persisted till ≥ 3 months of corrected gestational age. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), EUGR and growth restriction were defined as having a measured growth value (weight) that was ≤ 10(th) percentile of Chinese infants' growth curve in corrected age on admission, discharge and follow-up period. Results were analyzed by using SPSS 12.0 statistical software package by chi-square test, rank-sum test, and t test.

RESULTSTwo hundred and thirty nine infants were involved, 134 were boys and 105 girls. The incidence of IUGR and EUGR assessed by weight was 25.5% and 40.6%, respectively. The lower the birth weight was, the higher the incidence of IUGR and EUGR was. The percentile of body weight in the growth curve at discharge was lower than that at birth (Z = -7.784, P = 0.000). The incidence of growth restriction assessed by weight was 20.5%, 15.0%, 8.8%, 17.0%, 10.4%, 10.1%, 11.9%, 7.0% at corrected gestational age of 38 - 40 weeks, corrected age of 28 d, 61 d, 91 d, 122 d, 152 d, 183 d, and 274 d, respectively. The incidences of growth restriction were stable when the corrected age was older than 91 days. The incidence of growth restriction in female premature infants at 183 days' corrected age was higher than that in male children (χ(2) = 6.181, P = 0.017), the incidence was 19.3% and 3.8% respectively. During the follow-up period, most of the average body weight of premature infants whose gestational age was < 32 weeks or birth weight ≤ 1500 g were lower than the 50(th) percentile of the growth curve except the average body weight of boys whose gestational age < 32 weeks at corrected age of 2 and 4 months.

CONCLUSIONSPremature and/or low birth weight infants are at high risk of growth restriction, especially very low birth weight infants. The incidence of growth restriction decreased with growth. Long-term prognosis requires further investigation.

Body Weight ; Female ; Fetal Growth Retardation ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; growth & development ; Male ; Weight Gain

BACKGROUNDPrior research about N400 has been mainly based on English stimuli, while the cognitive processing of Chinese characters is still unclear. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the semantic processing of Chinese idioms.

METHODSEvent related potentials (ERP) component N400 was elicited by 38 pairs of matching (congruent) and mismatching (incongruent) ended Chinese idioms: ending words with same phoneme but different shape and meaning (sPdSdM), with similar shape but different phoneme and meaning (sSdPdM), with same meaning but different phoneme and shape (sMdPdS), and words with different phoneme, shape and meaning (dPdSdM) and recorded by Guangzhou Runjie WJ-1 ERP instruments. In 62 right-handed healthy adults (age 19 - 50 years), N400 amplitudes and latencies were compared between matching and mismatching conditions at Fz, Cz and Pz.

RESULTSN400 showed a midline distribution and could be elicited in electrodes Fz, Cz and Pz. The mean values of N400 latencies and amplitudes were obtained for matching and mismatching ending words in healthy adults. Significant differences were found in N400 latencies and amplitudes in matching and mismatching ending-words idioms in healthy adults (P < 0.05). Compared with matching ending-words idioms, N400 latencies were prolonged and the amplitudes were increased in mismatching ones. N400s elicited by different types of stimuli showed different latencies and amplitudes, and longest N400 latency and largest N400 amplitude were elicited by ending-words with dPdSdM. No gender difference was found of N400 latency and amplitude in this study (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSCompared with English stimuli, Chinese ideographic words could provide more flexible stimuli for N400 research in that the words have 3-dimension changes - phoneme, shape and meaning. Features of N400 elicited by matching and mismatching ending words in Chinese idioms are mainly determined by the meaning of the word. Some issues of N400 elicited by Chinese characters deserve further research.

Adult ; Cognition ; Evoked Potentials ; physiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Reaction Time ; Reading ; Semantics ; Sex Characteristics

Objective To study the clinical characters, treatment modalities and prognosis of patients with maxillary squamous cell carcinoma. Methods The clinical data of 60 patients with maxillary squamous cell carcinoma treatment between January 1994 and December 2004 were analyzed retrospectively.The patients were treated with three therapy modalities including radiotherapy alone(22 cases) ,radiotheraphy and surgery( R +S, 29 cases)and concurrent chemo-radio-therapy adjuvant surgery (CCR + S, 9 cases).Results The five year survival rate were 18.2%, 51.7% and 33.3% for patients in the radiotherapy alone group, the R + S group and the CCR + S group, respectively. Patients receiving R + S combined modality therapy had a significantly higher five year survival rate than the patients who were treated radiotherapy alone ( λ2 = 15.62, P <0.01 ). The five year survival rate(51.7% ) of patients in R + S group was significantly higher than that (33. 3% ) of patients in CCR + S group ( λ2 = 4. 28, P < 0.05 ), and also higher than that ( 18. 2% ) of patients in radiotherapy group( λ2 =9.49 ,P <0. 01 ). Conclusions The combined therapy of radiation and surgery was a good choice of treatment for the patients with maxillary sinus squamous cell carcinoma. The role of concurrent chemo-radiotherapy adjuvant surgery in the treatment of maxillary sinus squamous cell carcinoma needs further to research.

OBJECTIVETo understand the influencing factors on the death of infants born to HIV infected mothers in areas with high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in China.

METHODSBased on the follow-up cohort study targeting at HIV/AIDS infected pregnant women and their babies initiated in 2004, a survey on the death status and influencing factors on the infants born to HIV/AIDS infected mothers enrolled in this cohort from Jan.2004 to Nov.2007 was carried out during Aug.to Nov.2008 in seven counties of four provinces in China. A total of 498 pairs of HIV-infected mothers and their infants were enrolled and their related information was collected. Single factor and multiple factors Cox model methods were adopted for data analysis.

RESULTSThe total observed person-years of 498 infants was 406.22, among which, 45 infants died, and the mortality density was 110.78 per 1000 child-year. A single factor Cox model showed, the pregnancy in pre-period of HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS period (RR = 1.971, 95%CI: 1.143 - 3.396), living status of the pregnancy (RR = 3.062, 95%CI: 1.097 - 8.550), multipara women (RR = 0.517, 95%CI: 0.278 - 0.961), natural childbirth (RR = 0.561, 95%CI: 0.345 - 0.910), premature labor (RR = 5.302, 95%CI: 2.944 - 9.547), low birth weight (RR = 4.920, 95%CI: 2.691 - 8.994), mother-child pairs taking antiretroviral drugs (RR = 0.227, 95%CI: 0.121 - 0.428) and infants infected HIV (RR = 5.870, 95%CI: 3.232 - 10.660) could affect the infants death. The death of HIV-exposed infants was influenced by various factors. The death risk of infants born to HIV infected mothers who were in the danger of pre-period of HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS period was greater than the infants delivered by HIV infected mothers who were in preclinical period of HIV/AIDS (RR = 6.99, 95%CI: 1.92 - 25.64). The death risks were greater in the group that the women whose CD4(+)TLC count number lower than 200 cells/microl (RR = 2.05, 95%CI: 1.01 - 4.15). The infants whose mothers had no ARV treatment had higher possibility to die than the others (RR = 6.17, 95%CI: 1.62 - 23.26). The death risk of premature delivered infants was 2.87 times of mature delivered infants (95%CI: 1.12 - 7.35). The death risk of HIV/AIDS infected infants was 9.87 times of the HIV/AIDS uninfected infants (95%CI: 3.81 - 25.62).

CONCLUSIONSome measurements including improving HIV-infected pregnant women's immunity, reducing mother to child transmission of HIV and premature birth, low birth weight are beneficial to reducing infant mortality.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ; epidemiology ; mortality ; transmission ; Cause of Death ; China ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant Mortality ; Infant, Newborn ; Mothers ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious ; epidemiology ; Proportional Hazards Models

OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression of the interferon-induced transmembrane-1 (IFITM1) gene in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissue and the serum anti-IFITM1 antibody responses of the patients and assess their value in clinical diagnosis of CRC.

METHODSSemi-quantitative RT-PCR was performed to detect IFITM1 mRNA expression in the specimens of normal colonic mucosa, CRC tissue, inflammatory polyps, adenomatous polyps, gastric cancer, esophageal carcinoma and liver cancer tissues. Serum samples were collected from the patients to detect anti-IFITM1 antibody responses using Western blotting. The clinicopathological features of the carcinoma expressing IFITM1 gene were analyzed.

RESULTSIFITM1 mRNA was expressed in 47.4 % (18/38) of the CRC specimens, a rate significantly higher than that in adenomatous polyps [15% (3/20)] and gastric cancer [4.8% (1/21)]; no obvious IFITM1 expression was found in normal colonic mucosa, inflammatory polyp, esophageal carcinoma or liver cancer tissues (P<0.001 or P<0.05). IFITM1 mRNA was strongly expressed in CRC at the expression level of 0.8048-/+0.2273, which was significantly higher than that in adenomatous polyps (0.4447-/+0.0989, P<0.001). No anti-IFITM1 antibody response was detected in healthy human sera, but in the CRC patients, the serum antibody response was detected at the rate of 36.8% (14/38), significantly higher than the rate of 9.5% (2/21) in gastric cancer (P<0.05). No antibody response was detected in esophageal carcinoma, liver cancer, inflammatory polyp or adenomatous polyps. Most of the IFITM1-expressing CRC had a diameter exceeding 5 cm, often invading the serous membrane with metastasis to the lymph nodes and the distant organs; these tumors were identified mostly as well-differentiated adenocarcinoma in Dukes stage C or D.

CONCLUSIONIFITM1 gene may play an important role in the pathogenesis, development and metastasis of CRC, and may serve as a potential biomarker for clinical diagnosis of CRC.

Antibodies ; blood ; Antigens, Differentiation ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; genetics ; metabolism ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; genetics ; Humans ; Membrane Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; immunology ; metabolism