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Objective To study the clinical effect of probiotics in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods A total of 200 patients with NAFLD were randomly divided into 4 groups: control group (routine treatment group) and combined treatment group A, B and C. Each group had equal patients. The control group received orally polyene phosphatidylcholine capsules; whereas combined group A, B and C were given orally the live"combined Bifidobacterium Lactobacillus and Enterococcus powder","two live combined Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus", and the both probiotics respectively. The duration of treatment was 1 month. Laboratory parameters were evaluated before treatment and thirtieth day after treatment, including cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), alanine aminotransferase(ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), fasting blood glucose (FPG), serum high molecular weight adiponectin (HMW-APN) and serum TNFα. Meanwhile the faece sample was collected for routine test and bacterial culture. Liver ultrasound scan was done in all patients. Results In terms of blood lipids and blood glucose, each group improved after treatment with significant differences(P<0.05)except for HDL-C. As for liver function, serum ALT and AST decreased after treatment in each group; especially in combined group C which were lower than those of control group [(33.7±7.6) U/L vs. (45.0±8.5) U/L; (22.0±1.6) U/L vs. (29.4±3.7) U/L; P<0.05]. TNFα levels decreased after treatment in each group, in addition the values in combined group C was significantly lower than that of control group[(0.51 ± 0.27) μg/L vs. (0.82 ± 0.28) μg/L, P<0.05]. Serum HMW-APN increased after treatment in each group, and the HMW-APN in combined C group was significantly higher than that of control group[(9.28 ± 3.72) μg/L vs. (7.87 ± 3.96)μg/L, P<0.05].(5)After treatment, all groups showed improvement of fatty liver by ultrasound, but the difference between groups was not statistically significant.(6)Compared with before treatment, fecal flora in combined groups was all reduced (P<0.01), but it was comparable before and after treatment in control group. Conclusions Probiotics improve intestinal microecological system in NAFLD patients via inhibiting TNFα and enhancing adiponectin, possibly resulting in regulating blood glucose, lipid metabolism, and protecting liver injury from NAFLD.
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Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD),which is a kind of irritable liver injury related to genetic and environmental factors,is considered as the manifestation of metabolic syndrome in the liver.Gut microbiota plays an important role in the intestinal environment.In recent years,increased numbers of studies have suggested that the imbalance of intestinal flora is closely related to NAFLD.This paper is to review the mechanism of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis and progression of NAFLD and to comment on gut microbiota-targeting new treatment of NAFLD by regulating the intestinal flora.
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Objective To observe the effect of enteral nutrition therapy on metabolic status and adiponectin levels in elderly patients with metabolic syndrome (MS) complicated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).Methods 92 elderly hospitalized patients with mild to moderate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease underwent enteral nutrition (EN,n=46) and total parenteral nutrition (TPN,n=46) for 2 months.Body mass index,triceps skin-fold thickness,waist hip ratio,serum high-molecular weight (HMW) form of adiponectin,fasting blood glucose,postprandial 2-hour blood glucose,glycosylated hemoglobin,plasma insulin,alanine aminotransferase,aspartate aminotransferase,γ-glutamyltransferase,total bilirubin,direct bilirubin,total cholesterol,triglyceride,low density lipoprotein cholesterol,high density lipoprotein cholesterol,the blood pressure and liver ultrasound test were detected.The insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was used to assess insulin resistance.Results In pre-versus post-treatment,serum level of HMW adiponectin [(6.8 ± 4.0) μg/L vs.(7.1 ± 3.9) μg/L,P ＞ 0.05 in enteral nutrition],and [(6.8 ± 3.5) μg/L vs.(5.0 ± 1.1)μg/L(P＜0.05)] in parenteral nutrition were found.The significantly decreased body mass index in the obese patients (P＜0.05),significantly improved values of 2-hour blood glucose,glycated hemoglobin,liver function,triglycerides,low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (all P＜0.05),and no obvious change in HOMA-IR were found after two months of enteral nutrition treatment.There were no significant changes in indicators mentioned above in TPN group after 2 months of treatment.Conclusions Enteral nutrition therapy can improve the glucose metabolism,lipid metabolism,the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and body mass index,affect the level of adiponectin in the elderly patients with MS and NAFLD.It is vital to body metabolism.
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Objective To investigate the clinical value of 3.0T MRI for hilarcholangioc-arcinoma diagnosis.Methods T Totally48 hilarcholangiocarcinoma patients from October 2011 to June 2015 underwent diagnoses by 3.0T MRI and 64-slice spiral CT,and then the diagnosing results were compared with those by surgery and pathological examination to determine the value of 3.0T MRI for hilarcholangiocarcinoma diagnosis.Results 3.0T MRI had the positioning accuracy (100％) and qualitative accuracy (95.83％) significantly higher than the positioning accuracy (79.17％) and qualitative accuracy (81.25％) (P＜0.05).In case of hepatic duct dilatation,CT found 35 cases of hilar masses,14 cases of lymphoma,5 cases of hepatic duct wall invasion and 9 cases of portal vein invasion,while 3.0T MRI displayed 44 cases of hilar masses,26 cases of lymphoma,13 cases of hepatic duct wall invasion and 30 cases of portal vein invasion.Conclusion 3.0T MRI has high positioning and qualitative accuracies when used to diagnosing hilarcholangiocarcinoma,behaves well in displaying hepatic duct dilatation,high resolution of soft tissues,and thus is worthy promoting clinically.
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Objective To evaluate the functional changes of visual cortex (V1) in patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) by fMRI retinotopic mapping technology. Methods Fifteen POAG patients and 15 healthy volunteers underwent stimulations with fMRI retinotopic mapping stimulus and contrast-reversing checkerboard patterns stimulus on a Siemens Trio 3.0 T MRI whole-body scanner for functional data collection. Comparisons of V1 fMRI responses between the glaucomatous eyes and the healthy eyes of the patients were carried out using paired samples t-test, while independent samples t-test was used to compare V1 fMRI responses and activations between the healthy eyes of patients and the age-, gender- and side- matched eyes of normal people. Differences of V1 cortical functions and visual functions were analyzed by linear correlation analysis when the glaucomatous and the healthy eyes were simulated individually. Results (1) V1 fMRI responses of the individually stimulated glaucomatous eyes[(1.24±0.72)%]were weaker than those of the healthy eyes[(2.18±0.93)%](t=4.757,P<0.01). Comparisons of V1 fMRI responses between the glaucomatous eyes and matched eyes of normal people, as well as between the healthy eyes of patients and the matched eyes of normal people, were performed respectively: the responses in the glaucomatous eyes[(1.24±0.72)%]were weaker than those in the matched eyes of normal people[(2.01±0.65)%](t=-3.011,P<0.01). There was no statistical difference of the responses between the healthy eyes from patients[(2.18±0.93)%]and the matched eyes of normal people[(1.95±0.75)%](t=0.742,P＞0.05). (2) Differences of V1 cortical functions were negatively correlated with those of visual functions in the individually stimulated glaucomatous and healthy eyes (r=-0.887, P<0.01). (3) The activated area indexes of V1 cortexes in the healthy eyes from patients (0.72±0.12) were lower than those in the matched eyes of normal people (0.85±0.09) (t=-3.801, P<0.01). Conclusion Cortical function impairment was in accordance with visual function impairment in glaucoma. Located and quantified measurement with fMRI retinotopic mapping was a useful method for clinical follow-up and evaluation of functional alteration of glaucomatous visual cortex, and a potentially useful means of studying trans-synaptic degeneration of visual pathways of in vivo glaucoma.
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Objective To explore the normal range of the fourth ventricle volume of Chinese adults of the Han nationality and provide morphological data for the construction of database for Chinese Standard Brain.Methods This is a clinical multi-center study.One thousand Chinese healthy volunteers (age range= 18 to 70) recruited from 15 hospitals were divided into 5 groups, i.e., Group A (age range = 18 to 30),B (age range =31 to 40), C (age range =41 to 50), D (age range =51 to 60), and E (age range =61 to 70).Each group contained 100 males and 100 females.All of the volunteers were scanned by MR using T1 weighted three-dimensional magnetization prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo sequence.After three dimension data reconstruction, the volumes of the fourth ventricle were measured at sagittal view by automatic trace of Midobl.2 combined with manual outlining.The difference of volumes of the fourth ventricle between male and female were analyzed by independent sample t test, and among age groups by ANOVA.Pearson's correlation coeffcient was used to characterize the relationship between volumes of the fourth ventricle and age.Results The fourth ventricle volumes of Group A-E were (2.1±0.9), (2.1±0.8), (2.2±0.8), (2.1±1.0) and (2.4±0.8) ml respectively for male; those for female were(2.0±0.7), (1.9±0.6), (18±0.6), (1.9±0.7) and (2.0±0.6) ml respectively.The fourth ventricle volumes of males were significantly larger than those of females ( t = 5.573, P =0.000 ) ; there were no significant differences among the female groups ( F = 1.788, P = 0.130 ) ; there were significant differences among the male groups ( F = 2.639, P = 0.033 ) and multiple comparison found that the 60 years old was the watershed with significant difference ( P < 0.05 ).Correlation between the change of males' volumes and the ages was not strong (r = 0.119, P = 0.008 ), and the females' volumes did not correlated with their ages ( r = 0.041,P = 0.360 ).Conclusion There are gender differences in the fourth ventricle volumes of normal Chinese adults, and changes of the fourth ventricle volume with aging are different between males and females.
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Objective To explore the morphological characteristics of optic tracts in healthy Chinese Han adults on the high-resolution MRI and fill the database of Chinese standard brain with morphological data of optic tracts.Methods Cerebral MRI scans with T1 WI 3D MPRAGE sequence of 1000 healthy Chinese volunteers from 15 hospitals were divided into five stages, ranging in age from 18 to 70.With the technique of multi-baseline, structure and morphology of optic tracts were displayed optimally on the images with multiplanar reconstruction.Data were measured as following: transverse distance of the cisternal optic tract (TD1) and peri-crural optic tract (TD2), length from the cisternal optic tract to the peri-crural optic tract (L) ,angle between optic tract(AOT) and height of optic tract from its first segment to plane of anterior commissure (H) including H1, H2, H3, H4 and HS.The measurements of optic tracts between sexualities and among age groups were compared by anasis of covariance; those among five age groups were compared pairwisedly by least significant difference analysis (LSD); and the differences of measurements between left and right optic tracts were analyzed using paired t test.Results (1) Comparisons of optic tract structures between male and female: the mean optic tract length of male [(11.69±1.45),(11.56±1.44) mm] was significant longer than that of female [(10.58±1.29),(10.40±1.34) mm] (F=22.236, 29.703, P=0.000); the mean H1 of male [(2.56±0.28),(2.60±0.29) mm] and female [(2.57±0.31 ), (2.63±0.32) mm] were significantly different ( F =11.130,7.805, P = 0.000, 0.005).No significant differences of the other measurements were found between male and female ( P > 0.05 ).(2) Comparisons among age groups: among 5 age groups, TD1 of both sides [left TD1 :(4.64±0.51 ), (4.64±0.57), (4.55±0.58), (4.39±0.53), (4.36±0.58)mm;right TD1 :(4.84±0.53) ,(4.80±0.60), (4.77±0.65), (4.60±0.59), (4.57±0.59) mm] and the right TD2[(3.33±0.45),(3.34±0.41),(3.33±0.36),(3.23±0.38),(3.23±0.39) mm] had statistical differences ( F = 3.458, 2.735, 4.711, P = 0.008,0.028, 0.001 ).The LSD analysis found that the 50 years old group was the watershed with significant differences ( P < 0.05 ).The results also showed that the L of both sides had statistical differences among 5 age groups ( F = 14.510,14.532, P = 0.000).The LSD analysis found that the 60 years old group was the watershed with significant differences (P <0.05).Left TD2 and the H1-H5 of both sides had no significant differences among age groups ( P >0.05).(3) Comparisons of the measurements between left and right optic tracts: TD1 of bilateral optic tracts were (4.52±0.57)and(4.72±0.60) mm respectively; H1 of bilateral optic tracts were (2.56±0.30)and (2.61±0.30) mm respectively; H2 of bilateral optic tracts were (2.66±0.30)and (2.70±0.30) mm respectively; and L of bilateral optic tracts were ( 11.14±1.47 ) and ( 10.98±1.50 )mm respectively.There were significant differences in these measurements between left and right optic tracts( t =12.460, - 6.013,5.595,4.784, P = 0.000 ), while there were no significant differences in TD2, H3, H4 and H5( P > 0.05 ).Conclusions With high-resolution MR1 and 3D reconstruction, optic tract can be displayed clearly and measured accurately.There are definite differences in anterior segments of optic tracts between sexualities, sides and among ages in normal Chinese Han adults, while the posterior segments of optic tracts keep stable.Normal reference values of optic tracts in Chinese Han adults are provided to clinical practices and scientific researches, which are valuable for building of Chinese standard brain.