Differential Diagnosis of Acute Diarrhea

Acute diarrhea is a condition of increased water stool content, stool volume, and number of bowel movements that lasts less than 14 days. Mild diarrhea is usually self-limiting; however, undertreated moderate to severe diarrhea may cause severe dehydration and lead to hypovolemic shock. In order to prevent severe dehydration and treat patients appropriately, it is crucial for health care providers to determine the right diagnosis of patients with acute diarrhea. This article focuses on pathophysiology, general patient presentation, diagnostic tests and differential diagnosis lists of acute diarrhea to discuss which diagnosis should be made based on patient presentation and objective data.     

中药生产过程质量控制关键技术研究进展

中医药发展已上升到国家战略层面,在医药行业贯彻实施"中国制造2025"战略的新形势下,中药生产过程质量控制是中药工业需要加快突破的关键领域之一。对中药生产过程质量控制领域在工艺设计、分析检测、过程建模、制造装备等方面的关键共性问题进行解析,综述了中药生产过程质量控制体系中工艺过程理解、生产过程实时分析方法开发、过程控制策略建立3个方面的研究进展;并结合企业研究实践,介绍了质量源于设计(quality by design,Qb D)、过程分析技术(process analytical technology,PAT)、实验设计(design of experiment,DOE)、多变量统计分析等关键技术在上述3个研究方向中的应用进展,分析了实际工业应用的难点问题并对其应用前景进行展望,旨在为中药企业应用和提升生产过程质量控制技术提供参考。     

骨盆骨折大出血救治技术与流程

由于骨盆的特殊结构,其内侧的血管网损伤导致不可压迫性出血。即使创伤中心和救治体系的建设,以及损害控制技术等发展,病死率仍然高达30%~60%。损害控制性复苏、骨盆带、外固定支架、复苏性腹主动脉内球囊阻断(REBOA)、动脉栓塞和腹膜外填塞等技术不断发展,部分已经得到普及,但迄今仍没有公认的确定性止血流程。我国正在普遍建设创伤中心,亟待制订适合我国的骨盆骨折大出血患者的救治流程,以提高救治成功率。本文阐述控制骨盆骨折大出血的外科技术和流程进展供同道参考。     

表达谱基因芯片筛选体外循环前后心肌细胞因子的变化

Objestive Systemic inflarmmation may be triggered by injury, hypothermia, ischemia-reperfusion and the contact of the blood with foreign body during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). To determine the application values of gene chip technique in the clinical practice and the study of cardiovascular stagery, as well as to provide clues to the study of inflammatory responess during CPB, microarry for gene expression profiles was used to identify the differences in the gene expression of myocardium between pre-and post- CPB. Methods Six adult patients who underwent CPB from March to May in 2003 were involved. Samples of right atrium were col- lected before and at immediate end of CPB. BD AtlasTM cDNA Expression Arrays was used to identify the differences in the gene ex- pression of cytokines. The results were compared with that of semi-quantative RT-PCR. Resellts The mean age of 6 patients (5 males and 1 female) was (32.67± 11.72) years. The baseline heart function was gradeⅡin 3 cases and grade Ⅲ in 3 other cases. The baseline left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF)was (58.17±7.91)%. The mere duration was (91.67±43.88) minutes for CPB and was (58.67±43.46) minutes for aorta blocking. The minimum nasopharynx/rectal temperture was (29.37±1.90)℃/ (32.15±1.52)℃. Gene expression profiles of cytokines in the myocardium pre- and post-CPB were analysed successfully. The ex- pression of IL-6, IFN-γ,Wnt5a, TNFRSF1B, a member of tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, PIGF and MFNG in the myo- cardium were unpregulated after CPB. Conclusion Microarray technique is applicable in the study of cytokines changes dying CPB. cDNA microarray identified pleliminarily the differences in the gene expression between pre- and post-CPB. These genes may be in- valved in inflammation and other psthophysiological responses incuced by CPB. The myocardiym is probably one of the major sources of cytokines during CPB. Further study may be helpful in understanding the llngthe development of inflammation during CPB, and eventually, reducing the post-operative complications.     

Multivariate modelling of responses to conditional items: New possibilities for latent class analysis

Questionnaire data may contain missing values because certain questions do not apply to all respondents. For instance, questions addressing particular attributes of a symptom, such as frequency, triggers or seasonality, are only applicable to those who have experienced the symptom, while for those who have not, responses to these items will be missing. This missing information does not fall into the category ‘missing by design’, rather the features of interest do not exist and cannot be measured regardless of survey design. Analysis of responses to such conditional items is therefore typically restricted to the subpopulation in which they apply. This article is concerned with joint multivariate modelling of responses to both unconditional and conditional items without restricting the analysis to this subpopulation. Such an approach is of interest when the distributions of both types of responses are thought to be determined by common parameters affecting the whole population. By integrating the conditional item structure into the model, inference can be based both on unconditional data from the entire population and on conditional data from subjects for whom they exist. This approach opens new possibilities for multivariate analysis of such data. We apply this approach to latent class modelling and provide an example using data on respiratory symptoms (wheeze and cough) in children. Conditional data structures such as that considered here are common in medical research settings and, although our focus is on latent class models, the approach can be applied to other multivariate models. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Suicide substrate reaction-diffusion equations: Varying the source

The suicide substrate reaction is a model for certain enzyme-inhibitingdrugs. This reaction system is examined assuming that the substratediffuses freely while the enzyme remains fixed. Two sets ofinitial and boundary conditions are examined: one modellingan instantaneous point source, akin to an injection of substrate,the other, a continuous point source, akin to a continuing influx,or intravenous drip, of substrate. The quasi-steady-state assumptionis applied to obtain analytical solutions for a limited parameterspace. Finally, further applications of numerical and analyticalexperimentation on pharmaceutical mechanisms are described.     

New sonographic techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Ultrasound (US) contrast agents such as Levovist and Sonazoid are now commercially available in Japan. Innovative contrast agents and ultrasound technologies have dramatically changed both diagnostic and treatment strategies for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Contrast-enhanced US is extremely useful in the differential diagnosis of hepatic tumors as well as in evaluation of post-treatment response of HCC after lipiodol transarterial chemoembolization and radio frequency ablation. Harmonic US sensitively detects residual cancer cells in HCC patients after treatment, to facilitate accurate guidance for needle insertion for US monitoring; no other imaging modalities, including computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have such capability. In 2005, the breakthrough technology of pure arterial phase imaging, which depicts only intranodular arterial accumulated maximum intensity projection images, was developed from advanced raw data storing and accumulation technologies. This technique can clearly identify whether blood supplyin the tumor is of arterial or portal origin, to facilitate the non-invasive characterization of nodular lesions associated with liver cirrhosis. Again, CT or MRI do not have such capabilities. This innovative technique can help differentiate premalignant lesions from overt HCC. Concurrent real-time imaging of multi-detector CT and US, known as real-time virtual sonography, has recently become available. This technique greatly facilitates the treatment guidance for HCC. These newly introduced sonographic techniques are dramatically changing the diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for HCC, which are expected to improve the prognosis of HCC patients.     

基于实验均方误差F值的基因表达数据最佳聚类评判方法研究

目的 近年来产生了一些用于分析基因表达数据的聚类算法，却很少有关于评价聚类算法方法的研究。本研究的目的是尝试建立一个定量的评价基因表达数据聚类结果的方法。方法 本研究提供了一个系统的评价聚类结果的方法，利用我们提出的实验均方误差F值对几个常见的聚类算法进行比较。结果 利用F值对类质量的评价和利用已有的生物学知识对类进行分析的结果一致。结论 实验均方误差F值可以定量地评判用于基因表达数据的聚类算法。