Effects of community smoking cessation supervision on lung function and quality of life in old COPD patients / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective To investigate the effects of community smoking cessation supervision on lung function; acute exacerbation frequency and quality of life in elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods Forty-five COPD patients were divided into the intervention group(23 cases) and the control group(22 cases).The control group was given routine drug treatment.While the intervention group was given community smoking cessation supervision based upon routine treatment.The variation of lung function, quality of life (SGRQ inventory) and acute exacerbation times during the year were compared. Results The variation of lung function and quality of life improved greatly after in-tervention group compared with those before intervention, P<0.05. Conclusions Community smoking cessation supervision was a feasible measure to improve lung function and quality of life and reduce acute exacerbation in COPD patients.

Experimental study on distribution of elastic fiber in arterial wall / 生物医学工程学杂志

Elastin is not only one of fundamental components of arterial wall but also an albuminoid substance related to diseases such as aortic dissecting aneurysm. Distributions of elastic fiber in arterial wall were measured using image processing in animal experiment. Statistical results show that the elastic fiber content in arterial wall decreases along the ascending aorta, aortic arch and descending aorta, but the axial distribution of elastic fiber in aortic arch is uniform. Furthermore, the axial distributions in four representative circumferential positions nearly exhibit no notable differences. Hence, the circumferential distribution of elastic fiber in arterial wall is uniform. On the contrary, the radial distribution of elastic fiber in arterial wall is non-uniform, and the elastic fiber content in the internal layer decreased distinctly, compared with that in the middle layer and the external layer. Therefore, the blood vessel can be reasonably simplified as 3-dimensional symmetrical composite material with segments in axial direction and layers in radial direction to a certain extent.