ObjectiveTo explore the levels of serum glucose and insulin secretion function in people with different educational background of normal glucose tolerance and to investigate its relationship with educational levels. MethodsWe had telephone connections with normal fast glucose people who did health examination from January 2007 to January 2011, then the 75 g oral glucose tolerance test was performed and the level of insulin were measured. A total of 340 people with normal glucose tolerance who completed our examination and answered a questionnaire on lifestyle were included in our study. They were divided into three groups according to their educational levels. The levels of plasma glucose and insulin were measured in 92 high educational level participants, 68 middle educational level participants and 70 low educational level participants. We calculated homevstasis model assessment (HOMA)-S, HOMA-IR, and HOMA-β and compared differences between the three groups. ResultsWith the decline of educational levels, fasting plasma glucose, body mass index (BMI), fasting insulin, postprandial insulin, HOMA-β, and HOMA-IR gradually increased, while HOMA-S gradually decreased. The level of BMI, fasting insulin and HOMA-IR in high educational level group were significantly lower than those in low educational level group. The level of BMI, HOMA-IR in middle educational level group were significantly lower than those in low educational level group (P<0.05). Correlation analysis indicated that level of fasting plasma glucose was related to age, BMI, and educational levels. ConclusionWith the decline of educational levels, BMI and HOMA-IR increase, and HOMA-S decreases, which indicates that they already have differences in glucose metabolism and insulin secretion function in people with normal glucose tolerance, presaging that in the future the proportion of development of diabetes in the low educational level may increase.
The American Thoracic Society Committee Task Force on Standards for Pulmonary Function had recommended a standardized reporting format for pulmonary function tests due to considerable variability in pulmonary function reports presented to end users, which might lead to potential confusion and miscommunication. This recommendation includes seven parts: overview, introduction, methods, report format, selecting and reporting reference values, grading the quality of pulmonary function tests and conclusions. This document presents a reporting format in test-specific units for spirometry, lung volumes, and diffusing capacity that can be assembled into a report appropriate for a laboratory’s practice. Recommended reference sources are updated, with especially emphasizing to adapt lower limit of normal (LLN) or z score instead of percent of prediction to estimate the abnormal results. This document provides detail and clear explanation on the recommendations, which might improve the interpretation, communication, and understanding of test results. However, parts of recommendation might not be used directly in our clinical practice owing to some specific conditions in China. We suggest to use appropriate normal predictions from Chinese population, to include small airway parameters such as mid-maximal expiratory flow for early detection of pulmonary function deterioration, and to include inspiratory flow volume curve, as well as strengthen the quality control data and figures in the report format.
ObjectiveTo establish a normal reference value range of specific thyroid function in pregnant women corresponding to Beckman reagent in Chengdu.MethodsWe randomly selected 120 non-pregnant women and 445 pregnant women who underwent routine examinations at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College from November 2016 to June 2017; tested for free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in serum; used SPSS 24.0 to calculate the bilateral limit of each index (Section 2.5, 97. 5 Quot); established the normal range of Beckman reagent.ResultsThe reference ranges of FT3, FT4, and TSH in the first, second, and third trimester of pregnancy were 4.41–6.33, 4.17–6.12, and 3.86–6.39 pmol/L; 7.64–14.63, 6.62–13.69, and 6.62–12.51 pmol/L; 0.21–3.62, 0.16–4.35, and 0.89–4.88 mU/L; respectively. There was no significant difference in serum TSH between the first and second trimester (P>0.05), and neither between the first and second trimesters and the controls in serum FT3 (P>0.05). The differences in serum FT3, FT4, and TSH among the rest of trimesters, and between each trimester and the normal control group were statistically significant (P<0.05). There was a significant correlation between TSH and FT4 in the early and middle stages of pregnancy (r=–0.277, –0.392, P<0.01).ConclusionThe reference value of FT3, FT4, and TSH in pregnant women with Beckman reagent was significantly different from that in non-pregnant women.
ObjectiveTo set reference intervals of the levels of thyroid hormones among normal pregnant women without presence of thyroid antibodies during three trimesters of pregnancy in Quanzhou city, Fujian province. MethodsA total of 490 pregnant women during 4-39 week pregnancy without presence of thyroid antibodies were enrolled in Quanzhou city, Fujian province. Levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4) and thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPO-Ab) were detected through the electrochemistry immunoassay (ECL) method. In addition, a total of 51 healthy women without pregnancy were enrolled to set the reference intervals of levels of thyroid hormones among normal pregnant women without presence of thyroid antibodies. ResultsThe median levels of TPO-Ab were in the reference intervals provided by the pharmaceutical factory. Levels of FT3 and FT4 gradually decreased from the first to the third trimester (P < 0.01), levels of serum TSH gradually increasd from the first to the third trimester (P < 0.01). Compared with those of pregnant women, levels of thyroid hormone in normal non-pregnant women were higher in the first trimester, lower in the second and the third trimesters (P < 0.01). During three trimesters, the reference intervals of FT3 in the three trimesters were (first: 3.75 to 7.23; second 3.31 to 4.9; and third: 3.16 to 4.48 pmol/L); the reference intervals of FT4 were (first: 12.85 to 25.3; second: 12.03 to 20.14; and third: 11.02 to 19.43 pmol/L); and the reference intervals of TSH were (first: 0.01 to 3.79; second: 1.09 to 4.19; and third: 1.08 to 5.95 mIU/L), respectively. ConclusionThrough this detection, we set the levels of thyroid hormones among normal pregnant women without presence of thyroid antibodies during three trimesters of pregnancy in Quanzhou city.
Adaptive filtering methods based on least-mean-square (LMS) error criterion have been commonly used in auscultation to reduce ambient noise. For non-Gaussian signals containing pulse components, such methods are prone to weights misalignment. Unlike the commonly used variable step-size methods, this paper introduced linear preprocessing to address this issue. The role of linear preprocessing in improving the denoising performance of the normalized least-mean-square (NLMS) adaptive filtering algorithm was analyzed. It was shown that, the steady-state mean square weight deviation of the NLMS adaptive filter was proportional to the variance of the body sounds and inversely proportional to the variance of the ambient noise signals in the secondary channel. Preprocessing with properly set parameters could suppress the spikes of body sounds, and decrease the variance and the power spectral density of the body sounds, without significantly reducing or even with increasing the variance and the power spectral density of the ambient noise signals in the secondary channel. As a result, the preprocessing could reduce weights misalignment, and correspondingly, significantly improve the performance of ambient-noise reduction. Finally, a case of heart-sound auscultation was given to demonstrate how to design the preprocessing and how the preprocessing improved the ambient-noise reduction performance. The results can guide the design of adaptive denoising algorithms for body sound auscultation.
Objective To study the significances and expressions of Y14 and Upf1 in human breast cancer tissues and human normal breast tissues. Methods The expressions of Y14 and Upf1 were determined in human breast cancer tissues and human normal breast tissues by immunohistochemistry and laser scanning confocal microscope. Results ①Y14 and Upf1 levels of human breast cancer tissues were obviously higher than those of human normal breast tissues (Plt;0.05). ②Y14 and Upf1 levels of the class Ⅲ were obviously higher than those of the class Ⅰ and Ⅱ in breast cancer tissues (Plt;0.05). ③Y14 and Upf1 levels in breast cancer tissues of patients with positive axillary lymph nodes were obviously higher than those with negative axillary lymph nodes (Plt;0.05). Conclusion The function of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is obviously enhanced in breast cancer tissues. Expressions of Y14 and Upf1 levels of the class Ⅲ cancer tissue and cancer with positive axillary lymph node are high because of NMD.
ObjectiveTo explore the application of cardiac enhanced MRI in acute myocardial infarction with normal result of coronary angiography. MethodsOn October 18, 2013, a male patient underwent coronary angiography under the local anesthesia. Mild coronary stenosis both in left and right side were found in the surgery, but the results of dynamic cardiogram and myocardial markers were abnormal, which accorded with the clinical procedure of myocardial infarction. The patient underwent cardiac enhanced MRI at the 6th day and was finally diagnosed as acute myocardial infarction. We reviewed the database to find out the significance of cardiac enhanced MRI in diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. ResultsAlthough coronary angiography was the gold standard for the diagnosis of coronary diseases, it had limitations in the diagnosis of coronary eccentric stenosis, branch vascular stenosis and coronary spasm. Cardiac enhanced MRI had the advantages of accurate measurement of the attenuation of myocardium and exhibition of functional changes of ischemic myocardium. ConclusionCardiac enhanced MRI is important for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction with normal result of coronary angiography.
Objective To observed and analyze the clinical features of patients with nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) causes of misdiagnosis. MethodsA retrospective case study. From November 2014 to July 2022, 49 NAION patients with 49 eyes diagnosed in Department of Ophthalmology, The First People’s Hospital of Lanzhou were included in the study. All patients were misdiagnosed with other eye diseases at first diagnosis. All eyes were examined by best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), relative afferent pupil defect (RAPD), orbital magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), visual field, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and graphic visual evoked potential (P-VEP). Fluorescein fundus angiography (FFA) was performed in 32 eyes. Clinical and MRI, visual field, P-VEP、FFA features of the patients were retrospectively analyzed. ResultsThere were 31 males and 18 females among the 49 patients. All cases were monocular. Age was (59.3±7.8) years. All of them complained of painless visual acuity loss or occlusion sensation in one eye. There were 12 (24.5%, 12/49) and 37 (75.6%, 37/49) cases with disease duration ＞2 months and ≤2 months, respectively. In 49 eyes, misdiagnosed as optic neuritis, normal tension glaucoma (NTG) or suspected glaucoma, optic disc vasculitis, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, traumatic optic neuropathy and toxic optic neuropathy were 28 (57.1%, 28/49), 11 (22.4%, 11/49), 5 (10.2%, 5/49), 2 (4.1%, 2/49), 1 (2.0%, 1/49), 1 (2.0%, 1/49), 1 (2.0%, 1/49) eyes. 24 (49.0%, 24/49), 16 (32.7%, 16/49) and 9 (18.4%, 9/49) eyes had BCVA＜0.1, 0.1-0.5 and＞0.5, respectively. RAPD was positive in 45 eyes (91.8%, 45/49). There were 37 (75.6%, 37/49) and 12 (24.5%, 12/49) eyes with and without optic disc edema, respectively. Bleeding was observed on and around the optic disc in 15 eyes (30.6%, 15/49). MRI examination showed no obvious abnormality in the optic nerve segments of all affected eyes. OCT showed an increase in retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (307.1±62.1) μm in 37 patients with optic disc edema. The visual field examination showed that 24 eyes (49.0%, 24/49) had typical lower visual field defect connected with the physiological blind spot and circumvented the central fixation point, 6 eyes (12.2%, 6/49) had limited visual field defect connected with the physiological blind spot, and 19 eyes (38.8%, 19/49) had diffuse visual field defect. By P-VEP examination, the amplitude of P100 wave decreased moderately to severely in all affected eyes. There were 24 eyes (49.0%, 24/49) with mild peak delay and 11 eyes (22.4%, 11/49) with moderate peak delay. In 32 eyes examined by FFA, the arteries had early peridisk limitation or diffuse delayed filling, and mid-course fluorescein leakage in the corresponding area. ConclusionsThe main symptoms of NAION patients are painless visual acuity loss in one eye or occlusion of vision. The main clinical features of NAION patients are visual field defect, retinal nerve fiber layer thickening and visual electrophysiological abnormalities. NAION patients with acute or subacute visual loss accompanied by optic disc edema and/or bleeding are often misdiagnosed as optic neuritis, optic neurovasculitis and other types of optic neuropathy. NAION patients with a disease course of ＞2 months are easily misdiagnosed as NTG.
ObjectiveTo observe the thickness distribution of retina outer nuclear layer (ONL) by directional optical coherence tomography (D-OCT), and analyze variation of ONL thickness with age, gender and anatomical location.MethodsCross sectional observational study. From August 2017 to January 2019, the patients were included who had no abnormal eyes in Beijing Tongren Hospital, and healthy volunteers were included in the study. Cirrus HD-OCT 5-line single line scanning mode was used to scan the macular area horizontally and vertically. The pupil diameter of all the tested eyes was more than 6 mm. The protocol was approved by The Medical College of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board. The detection light was incident on the temporal, nasal, upper and lower sides about 1.5 to 2.0 mm away from the pupil center to obtain an image that was oblique and clearly showed the Henle fiber layer (HFL). The upper and lower bounds of HFL and external limiting membrane (ELM) were manually labeled. The thickness of ONL and HFL+ONL were measured and recorded at 150 μm intervals on the horizontal and vertical radial lines with the fovea as the midpoint. The thickness of ONL in different anatomic location, ages and genders were compared. The influence of age and gender on ONL were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and independent sample t test respectively.Results67 eyes of 67 subjects were enrolled. Among them, the mean age of 27 males (27 eyes) and 40 females (40 eyes) was 38.48±15.33 and 40.98±17.78 years respectively without significantly statistical difference (t=－0.582, P=0.562). The total mean age was 39.97±16.98 years old. There were 11, 22, 22 and 12 patients aged less than 20, 20-39, 40-59 and over 60 years old respectively, according which they were divided into A, B, C and D groups. According to the anatomical location, the thickness of the ONL reached a maximum in the foveola, and then decreased as the eccentricity increased. Horizontally, ONL/ONL+HFL reached the minimum as 36.1% at 0.90 mm on the nasal side, while the minimum was 38.3% at 0.75 mm on the temporal side. Vertically, ONL/ONL+HFL reached the minimum as 36.2% at 0.75 mm inferiorly and 35.6% at 0.9 mm superiorly. There was no significant difference in the ONL thickness of fovea between group A, B,C and D (P＞0.05), however, a significant difference was among the four groups in the parafoveal and the perifovea (P＜0.05). The ONL thickness of the male was larger than that of the female, and the differences between them in parafoveal and perifovea showed statistically significant (P＜0.05).ConclusionsNormal people had the thickest ONL in the fovea. While the location is farther from the fovea, the ONL is thinner. The thickness of ONL in parafovea and perifovea is gradually thin with incerase of age. The thickness of ONL in the male is thicker than that in the female.
【Abstract】ObjectiveTo measure the expressions of Fas/FasL mRNA in normal liver, adjacent non-cancerous liver parenchyma and hepatocarcinoma, and to explore the relationship between the expressions of Fas/FasL mRNA in those tissues and the hepatocellular carcinogenesis. MethodsSemi-quantity reverse transcript-ploymerase chain reaction(QRTPCR) were performed to measure the relative quantity of the Fas and FasL mRNA expressions in normal liver (n=25), adjacent noncancerous liver parenchyma(n=40) and hepatocarcinoma(n=40). ResultsThe relative quantity of Fas and FasL mRNA expressed in normal liver, adjacent non-cancerous liver parenchyma and hepatocarcinoma were 0.792±0.039 vs 0.245±0.043，0.857±0.031 vs 0.429±0.035 and 0.473±0.047 vs 0.185±0.041, respectively. The relative quantity of Fas mRNA expression in hepatocarcinoma was lower than that of normal liver tissue and adjacent non-cancerous liver parenchyrna (P＜0.05). The relative quantity of FasL mRNA expression in hepatocarcinoma was also lower than that of normal liver tissue (P＜0.05) and adjacent non-cancerous liver parenchyma (P＜0.01), but its expression in adjacent non-cancerous liver parenchyma was higher than that of normal liver tissue (P＜0.05).ConclusionHepatorcarcinoma may escape the immune surveillance of the host, not only by means of reducing Fas expression, but also through adjacent non-cancerous liver parenchyma’s increasing expression of FasL to induce apoptosis of contact lymphocyte which highly expresses Fas.