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Objective To explore the effects of acupoint application combined with modified Xiaoqinglong decoction on airway remodeling and serum C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and eosinophil chemotactic factor (eotaxin) levels in patients with bronchial asthma. Methods A total of 78 patients with bronchial asthma were randomly divided into two groups, 39 cases each group. The control group was treated with conventional western medicine therapy, and the study group was treated with acupoints plus Xiaoqinglong decoction on the basis of the control group.The treatment effect,adverse reaction were observed, and airway remodeling associated indicators like Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and serum CRP, IL-8, Eotaxin levels were detected as well. Results After treatment, the clinical asthma control rate was 87.18% (34/39) in the study group and 58.97% (23/39) in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=7.885,P<0.05).After treatment,the TGF-β1(6.74 ± 2.21 μmol/L vs.10.90 ± 2.24 μmol/L,t=8.256),VEGF(27.63 ± 5.14 ng/ml vs.35.76 ± 5.82 ng/ml,t=6.539),bFGF(7.15 ± 1.54 μmol/L vs.12.62 ± 2.23μmol/L,t=12.605)in the study group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). After treatment, the CRP (9.16 ± 1.85 mg/L vs.16.74 ± 2.20 mg/L,t=16.468),IL-8(51.26 ± 17.25 pg/L vs.114.32 ± 20.15 pg/L,t=14.847),IL-8 (98.59 ± 34.12 pg/ml vs.159.62 ± 52.74 pg/ml,t=6.068)in the study group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reaction between the study group 20.5%(8/39) and the control group12.8%(5/39) during treatment (χ2=0.831, P>0.05). Conclusions The acupoint application combined with modified Xiaoqinglong decoction can significantly improve the clinical effect, inhibit airway remodeling, decrease the level of serum CRP, IL-8 and Eotaxin in patients with bronchial asthma, and its safety is high.
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Objective To investigate the effect of Shenmai injection in treating elderly with orthostatic hypotension. Methods The total of 97 cases of patients with orthostatic hypotension were randomly divided into 2 groups, which was injected intravenously with 100 mL Shenmai injection once daily as the treatment group, with 100 mL glucose as the control.The treatment lasted 14 days. The clinical symptom score, the difference of blood pressure, the P￣selectin, and the platelet maximum aggregation were measured. Results Compared with the control, Shenmai injection significantly reduced the clinical symptom scores of patients (P<0.05), lowered the difference of blood pressure for upright and supine significantly (P<0.05), decreased the platelet maximum aggregation and P￣selectin remarkably (P<0.05). Conclusion Shenmai injection significantly reduces the difference of blood pressure for upright and supine of the elderly with orthostatic hypotension, and inhibits the activities of platelets, thus improves the clinical symptoms.
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<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the prevalence and orthostatic blood pressure changes in subjects with symptomatic orthostatic hypotension (OH), and to observe the relation between symptoms and orthostatic blood pressure change in this population.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 193 subjects who consulted physicians due to OH related symptoms were selected, and divided into three groups: young (n = 37), middle-aged (n = 66) and elder (n = 90). Height, body weight, waist circumference, hip circumference and resting heart rate were measured. Symptom scores of every subject were obtained. CAVI and ABI were measured. Blood pressure including recumbent position, orthostatic systolic and diastolic blood pressure was measured at the morning and at the afternoon on two separate examination days with at least one week interval. After that, orthostatic changes in systolic blood pressure (OCs) and orthostatic changes in diastolic blood pressure (OCd) were calculated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>OH prevalence was 32.6% in this cohort. The prevalence of three groups was similar [young: 32.4%, middle-aged: 25.8%, and elderly: 37.8%, respectively (P > 0.05)]. Only 9 cases (14.29% of confirmed OH cases) reached the OH diagnostic criteria with equal or more than 2 times orthostatic blood pressure measurements. OH was diagnosed in 63 patients during the 4 times orthostatic blood pressure check, of which 19.5% to 57.14% cases were diagnosed with single orthostatic blood pressure check. Age, weight, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, smoking, drinking habit, sex, coronary heart disease, hypertension, Parkinson's disease, stroke history, antihypertensive drug use were similar between OH group and non-OH group. Height, waist circumference, hip circumference, and resting heart rate were significantly lower in OH group than in non-OH group (P < 0.05). The values of the factors in OH group were lower. CAVI was 8.45 ± 0.19 in non-OH group and 8.37 ± 0.27 in OH group (P > 0.05), ABI was significantly lower in OH group than in non-OH group (1.004 ± 0.013 vs. 1.051 ± 0.009, P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prevalence of OH in people with related symptoms is high. Repeated orthostatic blood pressure measurements can improve OH detection rate.</p>
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Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Young Adult , Blood Pressure , Hypotension, Orthostatic , Epidemiology , PrevalenceABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the relationship between orthostatic hypotension (OH) and antihypertensive therapy in the elderly hypertensive population.Methods A total of 1174 elderly retired people (849 cases with hypertension and 325 cases without hypertension) in Guangzhou Military Region underwent health physical examination.All people were surveyed by questionnaires.The orthostatic blood pressure and heart rate were measured in supine position after resting for more than 5 minutes and then at 0 and 2 minutes after standing.Comparative analysis was made on the prevalence of OH and the relationship between OH and antihypertensive therapy.Results A significant difference in the prevalence of OH was observed between hypertensive patients and nonhypertensive patients [29.4％ (250/849) vs.15.7％ (51/325),x2 =23.32,P＜0.01].There was no significant difference in the prevalence of orthostatic hypotension in patients with versus without antihypertensive therapy [30.5％ (220/721) vs.23.4％ (30/128),x2 =2.62,P＞0.05].Conclusions Orthostatic hypotension is common observed in elderly hypertensive patients.Antihypertensive therapy may not increase the prevalence of OH.
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Objective To investigate the association between the systolic/diastolic orthostatic hypotension (OH-S/OH-D) and myoeardial infarction (MI) in the elderly.Methods Health screening physical examination were carried in 1081 subjects without MI aged over 65 years in Guangzhou Military region.The orthostatic blood pressure and heart rate were measured in supine position after resting for more than 5 minutes and at 0 and 2 minutes after standing.All the cases were divided into systolic or diastolic group on the basis of definition of orthostatic hypotension and followed up by telephone or inpatient medical records with mean period of 315.8 days.The primary endpoint was MI occurrence.Results The prevalence of OH in this cohort was 24.5％ ( OH-S/OH-D:19.3％/17.2％ ).Significant differences in the occurrence of OH and OH-S were found in the elderly and the very elderly subjects( ≥80 years) (26.1％ vs 20.1％,P=0.045; 21.0％ vs 14.6％,P =0.018),while no difference was found in OH-D.The prevalence of MI in the OH positive subjects was significantly higher than that in the OH negative subjects,as well as in OH-S or OH-D group.After adjustment of age,supine blood pressure,creatinine and cerebrovascular history by logistic regression,the association was observed between MI and OH ( HR 15.635,95 ％ CI 3.299-74.091,P=0.001),OH-S(HR 8.760,95％CI2.487-30.851,P=0.001)and OH-D(HR 3.889,95％ CI 1.097-13.790,P =0.035 ).Conclusion OH-S and OH-D hypotension are robust predictors for MI in the elderly.
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Biohydrogen production from corncob by dark fermentation was reported for the first time. The effects of the pretreatment condition, substrate concentration and initial pH on the hydrogen production were investigated in batch cultivations. The maximum hydrogen yield of 107.9 mL/g-TVS and hydrogen production rate of 4.2 mL/g-TVS .h(-) were obtained under the condition of 1% HCl pretreating substrate for 30 min, 10 g/L substrate concentration and initial pH8.0. The content of hemicellulose in corncob decreased significantly from 42.2% to 3.0% after HC1 pretreatment. The contents of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in the acid pretreated corncob decreased slightly in hydrogen producing process. The results indicate that the acid pretreatment of the substrate plays a key role in the conversion of corncob into biohydrogen. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to study the changes in the corncob composition during the treatment of chemical-microbial process. It was shown that the amorphous domains of cellulose and hemicellulose were hydrolyzed into fermentable asccharides through HCl pretreatment and the microorganisms had a devastating effect on the crystallinitiy of the cellulose.