提高孕产期保健质量是降低贫困地区壮族妇女孕产妇死亡的有力措施

目的 :提高贫困地区壮族农村住院分娩率 ,加强产时保健 ,提高贫困地区壮族农村产科质量 ,降低产后出血死亡率。在广西 30个老少边山穷地区 ,以项目和“母亲安全工程”为载体 ,在经济条件困难 ,基础设施落后 ,围产保健服务管理滞后的情况下 ,积极贯彻落实《母婴保健法》,依法规范围产保健服务管理 ,多方筹措资金 ,加强产科软、硬件建设 ,以项目工作为龙头 ,以科研为先导 ,积极推广适宜技术。以健康促进为目的 ,大力开展健康教育和生殖保健活动 ,使围产保健工作取得了较好成绩。30个贫困地区壮族农村近半数以上乡卫生院产科建设已达自治区标准 ,基本能满足贫困地区农民住院分娩的需求 ,并带动广西妇幼卫生工作的发展     

Cyclooxygenase-2--specific inhibitors and cardiorenal function: a randomized, controlled trial of celecoxib and rofecoxib in older hypertensive osteoarthritis patients

BACKGROUND: Arthritis and hypertension are common comorbid conditions affecting elderly adults. Use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in patients treated with antihypertensive medication can lead to destabilization of blood pressure control and other cardiorenal events. The potential for similar interactions with cyclooxygenase-2-specific inhibitors has not been fully explored. The authors evaluated the cardiorenal safety of two new cyclooxygenase-2-specific inhibitors, celecoxib and rofecoxib.METHODS: This study was a 6-week, randomized, parallel-group, double-blind trial in patients with osteoarthritis who were > or =65 years of age and were taking antihypertensive agents. Patients received once-daily celecoxib 200 mg or rofecoxib 25 mg. The primary endpoints were the development of edema, changes in systolic blood pressure, and changes in diastolic blood pressure as measured at any time point in the study. Measurements occurred at baseline and after 1, 2, and 6 weeks of treatment. FINDINGS: Eight hundred ten patients received study medication (celecoxib, n = 411; rofecoxib, n = 399). Nearly twice as many rofecoxib- compared with celecoxib-treated patients experienced edema (9.5% vs. 4.9%, P = 0.014). Systolic blood pressure increased significantly in 17% of rofecoxib- compared with 11% of celecoxib-treated patients (P = 0.032) at any study time point. Diastolic blood pressure increased in 2.3% of rofecoxib- compared with 1.5% of celecoxib-treated patients (P = 0.44). At week 6, the change from baseline in mean systolic blood pressure was +2.6 mmHg for rofecoxib compared with -0.5 mmHg for celecoxib (P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Patients taking antihypertensive therapy and receiving cyclooxygenase-2-specific inhibitors should be monitored for the development of cardiorenal events. Patients receiving celecoxib experienced less edema and less destabilization of blood pressure control compared with those receiving rofecoxib.     

Enhanced activation of human dendritic cells by inducible CD40 and Toll-like receptor-4 ligation

Despite the potency of dendritic cells (DC) as antigen-presenting cells for priming adaptive immunity, DC-based cancer vaccines have been largely insufficient to effectively reduce tumor burden or prevent tumor progression in most patients. To enhance DC-based vaccines, we used the combination of a synthetic ligand-inducible CD40 receptor (iCD40) along with Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) ligation in human monocyte-derived DCs. The iCD40 receptor permits targeted, reversible activation of CD40 in vivo, potentially bypassing the essential role of CD4(+) T cells for activation of DCs. As a rigorous preclinical study of this approach, we evaluated key parameters of DC activation and function. Whereas neither iCD40 nor TLR-4 signaling alone led to high levels of interleukin (IL)-12p70 and IL-6, using iCD40 in combination with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or monophosphoryl lipid A led to strongly synergistic production of both. Furthermore, this approach led to high expression of DC maturation markers, epitope-specific CTL and T helper 1 responses, as well as DC migration in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, use of iCD40-modified and LPS-stimulated DCs led to targeted expansion of autologous T cells against tumor-associated antigens, including prostate-specific membrane antigen, and elimination of preestablished tumors, supporting this technology as a potent strategy for DC-based cancer immunotherapy.     

Counseling Fathers (2010) by C.Z. Oren and D.C. Oren

No abstract available for this article.     

The repopulation potential of fetal liver hematopoietic stem cells in mice exceeds that of their liver adult bone marrow counterparts

Varying, limiting numbers of unseparated or purified cells (Ly-5.1), either from 14.5-day-old fetal liver (FL) or from adult bone marrow (BM) were coinjected with 10(5) unseparated BM cells (Ly-5.2) into lethally irradiated adult C57B1/6 recipients (Ly-5.2). The kinetics of donor cell repopulation of the lymphoid and myeloid compartments by Ly- 5.1+ donor hematopoietic stem cells (ie, competitive repopulation units [CRU]) were monitored at various time points after the transplantation by Ly-5 analysis of the peripheral white blood cells (WBC). Recipients that had received on average less than 2 adult BM or FL CRU did not show a significant difference in the level of donor-reconstitution when analyzed 4 weeks after the transplantation, However, at 8 and 16 weeks, the FL recipients showed a significantly higher percentage of donor- derived nucleated peripheral blood cells than did the recipients of adult BM cells. Analysis of individual mice showed that approximately 80% of the recipients of FL CRU showed an increase in mature WBC output between 4 and 8 weeks after transplantation, whereas this occurred in less than 40% in the recipients of adult BM cells. In addition to this effect on mature cell output, the cellularity of the reconstituted BM was significantly higher in recipients of FL CRU than in recipients of adult BM CRU, even at 7 to 9 months after transplantation, which is consistent with an increased clonal expansion of FL CRU. When marrow cells from primary recipients of FL CRU were injected into secondary recipients, a significantly higher percentage of these mice showed donor-reconstitution of their lymphoid and myeloid compartments (P < .01) and to a greater extent (P < .008) as compared with mice that had received marrow cells from primary recipients of similar numbers of adult BM CRU. Taken together, these results show that individual FL CRU exhibit a greater proliferative activity in vivo than similar cells from adult BM that is accompanied by a greater production of daughter CRU.