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Objective:To investigate the diagnosis and clinical characteristics of five elderly patients with Chlamydia psittaci-caused severe pneumonia.Methods:Through retrospective analysis, diagnosis and treatment process and clinical characteristics of five elderly inpatients with severe pneumonia caused by Chlamydia psittaci were summarized in the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Quanzhou First Hospital East Street Branch Area, affiliated to Fujian Medical University between January to June 2021.Results:Five patients with severe pneumonia caused by Chlamydia psittaci were aged from 64 to 74 years, with various underlying diseases such as coronary heart disease, chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc.All patients had an established history of poultry exposure.These cases had high fever, cough, spitting, and dyspnea as the main clinical manifestations.Some of them also had systemic symptoms or weakness of the limbs as the prodromal symptoms.The disease progressed rapidly, with severe respiratory failure, acute kidney injury, and shock appearing soon, accompanied by different degrees of muscle injury, and damage to the heart, liver, blood coagulation, and immune systems at the same time.Laboratory examination showed that levels of inflammatory indicators were increased: at 3, 5, 7 d after admission, the level of C reactive protein was 214.6(153.9-256.3)mg/L, 199.2(115.8-333.8)mg/L, 151.0(11.19-173.7)mg/L, respectively; and interleukin 6 level was 1 241.0(912.1-6822.0)ng/L, 779.1(451.2-7122.0)ng/L, 631.2(7.0-4 321.0)ng/L, respectively.And monitoring results of nutritional index indicated a high metabolic state.The imaging examinations showed that consolidation and ground-glass shadows spreaded to both lungs, may accompany the miliary and nodular shadows, and may also involve pleural which caused pleural effusion.After the clinical use of metagenomic next-generation sequencing(mNGS), mNGS has been confirmed as an important method for the diagnosis of Chlamydia psittaci infection.The disease course and prognosis were related to the severity of the disease, advanced age, underlying diseases, and timely diagnosis and effective treatment.Conclusions:The progression of Chlamydia psittaci pneumonia to severe disease may be related to advanced age, more basic diseases such as chronic cardiopulmonary disease, smoking, and timely diagnosis and treatment.Generally, laboratory and imaging examinations have no diagnostic specificity, but mNGS is of great significance for early diagnosis, transition to target treatment and improvement of prognosis.
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Objective To investigate the effect of glutamine (GLN) treatment on neurobehavioral outcome,brain edema and inflammatory response in rats after traumatic brain injury (TBI),and to find out the role played by autophagic response in this effect.Methods Rat models with TBI in this study were established using Feeney's method.One hundred healthy male SD rats were randomly divided into five groups (n =20) to receive sham operation (group Sham),TBI (group TBI),TBI and glutamine treatment (group TBI+GLN),TBI amd autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (group TBI+ 3-MA),and TBI,GLN and autophagy inhibitor (group TBI+GLN+3-MA).We measured the rats' behavioral outcomes by modified neurologic severity score (mNSS) tests at day 1,3,7 and 14 after intervention.Brain water content was measured with wet-dry weight method.The serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-ct),interleukin (IL)-1 and IL-4 were tested using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.The expressions of autophagy-related factors (LC3-Ⅱ,Beclin-1) in TBI cerebral cortex were tested with Western blot.Results Compared with the Sham group,the other four groups had significantly increased levels of brain edema,mNSS,serum inflammatory factors and cerebral LC3-Ⅱ and Beclin-1 (P=0.00).Compared with the TBI group,the TBI+GLN group had less severe brain edema and improved mNSS,lower levels of TNF-α [(57.71 ±9.69) pg/ml vs.(83.37± 12.81) pg/ml,P=0.01] and IL-1 [(39.46±8.60) pg/ml vs.(69.04± 10.48) pg/ml,P=0.00],higher levels of IL-4 [(68.72± 11.18) pg/ml vs.(35.75 ± 8.40) pg/ml,P =0.04],and upregulated expressions of LC3-Ⅱ and Beclin-1 (P=0.01).Compared with the TBI+GLN group,the TBI+GLN+3-MA group had severer neurofunctional impairment,brain edema and inflammation (P＜ 0.05).Conclusions Treatment with GLN markedly reduced brain edema and improved neurobehavioral outcomes in rats with TBI by inhibiting inflammatory response in the central nervous system.The mechanism might have been the activation of the autophagic response.
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AIM: To select the prescription of harmine hydrochloride cream and to study the anti-itching effect of harmine hydrochloride cream. METHODS: A comprehensive score system,including appearance,homogeneity,coating performance,viscosity,particle diameter,temperature-resistant test,and centrifugal effect were established as evaluative criteria. Then uniform design was used for selecting the prescription of harmine hydrochloride cream. The histamine phosphate and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) were used to induce mouse cutaneous pruritus. Then the anti-pruritic effect of harmine hydrochloride cream in contrast to Piyanping Ointment as control group. RESULTS: The optimized prescription was as follows: 8% of monostearin,5% of Vaseline,6. 1% of beeswax, 1. 1% of Span-60,1. 9% of Tween-80. The local application of harmine hydrochloride cream could alleviate the itching induced by histamine phosphate and 5-HT,respectively. And the anti-pruritic effect of harmine hydrochloride cream was stronger than the effect of the positive control group. CONCLUSION: The prescription of the harmine hydrochloride cream is available,reasonable,and reproducible. The harmine hydrochloride cream has the anti-pruritic effect.