11种清热解毒类中草药的微量元素特征分析

运用主成分分析法对20种清热解毒类中草药中的11种微量元素进行分析,证实了微量元素含量与清热解毒类中草药疗效之间存在相关性。此研究为以后清热解毒类中草药的开发利用提供了科学的依据和理论基础。     

A meta-analytic review of psychosocial interventions for substance use disorders

OBJECTIVE: Despite significant advances in psychosocial treatments for substance use disorders, the relative success of these approaches has not been well documented. In this meta-analysis, the authors provide effect sizes for various types of psychosocial treatments, as well as abstinence and treatment-retention rates for cannabis, cocaine, opiate, and polysubstance abuse and dependence treatment trials. METHOD: With a comprehensive series of literature searches, the authors identified a total of 34 well-controlled treatment conditions-five for cannabis, nine for cocaine, seven for opiate, and 13 for polysubstance users-representing the treatment of 2,340 patients. Psychosocial treatments evaluated included contingency management, relapse prevention, general cognitive behavior therapy, and treatments combining cognitive behavior therapy and contingency management. RESULTS: Overall, controlled trial data suggest that psychosocial treatments provide benefits reflecting a moderate effect size according to Cohen's standards. These interventions were most efficacious for cannabis use and least efficacious for polysubstance use. The strongest effect was found for contingency management interventions. Approximately one-third of participants across all psychosocial treatments dropped out before treatment completion compared to 44.6% for the control conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Effect sizes for psychosocial treatments for illicit drugs ranged from the low-moderate to high-moderate range, depending on the substance disorder and treatment under study. Given the long-term social, emotional, and cognitive impairments associated with substance use disorders, these effect sizes are noteworthy and comparable to those for other efficacious treatments in psychiatry.     

Serum S100B but not NSE Levels are Increased in Morbidly Obese Individuals Affected by Obstructive Sleep Apnea–Hypopnea Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is considered a comorbidity associated with morbid obesity, mainly because of the large neck circumference. Depending on its severity, OSAHS can interfere in many homeostasis systems, for example, the central nervous system (CNS). Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and S100B protein derived from astrocytes are considered sensitive biochemical markers of cerebral injury. We evaluated serum S100B and NSE levels in this study with the aim of detecting possible cerebral injury as a consequence of OSAHS. METHODS: This was a transverse study with data from 25 morbidly obese patients with OSAHS. Blood samples were collected before and after polysomnography (PSG) to determine S100B and NSE protein levels. We also analyzed data evaluating depression and excessive daytime sleepiness. RESULTS: S100B levels were higher after [0.029 (0.010-0.199) mg/l] compared to before [0.010 (0.010-0.025) mg/l] on PSG (P = 0.002). S100B levels were expressed as means and IQ25-IQ75. NSE levels did not show significant differences before and after PSG. CONCLUSION: Our study shows a significant increase in S100B level after PSG compared to before. This suggests that there is a CNS astrocyte reaction because of possible cerebral hypoxemia in morbidly obese patients with OSAHS.     

Fertilization outcome,embryo development and birth after unstimulated IVM

Background/Purposes  

A common observation in oocyte in vitro maturation (IVM) cycles is poor embryo quality. However, no study was dedicated to assess zygote and early cleavage embryo quality in IVM cycles. The objective of this study is to analyze fertilization outcome, embryo development and the resulting pregnancy and births in unstimulated IVM cycles.     

Hepatitis C as a risk factor for diabetes type 2: lack of evidence in a hospital in central-west Brazil.

In order to assess the importance of HCV infection as a possible risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus, a case-control study was conducted, comparing the prevalence of HCV infection among diabetic and non-diabetic patients. Diabetic outpatients attending to a University Hospital in Central-West Brazil were evaluated between April and October 2005. A control group composed by patients from the same institution was matched by gender and age. Candidates to control group were included only if fasting glucose measures were under 100 mg/dL. Diabetics and controls had blood samples taken in order to test for antibodies against HCV (anti-HCV) by enzyme-immunoassay. Polymerase chain reaction and immunoblot were performed to confirm the anti-HCV status. Each group included 206 participants. Despite of the groups were in general comparable. The diabetics had a greater body mass average and smaller family income. The prevalence of confirmed anti-HCV in the diabetic group was of 1.4%, which was similar to the controls (1%). Finding statistical difference may have been hampered by the low frequency of HCV infection in both groups. It was not possible to demonstrate a role of HCV as an etiologic factor in type 2 diabetes, since HCV infected patients represented a small portion of the overall diabetes cases. This finding does not allow to recommend regular screening for HCV infection in type 2 diabetics in this region.     

A modified method for the epidemiological analysis of registry data on infants with multiple malformations.

BACKGROUND: Infants with multiple malformations are important in birth defect epidemiology and malformation monitoring because human teratogens have often caused complex malformations. Various methods for the analysis of multimalformed infants have been tried. METHOD: By using data from four large registries of congenital malformations, 5256 infants were identified with two or more among 73 selected malformations. Pairwise associations between malformations were detected by multiple logistic regression analyses, and putative confounders (programme, maternal age, autopsy, etc.) were controlled for. For each significant pairwise association, further analyses were performed in order to find associations with a possible third malformation. RESULTS: The importance of controlling for several confounders was demonstrated. Several well-known associations were found, which supports the technique used. The interpretation of three-way associations was discussed. Results from the present study were compared with those obtained using some other methods. CONCLUSIONS: Different confounders can cause biased associations. The method presented in the paper takes this into consideration and is therefore more likely than previously used techniques to give unbiased information on the clustering of different malformations among multimalformed infants.     

SELECTIVE ENDOSCOPY IN MANAGEMENT OF INGESTED FOREIGN BODIES OF THE UPPER GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT: IS IT SAFE?

During a four-year period, 308 patients presented following ingestion of foreign bodies. Ingestion was accidental in 272 cases (88.3%) and deliberate in the remainder. Symptoms at presentation included dysphagia, odynophagia, nausea and vomiting, chest pain and pharyngeal discomfort. Sixty-eight patients were asymptomatic. A policy of expectant management and selective endoscopy was employed. Following initial assessment 202 patients (65.6%) were discharged without treatment, 30 (9.7%) of whom were later reviewed as outpatients and did not require admission. Forty-nine patients (16%) were admitted for treatment; 27 had oesophagoscopy, five bronchoscopy and two had foreign body extraction with direct laryngoscopy. In nine patients who were endoscoped, no foreign body was identified. Twenty-seven others were referred to the otorhinolaryngology service in another hospital. There were no deaths in the group and morbidity was 1.2%. We conclude that a policy of selective endoscopy is safe and effective in the management of patients following ingestion of foreign bodies.     

Activated T and B lymphocytes in peripheral blood of patients with Chagas' disease

Whole blood preparations from patients with either the indeterminate(asymptomatic) or cardiac clinical forms of chronic Trypanosomacruzl infection were analyzed by flow cytometry using double-labelingto identify subsets of circulating lymphocytes. Several significantdifferences were demonstrated between the blood lymphocyte profilesof chagaslc patients and non-chagaslc controls. Clear increasein the percentages and actual numbers of double-positive cellsof the phenotype CD3⁺/HLA-DR⁺, as well as decrease in the percentageof CD45RA⁺/CD4⁺ and CD45RA⁺/CD8⁺ T cells, Indicate greater numbersof activated T cells circulating in the blood of infected patients.Consistent parallel increases were seen also in the B lymphocytesubset which stained double-positive for CD19/CD5. There wereno significant differences in the circulation of these chronicchagaslc patients in the CD4:CD8 ratios. Also, no substantivephenotyplc differences were observed in the lymphocyte populationsbetween the two ends of the clinical spectrum (Indeterminateversus cardiac) in chronic human Chagas' disease. These observationsdemonstrate that increased levels of activated T cells and CD5⁺B cells are present in the circulation of people with chronicChagas' disease. These are cell phenotypes that have been associatedin other conditions with autoimmune, polyclonal, and hyperlmmuneresponses. The specificities of these activated cells and theroles they may play in resistance or pathogenesis during chronicChagas' disease need now to be determined.     

Genomovar status, virulence markers and genotyping of Burkholderia cepacia complex strains isolated from Brazilian cystic fibrosis patients

Burkholderia cepacia complex isolates obtained by microbiological culture of respiratory samples from Brazilian CF patients were studied by recA based PCR, screened by specific PCR for virulence markers and genotyped by RAPD. Forty-one isolates of B. cepacia complex were identified by culture and confirmation of identity and genomovar determination obtained in 32 isolates, with predominance of B. cenocepacia (53.1%). Virulence markers were not consistently found among isolates. Genotyping did not identify identical patterns among different patients. B. cenocepacia was the most prevalent B. cepacia complex member among our patients, and cross-infection does not seem to occur among them.