超声造影在肝癌介入治疗后疗效评价中的应用

目的:探讨实时灰阶超声造影(contrast-enhanced grey-scale ultrasonography,CE-US)在肝癌介入治疗后疗效评价中的应用价值。方法:经肘前浅静脉团注超声对比剂SonoVue,观察各时相病灶的强化特点,并与治疗前CE-US、治疗后CT、MRI图像及随访结果进行比较,综合判断介入治疗效果。结果:CE-US可以清晰地显示病灶内有无局部或整体强化,能准确评价肝癌介入治疗后疗效。结论:CE-US在评价肝癌介入疗效时具有重要的临床价值。     

胰岛素样生长因子1对新生大鼠缺氧缺血性脑损伤保护机制的研究

目的　建立单侧缺氧缺血性脑损伤 (HIBD)动物模型 ,研究胰岛素样生长因子 1(IGF 1)对HIBD的影响和可能机制。　方法　选择健康 7日龄Wistar大鼠 12 0只 ,建立HIBD模型 ,随机分成假手术组、HIBD组、HIBD后 0 .2mg/kg人基因重组IGF 1干预组 (RH IGF 1组 )、0 .0 6 6mg/kg人基因重组IGF 1干预组 (SRH IGF 1组 )及盐水对照组 (对照组 )。各组按观察时段进一步分为 2 4、4 8、72h组 ,每组 8只。各组于规定时刻观测脑形态学改变、谷氨酸 (Glu)含量、凋亡细胞计数、Bcl 2蛋白表达。　结果　 (1)HIBD 4 8h组Glu(116 2 .2± 10 8.1)mg/kg ,较假手术组(75 0 .9± 5 3.4 )mg/kg明显升高 (P <0 .0 5 ) ;HIBD组凋亡细胞计数 [2 4h :(7.6± 1.9) % ,4 8h(12 .6±1.2 ) % ,72h :(13.8± 0 .9) % ],较假手术组 [2 4h(2 .0± 0 .2 ) % ,4 8h(2 .0± 0 .3) % ,72h(2 .0±0 .2 ) % ]明显增加 (P均 <0 .0 5 )。 (2 )与对照组相比 ,RH IGF 1组脑组织病变减轻 ;干预 4 8h组Glu[SRH IGF 1组 (781.4± 5 4 .2 )mg/kg ,RH IGF 1组 (74 0 .5± 4 6 .6 )mg/kg],较对照组 (112 6 .6± 4 8.0 )mg/kg明显降低 (P均 <0 .0 5 ) ;RH IGF 1组凋亡细胞计数 [2 4h :(3.6± 0 .9) % ,4 8h(8.2± 2 .2 ) % ,72h(9.4± 1.4 ) % ],较对     

Recent Ⅳ-drug users with chronic hepatitis C can be efficiently treated with daily high dose induction therapy using consensus interferon:An open-label pilot study

INTRODUCTION Under physiological conditions, interferon-α (IFN-α) is a key cytokine produced by virtually all cells in the mammalian organism in response to a variety of bacterial and viral stimuli. In response to viral infection, IFN-α produced by the infected target cells induces a number of cellular genes involved in inhibition of viral replication. In addition, IFN-α is secreted by stimulated NK-cells and T-cells and exerts a multitude of immune stimulatory effects of innate a…     

RGD-based strategies for selective delivery of therapeutics and imaging agents to the tumour vasculature

During the past decade, RGD-peptides have become a popular tool for the targeting of drugs and imaging agents to alphavbeta3-integrin expressing tumour vasculature. RGD-peptides have been introduced by recombinant means into therapeutic proteins and viruses. Chemical means have been applied to couple RGD-peptides and RGD-mimetics to liposomes, polymers, peptides, small molecule drugs and radiotracers. Some of these products show impressive results in preclinical animal models and a RGD targeted radiotracer has already successfully been tested in humans for the visualization of alphavbeta3-integrin, which demonstrates the feasibility of this approach. This review will summarize the structural requirements for RGD-peptides and RGD-mimetics as ligands for alphavbeta3. We will show how they have been introduced in the various types of constructs by chemical and recombinant techniques. The importance of multivalent RGD-constructs for high affinity binding and internalization will be highlighted. Furthermore the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of RGD-targeted therapeutics and diagnostics reported in recent years will be reviewed.     

Preference awareness education as stress management training for academic staff

This paper describes a response directed stress management intervention (SMI) in the form of a Jungian based preference awareness education (PAE). It uses the Insights System of personality types to increase awareness of behaviour and communication preferences of self and different others. Eighteen self‐recruited academic employees participated for 7 weeks and received feedback about work preferences and personality type. The aim was to reduce perceptions of stress and interpersonal stress and to increase feelings of job satisfaction and interpersonal satisfaction. The data were analysed using two‐tailed t‐tests. No significant findings were observed for the total sample after training, however, interesting results were found for certain sub‐sample groups. Extravert‐thinking types, reported decreased stress levels (p > 0.018), and participants suffering high stress/interpersonal stress pre‐PAE, reported decreased stress levels (p > 0.010–0.018). Participants suffering low job/interpersonal satisfaction pre‐PAE, reported increased job satisfaction (p > 0.015–0.016). These results suggest that individuals who report high levels of stress and dissatisfaction are most likely to benefit from this type of intervention. Future PAE research might: (a) use pilot studies to meet the intervention preferences of employees that are reluctant to participate in SMIs; (b) include a wait‐list control group; use: (c) a follow up education/measures; (d) and organizational level (stressor directed) SMIs at the same time as response directed initiatives. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Complete response, as determined by prostate-specific antigen level, to chlormadinone acetate withdrawal persisting longer than 2 years in patients with advanced prostate cancer: Two case reports

Antiandrogen withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is a well-established phenomenon in prostate cancer. However, responses to AWS are usually of limited duration, and a complete response (CR) is extremely rare. We present two patients who exhibited a chemical CR for more than 2 years after the discontinuation of steroidal antiandrogen chlormadinone acetate use. Whether patients who respond to antiandrogen withdrawal include a group of patients with a better prognosis remains uncertain. However, considering that the usual survival period of patients with hormone-resistant prostate cancer is approximately 12 months, both of the patients reported here, who are present in excellent physical condition, exhibiting an improved quality of life, and attending their hospital as outpatients, obviously acquired a prolonged survival because of AWS.     

Development of the Qualeffo–31, an osteoporosis-specific quality-of-life questionnaire

Introduction Vertebral deformities are a common consequence of osteoporosis and are known to decrease quality of life. The Qualeffo–41 is a quality-of-life questionnaire especially developed for measuring quality of life in patients with vertebral deformities. It consists of 41 questions arranged in five domains: pain, physical function, social function, general health perception, and mental function. The objectives of this study were: (1) to develop a shorter version of the Qualeffo–41 by removing redundant questions; and (2) to investigate the scale characteristics, reliability, and validity of this shorter version. Methods The study was performed using data from the Qualeffo validation study and the Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation (MORE) study. The analyses were performed in patients with vertebral deformities (n=579). Factor analysis on polychoric correlations and an item response theory (IRT) model, i.e., the generalized partial credit model (GPCM), were used to create a shorter version of Qualeffo–41. Using GPCM, scoring weights were computed for all items. Results Three items were removed from the data set because of too many missing values. Factor analysis identified three instead of five domains: (1) pain, (2) physical function, and (3) mental function. Five items had factor loadings <0.4 and were not included in the GPCM. After excluding several items, the domains pain (four items), physical function (18 items), and mental function (nine items) showed a good, reasonable, and excellent fit, respectively. This indicates that the mental function domain and the pain domain are more unidimensional than the physical function domain. All three domains showed a very high correlation (r ≥0.95) with the corresponding domains of the Qualeffo–41. Conclusions Qualeffo–31 was developed, consisting of three domains with a reasonable to excellent fit to the GPCM. Although the fit to the GPCM supports the construct validity of the Qualeffo–31, validation in a new study should be performed before using it in practice.     

Progression-free interval in ovarian cancer and predictive value of an ex vivo chemoresponse assay

The study objective was to determine the effectiveness of a phenotypic chemoresponse assay in predicting response to chemotherapy measured by progression-free interval (PFI) in a retrospective series of ovarian cancer patients whose tumor specimens had been tested with the ChemoFx assay. A statistically significant correlation between assay prediction of response and PFI was observed in 256 cases with an exact or partial match between drug(s) assayed and received. In 135 cases with an exact match, the hazard ratio for progression of the resistant group was 2.9 (confidence interval [CI]: 1.4-6.3; P < 0.01) compared to the sensitive group and 1.7 (CI: 1.2-2.5) for the intermediate compared to the sensitive group. The median PFI for patients treated with drugs assayed as resistant was 9 months, 14 months for those with drugs assayed as intermediately sensitive, and PFI had not been achieved for those with drugs assayed as sensitive. These data indicate that the ChemoFx assay is predictive of PFI in ovarian cancer. As the majority of ovarian cancers display different degrees of response to different chemotherapy agents ex vivo, the incorporation of assay information into treatment selection has the potential to improve clinical outcomes in ovarian cancer patients.     

快速眼动睡眠剥夺后大鼠脑内神经元骨架蛋白及超微结构的变化

目的探讨经历不同时间快速眼动（REM）睡眠剥夺对大鼠皮质及海马各区神经元形态结构的影响。方法选择微管相关蛋白（MAP2）和神经丝（NF）作为正常神经元结构的标识物，利用免疫组织化学法和Western blot技术观察REM睡眠剥夺1、3、5、7 d4个时间点大鼠皮质及海马MAP2和NF表达的时空变化规律。同时运用电镜技术观察睡眠剥夺后神经元超微结构的变化。我们的实验是用改良的多平台睡眠剥夺模型进行REM睡眠剥夺，结合免疫组织化学染色技术和蛋白质电泳以及电镜超微结构分析。结果REM睡眠剥夺后5d大鼠皮质、海马CA1及齿状回神经元结构蛋白MAP2和NF表达较对照组明显减少（P〈0．05）；电镜神经元核仁偏位，胞质中出现少量肿胀的线粒体和内质网；部分神经轴突的髓鞘溶解与浓集。环境对照组、REM睡眠剥夺5d和7d组，皮质中超微结构改变的神经元所占比例分别为1．2％、3．6％和5．8％。结论REM睡眠剥夺能够导致大鼠脑内神经元的超微结构发生异常变化。