Study on the status of cognition among Parkinson' s disease patients in Xi'an / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To study the characteristics and influencing factors of cognition on patients with Parkinson' s disease (PD) in Xi'an in order to provide evidence for early recognition and treatment of cognitive impairment on PD patients. Methods Clinically defined PD patients from 7 hospitals in Xi'an from Jan. to Apr. 2007 were assessed with mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and Montreal cognitive assessment (MOCA) for whole cognitive function. Furthermore,Fuld object memory test (FOM) was used to assess delayed memory while rapid verbal retrieve (RVR) was used to assess language fluency. Digit span subtest was used to assess attention and building blocks was used to assess visual space function respectively. Results 100 PD patients were recruited,including 52 men and 48 women,from 43 to 86 years old (65.6±17.1). MMSE scores was used as the standard for Recognition,PD with cognitive impairment accounted for 16%. According to MOCA scores,with PD cognitive disturbances accounted for 83%. Ability for calculation,short-term memory,visual space function,abstract capability,attention and language fluency dysfunction were main cognitive disturbances of PD. Analysis from single factor logistic regression showed that education,age of onset and gender were closely related to the occurrence of cognitive impairment on PD patients. Conclusion Cognitive impairment was common in PD. Ability of calculation,short-term memory,visual space function,abstract capability,attention and language fluency dysfunction were main cognitive disturbances of PD. Cognitive impairment of PD was more likely to occur with low degree of education,late onset of PD,and being female.

The use of antiparkinsonism drugs in 92 cases in Xi' an city / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To investigate the treatment status of antiparkinsonism in Xi'an. Methods Six general hospitals were randomly chosen in Xi' an and all Parkinson' s disease (PD) patients were interviewed by questionnaire from Jan. 2007 to Apr. 2007. Results 92 PD outpatients were enrolled in, including 48 males and 44 females, from 43 to 86 years old (mean 65.6±17.1) with duration of the disease from 0.2 to 27.8 years (mean 4.4 ±9.4). The preference of the drug use from the patients were: 40 (43.5%) preferred taking levodopa, 25 (27.2%) with amantadine and/or trihexyphenidyl, 14(15.2%) with levodopa and others, 4(4.4%) with dopamine agonist and others, 2 (2.2%) with other drugs, 7 (7.6%) with no treatment. There were 69 (75.0%) patients onset with resting tremor, 15 (16.3%) with bradykinesia, 6 (6.5%) with rigidity, and 2 (2.2%) with unknown symptoms. There was no startically significant difference in anti-PD drugs among the patients onset with different symptoms (P>0.05). 45 patients appeared the onset of disease before 65 years old and with no dementia, 47 onset after 65 with or without dementia. There was no significant difference of anti-PD drugs between the two groups (P>0.05). Most patients initiated anti-PD treatment with levodopa but few of them chose dopamine agonist. According to the classification of Hoehn & Yahr, 25(27.2%) belonged to Grade Ⅰ, 53(57.6%) to Grade Ⅱ ,8(8.7%) to Grade Ⅲ ,3(3.3%) to Grade Ⅳ and 3 (3.3%) to Grade Ⅴ. There was no significant differences of anti-PD drugs between different grades of the disease (P>0.05). 55.3% of the patients changed their anti-PD drugs randomly during the therapy, but with no relation to their gender, age, educational level, dementia, the number of family members, course of diseases, or the degree of Hoehn & Yahr, frequency and categories of medicine. Conclusion Anti-PD treatment in Xi' an did not strictly follow the standardized protocol, with few patients using dopamine agonist and over 50% of the patients changed their drugs randomly.

Week 24 suppression of HBV in entecavir-treated chronic hepatitis B patients in whom lamivudine treatment failed is associated with efficacy at week 48 / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the relationship between the degree of week 24 HBV suppression and week 48 therapeutic response in entecavir-treated chronic hepatitis B patients in whom lamivudine treatment failed, so as to explore a useful predictor for efficacy of enticavir treatment.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty-three patients with chronic hepatitis B refractory to lamivudine were enrolled to receive treatment with entecavir 1.0 mg once daily. The patients were divided into 4 groups according to serum HBV DNA levels (copies/mL) at week 24: PCR-undetectable (less than 300 copies/ml); QL- less than 3 log10 copies/ml; 3 log10(-4) log10 copies/ml; greater than 4 log10 copies/mL, and the efficacy achieved at week 48 was evaluated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>At week 48, mean reductions of serum HBV DNA from baseline was 4.91 log10. HBV DNA became undetectable by PCR assay in 33.3 percent patients and ALT became normal in 75.8%. The lower the HBV DNA level achieved at week 24, the higher the proportion of patients in whom HBV DNA became undetectable by PCR and ALT normalization were acquired at week 48, and viral breakthrough at week 48 also decreased.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Undetectable HBV DNA by PCR at week 24 in entecavir-treated chronic hepatitis B patients who were refractory to lamivudine, suggests a better efficacy at week 48. The degree of week 24 suppression of HBV may be used as a predictor of long term outcome.</p>

Association of genetic polymorphisms in plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 gene and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene with recurrent early spontaneous abortion / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the relationship of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene-675 4G/5G and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase(MTHFR) gene C677T polymorphisms to recurrent early spontaneous abortion(RESA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred and twenty-seven currently non-pregnant women with at least 3 unexplained spontaneous abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy (patient group). Normal control group consisted of 117 currently non-pregnant women with at least 1 pregnancy and without a history of prematurity, miscarriage, stillbirth, eclampsia and other pregnancy complications. The genotypes of PAI-1 gene and MTHFR gene were assessed by polymerase chain reaction-restrictive fragment length polymorphism.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The frequencies of 4G/4G genotype and 4G allele of PAI-1 were higher in patient group (45.7% and 66.1%) than in normal controls (17.1% and 46.6%) (P < 0.01). The PAI-1 4G/4G genotype was significantly associated with RESA (OR = 4.8, 95% CI: 2.23 - 10.35). Besides, MTHFR gene T/T genotype and T allele frequencies were increased in RESA patients (43.3% and 66.5%) versus normal controls (21.4% and 52.6%) (P < 0.01). The patients carrying T/T genotype had a high risk of early spontaneous abortion (OR = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.40 - 7.30). In additionìthe presence of the PAI-1 gene 4G/4G genotype together with the T/T genotype of the MTHFR gene was found to be a risk factor (OR = 6.20, 95% CI: 2.62 - 14.67) for RESA greater than the 4G/4G genotype or the T/T genotype alone.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The above findings suggest that genetic polymorphisms of PAI-1 4G/5G and MTHFR C677T were associated with RESA. They may have synergetic impact and present gene dosage effect on the susceptibility to the development of early spontaneous abortion.</p>

Relationship between the 4G/5G polymorphism of the plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 gene and the pathogenesis of pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the relationship between a single nucleotide insertion/deletion(4G/5G) polymorphism located in the promoter region of the plasminogen activator inhibitor-1(PAI-1) gene and the pathogenesis of pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome(PIHs).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The 4G/5G polymorphism of PAI-1 gene in 171 PIHs patients (PIHs group) and that in 193 normal pregnant women (control group) were detected by a combination of polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1)The genotype frequencies of PAI-1 gene in PIHs group were 47.4% for 4G/4G, 41.5% for 4G/5G, and 11.1% for 5G/5G. The 4G/4G genotype and 4G allele frequencies of PAI-1 gene(47.4% and 0.681) for PIHs patients were higher than those (21.2% and 0.495) for normal controls respectively (P<0.001). (2)Both the 4G/4G genotype and the 4G allele of PAI-1 gene occurred more frequently in the severe PIHs group(61.3% and 0.758) than those (35.8% and 0.623) in the mild PIHs group respectively (P<0.001). However, there were no significant differences between those in mild group (35.8% and 0.623) and moderate group(42.8% and 0.625) respectively. (3) The 4G/4G genotype was significantly associated with PIHs (OR=3.34, 95%CI: 2.14-5.22).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>These findings suggested that PAI-1 gene polymorphism may be a susceptible factor to the pathogenesis of PIHs and the 4G/4G genotype may be one of the major risk factors for PIHs in pregnant women.</p>

Change of telomerase activity in bone marrow cells from chronic myeloid leukemia patients in different phases / 中国实验血液学杂志

To study the telomerase activity change in patients with CML different phases, telomerase PCR-ELISA method was used. Results showed that telomerase activity of normal bone marrow cells was low. The telomerase activity in CML at any phase was higher than that in normal bone marrow (P < 0.05). The telomerase activity in accelerated and acute transformation phases was higher than that in chronic phase (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between accelerated phase and acute transformation phase. It was concluded that telomerase activity could be used as an useful marker for evaluating development of course and curative effect of CML.