Objective To investigate levels of 8-isoprostane in serum of patients with bronchial asthma. Methods Eighteen patients diagnosed with acute exacerbation of asthma were enrolled as the experimental group from Department of Respiratory Medicine from February 2009 to August 2009. After treatment all the patients reached remission. Twenty healthy workers from Department of Respiratory Medicine were enrolled as the control group in August 2009. The levels of 8-isoprostane in serum of all subjects were measured, and their FEV1% pred was also evaluated. Results The levels of 8-isoprostane in serum were significantly higher in patients with acute exacerbation of asthma compared with those in remission stage and the healthy control group [ ( 157. 46 ±46. 99) pg/mL vs. ( 43. 52 ±13. 62) pg/mL and( 15. 23 ±1. 96) pg/mL, P lt;0. 01] . Meanwhile the levels of 8-isoprostane in serum of patients with asthma in remission stage were significantly higher compared with the healthy control group ( P lt;0. 05) . The levels of 8-isoprostane in serum were negatively correlated with FEV1% pred in the asthma group( r = - 0. 533,P lt;0. 05) . Conclusions 8-isoprostane as amarker of oxidative stress response involves in the pathogenesis of asthma. Monitoring 8-isoprostane levels in serum may reflect the state of oxidative stress, and may be useful for severity judgment and follow-up of treatment effectiveness in patients with asthma.
Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of dermatomyositis ( DM) and polymyositis ( PM) with pulmonary involvement. Methods A retrospective study was performed in 27 DM/PM patients with pulmonary involvement, who were admitted to the First People’s Hospital of Kunming fromJanuary2001 to December 2009. The clinical manifestation, laboratory examination, chest high resolution CT ( HRCT) , pulmonary function test, treatment efficacy and prognosis were analyzed. Results In 27 DM/PM patients with pulmonary involvement, pulmonary manifestations occurred in 23 cases, such as cough ( 44% ) , expectoration ( 30% ) , and dyspnea ( 11% ) . Erythrocyte sedimentation rate, creatine kinase, C-reactive protein, and lactic dehydrogenase were significantly increased in 63% , 67% , 56% , and 44% of patients. Anti-Jo-1 antibody was positive in eight cases ( 29% ) . The electromyogram ( EMG) revealed myogenic changes in all patients. Pulmonary interstitial changes were the predominant HRCT manifestations. Pulmonary function test revealed mainly restrictive ventilation dysfunction and decreased diffusion capacity. Most patients had a good prognosis by glucocorticoid treatment. Conclusions For patients with DM/PM, especially who present nonspecific pulmonary symptoms, chest HRCT and pulmonary function test should be recommended as early screening tools.
ObjectiveTo learn the development and implementation of orphan drug policies, in order to provide decision-making references for the establishment of orphan drug policy according with China's national conditions. MethodsWe electronically searched databases including CBM, CNKI, VIP, EMbase, PubMed, Web of Knowledge, National Library of Medicine, CRD database, The Campbell Library, The Cochrane Library and the drug administration websites of USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, South Korea, Japan, and South Africa to collect studies about orphan drug policy. The search date was up to February 2014. Two reviewers independently screened literature, and extracted data. Then, all included orphan drug policies were summarized and a comparative analysis was performed. ResultsA total of 110 studies were included. USA, Singapore, Japan, Australia, European Union, Chinese Taiwan and South Korea had introduced orphan drugs incentive policies. South Africa, India, Canada, New Zealand and Chinese Hongkong were producing orphan drugs policy frameworks. The main items of orphan drug policy included marketing exclusivity, tax incentives, technical assistance, grant funding, expedite approval process and prolong re-evaluated time. ConclusionIn mainland China, there is no orphan disease management policy. China should establish specific organization and working procedures, promote orphan drug policy related legislative work, clarify the definition and prevalence of orphan diseases, provide incentive mechanism to promote the research and development of orphan drugs, provide enterprises to develop compensation mechanism to safeguard the rights and interests of patients, as well as establish patients register network platform to track the processes of the diseases.