Objective To evaluate the early outcome of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) using a Zero-profile implant system (Zero-P) for interbody fusion in the treatment of cervical spondylosis. Methods Between March 2010 and June 2011, 25 patients with cervical spondylosis underwent ACDF with Zero-P. There were 13 males and 12 females with an average age of 44.2 years (range, 26-67 years), including 14 cases of nerve root cervical spondylosis, 6 cases of spinal cervical spondylosis, and 5 cases of mixed cervical spondylosis. The disease duration was 3-120 months (median, 25 months). Single segment was involved in 20 cases, 2 segments in 4 cases, and 3 segments in 1 case. A total of 31 Zero-P were implanted (3 at C3, 4, 8 at C4, 5, 12 at C5, 6, and 8 at C6, 7). Primary cervical operation was performed in 23 cases and re-operation in 2 cases. Before and after operation, the height of intervertebral space and the cervical Cobb angle were measured; clinical outcome was evaluated using visual analogue scale (VAS) score for pain in the neck and upper limb, and Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score for myelopathy; and intervertebral fusion and the incidence of dysphagia were also observed. Results All incisions healed by first intention. All the patients were followed up 12-16 months (mean, 13.9 months). Interbody bone fusion was obtained, and the fusion time was 2.7-6.0 months (mean, 3.8 months). Three patients had dysphagia after operation; symptom disappeared at 1 week and 3 months after operation in 2 cases and 1 case, respectively. No fixation loosening, subsidence, or breakage occurred. The height of intervertebral space was significantly improved (P lt; 0.05) from (4.5 ± 0.5) mm at preoperation to (6.0 ± 0.7) mm at 1 week and (5.7 ± 0.6) mm at 12 months after operation; the cervical Cobb angle was significantly improved (P lt; 0.05) from (11.9 ± 6.1)° at preoperation to (21.2 ± 4.1)° at 1 week and (20.2 ± 3.7)° at 12 months after operation; and there was no significant difference between at 1 week and 12 months after operation (P gt; 0.05). The VAS score was significantly reduced (P lt; 0.05) from 7.1 ± 0.8 at preoperation to 1.9 ± 0.8 at 3 months and 1.0 ± 0.5 at 12 months after operation; the JOA score was significantly increased (P lt; 0.05) from 9.6 ± 1.3 at preoperation to 13.5 ± 1.0 at 3 months and 14.9 ± 1.0 at 12 months after operation; and there was significant difference between at 3 months and at 12 months after operation (P lt; 0.05). Conclusion The early outcome of ACDF using a Zero-P in the treatment of cervical spondylosis is satisfactory and reliable, and it can restore and maintain the cervical alignment and disc height, and disc has low incidence of postoperative dysphagia.
Objective To investigate the early effectiveness of Zero-profile interbody fusion system (Zero-P) in the treatment of cervical disc protrusion. Methods Between October 2010 and June 2012, 25 patients with cervical disc protrusion underwent anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) using the Zero-P system. There were 15 males and 10 females, aged from 35 to 68 years (mean, 49 years). The disease duration was 3-26 months (mean, 10.5 months). Single segment was involved in all cases (2 cases in C3, 4, 5 cases in C4, 5, 11 cases in C5, 6, and 7 cases in C6, 7). The operation time and blood loss were recorded and analyzed. The visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score, and neck disability index (NDI) were used to assess pain and nerve function improvement; the cervical Cobb angle was measured on the X-ray films before and after operation; according to Pitzen’s criteria, intervertebral fusion was evaluated. Results The operation was successful in 25 patients, with no severe complication. The average blood loss was 42.6 mL (range, 20-120 mL). The average operation time was 63.6 minutes (range, 45-90 minutes). Primary healing of incision was obtained in all cases; no injury of spinal cord and nerve root, cerebrospinal leakage, or deep infection occurred. The patients were followed up 6-23 months (mean, 14.5 months). No Cage subsidence and loosening, breaking, or pulling-out were observed. The symptoms and curvature of the cervical spine were obviously improved in all patients after operation. The VAS score, JOA score, NDI, and the cervical Cobb angle at 3 months and last follow-up showed significant differences when compared with preoperative ones (P lt; 0.05), but no significant difference was found between at 3 months and at last follow-up (P gt; 0.05). The interbody fusion was achieved in each operated segment of all patients according to Pitzen’s criteria. Conclusion The early effectiveness of ACDF with Zero-P system is satisfactory in treatment of cervical disc protrusion because it has the advantages of short operation time, less bleeding, good stability and restoration of the cervical alignment.
Objective To analyze the changes of gene expression profiles during the process that human bonemarrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) are induced to differentiate into cardiomyogenic cells with 5-azacytidine (5-aza). Methods hBMSCs were isolated from marrow of obsolete ribs and induced with 5-aza. Then immunocytochemicalstaining was used to detect the expressions of α-actin, cardiac troponin T (cTnT), and connexin 43, and the percentage ofcTnT positive cells was tested with flow cytometry. In the process of differentiation, variation of gene expression was screenedwith Genechi ps Operating System of human gene expression profiles. And the differentially expressed genes were functionallyanalyzed and hierarchical clustered. Results When BMSCs were induced in vitro with 5-aza, part of the cells turnedinto myogenic cells morphologically. Before induction, immunocytochemical staining for α-actin and cTnT showed sl ightpositive and for connexin 43 showed negative. While after 3 weeks of induction, immunocytochemical staining for α-actin,cTnT, and connexin 43 showed all positive. With flow cytometry, the percentage of cTnT positive cells was 7.43% ± 0.02%before induction, but it was 49.64% ± 0.05% after induction. During differentiation, 1 814 differentially expressed geneswere reported by gene chi ps. Of them, 647 genes were divided into 5 groups with hierarchical clustering. They had variousbiological functions, involving signal transduction, cell metabol ism, prol iferation, differentiation, development, andtopogenesis. Conclusion hBMSCs can differentiate into cardiomyogenic cells with the induction of 5-aza in vitro. Multi plegenes related with signal transduction, transcri ption, and growth factors are involved during this process.
Objective To study the major factors which affect quality of life of Chinese patients with diabetic retinopathy,and provide basis raising the patients condition of health and quality of life. Methods Quality of life of 179 patients with different stages of diabetic retinopathy and 30 healthy persons was measuerd by the medical outcomes study 36-item short form health survey(SF-36)and the brief scale of quality of life of WHO(WHOQOL-BREF),then the affectting factors were analysed by step regression. Results The major factors which affect quality of life of patients with diabetic retinopathy included:bilateral visual acuity(BVA),different category of retinopathy,course of disease,economic condition,personality,medical care and age. Conclusion The study suggests that bringing about the transformation from the biologic medical model to bio-psycho-social medical model is important to improve quality of life of the patients with diabetic retionpathy. (Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis,2000,16:141-143)
ObjectiveTo discuss the risk of abortion related to lamotrigine (LTG) and its safety profile during pregnancy. MethodsRetrospectively studied pregnant women in our epilepsy clinics who took LTG from 2011 to 2015 as monotherapy and experienced embryo damage or abortion. Here, we present an extensive review of related literatures regarding possible mechanisms, clinical features and safty of LTG during pregnancy. ResultsIn our study, fourty-five pregnancies were administered monotherapy LTG, and three of these patients suffered embryo damage. ConclusionsAlthough LTG is considered safe for pregnant women and the embryo or fetus,it also has risk of embryo damage or abortion, which should be carefully considered before prescription. Using monotherapy and the lowest effective drug dose, monitoring LTG serum concentrations during pregnancy, supplementing folate administration before and after conception and conducting regular prenatal diagnostic tests might reduce the risk of abortion.
ObjectiveTo discuss the relationship between antinuclear antibody (ANA) fluorescence pattern detected by indirect immunity fluorescence (IIF) and antinuclear antibody profiles (including anti-dsDNA, RNP, Sm, SSa, SSb, Scl-70, Jo-1 and rib-P) in human serum. MethodsA total of 7385 cases of ANA pattern and ANA profiles were retrospectively analyzed from January 2010 to December 2013. ANA was detected by IIF substrated as HEp-2 cells, anti-dsDNA by IIF substrated as crithidia, and the other 7 antibodies by enzyme immunoblot with purified antigen. ResultsGranular pattern mostly presented as anti-RNP, anti-Sm, anti-SSa and anti-SSb (P < 0.001); homogeneous pattern was anti-dsDNA and anti-SSa (P < 0.001); nucleolus, centromere, and mixed pattern was anti-SSa (P < 0.05); cytoplasm pattern was anti-rib-P and anti-SSa (P < 0.05). But few above antibodies could be detected in Golgi, dots, rim, actin, actotropomyosin, prolifevating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and vementin pattern. Homogeneous pattern was shown up to 77.91% in only anti-dsDNA positive serum; granular was 96.84%, 52.01%, and 82.35% respectively in only anti-RNP or anti-SSa or anti-Sm positive. Homogeneous and nucleolus mix pattern was up to 30.53% in only anti-Scl-70 positive. Cytoplasm pattern was 50.00% and 61.54% respectively in only anti-rib-P or anti-Jo-1 positive. But no fixed relationship was found between ANA pattern and anti-SSb. ConclusionsThere is a certain relationship between ANA and antinuclear antibody profiles. Granular, homogeneous and cytoplasm pattern often can be detected more than one autoantibodies. Eight kinds of specific autoantibodies often are negative when ANA patterns are centromere, Golgi, dots, rim, actin, tropomyosin, PCNA, and vimentin. Anti-dsDNA is mainly corresponding to homogeneous, anti-RNP, anti-SSa and anti-Sm to granular, anti-Scl-70 to homogeneous and nucleoli, anti-rib-P and anti-Jo-1 to cytoplasm. The study can give suggestions for further tests application and lab result checking.
ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical heterogeneity and auto-immunologic state in patients with diabetic ketosis (DK) or diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). MethodsDiabetic patients who presented with DK/DKA were recruited from West China Hospital of Sichuan University from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2008. We analyzed the clinical classification, biochemical profiles, and auto-immunologic state of the patients. ResultsAmong them, 257 (15.0%) patients had type 1 diabetes, while 883 (51.6%) with type 2 diabetes, and 515 (30.1%) could be typed as "atypical diabetes" or "untying diabetes". The average age of hospitalized patients with type 1 diabetes was (31.1±13.5) years, which was significantly lower than that of the type 2 diabetes patients [(58.1±13.2) years] (P＜0.001). The most common contributing factor for DK/DKA was infection, followed by noncompliance with therapy. Glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody positive rate was 4.37% in patients with "atypical diabetes", which was similar with type 2 diabetes group (2.69%, P=0.79), but lower than that of the patients with type 1 diabetes (13.79%, P＜0.001). ConclusionsWe conclude that DK or DKA can occur not only in type 1 diabetic patients but also in patients with type 2 diabetes under infection or stress condition. DK/DKA patients have a high clinical heterogeneity. The auto-immunologic state and β-cell function have significant implications for the diagnosis and classification of diabetes.
The impeller profile, which is one of the most important factors, determines the creation of shear stress which leads to blood hemolysis in the internal flow of centrifugal blood pump. The investigation of the internal flow field in centrifugal blood pump and the estimation of the hemolysis within different impeller profiles will provide information to improve the performance of centrifugal blood pump. The SST κ-ω with low Reynolds correction was used in our laboratory to study the internal flow fields for four kinds of impellers of centrifugal blood pump. The flow fields included distributions of pressure field, velocity field and shear stress field. In addition, a fast numerical hemolysis approximation was adopted to calculate the normalized index of hemolysis (NIH). The results indicated that the pressure field distribution in all kinds of blood pump were reasonable, but for the log spiral impeller pump, the vortex and backflow were much lower than those of the other pumps, and the high shear stress zone was just about 0.004%, and the NIH was 0.0089.
The microarray technology used in biological and medical research provides a new idea for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. To find different types of cancer and to classify the cancer samples accurately, we propose a new cluster ensemble framework Dual Neural Gas Cluster Ensemble (DNGCE), which is based on neural gas algorithm, to discover the underlying structure of noisy cancer gene expression profiles. This framework DNGCE applies the neural gas algorithm to perform clustering not only on the sample dimension, but also on the attribute dimension. It also adopts the normalized cut algorithm to partition off the consensus matrix constructed from multiple clustering solutions. We obtained the final accurate results. Experiments on cancer gene expression profiles illustrated that the proposed approach could achieve good performance, as it outperforms the single clustering algorithms and most of the existing approaches in the process of clustering gene expression profiles.
ObjectiveTo investigate the molecular pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin in a murine model,and provide novel insights for clinical diagnosis and treatment. MethodsFrom Gene Expression Omnibus,we downloaded microarray data extracted from experiments of bleomycin induced pulmonary fibrosis in wild-type mice. With BRB-Array Tools,differentially expressed genes at different time points during disease development were screened,selected and analyzed by DAVID software. ResultsBRB array analysis identified 45101 differentially expressed genes. After induction by bleomycin on 7th day,1164 genes and 735 genes were significantly up-regulated and down-regulated (P<0.05,fold change>2),respectively. On 14th day,731 genes and 390 genes were significantly up-regulated and down-regulated (P<0.05,fold change>2),respectively. DAVID analysis revealed that the up-regulated genes were significantly enriched in cell cycle,p53 signaling and chemokine signaling pathway,damaging reaction and collagen metabolism gene sets. While the down-regulated genes were enriched in the drug metabolism pathway gene set. ConclusionsBioinformatics methodologies are able to efficiently analyze microarray data and extract its underlying information,provide novel insights for major molecular events and shift of cell signaling pathway during pulmonary fibrosis progression,and furthermore,finding molecular markers for early diagnosis and therapeutic targets.